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A discussion about the merits of improving the usefulness of staff, particularly in terms of feedback.
It's been mentioned a few times by some people that they think the staff in the game could be more useful. While in FM08 we've seen the coaches become more useful because they can now give reports and feedback on the players in your team (which is an excellent addition) I think this feature could be expanded to make the rest of the staff at a club very important, as I feel they are in real life.
Assistant Manager.
For me the assistant manager should be much more useful, and in turn hiring a good assistant should be much more important.
The main thing I'd like to see implemented here would be feedback from the assistant regarding tactics and performances during a match. I once read an excellent post about this by Amaroq in regards to FM07. But this has long since disappeared so I'll attempt to outline myself how I think this could work, and why it would not only be of benefit to those that chose to use it, but would also add realism to the game.
There is no denying that the tactical side of the game has become both more important and for some people more complicated. While I personally am enjoying the game immensely, many others seem to be struggling to get to grips with the tactics. And this is not new to FM08, people were having many of the same complaints and struggling just as much with FM07 (at least they were if these forums were anything to go by). In my opinion tactics should be a very important part of the game, and I like the way the slider system can be used to get your players most things in the game, if you know what your doing. So I don't want to see the tactical side of the game change.
Where most people have a problem is understanding why things are or are not happening on the pitch. It makes it very difficult for people to even make a start fixing a problem if they have a lot of difficulty figuring out what the problem is in the first place. So for me this is where the assistant should come in. He should be able to offer advice to help you identify a problem with your tactic, it's then down to you as a manager to attempt to fix that problem. After all, I doubt a real life manager hire an assistant just to sit silently next to them on match days. The assistant will offer advice, or be asked what they think by the manager in many cases.
I could see this being implemented in a couple of different ways. Firstly it could be added much like the assistant advice on team talks or squad. So outside of a match the assistant can be asked his advice on the tactics and performance of the team in the previous games.
He would then tell you things that should be able to help you identify weaknesses in your tactics. For example:
'Striker X was getting in behind our defenders much too often'
'Our midfield was over-run and when they did have the ball their team-mates were generally to far away from them to allow them to make a useful pass'
'The chances we created were rushed and in-effective'
The above are just examples, and may be too straight-forward and obvious. I know that getting the balance right is important so that the assistant isn't just telling you what to do. But from the above examples I've given you could pick out the following information.
From the first comment it may be that the striker in question had a lot of pace and he was getting in behind the defenders because they were playing too high up the pitch, or they may just be too slow. You can then look to avoid this by dropping the defensive line a bit deeper, attempting to play the striker off-side or just looking to buy a quicker centre back.
The second statement tells me two things. Firstly that I perhaps didn't have enough men in midfield. Perhaps the opposition were playing narrow and just looking to over-run my midfield. Secondly it tells me that the mentalities of my players may be set too far apart. Once the midfielder receives the ball the attacking players are already too far forward for him to make a decent pass causing him to either hang onto the ball to long and get tackled, or attempt a pass that's too difficult for his level of ability and again lose the ball.
Possible solutions here would be to remember what formation the opposition were playing against me and next time I face that formation look to get more men into midfield, perhaps by narrowing the width or by simply altering the formation slightly. I'd also be looking to get the mentalities of my players a bit closer together so that more passes were available for the midfielders, or look to buy a midfielder with better decisions, creativity, technique and passing to perhaps pull off those difficult passes.
You get the idea.
The second way I could see this being implemented is 'on the fly'. So that basically the user could go into the tactics screen and ask his assistants advice at any time during a match. You'd get the same type of responses as above but during a game as well as after it.
The main thing is that in no way would the user be getting told what to do to win. They would just be getting an insight into the kind of information the AI managers seem to have. It would still be completely be up to the manager to decipher what tactical changes will be needed to rectify any problems.
This idea would also make choosing a good assistant manager all the more important. Attributes like tactics and perhaps a new hidden attribute such as 'advice' would be all the more important. Poor assistants would not give anywhere near as many suggestions as good assistants, and the suggestions they do give may not be as accurate or of as good quality as those of a top class assistant.
Another thing that may be needed is the ability to turn this option off completely for those who don't want it, there are managers (Ferguson springs to mind) who probably don't get much advice from the assistant when it comes to tactics. This could be carried over to AI managers, some more willing to ask for advice from their assistant than others so you end up with some good manager/assistant teams in the game. But if this option can be turned off then everyone's a winner. The people (like me) who like to do it on their own still can, and those struggling to understand why their tactic is not working can have something realistic that will help them without giving them all the answers.
Physios
Don't worry, this section won't be as long. Also I can't claim to have completely come up with this next idea as I saw it mentioned in a thread a few weeks ago but can't for the life of me remember who it was that mentioned it. So if it was you then apologies for stealing it but I think it's very relevant to this topic and I'd like to expand upon it for a bit.
Basically I want to see a bit more advice given from physio's when it comes to player's injuries, particularly during a match. We've all been there, a player picks up a green cross injury. They can carry on but they are an important player. You keep them on the field only to find out after the game that they're going to be out for the next 2 months. Or it goes the other way. Your start player picks up a knock and you take him off, only to find out afterwards there was nothing wrong with him.
What I'd like to see is some feedback from the physio when this happens. What I'd like to know is what's wrong with the player, how severe is the injury and what are the risks of leaving the player on the field for a while. Of course these won’t always be accurate but there's a big difference between an injured finger and a groin strain, and much more risk of the player being out for a while with one of the injuries.
In real life I very much doubt that the head physio goes onto the pitch and assesses what's wrong with the player, just to come back to the dug-out, walk straight past the manager and sit down without a word. The manager will want to know what's wrong and whether the player he's paying £80,000 a week should be brought off or allowed to play on.
Again the quality of the physio will affect how accurate his assessment of the risk is. A poor physio might state that the player could be out for a week if left to play. The player may actually end up being out for 3 weeks, whereas a top notch physio will be more accurate.
So discuss criticise or add to this with ideas of your own. What do you think of having more realistic interaction with your staff?
01-21-2008, 02:20 PM
A discussion about the merits of improving the usefulness of staff, particularly in terms of feedback. Post #2
Both ideas have been put forward before with almost universal approval and get my full support. :thup: I have been advocating for years about getting some feedback from the physio about in-game injurues. The current green cross system is daft and pointless.
01-21-2008, 02:40 PM
A discussion about the merits of improving the usefulness of staff, particularly in terms of feedback. Post #6
Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:
Nah you didn't miss it. I think you posted in it . lol.
Bloody hell, not only did I post in it but I added quite a long post to it!! I think the lack of sunlight in the North East is sending my a little crazy. It's like the bloody arctic in winter up here at the minute, it just never seems to get light
A discussion about the merits of improving the usefulness of staff, particularly in terms of feedback. 
. lol
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