adamc81

Ok yeah its a bold headline but after reading many posts becoming disillisioned with getting a winning tactic and strugglying at times myself I thought of a way the whole problem could be significantly reduced if not eliminated.

I recently read a topic where someone was fed up of not having a tactic that worked, having to make 5 or 6 tweaks in a match and at the same time not having the time - due to work - to understand exactly how the chance of tactics impacted on the matches themselves, and trying to judge the impact of the tactical changes purely by watching the Key highlights.

Some have mentioned the use of difficulty settings whilst others the simplification of the slider system, fewer notches etc. I think the way forward is pretty simple far more interaction with your assistand manager, senior staff and captain, whether the AI can be improved that significantly is another thing.

Just think could have an assistant manager that you could bounce formation idea's off, one that would be your eyes and ears for each match whilst you just watch the highlights. For too long I think its been an isolating experience when managers in real life have people than can go to, get there opinions etc.

Let me just give a few examples as to where im coming from. You create a tactic, but your giving the ball away too often or your not getting the best out of your strikers. You can ask your assistant manager to evaulate the formation and he could come up with suggestions i.e. your striker needs to hope the ball up, or your defence is sitting too deep etc. It could just be fairly basic stuff to get us started.

Maybe during the course of a match, your assistant could have a word with you like no-one is tracking there attacking midfielder he is causing havoc we should play a DM or push the defence up or your right winger doesnt have the pace to beat there left back maybe we should tell him to cross the ball from deep, or we need to press higher up the pitch as they are controlling the game etc. All kinds of tactical tweaks that we sometimes dont see in the game due to watching the highlights that your assistant could mention. OF course the better the assistant the better the advice, rather than saying we need to stop Ronaldo a more advanced coach could say we need to get our LM to track back and help out the fullback and push Ronaldo onto his weaker foot etc. I think this would help alot particularly when the opposition change there tactics and your not quite sure just what they have done in terms of playing style.

You could be 3 nil up but the oppositon has decided to go all out attack, your assistant could tell you to drop the defence back and not to play the offside trap whilst bringing on an extra CD or DM etc.

Maybe your players arent happy with your style of play, and would like to play more direct, maybe your striker wants better service and wants more throughballs. They could all be involved in creating the tactics for your team. How great would it be to be able to have a meeting with your captain or assistant manager during a slump and get an opinion on what is wrong with the formation rather than trial and error.

And if your lazy you could even go to your assistant and ask him to come up with a tactics to get the best out of a Torres, Ronaldo, Fabregas etc. You could even specify your prefered formation type and maybe a couple of other options like fast tempo etc. It could utilise the prefered formation of each member of staff to. If you want to play a 4-4-2, then your not going to gather great technical expertise from a coach who prefers an attacking 3-5-2 and he wont be able to come up with a great 4-4-2tactic. Of course all of the options could be
in your preference list as to how much feedback you want from your staff.

Well its just my opinion, just a premise that I think could be built upon or adapted but its where i'd like to see the game heading and is something contructive, probably in the wrong forum mind soo apologies if thats the case.

FrazT

The role and impact of the Asst has been a regularly requested improvement to the feaures of the game. It is lamentably underused at the momnet and should IMO be a must for FM 09.

kolobok

It has been discussed million times. Imo assistant role could be improved in pre- and post- game analysis, and to be fair it has been improved in FM08 (player reports, team talk recomendations, confidence). But in-game... If only it's optional feature. If you rely on the assistant, why don't go on holiday at match time and let him rule? You want assistant to pick up something for you because you refuse to watch matches? Sorry, but you are supposed to be a manager. Otherwise take assistant role

adamc81

I think it could easily solve alot of the tactical problems in the game if the assistant manager is utlised correctly. Not only him, but also your captain and senior coaches might have an opinion on your style of play. Afterall you dont want to just have a tactic devised by an assistant manager (AI) or there would be little point in playing the game. I just think it would be a good addition to add "personality" to your coaching team and players, heck if a strikder came up to me and said he doesnt like playing as a lone striker you'd have a whole new element of the game to conquer when keeping players happy etc.

It could be expanded whereby some chairman simply dont want you to play 5 in midfield and want more flair players ala Newcastle.

It would greatly add to the realism and make the whole game seem like a living breathing football environment.

adamc81

You make valid reasons but your missing the overall point. Are you telling me Alex Ferguson sits on the bench and watches the match without discussing whats going on with the coaches during the match? Wheres the interaction during the game? Also we dont sit and watch the entire game so we cant be certain of whats going on all the time on the pitch, the assistant can tell us whats going on and we could then decide how to counter it.

Im not saying the Assistant is correct 100%, nor am i saying that you need to follow his advice but whats the point having staff if they dont have opinions? It doesnt just have to be your assistant manager either, what about captains, coaches, star players etc.

You hire the staff that you want in terms of the style of play that you wish to see on the pitch, at the moment you just hire the best guys becasuse of the attributes, its simply not how football works.

Dalkeith Dominator

I think instant result should be brought in as well sor example you have won the league and still have 9 games to go, you could go to instant win to speed up the process, also would stop a lot of moaning about people with no time

kolobok

And neither is it how I play the game. Try to bring some player of a very high quality into bottom league team with less than average players. Chances are the player won't perform even close to what you would expect from him ( I did a few tests - never worked out). Plus you will get some other problem in your squad. A manager is supposed to build a team, not collect a bunch of idiots with great attributes. Of course, if you manage top team you may want to bring the best of the best. But if someone pretends he can manage Chelsea, I guess he shouldn't ask for advices? Besides, the interaction make sense only if you wathc a match

Btw, of course Sir Alex interacts with his assistants, players and other stuff. But believe me if someone were there to give him an advice when he wasn't asked for one, that advisor wouldn't stay for a day (ask Roy Keane, he knows). And I cannot imagine someone telling Sir Alex "Look, Giggs is constantly beaten by his opponent, so we need to bring someone who can defend better" (just an example). Either Sir Alex sees it himself, or it's just useless and annoying comment.

Finally, last year i was advocating for almost exactly the same thing you proposing. Since then I changed my mind and the reason is if you want to enjoy all aspects of this game, you have to learn it. I am not saying that it's the only way to play, that's why I said the feature could be optional, but to me it's like removing the most important part of it.