firefighterhilf

Totally agree. I don't even go as far as having a home and away tactic, I have one balanced 4-4-2 tactic which has won me the Champions League and Premier League with Gateshead!

I'm proper lazy and never tweak. I basically stick the game on auto-continue so me missus doesn't think I'm ignoring her and only touch the game on a match day (apart from in transfer windows). Because I've got my team talks, training, media interaction and tactics sorted I don't need to do anything except play the match. I don't even bother with opposition instructions any more. And I'm currently doing pretty well in my new Sunderland game. Although I only finished 13th in my 1st season I've now been able to strengthen my squad and I'll be expecting a top 6 finish this year.

Not wanting to tweak all the time is a poor excuse for saying the games not for you. Tweaking can be very successful, but it's certainly not essential. The problem you're having by the sounds of it is that your tactics no good to start with. It's probably either too attacking or too defensive, if you don't want to tweak it needs to be very balanced. It also sounds like your team talks are poor if you're often losing 3 goal half time leads.

retired_leila_g83

To be honest with you i had a bit of a problem with this incarnation of FM, and i am kind of in your situation, whilst i do have time to play constantly at the moment i'm not that regular a player.

However i have managed to get a successful tactic that allowed me to get Man City the League Cup and the Prem in my first season. This is not a bragging post, but after being a bit crap at the game i found that 30 minutes of checking out the various tactics stickies in the training and tactics forum allowed me to create my own tactic very quickly. On top of this i have not found the need to change the tactic at all, the only time i touch it is to pull back my full backs and time waste when i'm ahead, that takes like two seconds.

I guess what i'm basically saying is that there are a massive amount of guides and posts out there that can help your situation, hell if they can get me winning anyone can do it.

retired_annettebailey35

well i still play 2006 i am only into my third season and i have never downloaded a tactic ever. i am with barnet who were expected to fight bravely against relegation in my first season. i have won the leyland daf in my first 2 seasons i finished 4th and lost the playoffs in my first season and finished 2nd in my 2nd season and went up. my 3 assistant managers say i need to strengthen every area of the pitch to avoid relegation in my first season in division one. so far i have won 6 and drawn one game. so i am very successful in my first ever game of football manager. in my first 2 seasons my transfer budget was 10k. i believe in order of importance you need to pay attention to these points.

1 Players. Try to get at least one have decent player in every position, by half decent i dont mean killer players (not that i can get any at barnet) just decent players with stats that are appropriate eg Finshing, pace for strikers, tackling heading for defenders etc You can do this by loaning players from big teams or if you play someone like barnet like i do free players or cheap players will greatly improve your squad.

2 Formation - Goto the screen where you can move the blobs around and create arrows etc and alter them appropriately. i have 2 cb two wb(though i often play fullbacks) and have them press up field a bit. a have a defensive midfielder and a central midfielder. normally i have 2 wingers cutting in towards the centre forward postion and two centre forwards. i do occassionally play normal left/right midfielder positions depending on strentgth of my opponent.

3 Fitness - I very very rarely start a player who has less than 90% fitness even if he is a star player if i do play a semi fit player he often gets injured.

4 Morale - Morale is very important you will often get sub par performances from a player if his morale isnt superb there is no harm in playing a few players on good/very good morale or average morale just dont expect a good performance if you do.

I tend to have a LOT of player movement eg i have 90 players altogether, when i get a decent offer to one i ship them out so i can get money in to change my squad.

You may have noticed i have not mentioned the sliders, that is because i RARELY change them. I look at the player prefered moves and he has so looks to get forward or whatever i will put a up arrow on the formation for him that is about it for me with the tactical sliders i have never altered them otherwise.

With this style of play i have a poorly performing reserve side but have finished 2nd in the youth leagues in my first two seasons with barnet.

retired_rotert

To the OP: sounds like your main problem is the 4-2-4 tactic. Do a search - there's a hundred threads on how to counter this, both here and in the tactics forum. Should cut your draws in half.

retired_kgfit

try football manager handheld
it is a basic version of this game
easy to pick up and play
not much tactics needed to win everything
i had stalbans to premierleague so easy on 07

but that bored me because of the slimplicty so now i play both but hardly the psp version because pc is so god damn good!


anyways get fmh (Y)

retired_seeme

I'd have to disagree with you there.I think its being hard is what makes FM rewarding,the game can often be far from fun in my experiences,but its when you finally win something that makes it feel all worthwhile

Godfearer

Yeah it is hard and it is getting harder with every new release, looks like they want to kick the casual players out of the game.

To the OP

Try 4 defense flat

3 MCs , right left with DM skills and an AM in the middle (with marking ability) , make an arrow up on the AM (moving to AM position)

3 STs , right and left with winger skills , make them an arrow to move towards the corners or the winger positions (this only in extreme cases).

use a fast guy in the middle of the STs

adjust the sliders as you want and experiment

use the "down both wings"

Give it some serious testing ( reload friendlies ) ; since fm06 this is the best non cheating tactic around (and it is not mine)

delete 4-2-4 tactic from Ai's tactical folder

i do hate to spend time in tactics screen too

retired_big_star_83

Too be fair I like the slow and hardworking aspect of FM because it is a alot like life, if you want the best things you have to earn it and will take time plus winning the Champions League is awwwwesome!

retired_katcam1360

I agree that the whole basis that FM has been built on is about its realism and at times complexity to incorporate as much of the mordern managers experience as possible so watering it down wouldn't really interest me.
However it is a valid point that there maybe should be an option at the beginning of the game to choose maybe an easy, medium or hard option or maybe even better a detailed or less detailed option. This way people that want the whole realism can have it and people who really want just the basics can also enjoy the game.

retired_Aus_Rick

Harder, I agree but that does not neccessarily mean that the game has gotten to a stage of insufferable difficulty.

If you are comparing the game to Championship Manager editions of old you have a point. 00/01 & 01/02 were fast, simple and easy, different games to Football Manager of now.

Nowadays Football Manager does require some actual knowledge to get by but it remains easier than people give it credit for. I regularly do well and I'm not big on tinkering and don't go into as much detail as some people believe they have to. I have one tactic rather than one that I change depending on the situation and that I use regardless of whether I am home or away. I toggle with opposition instructions a little to combat particularly dangerous forwards and make sure I'm clued up on team talks but that's roughly about it.

Unfortunately the same tactic wont work with every game. You have actually been rather fortunate that it has worked for you so long. As far back as I can remember, I have had to use a different tactic with every new edition of the game. I too like a 4-4-2 diamond and I have one that works a treat.

Personally I think SI have the balance just about right between too difficult and too easy and the 'adjusting of fifty settings every match' is only appropriate if you want to do something very special eg. winning the Premier League with Derby. I found a tactic that works for me and then I buy my players and press continue. I don't bother with training, tactical changes based on the opposition or anything like that.

It's worth having a bit of faith. To start with getting the right tactic is probably the major obstacle but once you have that out of the way you're laughing on the road to silverware.

Incidentally, I do believe there is a market for a more lightweight, quick and simpler football manager simulation on the market, in the mold of Championship Manager 00/01 & 01/02 but as far as I am aware, nothing like that exists quite yet though I've heard good things about FM on the PSP though of course you would need to have a PSP for that.

I know you say you love your diamond but if it isn't working and you cannot be bothered making a new one there are some very good tactics in this tactic forum. It's where I found the base for my 4-4-2 diamond which I then tweaked and played with to come up with something even better.

The whole constant tinkering to get success belief is definitely a myth though.