Couple of Newbie Questions

[TheEquinox]

Hello there,

I'm new to the Sega Football Manager (only played the EA games before) and I've got a couple of question which I can't seem to solve in the online manual.

1) For every player there is a stars rating system you get to see in the assistant reports view and each player has attribute skills. How do these two different rating types connect to each other ? If a player for example has a maximum star rating potential of 3 stars and a current skill of 3 stars - does that mean he won't improve in his skills any more ? If so, what is the use of training these players then ?

2) my assistants keep telling me I should drop certain players due to bad form. Do I get it right that this means to not line them up for the next match ? How is "form" determined ? According to the player ratings, the players in question are usually not much different than the rest of my team, so why do I get the hints to drop them ? And for how long do they have to be outside the lineup ?

3) in the pre match scouting reports about the next opponents there are sometimes infos like my team should play narrow / wide or short passes / direct passes due to the pitch length / width. In the backroom advice screen my assistants then often suggest the complete opposite of what was said in the scout report. Is there any overview / list about what hint in a scout report translates into which team setting ?

4) In the match preparation screen, I understand that I can select a couple of saved tactics which my team is supposed to get familiar with. If now I make changes to my tactic in the Tactic screen, does that affect the familiarity in some way ? I don't understand how the match preparation screen and the tactic screen are related to each other. Do I have to save my changes I make specific for the next match every time as new tactic and then select that tactic in the match preparation screen before every game in order to get my squad prepared for the match ? And clues here are well appreciated...


Thx...

 

[RandomGimp47]

Hey man

I reckon i've got a few answers for u:

1. I'm pretty sure that the current and potential ability star rating are unconnected. So if there's a player with
1 star potential he will only improve a little where as a player with 5 star potential could improve a lot
assuming you train, tutor and loan him out whilst he's young.

2. First and foremost, get a good assistant manager and coaching staff in. This will make a big difference to
the quality of advice u get. I would also say that you should do what u think, i generally read what the staff are suggesting to me, but i don't follow the advice very often. Form is whatever u want it to be, i normally pay most attention to the last 5 games, though u need to remember that late sub appearences can be really bad for average ratings. As far as dropping someone goes, do u have someone better for the position? If the answer is no stick with him, scew the assistant.

3. Find a tactic that works and stick to it, don't change it game by game or the team wont have time to blend in the formation. Sometimes after a while, generally 12-18 months i find i have to change tactic as other teams start to get used to the way u play, but other than that i ignore what they say except the players that haven't blended properly on the backroom advice page.

4. As with no.3, don't change u're tactics too much and the team will blend better, u can see how well blended the formation is by clicking the tab with the name of u're tactic on it under the match preperation title on the top left of the match prep screen. Whatever changes u make on the tactics screen become current on the match prep screen. Where as the 2nd and 3rd tactics on the match prep screen must be saved or archieved tactics.

Hope this helps a bit and btw u made the right choice, the FM series is by far the best management sim on the planet!!!

 

[TheEquinox]

Hello RandomGimp,

thanks for your help, some things got clearer but I'm not fully confident yet I got it all right. About the star ratings, what I am wondering is, if I have a player with 2 stars potential and 2 stars current ability : Can he still improve his attributes through training, or is he "maxed out" then ? When I started my current career, I started unemployed and got a job at Bellinzona in the Swiss Super League and first thing I did was to try and get rid of all players with potential/current ability at 2,5* and lower because I thought they are weak and can't improve any more. Right now, after checking some of then in terms of attributes I figure that might have been the wrong apporach, because in attributes they are often much better than my players with 3* and more....

About the tactics : I stick to my formation on a regular basis but I try to adopt the tactical advice of one of my coaches like play deep/high, narrow/wide and slow/quick against next opponent before each match. I'm not sure how that affects blending, but the pre-match hints from my assistant manager suggest some players didn't blend fully or have massive problems blending into the squad. Should I keep these settings the same for each match ? What about Philosphy and general strategy ? I usually start out every match Balanced and Standard and change these settings during the game according to how it is going. Like switch to Overload in the last few minutes of a game when I'm only 1 goal short...

My staff is quite okay I guess. Most staff isn't interested in joining Bellinzona or demands wages my board won't allow me to pay. I managed to get Robert Prosinecki who has a skill of 19 in technical training and 15 in tactical knowledge as first team coach though and that's pretty much the only guy who ever gives any hints at all. On the other coaching positions I was only able to get people with 10 or 11 skill for their training area except the fitness coach has a skill of 16. Generally my training quality is balanced around 3 or 3,5 stars in each area now and at least my younger players constantly grow in attributes.

Sorry if my english is a little lousy at times...

 

[Tharros]

Hello RandomGimp,

thanks for your help, some things got clearer but I'm not fully confident yet I got it all right. About the star ratings, what I am wondering is, if I have a player with 2 stars potential and 2 stars current ability : Can he still improve his attributes through training, or is he "maxed out" then ? When I started my current career, I started unemployed and got a job at Bellinzona in the Swiss Super League and first thing I did was to try and get rid of all players with potential/current ability at 2,5* and lower because I thought they are weak and can't improve any more. Right now, after checking some of then in terms of attributes I figure that might have been the wrong apporach, because in attributes they are often much better than my players with 3* and more....

About the tactics : I stick to my formation on a regular basis but I try to adopt the tactical advice of one of my coaches like play deep/high, narrow/wide and slow/quick against next opponent before each match. I'm not sure how that affects blending, but the pre-match hints from my assistant manager suggest some players didn't blend fully or have massive problems blending into the squad. Should I keep these settings the same for each match ? What about Philosphy and general strategy ? I usually start out every match Balanced and Standard and change these settings during the game according to how it is going. Like switch to Overload in the last few minutes of a game when I'm only 1 goal short...

My staff is quite okay I guess. Most staff isn't interested in joining Bellinzona or demands wages my board won't allow me to pay. I managed to get Robert Prosinecki who has a skill of 19 in technical training and 15 in tactical knowledge as first team coach though and that's pretty much the only guy who ever gives any hints at all. On the other coaching positions I was only able to get people with 10 or 11 skill for their training area except the fitness coach has a skill of 16. Generally my training quality is balanced around 3 or 3,5 stars in each area now and at least my younger players constantly grow in attributes.

Sorry if my english is a little lousy at times...

First of all, scouts/coaches can be wrong. IMO, you need to learn to judge players current ability based on his attributes. Potential is a bit different as there are so many factors. The players actual PA value for starters, his work rate and determination attributes, personality, amount of first team football, coaching ect. A player may have a high potential but never reach it because of his personality, his mental attributes or just lack of playing time. Most of the time I ignore my coaches current assessment of players and select players that fit into my tactics, not necessarily the 'best' player on the team for the position. As for getting an idea of PA, I would only trust the star rating if your coach/scout has high judging attributes, or you have scouted the player multiple times. Even then, like I said, they can be wrong.

As for tactics, keeping things the same is good. Sometimes just ignore the advice if you think you can get away with it. Otherwise I would trust whoever has the better tactical knowledge attribute. For team blending, match preparation can help. This is what I do:

1. Reach the maximal level of tactical familiarity setting Very High workload at the start of your game. But remember, setting the MP workload will have an effect on the Training workload.
2. Move workload to ‘Normal’ level when maximal tactic familiarity levels are reached.
3. Now you can start using Special Focus Areas depending on your next opponent.
4. Select one of 4 SFAs before a match: Attacking Set Pieces, Defensive Set Pieces, Defending Positioning, Attacking Movement. Your selection should depend on the strong and weak sides of the opponent.
5. Select Team Blend just right after the match.
6. Repeat steps 4-5 for every match.

For the Philosophy and Strategy - IMO chose the philosophy that best suits your tactical vision and stick to it. Changing it is not a good idea once your players are familiar with that style. As for strategy, change that at the start of the game depending on the opposition and the situation during the match.

Lastly, staff. Use filters
Look for frees and staff with a high attribute in the area in question + good determination, motivating and discipline. All of these are used to calculate the coaches star rating.

 

[lltomll]

Hi Equinox, think I have some answers for your questions,

First about the potential and current ability: All players in the game have a number that corresponds to their potential and current abilities. When potential and current abilitiy numbers are equal or close, the stars rating will be the same for both. Also this rating is related to the rest of the squad, so a Bellinzona 5 star rated player, will have less stars if you are managing a team with more talent.

About the rating of players you have dismissed, you have to consider tha atributes judging player ability/potential of your staff, if they are low, as they probably are, they are unable to judge properly.

There´s also another problem: atributes have different weight for diferent positions. For example: pace and acceleration will cost more "points" from the potential ability pool, depending on the position of the player.

Theres also atributes that are qualified as prime atributes as they define the options the player have at their disposal. A player with very high passing, will not necessary make Xavi-like passes, he need also decision and creativity.

About the blending, you should preferably use the three slots on match preparation to make your team adapted to different circunstances, but when you are at home or a clear favourite, stick to your regualar formation an leave the tinker to the oposing manager.

Also, minor changes to the formation, like dropping a center mid to the def mid position or changing a player role will have minor or none effects on the blending.

Hope i have helped.