Well hello there, and welcome to my guide on everything Liverpool Football Club in terms of Football Manager. You may have seen that there has been a guide on FM11 for LFC, but I was always planning to release an LFC FM11 Guide and intend to better it. 
First of all, #1 Downloads.
The following downloads are ones I very highly recommend to make your Football Manager 2011 experience with Liverpool Football Club as enjoyable and realistic as possible.
The majority of those are just to make sure that everyone looks realistic, professional and to your liking. Those are the ones I recommend, although you may have certain other preferences. Although, I must stress how important it is you download the Official 11.1 Patch either off the Sports Interactive website or directly off FM-Base as that is what this guide is based around. If you fail to download that, you may as well stop reading now.
#2 Background Information
You may find this section useless, and if you already know plenty about the wonderful club that is Liverpool Football Club, you can skip this section. Or not, it’ll take you about 2 seconds to read.
Club Name: Liverpool Football Club
Nickname: The Reds
Nation: England
Year Founded: 1892
Chairman: John W. Henry
Transfer Budget: £25m (for Continental Qualification), £32.5m (for Title Challenge) and £35m (for Premier League Win)
Wage Budget: £1,300,000 per week
#3 Pre-Season Administration
First things first - the Season Expectations. You want this to be as low as possible, and in this case “Continental Qualification” should be your aim. Don’t let that extra £7.5million convince you that you can challenge for the title. But, you can, without the £30m+ budget they offer for it. Setting the aim lower means your safe, both in your job and the club’s financial situation.
You need to make sure you set your tactic(s) nice and early so that your players can adapt and are raring to go from the first whistle of the Premier League 2010/11. Therefore, set it immediately and set Match Preparation for that tactic and at Workload High. It’s vitally important the players gel to the tactic before the season starts.
Captains. Not a hard decision. Stevie G. Jamie C. Sorted.
The tactic before any transfers
#4 Squad Analysis and Transfers
Get your reading glasses on for this lot as it’s going to be a bit of a long one.
A * constitutes being called up from the Reserves or U18s.
Goalkeepers
25. Jose Manuel Reina
27. Brad Jones
42. Peter Gulacsi*
- Charles Itandje
You’re pretty much sorted in this area. Despite Woy’s transferral disability, Brad Jones was a good pickup and in what was a weakness last season (the bench keeper) in Itandje has been covered up. You’ve also got Reina who’s one of the best in the business so no action is really needed here. Oh, and Gulacsi is in the reserves but can be promoted if you do decide to get a million or two for Itandje. Why not, eh?
Recommended Transfers
Charles Itandje – Outgoing – List for £1.1million
Defenders
2. Glen Johnson
3. Paul Konchesky
5. Daniel Agger
6. Fabio Aurelio
16. Sotiris Kygriakos
22. Danny Wilson*
23. Jamie Carragher
34. Martin Kelly*
37. Martin Skrtel
Despite contrary belief, I believe that there is enough depth in the defensive line of Liverpool Football Club. You could probably do with selling one of the Centre Backs, probably Kygriakos, to make sure Wilson does get the odd game. And left-back could be considered a weak point, so I’d make a play for Maxwell who is strangely always transfer listed by Barcelona for around £4.5m. Martin Kelly has been brought up in order to provide backup for Glen Johnson, which he is more than capable of doing.
Recommended Transfers
Sotiris Kygriakos – Outgoing – List for £2million
Maxwell – Incoming – Bid at £4.5million (Pay this completely in monthly instalments of 48 months)
(Only if Kygriakos is not sold) Danny Wilson – Outgoing – Loan (Make sure there are no Future Buy Clauses)
Midfielders
4. Raul Meireles
8. Steven Gerrard
10. Joe Cole
14. Milan Jovanovic
17. Maxi Rodriguez
19. Ryan Babel
21. Lucas
26. Jay Spearing*
28. Christian Poulsen
You’ve got a fairly good mix here. I haven’t placed Dirk Kuyt in this category for reasons I’ll explain later. With the narrow midfield, you’ll want to get rid of your wingers, so you should say goodbye to Maxi and you’ll have to loan out Jovanovic as you’ve just signed him and he won’t leave. Jay Spearing is promoted to add that vital extra depth that is so handy other a 60-odd game season. But you could also do with some added spice in the middle, so I recommend Moussa Sissoko to play in the Ball Winning Midfielder role in the centre of the park.
Recommended Transfers
Maxi Rodriguez – Outgoing – List for £4million
Milan Jovanovic – Outgoing – Loan (Try to make sure there are Future Buy Clauses)
Moussa Sissoko – Incoming - £12.5million
Strikers
9. Fernando Torres
12. Daniel Pacheco*
18. Dirk Kuyt
24. David N’Gog
An area that’s very thin on depth, but certainly not lacking in talent. Due to the formation you will be using having two strikers, four men that can play up top (with Babel able to fill in if need be) is certainly a viable option. But you need someone to play up there with Torres who can link up with the #9 better than Kuyt or N’Gog do. And for that role, I recommend Edin Dzeko in which you play him in the Target Man role. I also recommend selling N’Gog making your four-and-a-half pronged strike force of Pacheco, Dzeko, Torres, Kuyt and half a Babel.
Recommended Transfers
Edin Dzeko – Incoming - £23million (Pay £17million up front, and £6million in monthly instalments other 48 months)
David N’Gog – Outgoing – List for £3.5million
Other Transfers:
Of course, the first team is not the only area, and I recommend a few others to bolster the club’s options in future seasons, rather than thinking about the current one.
Jonjo Shelvey – Outgoing – Loan (Make sure there are noFuture Buy Clauses)
Chris Mavinga – Outgoing – Loan (Make sure there are no Future Buy Clauses)
Lacina Traore – Incoming – Bid at £4million (All payed in 48 monthly instalments)
Rivaldo – Incoming - Free
Shelvey and Mavinga go out just to give them first team football. When receiving offers for them, make sure you only accept the offers where the club making the offer believe they will be “Valuable Members of the First Team”. This gives them a good chance to play First Team Football, and will help in their development. Lacina Traore is perhaps not yet good enough for the first team, but would help dramatically in the future and could either be placed in the reserves or re-loaned out again. Rivaldo could likely sit in your reserves, but could help you out in the latter stages of the season when Torres and Dzeko are both injured and you need an experienced head in that vital Champions League game.
What the team should look like, post-transfers.
#5 Other Areas and Advice
That’s covered the majority of things you need to know but there are certain other areas you might want to know about.
- Jamie Carragher often has the desire to become a coach
If this happens to you, let him, but not Full Time. To keep him happy, make sure you offer him a new contract as Player/Coach. He’s an influential guy and if he’s unhappy, it can upset others around him, so it’s best to give him what he wants.
- Use the Carling Cup
I know you’ll want to win it but the club is brimming win future potential stars and you need to utilize these players and give them game time in the early rounds of the FA Cup and right through the Carling Cup. Shelvey, Mavinga, Spearing, Wilson, Pacheco, Amoo, Ecclestone, Kelly, Darby etc., make sure these guys are getting games as they’ll form the spine of your team in future.
- Talk to your players
Make sure you get on with your players. If you are to compete with the best for the Premier League title, it’s important you get on with your lads and eventually find your way onto their Favoured Personnel list. Not only will this fire them up if you get slagged in the media, but if you do eventually leave the club (God forbid), then you’ve got a good number of assets who would love to follow you.
- Bring in new staff members
With the addition of the new Chairman, the club is not particularly in need of keeping funds rapped up, so you should go right to the maximum in terms of how many staff the board allows you to have. In terms of coaches, the board allows you to have one more and I recommend hiring Brian Eastwick as a Coach. On the Scouting side of things, I recommend that you bring in both Jeff Vetere and Dave Fallows as they both do a very good job.
- Before you sign Sissoko and Dzeko, ask the board to increase wage budget.
Yeah, do it. (Y)
Fin.
Cheers for reading if you did manage to get through all that. I am sure there is going to be a lot of **** in there so if you do find anything that makes absolutely no sense, please post it up. So yeah, would love some feedback.
First of all, #1 Downloads.
The following downloads are ones I very highly recommend to make your Football Manager 2011 experience with Liverpool Football Club as enjoyable and realistic as possible.
- Official Patch 11.1 (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3462) by Sports Interactive
- E-Style Megapack Barclays Premier League 2010/11 (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3569) by Nokkung
- ParkThePlane 4-3-1-2 v2 (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3412) by Eds
- *James*’s 10/11 English Premier League Kits (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3082) by *James*
- IanC’s FM11 Training Regimes (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3389) by IanC
- FMC’11 Logos – Premier League (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3418) by StuW
- E-Style Megapack Barclays Premier League 2010/11 (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3569) by Nokkung
- ParkThePlane 4-3-1-2 v2 (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3412) by Eds
- *James*’s 10/11 English Premier League Kits (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3082) by *James*
- IanC’s FM11 Training Regimes (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3389) by IanC
- FMC’11 Logos – Premier League (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=3418) by StuW
The majority of those are just to make sure that everyone looks realistic, professional and to your liking. Those are the ones I recommend, although you may have certain other preferences. Although, I must stress how important it is you download the Official 11.1 Patch either off the Sports Interactive website or directly off FM-Base as that is what this guide is based around. If you fail to download that, you may as well stop reading now.
#2 Background Information
You may find this section useless, and if you already know plenty about the wonderful club that is Liverpool Football Club, you can skip this section. Or not, it’ll take you about 2 seconds to read.
Club Name: Liverpool Football Club
Nickname: The Reds
Nation: England
Year Founded: 1892
Chairman: John W. Henry
Transfer Budget: £25m (for Continental Qualification), £32.5m (for Title Challenge) and £35m (for Premier League Win)
Wage Budget: £1,300,000 per week
#3 Pre-Season Administration
First things first - the Season Expectations. You want this to be as low as possible, and in this case “Continental Qualification” should be your aim. Don’t let that extra £7.5million convince you that you can challenge for the title. But, you can, without the £30m+ budget they offer for it. Setting the aim lower means your safe, both in your job and the club’s financial situation.
You need to make sure you set your tactic(s) nice and early so that your players can adapt and are raring to go from the first whistle of the Premier League 2010/11. Therefore, set it immediately and set Match Preparation for that tactic and at Workload High. It’s vitally important the players gel to the tactic before the season starts.
Captains. Not a hard decision. Stevie G. Jamie C. Sorted.
The tactic before any transfers
#4 Squad Analysis and Transfers
Get your reading glasses on for this lot as it’s going to be a bit of a long one.
A * constitutes being called up from the Reserves or U18s.
Goalkeepers
25. Jose Manuel Reina
27. Brad Jones
42. Peter Gulacsi*
- Charles Itandje
You’re pretty much sorted in this area. Despite Woy’s transferral disability, Brad Jones was a good pickup and in what was a weakness last season (the bench keeper) in Itandje has been covered up. You’ve also got Reina who’s one of the best in the business so no action is really needed here. Oh, and Gulacsi is in the reserves but can be promoted if you do decide to get a million or two for Itandje. Why not, eh?
Recommended Transfers
Charles Itandje – Outgoing – List for £1.1million
Defenders
2. Glen Johnson
3. Paul Konchesky
5. Daniel Agger
6. Fabio Aurelio
16. Sotiris Kygriakos
22. Danny Wilson*
23. Jamie Carragher
34. Martin Kelly*
37. Martin Skrtel
Despite contrary belief, I believe that there is enough depth in the defensive line of Liverpool Football Club. You could probably do with selling one of the Centre Backs, probably Kygriakos, to make sure Wilson does get the odd game. And left-back could be considered a weak point, so I’d make a play for Maxwell who is strangely always transfer listed by Barcelona for around £4.5m. Martin Kelly has been brought up in order to provide backup for Glen Johnson, which he is more than capable of doing.
Recommended Transfers
Sotiris Kygriakos – Outgoing – List for £2million
Maxwell – Incoming – Bid at £4.5million (Pay this completely in monthly instalments of 48 months)
(Only if Kygriakos is not sold) Danny Wilson – Outgoing – Loan (Make sure there are no Future Buy Clauses)
Midfielders
4. Raul Meireles
8. Steven Gerrard
10. Joe Cole
14. Milan Jovanovic
17. Maxi Rodriguez
19. Ryan Babel
21. Lucas
26. Jay Spearing*
28. Christian Poulsen
You’ve got a fairly good mix here. I haven’t placed Dirk Kuyt in this category for reasons I’ll explain later. With the narrow midfield, you’ll want to get rid of your wingers, so you should say goodbye to Maxi and you’ll have to loan out Jovanovic as you’ve just signed him and he won’t leave. Jay Spearing is promoted to add that vital extra depth that is so handy other a 60-odd game season. But you could also do with some added spice in the middle, so I recommend Moussa Sissoko to play in the Ball Winning Midfielder role in the centre of the park.
Recommended Transfers
Maxi Rodriguez – Outgoing – List for £4million
Milan Jovanovic – Outgoing – Loan (Try to make sure there are Future Buy Clauses)
Moussa Sissoko – Incoming - £12.5million
Strikers
9. Fernando Torres
12. Daniel Pacheco*
18. Dirk Kuyt
24. David N’Gog
An area that’s very thin on depth, but certainly not lacking in talent. Due to the formation you will be using having two strikers, four men that can play up top (with Babel able to fill in if need be) is certainly a viable option. But you need someone to play up there with Torres who can link up with the #9 better than Kuyt or N’Gog do. And for that role, I recommend Edin Dzeko in which you play him in the Target Man role. I also recommend selling N’Gog making your four-and-a-half pronged strike force of Pacheco, Dzeko, Torres, Kuyt and half a Babel.
Recommended Transfers
Edin Dzeko – Incoming - £23million (Pay £17million up front, and £6million in monthly instalments other 48 months)
David N’Gog – Outgoing – List for £3.5million
Other Transfers:
Of course, the first team is not the only area, and I recommend a few others to bolster the club’s options in future seasons, rather than thinking about the current one.
Jonjo Shelvey – Outgoing – Loan (Make sure there are noFuture Buy Clauses)
Chris Mavinga – Outgoing – Loan (Make sure there are no Future Buy Clauses)
Lacina Traore – Incoming – Bid at £4million (All payed in 48 monthly instalments)
Rivaldo – Incoming - Free
Shelvey and Mavinga go out just to give them first team football. When receiving offers for them, make sure you only accept the offers where the club making the offer believe they will be “Valuable Members of the First Team”. This gives them a good chance to play First Team Football, and will help in their development. Lacina Traore is perhaps not yet good enough for the first team, but would help dramatically in the future and could either be placed in the reserves or re-loaned out again. Rivaldo could likely sit in your reserves, but could help you out in the latter stages of the season when Torres and Dzeko are both injured and you need an experienced head in that vital Champions League game.
What the team should look like, post-transfers.
#5 Other Areas and Advice
That’s covered the majority of things you need to know but there are certain other areas you might want to know about.
- Jamie Carragher often has the desire to become a coach
If this happens to you, let him, but not Full Time. To keep him happy, make sure you offer him a new contract as Player/Coach. He’s an influential guy and if he’s unhappy, it can upset others around him, so it’s best to give him what he wants.
- Use the Carling Cup
I know you’ll want to win it but the club is brimming win future potential stars and you need to utilize these players and give them game time in the early rounds of the FA Cup and right through the Carling Cup. Shelvey, Mavinga, Spearing, Wilson, Pacheco, Amoo, Ecclestone, Kelly, Darby etc., make sure these guys are getting games as they’ll form the spine of your team in future.
- Talk to your players
Make sure you get on with your players. If you are to compete with the best for the Premier League title, it’s important you get on with your lads and eventually find your way onto their Favoured Personnel list. Not only will this fire them up if you get slagged in the media, but if you do eventually leave the club (God forbid), then you’ve got a good number of assets who would love to follow you.
- Bring in new staff members
With the addition of the new Chairman, the club is not particularly in need of keeping funds rapped up, so you should go right to the maximum in terms of how many staff the board allows you to have. In terms of coaches, the board allows you to have one more and I recommend hiring Brian Eastwick as a Coach. On the Scouting side of things, I recommend that you bring in both Jeff Vetere and Dave Fallows as they both do a very good job.
- Before you sign Sissoko and Dzeko, ask the board to increase wage budget.
Yeah, do it. (Y)
Fin.
# # #
Cheers for reading if you did manage to get through all that. I am sure there is going to be a lot of **** in there so if you do find anything that makes absolutely no sense, please post it up. So yeah, would love some feedback.
Last edited:
