Help on learning how to micro-manage in the game

Kenny Peeters

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As I mentioned in this post: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2013-discussion/111680-game-just-not-enjoyable.html, I was thinking of really learn from the tactical guru's how to micro-manage in Football Manager 2013. I DO NOT plan to only rely on feedback from "the community" and I mean by this, that I do want to try and manage it on my own. Ofcourse in some ways I probably fail or am just plain wrong in my thoughts, but I would never know this if I don't get the help or pointers from the more experienced managers.

The idea of micro-managing didn't come from me, but I saw TheBetterHalf starting a thread, that you can find here: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-project-micro-managing-team-better-half.html, about micro-managing and so I thought of doing the same, but ofcourse with the help from you guys.

So here goes.
 
I decided to start with KV Mechelen, my favourite team and the first part according to the thread is:
PART 1 - First day at the office
Here, we look at the board expectations, the scouting network,meet with the staff, get an assistant report etc.

What is expected in the league: "a respectable league position" (so I assume between 5 and 10)
What is expected in the cup: Quarter final

What is my scouting network:
View attachment 299300
as you can see, at this moment I only have one scout, and this are his stats:
View attachment 299297

Mission 1: Hire new scout(s) with good judging ability and good juding potential or is it ok to have or good judging ability or good judging potential?

Now we will advance to "meet the assistants":

Interesting things I learned on the meeting:
Minimum expectation: Top half of the league (league has 16 teams, so between 1 and 8)
Wage budget: €70,24kTransfer budget: €299k
Intra-squad friendly: Yes (not really important, I guess)
Report of the team: Yes
Meeting with rest of staff: heck, why not?
regular reports with input from backroom staff: Fortnightly basis
Other tasks at the club: I declined, because I can change this all later on

Players who are out on loan:
Liroy Zhairi (Midfielder (Right) / D/WB (R), M (C) to Maccabi Haifa
Jonas Laureys (Midfielder (Left) / M (C), AM (LC) to Westerlo (Second division)
Tom Pietermaat (Midfielder (Centre) / D (RC), WB (R), DM, M/AM (R) to Aalst (Second division)

Chief scout with first scout update:
Highest recommendation is 30yr old midfielder Karel Geraerts (3,5 stars)

One of the best players of the team:
Mads Junker (4 stars)

I guess I have the most important information for part 1? The next part would be a closer look to the players.

Edit:
My assistant manager believes that 4-1-2-1-2, 4-2-2-2 and 4-4-2 Diamond are the most suitable formation for the players at the club.
 
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PART 2 - The Players
Here, we take a closer look at each and every one in the team.

I guess to get to know my team better, I first look at the amount of players in each line, I determine this number by using the filters provided by FM.

Defenders: 11 players
Midfielders: 13 players
Attackers: 3 players
Total amount of players: 24

I will not post a screenshot of all the defenders to my disposal, so I just go look at the team report who would be my starting defenders, if no one is injured:

DC 1 is a limited defender with a defend duty: Boris Pandza
View attachment 299320
As it seems, he is a very good (4-star) defender, with not really anything to look out for.

DC 2 is also a limited defender with defend duty: Seth De Witte
View attachment 299322
He is also a good (3,5 stars) defender, with also not really anything to look out for.

DR 1 is a Full Back with Defend duty, Xavier Chen
View attachment 299324
He is a good (3,5 stars) player, but I am worried about his Anticipation and Concentration. I feel like I should do something with this in my tactic?

DL 1 is a full back with defending duty: Anthony Van Loo
View attachment 299325
In my opinion he is an average (3-stars) player of the team. his Anticipation, Concentration, Positioning and Accelaration are points that worry me and probably need to be covered within the tactics?

So these should be my starting 4 defenders. Is there anything to add about them?

PS: Please, at any time, feel free to ask me more information about the team, player, ... I will answer them as quickly as possible !
 
I like the idea of a story about actual management.
Hopefully we can pick up a few things from watching how somebody goes about playing the game in detail. Thanks!
 
I agree about Chen Xavier, but I suppose you've minimilaised what he has to think (virtually) about with the defend duty.
 
I like the idea of a story about actual management.
Hopefully we can pick up a few things from watching how somebody goes about playing the game in detail. Thanks!

Thanks for the first positive feedback on the thread and hopefully I can help myself and others with getting to know the details of the game.

I agree about Chen Xavier, but I suppose you've minimilaised what he has to think (virtually) about with the defend duty.

First of all I would like to ask what you mean with Xavier Chen?
 
I have gathered some more (basic) information about my other defenders:

Sheldon Bateau - Full back - Defend - 1,5 stars - Stamina (7), Acceleration (10), Teamwork (11), Anticipation (11)
Kenny Van Hoevelen - Limited Defender - Defend - 3,5 stars
Joachim Van Damme - Central Defender - Defend - 2 stars - Positioning (9), Decisions (9), Determination (11), Concentration (11)
Steven De Petter - Anchor man - Defend - 3,5 stars - Tackling (10)
Maxime Biset - Limited Defender - Defend - 3 stars
Antonio Ghomsy - Full back - Defend - 3 stars - Concentration (10)
 
At the moment, I started putting every detail in a word-document so I do not get lost in the details...it was like this already but anyhow, I start with midfielders now.

I learned looking at my squad that I have 4 players who could be alright in the tactic:

MC 1 is a deeplying playmaker with defending duty: Robin Henkens
View attachment 299442
He is a good players (3,5 stars), but I am worried with his Marking, Strength and Creativity

MC 2 is a box to box midfielder with support duty: David Destorme
View attachment 299443
He is a good player (3,5 stars) but his Marking, Passing, Anticipation, Dribbling, First Touch worry me. It's a lot that worries me but he has 3,5 stars so he must have a lot of things that make up for his "flaws".

The AML is an Inside Forward with attacking duty: Thomas Enevoldsen
View attachment 299445
The only problem I get with him is that it makes my (potential) tactic unbalanced, so maybe I should see what his stats are in the centre of the midfield? Then it seems he has 3,5 stars (like the rest of the midfield) for Deeplying playmaker, Advanced playmaker, box-to-box-midfielder, Central midfielder and Ball winning midfielder. Because I already have a deeplying playmaker and a box-to-box midfielder, I think I should "best" make him an advanced playmaker in games where the opponent midfield has less than 3 players in centre and in the other games, I could use him as a central midfielder. That's my guess, any opinions?

Screen of Thomas Enevoldsen - Advanced Playmaker (Attack), I saw that with attack his dribbling and anticipation who are both 14 are taken into account while in support his stamina that has 11, so my guess is that attack should be better
View attachment 299447
For the Central Midfield role, I decided to choose for Attack because it really was bugging me that he only got 5 for marking, now his only flaw is his 10 for finishing.
View attachment 299448

The other midfielders are:

Wannes Van Tricht - Deeplying playmaker - Defend - 2 stars (4,5 stars potential) - Strength ( 6 ), Positioning ( 6 ), Creativity (10), Marking (10), Tackling (10), Composure (11)
Abdul Yakinu Iddi - Trequartista - Attack - 2,5 stars - Off the ball (8), Anticipation (8), Finishing (8), Passing (10), Flair (11)
Alessandro Cordaro - Attacking midfielder - Attack - 3,5 stars - Off the ball (8), Creativity (10), Decisions (10)
Boubacar Diabang Dialiba - Winger - Attack - 3 stars - Flair ( 9), Crossing (11), Off the ball (11), Decisions (11), Agility (11), Balance (11)

So to summarize my idea of my midfield:

I have 3 good players in the centre being Robin Henkens (DLP), David Destorme (Box-To-Box) and Alessandro Cordaro (AMC) and 1 good player on the flanks. Luckily this is my favourite team so I know that in real life Alessandro Cordaro also plays on the flanks and in the game he has 3,5 stars when he is played out as a winger. His flaws as a winger are: Off the ball (8), Decisions (10), Balance (10).

This basically gives me some ways to switch my midfield around:
- I can play with 1 DMC, 2 MC's and 1 AML and 1 AMR
- I can play with 2 DMC's, 1 MC and 1 AML and 1 AMR
- I can play with 2 DMC's, 2 MC's, 1 AMC
- I can play with 1 DMC, 3 MC's, 1 AML(or AMR)
- I can play with 2 MC’s, 1 AML and 1 AMR, 1 AMC

That's about it, I guess...? I'm curious about any thoughts of the experienced FM'ers

Probably tomorrow I will post the analyse of my attack, it's finished but I guess this were enough updates for today. But as you see in my summary of defense and me only having 3 attackers, I will probably play with 1 striker in the matches. Who will play depends on my midfield-setup and the opponent ofcourse.
 
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I said I was going to update the attackers-section, so here goes !

I have 3 strikers in my first team and they are all three somewhat equal in stars. But because my ***. manager said that Mads Junker was one of the best players of my squad, I will start with him.

Mads Junker is a poacher with attack duty and 4 stars:
View attachment 299667
If I have to say something "bad" about him, it is that his Pace and First Touch isn't that good.

The second striker is Nicklas Pedersen and is a Deeplying forward with attack duty and also 4 stars
View attachment 299671
Also not a bad player, but "only" 11 for finishing as a striker is not really good, but he makes up for it in creativity and off the ball, I think.

My third striker is Jaime Ruiz and he is an advanced forward with attacking duty and he has 3,5 stars:
View attachment 299673
His low stats are flair and crossing, so I guess I will play him as an advanced forward, but only let him play in the centre of attack and not too much roaming.

Well this is my first team and if I filter on my reserves and my youth squad, I see that I don't really have a lot of potential - players for the first team. The only people that could grow into the first team are:
- Jordi Vanlerberghe is a M (R) with a potential of 4 stars
- Jan Mertens is a (DM) with a potential of 4 stars
- Tom Pietermaat, who is out on loan, with a potential of 3,5 stars.

Maybe, and just maybe, I will give the first two some play time in first team when the game is already won, so they get better and maybe join in on the first team further on in the season.

Part 3 would consist of making a SWOT of my team. Although I do know what a SWOT means, I have no idea how to begin on it for Football Manager. SWOT is basically a management concept where you list your Strength's and your Weaknesses. That are two things you have to base on YOUR team. OT is also based on your team but not only on yourself. Those last parts consists of Opportunities (for example, the youth players with a high potential rating could be cheap alternatives when given team instead of buying some players) and Threads. Threads will focues on the parts that the opponent can exploit in your team, for example, if you have a REALLY slow fullback, you can be 100% sure that the opponent will place a very quick player against him.

I basically know the theory behind it, but I have no idea how to apply it on my team...so I will have to think about this (or maybe get some input on what I have to look for...)
 
PART 3 - Making a SWOT

So...I figured some things out on how to do my SWOT-analysis:

For my Strength's and weaknesses, I made some points when thinking about my players. For my strenght's I also, made a selection of the following attributes: Acceleration, Dribbling, Heading, Marking, Passing, Tackling and Pace and I looked at who was above 12 for this attribute.

Strength's:
- Centre of the team
o Defense: Pandza, De Witte, Van Hoevelen, De Petter (VMC)
o Midfield: Henkens, Destorme, Cordaro, Enevoldsen
o Attack: Junker, Pedersen
- Young players (Vanlerberghe, Mertens)
- Players who can play in more than one line: Seth De Witte, Joachim Van Damme, Steven De Petter, Maxime Biset
- Good dribblers: Alessandro Cordaro, Thomas Enevoldsen, Mads Junker, Boubacar Dialiba Diabang, Abdul Yakinu Iddi, Nicklas Pedersen
- Good first meters: Xavier Chen, Boubacar Dialiba Diabang, Abdul Yakinu Iddi, Alessandro Cordaro, Antonio Ghomsy, Nicklas Pedersen, Wannes Van Tricht, Jaime Ruiz, Thomas Enevoldsen
- Good heading: Boris Pandza, Joachim Van Damme, Maxime Biset, Seth De Witte, David Destorme, Steven De Petter, Jaime Ruiz, Mads Junker, Kenny Van Hoevelen
- Good marking: Boris Pandza, Anthony Van Loo, Sheldon Bateau, Joachim Van Damme, Maxime Biset, Seth De Witte, Steven De Petter, Xavier Chen, Kenny Van Hoevelen, Antonio Ghomsy
- Good passing: Joachim Van Damme, Robin Henkens, Thomas Enevoldsen, Mads Junker, Nicklas Pedersen, Wannes Van Tricht, Seth De Witte, Alessandro Cordaro
- Good tackling: Joachim Van Damme, Sheldon Bateau, Boris Pandza, Anthony Van Loo, Maxime Biset, Seth De Witte, Antonio Ghomsy, Chen Xavier, Robin Henkens, Kenny Van Hoevelen
- Good pace: Abdul Yakinu Iddi, Chen Xavier, Sheldon Bateau, Boubacar Dialiba Diabang, Wannes Van Tricht, Alessandro Cordaro, Antonio Ghomsy, Steven De Petter, Jaime Ruiz, Nicklas Pedersen, Thomas Enevoldsen, Boris Pandza, Joachim Van Damme, Robin Henkens, David Destorme, Anthony Van Loo

Weaknesses:
- I only have one "decent" (3+ star) full back and that's Xavier Chen, so I guess I need to buy two who can be a direct asset for the team, so a 3,5-4star). One VL (with 3,5-4 stars) and one VL (with 4 stars)
- I only have one good flank player and that's Thomas Enevoldsen, so in my opinion I need to buy 3 players, if I decide to play wide. One AMR with at least 3,5-4 stars, One AML with at least 3,5 stars.
- My third weakness, was like I said, my poor scouting network and I already placed an advert for scouts

Now the most tricky part was looking at the Opportunities and the Threads for my team, but then I remembered there was a tool in football manager where you can do a team comparison, so I took this as a guide.

My opportunities would be:
Defense:
View attachment 299741
It seems that we are top and almost top of the league in Tackling and Marking

Midfield:
View attachment 299744
My midfielders are rather average in the league except for teamwork

Attack:
View attachment 299746
It comes a bit as a surprise, but it seems that my attack is for half top of the league: Finishing, Long Shots (although it’s not really that good), Anticipation, Movement

Threads:

Defense:
View attachment 299747
For defense, it seems that the biggest threads are the average acceleration and heading of my team.

Midfield:
View attachment 299748
For midfield it seems, like I already said, we’re average in the league except for Passing and Technique

Attack:
View attachment 299749
In attack, it seems that we are one of the baddest of the league in Pace

Conclusion of my SWOT:
- I have to look out for pacey strikers and targetmen, so I guess I will have to get the space between defenders and keeper as low as possible (at least for my central defenders). My full-backs seem to be rather quick, so the space behind them can be a bit further up in comparison with my central defenders. It could be an idea to make them tackle quite hard, because it seems my defense is good in tackling. I could also make my defenders mark their man, but without pressing too much I think?
- I guess in midfield, it would be hard to get rid of all the problem zones because we're average which is not that bad. I still think though that, because of the passing, we have to give them short passes. I do not want to lose them too many balls on the midfield. I also have to look out for their poor technique, so they may not be too long on the ball making forward runs.
- In attack it seems we have a lot of ways to score, but it is a big NO to try and score with through balls because my attack seems just too slow.
- To do:
- Buy VL, VR, AML, AMR
- Hire Scouts

After doing this SWOT analysis, and I hope I did a good job with this, it would be time to go on to Part 5 and that are transfers: What, Why and When?
 
PART 4 - The Transfers

Because my scoutingnetwork is not that good (5%) I decided to make a selection on Xavier Chen, my best full back and decided to scout the players that I can pay for DR and DL.

The filters that the game applied were:
Position: Can Play Defender Right (I changed this to Defender Left to search for a DL)
Determination Is At Least 15 (I lowered it to 12)
Teamwork Is At Least 15 (I lowered it to 12)
Work Rate Is At Least 15 (I lowered it to 12)
Bravery Is At Least 15 (I lowered it to 12)
Acceleration Is At Least 15 (I lowered it to 12)
Pace Is At Least 15 (I lowered it to 12)

“Shortlist” for VR:
Batode Diakhaby – Free player - FRA – 23 – Free
Thomas De Corte – AGOVV - BEL – 24 – € 26K
Michaël Van Hoey – Sint-Niklaas - BEL – 29 - € 30K
Matias Concha – Malmö – SWE – 32 – € 95K
Manuel Pablo – Deportivo – ESP – 36 – € 170K
Dimitri Daeseleire – Sint-Truiden – BEL – 22 - € 170K – 2,5 stars
Kris De Wree – Lierse – BEL – 31 - € 210K
Frederik Boi – OH Leuven – BEL – 30 - € 275K

“Shortlist” for VL:
Asier Del Horno – Free player – ESP – 31 - Free
Gonzague Vandooren – Free player – BEL – 32 - Free
Reynald Lemaître – Free player – FRA – 29 - Free
Jean-Phillipe Sabo – Free player – FRA – 25 - Free
Damien Tixier – Free player – FRA – 32 - Free
Adilson – Seoul – BRA – 36 - € 50K
Francis N’Ganga – Charleroi – CGO – 27 - € 150K
Sebastjan Komel – Antwerp – SVN – 26 – €170K

I also had to find an AML and an AMR and I decided to apply the same tactic on searching as I did for my full backs. I used my best AML, Thomas Enevoldsen as a filter.

The filters that the game applied were:
Position Can Play AML (I switched this to AMR to search for a AMR)
Creativity Is At Least 15 (I lowered this to 11)
Work Rate Is At Least 15 (I lowered this to 11)
Dribbling Is At Least 14 (I lowered this to 10)
Long Shots Is At Least 14 (I lowered this to 10)
Passing Is At Least 14 (I lowered this to 10)
First Touch Is At Least 14 (I lowered this to 10)
Corners Is At Least 14 (I lowered this to 10)

“Shortlist” for AML:
Luis Boa Morte – Free player – POR – 34 – Free
James McFadden – Free player – SCO – 29 – Free
Giannis Okkas – Anorthosi – CYP – 35 - € 50K

“Shortlist” for AMR:
Dari Douglas – Free player – NED – 32 – Free – 3,5 stars (I decided to try and sign him rightaway, as he had a contractoffer from another team already)
Mohamed Barakat – Al-Ahly – EGY – 35 - € 80K
Dennis Rommedahl – Brondby IF – DEN – 33 - €275K

I decided to scout all these players and we’ll see what comes back from my lonely scout.

Future transfers are not really at order at the moment, because it will be hard enough to sign these players with the limited budget and transfer money available.

Next part is the part where I should set up a goal for my save. I will have to think about this first, before I try and make a prediction on my own. It would be too easy to say that I want to finish first, ofcourse I want to but I am not sure that this is possible due to my first experience in micro-managing. Any thoughts what my goal should be?
 
Sorry I meant that I agree with your worry about some of Xavier Chen's stats, but I also agree with the duty you have given him (defend)
 
PART 5 - Define a goal

I took the easy way and I calculated an average of the team ranking in defense, midfield and attack and I got with a number of 7.5 So I took that number and I rounded it up, so my goal will be 7 for this season.

The next part would be setting up a tactic and well that's what I have most problems with, so I definitely need some help here !
 
PART 6 - Create tactics

I decided to create 2 tactics.

1. Attacking
View attachment 302196
Line up would be:
GK: All three are good
DR: Xavier Chen
DL: Anthony Van Loo
DC: Boris pandza and Seth De Witte
MC: Robin Henkens and David Destorme
AML: Thomas Enevoldsen
AMR: Alessandro Coradro
AMC: Abdul Yakinu Iddi
S: Nicklas Pedersen

2. Defend
View attachment 302198
Line-up would be:
GK: Any will do
DR: Xavier Chen
DL: Anthony Van Loo
DC: Boris Pandza and Seth De Witte
DMC: Steven De Petter
MC: Robin Henkens
MC: David Destorme
AML: Thomas Enevoldsen
AMR: Alessandro Cordaro
S: Mads Junker


The next part will be: setting the training. This will follow later today or tomorrow.
 
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PART 7 - Setting the training
I looked at my fixtures and saw that pre-season is from thursday 5th of July to saturday 4th of August and I want to train on 3 things in the pre-season.
1. Fitness
2. Tactics (so my team gets accustomed to the tactic)
3. Team cohesion

My pre-season is 4 weeks, and let's start from monday 9th of July.
9th - 15th of july: General training: Fitness, 2 clicks to Less Match Training, Match training: Teamwork
16th - 22th of july: Tactics, 2 clicks to Less Match Training, Match training: Teamwork
23th - 29th of july: Team cohesion, 2 clicks to Less Match Training, Match training: Teamwork

Then starts the training for the competition: This will be changed every week based on the opponent. The next part is to prepare for the match. In my opinion this only is important in competition, because my players need to gel a little and get accustomed to the tactic.

The fixtures now are:
5th of july: My team against my reserves
5-0, Robin Henkens (4'), Own goal, Boris Pandza (14'), Alessandro Cordaro (18'), Boubacar Dialiba Diabang (68')
7th of july: Kappelen against my team
2-3, 1-0 (27'), 2-0 (36'). At the half-time I decided to change my tactic from attack to defend. 2-1 Pandza (63'), 2-2 De Witte (81'), 2-3 De Petter (90'+2'). Overall: Not pleased at all with the game, maybe I will choose to stick with my defend tactic at every away-game.
11th of july: FCV Dender against my team
1-2, 0-1 Boubacar Dialiba Diabang (5'), 1-1 (25'), 1-2 Nicklas Pedersen (79'). Overall: Not really a good game, but we won and my players their physique isn't that good anymore because of the 3 matches in one week time.
14th of july: Veldwezelt against my team
0-3, 0-1 Robin Henkens (39'). I decided to switch to my attacking tactic after half-time, because I saw that we were clearly much better. 0-2 Alessandro Cordaro (62'), 0-3 Own goal (87'). Next game I will be starting with my defense tactic, because Utrecht is a better team than me.
18th of july: My team against Utrecht (first real test)
0-2, 0-1 (61'), 0-2 (83')
21th of july: Go Ahead Eagles against my team
25th of july: My team against Heerenveen (second real test)
28th of july: My team against Duisburg (third real test)

After this last game, the competition will start with a home-game against RC Genk.
 
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After the game against Veldwezelt, I got six responses for my scout advert:
Geert Lermyte:
- 12 for player ability
- 12 for player potential
- 5 for determination
- 5 for adaptibility
Daniel De Temmerman:
- 11 for player ability
- 11 for player potential
- 15 for determination
- 10 for adaptibility
Par Zetterberg: Offered him a contract and he accepted
- 13 for player ability
- 14 for player potential
- 8 for determination
- 17 for adaptibility
Danny Pfaff: Offered him a contract and he accepted.
- 12 for player ability
- 12 for player potential
- 4 for determination
- 14 for adaptibility
Patrice Hoffman: Not worthly to mention
Mbo Mpenza:
- 10 for player ability
- 10 for player potential
- 12 for determination
- 7 for adaptibility

I also got asked for my pitch size and I left it on maximum allowed. 106m x 66m
 
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I lack motivation to follow up on the thread, so it can be closed. This is basically me when playing the game and I'm getting really sick of it.

View attachment 302587
 
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