MANUMAD'S BOX OF CHOCCIES

[MANUMAD]

Hahahaha - this from FOOTIE365 is priceless:

Geography with Merse
Expert Paul Merson on Tottenham on Sky Sports: ‘Foreign managers usually like the Europa League, but I don’t think they should go for it.
‘They should be careful in Europe. It’s quite a big place.’
He’s not wrong.

 

[MANUMAD]

I often wonder if Football manager is over thought, we all seem to want to play it using real life football, after seeing some of the bugs and issues with Goalkeepers etc.. i don't think you should, its a game, its not real life i think if you can get a grasp of the match engine and find a tactic that can beat it then i don't really think it needs to be over thought.

Ive played every Football manager going back to the original on the Spectrum, since it started from Championship manager to football manager and each game ive found it to be all about the tactic, in the early days it was fairly simple to find a tactic and win things, however the last couple of FM's have been harder, but on FM 2015 i found a quality tactic and that was it, i won everything from small teams to the bigger teams.

Ive tried everything from finding players only using the star system from scouts, to averaging out and focusing on the attributes for the roles, and i havent found any difference in how the game works, if the tactic doesnt get past the bugs in the match engine you will struggle, you can have the best players in the world but you won't have consistent success, get a consistent tactic and decent enough players and you win.

I rarely ever watch the game at all, i mainly only ever use the commentary, i test loads and loads of tactics when i first get the new FM and you can always tell a consistent tactic, one that has managed to bypass the bugs, once i have found the right tactic i rarely ever need to find another for that years FM. i like to try and tweak a tactic here and there for away fixtures.

What worries me about future FM games is that SI seem to be trying to make a more and more realistic game yet seem to create more and more bugs in the system, for me i think its the reason that this years FM is so hard to find any tactic that can consistently get past the bugs.

Its so frustrating that its any lack of real life football knowledge that stops the tactic from working, but a poor match engine.

This is an interesting post even if I dont agree with most of it. Plus it encourages discussion which, in some ways is what this thread is here for.

With every iteration in relation to tactics I always work in two ways: playing around with tactics in a realistic way based on how I like to see teams play (pressing, fast passes and lots of wing play) and trying to find a tactic/set up that frustrates the ME.

But, apart from FM15 post the January patch (which ballsed up completely the ability of players to close down and thereby killed almost all my attempts at STRIKERLESS), I havent found the ME particularly problematic in recent years. My tactics seemed to work the way I wanted and were more than reasonably successful. This is still the case.

At the same time the fact that currently my tactical set up seems to work much better when I holiday over matches rather than when actually watch them shows that you are not (entirely) wrong.

Another thing which adds to tactical realism is that the same tactics dont work equally well in all leagues. I think there's a difficulty spike in the British leagues to be honest.

 

[coolestrock]

This is an interesting post even if I dont agree with most of it. Plus it encourages discussion which, in some ways is what this thread is here for.

With every iteration in relation to tactics I always work in two ways: playing around with tactics in a realistic way based on how I like to see teams play (pressing, fast passes and lots of wing play) and trying to find a tactic/set up that frustrates the ME.

But, apart from FM15 post the January patch (which ballsed up completely the ability of players to close down and thereby killed almost all my attempts at STRIKERLESS), I havent found the ME particularly problematic in recent years. My tactics seemed to work the way I wanted and were more than reasonably successful. This is still the case.

At the same time the fact that currently my tactical set up seems to work much better when I holiday over matches rather than when actually watch them shows that you are not (entirely) wrong.

Another thing which adds to tactical realism is that the same tactics dont work equally well in all leagues. I think there's a difficulty spike in the British leagues to be honest.

As i only play the game using commentary Is the match engine different for playing on commentary or holidaying through rather than watching the game on say Extended or Comprehensive ? i've watched people play the game on You Tube and some of the silly bugs that happen on Extended is shocking, do these bugs happen if its just in commentary ?

I would like a crack at making my own tactics based on how i like to play football, ive tried but never got them to work, so ive always relied on downloading tactics, luckily i have always found one that works, so i guess i tend to play the game without my own playing philosophy ( i do think i miss out in some respect not doing my own tactics) to be honest it takes a lot of time watching the game on Extended or Comprehensive so i think its part of what turns me off.

Could you PM me or post them here you're definitive ways you make a tactic work, what visual clues to look for to tell something is wrong and how to put it right, maybe if i get my own tactics right i might be less cynical in how the game actually works. Are there any visual clues on making the tactic work using just commentary or do you have to watch on Extended ?

 

[MANUMAD]

As i only play the game using commentary Is the match engine different for playing on commentary or holidaying through rather than watching the game on say Extended or Comprehensive ? i've watched people play the game on You Tube and some of the silly bugs that happen on Extended is shocking, do these bugs happen if its just in commentary ?

What you must realise is that for all its realism, FM is still code. Whats more the ME is a way of portraying that code. So within that and in order perhaps to avoid boredom of having loads of fouls and dead time and lack of attacks that you see in most real matches the ME must contrive to keep the scores etc realistic. Therefore stuff WILL happen especially on comprehensive which will appear ridiculous or stupid or buggy when in reality they are the ME's way of doing what I have just explained.

I sometimes have one plug and play tactic which Ive downloaded, one downloaded tactic that I have tweaked and my own tactic that I use mainly. The first one is employed when I want to speed up stuff (ie when matches dont mean anything cos Ive already won the league) by holidaying or by watching on key. The other two I use to play my favourite way: reactively. I rarely use comprehensive (I mainly only use it when Im tweaking/making a tactic) and usually I start with extended look at stuff, react to them and if/when I think Im comfortable (usually going 2 goals in front does it) I switch to key. If then the other team scores I will switch back to extended and see what needs changing.

In my experience no real bugs/ridiculous things happen on extended (with rare and acceptable exceptions). Im bothered however by other ME stuff such as in FM16 the very loose closing down which means that my pressing tactics (especially necessary with STRIKERLESS which I like) dont work as well as in previous versions.

I would like a crack at making my own tactics based on how i like to play football, ive tried but never got them to work, so ive always relied on downloading tactics, luckily i have always found one that works, so i guess i tend to play the game without my own playing philosophy ( i do think i miss out in some respect not doing my own tactics) to be honest it takes a lot of time watching the game on Extended or Comprehensive so i think its part of what turns me off.

As you can see from my above comments I understand your feelings. But as I explain it doesnt take as much as you think and, I really cannot understand why somebody would buy a football management simulation and then, well, refuse to actually manage. Tactics is the core of fooball management imho.

Could you PM me or post them here you're definitive ways you make a tactic work, what visual clues to look for to tell something is wrong and how to put it right, maybe if i get my own tactics right i might be less cynical in how the game actually works. Are there any visual clues on making the tactic work using just commentary or do you have to watch on Extended?

I think provided you use certain basic principles (some of which I try to explain here) and you dont do stupid stuff (such as putting a player in the anchorman position with the intention of protecting your back four but make him a bwm which means he ll chase the ball holder of the opposition which means he wont be protecting the back four!) all tactics can "work". I also think that the only way to see if they work is by watching matches (at least at the tactic tuning stage) on comprehensive or extended.

Ive been meaning to share my effective tactics which Ive been using for some years, but it needs time and effort to do it (especially since I need to write loads to explain how I react to tweak during matches) and I barely have any ...

 

[MANUMAD]

Quirky cheap players

Ion Nedelceanu - Not very expensive but very great cb/dm who is young and will improve
Linus Wahlqvist - Young awesome cb who will quickly improve
Anrei Ivan - young effective and not very expensive cf
Gabriel Iancu - young effective am(c)
Niculae (Nicusor)
Stanciu - still great am
Cristian Manea - Young romanian cb with good stats
Ergys Kace - 21yo Albanian youngster MC
Stanica Mandic - AMC/CF
Alfred Duncan - MC (Sassuolo)
De Arrascaeta - CF/AM Needs a bit of work on his finishing but is a great young all rounder
Augustinsson - DL/AML 21 years old
Marius Lundemo
Skjelvik- Speed merchant dl/wbl

 

[MANUMAD]

LOL This from football365

Making a meal of it
‘Jermain Defoe hoping to ease Sunderland’s relegation fears after nutritious meal as he gears up for clash with Crystal Palace,’ read the MailOnline headline at 1pm on Tuesday. Curse them for missing Mediawatch’s deadline by an hour.

‘Defoe’s meal consisted of around 537 calories and the striker will be hoping to put in an energetic performance against the struggling Eagles.’
​

Good to know that ‘man eats food to gain energy’ really is a news story.

‘The former Tottenham striker opted for tuna steak and a healthy portion of tagliatelle which were complimented by a side portion of tenderstem broccoli.’
​

Oh tuna steak, how lovely you look in that dress. Have you had your hair cut, Miss Tagliatelle?
Unfortunately, Defoe failed to score with any of his three shots against Palace on Tuesday. Burger and chips on Friday night?

 

[MANUMAD]

Bump maybe?

 

[MANUMAD]

BUMP

 

[MANUMAD]

Leicester

Congrats to Leicester for what has been a truly exciting awesome season even to a lifelong Utd fan! I actually do have a minor connection to Leicester having got my first degree from Leicester Uni and this led me to show interest in their rise this year from very early on, watching their matches if on TV etc and I havent seen one boring match where they featured. Restored my faith in why footy is so unique inspiring and moving.

Started a new Leicester save abt a month ago with the specific purpose of setting up the same tactics they use irl based on this very interesting article Watford striker Troy Deeney on why Leicester are so hard to beat - BBC Sport. What Deeney says and what I see with my own eyes led me to an FM first: using two bwms in the dm position in a 442 with two deep dms and two wingers (which is one of the formations that I use) with one instructed to hold position.

Amazingly I won the EPL at the first attempt emulating real life (6 points ahead of Man Utd in 2nd but with 5 losses and not 3 as they have irl). Kept all players other than the vv slow (and thus impossible to succeed in FM) Marcin Wasilewski (sp) who I sold on a free in summer and also sold Inler in January for 1.2 million.

Players I brought in:

Mammana cb
Balanta cb
Nedelceanu cb/dm
Divock Origi.

Got knocked out in the cups in the qfs.

 

[zindrinho]

a Q on tactics if you're up for it, too dumb to post pics but no special TI or PI, 4-2(cm)-3-1 wide
with MCL on CM(D) or BWM(D), MCR on BBM or DLP(S), AMR on Winger(S/A), AMC on AP(S), AML on IF(S/A)(always opposite S/A than AMR) and CF on AF.

the problem is the AMC drops too deep in the AP role, and all 3 central players occupy the same space.
I only win when I use an high pace/acc CF that runs in behind. stronger slower players just doesnt do it.
the wing backs wont really make runs towards the byline so we have troubles stretching the defence.
we dont even create chances like I've done with other teams playing like this, I play in Norwegian premier div with a mid table team (lillestrøm).
we do have talented passers (12-13 pass,vis,ant,tech etc) but could it be we're just not good enough to play like this?

any pointers on players in the same space? Read a lot and played a lot and usually do fine even with these problems, heading towards relegation now and really wanna solve this.

oh, 4-4-2 would allow me to play both my TM striker and speady striker at the same time, but I have no idea how to pull off 4-4-2 this year..

 

[MANUMAD]

a Q on tactics if you're up for it, too dumb to post pics but no special TI or PI, 4-2(cm)-3-1 wide
with MCL on CM(D) or BWM(D), MCR on BBM or DLP(S), AMR on Winger(S/A), AMC on AP(S), AML on IF(S/A)(always opposite S/A than AMR) and CF on AF.

the problem is the AMC drops too deep in the AP role, and all 3 central players occupy the same space.
I only win when I use an high pace/acc CF that runs in behind. stronger slower players just doesnt do it.
the wing backs wont really make runs towards the byline so we have troubles stretching the defence.
we dont even create chances like I've done with other teams playing like this, I play in Norwegian premier div with a mid table team (lillestrøm).
we do have talented passers (12-13 pass,vis,ant,tech etc) but could it be we're just not good enough to play like this?

any pointers on players in the same space? Read a lot and played a lot and usually do fine even with these problems, heading towards relegation now and really wanna solve this.

oh, 4-4-2 would allow me to play both my TM striker and speady striker at the same time, but I have no idea how to pull off 4-4-2 this year..

Maybe try using a Trequartista or a SS (support/attack) instead of the AP?

Are you also asking about the wing backs not supporting enough?

Btw is it the "deep" version of the 4231 (ie the one with the two players sitting in front of the cbs)?

 

[Average Joe]

a Q on tactics if you're up for it, too dumb to post pics but no special TI or PI, 4-2(cm)-3-1 wide
with MCL on CM(D) or BWM(D), MCR on BBM or DLP(S), AMR on Winger(S/A), AMC on AP(S), AML on IF(S/A)(always opposite S/A than AMR) and CF on AF.

the problem is the AMC drops too deep in the AP role, and all 3 central players occupy the same space.
I only win when I use an high pace/acc CF that runs in behind. stronger slower players just doesnt do it.
the wing backs wont really make runs towards the byline so we have troubles stretching the defence.
we dont even create chances like I've done with other teams playing like this, I play in Norwegian premier div with a mid table team (lillestrøm).
we do have talented passers (12-13 pass,vis,ant,tech etc) but could it be we're just not good enough to play like this?

any pointers on players in the same space? Read a lot and played a lot and usually do fine even with these problems, heading towards relegation now and really wanna solve this.

oh, 4-4-2 would allow me to play both my TM striker and speady striker at the same time, but I have no idea how to pull off 4-4-2 this year..

Have you set the instruction for your AMC to hold position? It may be set to roam which means he may end up close to another player

 

[zindrinho]

the 4-2-3-1 is not deep, I got 2 CM's

I changed it up a bit, from flexible to structured and try to play simple football, kinda like the AI does against you.
also set MCR to advanced PM, MCL to central mid defend, and the AMC to attacking midfielder attack, move into channels and more risky passes.

I think the main problem was the AMC dropping deep leaving the striker alone, and the fact I tried to attack too much without good enough team and got countered on. the AMC is now my top scorer tho, even with striker as AF.
with structured set up everyone is more aware of counter attack risk it seems, on fluid they all ran like headless chickens out of position

A team meeting and these changes turned it all around, basically remove all TI/AI except pass shorter if opposition defence are tall strong guys.

 

[MANUMAD]

In my Leicester save, mentioned a few posts earlier, in trying to set up tactics to emulate how they play irl I chanced upon a way to greatly minimise effective crosses (and therefore leading goals). Its not very exciting to watch though as there is no overlapping wing attacks by my team.From memory (so I may forget a PI), what I did was the following:

LB: Having what FUCHS does irl in mind (ie occasionally moving upfield and crossing) but also staying near to the cbs when defending Ive instructed the LB to sit narrow, cross from deep and shoot less (and gave him support duty) the idea is that together with my general tactical set up (mostly counter) he'll only occasionally get forward and not very far forward to support. I think I also have them not close down at all the idea being to force the opposition to cross early/not when they would prefer/against a defence that maintains its shape with two tall cbs always staying back and ready to head the ball away.

CBL: Stopper duty, hold position instruction and no risky passes. The idea is that he will stay at cb at all times. I use Huth and Morgan as a template for cbs (Ive sold them but I have big guys good with heading at cb) so as irl I dont care if the other team crosses the ball as the CBs will always be in position to head the ball away. This, together with the fact that my FBs are rarely up field means that the opposition cant cross from byline and therefore floating crosses are their only option.

CBR: Cover duty, otherwise the same PIs as the CBL

FBR: Irl Simpson never moves up field. So I give the FBR defend duty, tell him to sit narrow and hold position. To make sure he doesnt stray I also tell him to shoot rarely.


With this set up in defence the midfield set up becomes crucial (as do the am/cf positions) because they need to offer both creativity and goal scoring. Most of my matches are low scoring affairs (I win most by 1-0) though my counter tactics (having the same defence set up as above) do sometimes result in 4-2 and 2-0 scorlines against the better teams.

Having won the league in my first season, in the second Im 2nd 3 points off Man ******, out of the League Cup in the semis at penalties v West Ham, in the 5th round of the FA CUP and having come 2nd in my CL group I got Barcelona (first match home a 2-2 draw - was losing 2-0 till the 74th minute).

In the end I drew away vs Barca 1-1 so went out on away goals. In the EPL I finished 2nd 4 points from ****** but I won the FA CUP. In my third season I again was thrown out the CL in the 2nd round but I won the league, the Charity Shield and the two cups.

 

[MANUMAD]

BUMP!

Almost 25000 views - for the upteenth year as well! Thanks guys!!!!

 

[MANUMAD]

Perceptive punditry (from footie365)

Trophy life
Said Michael Owen on BT Sport last night: “A lot of finals, you either pick up the trophy or you don’t.”
Thanks, Michael.

The offside rule
Said Owen Hargreaves on BT Sport last night: “He’s exactly where he needs to be… he’s just a little bit offside.”
Thanks, Owen.

 

[MANUMAD]

"New" Wonderkids

Djorkaeff Reasco - CF (develops nicely)
Nemanja Antonov - DL
Iorfa - CB/DR
Denis Zakaria - CB/DM/CM
Ondrej Kolar - GK
Rui Pedro - CF
Hidde Ter Avest - CB/DR

 

[zindrinho]

"new" as in new for this thread, or new as in their PA has been boosted?
Rui Pedro developed real fast pre-winter update DB too at least.

 

[MANUMAD]

"new" as in new for this thread, or new as in their PA has been boosted?
Rui Pedro developed real fast pre-winter update DB too at least.

I dont do PA/CA mate. "New" as its the first time Ive seen them ...

 

[MANUMAD]

Never

[h=3]1. Make 3 subsitutions at once - [/h]SI will scream otherwise but Ive seen it too often to be a mere coincidence: usually 3 subs together especially before the 75th minute means one injury!

[h=3]2. Not use touchline instructions-

Do so every 15/20 minutes depending on how match is going. Or when something serious happens - eg: if you concede a goal aggressively ask to show some passion.


3. Let your assistant handle team talks -[/h]Team talks (including touchline shouts) are one of the most direct ways of affecting morale, which seems to be getting more important with every FM new version.

[h=3]4. Let your assman handle press conferences[/h]Ok - I usually break this "rule" due to boredom despite the fact that I understand the huge effect they have on morale. As I say elsewhere, always choose between 2nd and 4th option if unsure.

[h=3]5. Let your assman handle senior squad training[/h]Assistants are AI and not very good AI at that. The dont understand your tactics the way you understand them nor do they understand the needs of your squad.

[h=3]7. Start a player with condition lower than 89%[/h]Unless you have no choice. Rotate as per earlier posts.

[h=3] [/h][h=3] [/h]