MANUMAD'S BOX OF TREATS

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MANUMAD

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Dunno how much Ill get into FM17 but ill try to have this going for, what is it, the fifth year running?
 
Loved your thread last year. Was always really helpful. Hoping for more great things this year :)
 
OK - ELKESON is still awesome but even more difficult to purchase as he is too expensive first season (bound to be less 2nd season) and wants a huge wage.

If you re a cash strapped club in the main leagues who's after a good cheap goalscorer then:

PkJNun0.jpg
 
A couple of players I spotted while randomly clicking around last night and might bear checking out....

Saul Salcedo - Olimpia - starts injured but impressive looking young DC. Paraguayan and probably need Paraguay loaded or players from there loaded

Salih Özcan - German MC at Koln. Was Koln's best prospect on 2016 and should have good potential. But looks really well rounded for an 18 year old MC. Hope his skills are random.
 
Random Randomness

1. Understand that the stamina stat relates to how quickly the player tires during matches and that the natural fitness stat relates to how quickly a player recovers fitness between matches. The latter is a very important stat if you are a cash strapped club forced to have a small squad. This is because if you target incomings (at least in the first seasons while you grow) by including this stat in your template then you can ensure that your players can be utilised in more matches per week than would otherwise be possible so the size of the squad wont cause you too much trouble.

2. Understand that injuries happen not only due to a bad training regime but also because of a player being injury prone. When you first take over a squad look at the coach report for each player and if the coach seems certain that the player is injury prone then look to sell. Same goes for when you scout for transfers. Avoid injury prone players.

3. While we are on the subject of injuries note that pre-season is key to increasing the endurance of your players for the coming season. During the off-season your players will either go on holiday or be taking part in international tournaments. This means that when they return they will have a very low condition and match fitness. So during this time it is very important to make sure your players are physically ready for the new season. The more physically prepared your players are, the less likely they are to receive fitness based injuries. So when pre-season starts you want all of your players to be focused on fitness training at a high intensity for two weeks (don't give them very high training as they're likely to get injured from it!).

At the end of the season you will get a reminder asking how long you want pre-season to last. A longer pre-season mans that player attributes will not drop as much. On the other hand a shorter pre-season means that your players will be more jaded and be more likely to pick up injuries later on. So as always balance is the name of the game. You will also need your players to play pre-season friendlies to get their match fitness to a good standard. Around two (2) fixtures per week should be good enough to improve the players match fitness at sufficient levels. In fact, whenever possible during the regular season arrange friendlies to help those players who need to catch up with their match fitness. Choose very weak opponents to also build morale.

Rotate with fitness in mind. The optimum option would be to only play players with at least 90% fitness unless ONE key player is on a bit less but you have a crucial match coming up. Mainly substitute for fitness unless you have a player whose rating wont increase more than 6.3 in a match.

When a player returns from an injury spell (and his match fitness is red) then don't start him but try to ease him back perhaps by giving him up to 45 minutes with the reserves and then using him as a substitute in
 
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HOW TO SELL YOUR PLAYERS FOR BIG MONEY

In FM17 I am finding that its more difficult to sell players than in previous versions. I still use this which to my mind is the best way:

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...6431-how-sell-my-player-thread-raikan007.html

Or

If you offer people out and you get no interest try offering them out for free. The likely result is that a number of clubs will make offers. Reject all and then re-offer them using RAIKAN's method.

You can combine the two:

eg: I wnt to sell Damari who is valued at 9.25m. Using RAIKAN's method I offer him out at 18.5m. I get 2 clubs interested but no offers. If the asking price drops to 13m with no bids having been made I then offer him out for free and I get 4 bids. I reject them and offer him out at 12.5m etc.
 
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DONT SUFFER CRUSH DUMPS, FREEZES, PARSING ERRORS ETC

I often see people doing stories, long saves etc who justifiably get heart broken cos their save is corrupted etc. Truth is that unless you ve got loads of RAM (and god knows maybe even if you do) you WILL suffer from many of these. So here is some advice on how to avoid it:

 1. Parsing errors - these are curable. Google it and you ll find the solution. It involves deleting the contents of a file once in a while. Easy peasy.

 2. Game freezes, crashes:

a) If game refuses to move past a date try holidaying. Usually does the trick.

 b) Generally do the following:

i. Dont load up useless leagues (eg no China if you dont intend to manage there). Also note that you still get the main players if you load a league but"view only".

 ii. From preferences choose a weekly 3 file rolling save. This way if one of the files corrupt you have another one starting from a few days before.

 iii. This wont be popular but it helps A LOT: from preferences - match, untick show stadium and show scenery.

 iv. DO NOT under any circumstances use the PC to do other stuff such as browse the internet while waiting for game holidays to pass.

 v. If you play and then leave the game for longer than about half an hour dont pick up where you started from when you return. Rather quit game (not to start screen but fully) and reload.

 These will all save you a lot of tears. I know it cos they' ve saved me the same!!!
 
MANUMAD said:
i. Dont load up useless leagues (eg no China if you dont intend to manage there). Also note that you still get the main players if you load a league but"view only".
Click to expand...

Just a quick question regarding this statement:

I've always favoured a minimal approach when loading leagues in previous years but in this FM I want to have as many leagues as is possible. Whenever I load a league but set it to 'View Only', the number of players is the same as if the league wasn't loaded at all. Do I just ignore the Player Count and trust that more players will be there when a league is set to 'View Only'?
 
Mike said:
Just a quick question regarding this statement:

I've always favoured a minimal approach when loading leagues in previous years but in this FM I want to have as many leagues as is possible. Whenever I load a league but set it to 'View Only', the number of players is the same as if the league wasn't loaded at all. Do I just ignore the Player Count and trust that more players will be there when a league is set to 'View Only'?
Click to expand...

"Main players". Teams will have the higher reputation players from the league, but not all. Some teams will be missing more than others, hence replacing them with greyed out players.
 
Yeah I think this ^. Basically same amount of players but only the high reps you can interact with (sign or whatever).

That's what I thought anyway!
 
BE THE BOSS!

Do not sell players because they want to leave sell them because you have decided you want them gone.

A good way to do this is:

1. When a player comes to you expressing a wish to go to another (bigger?) team, in conversation tell him you'll accept any bids that will meet your valuation.
2. When the other team bids do not reject but keep negotiating wanting higher and higher amounts. And keep doing it.
3. If player comes back asking you why you rejected tell him that the bid was nowhere near what he's worth. Usually this keeps him calm. Sometimes he gets unhappy. Either way dont budge.

You only have to do the above till a particular transfer window shuts. Once it does - provided you give the player match time - sooner/later you get media info to the effect that ".... player has decided to stay."

However in FM17 players are crankier and it takes longer for them to stop being upset. Also their mood seems to affect their performances much more than in previous versions. Still, selling a player you'd rather keep just because he asks to leave/is unhappy imho is not very clever and doesn't help squad building.

TIP: When player asks for a new contract and if you want to actually give him one, first ask him to sack his agent. As soon as he does this, offer the new contract immediately. This way you avoid paying agent fees!!!
 
WHAT DATABASE TO LOAD?

You've got the game ready, and are about to start a new save. You set up the leagues you want to play, let's say England, Spain and Italy. So you look down at the databsase selection, set it to large and start your game.

That's fine but what about exploring custom DB possibilities? Hitting the custom button you will be able to see all the additional leagues/nations/continents you can add to your game, increasing the player pool. This is a nice way to increase the players and prospects available to you as a manager.

I've been looking at some websites which list some prospects in World football and used my season and a half long save with Lyon to look at them and see how they'd developed. However, on that save I'd only loaded France on a large database and had trouble finding some the players based outside Europe.

So what about loading a save with a few more leagues loaded and a custom database, adding players from the top divisions of S. America, Asia, Africa and Oceania?

By doing this you will be able to "unlock" even more cheap young players you can buy and develop or older ones to help you win stuff pronto.

My suggestion (depending on what your pc can take):

1. Load 2/3 divisions of the country you plan to manage in.
2. Load 6/7 other top divisions relevant to the team you ll be managing - eg: In a save with Lanus in Argentina, also loading Spain would not be relevant. Note that the more divisions you load the better the chance you have of quickly selling players!
3. Use the custom database option to load 'players from top division' of North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Also tick 'add players from continental cup teams' or whatever the equivalent option is.

It's really easy, takes a few clicks (and then can be saved as a preset filter) and vastly increases the amount of prospects you can find in your game at various levels, without putting too much of a strain on your processing speed.
 
UNCLE MAD GOES TRAINING ...

Start the pre-season as early as possible (but don't overdo it bearing in mind that you must give your squad reasonable rest) Understand that training is a gradual process:

(a) First week fitness general training - tactics match training (focus bar should be all the way to the left) plus rest after match. Intensity: Average (or high depending on players' condition, rest etc). No rest before or after matches (nb: don't rest players before matches)

(b) Second week increase intensity to high and keep gen training fitness.

(c) Third week gen training team cohesion - Intensity high. No rest after matches

(d) Fourth week gen training team cohesion - Intensity high (+ maybe rest after matches).

(e) Fifth week till start of season team cohesion and intensity high (+ maybe rest after matches).

(f) From start of season: intensity average + rest after matches (lose tactics/team cohesion when your tactics bars are 3/4 or as you did in previous versions. Also intensity average).

(g) MATCH FITNESS is VERY important. Monitor it and use the system of utilising the reserve team to build up players' match fitness. If possible DO NOT play players with less than 85 match fitness for more than 45 minutes. Non match fit players are more susceptible to injury.
 
HOW NOT TO CONCEDE EQUALISERS IN THE LAST FEW MINUTES

1. The most popular approach to wind down the clock and hang on to a result is to adopt a Contain strategy together with team instructions such as (Much) Deeper Defensive line, Stay On Feet, narrower etc (also waste time - retain possession).

But in practice such changes may be counter-productive. Also, sometimes, you dont necessarily need to be that defensive. It may even be making it more likely that the opposition will score if you do that. Dont forget that "retain possession" in combination with those other instructions equates with dithering on the ball, so if your team is not technically up to it or can be out-muscled by the opposition, it may be a recipe for disaster. So it would be better to employ the clear ball to flanks instruction instead, provided you have wingers/ifs.


2. Before I move on to discuss the matter further I want to share another TIP: On top of the above team instructions Going very rigid and the additional instructions: stick to positions and be more disciplined are extremely effective.


3. The main thing to understand when adopting an extremely defensive mentality is that it invites pressure. The opposition is allowed to advance at will quite deep in your half before they are met with any resistance ((much) deeper defence / close down (much) less/ stay on feet exacerbate this). So, this approach should be far from your mind if you have had the upper-hand for the vast majority of the match, or if the opposition happens to be a significantly weaker team that have been defending up until this point. If you have been able to control the match and peg the other team back, why would you drop back and finally give them enough space to create chances?! In this situation, a slightly reduced mentality (ie from attacking to standard) and a modified approach geared towards keeping the ball can more than suffice. Not only is this likely to be a more practical way of thwarting the opposition under the circumstances, but it's also likely to represent less of a change compared with your starting tactic. You should bear in mind that sudden changes in mentality are problematic. So, if you started the match with a positive approach involving an Attacking or Control strategy, your team may struggle more when suddenly switching to a Contain strategy, much more so than if you were going from Standard to Contain, for example.

4. Also bear in mind that not only is the team being asked to do something drastically different, but it's also inviting unnecessary pressure on top of that. This logic would naturally suggest only slight modification when you're defending against a weaker team. So, possibly a Standard mentality, alongside instruction such as Get Stuck In or Retain Possession. This would ensure that your team eases off slightly and comfortably holds onto the ball, allowing you to still control the game and at the same time be more than stable enough defensively, even if its at the expense of attacking intent. The logic in not dropping back more than that is that if the weaker opposition haven't been able to be particularly threatening throughout the game, then they're going to struggle just as much to do so now, even when getting more players forward. No need to back off and gift them the space on a plate that they've not been able to find otherwise.

5. Of course it's different if you are the smaller team attempting to maintain a flattering scoreline against better opposition, or if you have been outplayed and outfought (in which case as early as possible in the match look to substitute in stronger/more aggressive players and have the team tackle and press more and harder and close space -esp midfield space- better and in this respect tweaking your formation may also help). If you still have struggled to contain a team over the course of a match, it's inevitable that when they turn up the pressure you'll be even more overrun than you were before the final minutes.

THIS is when you should drop back and shut-up-shop (but do it carefully, gradually and only for the last 5-10 minutes). There is little to no chance of suddenly pressuring the opposition in ways that you've been unable to previously, so better to get men behind the ball, maintain the team's shape and try to weather the storm by being as difficult as possible to break down. So, a Contain or Defensive strategy, supplemented by instructions such as Drop (much) Deeper,Close down (much) less, Stay On Feet, and Narrower is advisable.

5. An alternative way of approaching this stage of a match is to be counter-attacking. Generally speaking, this method will only be as effective as your team is at counter-attacking in general. So, if you haven't built a tactic around counter-attacking and been successful with it, this approach is most likely not your best option now when such an approach would need to be at its most effective. In general I dont like counter tactics and cant seem to make them work.

There's a very interesting series of articles by CLEON in his website (SI SPORTS CENTRE) and on the SI FORUMS on the art of counter attacking football that you should read if you want to learn how to set up counter attacking football.

Anyway, a Standard, Counter or Defensive mentality (depending on how far you're deviating from your starting tactic, as well as your team's performance on the day), in addition to the team instructions of Drop Deeper, and Clear Ball To Flanks and Pass Into Space, in order to encourage longer balls that play your wingers into space which can be especially effective if the other team has adopted a desperate 4-2-4 shape.

6. Another thing to do is to be reactive to what the opposition does in another way: you must in any case always have the opposition formation on screen during matches to monitor in match formational changes. Usually when the opposition is chasing matches it needs to win, it changes formation to extremely attacking permutations such as 424. This presents a golden opportunity for you to take control of the most crucial area: the midfield. So change your own formation to pack the midfield so that the opposition's two players there will be inundated by your players.

Also note that when opposition teams try to break you down they do so trying to exploit width and space on the shoulder of your defenders (as explained in a separate post below). So look at your left defender and right defender (turn both of them into full backs and have them on defend with instructions to hold position).

7. You should also note that shutting up shop is not only a case of changing philosophy, mentality and TIs and PIs. It is also changing formation (perhaps reacting to formational changes by the opposition). For example if you have been playing an attacking 433 formation with 3 forwards and marauding wingbacks this needs to be toned down by turning it into a 451 and turning the wing backs into full backs (one defend one support or even two defend).
 
HOW NOT TO CONCEDE ... PART DEUX

1. If a Standard strategy is used, it makes more sense for your team to not be backing off so much.

In contrast, if you choose a Counter strategy, lower closing down becomes more important, so (much) lower defensive line should be considered, as this strategy requires more emphasis on team shape than Standard. With Defensive though, you may as well use both(much) lower defensive line and Stay On Feet. After all, your players are sitting so deep that they may as well be looking to force the other team to break them. Otherwise, if midfielders in particular are too readily leaving their defensive positions, opposition midfielders and forwards may find enough space to go unchallenged and have enough time to produce dangerous shots just outside the penalty area. Allowing such attacks defeats the purpose and compromises the strength of sitting so deep within your own half.

3. With the right balance,you'll defend opposition attacks and give them something to struggle with on the other end. If at the same time you don't have a direct threat that's causing problems to the opposition then you're simply allowing the opposition to swiftly get the ball back, allowing them to attack you again. Its not only a question of altering team/player mentality and instructions however. Only doing that is dangerous and may well result in you conceding. Equally if not more important are formational tweaks. You should be watching matches at least on extensive and have the formation of the opposing team on screen at all times. This is to know immediately about formational changes they may employ so that you can negate or even exploit them.

For example:

a. If you play with wingbacks / fullbacks with attacking /automatic duty it would be good between the 80th​ and 85th​ minute to pull them back to be in line with your cbs and have them DEFEND. Even more drastic but quite effective is to also pull the "wingers" back to the wb position so that you have two banks of players on the left and right side of your defence. But NEVER forget having alsways a player who can get the ball and move it (swiftly) to opposition territory as explained above.

b. If the opposition possesses good wingers/employs wing tactics such as 442 or you see a wing thread, then identify it and maybe have your own wingers man mark their wingers (or if their wingbacks are the threat point have them man mark them instead). Of course if you employ Ifs, in order to do that you need to change them to wide players instead so that they occupy the same areas as their target players.

c. If the opposition changes formation to one using an am then pull one cm back, make him dm or anchorman and have him man mark their am.

d. The most common AI tactic to seek goals is to employ a 424. This is very easy to tackle. All you have to do is as per a. above plus pack the midfield by either employing a 4141 or a 451 (but not with a flat 5 cos that is not conducive to defending better nor to having an outlet for your own attacks). Also remember that a midfield which has a dlp (even on defend) as well as an AP will hold the ball better.

e. Make sure whatever you do to leave attacking outlets of your own as if you dont have any whenever your players have the ball they wont have players in mf/attack seeking openings resulting instead in loss of possession. Generally speaking the one time when you unavoidably MUST be REACTIVE to what the opposition does is when you are trying to hold on to a slender lead.

4. If when watching matches you see the other team attacking in waves and yours defending/being unable to keep possession you are deffo not playing well defensively. This means that you are employing the wrong approach combination towards safety (the wrong tactics for the match) and its an indication that alternative tweaks are necessary.


5. Shutting up shop in a few clear steps:

1. There is no substitute for watching matches on extensive at least. If there is a time to be reactive to what you have seen its in the last 10 minutes of matches.

2. Bear in mind what all instructions actually do. Close down (much) less for example can be a dangerous counter productive instruction to suddenly introduce. If you have quick defenders to the other teams not so quick attacking players or if you are the much more reputable team DO NOT employ this shout in its extreme version (ie much less).

3. Following on from 2. above, do not blindly introduce stuff that make your team more defensive/less ambitious. Always do it in relation to what you have seen in the match as well as your players vs opposition players.

4. On the 80th minute pause the match and make your formation more defensive: eg pull back wbs to fb position giving them defend instructions/pull back a cm sit him in front of your cbs make him an anchor man etc.

5. On 84/5th minute pause match again and give defensive instructions:- contain mentality drop deep (much deeper if you are the weaker team)/narrower/retain possession/stay on feet/close down (much) less/waste time/play even safer/be more disciplined/stay in position exploit flanks and maybe even clear ball to flanks. If you dont have wide players in the tactic you are using then pull one player on the wing so that you can have an avenue to release pressure cos otherwise you will be hemmed in as your players wont have anyone to pass the ball from deep/defence and clearing ball to flanks has more chance of releasing players for counter attacks.

6. Dont use counter unless you re sure you know what you re doing as its very difficult to make it work.

I employ the above and I very rarely concede in the last 5/10 minutes as a result - not only that but sometimes I even score! (mishaps do happen but then THATS FOOTIE for you!).
 
DOCTOR MAD: AVOIDING SECOND SEASON SYNDROME

Remember that it is likely that in the second season your reputation will have risen, so now your team is much more of a threat in the eyes of your opponents.

This may have the following results:

1. Teams will often be happier to take a draw against you.
2. Deeper defensive lines: the space behind the lines that you were exploiting the previous season will get smaller.
3. Man-marking of your star players will be much more common - so tweak your tactics to have more varied danger sources (see comments in other posts in this thread).

One cannot be too specific about any recommended tactical changes because you must consider what will work best for the players at your disposal, but I would advise doing the following:

(a) Only recruit players you are sure you need.

(b) Look for players with good Creativity, Determination, Off The Ball, Composure, Vision and Anticipation, as these are the types of player who will help you to stay in games, break down narrow defences and retain possession.

(c) Look for pace as well - even where you wouldnt think that its that important (eg starting xi/back up cbs with less than 11/12 pace should be avoided. The ideal is at least 14).

(d) If you got promoted in the previous season, you have turned from one of the top teams in the previous division to one of the lesser ones in the division you now find yourself in so: tweak your tactics to reflect this.

Understand your reputation has changed and play according to it.

(e) It is reasonable to want to build on your squad after the first season in a better divison (or after a season of success) but being too busy in the transfer market will damage your team more than improve it. Do NOT go on spending sprees. Rather decide what you need and buy the best players you can for it. Buy quality not quantity. Not more than 3/4 players per summer (up to two in January). Even if you do buy with restraint you still have to introduce your new players gradually (one per starting lineup for a couple of months plus one more as a sub).

(g) Conversely dont offload too many players at once. Remember TEAM COHESION is very important. Aim for a gradual shift towards a more balanced team. A team which stays together for long will play better than a team which keeps changing even with the introduction of better players. Language is also very important. It takes players about 6 months to learn the language and this will affect their performances.

(h) Look at the candidates you want to buy and esp their character. Dont bring in disruptive players.

(i) Are players who previously played tremendously now looking lazy or demotivated (watch the games closely: who is misplacing passes they shouldnt, who is getting caught on the ball, who is skying shots from 6 yards?)? Remember that motivation issues emanate from the way you approach press conferences, team talks, private chats and media comments as well.

(j) Match train (and general train) to combat specific issues. Or try attacking training for longer periods as Ive found this works quite well.
 
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