Questions/Advice needed on the game and also about playing as Liverpool

[Neeeko]

Alright, I'm going to start a new save up; I am not new to FM but I haven't played it in awhile. So I've got a few questions on the game and Liverpool if anyone could help it would be really appreciated!

The Game

The Start: Once you've loaded a new game; what are the key things you should do straight away? e.g. Get rid of deadwood, choose tactics, etc.

Individual Training: In my previous saves, I didn't seen my players develop too much. Do you leave setting up individual training to your own staff? If I take control each individual myself, what should I focus on? Any other training advice would be really helpful!

Main tactic role VS Individual player role: I read somewhere If you give a player an individual role it's a bad idea. e.g. Say my main tactic has 2 attacking midfielders - Both set to Inside forward attack, but then I give an individual role to a certain player, like Winger Support, therefore it changes the main tactic when he is playing - Would this mess up my whole team tactic?

Liverpool
I'm going to try play a really long save (6+ years) and I don't want to buy the obvious players at the start and do really well in my first season, then get bored of winning everything. I also want to make sure I improve the team in areas that only desperately need improving/ positions that need more depth. I'm going to try keep most of the current squad, the only two I will be looking to sell is Borini and Johnson.

The first player I am looking for is a central defender for some depth. I heard a lot about Balanta, he sounds really good to have but it seems everyone buys him so I'm thinking of doing something different. I like the thought of homegrown players so I'm thinking to move Lloyd Jones to my first team. How good does he get? I know he won't be better than Balanta but does he still get good enough in the future for a regular first team role?

My main 2 tactics will be using 2 or 3 attacking midfielders, I see the team only has 5 in the first team but some in the U-21s with potential. I was thinking I could use some of the U-21s if someone gets injured and also use Gerrard as a AMC or Sturridge on the wing if I am desperate.. Good idea or do I really really need to buy someone else?

As I don't want to really buy anyone in my first season, would it be a good idea to spend the money on improving the training/youth facilities and new coaches? Would this give me a solid platform for the next season?

Lastly; is there any individual roles any of your Liverpool players have been really useful in?


Thanks for your time and any advice.

 

[scruffy_bear]

Player you should keep, Harry Wilson won the player of the month for the last two months looking good in my game, Lazer Markovic brilliant, Jon Flanagan can play anywhere along the back line using him as a wing back myself, Andre Wisdom turns into a good centre back.


Also sign Balanta becomes a god with Sakho. One last thing Mario Balotelli is way overpowered in the game he won world player of the year with 44 goals in 54 matches

 

[fm20]

Long post requires long reply...

Liverpool are "interesting". There's a distinct lack of funds initially and a large debt which can cause long term problems and some glaring issues with the team. That said, there's some good players and a few potentially great ones, plus a lot of dead wood to sell.

First thing to do is clear out the backroom staff; they are literally awful (except the physio team and a couple of the scouts). Find a good coach for each specialist area, a good AM and pick a top, top HOYD. Depending on your style find good U18 and U21 equivalents. Get as many scouts as you can and send them to work. My preference is to have dedicated scouts for each of the major junior leagues (England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands and Argentina are good ones. Brazil can come later due to the restrictions on signing those players) then general coverage elsewhere; make sure you've got excellent knowledge for England and as much of Europe as you can.

Then choose your training regime for each player - I use specific role training for them all, depending on what role I want them to perform. The results of this will depend on the quality of the facilities and your staff (get the best of both), but also how much the players are playing - someone rotting in the reserves at a key development time will not progress as much as someone playing the first team every week. Check the PPMs for each player and see if there are ones you want to remove - a good example is Sakho trying to play long balls so I trained that out of him quickly.

Next pick the tactics. I think a variety is needed - a standard passing based tactic should be key. My personal preference is a 4-4-2 diamond eschewing the wingers (good attacking fullbacks are key), along with something more attacking that uses at least one winger (in season 1 I made good use of a offset formation with an AMR, AMC and two strikers). Something more defensive is required as well - maybe set up to counter - you'll need this for games against the big clubs, especially in the first season.

Make sure the individual roles are well balanced - think about what each player is supposed to be doing in both attack and defence and choose accordingly. I made huge defensive improvements from season 1 to season 2 with a couple of minor tweaks to roles.

Pester the board to improve training and youth facilities. They should back you on this, given one of the goals is to bring through youth players. I've got the top facilities for each of these before the end of season 3. Do the same for youth recruitment!

Don't change the first team squad that much - you probably don't have the finances for it anyway (either transfer or wage budget). THere are some good players around with fairly low release clauses (eg, Timo Horn as a GK is great value, Gil Romero can add extra to the midfield as Gerrard's legs go), but you'll get more money for most of your existing team if you wait before selling. Lovren is a great example - he's only just joined, so keep him for a season before selling him to Madrid or similar, although Sakho and Srktel will be excellent first choice defenders.

Your key players are Sturridge, if he remains injury free, and Sterling. As I don't use wingers, for me, he plays as a SS behind a real front two. Borini can be a good backup (regardless of what Brendan thinks!), but if you're using a single striker formation he may not get much game time. Johnson is a good candidate to go immediately. Toure is not a bad 4th choice central defender, but his wage is huge for that - make sure you get rid, even if you're giving him away! Markovic is good, but I barely used him and sold him at a loss in the end. Suso may be good, but I think depends on what happens in the first couple of seasons as to how he develops.

From the youth teams there are some OK prospects. For me they started out looking good, but the reputation/quality of my team left them behind a bit. Harry Wilson looks good (he's now a £9m rated AM for me), Sheyi Ojo and Ryan Kent have both progressed well and are out on loan. Rossiter hasn't kept pace (I'll probably discard him this year). Lloyd Jones was a wash out, but that's not to say he couldn't do the job.

When planning ahead there are a lot of players out on loan - Origi should be a candidate for the first team immediately but many of the others can be sold. Players like Aspas, Wisdom, Assaidi will fetch a pretty penny to fill the coffers. I would say that end of the first season is when you can start to shape the team in your own image.

Your goal should be year on year improvements, but stability of finances is also important - selling a good player may make good long term sense if you've got someone ready to step up (which is why scouting and value recruiting is important). It's going to be a long time, if ever, before Liverpool can can compete with the other big English or Spanish teams on pure financial muscle.

 

[MANUMAD]

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...911-ask-uncle-mad-uncle-mads-box-choccys.html

 

[Neeeko]

Thank you all for your help and advice!
And a extra big thanks to you fm20!!!

One more question about the individual training: From what I've read I should train each player into the roles I want them to be playing.. should I keep this as their training focus for the whole year or change it to something else after a certain amount of time?
Should I also train a preferred move for a player at the same time as training for a specific role?

I think for the first season my aim will be:
- Buy Balanta as my only purchase in the first transfer window.
- Use Wilson in my first team as a backup in case someone gets injured and to help his development.
- Offload Jonhson, Borini & Toure.
- Improve training and youth facilities (if I have enough funds)
- Clean out the deadwood / bring in quality staff

 

[fm20]

you're welcome. Hope it helps.

They seem like reasonable goals for a first season - along with making it back into Europe for the following year, of course Balanta has gone on to replace Sakho for me.

I tend to train players for whatever role I think they are going to be doing as they develop, but I think it may be better to change occasionally. Thinking of a winger - you may do some heavy physical work to up those stats, then move him inside, then work on something else... (C Ronaldo was a great real life example of this type of progress!).

I'm certain I read something about this on the forum somewhere!

 

[MANUMAD]

One more question about the individual training: From what I've read I should train each player into the roles I want them to be playing.. should I keep this as their training focus for the whole year or change it to something else after a certain amount of time?

No. Each position trains different attributes. You should always train the position which trains the most attributes that you want trained.