Football Manager 2007: The Thread

Go here:

C:/Program Files/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2007/data/db/700/lnc/all

You'll find the following files there, that do the following things:

Fake.lnc

* Renames Oliver Kahn to Jens Mustermann
* Disables management of Germany and Holland
* Turns the German and Dutch national team into teams of grey players
* All due to legal reasons

France.lnc

* Renames French league clubs into the names of their locations (eg Olymipique Marseille becomes Marseille)
* Changes other things to do with the French teams for those who play in the French language
* May do other things to avoid licensing issues with French club teams

Brussels.lnc

* Renames a couple of Belgian clubs when playing in the French language

NLeague.lnc

* Disables management of Japan, South Korea and China PR
* Turns the above teams into teams of grey players
* Changes the kits of various Asian clubs
* Changes the names of various Asian clubs
* Turns various Asian clubs into teams of grey players regardless of what database size and other countries you load
* May change other non-league clubs details

Delete them all to rest that shit. Thx to thedugout.tv

1. When you take over a club, all staff members will accept mutual termination, so you can bring in "freshblood" backstage.
2. Bedford Town's star player is called "Barrington Belgrave"!

Still, the most addicting game I've ever played that involves watching little circles move around a field.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/Juror8/YearEndPoll.jpg

It does seem to be faster to play though, on a train from Sheffield to London today I think I managed about 7 games

I started off as manager of Brighton. I rapidly ended up with 8 members of my paper-thin squad injured and had to cobble together a team from reserves and youth teamers. Tactically I've never been the shrewdest: my instinct is to go for Ossie Ardiles-style all-out attack at all times, but this would have been difficult with only one recognized striker. I bid for numerous players, always offering more than the asking price, but none of them ever signed for me. Once I reached late August, with the transfer deadline approaching and the Seagulls slipping down the table, I made an ultimatum to the board demanding extra funds for wages. They sacked me.

Having been addicted to the Amiga iterations of the game, I found the first PC version I ever bought to be rather bewildering, and was sad to find that I couldn't just bang through a season relying on 5 up front and long balls like I once could. Now that I'm returning after a few years, my approach is a little more refined, and I can pretend that the satisfaction of a goal is now hard-earned and worthwhile. I'm doing well out of the parent club feature, which has helped my Basingstoke side to overachieve for the past 3 seasons. I think that after last season's playoff disappointment, this is the year that I bust out of the English Conference South.

I have certainly been spending too much time playing this game, and there's a danger that it will begin to seep into reality, but I'm not imagining this: I work at a college, and this morning I found a learning agreement on my desk signed by a young striker who I had on a season long loan from my parent club - he's studying for a National Diploma in sport. He was really good as well - top scorer in the division! If I ever see him, I'll be sure to tell him that I am delighted with his performance.

http://www.footballmanager.net/en/article/21/1359.html

(Oddly enough this is pretty much exactly what happened to the real FC Honka)

I'm playing a diamond 4-4-2 with a lot of width and long balls down the wings to set up crosses. This has proved pretty devastating against most of the carthorses in the Finnish league, but I've yet to find a consistent defensive formula to get results against the bigger names - flukey heroism is still my best hope there.

http://www.thedugout.tv/community/showthread.php?t=36518

They do make the game whir and grind just like FM of old even on super haxxor gamer PC's, so beware, but it makes lower league management a lot better as there are literally hundreds more cheap n' cheerful players to buy rather than signing Chris Sutton on a free every game.

I started with Liverpool after finding a game with Leeds United incredibly difficult. Am doing pretty well, in 2nd place in the league but about 8 points behind Arsenal with 7 games left. Just got offered a new contract.

It's way less glitchy than previous versions, has a nice streamlined feel to it. I'm enjoying the team talks, it feels like there are different ways to manage, you just have to be consistent, I seldom show anger at the end of a game, unless they are awful which hasn't happened too often. At half time tho it seems to help.

Also I've found "I have faith in your ability" works well for the players who are wussy before away games etc...

Some great goals too. The matches look very real at times. Tho the defensive errors are often completely ridiculous (even moreso than defensive errors in real life!)

The couple of hours I've played so far I have retained the starting 4-4-2 and made few if any tweaks to tactics, training etc to get some kind of control working, but it feels a bit lazy. Help!

I reloaded and luckily had to play the same game again, and won 5-1.

Between matches I look at players, perhaps review the events of the match, ie check some average ratings, maybe make a statement about a player if he's performing well.

Also, are there any ways of finding free transfer players other than searching for unattached players in the players section?

But if yr League One - go for Paul Jones from QPR in goal. He will help loads. Before the demo ended, I was having a lot of success with Chesterfield as a team of joyless grinders. Up front, we were weak (Ian Moore isn't actually worth it, really, but Wayne Allison does the business alright), but we could hold out at the back and in midfield well enough. Relied on our wingers a lot for attacking impetus, though. A lot.

"GROOVY GALLAS", "LORD LJUNGBERG", "KING KUYT", and something nuts that began with E which I can't remember, maybe EBULLIENT or something.

Anyway Chelsea take the lead after 5 minutes. They're pummelling me and I'm sinking towards 7th. Then Luis Garcia kicks Carvalho for no reason, and is sent off. Gerrard, Carragher, and Bellamy are all booked for seemingly fair challenges. Then Mark Gonzalez is sent off for nothing, NOTHING. His team-mates have to restrain him as I wonder if my rant about referees has caused this ill discipline.

But all the while Phil Dowd "lets Shevchenko off with a warning", "is lenient with Makelele" etc etc. NOT ONE CHELSEA PLAYER IS BOOKED. They're still all over me but Reina is playing amazingly well.

Then on 75 mins I get a free kick on the right wing, which Gerrard lashes into the top corner. "Pandemonium in the stands". I think, oh well just hang on for the draw, as they're really tearing into 9 man Liverpool.

In the 90th minute Xabi hoofs the ball clear and Pennant is chasing it down, but John Terry is there long before him. However what should be a simple header back to Cech is bungled and Pennant nips on to the ball, and slots it into the net. 2-1. Unable to control myself now I roar with approval. TAKE THAT JOSÉ, TAKE THAT PHIL FUCKING DOWD!

(think I'm getting addicted to this now...)

I have to say, as annoyed as I am, it is PRETTY COOL that Man U, who came 5th but won the CL, booted me out as I was the 4th place team.

Also - ignore your players who get miffed at you turning down bids for them. I sold Agger and Sissoko in the close season because they were unhappy I'd turned down offers for them. They're both nigh on irreplacable - anyone as good costs twice as much. Then the same thing happened with Gerrard and after a couple of weeks he'd forgotten the whole thing.

I just signed Coloccini for 6 million and Saviola for 9 million. Plus I made a board request for more money which they instantly acceded to.

Like the way you can decide the split between wages and transfer budget.

I spent yesterday's session revelling in the sweet delight of having a goalkeeper who actually moves around the goal sometimes.

Yeah the wages thing is weird, but I think so far I'm glad I went for a slightly bigger transfer fund. I mean, I've found you can get players for less than they demand often, if it's at a high level. eg Saviola demanded 90000 and I offered 70000, all I could afford, he signed anyway.

One thing which is a bit annoying even though it's quite realistic is it seems to take an eternity to buy some players, you think you're the only one interested and then a month later you're still wrangling and Tottenham/Real/Man U/Arsenal/Barca/Inter have all bid aswell, but YOU discovered him, it's like an indie band you liked going to number 1.

Thinking I need some cover for my wing back's, I put in a 10 grand bid (for a player valued at 10 grand). Macclesfield wanted 12 grand plus 2 grand a month for the next year! Plus promotion bonus! 84 grand in total! Is the AI always so greedy?

I need some clues.

Food for thought (and also amazingly true once you study the game) viz a viz the so-called "supergoalie" bug (ganked from FM Britain):

The super-goalie effect is related to the AI playing ultra-conservative formations. Standards to watch out for are the dreaded 3-3-2-1-1, the 4-1-4-1, the 4-4-2 no farrows and, occasionally, the 4-4-1-1. These formations usually play tight (i.e. narrow and mentality matched defensive line) and flood the middle of the park with players. It makes it very difficult to pass the ball successfully and gain any space. The super-goalie happens because such ultra defensive set-ups force your players into a lot of rushed chances which also leads to players snatching at the occasional easier chance when it occurs (human vulnerabilities as coded into the AI such as frustration and panic). The goalie gets high ratings because the match ratings don't account for the easy save/hard save scenario and just award points for a save. Thus, the keeper may have been given a 10, but 95% of his saves been easy to deal with.

Quite how I got him to sign is another matter though, I'm quite puzzled.

This new version has to be the best yet - it's certainly the one I've become most addicted too, it really does seem to reward some proper thought on it.

Plus I managed to buy Walcott off Arsenal for 10 million, they didn't want him. He has scored 8 goals in 5 appearances.

I notice that super-goalie syndrome yes, against BLACKBURN twice I hammered their goal for the entire game only to concede a late equaliser.

Also Arsenal are incredibly annoying in this game. Last season I went 1-0 up first half against them, both times I played them, and had about 15 shots somehow failing to score a second only for them to win 2-1 second half.

This season I scored 2, almost 3 in the first half, only for them to score twice in the last ten minutes. I am still top of the league tho.

My current problem is that my board are being generous with player wages but won't meet any wage demands of new staff - my Asst Manager is useless but I had no option to hire him if I wanted one at all, as nobody else would come for less than twice the money.

Man... OK, so we're doing fullscale LLM whilst my Northampton Town game is on pause. Every division from Italy, England, and Spain, set yourself up as a manager with no experience, unemployed, put the game on holiday and take the first job offered. I end up at Eastleigh.

First season, finish 15th, ship £10 a week in losses. Rubbish.

second season, get a parent club deal with Bournmouth, have three great (for Conference South, anyway) young lads come in (all regens I believe, Sam Vokes upfront, Jordan Rose in decence, and Ryan Price in goal. Score 12 and conceed 1 in our first three games, never out of the top 5 all season, 4-4-2 playing textbook RoT style, choke a tiny bit 3/4 of the way through the season but finish second, three points off Carshalton who won the division. Playoffs against Farnborough, who'dnever been in the top 5 all season until an 86th minute winner against St Albans in the last game of the season. Drawn 0-0 at home, twice come back from a goal down in the second leg... so at 2-2 and 10 minutes left I switch to defensive to protect my away goals lead. Yeah, I forgot that away goals don't count in playoffs anymore. BOOO.

Lost 8-7 on penalties. Farnborough then beat Forest Green on penalties in the final. It's gonna be a long third season.

Sorry for asking such a lame question btw.

I'd highly recommend it if you liked CM2....and are not worried about becoming addicted!

I'm not sure my computer could handle it. It got very arsey when I tried to play Civ 4.

currently in 1st place with qpr would u believe, by virtue of a series of jammy 1-0s involving hoofing it onto marc nygaard's head and then hanging on for dear life.

Please please give me advice! I am rubbish!

Mark: what team you playing as, what are their strengths/weakness, what does your assistant manager say, how much cash you got to play w/, what have you done so far? etc.

Plymouth got brought out by a Bahranian tycoon on my current game! They spent £18 mill in their first season and still couldn't get promoted out of League One.

My best striker has an attitude problem; my best midfielder is injured; tactcial changes seem to make no difference, ditto team talks. I have no money for transfers - I have signed Matt Jansen on a free and have a decent-looking young AMC from Watford on loan. I have affiliated to Chelsea as one of their feeder clubs. The transfer deadline has just passed.

The idea I've not tried yet for lower league is training heavy on set-pieces. Might bag a load of goals.

Defensive is better than it sounds, especially at high level. My Liverpool side plays with slightly defensive mentality, a DM, small farrows on the wide guys, no forward runs from the full backs and it seems to score enough. Basically the whole tactic is "give it Stevie" so it might not be as good with other teams.

Tip - don't respond to a young fullback being worried about his future by sticking him straight into Arsenal at Highbury. The lad took his worry out by headbutting Fabregas after three minutes.

I also use quick, short, passing and counter attack. It's working very well, Gerrard and Gonzalez are amazing and now I've upgraded the strikeforce to Saviola and Walcott (plus big Dirk for away games) I'm bossing lots of teams 3 and 4 nil.

Lysnkeys right, the standard formations are the best and then play around with the arrows depending on how attacking/defensive you want your team. I'd usually suggest:

no-arrows: standard style
long arrows from your two wingers up to the top: attacking
long arrows from your two wingers up to the top plus short arrows trning your fullbacks into effective wingbacks: uberattacking
short arrows from your strikers to the left/right: play with counter-attack to scoop up loose balls

Training is not worth worrying about as much as tactics are. Have you read the Rule of Two theory yet? It's worth an hour or two getting to grips with, but most good FM sites have a decent explanation... try FM Britain:

http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/index.php?page=articles&view=news&news_id=79

The big lad in question is Morike Sako of Rochdale, 11 goals in 13 starts, which presumably gives some indication of the relative quality of the Finnish Premiership I'm playing in.

Also which players have put us in their "favourite personnel" part? So far only Momo Sissoko has me. Though Walcott has been at the club for 3 months, and almost every player has him in theirs.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/Juror8/Eastleigh.jpg

Brentford (1 win in 27 league games) managed to win the next FOUR and get almost within spitting distance of 23rd place in league one, before returning to losing ways. Interestingly, I tried a tactic I hadn't tried before and it seemed to work, a kind of 4312:

AMC
MC MC MC
DL DC DC DR

Two strikers with arrows pointing out to the wings
An attacking midfielder on playmaker/free role
Three central midfielders
Conventional back 4

Yep, I find the A-League a wee bit more open to attacking football. I find that an attacking strategy works with Adelaide United because the quality players are the strikers and attacking midfields. I just let them go to do their thing and try to keep the defenders in line.

Has anyone mastered team talks yet? I am thinking about giving mine over to the assistant manager. My players all think I'm being too hard on them when I tell them that, actually, losing 3-0 isn't an obligation here, you can make just a weeny bit of effort.

I'm useless at half-time team talks though, I think I'm too soft-hearted.

How do you do this? The ones who get huffy?

- Get nervy when you ask for big performances in the media mind games before a match. Or get too wound up for same - "can't wait to take on [x]" and then they get booked in the 3rd minute.

- Respond with fear (or too well) to media praise (this requires them to be getting media praise I admit)

Sounds okay to me. All this talk of team talks, prima donnas, feeder clubs and press conferences leaves me pining for the simplicity of Player Manager, the old management version of Kick Off 2 on the Amiga.

On the menu at the top left of that screen (View, I think), you can see the effects of the half-time and full time team talks, which seem to have more of an effect, as far as I can see.

HOLY SHIT there's a regen in my game with an awesome name!

I once had one called "Kwesi Waddle"

I've been playing CM 00/01 for a week now solid. It's great! Just taken Cambridge United up to the Premiership (with no cheating) after 9 long seasons in lower-league football...

i always find it funny when players* who become consistently amazing in 00/01 actually turn out to be awful in real life. david livermore, england's star defender, where are you now.

*or teams. tranmere, for instance, become world-beaters. every time.

You mean Tonton Zola Moukoko and Cherno Samba, Lou.

Anyway, currently about to take AFC Wimbledon into League One. Will update fully when I do.

oh crikey, cherno samba who's just signed for united and made the england squad :-/

lol millwall

I fondly remember my unshakeable Liverpool backbone of Seth Johnson and David Wright and the battles they'd have with Man U's world class goal machine Danny Cadermateri

serge makofo, jay mceveley, englands right/left backs 2006-2020 to thread.

update: i am on to the next season in my FM game, and there's a regen, also on birmingham, named ryan adams.

he doesn't look as good as the paul rudd prospect but i will be shortlisting him regardless to see if he sucks after leaving Whiskeytown United F.C.

Guys - can you each post a tip for updating, improving etc. your squad/tactics etc which other people may have neglected or not known about?

1. You can assign your coaches to the areas at which they are strongest rather than have them each coach all disciplines.

2. You can view how your team responds to your pre-match team talks by asking your assistant.

More please!

3. Make sure your first team and reserve team is balanced at all times: don't let exciting young prospects sit around doing nothing when they could be earning reseve team experience, don't let breakthrough players accidentally play 70 games a season by keeping them in the reserves while still playing for the first team.

scandinavia is full of bargains (specifically Sweden and Norway) especially if you're managing at Championship level.

2008 out soon, and it looks like they have completely upgraded training (again) and transfers - more press and agent interaction would be nice.

Also, not that I'm one to brag, but:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/Juror8/?action=view¤t=NaNaNaNa.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/Juror8/NaNaNaNa.jpg

How did you do that? Seriously!

A _lot_ of time spent reading the FMBritain forums.

I GOT AFC WIMBLEDON INTO THE FUCKING UEFA CUP! Seventh place finish, secured by beating Middlesborough 3-1 on the final day of the season. Especially impressive because we lost six of our first seven matches of the season.

Updates will be coming, of course.

Playing straight 4-4-2 with fast short passing and counter attack.

-- Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 13 November 2006 13:44 (10 months ago) Bookmark Link

Ronan cracked the secret of this game about eight months before me.