Football Manager 2015

[FoxLAD]

Just say no. They'll get over it.

it Kinda worked only sold Kuhl to Chelsea for 17 million. 

also a couple of back up players so not so bad.

[Finnegan]

I've only bothered selling players who moan repeatedly about not playing enough, my transfer policy, their contracts and everything else because they're generally low professional, high controversy dicks and I can't be arsed.

The otherwise decent players that just want a move to "a bigger club" just get told they won't play as much elsewhere and they usually shut up. If they don't they usually get over it a few weeks after the window closes. Unless they're running out of contract you're probably safe.

[Tincy]

Started a save as Norwich, won the championship by 10 points.

James Wilson is an absolute goal machine!

[BoneDog]

Is there an FM2014 data editor patch/update that brings the game up to date as of January just gone? Haven't got 15 yet and fancy 5 or 10 seasons on 14 but canna do it with so many outdated players.

[FoxLAD]

Going have a break on my Crewe save for now.

 

Going for the "Sir Alex Ferguson"

 

For those who don't know what it is..

 

The Sir Alex Ferguson challenge

 

In this one you'll have to emulate life of one of the greatest managers that ever managed a football club. Just like Manchester United appointed Sir Alex as their manager when they were almost at the bottom of the table, you'll have to take over a club that is also in the relegation zone!

By this we mean the following; run your game till November 6 and take over a club that is in the 19th position on that date and try to replicate what Sir Alex did with Man United. So you'll have to win 13 Premier league titles, five FA Cups and two Champion Leagues.

You probably won't get a big club like United, but that makes the challenge so much more interesting! Oh and why that exact date, because United appointed Sir Alex on the exact date in 1986!

[Dan]

I've only bothered selling players who moan repeatedly about not playing enough, my transfer policy, their contracts and everything else because they're generally low professional, high controversy dicks and I can't be arsed.

The otherwise decent players that just want a move to "a bigger club" just get told they won't play as much elsewhere and they usually shut up. If they don't they usually get over it a few weeks after the window closes. Unless they're running out of contract you're probably safe.

 

What stance would you take if you were managing say... Real Betis, were in the Europa League yet your players were demanding moves to Olympiakos, Torino (hypothetically say they're in the Champions League after finishing 2nd in Italy following regular midtable finishes) and such?

 

I sold my best defender to Bayern for £30mil (paid £4mil for him only 12 months before) and with that I've got no problem, but it aggravates me no end that they want to join inferior sides. We'd absolutely smash Olympiakos or Torino all over the place.

[Stadt]

I've got a save with arsenal that i only ever use when i'm pissed off but Abou Diaby's condition is 25% !!

[Finnegan]

What stance would you take if you were managing say... Real Betis, were in the Europa League yet your players were demanding moves to Olympiakos, Torino (hypothetically say they're in the Champions League after finishing 2nd in Italy following regular midtable finishes) and such?

 

I sold my best defender to Bayern for £30mil (paid £4mil for him only 12 months before) and with that I've got no problem, but it aggravates me no end that they want to join inferior sides. We'd absolutely smash Olympiakos or Torino all over the place.

 

I tend to make sure I've got all the players I really want to keep tied up on 4+ year contracts when they're happy, unless they want silly money. So I just tell them to go bollocks. I've found the best response is "I don't think you're going to get as much game time as you need at <xxxxxx>" and if they get a bit mardy give them the "You have to ask yourself if you really want to leave?"

 

Absolute worst case scenario, they tell you you're a **** and you've not heard the last of it, the transfer window ends, Torino and Olympiakos drop their interest, they're getting regular football in your team and they forget about it in a few weeks.

 

I've got to be honest, unless you have a policy of signing completely shit, low-professionalism, low-determination, crap-personality players - I find squad management in this disappointingly easy. You can comfortably force players to play, there's no mechanic (that I've discovered yet) where they'll - for example - boycott, strike, refuse to play, down tools. I don't even find their form suffers, to be honest.

 

I've never been held to ransom by a player and I don't think it's because I'm THA SHIT at this game.

 

I think people just see messages like players demanding to leave and they either sell them because they're getting all roleplayer-ish and take offence or they fear that they HAVE to because the game will do something bad. Take it from me, the game won't do anything bad.

 

All that happens is, if a player is very unhappy, you can't extend their contract. I did once lose a promising regen because I pissed him off (he wanted an unrealistic amount of first team football) and I'd taken my eye off the ball and let him get in to the last year of his contract. I'd really pissed him off so he was still refusing to negotiate a contract by January and he signed a pre-contract agreement with Inter. Bummer.

 

But that was my own fault for being dopey and winding him up when he had so little time left.

 

 

Oh - this also applies to agents demanding pay-rises. Reject the agent, player will ask to talk, 99% of the time you just say "you've plenty of time left on your contract" (assuming they do) and they go "yeah fair play" If they don't, see above point about "do you REALLY want to leave?" and they normally back down.

 

 

This game is far too ****ing easy these days. Needs a complete overhaul in player and opposition AI, imo. Opposition teams' transfer policies are just ****ing embarrassing. The top teams rarely sign anyone THAT good. I've always got the best team in the world after a few seasons. The players work out after a week or two that Carlos Fierro, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Romero, Alvarez Balanta and co' are going to only cost £9m tops each and are going to be the best players in the world after three-four seasons yet the AI never works it out. The computer never challenges you for these players.

 

Why not? They're insanely good. You get to sign them in the first transfer window every single time for about 2.5m up front and some extra dollar over 48 months, which comes out of subsequent transfer budgets, by which time you don't care because you're winning the champions league. You can do this with Leicester for christ sakes.

 

Mean time, Chelsea are spending 50m on Isco and Yagatomo (seriously) and sticking them on the bench every game.And who do Real replace Isco with? Carlos Vela? 

 

Come on ffs.

[Dan]

So you've at no point managed to piss your players off to the extent that you get them pretty much all united against you? Happened in my first save on this when I was Leicester. I fined Wes Morgan after getting sent off in a big relegation battle fixture, we lost the game 4-1 and not only did he not drop the whinging, he managed to unite the dressing room against me and got me sacked despite leading us to a respectable 14th placed finish, so I've always been a little wary of similar happening again.

 

I agree the transfer policies are a joke on this game. Sevilla have recruited so badly that they're going to be relegated and they had the money to buy genuine quality as well. Barcelona & Real Madrid regularly sign average players from average clubs in Spain who I'd even have to think about twice having at Las Palmas yet they don't ever really use them. Don't even get me started on goalkeepers. Have they seriously still not fixed the bug where people like Conrad Logan manage to move to clubs in Europe? I appreciate goalkeeper transfers are different in real life but **** me.

[FoxLAD]

It seems on my crewe save, alot of top players on mine deteriorate very quickly.

 

David Silva - released age 32

Stephan El Shawaary (Napoli reserved) - Leaving on a free end of the season. age 26

Lucas Moura age 25 leaving on a free

Thiago 28 - also leaving on a free

 

 

For examples.. but plenty like this.

[The Horse's Mouth]

are you on handheld by any chance?

[Finnegan]

So you've at no point managed to piss your players off to the extent that you get them pretty much all united against you? Happened in my first save on this when I was Leicester. I fined Wes Morgan after getting sent off in a big relegation battle fixture, we lost the game 4-1 and not only did he not drop the whinging, he managed to unite the dressing room against me and got me sacked despite leading us to a respectable 14th placed finish, so I've always been a little wary of similar happening again.

 

I agree the transfer policies are a joke on this game. Sevilla have recruited so badly that they're going to be relegated and they had the money to buy genuine quality as well. Barcelona & Real Madrid regularly sign average players from average clubs in Spain who I'd even have to think about twice having at Las Palmas yet they don't ever really use them. Don't even get me started on goalkeepers. Have they seriously still not fixed the bug where people like Conrad Logan manage to move to clubs in Europe? I appreciate goalkeeper transfers are different in real life but **** me.

 

Winning breeds happy players and I generally tend to win. Without wanting to sound smug, I've pretty much never been in a relegation scrap.

 

I've never fined a player for a poor performance, though, and rarely do so for a sending off (occasionally fine the smallest amount possible for a really violent straight-red if squad harmony is otherwise good and the player has been warned previously.) Sendings off for a second bookable offence definitely only get a warning.

 

I've managed to spectacularly piss a few players off, usually because they think they should be playing and I think they're shit. I've had a couple of team meetings called after that player went running to the rest of the squad but a firm line of "... er, if I play him, I'm having to drop you lot..." and the vast majority of the squad nearly always agree with me.

 

I'd say that's happened maybe twice or three times total, though, in - currently - 508 hours of FM2015 game time.

[Dan]

 

It seems on my crewe save, alot of top players on mine deteriorate very quickly.

 

David Silva - released age 32

Stephan El Shawaary (Napoli reserved) - Leaving on a free end of the season. age 26

Lucas Moura age 25 leaving on a free

Thiago 28 - also leaving on a free

 

 

For examples.. but plenty like this.

 

You do get it happen though. Keeps it realistic I think.

 

I'd also not touch players like that either unless there has been genuine dispute with the player and club. I bet Lucas Moura will be a Championship standard winger in two seasons.

 

 

Winning breeds happy players and I generally tend to win. Without wanting to sound smug, I've pretty much never been in a relegation scrap.

 

I've never fined a player for a poor performance, though, and rarely do so for a sending off (occasionally fine the smallest amount possible for a really violent straight-red if squad harmony is otherwise good and the player has been warned previously.) Sendings off for a second bookable offence definitely only get a warning.

 

I've managed to spectacularly piss a few players off, usually because they think they should be playing and I think they're shit. I've had a couple of team meetings called after that player went running to the rest of the squad but a firm line of "... er, if I play him, I'm having to drop you lot..." and the vast majority of the squad nearly always agree with me.

 

I'd say that's happened maybe twice or three times total, though, in - currently - 508 hours of FM2015 game time.

 

I haven't for a poor performance, well, not for a few FM's since I realised it was pointless and that the kitchen sink is often a brain-dead way of going about things (although I do turn aggressive whenever I think I can).

 

I'll always start them off with a warning for red cards and if they take the piss then the fines come in. I signed some Czech winger who got sent off three times in his first ten games and I saw absolutely nothing that suggests he should be doing this, seemed more a co-incidence than anything.

 

Think I'm a lot more respected at Las Palmas than I was at Leicester although that isn't particularly hard.

 

As a side note, you say go out and buy Romero, Balanta etc... but are you specifically managing teams who can afford it? I start penniless in the 2nd tier, get £1mil to spend in La Liga, how can I possibly sign them? I've got to admit I'm struggling to see how I'm ever going to overthrow Barca or Madrid. Despite some of the mediocrity they can still name 1-11 better than me in every single position.

[Samilktray]

I think its time Finners took over a truly shit and poor team in a tough league. Lets see how the Welsh mourinho does

[FoxLAD]

I know it's Weird.

 

But like Man City released David Silva and replaced with Ryan Colclough ?! i mean WTF     

[Dan]

I think its time Finners took over a truly shit and poor team in a tough league. Lets see how the Welsh mourinho does

 

I'm with you.

[Finnegan]

As a side note, you say go out and buy Romero, Balanta etc... but are you specifically managing teams who can afford it? I start penniless in the 2nd tier, get £1mil to spend in La Liga, how can I possibly sign them? I've got to admit I'm struggling to see how I'm ever going to overthrow Barca or Madrid. Despite some of the mediocrity they can still name 1-11 better than me in every single position.

 

 

 

Ok, this is a rant. It's going to be long. Here goes.

 

Obviously, if you're starting in the second tier or in a trashy league these players aren't going to want to sign for you anyway, although they're just examples. The point is that there's always players that are exceptional for the level you choose to play at, that are readily available to all and sundry, that the AI will never hunt down. You'll work them out after a couple of play-throughs and you can always keep going back to them every time you play a game.

 

You can take over any Premier League team and, armed with a modest transfer budget, buy yourself a top-six / top-four (depending on how tidy your tactics are) team. You're telling me that isn't ridiculous?

 

The point is that Balanta, Romero, Fierro and co' will so rarely be bought by the computer that it doesn't matter if you start as Las Palmas in the second tier anyway because by the time you get to the top flight, they'll still be at River, Velez and Chivas respectively and you'll still be able to pick them up - sometimes for cheaper than they would have been at the start of the game.

 

Occasionally you'll get players like Kara Mbodj, Yttergard Jenssen and Skjelbred (who's shit anyway, which is also my point) that are major transfer targets at the start of every save and you do have to move quickly. Wanyama, a couple of seasons ago, nearly always moved to Benfica in the first few turns, Yarmalenko to either Spurs or Man City in the current version, etc. But this is because FM works off a reputation / knowledge system and has pre-programmed, first-season, "probable manager targets."

 

The argument from SI would be that Balanta, Fierro and Romero aren't exactly well known, most people would never have heard of them if it wasn't for Football Manager. It lets the player feel good about themselves, hunt down obscure, future-talent players and snap them up.

 

Unfortunately, because all of these young players have unrealistically fixed potential (within a small range, -9, -10, etc) and background mental stats, the same ones are exceptional every time, often for several consecutive versions of Football Manager, let alone for consecutive games you play on the same copy. That's massively unrealistic, young players are an absolute unknown in real life and it's only the rare talents like Neymar who can be guaranteed from the age of 17 to really one day play for Barca and thrive.

 

SI need to tighten this up because the game is becoming easier by the year. They need to randomise things, take risks, risk upsetting stupid players for the sakes of making it challenging. Why don't Chelsea have a good knowledge of Mexico and gamble on Fierro occasionally? Why don't my want-away players go on strike back to their home country and refuse to play? Why don't my low-professionalism, high controversy (actual attributes) players get caught filming racist sex tapes and force me to sell them? Why don't my low patience, high passion (actual attributes) supporters invade the pitch, get me stadium bans, tournament bans, fines?

 

I don't want the game to become a soap opera filled with constant, unrealistic drama but the odd spanner in the works is part of football and life. Once I've won the league and the CL once on an FM save I just quit and start again. I've always wanted to do an Alex Ferguson save but what's the point? Once you've won the league there's nothing stopping you then winning it every year with a bunch of cheaply acquired, five-star-potential regens you've farmed for about £1m each that the AI had no interest in signing.

 

***

 

Now to bring FoxLAD's complaint in to it and combine it with the "wah, wah, Las Palmas have no moneyz" point:

 

The **** is up with contracts? Consistently, the same players, as well. Which is exactly what I'm saying - every save the same things happen, the randomisation in this game is absolutely awful. Every save you can pick up Giovinco for dirt cheap or he runs out of contract first season, Roberto Pereyra first season, and so on. At the start of every season, set yourself a search for players with expiring contracts in one year. Do this both with realistic and unrealistic transfers ticked. Keep your eye on everyone you're interested in and I guarantee you'll be able to sign two or three for free at the end of the year.

 

This year's Betis save I picked up Jese, the golden light, the future of Real Madrid, the next big Spanish wonderkid... for free. Real never bothered developing him because the AI manages it's youth players so spectacularly terribly that he didn't grow and so he had a sulk, let his contract run out and I nabbed him. I didn't really want him because they'd wasted his potential and he was a sulky bastard so I kept him, played him a bit to keep his value up, sold him in the next transfer window for £20m.

 

Obviously, again, Jese isn't going to come to Las Palmas in the second division (or the bottom half of La Liga, for that matter) but you tailor your search to the club of your size.

 

Your sieve through for a bunch of free transfers with re-sell value, you sign them, you sell them on in six months time, you rinse and repeat and every year you've got yourself a transfer budget, despite the shit size of your club.

 

Equally, you start poaching regens for £1m compo here and there (or £10k, 100k, 500k, depending on the size of your club), you loan them out til their reputation has increased sufficiently, you sell them on for ten times the profit. 

 

Making money in this game is spectacularly simple. You just need to play it enough to spot the patterns and then repeat them in every single career you start because (again) the randomisation in this game is woeful.

 

 

 

I'm with you.

 

Ah, been there and done that. From about FM06 through to about FM11 I used to regularly start in League Two/Conf. Since then, done countless saves from the German lower divisions up over the years, Scottish second tier, Spanish lower tiers, Italian, had a great save getting Cercle Brugge as far as possible in the CL one year.

 

I'm a bone fide FM obsessive, ain't gonna lie.

[howlinmadmurfdoc]

Ok, this is a rant. It's going to be long. Here goes.

Obviously, if you're starting in the second tier or in a trashy league these players aren't going to want to sign for you anyway, although they're just examples. The point is that there's always players that are exceptional for the level you choose to play at, that are readily available to all and sundry, that the AI will never hunt down. You'll work them out after a couple of play-throughs and you can always keep going back to them every time you play a game.

You can take over any Premier League team and, armed with a modest transfer budget, buy yourself a top-six / top-four (depending on how tidy your tactics are) team. You're telling me that isn't ridiculous?

The point is that Balanta, Romero, Fierro and co' will so rarely be bought by the computer that it doesn't matter if you start as Las Palmas in the second tier anyway because by the time you get to the top flight, they'll still be at River, Velez and Chivas respectively and you'll still be able to pick them up - sometimes for cheaper than they would have been at the start of the game.

Occasionally you'll get players like Kara Mbodj, Yttergard Jenssen and Skjelbred (who's shit anyway, which is also my point) that are major transfer targets at the start of every save and you do have to move quickly. Wanyama, a couple of seasons ago, nearly always moved to Benfica in the first few turns, Yarmalenko to either Spurs or Man City in the current version, etc. But this is because FM works off a reputation / knowledge system and has pre-programmed, first-season, "probable manager targets."

The argument from SI would be that Balanta, Fierro and Romero aren't exactly well known, most people would never have heard of them if it wasn't for Football Manager. It lets the player feel good about themselves, hunt down obscure, future-talent players and snap them up.

Unfortunately, because all of these young players have unrealistically fixed potential (within a small range, -9, -10, etc) and background mental stats, the same ones are exceptional every time, often for several consecutive versions of Football Manager, let alone for consecutive games you play on the same copy. That's massively unrealistic, young players are an absolute unknown in real life and it's only the rare talents like Neymar who can be guaranteed from the age of 17 to really one day play for Barca and thrive.

SI need to tighten this up because the game is becoming easier by the year. They need to randomise things, take risks, risk upsetting stupid players for the sakes of making it challenging. Why don't Chelsea have a good knowledge of Mexico and gamble on Fierro occasionally? Why don't my want-away players go on strike back to their home country and refuse to play? Why don't my low-professionalism, high controversy (actual attributes) players get caught filming racist sex tapes and force me to sell them? Why don't my low patience, high passion (actual attributes) supporters invade the pitch, get me stadium bans, tournament bans, fines?

I don't want the game to become a soap opera filled with constant, unrealistic drama but the odd spanner in the works is part of football and life. Once I've won the league and the CL once on an FM save I just quit and start again. I've always wanted to do an Alex Ferguson save but what's the point? Once you've won the league there's nothing stopping you then winning it every year with a bunch of cheaply acquired, five-star-potential regens you've farmed for about £1m each that the AI had no interest in signing.

***

Now to bring FoxLAD's complaint in to it and combine it with the "wah, wah, Las Palmas have no moneyz" point:

The **** is up with contracts? Consistently, the same players, as well. Which is exactly what I'm saying - every save the same things happen, the randomisation in this game is absolutely awful. Every save you can pick up Giovinco for dirt cheap or he runs out of contract first season, Roberto Pereyra first season, and so on. At the start of every season, set yourself a search for players with expiring contracts in one year. Do this both with realistic and unrealistic transfers ticked. Keep your eye on everyone you're interested in and I guarantee you'll be able to sign two or three for free at the end of the year.

This year's Betis save I picked up Jese, the golden light, the future of Real Madrid, the next big Spanish wonderkid... for free. Real never bothered developing him because the AI manages it's youth players so spectacularly terribly that he didn't grow and so he had a sulk, let his contract run out and I nabbed him. I didn't really want him because they'd wasted his potential and he was a sulky bastard so I kept him, played him a bit to keep his value up, sold him in the next transfer window for £20m.

Obviously, again, Jese isn't going to come to Las Palmas in the second division (or the bottom half of La Liga, for that matter) but you tailor your search to the club of your size.

Your sieve through for a bunch of free transfers with re-sell value, you sign them, you sell them on in six months time, you rinse and repeat and every year you've got yourself a transfer budget, despite the shit size of your club.

Equally, you start poaching regens for £1m compo here and there (or £10k, 100k, 500k, depending on the size of your club), you loan them out til their reputation has increased sufficiently, you sell them on for ten times the profit.

Making money in this game is spectacularly simple. You just need to play it enough to spot the patterns and then repeat them in every single career you start because (again) the randomisation in this game is woeful.

Ah, been there and done that. From about FM06 through to about FM11 I used to regularly start in League Two/Conf. Since then, done countless saves from the German lower divisions up over the years, Scottish second tier, Spanish lower tiers, Italian, had a great save getting Cercle Brugge as far as possible in the CL one year.

I'm a bone fide FM obsessive, ain't gonna lie.

That last line sums it up though, most people aren't obsessive over it, I admittedly haven't played for 3 or 4 years now but I only ever played one or two saves a season and just played it every now and again, so I didn't notice the patterns your talking about,

[Finnegan]

You don't need to be obsessive to notice most of those patterns. You just need to be a regular player. Most people in this thread are buying the game every year and have done for at least four or five years.

[Stadt]

I don't think you get punished enough if your squad is full of mercenaries, you could probably finish 10th with QPR in the first season.

One thing that I think makes the game slightly harder than it should be is how once. Player hits 31 they basically become unusable physically because they've got 7 pace and 8 stamina.

Personally, I wouldn't say I struggle tactically but I've only made one consistently brilliant tactic this year, I can't get a 4231 to work for me at all.

[Finnegan]

Try as I might, I'm struggling to perfect this at all.

 

 

 

 

It's possibly one of the best formations I've ever used in terms of success. It's a new one for me as I've nearly always got AML, AMC, AMR, I always gravitate towards attacking mids and now I'm not using any. The forwards essentially undertake those roles, however. 

 

I'll happily upload it (there are obviously individual player instructions) if someone can recommend a good file sharing site that requires minimal signing up / faffing around (in the style of tinypic) 

[Finnegan]

I've got a similar system that pushes the two wide forwards out to AML and AMR and the roaming playmaker up to an AMC slot. It actually functions pretty similarly but I wanted to utilize the Raumdeuter at AML (to ridiculous results) but I still drifted back to this.

[Stadt]

Do you not find that the playmakers end up getting in each other's space?

I don't really like using playmakers, it might be that I've not got any exceptional passers but they just seem to lose the ball a lot.

From the top of my head I think my set up is

---------------dlf-s

----Raumdeuter------IF-A

------CM-A---------bbm

--------------DM-D

--WB-s-----cd-d---cd-d--FB-A

-------------------SK-d

Counter, flexible.

Close down more, push higher up.

Normally win the ball back around the halfway line with enough space to break into, struggles against sides with DMs though.

I'm fed up with it though because sides are playing more defensively against me and I can't break them down, I'm not creating good chances and the goals that I score are usually long shots or rebounds.

[Finnegan]

No not at all. DLP is a very structured, disciplined position and the roaming playmaker is like a deeper treq.

He pops up everywhere and gets a lot of goals making late runs from the AMC strata.

None of them get in each others way, it's a very spread formation and I play with the biggest pitches possible at home.

The DLF is top goalscorer, links up very well with the STCL and the STCR gets a stack of assists and goals.

[ramboacdc]

£10.19 in current steam sale. also "borrowed" the other half's laptop so i may be able to see some of the 3D engine too! 

all over this! finish work at 1 so i am sitting here doing pre game research! 

Time to save leicester from relegation. 

does this one have its own training schedules or has that now gone forever?