Surviving (Game 6: Nottm Forest)

Second season of my Forest game. This was kinda of a weird season. I did not manage to strengthen my team before the new season, and the first 10-15 games we were really under pressure. Then Spurs offered me a player for free (Khaly, MC) and this helped a lot. My wingers lacked the class though – Kjelltr’s system is focused on the centre of the pitch, but you need good wingers to get the right balance. The defense let in too many easy goals, and ending in 14th spot was better than expected by the board, but below my own goal – a top 10 finish. The highlight of the season was beating Newcastle in the FA Cup. Still, the tactic does its job in the defensive department, but it requires strikers who do just that. Strike. Stats here.

And by the way – congratulations to real life Forest on beating Charlton in the FA Cup.

Promoted! (Game 6: Nottm Forest)

Yeeees. Finally. The sweet taste of succes. I chose to manage Forest (I love sleeping giants), to try out Kjelltr’s system. The system is basically a defensive 4-4-2 but a very solid one. Look at my stats. I only scored 1.3 goals per game (previous games were 1.9, 1.2, 1.1, 1.9 and 2.0 – my stats here), but my defense was rock solid only allowing 0.9 goals per game (previous games I allowed 1.4, 1.2, 1.1, 1.3 and 1.6 – again from the stats page). This my first season with an average number of conceded goals lower than 1.

I usually let my assistant manager do the team talking at half time, but since I did not have an assistant, I did it myself during the whole season. I always tell the players that they can win before the match, and at half time I tell them not to get careless or repeating that they can win. This works, as there was no end of season slump as is sometimes the case.

I had decent wingers and used 2 DM’s to cover the central midfield positions. This worked pretty good, but I guess you could also play with 1 AMC and 1 MC/DMC.

Of all the many systems I have tried, this is the most consistent and it can be used with pretty much any team. If you do play with Chelsea and other top teams, there are probably better systems, but for mid table and lower league teams, this system is really one that I would recommend. Try it out – and kudos to Kjelltr!!!

Braveheart (Game 5: Hibs)

It’s been a while, I know. Not that I haven’t been playing, but during december my work did not allow me to update this blog. I apologize, but I am back. Oh – happy new year by the way.

In december I managed Hibernians. Not having that big succes, I changed my tactics to this system that I found on the boards. And it worked! It was to late to rescue my season, but my team improved it’s away record, ending the season in 4th place behind Rangers, Celtic and local rivals Hearts. As a result, I wanted to test the system from the beginning of a season, so I moved south to Nottingham. Read on in the next post. Stats from Hibs can be found here.

3 minutes away (Game 4: St. Pauli)

3 minutes. Until the 87nd minute I was promoted. Before the game I was in 1st place. Conceded a quick goal and couldnt seem to turn it around. But still it was enough as long as Osnabrück didnt score in their game. Which they did 3 minutes before the season ended. That kinda hurts.

But the good thing is, my tactic works. I scored 68 goals in 36 games (av. 1.9 – best attack in the league) and conceded 47 (av. 1.3). This is acceptable. I didnt buy any players, but did it with the original St. Pauli squad plus 1 player on loan. That is better than expected. Details here.

I have some defensive ideas to make the tactic even better, and will make some tweaks. The tactic is still available under “My tactics”. I will  add some more information shortly about which players to use.

Belgian affair (Game 3: FC Brussels)

I wanted to try out some ideas I had for making my defense more solid. So I tried it out with FC Brussels. After some problems to begin with, I came up with this tactic, and the second half of the season went ok. It did balance my defense, and I caused some upsets in the second half of the season (beating later champions Anderlecht). I will keep updating it and will now try it on another (weaker) team. It does need some additional tweaking though and it is still a work in progress.

Playing with 10

I seem to have found a formation to use when you play with only 10 men. The formation does a solid job in preventing the opposition from scoring, so when you wanna hang on to a lead (or a draw), this works for me 9 out of 10 times. It is simply a 4-2-2-1 formation with side arrows from the 2 MC’s and none for the DM’s. The lone attacker up front is pulled back and then given a front arrow. This works wonders for me. Try it out.

No joy (Game 2: Brighton, part III)

Well, that was pretty much it. 16th in League One does not exactly sound too great, and to be honest, it wasn’t. I could not get the team playing anything just remotely looking like the beautiful game. We were totally crap, and the last 3 months were kinda rough (boring) to get through. Well, I cant say “I did it”, cause I didn’t, but this first attempt with Freeman21′s tactic was a complete failure. The board felt that way too. Unsatisfying they called it. You can say that again. Stats under “My games” if you want a good laugh.

Makes the world go around

So I tried to be the target of a takeover. My club Brighton was bought by a Danish (!) investor. And what a difference. The club’s balance suddenly is > 40 million Euros. None of this however has been given to the manager (me) for investing in new players.

At around February, I am 12th in the league. I simply cant get the system to work. The system is designed for lower / midtable clubs, which I certainly am, but I struggling with my offence. I don’t produce enough shots on target, and then – as everybody else – I’m constantly missing like 6 or 8 players due to injuries. In January I bought a striker with 16 in finishing, who is now playing with Chris Sutton up front. Sadly half the players have lost confidence in the managers abilities (and frankly, I can’t blame them). I will try and adjust some of the settings in Freeman21′s system. I now play with a target man, and I have changed to a quicker style of passing. My stats will be up later tonight under “My Games”.

Game 2: Brighton & Hove Albion

Ah Brighton. My old CM-love. The times we had together. Well, back to reality. My next game is with The Albion, who were relegated last season. As my first duty I signed Chris Sutton to provide the team with some fire power. I will play this system, designed by Freeman21. Progress report shortly.

Based on my experience with FM07, target men are vital. I also tend to score more after corner kicks than before.  If this i correct, Sutton should be a succes but we’ll see.

Game 1: Brøndby IF (part II)

My first game with Brondby ended with me in second spot in the league after treble winners FC Copenhagen. I played 4-4-2 Diamond Att and found that me team produced both the chances and the goals, but my defense was really lacking. I will now try to figure out a way of playing more organised in the back. Se the complete stats under “My games”.