Football Manager 2013

[lp_villa830]

Never had a problem with injuries either. But player fitness levels seem to take an age to recover between games.

[daft]

Seeing some problems with injuries now, but the Villa squad is threadbare as it is so the given first team players are understandably exhausted at times. If we stay up it's nothing short of a miracle.

[Rovers13]

So I figured this is as good a place to ask as any: In short, I'm terrible at this game, I basically give it my best Steve Kean impression. Or maybe by terrible I mean average. My teams always basically finish in the projected position. Which isn't exactly what I want to do, because I read about people bringing teams up through the lower leagues and that's kinda what drew me to the game in the first place. I guess the question is:

 

Any tips on how I can become a little more Lambert and a little less Dean Saunders?

[tarjei]

Find a tactic or an assortment of tactics that works for you...

That's basically it, or the most important factor anyway. You can go down the easy route and download something that works, or go the equally more frustrating and eventually rewarding route of making something yourself.

If you decide to make it yourself, don't mess too much around with the sliders. It's very complicated and you should only mess with that if you know exactly what each slider does. If you limit yourself to the tactic creator and use common sense with a few tips and tricks you should be fine. Tactics take a while to settle though, so use the pre-season training and friendlies to get your team fluid in whatever system you play.

One thing that people often do which may cause trouble is to not link attack and defence. I.e. having no defensive roles in midfield, or no supportive role in attack. There is also more focus on space within the team in this years match engine. If you have both your fullbacks and wingers bombing down the wing, basically they are going to occupy the same space, or if you have an inside forward cutting in, it's important that you don't have a striker occupying that same space. In the fullback/winger case it's better to have the full back or winger cut in, or have one on support or defensive role.

Be careful of being too attacking (goes for both position and roles). I.e. playing a 4-2-3-1 will pretty much guarantee that you are overloaded on the flanks and vulnerable between defence and midfield, unless you have figured out some complicated trickery on how to protect the defence with only two players.

I could go on but there are a lot of tips of the sigames-forum, specifically the tactic and training subforum if you want to read up on that stuff. A good place to start

Team talks also make a bit of difference, but there's not really a recipe that always works on that one. It depends on your reputation, team reputation, player personalities, match favorites, form, previous match and last team talk, etc. It's fairly logical though, with the odd WTF-moment. If you're expected to lose every game heavily then be supportive and don't apply pressure. If you're big favorites in every game, be assertive and demand better if they play like donkeys.

Other important things, for a longer game, is understanding the personality/media handling of players and how it effects player development/interaction. Click for awesome thread

Come to think of it this game is not really kind to the new beginner.

Edited May 25, 2013 by tarjei

[daft]

No it really is quite daunting, especially when things aren't clicking and you're sliding down the table. That said I played my first Villa season without buying and selling anyone and we grabbed 9th after a strong finish. I used 2 variants of 4-5-1, one attacking formation and one that is more focused on counter attack.

The only tweaks I made outside of the tactics creator was setting time wasting to rarely and I had my back four all play in their prefered role and duty (Vlaar stopper and Clark Ball playing defender for example). We mostly used the counter tactics as we were tipped to go down and most teams came at us from the start.

[StefanAVFC]

I'm in my 3rd season as Villa boss. I'm ridiculously frugal, mostly bringing in free transfers

 

Got Sulemjani, Merida, Janssen, Bong all on frees

 

Then some decent regens for peanuts. Problem is, I keep stacking my team with decent young players every season so I'm at the same point every year.

 

Also Nathan Baker is absolutely insane on FM13. Play him from the start and you'll get a 4 1/2* CB worth up to 30 mil soon enough.

[Woodytom]

I recently bought this. I was a big champ manager player but didnt buy into the FM until now really. 

 

I have to save my game on a daily basis (on the game that is) because it tends to keep crashing. Not a major issue because like I say, I can set it to save daily. just slightly annoying.

 

I run it through steam. Anyone had similar problems? If solving it means that I have to relay technical details about my computer then I will probably just persist with it .

 

Nah any suggestions would be welcomed!

[tarjei]

Only think I can think of is if you've added 3rd party graphics or not updated drivers.. so yeah, go to sigames-forums and have a look. There's probably a solution for it on their dedicated forum, but you should make a new thread and ask for help, but that does require info from your part. Crashes/Technical issues-forum

Edited May 25, 2013 by tarjei

[Dodgyknees]

Is there an update with most of the ups/downs done?

[StefanAVFC]

When I first got 13, the match engine was crap and I've come back to it recently and it seems better. So I'd be inclined to say yes.

[ChrisH]

_{Injuries are an issue, to the point where I can't make tactical substitutions as I need the subs to replace injured players.  In 4 out of the last 5 games my starting right back had to be subbed through injury, and in the last 3 of those games I had to make 3 changes in each game to replace injured players}

Edited May 25, 2013 by ChrisH

[StefanAVFC]

 

My full strength Villa team in 2015

[Rovers13]

Find a tactic or an assortment of tactics that works for you...

That's basically it, or the most important factor anyway. You can go down the easy route and download something that works, or go the equally more frustrating and eventually rewarding route of making something yourself.

If you decide to make it yourself, don't mess too much around with the sliders. It's very complicated and you should only mess with that if you know exactly what each slider does. If you limit yourself to the tactic creator and use common sense with a few tips and tricks you should be fine. Tactics take a while to settle though, so use the pre-season training and friendlies to get your team fluid in whatever system you play.

One thing that people often do which may cause trouble is to not link attack and defence. I.e. having no defensive roles in midfield, or no supportive role in attack. There is also more focus on space within the team in this years match engine. If you have both your fullbacks and wingers bombing down the wing, basically they are going to occupy the same space, or if you have an inside forward cutting in, it's important that you don't have a striker occupying that same space. In the fullback/winger case it's better to have the full back or winger cut in, or have one on support or defensive role.

Be careful of being too attacking (goes for both position and roles). I.e. playing a 4-2-3-1 will pretty much guarantee that you are overloaded on the flanks and vulnerable between defence and midfield, unless you have figured out some complicated trickery on how to protect the defence with only two players.

I could go on but there are a lot of tips of the sigames-forum, specifically the tactic and training subforum if you want to read up on that stuff. A good place to start

Team talks also make a bit of difference, but there's not really a recipe that always works on that one. It depends on your reputation, team reputation, player personalities, match favorites, form, previous match and last team talk, etc. It's fairly logical though, with the odd WTF-moment. If you're expected to lose every game heavily then be supportive and don't apply pressure. If you're big favorites in every game, be assertive and demand better if they play like donkeys.

Other important things, for a longer game, is understanding the personality/media handling of players and how it effects player development/interaction. Click for awesome thread

Come to think of it this game is not really kind to the new beginner.

Wow thanks this should help. My only decent piece of management was getting 10th with Villa the frost year. Could never really improve and have struggled on other saves

[hogso]

Had a quick browse of the latest posts in here and it gave me the urge to start a new game.

Considering the hundreds of hours I spent on 07, 08, and 09, it's pretty appalling how little I've played I've played the more recent iterations, although I have bought them all.

Anyway, started an unemployed game with Sunday league experience, got the Hayes job after a couple of weeks. Signed a forward, LB, CM and Gk. Playing 5-3-2, started with 3 wins, 3 draws, and 3 loses. Heh.

[Milfner]

 

My full strength Villa team in 2015

 

What role do you play Benteke as? 

[StefanAVFC]

Target man for 12/13 and 13/14 and since he's developed, Complete Forward with support duty.

[daft]

I usually play him as a deep lying forward to good effect in my 4-5-1. Into my second season now and so far during the pre-season, Bent is looking like a man possessed. Interesting. And I finally got rid of some of the dead weight!

[tarjei]

Had a quick browse of the latest posts in here and it gave me the urge to start a new game.

Considering the hundreds of hours I spent on 07, 08, and 09, it's pretty appalling how little I've played I've played the more recent iterations, although I have bought them all.

Anyway, started an unemployed game with Sunday league experience, got the Hayes job after a couple of weeks. Signed a forward, LB, CM and Gk. Playing 5-3-2, started with 3 wins, 3 draws, and 3 loses. Heh.

Not a bad start. If I start with a new team, or just got promoted, they usually stop and start at first then hit some consistency in the 2nd half of the season. Are you doing a journeyman career or plan to stay there? I've always wanted to try a journeyman career, but I get so attached to the club I never leave. Took Forest Green Rovers to the CL on this years version and since I've been keeping my self update on their progress IRL

[AstonMartin82]

I haven't played this game in 15 years... is it any good these days? Realistic or too "computery"?

[hogso]

Er, well it's still basically a dressed up spreadsheet, but a much nicer looking one it's on offer at the moment for £10, I'd say it's worth a go just to see how much it's changed from the old champo managers.

And tarjei, yeah, a journeyman game is on the cards. If a job offer comes in I'd more than likely take it.

Edited May 26, 2013 by hogso