Football Manager 2007

[Ãskallin]

The ratings that you get in your profile are pure rubbish anyway. They always show that you have a cautious approach. Even in my save were I tried to make Wigan play the brazilian way (dont try)

[Ãskallin]

I've started a new game with Wigan Athletic. I am doing alright. In 9th place at the moment. But this game is SO FRUSTRATING!!! Three games in a row where I have dominated from start to finish, created 15-20 chances and still drawn. Two of those games were won by a free kick in the 94th minute! One they equalized in the 70th minute. I dominated at home against liverpool. The result 1-1 after an own goal by me

Incredible

[Maquiladora]

15-20 chances sounds more like long shots and half chances, if you only scored 1 or 2. That or you seriously need a better finisher.

In other news, Scarborough win the Conference North at a canter, with still 3 games to go

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Maquiladora


I've free transfered maybe 12 young players, and sold 2 other players in two seasons. I suppose that's lowered my player loyalty, but how do i need to show loyalty? by keeping every player until they retire or want to leave? That would be annoying.

No idea, really. I suspect that if you decline offers from other clubs to manage their team your rating will rise.

I suppose it's just the way I play, but I couldn't do anymore about my #5, it was actually the tight marking that brought him out of defence to stick close to the man with the ball, he just didn't realise 2 other defenders were doing the same thing, which left the gap.

My defensive line was about 10% on the bar aswell, so that couldn't have made much difference. Width was still default so I'll try lowering that next time.

I didn't meant to say you have to use tight marking actually. Just checking. I've had such gaps as well on either man marking or tight marking (not sure which) but narrow width seems to help.

They all have separate regimes, which are all just under "heavy" workload.

Reserve games I haven't seen any played. I only have 9 "greyed-out" players in the reserve squad, and a lot of my youngsters in the U18 squad are on loan.

How do i get reserve/U18 squad games? My U18 squad has enough players available but they don't play. Do i have to arrange games?

I meant to say I (or rather, my assistant) often selects U18 players for the reserves competition. You can organize a U18 against reserves game via Fixtures -> Arrange Friendly.

[Maquiladora]

Well I've lost my first 3 games in the Conference National so far I've noticed 3 major differences:

1) the referees are far stricter, or the tackles are harder, either way there's far more cards, the refs pocket is like a toaster.

2) my players tire much quicker. in the conf. north i was able to press at 75% all game and still finish at 80-85% fitness, now I'm lucky to stay above 70%. i guess this is a consequence of much better use of possession from the opposition. i'm sure the game is generally faster aswell, and their players fitter than mine.

3) finishing rate is much higher from the opposition. also free kicks near your box are now much more dangerous to give away.

Unless i can get a couple of quality players on loan, I'm really stuck playing quick/direct counter-attacking football all season. My wage bill is already £700p/w over budget and I've already sold one of my strikers (not Ben Wilkinson though!) and all my reserve and U18 squads.

I'm leaking £30k a month to a £1.5m loan which will be paid off in 2011, so I seriously need to budget to keep my job. At least expectations are only for a midtable finish.

[Colonâ„¢]

Ouch, they expect mid-table on your first season in the conference? Wouldn't want to be you.

Don't get too many cards, even when I play hard tackling. Maybe you have a lot of aggressive players?

I've been having such losses from the start. I can't do much about it because not even firing all my players would plug the gap. The best remedy seems a good cup run. I once made about €300,000 by playing away at Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.

BTW, don't you come across ridiculous offside calls? Situations like in which your player starts from the opponent's half, with opponent's players in front of him, picks up the ball inside your own half and gets whistled?

[Maquiladora]

I have a few aggressive players, but I'm getting carded randomly. Could be my closing down commands placed on my creative players, who couldn't tackle an old dog.

To be fair two of the games i lost could've gone either way on the scoring chances, only losing them to freekicks and a clearly offside goal, but we were being outplayed which needs to be sorted somehow. There does seem to be some strange offside calls like you say, sometimes it's very strict even for non-interfering players, and sometimes it's as if the rule doesn't exist.

I've placed Wilkinson on the transfer list, he's eating £500p/w and could sell for £50k (altohugh it seems way too low), but the clubs interested can't meet his wage demands at the moment. Tough decision as he might mean the difference between lower-half and mid-table but the board is getting unhappy fast.

They're currently "very pleased", but it's going down all the time because of my wages, so I need that in order first to steady their mood. Then try to claw my way up the league to meet their expectations.

[Colonâ„¢]

That seems like a risky strategy. You may get yourself into a downward spiral with ever decreasing results and attendances. Maybe you should hold out to see if the board's opinion stabilises? At least I wouldn't sell Wilkinson for anything less than a 6-digit figure.

Went into the 2nd round of the FA Cup yet again. Last season I managed a 3rd round (when I met Crystal Palace) but it's going to be tough to accomplish this again, now that I have to play against League 1 Millwall. They just fired their manager though, so hopefully I can squeak my team through with a counterattack tactic.

[Ãskallin]

Well my first season with Wigan wasnt all that bad. I had a bad patch in october - november where I went 9 games without winning (6 of those were draws). After that I did pretty well and finished the season in 7th place (UEFA cup).
The only serious buy I made was Zat Knight to stiffen my aging defense. He prooved to be a quality buy. Played every game unless he was injured or suspended. Finished with the highest avarage rating in the Premier league (7,57). Runner up for English Footballer of the year. He also scored 5 goals (2 free kicks and 3 headers). He was named in the premier division select along with team mate Emilie Heskey (he was my 2nd best player).

In the summer I lost Antonio Valencia, Denilson and a swedish defender that all went home from their loans. I bought Kristoffer Hæstad from Start for 1,1 mill.

Then I spent big bucks in july since Newcastle and West Ham were relegated. I bought Scott Parker for 5,75 mill and Nigel Reo Coker for 900 k (steal). Last I bought Kieron Dyer for the right wing to replace the gap left by Valencia (1,5 mill). I loaned John O'shea and Johnny Evans from Man Utd for cover in the defense (I got rid of overpaid older farts like De Zeev, Jackson, Unsworth and McMillan).

Season started well so far, 5th place in the league and top of my UEFA group so far. I want a CL spot though. That fourth place looks good to me

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
That seems like a risky strategy. You may get yourself into a downward spiral with ever decreasing results and attendances. Maybe you should hold out to see if the board's opinion stabilises? At least I wouldn't sell Wilkinson for anything less than a 6-digit figure.

Possibly, but I think i have the team (even without Wilkinson) to hold a midtable spot, but yeah risky. It's also possible like you say I could have a good run in the cups and ease the finances anyway, but I haven't done anything spectacular in any cups so far. I wasn't keen on selling Wilkinson yet either.

They just fired their manager though, so hopefully I can squeak my team through with a counterattack tactic.

Just hope they don't hire a new manager for your game, they tend to do rather well in their first game in charge.

Then I spent big bucks in july since Newcastle and West Ham were relegated. I bought Scott Parker for 5,75 mill and Nigel Reo Coker for 900 k (steal). Last I bought Kieron Dyer for the right wing to replace the gap left by Valencia (1,5 mill). I loaned John O'shea and Johnny Evans from Man Utd for cover in the defense (I got rid of overpaid older farts like De Zeev, Jackson, Unsworth and McMillan).

How many injuries has Dyer picked up so far? He must have 20 for injury proneness

[Ãskallin]

haha, only one, a stubbed toe. I am only up to october though.

Didnt he fall over a cone or something in RL last year and injure himself??

[Maquiladora]

I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me he's the new Darren Anderton. In my game he's had a combined 9 months of injury in 2 and a half seasons, including a 7 month torn hamstring.

I'm barely surviving on the conference national. 20th place, 14pts from 14 games. Looking at the past two seasons I'm going to need around 52pts from 46 games to survive, but I'm on a run of 3 straight wins now, including away at 2nd place Woking. Seem to have sorted out my marking/defence aswell, and I'm still scoring plenty thanks to Wilkinson.

Earlier in the season my keeper got sent off, so i put Wilkinson in for the penalty and last kick of the game, and he saved it We would've won anyway but it shows just how good he is...

[Maquiladora]

Scarborough survive the Conference National with ease! Finished 16th, could've been higher had I not blooded my youngsters when I knew i was safe and couldn't make the playoffs. Scored something like 70 goals which was close to the 1st place team, but conceded 65

"Wilko" Wilkinson also got goal of the season with another wonder goal running past 3 players.

Now have a much higher wage budget i can really push for the title. Although the board only expects mid-table again.

I also signed steroid freak Abel Xavier as defensive coach.

[Kropotkin]

I've been ha huge fan of the series since cm3. I usually play lower league english clubs. Have taken teams like Shrewsbury town and Torquay united to european glory (champions league winners).
Haven't played FM07 that much. At the moment I'm taking care of Donny (Doncaster Rovers). usually don't start as high up as that, also have the swedish league running so that my swedish manager can pick up some good players. Me and my friends at times actually went though the entire database before we pressed continue for the first time. That was before 'fog of war'.

06/07: L1 4th place, lost against S****hope 0-1 at Wembley
07/08: L1 1st place
08/09: C. 4th place, lost against Ipwich 1-2agg.
09/10: C. 1st
10/11: PL 16th place after 15 games.

I've been a bit sloppy with my transfers. Picked up a few to many players that only added depth instead of impoving my first team XI. The chairman is screaming for great profiles to sell more t-shirts and the squad ended up depleting the clubs economy. Ended up in the premiership without any money to improve my squad with. However, now I'm gaining more money that I want to spend and I've got a solid control of my wage budget (using 0.8m euro out of 1.1m). If I only manage to stay up...

I always want to develop my youngsters. But it's hard when you're going up the league system once other years. The youngsters that would have worked in L1 or the championship woun't work (loaned out three youngster that are doing just fine in the championship at the moment. Really like the new system for creating new players. Back in the days you would be lucky if you got one new player for the youth system in a year. Now even Donny, the suck, but I still love 'em!

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
I've been ha huge fan of the series since cm3. I usually play lower league english clubs. Have taken teams like Shrewsbury town and Torquay united to european glory (champions league winners).
Haven't played FM07 that much. At the moment I'm taking care of Donny (Doncaster Rovers). usually don't start as high up as that, also have the swedish league running so that my swedish manager can pick up some good players. Me and my friends at times actually went though the entire database before we pressed continue for the first time. That was before 'fog of war'.

06/07: L1 4th place, lost against S****hope 0-1 at Wembley
07/08: L1 1st place
08/09: C. 4th place, lost against Ipwich 1-2agg.
09/10: C. 1st
10/11: PL 16th place after 15 games.

I've been a bit sloppy with my transfers. Picked up a few to many players that only added depth instead of impoving my first team XI. The chairman is screaming for great profiles to sell more t-shirts and the squad ended up depleting the clubs economy. Ended up in the premiership without any money to improve my squad with. However, now I'm gaining more money that I want to spend and I've got a solid control of my wage budget (using 0.8m euro out of 1.1m). If I only manage to stay up...

I always want to develop my youngsters. But it's hard when you're going up the league system once other years. The youngsters that would have worked in L1 or the championship woun't work (loaned out three youngster that are doing just fine in the championship at the moment. Really like the new system for creating new players. Back in the days you would be lucky if you got one new player for the youth system in a year. Now even Donny, the suck, but I still love 'em!

Nice report Kropotkin

Seems you're having bad luck with playoff games, players that can't handle the big games? I had a few of those in my Conference North playoff final i lost, and like you skipped that the next season by going up as champs, simply by being really consistant against lower teams, and holding out for draws against top teams.

Over 4 seasons total I've hung onto only 2 youngsters (although most new academy players i had to make snap decisions on due to tight wages). I feel the same that if I get promoted (now in 2nd season in the conference national) my youngsters will become increasingly useless to me, except for transfer fee. Still it's nice to see them improve when they get first-team games.

Agree with the transfer policy aswell. No point signing anyone that can't challenge for a first-team place.