HELP! - Football Manager 2010

[rva]

No, it's much less complex. 

Like with the "sweeper keeper."  It's now a defined role.  You can look at a menu and it will describe to you what a sweeper keeper does, highlight the important attributes on your GK, you need to play it and the strengths and weaknesses of using one.  If you want to play a sweeper keeper, you just select from the menu.  You don't have to "program" anything.  Otherwise just stick with regular ass keeper.

So that whole discussion we just had of why is this GK better and what is a sweeper keeper and how do you program it into a tactic would have been solved for you with a glance a couple of clicks.

[rva]

Here you go, Dan:



As you can see from the screenshot, I've set my goal keeper for regular GK role and a defend duty.  In the top left portion of the screen, it gives you a written description of what you can expect from your keeper with the role and duty selected.  In the bottom left portion of the screen, it shows you your GK's attributes, and highlights the key attributes for that role.

Applied to your situation, you can see that De Wit has a HUGE (5 or more points) advantage in three key areas:  Handling, Composure and Positioning.  Zimmerman has a decent 3 point advantage in Reflexes, while De Wit has a decent 3 point advantage in Agility.  The rest they are within 2 points of each other, so probably not a big deal either way.  Thus, De Wit is the better choice for a defending GK.

It will also highlight key attributes for various roles and duties on the player screen whenever you look at a player (yours or someone else's):



Also, your scouts/coaches will tell you what they think the player's best position, role and duty are (accuracy depends on the quality of the coach/scout) in your scout or coach report:

See in the position window, where yours just says "Goalkeeper,"  mine says "Goalkeeper (Goal Keeper - defend)."


Both your keepers are better than Joe Lewis, who is merely a "good" Premier level keeper.  Also notice how crappy and underrated Kelvin Davis is in this game.  He is below-average for the Championship even. 

[Dan]

Oh! Yeah, now it makes a lot more sense. Although I will say I think Communication should be included as important.

I really like the "Ability Comparison List" in that Reports screen. That's huge, and something I often find myself spending 5 full minutes trying to figure out on my own. Now it's just there - nice.



Also...I see you're down to just Cork, Lallana, and Fonte now. Morgan and Rickie couldn't cut it?

[rva]

yeah.  I agree.

I see FM's way of thinking.  Basically, if you had like 20's in all those mental and skill attributes you'd be a brick wall.   A brick wall can't talk to anyone, but who cares?  It's a brick wall.  No one's scoring.  What would you say to your defense anyway?  "Yeah, don't bother paying attention to defense.  Just go and support the offense because I'm just going to stop everything."

But considering how no one has 20's in everything, a keeper who can help set up the defense is a pretty nice advantage. Especially if you're defense is a little soft.  I would say kicking or throwing is another strong secondary stat.  You have to be good at one or the other.  I've had keepers with pretty awesome key attributes but they can't kick or throw and therefore can't keep the ball out of their own zone.  They'll make 10 awesome saves a game, but they need to make 12.  Whereas a lesser guy might only make 2 good saves a game, but those might be the only 2 tough saves they ever have to make.

Morgan Schneiderlin is really good in this game.  In fact, I think he will end up as good as Cork.  And even though the game doesn't rate either that highly they might be the two best MC's in the game for my purposes.  I'm the last of the blue-collar box-to-box midfield tacticians.  And Cork is like straight 14's or 15's in everything except for 18's in teamwork, decisions, and workrate.  So basically you can put him in the game in any opponent in any situation and he'll just figure out which tools he'll need to use against that opponent on that day and you'll never have to worry about it.

Schneiderlin is similarly well rounded.  He's not as good with the blue-collar mental stuff.  But he's unique in that he is both a solid tackler AND a decent playmaker.  Usually people are high in one or the other.  He's high in both, and solid 12-13's everywhere else.

Lallana's not really that good. I have better AMC's on a daily basis.  But he has a high flair and lots of preferred moves (plays one-two's, likes to beat man) so he's really good at pulling a goal out of nowhere.  Plus he loves Saints.  So he tends to come up with big goals out of nowhere when you need him.  And he's still pretty good on just a regular-ass gameday basis.  So he's a strong rotation guy for me.  Starts every other game to give others a rest.   The rest of the time he's first off the bench in case I need to make something happen in the second half.

Fonte's a decent defender for a somewhat bad defense.  So he's still first team for now but his contract ends at the end of 2012-13 (the season I'm in) and I'll be letting him leave.

Lambert sucks in the game.  Like Davies, he's extremely under-rated and rates as average or worse even in Championship.  Not really sure why.  I thought maybe it was just my tactics but I was reading some other people talking about their FM Saints teams on a Saints messageboard and they all said he sucked for them, too.

[rva]

It was a good year for all randomville posters in my fake world.

Both the US and England National teams had up-and-down years, with some hugely embarrassing losses along with some surprising wins.  But in the end, both look to be in good shape heading into the 2014 WC.  Will Adam Lallana be heading to Brazil as well?  He is still uncapped but has been called up twice now for Friendlies as a sub.  Oddly, Jack Cork has not even gotten a sniff despite being in my opinion the best 4-4-2 central midfielder in the entire world.

Peterborough weathered the loss of Joe Lewis and put together a strong second half of the season, moving up from 13th place to grab the 6th place playoff spot with a victory on the very last day of the season.  Unfortunately, they lost to Reading in the finals.  Soooo close.  They are tipped for 10th place heading into 2013, but I think they are strong promotion candidates.  Actually, I think they're going to finish #2.  The three teams that went up from Championship were all really good.  The top candidates this year are nowhere near as good.

Hannover 96 just missed out on Continental competition, but they have a good side who should be better this year.  They made a couple key acquisitions.  Steve De Ridder, for one.  Who I let go waaaay to cheaply because 1)  I no longer use wingers, and 2)  I wanted to give him a wide array of choices to play for since I was essentially booting him off the team through no fault of his own.  Equally as important, they managed to hang on to Lars Stindl, despite my embarrassing fawning over him in the press.  I managed to tender a contract for his consideration after offering Hannover 96 a ridiculous amount of money, and then bribing his agent.  But in the end he looked it over and decided his heart was with his team.  Gotta respect that.

Oh and Portsmouth got relegated to League One.  HA HA!

Things seem good on the surface for Saints.  Tipped to finish 19th, Saints defied all expectations and ended up in 4th and are heading to Champions League.

But there's a couple problems with this.  One is that I massively over-achieved.  Not because I'm a tactical or motivational genius.  I got a really favorable schedule and just about every close game went my way.  I would actually prefer NOT to have made Champions League.  That's just going to be a one game cameo ass-whuppin'.  No Europe at all would have been fine so I could keep my squad small and focus on the league.  UEFA would have been cool too, as I would have had a bunch of extra games against some beatable sides so could have blooded a bunch of the young un's.  Champions League is the worst of all worlds.  I have to expand the squad JUST IN CASE.  And then if I win the play-in, I'm just signing up for four ass whuppins which does nothing for my squad morale.

Also, I'm bummed about the fact that the whole world thinks I'm a dick.  I'm rated as a very disloyal manager because I keep free-transferring players and not renewing contracts.  But I mean, I have not free-transferred a single player who did not request it.  I look at a free release as a good thing.  I will honor my contract which means I pay you to play for the club.  Nothing in that contract obligates me to play you in the first team, nor do you have a right to expect it.  So if you want to hang out in reserves and stay and St. Mary's, you can stay as long as you want.  If you ASK me to leave I will let you go.  And I will *still* honor my side of the bargain.  I'm paying you everything I owed you over the life of the contract but you don't even have to play for me.  You can sit on your ass.  Or go and play for whoever you want.  And whatever they pay you will be ON TOP of what I pay you.  How is this a dick move? 

The only two players I booted out of the club were Steve De Ridder and Ziguy Badibanga.  And I felt bad about it, but I don't use wingers so they weren't going to play.  And they are both young and good.  Unlike the rest of the guys I released, they need playing time still.  So all that would have happened is they would have rotted in reserves for a season, and then asked for a free release anyway but at that point their careers would have been totally side-tracked.  It was really better for them to go.  For reals, I was thinking about them when I did it.  Yes I made money on the move and didn't have to pay their salaries, but they weren't making much money anyway and I sold them for a third of what they were worth.

But they still both hate me.  And now the fans hate me because I let two "quality players" and two "fan favorites" go for so cheap.  WHAT PART OF "NO WINGERS" DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?   If they are such fan favorites, be happy they are in a much better situation.  If all you care about is how good the club is, then realize I got rid of two players that had zero chance of contributing to the club.

And then there is the youth issue.  See, it turns out that Jake Sinclair is a bit of a punk.  And Luke Shaw doesn't really handle pressure that well.  And Ward-Prowse, while a good kid is a bit of a slacker.  So I bought in a bunch of old players who I pretty much didn't need just to play a bit and tutor them.  So I wasted a good $20k a week in wages just to help them along.  And then none of them liked their tutors so they learned nothing.  And then tutors contracts ran out and they were mad I didn't renew them.  And because I felt bad about not re-hiring them when they were such good guys (but no longer had the physical tool) I encouraged them to become coaches.  And then I hired them.  And they suck at coaching.  It's just that I can hire like a bazillion coaches so I don't care if I pay some dudes $2k a week to essentially do nothing.  But guess what?  They're coaching for me but it turns out they STILL hate me.  WTF?  And all the young players dislike me for sticking them with lousy tutors even though in fact their tutors were awesome.  So I'm paying people all sorts of money just to like me, essentially.  And they all hate me even more for it.

What I *should* do this season is 1)  Either just suck and begin the process of recruiting and playing my army of incredible regens, or 2) Hire a bunch of highly paid asshole mercenaries and go for the title.  What I'm gonna do is 3)  Suck and play a bunch of lousy guys who don't even have the potential to be European players just because they came through the academy and I want them to succeed.

So after 10,000 loan spells, multiple tutors, millions of warnings and lectures, and two years of continued griping about training, Ward-Prowse and Jack Stephens are FINALLY to the point where I can put them in the first team and they'll actually learn and improve.  The problem is that they are now way behind in development.  Jack Stephens especially is like already 20 and barely decent enough for League Two.  Which seems impossible since in real life Jack Stephens played just fine in League Two at the age of 16.

So yeah, I'm gonna play these two guys so they will improve while I will lose bad.  And then at the end of two seasons, they'll have improved to the point where they are "decent" Premier players and I won't lose quite as bad when I play them.  And then at the end of all that losing, I'll let them go ON A FREE to enjoy their happy careers yo-yoing between EPL and Championship sides.  And they will hate me because I didn't re-sign them.  Why do I put up with all this?  FOR NO REASON AT ALL OTHER THAN THEY ARE SAINTS.

It turns out that Enzo Zidane is a punk.  But I'm so committed to this guy I HIRED HIS DAD.  Do you think Zinedine Zidane comes cheap?  He's a great coach, but I don't need him.  So yeah, that's right. I got both Zidanes.  AND MARCO MATERAZZI.  Who else goes to these absurd lengths? 
And my loyalty attribute is a 6?  I don't think so.

All I have done in my career is turn down jobs at Bolton, PSG, and Ajax at twice the salary to bring a Champion's League side to Southampton on 1/4 the transfer budget of Tottenham, of which I spent less than half.  The Saints payroll now is actually LOWER than it was in the Championship.  And all I'm getting for this is a pile of shit.  I ask for a stadium expansion.  Not for the revenue, but so more fans can see the games.  Cortese gets mad and says no.  And then it turns out the fans don't even freaking go to the games.  They just stay at home and whine about how crappy I am for not signing Ryan Fucking Doble.  Ryan Doble are you shitting me? 

Who's team captain?  Jack Cork.  Co-captain?  Morgan Schneiderlin.  Third captain?  Adam Lallana. Who set the record for youngest player to score in a League Cup match?  Jake Sinclair. On a squad that's going to Champion's League.  And you can't be bothered to go to a game and you want Nigel Adkins back.  Really?  I'm the greatest thing that ever happened to this club.  I should be getting flowers daily from Le Tiss and a misshapen statue on the grounds.  But all I get is a flaming pile of crap.

[Butter]

The Posh will be a one-timer in the EPL.

So you did sign Zidane and Materazzi after all?  What is Materazzi's header rating?

[rva]

It was kind of medium owing to the fact that when I had him as a player he was 35 or something  Maybe a 13 or 14.  But it was clearly up around 18-20 in his prime.  Amazingly, he does NOT have the preferred player move of "Winds Up Opponent."  I will have to go into the editor and look at an old saved game and see what his hidden "sportsmanship" and "dirtiness" attributes are.

He was kind of an ideal team player in the game.  Professional, high determination, high ambition, high teamwork, high influence, liked the big matches, loyal, etc.  He was the one vet I signed that actually ended up making some important contributions on the pitch.  There were two times in Championship where the squad was tired and pissed-off and looking like crap going into the game and he scored on headers like 5 minutes in and completely lifted the rest of the team.  He was also awesome in team meetings.  Anything I said would immediately jack up his morale, and then he'd be all "Yeah, coach is right!" and pump everyone else up too.

I really liked him, and even debated signing him as a player for EPL based on his vet leadership.  But the skills were just declining a little too much.  I would have hired him as a player/coach but he didn't want the contract even though he was going into coaching.  So I had to let him go, which is why he doesn't like me.  And then six months later he retired as a player and I was able to hire him as a coach.  And after only two months I've become one of his "favored personnel."  Yet on my profile screen it still lists him as the coach I have the worst relationship with.  Even ahead of Guy Poyet and Darren Ferguson, who I go out of my way to trash on a regular basis.  So that's gotta be a bug of some sort.

Sorry about Darren Ferguson.  I think he's a fantastic coach.  Yeah, he always gets Man U loanees but that's just one reason Posh overachieve.  But unlike his dad who I think maybe is a dick mostly to serve his club (ie. working the refs and media, playing mindgames)  and maybe not so much personally, I think Darren Ferguson is kind of jackass as a person.  I find the whole kicking the ex-wife in the stomach thing hard to swallow.

[Dan]

Even ahead of Guy Poyet and Darren Ferguson, who I go out of my way to trash on a regular basis.

There was a TON of comedy gold in there, but this was by far my favorite.

Congrats, sir, and I'm glad to see you're still playing the game. Not only are you still playing it - you are playing it the way YOU want to, which is really the whole point.

Do us a favor and win a few Champions League trophies for SFC, would ya?

[rva]

Blah.  I'm being forced to win the EPL almost against my will.

I was starting Jack Stephens once a week for the first 2 weeks of the season, even though he is terrible.  I felt like he was juuust about to suddenly take a dramatic improvement and then he tore his calf muscle and is out for 4-5 months. 

That's pretty much it for him.  He's not going to make it.  Second season out of three that I've had him that's been wrecked due to injury.  When he comes back, he will 20 years old and still only League Two level. 

James Ward Prowse lasts literally 4 days under James Cork's tutelage before he decides he doesn't want to learn from him any more.

I worked pretty hard to set up a loan deal for Jake Sinclair to go to Barnsley.  They have good training facilities, a good attacking coach, and they are a lower Championship side so he should get some good playing time.  Sinclair refuses their contract.

Luke Shaw is unhappy with his training schedule and consequently not improving.

This pretty much forces me not to play any of them.  Meaning I have to play my much better players with much higher potential who improve much faster instead. 

I just beat Porto away in Champions League.  It was a pretty easy 3-0 victory.   I almost replayed the game so I would lose, because I didn't think it was "realistic" that anyone could beat that team. It has Guillermo Ochoa, Hulk, AND Nicolas Otamendi in it.  Those were the three best players on FM2010 (aside from the freak regen I had).  They also have Marquinhos from FM 2008.  That should have been an 8-0 loss.

[Dan]

In FM2010 in the year 2021 Ochoa is still the starting keeper for whatever of the big Italian teams I sold him off to. He looks his age, but he's still a top keeper. Probably valued at $5-$8 million.

And every now and then he chimes in to the press about what we're up to since he loves the club and is considered an icon.

[Dan]

Heeeehheeeeee.....



Yes, I'm still doing the corner gimmick, but um, we've only given up 4 goals, so it's not like it's that important. Maybe it turned a draw or two into a win, but still...this is mighty impressive.

Needless to say, all of my players are over confident.