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Football Manager 2009 Wonderkids

Niall — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:38:42 +0000

As we all know Football Manager 2009 (FM09) is out although we are all having issues running the the bad boy. Although it’s early days I thought it might be a good idea for us to try and identify who we think the new future wonderkids in FM09 are. I’m sure some of the wonderkids from FM08 will be there again (I’m thinking Saivet, Vela, Bojan etc) but I’m thinking we should be able to pull some new names out of the hat. That said feel free to throw in some of the old names in there but you get less kudos if you do.

The obvious (and expensive):

Anderson (AMC) – Man Utd
Balotelli (AM RL, ST) – Inter
Giovinco (AM LC, FC) – Juventus
Walcott (AM LC, FC) – Arsenal
Bojan (FC) – Barcelona
Aguero (AM, FC) – At. Madrid
Dos Santos ( AM RLC, FC) – Tottenham
Fiorillo (GK) – Sampdoria
Galvan (Cruz Azul)
Hamsik (Napoli)
Kroos (FC Bayern)
Pato (A.C. Milan)
Pjanic (Olympique Lyonnais)
Benzema (Olympique Lyonnais)
Saivet (FC Girondins de Bordeaux)
Sakho (Paris Saint-Germain)
Vela (Arsenal)

Less obvious (not so expensive):

Bruna (Liverpool)
Boucher (Havre Athletic Club)
Alamo (Tapachula)
David Rochela (Deportivo B)
Ansaldi (Rubin)
Wijnaldum (Feyenoord)
De Gea (Atletico B)
Diaz (River)
Villaluz (Cruz Azul)
Walter (Internacional)
Wilshere (Arsenal)
Kolodziecziak (Racing Club de Lens)
Paulo Henrique (Santos)
Maidana (Spartak Moscow)
Davila (Chivas)
Nemeth (Liverpool)
Willian (Shakhtar)
Neymar (Santos)
Taison (Internacional)
Welbeck (Man Utd)
Tales (Internacional)
Monzon (Boca)
Hobbit Bermudez (Atlante)
Esparza (Chivas)
Fleck (Rangers)
Dalla Valle (Liverpool)
Delfouneso (Aston Villa)
Shea (FC Dallas)

Right that’ll do to start the ball rolling so who do you think the wonderkids of FM09 are?

What would you like to see in the next version of Football Manager? Let us know in our Football Manager 2010 wishlist.

Football Manager 2008 Dream Team

Hotshot — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:16:29 +0000

This is my first post, and I’m just generally interested to see who people rate as the best players in the game. We all know about the Ronaldo’s, Messi’s and Torres’ of the game, but how many people actually use them, and in what formation do they play them. So the idea of this is just to see how people operate their fantasy teams.

Ok you have the budget of Mark Hughes and can buy any player in the world. Below put together your own dream line ups. It’s been a year since the game was released so it should be pretty clear to you all who is worth having and who is not. To get the ball rolling i shall post my own. Feel free to comment, but i would suggest not bad-mouthing someone else’s team unless you have the nuts to post your own for criticism.

You can have the obvious 11 starters in the formation you’d use, and then 5 Bench players.

Mine lines up as follows:

Cech

Sergio Ramos Terry Ferdinand Lahm

De Rossi

Ronaldo Messi

Kaka

Villa Adriano

Subs:
Casillas
Collocini
Essien
Sneijder
Torres

Auther: Hotshot Hodson

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Win a copy of Football Manager 2009 (FM09) – Comment to win!

Football Manager 2009 – Wishlist

Niall — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:55:49 +0000

EDIT – Here is a list of all the new features that FM09 will have!

The new football season will be upon us soon and with that I think we can expect Football Manager 2009 (FM09). I know Sports Interactive have been investing quite a bit of time in Football Manager Live (click the link to read my preview) but I think we can expect some exciting new features in Football Manager 2009 all the same.

Some of the features I would like to see would include:

I think it should be at least possible to win red card appeals… Currently i never win appeals but when you look at the actual Premier League it is possible to win an appeal here or there
International management could be improved although i’m sure sure how just yet
I’d like to be able to ’shout’ (you know what I mean) instructions during the game to specific players while they are playing
Greater pre/post match team talks
Easier to sell players and get a reasonable price
Maybe be able to start as a youth/reserve team manager and work your way through the ranks of the club

Well there are a few of my thoughts of some new features we could maybe see in Football Manager 2009 (FM09) and I would be really interested to hear what other people would like to see also.

Oh yeah, it’s due for release on 31/10/2008, for more info check out http://www.sega.co.uk/fm09/.

Win a copy of Football Manager 2009 (FM09) – Comment to win!

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Football Manager 2008 – Set Piece Tactics

Niall — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:33:03 +0000

I generally manage lower ranks sides who to compete really have to punch above their weight so set pieces are very important for some of my sides because at times I’m not going to score any other way. So in this little article we’ll have a look at set piece tactics.

First off we have to ask what is a good corner strategy?
Try to have three big targets in the box, one on Near Post Flick-On, the strongest on Challenge GK, and a third on Forward. Add to that a real shooter on “Attack Near Post”, and somebody with Headers and Finishing at “Stand on Far Post”, and you have four goalscoring threats plus a good Ian Rush like poacher.

Likewise, your throw-in instructions can make a huge difference; get somebody with 18+ Long Throws as your throw-in taker, put a big defender on Near Post, two Long Shot specialists on Lurk Outside Box, a striker on Default, and a fullback on Go Forward. Works a treat; all five are threats to score.

As for Long Shots, you need space to pull it off – so if you have tight-marking and high closing down all over the pitch, neither your players nor the opposition have enough space to really make it work. If you dropped that to loose marking, low closing down, I bet you’d see a lot more – both for and against.

What kind of a player makes a good freekick taker?

The first conclusion I came to was that although composure IS important, it is nowhere near as important as it is when taking penalty kicks. In my view, the composure attribute is, (believe this or not), more important than the penalty attribute when deciding the result of a spot kick.

With free-kicks, there are other options to consider and all of these affect the outcome.

Should the player shoot, tee up another player for a shot, cross, play wide left/right, or our old favourite, pass back to the GK from just outside the opposition area. Affecting this decision would be decisions, creativity, flair, and possibly anticipation.

If he shoots, which part of the goal does he aim for. I would say that decisions and free-kicks affect this.

If he decides he is going to shoot, and he knows where he wants to put it, does he blast it or try a delicate placed shot. I suppose what affects this is decisions, free-kicks, technique and maybe any PPM’s that are applicable.

Once he has decided that he will shoot, what part of the goal he will aim at and whether he will blast it or place it, we have the following attributes to consider that will effect the outcome. Finishing, free-kicks, long-shots, technique and composure.

As always your thoughts are welcome!

[ratings]

Football Manager 2008 – Wonderkids

Niall — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 07:04:04 +0000

I’ve invested/wasted several hours of my life coming to terms with Football Manager 2008 (or Worldwide Soccer Manager) and have identified the following players as stars of the future:

The first grouping have the potential to be the best of the best and if you click the link on their name that will take you to a profile of how they are getting on in real life (these are still being created so bare with me) :

Aaron – Valencia
Alexandre Pato – AC Milan
Anderson – Man Utd
Banega – Boca
Bojan – Barcelona
Dos Santos – Barcelona
Sebastian Giovinco – Juventus
Guardado – Deportivo
Lulinha – Corinthians
Saivet – Bordeaux
Ustari – Getafe
Vela – Arsenal

This second grouping of future stars have the potential to be very, very good:

Babel – Liverpool
Jourdren – Montpellier
Edwards – Millwall
Hazard – Lille
Bouzanis – Liverpool
Johnson – Man City
Camucho – At. Madrid

I’ll keep this list updated as I discover new ones and feel free to add your own in the comments.

Thanks for reading and I’d really like to point you in the direction of my Football Manager 2009 to get your thoughts on what you would like to see in Football Manager 2009 .

Win a copy of Football Manager 2009 (FM09) – Comment to win!

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