The Footy Manager » Football Manager 2010

How to choose a Captain

Ruderic — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:34:28 +0000

Like any football team, in Football Manager 2009 & 2010 every manager needs a player who can lead his teammates in the field. This is the job of the team captain, a key role in every successfull team.

In Football Manager, we can identify 4 attributes that define a good Captain: Influence, Determination, Work Rate and Team Work.

Influence

Influence is the player’s ability to affect events or other players without any intentional effort. Players with high influence will be leaders on the pitch and team-mates will tend to rally around these players.

In my opinion, this is the most important of those 4 attributes. A player with high influence (18 or more) can be considered a natural leader, an example for his teammates.

Determination

High determination can be understood as a commitment to succeed. A determined player will give everything in order to win. As you can see, any good captain needs determination.

Work Rate

This reflects the player’s mental drive to work hard. A high rating will ensure a player wants to work his socks off from start to finish, but he will need the necessary physical attributes to actually be able to pull it off. Nonetheless, it is an admirable trait to have in your team.

Team Work

How well the player follows tactical instructions and works for and alongside his team-mates. A team full of players with a high rating here will work better as a unit. Players with lower ratings will slack off and not ‘buy in’ to the team ethos. You can guess that your captain needs to work well with his partners, so high team work is a requisite.

Examples of great Captains

In both Football Manager and real world soccer, you can identify John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Fabio Cannavaro as top class captains.

This was a guest article written by Ruderic To read more of Ruderic’s Football Manager stuff checkout Football Manager Debot.

Scout Hiring Guide

Ruderic — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:43:14 +0000

Many users of the Football Manager games (FM08,FM09,FM10 ETC) underestimate the value of scouts, searching for players on their own. In my experience, having the best scouts in your staff is as important as having the best coaches.

The main use I give to my scouts is the search for young promising players, also known as wonderkids. That is what I need several scouts with different areas of knowledge. I usually have 4 or 5 of them traveling around the globe looking for hot prospects.

Also, I usually get report cards from them before signing a new player. That way, I can read more things about the players, like their personality and if they are likely to adapt fast to my team.

Scout Attributes

When it comes to hire new scouts, you have to pay special attention to 2 key attributes, Judging Player Potential and Judging Player Ability. As you can guess, they indicate how good he is to judge player’s ability and potential.

However, those 2 attributes are not the only ones you have to pay attention to. A good scout also needs high mental ones, like Determination and Adaptability. A scout with good adaptability will aquire faster knowledge about an unknown country.

Recommended Scouts

The scouts I am posting here can be signed for free. If you are managing a small club, maybe they will not accept a contract from you. Feel free to leave a comment indicating wich scout has done a good job in your game.

Oliver Bierhoff
Andrea Pastorello
Paolo Berrettini
Txema Noriega
Ed van Stijn
Vlada Stosic
Horst-Dietter Hottges
Joop Lensen

This was a guest article written by Ruderic To read more of Ruderic’s Football Manager stuff checkout Football Manager Debot.

FM2010 Tactic 4-1-1-2-2

Niall — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:56:44 +0000

Guest article written by DannyBecks:

I really like attacking teams in Football Manager 2010 so I created this tactic. This gives you that we score lots of goals, but can be susceptible to conceding too.

Team Instructions

Philosophy: Fluid
Starting Strat: Attacking.

Passing: Shorter
Closing Down: Press More
Crosses: Drill

The rest are default.

Playmaker is the CM
Target Man: The left striker.
Target Man Supply: Mixed

I have made a few advanced changes there.

Defensive line is dropped deeper
The team plays wider.

Player Instructions

Keeper:
Set to be a basic keeper. The one I have has a weakness that means he isnt great at coming off his line to sweep up the ball.

Full Backs:
Set to support. I like my fullbacks to get forward, but I also like them to choose when to. I feel the support option offers this.
They will look to support the winger, get crosses into the box and be involved.

Centre Backs:
Both set to defend, not ball playing not limited. Just run of the mill centre halves. Not scared to play the ball, but not looking to be beckenbauer back there.

NOTE: the right sided centre half needs to be the one who is the best in the air. The set peices are built around him. For me this is David Wheater, big, tall, strong and good in the air. He scored 13 goals last season, so get someone with good delivery. 34 in six seasons. I know its the wrong way there. was soon changed after our first attacking set piece

Defensive Midfielder:
He is there to defend and defend only. He sits infront of the back line offering more cover there in front of the central defenders. will score very few, but will chip in with a few assists if they have good passing ability.

NOTE: When playing teams with a devastating AMC (liverpool and Gerrard), set him to man mark him.

Centre Midfielder:
Box to Box player what you have here. All rounded, can contribute at both ends. He is set to take long shots “sometimes” as the man playing there for me does not have a favourable long shot attribute. Change it for someone had and he can be devastating, the man I had in me previous game was.

Right and Left Attacking Midfielder:
Both are out and out wingers. Set to attack. They are pushed on for a reason, to keep the fullback deep. When you break, more often than not it will be these players in behind the full back and whipping the ball across the box for a finish.

They dont need to be pacey, O’Neill of Middlesbrough did the job for me with great effect for 5 years, 28 assits in our first season. They will create a lot of chances. Finishing ability is a benefit.

Right Sided Striker:
I have this man set to “advanced forward”, but should you have a pacey striker who is a great finisher (defoe was amazing for me) then change to poacher. Both have been amazing for me. Last season my player here scored 18 and assisted 12.

Left Sided striker:
Your “target man”, he will score, he will assist and do everything. But for me, its mostly score.

Season 1: Leroy Lita 35 (Championship)
Season 2: Mido 18
Season 3: Mido 15
Season 4: Leroy Lita 20
Season 5: Jonothan Franks 24
Season 6: Andy Stewart 32

Thats how we have gone for the man in that position. Lita losing out and regaining from Mido as Mido had the better attributes for it.

In Game instructions
Set exploit the flanks.

Should you go behind, do not be scared to go overload. Especially in games you believe you should be winning. It creates a lot of chances.

Success

I got middlesbrough promoted from the Championship first season through the play offs after having 10 points deducted.

4 seasons of stead improvement in the premier league saw me end up winning it in the 5th season, along with the league cup.

Download

4-1-1-2-2 (An attacking 4-4-2) (1791)

Football Manager Ultimate Training Schedule

Niall — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:53:50 +0000

This has been a long time coming but i have finally got round to putting together what I think is the perfect training schedule to get the most of of your entire squad in either FM08,FM09 or FM10.

Use this schedule and you can be pretty sure you’ll see an increase in a number of stats for your squad even after just the one season.

There are individual schedules for:

Goalkeepers
Full Backs
Centre Backs
Defensive Midfielders
Wingers
Attack Midfielders
Strikers

As always I’d love to know your thoughts and how it has worked out for you.

Download

Football Manager - Ultimate Training Schedule (7334)
What are you waiting for, install it!

FM2010 Tactic 4-2-3-1

Niall — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:41:05 +0000

This is a tactic I’ve been using with my West Ham team and I have had some fantastic results with it playing Football Manager 2010 patch 3, it’s a good tactic.

It essentially revolves around a short quick passing game and pressing the opposition to force errors.

The basic formation is a 4-2-3-1 like this:

Player Attributes

FB – Normal full back stats. Bonus attributes are first touch & passing
CB – Normal centre back stats. Bonus acceleration & pace
DMC – These are the main boys in the team so make sure you have some good players. You really want for these boys good passing, first touch, stamina, teamwork & tackling. Bonus would be concentration & positioning.
WG – What you’d expect dribbling, pace & crossing.
AC – Key really but think creativity, pace, passing & finishing.
ST – He will be your lone big dog up front so think heading, finishing, team work, acceleration & composure.

Team Instructions

So that’s about it. Feel free to ask questions and let me know how you get on.

Download

FM2010 Tactic 4-2-3-1 (1729)

FM10 Facepack Graphics

Niall — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:47:57 +0000

Those lovely people at http://www.sortitoutsi.net/ have got together some amazing looking facepacks for Football Manager 2010 which I thought I’d point you in the direction of.

First things first, before I get bombarded with requests to install them here is how:

Unpack the ZIP/RAR file
Copy its unpacked content to folder “graphics” subfolder of your Football Manager “user data” folder eg C:\…\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2010\graphics\ (if “graphics” folder isn’t there create it.)
For being able to see faces from installed facepacks you must have the following settings in FM 2010 Preferences:

Use Skin Cache = Off

Always Reload Skin on Confirm = On

Do that and you should be ready to rock and roll you should be ready to rock and roll.

Right now for the good stuff… You can download the facepacks via the following torrent – FM10-Faces-Megapack It’s 2.7 GB but WELL worth the effort, really adds a bit of razzle dazzle to the game.

If you have any questions post them here.

Football Manager 2008 – Facepacks, Kits, Logos & Skins

FM2010 – Free Transfer Deals & Steals

Niall — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:31:50 +0000

Well Football Manager 2010 (FM2010) is coming and we all know when you start the game one of the first things you do is to have a little look at those free transfer deals to get you going. The pickings maybe are not quite as good as they have been in past years but here is a little list of a few players I think are worth a little punt on the free transfer market in Football Manager 2010 (FM2010). This is a little guesswork at this stage but I’ll amend and update once the game is out on Friday.

Attackers

David Conolly – ST, age 32: Great little signing for League 1 clubs

Rune Lange – ST, age 32: Effective target man at mid to low Championship level and below

Michael Mifsud – ST, 28: Will do a great job at League 1 level

Ebi Smolarek - ST, age 28: Very effective in the Championship and lower end Premiership sides

Midfielders

Dietmar Hamann – DM/MD, age 35: GREAT signing for Championship sides although might only sign for some of the bigger ones

Ivan Campo – DM/MC, age 35: Like Hamann will do a great job in the Championship

Matty Holland - DM/MC, age 35: Good signing in League 1 and maybe at the lower end of the Championship

David Noble – AMC, age 27: Good for League 1 but probably not higher

Defenders

Sol Campbell – DC, age 36: Won’t cut the mustard in the Premiership but very effective in the Championship.

Lauren – DR , age 32: Good solid right back for Championship sides

Football Manager 2010 – October 30th

Niall — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:22:59 +0000

Just had the following press release for SI/SEGA about Football Manager 2010, it’s coming October 30th. Some great new stuff in there most of which has been mentioned once or twice on this site along with some other slick new stuff. Once again it’s great to see SI listening to what the fans want. I know I’m looking forward to it, what do you guys think?

FOOTBALL MANAGER™ 2010 DATED FOR OCTOBER 30th

Sports Interactive listen to consumer feedback to create the best Football Manager in the series yet

LONDON (August 12^th, 2009) – Sports Interactive & SEGA Europe Ltd. can today announce that Football Manager™ 2010 for PC and Apple Macintosh, and Football Manager™ Handheld 2010 for Sony PSP will be released on October 30^th.

Football Manager 2009 is the most successful in the Football Manager series to date, clocking up 22 weeks at No.1 in the UK (PC charts) and selling in excess of 1 million copies worldwide, as well as being voted the 2^nd best video game of all time in a recent Radio 1 poll. According to data gathered from Football Manager 2009, people played the game for an average of 240 hours each. However, developer Sports Interactive has been made aware via the vibrant Football Manager community that the addition of big new features in the last few releases has come at the expense of attention to existing areas of the game and solving long standing issues.

With this in mind, Sports Interactive has spent the last year working closely with consumers and the Football Manager community to implement key improvements to this year’s game. Football Manager 2010 features new tools and changes across the board including some big additions to improve ease of use, navigation and feedback from the game with the introduction of a brand new match tactics system, the debut of a Match Analysis tool, a completely new look and new User Interface among other features.

“We have worked very hard with the Football Manager community to target not only the areas of the game that needed re-working but also what we could add to improve what’s already there. We’ve also conducted extensive usability studies which has led us to overhaul the whole presentation of the game, which we’re really excited about,” said Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive. “There has been a lot of polish to existing areas of the game but it’s also driven us to introduce changes to answer some of the feedback. We’re very confident that having done that we will deliver the very best Football Manager to date in October.”

The introduction of a Tactics Creator makes it easier to instruct the team to play the way the manager wants, alongside the introduction of touchline ‘shouts’ and quick tactic changes for instantly altering your team’s playing style during the match. Working with coaches from various levels of football, alongside some of the Football Manager communities most respected independent tacticians, the game now has an extensive array of pre-set tactical options allowing the user to select a player’s role in the team (such as ‘Ball winning midfielder’ or ‘Deep lying playmaker’), however the option to use the old ‘slider’ controls remains.

Feedback from matches has been improved to give the user better insight into where their team is going wrong, or right. A new Match Analysis tool lets players see where shots, passes, crosses, headers, tackles, fouls and interceptions have been made on the field for all players on the pitch. Managers can view this analysis both live in-game and post match, allowing them to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of both their team and their opponent’s and adjust their tactics accordingly.

Football Manager 2010 features a brand new User Interface, with a light and a dark skin to choose from as part of a vibrant new look and has undergone a complete navigational overhaul. The side bar navigation of previous years has been replaced by an intuitive tab system at the top of the screen, making Football Manager’s famed depth easier to navigate and will make the game more accessible to new players.

A brand new Data Editor will allow the addition of new divisions to existing leagues and of entirely new leagues as well as making it easier than ever to keep the game up to date, and do so for free. The delivery of information to the manager has been refined with users now able to sign up to the News Centre, an in-game subscription based newspaper that lets you get the news that you want about the football world and filter out the stories that you do not need, making the football world as immersive as you want it to be.

Following the debut of a 3D match view in Football Manager 2009, this year’s release sees a revamp with improved AI, over 100 new animations for the 3D pitch view, new stadiums, crowds, realistic pitch degradation and better lighting, creating an even more realistic match experience.

Further new features will be announced via a series of blogs in the months leading up to the game’s October 30^th release date which will ensure that Football Manager retains its position as the most realistic, most played, highest reviewed and best selling football management simulation in the world.

Football Manager Handheld 2010 also has a host of new features and improvements, including a brand new skin for the game and improved match engine AI.

For further information please go to www.sigames.com or www.footballmanager.com.

Football Manager 2010 Wonderkids & Future Stars

Niall — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:56:46 +0000

Finding the wonderkids in any version of Football Manager is always one of the most popular aspects of the game. So following on from last years column who do you think are going to be the wonderkids and future stars of Football Manager 2010?

I’ll start with a few:

Luc Castaignos (Feyenoord)
Marco Fossati (Inter)
Christopher Buchtmann (Liverpool)
Marc Muniesa (Barcelona)
Janick Kamber (Basel)
Deniz Herber (St. Pauli)

The Wonderkids of Football Manager 2010 (FM2010)

This list will be changing over time and make sure you add any that you discover.

Goalkeepers

Sergio Asenjo – Atletico Madrid
Rui Patricio – Sporting Lisbon
Hugo Lloris – Lyon
Manuel Neuer – Schalke
Alphonse Areola – PSG

Defenders

Mamadou Sakho – PSG
Marcelo – Real Madrid
Raul – Atlético Paranaense
Davide Santon – Inter Milan
Joao Paulo – Fluminese
Breno – Bayern Munich
Cesar Azpilicueta – Osasuna
Dodo – Corinthians
Emiliano Insua – Liverpool
Marc Muniesa – FC Barcelona
Leandro Cabrera – Atletico Madrid
Micah Richards – Manchester City
Neven Subotic – Borussia Dortmund
Nicolas Otamendi – Velez Sarsfield

Midfielders

Francesco Bolzoni (DMC) – Genoa
Nuri Sahin (MC) – Borussia Dortmund
Aaron Ramsey (MC) – Arsenal
Sergio Busquets (MC) – FC Barcelona
Willian (AMC) – Shakhtar
Jack Rodwell (MC) – Everton
Axel Witsel (MC) – Standard
Etienne Capoue (DMC) – Toulouse
Jano Ananidze (AMC) – Spartak Moscow * FREE
Franco Zuculini (MC) – Hoffenheim
Levan Kenia (AMC) – Schalke
Carlos Eduardo (AML) – Hoffenheim
Marko Marin (AMR) – Werder Bremen
Mesut Ozil (AML) – Werder Bremen
Ignacio Camacho (DMC) – Atletico Madrid
Paulo Henrique (AMC) – Santos
Giuliano (AMR) – Internacional
Diego Buonanotte (AMC) – River
Juan Manuel Mata (AML) – Valencia
Moussa Sissoko (DMC) – Toulouse
Henri Saivet (AMR) – Bordeaux
Miralem Pjanic (AMC) – Lyon
Adem Ljajic (AMR) – Manchester United
Stevan Jovetic (AML) – Fiorentina
Jesus Navas (AM RC) – Sevilla
Sofian Feghouli (AM RC) – Grenoble
Eljero Elia (AM RL) – Hamburg SV
Alexis Sanchez (AM RL, F C) – Udinese
Eduardo Salvio (AM R, F C) – Lanus
Toni Kroos (AM C) – Bayern

Forwards

Mario Balotelli (FC) – Inter Milan
Neymar (FC) – Santos
Dentinho (FC) – Corithians
Daniel Villava (FC) – River
Andrej Kramaric (FC) – NK Dinamo
Walter (FC) – Internacional
Alberto Paloschi (FC) – Parma/Milan
David N’Gog (FC) – Liverpool
Tomas Necid (FC) – CSKA Moscow
Abel Hernandez (FC) – Palermo
Edin Dzeko (FC) – Wolfsburg

Be sure to checkout some of the other content on the site and become a fan on Facebook and follow my football chat on Twitter.

If you fancy writing something for the site then get in touch.

What do you want to see from Football Manager 2011? How can they make it better?

Football Manager 2010 – Wishlist

Niall — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:51:54 +0000

Well last night saw the last of this seasons actual football being played (Confederations Cup) and before we know it the new football season will be upon us. As always the new football season generally means the next installment of our favorite football management game.

Don’t get me wrong I like FM09 but there is room for improvement. Some things I’d like to see in the next version of Football Manager, Football Manager 2010:

I’d like to be able to ’shout’ (you know what I mean) instructions during the game to specific players while they are playing
Maybe be able to start as a youth/reserve team manager and work your way through the ranks of the club
Improve the 3D
Rework the tactics screens

I know Sports Interactive like to know what us fans would like to see in the next installment of Football Manager (Football Manager 2010) so what do you guys think?

Once we get a decent amount of comments I’ll let the guys at Sports Interactive know.