The Footy Manager » FM08

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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Football Manager 2008 – Training Scedule Revised

Niall — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:32:07 +0000

I previously posted a training schedule I was using in Football Manager 2008 (FM08) that proved to be pretty popular with visitors to the site. At the time I said it wasn’t perfect but I have finally got a new and improved training schedule for you to use. Once again it isn’t perfect but it is much better.

The training download includes schedules for the following:

Central Defenders
Fullbacks
Defensive Midfielders
Attacking Midfielders
Wingers
Strikers
Target Men

Get it here – Revised Training Schedule

When you download the training scheme, the correct place to install it is:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\schedules

This can often be confused with the below, but do NOT put it there:

C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\data\schedules

Once again I’d like to hear how people get on with this.

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Football Manager 2008 – Work Permits

Niall — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:54:32 +0000

I’ve had a number of people email and comment for help obtaining work permits in Football Manager 2008 (generally young South Americans). While there is no perfect way of getting round them totally there are a few things that can be done to help matters along. The ways I have spotted for getting round the annoying inconveniences that are Work Permits are as follows:

1. Your club can have a feeder club from a European country that doesn’t use the work permit rule, you can send the player out on loan to the club and they will gain citizenship after a certain amount of years.

The shortest time to gain citizenship in a country is 3 years, in Belgium and Poland.

Pretty much all the other countries take 5 years, except for Spain, which takes 4 years.

2. You can leave the player in your reserves until he gains citizenship (which will take 5 years).

3. A sneaky way of getting past the work permit problem is to offer the player another contract, as soon as they join you. About 60% of the time the player will be granted a work permit, even though they had only just been denied one. Cheeky, cheeky!

Failing all that. Try and find foreign players who have a European nation as a second nationality. These players do not require work permits!

Hope that helps.

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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!

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Top 10 Skins for Football Manager 2008

Niall — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:48:56 +0000

Many of us spend hours and hours staring at the Football Manager 2008 (Worldwide Soocer Manager) so I always find it a good idea to install a new skin every once and a while to jazz things up a little. So here is a breakdown (my humble opinion) of the top ten skins in the game.

1) Flex 1.2

2) Turnstyle 1.8 v1.2

3) Dds 2.1

4) Siple Ultimate

5) Black-in 2 v.1.2

6) Steklo

7) Scherm v1.1

Incase V2

9) Asesino

10) Loopus

If you want some information on how to install the skins then have a read of the graphics installation guide.

I’d be interested to hear what people think of these choices, use the comments box below.

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Bojan Krkić – Player Profile

Niall — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:52:04 +0000

Bojan Krkic was born in Linyola (Catalonia) on 28th August 1990. In just one season, from 2006-07 to 2007-08, this promising young forward has made the leap from Juvenil A to the first team. Along the way he played the second part of the season with Barça B in Second Division B.

Bojan joined Barça in 1999 becoming part of the Benjamí A boys squad. His rise through the ranks of the Barça academy teams was meteoric: Aleví B (2000-01), Aleví A (2001-02), Infantil B (2002-03), Infantil A (2003-04) and Cadet B (2004-05). He started the 2005-06 season with the Cadet A team but was soon promoted up to Juvenil A. The pattern was repeated in the 2006-07 season, which he began with Juvenil A and finished with Barça B.

During his half season with Barça B, he scored 10 goals and became the team’s top scorer.

His big breakthrough came in 2007 when he won the European under-17 Championship with Spain, scoring the winning goal in the final against England (1-0). He also made his first team debut with Barça on 24th April against Al-Ahly in Egypt, scoring Barça’s second goal.

Bojan played the 2007-08 pre-season with the first team. But the Catalan forward missed out on the Asian tour due to his participation at the Under 17 World Cup in Korea. He scored five goals in the tournament, and was the star of a Spain side that finished second, while he was also named third best player of the tournament.

Back in Barcelona, Rijkaard handed the youngster his first chances both in the League and the Champions League. He set two records, becoming both the youngest Barça player ever to make his debut in the Champions league and the youngest player ever to score a league goal for Barça. The first record was achieved on September 19 2007, against Olympique Lyon, when he was 17 years and 22 days; the second was against Villarreal, on October 20 of the same year, when he scored aged just 17 years, 1 month and 22 days.

Full Name: Bojan Krkić
DOB: 28/08/1990 (age 17)
POB: Linyola, Lleida, Spain
Clubs: FC Barcelona (2007-)
Position: Striker
Number: 27
Preferred Foot: Right

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Football Manager 2008 – Tactics

Niall — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:24:59 +0000

I’ve had several emails from people asking for some tactical advice for Football Manager 2008 (Worldwide Soccer Manager) and have finally got round to sharing some.

The system I’m currently using is with West Brom and is a rather odd 3-3-1-2-1 formation. As odd as it looks it has really helped me punch above my weight in the Premier league with a couple of fantasic wins away Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd as well is domination at home.

The main keys to this formation are to have at least one very strong centre back, a strong defensive midfielder and good attacking midfielders. I score most of my goals from my two attacking midfielders with my forward acting not as a target man just more of a pain in the backside, chasing down balls etc…

Much of the this formation it geared up into stiffling the opposition and then hitting them on the break. While you may not finish the season at the highest scorers in the league the way I see it the results are the thing that matter.

As your team progresses you can add quicker and more skillfull players into the same formation and be even more effective. I’ve had this formation for four seasons now the side is getting better and better as the years tick by.

What I end up doing if I’m trying to close out a away game when I’m in the lead is change the tempo to as slow as you can go, passing to short and time wasting to as high as it goes.

To download the tactics go to http://www.niallwalsh.net/wp-content/uploads/3-3-1-2-1.tac

To install simply place the .tac file in My Documents/Sports Interactive/FM 2008/Tactics

I’d be interested to hear how people get on with these.

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Football Manager 2008 Bargain Buys

Niall — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:19:40 +0000

A few people have been in touch looking for good cheap players in Football Manager 2008 for teams lower down the leagues and without too much cash. Well I’ll start the ball rolling with some players for under 100k. Don’t expect these players to do the business for the likes if Liverpool and Real Madrid but lower down the divisions and in the right term they could be great!

Name: Peter Winn
Age: 18
Position: AML ST
Club: Scunthorpe
Value: 24k
Work permit: No

Name: Fabrice Fernandes
Age: 27
Position: AMRL
Club: Free
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Bogdan Stancu
Age: 20
Club: Unirea Urziceni
Position: ST
Value: 50k
Work permit: No

Name:Mohammad Tadayon
Age:23
Position:ST
Club:Linkoping
Value:1k
Work permit: No

Name: Patrik Lomski
Age: 18
Position: AM/ST
Club: Turun Palloseura
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Owen Price
Age: 20
Position: AMR,ST
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Scott Donnelly
Age: 19
Position: AMRC
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Oscar Carmelo Sanchez
Age: 36 (few years left in the tank)
Position: SW, DC
Club: Bolivar
Value: 7k
Work permit: Yes

Name: Marian Ognyanov
Age: 18
Position: AMLC
Club: Levski
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Alex Fernandez
Age: 20
Position: Striker
Club: Coslada
Value: free (get there quick)
Work permit: No

Name: Sean Evans
Age: 19
Position: D/AML
Club: Man Utd
Value: 35k
Work permit: No

Name: Rhys Day
Age: 24
Position: DC
Club: Aldershot
Value: 30k
Work permit: No

Feel free to submit your own to give people the best selection we can and follow the format:

Name:
Age:
Position:
Club:
Value:
Work permit:

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Sebastian Giovinco – Player Profile

Niall — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:58:04 +0000

Lets have a little look at yet another of our crop of wonderkids in Football Manager 2008 and this time it’ll be Juventus’ little attacking midfield sensation Sebastian Giovinco.

Giovinco a 21 year old forward for the Juventus primavera squad has made some headlines over the last twelve months and his performances have lead to the “next Del Piero” comparisons which have also been put upon past primavera stars Davide Chiumiento, Michele Paolucci, Rey Volpato, and recently Raffaele Palladino. Chiumiento being the most highly rated out of the group.

Giovinco impressed many at the Copa Carnevale tournament last season scoring twice against Palermo and then again against Malaysian. The young forward seems to have an easier path to Juventus first team football then past primavera strikers, due to the new UEFA regulations mandating home grown talent. Giovinco has impressive skills, excellent speed and finishing abilities which of course encouraged the Del Piero comparisons. The only knock is his size and very small frame but still only 21 has time to develop. He is also a staple in the Italian Under 21 team, he has excelled in the primavera squad and is getting recognition from abroad.

Apart from all this speculation, the forward is being held in high regards and may pass Palladino in the ranks if he continues his impressive form. In the Moggi era a player like this was sure to be loaned out and left to rot (Chiumiento, Guzman, Masiello, Volpato, Sculli). Hopefully with the new management and new regulations Giovinco along with other primavera starlets will be able to stick with the bianconeri.

Full Name: Sebastian Giovinco
DOB: 26/01/1987 (age 21)
POB: Turin, Italy
Clubs: Juventus (2006-), Empoli (2007-2008)*
Position: Attacking Midfielder/Striker
Number: 21
Preferred Foot: Right

*on loan

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Henri Saivet – Player Profile

Niall — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:16:32 +0000

We’ll have a quick look today at attacking midfielder/forward Henri Saivet who for me is probably the best wonderkid in Football Manager 2008.

While he can technically be picked up for free at the start of the game I have found it pretty difficult to do so and have usually had to pay around £5 million to from his French club Girondins Bordeaux. Either way, when you do pick him up he goes from strength to strength.

Saivet was promoted from the FC Girondins Bordeaux new youth training centre to the first team squad on his 16th birthday making him the youngest professional player in history of the the club. Coach Philipe Lucas, in an interview on the evaluation of 18 years has certified that “Henry is a player who plays with a pleasure and a rare opportunism.” As for Patrick Battiston, he confirmed that “the speed of the game and his technique were the strengths of a game brought forward.”

Full Name: Henri Saivet
DOB: 26/10/1990 (age 17)
POB: Dakar
Clubs: Girondins Bordeaux (2006-)
Position: Attacking Midfielder/Striker
Number: 25
Preferred Foot: Right

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