Matt, otherwise known as FM_Adventure was the latest content creator in the Q&A hot seat as we put some community questions to him. If you have not already caught up with his posts do so after reading this, he has an excellent international save with Kosovo as well as some great one off experiments.
FM_Samo got us started by asking how did you initially get into FM? And then initially stumble across the FM community online?
My first introduction to it all was probably back in CM97/98 – my brother had his computer up in our attic and he’d let me be his ‘assistant manager’ or very occasionally let me manage the lowest club in England – usually Scarborough if I remember right! The first I played properly on my own was probably FM2005. I had gone onto the SI forums a few years ago to ask a few questions and started following a few career saves on there… eventually I ended up following people like Samo, FMRamblings and Shrewnaldo on twitter (my personal one) and things snowballed from there into last year creating FM_Adventure to talk solely about FM
Anthony Haynes (^AH) asked the first of his three questions this week, how does writing about FM affect the way you play it?
It makes me think a lot more about the decisions I’m making rather than just blindly ‘spacebarring’ through a save game, I’ll take an extra few moments to explain why I’m doing something and in turn maybe see something I had missed. It’s definitely both enhanced my enjoyment of the game and led me to doing a lot better in saves.
Your current series is an international save with Kosovo and you’ve had some good success so far. How far do you see the save running?
Well we’ve just hit the pre-tournament stage for Euro 2020, I think after this tournament we should hopefully see a few more regens being of sufficient ability to make the squad then we’ll have a good stab at the UEFA Nations and World Cup Qualifying. At that point I’ll have to make an assessment of whether I’ve done all I can with them – I know there are a few within the community who are *very* good at leading smaller nations to World Cup glory but I’m not sure I’m near that level!!
Well it’s been great so far! If, like some of the Kosovo players, you could play for a different nation, which would you chose?
Oooh, good question! Well I have quite a lot of family in Canada so maybe it’d be nice to pick them but I’ve also had some interaction with the Saint Lucian FA on twitter after finding out they recruited a few players by DM for their international squads in recent years, so watch this space…
Chris Darwen wanted to know a bit more about the crossover between FM and real football by asking do you find writing about FM helps with writing about real life football, or vice versa or not at all?
I can see certain ways that it might but I think when I’m writing about real life football it tends to be from a more emotive point of view – things I’m particularly fond of or hold close to my heart – rather than on a tactical level. Although I would say writing about real football does tend to influence me on FM because it always makes me yearn for a new save.
Great, so how did you begin writing for the Higher Tempo Press?
It was actually through Slack! I had mentioned that I was interested in learning about International Management in FM and asked if anyone would be interested in hosting a few posts about it. I spoke to @thehighertempo [Chris Darwen] about it and things just went from there.
So that really shows the power of the FMSlack channel and if anyone reading this wants to start to write for HTP then it really is one of the best ways to get involved. You’ve done a lot of quality experimental pieces for the site, which do you prefer, the long saves or the one of articles?
Anyone in the Tempo circles knows I love a good (or bad) pun but I definitely do prefer a long term save to put my influence on the game and tell a story.
You are the go to guy for a title at the moment! But for your own saves, when deciding on a save what comes first, the idea or the title?
Definitely the idea. I usually just stick with a journeyman save but this year I’ve tried a few different things and had a long term (ish) save going with Mallorca in Spain with the idea of getting promotion then challenging the big boys – the idea then led to the title of ‘Never Mind The Balearics’… another pun, of course.
A good save and great pun to match! ^AH wanted to move more to football and FM in Northern Ireland. How good are players in Northern Ireland at adapting tactically to e.g. fancy roles (the ones with foreign-sounding names) and unconventional (e.g. asymmetric) formations?
In the real world – we don’t see too many Liberos or Trequartistas but there’s definitely a shift toward a more progressive style of play. Domestically clubs like Cliftonville play a very attractive pass and move style and on the international scene Michael O’Neill has worked wonders showing the team can transition from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1 and 4-5-1 depending on the players available and the opposition. In FM things are a bit more limited due to the lower standard of attributes. I tend to favour a more simplistic style generally but in a recent experiment in NI on football manager I’ve been trying to introduce a 4-3-1-2 with a nice attacking style of play.
And ^AH had the follow up question of, how do you manage fitness in NI league?
It’s another issue restricted by the limitations of resources. The league is a semi-professional league so there is only so much you can do with training. I guess I tend to lean more toward effective game management and having a squad big enough to rotate to keep players fresh – there are so many cup competitions that it’s a good chance to rest the senior players and throw out the youngsters.
Good advice for anyone looking to get into a save there. Do you play any other games outside of FM or stay loyal throughout the year?
I tend to dabble in other games. I’ll occasionally play FIFA or PES and I’m a fan of strategy games like Civilization but I don’t tend to immerse myself in those games in anywhere near the same level as I do with FM
That’s all the questions we had but a very good interview, if you would like to get involved in future it is as simple as dropping a question into the Slack channel or replying to one of the promotional tweets. If you would like to read the Kosovo story so far or any of the excellent experiments Matt has written please check his page – FM_Adventure aurthor page
