Photo by skeeze, Public Domain
Football Manager is a complex and realistic game, so good techniques and patience are important to your success.
With the recent release of Football Manager 2019, many veteran players will be well into their gameplay by now, using the skills they have refined over the 14 years of annual upgrades to the game. Some may have been playing even longer, with five major iterations of the game Championship Manager released between 1992 and 2004, before the creation of Football Manager due to the ending of the relationship between the game’s developer and publisher. However, for some players, Football Manager 2019 may be the first time they’ve stepped into the virtual dugout, and are eager to learn how to lead their chosen team to success. For the latter people, here are some tips that will help get them up to speed.
Getting Your Team Right
In real life, following the latest football news, particularly watching activities during transfer windows is something you will likely do as a football fan. This is the same for Football Manager, it is important to pay attention to transfers, making sure that you have to best players for your team. This can be something beginners can struggle with, especially if they have played games such as FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, because shortcomings in choosing the right team can be overcome by your own playing skill. With Football Manager, you are not in control, so you must ensure you don’t just have good players, but you have a well-balanced team, of skilled players that compliment each other well. This remains the same, whether you’re managing a team that is regularly one of the Champions League favourites or one that is always scrapping at the bottom of the lower.
Choosing the Right Roles
As mentioned before, the biggest difference between Football Manager and other football games like FIFA, is that you can’t use your playing skills to make up for a bad team. Once you have bought or scouted the right players, you need to ensure you have the right players in the right positions. In addition, you need a team captain with the skills and experience to play in such a role, whilst also inspiring others in the team.
Every player in your team needs to be aware of their role, and how it fits in with the rest of the game strategy. Without these clearly defined rules, your players will be lost on the pitch, and the performance of your team will suffer greatly.
Training
Photo by jarmoluk, Public Domain
Training can have a big impact on your team’s performance
Once you have your team and everyone is clear on what they need to do, you need your players to continually improve their skills. This is particularly important for players that you have scouted, and are therefore still a little rusty around the edges.
There are a number of different techniques you can employ to ensure you get the best out of your team’s training regime. Firstly, assign different coaches to different activities, so that each coach only has responsibility for one activity. By doing this, you will ensure that each coach is able to specialise in their particular area with complete focus, and therefore not dilute their attention.
Coaches are not the only people who need to have a focus. Each of your players needs to have their training personalised specifically to their role in the team. An obvious example of this would be that you don’t need your strikers to be spending their time practising saving penalties as your goalkeeper will. Changing the intensity of training is also something you should consider, increasing it to “high” during the pre-season and reducing it to “normal” when matches begin.
Media Appearances
Football Manager 2019 places greater emphasis on media appearances, such as interviews, meaning that how you respond to questions can have an impact on how your team plays. At the beginning of the game you create a character, and you must try to remain within the boundaries of your character’s traits and values to ensure that your team is more likely to perform well on the pitch.
Conclusion
Many of the points discussed here are just common sense, things that you would consider to be best practice by a manager of a real football team. If a manager was erratic in press interviews, or put players in the wrong positions on the pitch, you would expect the team to perform badly. The same applies to Football Manager 2019. In addition to this, it is important that you remain patient, Football Manager is a complex and realistic game. Therefore you will need time to learn the game and its features, whilst your character will need just as long to develop their skills as a manager.
