New game...

Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of guidance with FM16. I've played the game every year since the FM franchise started and every year I've been addicted to the game winning many trophies with all kinds of teams etc etc.. I've had FM16 since the release and I can honestly say I am struggling and I have struggled ever since I bought it so I just want a few Hints and Tips from each of you. I want an insight to how you start off a new game.

As a Chelsea fan, I always always start a new game with Chelsea just so I can get to grips of the new layouts new features and generally will play them for 4/5 seasons before I take on a challenge with a smaller club.. So far on FM16 I've not managed to complete a single season with Chelsea without being sacked. I know why I'm getting sacked, it's because results are so poor, and in the past that is something I have always been able to correct.

What do you do when you start a new game?

The first things I normally do are:

- Backroom staff
In the past I've pretty much changed my whole backroom staff to increase specialisation in different fields of training to make sure I get the maximum coaching for my players. This would be the first thing I would do. Is this a good idea? Or is it best not up heave the whole backroom staff straight away?

- Tactics
I know tactics are extremely important and do tend to spend a bit of time on them. I gauge how my team should be set out on the quality of my players and what strengths I have in each position and normally create 2/3 tactics to make sure I'm covered when playing the best teams right down to the poor teams. I always set my players to play in their most effective roles. Is this a good idea? Or should I be looking at the bigger picture and making sure the players are playing in the specific roles best suited to the tactics?

- Match Preparation
I always set pre season preparation to be about fitness and tactics and always make sure its at very high during pre-season. But after that, I'm constantly getting players moaning that I'm giving them too much to do and I need to reduce their workload. Other then that, I will always select what my assistant suggests before a game. Should I be doing that? Or shall I just be looking at my opposition in a bit more depth then just trusting what my assistant says?

- Backroom advise before a match
When I am getting some backroom advise before a match and my assistant suggests to me to change tactics, mentality etc etc. Should I listen to him? I've always been a bit skeptical about changing my tactics too much because my players will not always be familiar with learning different tacitcs every other week.

I know the aim of the game is to be patient and to keep playing and when your losing dont quit. But I have literally had about 20 saves going and I really have struggled!

Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated as from playing FM for many years I feel a little bit lost that I am unable to enjoy FM16 as much as I had done with the previous versions.

Sorry to ramble on, but I thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Backroom Staff - Hire a Director of Football and let him deal with that.

Tactics - Don't over complicate them with needless individual player instructions etc as i find that never works, do add your own team instructions depending on how you want to play, keep to a formation and only change the mentality from match to match depending on your opponent, so easy game at home i attack, tough game away i counter though simply using 'standard' can work just as well home and away. Overall i find the less changes the better.

Match Preparation - Leave training to the staff thats what you pay them for and you won't get any moaning players either. Make your tactic at the start of pre season and then i personally let my assistant control the friendlies but using the tactic you have made.

Advice Before Matches - I now never change anything my coaches suggest, not even individual opposition player instructions as i find that completely changes the way you want your own team to play. I also never listen to any of the fortnightly assistant reports when it comes to changing formations or player roles. Just stick to how you want to play.

I used to fiddle about with everything trying to get the perfect tactic only to find that it would fail from the start and rarely if ever improve. Now i just keep things as simply as possible, i've a game going with Arsenal for 5 seasons now (there's a couple of posts in the 'Casual Gamers' thread) and the only change to the tactic i made from the start is that i occasionally change my left sided central midfielder from a CM-DEF to BWM and that happens maybe once a season! You really don't need to change from game to game and as for the training side of things just leave that down to the coaches as that is what they're there for.

Thanks for your time VP. I will take your advice on board and give it a go.

I'm quite the opposite with tactics. I set a formation (almost always 442), making sure all areas of the pitch are suitably covered - 1 cm slightly advanced, 1 slightly deeper; 1 cf slightly advance, 1 slightly deeper. I then set my main team instructions, but always listen to my assistant manager regarding minor tweaks to team instructions before each game. This is the first version of FM where I've found, unless you have superstars in every position, you cannot have 1 fixed tactic and win every game. Look at teams IRL - they mix up their game slightly depending on the opposition strengths (maybe Real, Barca, PSG and Bayern are exceptions, but look at the quality of their teams compared to the rest of the league).

fuck the director of football. Waste of wages IMO.

This!

With the DoF i you are unsure, sign one and once you get familiar you can always get rid and control the parts he does.