BOT Brad - Comments

"Zeljko Buvac believes our current players have developed a strong understanding."

and thanks for that link, I think it may be that I have only been in the Dortmund job for little over a year and my players may not be 100% on-board with me yet, as I left Ponferradina after 7 years in charge and all my players were listed me as their favoured personel which meant every team talk worked and they would listen to me, whereas right now I am struggling to get some of my star players motivated and playing well...

Hello there!

I have been a FM player since FM2007 and have always generally done ok, but more recently I have begun playing the game a bit further and instead of just sticking with the lower-leagues, where I find just having a decent team will win you games most of the time, I have started managing some bigger teams.

I am currently manager of Dortmund in 2019, and even though I have probably the best team in the league, I am finding that I am losing, drawing and condeding far too many goals. I am currently in October 2019 and we are 2nd in the league on 19 points from 8 games (6W,1D,1L). I seem to find I just win/lose at random, regardless of my tactics or lineup. I know I am not doing that bad in the league, but all of my wins have been against vastly inferior opposition, and have been lucky 1-0 or 2-1 scraped wins.

I have never really delved into the training and tactics aspect of FM, and usually just let my assistant manager do the training because I don't know what works well and what doesnt. I have tried experimenting (I did somehow win the La Liga with Ponferradina a few seasons back), but nothing seemed to work or change.

I generally line up with a 4-4-2 Diamond with 2 CM's (rather than wingers). Im not sure what else there is to say. If anyone can help me try and figure out how to start getting a bit more consistent I would appreciate it. I can post any pictures or provide more information.

What should I be doing when preparing for an opponent? What in-match commands work best and which dont work?

Sorry if I appear very overwhelmed, I never really realised the game was quite this in-depth and after spending countless years (Both in-game and in real life in terms of FM07-13) just managing Blue Square Premier teams, I am finding myself out of my depth!