Football Manager 2011

Saw there wasn't a topic for the greatest Football Management sim ever,so post all your trials and tribulations of your seasons here,and any players/tactics you can recommend.

I'm currently playing a season as Worcester City in the Blue Square North and I'm going well so far,top of the league and lost two games all season(One League and one in the FA Cup first round away at Crawley).No money so all signings are free transfers.Best players for me so far:

Gautier Mahoto:9 Goals and 9 Assists from Central Midfield
Mark Danks:15 goals in 16 games
Mustapha Traore:Absolute rock at the back.

Mahoto and Traore were both free transfers.So,Anyone got any stories of glory/despair on Football Manager this year?

I havent got the new one yet, will have to get it soon though. I have recently found Football Manager 2005 so been playing on that!

when is the January transfer window update out?

Is the new one any good then? Im still playing on fm2009 which still holds up as the best fm of all time...

2011 is briliant mate!

A lot more in detail with regards of tactics/roles of player and how to play players against other players etc. So it isn't easy for casual gamer. Great buy though!!

Cheers, do you think 2012 will be a massive improvement again? Or should I get 2011 cheap?

To be honest, I am not very sure what else they can change for 2012. I usually download the free demo and see what like that is before deciding.

But I'd get 2011 on the cheap - excellent game

Thanks for the advice mate

No problem mate - I am well and truly an FM junkie.

I am playing with Bury on the new one and finding it so much harder than normal, finally getting used to it after going on a 9 game losing streak!

I spent three seasons in charge of Man Utd and won the treble in the 3rd season with a team consisting of the likes of Balotelli (who moved over from City at the end of the 1st season for £5 million!), Neymar, Sanchez, Suarez, Lloris, Rodwell & Henderson.
Now I’ve restarted with Macc Town, I’ve got 5 Utd kids on loan plus a load more quality free signings that I nabbed off hint and tips sites, yet I’m 2nd bottom of the league and only won 1 all season.

Hero, usually if you are at a small club like that it takes a little longer for the team to gel due to the standard of your coaches. Also whenever I have played with a smaller team it is good to up the training a little bit. Your team will start winning soon enough!

i support westham but i decided to managed stockport and i have got them into the top half of the premier league so far with hardly any money

Cheers Steve, I'll have a backroom reshuffle tonight in hopes it'll start to turn things around.
I've got a cracking pair of strikers yet I just cannot score to save my life at present, dominating matches for chances etc but just not getting them in.

Can you run this on a normal laptop? Or do you need graphics cards and the like?

Also, can you pick any team you want?

If you can afford them then I would recommend any of Bobby Downes, Brian Klug, John Perkins and Tosh Farrell to add to your backroom staff. They are all free agents so won't cost you anything for compensation but I am not 100% sure what they'll ask for in wages. Bobby Downes is top quality.

Your striker problem will ease when they get a couple of goals but like I said earlier that is where upping areas/specialising training for different areas of your team.

As you can see, I am an FM junkie

Electric demon it obviously has a few requirements but it should run on a standard laptop, pretty much any team, goes down to blue square north/south in England.

Cheers Derby,

I've got a pretty new Laptop. It's got all the gigahertz and that. Just no graphics card.

Why doesn't Football Manager get released for PS3 or x-box - as I assume that they are both powerful enough now??

You can even play as Watford Demon!

How did you know that's what I wanted??

Well you can always take it back if it doesn't work for some reason.

Not if it’s down to your laptop not having the specs for it, places like Game are very funny on PC games being returned and always make sure they ask people if they can run it on their machine before they sell it them.

how does everyone else always seem to do so well on fm

having said that i did win the championship in the first season with Bristol City and next season got relegated just starting the 3rd season now, parashoot payments

Hodge: I'm not doing too well on FM2011, but then I'm getting bored with it probably cos it's a bit harder than previous, and because I played with Carlisle and even though I was doing well about (I think 4th in the league, semi final of carling cup, still in JPT) no players would sign contract extensions, and I had no money to sign anyone in the transfer window so I just got fed up with the game.

Currently in a save with Scottish Second Division side Livingston, I just beat Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish League Cup where their only goal was scored by one of my players. I beat St Johnstone in the previous round 4-1.

Currently on a 12 game winning streak in the League too.

I am with Bury upped all the training and they complained! I also enjoyed when Efe Sodje advised that Efe Sodje was in poor form and should be dropped!

Hero how manygames in are you? I drew and lost my first 2 and then went on a 9 game losing streak! I then took out all my new signings and the team started to play better

There are some cracking botches in the game.

I won a Champions League semi final once and the game decided it was the final and I was named the winner

Another cracking one is if you watch the game in the 3D version the goalkeeper always picks the ball up outside the box!

I also make subs, they come on the pitch and then the player I brought off is then involved in the play and I have to make the sub again!

I’m in the middle of December with Macclesfield, still only won the 1 game in the league but somehow not been threatened with the sack and am in the 3rd round of the FA Cup after beating L1 opposition convincingly both times to show that they can actually be bothered when they want. At present the only player who seems to be earning his wages is Wayne Rooney’s brother.

Need some more motivational team talks, or private chats Hero. What are the budgets like in the lower leagues? I might prefer going down into the lower leagues because I love finding free agents.

just beat Preston 7-1 and after the game Darren Ferguson apparantly says he feels i'm out of my depth as City manager despite being in 4th place or so

Derbyblue wrote:Need some more motivational team talks, or private chats Hero. What are the budgets like in the lower leagues? I might prefer going down into the lower leagues because I love finding free agents.

I have a wonderful transfer budget of £0
My total wage bill is £13,500 with my top player on £750 a week.

Hero wrote:

Derbyblue wrote:Need some more motivational team talks, or private chats Hero. What are the budgets like in the lower leagues? I might prefer going down into the lower leagues because I love finding free agents.

I have a wonderful transfer budget of £0
My total wage bill is £13,500 with my top player on £750 a week.

What's your total wage budget?

sorry my wage budget is £13,500
I'm actually over that at present with about £14,900 I think

I have a £0 transfer budget and a wage budget of £15, 250, apparently I have a squad with lots of strength in depth according to other managers. I dont think so!!

Well I returned to playing as West Brom after getting bored with Worcester.Won the League in my 3rd season but squad is struggling to cope with the demands of playing in Champions League and Premiership.

First choice XI looks like this:

GK:Carson

DR:Hutton
DC:Onouha
DC:Phil Jones
DL:Jerome Boateng

MR:Sessengon
MC:Defour
MC:Pastore
ML:Giovinco/Adam Johnson

FWD:Gameiro
FWD:Cavani

just dumped fulham out of the league cup too happy days, a trip to Villa in the 4th round

my Bristol City team is a yo yo team, 1st season promoted, 2nd season relegated, 3rd season re promoted to the premier league.

However I have made some quality signings this summer

Van Der Vaart - £2.9m
Henrique - free
Frazier Campbell - £6m
Pavlyachenko - free
Lansbury - £2.2m
Matthew Bates - free
Ciaran Clark - £1.1m
Hoolahan - free
Sturridge - free
Bannan - free

team looks like:

................... Sturridge .......... Hooper .................
Bannan ......... VDV............... Lansbury ..... Eagles
Fonatine ... Henrique .............. Clark ........ Ribeiro
............................... Lewis ................................

Subs:
Speroni
Bates
St Ledger
Elliott/Hoohlahan/Drinkwater
Kightly/Adomah
Pavlyachenko/Beckford
Campbell

with the target of avoid relegation, i'm confident of my chances

I have realised I was missing out on quite a few thing s so no wonder I wasnt doing well, I restarted the game and setup all my training properly and am now doing much better!

Good stuff David, the training does make a massive difference especially if you specify it into certain areas of your team ie defence, midfield & attack.

Finished my season in the Scottish Second Division with maximum points and scored 118 goals. Currently top of the First Division by three points!

i never bother with training, find it a pain in the bum

finished my 4th season now, finished 12/13th in the premier league with Bristol City, team now looks like

.................................. Carroll ...........................
Malouda ................... Arshavin ............ Eagles..
............ Van Der Vaart ........... Lansbury ...........
Majovic* .......... Clark ......... Henrique .... Ribeiro
................................... Lewis .............................

Subs:
Friedel
Bates
St Ledger
Hoolahan
Bannan
Sturridge
Campbell/Maynard

* = cant remember the name exactly

I have restarted with Burnley and am currently unbeaten, drawing more than winning though!

I never bother with the training.I'm sure it's beneficial in some ways but just seems like far too much work when I'd rather doing things like signing players.

Im still playing my Man City save on FM2009 (just after they got money) deliberately not bought too many big names. Now half way through 5th season, squad looks like this:

GK: S. Asenjo

CB: M. Richards (c)
CB: V. Suominnen - In game wonderkid
CB: M. Dawson

LWB: Y. Zhirkov
RWB: D. Santon

DCM: G. Inler

LAM: L. Modric
CAM: M. Pjanic
RAM: Y. Mollo

CF: S. Aguero

I've taken a break from my Wolves game; 1st season won the FA Cup and finished 4th, 2nd season won the Champions League and finished 3rd, to try a game abroad. Opted for Lille purely because of Hazrad, Gervinho and Sow in attack

AberdeenSteve wrote:There are some cracking botches in the game.

I won a Champions League semi final once and the game decided it was the final and I was named the winner

Another cracking one is if you watch the game in the 3D version the goalkeeper always picks the ball up outside the box!

Think I may have the best fault in fm ever. I'm in my 4th season as forest manager. Got promotes first season and instantly got taken over, because of the money I was given i ended up finishing 7th in my first season in prem. Then got took over again. Ended up winning the league (just) in my third year as I was given 250 million to spend if I promised euro qualification.

For anyone playing lower league football, I recommend Fabian Brandy. I have him in my current Livingston save, he scored 38 in 46 last season and currently has 20 in 14 games this season. Quality

Just an update...got bored with West Brom(Had Barcelona in my CL group and was embarassed by two absolute batterings) so went back to Worcester City.

Got promoted to Blue Square Premier and was 2nd in the division behind Grimbsy despite selling my best player(Mahoto for 100k to getafe,quality business for a lower league side!) and then got offered the Leicester City job.They were 21st in the league but only 6 points off play offs,won my first three games so far my favourite being winning 8-2 at Milwall.Bit of a blessing getting the job as they have plenty of £££ and Sven built up quite the squad!

What improvements would we all like to see for the 2012 version when it is released?

I currently hate the Press Conferences, the questions are always the same and I would like to see a little more variety.

I hate press conferences and often skip them (particularly when we lose...).

I'd actually like to see more variance with the roles of directors of football and owners. Obviously to be switched on and off as we please, but more interaction between the higher ups would be interesting for me.

I'd also like clubs to negotiate fees with me when I'm trying to sign their players rather than just rejecting until I hit a certain point!