Help me out of a slump!

Cyrus

Morning all
Really need some help, took over leeds in FM08 (haven’t played champo in ages just getting back in). First season, with the 15 pt deficit, we finished 6th and didn’t make it through the play offs.
Had a few quid in the summer so bought jay bothroyd who I had on loan in the first season and did very well and Philip Christanval. Also got a Romanian AMRC and a few others. Realistically I should have one of the best teams in the division.

Got off to a poor, inconsistent start and then started messing with formations that I downloaded and its all gone pear shaped (I know I know shouldn’t mess with formations every game). My defensive record is top 6 material (although I seem to concede a lot of late goals) but I cant seem to score enough even though Bothroyd and Harsayni (on loan from Bolton) are both doing ok.

It is Christmas now and im in the bottom 8, really need to start getting some results. So I need help with 2 things. A decent formation for League 1 and recommendations of players to sign in January (not got a large database unfortunately). Also I reckon my keeper is useless!

SantryRed

Do people reallly download formations?

WHere's the challenge in the game if you do that?:rolleyes:

aquascrotum

If you have the right playing personnel it sounds like a player personality clash, or a poor choice of captain maybe, or an unhappy influential player? The choice of captain I find particularly affects how your team holds out for results (indicative of your number of late goals maybe?). Review your captains influence, teamwork, and workrate - influence is the most important. Any unhappy players about relations with other players, ship one or the other out of the club or to the reserves permanently.

I rarely leave a 4-4-2 with wingers pushing on, big target man holding up + quick striker playing off him; one holding centre mid dropping back, and one pushing on - possibly with a free role if I'm at home against weaker opposition. If I come up against the supergoalie bug where the tactic is cracked, I change to a 4-5-1 with one holding centre and 2 attacking centre mids pushed up behind the target man. I always revert back to 4-4-2 after a couple of games though.

In general though I find that if the players are good enough for the level you're at, keeping them happy is more important to the performance than the finer details of tactics used.

Fanny Cradock

I did the same myself. After a shaky 1st season, I went on to gain successive promotions and won the PL in my second season in the league.

After the first season, it was clear that major changes were required. I introduced some key players (see below) and stuck with a plain old 4-4-2 formation with the wingers free to push up from midfield to attack. Tactically speaking, there was really little in the way of fancy stuff.

IMO, to progress you will have to ditch the Pruttons and the Douglas' of your team sooner rather than later. Rebuild from the GK up and be consistent with your formation. I find that big changes (tactically or in terms of bring in a large amount of new signings) will temporarily unsettle your teams form.

Sort out all the little stuff - your corner kick takers etc, your training schedule and back room staff. Each coach should training in one or two areas only as their effectiveness decreases the more areas they train in. Ideally they should only train in one area e.g. shooting if they have high stats for shooting. I would recommend Steve Bould as a good assistant manager.

If you are luck enough you can get teams like Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal etc. to be a parent club to Leeds. This way you will be more likely to secure long term loans for quality players (relatively speaking) who would otherwise reject you.

Key Players

*Anthony Laffor - FW - if your database is set to large he'll be on the Liberian national team - 250k

Abdessalam Benjelloun - FW - Hibs - 230K

*Albert Jarrett - LW - initially he's a free agent. 180K

Danny Senda - RB/RW (played mostly at RW) - Millwall - 130k

All these players were integral in turning an indifferent first season into a play-off promotion the following season. The two players with the * were still with me when I won the PL.

Cyrus

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I did the same myself. After a shaky 1st season, I went on to gain successive promotions and won the PL in my second season in the league.

After the first season, it was clear that major changes were required. I introduced some key players (see below) and stuck with a plain old 4-4-2 formation with the wingers free to push up from midfield to attack. Tactically speaking, there was really little in the way of fancy stuff.

IMO, to progress you will have to ditch the Pruttons and the Douglas' of your team sooner rather than later. Rebuild from the GK up and be consistent with your formation. I find that big changes (tactically or in terms of bring in a large amount of new signings) will temporarily unsettle your teams form.

Sort out all the little stuff - your corner kick takers etc, your training schedule and back room staff. Each coach should training in one or two areas only as their effectiveness decreases the more areas they train in. Ideally they should only train in one area e.g. shooting if they have high stats for shooting. I would recommend Steve Bould as a good assistant manager.

If you are luck enough you can get teams like Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal etc. to be a parent club to Leeds. This way you will be more likely to secure long term loans for quality players (relatively speaking) who would otherwise reject you.

Key Players

*Anthony Laffor - FW - if your database is set to large he'll be on the Liberian national team - 250k

Abdessalam Benjelloun - FW - Hibs - 230K

*Albert Jarrett - LW - initially he's a free agent. 180K

Danny Senda - RB/RW (played mostly at RW) - Millwall - 130k

All these players were integral in turning an indifferent first season into a play-off promotion the following season. The two players with the * were still with me when I won the PL.

cheers for that, thats the type of 'helpful' (im looking at you santry red ) info i need.

Douglas and Prutton are gone.

id list the team but i cant rem all players names (maybe thats why im doing so poorly :P)

Fanny Cradock

Cyrus wrote: »

cheers for that, thats the type of 'helpful' (im looking at you santry red ) info i need.

Douglas and Prutton are gone.

id list the team but i cant rem all players names (maybe thats why im doing so poorly :P)

No probs. I wouldn't stop at those two guys. The Leeds defence is crap and needs work. Come to think of it so are the MF and ATT. My rule of thumb is that anyone who gets below an average of 7 is gone.

Sending out your scouts is handy enough way of finding players (you'll be very limited with the results you'll receive with Leeds in their current position). But I find that searching yourself by attributes is the best way. So, for example, if you are looking for a CB you will search by fairly high numbers for marking, tackling, strength, etc. Again, you results will be limited both in terms of the players willing to sign and also your poor regional knowledge, but you'll pick up better player than you already have.

The Everlasting

I play as Leeds ALL the time and must've gotten promoted from League One at first attempt over 50 times at this stage.

Here's what to do:

Straight away, terminate Gus Poyets contract as assistant and bring in Chris Fairclough as your new assistant (He's head of youth at Forest but is ex-Leeds so fans love you straight away for replacing a chelsea boy with ex-leeds)

Then, you set your target as Champions, which makes Bates give you 1.7 mil or thereabouts to spend on players.

Of the players you have already, you ditch the ENTIRE squad (not including U18's) with the exception of

Beckford
Howson
Da Costa
Huntington
Richardson
Parker
Rothery
Bayly
Lund
Gardner

I'm not joking here btw, ditch EVERYONE bar these 10 players.

You can't sell some of em? LOAN EM OUT! Either way, apart from the above 10, the rest are no use.

You should get about 300k from MK Dons for Ian Westlake, so that roughly gives you 2 mil to spend in League One.

Now we come to signings.

First thing you should do is get rid of the 4 LOANS you can bring in.

For this, you sign all on season long loans-

Nordvelt from Arsenal (centre back)
Edgar from Newcastle (centre back)
O'Hara from Spurs (centre midfield)
Albrechtsen from West Brom (can play anywhere in defence which is handy)

All of the above are guaranteed to sign for you on season long loans (provided they havent been snapped up already).

Now to spend yer 2 mil

Aaritalo (Striker- 250k)
Piatti (Attacking centre midfield - 250k)
Torje (Right winger- 300k)
Butler (Centre back- 200k)
Stancu (Striker- 300k)
Sarghi (Right Back- 200k)
Sepsi (Left Back- 200k)
Lehtovaara (Goalkeeper- 25k)
Dalla Valle (Attacking Midfielder/Striker- 10k)
Scribe (GoalKeeper- 150k)


All of the above develop into 10 million pound players and can still be part of your squad should you ever make the Champiosn League (their potential is class)

This gives you a 24 man squad

3 keepers
5 centre backs
5 full backs
3 wingers
5 centre midfielders
3 strikers

Play a 4-3-1-2 attacking formation with Howson in behind whatever strikers you choose, make Huntington your captain, and you'll be promoted by Xmas!

Hope this helps!

SantryRed

What's the fun in being the same team over 50 times?

Cyrus

SantryRed wrote: »

What's the fun in being the same team over 50 times?

whats the point of either of your posts in this thread?

SantryRed

I like the game being enjoyable. I disagree with what you're doing by downloading formations. It's like asking Alex Ferguson for his training regime.

Stupid:rolleyes:

I see it as cheating.

The Everlasting

SantryRed wrote: »

What's the fun in being the same team over 50 times?

Quest for Champions League glory keeps on eluding me so I start from scratch each time

Thomas_S_Hunterson

SantryRed wrote: »

I like the game being enjoyable. I disagree with what you're doing by downloading formations. It's like asking Alex Ferguson for his training regime.

Stupid:rolleyes:

I see it as cheating.

So do you think Alex Ferguson doesn't keep an eye on what other clubs are doing?

The Everlasting

Sean_K wrote: »

So do you think Alex Ferguson doesn't keep an eye on what other clubs are doing?

Hopefully he'll do us all a favour and try and immitate Derby last season

Cyrus

SantryRed wrote: »

I like the game being enjoyable. I disagree with what you're doing by downloading formations. It's like asking Alex Ferguson for his training regime.

Stupid:rolleyes:

I see it as cheating.

i see your posts as unhelpful and annoying :rolleyes:

leninbenjamin

SantryRed wrote: »

I like the game being enjoyable. I disagree with what you're doing by downloading formations. It's like asking Alex Ferguson for his training regime.

Stupid:rolleyes:

I see it as cheating.

uhh... Alex Ferguson was famous for sending over his coaches to learn from the heavyweights in Europe. I think Juventus in particular were a team he closely emulated for a period.

The Everlasting

Harchester United used to send their people to watch Leeds and learn

longfordjames

get sheehan on loan off leicester(in real life hes now wit leeds anyway) set him to take frees from both sides..in my game in 44 apps he scored 10.

Art Deco

Lazlo Sepsi is a much better left back......... costs 200k, in 3 years time is worth 10 million, best left back I've ever had

Cyrus

its 2015 now and im sevilla manager!

managed to get leeds into the EPL, took me 6 years, first season finished 14th, bought a load of good young talent but had a a bad start and got the boot before chrimbo

then concentrated on nigeria (i got that job 1 year previous) lost african cup final on pens, and managed to get the sevilla job in june

currently second in la liga after 7 games