Does anyone understand Championship Manager?

Biffa Bacon

I keep coming back to this game because I want to enjoy it, I really do, but it just does my head in. I keep fiddling around with formations and tactics and players but the problem is that there is no way of knowing what exactly you are doing wrong. I think it comes down to using the right tactic but how are you supposed to know why any particular tactic works or doesn't work? Is it just trial and error?

kaimera

I understand it...LUV the game

DRakE

I'm having the exact same problem. I ca nget one goal ahead, so i switch to all out defense 5-3-2 defensive...

and they win 5-1

wtF?!

HELP!

[EDIT] http://www.cmanagercenter.com/ looks ok, might have some helpful tips...here's to hoping [/EDIT]

tHE vAGGABOND

I will give this thread proper attention in the morning

TwoShedsJackson

It's just addictive as hell - my current game I've been managing Deportivo de la Coruna for eight seasons and have won five titles, five Spanish Cups, two European Cups, and every time another job comes up I just can't tear myself away from Deportivo.

If another season of unbridled success comes my way this time I'll resign and take over Millwall or something

Dont be at yourself

Its only appealing if you're winning. Otherwise its the most hateful game on the planet.

Makaveli

The trick is to not change your formation if you dont have to. Why go all out defensive if you go one up. Your team must be weak if you need to do this, and the fact that you lose 5-1 when you do it shows you that you shouldnt bother.
Invest in a good goalie. A strong centre back and centre midfielder and a decent striker.
Play attacking football.

With Barcelona 5 seasons into a new game I've won everything. Have at least 2 formations you know suit your team well.
Try out tactics in friendly matches.
Look at the match stats, player stats and player ratings during the matches to determine where things are working well and where they are not working so well.
From experience, if you dont have world class defenders and goalkeeper to match, you cant win with all out defence. Well maybe against weak teams, it wont work too well in the CL either.

One thing I have noticed though is this. Every team has it's dodgy teams. For me it's Valladollid and Oviedo, especially Valladollid. But get a good team and a working formation you can destroy any team. I've scored double figures in matches against good teams (Atlethic Bilbao) and I dont cheat.
Biggest win ever was 11-0.

Strike a balance. There's no point in scoring 3 in every match but conceeding 4. If you really want to win thngs you will see that you score a fair few but conceede very few.

Try a formation like 4-3-1-2
A player like Figo, Rivaldo, Veron or Totti works very well just behind the strikers. It's also a good way to play three strikers at a time.
I prefer an agressive player in the middle, the likes of Vieria, Davids, or Mendieta work well.
Two creative players on the wings. Usually acttacking midfielders/forwards. Bakircioglu, Riquilme(sp?), Denilson, even Raul or Henry.
Up front I like to have a leftie and a rightie.
Centre of defence, you need two rocks. Nesta, Samuel, Cannavaro. Again I like to play a leftie and a rightie.
Left back, someone who will go forward, Roberto Carlos, Felipe.
Right back, I have always played Thuram there.

There are a lot of great young Italian players in the game, Enzo Maresca, Emanuel Calaio(sp?). Keep sending your scouts out searching, there is no point in you paying them if you are not going to use them.

Also use your coaches to train players for different positions, like to play with both feet etc. Vieria is a great player for learning new things.

Well it's late, I think I've gone on way too long. I hope some of this helps.

Makaveli

Originally posted by Castor Troy

If another season of unbridled success comes my way this time I'll resign and take over Millwall or something

Bet you wont. It's too hard to leave a team you have built up over the years. The thought of playing against them means I never leave them. It's like a family... how pathetic am I?:D

TwoShedsJackson

Originally posted by Makaveli


Bet you wont. It's too hard to leave a team you have built up over the years. The thought of playing against them means I never leave them. It's like a family... how pathetic am I?:D

Yeah you're probably right - I'll most likely keep managing them until the inevitable, if there's one certainty in management it's the sack

The board at Deportivo are fairly twitchy about losses etc., so basically I have to keep delivering the title each year and make the QF at least of the Champions League or I'll be out on my ear.

tHE vAGGABOND

Marc Vaughan's Hints and Tips document will be very handy if you are stuck...

kaimera

I find the using other people's tactic n whatnot sort o detract from the game and what it's supposed to be.
The idea is YOUR the manager and you make the decisions not some one else ya know?

Btw...tactic I use 3-5-2-1 attacking
or
3-5-1-2 attacking.

have all your midfielders pass to the centre cos they'll knock it on the your two strikers all the time and you got a better chance o scoring.
Strikers need to be strong and skillful altho I won the Premiership with Charlton playing with Stuart up front...go figure..:p

One tactic I HATE with a vengence to play against is Barcalona's 4-3-2-1..ffs...

IF all else fails....BUY Success

Retr0gamer

I understand the game totally! microsoft were going to buy the rights to it. They were going to change the name to 'Football for Excel".

-RaY-

yes it is a very good game for newbies I think its best to start off with very good teams like Man U or Juventus because its alot easier when you have all the world class players already, When you get better at it and become a hardocre plkayer the challnege really comes when you join 3rd division eams and bring them to the champions league I havent done that yet but im close enuff im with Layton oreints and i am currently in the premier ship and fighting for a place in the uefa cup =] . Also some no name players are actually very good check out a Egyptian called Ibrahim Said i bought him for 1.5 million and in 2 eyars time i sold him for 15 million to man u, check around web sites for the no name players for cheap as piss and u can later sell them on for nearly 5-10 times the original amount.

TwoShedsJackson

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
I understand the game totally! microsoft were going to buy the rights to it. They were going to change the name to 'Football for Excel".

Yeah we heard in the last CM thread that you didn't like it. If you've nothing worthwhile to post, why not slag off and troll some other thread?

Doodee

Nonono!
omg, the only that your having that sort of success is because your using a Big team like Depo.
I'm a Villa Fan and love the team enoumously. I alway pick them. However If you ever picked them you'd know that the team wasnt stat'd very well.
you've **** all money as they had just updated the Team to include Balaban so you only have around 13-15Mill. also the club seems to have a huge problem trying to influence players to join. I tried to buy Requilme but he wouldnt leave Boca Lazio had a much better chance. the best way to win if your a small team is to play a few games and sell the players that dont suite your team. you cant expect sucess straight away. Do remember that your taking over from another manager with different Likes/dislike and had a team already thought of.
For example. the Villa team I started off with had Kachoul Haji Stone Taylor Hendrie Merson Boatang samuel. also the club was in the inter toto cup. I used this to get these players sold. whenever you place a player on the transfer list you will get Teams offering you monthly payments for the players and quite often you have to work on a loss. Now for me Hadji Kachoul Stone Alpay and Balaban had to leave. However I didnt sell them straight away. I let the players play using the Default Tactics and Editing the team whatever way I felt like. once the players got a Few 7,8,9 and 10 rating I placed them on the transfer List and sold them to the clubs who could offer me the cash straight away. other players that I couldnt sell straight away (the likes of Balaban) I played for a year. My team did very well in the first season.. We won the prem and the EUFA cup. now the main reason for this was that I played players that were dedicated to the club and played Very well. when your switch to a normal moral Form and play a strong Defence. I used to split the field evenly with 5 attacking players and 5 Defensive in a 4-4-2 form. It is essential to have a good Goalkeeper. I thankfully had Smeicheal for my first season and bout Frey off Parma when he became to old. ALWAYS use your Scots. If your a small club the only thing that you can do to succeed is win and by Buying the upcoming Talent your promised an Good income. DONT BUY WHO YOU CANT AFFORD. often when players believe they are indispensible they consider themselves to be more important than the Team. although you can Offer 55,000 you wont be able to after a few season. I made this mistake and it cost me. I had a EUFA CUP winning Team. Super cup. Fa Prem I wont it all but I had 7/11 of my first team players were on 55,000-125,000 a Week. My transfer funds soon went and when players stop playing with heart and the team began to slump I couldnt afford to invest in new Talent.
Back to my First season. I bought players like Selakovic (Brilliant on the right wing) He teamed up with Ginola on each wing and they soon produced a total of 120 assists between them. My Key goalscorer was Dublin. Just because they are old doesnt mean they cant play. i Sold Alpay and bought weatherall off Bradford. Wiv Weatherall and Melberg as my two central Defenders and with G.Barry and M.Delany on their Right and Left I wasnt conceeding to many goals.
As I said I had Ginola and Selakovic on the wings and in the centre I used Merson and Boatang. I always replaced Merson between first and Second hafs with Kachoul and Hendrie and Boatang was a key midfielder so I would rarely Sub him.
Up front I always used Dublin as he is incredibly Consistant and beside him either Angel or Balaban. I'd replace Dublin with Vassel. Unfortunatly until I got bored and stopped playing it for ages I never realised Vassels potential. He is a Very good player and can be trained to be a huge influence.
often with young Foreign players they can avail of an English passport after 3 years at your club. Due to my Success in the Fa Cup and being in the Semi's of the EUFA I finally Got Requilme and I never turned back. he is a brilliant player when he gets settled in and the Strikers at the club hated him as he would always score before they did. he does pass some of the time.
Once you have success then get the Big Names. They will attract other Big names and soon the club will be big enough to influence opposing teams. I once caught Roma starting highly defensivly. IMHO a Good offense is your best defence. and whever big teams scored goals they would switch straight to a defensive style. this was always a good thing as almost a minute afterwards I'd score again and they would have to attack. if you dont have a Good captain your team will be caught off like this. Make sure the Captain has allot of influence and Respect at the Club.
Gawd look at the size of this thing.
you have to Take the good with the Bad!!!!! you cant win em all and quite often you will have season where it wont go your way but like a phoneix from the Flames you will come back. as I did. when that wage bill got too big the new Transfer system came to the rescue and allot of my players got bought. I then looked at the Italian league for help and found it. I bought Zauri from Atalanta to replace Davids after he left and after a month at the club he was even better than davids. he scored aswell as defended (amazingly some big itialian club bought him in real Life... there yea go just look at saviola.)
Hope I've helped a bit. I found that it took a while before I could figure out what forms won and which ones didnt and they never worked all the time. Also if a form is unfermiliar to the team the team cant settle in a game sand wont be able to play well.

blah. this is way too big now

kaimera

Doodee...your post is a terrible eyesore.:( ..too cramped.

CM rulz!

Wonder about CM4.....

/goes away to ponder....

Vokes

Btw...tactic I use 3-5-2-1 attacking

Eh?? No goalkeeper??

Biffa Bacon

Doodee, I liked your post. That's the great thing about CM, you just have to tell everyone about how great you did.

the fnj

The game is all about your team orders. Look at what a player is good at and set him to do that.

For example I use 4-1-3-2 in the league and 4-1-2-2-1 in Europe. Copying that formation is all well and good but you have to set each player up to play their strengths. For example a midfielder with good dribbling, acceleration and pace set him to run with the ball, set midfielders with good tackling to make hard tackles and keep them back so they can break up opposition breaks. It goes on like this look at what your players are good at and set them to do it.

In my current game I’m up to 2011 I was playing with Fulham but I quit because I was growing bored of winning the league by 15/20 points every year. I’m now playing with Wigan.

My Fulham line up in my last season (I won everything I entered that year) was Gk-Proto, DL-Dede, DR-Callifano, DC-Canavaro, DC-Hofland, DMC- Vieira, MC-Robben, MC-Riquelme, MC-Aimar, SC-Henry, SC-Defo. I also had some great players on the bench who could slot in without any hassle and they got plenty of starts due to the sheer size of my fixture list. When I get a chance I’ll put my formations up on this thread so you can download them once you have a couple of decent players they should work reasonably well and as you get better you can adapt them to suit your players.

By the way your about to start playing the most addictive games I’ve ever played. I have it installed in work and I once played it for twelve hours during a double shift. Be prepared to lose your social life.

Lafortezza

if you like CM, then check out www.soccerbulletin.com
theres a forum there for talking about CM

L.

the fnj

Try using this tactic in the league. Look at the player orders I have placed and it should make it clearer what to do.

My euro formation is also there.

tHE vAGGABOND

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