niallwalsh.net

I’ve had several emails from people asking for some tactical advice for Football Manager 2008 (Worldwide Soccer Manager) and have finally got round to sharing some.

The system I’m currently using is with West Brom and is a rather odd 3-3-1-2-1 formation. As odd as it looks it has really helped me punch above my weight in the Premier league with a couple of fantasic wins away Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd as well is domination at home.

The main keys to this formation are to have at least one very strong centre back, a strong defensive midfielder and good attacking midfielders. I score most of my goals from my two attacking midfielders with my forward acting not as a target man just more of a pain in the backside, chasing down balls etc…

Much of the this formation it geared up into stiffling the opposition and then hitting them on the break. While you may not finish the season at the highest scorers in the league the way I see it the results are the thing that matter.

As your team progresses you can add quicker and more skillfull players into the same formation and be even more effective. I’ve had this formation for four seasons now the side is getting better and better as the years tick by.

What I end up doing if I’m trying to close out a away game when I’m in the lead is change the tempo to as slow as you can go, passing to short and time wasting to as high as it goes.

To download the tactics go to http://www.niallwalsh.net/wp-content/uploads/3-3-1-2-1.tac

To install simply place the .tac file in My Documents/Sports Interactive/FM 2008/Tactics

I’d be interested to hear how people get on with these.

(8 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)

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A few people have been in touch looking for good cheap players in Football Manager 2008 for teams lower down the leagues and without too much cash. Well I’ll start the ball rolling with some players for under 100k. Don’t expect these players to do the business for the likes if Liverpool and Real Madrid but lower down the divisions and in the right term they could be great!

Name: Peter Winn
Age: 18
Position: AML ST
Club: Scunthorpe
Value: 24k
Work permit: No

Name: Fabrice Fernandes
Age: 27
Position: AMRL
Club: Free
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Bogdan Stancu
Age: 20
Club: Unirea Urziceni
Position: ST
Value: 50k
Work permit: No

Name:Mohammad Tadayon
Age:23
Position:ST
Club:Linkoping
Value:1k
Work permit: No

Name: Patrik Lomski
Age: 18
Position: AM/ST
Club: Turun Palloseura
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Owen Price
Age: 20
Position: AMR,ST
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Scott Donnelly
Age: 19
Position: AMRC
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Oscar Carmelo Sanchez
Age: 36 (few years left in the tank)
Position: SW, DC
Club: Bolivar
Value: 7k
Work permit: Yes

Name: Marian Ognyanov
Age: 18
Position: AMLC
Club: Levski
Value: Free
Work permit: No

Name: Alex Fernandez
Age: 20
Position: Striker
Club: Coslada
Value: free (get there quick)
Work permit: No

Name: Sean Evans
Age: 19
Position: D/AML
Club: Man Utd
Value: 35k
Work permit: No

Name: Rhys Day
Age: 24
Position: DC
Club: Aldershot
Value: 30k
Work permit: No

Feel free to submit your own to give people the best selection we can and follow the format:

Name:
Age:
Position:
Club:
Value:
Work permit:

(8 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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I don’t know about you but the little hints and tips that pop up while the game is loading etc appear a little too quick for me so here is a selection of some of the better ones:

• The shooting training category covers a player’s finishing, long shots and composure.
• The set-pieces training category covers a player’s crossing, corners, free kicks, penalty taking and long throws.
• Players will naturally develop their mental attributes through experience as they get older.
• When training players for lower league clubs, it would be important to focus more on the physical aspects such as pace and stamina.
• Youth team coaches only train youth players, they do not work with or train senior players.
• Goalkeeping coaches work with and train both senior and youth goalkeepers.
• Fitness coaches work with the senior and youth players, but only deal with the physical aspects of training.
• First-team coaches only work with and train the senior players, they do not work with or train youth players.
• When consulting your Groundsman over pitch dimensions, it is important to keep in mind how your team plays.
• Having a wide pitch may suit teams that play with wingers whereas it may have a detrimental effect on a team that plays narrow and through the middle.
• When watching a match you can keep an eye on the opposing team’s formation and changes made during the game by selecting ‘Formations’ from the ‘tree’ menu in the side-bar.
• When using the ‘Use Playmaker’ tactic, your players will generally look to try and pass the ball to the person you’ve assigned to that role.
• A playmaker is someone who generally looks to receive the ball and dictate play.
• A target man is someone who will look to bring others into play via flick-ons or holding up the ball.
• If you find you’re leaving too much space behind your defence, try setting your centre-backs mentality to ‘Ultra Defensive’ or using a deeper defensive line.
• Pace, acceleration, dribbling, technique, finishing and off the ball are just some of the important characteristics that make for a good pacey striker.
• Jumping, heading, strength and off the ball are just some of the important characteristics that make for a good target man.
• The ratings for reflexes, handling, communication, jumping and positioning are generally a good indicator for how good a goalkeeper is.
• If you’re looking for a good wing-back pay special attention to an individual’s positioning, tackling, stamina, pace and acceleration.
• Positioning, tackling, pace and anticipation are just some of the important characteristics that make for a good full-back.
• When choosing your captain, the most important attribute to consider is his influence.
• When signing scouts from a foreign country, your team will benefit from the scout’s knowledge of players from that nation.
• Scouting a player more than once will increase the likelihood of the scout finding out more about his strengths and weaknesses.
• The more scouting knowledge your club has, the more players will appear on the player search screen.
• Assigning a scout to ‘Scout Next Opposition’ and to a country/region in another continent will result in that scout spending a lot of time travelling rather than actually scouting players
• Your club’s level of scouting knowledge can be increased by either signing scouts who already have a large knowledge base, acquiring an affiliate club or by sending your existing scouts out to investigate new territories.
• Scouting your next opposition will give you an insight into their tactics and key players and help you plan your tactical approach for the game.
• Be more generous with your praise for good performances when playing away from home.
• Be less harsh with your criticism for poor performances when playing away from home.
• Be more demanding of your players when playing at home, where your fans will be expectant of you to push on to try to get the right result.
• Team talks can be very useful for morale, but don’t always follow the same route. Constantly saying the same thing to your players may have less of an affect in the long-run.
• Ignoring your players at half-time is generally a bad idea, but on rare occasions leaving them to stew over their performance may result in a better second period.
• Keep your players happy. Praising wins keeps morale up and provides greater impetus for the team to string good performances together.

I’ll maybe post some more later in the week.

(8 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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To obtain a maximum 7 star training setup in Football Manager 2008 (Worldwide Soccer Manager) your coaches should have at least the following attributes:

Strength: 18 Fitness

Aerobic: 18 Fitness

Goalkeeping: 18 Goalkeeping

Tactics: 18 Tactical

Defending: 18 Defending and 18 Tactical
or 19 Defending and 14 Tactical
or 20 Defending and 10 Tactical

Ball Control: 18 Technique and 18 Mental
or 19 Technique and 14 Mental
or 20 Technique and 10 Mental

Attacking: 18 Attacking and 18 Tactical
or 19 Attacking and 14 Tactical
or 20 Attacking and 10 Tactical

Shooting: 18 Technique and 18 Attacking
or 19 Technique and 14 Attacking
or 20 Technique and 10 Attacking

Set Pieces: 17 Technique and 39 (mental+attacking)
or 18 Technique and 36 (mental+attacking)
or 19 Technique and 33 (mental+attacking)
or 20 Technique and 30 (mental+attacking)

Oh yeah before people post saying it’s 5 star I can assure you in 2008 it really is 7 star!

To give people a helping hand I’ve included the training scedule I’m currently using. While it isn’t perfect just yet it is definitely better than the default.

It would be good to hear peoples comments on how they get on with this.

niallwalsh.net Football Manager 2008 - Training Scheme Download

When you download a training scheme, the correct place to install it is:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\schedules

This can often be confused with the below, but do NOT put it there:

C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\data\shedules

(25 votes, average: 4.12 out of 5)

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Installing new graphics in Football Manager 2008 isn’t as easy as it used to be. Here is a pretty rough guide outlining how to install the facepacks, kits, logos and skins in Football Manager 2008:

Firstly we need to create some folders. First folder is “graphics”. Go to My Documents, you will see Sports Interactive folder followed by Football Manager 2008 which were pre-created when you install the game.

C:\…\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\graphics\

Installing Club/Country Kits

And now, if you wish to install Club/Country Kits, create 2 folders, “pictures” and “kits” folder in graphics folder like below:

C:\…\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\graphics\pictures\kits\

Go into “kits” folder. Extract all kits files you downloaded in there. Look at the screen shot of how you can organise it.

Installing Player Pictures

As for Player Pictures, you need to create “players” folder under graphics.

C:\…\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\graphics\players\

Go into “players” folder. Extract all player files you downloaded in there. Look at the screen shot of how you can organise it.

Installing Club/Competition Logos

If you wish to install small, huge logos of clubs and competitions, you may do so by creating “logos” under graphics.

C:\…\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2008\graphics\logos\

And in “logos” folder, take a look at the screen shot how you can organise it.

Game Settings for graphics to appear

Load your game in FM 2008, go to Preferences > Display & Sound > Untick Skin Cache

Then you should be ready to rock and roll.

If you haven’t got any graphics to install then these links should get you started:

A nice way to add an extra bit of functionality of Football Manager 2008 is to install some extra graphics such as player faces (facepacks), team kits, team logos and skins for the look of the site.

Here is a selection of links that should help you get you started with the graphics:

• sortitoutsi.net - Football Manager Fansite
• Football Manager 2008 Portal - Download FM2008 Graphics
• Underground FC Forums -> Download Manager -> Graphics
• CMFrenzy.Com - FM 2008 Graphics

Don’t forget to read, rate and comment on some other Football Manager related articles on the site, always good to hear peoples views! (22 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)

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