Football Manager 2008

**naut** · 07-16-2008, 04:00

Seems you picked up a bargain there.

Originally Posted by Craterus

Poor start to the season and still haven't recovered so I'm currently in a disappointing mid-table position and it looks like I'll finish with that (below last season's achievements and also below what I told the board I'd achieve ). About 10th as of mid-March.

Ouch.

Originally Posted by Craterus

Just realised it'd have been easier to just screenshot from the game but nevermind. Would PrintScreen work or would I have to download something?

Print-Screen works for me.

Played out a dull goalless draw with Newcastle (which was my aim, being away and all). Managed to just beat Blackburn on the return leg 3 - 2, Saviet with the winner (what a bargain, he's a must have any game you play, from Bordeax for £250K). After the game I had 17 odd clubs offering to buy Saviet, for almost nothing. NO way! League Cup final here I come.

Fringe players again:

--------------Almunia

Traore--Senderos--Nordtveit--Zuiverloon

--Modric--Diaby---Banega--Ponzio--

------Van Persie---Saviet

Looks like Podolski it is for Arsenal.

Edit: Podolski was a good choice, scored a double in my 4 - 2 win over Liverpool. Yey!

Dreading the LC Final, I'll surely lose if I use fringe players since Diaby picked up a suspension, and he's my LC creative force.

**edyzmedieval** · 07-19-2008, 13:09

FM 07 campaign still continuing for me, playing as FC Basel. I started the game last year in the summer, still playing it after a year.

Season 2009-2010, in the previous one I won absolutely everything (save-reload on CL, from semifinals, just then - Bayern Munchen was just incredible), I beat Real Madrid in the CL final with 1-0, goal 95th minute from a free kick from Hugo Viana. The international club championship, 2-1 against Internacional with Alexandre Pato in the lineup, the guy is amazing in 2007.

TEAM

Franco Constanzo
Alberto Morgado, Gary Medel, Manuel Da Costa, Koji Nakata
Gabriel Obertan, Hugo Viana, Rasmus Lindgren/Jean
Leandro Lima
Guilherme Cramer Noronha, Bojan Krkic

All out attack 4-3-1-2, with relatively unknown players but I managed to make a winning team out of it. 3rd year in a row I win the championship, they raised my transfer budget to 21 million this year after initially offering 17. This happened because of the good results.

**Craterus** · 07-20-2008, 06:25

So Hoarau ended up getting 34 league goals in 33 league games. He got Top Goalscorer by a long way, 7 goals IIRC, but he didn't get Player of the Year. What kind of BS is that? He had the highest average rating in the league right up until the last 2 games (he finished the season with a 6-5-6). Gah!

**naut** · 07-20-2008, 08:45

Originally Posted by Craterus

So Hoarau ended up getting 34 league goals in 33 league games. He got Top Goalscorer by a long way, 7 goals IIRC, but he didn't get Player of the Year. What kind of BS is that? He had the highest average rating in the league right up until the last 2 games (he finished the season with a 6-5-6). Gah!

Yeh, it's a bit stupid. For me Van Persie got European player of the year, and striker of the year. But he didn't get World player of the year, that was won by Luca Toni who was third place runner-up in Europe.

**Craterus** · 07-20-2008, 14:02

He wasn't even in the top 3, which is what got me a bit confused. Klose, Schweinsteiger, Gomez.

Just turned down the Lyon job but starting to think I should have taken it. So sick of Germany now.

**AggonyDuck** · 07-22-2008, 23:12

Just felt like sharing a shocking match of mine.

I'm currently playing as Rochdale in FM08. I started in Coca-Cola League 2 and I have managed to gain two consequent promotions to the Championship, from which we are most likely to be relegated from. Anyway my shocking victory took place in the 4th Round of the League Cup, in which my little Rochdale ended up facing Liverpool at Anfield Road. I figured it was a done deal and went in with a "lets save our face" attitude. Little did I know that my players had something else in store for me. It was definately football at it's best and I'll now share a quick report on the match.

I started the game with a 4-1-4-1(AM) against Liverpools 3-5-2 in hopes of just conceding as little as possible. The first half was Liverpudlian domination and they bagged two goals during the first half and only my goalkeeper saved me. So for the second half I decided to go for an all or nothing approach and did some offensive substitutions and changed my formation to a 4-2-3-1. To my great surprise my little buggers started the second half with great verve and actually put the pressure on Liverpool and their side. Due to our pressure and excellent passing, Liverpool's players were forced to commit fouls and on the 82' minute, we got a penalty which my fullback Tom Kennedy bagged in. Sadly for us the time was running out and I was already prepared to congratulate my guys on a valiant struggle, when Nastja Ceh surprises Reina with a great freekick from 35 yards and equalises on the 94' minute.

So we go in to extra time and I decide to continue with the same style and ask my players for one more goal. We mildly dominate the extension, but fail to score. So to my great fear we go to penalties, which Liverpool should win comfortably due to their superiority in player skill. My first shooter misses, while Liverpool's bags it. My second and third penalties are stopped by Reina, but my goalkeeper Richard Martin stops theirs too. My fourth shooter was my ex-captain and veteran midfielder Gary Jones who makes a tremendous effort and scores. Then Martin makes another save and we're equal at 1-1 when we go for the final shooters. Here my "weakest" penalty shooter of the five, Mike Jones surprises me by scoring his penalty. So the pressure suddenly falls upon Liverpool's final shooter, Mohamed Sissoko. He buckles under the pressure and shoots his penalty way wide of the goal! Rochdale advanced to the 5th Round of the League Cup and will face Wigan.

Match Overview:

Match Stats

**LittleGrizzly** · 07-23-2008, 17:15

Congrats! Thats what i love about football manager, the unpredictability, its almost like real football...

Edit: im thinking about starting a game in the lower divisons, probably divison 1 (as in below championship) now any good signings for lower divison clubs ?

**AggonyDuck** · 07-23-2008, 18:16

Originally Posted by LittleGrizzly

Congrats! Thats what i love about football manager, the unpredictability, its almost like real football...

Edit: im thinking about starting a game in the lower divisons, probably divison 1 (as in below championship) now any good signings for lower divison clubs ?

Well basically there are tons of good players out there that are willing to play in England at that level and usually you can find quality signings by just looking in the right places. Usually some of the less known football nations in the EU like Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Hungary etc. are full of quality players for League 1 that are available for free or rather small transfers. Another key thing of course is finding players from the Premier clubs available for loan. This has two advantages: firstly it gives you great talent for free and if they like it there you can eventually hire them when you get the money. Anyway free transfers are your friend. Many of the Premier clubs have a habit of offloading some of their reserves at the end of every season and you can easily make good signings that way.

Personally when I started in League 2 with Rochdale, my key signing for that season was a 33-year old Finnish striker/coach called Peter Sampo. I acquired him for a rather small transfer sum of a mere
5k and he pretty much became my best striker with an average of about 7.6, both acting as my playmaker and as my main scorer. This added with the fact that he came with 19 attacking and 18 tactical made him an useful coach too. Sadly his next season in League 1 was cut short due to a leg injury and never really got to see what he could do in there, but the first three games had been very promising. Now in the 2009/10 season he is the best scorer in my reserves.

**LittleGrizzly** · 07-23-2008, 18:28

Yeah the viking countries usually have some good cheap players, wasn't sure they would be willing to go to d1, any reccomendations for best clubs i that division, not nessecarily players but good stadium and facilities and hopefully a decent bit of money...

**AggonyDuck** · 07-23-2008, 19:24

Millwall, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest should all be excellent options with good facilities, budget and stadium.

**Craterus** · 07-23-2008, 23:02

I just randomise when I start a new game. Fighting relegation can be more exciting than picking the best team in a league and coasting to promotion. I'd say every team has it's bonuses.

However, good players for lower league teams:

Hmmm, I'll be back.

**AggonyDuck** · 07-23-2008, 23:49

Seems like the Dale's good performances against Premier League teams continue. Just beat Wigan 2-1 and advanced to the League Cup semi finals.

**LittleGrizzly** · 07-24-2008, 03:39

Uefa cup here we come ?

Leeds or Nottingham sound good, are leeds still poor and is there any point penalty on them ?

Fighting relegation can be more exciting than picking the best team in a league and coasting to promotion. I'd say every team has it's bonuses.

Well i like to take a club as far as possible, a good start is great momentum....

**Craterus** · 07-24-2008, 04:00

A relegation-threatened club goes a little farther

The key to lower-league clubs is to get yourself a parent club (preferably Premiership) early on and have them send you some of their promising young talent on a season-long loan.

One of the best, for League 2 and below is Charlie Sheringham from Crystal Palace.

My best signing on my Oxford game (I went from BSP to Championship) was a generated player from Newcastle's youth team. Can't remember any specific great buys though. You're much better off doing a very precise player search.