I am a very European styled manager, in the way that I like to play with a lot of freedom throughout my team, and I'm not the type of manager to stick with a system and hope it'll eventually work, because while it may end up working in 5 or 6 games time, you could well lose the 5 or 6 games you were waiting for the system to settle, so I tend to make sure I play a system that can be adapted very easily without too much change that it disrupts the players. My favoured formation is 4-3-2-1, AKA the christmas tree system, as it's very attacking in that it allows me to have 2 creative players behind a target man, but it's also very good defensively as it means I can get the two creative players back into deeper roles if I need them to be.
This has proven to be a very good tactic to me in Football Manager 2008 and 2009, for three different reasons;
- I won the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast
- I discovered a player that will never let me down - Rafael Van der Vaart
- I won the Treble with Manchester City within 2 seasons on Football Manager 2008
So, thats my preferred system out of the way, now I'll let you in on my Football Manager CV;
Football Manager 2008
Manchester City (2007-2011)
Premier League winners - 2009,2010,2011
Premier League 5th place - 2008
FA Cup winners - 2009,2010
League Cup winners - 2008, 2009
EURO Cup winner - 2009
Champions Cup winner - 2011
Ivory Coast (2007-2011)
African Cup of Nations winners - 2008
World Cup Quarter-Finalists - 2010
African Cup of Nations Finalists - 2010
Auxerre (2007-2009)
Ligue 1 4th place - 2008, 2009
Coupe de France winners - 2008
French League Cup winners - 2009
Southampton (2007-2010)
Coca-Cola Championship winner - 2008
Premier League 8th place - 2009
League Cup Semi-Finalists - 2009
As my CV may look impressive, you may also notice that I have only ever been successful with one club abroad, and I've not mentioned the fact that I also had a spell at Seville, where I only lasted 6 months before resigning because I was 14th in the La Liga and I had been knocked out of Europe and the domestic cups. So don't think that I can work miracles - I can only do well if my managerial strategy fits the club I'm in charge of.
Football Manager 2009
Manchester City (2008-2014)
Premier League winner - 2010,2011,2012,2013
Premier League 2nd place - 2014
Premier League 5th place - 2009
League Cup winners - 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014
FA Cup winners - 2010, 2011, 2014
EURO Cup Finalists - 2009
EURO Cup Winner - 2010
Champions Cup Semi-Finalist - 2011, 2014
Champions Cup Winner - 2013
EURO Super Cup Winner - 2010, 2013
Bradford City (2008-2010)
Coca-Cola League Two winners - 2009
Johnstone Paint Trophy winners - 2010
Coca-Cola League One 2nd place - 2010
Newcastle Jets (2008-2009)
Australian Hyandui League winners - 2009
Motherwell (2008-2010)
SPL 2nd place - 2010
SPL 3rd place - 2009
League Cup winner - 2009
Scottish Cup Finalist - 2010
Honduras (2008-2013)
CONCACAF Gold Cup winner - 2009
CONCACAF Gold Cup Finalist - 2011
World Cup Group E 3rd place - 2010
As you can see, Football Manager 2009 was very good for me too, with 20 cup wins across 3 countries and international success with a moderately small nation, my careers on FM09 were very enjoyable ones indeed. However, like Football Manager 2008, Italy and Spain eluded me from success, with my closest efforts coming with Real Zaragoza, coming 2nd in the LIGA Segunda and Genoa, finishing 5th in Serie A and getting into the final of the Italian version of the FA Cup.
Let's hope Football Manager 2010 continues to be a success in England, and hopefully allows me to move on to foreign land to reap success.
That is a pretty impressive record you have there. I can't claim anything like as good. For some reason I really struggled with FM07, and just did okay.
ReplyDeleteFM08 was a bit better to start with, though my Liverpool campaign was very hit and miss, with us winning the League Cup but then sliding to middle table after that, losing to Hull 5-0 at Anfield being a particular low point. It was only in the last few months that I really started to get to grips with what was needed, and managed to take QPR up from the Championship in the second season, and after two seasons managed to get a get just high enough to claim a Euro Cup place and won the League Cup.
When you're struggling the game can be amazingly frustrating, but sheer persistance and lots of reading difference advice, sometime conflicting, I finally managed to get to get tactics that would work for me.
Not sure if just because of previous experience, but FM10 seems to be a lot easier to get to grips with. The backroom advice seems to have mostly worked in the matches. I feel there is hope you will get success this time when you do go to a foreign land.