Football Manager 2012

[Tuvra]

Anyone here playing this?

Over the last week I have really got back in to the FM franchise, at first I was skeptical and found it a bit of an information overload, slowly over the past few weeks I have tried to get back in to it.

I never like going the big clubs, however, I dont particularly like going small clubs either, my usual selection is a big club that has fallen on hard times in recent years, my greatest game in 2010 was Norwich and 2011 was even better when I turned Sheffield Weds in to premier league contenders (and Champions League participants) with the board continuously giving me rubbish budgets and unmatched high expectations.

This year I decided to venture abroad for a new challenge, Firstly I thought about turning oil rich PSG in to a European Super force, after looking at their team though I decided it was pretty much there and the challenge was not that great, I ended up at Malaga:

Season One.

The board gave me £19m which I invested to strengthen the weak areas of the team, the two major signings were Guardado (WBL) & Karmeni (GK). I started TERRIBLY taking 4 heavy defeats against reasonably small opposition. I rebuilt the tactics and started to put winning streaks together, my problem appeared to be defensive mistakes & lack of goals despite having RVN & Rondon. I scrapped my way to 7th although at one point it looked more like 10th, I amazingly won the Spanish cup by avoiding Barca & Real Madrid. I had agreed to fetch in a young player (17) called Mbaye Niang for £7m at the end of the season pushing my season spend to £25m.

Season Two.
Looking forward to big things in the second season after securing my spot in the UEFA Cup and winning the Spanish cup for the first time In Malagas history. Another £20m should have me knocking on the door of the big boys! What do they give me? £4m! Thanks! I fetch in a shed load of quality loans and after offloading a few players I managed to sign them on permanent deals. My spending for the season equated to around £20m selling around £10m worth of players, my big signing was Thiago at £13m. After a cracking season, I finished up in fourth, Athletic & Llorente were untouchable eventually pushing Real close for second spot. I won the Spanish cup again, this time beating an understength Barca away from home, and then holding out a full strength Barca team at home. I qualified from my UEFA Cup group before being over run by Wolfsburg in the first knock out stage. My record transfer Niang, still under 18 scored 19 goals in 30 appearances, still not clinical enough for me!

Season Three

The team performed brilliantly last year, piece by piece I created the team that I wanted. As mentioned I still felt my strike force was underpowered, Messi scored 45 goals, Higuain 40+, Llorente 45 goals and that was the difference. The club gave me £20m and I only wanted a striker, I made some audacious bids however no one respectable would join me, except Adebyor who wanted £150k a week!! After setting up a scouting Filter Carlos Vela remained, was in budget & for sale. I struck the deal and he joined for £4m.

This season, what a season, smashed PSG to get in to the Champions League, got in to a group of death (Lyon, AC Milan & Ajax) and won some memorable matches including Lyon & Milan away from home. Domestic form has been steady turning over both Madrid & Barcelona and I currently sit in second position. I have a Spanish cup final against Madrid to look forward too and after beating Wolfsburg & Arsenal I now have Lyon in the Champions League semi final. I have a strong chance of winning the league as long as I win every game and Barcelona lose one, this is a big ask for them as they have to play Madrid & Villareal (4th) both away from home in the last 2 games. If I get past Lyon, my suspicions lead me to believe I will play (and lose to) Barcelona in the final

The team as it stands:

GK. Vincent Karmeni (£5.25M)

DR. Sime Vrsaljko (£1M)

DL. Anders Guardado (£5.25M) - Looking to replace

DC. Micah Richards (£3.8M)

DC. Nedum Onuoha (£3.1M) - Will be replaced with Shawcross end of season.

AMR: Vladimir Weiss (Free)

AML: Santi Cozorla (At Club)

DMC: Gago (£1.8m), Toulalan (At Club), Scott Parker (Loan)

MC: Thiago (£13m)

MC: Gago (£1.8m), Toulalan (At Club), Scott Parker (Loan), Charlie Adam (Loan)- Looking for suitable long term MC

STR: Vela (£4m) or Niang (£7m), sometimes both, Somtimes Rondon (At club) & one of them.

Not bad considering my Strongest XI cost £37.2m and Manchester United just paid £41m for Gareth Bale. The team is also young and nearly every player is getting stronger as the months roll by. The main problem seams to be the stature of the club, no big name players are interested, likewise with coaching staff.

My wage structure is also superb, Joaquin is my top earner whos contract will expire at the end of the season & the next highest paid player is Richards on £74k/week. If anyone demands a wage raise, I stand firm and sell if really pushed, as Julio Baptista found out! I offer new contracts in December & December only

So Yeah, loving the game, am I alone?

[WildCards]

Played 2011 alot and I keep going back to it but usually with the help of the editor and scout programs you can find on the internet. I tend to miss a year as the games are very similiar I find, the data update being the main draw, but again, I can download that for 11.

Is 12 a big step up?

[Tuvra]

WildCards said:

Played 2011 alot and I keep going back to it but usually with the help of the editor and scout programs you can find on the internet. I tend to miss a year as the games are very similiar I find, the data update being the main draw, but again, I can download that for 11.

Is 12 a big step up?

Yeah it is a pretty huge step up.

My favorite upgrades include:

• The ability to read body language following a team talk, you can also tell the whole team they played well and then approach someone who isnt doing well and tell them your not happy, also works the other way round i.e. bad team performance with a few performers within.
• You have a choice how to conduct the team talk i.e. calm, cautious, passionate, angry, assertive. Basically the same responses but can hugely alter how they are taken.
• Contract negotiations are now intense, you can lock out parts of the contract i.e. offer £10k a week and no more, this then sees the agent trying to get other bonuses etc, also handy for locking out things like "match highest earner" or restricting older players to one year contracts.
• You have a transfer center i.e. you offer a player for sale cheap (or free as I often do) and 15 clubs come in, you can now open up the player and accept multiple bids etc.
• The whole game feels different, like I said, at first I didnt like it, there was to much information being thrown at me on nearly every screen, as you settle in though you start to acknowledge whats important on each screen and what isnt.

2012 has taken less time to settle in to than 2011 did! I found the transition between 2010>2011 very hard and found building anything very difficult until one day I found a tactic that just clicked

On another note, Genie Scout for 2012 has been recently launched and it seems to work as it did before, I use this for picking the very best 16-17 year olds and also monitoring what it would cost me to bring in potential targets

I would recommend, another nice feature (although I havent tried) is that your saved games are stored on steam, meaning if you install FM on two machines, you can access the saved game on either by login in to steam.

[WildCards]

I went into 2011 cold, I was still playing CM01/02 (with updated db) until last year so 11 took bloody ages to work out, like you, for a long time I didn't like it at all. Those additions look good, I might see if it's included in the Steam Christmas Sale in a few weeks, you've convinced me (Not that it takes much).

[n_const]

Hey tuvra sounds like youve made malaga a very succesfull club ! Following on from FM2011 where i turned Oxford from a league 2 team to a mid table championship side, i am Oxford again and havent got past the pre season games yet lol

[Flyin Banana]

have you got the team bages in the prem yet or are they still missing

Rob

[Moley RUFC]

Flyin Banana said:

have you got the team bages in the prem yet or are they still missing

Rob

If it's anything like 2011 then you'll have to download the badges from sortitout.net or similar.

I'm still on 2011 with my beloved Luton team now in 2023. Scarily man city are still dominating the premier league and just buy up anything that moves. Managed to win the FA cup last season and also in the last 4 in the Europa League and 2nd in league on 'peanut' wages compared to the usual suspects.

[Tuvra]

Flyin Banana said:

have you got the team bages in the prem yet or are they still missing

Rob

Part of the reason I dont get in to the games early on is because the logos and face packs are missing for 90% of the game. I use FMBase to update all my graphics and although installing 10gb of graphics for one game seems a bit mental (and takes ages) it makes the game that much more enjoyable for the entire season/year.

Thanks for the comments on my Malaga team, when I told my mate of my achievements he blasted them saying Malaga are rich and its easy, however considering Real Madrid and Barcelona spend 110% more on wages than I do, Athletico Madrid, Valencia & Villareal also spend more on wages than me and Considering how strong Madrid & Barcelona are plus the spending power they have, its incredibly difficult to crack them two, on top of that other clubs also spend big each season, this season alone Athletico Madrid have spent £48m on players! Other clubs that have done similar include Valencia, Athletio Bilbao & Sevilla, bearing in mind I am only coming to the end of season 3. The Spanish league is easily as difficult as England in my opinion! Id consider Malage to be the equivalent of Fulham in the PL, just with £20m to rebuild at the start.

Edited by Tuvra on Tuesday 6th December 15:07

[gunner88]

FM stories are always a good read Initially thought Malaga wouldn't be tooo bad, but after hearing your transfer budgets I think you've done a brilliant job.
Always interesting to hear how things/players change. I play FM08, Guardado is ridiculously good on that game.
I did consider getting FM12, but there were lots of features which I thought would make the game take too long (which is great when you have lots of free time). Features like talking to players and telling them your going to rest them, I'd rather just rest them as if it is just the one game then they won't change in happiness.
Keep us updated on your progress

[Tuvra]

gunner88 said:

FM stories are always a good read Initially thought Malaga wouldn't be tooo bad, but after hearing your transfer budgets I think you've done a brilliant job.
Always interesting to hear how things/players change. I play FM08, Guardado is ridiculously good on that game.
I did consider getting FM12, but there were lots of features which I thought would make the game take too long (which is great when you have lots of free time). Features like talking to players and telling them your going to rest them, I'd rather just rest them as if it is just the one game then they won't change in happiness.
Keep us updated on your progress

I agree Gunner, thats why I have never told a player I am going to rest him, no one has grumbled yet either

Football Manager is what you make of it, I used to play it very lightly i.e. created a tactic, sold/bought players, then bit by bit then I started delving a little deeper, in the last 2 football managers training & coaches have been my little guilty pleasure, I would create custom schedules & always approach the best possible coaches sometimes blowing entire transfer budgets on backroom staff etc.

Some people (like I used to) may never even enter the training screen where as I spend hours there, others may spend ages on the tactic screen, I dont, I create a tactic & tweek the hell out of it until it works, once it does I stick with it, I usually create an away tactic & an "odd ball" tactic then for teams that have turned me over convincingly using my usual tactics.

I like talking to my players, but usually just to praise them or raise my concern about their performance etc. Theres a LOT of features in the latest football manager, to be honest though, its not all essential, if you found a good tactic and use genie scout to scout players & coaches, its pretty much as it was.

The one thing with the team talks, I find it easier to get the Morale right, if you say something to the room and it doesnt get a reaction e.g. calmly say "Relax and play your normal game", you can then approach individuals or position (GK, Def, Mid, Str) and say something to them direct assertive like "I want to see you taking your chances out there" to the strikers, this then sees their body language turn to "Looks fired up" or "Looks motivated" etc. I also find this new feature helps keep long term morale up rather easily.

[gunner88]

Tuvra said:

I agree Gunner, thats why I have never told a player I am going to rest him, no one has grumbled yet either

Football Manager is what you make of it, I used to play it very lightly i.e. created a tactic, sold/bought players, then bit by bit then I started delving a little deeper, in the last 2 football managers training & coaches have been my little guilty pleasure, I would create custom schedules & always approach the best possible coaches sometimes blowing entire transfer budgets on backroom staff etc.

Some people (like I used to) may never even enter the training screen where as I spend hours there, others may spend ages on the tactic screen, I dont, I create a tactic & tweek the hell out of it until it works, once it does I stick with it, I usually create an away tactic & an "odd ball" tactic then for teams that have turned me over convincingly using my usual tactics.

I like talking to my players, but usually just to praise them or raise my concern about their performance etc. Theres a LOT of features in the latest football manager, to be honest though, its not all essential, if you found a good tactic and use genie scout to scout players & coaches, its pretty much as it was.

The one thing with the team talks, I find it easier to get the Morale right, if you say something to the room and it doesnt get a reaction e.g. calmly say "Relax and play your normal game", you can then approach individuals or position (GK, Def, Mid, Str) and say something to them direct assertive like "I want to see you taking your chances out there" to the strikers, this then sees their body language turn to "Looks fired up" or "Looks motivated" etc. I also find this new feature helps keep long term morale up rather easily.

Ah ok. I guess it's one of those features you don't really have to be involved with. On 08, I ignore the media and very rarely comment. Too many times it would say I said something which to me, wasn't what I selected.

I know what you mean about the coaches, I spend a lot of money getting the best coaches, physio's, scouts. Otherwise you have a player who won't reach his potential because of a poor coach, or a player who won't reach his potential, because he doesn't have any - poor scout

The team talks sound a lot better. I can give individual praise to a player, but usually just click 'ask assistant' and go with that. You can check the notes from your assistant on if they were more fired up, annoyed, or in most cases... "weren't really listening".

I just finished my 5th year as Luton Town manager. Gave myself mega bucks to see if I could do something along the lines of what they were trying at Nott's county, although has started to go Man Citeh-esque. I have a very big squad, but only this season have I been able to target some of the world class players I want. It was a good challenge to get youth players to join and fringe players to get you to the top, and now be able to buy the stars. Still not been able to get Silva and Fabregas mind.
The plan is to win league and champs league, and then resign and move on to somewhere new. Just won Europa and finished 2nd in the league, one point behind Man u. Gutted.

Does the new FM have the financial fair play rules in for Champions League? The more I talk about it and look at the game, the more I think about just going and buying it.

[Tuvra]

I am not sure whether the fair play rules apply to be honest. I havent seen mental spending like on the last one though, biggest transfer of the game so far was Gareth Bale > Man United £41m.

Finished my season with Malaga, Won all my remaining games, Barcelona lost to Real & Villareal so I won the league by four points. I then lost the Spanish cup to Madrid with the final kick of the game, Kedeira scoring on 120 minutes. I made it to the Champions League Final and lost as expected to Barcelona. Overall a brilliant season that could have been Spectacular if the cup finals would have gone well.

End of the season, Shawcross joins along with a load of young players and Demba Ba (regret doing the bosman deal now), the "world class" MC that I wanted to partner Thiago joined in the shape of Anderson from Man United £11m.

Tevez was released by Citeh, however he wanted £200k a week to join, I pulled out of the deal and forgot about him, few weeks later I see Liverpool making a bid and decide to have one last crack at landing him, smashed my wage barrier of £74k and Tevez was signed for £88k/week.

All the big clubs are now sniffing round Vela, press are saying numerous clubs are preparing to offer £27m, I thought HOW MUCH?? Turns out after his epic season (38 goals / 38 appearances) his auto value has climbed to £22m, higher than Giuseppi Rossi!! I paid £4m for him 12 months ago!!

I would seriously consider buying this, well depending how much you like your social life (and missus) that is

Ohh yeah, I also applied for the England job, they "laughed it off" before Spain gave me the nod to become their head coach as well as that of Malaga. I am gunning for England & any English team now!

Edited by Tuvra on Thursday 8th December 11:17

[n_const]

The one part of the game i need to spend more time is the coaching/training area ! All i worry about is buying and selling lol. Thinking of starting afresh as someone like shaktar/zagreb in a league i dont really know much about and players alike and see how i get on.
My most succesful career to date was on fm11 with Real Betis getting them from Segunda División to La liga qualifying for the Europa league and getting to the final of the Spanish cup all withing about 4 years ! Theres a youngster in Spain who was on FM10 called emiliano garcia munoz if you can sign him do it ! Signed him for 300k ish and sold him to Barca for £35mil and he was 5star with the wonderkid tag. The thing that i found strange was when i started a new game with oxford i couldnt find him anywhere.

[Tuvra]

n_const said:

The one part of the game i need to spend more time is the coaching/training area ! All i worry about is buying and selling lol. Thinking of starting afresh as someone like shaktar/zagreb in a league i dont really know much about and players alike and see how i get on.
My most succesful career to date was on fm11 with Real Betis getting them from Segunda División to La liga qualifying for the Europa league and getting to the final of the Spanish cup all withing about 4 years ! Theres a youngster in Spain who was on FM10 called emiliano garcia munoz if you can sign him do it ! Signed him for 300k ish and sold him to Barca for £35mil and he was 5star with the wonderkid tag. The thing that i found strange was when i started a new game with oxford i couldnt find him anywhere.

The game loads more players from the area your playing i.e. you would have not been able to find English wonder kids that you can find in your Oxford save on the Betis save and vice versa, the alternative would be to load all leagues with large data bases, however this would be SO slow.

The problem with playing in eastern europe is the restriction on foreign players. Basically in Ukraine your aloud something like 6 foreign nationals, therefore I find the glass ceiling in regards to doing anything internationally is set very low as even the best Ukranian players (that then demand a premium) are not that good on the European/worldwide front

I did have a good game going with Ajax once, won the Champions League a few times and would win the league without losing repeatedly, the big stars were interested in joining me, the trouble was that although the stature of the club grew, the sponsorship etc (due to the league) never really increased therefore most current world stars were out of budget, this added to the fun though as you had to concentrate on catching the superstars at a young age and developing them, kind of like Ajax in real life when they had (fat) Ronaldo and were successful in Europe.

Each and every scenario has its own joy & headaches, from cash rich Man City where you buy anyone and everyone to someone like Swansea where you have to put your own stamp on the club and struggle to survive as a premier league football club. One thing in all my games, I like to keep the pay structure sensible & I also hate paying ridiculous money to Agents

[3sixty]

You can select to load players from certain nations, rather than just picking the leagues.

So for instance I run English Prem on Huge database size, but then also include players with Brazilian nationality.



How are you on your 3rd season already? Admittedly I was late to the party, but I spend a good few hours a week on it and barely get through a season every few months!

I do watch the game though with key highlights... maybe thats why I am slower?

[thebigmacmoomin]

As I didnt buy FM2011, I decided to get FM2012. Previously had 07, 08, 09 & 10.

Usually start as Man Utd or Plymouth Argyle. On 08, got Argyle into the Premiership in my 1st season.

This time round, Man City were the team for me. Signed Ganso for £22m from Santos, Van Der Wiel for £12.25m from Ajax, Emre Can for £3.4m from Bayern & Yaya Sanogo for £2.9m from Auxerre.

Last game of pre-season, Ganso broke his leg and is out for 6 months. 6 games into the league season, Van Der Wiel breaks his ankle against Arsenal. Nasri is also injured for 3 months & Milner is out for a few weeks.

Currently, played 11 & won 9 and drawn 2. Scored 27 & only conceaded 5. Tevez has 16 goals in 14 games. 4 points clear at the top of the league from Man Utd aswell. Won the charity shield 1-0 & then won 3-1 in the league @ Old Trafford.

I play 4-4-2 with 4-5-1 as my alternative.

Hart
Richards - Kompany - Lescott - Clichy
A Johnson - Y Toure - Barry / De Jong - Silva
Tevez - Aguero

Edited by thebigmacmoomin on Friday 16th December 20:20

[oj121]

In my second season as Birmingham. Manaed to win the championship with over 100 points...........water tight defence but struggled upfront.

Currently 6/7 games into the prem season and only big loss was to Suarez....sorry Liverpool.

Team of:
Frazier Forster

Naughton Van Buyten Curtis Ridgewell

Adam Johnson Shelvey Spector Beausejour

Zigic Hooper


Play nice football on the ground with Zigic holding up and flicking to the wingers. Need a replacement for him really as he is seriously struggling this season. Hooper is on fire and not far from an England callup.

[Tuvra]

Birmingham sounds a right challenge, as for your guy getting a call up, don't hold your breathe, Niang for me has been getting 30+ goals in Spain since he was 17 (now 21) and hes never been called up, they start Benzema instead, strange that as Benzema can't get in my Malaga team unless im playing two strikers.

Season Four of my Malaga game was a bit of a disaster. Dumped out of the cup by Valencia early on, Crashed out of the Champions League on away goals to the eventual winners Bayern Munchen & let the league slip with some dodgy results at the end of the season, ended up 2nd.

Season five I had £45m and spent big and again in January bringing in TOP regens as well as Ballotelli, Pogba, Benzema, etc. I feel my team is growing where as Barcelona & Madrid seem to be shrinking as their stars begin to age. Trouble is though, I am still a small club, 35k seats and the only time I have cash to spend is when the chairman invests which is totally random, totally unreliable & totally deflating.

Us & Real Madrid are flying in the league and the Champions League group stage was easy (even forgot who was in there!), I have crashed out of the Spanish cup, however, my main aim is the CL and Spanish league title. If I win those, I want to move to England and start the rebuilding process all over again.

I want to speak to rich sleeping giants, I am hoping Newcastle/Leeds maybe interested, they must have the cash though , I was heavily linked to the Liverpool job, however, I refused to comment & the approach never came , I would have wanted double my money to go there though (£78k)

Ryan Shawcross is an absolute machine for me, hes had MoM in about 50% of the games hes played in for me, the games he doesnt get MoM is usually when Niang, Vela or Weiss have hit hatricks or something. He is now my captain as well as England Captain, GREAT player!!

[oj121]

Shawcross was on my summer list for end of season 2 (currently fighting for 6th place with Man City at the new year and 12 points ahead of 8th) but Suarez (25 goals in 20 games)......again i mean Liverpool took him in January.

Birmingham are a nice challenge. Big enough to be a comfortable top half side, bit of cash and a chairman looking to leave (more cash when it happens).

Zigic has been sold after scoring on 1 goal in 10 games. Simon Church is standing in and doing an admirable job of 8 in 16. Now signed Wellbeck on load to play up top with Hooper (15 in 22 games).

My defence is awful though for some reason. Conceding 1.5 goals a game but leagues 2nd top scorers after Suarez and Liverpool.

Try picking up Nathan Redmond from Brum. Right/Left winger, bags of pace and all the talent to be a star player if developed properly. Aleady pushing Adam Johnson for a starting spot at 18!

[Tuvra]

I seen Redmond on TV the other night, he looks the part in the flesh too!

I have similar problems signing certain players as there are far bigger clubs in the league than me, plus nearly every club in the Champions League is probably more tempting than Malaga, therefore I have to think outside the box, I was lucky with Shawcross as he was still at Stoke, I smashed my transfer budget to get him, but hes worth every penny. Strangely enough I smashed my transfer record again (£18.75m) on a French Re-Gen RB who is also proving to be world class, top class defenders are hard to find and are very rarely cheap!

I too was leaking goals massively, that was until I signed Shawcross, I also became wary of my fullbacks bombing forward against teams with good/fast wingers, I find turning Fullbacks from Support to Defend for periods of pressure helps massively. It also helps if you set your team up to counter if you have been under pressure for a while.

As for the Suarez thing, I too experienced that with Messi, Ronaldo and Llorente, the answer is to get your own goal scoring machine. I had Niang who was an 17 year old sensation, however 30 goals in 40 odd games was nowhere near Messi (scoring 45 goals a season) & Co, set up search filters, Mine was dribbling, flair, creativity, finishing, acceleration, pace all 15+ with "Filter out unrealistic targets" highlighted and it showed Carlos Vela, I took a punt and he basically won me the league with a 38/38 goal record despite a long injury mid season. I guess what Im saying is, if you want a clinical striker, find one, done settle for one bagging one every other game on average

My wishlist if I remain at Malaga is M'Vila, although Genie Scout is revealing it will cost £42m to get him