Football Manager 2007

[Big Red Fury]

So can someone translate how the youth setup is different that sounded like the exact same thing that happens now, whats the difference?

My youth team is shite regardless, I've taken to stealing youngsters from Spain.

[Thomas]

ANYTHING NEW IN 2007 THAT WASN'T IN 99/00 IS CHEATING.

Right Tom?

[Guest Kou]

ANYTHING NEW IN 2007 THAT WASN'T IN 99/00 IS CHEATING.

Right Tom?

Just starting a new game is cheating.

[Thomas]

It's not that hard to understand. It will make the game better and harder.

[Guest muddatrucker]

I don't agree with Tom being an Arse but it is nice to play with the same game for a long period and its pretty pointless starting a new one only to buy the same players (or the players who we know become stars - Adu etc), I'm still really enjoying my Portsmouth game and I'm carrying it on until I can get the Arsenal job.

[Thomas]

Beautiful.

The only downside to playing the same game over is that it becomes harder to talk about it to other people (which is always fun), because not many players exist on their game.

[Dan]

Being a referee is a very hard job. If you get things right, it's expected, but if you get things wrong, it can cost a club millions of pounds. If a striker misses an easy chance, it's forgotten pretty quickly, but a penalty against you after a dive gets remembered for a very long time.

It just seemed appropriate, particularly with everything going on in the world of football at the moment, to have controversial decisions highlighted more in the game. Refs have made mistakes in our games before, but they haven't really been brought to the attention of the user in this way before.

But what can you do? We had a feature many many years ago where you could criticise the ref, but very little happened because of it. With post match interviews a part of the game and the real football world, it could be that one of your players complains about the decision in a post match interview. It could be that you're asked your opinion on the decision. Not just ones for your team, but against your team too.

Don't be too quick to complain though. You never know what the FA will throw your clubs way if you do. But then again, you could lose the faith of your players if you praise the refs too much when it's costing the team. Just be careful not to get a touchline ban as those will hurt you greatly, but I'll leave it to you to discover the full ramifications of that.

The match engine has had another year or work from the match team, which includes Paul Collyer and Ray Houghton, and has taken another leap forward. It was already the most accurate replication of football in any simulation, and now it's gone one louder, with lots more match events, improved commentary and is just generally even more lifelike.

There are also some nice new touches, like players warming up on the touchlines, pre-match team talks and more intuitive half time and post match team talks. Match time in the tactics screen, score display in full screen mode (and if you haven't tried this before, it's well worth it – just press Alt+F11 to toggle unless you've changed the shortcut), and lots of other bits and bobs.

Tactically, there's something new too. A pre and during match "opposition team instructions" screen, which allows you to easily highlight players to close down, mark tighter, show onto his wrong foot or tackle harder, so as well as the individual player instructions for your own team, you have them for the opposition too.

[Big Red Fury]

Being a referee is a very hard job. If you get things right, it's expected, but if you get things wrong, it can cost a club millions of pounds. If a striker misses an easy chance, it's forgotten pretty quickly, but a penalty against you after a dive gets remembered for a very long time.

It just seemed appropriate, particularly with everything going on in the world of football at the moment, to have controversial decisions highlighted more in the game. Refs have made mistakes in our games before, but they haven't really been brought to the attention of the user in this way before.

But what can you do? We had a feature many many years ago where you could criticise the ref, but very little happened because of it. With post match interviews a part of the game and the real football world, it could be that one of your players complains about the decision in a post match interview. It could be that you're asked your opinion on the decision. Not just ones for your team, but against your team too.

Don't be too quick to complain though. You never know what the FA will throw your clubs way if you do. But then again, you could lose the faith of your players if you praise the refs too much when it's costing the team. Just be careful not to get a touchline ban as those will hurt you greatly, but I'll leave it to you to discover the full ramifications of that.

The match engine has had another year or work from the match team, which includes Paul Collyer and Ray Houghton, and has taken another leap forward. It was already the most accurate replication of football in any simulation, and now it's gone one louder, with lots more match events, improved commentary and is just generally even more lifelike.

There are also some nice new touches, like players warming up on the touchlines, pre-match team talks and more intuitive half time and post match team talks. Match time in the tactics screen, score display in full screen mode (and if you haven't tried this before, it's well worth it – just press Alt+F11 to toggle unless you've changed the shortcut), and lots of other bits and bobs.

Tactically, there's something new too. A pre and during match "opposition team instructions" screen, which allows you to easily highlight players to close down, mark tighter, show onto his wrong foot or tackle harder, so as well as the individual player instructions for your own team, you have them for the opposition too.

[Guest Kou]

Tackle Harder? Looks like I'll be able to create what I've always wanted to do. A injury causing monster of a defensive middie.

[Thomas]

Tactically, there's something new too. A pre and during match "opposition team instructions" screen, which allows you to easily highlight players to close down, mark tighter, show onto his wrong foot or tackle harder, so as well as the individual player instructions for your own team, you have them for the opposition too.

[Lord Nibbler]

Tactically, there's something new too. A pre and during match "opposition team instructions" screen, which allows you to easily highlight players to close down, mark tighter, show onto his wrong foot or tackle harder, so as well as the individual player instructions for your own team, you have them for the opposition too.

You can see the tactics of the opposition team? Gay...

[Thomas]

Easy, son.

Tactics does include individual player instructions.

Edited September 14, 2006 by Thomas

[Lord Nibbler]

It doesn't say that you can see the player instructions for the opposition, it says that you can set player instructions for your team with regards to opposition players. It means you can tell your players to give special treatment to an opposing player, it doesn't mean you can look at what your opponent has told his players to do.

Edited September 14, 2006 by Hipster Doofus

[Guest muddatrucker]

Would be nice to see a 'rumoured' line-up, maybe like how the TV predictions work.

[Thomas]

Oh, I see now. It's quite easy to get it confused with how it's worded.

[fineintent]

Especially when you're looking to criticise.

[Steeb]

Pre-match team talks? I'm happy.

[Dan]

Following on from the successful introduction of manager interaction with last years game, this year comes player interaction, and not just your own players, but players throughout the whole football world.

There's all sorts of things you can talk to players about, and it's different for different groups of players. You can talk to them both face-to-face, or through the media, and they do the same.

You can ask them to recommend players or staff to join the club, which might make it easier for them to settle in or get back into good form. You can ask them to help train a youngster, suggest that they go into coaching or management in the future, try and tap up players at other clubs through the media, talk to them about new contracts or answer all kinds of questions they might come up with. Warn them about resting so as to stop them from becoming unhappy (although, as with anything else in the game, the players personality and mood at the time will determine whether this make him more or less happy), comment on their form to give them a much needed morale boost or a kick up the fuss. Ask for tips on who might be a danger man or weak link for the forthcoming match, to give you the chance to unsettle them or make them complacent, or ask a senior member of the squad to have a team meeting when things are going wrong to try and sort out morale problems.

There can be negative or positive effects, and you might find strained relationships with other clubs and managers if you use it on their players too much, such as the refusal by that club dealing with you on transfers, or a backlash with them putting in bids for lots of your players. Every action has a consequence. But then the opposite can happen if you work it well, and you might be more likely for a player to join you on loan over other clubs due to the good relationships that you have.

[Thomas]

Especially when you're looking to criticise.

[Steeb]

This is set for Christmas release, right?

It better be, or I'm not going to get any of my coursework done. At all.