Football Manager 2009

[Clawson]

So Robinho goes 1041 minutes without scoring a goal so I bitch him out at halftime when he has a 5.8 rating against Villa. Bout time it worked as he scored 2 goals and had a 8.7 rating in a 5-0 destruction.

And Petrov was unhappy and wanted to be sold to a bigger club....so I sold him to Sunderland for 13.75mill.

Edited November 25, 2008 by Clawson

[METALMAN]

Recommended setup for me is 4 leagues.

I have AMD 2Ghz dual core.

2GB RAM

Is it possible to comfortably run more than that? I like lots of leagues.

[Scott McFly]

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghz and 2Gb RAM and am pretty comfortably running 19 leagues:

England - 4 leagues

Scotland - 4 leagues

Spain - 2 leagues

Italy - 2 leagues

Germany - 2 leagues

France - 2 leagues

Holland - 1 league

Portugal - 1 league

MLS

Granted, it may not hold up so well in a few season's time, but as of right now (November, 1st season) it's going fine.

[METALMAN]

I just started a game with every league running just to see what it's like and it is holding up pretty well with not much of a noticeable difference between my game with England, Scotland, Spain and Italy running. I think I'll stick with this system. It would be quite fun to end up in Indonesia.

Started as unemployed and I am now Roda JC manager. They hate me because I said it wasn't my dream job in my introductory press conference. At least I was honest.

[Captain Kirk]

Got my new desktop ordered and just need to stay in this weekend to get most of my coursework done, so what's the verdict on it?

How much of an improvement is it on 08?

[Farmer Reil]

I've only got the demo so far, so I can't comment on any patches that've been released, but out of the box I'd say it's actually slightly worse.

Everything up to and after matchday is improved, certainly. The interaction with the media, players, and staff is much better. But when you get to tactics, and the actual playing of the game, even if you ignore the 3D match engine totally, for me personally it feels like a step backwards. You need to be Arsene Wenger himself to understand the tactics now, it's ridiculously complicated. Not only that, but it doesn't feel like anything you do actually changes anything on the pitch. The player's ratings are a farce (for your team, anyway) and at times seem to be completely random. All of your players are made of porcelain, and limp off injured whenever they get tackled.

Unless they pretty much re-wrote the match engine in a patch or two, I don't think I'll be buying this. Which is a shame, because the non-matchday elements are considerably better, so going back to 08 would feel like I was missing out. I remember CM2, and CM01/02, where it was fun, you could pick it up, blitz through a few games and put it down again. Now, it feels like your actual job. And much like most people's actual job, nothing you do makes any difference. If the AI wants you to lose, you will. Usually with an injury time goal after your four hundred shots all get saved by the opposition keeper, who's rated at 5.2

Just my opinion though, of course.

I have no explanation for why, even as I write this, I'm playing the demo! It just feels like a great game, with a brief commercial break for the actual match (which should, surely, be the most important bit?), and then back to being a great game again until the next match. In fact, if I was to buy the full version (not likely, considering my bank balance and the content of this post), I'd probably hire a great assistant manager and go on holiday for a day when we had a match. Take control of the reserves instead or something.

I wouldn't play TEW if I hated booking cards. I wouldn't play WAR if I hated PvP combat, and I wouldn't play Warhammer if I hated painting models... yet for some reason I still love FM09 even though I hate playing matches. :'(

Edited November 26, 2008 by Farmer Reil

[Crybaby Bunting]

That's the annoying part, I like buying players and selling players, keeping training schedules perfect and make sure the tactics are good... but when it comes to playing 38 matches + cup games per season... it's suddenly less exciting and more repetition.

I'd much rather be a Sporting Director... but that can be solved by buying players then simming the season

[King Ellis]

Yeah, I love developing a club, working on the infrastructue and what not. Get a bunch of awesome coaches, set up feeder clubs etc. It's just when it comes to choosing a tactic I usually suck.

[Farmer Reil]

They should make Football Assistant Manager 2009, just for us.

[ZJ Penn]

I don't mind the games and have a pretty good win/loss record, although it seems like when I lose, I lose badly. I'm talking 4 or 5 nil. Plus it seems to be very much a game I can put down easily, and I find myself starting lots of new games.

[Farmer Reil]

See, that's another thing. Due to the sheer amount of stuff to do (setting up training, hiring new coaches, sorting out the tactics, sifting through the squad to get rid of the dead wood, etc), starting new games takes aaaages. So I tend to avoid that if possible too. Which means that when I get bored of my current game, I get bored of FM until I either get the motivation to start a new game or get the motivation to carry on my current one.

Edit: Classic example. My Team Bath side vs. Fisher. My wingers are absolutely hopeless and my two first choice strikers are more the Michael Owen type than the Peter Crouch (injury proneness included, apparently), so I decide to play a narrow 4-4-2, with passing set to Through The Middle, and both wingers have their crossing set to Rarely. Passing is set to about four clicks above the centre (direct, but not too long). All four midfield players have Through Balls high (even the holding midfielder, which proved to be a mistake) and my two forwards are set to Forward Runs: Often and Run With Ball: Rarely.

So what happens? My wingers leg it down the touchlines and put in appalling crosses for the first half of the game, and we give possession away time and time again because my MC's are passing to each other around the centre circle.

What's the point?

Things did improve in the second half when I set the instructions to be slightly more extreme (more direct, more narrow, etc), but the wingers were still making runs down the channels and crossing (neither have PPMs and Creative Freedom is set to almost none). We eventually won 1-0 thanks to a Marc Canham wonder-goal in the 81st minute, but that's not the point...

Oh, yeah, and man of the match Canham was injured just before the end. Along with two other players during the course of the game. In addition to the five that didn't even make it to the opening day. And the one that returned to training yesterday after missing all of pre-season.

Edited November 27, 2008 by Farmer Reil

[METALMAN]

They should make Football Assistant Manager 2009, just for us.

Director of Football 2009!

[Farmer Reil]

I wish this scout was watching my school's football games:

Apparently he plays best as a striker, but is equally good as a player. If he joins he'll be the 8th best striker in my team (we only currently have 7 strikers...). He has the potential to possibly be good enough to play in the league I'm trying to get out of. So in conclusion, he's a decent player.

I have to sign him. I can't miss out on the chance to sign someone who'll be my worst striker in the whole team, and might one day be good enough to play in the league I'm in. He can even play as a player!

[Zaz]

I've been carving it up in the 09/10 transfer window with Spurs. All the prices are in pounds.

IN:

Barry Ferguson - year long loan for 4.3m, in his peak and will probably start on a decline after this year

Jamie Ashdown - 1.3m to be my number two keeper

Jaime Gavilan - 3.5m after he impressed on loan, left winger from Getafe

Lee Cattermole - straight exchange for Ricardo Rocha

Erik Edman - 600k, awesome back up for Bale, might even start ahead of him

Michael Owen - free

Matt Kidd - 250k from MK Dons, 6 star potential right mid regen

Leonardo Ponzio - 9m from Sunderland who signed him in January

Steven Fletcher - 6m as a third striker and AML

TOTAL: 25m

OUT:

Ricardo Rocha - for Lee Catermole

Luka Modric - 20m to Barcelona

Cesar - 170k to Portsmouth

Benoit Assou-Ekotto - 4m to PSG (in real life he said he wanted to play for them one day, so there you go >_>)

Darren Bent - 15m up front and another 1.5m after 10 league goals to Sunderland

TOTAL: 40.5m

So a nice 15m profit there, and I reckon my team is much better as a result.

Whereas Man City have spent 78 million so far, for a 21 year old James Vaughan (22.5m), Glen Johnson (31.5m ), Florent Malouda (9.5m) and Fabio Coloccini (14.5m) and have just received 3.8m, for Ben Haim to Portsmouth.

Am I'm glad I just offered dos Santos a new contract with no minimum fee release clause (it was 24 million) as Man City just offered 25m.

[METALMAN]

£4.3 million for a loan?

I hardly ever pay for loans, and even if I do it's more in the reaches of £10,000.

[Clawson]

I swear to fuck if one more team offers me less than 5mil for Elano, I'm gonna stab somebody.

[Zaz]

£4.3 million for a loan?

I hardly ever pay for loans, and even if I do it's more in the reaches of £10,000.

Yeah, they wouldn't sell him, and this was in the January transfer window and I was desperate to get someone in to replace Jenas, but although the deal was organised then it didn't go through until the summer window. But I probably wouldn't want him any longer, he's 31 now so he'll probably start to decline after this season so I wouldn't get that price for him anyway. And I've had West Ham bring in a couple of loans for fees of 750k and 550k and Wolves for 525k, and none of those guys are as good as Ferguson. Probably a bit expensive, but I more than made up for it with my other transfers IMO.

[NotoriousGTT]

Bunch of bloody ungrateful pricks!

Lead Cowdenbeath to a playoff spot in my third year in charge, but i realise I've punched well above my weight so apply for the vacant Preston job and am swiftly given the boot! Useless fifers!

[9 to 5]

No killer bugs so far found?

[Pesci]

I've only got the demo so far, so I can't comment on any patches that've been released, but out of the box I'd say it's actually slightly worse.

Everything up to and after matchday is improved, certainly. The interaction with the media, players, and staff is much better. But when you get to tactics, and the actual playing of the game, even if you ignore the 3D match engine totally, for me personally it feels like a step backwards. You need to be Arsene Wenger himself to understand the tactics now, it's ridiculously complicated. Not only that, but it doesn't feel like anything you do actually changes anything on the pitch. The player's ratings are a farce (for your team, anyway) and at times seem to be completely random. All of your players are made of porcelain, and limp off injured whenever they get tackled.

Unless they pretty much re-wrote the match engine in a patch or two, I don't think I'll be buying this. Which is a shame, because the non-matchday elements are considerably better, so going back to 08 would feel like I was missing out. I remember CM2, and CM01/02, where it was fun, you could pick it up, blitz through a few games and put it down again. Now, it feels like your actual job. And much like most people's actual job, nothing you do makes any difference. If the AI wants you to lose, you will. Usually with an injury time goal after your four hundred shots all get saved by the opposition keeper, who's rated at 5.2

Just my opinion though, of course.

I have no explanation for why, even as I write this, I'm playing the demo! It just feels like a great game, with a brief commercial break for the actual match (which should, surely, be the most important bit?), and then back to being a great game again until the next match. In fact, if I was to buy the full version (not likely, considering my bank balance and the content of this post), I'd probably hire a great assistant manager and go on holiday for a day when we had a match. Take control of the reserves instead or something.

I wouldn't play TEW if I hated booking cards. I wouldn't play WAR if I hated PvP combat, and I wouldn't play Warhammer if I hated painting models... yet for some reason I still love FM09 even though I hate playing matches. :'(

Agree with pretty much all of that, except for the buying it part... whoops

Matches seem too random. Even though I started as a team like Spurs so I wouldn't expect to work miracles and thus wouldn't get too emotionally attached, I still shout and scream way too much. The plan was to go on to a bigger club and do that awesome thing everybody in these threads talks about where you take your best players with you from club to club, but I'll probably pull my hair out if I manage somebody like Barcelona.

Everything outside of matches is awesome though, and it feels like such an improvement from 08. Admittedly I despised 08 and hated pretty much everything about it, but yeah.