******* Official Football Manager 14 Thread *******

subbass said:
Just bought the game and I'm finding this version the most difficult to date.

Keeping a clean sheet is incredibly difficult. I find some results unrealistic. I'm Liverpool FYI. I got hammered by Cardiff 6-2 (my team at home), West Ham 5-1 and against Chelsea, John Terry scored a hat trick all from set pieces!! Matt Jarvis and Downing skinned my fullbacks like they are Ronaldo or Hazard.

I've been playing a 4-2-3-1 formation mainly but have tried switching things around such as playing 2 DMCs.

My team (attacking, fluid philosophy....have also switched to Standard at times):
Mignolet (GK-D)

Johnson (FB -S) - Sktrel (CB-LTD) - Agger (CB-D) - Enrique (FB-S)
Lucas (BWM) - Gerrard (BBM-S)
Sturridge (IF-A) - Coutinho (T) - Moses (IF-A)
Suarez (CF-A)

I cannot get Suarez to score (2 in 12)! :D

Any tips so I can stop conceding so much?
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4-2-3-1 is an incredibly hard tactic/formation to get working right (well has been from my experience so far anyway).

In that formation that you have posted above, basically you are going to be dominated in the central midfield area. You are playing Attacking anyway, and then have a BWM, who is going to chase around the midfield like a maniac. And, then Gerrard as a BBM is just leaving massive gaps all over the place!

If you really want to play a 4-2-3-1 I would have 2 almost 'holding' CM's. A DLP (try on either support or defence), and perhaps a CM(D) should work better. Then stagger the front 4 in terms of mentality. Suarez as a CF(S), Moses as a Winger (S), Sturridge as an IF(A) and Coutinho as a Treq.
 
I'm rubbish at this game! :p

Can anyone give me 4 or 5 basic pointers that you need to do to get the basics working right??

I've just played the demo in the "streamlined mode" and managed to get sacked by Spurs after winning about 5 games from my opening 20 or so and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong!

A few things I've noticed:

1) Roughly 95% of the opponents "highlights" result in a goal whereas mine rarely do!
2) I hit the post or bar at least once a game!
3) I'd say I conceded a penalty in 60-70% of my games! (and as far as I can see I've not got tackling set to high anywhere!?!?)
4) In the majority of games I had many more shots on target than my opponents without scoring (see point 1)
5) I seem to score a ridiculous number of own goals - even while being under zero pressure by the opposition!

I really want to like this game but I just don't feel like anything I do has any bearing on the performance or the result!!

*edit*

Started again as Chelsea to see if I could improve matters - played Shalke in a friendly and was expected to win easily according to the report - had 29 shots (19 on target) to their 4 and lost 3-0.

I assume there is an option I've not selected somewhere to make the game make sense??
 
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StevieP said:
I'm rubbish at this game! :p

Can anyone give me 4 or 5 basic pointers that you need to do to get the basics working right??

I've just played the demo in the "streamlined mode" and managed to get sacked by Spurs after winning about 5 games from my opening 20 or so and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong!

A few things I've noticed:

1) Roughly 95% of the opponents "highlights" result in a goal whereas mine rarely do!
2) I hit the post or bar at least once a game!
3) I'd say I conceded a penalty in 60-70% of my games! (and as far as I can see I've not got tackling set to high anywhere!?!?)
4) In the majority of games I had many more shots on target than my opponents without scoring (see point 1)
5) I seem to score a ridiculous number of own goals - even while being under zero pressure by the opposition!

I really want to like this game but I just don't feel like anything I do has any bearing on the performance or the result!!

*edit*

Started again as Chelsea to see if I could improve matters - played Shalke in a friendly and was expected to win easily according to the report - had 29 shots (19 on target) to their 4 and lost 3-0.

I assume there is an option I've not selected somewhere to make the game make sense??
Click to expand...

At the start, start by using the basic's. By that, I mean go for an easy formation. It might not be the one you want to use long term, but to get you into the game, to help you find out what works and what doesn't, and why it works and why it doesn't, start with something like a flat 4-4-2 or a 4-1-4-1.

Use a balanced fluidity setting, and then have a set of three tactics (probably a standard, counter and attacking mentality). Use logical team instructions (for example don't use the hassle opponents instruction with a counter mentality). I rarely touch individual player instructions, the only thing I do is to make sure my keepers distribution setting is altered to how I want it (quick throw on a counter tactic and defender to collect on all others), and I remove instructions from players who are not capable of carrying them out (again if I have a winger who isn't great at dribbling - but is a brilliant crosser - think Beckham - I would tell him to dribble less often and cross from deep).

Pre-season is important. I always set my own friendlies and aim to play about 15 games. Use pre-season to get your teams cohesion and tactical level up as high as you can.
 
I know you wanted a few basic tips but this guide is excellent - particularly the team talk section, bad team talks can **** off the players and lose games regardless of tactics just as good talks can win games.

You could have course download a proven tactic but that's cheating imo :p
 
Not really, downloading a tactic can help you better understand the match engine if you look deeper into it while using them.

Sometimes people just prefer the team building/finance management/winning to the complexities of making their own tactic so if Stevie is one of those, downloading a tactic might be the way forward for him.
 
My 4-4-2 is working fantastic so far this season. Dropped 2 points between start of the season and the opening of the Winter Window, sat waaay ahead of the rest of pack...
 
Jaffa_Far said:
My 4-4-2 is working fantastic so far this season. Dropped 2 points between start of the season and the opening of the Winter Window, sat waaay ahead of the rest of pack...
Click to expand...
What team/division are you with?

My 4-4-2 has attacking wingers to take into account Valencia/Young/Nani/Januzaj at Utd.
 
MarcLister said:
What team/division are you with?

My 4-4-2 has attacking wingers to take into account Valencia/Young/Nani/Januzaj at Utd.
Click to expand...

Derby, 2019 right now, Will Hughes is valued at £50M. Finished 2nd in the Prem last season...Massive chance of doing an Arsenal 2003/4 and not losing. My back 4 are so tight and fantastic. Danilo Avelar/Adam Smith (rotations) - Kurt Zouma - Danny Batth - Micheal Keane/Adam Smith. All in front of the one, the only, Sergio Romero...
 
Yeah if you're looking for an english core to build around you're safe with Hughes, Ince, Shaw and Clyne. Hughes is a must buy for me every game that I play top flight.
 
I love Shaw as a player, he will grow to be the best left back in the world in about 6 years. Shame that on my FM he's gone to PSG, Clyne is at City and Ince at Liverpool.

Nick Powell has come good for me. My striker force isn't anything to laugh about, Mauro Icardi (Bought from PSG for £25M) and Javier Hernandez rotated with a youngster who was created by the game and is a beast and Will Hughes who can now play as a damn good Striker. My wingers are fantastic also, Lloyd Isgrove/James McClean down the left and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain/Kuba (BVB) down the right. Midfield I rotate Will Hughes, Nick Powell, Fredy Guarin, Claudio Marchisio and Luke Hyam...

I build the team around Will Hughes and it is now unstoppable with some HUGE names playing for Derby County...as a matter of fact, just signed a player, name escapes me right now, from Real Madrid on a free (joins end of season) and on his 6 months remaining at Madrid he is valued at £7M at just 21 years old.
 
Appreciate some help with transfers - every decent prospect I go near with a value approx <£1m suddenly ends up with the club asking £10-25m for them - ffs that's ridonk.

How on earth do you persuade anyone good and under 33 years old to join you?!
 
Unsettle them. I make notes on players who I want (if I can't get them at a reasonable price) to remind me every month to go to the press about him and declare an interest. Then after about 3 months test the water and make another offer.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
 
Okay guys I need some help, this game just will not update for me to the latest patch, it is just staying at version 1.0 which is incredibly frustrating for a number of reasons, mainly the fact that there is no dark skin.

I bought the disc version but then obviously it's all through Steam.

- I have verified integrity of game cache several times
- I have deleted and re-installed several times
- I have deleted and re-installed Steam and then the game itself and still nothing.

I can't find a way to download the patch externally either, can someone please help meh?
 
There is no way to update it externally, it all has to be done through Steam.

Only thing I can think of is to email either SI or Steam directly (or put a post on the official SI forum and see if anyone there can help).
 
Stewy said:
Okay guys I need some help, this game just will not update for me to the latest patch, it is just staying at version 1.0 which is incredibly frustrating for a number of reasons, mainly the fact that there is no dark skin.

I bought the disc version but then obviously it's all through Steam.

- I have verified integrity of game cache several times
- I have deleted and re-installed several times
- I have deleted and re-installed Steam and then the game itself and still nothing.

I can't find a way to download the patch externally either, can someone please help meh?
Click to expand...
I guess you can get updates for other games through Steam?

Have you set Steam to keep FM up-to-date? If you right-click on FM in your Steam Library and click on the Updates tab, what is the Automatic updates set to? There are three options, mine is set to "High Priority - Always auto-update this game ASAP".

Apologies if you've already checked this but it's worth asking you to be sure. :)
 
Aye I've made sure it's on the high priorities thing but it just does not want to update it, incredible annoying.

edit: right, I think the patch has updated because it's saying 14.2 in the bottom right-hand corner but it's not letting me select the dark skin.

GODDAMNIT ALL I WANT IS DARK SKIN.
 
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