Tazskool

Football Manager Handheld - Hints and Tips
By Marc Vaughan

The following hints and tips are intended to help ease new players into the game and give some pointers to help ensure your success.

They are NOT however a set of instructions for someone to blindly follow in the manner of some ‘game guides’ and are more aimed at being a ‘primer’ for how to approach playing the game and to open a newcomers eyes to some of the more subtle effects which are present in the FM series and FMH in particular.

This game is a strange beast – newcomers to Football Management games may find Football Manager Handheld (FMH) a little daunting, while old hands of our PC titles should (hopefully) find the game straight forward to pick up and play.

Football Manager Handheld is a completely new game from our previous titles, although many of the older gamers amongst you might recognise aspects which we have adopted into the game.

The match engine for instance is very reminiscent of that used in our third series of SMG games. This engine relies upon a detailed and varied text commentary to set the scene during a match and inform the user of what is happening.

The Match
Favourite Tactics
Explanation Of Player Characteristics
Recommended Players
Keeping your Players Happy
Searching for players
Training For Success
Player Contracts
New Signings
Final Word

The Match
The commentary in FMH allows people to easily ascertain the reasons behind the success (or otherwise) of their teams. As well as the various statistics available to you as manager (eg. rating, passing stats etc) the following key messages should be taken into consideration:

Defenders: Messages about successful tackles (or players beating them) will give you an indication of your defenders skill in comparison to the opposition player involved. Bear in mind that sometimes there may be a striker who is too much for your defense to handle on their own, in these cases consider placing a DMC in front of the defense to help shore things up and cover defenders when they get in trouble.
If opposition players are getting shots in but the commentary about the shots indicates that they had very little space then this indicates that your current tactic is successfully closing them down if not actually getting the ball from them.

Midfielders: Messages about passes which lead to shots (especially where the commentary mentions easy chances or tap ins) or about lots of passes going astray.

Attackers: Messages about shots where a goalkeeper was off his line tends to indicate a player with good anticipation and vision.
If all the shots that attackers are having indicate that they had little space to work in then the defence is closing them down, if this is the case then it may help to find players with better off the ball movement or to give the players move runs to try and shake markers off them.

Favourite Tactics
I tend to play using the default 442 diamond tactic but with short passing and pressing set. This works very well if you have skilful enough players who are also fairly hard working
Kevin Turner: With Tottenham I use a 4132 formation which does not concede many goals (e.g. 0-0 against Man U at Old Trafford). When I use this formation with Falkirk on the other hand, I lose most games and have to fall back on a 442 which seems to be a lot more suited to the Falkirk players.

Explanation Of Player Characteristics
Below is a description of the various visible player characteristics within the game.
Aggression How aggressive he is.
(GK) Agility How agile he is.
Creativity How creative he is (able to see key passes etc.).
Crossing How good he is at crossing the ball.
Dribbling How good he is at dribbling with the ball.
(GK) Handling How good he is at handling the ball.
Heading How good he is at heading the ball.
Leadership How well he leads and inspires his team mates.
Movement How good he is at moving into good attacking positions.
Pace How fast he is is (both top speed and acceleration) Passing How accurately he can pass the ball.
Positioning How good he is at keeping a good defensive position.
(GK) Reflexes How good he is at making reflex saves.
Shooting How good he is at shooting (combination of Long Shots and finishing).
Stamina How long he is able to play before tiring.
Strength How physically strong he is.
Tackling How good he is at making tackles.
Teamwork How good he is at playing for the team.
Technique How good his technique and ball control is.

A large number of hidden statistics also exist including:
Pressure, Professionalism, Loyalty, Sportsmanship, Temperament, Consistency, Corners, Decisions, Dirtiness, Finishing, Free Kicks, Long Shots, Important Matches, Injury Proneness, One-on-ones, Penalties, Throw Ins, Vision, Pressure and a few others.



Keeping your Players Happy
In a similar manner to FM PC happy players will perform slightly better than those that are unhappy. The following factors affect player unhappiness:

Contract: How happy the player is with his current contract
Appearances: How regularly he plays for the team.
Country: How happy he is living in his current location (city, country).
Time at club: Whether the player feels he has achieved all he can at his current club
Favourite staff: Whether he likes any of his team mates.
Disliked staff: Whether he dislikes any of his team mates..

Searching For Decent Players
As in previous versions of FM finding decent players for your team is of the utmost importance, with this in mind I have listed the search filters which I use for each position within the game:

Goalkeeper:
Balance Good
Handling Excellent
Positioning Excellent

Defender:
Heading Excellent (Central Defenders only)
Tackling Excellent
Teamwork Good
Strength Good
Positioning Very Good

Midfielder (defensive):
Heading Good (Central Midfielders only)
Teamwork Good
Stamina Good
Strength Good
Tackling Very Good
Positioning Very Good

Midfielder (attacking):
Creativity Good
Off the Ball Very Good
Pace Good
Passing Excellent
Teamwork Good

Striker:
Heading Good
Movement Good
Pace Good
Shooting Excellent

Captains:
Age 24+
Leadership Very Good
Teamwork Good

I haven't given actual values for the abilities listed as this obviously changes depending upon the team that you are managing.... for example

Comment Cambridge City Norwich Arsenal
Good 6+ 8+ 10+
Very Good 10+ 12+ 14+
Excellent 12+ 14+ 16+

In general if 4 in 5 of the values set match the requirements then I will consider the player for purchase.

If you start as a small club then try and resist purchasing players who are well known in real-life once they’re aging veterans and available on a free unless you really really think they’ll still cut it at your club.
Not every current Premiership star will be a Teddy Sheringham and still playing to a high standard at the age of 38+

Training For Success
A simple but flexible training system has been implemented into FMH. This has been implemented in such a way that the user can either ignore it in which case your assistant manager will keep your players training sensibly. However if you decide to take control of training yourself then you can subtly influence the way in which your team develops.

If a player indicates that he is unhappy with his training this normally indicates that he is being over-trained and if you drop the level of his training somewhat he will become happy again.

Player Contracts
Player contracts in FMH are somewhat simplified over the PC version and as such contract negotiations and renewals are fairly straight forward.

Remember to ensure you renew the contracts of any key players well before they have six month or less left of their contracts. After this point they are able to negotiate directly with other clubs and leave under the bosman ruling if they so desire.

It obviously necessary to keep an eye on clauses which players might request – especially so for a ‘Big Club Release’ clause. This clause will allow a player to leave your club should a large club make an approach for him. Such a clause can often leave your team with a gaping hole where your star player once was, so only allow such a clause if you can find no other way to obtain/retain a players services.

New Signings
Give new signings a chance to settle into a side, some players – especially ones from abroad might take a few weeks to get used to the team and the style of football that the club employ.

Just because a player might have a bad first match it doesn’t always mean he’s rubbish – he might just have had an off day or be acclimatising himself to his new surroundings.

The safest way to ascertain if this is the case is to leave the player on the bench for subsequent matches giving him the last 15 minutes of any matches which are either already lost or ‘safe’ in which to impress you.

If he consistency receives a decent rating (7 or above) over 3-4 substitute appearance then he’s probably settling in and looking good, if not then consider letting him go.

Final Word
Using the tips I have presented here I have achieved consistent success managing both Brighton and Cambridge City ... bear in mind that the tactics I use may not be suited to all teams, as in real-life the tactics should be determined by the players available not the other way around.