apthered

I created this guide over Christmas Break and its been up in the Download Centre since then but I thought it will be of more use out here were it is easily accessible. This way I can edit it easily as well and people can tell me what to change in the thread. Hope whoever hasn't read it finds it useful, and those who have read it like the changes.

Introduction

First of all, I would like to say that this is not all my work and I am not saying that I did it all myself. This is merely a combination of many different football manager guides as well as a lot of input by me tooJ. A full list of all of these helpers/authors of other guides follows this guide and I am very grateful to them. Finally, I hope that you will find this guide helpful. As you may have noticed, it is rather long and please use Ctrl+F (Find) to go the specific section you need. There is also a table of contents to help you.
New Games

Starting

To start a new game, open Football Manager and click on the new game button (the left-most button). Then choose a database – if you have not downloaded or created a database, select the default. If you have, choose that one.
Loading Databases

You can either go through the wizard or just click advanced options on the lower left-hand corner. Choose advanced options and then choose the countries you would like in your database (in the left panel), and their lowest leagues in the right panel. If you click on recommended setup then you will get a database that will fit your computer’s capabilities. Remember that the more leagues selected, the more RAM you will need. 512MB to 1GB of RAM will allow you to choose about 5-10 leagues with medium level of database and correspondingly less with a higher level. You can also load all players from a country in the bottom panel, where you also select the start date and country and database size. For a greater challenge, disable use real players (you have no prior knowledge of anyone) and/or enable use attribute masking (some attributes from league you are not playing in are masked, you have to scout the players to find out more). For a final challenge, you can enable or disable transfer budgets in your first window, which means that you can only make free transfers/loans in your first transfer window). Then click on start game on the left panel.
Choosing a Team

You can once again use thee wizard or manually. Since the wizard is self-explanatory, I will do it here manually. Choose advanced options on the left hand corner, then type your information such as name, date of birth previous experience (no effect on the game), nationality/other nationality and your favourite team. Then choose the team you wish to manage, or start unemployed. If you want to start unemployed, then tick the box and press start. If not, then either randomise your team or choose it via the leagues dropdown on the right side. Then click confirm. Press no for the next box unless you want to add another manager and then save your game.
Introduction

You will get a message from your chairman welcoming you to the club and another one asking you what you believe your expectations are. Based on that, you will get your transfer and wage budgets for the season. Before you start playing, make sure you analyse your team and your assistant’s team report (Manager>Tactics, then choose Get Team Report on the bottom-left).
Scouting

Player Search

To access player search, click on Manager>Find Players>Player Search
Now to find a good player follow these guidelines on what each position needs to be good at. You can search for these attributes using the customise option in the top-right hand corner. Tick off ‘ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets’ so that you don’t waste your time. Some excellent free/cheap players are in brackets.
Position
Primary Attributes
Secondary Attributes
Goalkeeper
Handling, One on Ones, Reflexes, Aerial Ability
Command of Area, Rushing Out, Throwing, Kicking
Full Backs
Tackling, Heading, Pace, Crossing, Dribbling, Positioning, Anticipation
Acceleration, Long Throws, Work Rate, Teamwork, Marking, Bravery, Stamina
Central Defenders
(Sergey Ignashevich is available on a free I the first season)
Tackling, Heading, Marking, Positioning, Strength
Anticipation, Bravery, Work Rate, Teamwork, Concentration
Defensive Midfielders
Strength, Tackling, Bravery, Anticipation, Passing
Long Shots, Heading, Work Rate, Marking, Positioning
Central Midfielders/ Playmakers
Passing, Decisions, First Touch, Technique, Creativity, Long Shots
Dribbling, Free Kicks, Determination
Attacking Midfielders
(Free Role)
Passing, Finishing, First Touch, Creativity, Technique
Composure, Flair, Decisions, Long Shots
Wingers

Crossing, Dribbling, Passing, Pace, Finishing
Acceleration, Composure, Creativity, Technique, First Touch
Fast Striker
(Alex Fernandez is available on a free I the first season, he is very good for the lower leagues, just not the Premiership)
Finishing, Dribbling, First Touch, Composure, Off the Ball, Pace
Acceleration, Passing, Decisions, Creativity, Technique
Tall Striker (Target Man)
Finishing, Passing, Heading, Strength, Dribbling, Decisions
Composure, Off the Ball, Work Rate, Teamwork
All primary attributes need to be at least 15 for Premiership level, 12 for Championship, 10 for League 1 & 2 (Use these as a guideline). For secondary attributes, they have to be 12 for Premiership, 10 for Championship, 7 for League 1 &2.
Staff Search

After going to Player Search, on the left panel, choose staff. Use the customise feature to search for the following. Some excellent free/cheap staff are in brackets.
Staff Role
Primary Attributes
Secondary Attributes
Assistant Manager
(Pako Ayestaran is available on a free I the first season)
Tactical Knowledge, Judging Player Ability
At least one coaching attribute, Mental,
Coach
At least one coaching attribute
Working with Youngsters, Mental
Youth Coach
At least one coaching attribute, Working with Youngsters
Mental, Level of Discipline
Fitness Coach
Fitness Coaching

Scout
Judging Player Ability, Judging Player Potential
Adaptability, Tactical Knowledge
Physio
Physiotherapy

Scouting

Always keep scouts on areas where they don’t already have knowledge of. This way, your club’s scouting knowledge will increase and so you will see more players in your player and staff searches.
To do so: Manager>Find Players>Scouting>Choose your Scout>Add New Assignment
You can then filter the search (best results is no filtering, you can find a lot of wonderkids that way) and select the region to scout.
Free Transfers

A lot of the time, players are out of contract or are in their last year/6 months of the contract and you can approach to sign them without any compensation (unless they are based in England). You can search for these players using the player search and choose customise. Then select contract status and choose Expiring, Expired or Unattached. You can also filter Transfer Listed, which means that the players are allowed to leave their club and are generally cheaper than their regular price. At the same time, you can search listed for loan (usually youngsters to gain experience).
Tactics

Making your own tactic

I am only going to briefly describe each part of the tactic because the best tactic-making guide is here (thank you very much to the creator). Make sure you use player instructions, not just team instructions.
Mentality: How attacking/defensive your team or player is going to play. Team mentality should be around normal and player mentality varies according to position.
Creative Freedom: How much freedom your team has. Use only for players with high creativity.
Passing Style: It is how direct you play. Short means one-touch football and long means long-balls. Better passers and first touches should have shorter passing.
Tempo: Keep it slow with a shorter passing style, and faster with a direct counter-attacking style.
Width: How wide your team plays – if you have out and out wingers, then your width should be very wide. If you have 3 CMs, then you should play narrow.
Closing Down: (Pressing) the more you press the quicker your team tires out. But it is still very effective. Never put under normal.
Time Wasting: Only use when you are protecting a lead in the last 5-10 mins (at full). It determines the amount of time a player spends on the ball.
Defensive Line: Put it deep if you’re facing fast defenders and push up if you are winning.
Tackling: Let your best tacklers only have hard tackling. The rest should have either easy or normal.
Focus Passing: Keep it at mixed unless you are playing in a narrow pitch (through the middle) or you play very wide (down both flanks).
Marking: Zonal or Man (or Specific). Try to use Zonal (only my preference) because Man-Marking, though good allows other players (not strikers etc.) to score or come into the attack. They also limit a quick counter attack.
Target Man Supply: Use to head if the target man’s heading and first touch is good. Use Run onto Ball if his pace and dribbling is good. And use to feet if first touch and dribbling is good. Also look at Preferred Moves in Positions to check where each player might want the ball (some have it, some don’t).
Tight Marking: Use if your not the team favoured to win and if your not defending that well. It uses up a lot of energy though.
Use Target Man: Check only if you have a good partnership between your strikers or if you have a good lone striker who can hold the ball up.
Use Playmaker: Choose only 1 or 2 players and they need to have good passing and creativity. They should be centrally located on the pitch.
Counter Attack: Use if you’re the underdog team and use it with a direct passing style + quick tempo.
Play Offside: Play an offside trap if your defenders have good experience with each other and very good positioning only.
Tweaking it to match your needs

Possible Tweaks for some situations:
Conceding Too Many Goals: Use tight marking and closing down
Too many fouls/bookings: Reduce tackling to normal/easy
Players aren’t scoring: Increase their long shots and make mentality more attacking
Relegation candidate, losing too many games by 1 goal: Use counter-attack
Players getting in behind defence: Disable playing offside (only use it when your back line has played with each other a lot and has good positioning), bring defensive line to deep or just above deep, use faster defenders
Giving the ball away too much: Change passing style to more direct (use short passing only with good passers)
Training

Making a training schedule

Again, I am not going to describe it in full detail, but just briefly explaining what training category helps what attribute (Not all attributes are covered). There are some very good training schedules on the net. (I use Tug’s)
Strength: Stamina, Strength
Aerobic: Pace, Agility, Acceleration and Balance
Goalkeeping: all Goalkeeping attributes except Eccentricity and Tendency to Punch
Tactics: Decisions, Anticipation, Off the Ball, Positioning
Ball Control: Dribbling, Technique, First Touch
Defending: Tackling, Marking, Heading
Attacking: Passing, Creativity
Shooting: Finishing, Composure, Long Shots
Set Pieces: Free Kicks, Corners, Penalties, Long Throws, Crossing
Workload: Higher workload could cause more injuries. Never put the total workload to Very Heavy or more.
Getting top stars in training

Training Type
Attributes Needed in Coaches
Top Coach
Strength/Aerobic
Fitness is 18+
Dave Barron
Claudio Gaudino Pako Ayestaran
Goalkeeping
Goalkeeping is 18+
Xavi Valero
Richard Hartis
Tactics
Tactics is 18+
Angel Vales
Giles Rousset
Ball Control
Technical 18, Mental 18 or
Technical 19, Mental 14 or
Technical 20, Mental 10
Donagh Holohan
Jean-Luc Dogon
Defending
Defending 18, Tactics 18 or Defending 19, Tactics 14 or
Defending 20, Tactics 10
Juan Santisteban
Pako Ayestaran
Carlos Queiroz
Attacking
Attack 20 and Tactical 10+ or
Attack 19 and Tactical 14+ or
Attack 18 and Tactical 18+
Justo Lillo
Francisco Seirul.lo
(there is a period)
Shooting
Tech. 20 and Attack 10+ or
Tech. 19 and Attack 14+ or
Tech. 18 and Attack 18+
Ricardo Moniz
René Meulensteen
Set Pieces
Tech 20, Ment/Attacking = 30+ Combined (20+10, 15+15) or
Tech 19, Ment/Attacking = 33+ Combined (20+13, 17+16) or
Tech 18, Ment/Attacking = 36+ Combined (20+16, 18+18) or
Tech 17, Ment/Attacking = 39+ Combined (20+19, 20+20)
It is very hard to find a coach with top stars in Set Pieces
I know only 2:
Francisco Seirul.lo
(Barcelona)
Paco Herrera
(Atletico Madrid)

Board Room/Confidence

Club Information Screen

To access this screen choose Manager>Team>Information
Here you know how good your club is in many different departments that can be dealt with board requests:
Stadium Capacity: How many people will fit into the stadium and if there is any expansion going on currently
Training Facilities: with a better training facility, you have a better opportunity for players achieving and maintaining their potential (Top Training facilities is the best)
Youth Facilities: same as above, it will help with the development of your youngsters (State of the Art youth facilities is the best)
Finances: Tells you if you are in any position to make any board requests (with Rich being the best)
You can also find out the following:
Chairman Status: Tells you if there might be a proposed takeover (Loves the club means there is no chance)
Year Founded and Status: Self-Explanatory
Captain/Vice-Captain: Self-Explanatory
Pitch Dimensions/Max. Dimensions: How big your pitch is and how big it can go
Fierce Rivals/Other Rivals: Who you should do a good job against
Squad Average Age: How youthful or old your squad is
Squad Personality: The average feeling within the squad
Favoured Personnel: If you do well, you’ll get in there
Board Requests

To get to the board room screen choose Manager>Board Room
During a game you can ask the board for the following:
Expand the Stadium: Do this only if you are constantly filling your stadium and have a lot of money (See Club Information>Finances or Manager>Team>Finances)
Improve Training/Youth Facilities: Self-Explanatory
Request Parent Club: Request a team to get players on loan form. If you have a choice between teams, choose the team that has the best youth academy/reserve team.
Request Feeder Club: Request a team to send your players on loan to, get a work permit for a non-EU player or for financial benefits. You will pay them some money each year.
Request for extra transfer funds/extra wages: Self-explanatory
Make a budget adjustment: You can make an adjustment between the two budgets to satisfy your needs. If you have a very high wage budget then you can make that into a lot of transfer money.
Extra time to rebuild the squad: Board gives you time to turn over bad form
A New Contract: Request a new contract so that you can continue as that team’s manager
Ultimatum: If the board doesn’t agree with your request or is unable to, you can make an ultimatum, which means that either do what you say or sack you. It is very rare for it to go your way. Do not try it!
Finances

This screen can be accessed by Manager>Team>Finances (on left panel)
There are 5 parts to it – Summary, Income, Expenditure, Salary and Transfers
The summary shows you the best of the income and expenditure of your team and the salary screen shows you what your wage budget and how much of it you’re using. The transfers screen shows any payments that aren’t yet completed (sell on clauses etc.). The income screen shows all the money that the team has earned over the last month, the season so far and the previous season. All the expenditures of the same period are shown in the expenditure screen.

Please help me by contributing to this guide. Reply to this thread with anything that I can add, change or remove.

Hartynips

Thank you Ap, and everyone else who contributed, its an awesome guide, extremely detailed and well laid out.

I find the staff guides in this piece particularly useful, most people know a lot about the players but not so much as to who to get in for backroom employment.

I personally can't think of what else to add, though I expect others might so will check back on this thread from time to time.

Super job mate KUTBGW!!!!

Fedorico Roma Fan

wow, fantastic work Ap and everyone else who put in work!

apthered

thanks guys
fed you helped me too remember
i lost the thanks list but once i find it ill add the stuff in