Every year the same old questions are asked about how to get the German National Team to pick real players and to a lesser extent about Japanese teams have proper names and to an even lesser extent about those obscure Asian Nations that have been disabled as well. In this guide I’ll go through all the configuration files to let you know what they do and how to reverse them!

All the file names I mention from here on in are located in the edt and lnc folders within “C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\football manager 210\data\db\1000″ if you installed via steam or “C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2010\data\db\1000″ if you installed the boxed version

Fake.lnc

This file has a number of intentions, firstly it disables the German National team but also changes Oliver Khan’s name to Jens Mustermann and finally disables player pictures for France and Holland.

To reverse the effects of this file you can either go in and change the 1′s to 0′s which will disable it, remove the entries and save the file or just delete the whole file.

nleague.lnc

This is by far one of the largest configuration files which creates fake names for clubs in Japan, changes a number of colours and disables the Chinese, South Korean and Japanese National Teams. The other thing file does is randomise the players of Albirex Niigata (Singapore).

Once again either changing the 1′s to o’s will disable some functions or you can just delete the file.

team_holland.ddt

This file does exactly what it says on the tin – 24 of the finest Dutch players are made “first choice” for their country. To end up with a more random Dutch national squad just delete the file.

transfer_embargo.edt

The one you’ve all been looking for! There are two entries in this file – Chelsea & Bournemouth. You can either remove the lines or delete the file and Chelsea will then be able to buy players again! Maybe you might even want to stop other clubs buying players for a period of time ….

valid_takeovers_only.edt

This file determines which types of takeover are permitted in each country – well worth having a look at just to see where the Russian Billionaires won’t be able to invest!!

add_my_chairman.edt

This is one of those fun features that doesn’t get exploited as much as I thought it would, the opportunity to enter your name, favourite club etc. and maybe become their future chairman!

add_my_journalists.edt

This was a new addition in Football Manager 2009 whereby you could add a list of real journalists to the game to make press conferences more realistic.

add_my_media_sources.edt

Coupled with the Journalists file you can add real media sources to the game making press conferences more realistic.

alliteration_adjectives.edt

This is the file which picks the superlatives for those news stories along the lines of ‘Larsen-sational’ there is also a list of negative words but these are only for newgens (due to legal issues). I challenge you to find words that could be added to the already very long list!

sugar_daddy.edt

The second file in this list created initially for Chelsea, in the latest version they are also joined by Manchester City and Notts County.

In the latest incarnation of this file there is now three different types of Sugar Daddy

• Front end – They throw money at the club to spend.
• Back end – They spend enough to make them a force in their current league but if they go up a level or two it would no longer apply.
• Underwriter – They don’t give the manager any extra transfer budget but come the end of the season they will always cover any loss the club is making and not expect the money back.

Hopefully this brief explanation of each file will get your creative juices flowing and some customised versions will be shared, if not at least you’ll be able to buy players for Chelsea and see Ballack playing for Germany!

Anyone that has stumbled upon this site will already know about the Chelsea transfer ban and if you don’t know its probably not worth you going further with this post. But the Chelsea transfer embargo due to the illegal approach Gael Kakuta has hit SI games with a dilemma of whether or not this should be represented in the upcoming Football Manager 2010 and also how.

The way the game will be dealing with the scenario at the moment is that in the first transfer window of the game Chelsea will be allowed to buy any player they want within the budget that has been laid out by the board at the start of the game. I expect that this years release will reflect fairly on the more cautious approach to funding that Roman seems to have undertaken in the credit crunch which has wiped billions off his worth. But nevertheless Chelsea will be blessed with funds that any Premiership side could hope for as well as a fantastic inherited squad for anyone who takes the hotseat. But the interesting problem I see in this is that although periodically accurate with when the embargo is placed on Chelsea, anyone who chooses to manage the club will already be forewarned of their fate and have the ability to plan for the future two transfer windows, something that Carlo wasn’t blessed with.

Carlo’s reluctance to dip into the transfer market this season this will give any player a nice little bit of funds to bring in those young and talented players that will see Chelsea through the two transfer windows, then the manager would be able to sit back and watch the funds role in to the ISA account building up interest ready for a squad overhaul when it will probably be most needed. Making the punishment for Chelsea in gaming terms virtually non-existent. Anyone who fails to meet the requirements laid down by the board should really be looking at other games to spend their time on, because obviously Football Management isn’t for them.

But will the embargo affect the enjoyment of the game? Well you got to look to why people take control at Chelsea in the first place, it is obviously not in the enjoyment of the struggle, trying to build up a squad with hard work and tactical know how. No, instead it is about being able to use the money at your disposal to buy in those trophy signings, building a dream team of players like of Aguero, Messi and Gerrard. This is surely what makes the average Chelsea fan or FM manager tick so the transfer ban will obviously kill off the main reason anyone would choose to manage them in the first place unless they are planning on a long term game.

What other alternatives are there? Well it is not even certain that it will make it in the final version of the game just yet, Chelsea will certainly stick there large resources behind appealing the case, with an aging squad, two transfer windows can be a pretty long time in football. SI will definitely keep up with developments of this case as it being such a big club, I am sure if they can (or even do) collect information about what teams we play in the game a huge percentage of players will at some point take on the Chelsea (although this season they may all defunct to Manchester City). It has already been hinted that any decision made by FIFA to any appeal may force a special patch from SI to change the affects within the game.

But I feel the best and more realistic thing to do in the game would be to stick in the embargo straight from the start of the game, not allowing any signings throughout the summer 2009 transfer window. This would mean that the benefit of hindsight isn’t placed into the game, as the expectation of the ban just makes the challenge void. But instead with the way that it will work out for Ancelotti now, since knowing about the ban he hasn’t been able to bring in the players to shape the squad how he would like, bringing in players that are able to play in his own unique system. I think it would add to the challenge and enjoyment, giving another dimension to the game if this was also the case for any new starter on a Football Manager game and seeing if they can meet the challenge and problems of any ban from the start of their career.

But when it all comes down to it, the consumer will have the final choice in the matter I am sure just like a lot of things that SI games will make it easy to remove this from the game if anyone so wishes, meaning that the Chelsea fans won’t need to suffer at all. The transfer embargo though will be an interesting test for those players who want to see how they can develop their squads without the stop gap of just drafting in ready made players and it is good to know that Football Manager continues to reflect the different scenarios of the real world.

Everyone remembers Mourinho’s first season at Chelsea for the wrong reasons. All of Romans money, the fall outs with the media and the mind games with managers up and down the country. You think of Chelsea and you think boring football, sitting back on 1-0 leads, rushing referees etc.

Many forget the brilliant football he had Chelsea playing during this time. The 4-5-1 was a bit of a revelation in England, with two out and out wingers supporting a lone striker, as well as two of the three midfielders bombing on, leaving Makelele to sit with the two center backs which in turn allowed the two full backs to push forward if needed.

The free flowing, free scoring Chelsea also had a mean defensive side to their game, they conceded just 15 league goals all season! 4-0 and 4-1 wins were a regular occurrence for boring Chelsea that season, no fewer than 7 times did Chelsea score 4 or more goals in the Premier League only.

For the first time on FM09, I think i’ve finally cracked it, and done a Mourinho! This 4-5-1 formation is as close to the Chelsea 2004/05 tactic as you’ll ever get on FM!

The Formation:

As you can see, it’s a pretty regular 4-5-1 formation with just a few tweaks. Both full backs are encouraged to bomb forward, with the two center backs and holding midfielder staying back. Many will remember pundits creaming over the “Makelele position”, known to every other football fan since about 1800 as the defensive midfield position. This position is integral to the success of this tactic as not only does he sit, he also picks up loose balls and spreads the play.

Back to the formation, the two center midfielders will get involved with play as much as possible, one more so than the other, with both wingers going hell for leather at the opposing full backs. The final piece to this tactical jigsaw is the striker, he is the spear head of all attacks so like the defensive midfielder, he is also integral to this tactic working to its full capability.

Team Instructions:

The mentality is obviously pretty attacking to mimic the Chelsea tactic of a few seasons back. Team mentality doesn’t matter as much as people may think though, you need to get the balance between it and individual player mentality to really achieve the best results. Now in all of my tactics I try and match the creative freedom with the mentality because of an article I read on SI forums. As much as i wanted to disagree with it, it actually worked which was a solid base to build this formation on.

Passing style is a key aspect of this tactic but I tend to keep the range quite mixed as I feel it hinders the team if you try to go either to direct or to short. Chelsea were known to have a plan B of lumping it forward to the big man up top (usually Drogba) but tried to play the game properly, so again I have mimicked the special one here!

A quick tempo is needed in my opinion as it doesn’t give your opponents to settle and set up two banks of 4 for you to break down. A quick tempo and a mixed range of passing should enable you to dominate teams and not let them have a moments rest, when you go a few goals up you can notch down the tempo a bit as it saves your players from tiring out, but professional footballers now have the required fitness to last two 90 minute matches every week with relative ease.

Now the most important part of this tactic is the width. Damien Duff and Arjen Robben were phenomenal in that season I keep relating back to, all because they had so much of the play and out wide they had so much of the ball. I’d also set the focus passing to “down both flanks” if you wanted to use them to their full effects, although personally i prefer to keep it as mixed as i think the two central midfielders can have just as much impact on the game as the wide men.

Nowadays most professional teams should be able to close down all over the pitch, but this isn’t always necessary and I think allowing the oppositions back 4 to have the ball is quite a clever move as the further away from your goal the better. Setting closing down to “Own half” means that they do not get near your box without a challenge going in, but getting the right balance is key. Many people will think, Ok, if we close down all over the pitch what harm will it do? The answer to that is it will tire your players and also pull them out of position which could have a detrimental effect on the team.

Now time wasting is really up to you. I tend to start with it as rarely and then adjust later in the game depending on if i’m hanging onto the lead or chasing it. Obviously if you’re chasing the lead you put it down as low as it can go and vice versa.

Defensive line is dependent on your back 4, and more importantly their pace and acceleration. A fast defence (pace and acceleration totalling 30+ each on average) could easily hold a high line, an average back 4 (combining between 20+) could get away with a “normal” backline, but anything less than that (20 or under) should be played deep so you don’t get caught up the pitch. Playing the offside trap should also be dependent on the pace and positioning of your defenders. If pace and positioning combines to around 30 then you could get away with playing the offside trap, if not then it’s up to your judgement and if you wanted to risk it or not.

The force of your tackling is also up to you – personally i keep it on normal and notch it up on certain individuals that you feel can be kicked out of the game. Players such as Ronaldo and Messi are prime examples, if you go in hard on them you may give away free kicks but their performances will drop 9 times out of 10. The reason I wouldn’t set tackling to hard all the time is so you avoid so many red cards and free kicks.

Finally on the team instructions is the use of a target man. Target man supply really depends on the type of striker who leads the line. I’ll take Chelsea’s current team as an example; a Drogba type player could be supplied either “to head” or “mixed”. To head is pretty self explanatory, but leaving it as mixed gives that bit of element of surprise. A speed demon such as Anelka should be supplied to “run onto ball”. His blistering pace would get in behind defences, especially when they hold a high line.

Player Instructions:

Goalkeeper:

From the screenshot it is quite apparent what is going on here. The default goalkeeper filter that SI have provided is ideal and really doesn’t need to be tampered with in anyway. The only thing I would change is his distribution. I tend to use “quick throw” as it goes best with the quick tempo you’ve already selected. If your keeper has brilliant kicking then you could select “long kick”, or alternatively if both his kicking and throwing stats are poor then you should use “defender collect”.

Full back:

The two full backs are the two you could have the most freedom with in terms of allowing them to bomb forward or stay back at all times. As you can see from the screenshots, I allow mine to get forward with the ball as much as possible. Getting up in support of the wingers and getting in position to cross the ball into danger areas is vital in the success of this tactic – I encourage them to cross often but also to attempt through balls when possible. As i’ve said before, telling your player to do one or the other limits their influence on the game in my opinion, if your full back gets tempted inside then it’s much harder to cross it so a through ball may be more appropriate.

Center back:

As you can see from the image, I don’t allow the center halves to get forward with or without the ball at all. I also try to limit the amount of through balls, long shots and attempted crosses as I don’t feel it is beneficial to the team. I take the approach that a defenders job is to keep the ball out of your goal and nothing else so i tend to be quite “mean” in this department.

Defensive midfielder:

Much like the center backs, I try limit and forward runs with or without the ball for my holding midfielder. Depending on who you choose to play the role will affect how you change the through balls and long shots. If you have a player playing defensive midfield such as Bodmer or Gerrard then you’d encourage then to shoot and play though balls all the time, but if you have a proper ball winner type midfielder such as, dare I say it, Makelele, then you would limit these.

Cental midfielders:

Both central midfielders have the same individual apart from one is encouraged to make more forward runs (hence the arrow on the tactics screen) so i’ll keep this general: Both midfielders will get plenty of the ball and will be expected to chip in with a fair few goals each. Both should play through balls often as well as take long shots whenever they can. The amount of long shots getting peppered in on goal should allow your striker and wingers to get a fair few tap ins each as the keepers on FM09 tend to punch and parry shots from distance rather than catch them. Don’t be to disheartened if you don’t score 30 yarders every game but check out how many goals come as the result of a long shot!

Wingers:

Again both wingers are on the same instructions so i’ll keep this general again. Both wide men should run with or without the ball whenever possible. With the ball they will cause havoc against opposing fullbacks but without the ball they could get in behind the back 4 and get on the end of the through balls that your center midfielders play. Long shots and though balls are both down a notch to “mixed” as I think crossing or running with the ball is more beneficial to the wingers. The odd long shot and through ball wouldn’t go amiss though, so leaving it as mixed will bring the best out of them.

Striker:

As i’ve said before, these instructions really depend on the type of target man you employ. I am jumping the gun a bit here and assuming you are going to play a strong powerful target man who will hold up the ball, in the role as Didier Drogba if you like.

I’d look to limit both forward runs and running with the ball because he should be playing with his back to goal most of the time, acting as a link for the two wingers and two midfielders to get into the game. Long shots are not something I like my target man doing, unless he specialises in this department. I find it more beneficial for him to play through balls to link the play or get into a better goal scoring position himself.

Conclusion:

Overall I have had success with this tactic, albeit tinkered, in 4 or 5 games now. It tends to work better with some teams than others but i’ve noticed the two key positions are DMC and ST. I’ve found the back 4 and 4 “attacking” midfielders can be chopped and changed, but a world class DMC really helps to keep a good defensive record, and a class ST will get you the goals but also link up the play.

Recommended key players:

DMC: Javier Mascherano, Lassana Diarra and Owen Hargreaves – These 3 brilliant players who will break up the play with ease, and are also handy with the ball at their feet.
ST: Nikola Zigic, David Trezeguet and Adriano (Inter) – These target men will be played “to head” and hold up the ball better than the following players.
or…
ST: Bojan, Jermaine Defoe, Salvador Cabanas – These 3 will be played to “run onto ball” to utilise their pace, acceleration, finishing and composure. They will get many one on ones so those 4 stats are vital.

Download:

See original thread and author here

Here they are on the mainsite as well!

Chelsea Rounded Facepack (78)

Manchester United Rounded Facepack (90)