The third challenge of the ’12 FMV Tour brings us to Croatia.

GNK Dinamo Zagreb are the biggest side in Croatia, and they will be your club to manage for this stage of the tour. As you are the biggest side in the country you will have the best players, the best facilities, the best youth, and the most money to spend to help you dominate your rivals and qualify for European competition. Despite the fact you are the colossus of Croatia, you will be severely overmatched in Europe and can expect to struggle greatly against the major European sides. Do you have what it takes to keep up the nigh impossible domestic expectations saddled upon the Bad Blue Boys and get results in Europe?

GNK Dinamo Zagreb

Founded in 1945 as a replacement for three clubs disbanded by the Yugoslav Communist Party, the Modri (Blues) are the most successful club in Croatian history. Home matches are played at the Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb, one of the largest stadiums in the nation. The supporters group of the club, the Bad Blue Boys, are one of the most notorious and dangerous supporters groups in all of football. The club contests the Eternal Derby with their bitter rivals Hejduk Split, who are the clear #2 in Croatian football both historically and in the modern era. With more silverware than any other Croatian club (including the only European silverware in Croatia: the 66-67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup), and having spent their entire existence in the top flight in both Yugoslavia and Croatia, Dinamo are a force to be reckoned with. Many of the top Croatian players in the world have played for Dinamo, and Dinamo have a track record of being a tough draw in Europe.

Prva HNL

The top flight of Croatian football, established in 1992 following the breakup of Yugoslavia. For the 2011-2012 seasons the league has 16 teams, however that number will be reduced to 12 for the following year due to restructuring and thus 5 teams will be relgated for this year. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Champions League Qualifying Round, while the runner-up and second runner-up qualify for early Qualifying Rounds in the Europa League. Teams play each other twice with 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS
This challenge will last for three years, upon completing your third season in Croatia (1st May 2013), you can no longer collect points for this destination.

You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic” and play in a new save from June 2010.

You have until the midnight of 31st January 2012 to submit your screenshots in this thread, and accumulate as many points as you can.

You may not manage any other teams, or use other programs to aid you in this challenge.

HOW TO SCORE POINTS
Submit screenshots via reply within this forum thread of your progress.
Unclear or doctored screenshots will not be rewarded with points.

Prva HNL
Relegated: -10 points
16th -12th: 0 points
11th: 1 point
10th: 2 points
9th: 3 points
8th: 4 points
7th: 5 points
6th: 8 points
5th: 10 points
4th: 12 points
3rd: 15 points
2nd: 20 points
1st: 25 points

Hrvatski Kup
First Round Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 2 points
Losing Quarter Finalist: 5 points
Losing Semi Finalist: 8 points
Losing Finalist: 10 points
Winners: 15 points

Superkup Hrvatske
Winners: 5 points

Champions League
Fail to Qualify for group stages: 0 points
Group Stage Exit: 2 points
Second Round Exit: 5 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 10 points
Losing Semi Finalists: 15 points
Losing Finalist: 20 points
Winner: 30 points

Europa League
>Group Stage Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 3 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 8 points
Losing Semi Finalists: 10 points
Losing Finalist: 15 points
Winner: 25 points

RIVALRIES
(Competitive Fixtures Only)
Beat Hajduk: 5 points
Beat Zagreb: 5 points
Beat Rijeka: 3 points
Beat: Varazdin: 3 points

POINT DEDUCTIONS
Sacked: -25 points (and the challenge is over)

LOGOS
To Come

Come join us on this leg of the Tour by posting your screenshots and joining the banter in this thread on our Forums. It’s free to sign up and the Tour is open to all participants , so what are you waiting for?

fffuuuttt, futttttt, futttt.

Can you please turn that racket down. Racket? Its not a racket, its a vuvuzella the national instrument made famous by our first FMV Tour destination, it is of course.. South Africa. The host of the 2010 world cup event.

Bafana Bafana brought us a bizare atmosphere and culture to the event saw around the globe. With a lot of their stars known around the world after playing in the Barclay’s Premier League including Aaron Mokena, Steven Pienaar and the ever popular Benni McCarthy.

In the inagural FMView tour we are going to look at the South African Premier Soccer League in a more in depth basis.

It’s a pretty normal format in the PSL, with 16 teams playing each other home and away, with the usual 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a defeat the usual scoring used over the 30 games.
The champions of the PSL and the 2nd place team both qualify for the CAF Champions League whilst 3rd place and the Nedbank Cup champions qualify for the CAF  Confederation Cup which is the African version of the Uefa Europa League.

Relegation wise, the bottom team is relegated alongside the loser of a relegation playoff between the team in 15th place and the team the advances from the promotion playoffs between the top 2 teams in the Coastal and Inland Stream competitions.

They have a basic rule on foriegners where only 5 non-South Africans can be registered. Nambians born before 1990 do not count.

Cup wise there are two competitions, your Nedbank cup is just your South African version of the F.A Cup and the MTN 8 is the other competition. The MTN 8 imo is a great idea. It’s contested between the top 8 clubs in the division. 8 clubs will play in the a knock out format with each loser getting 800,000 rand, and the winner getting a lucrative 8million rand.

For the tour our chosen team is the Orlando Pirates….. OAR OAR OAR Matey.

The club were founded in 1937 and we’re named the Pirates after the 1940 film “The Sea Hawk”. Orlando became the first club since the beginning of the PSL in 1996 to win the domestic treble of the PSL, Nedbank cup and the MTN 8. They achieved this last season.

Overall the club has 31 honours including 3 PSL’s. The club have also never finished outside the top 8 since the beginning of the PSL.

The club has also had a few “FM” legends over the years, including midfielder’s Teko Modise and Benedict Vilakazi, Defender Mbulelo Mabizela and the champ man legend Sibusiso Zuma.

The club participate in the Soweto derby with the Kaizer Chiefs. Its one of the fiercest derbies in world football and pretty much the only PSL that will attract a full house everytime without fail. This rivalrly was based on Kazier Chiefs being founded by ex Orlando Pirates star Kaizer Motaung. He left Pirates to play in American and upon his return found a lot of internal fighting between the higher ups at Pirates. He formed the Kaizer XI which initally just played friendlies with various clubs and they eventually evolved into Kaizer Chiefs.

*According to wikipedia their overall record stands at Kaizer Chiefs winning 13 games, Orlando Pirates winning 11, whilst there has been 12 draws. Kaizers have outscored there opponents by 34 goals to 33.

They also have a great stadium built for the 2010 World Cup. This high standard of facilities across the country is why there is a lot of hope for the future of South African football – both domestically and on the international stage.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS

This challenge will last for three years, upon completing your third season in South Africa

(1st July 2014), you can no longer collect points for this destination.

You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic” and play in a new save from June 2011.

You have until the midnight of 30th November 2011 to submit your screenshots in this thread, and accumulate as many points as you can within the confines of a maximum of 3 seasons in the game.

You may not manage any other teams, or use other programs to aid you in this challenge

HOW TO SCORE POINTS

Submit screenshots via reply within this thread of your progress.

Unclear or doctored screenshots will not be rewarded with points.

ABSA Premiership

Relegated: -10 points

15th-9th: 0 points

8th: 2 points

7th: 3 points

6th: 4 points

5th: 5points

4th: 8 points

3rd: 10 points

2nd: 15 points

1st: 25 points

Nedbank Cup

Losing Quarter Finalist: 2 points

Losing Semi Finalist: 5 points

Losing Finalist: 10 points

Winners: 15 points

Telkom Knockout

Losing Quarter Finalist: 2 points

Losing Semi Finalist: 5 points

Losing Finalist: 10 points

Winners: 15 points.

MTN 8

Losing Quarter Finalist: 2 points

Losing Semi Finalist: 5 points

Losing Finalist: 10 points

Winners: 15 points

CAF Champions League

Group Stage Exit: 0 points

Second Round Exit: 5 points

Losing Quarter Finalists: 10 points

Losing Semi Finaists: 15 points

Losing Finalist: 20 points

Winner: 30 points

RIVALRIES

(Competitive Fixtures Only)

Beat Kaizer Chiefs: 5 points

Beat Ajax Cape Town: 3 points

Beat Mamelodi Sundowns: 3 points

Beat Moroka Swallows: 3 points

POINT DEDUCTIONS

Sacked: -25 points (and the challenge is over)

LOGOS

Premier Soccer League

National First Division

More Logos

Join us on the forums here to post your screenshots and join in the banter: http://forum.fm-view.com/topic/14867-12-official-tour-1-orlando-pirates/

Signing up is free, quick and easy.

Packed full of advice, knowledge, and screenshots, the Guide is a 100% free, 287 page beast of knowledge – it’s got everything a manager could want.

Written exclusively by the staff of FM-View, the Guide is designed to elevate your understanding of the game. Everything from formations, contracts, roles & duties, board room interactions, training to the offside trap – the Guide is truly the be-all-end-all of FM knowledge.

Oh, and like everything on FM-View, this beast is 100% free. Did we mention that?

Get it here - http://www.fm-view.com/fm12-guide.html

Whenever I make a tactic one thing always jumps out at me, make the tactic to fit the players. Why you ask, creating a tactic in this way allows for you to not bankrupt your club. Instead of buying 11 new players to fit a tactic, you could buy just 2 or 3 players to improve what you already have in place. This also provides the added bonus of your team being more gelled come the start of the season. So first things first, take a look at your squad and assess both ­strong and weaker points of the players at your disposal. Any tactic created should aim for a sense of balance, usually a 5/5 split, five going forwad to create and score and five sitting back to defend goal. With this in mind you can now start to shape your formation around the players in your squad.

Now you should have your shape set out, this is where it gets tricky. The next thing you should aim to do is assign everyone a role. Players attributes seem to be overlooked when assigning roles to players, however they are there to assist you, simply left clicking on each player brings up a list of his attibutes, you can also assign him a role, the best part is each different role highlights the key attributes, meaning finding the perfect role should be easy. Whilst doing this you need to keep a balanced point of view, remember we are aiming for a 5/5 split, five forward and 5 back. Not all players will fit into this sort of occasion, in which case you should look to use the support role, this allows for somewhat of a inbetween attack and defense, having the player fill both roles in equal measures.

We are now half way to creating your tactic, a team and shape has been dedicated, all that’s left to do is sift through the Team instruction page ironing out any minor details you are not happy with. When clicking the team instructions button you are faced with a daunting list of choice, fear not because I hope to explain all to you. So let’s run through each of the team instructions:

Philosophy – Here your choices are; contain, defensive, counter, balanced, control, attack and overload. This setting affects how your team approach the game, do you want focus on stopping the opposition scoring, or would you prefer your team to go all out attack and ty to outscore your opponent. Starting with contain, ultra-defensive going all the way through to Overload which is ultra attacking. Each have their good and bad points, the more attacking you go the more players commit themselves to attacking phases of play. Choosing a philosophy all depends on the standard of your players, should they be strong defensively it makes no sense playing an attacking formation. Like wise if they are not the fastest around playing a counter attack is not recommended.

Starting Strategy – Your choices here are; very rigid, rigid, standard, fluid and very fluid. This setting will affect just how many phases of play each player within your starting line-up will participate in. For example on a very rigid mentality your players will generally only get actively involved in a single phase of play, alternatively on a very fluid mentality each player will look to assist in both attacking and defensive phases of play as much as possible.

Passing Style – One of the more simple choices; short, default and direct. This is pretty self explanatory, here is your setting to choose the style of play you wish your team to promote. Short being excactly that, however in FM a short passing game is translated into the match engine as a pass to the player in most space closest to the player on the ball. Direct is not as you would think either, instead the player on the ball will look to pass the ball to the player in the most space furthest up the field. Default appears to equate to a mixture of each. Your choice here should be influenced by the “starting strategy” you choose. Playing a direct game on possession based tactic may not be the best idea.

Creative Freedom – Your choices are; more expressive, default and more disciplined. This setting alters how adventurous your team will pass the ball. More expressive translates to taking more chances and looking for a pass that has a lower percentage chance of being successful. Again default will allow for the team to possess a bit of both, with the more disciplined option safegaurding the ball and opting for a more secured pass.

Closing Down – Your choices here are; press more, default, stand off more. Pretty self explanatory, this is where you can edit how the team defends as a unit. Using the press more option will mean your players try to win the ball higher up the field. This can be risky unless your side holds a lot of pace in key areas, such as the wings. Default means your players will hold there position or line, effectively trying to become a brick wall to the oppositions attacks. Standing off more is typically used when playing on the counter attack, playing this style of closing down will allow your opposition to come at the defense, with your defenders making a tackle as late as possible.

Tackling – Your choices here are; more aggressive, default and more cautious. This setting determines how hard your players will go in on tackling. There will be times in any career you will need to use all of the said options. What they do is pretty self explanatory, if you are struggling then simply replace aggressive for hard, default for normal and cautious for soft.

Marking – Your choices are; man marking, defualt and zonal marking. Again this is pretty self explanatory, however just in case there is any doubt, I shall try my best to explain it for you. These options instruct your players on how you want them to defend. When you select man marking your players will take on the opposition man for man in defensive phases. Default is once again a little of both and finally zonal marking equates to your players holding a set “zone”, or boxed area, of the field.

Crossing – Your options are; drilled, default and floated. This setting usually only applies to the wide men of your side, either the full back/wing back or winger. Drilled, defualt and floated can easily be replaced by the following three words, low, mixed and high. Ofcourse the type you select depends on the attributes your striker/s have. Playing a drilled cross, or low in simpler terms, to a striker/s with high jumping, heading and arieal ability attributes means the said striker/s talents are wasted. Before you choose any of the given options check out the strikers you have available and work out which is best for your side.

Roaming – Your options are; more roaming, default and stick to position. This setting will go hand in hand with your creative freedom setting. It instructs your players as to how much they are allowed to wander from their set place on the field to contribute to attacking phases. In simpler terms more roaming may see your full back end up at the oppositions byline in order to deliver a cross. Alternatively stick to position would see your full back look for a pass to a team mate in a more advanced area of the field, thus enabling the full back to stick in his set position better.

So there we have your basic team instructions. Hopefully using the information I have provided you will now have the skills required to create a solid base tactic for your team. There is very little chance of you making the perfect tactic first time, therefore you will need to tweak areas that you are not happy with after watching a game or two. Tactic making is not easy, far from it. It takes patience and a lot of trial and error. One tip I will provide for you is not to change too much, if you do then you could find it hard undoing all the changes should it not work out. Flexability is key and your tactics will have to adapt many a time over the season, against many different teams, both shape and quality wise. Keeping things simple and playing players in the right positions is a great start though.

All that’s left for me to say is thank you for reading. As always I am open to any constructive criticism or feedback. I hope you enjoyed reading this guide, more importantly I hope it has helped. Enjoy.

Deano.

So what should you look for in a advanced playmaker? Well the first and most obvious stat that is important is creativity. This one player will be the main route your other players take in getting the ball forward. It’s also very useful if your selected player has higher numbered stats for each of: Passing, Flair, Shooting, Balance, Strength, Pace, Stamina, Decisions and Acceleration. I think that in order to get the best from your playmaker a free role is needed. To accomplish this on FM simply allow for the player to roam and give him plenty of creative freedom.

As with any formation, you will need a sense of balance throughout the team. Obviously the advanced playmaker is going to want to get forward. I therefore recommend you only use this role should you have a very good defensive midfielder or even ball winning midfielder. More then one is a bonus.

So what do you do if you come up against an advanced playmaker? I think the only logical answer to that is to play a holding midfielder to man mark the threat out of the game. Ideally you would need a Makalele type player, with pace to stick with the attacking player, good tackling, stamina and a lot of determination, after all he is going to cover a lot of ground. It’s also useful to position players with a high “Off the Ball” stat around him, thus giving you team options in covering the playmakers movement.

I hope this has cleared up one of the problem positions in Football Manager a little more for you. Any constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks for reading, all the best. Hammy

As with anything you only receive what you put into the preparation, therefore you will need to think outside the box here and actually make an effort in time and thought. Scouting is a managers best friend, not only sending a member of staff to watch the opposition, but actually making your own decisions and scouting out opposition yourself. Sure the staff member can be helpful, giving you plenty of information to a high level of detail but this all depends on league level. When down in the lower leagues your scouts are generally worse, thus meaning the amount of information available is considerably less. Is it therefore unfathomable for you to go and scout the opposition yourself? I am not talking only one game ahead of that all important clash, oh no. Instead what I have been doing, to great success, is watching opposition 2 maybe 3 games ahead of the match with me. How many times have you seen Sir Alex Ferguson visiting another teams game to make notes and look for potential strengths and weakness’. Once again I will say this way of doing things is very time consuming, taking me a little over a day to get a third of the way through a season.

When you are watching the match be astute, look for potential patterns of play, what works well and what doesn’t work so well, both offensively and defensively and most importantly look for changes in shape. All this will help you build up a web of information to build upon what your scout says. I find to get the best possible report the scout sent on the next opposition mission needs to have between a 15 and 20 attribute in each of the following areas: Determination and Tactical Awareness. By scouting the opposition for a few games you can pick up trends in the play, even start to put together a way of countering this.

So now you have all the information you can possibly imagine from watching 2 or 3 games, it’s coming up to game time and you scout has come to you with a report. The fact you have your own information should not put you off from reading what the scout has to say, infact quite the opposite. What the scout report does is act as a glue, sticking all your note into one helpful and complete way of playing, giving you the answer to beating almost any AI team on the game. Almost use this in game accessory as a comparison, see how much your notes differ, maybe making a slight tweak here or there depending on what you feel is best.

I feel this way of playing could also see the use of the match preparation in a different way too. What if this engine was designed not to raise the squads familiarity with 3 variants of the same tactic, instead the three slots are to prepare your team ready for your next encounter, only weeks in advance.

Example:

Week one you are playing Chelsea, you have done your homework and feel a 4-5-1 is the best way to approach the game. You set up your 4-5-1 and start pushing the team to familiarise themselves with it a couple of weeks in advance, also starting to scout your next opposition. This time though you are playing a recently promoted Crystal Palace and you know a 3-5-2 will work better, thus you could set the second match prep. box to this formation, allowing for your team to start building some familiarity with that shape too, by the time the game comes around you would have the 3 boxes filled with tactics being worked on for your next three games, making your life so much easier. It would allow for a more structured method of tactical selection, also making good use of a system until now thought flawed.

So how can this help? Well I only recently started a game with West Ham, rather dramatically the same day they were relegated from the premier league in real life, putting this way of thinking into effect. So far after 12 premier league games I am unbeaten, infact I have won the lot. The only bad side is this conquest took most of the day, therefore if you want to just get through the seasons this isn’t for you. This style of play/way of thinking is instead for those that don’t mind things taking that little bit longer. You will feel a little more involved in the game, submersed into a whole world of cyber reality managing your chosen team.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and the information I have written out has gave you some food for thought. Any comments/critisims are more then welcome. Of course I am interested to hear what you think of this way of playing Football Manager?

As with any tactical decision there is an upside and downside. I hope to run through both the strengths and weakness’ in the following article.

To start with I shall outline the main reason why a Nike defense can be of good use to your team. Some wing backs are better on the offense then the defense, a key part to creating successful tactics is making the most of the talent at your disposal. Should you find you have a full back that is rather good going forward, it is not the time to sell up, rather the time to adapt your formation to suit him. One of the main advantages of this style of defense is of course winning the wing battle, by pushing your full back on you are effectively cutting one of your opponents wingers out of the game. Your wing back will of course want to get forward and support and attacks, thus meaning the opposition winger either follows him in order to mark or allows him to run leaving him unmarked and possibly bearing down on goal. Usually the winger will mark your wing back and follow him, this meaning should a counter attack be used, the opposition should only have their strikers and one winger in your half, that is manageable by any teams standard.

A second advantage of playing this specific type of defense is of course the freedom to change. With a full back being so advanced, you could decide that one player on the wing is enough, leaving you with a spare player to position how you like. For example should you be winning a game come the 70th minute, your opponent starts to get the upper hand, with a wing back, you could effectively take the winger on the same side off and replace with a defensive minded player whilst still posing a threat down the wing. Alternatively, should you be losing a game your winger could just as easily be replaced by either a striker or a more central attacking midfielder. This in essence is providing you a big advantage, flexability is the key to winning, your team can easily adapt to any given situation.

Now to the disadvantages. The first and most important one is the threat of being caught out of position. Of course your player getting forward is good, but fatigue will quickly set in meaning getting back could be a problem. Another worry is pacey strikers with the command to run the channels, one of your center backs would have to go wide to cover either the winger or the striker, meaning you are left a man short in the middle. To counter act this I would suggest using a good defensive midfield anchor man. The natural movement and behaviour of an anchor means when in a defensive phase he will drop back and almost become a center back himself, this would allow for your wing back to own the wing with less importance of him getting back as quickly, knowing your anchor man would be in position to cover.

Another possible problem, especially if using the tip above about free to make change, is your wing back being out numbered. When I play a nike defense, I rarely place a winger in front of the wing back, instead opting to control the middle of the field. I have noticed time and again when playing a team with a full back and winger, the wing back is often left 2 v 1 on his wing. Again I have found an anchor man in front of the defence goes a long way to controlling this issue. As said above the ancho would drop into your defense, therefore allowing a center back to go across in support of your wing back. This could potentially be enough to stop the attack and allow you to launch a counter whilst the opposition flank is exposed.

So now you know some of the pros and cons, how do we set up a well balanced nike defense. In my opinion your goalkeeper needs to sweep behind the defensive lines, on a support duty allowing him to come out to the edge of his area and clear any imposing attacks. I would most definately play the full back in a support role, this is so he can offer something going forward but also has defensive qualities in his play, perfect for stopping the tactic getting too lopsided. The center backs are pretty easy too, I would have the wing back sided center back on a defender cover role and the full back sided player on a defender stopper role, this would probably be the safest option due to the cover defender acting almost like a sweeper and the stopper breaking down the attacks before your cover needs to step in. The wing back should have an attack role, simply for you to make the most of his ability to get forward. It would also make sense to push the defense up in a semi high line and try to utilise the offside trap, after all you are only going to have 3 men to keep in a line rather then 4. To ensure your defense is as safe as it can be I would also play a defensive midfielder in an anchor man role with a defensive setting, having followed that you should see something like this:

All in all it is a risk playing this way, but used right you could produce some formidable attacking movements. I wouldn’t trust using a nike defense on a team outside the top 6 or 7 in any country, that’s not to say it wouldn’t work though. I am pretty much done on this article, so wish you the best of luck should you go off to try this out now. I hope what I have said helps in some way or another. Thanks for reading.

Making FM config files by hand can sometimes be a bit confusing, so this guide is here to help

The easiest way to edit the config files is with Notepad, Notepad++ or any similar basic text editor

The start and end of the config file is always the same for all graphics, so it is best to copy and paste another config file and just delete the middle

For the file to work with Football Manager then it MUST be named config.xml, otherwise the game will not read the file and the graphics will not work, naming the graphic files however is a lot easier, you can name them almost anything, but special characters and accented letters like áéíóú will not work, the easiest naming method is just to use the unique id (or UID) to save time

The Start

If creating the config from scratch, then start with this, it is the same for all graphics so do not change it, after the <list id=”maps”> section you need to put the config for logos/facepacks/kits/backgrounds in, and then end with the end section

<record>

<!– resource manager options –>

<!– dont preload anything in this folder –>

<boolean id=”preload” value=”false”/>

<!– turn off auto mapping –>

<boolean id=”amap” value=”false”/>

<!– logo mappings –>

<!– the following XML maps pictures inside this folder into other positions

in the resource system, which allows this folder to be dropped into any

place in the graphics folder and still have the game pick up the graphics

files from the correct places

–>

<list id=”maps”>

Logos

There are five different types of logos you can use on FM, these are; normal, huge, small and background left/right

Below is an example line of code for each

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/club/UID/logo”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/club/UID/huge”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/club/UID/icon”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/club/UID/background/left”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/club/UID/background/right”/>

For these to work you simple have to change the name and UID to that of your logo

If the logos are for a competition rather than a club then the XML should instead be like this

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/comp/UID/logo”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/comp/UID/huge”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/comp/UID/icon”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/comp/UID/background/left”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/comp/UID/background/right”/>

Facepacks

Facepacks are far simpler and just have one config setting, example line below

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/person/UID/portrait”/>

Kits

There are two different types of kits, 2d and 3d, so both have different XML, they also have a section on the end for home/away/third. A good way to name kits would be UID_Home/Away/Third or _H/A/T

2d

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/kits/home”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/kits/away”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/kits/third”/>

3d

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/kit_textures/home”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/kit_textures/away”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/kit_textures/third”/>

Backgrounds

There are a few different types of XML for backgrounds, these are; team backgrounds, stadium/matchday backgrounds, competition backgrounds and player backgrounds

Example XML below

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/team/UID/background”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/stadium/UID/background”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/comp/UID/background”/>

<record from=”NAME” to=”graphics/pictures/person/UID/background”/>

The End

</list>

</record>

Keeping The Settings Updated – Beyond Day One

Now once your new players arrive you’ll need tomake sure their status are correctly set, assign a squad number, and put them in the correct training. For new scouts you’ll be needing to set them assignments, and for assistants/coaches you’ll have to assign them a training duty (and check to see if they are better candidates to run the youth/reserve squads). I’d also reccomend going through this guide again once a new Assistant is in place sue to the fact that his opinions may differ from the outgoing staff member. In fact it’s good practise to keep an eye on the things pointed in the guide every few months so that you are up to date on all aspects of your club.

Once your first match comes around it’s also important to pay attention to the advice your assistant gives you so that you’ll be able to deal with opposition strengths and hide your own weaknesses. If you can get a good balance over time taken to view a match and the level of detail and feedback you get from it then you’ll be able to get a good game going quite quickly. I find the 2D pitch view the best for my needs, and I watch the key incidents in a high speed – though you might prefer a lower setting until you become used to picking up information on the move. Now tweak those default tactics to take advantage of the opponents weaknesses and give yourself the best chance of winning, and don’t forget touchline shouts as they can really make a difference in a game!

With everything set up this way you’ll soon find that the game runs quicker, smoother and without much input needed from you – that’s not to say you can’t jump in where you feel like and do more than the minimum, but if you want to just take care of signings and matches on a day-to-day basis then this should work out well for you. Just remember that not everything may work out for you, but there is no need to panic as you’ll have the foundations in place to handle almost any problems. As you can see below, in FM2011 we may need to be a little more careful about our choices than in previous versions.

Good luck in your careers!

Applying The Settings – Scouting and Signings

Transfers/Transfer Centre

-Check deals already in place
As you’ve just taken over a new club it’s best to know if any sales or signings have already been put in place for the future. This is the screen where any such will be placed and so it’s a good place to visit during your first day of familiarisation with the club.

Transfers/Player Search

-Identify Targets
Using the filters you should now identify targets to complete your starting XI, then if you have remaining funds bid on squad players and/or youth prospects as these are best bought early. Whilst transfer- and loan-listed players are easier to attract, also remember to check through the players with a year left on their contract as they could join for free once their contracts expire or be bought cheaper than normal when it’s running out. Add these players to your shortlist and get your assistant to scout them. I find the assistant best for this task as you can easily compare the reports he gives on these potential signings with the ones already done for your current players.

-Player Recommendations
If you have a player or two that you want to keep and fall into the right categories (unsettled, unhappy, wanted by a club, refusing to sign a new deal, or low morale), then it may prove beneficial to ask them for a note on any signings they think would improve the club. On the main player screen select the ‘Interaction/Have Private Chat’ option in the top right hand side of the screen, then select the ‘Advice’ option in the dialogue box that appears. This will give you the options to choose what advice you’d like from the player and if you are lucky then you’ll get a name from them – but it doesn’t always happen. If they give a name and you sign them, it could help raise the morale of that player and lead him to view you more favourably.

Transfers/Staff Search
-Identify Staff Targets
Using the filters you will need to fill out your backroom staff paying close attention to the areas of training you are missing with the current coaches. Once these people are in place you will only need to check back once per season to improve or replenish this area.

-Staff Recommendations
As with player recommendations, you can ask for an opinion as to who should be added to the backroom team. Signing a favoured staff member could help raise the morale of that player and lead him to view you more favourably.

Transfers/Scouting Assignments
-Set Assignments
Set your worst staff to scout the next opponent as the better ones will be used elsewhere. You should set the others as you feel best for your league, but I’d recommend scouting UK & Ireland, Central Europe, Southern Europe, and South America if you can.

Transfers/Loans
-Track players on loan
This gives you an overview of the players you currently have on loan from other clubs, and those players who you have loaned out to other clubs. good for keeping track and seeing how everyone is doing.

Transfers/Clauses
-Generating Cash
If any clauses are listed here then you should make a note of the impact on your finances they may have for the season ahead. Also if it’s possible to sell some then I’d advise doing so as you’ll not have to worry about the small amounts creeping in and out of your accounts almost unseen, but instead be dealing with lump sums that effect the bank balance once.

The final part of this guide (Beyond day one) is coming soon…