Preparing for League 1 play

Well, I've managed to secure a top 3 finish with Newport County which clears our way for promotion. Before the current season ends and certainly before the next one begins, I wanted to ask you guys what areas need improvement on my team.

Generally speaking, I'm very happy with the style of football that we play. We play narrow, defensive football, with a lot of emphasis being on our midfielders. I'm comfortable maintaining this kind of game play, but I'm also looking to add more offensive firepower up front with one of my strikers. If anything, I want them to open things up for when my MCs come charging in.

Here are some links to my current team's attributes:

Physical attributes
Mental attributes
Technical attributes
Goalkeeping attributes

The following are screenshots of three of the four tactics I currently use. I didn't include the player instructions but they are based heavily on the TT&F guide for FM2009:

Attack - Team instructions
Normal - Team instructions
Defensive - Team instructions

very nice very nice.

a few questions though:

how often do you play with that defensive tactic? how does slow tempo work in counter attacking play?
hmm, so this all works good?

just wondering.

Early in the season, I like to use the defensive tactic because our team plays sloppy if we play too quickly. Once they start to gel, though, I use more of the normal tactic and use the defensive tactic to waste away games against better teams or teams that get hyper aggressive toward the end of matches.

The slow tempo and counterattacking seems to work well for us. It doesn't cause a lot of breakaway one-on-one opportunities against the opposing keeper, but we rarely get that even if we're playing aggressive. Typically we'll force a turnover around midfield, pitch it up to one of the strikers, and get a wide open long shot with one of our midfielders. Our final stats for the season are a good indicator. One of our strikers had the most goals with 12, but our midfielders accounted for 22 goals.

ah ok good stuff.

im always looking to control the games as much as possible. i always try to have 22 players at least, 2 for every position. i do rotate, not too much. but just so i have fit players every match because i play agressive. i rarely play defensive(if its not the last 10 mins).

against big teams i would rather have a go than to play cautious and defensive. and it seems to work well at times.

but then again everyone has their own way of things.

I think one of the biggest things I'm trying to prepare at this point is making my coaching staff better. All of my training is at least 4 stars, with some being higher. What I'm hoping to do is to start developing talent from within the organization.

My board doesn't seem too interested at this point yet, however. They've turned down my annual requests to improve the youth facilities, but I suppose I can't expect them to take my vision seriously until we get into the Championship League or the Premiership.

try to get a parent club in the prem i got Newcastle with leeds and i just went around the prem asking for loan reports lol

micah : try to get a parent club in the prem i got Newcastle with leeds and i just went around the prem asking for loan reports lol

When you ask for a parent club, do you get a chance to pick who - or at least what league - the parent club is in?

welll they come with choices like they do with feeder clubs and you just choose but with me they found only 1 which was newcastle

I just updated my blog, but after having my request granted to find a parent club, the board turned around a couple days later and said they didn't see a point in linking with a club. :dontgetit

Having a few problems with signing coaches for my league 1 MK Dons team, when i first started as manager i mutually terminated the contract of the coach as I wanted to increase the amount of stars for each training, when i've gone to sign a replacement the board are not allowing me to take them on as they say we do not need any more coaches, is this a bug or are the baord just being really annoying?

specialmikey : Having a few problems with signing coaches for my league 1 MK Dons team, when i first started as manager i mutually terminated the contract of the coach as I wanted to increase the amount of stars for each training, when i've gone to sign a replacement the board are not allowing me to take them on as they say we do not need any more coaches, is this a bug or are the baord just being really annoying?

the board is annoying, when you get higher up in leagues you will be able to sign more coaches etc.

i dont know how much the economy helps for you to sign coaches. but a steady economy should also mean a few more coaches.

it really bugs me, i remember before in fm 0506 etc you could sign loads of coaches if you had the money.

but in fm 09 i have learned to only have 3-5 stars in the training to start with in the lower leagues. and then when more money/promoted i sign more. and try to get more stars.

Thanks, looks like i'll have to keep my training at 2 star. Although I had a thought of offering my youth coaches, full coaching positions as they may allow me to do that an then hopefully I can push a few up from 2 star.

specialmikey : Thanks, looks like i'll have to keep my training at 2 star. Although I had a thought of offering my youth coaches, full coaching positions as they may allow me to do that an then hopefully I can push a few up from 2 star.

yeh i always do that, give the youth coaches full coaching contracts.

specialmikey : Having a few problems with signing coaches for my league 1 MK Dons team, when i first started as manager i mutually terminated the contract of the coach as I wanted to increase the amount of stars for each training, when i've gone to sign a replacement the board are not allowing me to take them on as they say we do not need any more coaches, is this a bug or are the baord just being really annoying?

This is something I took note of when I started at the lowest level. I had a junk group of coaches, but the board had a maximum of one - literally an assistant and that's it! I stuck with my horrible group of coaches and their horrible training abilities until I got promoted. The first thing I did was start hunting for better coaches and scouts!