My first attempt at FM11

Having purchased Football Manager 2011 last week I've been getting to grips with the game that is rather complicated compared to Championship Manager 3 series, which I am used to.

I finally settled on starting a game with Coventry City in the English Championship and have currently played up to early November 2010 in the game.

It has not been a bad start as I currently find myself in 10th position which is causing a surprise as Coventry were one of the favourites to be in a relegation battle. I even won a manager of the month award for September.

However, I've suddenly gone on a awful run of form and can't fathom on why. My Match Preparation looks great with 3 tactics that are all nearly on the 'Fluidity' mark.

With the recent turn of results, my best performers lost form and it's proving hard to turn this all around. I've not done anything differently and rather confused about what to do next.

Do I need to make new tactics? Adjust training schedules? Sack and sign new staff members?

Advice very much appreciated!

Keep doing what your doing, all teams have runs of bad form. Try to keep players morale up during the bad streak, a good way to do this is to personally comment on the players last performance on private chat, bad if a bad performance last game (6.4 or lower) and vice versa, as long as the player agrees with you his morale will increase.

at times altering tactics slightly can help. you might see that a bit more direct approach is required now or the other way around. doesnt mean you go on to change tactics fully. just at times you need alterations done that might help the team.

Thanks for the replies.

My attempts of raising morale backfired, after five personal chats with players going horribly wrong, it made matters worse.

I decided to sack my Assistant Managers as they were pretty awful and the Coventry board blocked my attempts of releasing them when I started, but it was allowed this time around.

However, a new coach I hired Ian Bowyer keeps giving contradicting advice on the Backroom Advice. Like, he'll say the opponents struggle against teams who play a quick tempo, then underneath it he'll say I recommend we play a slow tempo. Odd.

As for tactics, I panicked and have now chosen 3 new tactics for the match preparation to work with. I've gone from being in the top 8 for the first months of the season to 17th by Christmas.

I've not won a game in 5 and only won one game in 12 which is awful. I am still going to persevere as it's all a learning curve.

Any other advice is appreciated ;-)

I think this happens to basically all teams you play with. Especially in the championship where the competition is cutthroat. I have had worse barren runs with Preston and Bristol City, not winning a game in jan and feb. Falling from 2nd(in both cases!) to finish 5th and 6th respectively.

# redalert : I think this happens to basically all teams you play with. Especially in the championship where the competition is cutthroat. I have had worse barren runs with Preston and Bristol City, not winning a game in jan and feb. Falling from 2nd(in both cases!) to finish 5th and 6th respectively.

Ahh ok, maybe choosing Coventry in the Championship was a baptism of fire. I managed to finally get a win, two on the bounce actually with 2-0 wins over Palace and then West Brom in the FA Cup. I had gone back to my 4-4-2 attacking tactic and made some minor adjustments, however I just lost to Burnley and Doncaster so back to the drawing board again!

Ended up resigning as manager in March after only winning two games in 2011 (the two I mentioned in the previous post).

Some of my results got ridiculous too, I lost 7-6 to Leicester City in 90 minutes, I was 5-0 down at half time.

Got beat 5-1 at home, 4-0, 6-0, 6-3, 5-2 etc.

The weird thing was, I was still around 17th position and not in any threat of losing my job but I just felt like I'd completely lost the plot with this team as nothing seemed to be working anymore.

Going to start a fresh, maybe in League One or Two. Thanks for you advice.

# Loki :
Going to start a fresh, maybe in League One or Two. Thanks for you advice.

The weaker the team you're managing, the harder it is to manage.

I agree with Yme, for starters (and I did the same when I was learning on FM 06), start with the big four EPL teams (Man U, Chelsea, Man City....)

High rep, good facilities and youth academies, shedloads of cash, and learn the nuances of the game that way.

My two cents worth anyway.

# Yme : The weaker the team you're managing, the harder it is to manage.

If you are to start in the League 1, I would suggest Brighton. Low expectations despite one of the best squads in the league.

I've started a new game with Leyton Orient. I don't think being a top 4 club would have helped, I've never been good at managing big sides as I prefer Lower League/Rising from the bottom type of game.

I feel like I know what I am doing much more now than I did last week, thanks for all your help and advice.

Morale, morale is very important, do not follow the same sequence in team talks, try not to say the usual saying alot, it affects morale on the long run, do not try to praise players in private chats, sometimes they think they haven't been playing good, online possible replies are not positive, I managed Real Madrid, I lost Marcelo which was one of my key players to Fluminese for £7M only because he didn't think he was good enough to be praised.. also take care when fining players, I don't like to fine players because you don't gain or lose anything in the end, I almost lost Kaka for fining him, while Ricardo Carvalho complained because of the lack of discipline shown at the club, Cristiano Ronaldo had a problem with me, he damaged all the teams morale because all of the team like him, so you should make them put losses behind them, don't pressure them much.

# Kiwi : I agree with Yme, for starters (and I did the same when I was learning on FM 06), start with the big four EPL teams (Man U, Chelsea, Man City....)

High rep, good facilities and youth academies, shedloads of cash, and learn the nuances of the game that way.

My two cents worth anyway.

A bit off-topic here but WTF? Since when City is included in the big four??? Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea. All others are just money spenders

you say you like the small teams and like to climb through the ranks..
Well for one if you are playing with relegation type teams,you should really expect to have bad runs and such as the squads are usually alot poorer than the ones around you.
The small team i usually play is rochdale div2,and the tactics what really work well ive found is to use a 4141 solid at the back.I would advise against the 442 attack your using as i said alot clubs around you have better players and will usually crush you.
Top the team up with a few loans.And find a few good free agents,theres plenty about if you look hard enough...

On a side note city are in the top4 teams,who came 3rd last year!!!!!!Plus saying liverpool&chelsea are not big spenders..andy carrol 35mill,torres 50mil and the list goes on!!!Atleast we buy quality

# oilbaron : On a side note city are in the top4 teams,who came 3rd last year!!!!!!Plus saying liverpool&chelsea are not big spenders..andy carrol 35mill,torres 50mil and the list goes on!!!Atleast we buy quality

Well its Premier Leuague! You have to spent in order to challenge for something! But the citizens are just buying and buying! Quality spenders if you like but SPENDERS! and with a finish at the first 4 places they are not getting into the Top4! they need more than a qualification to Champions League fot that!