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An American in Scotland...

A young man's journey as a football manager
Started on 5 June 2013 by Barrak
Latest Reply on 10 June 2013 by Barrak
  • POSTS49
  • VIEWS16195
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The car wove it's way slowly through the grey overcast day. The trip from New York to Edinburgh was just a five hour flight, but had seemed to be an eternity.

John Barrak sat quietly, deep in thought. So MANY things to consider, so MANY things to do.

It had all started the month before, when he had applied for the Head Coach position for the East Stirlingshire Football Club. The "Shire" were looking for a new man to lead the players, and John may have been the only person dumb enough to apply!

So...Scottish Division 3 it is then. A man has to start somewhere.
Hi. My name is Dennis, and as the story title suggests, I am an American, writing a story using the engine of FM 2013.

A little about myself. First, and most importantly, I love the beautiful game. We all do, or we wouldn't be here. Next, I'm a Yank..and likely know as much about football as you do about baseball! I know the rules, but the nuances and subleties of much of the game quite escape me. Please no America bashing. This isn't the place for it. I am quite liberal, and am against much of our government policies..so don't bark at me because we drop bombs on villages. Enough politics, for..forever. Here at least.

But..I am reasonably bright, and pay attention. I even know what a tactic is!!!

Seriously, though..this will be quite an adventure. I have done a story similar to this for a terrific baseball game, that persisted over 25 seasons, and well over a thousand posts. I am nothing if not persistent.

I will need your patience, and your counsel, as I try to take my team to the higher divisions. I have completed the first season, which I shall briefly recap.

We gave up 102 goals in 36 games. There. Enough said. :)
Let me be the first to stererotype comment... De-fence, De-fence, De-fence!!

But seriously, welcome to the site, welcome to the wonderful world of soccer ;) and i look forward to see how 2037 pans out in your save :)
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2013-06-05 15:44#109195 ziechael : Let me be the first to stererotype comment... De-fence, De-fence, De-fence!!

But seriously, welcome to the site, welcome to the wonderful world of soccer ;) and i look forward to see how 2037 pans out in your save :)

As the first season started, I looked at my team carefully...with the knowledge that I couldn't properly evaluate the talent that I had.

Here were my options, and the options I elected to pursue:

1) Go with the stars. Five stars > four stars. Play the starters with the highest stars.

2) As contracts came due, look at the squad depth. A few of the players, the center (oops! centre) defensemen especially, were all two stars, current and projected.

3) The two 'keepers I inherited SUCKED. One at 1.5, the other at 2.0 stars. Both have excellent potential, at 4.5 stars..so I kept them both, and looking for a short-term replacement that graded higher. Nope. Not going to happen. NO free or paid transfer, no keeper on loan was available that was better than the 2 star keepers that I had. This, coupled with VERY poor defensemen,let to being blown out, game after game after game. I believe I ended the year with a minus 57 goal differential.

Depth was very poor, for the first year. I was able to sign a LOT of players..enough for the base squad, five subs, and five OTHER players that just sat around and drank Tolly 250. I signed players, just because I could, and because they were just SLIGHTLY better than what I had. Most were under 100 pounds a week. Oh...I am using pounds, and metres. Dunno how tall 1.93 metres is...I suspect pretty tall!

Lesson #1. You don't need 21 players on your main squad. So....I loaned out 3-4, kept the youngest with the highest potential, and went on.

I won't get into the second season proper for a couple of posts..but I did want to share the flavour of the progression I went through
OK. Very early in the first season, I experimented with the tactics. Tactic. Yeah, that. I was a LITTLE familiar with these..and it isn't too hard to see what they represented.

What was difficult, for me, was to properly evaluate which tactic was best suited for my personnel. This required(requires) vastly more skill and insights that what I had. Have.

Even now, in the second season, I still run a base 4-4-2, with no secondary tactic, and allow the AI to tell the individual players how to do their jobs. This will come over time.

As far as match instruction, I have played a little bit with some of the options. I like a fluid, balanced offense. If I am ahead, I might back off to a counter, or defensive stance..and if I am behind, I may try to push forward hard and attack.

It has been my experience that throwing everyone forward is a good way to go from 0-2 down to 0-3 down. :) Points count. I LIKE having a positive goal differential, and giving them away for little gain doesn't work for me.

IF I have a clear advantage over the opposing team, I may get a little more aggressive..but pushing men forward against a superior team is foolhardy, and that way lies ruin.
Barrak, is this your first time playing FM? If so, brave for doing a story right off the bat! I wish you luck. You might want to check out my story, since it has a similar premise, and I'll keep checking out yours to see how you're doing!
"Take a knee." The American term, asking for the players to stop and rest, confused many of the young footballers. As it dawned on them on what their new coach wanted, they stopped what they were doing, and gathered 'round.

"Effort." Players that play hard for me will play. Players that do not wish to play hard for me, will not play." There were nods from many of the players. THIS, they understood. "Who here is the team captain?", John asked.

"I am sir. Maxwell is the name." "Ok, Max, is that your first or last name?", inquired Coach Barrak. "Last name, sir." The players laughed.

As the coach surveyed the 28 players around him, he realized, that at age 25, he might well be the oldest of the lot! Lots of baby-faced young 'uns here, he thought....and lots of soft bodies. He saw very few outward signs of fitness. THIS, he could fix.

"Three laps around the pitch. Now. Slowest five get two more. GO!"
2013-06-05 17:47#109242 ebEliminator : Barrak, is this your first time playing FM? If so, brave for doing a story right off the bat! I wish you luck. You might want to check out my story, since it has a similar premise, and I'll keep checking out yours to see how you're doing!

I am counting on you lot to help me learn the game. Plus, I felt that it would be fun for me to write on my experiences from the perspective of a (relatively) clueless American.
Welcome

I have a suspicion that you know what you are doing.

And no doubt that you know how to write.

I will follow this story and would love to have a link to your baseball story.
2013-06-05 20:31#109306 Northwood : Welcome

I have a suspicion that you know what you are doing.

And no doubt that you know how to write.

I will follow this story and would love to have a link to your baseball story.

Be careful what you ask for!!

Below is the link to the story of Robert J. (Bubba) Jones, born in Arkansas, USA in 1905, and a base ball player through the 1920's and 1930's. Note the very old school spelling of baseball.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/ootp-dynasty-reports/19349-robert-j-bubba-jones.html
Highlights of 2012-2013..

The last friendly, we lost to Vale of Leithen, 6-2. This was when I knew we were in trouble!

We then lost six of the next seven, before beating Queens Park twice in three matches. A team worse than us!!!

As I swapped out players, scouted out the free transfers, and made major, MAJOR changes to the roster, we started seeing some improvements. After giving up 21 goals in 4 games, we won three out of six, scoring and giving up ten goals. This was really the only good stretch we had.

After that, it was downhill like the Swiss Alps! One win the last ten games!
Before I discuss my team, in depth, I need to ask some questions.

First, over at SI Games, it is verboten to discuss tactics, and personnel. Does this board have the same restrictions? I don't believe this to be the case..but you can't be too sure!

First question:

When I ask for support and guidance on a specific player, there is no way I will type up their entire stat line.

With that in mind, what are the central stats for each position? Clearly, pace and acceleration isn't going to do a keeper much good.
The melodious voice of Merle Haggard echoed through the dark hallway. This seemed quite odd, to hear an old country western singer here in Falkirk. The three players pressed on, and knocked on the door leading to their Coach's office.

*knock knock* "Come in!" came the reply from inside.

As the three players made their way into the room, they saw Coach Barrak behind the desk, feet up, with a big can of Foster's beer in one hand.

"DAMN! I LOVE this English beer!" The coach took a big swig, and put the can down. "'Sup, bitches?"

The Captain, Scott Maxwell, cleared his throat, looked apprehensively at Turner and Devlin, and spoke. "John, the players have asked us to talk with you, and ask you to lighten up on the fitness training. They're almost at match fitness, and we still have three weeks to go before the season starts."

John Barrak was expecting this. His, and his new team's main training had been in fitness now, for several weeks. "Gentlemen, don't you remember last year? We flamed out in the second half on many of our games. This will not happen again this year."

AC Kevin Turner gave it a shot. "If the lads promise to keep better hours, and stay in better condition, will you consider easing up the training regimen?"

Coach Barrak considered this, and took another drink. "Yes...this I will consider."

As the three men turned to leave, Turner smiled, looked back at his coach, and said.."Coach? That beer, Foster's? It's Australian!"
1. Discussing tactics is fine here, as far as I know.

2. Work smart, not hard! Don't type player stat lines, take a screenshot and upload it! Press F12 to take a screenshot in Steam, then press Shift+Tab and look for screenshots in the lower left hand corner!

3. What stats are important to the position and role can be seen if you go into training and select different roles for your players. For example, Target Men and Trequartistas favor different attributes, but there are some attributes you want all strikers to have.
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Nice writing so far, keep it up :)

In answer to your question, no, it's not banned to talk about players, etc. here. Fully acceptable and feel free to ask away if you need.

Secondly, in terms of the "central stats", there is actually a way to look at this in game, which you may not have noticed yet. If you look at the image below, you should see that I have circled the area on the player profile where you can look at this information.

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