2014 In Season Tips For Beginners

[jack_xu]

Hi guys,

 

I'm new to this forum, but I have been playing fmh2014 for quite a while. I just checked around the forum, and saw some truly amazing tactics and training regimes. However, for beginners (and maybe even experienced players), I think it might be helpful to share and discuss some details of managing a team, including:

 

1) How many players to keep in your squad? How many in each position? How often to rotate? And how to balance between old and young players?

 

2) How to deal with injury crisis? Should we lighten a player's training regime when he is injured? How to help a player just recovered from injury regain his stats?

 

3) How important is form (recent match performance) in this game? When the team or an important player is slumping into bad form, how can we deal with it?

 

4) Player morale

 

5) Basics: how to deal with unhappy players (ones that have exclamation marks on their names)? 

 

6) How to look at stats during a game (number of successful passes/tackles/shots of a player etc.) to tweak some settings accordingly?

 

7) Other stuff I haven't thought of yet

 

I am surely not an master of this game, but I just want to share some of my small discoveries with you. So let's begin.

[jack_xu]

1) How many players to keep in your squad? How many in each position? How often to rotate? And how to balance between old and young players?

 

This is probably the most important among all my topics. Before choosing your squad, make sure you have a tactic you're going to play with. With the tactic in mind, you can then buy and sell players to make sure you have around 2 players on each position of your squad. The benefits of having 2 players on each position are:

1. allowing your starting 11 to always have full stamina

2. to sub out players with bad form or whose stats are dropping

3. to deal with injury crisis

4. to add momentum to your game by bringing on subs in the second half of a game

 

[Tips on selling players: richer clubs are usually willing to pay more for your star players. For example, Paris Saint Germain might only be willing to pay 35M for Karim Benzema but Chelsea might be willing to pay 61M. Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona, and Real Madrid are the richest clubs. When you want to sell a player, put him on the transfer list, then click offer to clubs. If his worth is lower than 6M, offer him at around 50k to attract buyers. If his worth is between 6M and 15M, offer him at around 200-250k. If he is worth more than 15M, offer at around 1M or higher. You should always check the contract page of a player the day after you offered him to see which clubs are interested. If there aren't many, offer him again at a lower price.] 

 

[if no club is making offers for a player you want to sell, offer him for 0k. Check his contract page to see how many clubs are interested. After you receive offers, you can then negotiate the price]

 

[Tips on buying players: players are cheaper when they aren't important to their club or when they perform poorly during the season. For example, if you attempt to buy Sven Bender at the start of the game, you'll have to pay around 30M. But if you wait until the winter window (Sven usually performs poorly at Dortmund), you can often buy him at around 13M. If a club says it will sell a player at around 35.5M, you can offer around 34.5M and get the player. If other clubs are competing with you to buy a player, you can win the bid, then resign from buying the player, and then bid for him again to avoid the high price caused by competition.]

 

There are several special occasions in which you don't need 2 players on each position. First, if you have a 20 stamina player. These players can play a full match and start out with almost full stamina in the next match 3 days later (unless they are played as box-to-box midfielders or wing backs).

 

Second, if you have a lot of versatile players that can play multiple positions. Vidal, Pogba, and Lars Bender are examples of players that can play more than 9 positions if retrained. 

Third, if you have a great and reliable goalie, then I recommend loaning out your second choice goalie. Personally, I never put goalie as one of my 7 subs (I usually have 1 central defender, 1 wingback that can play both sides, 1 defensive midfielder, 1 all-rounded midfielder, 1 attacking midfielder, 1 winger, and 1 striker on my bench) because in fmh2014, goalies almost never get injured. If you have a great goalie, you should be playing him every single game, because the quality of your goalie can often determine the outcome of a game. Thus your second goalie who does not get time to play will get unhappy and his stats would drop. It is therefore better to loan out your second choice goalie and recall him in cases of emergency.

 

[Tip on retraining: you don't have to follow the assistant coach's advice. If a player has a "poor" attitude and is "competent" in a position, just go ahead and retrain him. Retraining a player in a specific position might help him improve the key stats related to that postion.]

 

Despite these exceptions, it is common and recommendable to have 2 players on each position of your squad. If you are managing a prestigious club such as Real Madrid, you can make sure your sub is on about the same level as your starter. You can afford to rotate your starting 11 almost every game. For clubs that are not so rich, maybe buy subs that are around 1 star-rating lower than your starters, and rotate your starting 11 around 1 out of 4 games.

 

The balance between young and old players is also one of the most tricky parts of fmh.

 

Young players Pros: 1. They have potential and you feel good as their stats keep rising

2. They are young and can play for many years to come

3. When they get injured, they can recover their stats relatively easily

 

Cons: 1. They are usually inconsistent, which can be fatal if they are playing center back or goalie.

2. They usually perform bad in big matches

3. It takes time for them to grow

 

[Question: I am not sure about this, but I feel for a young player's stats to grow fastest,

1. He should be playing every match

2. He should have high match ratings [important!]

3. His morale should be superb

4. The higher the training facility of the club the better

5. He should be put on the appropriate training regime.]

 

Old players Pros: 1. They are usually more consistent

2. They perform better in important matches

 

Old players Cons: 1. A prolonged injury might seriously weaken their ability

2. Their stats will keep dropping which makes you sad

 

[Note: Diaby and Pato are examples of players that are highly injury-prone. I do not recommend buying them.]

 

Also note that some players' abilities are consistent throughout the season and the lines on their performance graphs are straight, while some players such as Mario Balotelli have wave-like performance graphs.

 

Personally, I usually have 21 starters and subs on my first team (2 for every position except for goalie) and about 3 young players. Throughout the season I will allow the young players to play in around 10 matches. If I have a B team, I usually don't loan out any of my quality young players and just let them play on the B team.

 

If a young player "thinks he can learn a lot from XXX", that's a great sign and leave him on your first team even if you don't intend to have him play matches.

 

I don't keep a lot of players (except for central defenders and goalies) above age 32 because that is when they start to decline dramatically. The exception is players who are "strictly professional" or "model professional" or just "professional", such as Phillip Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger. These players are my favorites because they train hard, perform consistently, have high moral, and recover fast from injuries. They can remain at high standards even at the age of 33 or 34.

 

I am sure there are points I failed to cover. Feel free to point out my mistakes! Hope this helps. 

[1 bonus tip on avoiding a lot of injuries: on rest days, check the training status page. If most of your players are on 100% stamina but one of your players is on 91% stamina (not because of international fixtures or other special reasons) , you are probably pushing him too hard in training. There is a very high possibility that he would get injured. Lower down the training intensity and he will be just fine.]

[rseven]

great!

please hurry up, i can not wait for the rest parts

[Dec]

Some great tips but also some i don't agree with. In particular the fit your team around a formation, that may mean too many signings which will be a major problem early on.

Also only having 2 players as back up can be a problem unless you have a versatile team. I often Base my midfield on a rotational model where they can play many positions but I like to have 3 strikers if I play one and one being versatile often playing on a wing. My theory is 2n+1 for depth though this doesn't factor in versatility.

Also the goalkeeper thing is very risky, I have seen red cards and injuries before, particularly in lower leagues and if you don't have a back up in your club then you will struggle a lot. You also have to factor in form.

Anyway brilliant work mate, maybe try formatting such as bolding. Welcome to the site .

[lilgwanz]

God !!!!!!I really loved this.Can't wait for an update, good job

[Lee-Roy]

Nice work. I'm with Dec on not agreeing about some points, but it's called an opinion for a reason :lol:

Keep it up, in looking forward to seeing what's next from you

[FastDevil]

What can i do for injury blows?

Some times at start of the season one of my key players get injured for long time (6 month and above)

is there any soloution for this?

or it is  just bad luck?

[lilgwanz]

We need an Update!!!!!!!!

[jack_xu]

[2] How to deal with injury crisis

 

Before I start, I really want to thank Dec and Lee-Roy for pointing out my mistakes. What I write are not facts, just opinions. The better way to read this tread might be to read it critically and link it to your own experiences in the game.

 

So, how should we deal with injury crisis?

 

First and foremost, we should avoid it before it happens! A general rule I found is that players with higher stamina can endure harder training regimes. Young players and players who have low stamina should be put on a lighter training regime.

 

This does not necessarily mean that players that are more prestigious can endure harder training regimes. For example, Benzema would not fit in attacking intensive training, because Benzema has low stamina. Same for Thomas Vermaelen.

 

Note how Dec only used Attacking, Defending, General, and Goalkeeping on the intensive training? He has left out fitness and tactical training for you to adapt it according to your team! Following the example above, I usually put Benzema and Vermalean on a special training regime--fitness--, which is

 

Fitness: intensive

Attacking: medium

Defending: medium

Goalkeeping: none

Tactics: medium

Motivational: light

 

Then after 1 or 2 months, you will notice that the stamina of Benzema and Vermalean would increase significantly, probably to above 15. When you see a stable line in their progress chart, you can change their training regime to Dec's intensive training. Otherwise, if you put these players on intensive at the start of the season, they will not start each match with full stamina, they might easily get unhappy with their training regimes, and they are highly possible of getting injured.

 

[Tips on headers: Personally I feel headers account for a lot of my goals. I get loads of goals from corners and free kicks. For example, Giroud does not have a particularly high PA, but he scores over 80 goals for me every season because of his 20 header. Because headers are so important, especially in a hard game in which you don't have a lot of chances, I usually put defensive training on medium for my strikers that have high heading. ]

 

[Tips on free kicks: Obviously when choosing free kick takers you want to go and see the recommendations of the assistant coach--whether the player can take a decent free kick, is a free-kick specialist, is a renowned free kick specialist, or a renowned set-piece specialist (I think this means the player can take corners and free kicks both very well, correct me if I am wrong). But the recommendation isn't everything. One thing I have noticed when playing the game is that players with higher shooting abilities choose to shoot more in free-kicks, while players with higher passing and crossing abilities choose to pass more in free-kicks. It is obvious that passing is more efficient than shooting, especially when you have a striker with high heading capability. So you might want to consider picking a more generous player to take your free-kicks]

 

I also want to reiterate one tip I talked about earlier because it is so important:

[1 bonus tip on avoiding a lot of injuries: on rest days, check the training status page. If most of your players are on 100% stamina but one of your players is on 91% stamina (not because of international fixtures or other special reasons) , you are probably pushing him too hard in training. There is a very high possibility that he would get injured. Lower down the training intensity and he will be just fine.]

 

Admittedly, even if you follow this advice you will still get injured players, but trust me, a lot less. Please develop the habit of checking the stamina on the training page often.

[Dec]

Cannot argue with this, fairly solid advice though you should note STAMINA is not INJURY PRONENESS, that is a hidden attribute that may be noted by scout reports.

I reiterate though, formatting would work a treat. Separating things into sub-titles and bolding them as well as linking to articles you mention would help a lot and save it from being such a block of text. Maybe even including picture examples too.

[Lee-Roy]

I've always felt a strong link between stamina and training. Two players with the same level of stamina, will have differing points of a match that they can last until, and react differently to playing twice/three times in a week. It's that which leads me to believe stamina is more strongly in relation to training than fitness.

This seems sound advice and makes me think back to players I've had who complained of IT, and I'm wondering what their stamina was.

I am disagreeing with your tip on set pieces though. I pretty much always watch the match (unless I'm losing heavily and just want the match over) and I can't see any correlation between how a FK is taken and the players stats. It seems nothing more than a roll of a dice.

[Ashez]

Some interesting opinions mate

[jack_xu]

Now I want to talk a little about fitness. I often feel that stamina is the most underrated ability, cuz it's so important! If you have a player like Messi, you want to play him every single game, for as long as possible each game. The way to do this is put fitness on intense, shift tactical to medium, and defensive to medium. Then after a month Messi will have 13 header and 16 stamina, a true beast.

 

The great thing about fitness is that it could be improved in the shortest amount of time. Fitness might not be as important as tactical, attacking, or defense, but almost every player in the game has potential in fitness, and fitness training is the one that can have the fasted impact on your team.

 

For older players, their fitness level is most likely to decline among all their stats, so you should put fitness training as their number 1 priority. The best way to stop the fitness level of older players from dropping is to play them! Ideally as a sub. If you don't play an old player for a long time, his fitness would drop drastically.

 

 

Now, finally on our topic, the injury crisis. Honestly, I have no good way to prevent this from happening. I actually think this is one of the fun parts of the game. If no injuries ever occurred, then you will likely be playing the same pattern of formations/subs/rotations all season. That, is so boring. You do want some fresh changes during the season, and an injury crisis forces you to change and adapt your strategies as a manager.

 

The easiest way to deal with injury crisis is to use your subs on that position every game (this is confusing, I know)

 

Example: You have 4 box-box midfielders, Pogba(P), Marchisio(M), Vidal(V), and Padoin(PA). Generally you start a tough match with your better players P, and V. In the next easy match, you start with M and PA.

 

Then, unfortunately, P gets injured. Let's say for 9 months.

 

It's ok! Just start one match with M and V. Then at about the 70th minute bar, when V's stamina is around 78, sub him out with PA. In the next match, you can start with a full stamina V and PA, with M as a sub.

 

This is really basic, but the most useful. If both P and V get injured, have somebody (such as Asamoah) join in this subbing pattern.

 

This somebody should be a versatile player. Players who can play multiple positions can help you immensely during a injury crisis and during a season. So when you enter the game, first thing you want to do is to check if any players can be retrained. This takes time, but it is worth it. Moreover, if a players' stats increased a lot recently, he might be able to retrained in a new position. Just check.

 

Some other ways to deal with injury crisis are to :

1. change your formation (etc. if all your defensive midfielders got injured, consider playing a more pressing and attacking style)

2. buy players from the free transfer window, or from the winter transfer window

3. recall your players. This is especially helpful if you have tons of loaned out players like Chelsea does, or if you have a B team. (B teams are extremely useful, I will talk about it later)

 

 

How to recover an already injured player?

 

I would say that this is one of the harder, and more interesting parts of the game, cuz there really isn't any general rule. For me, my players in their golden age (24-27) rarely decline during injury. Younger players and older players' stats will drop a lot because of injury. So for younger players and older players, I usually put them on a lighter training regime--fitness (Fitness: intensive Attacking: medium Defending: medium Goalkeeping: none Tactics: medium Motivational: light) to make them recover faster. But this only works occasionally, not all the time.

 

An entirely different issue is how to push a player back to his best after he has lost stats during injury. I believe the key thing here is to have him play games. How long he is playing does not matter; how well he is doing does not matter; just sub him in every match! (maybe at the 80th minute bar when you are winning) The player will be thankful that he is getting play time after injury and he will likely repay you by training harder and getting back to his best. Occasionally, he might even achieve a higher level than before injury.

[note: if you don't care about the player, ignore this. Giving him playing time might come at the cost of team results)

 

Some players recover fast after injury, except for one of their stats. For example, once Fazio, my central defender, got injured. His defense and attack recovered instantly after injury, but his fitness level was 5 blocks lower than before injury. I put him on the usual defensive training, and though I put defensive and fitness both on intensive, his fitness level did not increase. So I tried something else. I lowered defense to medium and kept only fitness on intense. In this way Fazio will focus mostly on fitness training. And it worked! After 3 weeks, Fazio's fitness was back to his best, and his defense did not drop, either.

 

A general rule of thumb is to check the progress chart of your injured player often to tweak your training setting accordingly.

 

What to do if a player's stats dropped so bad that you do not want him anymore?

 

Don't play him! Having him play badly on the pitch will only lower his worth. No club will be interested in your injured players, but generally the worth of the injured player does not change much. You should sell the player at the first chance you get.

 

[bonus tip: German players are nice because they do not have international fixtures in fmh2014]

Next time I would like to talk about form

[jack_xu]

I've always felt a strong link between stamina and training. Two players with the same level of stamina, will have differing points of a match that they can last until, and react differently to playing twice/three times in a week. It's that which leads me to believe stamina is more strongly in relation to training than fitness.

This seems sound advice and makes me think back to players I've had who complained of IT, and I'm wondering what their stamina was.

I am disagreeing with your tip on set pieces though. I pretty much always watch the match (unless I'm losing heavily and just want the match over) and I can't see any correlation between how a FK is taken and the players stats. It seems nothing more than a roll of a dice.

You might be right.

 

In my case, for example in Real Madrid, Ronaldo shoots 9.5 out of 10 free kicks, while Alonso only shoots about 7 out of 10

Cannot argue with this, fairly solid advice though you should note STAMINA is not INJURY PRONENESS, that is a hidden attribute that may be noted by scout reports.

I reiterate though, formatting would work a treat. Separating things into sub-titles and bolding them as well as linking to articles you mention would help a lot and save it from being such a block of text. Maybe even including picture examples too.

True, I am just too lazy to do that. Might do that when I have more free time

Some great tips but also some i don't agree with. In particular the fit your team around a formation, that may mean too many signings which will be a major problem early on.

Also only having 2 players as back up can be a problem unless you have a versatile team. I often Base my midfield on a rotational model where they can play many positions but I like to have 3 strikers if I play one and one being versatile often playing on a wing. My theory is 2n+1 for depth though this doesn't factor in versatility.

Also the goalkeeper thing is very risky, I have seen red cards and injuries before, particularly in lower leagues and if you don't have a back up in your club then you will struggle a lot. You also have to factor in form.

Anyway brilliant work mate, maybe try formatting such as bolding. Welcome to the site .

I agree on the goalkeeper thing. I have not played a lot of lower league teams so my experience is quite limited.

[Lee-Roy]

Ronaldo shoots 9.5 times and passes half a time? I don't know how that's possible tbh, but unless that's based on results of hundreds of free kicks, it's not much to go on.

Alonso has higher passing than shooting right? But according to your results he shoots more than half the time so the theory of higher passing = more passing FK's is out the window.

[rseven]

I like this kind of "argument". Thanks jack_xu, to bring me think about. Below is my opinions about some point mentioned in Jack_xu's post. 

 

IT training

Why some players can take IT training but some one can not. I think there are two facts.

One is Physical, the other is Mental.

Physical means player's Stamina and Injury Bones (Hiding Attribute).

Mental means player's Professionalism (Hiding Attribute) and Adapting (Hiding Attribute).

If player has low Stamina, he can not keep 100% for his condition. His body can not recovery after intensity training. The solution is focus his fitness training to improve his Stamina first.

If player has high injury bones, he will be easy injured. The solution is to low the training intensity. In my experience, if injury bones is not higher than 14, it will not increase the injury change too much.

If player has low mental, he will be unhappy if you put him in hard training. The solution is to low the training intensity. If some player even can not take normal training, sell him.

So, I fully agree with Jack_xu's tip. To start fitness training for young players.

My training regimes for fitness: (a little difference, I put Tactics on high.)

- Fitness: intensive

- Attacking: medium

- Defending: medium

- Goalkeeping: none

- Tactics: intensive

- Motivational: light

 

Condition

I don't know when you substitute your player. I will sub player when his condition is lower than 70%. You may noticed the colour of condition figures will changed to red when it come down lower than 60%. And at this time, player will be very easy to be injured.

So, please sub your player in time.

 

Set piece

I have spent times on set piece, I try to recommend some young player who can take good free kick in game. But I failed.

Some attributes which will impact free kick for shoot directly. ( I only discuss directly shoot here)

- Set piece (hiding attribute)

- Shooting

Maybe below mental attributes also work when player take free kick.

- Pressure Handling  (hiding attribute)

- Consistency  (hiding attribute)

The evaluation for player's ability for set piece in coach report or scouter report is based on Set piece (hiding attribute).

And in team instruction, in the selection page of free kick, Shooting is shown as reference.

Can a player with High Set piece and Shooting score much by taking free kick?

No!

I have tried below players who has high shooting or set piece or both. But their performance are not satisfied me at all.

Player Name            Shooting          Crossing         Set Piece           Evaluate by coach/scouter

Cristiano Ronaldo        20                      15                  16                  Renowned free-kick specialist

Santi Cazorla               14                      13                  18                  Renowned free-kick specialist

Gylfi Sigurosson          15                      15                   18                  Super set-piece specialist

Gareth Bale                 17                      17                   17                  Renowned set-piece specialist

Oscar Cardozo            20                      13                   18                  Free-kick specialist

 

My best free kick taker for score is Vertonghen, he can score almost half of chances in my save.

Jan Vertonghen           12                       9                    15                  Free-kick specialist

 

So, for me, there is no conclusion for advice.

Only one tip, maybe this is we all know

Set piece can be increased by tactic training and shooting can be increased by attacking training.

[jack_xu]

I like this kind of "argument". Thanks jack_xu, to bring me think about. Below is my opinions about some point mentioned in Jack_xu's post. 

 

IT training

Why some players can take IT training but some one can not. I think there are two facts.

One is Physical, the other is Mental.

Physical means player's Stamina and Injury Bones (Hiding Attribute).

Mental means player's Professionalism (Hiding Attribute) and Adapting (Hiding Attribute).

If player has low Stamina, he can not keep 100% for his condition. His body can not recovery after intensity training. The solution is focus his fitness training to improve his Stamina first.

If player has high injury bones, he will be easy injured. The solution is to low the training intensity. In my experience, if injury bones is not higher than 14, it will not increase the injury change too much.

If player has low mental, he will be unhappy if you put him in hard training. The solution is to low the training intensity. If some player even can not take normal training, sell him.

So, I fully agree with Jack_xu's tip. To start fitness training for young players.

My training regimes for fitness: (a little difference, I put Tactics on high.)

- Fitness: intensive

- Attacking: medium

- Defending: medium

- Goalkeeping: none

- Tactics: intensive

- Motivational: light

 

Condition

I don't know when you substitute your player. I will sub player when his condition is lower than 70%. You may noticed the colour of condition figures will changed to red when it come down lower than 60%. And at this time, player will be very easy to be injured.

So, please sub your player in time.

 

Set piece

I have spent times on set piece, I try to recommend some young player who can take good free kick in game. But I failed.

Some attributes which will impact free kick for shoot directly. ( I only discuss directly shoot here)

- Set piece (hiding attribute)

- Shooting

Maybe below mental attributes also work when player take free kick.

- Pressure Handling  (hiding attribute)

- Consistency  (hiding attribute)

The evaluation for player's ability for set piece in coach report or scouter report is based on Set piece (hiding attribute).

And in team instruction, in the selection page of free kick, Shooting is shown as reference.

Can a player with High Set piece and Shooting score much by taking free kick?

No!

I will take lunch and finish later.

this is awesome stuff

[lilgwanz]

wow this thread is very informative

[jack_xu]

FMH2015 is coming out soon, I'm sure everyone is hyped about it. Nevertheless, I think these tips will still help in the new version of the game, so I will keep updating.

 

There are a lot of great tactics in this forum, and the tactic creators have put in a lot of effort to make a balanced formation. Thus I find it annoying how people comment that the tactic is an "absolute disaster" or "does not work at all." I have to tell these people that if the tactic is not working for you but working wonders for others, then it is YOUR problem, not the tactic's problem. If you are one of those people, please read this thread and maybe you'll get better. After all, the right tactic isn't everything.

 

 

【3】Player Form

 

Just how important is a player's form? (form is the match rating of a player over the last 5 matches, etc. 8,6,7,7,6)

 

In my experience,

 

player form ≈ player ability > player stamina

 

The basic rule of player form is easy: a player with good form (consistent high ratings in past few matches) is likely to perform well in the next match, and vice versa.

 

A 150 CA player under good form is very likely to perform better than a 165 CA player under terrible form, especially if the 165 CA player has low consistency.

 

So why does player ability matter? I think it matters because:

The CA of a player determines the upper limit of his performance. For example, when Cristiano Ronaldo is under excellent form, he can bang in 4 goals per game. When Benzema is under excellent form, he can bang in 3 goals per game. The 1 goal difference shows the difference in player ability.

 

Moreover, player form only matters to a certain extent. No matter how worse a 175 CA player performs, he is still better than a 130 CA player.

 

Does every single player on my team need to be under good form?

No! It is almost impossible to have all the players on your team have good form. And it isn't necessary. You should try to have all your starting players on good form. The form of your substitutes are not that important. This is also why it is best to have 2 good players for each position, because you can always play the one under better form.

 

How to deal with bad form?

Play the player against a weak team! Then he will likely get a high rating. Don't play all your players under bad form, though. Mix it up. The better-performing players will help the worse-performing players play better.

 

How to maintain good form?

1. You do NOT have to use 3 subs every game. For example, if your team is winning 2-0, you probably should not sub in your best striker in the 80th minute, because it is likely that he will get a 6, or 7 rating. That would destroy his good form.

 

2. Play your in-form players every single game. If their stamina is low, sub them out early after they have achieved a high match rating, so that they could start again for the next game.

 

3. If one of your star players is getting 6 in a match, you can wait till the instant his rating turns to 7, and then sub him off. (if this is a rough match, you need not wait, because team results>player form).

 

 

Whose form is most important?

The forms of your goalkeeper and striker are the most important in your team. The former determines how many goals you concede, the latter determines how many goals you score.

 

Equally important is the form of your opponent's striker. Take time, especially before playing a tough team, to look at the form of their striker. If their striker got a 10 in the last match, or got 8-8-8 in the previous matches, then he very likely will score against you. To counter that, you might want to change your tactic ( for example put 2 BWMs or DLMs in defensive midfield).

 

Annoyingly, however, the form of the opposition goalie does not seem to matter that much in this game. I usually see goalies with low morale and terrible form save all of my shots.

 

That is all I have to say about player form. Please note that I am only talking about form here, and I have not touched upon player consistency or player morale that also influences the performance of a player. Next time I will talk about player interactions and player morale.

[Lee-Roy]

Ronaldo shoots 9.5 times and passes half a time? I don't know how that's possible tbh, but unless that's based on results of hundreds of free kicks, it's not much to go on.

Alonso has higher passing than shooting right? But according to your results he shoots more than half the time so the theory of higher passing = more passing FK's is out the window.

Jack, I see you ignored my post that pointed out you was contradicting yourself about set pieces, and who knows what else. If you're going to give out advice (most of which I have found to be sound) then you need to be able to realise flaws and accept criticisms, not ignore them.

[jack_xu]

 

Ronaldo shoots 9.5 times and passes half a time? I don't know how that's possible tbh, but unless that's based on results of hundreds of free kicks, it's not much to go on.

Alonso has higher passing than shooting right? But according to your results he shoots more than half the time so the theory of higher passing = more passing FK's is out the window.

Jack, I see you ignored my post that pointed out you was contradicting yourself about set pieces, and who knows what else. If you're going to give out advice (most of which I have found to be sound) then you need to be able to realise flaws and accept criticisms, not ignore them.

 

Sorry, Lee-Roy. You might be right. 

 

I do think that there is hidden attribute of free kick ability and that it could be trained via tactical training. Tony Kroos and Honda are some of the players I find especially good at free kicks. Maybe shooting more than passing in free kicks has to do with teamwork? 

[Lee-Roy]

Thanks for addressing it.

I'm not sure if there is any algorithm, from years of playing I strongly lean towards it being down to the toss of a coin, or the roll of a die. There seems to be nothing more to it.

Again, thanks for addressing my concern. While most of your tips have been great advice for the beginners, you must remember this site is the first stop for people who aren't too sure on the working of the game. Unless you're 100% certain on one of your tips it's best not to post it (unless you make it clear its a hypothesis not a conclusion) as you could be giving out wrong advice.

[Peely]

There is a "set pieces" hidden attribute, which covers taking corners and both direct and indirect free kicks.

 

There do seem to be some players who are noticeably better than average at taking free kicks: back in FMH2013 I had a Pirlo regen score a hat-trick of free kicks in a single match.

 

The reality is that, even with a score of 20 for set pieces, most attempts will end with a miss, but it must improve the odds a little.

 

I'm half-way convinced that having a player selected as your free-kick taker helps him to score. I didn't set Origi to free-kick taker until late in his career, but once I had he scored a surprising number per year. His set pieces score was reasonable at 15, but my number of goals from free-kicks did seem to increase when I had him taking them all. It would make some sort of sense, since if one player takes them all, he should improve with practice.

 

It's all speculation in the end, but I think it's more than a coin-toss.

[Lee-Roy]

Peely, the point I was getting at was that I couldn't see any correlation between wether a FK taker shoots or passes the ball and stats. OP claimed that a higher passing = passes the pall and a higher shooting = goes for goal. And then proceeded to give an example that goes against what he originally claimed.

It would be nice if we could determine wether a player will pass or go for goal, but I'm confident in my theory that it is a random decision.

[UKFootballScore]

Would be great to be able to say whether or not they shoot at free kicks

[Lee-Roy]

^^that. How mNy times have I seen someone sky a FK when my 20 heading forward is in the box waiting??

[Prosherry]

I wonder how that would work though would it be a set piece like thing like when selecting a free kick taker ?

Good work Jack I remember when I was a beginner and this would have really helped

[UKFootballScore]

Just a simple preference of what to do at a free kick would suffice

[jack_xu]

[4]Morale

 

How does morale rise or drop (my speculation):

 

Rise: player gets a high rating in match; player gets an award; player is benched but team wins by a large amount; player thanks you publicly; player signs a new contract; player is 'relieved to be transfer listed'; player is put on morale training regime

Drop: player is benched for too long; player gets low rating in a match; player is benched and team loses; player is unhappy; player is listed for transfer (or loan)

 

(personally I find that some players are easier to encourage and stay on high morale, while others' morale drop fast--etc. in Real Madrid, Casillas has "superb" morale most of the time, while Modric has "good" morale most of the time)

 

How important is morale?

Morale and player form both influence a player's performance. They are also closely related. Generally, a player on good form has high morale, and vice versa.

 

However, occasionally morale and form do not correspond. In these cases, I believe player form is more important than morale. For example, if I have 2 midfielders, A and B: A has 'superb' morale and 7 rating from last match; B has 'good' morale and 9 rating from last match. I would play B.

 

Nevertheless, you should always strive to keep your players on 'very good' or 'superb' morale. (especially your goalkeepers and strikers)

 

Tips on player interactions:

1. Private+positive is the safest method, but not always the best. 'Public' interaction is riskier, but if it succeeds, the morale of the player will keep increasing for several consecutive days. Public+positive seems to work well when a player is on great form but not on "superb" or "very good" morale.

2. Thus, if you intend to use public interaction with a player, don't interact with him on the match day, do it several days before the match! (to allow time for his morale to grow)

3. If a player is praised positively for too many times in a short period, he might become conceited and his morale will drop

4. Personally, I seldom use negative interaction. Negative interaction sometimes work well with players who are "very ambitious" but have performed poorly recently. Negative interaction does not seem to work well with "professional" or "strictly professional" players

5. The morale of your starting goalkeeper is arguably most important. Therefore, in matches that you expect to concede a lot of goals, you might want to play your backup goalkeeper.

6. There is no point encouraging players who already has 'superb' or 'very good' morale

 

Conclusion: Check on your players' morale before every match, interact often, but don't overdo it. Use private interaction regularly, use public interaction smartly

[jack_xu]

[5] Unhappy Players

 

I HATE unhappy players. Unhappy players usually perform poorly. They also make me feel bad. Players get unhappy for various reasons. I cannot recall them all, but some of the common ones are:

Unhappy with his current training regime

Unhappy that the club has sold one of its star players

Feels the club has no ambition

Wants a new contract

Struggling with his form

Unhappy that the manager has signed another (midfielder)

Strained Relationship with (either you or a teammate)

Dislikes (a teammate)

Feels he has no support from his manager

Wants a new challenge

Feels he needs to leave to further his career

Wants to move to a bigger club

Is unhappy for not allowed to move clubs

Would like to extend his contract

Feeling the pressure of first team football

Struggling to settle into the team

Feels he should be a first team regular

Frustrated by his lack of progress in retraining

Is homesick

Feels he had been treated unfairly

Sad/disappointed to be transfer listed

Feels he deserves more respect

 

Please tell me others you have encountered!

 

I have divided these unhappies into several groups: trivial, easy, troublesome, and disastrous. The cures (if available) to these unhappies are in parentheses.

 

Trivial:

Frustrated by his lack of progress in retraining (stop retraining for a week, then start again)

Feels he has no support from his manager (praise a player who has rating 7 or higher in front of the media, don't play down the praise)

Feeling the pressure of first team football (happens with young players. It'll get better)

Struggling to settle into the team (wait for a few matches for new players to settle in)

Feels he had been treated unfairly

Sad/disappointed to be transfer listed

Feels he deserves more respect (for these 3, you are going to sell the player anyway, so who cares if they are unhappy)

 

[Tip: I generally support my players in front of the media no matter what. It seems to work]

 

 

 

 

 

Easy: (all these problems can be solved by simply offering the unhappy player a new contract!! below are alternative solutions[if any])

Unhappy with his current training regime (lower his training regime)

Unhappy that the club has sold one of its star players (buy a new star player)

Feels the club has no ambition (buy a new star player)

Wants a new contract

Struggling with his form (see the player form section of this thread)

Unhappy that the manager has signed another (midfielder)

Wants a new challenge

Is unhappy for not allowed to move clubs

Would like to extend his contract

Feels he should be a first team regular (give the player chances)

Is homesick (buy another player with the same nationality)

 

Troublesome:

Feels he needs to leave to further his career

Wants to move to a bigger club

(These 2 can sometimes be solved by renewing the contract, but most of the time, the player has no interested in negotiating a new contract. If I manage a small club with a star player, I would sign a 5-year long contract with him at the start of the season, so that even if he wants to leave, I can sell him for a good price)

 

Insolvable:

Strained Relationship with (either you or a teammate)

Dislikes (a teammate)

(If two players with strained relationship play on the field together, they do not perform well. I think the only solution to these 2 cases is selling or loaning out the player disliked by most other players. (or wait till another player in your team becomes the new hated person...)