Dear readers,

I have a bunch of Football Manager 2011 tips and hints that should help you to play The Game in a more smart way. Really hope you'll like them and appreciate my efforts over their description in the blog.

 

Morale management

If your player has Poor or Very Poor morale level don't use him. Make him available for Reserve team – he will fix his morale in few matches:

     

Use private chat with a player. If it's fair, talk about his poor performance in a last match or even bad recent form at all. In the most cases it will raise player's morale level.

  Promise high league and cup bonuses at the season start. You won't regret to pay them in case of success because your club earns even more money on its way.

 Team-talks during matches. My experience prompts me that the most efficient pre-match and in-match talks are:

- You can win this match

- Show encouragement

- I have faith…

The best after-match talks are positive. I don't criticize the whole team together because it decreases morale mostly. Normally I say Sympathize, Good effort, Pleased or Delighted. In the worst cases I say nothing.

 

Tactics

Use Drop Deeper touchline shout when opponents forwards are quick (if they have high Speed and Acceleration). Just the reverse use Push Higher Up in case of slow forwards (Pace and Acceleration < 11).

Let's imaging you are winning a match in 1 goal and want to hold a score very much. It's efficient to use combination of Contain strategy, Retain possession + Pass into feet touchline shouts to do it.

Use more hard tackling in opposition instructions if referee is not strict. His strictness can be checked by formula:

(yellow cards / judged matches) < 3

Shout Exploit the flanks, if your opponent has weak flank players or his tactical formation contains only 1 flank player on each wing.

You may find more tactical hints in my Boston United (4-2-3-1) tactics post.

 Match Preparation is important new feature of Football Manager 2011. Use my tips and hints described in this post: Match Preparation in Football Manager 2011

 

Players

  Don't forget about personality traits (Personal section of player profile). The best traits are:

Born Leader, Leader, Model Citizen, Model Professional, Spirited, Resolute, Iron Willed, Unflappable, Evasive

I advise you to use players with good and more often personality traits like:

Professional, Fairly Professional, Reserved, Jovial, Light-Hearted, Driven, Determined, Resilient, Very Loyal

Avoid player whose personality is described as:

Short-Tempered, Temperamental, Volatile, Confrontational, Easily Discouraged, Low Determination, Casual, Low Self-Belief, Slack, Realist

  Use customizable views to compare performance of your players. There are many interesting attributes you can compare like Headers Ratio, Passes Ratio, etc.

     

  Use my Preferred Player Moves guide to understand what PPMs suite for that or another position in your formation.

  Use Assistant Manager Team Report. There you may find good advices about potential transfers.

  Don't sign/Get rid of players with many injuries in their history.

  Got tired seeking for good players in Football Manager 2011? These two players lists can inspire you:

- FM 2011 Wonderkids (sortable and grouped)

- FM 2011 Free Players (ranked and grouped)

 

Finances

You can economize your wage budget re-signing contract with your player closer to its end (in 1 month, for example). But be careful with this because the player can be signed by other clubs during the last 6 months of his contract.

 Scout reports help to save the wage money signing new players and re-signing current ones.

 

Transfers

Use Offer to clubs if you want to sell your player quickly. You won't be able to bargain in price in this case. So set  asking price you want before offering to clubs.

Sell players with age under 25 to raise good money. You can do it setting asking price twice higher than their actual one.

Status 'Not needed by the club' increases likelihood to sell a player.

 Make friendship with other managers. It will increase chances of transfers between your and their teams.

You can decrease financial expectations of new potential player during contract talks raising his agent's signing fee.

  Remember: all new signings need time to blend into the team. So they won't do their best during the first part of a season.

Use Compile Loan Players Availability Report of your assistant manager. He can give you several good variants.

 

Scouting

I tend to use scouts of different nationalities who has expertise in their countries. It allows to perform efficient scouting all over the world.

Let's suppose you hesitate about buying already scouted player. Scout more than once using another scout. As a result you will receive more realistic info about the player.

Feeder clubs automatically share and join their scouting network to parent clubs. So try to use feeder clubs to be more efficient in scouting.

 

Trainings

  Work Rate, Determination and Natural Fitness are the most important player attributes for trainings.

  Morale level influences development during trainings in Football Manager 2011. Try to support high morale using my Morale management advices in the beginning of this post.

  Too intensive trainings can cause many injuries. Be careful with this.

  By the way, I use this trainings

 

Please, feel free to comment regarding all abovementioned Football Manager 2011 tips and hints. I will be glad to read your opinion!