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About Atarin

  • Rank


  • Biography
    Married with kids. Support Spurs and the mighty Leyton Orient. When not playing FM, I'm playing Minecraft or reading about politics which is my other great passion. "Workers of the World Unite!"

About Me

  • About Me
    Formerly Teabs.


  • Interests
    Politics. Football. History. Music.

Favourite Team

  • Favourite Team
    Spurs/Leyton Orient

Currently Managing

  • Currently Managing
    North Greenford United

Recent Profile Visitors

2,164 profile views
  1. There used to be an option to offer trials till the end of pre-season, sometime in the last couple of versions of the game it disappeared and now you can only offer a maximum of 4 weeks. I've had to let a whole bunch of trialists leave so I can offer them a 4 week trial again. Its a bit inconvenient.
  2. I'm playing on Steam. No, all highlights respond the same.
  3. When I try to review a match/goals/highlight that I have previously played I encounter a black screen rather than the pitch. I've included a picture because Its hard to explain... The steps to recreate this problem are as follows. (1) Click on fixtures tab (2) Click on scoreline (3) Click on Watch Goals button or any other link that launches a highlight The match in question was from the day before (in-game). Thanks for any help.
  4. As far as I'm aware be more expressive relates to passing risk, not positional fluidity. So having Be More Expressive and Hold Shape is perfectly compatable.
  5. Okay, I see what you're saying. That's an example of the team shuttling across rather than parking in the central space. Truth be told, I'm not sure how to recreate that exactly.
  6. There are two widths. Attacking and defending. A narrow defensive width means defending in a more compact shape around your penalty area. A wide defensive width basically means that your fullbacks are encouraged to stay wide even in the defensive phase in order to engage the opposition wingers. The Sacchi system (of which I'm no expert) is I imagine not disimilar to Ranieri's tactic at Leicester of forcing teams out wide only to then ambush them there, win the ball and start of a counter. I would say, that in that case its less about playing with a Wide defensive width and more about player roles, duties, PI's and OI's. It wasn't Simpson and Fuchs doing the ambushing it was Kante+Albrighton+Drinkwater.
  7. Good question. Hand on heart, I get a bit bored when I am able to start developing into a good side. I just get no pleasure from being the side that's forced to dictate play. Because of that, answering your question is difficult. I'd like to think that after a season or two of overachieving teams would no longer be setting up in such a way as to allow me to play the Burnley way. In real life I guess I'd be you're fireman type manager. Hopping from job to job putting out fires and dragging sides from the relegation zone to midtable before leaving for the next challenge. I love tactical simplicity. The holy grail for me, is a system that is scaleable. In other words with a simple tweak it can work with dreadful non-league no-hopers all the way up to solid professionals. I've yet to find it but I will. One day.
  8. It depends on a whole heap of factors. First of all do you have the money to make changes? I no then you're restricted by what your squad can actually do. If you can bring in players then you have some latitude and can begin to implement a philosophy. I always manage at the lowest level I can, Level 8 and below in England. I rarely have the resources to make major changes to my squad so I have to assess what the players I have are capable of. The things I quickly scan for are (1) numbers. How many central defenders do I have, how many central midfieldes, how many strikers.etc A lack or over abundance of numbers in any particular area might suggest a certain shape. For example, a lack of fullbacks may suggest a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3. (2) How good is my defenders positioning, are they quick? Poor positioning is a definite strike against me keeping a central defender but if needs must then I'll note down that they are going to need help, be it a third centre back, a defensive fullback or a DM. A lack of pace tells me that unless paired with a quick partner we're going to want to play a deeper defensive line or at the very least keep a very close eye on balls over the top. It goes without saying that I also have DNA requirements of Aggression, Bravery, Teamwork, Jumping and Strength? Next I look at my central midfielders. (3) Do I have at least two players with sufficient Aggression, Work Rate, Team Work and Determination to play in a central midfield two? The answer to this question is another indicator for what style of play we may use. If I don't have two work horses in midfield then I know that I'll probably have to play an extra midfielder. It could be a DM, a CM or an AM. Its a lot to ask for two guys to provide cover, defensive support, creativity and attacking support. (4) What are the stand-out attributes of my strikers. Are they quick? Strong? Good in the air? Hard Working? None of the above? The answer to this is another indicator. If my forward/s are quick then this opens up the possibility of playing a low block and hitting teams on the break, which is especially interesting if we also have slow defenders. If my forward/s are strong then this turns my mind towards having them play as pivots, holding up the ball and playing in players running from deep. Before I can commit to that though I have to assess my wide players. if my strikers are non-descript (in other words not very quick or good as acting as pivots) then I know that in order for them to score goals then our build up is going to have to be a lot more deliberate. Lumping balls over the top or into them is not going to cut it. They need quality delivery from near to the goal. This points in the direction of having creative players in the AM strata. Finally I tend to have a look at my wide options both in midfield and defence. Are my fullbacks any good going forward (usually the answer is not at all) and are my wide options creative? Pacey? Goalscoring? If my wide players are pacey then that bodes well for the low block counter style. If they're creative then that would mesh well with the non-descript striker that needs lots of support. If they're a goal threat and we've got a striker that can hold up the ball and act as a pivot then great, we're in business. More often than not the elements don't automatically come together, in which case you have to tinker around, try to bring in a player that can help make more sense of the groups of players that you've got. So say, for example, that you're whole squad makes sense as a side that plays up to a holding forward who lays it off to goalscoring wingers but the one thing you don't have is a holding forward. Then you probably need to retrain someone in your squad or try to find one from somewhere. This is a very realistic dillema and one that real life coaches find themselves in all the time. The previous coach may not have left you with a group of players that combines in any coherent way. This is the challenge of football manager and why its so addictive, for me.
  9. Excellent stuff. One slight quibble would be your suggestion that Get Stuck In should be paired with a low block. For me a more aggressive ball winning strategy would make more sense with a high block because a failure to deal with an opposition attack/break could be devastating. A high block is a pretty do-or-die strategy. If you're operating with a low block and you Get Stuck In there's always a danger that you give away freekicks in shooting distance or even worse give away a penalty. Personally, if I was using a low block I'd want my players choosing to keep their shape rather than selling themselves, diving in and leaving us exposed or, as I said, gifting the opposition a chance to shoot from a set-piece.
  10. Generally I would say yes. The DLP needs to find space to receive the pass and then pick out a teammate but he will generally be doing so in a less crowded area than the AP. AP's tend to need to be more mobile because they pick up the ball as the opposition are frantically getting back into their defensive shape. An immobile AP is probably not actually an AP. I could foresee playing an immobile but excellent passer as a DLP as long as he had someone doing the running alongside him.
  11. Not all DLP's need to be good defensively. JonJo Shelvey is a good DLP but isn't particularly good at screening or winning the ball. The differences are largely positional in that DLP's will operate in the space behind the midfield whereas AP's will generally operate in the space ahead of the midfield. AP's will generally, although not always, be operating in tighter spaces and so need good composure, first touch, agility, OTB for example. People may disagree but I tend to think of a DLP needing others to provide the movement and so needs lots of vision to spot their runs, whereas an AP needs good OTB in order to find pockets and then slip others in. DLP's are players like Michael Carrick and Jonjo Shelvey whereas APs are players like Christian Ericksen and David Silva. Edit: As long as the DLP has sufficient defensive support he can get away with focusing on playmaking.
  12. In real life coaches have 1 to 1 relationships with their players. One part of that is together, the coach and the player, setting targets, objectives, goals, whatever to achieve over the course of the season. An obvious example would be for a coach to tell a striker who last season scored 15 goals, to try to get 20. This could add some spice to the player's mood and manager-player interactions. To dig deeper you could also have different kinds of targets. So, for example, you could have suggested/agreed targets as above, and you could have demanded targets, so for example a striker that hasn't lived up to expectations being told that as their manager you want to see them get at at least 10 goals or they'll be moved on/dropped.etc This would also enhance youth development. You could give your youngsters very clear objectives, so for example, a young defender might be told you want him to make five appearances before the end of the season. You're the manager and you're in control of picking him but its up to him to train hard, perform in youth/reserve matches in order to be selected. Its just a way of quantifying (in the game) who's made progress in a season, who's plateaued and who's regressed. Some further examples/suggestions follow... 21 year old defender who hasn't broken into the side yet - Play at least 20 senior matches either at the club or on loan. 19 year old striker who hasn't broken into the side yet - Make 10 appearances either starting or off the bench and score his first senior goal. 35 year old defender who's beginning to struggle - Try and play at least 30 matches 24 year old centre back with excellent jumping and heading - Score 5 goals (from set pieces obviously) 26 year old winger who has been a poor signing - Play 30 matches and score 8 goals. You could also include Average Rating as an objective, so telling a player he needs to hit a season average of 7.10. I realise that that is slightly less realistic but its probably the best we've got given that this is a simulation and not real life. We are ultimately restricted to data and stats.
  13. Atarin

    Manage U18 sides

    You don't have to be in a competitive league to develop. I develop youngsters at amateur clubs using just regular friendly games. If it was necessary the feature could be limited to professional clubs or only clubs that are part of a U18 youth league. The main thing is that there are lots of us that love youth football and youth development. While you can do that in the game currently you have to spend the vast majority of your time dealing with the first team. I certainly don't have time to watch/manage 1st team and U18 games. Certainly not in the detail that i'd like. This feature is just a way of letting us focus solely on youth development.
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