A move to SquareSpace

Hey everybody,

For FM15 I’ve made a move from WordPress to Squarespace, you can find me now at http://www.playingthelines.com

This blog will remain open as an archive of the old stuff, but hopefully you’ll enjoy the new layout!

Cheers!

To Retrain or Not To Retrain?

Introduction

Something I spoke a little about in my Future Planning article is retraining players to fill different positions in the team. However, I didn’t go into much depth on this subject, as I felt it deserved its own post, so here it is.

Retraining players is a very useful little tool with a lot of different uses. You can use it to add some flexibility to your team but having players that can play a number of positions, it can be used to use existing players to fill gaps in your first team or your squad or provide extra cover, or you can use it to ensure your youngsters can get more playing time by filling a few different positions. Those are just a few reasons and there are many more. However, there are also downsides to retraining players, mainly to due with attribute distribution, which I’ll go into later.

This piece will lay out how to go about retraining a player, what to look out for, and what to expect. Then I’ll look at the things to consider when retraining a player, and whether retraining can be a real solution to some transfer problems. Finally, I’ll do a short case study looking at a player I’m currently retraining.

Player Development: Training

Intro

Well after reading Push Them Wide’s brilliant training guide again, I thought I’d add a few of my own thoughts. PTW’s guide offers a fantastic overview of the FM13 training module, explains exactly what each part of the module does and some of the ways you can use them to improve your players, team and results. The information in there is fantastic and by following everything in that guide you can’t go far wrong.

I thought I’d just add a few thoughts of my own. My approach to training is based heavily of the piece from PTW, but I thought I’d look a little further at how I use training in Player Development specifically. So I won’t be covering Match prep in any great detail here, this is about General Training and Individual training and how I try to use both throughout the season in a complementary manner to improve my players. I’ll go through my approach, how it builds off that outlined in PTW and the results it can achieve.

Managing The Whole Squad

Introduction

This piece is going to about how to take a more comprehensive approach to Squad Management, which should hopefully lead to better results both on and off the pitch. Club management is about so much more than just the first team, it’s about staying on top of every development at your club, and trying to maximise the potential of every aspect of the club in order to gain greater achievements.

This post will be a companion piece, with another post on Club Management coming soon, but for now I’m going to focus on Squad Management, the principles that guide me through it, and how I got these principles.

Getting the Most From FM13 Through Playing Philosophies

Introduction

In hindsight, this should’ve been my first blog. This post is about something that I think can really enhance the way you play FM, and make sure you get the most enjoyment possible. This post is a look at how you can create your own unique experience and find new and exciting ways of playing this great management simulator, through creating a ‘Playing Philosophy’. A lot of other players already have their own unique ways of looking at Football Manager and getting the most out of the game, and I think they would agree that by approaching the game in a certain way, you’ll get much more enjoyment and a more fulfilling game, than by simply starting it up and diving in without any thought.

I’ll look at a few things here. Firstly, I’ll go through the basic aspects of creating what I call a ‘Playing Philosophy’, then I’ll give you a few questions to think about any time you’re starting a game, and finally I’ll take you through my current save and how I’ve developed my current philosophy.