[Guide] Lower League Management 2009

[Nosnikta]

Introduction

Since my previous guide proved somewhat successful during the FM 2008 days, I feel an updated version to correspond with the latest edition would be worthwhile. I hope this helps as many people out there as possible and I have taken into account what other people had to say in the previous guide, so all suggestions are welcome and will be taken on-board. For as long as I'm around The Dugout and playing FM, I'll annually update this guide in the hope that I can help people out there who are struggling or generally looking for guidance or advice.

Which Club Do You Want To Start With?

This is reletively easy, depending on what type of team you choose to manage. In the Coca Cola Leagues 1 and 2, there are various clubs with high reputations that are sleeping giants. Expectation levels will be high and demanding, but the calibre of players will be evident from the start in comparison to the lesser teams.

However, if you like the ultimate challenge of a David & Goliath battle, maybe a club from the Blue Square North or South Divisions would be more appealing to you. Many people choose a small, local club to manage while others tend to start off as unemployed and await a vacant position to become available. Whichever option you choose, it's highly recommended that you take into account what the boards expects of you, then choose a realistic aim for the present season in relation to what you think you can do with the club and what your Assistant Manager's Team Report is.

Early Season Priorities

There are many things you'll be looking to do once you've taken over a club. For starters, becoming familiar in your new surroundings will be priceless until you have a clear understanding of the best and worst players within your new setup. A good way to tie down your best players to your club is to offer them full-time contracts. This way they'll train more and develop more as players, helping you personally in the long-run. As time consuming as it can be, look through each and every position of your squad and counter any weaknesses with signings that will improve your team. It's all well and good buying 3 fantastic strikers, but you could have spent some of that money on a player at the back, bolstering your defence.

You may also wish to bring in your own staff. However, the calibre of interested staff in the lower leagues won't be very high and more often than not your current off-field employees will be better than the ones interested in the job anyway. Full-time employees will spend more time with your players too, so it's important if you can offer them a full-time contract, if you can afford it.

Selling unwanted players is the best way to make a good amount of money or cut down on the wage budget. While starting with a small squad, you should be cautious you don't sell too many before buying other players. You don't want to have too few players for the long run between the August - January transfer windows.

Friendly Matches

Since each new game loads up completely randomly, you may get lucky and already have a few financially rewarding friendlies at home playing the big guns. Clubs with a decent sized stadium will see more of a benefit since they can fit more people inside, generating more money. It's an easy task of setting these fixtures up manually too, providing the clubs aren't playing on the days available to you. A lot of clubs will decline your offer, but be patient and eventually a few will accept. Friendlies are also a good starting ground for testing new or previously successful tactics. Pay close attention to the strengths and weaknesses of your side in general over the course of the pre-season period, as it could make or break the start of your League campaign.

Money alone won't bring you success, but having more at your disposel increases your chances of bringing a better calibre of player. Always keep an eye on your finances or you could fall prey to your board's cost-effective policies.

Parent / Feeder Clubs

One of the most important things to do while aiming for success with a lower league club is to find a decent Parent Club. This will have great affects on the calibre of players you will be able to bring in which more than likely wouldn't be interested in joining you if the link between the two clubs wasn't established. Making this request to your chairman is in both the board's and your interest, since you gain financial income through the link. Premiership clubs would obviously be the best clubs to receive players from, but don't be too disgruntled if you receive offers from Championship clubs aswell. Better players and more squad depth could be the difference between you finishing in mid-table and fighting for the title. Remember you're in control of who you choose, and you don't have to accept the clubs offered to you upon the first request.

A Feeder Club is important for you to send your young and / or fringe players out on loan to gain vital first-team experience and could stop them becoming unhappy in the short-term while they're not in your present first-team plans. Mostly, these clubs will be unknown to you or will be a smaller local club. Sometimes however, you may get the opportunity to form a partnership with a club outside of your residing country. This is a good way to gain up-and-coming players from that specific country, while also catering for sending your players out on loan there. Be cautious if your finances are extremely low though, as you have to pay an annual fee to a Feeder Club. This shouldn't be a problem for most clubs, however.

Training

I won't cover too much on training, as there are countless training guides on The Dugout to read through which are written by more knowledgeable people than myself.

What you should remember though if playing non-league football is that some players are part-time employees, and won't be able to train as intensely as full-time players. The same would apply for younger players, which I also recommend creating / using a seperate schedule for your Youth Team.

I'll cover the basics and which attributes are effected by the different types of training;

Strength: Stamina, Strength
Aerobic: Pace, Agility, Acceleration and Balance
Goalkeeping: All Goalkeeping attributes except Eccentricity and Tendency to Punch
Tactics: Decisions, Anticipation, Off the Ball, Positioning
Ball Control: Dribbling, Technique, First Touch
Defending: Tackling, Marking, Heading
Attacking: Passing, Creativity
Shooting: Finishing, Composure, Long Shots
Set Pieces: Free Kicks, Corners, Penalties, Long Throws, Crossing
Workload: Higher workload could cause more injuries. Never put the total workload to Very Heavy or higher on the slider.

If you don't like the idea of putting in hard work towards training, you can download someone else's work from The Dugout. I'll post the most popular training sets, although you'll be using them at your own peril. I haven't tested them and I am basing their success on the amount of good feedback each schedule gets on these forums.

Tug's Training 2009
DarkStarr's Training 2009 (Optimised)

Tactics

KISS it. Keep It Simple Stupid. The further down the pecking order of football's elite you go, the less creativity and ability to perform miracles on the pitch. It's pointless having Joe Bloggs trying to play a Cristiano Ronaldo role in the lower leagues, it will inevitably result in loss of possession and possibly conceding from the mistake. A 4-4-2 is the prefered choice of formation by most sides in the lower leagues, as it's possibly the most balanced formation there is and readiness to switch between defence and attack upon instruction. Other formations may work well, but beware of over-complicating things. The biggest error many FM players make is that thinking it will be simple if they find a tactic that turned Bolton Wanderers into Champions League contenders, and expecting it to have the same full effect down at the bottom end of the football ladder. Arrange your tactic around your players, not the other way round. It will be important to get the best out of individuals, while this effects your team on a whole and hopefully getting the result you set out to get.

Aswell as training, there are also tactics out there for you to download. Again, you'll be using these at your own peril and I have never tested any of these - they're merely the most popular around the forum. While they are pre-made, it is still advisable to tweak them to fit your teams style of play.

GKnap 442 (Created by Gnap)
Movement09 (Created by The Better Half)
Lorenzo's 45 Minute Wonder 442 Tactic (Created by mesce)

As for Opposition Instructions I have a general setup that I live by and it has worked extremely well for me. This topic is highly debatable, with most players having their own take on how to set out when it comes to these instructions.

I'll assume we're playing against a team using 4-4-2 as a formation. This is how I'd play against them accordingly with Opposition Instructions.

GK: Closing Down Always
I want to put their goalkeeper under pressure, whether it's from a back-pass or a 50-50 ball into the box, hoping I can force him into making a mistake.

DR / DL: Closing Down Always, Show Onto Weaker Foot
Closing them down so they have little time to cross the ball from deep or pass the ball to a central midfielder. Many times utilising this, I notice Full Backs much prefer to put the ball into row Z rather than take a risk. Show Onto Weaker Foot as they're less likely to do any damage with the ball.

DC: Closing Down Always
Quite the same as the goalkeeper really. I use this to make my strikers force their centre-backs into mistakes by rushing their clearence or pass.

ML / MR: Closing Down Always, Show Onto Weaker Foot
Closing them down to prevent them getting a cross in or a good pass to their team-mates. Show Onto Weaker Foot as they'll be less than capable of beating a Full Back with their weak foot.

MC: Various
This is a more complicated position to cover, depending on how the opposition have set out. For DMCs, I'd Close Down Always, as with defensive-minded MCs. For AMCs, I usually have my DMC man-mark him and Close Down Always. I never mark him tightly, as he's likely to be fairly skillful and have the ability to skin his marker. Be careful with AMCs however, as Close Down Always has a tendancy to make your DCs come out of position leaving gaps while trying to close him down.

FC: Various
For a Target Man, I Close Down Always and use Tight Marking. For strikers playing off the Target Man I use Show Onto Weaker Foot.

A lot of this comes down to personal preference. Keep this in mind when studying your team's performance and see where the negatives are coming from.

Transfer Targets

The fun part of FM lies within the transfer market. Although you're transfer budget will undoubtedly be very poor, it's still possible to find more than one gem of a player using various methods.

We'll start off with Scouting. A common mistake made by FM players is to send out a scout to a country he already has knowledge of. To broaden his horizons, send him out to other countries and after a while he'll gain vital knowledge of this country / region and help find an adequate player for your club. You can filter the search, but by doing so you limit the return of possibly better players than you have in your current squad. It's a lot better to look through 20 players and only find one decent one rather than looking through 10 and finding no decent ones. Until you're in a good financial position, it's highly unlikely your board will allow scouts to operate outside their own country though, so for the short-term scouting is kept fairly simple.

Next is the actual Transfer Market. By filtering your player search to show "Transfer Listed" players, you can find players easily but I also recommend ticking the "Ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets" whenever using Player Search. That way you won't be wasting your time on players who have no interest in joining you.

Next, search for players "Listed for Loan". It's easier to loan better players than it is to sign them on a permanent contract and a lot of Premiership clubs have decent young players willing to play in the lower leagues. I recommend browsing them while you look for loaning players, but be careful of the loan rules and don't rush into signing someone on loan who may not end up playing a key part in your squad, as this could rule out loaning an even better player further through the season.

Other than signing players from clubs, there are many players who are unattached and looking for new clubs. If you're using player search, you'll need to use the "Contract Status - Unattached" option and I still advise you use the "Ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets" tick box. Many of them are in the closing stages of their careers and will be willing to drop down a few divisions from where they've regularly been playing over their career. This is a good way to get more experience in your team, which will help younger players in the long-run.

A trick to searching for unattached players is by typing "no club" into the Quick Search box. This will result in all unattached players being visable within your chosen database and makes it very easy to find regens. The new players added to the database appear at the bottom of the search, although they don't start appearing until around 6 months into the first season. I generally search for them in December, March, July and September but you can do this as often as you like in order to sign them before other clubs do.

Some people like to add smaller nations (Poland, Romania etc) to load players from. This is a good way to have great, cheap players in your database and they are more likely to want to join your club than a player of the same ability playing in England. Having such leagues ran on View-Only mode will not only make these players appear in quantities, but will also not interfere with the speed you play your game at as opposed to choosing the nations as playable leagues.

Searching for players with key attributes for their position will also help. As most players you'll have in your team won't be decent all-round players. Having a winger who can dribble and cross is better than one with good heading and influence attributes.

Lastly for this section, you can find many decent young players in the Reserves (or B squads) of Europe's big clubs that will have an interest in joining you. Since they're highly unlikely to break into their current team, their valuation will be set low and usually if you offer £0, the offer will be accepted as the club would rather get rid of them rather than have them rot at their club. One club's rubbish is another club's treasure, so have a scour around clubs for such players, or even players recently released from fairly decent clubs.

Conclusion

Patience is a virtue, don't expect instant success and this is the key to enjoying a proper LLM game. I know countless people who demand success instantly and end up quitting after the first season. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

I'm no expert on FM, but I have found success using the methods which I've explained in this guide. When I began a career in LLM, I had many questions to ask especially on these forums so this guide is pretty much the answers to the questions I asked when I started out - whether it be from others pointing me in the right direction or finding it out for myself. On last year's version I took Harrogate Town to the Championship from the Blue Square North. This year I've so far taken Darlington from League 2 and so far heading towards the Championship, but I'm still learning and there are many more successful players than myself out there. I'm keen to listen to constructive criticism or further questions from people. I didn't want to emphasise too much on the training or tactical aspects of FM, as there are other people out there who have already written very good guides on those subjects.

Thanks

[Nick]

Great stuff Nosnikta. I'm a massive LLM fan myself. And there is nothing i can add to that. Everything covered. Good work.

[Malady]

Good copy and paste.

Spoiler:

No safety wink.

Spoiler:

Ok you changed some of it.

Spoiler:

Still, Fuck you!

Spoiler:

Still, no safety wink

Spoiler:

Why didn't you win Best Newbie? I voted for you

Spoiler:

It's nothing personal, Forza.

Spoiler:

I think I'm done.

Spoiler:

Yep.

[Nosnikta]

Originally Posted by thelastnightintown

Good copy and paste.

Spoiler:

No safety wink.

Spoiler:

Ok you changed some of it.

Spoiler:

Still, Fuck you!

Spoiler:

Still, no safety wink

Spoiler:

Why didn't you win Best Newbie? I voted for you

Spoiler:

It's nothing personal, Forza.

Spoiler:

I think I'm done.

Spoiler:

Yep.

I even added some of your feedback to it, like searching for player's key attributes.

Originally Posted by BSFC

Great stuff Nosnikta. I'm a massive LLM fan myself. And there is nothing i can add to that. Everything covered. Good work.

Thanks, mate, hopefully there's a few things I've left out or could add to this or next year's could be boring

[Juicy]

Just wanted to say thanks for this - never knew about the 'no club' quick search and will now hopefully have 4-5 immense oldies coming to my Farsley side in the near future!

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Juicy

Just wanted to say thanks for this - never knew about the 'no club' quick search and will now hopefully have 4-5 immense oldies coming to my Farsley side in the near future!

Not only oldies mate. You can get some quality younger players too. Especially for that level.

If you want any names drop me a PM.

[karan316]

Top guide

[AE]

Sweet guide mate.

[Nosnikta]

Originally Posted by Juicy

Just wanted to say thanks for this - never knew about the 'no club' quick search and will now hopefully have 4-5 immense oldies coming to my Farsley side in the near future!

It seems SI have picked up on this, or toned it down in comparison to how easy it was to find decent players in previous versions. It's still worth looking, I've found 3 decent newgens through this method, but a little bit of manual scouting through nations Under-21s side has done me proud.

Glad it helped you though, Juicy

Everyone else, thanks for all the kind words

[carboreeta]

One question do you actually set opposition instructions for each player on the opposition!

[Nosnikta]

Originally Posted by carboreeta

One question do you actually set opposition instructions for each player on the opposition!

Yeah, although that's optional. I generally look to close everyone down and panic the opposition when they're in possession.

Everyone sets out to play their own way, use personal preference and adjust when / if you notice any glaring evidence of OI failures.

[pnewton75]

Originally Posted by Nosnikta

It seems SI have picked up on this, or toned it down in comparison to how easy it was to find decent players in previous versions. It's still worth looking, I've found 3 decent newgens through this method, but a little bit of manual scouting through nations Under-21s side has done me proud.

Glad it helped you though, Juicy

Everyone else, thanks for all the kind words

Totally agree about searching the under 21's, although as blyth i rarely get any major nations U-21 players coming to me, guess that's what makes the under 19's squads so appealing!
Never tried the "no club" approach, great tip, will give it a go tonight.

[carboreeta]

Hmm, with LLM teams that amoutn of pressing would cause fatigue and injuries over the long term with squads that tend to be smaller and open to these issues? Not to mention your team shape being all over the place?

My LLM opposition instructions tend to be:

Weaker foot on all strickers and wide midfielders, with tight marking on the less skillfull ones (relevant to playing level!)

Closing down always on Central midfielders

Thats about it as I tend to be quite happy with LLM defenders having the ball and thinking about their passing options (they tend to make bad decisions )

But as you say they really are each to there own OI.

[Nosnikta]

Originally Posted by carboreeta

Hmm, with LLM teams that amoutn of pressing would cause fatigue and injuries over the long term with squads that tend to be smaller and open to these issues? Not to mention your team shape being all over the place?

My LLM opposition instructions tend to be:

Weaker foot on all strickers and wide midfielders, with tight marking on the less skillfull ones (relevant to playing level!)

Closing down always on Central midfielders

Thats about it as I tend to be quite happy with LLM defenders having the ball and thinking about their passing options (they tend to make bad decisions )

But as you say they really are each to there own OI.

It doesn't really effect team-shape at all, or not that I've noticed in 2 seasons anyway, but I think that's because of the Closing Down bar on your own player's instructions. I haven't set them to close down on the whole pitch - I've never seen my RB trying to close-down the DC, for example

Fatigue levels haven't been affected either. In fact, my right-winger played 59 games in my first season - which is amazingly high for any calibre of player, if not unrealistic.

[Conte]

I'll add this to the useful threads sticky like last year. Good work.

[Nosnikta]

Originally Posted by Conte

I'll add this to the useful threads sticky like last year. Good work.

Thanks a lot, Conte

I PM'd IJ about the possibility of that. Glad you like it.

[SnakepitCanary]

Hello Nosnikta. I've now started a season off with Darlington and have started well. Bought in 6 lads from Spain all on free transfers that are championship quality and are doing a great job for me! Hopefully I will join you in the lofty ranks of the Championship soon

[Juicy]

Originally Posted by Nosnikta

It seems SI have picked up on this, or toned it down in comparison to how easy it was to find decent players in previous versions. It's still worth looking, I've found 3 decent newgens through this method, but a little bit of manual scouting through nations Under-21s side has done me proud.

Glad it helped you though, Juicy

Everyone else, thanks for all the kind words

Well having not known about this technique until reading this thread I wouldn't know about FM cottoning on; but it's definitely a useful way of finding players who you normally wouldn't find, just takes an age to browse through them all!

Can't say I had any luck finding any young players though - all the guys I have signed using this (about 9 of my starting 11) are all 34+. There's quite a few 19-22yo who are all pants, and there's a handful of regens who are trash as well. Any tips? =\

And is it worth looking through the National youth teams when no-one seems to want to sign for me? Or would I be wasting my time? Ta.

[arpw]

Thanks a lot, this guide helped me get Cambridge City from BSS to League 1 last year, now for King's Lynn!

[Mazuuurk]

It is a good guide, but if I were you I would remove the linkt to the different tacticts and training regimes. Simply because I reckon one should encourage people to do those things themeselves, even if they are terrible at it (like me).

[Nosnikta]

Originally Posted by Mazuuurk

It is a good guide, but if I were you I would remove the linkt to the different tacticts and training regimes. Simply because I reckon one should encourage people to do those things themeselves, even if they are terrible at it (like me).

I argued that point with myself as I rewrote those sections. The thing is, if I left them out I'd probably get people coming in here and requesting which tactics / training schedules they should be using.

None of them are proven to work, or at least to my knowledge, I only put the links up there that were popular threads in each catagory. However, I totally agree with you in that we should encourage people to create them themselves. Each team is totally different so as one regime may work with one club, it might not with an other. Good point though, Maz, I think I'll edit the post and put more emphasis on why creating your own is important, but leave the links in for the lazy, want-success-now kind of people

Originally Posted by arpw

Thanks a lot, this guide helped me get Cambridge City from BSS to League 1 last year, now for King's Lynn!

Glad to hear that, mate Good luck!

Originally Posted by Juicy

Well having not known about this technique until reading this thread I wouldn't know about FM cottoning on; but it's definitely a useful way of finding players who you normally wouldn't find, just takes an age to browse through them all!

Can't say I had any luck finding any young players though - all the guys I have signed using this (about 9 of my starting 11) are all 34+. There's quite a few 19-22yo who are all pants, and there's a handful of regens who are trash as well. Any tips? =\

And is it worth looking through the National youth teams when no-one seems to want to sign for me? Or would I be wasting my time? Ta.

Can I ask how far into the game you are? The "no club" method becomes more useful after around December 2008, when the newgens are added from specific countries. After that, it's a huge mix of dates when each nation adds their newgens to the game so the longer you leave it, the more players will have been added. Generally speaking, look out more for the 16 / 17 year olds. You will find a lot of dross that wouldn't get into your local pub's team, but on occassion you'll find a rising star - and it all becomes worthwhile.

National youth teams are well worth looking through, many will be with more obscure clubs than (I imagine..) yours is. The lower ranked the nation, the less popular he'll be on a global scale so he shouldn't have any problems signing for you, unless he needs a work-permit.

[Sporter]

Thanks, this guide is realling helping me at the moment, though I might bring it back from the depth's of the lower pages.

[Leeb88]

thanks for the Guide nos. a good read for any LLM.

[ORiN]

The OI seems to be working for me to a certain extent. My AFC Telford won the league title for 2 consecutive seasons after I shipped in a truck load of free transfers from Reunion clubs. Currently, leading League 2 after 24 games though I am no longer dominating matches like in BS North and BS Premier. Just strong physical stats don't seem to be able to run the opponent ragged now.

[yesdale]

Good guide, great help in my campaign with Braintree!

[Arthritic_Gadgie]

The only gripe I would have with the guide is that anyone would even consider that Coca-Cola League 1 and 2 clubs would count as Lower League.

[Revelo]

Wow, this is a pretty good guide! I wish i had seen this when i tried my hand with BSS management. I may adapt the opposition instructions for my Bristol Rovers game on FM10 mind