Macclesfield Story: Great Results by Midseason

The first several games in my Macclesfield story were mediocre: the Silkmen were at number 10, which was still a great place for a team tipped for relegation, but not enough for me and the few good players I had managed to pick up.

The biggest problem of the team was the lack of solid wingers: I only had two players for the right side and one for the left side, all three of them of a very low quality and that was reflected on the pitch: the tactics I was using (4-1-2-2-1) seemed to be a pretty solid one, but the lack of quality forward led to very few chances to score and even fewer goals.

So, having this in mind as well as the fact that the pitch at The Moss Rose is quite narrow, I have decided to change the tactics completely and play without wingers (it is the first time in my managing career - of all time! - when I play without wingers). Still, after a few misses that took the team all the way down to the 18th position, the team started to play football and the result was incredible: five wins in a row:

The turnaround was certainly caused by the return of Willy Topp (who got injured for a month during his first game for Macclesfield) and also the return of Mamadou Seck, my best central defender.

As you can see below, we've had a really decent series of results: lost on penalties in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy 2nd round against a better Crewe, won the 1st FA Cup round against Shrewsbury (but lost heavily at Huddersfield), and managed to get some really valuable points in the league from Bournemouth, Bury and Notts Co:

And after this great series of results, Macclesfield are now standing in the top half of the division, at six, with real chances to go up to number 2 in the league! Of course, there are chances to go back down to the middle of the season if things don't work well anymore, but I hope that won't be the chance. Now I'm even starting to dream about promotion!

Players-wise, there were, as it usually happens in Football Manager 2010, quite a few surprises: some of the players I considered at first some really important assets for the club didn't play too well, while other players with lower stats managed to do wonders in the team and became regular first team players.

I am talking here about the pleasant surprises of Algerian defender Hamza Bencheriff, the best player in the squad ratings-wise (with a 7.11 average in 26 games) and Ben Starosta, a Polish fullback that really has some poor stats, but plays incredibly well:

 

On the other hand, I was quite disappointed with Cosmin Marginean who is quite inconsistent, but also full back Joe Edwards played quite bad. Well, that's life!

But overall I can say that I am pretty pleased with how things are going in this first half of the season: The Silkmen are at number 6, after being considered relegation candidates, I am managing to tweak the tactics and create a solid formation and I already have a few players I'll try to keep for the future when I hope of greater things. The final goal is, afterwards, to get Macclesfield in the Champions League! Let's hope that will happen soon!

One More Transfer from the Bargain Hunter

I announced that the last transfer for my first season with Macclesfield was that of Mamadou Seck, but it seems that I was a bit wrong since I managed to find another really hot prospect: Chilean striker Willy Topp, a real top player in my opinion, one that could certainly play at a higher level:

The striker has asked for a pretty high salary, though and that will be a bit of a pain in the arse now since I'm over the budget, but if he manages to do his job as I hope he will, maybe we'll turn things around - as well as the way the team is performing, which is just mediocre.

Funnily enough, after the signing of Topp for Macclesfield, there was the press update about the transfers and it was said that I went bargain hunting - which is completely true since all the signings were free transfers. You can't do much with a transfer budget of 0 now, can you?

What about you? Are you a bargain hunter as well when managing low profile teams?

Football Manager 2010 Patch 10.2.0 Released!

So soon after the release of patch 10.1.1 for Football Manager 2010, Sports Interactive have released a major new patch for the game: patch 10.2.0. It's worth noting that those who are playing the Steam version of the game will get auto-patched as soon as the game starts, but if you wish you can download the patch (especially for boxed copies) following the links I have provided below.

As I was saying, Football Manager 2010 patch 10.2.0 is a major patch, and you can read all the details about it here. Or you can check out the most important changes (in my opinion) brought to FM 2010 after this patch:

General changes and fixes:
- Adjusted the chances of better newgens being created at smaller clubs in big footballing nations.
- Added Composure and Concentration to be included in Goalkeeper training.
- Players now get a reputation boost when they win their first cap.
- Stopped the user been able to make lots of money as a small team by arranging lots of friendlies against high reputation opposition.
- Reduced game memory usage.
- Made it more difficult for managers to get onto the legend list.

Transfers:
- Adjusted code to allow more clubs to make offers for offered out players.
- Fixed an issue whereby coach/scout would state player would be interested in loan move, but in fact he wasn't.
- Made it more likely for a staff member to accept a contract offer from his current club over a deal offered by a different club.

Match Experience:
- Added "Runs Past Opponent" to the match graphical analysis tool.
- Fixed some various small issues with tracking of certain type of passes and crosses.
- Added team talk option to the quick sub dialog.

Match engine:
- Couple of fixes to make player reactions to certain deflections more realistic
- Further fix to prevent rash decisions to leave ball to keeper
- Small fix to make extra sure players look to intercept balls coming towards them
- Tweak to make sure defending team players continue to mark ball player until it is clearly pointless
- Introduced concept of players chasing own header as a means to get ball under control
- Tried to make players quicker to close down pass receiver
- Further tweak to positioning of player marking opponent with ball, including accounting for opponent's pace advantage if applicable
- Slight increase on keepers effectiveness against power shots

And these are just the highlights of the Football Manager patch! You can download the FM2010 patch from WorthDownloading.

Macclesfield Challenge: Mediocre Start of Season

Hello folks! I'm proud to give you the first "real" update on my Football Manager 2010 challenge: the Macclesfield Challenge!

As you can see in the table screenshot below, the start of the season for the Silkmen was mediocre and completely unspectacular: 4 wins and 4 loses in the league, out of eight matches, with 10 goals scored for and 10 goals scored against my team. But it could've been worse and overall I must admit that I am pleased with how the team is doing.

Most notable win was, as you can see below, my 2-1 victory over Notts Co, probably the best team in the league. Of course, our latest win against Barnet 4-0 at home was also a joy to be watched, even though Barnet are the last placed team so they definitely lack quality.

I also got kicked out of the League Cup, losing against the better Blackpool 2-0 in a match in which we had no chances on goal and defended for the whole 90 minutes, but the boys managed to turn around the odds and defeat a superior Carlisle team in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy first round, which is really great, even though I also had to defend for almost the entire match.

The worst and most annoying defeat was at the hands of Morecambe, after leading the first half 1-0. I have made the mistake of saying to my squad that I was pleased with the result at half time and they lost all their motivation. As you can see, Morecambe scored against Macclesfield four goals in 14 minutes... something that's not really pleasant to watch. But at least I've learned my lesson and won't celebrate until the final whistle is blown.

The Silkmen's Senegalese striker Ibrahima Thiam also managed to enter the records book, scoring the fastest ever goal against Barnet, just 20 seconds after the kick off. Hopefully Thiam will continue playing as good as he does now, for the moment he is one of my best players!

Macclesfield Challenge: Last Transfer in the Window

After taking a better look at my Macclesfield squad after the first batch of players brought in, I have decided to bring in another Central Defender, this season hoping to battle against relegation with a good defense. Otherwise I would've brought in a winger since the ones I have now are of really poor quality.

Either way, I managed to bring in a really great player, 29 years old Senegalese central defender Mamadou Seck, a tall player that is great in the air and also has some really good defending stats, as you can see in the image below. Actually, Seck just became my best central defender and I truly hope he will manage to remain injury-free for most of the season.

On the minus side, Seck is a really slow player, but hopefully his other stats will make up for that.

Now I can say for sure that Mamadou Seck is the last transfer for Macclesfield this season since we have no more money (nor for wages, nor for buying players). I don't really like the fact that some of my best players are really slow (Seck, Thiam, Balasko) but since my main goal is to stay clear of relegation this season and build up the squad for the future, I hope that I won't lose the bet for better but slower players...

We'll see for sure in my future Macclesfield Challenge updates...

Football Manager 2010 Patch 10.1.1 Released!

Sports Interactive have released a new patch for Football Manager 2010 fixing a few rare issues the game was experiencing and now changing mechanics, fixing bugs or so on. However, it will certainly be of no harm for your game to install it (even though if you decide against installing it from Steam it might crash your Football Manager 2010 game and reinstall will be needed!)

Here are the changes brought in by the Football Manager patch 10.1.1:

- Fixed the game running out of memory when entering a match for some users
- Fixed the game sometimes losing activated status on Uniloc-protected versions
- Fixed a Mac-only crash relating the incorrect loading of a sound file
- Fixed a rare crash in the tactics panel
- Fixed rare issue with score divergence
- Fixed occasional crash when responding to red card

You can apply the patch automatically via Steam or you can download it from WorthPlaying for: PC boxed copies and Mac boxed copies.

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Football Manager 2010 System Requirements

I have decided to add a few updates on various technical issues related to Football Manager 2010 since that's part of the game too, and I will begin with something you might already know, but it doesn't hurt to check out again: the Football Manager 2010 system requirements.

As posted officially by Sega and Sports Interactive, these are:

PC system requirements:
OS - Windows XP/Vista/Windows7
Processor - XP - 1.4ghz or faster Vista/W7 - 2.0hgz or faster
Memory - XP-512MB Ram, Vista/W7 - 1GB Ram
Video Card - 128MB minimum. Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 or greater; Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater.
Earlier cards may only display 2D Match Viewer Mode and are not supported.
Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.


Mac system requirements:
Intel Processor, OS X 10.5, NVidia Geforce 7300 GT / ATI X1600 Radeon

You can notice that the system requirements to run Football Manager 2010 are the same as those for Football Manager 2009. Pretty cool, right?

Macclesfield Challenge: First Transfers

After checking out the Macclesfield Town squad I decided to sell most of them due to poor quality and sign as many better players as possible - probably something any manager would do. I thought I stroke lucky when Notts Co, a team in the same division as The Silkmen, offered me an amazing deal of 100,000 Euros plus almost 250,000 more in two years for Paul Morgan, one player I wasn't even sure I was going to keep! An amazing deal and it was simple luck or a bug in the system because after selling this player, I didn't manage to sell any other.

So with a transfer budget of ZERO and just a couple thousand Euros to spare per week for new signings, I can say that I find myself in a bit of trouble. However, I did manage to sign a few good players (at least good for the level I'm playing at and the level of my team) and I'm listing them below:

As you can see, all of them were Free Signings and a few are real gems. Here are the player profile pictures of the best new Macclesfield Town players in my Football Manager 2010 challenge:

1. Fabio Ferreira - Attacking midfielder Right/Left

For some reason, Ferreira became the most valued player in my squad, even though I can't say I'm completely blown away by his skills. The scout highly recommended him to me and I signed him especially because he can play on two different positions, a must for low league clubs. Except for that, he's fast and... that's about it!

2. Ivan Balasko - Midfielder/Attacking midfielder Centre

I really liked this Hungarian attacking midfielder who became the best midfielder in my squad. His physical stats are not great, but I hope that while he plays, he does a great job for the team.

3. Ibrahima Thiam - Striker, Centre

Now this is a real gem, I am really happy he accepted to sign with Macclesfield. This Senegalese striker (with 12 caps at the national team) is really tall, making him a great Target Man and a real danger from corners. He is also a decent shooter and I certainly hope he'll become a legend for my little club.


4. Cosmin Marginean - Defensive Midfielder, Centre

A ripe Romanian midfielder, Marginean will hopefully become the ball winning midfielder I need and he will stop most of the attacks from the opposition. He won't count too much on the offensive end, but if he does a great job in defense, I sure hope for a great season!

So, with 10 new players in and six out (with several more on the transfer list), it's clearly going to be "revolurion" at Macclesfield during my Football Manager 2010 challenge. I am expecting a really difficult season - after checking out a few other squads in the divisions I noticed that my players are amongst the poorest, but I do hope that I will manage to add some extra reputation to my club and hopefully some money, too so that next year I'll make a few really big signings... but until then, we have a really difficult season ahead. Wish me luck!

Football Manager 2010 Challenge: Macclesfield Town

As I was telling you yesterday, I have started my first Football Manager 2010 challenge with Macclesfield Town, a Coca Cola League 2 team heavily dubbed for relegation: pre-season reports from the media say that the team will finish at 23, while according to the promotion odds, we have 40-1 chances, which mean that "relegation is a real possibility". Well, that's why it's called a challenge, right?

What does this Football Manager 2010 challenge consist in, then? Well, it's pretty simple: I am starting to manage Macclesfield Town and my goal is to promote to the Barclays Premier League as soon as possible (hopefully around six seasons), stay there and become a main football force in Europe with the goal of winning the Champions League. Pretty cool plans, right? I'm sure it's going to be a bumpy road and a very difficult team for myself and the Macclesfield players, but I'm surely going to do my best to succeed in style:

I knew very little of Macclesfield before starting to manage it, but after reading a few information about the Silkmen on Wikipedia and checking out the team's official website, I managed to become quite attached to it and I will surely do my best to succeed. And who knows, maybe I will bring them good luck, as it happened with Burton Albion - the team I managed to get them promoted in my quick FM2008 challenge, and they also gained promotion in real life! Now here's a few background information about the team which exists from all the way back in 1874!

And here are the promotion odd from Macclesfield aka The Silkmen, proving you that it will indeed be a fun Football Manager 2010 challenge - both for me, as well as you. Hopefully we'll have a lot of fun and lots to learn!

Talking about Football Manager 2010

Tough economic times meant that it took me a while to get the spare cash to purchase Football Manager 2010, but I eventually managed and played one full season of testing, as I always do before starting the "real" game. I felt sad that I only managed to purchase the game about one month after it got released, but it made me value the importance of enjoying a product to its complete value: I kept playing FM2009 even though I did not update this blog anymore and I managed to end my Andria challenge pretty well, in the Italian First Division, battling for a spot in the European Cups.

I first started Football Manager 2010 with Newcastle United, one of my all time favorite teams - the same I started to manage back in 1996 when I played the first game in the series (named Championship Manager back then) and I realized that it's always better to manage a lower-league, low profile club - I never liked to grab a top club like Manchester United, like Real Madrid or AC Milan, but instead I love to grab a low division club, strive to find the best players for that level and slowly make my way to the top spot, with the plan of challenging European glory...

With Newcastle United was a bit different - being new with Football Manager 2010 I didn't do all the things right, especially tactics-wise I was a complete failure (and only after a few months into the season I fount the "Advanced" button on the team instructions, to set up the Corners...) I failed miserably to go up to the Barclay's Premier League and I almost got myslef fired after a poor finish at number 9.

What I didn't like about the game was the fact that each time I managed to score, just seconds afterwards most of the teams would score back and tie the game - that drove me mad and I couldn't find any solution to this problem, even though I tried changing tactics immediately after a goal, substituting players and whatnot. I don't really like the new tactics menu because I was used with the previous one, but I do understand that a change was needed and, even though in theory the game got a lot easier with the highlighting of the most important stats for the players on specific positions, I do realize that it gets even harder to create the perfect tactic for Football Manager 2010.

And that will be the quest with my new challenge, alongside many others, like promoting to the first division (this time I will start in England with a low profile English club, most likely in the Blue Square) and becoming a glorious manager. I consider myself a newcomer to Football Manager 2010 since I have only played it for several hours, I have no shortlists of players, no tactics - nothing. I will be a real manager this time and I hope you'll enjoy the ride.

Also, I will focus more on "story telling" aka my challenge rather than tons of posts with tactics, lists of players and so on. I doubt that I could provide much value with my sub par scouts, anyways :)

I will set up the game right away and start playing my new Football Manager challenge - remember to check back soon to find out everything about it and I hope you'll find the stay as enjoyable as you did in the past with Andria.

Everything Football Manager Is Back!

Hello, friends! After a pretty long period of time in which I've left this blog rot and get piles of dust over its shoulders, I am back to update it as regularly as possible - if such a word is possible.

I have made the leap from Football Manager 2009 to Football Manager 2010 and I have already started a new challenge there - but more about it in the future posts.

The most important thing is that now, as you can see, Everything Football Manager has become Football Manager Fanatic and I am planning to turn this site into one of the best Football Manager 2010 fansites out there. See you soon and stay tuned as I will be tweaking this theme and give you something really unique and useful!