I regularly notice that lots of people are searching for some advice about manager mode of the FIFA’08. I’ve posted a few ideas in my blog posts but now I want to shape some structure of this kind of tips and get as far as I know of this topic.
As it was mentioned here, there are different strategies of playing manager mode, but we can extinguish two most opposing ones:
1) When You take a team-Cinderella (from the last league and almost without budget) and grow it up to the Princess (champion of national league and cup and European tournaments leader).
2) When You take a well-known (perhaps yours favorite) club, buy a few your beloved players and struggle to survive pursuing everything the Board of Directors requires.
Of course, we can create a lot of in-between variants, but every strategy is the combination of those mentioned ones. Naturally, the situation can change if You get team-Cinderella and then bring it to the leaders. Every year the expectations of the Board grow and suddenly You will find Yourself trying to meet with heightened standards. But it’s obvious. Let’s better talk about some specific tips for those two “pure” strategies and then everyone will be able to take from the list the tip he or she needs.
Firstly, when You take a rich and very reputable club, be sure You will be able to reach high results immediately. The Board of the club normally doesn’t like to wait till You get familiar to the team and find optimal strategy and formation. If You lose a few matches in turn, Your season with the team could end at the very beginning. Therefore I highly recommend either to take lower difficulty level, or to take less ambitious club, or to summon up all Your skills.
By the way, here is one more tip for the start of playing with teams like Barcelona, Manchester United and so on. It maybe a little bit psychological but it works at least for me. I usually try not to change the formation or strategy of the team radically, no matter that my heart shouts me to pick Ronaldinho or Rooney right now. I do it step by step, because it seems Team Chemistry (those two gearwheels with percents) is very sensitive to that.
Despite the fact You are managing a rich club money still can be problem: You have best players, You want better ones; Board of Directors requires to sell or to buy someone; some contracts expire; etc. At the beginning You’ll be able to enlarge Your stadium (but this action also needs money) and set tickets price to high status. But these ways have their finishes and they usually appear soon enough.
Money is one of the reasons You must raise Your manager prestige (that number near Your face in the game), so attempt to win every match and meet Board’s objectives. Sometimes You’ll have to sell a few Your stars, but I know how it hurts. So I suggest You to look through the market, especially a free agents list. There You can buy players for comparative low prices (cause You ought to pay only his salary) and then sell them to others clubs for their real market value and earn nice sums.
Here is one more tip. Sometimes it is worth not to be too quick to get rid of players who are getting old and their abilities drop, especially defenders who doesn’t need as much speed as those in the front lines. Bear in mind that numbers and figures don’t show real situation even in videogames. Veterans have experience and the whole line (defenders, midfielders or forwards) is used to play and share position with them (Team Chemistry). What is more, think how often You realize whole of Your defenders potential. And finally, veterans demand lower salaries.
If You have got some more tips about the manager mode, You are highly welcome to share them in comments.
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