FMM18: from A to Z beginner's guide

FMM 18: from A to Z beginners guide

As FMM 18 is knocking on our doors i thought it was time for a guide that will help you to hit the ground running. Because newbie or veteran who doesn't like a headstart

In the upcoming days and weeks i will add content to this thread that hopefully will help you with managing your dream club and get the best out of FMM18.

Over the years we already have seen some quality guides so where possible i will re-use these guides or link to them.

So what to expect? 

• Picking your club
• Team Management
• Youth Management
• Picking a formation and tactic instructions
• Player roles & attributes
• Transfers - finding the right players

I hope by covering the above mentioned topics you will get a good overview of the game and how you can create an edge for yourselfs. 

If you think anything is missing or are interested to see me talk about something specific please don't hesitate to let me know!

** this guide is work in progress and with the release of FMM18 will be adjusted where necessary**

 Cheers PriZe

[PriZe]

FMM18: from A to Z - Picking your club

Picking your club can be one of the easiest things to do in FMM18 or one of the hardest, all depending on what the idea is behind your save.

Choose the leagues wisely

Before we pick our club you have the opportunity to select multiple leagues to load. 

Now multiple leagues looks fun, but in previous editions of FMM this would impact the amount of players loaded an could impact squad depth. However with the release of FMM18 you can now run a game with 21300 players in the database. Selecting multiple leagues is a really interesting opportunity to keep you save interesting as you will have more options to move between leagues!

Tip: by tapping on the leagues loaded you can change the starting date of the game

So In for the long run? You might want to add some leagues so you can move to a new league and club to keep the save exciting.

Trying to achieve a goal challenge? Then keep in mind that some leagues are easier to score in or have more games! And it also might be a good idea to add an easier league to move to when your player is aging and is having trouble to score.

Tip: Ambition to become an ITN manager? Then choose your managers country wisely. Top countries favour managers with corresponding nationality. And trust me i learned it the hard way in a challenge... 

Choosing your club

Your club of choice can be anything, FMM caters to your needs! Want to buy the next Galacticos? Go for the big clubs and the big bucks. Wanna start at the bottom check out the lower leagues and guide them to world domination. You can have it either way.

When selecting a club you can see how their facilities are and if they have a decent transfer budget. What it won't tell you is something about the second team or youth team if you will.

So why might this be important? Well if you are like me, i like to have an active second team. And with active i mean that they play in a division. This will help you to get game time for your youngsters. Countries like Spain and The Netherlands will have actual leagues for their second teams. Where as the English clubs won help you out in that department.

Well that's it for picking your club! 

[PriZe]

FMM18: from A to Z - Team management

You've picked your club and there it is, your first day at the office. And it's going to be a busy day before your team is a champions league winning state.

Somethings on your to do list:

• Set training regime's
• Check out your staff
• Setup your tactic
• Check out your players 
• Setup your team

Now you can start with anything you want but i typically start with setting up training.

Set up training regime

Let me start off by saying that this training regime hasn't been tested in FMM 18 but i did have great results in previous edition of FMM. Want to know more about training? 

Check out: IT Training by @Chelsea8

or Training and intensvie guide by @Dar J

Below the training schedules i use (basically a mix of the above ones)

General

I use this schedule for DMC's, Ball playing defenders and Wingback's. It's the right mix to get them defensively strong but can also carry themselves attacking wiss

Goalkeeper

Defensive

Attacking

Now we haven't covered Fitness and Technical. I keep these to make a lighter version of Attacking and Defending. We all know the complainers and i use the similair setup here but then with motivation on light.

To get them happy again start with putting them on schedule that has everything on light. After that bump it up again. Just keep motivational on light.

Check out your staff

Depending on your training facilities you will have loads of staff already at the club.  The goal is to get as high rated staff as possible, in this case gold.

Coaches

First off, check if the staff is balanced. If you have the maximum spot for coaches, then try and get attacking, defending, general, fitness. Use your skill for what you find important, for instance youth. With this your coaches are coverd. 

If you haven't maxed out staff, i advise to have coaches based on the amount of players using a training. So is defensive, general and attacking your main training. Try and get that first.

No gold?

So what if you don't have a full squad of gold coaches? Luckily you can train your coaches, so try to get them to pass the exam. Be aware this will cost money and if they fail it takes sometime before you can try again. 

If you have enough transferbudget, sack anybody you don't need and hire anybody who can train what you are looking for with the highest coaching badge as possible. 

Medical staff

In my opinion, prevention is the best thing so i advise two prevention coaches and one rehabilitation coach. 

Checking out your players

We will discuss tactics more indepth later on in the article, but your tactic of choice has a lot of influence on how you manage your squad.

Picking your Starting eleven

Are you going for a 4-1-2-1-2 narrow or a 4321 wide? Well keep in mind that your succes will be determined by your squad depth and the available skill they have. You  not only need a starting eleven but also substitutes to keep your tactic from crumbling.

Start by looking at your players and see if they fit the roles you have in mind. Also check if their attributes are good enough. If not, think about putting them on the transfer list. Now if you have a bunch of youngster check their potential ability. Next Messi in the team but looking at no game time? Loan them out! Struggling to make up your mind? You might want to use the new suggested XI feature!

Squad depth

Once you have selected your starting eleven look at squad depth and identify the position you need to strenghten on the transfer market! Luckily SI has made this a bit more easy with a new feature to FMM 18

By looking at your squad depth overview you can identify easily which areas you are lacking in squad depth. 

Tip:  If you have enough transferbudget to fill up the lack of depth in your squad you will be more flexible, but lacking in funds? Keep it simple and adjust your tactic to the material you have. 

Setting up your team

Seasons are long and in modern football 50 games a season is nothing. Next to that players want game time as not everyone is fine with a weekly wage of 200k and doing nothing. 

Managing fitness of your team and player happiness can be frustrating at times but this system can help you out.

But first off some general tips:

• To keep injuries away, don't play anyone below 90% fitness. Lower then 90% is a guaranteed candidate for substitution plus you risk injuries due to fitness dropping below 75% easily
• Sub your players if they hit 75%
• Have at least a squad of 22 players where 29 is ideal in my opinion
• Make sure all positions are covered by at least two players per position

Now we got that out of the way let's talk systems.

A - B system

I like to play with a squadsize of at least 29 players. This covers me for any injuries and i like to have a mix of oldies, players in their prime and a some youngsters. 

So A - B team, what is it? 

My A Squad is my best team, they play 3 games in a row, then i play my B team 2 games etc etc. 

This keeps everyone happy and this will help your youngsters flow in to the teams. As mentioned above always try and keep a good mix between promising youngsters and experienced guys in your B team or pay the price result wise 

Tip: It took me two versions of FMH to find out you can save your selection. So to save the hassle of replacing everyone, just save the A and B team and your set

 

[PriZe]

FMM18: from A to Z - Youth management

Youngsters... bags full of potential but how do you include them in to your squad when your starting eleven is stellar? It's a managers nightmare, because you want to keep the flow of the team, but your future gem also needs game time to develop. 

So you've signed or promoted a 17 - 20 year old, now what?

Game time is everything, without the right amount of game time they won't improve. With the really young kids you typically want to loan them out. 

From 16-18 i don't mind where they go, as long as they will play. After that i want him to play at least 2nd or 1st division. 

Tip: When you get a offer to loan your player, always check if they have a full fixture roster. Some clubs only participate in cups thus limiting the potential game time.

Tip: Want to know more about youth development then read this article by @Ashez  

 

Knocking on the door

Your new Messi or Ramos has improved, but still not ready for the big team and a shame to loan out. 
At this time i start to included them in my B squad.  This keeps everyone happy and this will help your youngsters flow in to the teams. Always keep a good mix between promising youngsters and experienced guys in your B team or pay the price result wise 

Tip: Youngsters might complain about IT training at first. What you can do is start with a lighter training schedule and when their physical stats grow switch to regular IT training.

[PriZe]

FMM18: from A to Z - Picking a formation and tactics

All right then, the team has been sorted, you have you transfer targets in mind, now it’s time to setup your formation!

Picking the right formation

Picking the right formation for your team will be influenced by many factors, but luckily FMM helps you out with 21 standard formations for your liking!

Tip: Keep the following in mind for selecting your base formation

• Squad depth: Do you have enough wingers or defenders for 4 or 3 tab?
• Challenge: are you trying to achieve a challenge yes or no? Because that will narrow down 1,2 or 3 up top
• Play style: Want to put a lot of pressure on the opponent, then you might want to go 3 ATB to get more bodies on the midfield.

Personally my golden rule is adjust the formation to what you want tot achieve. If i want to finish a challenge that is striker related then the the amount of strikers needed for the challenge determines the formation. Casual play and want to conquer the world with out a striker challenge? Then you have many options to choose from, but personally i go for either 2 or 3 striker formations. The more upfront, more pressure, more goals Or at least a bit more easy

Adjusting the formation

Besides the 21 base formations, you have numerous opportunities to adjust the tactic to your liking. Again, adjusting the positions depends on what you want to achieve and is up to you.

Some examples

Feeling confident in your defenders and want your wing backs to disturb the opponent early and be able to arrive in the final third earlier? Then move them up!

Want to spread your team more and give some support to your lone striker? Why don’t go for a A-symmetrical setup

Got that amazing attacking midfielder and want to utilise his scoring ability? Why don’t you move your striker a bit to create a channel for your AMC to dive in to.

Tactic instructions

FMM 18 for some has been the game they have been waiting for. Finally we have new tactical options!  But as always, with new options it’s always hard to get your head around what does what. I will cover the new options briefly with my personal opinion. Luckily for us @Jens created a extensive article on the new options! Have a look for an in-depth discussion about the new options. 

Oh and if you are looking for the primary attacker or outlet, then stop looking, SI have decided to drop that one.

Tactical shape

The shape of the formation and team is influenced in FMM 18 by four factors.

Team mentality

The majority of the mentality settings are the same and self explanatory. But, fancy holding the fort down? The contain is the new way to go. In need for that goal? Go for overload! 

Tip: Personally i am a big fan of Control setting if you want to be aggressive but your team just is quite ready to really dominate. It’s the safer brother of Attacking 

Width

Well this speaks for itself. I only adjust this for two reasons. Want to minimize space between my players to increase control over the gamer, then i will go narrow. And if i already have a narrow formation and want to increase my dominance over the pitch then i go wide (think narrow 41212).

Tempo

Yes yes yes! Finally, personally i wanted this option for ages. We can now dictate the tempo we want to play. So what should you use? Well if you like to fly up the pitch and counter attack then Fast tempo is your thing. Personally i like slow tempo as this reduces the risk of losing the ball. And without the ball the opponent can’t score.

Creative freedom

Now this is a tricky one. Not only will this encourage your players to go Messi mode, this also means they are more likely to move away from their original position on the pitch and might make you vulnerable for counter attacks. 

My advice, as this a new option which relies on the engine to utilise a lot of thinking, get your base settings right, and then start testing the 3 options and see which results you get. New features like this haven’t been the best of example of coding from SI.

Tip: Got a squad that is experienced, creative and technical, then i would go expressive. They should be able to decided when to go Messi and when to Pepe. Otherwise stick to balanced or even disciplined.

Defensive instructions

Oh goody, five options to play with! 

Defensive line

Defensive line in my opinion replaces the old pressing option. and the combination you could make with mentality.  With the graphical representation you get a good view of what it will do.

Closing down

Another option i have been waiting for. As per title, this will influence when your team starts disrupting the opponent.

Tackling, Offside Trap and Time waisting.

Only one new option, and personally a useless one. At the state of the current game i wouldn’t advice you to use time wasting when your ahead. The game is goal heavy and you don’t want to lose because you stood at the corner flag counting down the minutes.

Tip: Pressing the opponent seems to be very successful this year, want to utilise this? Then make sure you start disrupting high up the pitch, but have fast defenders if the opponent breaks through the defensive line. You don’t want to get caught with your pants down.

Attacking instructions

Finally we get to the good stuff! But also the most complex stuff.

Final third

Oh my we have loads of options her as Jens already mentioned in his guide. As Jens already described these, below my recommendation what to use when.

Early crosses or overlap

I would use early crosses if you like a counter attacking style of play and want to abuse the speed of your striker. Use overlap if you use Full backs (the old wing backs) or Wing backs.

Shoot on sight or Work in to the box

Use shoot on sight if you want to goal for goals. The whole team will start shooting more, in the end it’s a numbers game, more shots will hopefully result in more goals. Don’t use this if you are doing a striker challenge!!! Work in the box is my favourite, the team whats and tries to find that decisive moment. Good for getting your strikers some goals!

Run at defence and Through balls

I personally don’t think these work really well. But in theory through balls should help you with that incisive break and get your Striker one on one with the goalkeeper. 

Passing style

I typically go either short, mixed or direct depending on my play style and formation. Direct is more aggressive, where mixed will give you a mix of all. Short is great for keeping possession

Passing focus

Now this is an interesting one. This will direct the focus of your play. Got great wingers and want to get them more in too play then go wide! Direct is good for narrow formations. I typically use mixed, and definitely not use left or right flank as this will limit you.

Goalkeeper distribution

It looks like this year the passing of the goalie has been improved. Use short if you want to start building from the defence, use long if you have a strong midfield that can win headers, the more ground you cover the quicker you will arrive at the opponents goal

[PriZe]

FMM18: from A to Z - Player roles & attributes

Also this year you will have loads for roles to choose from. As we await the release of FMM 18 we are anxiously awaiting new roles. But the below roles are to be expected! For all this information we can thank @BatiGoal and his excellent guide for FMM 17.  Interested in the new Libeto role or Anchor man role? Then have a look at the excellent guide by @FuddledFox.

 

 

 

Player Roles - Description:

Goalkeepers

 

Defenders

 

Midfielders

Forwards

 

Player Roles - Description:

• Primary Attributes - attributes needed to successfully perform a specific player role.
• Secondary Attributes - attributes needed to distinguish good from great players for a specific player role.

My advice for Primary Attributes is to look in the range of 15> for established players and for Secondary Attributes a minimum of 10> for established players. In the topic transfers we will dive in this more to help you find the right players

Goalkeepers

Defenders

Midfielders

Forwards

 

[PriZe]

FMM18: from A to Z - Transfers and finding the right players

In the player roles and attributes you can find the necessary attributes per role. The description below covers my own preferences.

Tip: For the primary attributes try and find players who are in the range of 15+ (greens) or that you think can grow to that level overtime with the right training. Secondary is 10 minimum.

Defence
I use 3 roles depending on who i can get and if my team is able to really dominate the opposition. The roles i will discuss are:

 

• Central defender
• Ball playing defender
• Wing Back

These are the only roles i use with the occasional Full back

Central defender
The cornerstone of many tactics on Vibe are the Central defenders. They are dependable players who know their primary role is to defend but do try a nice pass every know and then. Focus should be on players that can defend like there is nothing in life besides that, and have a decent pass. Technique is also something you want to keep in check. Think de ligt, Hummels, Jones.

Ball playing defender
Now these are the lads i love. Great at defending but have a hell of a pass in their foot as well. Think Boateng or for the oldies Frank de Boer, Ronald Koeman.

When you start playing with BPD's, switch your central defenders to this role one at a time. They have a tendency to go up pitch and you don't want to be exposed at the back. Think boateng, Ramos, Pique, Tah.

Wingbacks
As i like to play strikers with good aerial stats the wingback's are crucial in pumping in the crosses for me. In FMM 18 these lads can be a bit gung-ho so keep that in mind. Pace, crossing and offcourse tackling is what you are looking for.

Think Hernandez, Dani Alves

Tip: The new Full backs are very good as well, and to me replace the old Wing backs. A solid option if you want to have those crosses but are scared for leaking goals

Midfield

Wingers
this is easy, you want them to be fast, good dribbeling, decent shooting, but most important, great crossing stats. What i also like to do is play the wingers in a position on the pitch so that their preffered foot is on the outside. 

For example i would play Neymar on the right instead of on the left. 

Why? because i want him to use his strongest leg to pump in those crosses and not make goals

Advanced playmaker, DLP and B2B

To be honest, for the Advanced playmaker, the DLP, and Box-to-BoX i pick the same players. I want playmakers that are strong and can tackle. Imho i think this makes your team more solid. I make exceptions for the apm in the apm role if he is amazing in attacking sens, but 9 out of 10 time i stick to the above.

So who are we talking about then? 

The kovacic, Kroos and Pogba's of the world are the lads i would use. 
For APM's on the wing i would go for a Bernardo silva type player. 

Finding the right striker

There are several things i find important.

• Pace
• Strength
• Stamina

Now these aren't an issue if you are looking at 22 year olds, but i like to play young Strikers and i want my striker to play as much games as possible at a young age. Therefore it you go young, try to get the above as near as grean as possible. 

The second set i look at are

• Aerial
• Dribbling
• Shooting
• Technique

For young striker they for me are Secondary. 

One thing i can’t stress enough how important i think Aerial is. On the EME you will get loads of corners, and how i like to play (wingers) you need someone that can finish a cross. With great aerial and shooting stats you have a guy with two lethal weapons.

Finding the next Messi?
When looking for future players i use the same attributes as in explained in this guide, however i expand the search rate by lowering the stats. Reason for this is that you want to find young players with good base stats.

From there i will look at the candidates, see how they have performed at their clubs, and if they look promising, i will scout them (get a good youth scout). 

Based on the scout report i either sign them or move on. Be aware, not all scout reports are correct. You can scout the 16 year old regen of Messi and they might say he will never grow to a player you can use. So use your gut as well!

[PriZe]

Added first part

[PriZe]

Content added! Feedback is welcome if this is remotely usefull

[KennyMiller27]

Just a quick note on squad size

Personally 29 is too big a squad,and what I would suggest is having 2 XI's and 3-4 jack of all trade type players/youth prospects

[cezzz16]

Nice guide, 4 days to go before release.  Anyway, above 25 players always gives me headache lol. 

[salohcin]

4 hours ago, KennyMiller27 said:

Just a quick note on squad size

Personally 29 is too big a squad,and what I would suggest is having 2 XI's and 3-4 jack of all trade type players/youth prospects

Agreed! I normally use around 22 players only actually. Since i prefer playing in Spain, i can just promote players if i face an injury crisis. I feel that with too many players and changing them around every few games, the effectiveness of the tactic gets affected, probably cos they have just adapted then next moment, they are out.

But of course, this is just my personal opinion and who am i to question PriZe lol this guy has just brought isak to more than 100 goals almost every season.

Anyway, great guide and i have enjoyed reading it! I also need to play around with the training more often in the new game cos i find myself just switching the trainings once and then leaving it for like forever.

[PriZe]

Thanks for the comment guys! Personally i like 29 as that will give me room to get youngsters to develop. But there are multiple ways to do it  I want to strongly say that 29 is a suggestion and not a must   Hope you will find the future content a good read as well

[Prevalence]

On 04/11/2017 at 14:18, PriZe said:

Now multiple leagues looks fun, but it also means that squad depth for other clubs in other leagues will be smaller as there is only soo much room for players. Typically you will see that with two leagues loaded you get the best squad depth for your primary league and second league of choice. If you load a primary league with just two divisions you can bump it up to three.

Are you sure about this? Extra leagues are certainly something to consider from a performance & storage point of view, but I've never heard that adding a third/fourth league would reduce player numbers across all? 

[PriZe]

1 minute ago, Prevalence said:

Are you sure about this? Extra leagues are certainly something to consider from a performance & storage point of view, but I've never heard that adding a third/fourth league would reduce player numbers across all? 

Yes i am sure, you will see that certain wonderkids won't show up. Also for performance reasons they won't load everyone. 

Best way to see it is to load for instance spain solo and then spain with multiple leagues. The B team will have a reduced squad. 

[Prevalence]

3 minutes ago, PriZe said:

Yes i am sure, you will see that certain wonderkids won't show up. Also for performance reasons they won't load everyone. 

Best way to see it is to load for instance spain solo and then spain with multiple leagues. The B team will have a reduced squad. 

They should make this clear. I Just assumed this was a linear spectrum. Save is 5mb bigger for second league, 10 for three etc... Note: I just pulled these numbers out of my backside to illustrate a point; I don't know how much space they actually take ;-)

[PriZe]

5 minutes ago, Prevalence said:

They should make this clear. I Just assumed this was a linear spectrum. Save is 5mb bigger for second league, 10 for three etc... Note: I just pulled these numbers out of my backside to illustrate a point; I don't know how much space they actually take ;-)

I think it's mentioned somewhere, but don't remember where. So far as i know the main reason is performance, same why OME is still there. 

[FuddledFox]

Great stuff so far mate.

I'm sure this is going to help so many people. Thank you for the time you are putting into this.

I have never done the A and B team but I'm going to try and build my squads towards that this year.

[BatiGoal]

Great info and tips already and there's more to come so 

Of course we all have our preferences re training, squad size, coaches etc. For me personally if I manage small clubs with room for 2 coaches only I like to throw in general coaches kind of a jack of all trades. Otherwise I go with specialized ones like PriZe mentioned in his OP. But if I'm doing specific challenges such as goal scoring ones I go crazy and go with 2 or even 3 attacking ones. 

As for squad size, if I include loanees I'm on roughly 28-30 as well. I like to loan out 2 players per line. Playing squad is usually 20-23.

Can't wait to see the rest. Great work so far, @PriZe! 

Edited November 6, 2017 by BatiGoal

[Putzy]

Great work so far. Looking forward to more.

Will definitely be making use of this when I play the game properly for the first time this year.

 

[Taff]

Great work Prize some excellent insight from one of the games top managers

look forward to starting the game and getting my first career on the go

[Rizs_]

so, what's new in fmm18? 

[kylieboi88]

This is an absolute gem of a read. Thanks alot for wise tips and knowledge. Cannot wait for release now and hoping to be posting alot more content this year round.

[PriZe]

3 hours ago, Rizs_ said:

so, what's new in fmm18? 

What is new is yet to be revealed (like the team of the week) but the guide will be adjusted if any changes in FMM 18 impact the guide.

added 0 minutes later

1 hour ago, kylieboi88 said:

This is an absolute gem of a read. Thanks alot for wise tips and knowledge. Cannot wait for release now and hoping to be posting alot more content this year round.

Thanks mate! More content will follow soon   And good to hear you're going to post content!!

[mcandrew003]

Great read PriZe, nice to see you have your content boots on 

Like how you've structured it and things, agree with most the points you've made too.

[olayinkajnr]

Nice read @PriZe. With this article, even though I'm not a beginner, I can't wait for the release

 

[PriZe]

3 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Great read PriZe, nice to see you have your content boots on 

Like how you've structured it and things, agree with most the points you've made too.

Thanks mate!

 

2 hours ago, tsadefalu said:

Nice read @PriZe. With this article, even though I'm not a beginner, I can't wait for the release

 

Glad to get you excited for FMM 18

[PriZe]

On 6-11-2017 at 08:22, Prevalence said:

They should make this clear. I Just assumed this was a linear spectrum. Save is 5mb bigger for second league, 10 for three etc... Note: I just pulled these numbers out of my backside to illustrate a point; I don't know how much space they actually take ;-)

New feature will get you a DB up to 21300 players mate. So problem solved

[Prevalence]

16 minutes ago, PriZe said:

New feature will get you a DB up to 21300 players mate. So problem solved

Nice!

In 2014 I started a career called Terraforming where I tried to increase the Belgian league standard. Then they introduced this very feature in FMH(M?) 2015. I've barked up the right tree a few times prior to release :-) 

[PriZe]

11 minutes ago, Prevalence said:

Nice!

In 2014 I started a career called Terraforming where I tried to increase the Belgian league standard. Then they introduced this very feature in FMH(M?) 2015. I've barked up the right tree a few times prior to release :-) 

I might send you some request then to get in the game