What would you say if I invited you to have an imaginary stroll with me around my flat? It will be a short walk – in a metaphorical sense, of course - from the bathroom to the kitchen and from there outside onto the balcony.

‘Desperation at Oporowska’* How could they have written a headline like that? So that’s how the media reacted to my appointment, then? Those journos, I tell you. They know bullshit and they write bullshit. Well, at least they have had a chance to talk to me. I shudder to think what is being said about me behind the scenes. But hey, wait a sec, what are those reporters doing outside my balcony?! Oh no, there’s no way I’m going outside to meet them. I will tell them naught. Oh my God, what shall I do? Calm down, man. Just go with the plan. You have some kind of a plan, don’t you?

The bathroom

You know that feeling, don’t you? A feeling of unpleasant surprise, just like when you are informed that you are going to have to shower in cold water because the hot water tap is not working. This is a what you are most likely to experience when taking over some mediocre club. Low morale and empty(ish) coffers. Coaching staff comatose and in disarray. Talented players rotting in the reserves, while the first team really should have retired months ago and deserve to be getting a pension from the DWP*. And the chairman should have been prosecuted for signing those extortionate contracts with some players. But I am not here to complain, let’s get down to work, we are playing our first serious game I about a month.

So, they had as in for a cold shower? All right, it’s our turn to give them a bloodbath. For starters, some people have to say their goodbyes and leave – these will be of course most of my coaches. But beware! This decision could have far reaching consequences. It’s the first one, and a very important one. I sack those who have been here for too long and are not up to standards and in their place I sign some ambitious and expert coaches. Fortunately, it is quite easy to get rid of the old ones and there is an awful lot of new staff to choose from in the FM. I would recommend looking for foreign coaches from Eastern Europe. Their wage demands are much lower than average, they increase our knowledge levels considerably and they are more happy than others to move to Polish League.

When choosing your coaches, remember that they collectively have to cover each aspect of training; it should be obvious so I will not delve into it. Each of us deals with training differently anyway. In my case my closest aide, my right hand, will have to be an expert in tactics. But you can put more importance on other criteria as well, of course. I will now try to describe what qualities you need to take into account if you want your tactics to be applied by your team as efficiently as possible and if you want your team to adapt swiftly should you like to amend your tactics in any way (which I only do during mid season or winter break). You should especially consider three attributes of your current or potential coaches:

• Their favorite formation (you can check it out in their profile) has to match the one you want to use as closely as possible; now, I do realize that more often than not the formation we are using differs significantly from those offered by FM as default, but if you are in doubt about this just scroll through FM’s standard formations(it is from amongst these that the coaches are allocated the favorite ones) and see which one resembles your own.
• The tactical training attribute has to be as high as possible for the coach that will work on this part of team’s training, which is obvious, but I would recommend that even the coaches not working on team’s tactics, and those with a low value of tactics training attribute should make up for it by having a decent Tactical Knowledge, a mental attribute – thanks to this you will ensure that every coach has at least some knowledge on how to implement your plans on the pitch.
• Defensive/Attacking Training Attribute – and the emphasis we place on their respective values should be weighed according to what kind of tactics and formation we prefer to use. The character of this formation can be defined by team mentality we use most often during games.

Coaching staff assembled by means of a method described above will be very good in teaching our team about tactics and formation. An example of a coach with key attributes underlined, below:

Tomasz Kafarskiwas not responsible for tactics training at my club (he would have to have 15+ value of this attribute to be considered for that role), but he was very efficient in teaching the lads about attacking and set pieces.

With coaching staff in place, it is now time for the players themselves to really start working hard. Physical aspect of pre-season training is crucial. Besides, keeping them busy will ensure that they don’t get stupid ideas into their heads. Lots has been written on how to prepare for the season, so again I will not elaborate on it too much; I would like to draw your attention to one thing, though – namely passing style and the tempo of play. We all have our most preferred settings of these. In FM 2007 both are inextricably connected, I have already mentioned it in one of my articles on this website. Just by way of reminding everyone – the shorter the passing, the slower the tempo has to be. For more direct passing the tempo has to be quicker, accordingly. Only the best players and teams can be an exception to the rule, as they can do with the ball pretty much what they want. In a mediocre club, however, when preparing our lads we have to bear in mind the following:

• When we choose short passing, physical fitness is NOT so important, what IS vital, is passing skills, technique and movement on the pitch. Thus, in training we should accentuate Tactics, Ball Control and Attacking.
• If, however, you would rather your team to use direct passes, then you don’t have to worry about Attacking or Ball Control training too much, BUT take care to give due attention to Aerobics, Strength and Tactics training.

Friendlies

So, we have ca. 30 days to get the boys ready for battle. All right. For the first week it’s training only, no matches at all. On the 7^th – 8^th day there can be the first friendly match. After that, you play using a method: match – 2 days’ rest – match – 2 days’ rest and so on, 7 friendlies in all. If there is more time I usually organize one more game and/or prolong the rest between games by a day. If time is short, let the team play even every second day. To sum up, I stick to a simple rule: at least 7 friendly matches and no more than 3 days’ rest separating one game from the next. And it doesn’t matter that non human manager teams do not do it – they will always be in good condition even if they don’t play any friendlies, whereas your team will in such case be physically weak and they will lack match practice as well. You should play your last preseason game about 4 – 5 days before the first league game. If, after you have taken over a club, it turns out that the friendly games have already been arranged by your predecessor, and some of these are out of place in terms of the plan I described above, then just cancel them and look for other opponents.

Such quantity of matches helps the players to gain good understanding on the pitch and get used to new formation and team instructions. Results of this will not have come until at least a month has passed, which is also influenced by new faces in the tam and match results (morale), but without this plan I would have to wait till November for my assistant to tell me that they understand each other perfectly on the pitch. Whereas with the plan it is 1 – 2 months max.

In the meantime, we should take a look at the transfer market and search for those most wanted players to strengthen our squad. This is the one thing I do not really like – I would rather an option was included in the FM about the director of football being responsible for it all. But for now it’s up to me. The appearance of new signings in the team is so important for the team’s ability to gel that I would strongly recommend that those of new defenders or midfielders that you plan to play an important role in the team from the outset come in early enough to be able to play at least in two friendly matches. Of course, I know that this will not always be possible – some ‘hunts’ end only minutes before the deadline...

So, after this metaphorical ‘shower’, it is time to leave the bathroom and do some precooking, by which I mean, obviously preparing – welcome to the kitchen! In the FM I press the ‘Continue’ button.

In the kitchen

In the first four matches at the helm I would recommend that you stick to the following four rules:

Keep your assistant away from the first team. YOU choose the starting eleven, you set the tactics, you decide on any substitutions. This period of your time at the club is priceless. You get to know your players as they get to know you. Before the season starts you will have learnt something about each and every one of them. As for your assistant – leave him be for now, you might want to delegate some of these duties to him later, if he turns out to be a good coach, but he needs to work hard to get the chance. He will be able to try his luck with the Reserves anyway.

Extensive squad rotation. ALL potential first team players take part I friendly matches.

Those that are certain to be the pillars of your team as well as those that only aspire to be ones. Even those that do not have any defined status in the team and you aren’t really sure what to do with them. Yes, especially them. The only players that you should consign to the reserves are those who will not be of any use in the forthcoming season – to these I usually set the transfer status of ‘Backup for the team’ or ‘Hot prospect for the future’ plus ‘Available for loan’, as appropriate. All others play in the friendlies and the starting line up should be rotated as often as possible – after the fourth match (ca. 16^th – 18^th day of preparation) each of your players should have played for at least four full halves (135 mins). From then on, it’s time to examine their fitness and condition. In the last 2 games I field only players lacking fitness(there shouldn’t be any at this stage, and if there are, it very well may be that they are the team’s sissies and slackers(i. e. low stamina, work rate and/or strength), but failing condition can be caused by injuries, too) or those lacking match practice. Other players get to play for the last 30 mins or so. The last match in the preseason is at the same time the first were the proper(i.e. the best, more or less) first eleven take part. After that game you will know who goes to the reserves, and who goes onto the subs bench.

Mediocre opponents. The worse the better. I want m players to actually play with the ball, not just run around the pitch. Let them take those few shots and enjoy life a little. In this way they will reach a good level of understanding on the pitch considerably faster, and they will grasp the instructions more quickly. Of course, I do keep my opposition’s level varied, but only in a sense that I start with minnows and I end with minnows as well, with the strongest opponent allocated to match no. 4. A system like that has two potential faults: 1. your defenders won’t have too much to do (but still will be called upon from time to time), 2. matches with lower league teams are best played at home rather than away (you won’t get kicked as much, so there is a smaller risk of injuries).

While preparing my team I always put emphasis on the element of how my team understand each other, how they work together. The more changes you make (transfers, new formation), the less demanding your friendly match rivals should be. The less changes – the stronger your opponents, to set he stakes higher. As for morale, I haven’t noticed any correlation between friendly match results and the said team morale. Even 5 match loosing streak will not have any adverse effects on the lads, with a proviso that before the game you tell them to enjoy the match and do not chastise them after it.

1 single formation plus the same tactics for the whole season. I choose the formation and I stick to it throughout the whole of the season. Once you pick 3-5-2, keep it 3-5-2. The only thing you should tinker with is team and player instructions. And if you are not happy with the results, you can always change the formation during winter break. But I strongly discourage everyone from trying to teach the boys new formation outside of mid season breaks. If you do that, your team will feel lost and you’ll be left wandering what the hell went wrong. If it’s not going well, instead of reshuffling the players’ positions I would recommend that you try to change the team or player mentality in the settings. To sum up – once you work out your favorite tactics and formation, polish it up, make it better, but keep it simple and do not change radically. And, when determining its effectiveness, look not so much at the results but at the stats. These should be consistently and slowly getting better as time goes. Maybe not in a linear way, but there should be improvement between the first and the last game of the season. Results are not that important, even when your Ajax looses to Havant & Waterlooville**. Unless you tell them you expect a win, which I never do. One more thing to remember: always – and I mean it, always set Tackling at ‘easy’ during friendlies: this will ensure fewer fouls, bookings and injuries. And you will be in a better position to pluck the bad boys out from your team, as even when the tackling is set at easy they will still behave like Roy Keane (no offence, Roy:>)***

And now, onto the balcony!

So, since we are getting ready to get out for a tactical walk, let me propose one final experiment, designed to break the barrier of fear and logic, similar to that before a press conference(remember, the journos are out there, waiting!). For the purpose of this experiment, let as treat our team as if they were someone who has to go onto that damn balcony even though they are suffering from vertigo. What do I mean by that? Quite simply, it is in extremes that we can see the FM’s mean nature. Let me explain. Let’s say we have our brave lads from Havant playing against giants Milan at the San Siro. Let’s take it further and say that in the first leg our Havant by some feat of extravagance won 1 – 0 (be it thanks to a penalty in 93^rd minute). So, it being second leg, we have to do all we can to get through this Italian sirocco. Ok, mentality – ultradefensive, creativity – limited, defense – pulled back, pressing – often, time wasting – often, marking – zonal, no counterattacks. Right, now imagine that you apply such instructions, adjusted to playing Milan, to playing some lower league minnows, and you will be surprised at what is going to happen on the pitch. Players behavior with instructions set like that will quickly show you their strengths and weaknesses in terms of defense. Player with high composure and impervious to pressure will keep their cool, while controversial and nervous players unable to cope will hopelessly clear the ball, dive and foul. Unambitious strikers will run amongst your opponents’ midfielders like headless chickens, while more temperamental ones will fight to their deaths and have rows with refs, New leaders will have become apparent, personalities will show, as will those prone to making silly mistakes. Similar things will start to happen on the other end of the extreme (defense line high, creativity unlimited, mentality all out attack, playing off – sides and time wasting rarely). I strongly recommend that. It does help you learn a lot about your team’s ambition, their will to fight to the end and their spirit of fair play. And it helps you find many things out about your team in general and ‘separate seeds from chaffs’.

After so usefully spent preseason period you can be sure that the lads are ready for the challenges to come. It will especially be evident in your boys’ condition during the first few league games, when it won’t usually fall below 80%, whereas in CPU teams it seldom even reaches that threshold. Above all, you can be sure the lads know what is expected from them and how they should play. The rest is up to them, and the results are, as we all know, variable.

I would now like to spare a word or two for the winter break, which in some leagues can be as long as 3 months! If that is the case, I ‘prolong’ the season for three weeks by organizing additional friendly matches on days when normally a league match would be played. Afterwards I lighten the training workload a bit (so the attributes’ values inevitably fall), but for no more than ca. 20 days. Then, I proceed just like it was preseason. It may sound very time consuming, but since transfer window opens at that time I keep myself busy hunting for new players and therefore I don’t feel boredom usually associated with long winter breaks.

Dessert

Now, it wouldn’t be my article if I didn’t finish with some kind of a treat for my readers. It will be an example of ‘we’ve done what we could’ attitude. In the 2009/10 FM season my club – Lechia Gdańsk inaugurated their existence in the Polish Premier Division. The status of underdogs was well reflected in heavy defeats in away games in Warsaw and Kielce. Apart from that we are fighting for our lives in every game. The results vary, but I feel it’s looking good. The objectives for the season were to keep my team in the top flight and give the players the chance to play as often as possible, while, surprisingly, I find myself in 8^th place, 7 points above relegation zone. Everything’s going well. The league is dominated by Legia (Warsaw), Wisła (Kraków) an Korona(Kielce). There isn’t too much of a difference among other teams in the division.

Meanwhile, in the 3^rd round of the Polish Cup we are hosts to Wisła from Kraków, a very tough rival. This competition is vital to me, as it is the only chance for us to qualify for Europe this season. Therefore I analyze my opponents thoroughly and carefully adjust team instructions, especially since the majority of my first choice attackers are injured. Wisła rest a few important players, while we of course play with all we’ve got.

All right, the whistle blows! We defend for the first 30 mins, but thanks to the lads’ keeping to the instructions Wisła only had one clear cut chance for a goal, while we are a constant threat through counterattacks – this is where I see our main chance of hitting them. It’s a 43^rd min of the match. After a mistimed pass of my striker Wisła’s players intercept the ball. Wolczek ( Passing - 7) plays a long pass to a lone Paweł Brożek (no. 19; off the ball – 11) in the middle of the park, but he is neutralized by my defenders on the spot.

‘Wolczek with a long pass’

Even though Paweł Brożek(Heading – 5), heads the ball in the direction of his twin brother Piotr(no. 11; Technique – 9), I am calm and relaxed – the action still is concentrated in the middle of the pitch, my defense line is withdrawn a little, while midfielders, coming back, Marcin Szulik (no. 6; Determination 16, Tackling 14), are exerting pressure on Wisła’s attackers, who are left alone in the front.

When Piotr Brożek (Passing – 16) surrounded by my three defenders, passes the ball back to his brother Paweł (Pace – 18) at 40 meters from my team’s goal, I just smile. I turn around toward my subs bench and my assistant (Tactical Knowledge – 16), and my look says it all: ‘See? Watch and learn, lad! With a defense like that even Wisła won’t get through. Nec Hercules contra plures!**** 6 defenders vs only 2 strikers.

And then, suddenly, I see as though sadness in my assistant’s eyes, maybe nervousness, so I quickly turn around to look at the pitch. Phew! What is he thinking about?! There is nothing unsettling going on. All right, one Brożek (crossing – 6) brother may have gone down the wing and centred the ball, but his brother (Height 178 cm; Finishing – 15) has no chance to make anything out of the cross. Totally isolated at 16 meters, he has got two of my midfielders at his tail, 2 defenders in front, in the box, and one additional marker in the person of well built Brede (no. 5; Height – 185 cm; Marking - 15; Tackling – 13).

If you want to find out what happened later, see the whole match!

Cheers!

----
Translator notes:

* in Poland stadiums don’t usually have names, but are referred to by the name of a street they are in. Oporowska Street is home to a stadium of local club KS Śląsk (Silesia Football Club) In Wrocław(Breslau)
** in the original, a Polish lower division club is mentioned, but the translator took the liberty to mention Havant and thus pay tribute to heroic efforts of the team against Liverpool at Anfield earlier this season. Hats off, Havant, and hello to Havant fans :) Also, it was nice to see Portsmouth fans joining in support.
*** similarly, a Polish expression was used that is virtually impossible to render into English, meaning basically to kick peoples shins; I’m aware that’s not necessarily what Roy did, but he was a proper lad nonetheless, as we all know
**** Nec Hercules contra plures – a Latin proverb: ‘Even Hercules won’t prevail if rivals are too many’ (loose translation)

Translated by Sol