Your first week in a new gameworld

So what do you do in your first week? Everything is new and experiences come thick and fast in the first few days.

I'll assume for now that you have chosen your starting skills package and selected your initial squad (which was discussed here).

Tactics
Sort out your starting tactics and remember to leave your best 11 players selected when you log out. If the AI has to manage your team, it will keep your starting tactics and starting players if at all possible. During the game you may find the need to change your team tactics. You receive 2 minutes of real time for timeouts during a game. You can use these to make tactical adjustments and substitutions.

However, I'd recommend that you build 3 different tactics; normal, chasing the game (when losing) and defending a lead. Then during a game you can shift your entire team from one tactic to another at the press of a couple of buttons rather than individually moving players around. Obviously during the first week of the game its unlikely that you will have unlocked many tactical options - but remember to keep three formations/tactics ready.

Also remember to set all your set piece takers. You can't change your set piece takers during a game, and the only time you will remember it is during your first penalty shoot out and you realise your big centre half is about to take the key kick.

Shortlist and alerts
Building your shortlist is a key priority early in the game. You want to list anyone you think you want to buy sometime in the future. The game will give you far more feedback on anyone on your shortlist - most importantly when they are up for auction. A good shortlist will have 200+ players on it.

Another great feature of FML is the ability to set transfer alerts. You can specific criteria of an auction (DR, AF>£500k, opening bid <£1m) - and anyone who fits those criteria triggers a news alert. These alerts can save you loads of time doing manual searches of the database.

Choosing an FA
FAs take the same roles as national FAs in FMxx. Consider each a different country. FAs are split by time of day and intensity of play. I have played in the All Evening FA (AEFA) where official games take place between 6pm and midnight - handy for anyone with a full time job. There are daytime, midnight, weekend and various other versions available. There is also a social FA for those that prefer the social side of the game (social FA managers still sulk when you hammer them!). Hardcore players gravitate towards the Extreme FAs - one has no time restriction and one scheduled for the evenings.

Choose an FA that matches your session times. FA matches count more in your rating, and provide large amounts of cash, 50% of which is split between all participants and the other 50% based on performance. Not joining an FA is a bad idea - it will stop you from gathering rating points easily and you will be starved of cash. In the first year the FAs are run as qualifying leagues before a tiered structure is introduced in season 2. In the AEFA I was in, the first season was 4 leagues of 20 teams with the top 5 from each league being promoted to the premier league for season 2. During season 2 there was a premier league and 3 feeder leagues where the winners got automatic promotion and 2-5 went into a playoff for a promotion. You can change FAs at the end of each season but you will start at the lowest division of your new FA.

Over time FAs introduce U21 leagues and reserve leagues when there is enough interest (and U19 and U17 if you are lucky). Do well in your FA and you wil qualify for the European cup style competitions, the Gold Cup, the Silver Cup and the Cup Winners Cup.

Work out your best eleven
Play loads of friendlies, enter tournaments and meet other managers. Work out who your best palyers are, and who you would be prepared to sell. After 7 days you can begin to sell members of your original squad. Be careful of tournaments with large entry fees. This is an easy way to lose money. I'd recommend beginning with free tournaments, test formations and players, until you are comfortable enough to move up to cash prize tournaments. Be careful about who sets the tournament up. Does the organiser have a team of trialists (Lescott, Walcott etc)? He might have invited the worst teams he could find into his league to guarantee some easy money. Playing lots of games will give you a good idea who your best players are.

Make friends
Although the game is basically PvP, building up a good contact list will go some way to building a sense of community for you. Whilst the lobby is full of random nonsense most of the time, you will find similar people willing to share their views and provide their advice all around your game world. A few manners go a long way. Whenever you play a game as a bare minimum you should always begin chat with a "gl" (good luck) and end with a "gg" (good game) or "wp" (well played). Anything less than this may be taken as bad manners. Even mods storm out of games without a gg or wp sometimes, but that's just human nature. I firmly believe that you should be gracious in defeat, every dog has its day, and needlessly upsetting someone means there is one less manager who will sell you his players. The official forums are full of people who think the game is rubbish because they got beat. My take on this is the second you start believing your own hype, is the second you start getting disappointed. Only one manager can be number one at any given time, but anyone can play exciting, attractive football on their day and log off contented.

What to look for in a player

People often ask on the forums what are the key attributes for each position. Whilst a lot of this information can be found on the SI games forum, here's a quick cheat sheet based purely on my opinion and my observations from beta.

Fullbacks / Wingbacks
I play very attacking fullbacks and look for 15+ in crossing, dribbling, flair, acceleration and pace. A more sensible approach to fullback talent spotting would focus far more on tackling and positioning. Slow fullbacks are a definite no, and depending on how much work you expect your fullbacks to deliver, stamina is vital.

Centre halves
Sometimes when you let a goal in it's easy to point the finger at the centre half who couldn't stop Eto'o spinning on a sixpence and lashing in a thunderbolt. However you will come to love your centre backs if they have 15+ for heading, tackling and marking. If your DC has pace 15+ you can relax those scores slightly. Secondary considerations should be given to strength, jumping, positioning and concentration. A player with 17+ in any of the three key attributes is gold dust and should be snapped up, as long as they possess at least average pace. Slow DCs will cause you to pull your hair out.

Defensive midfielders
A DMC or a defensively minded MC will find themself on the ball more than anyone else in the entire team if played correctly. Watching the game engine you will see these guys often have very little pressure when in possession. Therefore passing is vital. The person in this role should average 85% passing completion. He should also have 15+ for tackling and positioning. Tactically you can either play the person as a Mascherano (mark the space with low closing down) or Sissoko (chase the ball with high closing down) or Pirlo (deep lying creative force).

Creative central midfielders
Being creative in the final third is far harder than being creative deeper on the pitch. The defense is more packed and there is less time and space on the ball. Passing, creativity, dribbling and flair over 15 are a dangerous combination. The ability to beat a man means someone else has to close the ball, leaving one of your players open. Long shots for attacking midfielders is often the number one consideration.

Wingers
Quite simply the match engine seems to like wingers with plenty of pace, acceleration, dribbling and crossing. If you set them to high forward runs, you will need plenty of stamina too.

Strikers
All strikers should have finishing and composure. A lone striker needs strength, off the ball movement, first touch and heading. A target man in the traditional sense, ignoring the way Tevez played in that role last season, needs good heading and jumping, strength, touch and passing. Fast strikers need the skills of a winger with off the ball as probably the key additional ingredient. Often off the ball is overlooked - credit goes to the midfielder making the key pass rather than the clever movement of the striker who created the chance by their off the ball movement.

Setting up your initial squad

When you set up your initial squad you receive £500,000 towards acquisition fees (AF) and £100,000 towards your initial salary budget. You have the choice of allowing the computer to automaticall assign you a squad of players within certain rough parameters, but where is the fun in that?

Before you begin randomly selecting the best players you can remember from FM08 or the ones you find with the best attributes it's a good idea to have already worked out how you want to play. At a basic level this means if you want to play 3-5-2, you can skip looking for fullbacks. If you want to play a narrow diamond, you can skip wide midfielders. If you want to play 4-5-1, you only need a 2-3 strikers but plenty of cover in central midfield.

I'd advise that you keep your initial team salary below £50,000 a day. Your initial income will be £100,000 a day. At £50,000 a day profit plus you newly found overdraft limit, you can soon afford the better quality players that you can't fit within your initial budget.

Either buy the minimum number of players and preserve your cash, or buy additional players with a view to selling them after 7 days for a profit. At the beginning of a gameworld, player values go through a period of steep inflation as more money is pumped into the market.

Either way, don't get too attached to your initial squad. Select players with high resale value (i.e. young, good attributes and good reputation), when you look back after 3-4 seasons you will have very few of your original squad left.