Introduction

How to succeed as a modern, media-friendly manager - Provisional versions.

Media and communication have become a major factor in the game and many real life managers seem to have failed simply because they were unable to communicate with media or with their players in an appropriate way. Whether you believe this aspect of management to be good or bad, FM reflects this development and you should learn to use these features to your advantage. If you are a communicative person, you will love it and likely excel, if not, you should at least learn how to make good use of it when needed. It will not turn a bad tactic into a brilliant one, but quality communication can boost your team’s success and shorten dips in form at critical stages of the season.

After Communication and Psychological Warfare was released for the first time in February I was very much surprised about the overwhelming reaction of many players and other tacticians. I was hoping to give a good overview and starting point into the sometimes weird world of communication in Football Manager, but the number of players who previously neglected these issues was stunning, as well as the fantastic results they reported after making first steps into an active communication and man-management.

Since then man-management has become a vital factor in the FM-Britain tactic forums and finally led to a huge series of articles on squad management in the FM-Britain Tactical Bible. I do not think that FM-Britain did invent the terms man-management or squad-management in the game, but I think we can claim to be the first looking into these aspects in every detail and acknowledging the influence on team and player performance as almost equally important as pure tactical decisions in the game.

Some enthusiastic feedbacks went as far as to suggest communication could replace any tactical decisions, but this is far over the top in my eyes. Good man-management can support your team performance significantly, but neglecting it completely can cause severe problems. Ignoring the state of your team, the happiness, the gelling, the number of youngsters and loan players, the time new signings need to settle can cause catastrophic under-performances. Many reports about well known players as worst signings of the season or proven tactics failing to win any games should be seen in this light.

Lately I saw an interview with a coach in German third league, which still is ‘officially’ an amateur or part-time league. The coach interviewed was a part-timer as well and working as a lawyer, and he just said: ‘as a coach you have to be a psychologist’. I do not think that the German third league is renown for being particularly progressive, but it should be more then obvious the same does apply for the English Premier and any other major league.

Finally I have to think about visiting a Swedish friend. We spent some days together co-coaching IFK Gothenburg during FM 04 or 05, and before you think we must have been totally mad, this was around new year, it was cold and ugly outside and not even snowing… He always got nervous when I went to the player interaction screen and tried to give the players some kind of feedback. And back in these days only negative feedback would finally make you become favourite personnel of a player. He simply was assuming that I would mock up his whole team and make them want to leave. After some months he finally realised that Hakan Mild would score screamers, which he never used to do really, and most of the key players had our common alias as favoured personnel. After seeing this, he finally got more relaxed about my media interactions.

Taking all these facts on board, Communication and Psychological Warfare 08 will be released as sister thread of Tactical Theorems and Frameworks 08. I should add that TT&F is the big sister, not only age wise, but also in the sense of looking first at the elementary aspects of tactic making and then perfect your management skills. As TT&F, also Communication and Psychological Warfare is now more and more influenced by the proven teamwork of the FM-Britain Tactical Think Tank, and my first credit has to go to my colleagues for their input, but last not least to all FM-Britain members who helped us developing the complete category of squad management with their enthusiastic feedback, ideas, questions and constructive criticism.

Since many new ideas came together during last months, I only can try to give a compact overview and reference on all aspects of communication, man-management, squad management and interaction, try to highlight the most important factors, since I would like to keep this article as compact as possible, which already is hard to do. This is why there will be an additional short version this year for the first time. Many topics will need much more elaboration in the FM-Britain Tactical Bible and related articles. Due to the upcoming patches and needed long-term results much will stay provisional. I hope you will enjoy reading.

Contents

Part I - Matches build up interaction
Pre-match media comments, Opposition coach and player comments, own player comments.

Part II - Match day interaction. Team talks
Overall team talks, pre-match, half time, post-match, assistant advice.

Part III - Match day interaction. Individual talks
Individual talks, pre-match, half time, post-match, assistant advice.

Part IV Media Interaction - Player Feedbacks
Giving media feedbacks based on individual performance.

Part V Media Interaction - Questions and Post Match
Media questions on performances, debuts, manager expectations, titles. Post match media interaction.

Part VI - Squad factors
Team gelling, integrating new players loan players, youngsters, captaincy, bonuses, pre-season.

Part VII - Squad conflicts, Youth development
Tutorship conflicts, wantaway players, problems with settling, competition worries, fines, youth development.

Part VIII - Manager relationships, Attracting players
Friendships and feuds, attracting and influencing players.

Part IX - Addendum
Summing up, Links and references, credits.