A Trip Into The Fatherland (1860 Munich)

[PoolFan]

A Trip Into The Fatherland (1860 Munich)

Introduction:

Football manager has been in my blood for more years than I care to mention, I have very fond memories of loading up the old Championship Manager games on my ever so sexy Amiga 500. Back then my only worries were not humiliating myself when sitting next to Rachel Griffiths in my Welsh class at school. Damm she was sexy, way to good for me but the Welsh teacher was a muppet and forced everyone to sit boy/girl next to each other and random luck placed her next to me.

In recent years though life and Everquest 2 have overshadowed any real attempts to get back into playing FM to any extent. After becoming burned out on Everquest 2 I decided to load up FM once more and give it a try. I think some of my verve may also have come from being enthalled by a really good premiership season this year, even though I am a Liverpool fan.

I didnt really have much idea of how everything worked in FM, I knew the basics in terms of attributes etc but the nuances of the game and all the new features have me starting at a pretty low knowledge level.

Picking a Team:

I am the type of guy who has some serious issues with picking a team to manage. Basically I hold a grudge against anyone who I have deemed in my head to have screwed me and my beloved Liverpool over.

Managing Liverpool itself is WAY too much stress for me, it wouldn't be fair on the wife or the cat. Me managing Liverpool consists of me using a insane amount of verbal abuse whenever I lose, followed by copious amounts of sulking and generally being a dick to be around. Staying out of England in general is a good idea.

This leaves me with the foreign leagues where I can pretend that if I lose I dont really mind but really inside my head I want explode. I knew from the outset that I didnt want a big club, again I needed to think of the wife and the cat, and I knew damm well they didnt want me to manage a big club with lots of expectations and stress.

So this lead me to looking at various 2nd divison leagues throughout Europe. I glanced at Germany and recognised a few teams. 1860 Munich were one, I knew at some point they had been in the top flight of German football. I also noticed with interest they had a big stadium and even more importantly they were only expected to finish 10th.

Sleeping giant they may not have been but they have potencial. In my mind I already had vivid images of 60,000 Germans screaming my name and them building statues of my sexy welsh self outside of the stadium and basically all over Munich (think Nuremberg Rallys but without the crazy Nazi stuff).

So I decided there and then that this was the club for me. I was to be their Kaiser, I was to be the one who would drag them from divison 2 and onwards into the top division. Fear me Bayern Munich, the real Kaiser has arrived, to lead the people to true freedom, and to change the face of Arrakis (Dune FTW)

[Elrithral]

I am the type of guy who has some serious issues with picking a team to manage. Basically I hold a grudge against anyone who I have deemed in my head to have screwed me and my beloved Liverpool over.

This leaves me with the foreign leagues where I can pretend that if I lose I dont really mind but really inside my head I want explode.

Sounds like me Except not with Liverpool. Good luck with 1860, they have a very good youth setup.

[Dynamo_Eng]

I was in Germany last summer and ended up buying a full 1860 Munich kit. I'll be following this one.

[PoolFan]

My First Day:

First days at a new club are always hectic, FM offers so much information that you are almost buried under it all. I knew from the beginning how I wanted my team to play, I had downloaded a tactic from the forum (Thank you Mr Hough) and decided beforehand that this was the one for me.

Now I hear all the gasps and see the dirty looks in my direction. A downloaded tactic, does the man have no shame! My knowledge of FM wasn't good enough to start playing around with tactics, playing style and all that stuff. At this time I didnt even know that FM 2010 had a new tactics wizard/creator. Anyway I see myself as more of a motivator/leader than some tactical genius, kinda like Bill Shankly reborn but Welsh hehe...

The meeting with the chairman went well, I told him what I expected from him (to leave me alone and work my magic) and that I expected a midtable finish. Here's the thing, I am of the opinion that you need to control expectations. The last thing I wanted to do as a new manager to the club was to paint a big bullseye on my head and say something silly which the chairman/fans can come back and hit me with.

After my brief meeting with the chairman it was onto the press meeting. My tactics in terms of meeting the press are pretty simple. They are there for me, and if I do my job right they will write what I want them to say. The trick is to avoid questions you know are landmines, asking me who I think is going to win the league at the beginning of a season for example. I never answer this question, I dont want to put pressure on my team and I dont want to annoy the fans by saying the wrong thing. So after giving my very by the book answers it was onto meeting the squad.

The Squad:

The first thing that I saw when I examined the team was that I already had a bunch of loaned players, four to be precise. Some like 'Radhouane Felhi' looked decent but I hate knowing that I am now stuck with these players for the full season and that I am not allowed to bring in any more.

Looking over the overall squad, it was pretty much what I expected, some older veteran players like Michael Hoffman, and what looked to be a few good young players, the rest seemed very average. I did notice though that everyone seemed to have a crush on striker 'Benjamin Lauth', he seemed to be the clubs equivilant of David Beckham, the press, players and the coaches all loved him.

Goalkeepers:

Here's what I expect from a goalkeeper, you need to be consistent, you need to control your area, catch the ball and not drive me crazy. Looking at the squad the two candidates were old timer 'Michael Hofmann' and Hungarys starting keeper with 70 caps 'Gabor Kiraly'.

Kiraly looked to be the better keeper on paper, the more I looked at his attributes the more excited I was becoming. I thought to myself we have a winner here, this guy is a going fantastic, then I looked a bit closer..............

Seventeen for eccentricity, ok Alarm bells were starting to go off in my head. I had visions of him deciding to try and replicate Diego Maradonas goal against England in the 1986 world cup. This would not be good for the wife or the cat. A quick glance at his media handling style cemented his fate, he was listed as being evasive, volatile.

The last thing I wanted was some crazy guy between the sticks with a tendancy to fly off his line and take a stroll up pitch when he was feeling the need for some attention. So I decided then that Hofmann was going to be my number one. Another look at Hofmanns stats only made me more comfortable, 16 for Influence and a level-headed media style, perfect!

[PoolFan]

Pre-Season

My main goal during pre season was to get everyone into shape and try and get a idea of what exactly I had on my hands here. I used to be the type of manager who went out and instantly made purchases. I don't feel this is the correct approach anymore and now I am more inclinced to give the players a chance and see how things go.

Of course in saying that, if I spot any kind of slacker then I am going to kick them to the curb before they have any chance to ruin my own vision of football nirvana.

Preseason went very well, we had a total of nine games with some very high scoring wins including a 7-0 win against Wilhelmshaven and a 6-0 win against Reutlingen. The only defeat during this period was to Spanish side Osasuna, it was a close match (2-1) and I felt we played well.

Overall confidence was pretty high, I still had some doubts about the overall strength of the squad though, and was nervous about the quality I would be facing in the 2nd division of the German league.

New Recruits

I didn't have hardly any money to spend, around 500k in total. This I took as a blessing, sometimes I feel having too much money can work against you. Sometimes it is better to just have little or no money and be forced to work with what you have.

The main attributes I look for with new recruits are always the same, I like determined players, players with a work ethos and hopefully some influence. I have always felt that if you get a bunch of determined, hardworking players together, even though they may not be the most skillful then you can be sure they will give it their all for you.

My first signing was 'Gaston Fernandez', he was available for free and looked simply fantastic. He is a 25yr old striker with amazing pace,acceleration,first touch and fantastic off the ball skills.

I love quick players, I personally believe pace can get you out of a number of tricky situations. My greatest worry whenever I play FM is coming up against two lighting fast forwards. I guessed that defenders in the 2nd divsion wouldn't be exactly Usain Bolt material so a fast forward may just work wonders for me.

I gulped a bit when I saw his wage demands but like I said he looked the real deal, a real golden nugget find.

I wasn't sure exactly what else I was after in terms of signings so I kind of stumbled onto 'Tobias Linderoth', the Swedish defensive midfielder. He was a player who's name I recognised. I didn't really know a lot about him but looking at his attributes had me very optimistic.

His attributes ticked all the right boxes, he was determined with amazing leadership skills and had superb attributes for a defensive midfielder. I liked the look of him a lot, there were a few young players in the squad who he could help develop and I love players who are determined and influencial. You can never have too many captains on the pitch. I quickly decided to snap him up, he was available for a free and wanted 6k a week, this was pretty much all wage budget gone but I felt he was worth the investment.