Hello and welcome to Week One of Zoli's FM Talk Show, brought to you by TheAwayStand.co.uk. Imagine Oprah's show, remove the fat chick, change the subject to always being Football Manager, spice it up with some innocent victimsvolunteers and you got Zoli's FM Talk Show!

Our first guest is none other than the smart and legendary baby-faced nerd, Jack, AKA lurkingwithintent. I am sure you would like to tell us about your current mood and even your life, but no one gives a damn about that.. Let's get right to the point!

1. It is June and some people actually quit playing FM. They are either waiting for FM12, or simply got bored of the current version. God forbid, they might even be enjoying their vacation on an exotic island. What about you? Do you still play FM? If so, tell us about your current game..

Well you should all be following my career, so no need to tell you about my game! I'm currently in 2024 managing Terek Grozny and have finally won the Russian Premier Division with them, after 4 previous seasons of "oh so close". I'm preparing to take on the Champions League with them next season but in the back of my mind I'm wondering if I should leave to a higher reputation league. Prior to Terek I was at Newcastle for 9 seasons, winning everything before resiging for pastures new. Benitez took over after I left and they haven't won anything since. I knew FM was realistic...


2. Nice write-up. Speaking of your current game, what do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment in Football Manager 2011? Won the Champions League with your local club? Managed to get relegated with Manchester United in the first season?

I've been pretty boring this year and don't really think I've achieved much out of the ordinary. Winning 4 Russian Cups in a row was one of my best achievements, and finishing 7th with Newcastle in my first season was good too. Sorry, I'm a bit of a let down here.


3. That sounded noobish man. Year after year, we find a "Player and Scouting" section on every FM related forum. Everyone likes to brag about that cool wonderkid they found(Lukaku), that absolute bargain of a player() or that beast who destroyed the league(Lukaku and Yurchenko). Can you brag about such accomplishments? Did you manage to find Lukaku-esque any decent wonderkids/bargains?

Another question I suit badly. Afraid not. I had Lukaku, he was a beast, I'm going to lay claim to dsicovering just how awesome Javier Hernandez was, but I think that's perhaps pushing it slightly. Lets move on, and quickly, so I can redeem myself.


4. Awesome. Speaking of finding players, what do you think of the old LLM rules? I don't expect you to be a full LLaMa(I can see it in your eyes), but a lot of us are way too cool to ever use Player Search. Scouting for the win! How about adverts for staff, not naming players on forums, or always starting at the right bottom?

To be honest people pay money for the game and as such can play it however they like. I've never seen the appeal of the LLaMa way of doing things. SI gave us player search & staff adverts, make use of them! I try not to get all my players from forums though, just to try & keep it a bit more real. It's one of the reasons why I like it in my game now, I'm in 2024 and there are no more real life players worth buying anymore, so I can't just pick names out to go and buy! I have to spend time scouting, player searching, etc and I really enjoy it. I've been known to spend a good couple of hours searching every player on my game to find that one player I need.


5. Exactly what I expected.. What about your own rules, goals or challenges? For example some people prefer setting up some guidelines before starting the game. Ie: they will get into nationalistic management and sign players only from the country of the club they are managing. Ever considered doing something like that?

I tried doing that on older FMs - tried signing only British players, but just got bored quickly. Only thing I made myself do this time is resign! I seem to get very emotionally attached to my players, resigning from a Newcastle team I'd spent 9 years building was tough but it was the right thing to do. This is the longest I've ever gone in a save and I'm loving it.


6. Football Manager is a complex game and it's biggest appeal is probably the fact that you can do whatever you want with your own game. Some stay at their club of choice for years, even decades and some prefer the journeyman way and move from club to club. Which do you prefer and why?

See above I guess! In the past I've stayed at one team before ending the save but this year I've switched and once I'd achieved all there was to achieve with Newcastle I moved on. I'll do the same once I feel I've reached as far as I can with Terek & so on and so forth. My aim is to win the Champions League with each club I manage but that's one hell of a tough ask.


7. Interesting. Speaking of the complexity of the game, SI are always keen on adding new features to the game, year after year. Which is your favourite new feature in FM11? Don't forget, we had dynamic league rep, match preparation, agents and so on...

I think it's agents. They've really made a big difference now, before you would just offer a contract & wait but the agents make it feel much more realistic, even if some of them are a complete pain in the arse. It's another skill you have to be able to have, dealing with agents who just wont accept that deal. The biggest challenge is to be able to say no. It's so tempting to offer this star player £100k to sign when really you can't afford it. I know I've been there & done that.


8. Wow Jack, that was generic as hell. Rumours say that you are a big tactician or tactics fan I should say.. Is that true? A lot of people neglect tactics as a whole, meanwhile some people put too much emphasis on it and basically ignore other aspects of the game, like handling players, or using the media to their advantage. Do you consider yourself to be in one of the two brackets, or perhaps somewhere between the two? Do you use sliders, or just the tactics creator? Please tell us about the way you handle tactics.

To be honest I make it up as I go along and sometimes it works! In all seriousness, tactical development in FM is a lot of trial & error. Of course there are some things you do which help, but no one can expect every tactic to work all of the time. It takes about a season I find to take a tactic from initial idea to something that you can either stick with and say with confidence that it works, or something that just isn't going to work out. Poeple also need to ditch this concept of "plug & play" tactics. Tactics are made to suit the team being managed, it's impossible to create a catch-all tactic that can work equally effectively with Newport County as it can with Barcelona. Downloadable tactics are a blessing but also a curse in my opinion. As for how I manufacture tactics, first I start with the tactics creator before tweaking via sliders as I please. I never mess with the mentality settings, I like to try and keep the team playing as fluidly as I can.


9. Speaking of tactics, which is the formation you used most often in this year's FM? Please tell us the basic set-up and tell us about the instructions you are using for different positions. Was it successful for you?

I've used a 4-4-2 which I pretty much shoved down the throat of anyone on TAS prepared to listen. It was set up pretty basic, wingers, a defensive midfielder & a more attacking minded one. Up top I had two poachers. I also had very attacking fullbacks. It worked a charm, I didn't concede many at all & scored for fun. Although I did have a very good team. I now use a flat 4-3-3 and whilst it's not as strong at the back it's not too bad, I conceded 20 in 30 league games which I think is pretty good, and scored 108. Which is a hell of a lot. My main striker got something stupid like 48 goals. Some say a flat 4-3-3 explots the engine and I'm beginning to wonder if they're right...


10. Thanks for the insight and now my final question to you.. Football Manager 2012 is only a few months away and most probably we are going to have a lot of new features, as always. What do you expect form SI's upcoming game? Is their any feature you would like to see added? Go on, talk about your dreams...

I just want the ability to add my own custom roles to the tactics creator. Do that and I'll be the happiest man alive.

Finally, thanks Zoli for letting me kick off the FM talk show and I hope some of what I've said makes a bit of sense.

See you next week guys, with a new victim ^_^


Comment on this article in our Forums
Back to Football Manager Guide Index