THE NEW GAME Football Manager 2 is not just an improvement on Football Manager 1 - it is a complete re-write. FM2 contains many improvements on FM1 yet still contains the basic ingredients that made FM1 one of the biggest selling home computer games ever. I have completely redesigned the graphics match action and the tactics of team selection. Your tram now plays to the style and formation that you select and you can actually watch and assess the performance of your individual players. There is skillful passing, tackling, crosses, lobs into the net, diving goalkeeper saves, close marking, close passing play, kick-and-rsuh - in fact an infinite variety of action. Tactical changes include man to man marking, choice of formations and substitutions. Other enhancements include League Cup matches, full 92 team league, Sponsorship, Success points, Goal scorer display, Enhanced transfer marker, training etc. There is an endless variety of technique of playing this game and I'm sure you will enjoy developing your own Football Management style. I have worked very hard over many months to provide you with a very entertaining game. I hope you have many, many hours of enjoyment from Footnall Manager 2. QUICK START TO PLAYING To get the best out of the game you will need to study the following instructions carefully but to help you get into the game quickly I have identified some of the instructions between the words **NOTE** and **NOTE END**. Reading what is enclosed by these will give you the basic guide to playing Football Manager 2. CONTROLS The whole game is controlled using joystick type movement as follows: [UP] - Joystick Up / Q [DOWN] - Joystick Down / S [LEFT] - Joystick Left / I [RIGHT] - Joystick Right / P [FIRE] - Fire Button / Return The use of Joystick or Keyboard is dependent on the computer on which the game is played. The game use UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT to select items using the displayed pointer. FIRE is used to confirm a selection. ****************************** NOTE ****************************** TEAM SELECTION CONTROLS Team selection is carried out over three screens depicting defence, midfield and attack as follows:- 1. The reserve pool slot is at the top of the screen. Pressing FIRE when pointing to this slot will produce the FIRE TO QUIT message. 2. When FIRE TO QUIT is displayed - a) UP/DOWN will scroll through your reserve players and pressing FIRE again will select one. b) LEFT/RIGHT will move to the next right or left screen if possible, it is also used to place your goalie in position i.e.:- move your cursor from the player selection area down twice and depending on which end your goalie is move left/right. c) FIRE again will end team selection if 11 players have been picked. 3. Moving the pointer to an empty slot and pressing FIRE will transfer the reserve player displayed at the top of the screen to that slot. 4. Pressing FIRE on a slot that contains a player selected will transfer him back to the reserves. 5. When team selection ends you will be allowed to select two substitutes by scrolling UP/DOWN through your reserves and pressing FIRE to select. 6. At half-time you will be able to alter your team and bring on substitutes. 7. Note that display slots are placed over the actual areas of the pitch that each individual player will cover in your team formation. ****************************** NOTE ****************************** PLAYING GUIDE At the start of the game you will be able to choose your team. Sponsorship At the start of each season you will be offered sponsorship. The maximum is 50.000 per division (i.e. Division 1 = 200.000). If you reject a sponsor the chances of another offer depend on your managerial rating (MR). A MR of 100 will give you a 75% chance of another offer whilst a MR of 50 will give you a 50% chance. If your MR is 25% or less you will get no more offers. Then choose your skill level: start at 1 until you gain experience and playing skill. The highrer levels help you to maintain a challenge in playing the game. Management Record This is a record of your achievements. Success points are earned from your final league position at the end of a season and from Cup match success. Your Managerial rating is an average of your success points per season and is out of 100. Load/Save Game Before each match you will have the chance to save or load the game. This allows you to stop the game and continue another time and will allow you to work your way up the league. Save/Load instructions are given in the machine instructions. The Match (see Team Selection Controls for details of how to pick the team). 1. Team Display This is shown in three sections for your Defence, Midfield and Attack. Each team is shown with the players in their playing positions. The four paired slots on each screen show the man-to-amn marking of players. That is players in slots horizontally next to each other on a screen will mark each other during the match action. The slot at the top of the screen contains your reserve players and can be rolled through to select them. 2. Playing Skill (see Player attributes) ****************************** NOTE ****************************** The skill of individual players affects the match action significantly. In the man-to-man marking, players with the higher skill will tackle more effectively and dribble the ball more successfully past opponents of lesser skill. For each half of the match, all of the players in the twelve marking zones are compared with their opposing players and, with a random factor thrown in, the highest value player will start a new playing action sequence in possession of the ball. If the difference between the two players is close, no action sequence will occur. Thus you can influence the whereabouts of the start of attacks and the likely number of them by the way you match the skill of your players up against the opponents with the man-to-man marking. N.B. If the marking players are close in skill they will probably neutralise each other. If the skills are significantly different, the highest will probably win and start an attack with the ball at his feet. A player marking free space will probably start an attack from there, as the game treats him as marking a skill rating 2 player. Players playing out of position, e.g. a Defender playing in Midfield will play as if they have a skill rating of only 2. ****************************** NOTE END ****************************** The goalkeeper's skill is a measure of his ability to save shots. 3. Formation There are twelve possible zones in which you can place your outfield players. These are depicted by the four playing slots for outfield players on each of the three team selection screens. Thus you can play in many formations i.e. 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-2-4 etc. Since your team will play in the positions you choose you can decide to play defensively, attacking, with wingers, down the middle or however you wish. ****************************** NOTE ****************************** The tem selection slots are directly over the area of the pitch which the player in that slot will play when the action starts. Any player in the horizontally adjacent slot will mark him during play and will play in the same zone. Players will also cover areas of the pitch next to their own if there is no player covering that area. Note that this zoning of players allows you to spot the performance of individual players because you can identify them by their position. ****************************** NOTE END ****************************** 4. Opponents The skill of your opponent's players will depend on who you are playing against. If you progress through the cup you will play more skillful teams as you advance. Top league teams will also be stronger opponents than lowly teams. 5. Fitness Playing in a match will affect each player's fitness. They will pick up knocks during play and may be injured. 6. Full Team You must pick eleven players before you will be allowed to end team selection. You will then be required to pick two substitutes. The substitutes may be brought on and the team formation changed at half time. 7. Playing Styles During the Extra Training part of the game, you can modify the playing style of your team. The effect of this is visible during the match action. Thus your team will use close or long passing, or high passes as you have selected. Note that different opponents will also use varying styles. 8. The Action Each half of the match will consist of several action sequences. (See Playing Skill for details of how each sequence starts). Each sequence continues until either the ball is out of play, a goal is scored or the goalkeeper saves a shot. The match action allows you to see the result of your actions. The skill of players you have selected and how you have positioned them will visibly affect what happens! 9. The Home Team The Home Team will always start the match playing from left to right. 10. Half Time At Half Time you can bring on substitutes and alter your team formation. This can be very useful, I'll give you an exemple: In one match I noticed that my team was doing badly in midfield and I was one down at half time. I moved one midfielder over to mark the opponent's most successful midfield player and moved another out to the wing to give some width to the midfield play. I also moved an attacker out onto the wing. The extra width in midfield allowed my team to get round their strong midfield players and my attacking winger's crosses brought 4 goals in the second half and my team won 4-1. MATCH RESULTS After your match either: a) The other league results and league table will be shown. b) The result of your cup match shown. INJURY REPORT This displays a list of your injured players. Players with a fitness value less than 50% are injured and unfit to play. Players will accumulate knocks when playing in matches, and possible sustain long term injuries. Players will recover their fitness gradually when rested from match play. FINANCE This shows the profitability of your club. If your club has a negative bank balance, you will be sacked. Gate receeipts are dependent on who was playing at home. If you are successful as a team your home receipts will rise. Cup success also produces high gate receipts. Player Buy/Sell is a total of your Transfer Market trading. Player wages are dependent on the skill of your players and the number of them. In other words a lot of highly skilled players will cost a lot in wages. Overheads are a record of the fixes costs that are incurred by your club. Profit is measured weekly. All financial values are higher as you rise up the Divisions. SELL PLAYERS All of your players are listed during the sell player routine so you can check your squad. You will be able to sell a player if you wish and an offer up to his displayed value will be made for him if you do. If you reject the offer you will have to wait to the following week to try again. Remember you are paying wages for all players in your squad even if they are not picked to play. Also if you have less than thirteen players you cannot make up a team and matches will be forfeited. BUY PLAYER Up to three players will be for sale. You may bid for any of them. The higher your bid, the more chance of purchase. You may even be able to buy them for less than their value. The SQUAD TOO BIG message means you must sell a player before any more will be offered for sale. EXTRA TRAINING This feature allows you to modify the way your players pass the ball. It is an advanced feature and is best left unaltered until you have got used to the gameplay and watched a lot of matches. Passing Height allows you to increase/decrease to height of passes. Basically high passes will produce a Kick and Rush style which can help to, say, bypass a weak midfield. Low passing will lead to closer play. Passing Length allows you to increase/decrease the length of passes. Short passing will suit a highly skilled team that dribbles well. Long passing may suit a side with wingers. The tips on Passing Height and Length above are just a guide and you will be able to develop your own technique to suit your team and style of play. You will see the effect of your passing style on the pitch. If you get the PERFECTED message it means that you have reached the maximum or minimum length or height and more of the same extra training will not have an added effect. THE SEASON You will play all of the other teams in your division once and play through the Cups as far as you progress. Promotion and Relegation at the end of season is three up three down. SUCCESS The aim of the game is to be as successful as possible and try and win the Treble of League and Two Cups. However the game is designed to be enjoyable enough for you to play as long as you like. ****************************** NOTE ****************************** PLAYER ATTRIBUTES Player have 5 attributes which are shown on the various displays: Name The players name is shown. Skill In the ranges 3 to 9. This affects his play during the match. A player out of position e.g. a defender in attack of a midfield player playing in goal will play with a skill value of 2. Fitness Out of 100. This is reduced by playing in a match as the player receives knocks or injuries. A player who is rested in the reserves will recover some of his fitness. A player with a fintess value of less than 50 is too badly injured to play. Position G, D, M, A. As follows: G - Goalkeeper D - Defender M - Midfield Player A - Attacker These are the players correct playing positions. Note a player playing out of position is less effective (see Skill above). Playing positions are easy to identify on the team selection screen. The goalkeeper's slot is over the goal. Defender's slots are on the same screen as your goalkeeper. Midfield players slots are shown against the middle pitch backdrop. Value 30.000 to 360.000. This is directly affected by the player's skill and the division you are playing in. It will affect his transfer market purchase and sale price. ****************************** NOTE END ******************************