All posts in Tactics

It seems to me for a few years now Q.P.R have been a popular choice among Football Manager players. Playing in the Championship – they have had in the last two games a very good financial backing which made the LLM aliens flock to play. This year set as a Title Challenger it is not the double figure you would expect, instead you are given £1.5m which is still a fair amount baring in mind the talent in this side which only held back in real life by internal affairs. This guide is what it says on the tin; How to promote. So lets focus on the first season.

FIRST ELEVEN

• GK: Radek Cerny
• DR: Peter Ramage
• DL:  Matthew Connolly
• DC: Kaspars Gorkss
• DC: Damion Stewart
• MR: Hogan Ephraim
• ML: Ákos Buzsáky
• MC: Martin Rowlands
• MC: Alejandro Faurlin
• FC: Tamás Priskin (On-loan)
• FC: Marcus Bent (On-loan)

SQUAD BREAKDOWN

You are given two competent keepers in Radek Cerny and on-loan Carl Ikeme, the area is not the squad’s finest, but Radek is certainly good enough to achieve great things with in the Championship. This may be an area some will want to spend on, but baring in mind most acquisitions will be useless in a season’s time if you accomplish promotion this is not completely necessary.

QPR’s defence features Matthew Connolly and Damion Stewart. Although I decided to go for two starting centre backs in my game there were still times I contemplated putting Stewart in my eleven. Peter Ramage can also do a job as right-back, playing on-loan Matt Hill on the left is also another option.

The midfield features the star; Ákos Buzsáky and an AM RLC he can fit in anywhere that needs strengthening across the line (apart from a holding position, perhaps.) After Ákos you have central midfielders Martin Rowlands and Alejandro Faurlin who can play together well – however, I think some strengthening could be done for assurance. There is a lack of quality in wingers at Q.P.R; on-loan Jay Simpson does not cut it and Lee Cook is average at best although it is conceded Hogan Ephraim can put performances in this is an area perhaps that needs work.

Lastly we have the striker force which, for me, was fairly simple aligning free transfer Gastón Fernández alongside on-loan Tamás Priskin. The partnership proved to be the key to my promotion at ease.

RECOMMENDED SIGNINGS

Gastón Fernández – AM / FC – Unattached – With top flight competition he’s a hard capture but managers must go out of their way to sign this player.

Nicolás Otamendi – DC – Vélez – The FM2010 fan favourite, this may seem unbelievable but ship off a few players that are surplus to requirements and he’s yours for £3.2m at the most.

Simon Poulsen – AML – AZ – The transfer-listed Danish international is an interesting option if you should decide to ship Hogan Ephraim off for the extra spending money.

Pichu Atienza – DC – At. Madrid – He is no stranger to players of the previous FM generations for me he was an inspiration at the back and lethal from set pieces. For £700k and the amount of improvement he has shown I’m not looking back.

Marco Verratti – AMC – Pescara – I had to wait till January to sign him for an inflated price however if he does want to come straight away you are getting a world class player for £300k.

And a few rough diamonds to think about:

Marc Muniesa – DC – Barcelona – For around £190k he is a must-buy.

Daniel Opare – D / WB R – Real Madrid – Promising youngster Opare is listed for £300k at the start of the game, he may not look like a starter but he can develop into a Premiership standard player.

*If there are any other good signings you can think of please feel free to make suggestions by commenting.

TACTICS

I’m very simple with my tactics, it just has always worked for me. I used a 4-4-2 system with the wingers pushed up into the respective attacking midfield positions like so:

I hope this guide helps you through promotion and if this is well-recieved I’ll do a follow up on how to stay up when you reach the big time. Good luck and thanks for reading.