So, apparently the Football Manager 2011 release date and a slight look at some new features have been leaked and are floating around the FM community. The supposed release date is October 29th, it usually is around this time so nothing’s changed there. However, there have been reports of some new features/improvements that include:

Although not officially announced yet, but we can confirm the following features and release date have been leaked.

- Release Date is Friday, October 29th 2010
- Improved training options
- More complex module for searching new players
- Improved graphics and 3D view of the game
- Introduction of football agents to the game
- Playing games in evenings (so called night effect)
- Differentiated weather conditions

This first popped up on Polish fansite Football-Manager.info but has since been discussed at Los Wonderkids, the Football Manager 2011 facebook page and various other community fansites. Oh yeah, here is the believed box cover as well!!

Nothing has officially been confirmed yet, but when it is, I will make sure I keep you updated by editing this post!

Tactics are probably the most important key to success in Football Manager 2010, the amount of tweaks you can make to your system is unbelievable and each one can change the way your players play on the field. I have put together a list of some of the best guides and tips about tactics in FM2010 to help you take your’s to the next level, as well as some downloads if you prefer that.

Let me start by saying without a doubt, FM-Britain are the top authority for Football Manager tactics, and pride themselves on this. They have some interesting articles and guides that will be featured in this post, and continue to write some in-depth tactic articles each week to help expand our knowledge. Definitely suggest you check it out!

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Tactic Guides and Tips

• How to play a Simple 4-4-2 – A good article at FM-Britain explaining to us how to play a 4-4-2 in FM2010, the most frequently played tactic in world football. 4-4-2 can be difficult to get right in Football Manager 2010 so this guide is of a big help.

• Tactical FAQ’s – The Away Stand isnt around anymore, hence why the design is a little messed up, but the tactic information on this is still valuable. It goes through the many problems us managers have, and how to solve them through our tactics. I’ve bookmarked it.

• Using Substitues Effectively –  FMPundit’s latest article focuses on a different aspect of tactics, and puts forward that substitutes are very important and can change your games. This is a good read and he also adds in how it can help develop youth players. Worth the read!

• Building your Defence: The Defensive Line – Another great article from FM-Britain, this time they focus on how you can tweak your tactics to create the ultimate defence and make sure the opposition have a difficult task of scoring.

• How to score from Corners – This is one of my own guides, but was very popular. It is a step by step tutorial showing you how to set up your tactics to have a better chance of scoring from corners.

• Player Preferred Moves – This is a mind-blowing guide by a member over at FM-Base. It covers the PPM’s by position and the pro’s and con’s of each one. It’s one of the most in-depth guides I have seen, Definitely recommend you check it out!

Of course, there is the ultimate guide to squad management, Communication and Psychological Warfare which I reviewed on the blog. It’s over 80 pages long with bonuses audio’s and was created by none other than the home of Football Manager tactics – FM-Britain.

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Tactic Downloads

• Tug’s Training – I think everybody knows what this is, but for those who don’t, its custom schedules created for each position.

• Mr Hough’s 4-3-3 – Downloaded over 40,000 times, this is the fan’s favourite tactic for Football Manager 2010.

• Tactical Theorems and Frameworks – For the last few years, this has been the most downloaded by the community, an amazing in-depth e-book to tactics in FM2010.

• JP Woody 4-3-2-1 – Created by a member at FM-Base, this has been downloaded 23,000 times and has had some great respones by the community.

• Dan’s Youth Schedules - Another member at FM-Base has created a set of training schedules to take your youths to the next level, check them out!

Have you came across any amazing tactic guides or download’s? Let me know and I will add them to the list!

Do you have any quick tactic tips you would like to share? Let us know!

After weeks of hard work and research, we are finally presenting you with the ULTIMATE list of best players on Football Manager 2010. The list is huge and contains 220 players, grouped in positions for your benefit.

We have selected who we think are the best players for each position, mixed with some potential wonderkids who can lead your club to glory in future years. Not only this, but we have also made shortlists for your comfort that can be easily installed into your game.

Note: We will always be adding to this list, so it would be in your interests to keep hold of it or check back every so often to find new players and updated shortlists!

Goalkeepers

Left Backs

Right Backs

Centre Backs

Left Midfielders

Right Midfielders

Defensive Midfielders

Attacking Midfielders

Strikers

SHORTLISTS

>> CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BEST GOALKEEPERS FM10 SHORTLIST<<

>> CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BEST DEFENDERS ON FM10 SHORTLIST <<

>> CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BEST MIDFIELDERS ON FM10 SHORTLIST<<

>> CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BEST STRIKERS ON FM10 SHORTLIST <<

To install the shortlists, download the above files and drag each .slf file into My Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2010 > Shortlists. Now load up FM, go to manager, then find players, click the shortlist button and press import shortlist. It’s that easy!

The match-winners, the game deciders, the boys that possess the lethal touch. This is the long awaited Best forwards on Football Manager 2010 list. Enjoy, I hope this helps those in need. This is the fourth in the series and follows on from my post about the best midfielders on football manager 2010.

Note: You may need to load the large database option to be able to view all players.

As always our generosity astonishes all! Again we give you the option of downloading a shortlist. To install the list, drag the .slf into My Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2010 > Shortlists. Now load up your FM game and go to manager, then find players. Click the shortlist button and press import shortlist.

>> Click to Download FM2010 Strikers Shortlist <<

As mentioned this is the 4th out of 5 in the series, the next will be the complete shortlist – indeed all of the best of this years’ game!!

So who are your favourite strikers on FM2010?  Feel free to discuss – any suggestions will be added onto the list.

Well what can we say about midfielders?  Holding the defence together and tearing the opposition apart – they truly are the core of any side. This is for reference in those times where you have exposable money and are not quite sure who to go for, or alternatively for the curious. Whoever you are and whatever the reasoning I hope it helps.

This is the third in the series and follows on from Dan’s post about the best defenders on football manager 2010.

Note: You may need to load the large database option to be able to view all players.

Left Midfielders (LM/AML)

Right Midfielders (RM/AMR)

Defensive Midfielders (DM)

Central Midfielders (CM/AMC)

Being the helpful people we are we give you the option of downloading a shortlist. To install the list, drag the .slf into My Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2010 > Shortlists. Now load up your FM game and go to manager, then find players. Click the shortlist button and press import shortlist.

>> CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FM2010 MIDFIELDERS SHORTLIST <<

As mentioned this is the 3rd out of 5 in the series, look out for the best forwards list next, it’s soon coming.

So who are the midfielders you go out of your way to sign? Feel free to discuss – any suggestions will be added onto the list.

A possible replacement for the long gone football manager portal? Who knows. What I certainly know is that Football Manager Fanboys is a fantastic new fansite with features never seen to the community before. The site is primarily a blog which focuses on bringing you the best content from around different FM fansites, as well as community articles written by the FMFB team. Not only is it supplying us with great content, but the forums are rapidly becoming one of the best places for football manager discussion.

Football Manager Fanboys has some wonderful features for us die hard players so let me take you through them quickly. They come under the tactical playbook and is a cool thing to get some help with our tactics.

Positional Analysis – The positional analysis tool helps us to understand the dynamics of each role with the new tactics creator. It works by hovering over any possible position on the pitch, and gives us full details of what the role is about and what a player in that role will undergo. A possible feature I would like to see is maybe the key attributes needed for each specific role. But that info can be seen on the tactics creator in FM10 so maybe they feel it is not needed.

Positional Compatibility - The newest tool to arrive on FMFB is the positional compatibility. Basically you key in all of a players attributes on the spreadsheet, chose which position and the tool will give you a percentage of how good that player will be in the specific position. This is a very advanced featured and will be a lot of use to both experienced and inexperienced football manager players!

Tactics Creator - The tactics creator is more for sharing your formation with others and is a good tool for bloggers who want to show their readers how they play. It lets you drag the 11 players around on the pitch and add in symbols for offside trap, captains etc. This tool will come in very handy for me when I start up my story again and all of use are begging me for my tactic!!!

FMFB is probably my favourite site out there at the moment and only give us the best content around. To sum it up, all of our FM needs in one place, so if you haven’t already check it out!

Although this can be said about all positions, I honestly do think defenders are perhaps the most important players in Football and especially on Football Manager 2010.  Wing Backs can also play a great part in your teams success and depend a lot on your tactics. Tweaking your tactics plays a big role in the responsibilities of your players and setting up the right roles for defenders can improve your clubs performance.

I have put together this huge resource of players for your benefit incase you are ever in need of a good defender to sign and you can refer back to this always. This list follows on from my previous post about the best goalkeepers on football manager 2010. Note: You may need to load the large database option to be able to view all players.

Left Defenders (DL/WBL)

Right Defenders (DR/WBR)

• Davide Santon – Inter Milan
• Dani Alves – Barcelona
• Bacary Sagna – Arsenal
• Cesar Azpilicueta – Osasun
• Darijo Srna – Shakhtar
• Rafael – Man Utd
• Rafinha – Schalke
• Sebastian Corchia – Le Mans
• Raul – Atletico Paranaence
• Loic Nestor – Havre
• Kyle Naughton – Tottenham
• Daniel Opare – Real Madrid
• Maicon – Inter

Central Defenders (SW/DC)

• Nicolas Otamendi – Velez
• Martin Cacares – Barcelona
• John Heitinga – Everton
• Thiago Silva – AC Milan
• David Luiz – Benfica
• Henrique – Racing Santander
• Rafael Miranda – Maritimo
• Patricio Aruajo – America Mexico
• Jack Rodwell – Everton
• Mirel Radoi – Steaua
• Christian Chivu – Juventus
• Federico Fazio – Atletico Madrid
• Domenico Criscito – Genoa/Juventus
• Filipe – Deportivo
• Gerson – Gremoio
• Simon Kjaer – Palmero
• Sami Khedira – Stuttgart
• Nelson Rivas – Livorno
• Kyriakos Papadopoulos – Olympiakos
• Sidnei – Benfica
• Dodo – Corinthians
• Marc Muniesa – Barcelona
• Micah Richards – Man City
• Nedum Onuoha – Man City
• Mamadou Sakho – PSG
• Gerard Pique – Barcelona
• Cristian Zapata – Udinese
• Marek Suchy – Slavia Prague
• Breno – Bayern Munich
• Mathias Jorgenson – FC Kobenhavn
• Danny Wilson – Rangers
• Mark Beevers – Sheffield Wednesday
• Thiago Heleno – Cruzeiro
• Mats Hummels – Dortmund

Incase a list on the internet is too much for you, I have created a shortlist for you to import into football manager 2010 so you have the list in game. To install the list, drag the .slf into My Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2010 > Shortlists. Now load up your FM game and go to manager, then find players. Click the shortlist button and press import shortlist.

>> CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BEST DEFENDERS FM2010 SHORTLIST <<

This list took me a lot of time to compile, so I will be glad if it helps as many of you as possible. I will be covering the best midfielders in more depth in the coming days as well as the best forwards so look out for them!

Tell me, do you have any more suggestions for this list? and who are your favourite defenders in football manager 2010? I would love to hear your comments!

Goalkeepers are often looked past in Football Manager 2010, but a good keeper could be vital in your teams performance. They are the rock of the defence and a good goalkeeper could prove valuable throughout the season as he saves shot upon shot. Here we have put together a list of the best goalkeepers in FM2010 which will start of a series looking at each position in some detail.

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2010 GOALKEEPERS

RENE ADLER – BAYERN LEVERKUSEN

Rene Adler is definitely worth of being on this list. He is a great keeper and relatively young which is a big plus. He is valued at £5.25 but you can usually get him for around £13m. I definitely recommend Adler if you are a top team and your choices of goalkeeper are poor as he will be worth it.

HUGO LLORIS – LYON

Hugo Lloris is similar to Adler in the fact that he is another young keeper who we have been buying since FM2008/FM2009.  His Reflexes, Rushing Out, and Aerial Ability skills are great and will definitely be a good buy if you manage to tempt Lyon to sell him.

IGOR AKINFEEV – CSKA MOSCOW

He has been a fan of the FM community since FM2007 or FM2008, and Akinfeev has never let us down. Despite his stats being dropped this year, he is still a fantastic keeper and remains one of my favourites in the game.

MANUEL NEUER – SCHALKE

Neuer is valued at £4.6m in FM2010 but can be pricey in buying. It will usually take an offer of around £14m to tempt Bayern Levekusen to sell. . Definitely worth it taking in his goalkeeping attributes. I have had a lot of experience with Manuel Neuer and definitely recommend him as a player that should be near the top of your list.

GUILLERMO OCHOA – CLUB AMERICA

Ochoa is a great keeper, with an incredibly small price tag which is why he’s on the list. You have to make sure you get a bid in quick though because he is in high demand will often be signed by another team early in the game.

Some more of the best keepers in Football Manager 2010 include:

• Gianluigi Buffon – Juventus
• Sergio Asenjo – Atletico Madrid
• Vincenzo Fiorillo – Sampodoria
• Steve Mandanda – Marseille
• Iker Casillas – Real Madrid
• Pepe Reina – Liverpool
• Sebastian Frey – Fiorentina
• Carlos Kameni – Espanyol
• Josh  Lambo – FC Dallas
• Marcos – Palmeiras
• Julio Cesar – Inter
• Matej Delac – Chelsea
• Diego Benaglio – Woflsburg
• Rui Patricio – Sporting Lisbon
• Alex Smithies – Huddersfied
• Sinan Bolat – Standard Liege
• Erick Delgado – Juan Aurich
• Vincent Enyeama – Hapoel Tel Aviv
• Yohan Pele –  Toulouse
• Oscar Ustari – Getafe
• Cenk Gonen – Denizlispor
• Alphonse Areola – PSG
• Silviu Lung Jr – Universitatea Craiova
• Asmir Begovic – Stoke
• Marco Amelia – Genoa
• Remy Riou – Auxerre
• Andrea Consigli – Atalanta
• Joe Hart – Man City

Have you had any experiences with these keepers? Who is your favourite on the list? And have you got any more suggestions that can be added to this list and future lists? Let us know by adding your comment with the form below!

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.

Welcome back, it has been longer than expected but the new blog design is finally live after 3 days of hard work and persistence :D I think it’s a big improvement to the previous theme and this one will definately be around for a while. I really like it and hope you do to.

Anyways, the big news is that we have someone else blogging with me now. I welcome Rory Darby to Aid The Boss. I have known him for many years now and it was Rory who first started FM-View with me 3 or 4 years ago now. He has a wealth of experience in blogging and Football Manager 2010 and enjoys writing which can only be good for the site. Read more about Rory on the about page.

I was really impressed by the general idea of this site as soon as Dan linked it to me a good few months ago now. I liked the style and felt it was something I could definitely contribute towards so I thank Dan for giving me the opportunity and hopefully I can give something back through my posts. See you around!

Even though there are two people blogging here now, I am more than happy to have others join us, because the more content we have and the more we update the better. To read more about posting here, please visit the contribute page where all is explained and what sort of things we are looking for.

I hope you enjoy this new era for the blog, and we will be able to update the blog more often now it isn’t just me posting. So, what are your thoughts on the new blog design?