Championship Manager 2 guide (part 1) EXCITING NEWS FROM DOMARK ! Domark now offers Championship Manager 2 for its US and Canadian customers. This is the ULTIMATE soccer coaching simulation! Coach and manage a British or Scottish league team. Beautiful SVGA graphics, 4 hours of voice commentary from Clive Tyldesley, 4000 player stats and career history, mark this incredible simulation. Do well and you may get to coach the English National Team. Do poorly and get the sack! TO ORDER: Send $49.95 check or money order made out to DOMARK SOFTWARE Domark CM2 offer 1900 South Norfolk Ave. #110 San Mateo, CA 94403 Within two weeks you will receive CM2. CM2 is ONLY on CD and requires a 486Dx-33 with 8MB of RAM and a 1MB SVGA card. ===================================================================== Championship Manager 2 is a football (known as soccer to some of you) management simulation computer game. This game allows you to take on the job of managing a football team and gives you all the options a real life manager would have - such as a buying and selling players in a world wide transfer market, choosing tactics, formations and styles of play. ===================================================================== Team Formations An almost infinite amount of formations can be used (if you like silly re all possible). Each player being able to be placed in five positions across the field ( left, center left, central, center right, ,support and attack. It is even possible to place your goalkeeper up front in one last ditched Higuita/Schmeichel style attempt for an all attack. There are 15 pre set team formations to choose from ranging from Ultra Defensive to All Out Attack and you can of course customize any of these formations. The team formation can be changed at any point during the match (and between matches and you will be warned if the opposition team makes a change in tactics and you can look at their tactics screen and take counter measures). The placing of players in a formation is easily done by using the mouse to drag the players name on to a representation of the football pitch and into the position you want him to play. Player Runs Each player can be given instructions on the type of runs he should be making during the match. This is done from the same screen as the team formation by using the right mouse button to draw an arrow from the player to where he should be running. So for example if you want wing back type players then you can draw an arrow from the full backs right down the length of the pitch and this will instruct that player to make runs down the side of the field to put crosses in etc. Some of the pre-set formations as mentioned above will also include the type of runs the players would make in these type of formations. Playing Styles There are three types of playing styles you can instruct your team to use: (Long Ball): This is where the ball is hit long and high up front into zones as oppose to any target man. Even if the defenders win the ball, the advancing midfielders and strikers are quick to close down possession and try and win back the ball. A lot of the lower division teams would employ this style of play, sometimes known as a 'percentage game'. (Passing): This is where the team would build up the play by short passing movements. Examples of this style would be Liverpool, Newcastle, and Notts Forest. (Direct): This is where the ball is played from the back to the forward players, without necessarily being passed through the midfield. This differs from Long Ball, in that passes are aimed at particular players (e.g. a target man), rather than just booted into areas. Examples of teams playing this style are Blackburn and Everton. Obscure Features of CM2 This section covers those features which may not be covered by the manual or the README.TXT file and which may have gone unnoticed by you. So read on and you may discover some more useful features of the game. Right Mouse Button: Clicking on Done using the right mouse button when in the main menu will advance the calendar on a daily basis as opposed to using the left mouse button which will generally advance the calendar to your next fixture. This will be helpful when you want to avoid missing transfer deadlines or when wanting to buy new players etc. Space Bar: Pressing the space bar during a match sequence will speed up the match. Overall-Home-Away Record: On any league table by clicking on the Overall Record at the top of the table you will be able to see the Home Record- click again you'll see the Away Record. Description of player match stats: In the player stats screen for any match - by hovering the mouse over the titles for each column of stats you will have a box appear which contains a description of what these stats mean. Team Progress Graph: By clicking the mouse on the position number of any team in any league or group table you will see that teams progress within the table in the form of a graph. View Match Option You may view any match by clicking on the V for versus on a fixture list. This will turn the v to view. Clicking a second time will revert back to v again. M and ESC keys: Pressing the m or escape key will return you to the main menu at the next possible opportunity. Please note that to get the computer's attention repeatedly pressing or holding down the key may be necessary. Match Stats of Played Games: By clicking on the score (from any type of results screen) of any played game within one season will allow you to see all the stats for that match. Manager History: By clicking on the managers name in the general info screen of the Squad screen this will enable you to see the entire history of that manager. Transfer Deadlines: In the player search screen, when the players names are in grey this means the transfer deadline of the country in which that player is playing has passed. So this means any player in grey writing cannot be bought. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Description of Player Ratings This is a description of the categories used in the rating of players. These have been divided into five sections: 1.Footballing skills 2.Goalkeeping skills 3.Physical Attributes 4.Mental Attributes 5.Hidden Ratings 1.Footballing skills Creativity: Whether he can create goalscoring chances for his team-mates with incisive passes, headers, flick-ons etc. Dribbling: Whether he can take on and beat defenders to create dangerous situations from which a goalscoring chance might arise. Flair: Whether he has the tendency to do the unexpected, for example shoot from 30 yards, or try something brilliant. Heading: Whether he is good in the air and wins headers either in defense or attack Marking: Whether he has the ability to track an opponent and mark him out of the game. Off the Ball: Whether he makes good runs into space which can lead to a shot/header on goal if he is given the ball. Passing: Whether he can pass the ball where he wants it. Positioning: Whether he has good defensive positional sense and rarely gets caught out of position. Set Pieces: Whether he can make use of set piece situations(corner, free kick)either by making a creative pass or a direct shot on goal. Shooting: Whether he scores goals. Tackling: Whether he is good at making tackles to dispossess an opponent. Technique: Whether he has good control, first touch, and all round technical ability 2.Goalkeeping skills Shot Stopping: This is their ability to save shots. Passing: This is their accuracy when kicking or throwing the ball out. Set Pieces: This is their ability to defend set pieces, line up the wall etc. Positioning: This is their positioning for shots, crosses etc. Aerial Ability: This is their ability in the air, for example when handling corners and crosses. Rushing Out: This is whether he can rush out quickly in one-on-one situations. 3.Physical Attributes Aggression: Whether he goes in hard when competing for the ball, without necessarily being dirty. Injury Proneness: Whether he is often out of action with injuries. The higher the rating the more likely the player is to get injured Pace: Whether he has speed and acceleration both in and out of possession. Stamina: Whether he can keep going at the end of the most grueling matches. Strength: Whether he has strength in holding off opponents to keep possession or in competing to win the ball. 4.Mental Attributes Determination: Whether he keeps battling, even when the odds are against him. Influence: Whether he can motivate and inspire team-mates, as for example a captain would. Intelligence: Whether he can read the game and make good decisions about when to sit back, push up etc. 5.Hidden Ratings Big Occasion: Whether he rises to the occasion in big games, play-offs, top of the table clashes, cup finals, etc. Character: Whether the player reacts badly to on/off the field events. On the field this could be whether he reacts to provocation, off the field whether he reacts to being dropped, fined etc. The higher the rating the more likely the player will react badly to on/off the field events. Consistency: Whether he normally performs to his ability and rarely has an off day. Dirtiness: The amount of bad fouls, bookings and sending off a player is likely to commit/get. You can tell who has a high rating for this number of disciplinary points a player has accumulated because of the amount of fouls, yellow and red cards acquired. Ability: This is an overall rating of how good the player is now. Potential Ability: This is a rating of how good the player could become. For a young player his ability will tend to rise towards his potential ability as he gets older; for a player at his peak his ability will tend to be equal to his potential ability; for an older player his ability will tend to drop below his potential ability. The ability rating is therefore a variable rating and all the other ratings are relative to this rating and the potential ability rating. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To arrange friendlies carry out the following: 1.Go to Squad details screen of the squad you are managing. 2.Click on Fixtures and Results icon. 3.Choose Full Season Calendar option. This will give a full calendar of each day of the year with all the fixtures and all the dates where no fixtures have been arranged. 4.Click on home or away icon depending if you want to play a friendly home or away. 5.A full list of squads will appear (all the English ones and use More Teams to display foreign teams) - click on the squad you would like to arrange a friendly against. 6.A screen will appear showing you the dates available for a friendly (if any) with that team and also the dates not available for a friendly. 7.Click on which date you would like to play - i.e. click on where it is written Free date for friendly with 'team name' - there may be more than one date available. 8.You will be then asked to confirm the arrangement of a friendly against the chosen team. After confirmation has been given the friendly has been arranged. 9.You can also cancel friendlies by using the Cancel icon on the full calendar screen - click on this so it becomes white then click on the name of the team you want to cancel the friendly with - you will then be asked to confirm the cancellation. Remember you will not be able to play any team you want - because the other team may not be available or because they are a much bigger club than you - so don't expect to be able to play Bayern Munich if you are manager of Rochdale ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Applying for vacant jobs You will get a message on screen each time a club has a vacant manager position. If you would like to be put forward for consideration this is how you do it: 1.Go to Manager Info in the main menu. 2.Go to Job News. 3.You will see a all the clubs which have no manager. 4.Click on the name of the club you would like to manage 5.The squad screen of this team will appear. In the top right hand corner you will see the apply icon. Click on this to put yourself forward for the job. 6.You will be then asked for confirmation. 7.you will only receive notification if you are offered the job or will realize you that your application has not been successful when you see notification of who has got the job. Remember it will probably only be worth applying for jobs when you have built up some sort of reputation. You will start to build up a reputation when you have had some success with a club for at least two seasons. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Who should you buy? Well that Oliver Collyer fellow does have a wicked shot! (just kidding) The following players are great values and perform VERY well. (this list is subjective-so if they stink don't yell at me) Jimmi Nielsen GK Denmark Neil Lennon AMC Crewe Viktor Leonenko FC Dinamo Kiev David Bardsley DR QPR John De Wolf SW/DC Wolves (likes to fight) Michael Galloway AML NottsC Richard Rufus DC Wolves (awesome defense) Peter Beardsley (excellent value) Mark Hughes (excellent value-but lots of cards) Cheers! Eric Domark USA