Championship Manager 2 – Hints and Tips

Championship Manager 2 - Hints and Tips

Submitted by: kumayl hassan
E-mail: goldiman2002@yahoo.com

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 formations that is, but 4-4-2,
Christmas Tree etc, are all possible). Each player
being able to be placed in five positions across the
field ( left, center left, central, center right,
right) either as sweeper, defender, anchor, midfield,
support and attack. It is even possible to place your
goalkeeper up front in one last ditched
Higuita/Schmeichel style attempt for an all out
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 asoppose to any target man.
Even if the defenders win the ball, 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 targetman), 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 escape 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: 

     Footballing skills
     Goalkeeping skills 
     Physical Attributes 
     Mental Attributes 
     Hidden Ratings 

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 

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. 

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.

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.

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 likelythe 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 because of the
amount of fouls, yellow and red cards he has, or
the number of disciplinary points a player has
accumulated.
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?

The following players are great values and perform
VERY well. (this list is subjective)

     Jimmi Nielsen GK Denmark 
     Neil Lennon AMC Crewe 
     Viktor Leonenko FC Dinamo Kiev
     David Bardsley DR QPR
     John De Wolf SW/DC Wolves
     Michael Galloway AML NottsC
     Richard Rufus
     Sergi Yuan