USM2 Quick start guide

Since the game is not obvious for those who didn't play soccer management game before, I'm going to write a short quickstart guide here.

The starting team doesn't matter. You can succeed in the game with any team, but of course, the strongest team will give you easier / faster results (if you have disabled "only manage realistic team" in the otpions screen).

The first thing to check, using the MANAGE TEAM screen, is the weaknesses of your squad. If you see you lack a very good striker, try to buy one as soon as possible. Same for goalkeeper, defenders, and so on. Try, if possible, to buy young players because they can improve skills and you can later resell them to earn good money!

Once you've built up a decent squad, go in the TACTICS screen and choose your formation. The formation really depends on personal tastes so I can't give any "generic" advice. Just remember that the match engine check exactly where you placed your players on the field, so for example if in the attack zone, you place all players on the sides of the field and nobody in center, will be hard to score with crosses, because the midfielder will have to run into that position...

Beside this obvious considerations, you should pick the various penalty and free kickers personally. By default the CPU will choose one, but is always better to manually pick it. Choose one with good "Free Kicks" skill, but check also the strength for long distance free kick, or Tecnique for short distance free kicks.

Ok now you're ready to start the match. In the Teams Info subscreen of the match, you can see some generic tactics. What are their effects on the match? let's see first the six sliding bars:

• Mentality: an offensive mentality means your player will all push forward to try to score, but also they will risk more in defence. A defensive one will take much less risks, but also you'll have less chances to score.
• Tackling: easy tackling means that players will be careful when trying to steal the ball from an opponent, trying to avoid to get any yellow/red cards. Hard tackling instead will do exactly the opposite...
• Passing: short passing means your player will try to get near to the opponent penalty area with short passes, while long means they'll try to reach the forwards with long balls, avoiding struggles in the midfield.
• Marking: zonal marking means your defenders will just defend their zone of the field (the defender won't get tired quickly but you'll risk more in defence), instead man marking means the defender will stay close to opponent forwards (defenders will get tired more quickly, but they will always be near the attackers).
• Attack side : if you have seen a weak flank in opponent formation, you can try to use this weakness to your advantage, otherwise you can just put the slider in the middle to vary your attack.
• Tempo: is the pace your players will try to do actions in the game. You can use a slow tempo if you're winning, to mantain long ball possession and avoid to take risks, or you can use quick tempo if you are losing and want to put more pressure on the opponent

Quick Tips

· By default, you can't manage the most prestigious teams. If you want you can change this in the Game Options screen
· If you play with interactive match, and see the CPU scoring more often, before complaining check also which team are you facing. If you play versus very strong teams is very likely that they'll score on every chance they have, while if you play with poor players you are more likely to miss good opportunities
· To solve the problem above, we recommend that you start immediately to buy fresh skilled player in key roles as Goalkeeper and Strikers! Use the “Player Search” menu to find new talents.
· The game comes with a built-in editor, even if is still in beta you can try to use it to change team shirt colors, players, and so on. The changes saved are stored in the sub-directory “data\\db” so be sure to backup first the default configuration (you can always re-install the game again in case you break the Db)