Football Manager is a series of football management simulation PC games developed by Sports Interactive (SIGames) and published by Sega. The latest version is Football Manager 2010 (FM 2010).

I have managed various national teams in Football Manager, you can manage one club and one national team concurrently in Football Manager. This is essentially 2 teams management. When I’m playing with Manchester United, I am offered to manage Brazil & England team. When I play in Spanish league as Xerez, I was offered manager position for Italy, Spain, and French. I usually don’t apply for this job. If you are winning many league cups as well as UEFA Champions League, you will be offered any of this national manager position instantly by the FA. The position usually will open after major cup such as World Cup or European Cup every 2-4 years. Most managers will get sack after poor performance in this major cup or the manager will resign by himself.

Managing national team is easy. I usually use generic tactic such as 4-4-2 most of the time or 4-1-2-1-2 variation for defence if needed. One thing to keep in mind is to keep winning when you are managing the national team.

Managing the Brazil team is a challenge, you will need to win almost all the time. Any consecutive draw will force the FA to boot you from the team. I was fired when I drew by playing with Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. If you can stay away from Brazil national team. The FA is just too unreasonable I think.

If possible, try to manage the national team which you have the league selected such as If you are managing English League team, try to manage England. Usually there is more young talent in your league that you play with the exception of Brazil.

I usually don’t select the national team player, I just ask a suggestion from my assistant manager to select the team. This option usually is available from time to time. If not, select the best team by using the game filter such as rating etc.

4-4-2 tactic

I mainly used a 4-4-2 formation with both center back/ defender arrow down, wingers has upward arrow, and 1 fast striker downward arrow. The center back usually have man marking and rarely close down position. One of midfielder is played as defensive midfielder with closing down. Other your back will be out of position whenever the other team counter attack your team. The passing is set to short or mix, wide formation and quick tempo. Offside and counter attack is on.