I’ve decided to make a central area for some hints and tips we’ve picked up on our journey through CM9798. On this page you’ll find top players, the best formations and some other tips.
Tactics
We trialled some formations in the summer of 2017, my absolute favourite was the 2-3-1-2-2 which I use in the Aberdeen save. You’ll notice the constant in a lot of these formations is playing with a direct style, which is also the case in the 4-2-3-1 which was also very good.
We had unprecedented success using a narrow 4-4-2 diamond with Aston Villa but to date that seems like a fluke. If you want to keep it simple, my go to formation is always 5-3-2, it’s probably the most balanced formation and was in style at the time the game was released. Your midfielder in the centre of the three will have a small forward run, if you’re using the formations as listed on the tactics screen, and my advice for that player is that you have somebody with good heading. I have no idea why but it works.
Players
The mistake I made in the Community XI was including the top players like Ronaldo and Zidane. We all know they are good. Here’s my selection of must have bargains
John Curtis (CB, £2m) – Starts in Man Utd’s youth team but can never get a game. You’ll possibly be able to loan him in season one and buy him shortly thereafter. Depending on his contract he may be much cheaper than £2m but he will go on to captain England.
Bjorn Heidenstrom (CB/CM, £50k) – Friend of the blog Bjorn Heidenstrom starts at Leyton Orient and his value will fluctuate depending on his contract situation, but you can usually pick him cheaply in the first season. He’s a must have if you’re in the lower leagues but will also do a job at a higher level. Takes a mean penalty.
Erik Nevland (CF, £1m) – Goal machine! Basically any of Man Utd’s youth players are worth snapping up. Nevland will be available after season one.
Andrew Duncan (CB, Free) – Discarded by Man Utd in the off season, Duncan is a promising centre half who can be picked up for free. Definitely one for the lower leagues but can certainly improve.
Anthony Betterton (GK, Free) – A freebie keeper who will do a good job for you, again in the lower leagues though.
Andrew Mainwaring (CF, £5k) – Plays for ‘Non-League’ and can be signed for £5k. Will improve with game time and did a decent job for me at Barnsley in the Premier League once, so provided you aren’t a European giant you don’t need to panic (sorry).
Graeme Tomlinson (CF, Free) – Another discarded by Man Utd and available for free. Sign him, play him, enjoy him. Similar to Mainwaring, certainly one for the lower leagues and will do a job in the higher tiers.
Tommy Svindal Larsen (CM, £500k) – I think he was dumbed down a bit in the patch but this has been unproven. Cult hero, icon. Can also play out on the left, if you are Souness.
See Also: Dida (GK), Evar Moas (CB), Kieron Dyer (D/M RL), Marcus Purk (CF), Phil Mulryne (AM LC), Martin Lauchlan (DM LC), Alex Martin (CF), Billy MacDonald (DMC), John Ritchie (CF), Robert Dunn (M/FC), Neil Alexander (GK), everybody’s favourite Icelandic re-gen (DM/FC – wait one season, let the real one retire then pounce).
General Tips
Data Editor – A lot of fun can be had with the data editor, not in a cheating sense but in terms of looking at potential abilities and re-adding old players (Cantona, Lineker). I wrote a guide to the data editor here
Manage a National Team – It’s actually possible to manage any national team and not just those represented by the leagues you can play as. I wrote a comprehensive guide for that here
Big Club Release – We’ve all fallen victim to the big club release clause, but you can get past it by listing your players with the clause for loan. You’ll have to do this straight away or the board will veto it once they become important. Might not work forever but you’ll end up with well over the asking price rather than the tribunal fee.
Re-gens – Find an old player and bid for them on July 15th before the game updates. If the player retires, your bid will carry over to the re-gen. Some re-gens are easier to find than others, best way to do that is to look at young players in a certain position of a certain nationality. For example, the likes of Chilavert’s re-gen will be easy to find as there aren’t loads of young Paraguayan goalkeepers, or Luis Enrique’s because there won’t be many outfield players who can play every outfield position. Players on your shortlist never retire.
Greatest Team
The Community XI (below) was looking a little bit dated, so in October 2018 we ran a series of polls to find the Greatest CM9798 Team. Here it is or you can follow the link to see all of the nominees:
Community XI
Back when the blog first started in 2015, I asked you all to nominate your ultimate players and then we had a vote on it. After 2 months of voting and nominating, here is the team you’ve selected. The nominations and results are below:
[15/6/2015] Click here for the striking options – You voted Ronaldo (25%) and Ibrahima Bakayoko (22%) as your front two.
[1/6/2015] Click here to have a look at the central midfielders – You picked Zinedine Zidane (24%) and Bjorn Heidenstrom (15%) as your midfield pairing.
[25/5/2015] Click here to check out the left sided midfielders – 47% of you went for Rivaldo
[18/5/2015] Click here for right sided midfielder options – 38% of you chose Luis Figo.
[11/5/2015] Click here to see the centre back category – you voted Mark Iuliano (38%) and Martin Djetou (15%) as your centre half pairing
[4/5/2015] Click here to review the left back vote – 43% of you picked Paolo Maldini
[27/4/2015] Click here for the right back nominees – Javier Zanetti was your choice with 41% of the votes
[20/4/2015] Click here to see the best goalkeepers CM97/98 has to offer – Mickael Landreau won the spot with 42% of the votes
Hi folks. Am in 2005 with Lens. The Cup Final happens during International games at the end of the season so I normally send out the B team for it every year to get knocked out so I won’t have to deal with what happens in the next few sentences. This year I forgot. Now I can only select 5 players for the final so therefore my save is essentially over as I cannot field a team. The Save is saved up until Cup Final day too. Just wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to get out of this? Thanks!
Could you manager holiday past it?
It worked!!! Completely forgot about the Manger Holiday. I don’t think I’ve ever actually used it! The game went away with my 5 players. We lost 10-0 to Bordeaux but my Save continues. Thanks Dave!
Does anyone know how to speed up the commentary. The old space bar thing isnt working. I have a Mac, maybe that’s why
sur pc normal ça fonctionne encore
Hi folks. I’ve just managed to get the game on my iPad. Couple of things, please. How comes my picture just stays with sir Bobby robson with the shield and none of the grounds appear and 2nd, how do I get rid of the control thing. I have a Bluetooth mouse I want to use, but because the control option is there it’s not working as good as normal. Thank you
it’s amazing how im the only one to find this
okay ill let you in on the secret how i won the FA cup with doncaster rovers on season 2, and won the cup winners cup on season 3
buy Natipong Sritong-in from Thia Farmers for $300k at the start. he is literally the best player in the goal. scores 3+ goals every game.
5-3-2 direct
on season 2 get curtis and wes brown———– youll need to buy young ex manu players.. get them up to muli million valuations and sell them.. to afford these guys… ross tokely can be bought for 50-200k and can be sold for 10m
I’ve found second season is possible to win a cup as long as I get a peach of a draw and avoid Man Utd/Newcastle etc. The real challenge I’ve never been able to complete is the FA Cup or League cup in the first season with the likes Torquay
this is the ultimate cm9798 challenge; go doncaster and win the fa cup in season 1, and win the cup winners cup in season 2.
closest ive came so far is lossing in semi final to liverpool 2-0. i beat arsenal, newcastle, coventry, sheff wed on way there
i start by selling either ireland, turnbull, estadle, cunnimg at the start for 1.5m. then use then to buy scottish interested foreign base players to sell fast for big $$. for example, rogers, k.james, s.watson, b ferguson, rozental, etc.
I also get these free transfers at the start to sell for big $$$ fast. for example g.tomlinson, c.kiwomya, d.atkinson, b.venison, r.gough, d.tuttle, p.scully, mcgriddle, g.maguire. bartrum gk, heidenstrom, m. ward, p.sheerer, t.sheridan, a.duncan(if good stats), r.wallwork (if good stats) (+others good to sell fast but for small $$ are middleton, morris, greenman, i.mciness, dickov, a.duncan, r.wallwork, m.twiss, vaughn, s.marshall, etc)
5/3/2 attacking formation, direct.. im not really sure this is best formation to beat the top 4 premiership teams, as i only got off 2 shots vs arsenal and they had 16 shots. i was lucky to win 1-0. a more defensive formation might be more effective. 9 players with strong defence and hope the 2 forwards can get a goal or two.
i try and buy the perfect 11 before the first fa cup game, but its hard because most players reject to move to the club. i can sometimes get top div 1, 2, and 3 players, and sometimes young premiership players
im trying to figure out what the best 11 players i can get.
the team i got to semi’s with was
g.tomlisson + kiwomya
petta (good stats)
macdonald (good stats) + heidenstrom
t.mkinley + a.melville + fenwick (with good stats) + k.james + D.austin
s.hislop
i think it is possible, especially if the top 4 get taken out by other teams and you get lucky
let me know if anyone manages to do this and how
tip: you’ll need to immediately put players you buy on loan and refuse loan offers, so other teams cant buy players you buy (until you are ready to sell)
remake a new game until ireland or another players is wanted by other teams at the start, so you can get $$$ to buy players to sell for more $$$ to get the perfect 11. you should be able to get about 1.5m every time. just keep increasing price every day. if for some reason they dont buy before your first game remake.
I will give this a go
what does it mean dfk, I know what means cpt cnr and pen but this I don’t know
Direct free kick
Hey all,
Does anyone know if there’s a limit to the number of names you can add in the EXNMES.txt file? I want to add a bucketload, particularly in the smaller countries so there’s not always the same names being recycled, but I keep seeming greyed out players with first names but no surnames in some countries
I’ve downloaded this and it keeps tripping out at the end of Season 1 i.e. I get the ‘thank you for playing’ and then the game shuts down.
Any ideas how to fix this?
Have you made any database changes?
If not sometimes the games gets in a muddle. Is it every save you have the problem?
There is no fix, so start a new game, if it happens with evey save, delete everything and re-download.