Top Eleven Football Manager Guide

It's about time there was a good football management game on Facebook, and with Top Eleven Football Manager, that wish is now a reality. It is one of the most addictive games on the platform and has a health base of players to compete against and trade with.

In Top Eleven Football Manager, you can perform all the duties of a real soccer manager, including controlling all the facets of players' training, ordering substitutions and tactical changes during each match, coming up with the team's formation and picking the squad, and signing new players (as well as making sure you control the club's finances well i.e. not going bankrupt!).

Getting Started

The first time you play Top Eleven Football Manager, you will be asked to name your club. You should pick something distinctive so that you stand out from the crowd and to your friends. After this, you can select your nationality and city. You can also pick out a logo and choose the colors that your team is going to be playing in.

The game features a tutorial to introduce you to the basics of navigating the shop in Top Eleven. For the immediate purposes, just click on the Create Your Own Jersey button. You can then pick the color and the pattern to make it distinctive. These initial customization options are free, but as you progress through the game and look at some of the more complex options, you would be expected to pay for them. You can set up your own unique Home and Away jerseys.

Pick your strip and your crest to personalize your team.

With that done, select the shield icon, which represents your club's logo. There really aren't many options at the moment - they want you to have to pay to customize your logo just like you want it, but that is ultimately up to you. You can store logos, jerseys, and any other items that you acquire in Storage. This may seem a bit odd as they are not physical items - you need to remember to 'equip' each of these before they actuall come into use.

With that out of the way, you are given $100,000 in Cash to work with, as well as 5 Tokens to get you going.

Menus:

Compared to many Facebook games, Top Eleven has quite an intimidating menu system. There are News, Squad, Training, Fixtures, Competition, Transfers, Finances, Stadium, Club Information and Trophy Room.

News lists all of the important announcements that have come into your club. These can include things like new sponsorship offers, player injuries and team news.

Squad is probably the screen that you will use the most. You can see your current team line-up and set the formation and tactics ahead of your next match. You should take care to examine the map of each player's abilities in this screen, as it shows you the areas where they are strongest and weakest, allowing you to pick their best position on the pitch.

Training is pretty self explanatory, as it allows you to manage the training of all your players. You can pick the training regime and organize practice matches.

Fixtures show you the upcoming matches and allow you to see match reports from completed games. This screen also lets you see the fixtures that your friends have upcoming.

Competitions shows you the current position of your team, as well as things like the top goalscorer and leader for assists. It is a good place to catch up on all the stats available in Top Eleven.

Transfers is where you can view players on the transfer list, search for players to buy, and manage any offers that have come in for your own players.

Finances is an important section to keep an eye on as you need to make sure you don't spend too long in the red.

Stadium is where you can upgrade all the facilities of your club. This allows you to increase the maximum capactiy of your ground and so potentially attract more fans.

Club Information is simply where you can see and edit the basic details of your club.

The Trophy Room displays all of the successes that your team has made.

Cash

Cash takes the form of dollars and is the main currency in Top Eleven. They are used for pretty much everything in the game, from signing new players, to investing in your club's infrastructure (things like the stadiumsize, quality of the pitch, training facilities and medical equipment).

How to earn Cash:

It's quite easy to understand how to get Cash in Top Eleven as, unlike many Facebook games, it pretty much equates to real life. You earn Cash by selling players, attracting as many fans as possible to watch your team to support your club with ticket sales, and signing lucrative sponsorship deals – which are better depending on performance.

If your finances in Top Eleven reach minus numbers, you are in a bit of trouble. You are allowed to go 'overdrawn' into the minus figures, but have to resolve this within 7 days. Otherwise, the game will sell some of your players (starting with your most valuable one!) until the balance has been redressed. After 7 days, the first player will be sold. One more will go each day until you are back in the black.

Sponsorship:

You are able to get your club a sponsorship deal, which will allow you to earn a regular income of coins into your coffers.

To do this, visit the Finances menu. Click on the 'Sponsorship' tab. From here, you can select which companies you would like to sponsor your team. Some will be locked until your team is at a certain level (including, humorously, sponsorship from the developers themselves!).

The regularlity of payments and value varies depending on the company and your team's calibre. Sponsorships expire after a set period of time, so be sure to check back to make sure you are not missing out on any Coins that you could potentially be earning."

Sponsorship is a vital source of income.

Fans:

Fans are one of the primary metrics for establishing how well you are doing at Top Eleven, but also net you plenty of Cash. Of course, your league position may be more important, but having plenty of fans will keep your team's morale high and, most importantly, generate income for your club through ticket sales and merchandising. Your team's performances have an impact on the number of fans that support your club, but making sure there are tickets available at games with enough seats is important too.

Tokens

Tokens are the premium currency in Top Eleven, something which is in virtually every Facebook game nowadays. Thankfully, the game is much more generous than some, both with regards to giving out Tokens, and for forcing you to use them. In fact, Tokens are used only for rushing any building projects that are ongoing, making bids on players in auctions, and for changing the details of your club (something which you should have set up properly at the start of your game anyway).

How to earn Tokens

In Top Eleven it is possible to receive one token per day for free, if you are taking part in the correct TV Rights contracts. This encourages players to keep cominig back and means you can, potentially, compete at the game without ever having to spend your real money on it. Otherwise, you can earn Tokens by clicking on the 'Win Tokens' link at the top of the game screen. This works much the same as in other Facebook games, where you are rewarded for completing surveys and participating in offers. Finally, you can choose to simply buy the Tokens yourself. Again, you will have to physically pay for these using your own money in real life, and you can do that over the internet or on your mobile. It is not necessary in Top Eleven though, and it is worth spending some time playnig the game for free first to see if you really want to invest actual money in your team.

To buy Tokens in Top Eleven, click on the Buy Tokens option at the very top of the game screen. Sometimes, you will see the Tokens icon in game next to something you can buy or speed up - you can also click the icon there. You are then able to enter your payment details and confirm the amount of Tokens that you would like to purchase.

You can also now earn Tokens through Direct Transfers. See the Direct Transfers section of this guide for more info, but essentially, as the manager of a team selling a player, you will receive a fee from the purchasing manager upon the deal being done. This is an incentive to conduct deals in this manner.

NOTE: You are now able to purchase Tokens using Facebook Credits. This can be a great way to advance at the game more quickly than you would otherwise.

TV Rights

Much like the Sponsorship options, you can use the TV Rights tab in the Finances Menu to get a regular income of Tokens to help boost your team. These have certain conditions that you have to fulfill - there will be one that always rewards you with a Token every day, but higher-level ones will give you more for playing the game daily, beating more teams or fulfilling other criteria.

Referrals

Like the new Direct Transfer system, you can also earn Tokens through Referrals. This is essentially where you invite other Facebook friends of yours to play Top Eleven. They do have to perform certain actions in game and, depending on how frequently they play, how into the game they are, you can receive different amounts of Tokens.

To view the status of your current referrals, click on the Awards section. Below is a list of the Referrals that you can earn:

Strength in Numbers:
Invite 1 friend to the game and have them register within a week of receiving your invite.
Reward: 1 Token

First Class:
Your referred friend watched 3 live games.
Reward: 1 Token

Ticket Tips:
Your referred friend sold over 6,000 tickets for a match.
Reward: 1 Token

Media Tutor:
Your referred friend earned 32 Tokens from media in one season.
Reward: 3 Tokens

Mentor of Champions:
Your referred friend won three consecutive Champions League matches.
Reward: 2 Tokens

Matchmaker:
Your referred friends have watched (in total) 25 live games.
Reward: 1 Token

Assistant Coach:
Your referred friend has trained a special ability.
Reward: 1 Token

Mobilization:
Your referred friend has logged into Top Eleven using their mobile phone.
Reward: 1 Token

Business School:
Your referred friend has won 1 auction transfer.
Reward: 1 Token

Rules

League Structure:

It's hard enough understanding soccer leagues in real life, with all the permutations surrounding who will get promoted or relegated to where and why. In Top Eleven, a league has 15 teams including your own. The game will always try to match you up with friends, but it you have none already playing in a league, you will be grouped with strangers. It is at this point that you will realise how Top Eleven differs from the likes of Football Msnager – you are playing against real people, making real decisions and putting real time into the game, just like you are. It must be one of the most social, social games out there.

Each season has 26 fixtures, as in most leagues in real life, every team plays every other team twice, home and away. The League is modelled on Europe's top divisions, with the best four fnishing teams in each league going into the Champions League. The top seven teams in each league move up a level and come the next season, will be regrouped with other teams of the same ability – and any friends you have at this point too.

NOTE: You will not necessarily be in a League that matches up exactly with your level. If you have lots of friends at higher levels than you, or if there are gaps in other levels that the game needs someone like you to fill, you may find yourself in a slightly harder League than your experience warrants. The difference in ability still shouldn't be too great.

NOTE: It may look as though you are missing some of your prize money from the Champions League. This can be misleading as you are paid after every match that you play - so the total prize money for the Champions League actually includes all of the matches that you play on the way to the final.

NOTE: It's easy to go in and out of some Facebook games, forgetting about them for a while until your friends talk you back into it. Bear in mind that with Top Eleven, you only have 70 days of inactivity (i.e. not logging into the game) before your team is completely deleted. You will not be able to get them back.

Team Infrastructure

Top Eleven gives you the opportunity to manage far more than just your squad of players. Unlike real soccer managers, you have control over things like the actual quality of the football pitch and stadium. This obviously brings in more money to provide for you in the transfer market as more fans come to watch. Fans also help support your team, improving their moral and thus their form on the pitch. You can also invest in medical facilities and the training ground to improve each of those respective areas.

Upgrades:

You can upgrade your facilities, such as training pitch and stadium, to boost your team. These upgrades can have numerous effects, such as increasing training statistics, reducing the likelihood of injury, and improving morale.

Improve your stadium and your team's performances will follow.

To upgrade some of the facilities surrounding your stadium, visit the Stadium Screen. From here, you will see a picture of your stadium in all its glory to the left. On the right is the list of upgrades that you already have - showing the level of every facility. In the bottom right corner of the screen you will see the Upgrades option. Select this and you will be given the choice to upgrade everything, from floodlights to the grass on the pitch. This menu will also show you how long the upgrade will take, and the all-important cost. Once you have made your decision, select Buy.

Signing Players and Contracts

Auctions:

One of the unique features of Top Eleven is the live auctions that take place in the game for signing players. This allows the game to replicate the drama of transfer deadline day, with teams that have tons of money vying for the big names, and those scrabbling to stay afloat trying to sign a bargain youngter under everyone else's radar.

To take part in a live auction you need to use the Transfers menu. From here, simply search for players that you may want to try to sign. You can search by a number of attributes – probably the most useful is Position, but you can also filter by Age, Value and Nationality. Once you have found a player that you would like to make an offer on, click on them. This will show you how long is left and allow you to make a bid on the player in question. This is one of the few areas where you need Tokens, as one bid costs you one Token.

Bid for a player you want and cross your fingers!

TIP: Because of the high cost of bidding, with one Token being require per bid, you should try to time your bid as close to the end of the auction as possible. Much like eBay, you stand a greater chance of winning if you bid once near the end with something that is just higher than the previous offer than if you place a bid right at the start. Unlike eBay, you won't have people sniping you either!

Be careful clicking repeatedly - you do not get a confirmation message when you click on the hammer, it just takes your Token!

Once you have made the bid, the player will then appear on your shortlist. You can check to see which players on your shortlist you currently have the top bid on, as a green clock icon will show to the right of them. Bear in mind that while it is a good idea to bid right at the end of an auction, if you bid within 30 seconds of the auction ending, another 30 seconds will be added to allow people time to respond. This stops people from simply being able to outbid you by a few dollars in Cash with just seconds remaining.

If you are fortunate enough to have won an auction, a message will appear informing you of that fact and the player will then show up in your squad!

TIP: It is a good idea to purchase players you can perform in numerous positions. This will mean you are bound to get your money's worth for them, as putting them in multiple positions will not result in a dip in form or morale.

Direct Transfers:

One of the features that has been missing from Top Eleven for a long while is the Direct Transfers feature, which has now been incorporated into the game. You are now able to purchase a player directly from another team, or another manager, just like teams do business in real life. To do this, you must have reached Level 4.

Once at Level 4, you can access the Direct Transfers menu by clicking on Transfers, then Negotiations. You will see a complete list of those players who have been put on the transfer market. If you know that one of your friends has listed a player, or you want to make a bid on someone that your team is up against, you can select their team at any stage and then pick the player.

This will take you to the screen showing their most-important stats, and allow you to make an offer. Once you have made the offer, you will have to wait up to 24 hours for a response. If you receive an offer as a manager, you can either accept or decline it, or ignore it. Anything other than accepting within 24 hours will lead to the offer being rebuffed. If your bid for a player is unsuccessful, you obviously get your tokens back that were required to make the bid. Remember that there may be other people bidding against you - and as a manager remember that you may get other bids to consider in the near future.

The great thing about direct transfers is that the manager who sells the player not only gets the cash that the player is worth, but they also get a percentage of the Tokens that changed hands during the transaction! When you make a bid, move the slider to determine how many Tokens to offer the manager - this is sure to increase your chances of getting your bid accepted.

NOTE: You cannot bid for players if they are on different servers, or if they have 6 stars or above.

Contracts and Player Numbers

Like in real life, you may get depressed that your club can't afford to sign the best players across the world. This is only natural at the start of the game and you can't hope to compete with people who have been playing for months. However, a good idea is to focus on buying young players, especially if you are planning on playing for the foreseeable future. Older players can be forced into retirement, are more likely to get injured, and of course lose a considerable amount of ability as they get older (in areas like pace, in particular).

TIP: If you want to weed out some of the older members of your squad, go into the Squad section. Here you can see their age and how close any of them are to retirement or becoming a drain on your club's resources with their constant injuries.

At the start of the game, you will have a full squad so will have to sell or release players to make room for new ones. Focus on getting rid of the older members of the squad. It may seem harsh, but they've had their moment in the limelight and need to make room for young blood!

Contract Expirations:

You will have noticed that once a season, the game reminds you that you need to renew the contracts of certain players if they are about to expire. On the Contract screen, you will see some with 1 year's contract remaining. These players will be out of contract and can potentially leave your club for free at the end of the season if you don't tie them down to a renewal before then.

A key thing to remember when it comes to player contracts is that if they run out, the player can leave for free! You want to avoid this and make sure your lack of attention doesn't cause any important players to leave your team and go to a rival for free. To look at your team's contract details, including which players have contracts that will soon be expiring, visit the Squad screen.

On that screen, choose 'Contract Details' from the dropdown menu. Here, you can easily see which of the players in your team are approaching the end of their contracts. To renew a contract, click on the player and you will see the Renew option to the right of your screen. You may find, however, that some players are constantly badly performing or are sapping your finances too much to justify. If you want to sack a player, or sell them, click on the player in question and you will see the options, again to the right.

NOTE: If you discover that there are no players in the Transfer List, this may be because of an issue with your System Clock - it is a recognized problem. Try changing the Time, Day, Month and Timezone so that they are accurate. Messing around with these settings is often used by people to try to cheat at online games, so it can have an effect on Top Eleven's performance if anything is amiss.

Player Numbers:

A new feature that has been added to Top Eleven is being able to change the numbers of your players i.e. what number they wear on their shirts. To do this, go to the Squad menu, select the player, then click the small pen icon. This will allow you to change the player's details, including their number. Make sure you select Save and the number will update.

Youth Players:

Your academy setup should provide you 2 new players every so often. One of these you can purchase with cash, while the other will require Tokens. This depends on the quality of the player in question . Youth players are 18 years old, so it can be a good investment if you have the Tokens to spare. The Token players are normally four star quality. You can invest money in your academy, which will reduce the time you are waiting for new players to come through. If you max out your academy, you can end up with 2 new players every 12 days, which can be quite a boon.

Note: You must have a free birth in your player roster or the new recruits will not appear. You can have a maximum of 22 players, so make sure you have cleared some room for the next time you are due youth players.

Training

Most players find training as boring as those of us playing football management games find training menus in these games. However, we all know that without training your team will be unfit and uncohesive on the pitch come match day. You should take the time to train your squad whenever the chance comes up. To do this, visit the Training section. Here, you can select the type of training regime that you would like them to embark upon. These can be any from those listed below:

Match Practise:
This is focused on getting them in the mindset of mach day, and is good for honing tactics and formations

Cardio:
This concentrates on fitness and stamina.

Stretching@
This aims to reduce the likelihood of injury when your players get into the match.

If players are not training, then they will be Resting. Resting causes players to gain Condition.

Keep your players fit to help avoid injury and maximize their potential.

Training Speeds:

Below you can see a guide to which players train the fastest in each team.

Ages 18-21:
These players train the fastest. If you invest in your youth academy it will also speed things up here.

Ages 22-26:
Slightly slower training than above. You can improve things further by investing in the training ground.

Ages 27-28:
Again, these are the next slowest trainers. As above, you need to improve the training ground to help here.

Ages 29-31:
These are bad trainers - they can't get any better and will not learn new skills or improve their abilities.

Ages 32-34:
Unfortunately, these players lose their skills. Players will have retired by the time they reach the end of this bracket, although in real life 34 is not necessarily the final years of a player's career.

Finally, remember that a player who has match practice will also train faster. If you have players who never feature in matches, they will have stunted progression.

Team Intensity:

You are able to set the Team Intensity of training. You can set special instructions for the First Team and the Substitutions and Reserves separately. You can choose from Rest, Normal, or Hard training regimes. Change this depending on how tired your team is and how they are performing.

Individual Training:

You can tailor individual training sessions to focus on a particular area for any player in your squad. This is especially useful if you feel one person could do with improving an asset, finishing, for example, but you don't want your whole team focusing on it.

To assign individual training tasks, go to the Training Screen. You can then pick the one player that you want to give the training regiment to. With them selected, toggle the type of training on the right-hand side. You can pick from Defenive, Attacking, and Physical and Mental. Click Save to confirm the training.

Remember, if you find this level of man-management too much, you can simlpy choose the Auto-Assign option. This puts the computer in charge of selecting training for all of your players. It is good for you to have an input on areas of strength and weakness for your team, as that obviously has a direct impact on tactics. However, it does take a lot of time and you may prefer to let the computer do all of that work.

Personal Trainer:

The Personal Trainer is one area where your Tokens come in handy. Click on a player that you want to improve and then select 'Personal Trainer'. You can then move the slider to instantly improve them to that level - providing you are willing to pay out the Token amount specified!

NOTE: Every so often you may notice that one of your players has lost a star of their ability. This is nearly always because you have progressed to a better league. The stars represent a player's quality when compared to everyone else in the league, so star ratings will change as you move up and down through the ranks.

Managing the Team

Form:

Monitoring your players' form is important as it means you can select your team based on individuals' current performance. This should, in theory, mean that they are more likely to play to the same standard again in the next game. By contrast, a player who has performed poorly in the last five games may need to be dropped from the team and someone else given the chance to shine.

To see the performance of a particular player over the last five games, head for the ever-useful Squad Screen. From there, you can use the drop down menu in the top right-hand corner to change to 'Selection View'. Tick the column called Form, as this will filter just by players' Form in the last five games. The number in this column represents the player's Form over those games.

Match Reports are a great way to analyze your team's performance after the event. To access Match Reports in Top Eleven, you must visit the Fixtures screen. This also shows the results of the matches. Click on the result that you would like to see the match report for, and it will then be displayed for you.

Injuries, Rest and Treatments

Injuries are cleverly managed by Top Eleven, and were initially based on players' real life likelihood of getting injured. This has since been dialled back. Older players are more prone to injury, like in real life generally, especially if you train them too hard. This is another reason to clear out your elderly players when they reach a certain age.

Even if you plough all of your resources into trying to prevent injuries, you will never be able to remove the risk completely. The game does limit the maximum number of injuries you can get, as otherwise it would just be unfair on some unlucky gamers! You can only get 7 injuries in total. Combat Injuries using Treatments.

Rest:

Players rest once a day. This is during the scheduled server maintenance that takes place. This means that you can play matches very close together and not have to worry about fatigue - the main thing is that they rest once a day, regardless of the number of matches in that period.

Rest improves conditioning. Using 1 Rest will improve a player's condition by 30%. 2 Rests restores a player to full condition. To generate Rests, you need to build ground units from Training facilities. Also, if you watch a live match and make a substitution, you will receive a free Rest.

Treatments:

Treatments reduce the injury period by a certain amount. You need 5 Treatments to reduce the injury period by 1 day. To remove 2 days from the wait time, you need 9 Treatments. You can see the full list of these below:

-1 Day:
5 Treatments

-2 Days:
9 Treatments

-3 Days:
12 Treatments

-4 Days:
14 Treatments

-5 Days:
15 Treatments

Max:
15 Treatments

Max means that any injury can be resolved with 15 Treatments. Treatments can be gained through gifting, so make sure you have a supply stocked up and don't have to use your Tokens to buy Treatment Packages so as to resuce your star player from a bad injury. You can also simply purchase Treatment Packs using Tokens.

You need to build ground units from Medical facilities to begin generating Treatments yourself. You can also get Treatments through Fair Play. Fair Play is measured depending on whether you watch the match live, and if your players avoid picking up any bookings or red cards.

Morale:

Morale is dictated by a number of things, but some players have bad attitudes and will take far more effort on your part to motivate them. Good ways to improve player Morale are to use Win Bonuses, so that they are rewarded for good performances, and to play lots of friendly matches.

You may start to get fed up with some players who constantly have low morale. This is just in some players' nature. To be able to get their morale up, you will have to resort to using Morale Boosters as other methods are fairly ineffective for these characters.

Morale is boosted by 1 Point when you win a match (you basically win 1 Morale Booster with a victory). If you lose, it is -1. If you keep losing and you hit rock bottom at 0, don't worry, you can't go any lower than that, even if things are truly dire.

If you watch a match live, you also receive a Morale Booster - as you would expect, your players react favorably when they see you watching their exploits on the pitch.

TIP: You should aim to rotate your squad as much as possible. This will keep players fresh, reduce injury, and give you an insight into all of the players in your team. Obviously some will just not be good enough to get a game, but, without sacrificing overall team competence, switch players in and out if you can.

Match Day

One of the most satisfying things about football management games is putting all that hard graft into dull statistics and tactics screens, before seeing it replicated on the pitch. Fortunately, Top Eleven has a live mode where you can watch your team play out to your orders. To do this, you simply need to log on at the time specified and tune in. During a match, you can of course change tactics on the fly during gameplay, and make any substitutions you deem necessary, or those enforced by injuries.

If you log on during a game and want to join it so that you can react to changes on the pitch in real time, you should see the option to 'Join Match' right at the top of the screen, in the middle. This will take you into the live view and allow you to make decisions and influence the game.

Watching a match live has numerous benefits - and it's pretty addictive too!

While a game is going on, you are obviously able to influence tactics and give players orders. To do this, select the 'Give Orders' blue button at the bottom of the game screen, on the right. You can tinker with your team to your heart's content there. Click Save and the orders you have given will filter down to your team and become effective in the live match environment.

NOTE: If you find that you are unable to join a game in progress, or it ends prematurely, that is normally because the other player doesn't have enough players in their team to play the match. This may be because they are having financial difficulties or too many injuries and suspensions. The sure way to tell why the match has ended earlier than planned or very quickly, is if the final score is 3-0. This is the default result for a match that has not been played because of one particular team

NOTE: If you see the result change from a match that you saw finish, very occasionally there can be server issues which cause the game to have to re-simulate some matches. This would inevitably cause the results of matches which had finished, to be calculated again. This is a rare issue, however.

Tactics and Formations

Picking the right formation is always one of the most important things you can do going into any match in Top Eleven, as in real life. You can view all the predefined formations, which feature some of the most common in the world of soccer, such as the ubiquitous 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formations, in the Squad screen. Select the Formations tab to see them in full.

Fine tune your tactics to out-smart your opponents.

Defensive

If you want to choose strong, defense-minded formations, perhaps because your recent games have resulted with many goals being conceded, you can opt for the likes of the 5-3-2. This formation has one sweeper defender in the center, with two other central defenders either side. There should then be two wing-backs, one on each side. You then want three central midfielders, and two strikers.

This formation relies a lot on the wing backs getting forward, so you need to set their mentality to push on. Because there are five defenders and the midfielders are compact in the center, it is a very solid basis to build upon. Use Counter Attacking combined with your wing backs to put a sting in the tail of this formation.

5-4-1 is the next defensive formation worth considering. You can play with three center backs but because you now have four in midfield, you are able to play with wingers in front of your wing backs. This makes it a more attacking formation, in terms of getting the ball up to the lone striker. If you set your wingers and one of the central midfielders to have red arrows so they attack, you can be very strong on the counter attack with this formation.

4-5-1 is very similar to the previous formation. By packing the midfield you are able to facilitate numerous defensive midfielders while still leaving wingers free to attack when in possession.

Midfield and Attacking:

All of these formations balance players throughout the team, focussing on midfield and attacking play. With most of the players in midfield and attack, these formations obviously leave the team vulnerable defensively. 3-4-3 is probably the most well known of these formations. You should be able to retain posession easily in midfield and attack at will, but will be short in defense. You can drop some of the midfielders back if you are struggling too much with this. Get your team to focus on short passes and keeping the ball.

3-5-2 allows for a slightly sterner defense, as it has five players in midfield. This makes it easier for players to fall back and assist the defenders. You are also able to turn attack into defense quickly. You should again try to win the ball back quickly and then maintain posession. 3-6-1 is very similar to 3-5-2, but is a lot more defensive. You can put the wingers a long way forward or play with two attacking midfielders just up behind the striker.

You can also try the 4-2-4 formation which, if you think about it, seems ridiculously offensive. With just two players in midfield, you can spread the front four out into lines. It is a good long-ball formation, where you are quite desperate towards the end of the game and are looking to bypass midfield.

4-3-3 is one of the most popular attacking formations. It allows you to play with three strikers, normally one right up front and then two playing off them. It can easily be adapted into the 4-5-1 formation. This ability to pass through midfield makes it popular with fluid, passing teams. It is not particularly weak defensively, because of the ability to drop players back into midfield. Play with enough pace in the front players and you can counter attack incredibly effectively using these tactics.

Balanced:

These formations are great for beginners and seasoned pros alike. They are relatively equally balanced between attack and defense, and allow for great flexibility on the fly as the game changes. 4-2-3-1 is a good average formation as it allows for 2 defensive midfielders but then four players focussing further forward.

4-4-2 is the classic formation and is one that most players revert to if they are having problems with tactics. The positions speak for themselves, but you do not have to lay your players out in lines. Full backs can become wing backs and push on when attacking. You can play with two defensive midfielders and two wingers, or one defensive midfielder, two wingers and one attacking midfielder, in a diamond - generally any shape you can think of can be accommodated by this formation.

Hard Tackling:

You are able to order your team to use hard tackling while playing their opponents. This can be a good move if you are getting outplayed - it will intimidate the opposition. The risk is that you can get players sent off.

Missing Players:

If you find that a player has become injured and you have no more subsitutions, or they have been sent off, a good formation is one where you try not to let the missing player's absence impact the team at all. So reverting to a 4-4-1 formation, just missing off a striker, is a good idea as you will be able to maintain the score. If you are behind and lost a player, then you obviously have more problems.

Instructions

Instructions allow you to compliment the formation that you may have chosen with specific mentalities and tactics to provide for your team. Below are some of the Instructions you can give and details on what they are:

Ball Possession:

If you are struggling to get a foothold in the game, you may want to consider using Ball Possession. As the old saying goes, if you've got the ball, your opponent can't score. If your formation is one of the midfield-centric ones, or one where are you hoping to pass it through the midfield to get to your strikers, Ball Possession is a good idea.

Counter Attack:

Some teams only play counter attack, especially away from home, and don't attack by any other means. It is good for more defensive formations when you want to draw teams on and then hit them on the break. You will need to pass the ball long when counter attacking so as to attack as quickly as possible upon winning the ball back - it is also a good idea to pressurise the opposition into giving you the ball.

Offside Trap:

The Offside Trap is employed by most teams that play with a high defensive line. The idea is for the defense to step up when the attacking team plays the ball forwards. If they get it wrong, for example if your defenders are not technically skilled enough or can't co-operate well enough to pull off the technique, then the consequences are dire - the other team will be through on goal. Use the Offside Trap along with formations that are attack-minded and have fewer defenders.

General Tactics

Make sure that as many of your players as possible are playing in the position they are supposed to be. If necessary, try picking a different formation - for example, if you have too many strikers and not enough defenders, change formations so that the strikers can fit in. Your team will probably perform better even with a risky attacking formation than compared to a balanced one with players out of position.

Make sure your team has good Morale. You can combat this easily with Morale Boosts, even if your team is losing. Make sure you watch the live matches whenever possible as this earns you Morale Boosts and spurs your team on.

Make sure you monitor the fatigue of your big name players. Otherwise, they will become fatigued and their performance will suffer.

When planning your tactics, spot the weakest player in your opponents team. Focus your attacks on there.

As is your right as a football manager, you are able to play your players out of position, should you wish. Sometimes you don't have a choice, if a player is injured for example. Obviously this will have an effect on their performance, with some players being well suited to certain positions, such as a winger being able to play on either side, or a defender playing in defensive midfield. Others will not make the transition so well. Just use logic to think where a player would be able to do well, based on their natural position and their statistics. Players tend to have the ability to do well out of position in the odd game, but it you play them there regularly it will effect their morale and form - footballers do not like being played out of position! Although it's better than not playing at all surely?

Automatic Management:

If you find yourself struggling to put enough time inito Top Eleven, you are able to automate a lot of decision-making. We've already looked at how you can get the computer to manage your players' training regimes for you. You are also able to have the AI take control of your team during the game, with input in advance from you. So if you are not able to be on your computer for a particular fixture, you can have the computer make substitutions and decide on set-piece strategy based on what you have advised in advance.

To do this, go to the Squad Screen. The tabs you are interested in are Tactics, Auto-Subs, Penalty Takers Order, Free-Kick Takers Order and Captains Order. To use these settings, drag a player from the squad on the left-hand side of the screen into the position you would like them to fill on the right. The main benefit of doing this is to specify who should come in to replace a player if someone gets injured or sent off. For example, if your designated free-kick taker is injured, who then should take set-pieces? The game will use the Free-Kick Takers Order to decide that if you are not present during the game to do it yourself.

Friends

As explained earlier, you should be matched with your Friends when Top Eleven puts you in a particular league. If you are finding that you are not getting matched with your Friends in your league, bear in mind that the game only does its best to match people up. Obviously some, even a lot of the time, there is not enough space or not sufficient leagues to support certain friends playing together. For example, if one of your friends is playing with all their friends, there may not be any room for you to fit into their league. The main thing is not to lose heart and to keep playing until the next season as the leagues are shaken up each year. Of course, you also need to aim to be the same level as the friend you are hoping to match.

Inviting Friends:

You can invite Friends to join you by clicking on the Invite option at the top of the screen. You should also notice that you can click on the empty profile slots at the bottom of the screen to do this too.

Something else to remember when trying to get matched up with friends is that Top Eleven is a popular game, so not everyone plays on the same server. Each one can hold 100,000 people. This means there is a very remote chance (but a chance nonetheless) that you may join the end of a server and your friends may be in a completely different one. This will mean you won't even be able to see them. Again, be patient, as the servers are regularly shaken up to resolve this unavoidable issue.

Gifts:

Like with most social networking games, you are able to send Gifts to help out your friends. If you do this regularly enough, they will return the favor and it can be an incredibly valuable way of gaining certain items and giving your team a boost.

The items that you can send to your friends are:

Treatments
Morale Boosters
Rests
Skill Points

Cheats

There are no cheats available for Top Eleven. The whole idea of the game is that everyone is on an even playing field, with people's players and tactics being the deciding factor when it comes to matches. If some people are cheating to get more Cash or Tokens, it puts all of this at risk. You might argue that someone who spends all their real money on the game is no better than someone cheating, but things are in place to make sure those type of players do not become too powerful. Furthermore, when using any sort of game hack or cheats, you risk your Facebook account and the progress of your Top Eleven game being lost. Never give out your username and password to anyone claming to offer cheats or hacks, as they are just trying to get into your account.