Compiled here is a guide, geared towards increasing your chance of success whilst playing Fifa Soccer Manager.

The best sort of formation is a balanced one between defence, midfield and attack. Although you have the opportunity to have 10 forwards, or 10 central defenders, in the long run, this will not benefit your chances or winning. Having at least 2 central defenders is important for stopping opposition forwards, as these will be the closest guys to them, and therefore have the best chance of making a tackle.

Using wingers for wide attacks, will more often than not, catch out the opposition.

To defend against the computer teams doing this to you, left and right backs should do the trick. Attacking midfielders and support strikers are also good. As well as backing up forwards in attacking situations, they also tend to get in shots on goal themselves, so increasing the chance of scoring.

Always remember to check on the opposition formation, so as to give yourself the chance to exploit any weaknesses that he may have.

STYLE
Specific orders given to players can increase the chances of them performing better on the field of play, but if used wrongly, mistakes can be made, or the player may not perform to his full potential.

Shoot on sight
Useful for getting your striker to take more shots at the goal, however he won't look to get as close to goal as much, so there is a little bit of trade of to think about here when setting this option.

Crossing game
Apply this to your wingers (or possibly wing-backs) to motivate them more to run down the wing and whip in some crosses.

Long ball game
Basically, a player with this setting to look to play the ball long more of the time, so it's useful for defenders who will lump the ball out of defence quickly, or for midfielders, who can play the long searching balls which catch out the opposition defence.

Passing game

This will encourage the player to pass more, so it is most useful when given to the best passers in your side, who more often than not are midfielders.

Run into space
Tell your forwards and midfielders to take up better positions when attacking. Works best when attacking midfielders are set to "passing game", and the wingers are set on "crossing game", so that they find the attacking runs of the appropriate player.

Run with ball
Players with good dribbling skills and control are the ones to set this on. Could be an additional style for wingers or wing-backs, along with "crossing game". Also helps forwards to be more determined to get closer to the goal before taking a shot. However the down side, is that they are more prone to being caught in possession of the ball.

Possession game
Use this option to tell your players to hold onto the ball more. Midfielders are a good bet for this option, due to them having better control overall.

ORDERS
Choose to do an all-out-attack when you are in desperate need of a goal. Although this will increase your chances of getting that vital goal you need, defensively, you will leave yourself a little weak. And vice versa for if you play all-out-defend, you may well stop the opposition from getting the goal they need, but your probably not going to score one yourself!

Use attack and defend to effect a subtle change in your teams attacking / defensive duties.

Play on the break is useful for counter attacking teams which only play with 3 at the back. Having a formation with a couple of quick wingers, an attacking midfielder and 2 forwards, can sometimes be quite devastating. This cautious approach though, invites the opposition to attack you, which is not always a good thing.

Time wasting, of course, is most effective during the closing stages of a match, when you want to retain possession of the ball, so that the opposition can't get it. However, during normal play, it can also work to your advantage, because the opposition players will run around more chasing after the ball, so this will reduce their energy levels. Playing against tired players is a lot easier than playing against fresh ones!

BIASING
This section of the game allows you to bias events towards certain players in your team.

Tackling Bias
If your defender's or midfielder's tackling skill is low, they are more likely to foul, and therefore pick up unwanted yellow and red cards. Lowering their tackling bias influences them not to tackle as much, and so decreases the number of fouls they will commit.

Raising this value for a highly skilled tackler can sometimes help to make him very solid. Overall though, a good set up is to lower the tackling bias for the defenders and midfielders slightly, and lower it even more for people like wingers and forwards who are generally not very good at tackling.

Possession Bias
Pump up the possession bias to maximum for the player(s) who you most want to have the ball. A good midfielder with this setting, will be able to play more killer passes. It also increases the chance of wingers getting the ball more, so spreading the game out, and making it easier to attack. Buying in a quality striker, and setting him to high possession is also a good tactic, as other team members pass the ball to him as much as possible, so increasing his scoring chances in front of goal.

PLAYER STATISTICS
Checking on individual stats for players can reap huge rewards if you know what you are looking for. The average stat for the player is an average score of all his stat attributes, so if this is high, then he generally has a good score for all his stats. The position average indicates what he is like in any of the listed positions. This score concentrates on stats that are important for a position (eg, Shooting for Striker), so again you can instantly see if the player is right for the role.

Goalkeepers
Although the obvious ones to look out for here are Handling, Throwing and Kicking, keep an eye out for high Agility as well which signifies that the keeper is very agile between the sticks.

Defenders
Look out for tackling skill. A high score in this stat should ensure that your defender won't commit a lot of fouls, and will tackle more effectively on a regular basis.

Midfielders
Passing and control are the ones to watch out for here. These should ensure that quality passes are sprayed over the pitch all day.

Forwards
Pace and acceleration will give your forward the edge against any opposition defender. A good shooting stat wouldn't go a miss either!

Keep an eye out for youth players on the transfer market. Although in general, their stats are lower than older, more experienced players, a few will crop up every now and again with very good stats, and with the right amount of training, can turn into quality players. Also, the younger players tend not to demand such a high monthly wage, which helps keep your overall monthly wage bill at a reasonable amount.

TRANSFER MARKET
Getting new players in is usually a straight forward process, but when buying in a new player, it sometimes pays to drop the offer price slightly below what the club are asking, as some clubs are not so stringent on receiving the exact full fee asked for. This works best with players who are on the transfer market, as the club is looking to get rid of them anyway. When trying to approach a player who is not transfer listed, you will need to up your offer to a reasonable amount to get your man (in some cases, extra 40%-50% of the listed value). If the club says that they are not interested in selling, then it's usually a good bet that they are not willing to sell, at any price. If the player says he would like to be considered in the future, either leave your initial bid on the table over a period of time, or comeback at selected intervals with an increased offer each time.

Selling players is also straight forward, but you may want to increase their transfer value slightly before putting them onto the market. An offer does not always come in, but sometimes it is worth the wait for a team willing to pay the increased offer.

CONTRACTS
Re-negotiating contracts can be a tricky affair, but in general, the higher a player values himself, the more money he will demand. A good contract length is about 2-3 years, but longer ones ensure that your players don't ask to leave too soon, and won't ask for a pay rise too often.

TRAINING
The training types speak for themselves really, so you should always be able to find the appropriate method to increase the relevant stat on any given player. 5-a-side match and Mini-match is a good all round practice session which helps all round skills.

Try not to train on actual match days (which is usually a Saturday or a Sunday, but you'll probably have midweek matches as well), because your players might end up going into a match situation with low energy levels, because they have trained on that same day. One blank day during the week, and keep Saturdays and Sundays blank as well should ensure that your players are fresh for matches, and not so prone to injuries all the time.

FINANCE
Obviously maximising your potential to make money is very important, because this opens up the opportunity to purchase better players, and build a bigger and better stadium so that you attract more people to watch your games, therefore making more money again.

Be sure to set a reasonable ticket price, as higher prices put people off coming to your ground, and make you lose out in the long run. Remember also to take into account the different quality seating and stands when setting the price. The amount of merchandise you sell is affected by more people being at the ground as well as price. So although you may have a full stadium, if the merchandise price is too high, only a small percentage will buy goods. At extreme levels, fans will stop turning up to games if the merchandise price is kept high for a long period of time.

Concessions are fairly straight forward, but pay attention to Sports stores which increase the ability for you to sell more merchandise, and Function rooms, which increase the chance that an outside party will want to hold an event at your stadium.

Loans offer a quick injection of cash, but it must be used wisely. It will have a long term effect on your monthly outgoing, so you'd better be prepared to suffer this cost for a while.

STADIUM BUILDING
The versatility of this option allows you to approach the building of your stadium in many ways. Most importantly, remember to keep an eye on the cost of anything that you are going to build, or expand on, because this cost will be immediately deducted from your balance.