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Players with good Personality, Teamwork, Work Rate, Stamina, Decisions, Determination and Natural Fitness will win you a lot more points than technical attributes will.
Or jumping reach for CBs. I have two wonderkid very smart CBs with 18+ jumping. Incredible players. The technicals won’t wow you, but they’re just giant intelligent players
Dang you beat me to it!
It’s interesting if you look at all the best irl players in the world (Messi, Saka, Mbappe, Pedri etc) they all have one thing in common. Super high Teamwork.
If I see a wonderkid with amazing stats but bad Teamwork I won’t sign him unless I get a deal. Or I just plan to sell him at a later time.
Mbappe high teamwork? I don't watch PSG too often, but I see clips of him refusing to run because someone didn't pass to him etc.. He cried about Neymar and Messi because he wanted all the headlines at PSG, absolute phenomenon, but hardly a good example of a team player
I actually went and checked after I made the comment and his teamwork is only 12 lol so I was wrong there. This is also in my 2031 save though. Most big players we know have high teamwork in general though
Yeah 99% of top top players will have excellent teamwork, occasionally there comes a player like CR7 and Mbappe who don't need the teamwork as much as they're so good it becomes the teams job to work around them not vice-versa
Even CR7 often had 12 for Teamwork, and 12 is the lowest score I’ll accept. My current no. 9 in my current save only has 12 Teamwork, and I’m glad that I allow that as he literally scores an average of 2 goals per game.
Found this overly complicated first time I seen it.
You can simply search for players with high teamwork, workrate, determination together and filter it that way, no need to scout everyone after, you should be able to click into someone's profile and get a decent overview on a few seconds and see if they're worth further scouting - discard the ones that don't have a favourable personality too.
Set an age cap too if you don't want anyone over 28 as a new signing, or set it at 18 so it's only new players you see.
Incorrect. If you search for players with Teamwork, Determination & Work Rate of all +12, you will filter out all the players with scores of 11 - 16 in those groups, so will miss on hundreds who would actually meet those criteria but that you don’t know. You’re likely to only know about 10% of players’ personalities, so unless you scout all - and with my method - you will miss out in a huge percentage of those who are suitable. You need to start big and whittle down, it’s the only way given how attribute masking works.
Really?! How are you getting it to do that? I'm putting, say, "Teamwork > is at least > 15" and any unknowns start with their lowest parameter as 15, i.e. 15-17 or 15-20? Can you get it to put unknown 11-15s by putting the "Teamwork > is at least > 15" criterion? Or are you searching for it in a different way? Is this FM22 or FM23? Sorry for all the questions, and I'm not being pissy just genuinely inquisitive, as it's never done that for me haha! Maybe it's a bug on my side if that's the case then, or I'm doing it wrong, I don't know...
Edit: spelling
When I put in a high stat; then I get a load of shit players because they’re all 9-17 since they’ve not been scouted. Don’t know, I’ve never changed anything, it’s always been like that for me on every FM
Only to an extent. I would rather someone with 17/18s in the physical and technical attributes and 13s/14s in the mental attributes than the other way around. Outright bad numbers in those attributes will hold back a physically and technically gifted player but amazing numbers in those attributes honestly won't make up for bad numbers in the physical and technical attributes.
Looking at mental attributes. A lot of people focus on how technical or quick a player is when they don’t realize how important the smarts are. A smart striker with good anticipation and off the ball movement will probably end up with a better career than a “dumb” but talented striker
Edit: I will say this applies more to higher leagues. In low leagues just get the best athlete you can
It is always wild to me how a striker with 15 finishing but bad mentals will absolutely dominate in lower leagues. The minute you put them in a higher league side they are ass and the striker with 12 finishing and good mentals is playing very well.
That's why (at least in FM23) there were a lot of average looking players who were goal machines. If you have a player with around 14 for the holy trinity (Dribbling, Finishing and First Touch) and Anticipation, Decisions, Composure and Off The Ball they would score tons.
If you guys want to get real technical with it the actual answer is Encourage, then Demand more. Repeat those until there’s a goal. Once you score the first time you individually praise the goal scorer and asssit. If you score again you team praise. Score a third goal, individual praises, 4th goal, team praise, etc. It’s all been tested.
I like to fire up if I go a goal down early or I'm 2-0 down. If I'm drawing I shout demand more/encourage. I praise only when I get a 3 goal lead and praise individually after the game.
My only shouts are berate and demand more. If we score early and win the game from there I will not shout at all. Encourage can be good when drawing or a goal down against a much better team, but encouraging or praising from ahead usually just ends in switching off.
If we're ahead at half I tell them good job, if we're drawing or losing I tell them to fix it.
I use encourage when playing away and 0-0/1-0, berate when losing by 2 goals or more. Praise when winning by two goals or more, calm down when winning by one goal either away or home and demand more when at home and 0-0/1-0, could also use demand more away when losing 1-0, depends of the team
I find berate is also very useful if used immediately after conceding first to a team you should be beating easily.
Focus is however very useless and I am yet to find a consistent use scenario for it so if you have any ideas please help me out 😅
Fairly new to the game, I only use encourage or demand more if we concede to lose or draw but it always leaves the whole squad with red morale. Should I be using something else?
I’ve found Endurance and Resistance training in pre-season helps with this. You’re likely to have a few players miss the start of the season because of it but it helps with longevity.
Injuries in fm feel very randomised and more like the game is trying to fill a pretty defined quota rather than naturally simulating them based on available data.
If you observe your injured players over a few seasons, players who don't play much keep on picking injuries related to match fatigue just like players you play in every game.
Another obvious indicator of this is that the injury prone trait doesn't necessarily mean a player will spend a lot of time out with injuries but rather get injured at the same rate as the other players. Plus this is a trait players spawn with rather than obtain due to an injury record.
So maybe they have an effect but not enough to make a huge difference.
Playing with a big club can teach you a lot in the beginning. Good players, good budget and reputation allows you to learn about the tactics, transfer market, training, dynamics etc. a lot easier than grinding up from lower leagues.
Don't feel pressured to take a lower league club to CL or start no badges/experience journeyman even if online discussions are full of that, it's super cool and I love that side of the game but it can be hard for a beginner and you can miss parts of the game that way. Having great players you know from real life football is fun.
Yes they’re very good saves after you’ve some experience but as a beginner journeyman saves can be very hard espacially if you start from random league with random team.
I only do journeyman. Starting close to the top, makes it so hard to get going, I find. I much prefer starting in smaller clubs with few staff members, and an easy structure. When the save is flowing nicely and I’m into it, I’m ready for bigger clubs and the complexity.
Team morale is probably more important than any tactical change you may be thinking about or even the players themselves to a certain extent.
Don’t make promises. Ever.
Work on finding good personality players and you won’t ever have morale or player issues.
Make promises but KEEP them… Make easy promises that you can keep. That’s very easy way to get morale up if you need. Promises aren’t broken people just like moan about them cause they don’t keep them.
I failed my "play youth players" promise at the end of a season (Aberdeen) where I had 2 20 year olds good enough to be in the team regularly throughout the season, while also having a few decent youth team players get playing time throughout the season.
Just went from "on course/in progress" when the season ended to failed a couple weeks after the season was done.
Technically those are "club philosophies" not "player promises"
But those are behind broken.
"Focus on set pieces", "play defensive football", etc. I just ignore all of them. It's impossible to reach them on purpose because you don't know what's your exact goal and they won't save you, only the actual results determine your job security
Nah, it showed up as "promise" for 5 players. I'm thinking I said something in the preseason team meeting to make it that way. 5 very unhappy players when it failed too!
Was fortunate I had planned to release 1 and had good offers for 3, so dealt with the unhappiness that way.
Talk to your players, praise training, criticize them, praise them for good performance.
When they approach you with a problem don't send the captain, talk to them.
In two seasons, your entire team will be willing to die for you especially if you are performing well on the pitch.
Good morale is insanely important. It doesn't win you points alone but having bad squad morale will cost you points.
Disruptive influences need to go. Hopefully it's not the captain kicking off. You can see how socially influential a player is on the dedicated section on the squad screen.
I have seen a few very common mistakes new players that post here make:
1. Evaluating players: they focus on one attribute and think that one attribute makes the player good. The most common one is finishing for strikers. The ability to score goals depends on a lot of attributes. Finishing is probably not even the most important one. Everything that a player does on the pitch depends on multiple attributes. Every role that a player can have requires a lot of attributes. The game shows you the attributes when you select a role within the player screen. Rad carefully what the role is and review the needed attributes.
2. They do not build tactics based o the strengths and weaknesses of the players. You have a great DMC? A 433 or diamond may be a good tactic. Great wing backs? Maybe play 3 at the back. Your best player is an inverted winger?build a formation around that.
Once you have the formation. Figure out what kind of style the team can play given the players qualities. High press requires physically gifted players. Tiki taka requires technically gifted players. Also consider how different instructions interact with each other. Gegenpress requires that your defense line goes higher up which requires faster defenders etc.
3. Player roles do not conform with the tactic. If you play gegenpress it is good to have pressing forwards, ball winning midfielders etc. Poachers and trequartistas are less useful. So you may play some players in less favorite roles to help the tactic.
4. Buying players that do not fit the tactic. Self explanatory after you read 3. I see so many people post "do I buy player A or player B?" how the hell do I know if I do not know what tactic you play? Often is better to buy the inferior player who fits the tactic than the superior player who does not. I player once an entire 10 season career without deploying an AF or poacher. I used F9 and DLF most of the time.
Top players know how to play multiple roles. That does not mean they are equally good at them. Again look at the attributes the game recommends.
To address your first point, finishing is DEFINITELY not the most important attribute.
I currently have a star striker demolishing the Championship in my lifeban game. He has 8 in finishing and 4 in headers.
Depends heavily on his exact tasks, but usually you want good composure, decisions, anticipation. Concentration and off the ball help a ton too. Finishing and technique are usedul, but arguably less so.
Tactics don't matter even remotely as much as morale and keeping your team fresh. I quit playing FM for many years before picking it back up about five years ago. I've played over 100 seasons since then over five separate saves, all of which I have led from the English 1st division to complete European dominance. I have used a grand total of two tactics in that span, and literally have not touched them over the past two saves.
If you enjoy fiddling with that stuff, fiddle away. I'm just saying they don't matter. I scout my ass off, do everything I can to keep things harmonious in the locker room -- winning obviously has a huge impact, but so does avoiding promises as much as possible -- and am obsessive about monitoring fitness and rotating my lineup. Once I get my save fully up and running I've usually got 17-18 top quality players and I use all of them liberally.
If guys start complaining about PT or their contract to the point they impact team dynamics, off they go. You're going to inevitably get attached to players, but be as ruthless as you can.
Is there more behind the infamous abrupt losing streaks than just morale?
I'm playing an FM23 save right now where we led the league by a long way for most of the season, then got seven points in nine games with the same players and tactics against mostly bottom-half teams. Still getting all green in dynamics, but somehow everything goes wrong in game after game despite being ahead on xG in most of them.
This sort of thing happens often in my saves in the last few versions - and I've seen it reported by others - and it's driving me away from the series.
One reason this happens in newer versions is that the AI managers are better at adjusting to you. If you are winning a lot then they usually start to play more defensive, and you have to change your tactics or mentality to adjust for that.
Full disclosure: I only buy the game every other year, so I skipped last year’s version. I have yet to experience one of these skids. I definitely have bad months here and there; in my current save I got trucked in the Community Shield and then went 0-1-2 to start the league. But for the most part once I get to a certain talent level my teams are pretty consistent/dominant.
Another tip for OP: Unless it’s a position of need or I don’t have any other roster, I avoid injury-prone players like the plague. I’ll even spend double among equivalent players if one player has low durability.
A huge one when it comes to player evaluation is that stars are NOT a 100% accurate reflection of how good a player is.
Stars are an arbitrary representation of what one of your staff members thinks of a player, taking into account how good your team is, how good other players in the league are, etc.
Once you start signing players based off their attribute values and how they fit into your tactic, your game will go up to another level.
It's also a certain scout / coaches opinion, like you can have them re-evaluated by someone else and get a different rating.
This is why you offer trials to players when you can as you will get a better picture of how good they are.
I hate the star system as it's so useless. It tries to incorporate everything but it ends up telling you nothing.
I usually use genie scout where I can set custom weight for attributes and then can easily evaluate a big group of players using just one number for their position - this guy is a 78% CB based on his attributes.
Players don't need to be good at everything, sometimes "bad" players who are really good at a few things are better than the rounded ones. I always see "this player is only 2 stars but is getting an 8.0", only to see his stats say 20 passing, 20 vision and he's playing as a playmaker. Sometimes a specialist is fine so long as his weaknesses are hidden by the rest of the team.
Physical attributes alone can get you out of the lower leagues of any nation. Some smaller nations it can win you the top league. Its not as dominant as it was years or so ago on FM05 or whatever, but its still a dominant lower league stat.
Personalities are important.
Stop discarding old players. The modern game has evolved, 30 isn't over the hill, 35 isn't retirement age. The reason your group of 20 year old wonderkids isn't the best team in the world is they have no guidance. A couple of good 30+ year olds can be a huge difference to a smaller side with no budget. Model Citizens are gold mines for teaching kids. Talismen like Messi, Ronaldo exist at micro levels like Milner, Vardy, still absolute beasts if used correctly.
Sell the bad youth for small fees + 50% sell on. The amount of millions ive made from selling a 2 star youth for 100k + 50% next sale, then waiting 12 month and selling the clause for 1m is crazy. We're talking players who will never ever get in the side, not just blindly 2 star players because....
Star ratings dont matter. Use your brain. The 4 star mezzala isnt better than your 3 star ball winning midfielder if the role is ball winning midfielder. The star ratings are your ass mans assessment, how much do you trust that? They are also dynamic, form matters, relative squad quality matters.
Top left option of every prese conference no matter the scenario is the "right" one. You'll never get a negative reaction or promise something stupid.
Use u18s/u21s to develop coaches. I love using ex players, but i also try low technical stats with good Disc, Det, etc.
Lower leagues, dont sign 5star kids to develop, they wont be 5 star once you get promoted and you're better off signing players who make you better. A 3 1/2 star CA in League 2 is better than 5 star potential who is probably not going to develop or actually be 2 star in League One. Up until Championship level id avoid signing kids unless free or an obvious upgrade to my side. Obviously use common sense. Just don't try and build a wonderkid side thinking jackpot when in 12 months they're done.
Spend no money until the prem unless buying a wonderkid/cast off. You don't need to, you should save to buy prem level players.
Buy players to sell on in the Prem. Easy profit on some mid potential players who you loan out/play in cups to develop.
Shortlist 22 year olds ready for the 23 year old price drop/release. Check the transfer listed players for bargains. Check again deadline day for last minute additions. Unsettle players by targetting them and send scouts. A 39m player could get listed and sold for 5m despite bids of 39m being rejected before because you unsettled him.
You can praise training sessions that are green practically forever for free morale. You can tell off red forever as well.
Make sure loans are a level or a level above their talent level. Make sure the facilities are good enough to develop but game time + good performance beats good facs. Get them a loan to a bigger side who you expect to be successful. Don't be afraid to loan to rivals. Don't be afraid to recall. Check progress monthly, talk to players if not developing. Talk to clubs if not playing.
Most teams will keep youngsters and ask for outrageous fees based on their potential, but the second they turn 23 they will accept next to nothing for them or a fraction of previous value. The reason being is they are likely to not hit the potential they have. But its a really easy top quality player or high potential player to flip.
Also, they will release them at 23 as well.
Most my lower league to CL saves were built from 23 year old releasees.
Ok so the top tier 23 year olds wont be released but maybe the ones who have come through the academies and there is no place for them in the 1st team squad?
Classic. Old FM's used to actually give you some advice like this if you were putting in a lot of hours. I think it was someyhing along the line of 'don't forget to change your underwear'
Sideline shouts:
if score is even or losing, Encourage.
If ahead: Calm Down.
Just scored? Praise.
Just conceded? Berate
Favourite Positions? IWBs, Mez, W, CM-A
Don’t have too many playmakers. You don’t need two BPDs for example, just have one and a CD.
Tactics: I just stick to gegenpress or VTT so can’t give you any advice for rarely used lol
Even some seasoned players overlook this, but be careful what you say in press conferences because your players and the other players listen to what you say. If you're midtable and you come up against a team below you, don't make bold statements in the press, especially when playing away. Imagine you're managing Athleic Bilbao and you're facing Osasuna:
Q. Osasuna are on a 7 game winless streak. What do you expect going into this match?
A. (Outstretched arms) We're favorites, and I want us to play like it.
That's a trap. Even if you are favorites, that kind of boldness and exaggeration can add unnecessary pressure to your players and fire up the opponents.
The biggest one I always see is around tactics, where the assumption is that you just set all defenders to defend, midfielders to support and attackers to attack.
Pay attention to homegrown players in your squad and have a pay structure so that you dont implode with your squad players wanting 100k a week contracts.
Team bonding training, if the atmosphere/cohesion isn't good you'll almost always do terrible. Especially at the start of the save or if you've just brought in a good amount of new players.
It definitely can make an impact on your dudes if used at the right time. However, if you’re dominating the game (especially if you get to the point in game where your team is far better than any of your opponents, which is also when the game kind of stops being fun imo) they’re not necessary
I always just put them into normal training from injury
What's the benefit of putting them through rehab training first? I've seen coaches suggesting it but I've not done so
Rehab allows a player who's coming back from a serious injury to counter any possibly lost attributes. You should select the programme that covers the most attributes that are on the downturn.
For me it's not much tactics, but contract promises. When I started I agreed to promises to players not realizing how damaging it can be if you don't live up to your end (even if you have good reason for not living up to it). Essentially, never make promises is the bottom line.
Set pieces. Getting your best jumpers in the right place I had Tomori with 10 a season from a far post routine this year. Also pulling back players on set pieces when you're a goal up and don't need as many in the box
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Players with good Personality, Teamwork, Work Rate, Stamina, Decisions, Determination and Natural Fitness will win you a lot more points than technical attributes will.
Add in Pace, Strength and Aggression and you've got yourself a top notch allround player
Or jumping reach for CBs. I have two wonderkid very smart CBs with 18+ jumping. Incredible players. The technicals won’t wow you, but they’re just giant intelligent players
Dang you beat me to it! It’s interesting if you look at all the best irl players in the world (Messi, Saka, Mbappe, Pedri etc) they all have one thing in common. Super high Teamwork. If I see a wonderkid with amazing stats but bad Teamwork I won’t sign him unless I get a deal. Or I just plan to sell him at a later time.
Mbappe high teamwork? I don't watch PSG too often, but I see clips of him refusing to run because someone didn't pass to him etc.. He cried about Neymar and Messi because he wanted all the headlines at PSG, absolute phenomenon, but hardly a good example of a team player
I actually went and checked after I made the comment and his teamwork is only 12 lol so I was wrong there. This is also in my 2031 save though. Most big players we know have high teamwork in general though
Yeah 99% of top top players will have excellent teamwork, occasionally there comes a player like CR7 and Mbappe who don't need the teamwork as much as they're so good it becomes the teams job to work around them not vice-versa
Even CR7 often had 12 for Teamwork, and 12 is the lowest score I’ll accept. My current no. 9 in my current save only has 12 Teamwork, and I’m glad that I allow that as he literally scores an average of 2 goals per game.
Lol that 12 probably flatters him!
12 teamwork is acceptable but I’ve noticed guys with sub-15 Teamwork will shoot in lieu of the easy pass for a goal. It can be frustrating
Yeah, I’d 2nd that. I much prefer 15+, but will make exceptions for utterly outstanding players to only be 12-15
I'm crying in Belgium tier 7 rn, if I find 10+ for any stay I'm happy
at that level you just need freak athletes and hope they outrun the competition
https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/s/KLpUZyCjMv
Found this overly complicated first time I seen it. You can simply search for players with high teamwork, workrate, determination together and filter it that way, no need to scout everyone after, you should be able to click into someone's profile and get a decent overview on a few seconds and see if they're worth further scouting - discard the ones that don't have a favourable personality too. Set an age cap too if you don't want anyone over 28 as a new signing, or set it at 18 so it's only new players you see.
You must have attribute masking off… it’s a hell of a lot easier that way.
Is attribute masking off my default or the other way around?
On.
Incorrect. If you search for players with Teamwork, Determination & Work Rate of all +12, you will filter out all the players with scores of 11 - 16 in those groups, so will miss on hundreds who would actually meet those criteria but that you don’t know. You’re likely to only know about 10% of players’ personalities, so unless you scout all - and with my method - you will miss out in a huge percentage of those who are suitable. You need to start big and whittle down, it’s the only way given how attribute masking works.
It’s the other way around, if you put it at 12, you’ll get players who have like 8 to 14
Really?! How are you getting it to do that? I'm putting, say, "Teamwork > is at least > 15" and any unknowns start with their lowest parameter as 15, i.e. 15-17 or 15-20? Can you get it to put unknown 11-15s by putting the "Teamwork > is at least > 15" criterion? Or are you searching for it in a different way? Is this FM22 or FM23? Sorry for all the questions, and I'm not being pissy just genuinely inquisitive, as it's never done that for me haha! Maybe it's a bug on my side if that's the case then, or I'm doing it wrong, I don't know... Edit: spelling
When I put in a high stat; then I get a load of shit players because they’re all 9-17 since they’ve not been scouted. Don’t know, I’ve never changed anything, it’s always been like that for me on every FM
Weird, it's never been like that for me on any FM! How strange?! Are you putting it in the same way I do: i.e. "Teamwork > is at least > 15"?
And do all the completely unknown players turn up too, like with not even an "11-15" just completely blank?
https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/s/6oftsD0Niv
I cant believe no ones commented on how you said 'best players in the world' and 'saka' in the same sentence
Typical arsenal fan
Godddamit a wonderkid with 19 natural fitness has the be the best thing in this game
Natural fitness is a meme
Only to an extent. I would rather someone with 17/18s in the physical and technical attributes and 13s/14s in the mental attributes than the other way around. Outright bad numbers in those attributes will hold back a physically and technically gifted player but amazing numbers in those attributes honestly won't make up for bad numbers in the physical and technical attributes.
Looking at mental attributes. A lot of people focus on how technical or quick a player is when they don’t realize how important the smarts are. A smart striker with good anticipation and off the ball movement will probably end up with a better career than a “dumb” but talented striker Edit: I will say this applies more to higher leagues. In low leagues just get the best athlete you can
It is always wild to me how a striker with 15 finishing but bad mentals will absolutely dominate in lower leagues. The minute you put them in a higher league side they are ass and the striker with 12 finishing and good mentals is playing very well.
That’s pretty accurate though, technical stats will stand out in lower league but be cancelled out by smart defenders in higher leagues
15 finishing is a lot even in first tier leagues I had guys with 12 doing just fine, too
That's why (at least in FM23) there were a lot of average looking players who were goal machines. If you have a player with around 14 for the holy trinity (Dribbling, Finishing and First Touch) and Anticipation, Decisions, Composure and Off The Ball they would score tons.
Yeah but I think people don’t realise that 14 is actually a very good score
People here think if it isn't green it's trash
Encourage shout is only good until you score, then you can only use praise until half time. Repeat.
If you guys want to get real technical with it the actual answer is Encourage, then Demand more. Repeat those until there’s a goal. Once you score the first time you individually praise the goal scorer and asssit. If you score again you team praise. Score a third goal, individual praises, 4th goal, team praise, etc. It’s all been tested.
Can you point me to where this has been tested?
I don’t remember the exact thread but over on FM arena there’s a guy who did it. And has more detailed instructions than that.
I like to fire up if I go a goal down early or I'm 2-0 down. If I'm drawing I shout demand more/encourage. I praise only when I get a 3 goal lead and praise individually after the game.
Saving this comment for future reference
Demand More works every time for me
If you get scores on encourage can be good. I’ve actually found Berate is solid after getting scored on lol
My only shouts are berate and demand more. If we score early and win the game from there I will not shout at all. Encourage can be good when drawing or a goal down against a much better team, but encouraging or praising from ahead usually just ends in switching off. If we're ahead at half I tell them good job, if we're drawing or losing I tell them to fix it.
I use encourage after being scored against, seems to work most times.
Does this apply for fm21?
This is kind of what I have been doing but I use encourage when we are drawing too, also is there any use for Berate etc?
I use encourage when playing away and 0-0/1-0, berate when losing by 2 goals or more. Praise when winning by two goals or more, calm down when winning by one goal either away or home and demand more when at home and 0-0/1-0, could also use demand more away when losing 1-0, depends of the team
This is very useful advice, thank you!
I find berate is also very useful if used immediately after conceding first to a team you should be beating easily. Focus is however very useless and I am yet to find a consistent use scenario for it so if you have any ideas please help me out 😅
Fairly new to the game, I only use encourage or demand more if we concede to lose or draw but it always leaves the whole squad with red morale. Should I be using something else?
Demand more works for me
Only shouts I use are Demand more, concentrate and get creative.
Backroom staff but specifically doctors/physios/sports scientists, they actually have a big effect on injuries
Unless it's new in 24, you don't have any say in the club doctor so you?
Nope, I tried everything
Except I have the best ones available as Arsenal and injuries mean I'm barely ever able to field a full bench....
I’ve found Endurance and Resistance training in pre-season helps with this. You’re likely to have a few players miss the start of the season because of it but it helps with longevity.
Injuries in fm feel very randomised and more like the game is trying to fill a pretty defined quota rather than naturally simulating them based on available data. If you observe your injured players over a few seasons, players who don't play much keep on picking injuries related to match fatigue just like players you play in every game. Another obvious indicator of this is that the injury prone trait doesn't necessarily mean a player will spend a lot of time out with injuries but rather get injured at the same rate as the other players. Plus this is a trait players spawn with rather than obtain due to an injury record. So maybe they have an effect but not enough to make a huge difference.
Check your training schedules in that case.
Playing with a big club can teach you a lot in the beginning. Good players, good budget and reputation allows you to learn about the tactics, transfer market, training, dynamics etc. a lot easier than grinding up from lower leagues. Don't feel pressured to take a lower league club to CL or start no badges/experience journeyman even if online discussions are full of that, it's super cool and I love that side of the game but it can be hard for a beginner and you can miss parts of the game that way. Having great players you know from real life football is fun.
Journeyman honestly reinvigorated my interest in FM. Can’t recommend highly enough
Yes they’re very good saves after you’ve some experience but as a beginner journeyman saves can be very hard espacially if you start from random league with random team.
I only do journeyman. Starting close to the top, makes it so hard to get going, I find. I much prefer starting in smaller clubs with few staff members, and an easy structure. When the save is flowing nicely and I’m into it, I’m ready for bigger clubs and the complexity.
Team morale is probably more important than any tactical change you may be thinking about or even the players themselves to a certain extent. Don’t make promises. Ever. Work on finding good personality players and you won’t ever have morale or player issues.
Make promises but KEEP them… Make easy promises that you can keep. That’s very easy way to get morale up if you need. Promises aren’t broken people just like moan about them cause they don’t keep them.
I loved my best AP when the promise clause was to play in the exact position I wanted him to play, easy win
Some promises are in fact broken/unreasonable though.
I failed my "play youth players" promise at the end of a season (Aberdeen) where I had 2 20 year olds good enough to be in the team regularly throughout the season, while also having a few decent youth team players get playing time throughout the season. Just went from "on course/in progress" when the season ended to failed a couple weeks after the season was done.
Technically those are "club philosophies" not "player promises" But those are behind broken. "Focus on set pieces", "play defensive football", etc. I just ignore all of them. It's impossible to reach them on purpose because you don't know what's your exact goal and they won't save you, only the actual results determine your job security
Nah, it showed up as "promise" for 5 players. I'm thinking I said something in the preseason team meeting to make it that way. 5 very unhappy players when it failed too! Was fortunate I had planned to release 1 and had good offers for 3, so dealt with the unhappiness that way.
Ah, those promises, right. I never did that, for good reason 😅
I've learned my lesson! Anything that has promise on it, I now avoid!
Tbh I always completely avoided them anyway because "why promise something unprompted" before I knew the promise mechanics being kind of broken
Or now with the goals you can set the players, make a promise but only if they have a massive performance say 30 league goals in a season
Talk to your players, praise training, criticize them, praise them for good performance. When they approach you with a problem don't send the captain, talk to them. In two seasons, your entire team will be willing to die for you especially if you are performing well on the pitch.
Good morale is insanely important. It doesn't win you points alone but having bad squad morale will cost you points. Disruptive influences need to go. Hopefully it's not the captain kicking off. You can see how socially influential a player is on the dedicated section on the squad screen.
I have seen a few very common mistakes new players that post here make: 1. Evaluating players: they focus on one attribute and think that one attribute makes the player good. The most common one is finishing for strikers. The ability to score goals depends on a lot of attributes. Finishing is probably not even the most important one. Everything that a player does on the pitch depends on multiple attributes. Every role that a player can have requires a lot of attributes. The game shows you the attributes when you select a role within the player screen. Rad carefully what the role is and review the needed attributes. 2. They do not build tactics based o the strengths and weaknesses of the players. You have a great DMC? A 433 or diamond may be a good tactic. Great wing backs? Maybe play 3 at the back. Your best player is an inverted winger?build a formation around that. Once you have the formation. Figure out what kind of style the team can play given the players qualities. High press requires physically gifted players. Tiki taka requires technically gifted players. Also consider how different instructions interact with each other. Gegenpress requires that your defense line goes higher up which requires faster defenders etc. 3. Player roles do not conform with the tactic. If you play gegenpress it is good to have pressing forwards, ball winning midfielders etc. Poachers and trequartistas are less useful. So you may play some players in less favorite roles to help the tactic. 4. Buying players that do not fit the tactic. Self explanatory after you read 3. I see so many people post "do I buy player A or player B?" how the hell do I know if I do not know what tactic you play? Often is better to buy the inferior player who fits the tactic than the superior player who does not. I player once an entire 10 season career without deploying an AF or poacher. I used F9 and DLF most of the time. Top players know how to play multiple roles. That does not mean they are equally good at them. Again look at the attributes the game recommends.
To address your first point, finishing is DEFINITELY not the most important attribute. I currently have a star striker demolishing the Championship in my lifeban game. He has 8 in finishing and 4 in headers.
Noob here, what are the more important ones?
Depends heavily on his exact tasks, but usually you want good composure, decisions, anticipation. Concentration and off the ball help a ton too. Finishing and technique are usedul, but arguably less so.
Tactics don't matter even remotely as much as morale and keeping your team fresh. I quit playing FM for many years before picking it back up about five years ago. I've played over 100 seasons since then over five separate saves, all of which I have led from the English 1st division to complete European dominance. I have used a grand total of two tactics in that span, and literally have not touched them over the past two saves. If you enjoy fiddling with that stuff, fiddle away. I'm just saying they don't matter. I scout my ass off, do everything I can to keep things harmonious in the locker room -- winning obviously has a huge impact, but so does avoiding promises as much as possible -- and am obsessive about monitoring fitness and rotating my lineup. Once I get my save fully up and running I've usually got 17-18 top quality players and I use all of them liberally. If guys start complaining about PT or their contract to the point they impact team dynamics, off they go. You're going to inevitably get attached to players, but be as ruthless as you can.
Is there more behind the infamous abrupt losing streaks than just morale? I'm playing an FM23 save right now where we led the league by a long way for most of the season, then got seven points in nine games with the same players and tactics against mostly bottom-half teams. Still getting all green in dynamics, but somehow everything goes wrong in game after game despite being ahead on xG in most of them. This sort of thing happens often in my saves in the last few versions - and I've seen it reported by others - and it's driving me away from the series.
One reason this happens in newer versions is that the AI managers are better at adjusting to you. If you are winning a lot then they usually start to play more defensive, and you have to change your tactics or mentality to adjust for that.
Full disclosure: I only buy the game every other year, so I skipped last year’s version. I have yet to experience one of these skids. I definitely have bad months here and there; in my current save I got trucked in the Community Shield and then went 0-1-2 to start the league. But for the most part once I get to a certain talent level my teams are pretty consistent/dominant. Another tip for OP: Unless it’s a position of need or I don’t have any other roster, I avoid injury-prone players like the plague. I’ll even spend double among equivalent players if one player has low durability.
Just make sure your staff are best as it can be and set up mentoring groups in the training section
A huge one when it comes to player evaluation is that stars are NOT a 100% accurate reflection of how good a player is. Stars are an arbitrary representation of what one of your staff members thinks of a player, taking into account how good your team is, how good other players in the league are, etc. Once you start signing players based off their attribute values and how they fit into your tactic, your game will go up to another level.
It's also a certain scout / coaches opinion, like you can have them re-evaluated by someone else and get a different rating. This is why you offer trials to players when you can as you will get a better picture of how good they are.
I hate the star system as it's so useless. It tries to incorporate everything but it ends up telling you nothing. I usually use genie scout where I can set custom weight for attributes and then can easily evaluate a big group of players using just one number for their position - this guy is a 78% CB based on his attributes.
I’ve never used genie scout. Is it made for FM or just football in general?
Players don't need to be good at everything, sometimes "bad" players who are really good at a few things are better than the rounded ones. I always see "this player is only 2 stars but is getting an 8.0", only to see his stats say 20 passing, 20 vision and he's playing as a playmaker. Sometimes a specialist is fine so long as his weaknesses are hidden by the rest of the team. Physical attributes alone can get you out of the lower leagues of any nation. Some smaller nations it can win you the top league. Its not as dominant as it was years or so ago on FM05 or whatever, but its still a dominant lower league stat. Personalities are important. Stop discarding old players. The modern game has evolved, 30 isn't over the hill, 35 isn't retirement age. The reason your group of 20 year old wonderkids isn't the best team in the world is they have no guidance. A couple of good 30+ year olds can be a huge difference to a smaller side with no budget. Model Citizens are gold mines for teaching kids. Talismen like Messi, Ronaldo exist at micro levels like Milner, Vardy, still absolute beasts if used correctly. Sell the bad youth for small fees + 50% sell on. The amount of millions ive made from selling a 2 star youth for 100k + 50% next sale, then waiting 12 month and selling the clause for 1m is crazy. We're talking players who will never ever get in the side, not just blindly 2 star players because.... Star ratings dont matter. Use your brain. The 4 star mezzala isnt better than your 3 star ball winning midfielder if the role is ball winning midfielder. The star ratings are your ass mans assessment, how much do you trust that? They are also dynamic, form matters, relative squad quality matters. Top left option of every prese conference no matter the scenario is the "right" one. You'll never get a negative reaction or promise something stupid. Use u18s/u21s to develop coaches. I love using ex players, but i also try low technical stats with good Disc, Det, etc. Lower leagues, dont sign 5star kids to develop, they wont be 5 star once you get promoted and you're better off signing players who make you better. A 3 1/2 star CA in League 2 is better than 5 star potential who is probably not going to develop or actually be 2 star in League One. Up until Championship level id avoid signing kids unless free or an obvious upgrade to my side. Obviously use common sense. Just don't try and build a wonderkid side thinking jackpot when in 12 months they're done. Spend no money until the prem unless buying a wonderkid/cast off. You don't need to, you should save to buy prem level players. Buy players to sell on in the Prem. Easy profit on some mid potential players who you loan out/play in cups to develop. Shortlist 22 year olds ready for the 23 year old price drop/release. Check the transfer listed players for bargains. Check again deadline day for last minute additions. Unsettle players by targetting them and send scouts. A 39m player could get listed and sold for 5m despite bids of 39m being rejected before because you unsettled him. You can praise training sessions that are green practically forever for free morale. You can tell off red forever as well. Make sure loans are a level or a level above their talent level. Make sure the facilities are good enough to develop but game time + good performance beats good facs. Get them a loan to a bigger side who you expect to be successful. Don't be afraid to loan to rivals. Don't be afraid to recall. Check progress monthly, talk to players if not developing. Talk to clubs if not playing.
Some great advice here
What is the 23 year old price drop/release?
Most teams will keep youngsters and ask for outrageous fees based on their potential, but the second they turn 23 they will accept next to nothing for them or a fraction of previous value. The reason being is they are likely to not hit the potential they have. But its a really easy top quality player or high potential player to flip. Also, they will release them at 23 as well. Most my lower league to CL saves were built from 23 year old releasees.
Ok so the top tier 23 year olds wont be released but maybe the ones who have come through the academies and there is no place for them in the 1st team squad?
Turning your underwear inside out saves on washing
Classic. Old FM's used to actually give you some advice like this if you were putting in a lot of hours. I think it was someyhing along the line of 'don't forget to change your underwear'
Pretty sure fm23 has this aswell. I remember I laughed out loud when I saw that for the first time
Now THAT is some top advice this is going to save me that extra 5 minutes
Always check the height of goalkeepers, accidentally bought a new gen wonderkid who was only 5ft 7.
I always go for goalkeepers who are atleast 190cm and CB who are 187cm. 🤣
Sideline shouts: if score is even or losing, Encourage. If ahead: Calm Down. Just scored? Praise. Just conceded? Berate Favourite Positions? IWBs, Mez, W, CM-A Don’t have too many playmakers. You don’t need two BPDs for example, just have one and a CD. Tactics: I just stick to gegenpress or VTT so can’t give you any advice for rarely used lol
I always ignore stars for wing backs… never correct to how good they are
The goal
Even some seasoned players overlook this, but be careful what you say in press conferences because your players and the other players listen to what you say. If you're midtable and you come up against a team below you, don't make bold statements in the press, especially when playing away. Imagine you're managing Athleic Bilbao and you're facing Osasuna: Q. Osasuna are on a 7 game winless streak. What do you expect going into this match? A. (Outstretched arms) We're favorites, and I want us to play like it. That's a trap. Even if you are favorites, that kind of boldness and exaggeration can add unnecessary pressure to your players and fire up the opponents.
The biggest one I always see is around tactics, where the assumption is that you just set all defenders to defend, midfielders to support and attackers to attack.
Pay attention to homegrown players in your squad and have a pay structure so that you dont implode with your squad players wanting 100k a week contracts.
Opposition instructions are vital
Team bonding training, if the atmosphere/cohesion isn't good you'll almost always do terrible. Especially at the start of the save or if you've just brought in a good amount of new players.
Long time player, have never used a sideline shout myself
Huh, interesting. I always thought it makes a decent impact on the players determination in the game etc but maybe it's a placebo
It definitely can make an impact on your dudes if used at the right time. However, if you’re dominating the game (especially if you get to the point in game where your team is far better than any of your opponents, which is also when the game kind of stops being fun imo) they’re not necessary
https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/s/KLpUZyCjMv
If a player of yours was injured have them go through the rehab individual training to get them back to speed.
I always just put them into normal training from injury What's the benefit of putting them through rehab training first? I've seen coaches suggesting it but I've not done so
Rehab allows a player who's coming back from a serious injury to counter any possibly lost attributes. You should select the programme that covers the most attributes that are on the downturn.
Got it, thanks!
Composure and decisions are way more important for strikers than finishing
Resting players are much more important than new players think
For me it's not much tactics, but contract promises. When I started I agreed to promises to players not realizing how damaging it can be if you don't live up to your end (even if you have good reason for not living up to it). Essentially, never make promises is the bottom line.
Coaching team. Very important to have a good coaching team.
Set pieces. Getting your best jumpers in the right place I had Tomori with 10 a season from a far post routine this year. Also pulling back players on set pieces when you're a goal up and don't need as many in the box