Build effective Football Manager training routines with these 5 tips. Improve player development, team cohesion, and set-piece success to win.
Transform Wonderkids into World-Class Stars with These Essential Training Tips for Football Manager
Training is a vital part of Football Manager. It’s how you turn your high-potential youngsters into high-performing players; from wonderkid to world class. Not just player development, it’s how you reinforce your tactical genius on your players, and forge a footballing brand ready to conquer the world. However, one of the most common complaints of FM players is they struggle to build training routines. With this guide, I hope to explain some key tips to how to build a training schedule for your needs.
1. Listen to your players.
Try and avoid that and make training more diverse. If players keep mentioning you are doing too much strength and/or quickness training, dial it back a bit for a few weeks. While your needs are important, your players’ needs are even more important; ignore them at your peril.
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A great way to help bolster the tactical understanding of your team is to add in a Match Review session after each match. You can add this to any training day the day after a match. It’s a good way to help improve your team's tactical focus and to help minimise repeating the same errors.
A match review is easy to set up and can be added in without excessively increasing training intensity on a post-match recovery day. It’s an ideal way to reinforce your tactics, as your players review how well – or how poorly – they implemented your plan in the previous match. Strike while the iron’s hot and ensure your players discuss each match extensively the next day; especially early in the season or after a stylistic change.
Especially in versions of FM where you don’t have to divide your time between different set-piece scenarios, there’s no excuse to not be working on your set pieces every week. Add one set-piece session to your weekly routine and watch your conversion rate skyrocket. These are the kind of marginal gains that make such a huge difference in modern football and can be the difference between achieving your goals or falling at the final hurdle.
One thing I always do, since I trust my Assistant Manager with my life, is to leave him/her on the Individual Training for all of my players. Then, for any player I am specifically working on, I can take over their individual training and mould them myself.
By having him coach most of the squad on what they are already working towards well, I can focus my energy on working on the four or five players who need specific focus and development.
With a few conversations about Training Rating with my players per month, I can keep them focused on development while my number two keeps everyone else ticking along.
2. Make use of Match Review.
A great way to help bolster the tactical understanding of your team is to add in a Match Review session after each match. You can add this to any training day the day after a match. It’s a good way to help improve your team's tactical focus and to help minimise repeating the same errors.
A match review is easy to set up and can be added in without excessively increasing training intensity on a post-match recovery day. It’s an ideal way to reinforce your tactics, as your players review how well – or how poorly – they implemented your plan in the previous match. Strike while the iron’s hot and ensure your players discuss each match extensively the next day; especially early in the season or after a stylistic change.
READ ALSO: Guide to Developing Youngsters in Football Manager
A tremendous little tip that I can give you for making training more effective is to utilise the two sessions under the Extra Training section at the bottom. This includes things like Community Outreach and Team Bonding sessions. If my team plays on a Saturday, I’ll schedule these for the Sunday. At the very least, your team will be going into Monday with a morale boost on top of what was hopefully a win for you.
3. Use training for team cohesion.
A tremendous little tip that I can give you for making training more effective is to utilise the two sessions under the Extra Training section at the bottom. This includes things like Community Outreach and Team Bonding sessions. If my team plays on a Saturday, I’ll schedule these for the Sunday. At the very least, your team will be going into Monday with a morale boost on top of what was hopefully a win for you.
Cohesion is essential to the success of your tactics at any level. Whether you’re trudging through the lower leagues with your trusty 4-4-2, or flying high in continental competition with your asymmetric work of art, you need your players to understand each other as much as they understand their own role. A cohesive team is a winning team, and building that over the course of the season is essential to a successful season.
READ ALSO: Top 5 Tips for Developing Youth Players in Football Manager
While many people take the route of modern managers and see set pieces as a waste of vital practice time, that’s a pretty serious misconception in Football Manager. In older versions of the game, you could dedicate sessions to the specific scenarios you wanted to work on: defending and attacking free kicks, the same for corners, and dedicated sessions for penalties. However, since FM24, all set pieces come under the umbrella of set-piece routines, where your takers work on their delivery, and your attacking and defending units will work on their roles.
4. Add in more set-piece focuses
While many people take the route of modern managers and see set pieces as a waste of vital practice time, that’s a pretty serious misconception in Football Manager. In older versions of the game, you could dedicate sessions to the specific scenarios you wanted to work on: defending and attacking free kicks, the same for corners, and dedicated sessions for penalties. However, since FM24, all set pieces come under the umbrella of set-piece routines, where your takers work on their delivery, and your attacking and defending units will work on their roles.
Especially in versions of FM where you don’t have to divide your time between different set-piece scenarios, there’s no excuse to not be working on your set pieces every week. Add one set-piece session to your weekly routine and watch your conversion rate skyrocket. These are the kind of marginal gains that make such a huge difference in modern football and can be the difference between achieving your goals or falling at the final hurdle.
5. Don’t be afraid to delegate.
One thing I always do, since I trust my Assistant Manager with my life, is to leave him/her on the Individual Training for all of my players. Then, for any player I am specifically working on, I can take over their individual training and mould them myself.
By having him coach most of the squad on what they are already working towards well, I can focus my energy on working on the four or five players who need specific focus and development.
With a few conversations about Training Rating with my players per month, I can keep them focused on development while my number two keeps everyone else ticking along.
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The prospect of creating a training schedule for your side can be a daunting one. However, if you apply these 5 simple tips to your training routine, you can expect an increase in players' attributes, as well as team cohesion and better-set piece percentages per game.
Conclusion
The prospect of creating a training schedule for your side can be a daunting one. However, if you apply these 5 simple tips to your training routine, you can expect an increase in players' attributes, as well as team cohesion and better-set piece percentages per game.
