Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Fan Mail: Training Schedules, Maximizing Potential and Fitness in Football Manager

A Big Thank You

Hi every single one of you readers out there, it is Football Manager Guru aka Jason here, and it’s been so long since I wrote a post on my own. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all my contributors, Sam Warren, Chris Harris and Steven Mitchell for their hard work in their posts.

The about page of FM Guru has been updated to reflect their contributions to this Football Manager Blog, which I must proudly announce is now ranked 2nd on Google searches for ‘Football Manager Blog‘ out of almost 20 million search results! A big big thank you to all of you, the readers and contributors for making this a reality!

This post is also the start of a new section under Football Manager Guru, called “Fan Mail”. Fan Mail will be a section of posts dedicated to answering fan mails, be it questions or comments or people asking for advice on our favourite Football Manager game. They will be answer personally by me and also the other contributors on this site. Without further delay, that’s get into the first official post!

The Fan Mail From Jonny Rex

Hi,

I’ve recently been reading your blog recently which I think is brilliant and never realised how in-depth FM is. I played FM the first time in 06 and carried on from then.

And every time I used to go through games setting the same tactics each time regardless of the players and buying the best players possible.

But now as FM10 gives you more options and now that I’m older, I’m realising how realistic it can be but still I guess I am a bit of a newbie really.

So I’ve got a few questions which if you can I would love you to answer for me:

1)      Does setting a heavier training scheme actually help to increase attributes without them getting absolutely knackered all the time?

2)      What is the best way of improving youth players (e.g. aged 16/17/18) so that they achieve their potential? Heavier training, loan them out

3)      Do you view the whole match or just the key moments to see where your team go wrong?

By the way I think your blog is ace. Keep writing!

Thanks,

Jonny

Response

Hey there Jonny, thank you so much for your email to FM Guru. Everyone at Football Manager Guru, including me and the contributors appreciate mails like this. It really validates the hard work we put into bringing the best content to the Football Manager community. I would be answering your questions, and I would encourage any of our readers, who have any questions regarding Football Manager at all to drop me an email at e.method@gmail.com

We will answer your queries in a newest column called “Fan Mail” (:

1) Does setting a heavier training scheme actually help to increase attributes without them getting absolutely knackered all the time?

There is no clear cut answer, yes or no to this question, but I can tell you specifically what are the things you should look out for.

Natural Fitness – Is the first attribute you should look out for. It is an attribute that would tell you how fit a player generally is, meaning how many games could he play in a row at peak performance, before showing signs of fatigue and not being match fit at 100%. It also determines how much physical strain your player can take from a training schedule yet still perform at his best.

Some players who are naturally fit, 20/20 , could play for several games at barely 90%, yet they never ever sustain injuries at all. Some players could play 2 matches in a span of 6 days and still perform great, no sign of fatigue at all. What really determines their ability to play so many games yet undergo heavy training schedules is actually their Natural Fitness attribute.

A great example is Christophe Berra in my current Wolves squad. He has 17 Natural Attributes point and he is a massive player in my current Wolves squad.

He undergoes a punishing training schedule yet he played for EVERY single EPL game in his first season with Wolves, as you can see from the screenshot. All 38 matches, and he had an average rating of 7.37. That’s how important natural fitness is for a player.

So does this mean, for players with low natural fitness, they should be placed in easier training schedules? No, I don’t believe so. I for one believe that good training schedules and good coaches, can bring out the best attributes in a player. There is no point in buying a player and only letting him play at 70% of his abilities.

So what do you need to do for players with Low Natural Fitness Attributes ?

You’ve got to use them in moderation. Use them wisely, that’s your job as a manager.  For example, do you really need to play your star player striker who has low natural fitness against a relegation struggler? You would be better off fielding a better than average striker, who is capable of banging in goals for you, although he might not be capable of conjuring magic.

Rotation is the key, to ensuring, your squad can undergo heavy training schedules, yet have enough physical strength to last the distance. Of course with rotation, comes the question of squad depth. Squad depth is absolutely necessary if you are competing for many titles and cups. I make sure that I have at least 3 players capable of playing a position competently in my every squad.

The trick is to purchase versatile players that can cover well, you don’t need 11 star players on the squad to win championships. You need a mix of star players, and mercenaries who can get the dirty job done without complaining and affecting squad morale.

Injury Proneness is the factor you have to consider when you buy players, it is a hidden attribute that we cannot view in game, yet will determine how susceptible a player is to injury. Your player will likely get injured really easily if he is not match fit at 100%. The only way you can have an idea of how injury prone a player is, is if a good scout of yours points out to you that your player is injury prone.

Checking the amount of games a player you want to buy has played in a season in the past is also good indication of how injury prone he is.

2)      What is the best way of improving youth players (e.g. aged 16/17/18) so that they achieve their potential? Heavier training, loan them out etc.

Firstly, you have to understand, Football Manager assigns a hidden attribute to every single player in the game, called Potential Attributes. This is maximum amount of stats the player can develop no matter how good your training schedule is, how good your coaches are, how many match experience he gets. But under this post, I will assume you are asking me about a really promising player of at least a Potential Attribute of 150, maybe even more upon a maximum of 200.

There are 2 parts to ensuring a player achieves his maximum potential.

Firstly, the effectiveness of the training schedule. I personally prefer to tweak my own training schedule to my squad’s play style. For example, I emphasize a lot on physical training, because all my Football Manager squads play a high-tempo, fast paced, counter-attacking football. My squad is expected to cover a lot of distance all over the pitch as I also prefer my squad to play a pressing game to deny space to oppositions.

The effectiveness of a training schedule is also affected by how capable your coaches are. Good coaches will improve

The above screenshot, are my coaches, and on the bottom right is the upon 5 star rating of my training categories. Signing coaches will improve the ratings upon 5. The more stars you have the faster players improve in training (:

However, if you are really lazy to tweak your own training schedules, there are brilliant training schedules that are premade out there. One of those that I used when I was a rookie at Football Manager was Tug’s Training Schedule. Many people on the forums starting out use his training schedule and all to great effect (:

Secondly, match experience will also help in maximizing the player’s potential. Match experience can come from many sources, like loaning a player out or using them as substitutes appearances, or use them in games where you do not have a pressing need to win (League Cups you don’t really care about, or games where you have nothing to lose)

Do note, when you are loaning out players to other clubs, pick a club that you believe he has a great chance of playing regularly, no point in loaning out your promising youngster when he is just going to play in their reserves squad. He can do that at your own club anyway.

One of the strategies in developing my current wonderkid Marco Verratti, was to use him heavily in substitute appearances.Whenever, I feel we have guranteed a win in a game, via a 2 goal cushion and I see the opponent is not really threatening I would substitute him into the game for him to soak up match experience, and trust me, every minute on the pitch helps.

This was Marco Verratti when I bought him initially. After 3 seasons at the club, this is how he looks.

You would have noticed he made TREMENDOUS improvement all over his attributes. Verratti is an absolute monster now, and he is only 20 and still improving. In his past 5 games for me, he had an average rating of 8.36 for me. As you can see making effort to develop promising players really pays off well.

3)      Do you view the whole match or just the key moments to see where your team go wrong?

My answer for you, is that it depends. For matches that I am really confident that my squad is more than capable of  beating comfortably, I will just view the key moments, and make the appropriate substitutions when needed (when players are tired around the 55th minute mark etc. , or letting younger players have a go when the 3 points are in the bag)

However, when it comes to big-time CRUNCH games, like Champion League Finals etc. , I watch the entire 90 minutes, to see where the team goes wrong. There is only so much players rating could tell you at half time. You have to see for yourself the whole game to pick out the parts where your team is performing badly.

Is you striker not holding the ball off well? Is it because of his lack of strength coming up against a big strong defender who keeps robbing him off the ball? You might have to play a targetman via substitutions.

Is the opponent having so much possessions because they keep winning headers in the center of the park? Play a strong tall aggressive DM like Tom Huddlestone to win key headers, or push the defence up the field to win headers.

Is the center of the pitch being crowded out by their midfield? You might have to unleash speedy wingers on the wing to find more space for your team.

Does their winger keep beating your fullback consistently? You might have to use a speedier fullback to contain him.

And the list goes on and on and on, only by observing would you know what are the flaws of your team. With experience, comes competence.

Conclusion

I hope I have adequately answered all your questions Jonny, and thank you so much again for writing in. To the readers out there, I encourage you to write in to me at e.method@gmail.com if you have any queries of your own.