Setting up training so you’re 100% ready for the new season

by @guidosteve

Team training, individual training, sliders and match preparation.

Are you tired and confused just by hearing those words?

Then you are not the only one.

Training in Football Manager can be very hard to figure out.

But once you undertand it, it is actually quite easy to set up so you never have to touch it agian!

In this FM17 guide we will show you how so you get better players and 100% tactical familiarity.

So, if you want results from training like below…

… then keep reading.

The team training overview can be kind of hard to figure out so most people just don’t play around with it and leave everything as is.

And this is actually not that bad a decision as otherwise in Football Manager.

However, it also leaves a lot of low hanging fruit dangling in front of you.

General training, scheduling and match preparation

Where most people (myself included) get confused is with the general training, scheduling and match preparation.

General training – don’t touch!

In 1# general training, I always leave it on balanced and average intensity level.

Now, setting this to fitness and heavy during pre-season sounds right…

… however, having it on fitness states that the players simply focus on improving their physical stats…

… and setting the intensity level to high improves their attributes faster, but also increases the risk that they become jaded towards the end of the season.

Which you don’t want.

Having it on balanced and average intensity level ensures all attributes are trained and also lessens the risk that they become jaded during the season.

Match preparation – set it to main tactic

Moving on to #2 in the screenshot, we find ourselves on match preparation.

Setting the slider

The third and final part of team training in FM is the scheduling slider.

Move it left and you focus more on match preparation (which is to the right) and move it right to focus more on general training (which is to the left)…

… which really doesn’t make sense and is something that should be changed for FM18.

Anyway, back to the subject.

During pre-season my number one goal is to reach a high level of tactical familiarity so I move the slider all the way to the left, as shown again in the screenshot below.

Once tactical familiarity reaches 90% I’ll set up training as below.

And you’re set for the rest of the season!

A quick word on rest days

By default, players will not rest the day before a match and will rest the day after a match.

During really intensive periods (such as the Christmas program in England) I recommend resting both before and after games.

This allows your players to have higher fitness levels for the matches they play and can make a difference.

However, for 95% of the season I leave it as is.

So to sum up…​

How to set up team training in Football Manager

1. Do not touch general training

2. In match preparation set your main tactic and have focus on “match tactics”

3. Once tactical familiarity is at 90%, set the slider in the middle and change main focus in match preparation to “def. positioning”

4. Do not touch rest days, unless you are in a really hectic schedule

Have you decided on a tactic to use?

If not go do that now and then come back here.

Good, now that you’re all here, let’s get to individual player training.

Which really is extremely simple.

What you want to do is look at the roles of your tactic.

​

So, let’s say your right back plays as a wing back and your striker is a deep lying forward.

Then you set all your right back to full backs and all your strikers to deep lying forward as shown below.

This is pretty easy to do from the general setup and takes a minute or two.

Go the extra mile by adding an individual focus

Now, if you want to go the extra mile you can analyze the attributes needed for each position.

As an example, take Marcus Rashford in the example below.

I want to play him as an Inside Forward which requires the attributes highlighted.

His attributes for the role are generally very good (especially his speed), but his vision is well below the other stats.

So, ideally I want to put extra focus on training his vision, but you cannot do that.

Put the icing on the cake by setting new preferred moves

Now, if you really want to go the extra mile, I suggest setting up player preferred move training as well.

And based on my experience, player preferred moves are extremely important

But how do you know what moves to teach to a player?

The answer is simple and depends on your tactic.

Now you go to your tactic, select player, and press a position as below.

Here we have a wing back. We can see, that this role requires the player to dribble more, cross from the byline and get further forward (amongst others).

We now go back to player training and make sure our full backs learn moves that synergizes with this. Those moves would be runs with ball down right or left (depending on which side the player plays in), gets forward whenever and possibly hug the touchline.

Note: You cannot train preferred moves to players being tutored or players tutoring others.

Once again, to sum up individual training…

How to set up player individual training in Football Manager

1. Set all players to train for the position they play in

2. Target specific weak areas for players through individual training focus

3. Teach the players preferred moves that synergizes with their position on the field

And if you think we are done now, I have bad news for you.

We still have the little matter of player tutoring.

While strictly speaking not part of training, you really should set up player tutoring from Day 1.

The use of a tutor will help shape the young player and helps the tutee:

a) Faster increase in determination and improved personality: If the tutor has a higher determination, the attribute will increase quickly for the tutor. Further, the personality of the tutor will rub off on the young player and help improve it. Below is a screenshot of a player’s determination increasing from 5 to 15 in three months through tutoring!

b) Cost-free learning of preferred moves: The close relationship will make the young player learn preferred moves from the tutor. The only other way these can be learned is to train them, which takes away focus from developing the attributes of the players. If you have a young player who you want to have a particular trait, it is much better to try to get this from a tutor. If it fails, you can of course always train it.

We have written a guide on choosing the perfect tutor in FM, but if you want the short version, then:

· Select a tutor with higher determination

· If you can, select a tutor with preferred moves which you want your young player to learn

To select a tutor, go to development and select tutoring as shown below.

What kind of tutoring to choose?

How to select a tutor in Football Manager

1. Go to development and then tutoring when the young player is selected

2. Select a tutor with higher determination and ideally, preferred moves you want the young player to learn

3. Wait six months, after which the tutoring will end

4. Note that ff a player gets a significant injury, tutoring will end

Now it’s your turn

We hope this guide and our checklist helps you get through the FM17 pre-season and be 100% ready for the new season.

It takes a little extra time and effort, but once you have done it once, you’re set for the season and you know how to do it again next season.

Anyway, I hope you’ve liked the guide and I’ll be around to reply to comments and answer questions.

So if you have a question or thought, leave a comment right now.

by @guidosteve