Millions of people around the world have played Football Manager, but for some it’s all too daunting. It’s a BIG game and the difficulty curve can seem like the north face of the Eiger. So if you’re an absolute beginner, why not let resident FM veteran Iain Macintosh guide you through the opening stages?
Welcome, friend. Welcome to a brave new world. Forget about the metaverse — Football Manager is the only alternative reality people like us will ever need. For here, within the confines of our laptops, we can live our dreams, write our stories and be the people we always knew we could be.
But, by thunder, there’s a lot going on, isn’t there? Stick with me and I’ll guide you through it. We’re going to strip it all down and work on the basics.
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So start a new game, select career mode and, for the sake of argument, pick Tottenham Hotspur and hit “Quick Start”. There will be a short pause as your computer rumbles through the set-up process. Use this time to remind yourself that nothing good comes easily.
Build a profile, and be sure to give yourself the best coaching badges and the experience of an international footballer. This will make the players like you. You want them to like you. If they don’t like you, they won’t play properly for you and you’ll get sacked.
Yes, this game will literally stop you from playing if you don’t do well enough.
Pass swiftly through the screens that announce your arrival, agree to all the scheduled meetings and you’ll find yourself at the hub of the game — your inbox.
It all looks very busy, doesn’t it? Like a real job. But don’t worry. We’ll go slowly. The sidebar to the left is your friend. Every section of the game is there and we’ll explore them one by one in future articles. But first of all, let’s lighten your load.
Go to Staff, then Responsibilities and then work your way down the sub-menus from Board to Match, selecting the tasks you want to do and delegating away what you don’t. Remember to confirm each individual page when you’re done. I would strongly advise you to delegate everything regarding under-23 and under-18 teams, as well as the hiring and firing of all staff. Keep transfers though, they’re fun. This will take about two minutes but will save you thousands.
Now let’s start looking at your team. Go to the Tactics section and you’ll be asked to choose a tactical style. You’ll notice three thumb icons on the page. These denote the styles that your coaches recommend for the players you’ve just inherited.
In this game, as in real life, there’s no point in trying to make rock trolls play tiki-taka, or ordering festively plump cavaliers to gegenpress. They won’t be able to do it. For this exercise, let’s tell Spurs to Control Possession. They’ll like that. You’ll then be offered three choices of formation. Pick 4-3-3 DM Wide — a conventional 4-3-3 with a defensive midfielder and two wide attackers flanking a centre-forward. A safe shout.
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Now we’re into the meat of the game: the tactics screen. This is where you’ll make or break your career. Team instructions are on the left, a formation is in the middle and the empty slots for the players are on the right.
You can pick your first line-up one of two easy ways. Click “Quick Pick” to see what your coaches recommend and the slots will fill up with players. Alternatively, left-click the bit that says “Pick Player” and you’ll be given a small list of your options in that position with helpful star ratings.
Now, remember that this isn’t FIFA. Those star ratings aren’t necessarily a fail-safe way of judging your players. That’s just what your coaches think of them right now. And those ratings aren’t concrete. They’ll change as the game unfolds.
You might choose to play lower-rated players for a host of reasons, such as blooding youngsters (who will improve with more game time), having a specialised set-piece taker on the pitch or ensuring that an opponent’s towering striker is marked by a towering defender. It’s all down to you.
But the team that you see before you now is a decent team. In the old days, players had to build their tactical plans from scratch, which often led to horribly disjointed teams that were quickly brutalised by the computer. But FM22 has good, solid template tactics. There’s no reason you can’t win trophies with what you see before you.
But to get the best out of the game, you’ll want to make tweaks here and there to the players’ “roles”. Let’s try something simple. Click the WB – SU on your left-back (in my game it’s Sergio Reguilon) and tell him to be a Complete Wing Back with an Attacking instruction instead. You’ll notice on the pitch graphic that he’s moved up a bit. If he isn’t already doing it, tell the left winger (Son Heung-min, in my case) to be an Inverted Winger with a Support role. That will mean he’ll look to cut inside with the ball. Now go to the little box marked “In Possession” and under Approach Play, select Overlap Left.
The next time you play, keep an eye on Reguilon and Son. When the Spaniard gets the ball, he’ll look immediately to scamper up the pitch, staying wide and making the use of the space that Son is leaving when he cuts in. If all goes well, their right-back will track Son as he moves inside and Reguilon will have even more space, not to mention valuable time, to play a perfect ball into the box. Congratulations, you’ve just set your first bespoke tactical instruction!
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Now let’s try something a bit more technical. Go to Set Pieces along the top bar and select Set Piece Takers. As you’ll see, Spurs are not blessed with any specialists, but Son has a corner-taking rating of 13 out of 20 so drag his name into the section for left- and right-sided corner takers. Then go back to the top menu and select Corners.
Now you’ll see a very exciting looking screen. Pick “Attack” and “Left” and let’s make a short-corner routine. You’ll see that Son is already on the board as the taker and he is marked with his position “AML” (attacking midfielder left). Click on his shirt, move to “Player Instruction” and tell him to take a short corner. Done. But that little yellow arrow isn’t pointing at anyone. Find a decent ball-player, maybe Harry Winks, and drag his shirt into the corner. Now he’ll wander over to Son for every corner. When he gets the ball, he will deliver it to whatever he feels is his best option. So let’s give him a selection.
Move both centre-backs to the near post and tell Harry Kane to mark the keeper. Leave both full-backs in their own half and tell the remaining players to either lurk outside the area or attack the ball from deep. Now, look at what you’ve done. The next time you play, you’ll see how Winks is presented with two clear areas of attack (the near post and the edge of the box) and, of course, the option of playing it back to Son.
Want to replicate it from the other side? Go up to where it says Routine 1 and save the routine as SHORT1. Then switch to Right corners, go back to Routine 1, load a routine, select SHORT1 and there you go. All done in the blink of an eye.
But if you’re anything like me, you’ll feel a nagging concern that Son is not brilliant at corners. So let’s go find someone who is, shall we?
Click on Scouting, then on Players. There will be another brief rumble on your computer and then you’ll see every player that the computer believes you realistically know about. Tens of thousands of them. So let’s reduce that. Click on New Search, then on Attributes, then Corners and tell the computer you only want to know about players with a higher corner taking rating than 17.
Look, there’s Isco! He’s on the transfer list, which means he’s going to be easier to get. Now, hypothetically, you can buy any player that your club can afford and attract, but if they’re not transfer listed, they’re likely to be very pricey. But you can afford £10 million, can’t you? Test the water. Suggest that bid and watch as Real Madrid agree to your terms. Finalise the offer and in a couple of days, you’ll be able to offer him a contract. If all goes well, he’ll be in your squad in time for the first proper friendly. And if that’s the case, remember to go back to your tactics screen and adjust your set pieces accordingly. Now that you’ve got a specialist, you could try a more direct approach, whipping the ball in at the near post, or the far post, or the penalty spot.
Look at what you’ve done! You’ve laid down a tactical master plan, altered it to give yourself an edge, worked out an innovative short-corner routine and swiftly identified and then addressed a weakness in your team. All in five minutes! And they say that this game is complicated!
Okay, so this game IS complicated. And we’ve only really covered the basics. We’ll have in-depth articles soon on all the major aspects of the game. But what we’ve done here is enough to set you up, learning by doing. Because really, the rest of the game is just an extension of this. All the information is at your fingertips — it’s down to you to work it all out.
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So push on, play some friendlies. Your staff will take care of everything else. You’ll learn so much from just watching the players in action. Watch them closely. Where are they doing well and where are they falling short? Are you getting your best players on the ball? Are you too open at the back? Mess around with the tactics and see what you can do. Make a midfielder more defensive. Tell him to be an anchorman. Then, watch the next friendly to see how his role has changed.
You’re in now. You’re a Football Manager football manager. And this, I regret to inform you, is only the start…
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Iain Macintosh was a proper football writer until 2017 when he set light to his career by co-founding Muddy Knees Media, the podcast production company behind The Totally Football Show and You're Dead To Me. When The Athletic bought MKM in 2020, he somehow convinced them to let him play video games for a living. Follow Iain on Twitter @Iain_Games
