Time to start my career. I picked Aldershot for this run because I think their shield is gorgeous. They are professional in National League, predicted to end 17th of 24 teams, so there will be some challenge from the very start. With a top tactic from FM24 or 26, it would be a breeze to reach premier league winning every season, but since we are in beta, there should be more challenge in the way.
The second decision is the creation of the manager. I picked zero qualifications and a National C license, with tendencies that improve motivation (for shouts and team talk) and people management (for praising and criticizing), as well as training youth (because I like to develop players) and fitness (most important attributes).
1. Staff Responsibilities: Set what you want to do or delegate. Personally, I take control of everything from main team, tell backroom to not arrange friendlies, and delegate friendly matches.
2. Tactic: Check the depth of your squad, including youth, and select your favorite tactic. For this run, I will be using Ace of Clubs 0.1 ST, to watch it and adjust during the career. Pick your best XI and immediate reserves to identify who who is disposable.
3. Set pieces: Load your favorite set pieces. My set pieces are attached to this message, but keep in mind I am testing it for the first time in this run.
4. Friendlies: Cancel all friendlies and arrange new ones. Your goal is to build match sharpness and massacre the opposition to increase morale, so pick the weakest teams with the highest revenue. I recommend one match per week if your squad is short, two matches per week if you can divide your squad into two teams, until one week before the first official match.
5. Training Intensity: If you use my training schedule, no pitch or gym work for anyone below excellent condition, double intensity for everyone in excellent condition.
6. Coach Assignments: Balance workload to be as low as possible, while getting one coach to maximize star rate of each category if you have spare staff members.
7. Training Overview: Load your favorite training schedules for the season. My schedule is attached to this message, but keep in mind I am testing it for the first time in this run.
8. Training Focus: Set all players to Quickness and GK Shot Stopping. Set players to retrain position if needed.
9. Staff: Make sure you have physios and coaches, and hire new ones if need. Sort by desired attribute and pick from the top. For coaches, check what training category you want to maximize, then find someone with high of that attribute (example, attack and tactical), as well as good mental attributes.
10. Players: Sell deadwood to free budget, then prioritize the positions you need the most. To find players, filter for 6 in Work Rate, Agility, Concentration and Stamina, then sort the resulting players by Acceleration or Pace, and scout those with the best attributes, prioritizing those of young age.
**Player Instructions of Ace of Clubs 0.1 ST** All: Tackle Harder GK: Pass Shorter BCB: Pass Shorter, Trigger Press More Often OCB: Shoot Less Often, Take More Risks, Pass Shorter, Trigger Press Less Often AWB: Sit Narrower, Cross From Byline and Shoot Less Often, Trigger Press More Often CHM: Roam From Position IF: Stay Wider CHF: Make More Runs, Trigger Press More Often
**Transfers** Top priority: Pace and Acceleration are by far the most effective attributes. Minimum requirements: 6 in Work Rate, Agility, Concentration and Stamina. These attributes hurt a lot when low, but do not improve performance significantly at higher values. __Only look below if still in doubt between two players.__ Priority #2: Jumping Reach (especially for defenders). Secondary requirements: 10 in Balance, Dribbling (especially for flank players), Work Rate and Anticipation. __Only look below if still in doubt between two players.__ Priority #3: Dribbling and balance.
This is my starting squad, and the view I use to see my team. Last Match Rating is used to praise / criticize the players after every match to increase their morale. Usually it gives good results above 8 for praise, and below 6.3 for critics, but it might change depending on your player management attributes. Training rate is also used to praise and criticize once a week, and the other attributes are for player selection. I also use other attributes in the recruitment screen, as well as filters, to ensure I get players with certain standard.
When choosing what players you want to recruit, make sure to scout them or invite to trial to reveal their attributes and get coach reports that might reveal their hidden attributes.
Added some color to the numbers to be easier to identify potential targets. In this case, I filtered defenders under 21 years old, and identified this player as a potential target, so I will invite him to a trial to reveal his attributes. I will then repeat it to different positions, and my goal is to hire around four new players to the team (one defender, one wingback, one central midfielder, and one winger).
My color scheme is also presented in the picture.
For higher leagues, you would be using scouts instead to reveal players, but in lower leagues trials are king.
After selling a couple of players for 0 to get rid of them fast, I now have 182k wage/year in budget, so I can hire one of the players from trial that have revealed their attributes by now. These are their initial asks and their accepted offers.
Testing if super rest still works. This is the energy level of players after the friendly match. I saved the game, added a recovery after the match (to block super rest), and went in holiday (as trainer) for two days. I then reloaded and did the same with full rest. The player is sent home because of training intensity settings, increasing the recovery when paired with a full day of rest. You can see super rest still works because players like Nino recovered more condition when they had a full day of rest.
Unfortunately, both players I was trying to hire decided to move to teams from league 2 instead. I will try again later in the season when there is no competition, since I have no budget. The initial team should be good enough to be promoted if I do everything properly.
I saved before the first match of the season and went in holiday for the entire season, to use the result as benchmark. Some people have been saying they have better luck on instant mode than playing matches themselves, so I am going to test that hypothesis. Aldershot was expected to finish the season in 17th place. I did not hire anyone, and three players left. Holiday mode got me 75 points, 16 behind the leaders, in 7th place to play the playoffs. My team scored 4 goals from corners, 3 from direct free kicks, and 3 from indirect free kicks, and conceded 4 goals from corners, 4 from direct free kicks, and 2 from indirect free kicks. Average possession was 44%, with zero red cards, 70 goals scored and 57 goals conceded. There were 25 injuries in the season (3 major, 9 moderate, 1 minor, 12 slight, with longest being 2 months). Progress of players was not very high since they are mostly over 23 years old, with poor training facilities and poor coaching staff. I attached the growth of the youngest player from the main team, for reference.
Tomorrow I will start the season again from the save point (first match) and see how it compares with holiday mode.
A trick to find new players in lower leagues is to temporarily increase scouting range, then ask to scout or trial the players you like, and finally remove the scouting ranging to reduce cost to zero (it will charge only for the current month). I did that and invited more 5 players in trial, and offered contract to one of them after revealing his stats. Unfortunately, he joined Barnsley from League 1 instead. Competition for free players is pretty wild, which is why I prefer to hire those players when window is closed for the next season.
Here is a full play of my match, showing what I usually do. Since we are away from home against a stronger opponent, my goal was to ease expectations with shouts and team talk. They got quite a few yellow cards, so I had to manage their tackles to avoid someone being sent out (I prefer just changing player instruction to ease off tackle instead of using the tweak that also reduces pressure).
During the match, my goal was to check pass map and heat map to see where the opponent was finding space. There were lots of passes through the left side in the beginning, but with no heat map in that area, so I focused on adding opposition instruction to the players that were actually making the game flow through the right side (DMR and DR). Later in the match, I identified their top performer and also add the instruction to mark him tighter, which reduced his impact in the match and allowed me to seize victory.
P.S.: I had to play at 2x speed and key highlights only so the video could fit in Discord.
In this match, the game of the opponent is clearly flowing mostly through the middle, so I had to add a team instruction to trap the opponent outside, because they are working too well through the middle. It did help change their flow to the flanks and allowed me to "even out" the game, but that was not enough to avoid conceding another goal and losing 2-0 home.
Especially in busy weeks, it is important to give players full rest after matches to trigger super-rest. Sometimes you will have to manually change the training schedule of the week to allow resting.
I lost 4-0 in the National League Cup. Those cups are a headache in the first season when your squad is still weak, so I usually play them with alternative teams. In this case, I did not even play the match, just did an instant result with a completely swapped out starting XI.
Time to start my career. I picked Aldershot for this run because I think their shield is gorgeous. They are professional in National League, predicted to end 17th of 24 teams, so there will be some challenge from the very start. With a top tactic from FM24 or 26, it would be a breeze to reach premier league winning every season, but since we are in beta, there should be more challenge in the way.
The second decision is the creation of the manager. I picked zero qualifications and a National C license, with tendencies that improve motivation (for shouts and team talk) and people management (for praising and criticizing), as well as training youth (because I like to develop players) and fitness (most important attributes).
**Top 10 tasks when starting a new save**
1. Staff Responsibilities: Set what you want to do or delegate. Personally, I take control of everything from main team, tell backroom to not arrange friendlies, and delegate friendly matches.
2. Tactic: Check the depth of your squad, including youth, and select your favorite tactic. For this run, I will be using Ace of Clubs 0.1 ST, to watch it and adjust during the career. Pick your best XI and immediate reserves to identify who who is disposable.
3. Set pieces: Load your favorite set pieces. My set pieces are attached to this message, but keep in mind I am testing it for the first time in this run.
4. Friendlies: Cancel all friendlies and arrange new ones. Your goal is to build match sharpness and massacre the opposition to increase morale, so pick the weakest teams with the highest revenue. I recommend one match per week if your squad is short, two matches per week if you can divide your squad into two teams, until one week before the first official match.
5. Training Intensity: If you use my training schedule, no pitch or gym work for anyone below excellent condition, double intensity for everyone in excellent condition.
6. Coach Assignments: Balance workload to be as low as possible, while getting one coach to maximize star rate of each category if you have spare staff members.
7. Training Overview: Load your favorite training schedules for the season. My schedule is attached to this message, but keep in mind I am testing it for the first time in this run.
8. Training Focus: Set all players to Quickness and GK Shot Stopping. Set players to retrain position if needed.
9. Staff: Make sure you have physios and coaches, and hire new ones if need. Sort by desired attribute and pick from the top. For coaches, check what training category you want to maximize, then find someone with high of that attribute (example, attack and tactical), as well as good mental attributes.
10. Players: Sell deadwood to free budget, then prioritize the positions you need the most. To find players, filter for 6 in Work Rate, Agility, Concentration and Stamina, then sort the resulting players by Acceleration or Pace, and scout those with the best attributes, prioritizing those of young age.
**Player Instructions of Ace of Clubs 0.1 ST**
All: Tackle Harder
GK: Pass Shorter
BCB: Pass Shorter, Trigger Press More Often
OCB: Shoot Less Often, Take More Risks, Pass Shorter, Trigger Press Less Often
AWB: Sit Narrower, Cross From Byline and Shoot Less Often, Trigger Press More Often
CHM: Roam From Position
IF: Stay Wider
CHF: Make More Runs, Trigger Press More Often
**Transfers**
Top priority: Pace and Acceleration are by far the most effective attributes.
Minimum requirements: 6 in Work Rate, Agility, Concentration and Stamina. These attributes hurt a lot when low, but do not improve performance significantly at higher values.
__Only look below if still in doubt between two players.__
Priority #2: Jumping Reach (especially for defenders).
Secondary requirements: 10 in Balance, Dribbling (especially for flank players), Work Rate and Anticipation.
__Only look below if still in doubt between two players.__
Priority #3: Dribbling and balance.
**Example of ideal player**
Pace: 18+++
Acceleration: 18+++
Work Rate: 10
Agility: 6
Concentration: 6
Stamina: 6
Anticipation: 10
Jumping Reach: 10++
Dribbling: 10+
Balance: 10+
This is my starting squad, and the view I use to see my team.
Last Match Rating is used to praise / criticize the players after every match to increase their morale. Usually it gives good results above 8 for praise, and below 6.3 for critics, but it might change depending on your player management attributes. Training rate is also used to praise and criticize once a week, and the other attributes are for player selection. I also use other attributes in the recruitment screen, as well as filters, to ensure I get players with certain standard.
When choosing what players you want to recruit, make sure to scout them or invite to trial to reveal their attributes and get coach reports that might reveal their hidden attributes.
Added some color to the numbers to be easier to identify potential targets. In this case, I filtered defenders under 21 years old, and identified this player as a potential target, so I will invite him to a trial to reveal his attributes. I will then repeat it to different positions, and my goal is to hire around four new players to the team (one defender, one wingback, one central midfielder, and one winger).
My color scheme is also presented in the picture.
For higher leagues, you would be using scouts instead to reveal players, but in lower leagues trials are king.
This is my usual code of conduct.
For pitch size, I always pick largest, because it benefits tactics that use space well.
After selling a couple of players for 0 to get rid of them fast, I now have 182k wage/year in budget, so I can hire one of the players from trial that have revealed their attributes by now. These are their initial asks and their accepted offers.
Testing if super rest still works. This is the energy level of players after the friendly match. I saved the game, added a recovery after the match (to block super rest), and went in holiday (as trainer) for two days. I then reloaded and did the same with full rest. The player is sent home because of training intensity settings, increasing the recovery when paired with a full day of rest. You can see super rest still works because players like Nino recovered more condition when they had a full day of rest.
Unfortunately, both players I was trying to hire decided to move to teams from league 2 instead. I will try again later in the season when there is no competition, since I have no budget. The initial team should be good enough to be promoted if I do everything properly.
I saved before the first match of the season and went in holiday for the entire season, to use the result as benchmark. Some people have been saying they have better luck on instant mode than playing matches themselves, so I am going to test that hypothesis. Aldershot was expected to finish the season in 17th place. I did not hire anyone, and three players left. Holiday mode got me 75 points, 16 behind the leaders, in 7th place to play the playoffs. My team scored 4 goals from corners, 3 from direct free kicks, and 3 from indirect free kicks, and conceded 4 goals from corners, 4 from direct free kicks, and 2 from indirect free kicks. Average possession was 44%, with zero red cards, 70 goals scored and 57 goals conceded. There were 25 injuries in the season (3 major, 9 moderate, 1 minor, 12 slight, with longest being 2 months). Progress of players was not very high since they are mostly over 23 years old, with poor training facilities and poor coaching staff. I attached the growth of the youngest player from the main team, for reference.
Tomorrow I will start the season again from the save point (first match) and see how it compares with holiday mode.
A trick to find new players in lower leagues is to temporarily increase scouting range, then ask to scout or trial the players you like, and finally remove the scouting ranging to reduce cost to zero (it will charge only for the current month). I did that and invited more 5 players in trial, and offered contract to one of them after revealing his stats. Unfortunately, he joined Barnsley from League 1 instead. Competition for free players is pretty wild, which is why I prefer to hire those players when window is closed for the next season.
Here is a full play of my match, showing what I usually do. Since we are away from home against a stronger opponent, my goal was to ease expectations with shouts and team talk. They got quite a few yellow cards, so I had to manage their tackles to avoid someone being sent out (I prefer just changing player instruction to ease off tackle instead of using the tweak that also reduces pressure).
During the match, my goal was to check pass map and heat map to see where the opponent was finding space. There were lots of passes through the left side in the beginning, but with no heat map in that area, so I focused on adding opposition instruction to the players that were actually making the game flow through the right side (DMR and DR). Later in the match, I identified their top performer and also add the instruction to mark him tighter, which reduced his impact in the match and allowed me to seize victory.
P.S.: I had to play at 2x speed and key highlights only so the video could fit in Discord.
In this match, the game of the opponent is clearly flowing mostly through the middle, so I had to add a team instruction to trap the opponent outside, because they are working too well through the middle. It did help change their flow to the flanks and allowed me to "even out" the game, but that was not enough to avoid conceding another goal and losing 2-0 home.
Especially in busy weeks, it is important to give players full rest after matches to trigger super-rest. Sometimes you will have to manually change the training schedule of the week to allow resting.
Got my ass whooped, won 4-1. FM is funny sometimes.
I lost 4-0 in the National League Cup. Those cups are a headache in the first season when your squad is still weak, so I usually play them with alternative teams. In this case, I did not even play the match, just did an instant result with a completely swapped out starting XI.