FM22

Our FM22 Player of the Year

 
 

September. A time of mixed emotions in the Football Manager community as another cycle of FM comes to a close. Sadness and yearning as the appetite for any existing or new save slowly starts to dwindle, combined with optimism and eager impatience as we await Beta-day and the newest edition of Sports Interactive’s Piece de Resistance, this year in the form of Football Manager 2023 (officially out on November 8th in case you’ve somehow missed it).

 
 

Nonetheless there is much to discuss during the limbo period between games and today we will start with a small testament to FM22 as we each discuss our Player of the Year for FM22 (also discussed recently on Episode 267 of 5 Star Potential) - have a read, let us know if you’ve also had any experiences with our favourites and make sure to Tweet us your own nominations @5StarPod.

Madd - Shola Shoretire

Madd’s Northern Boys adventure took him deep into the annals of North-East football wherein he attempted to recreate modern-day Newcastle United into a domestic only club (akin to the Athletic Bilbao model), and on his travels he was more than pelased to discover that Man Utd starlet and FM22 wonderkid Shola Shoretire was in fact born in Newcastle and thus became one of his #1 transfer targets from Day 1 of the save. Three loan seasons later, Shola was signed permanently for £34m and after being deployed on either wing as well as up top in a front two, it was in the Central Midfield (Attack) role that Shola played his best football, and was one of the key drivers of Madd’s Newcastle side regaining promotion to the Premier League having been relegated in Season 4. Rapid quick and good on the ball as well as being an excellent dribbler and creator in the team, he bagged 59 goals & 49 assists from 194 starts and was the standout player of the save.

 
 

Joe - Roony Bardghji

For Joe it was the FM22 Winter Update that brought his Player of the Year for this cycle of Football Manager. Too young to be included when the game was first released, Bardghji was added in January and it was in Joe’s Villareal save that he quickly rose to prominence following 92 goal contributions in 124 appearances for the Yellow Submarine as well as 16 goals in 43 caps for Sweden; did we mention Joe only signed him for £10m? Deployed as a left-footer on the right hand side with a Shoots On Sight player trait, this kid is the ultimate definition of an FM wonderkid and looking at his in-game attributes, it’s easy to see why he wins Joe’s vote this year.

 
 

Doop - Cammy White

A NEWGEN APPEARS. Having been renamed to Cammy White at the bequest of one of Doop’s Twitch mods (fair game), this guy quickly joined Doop’s list of all-time FM heroes (along side the likes of Victor Osimhen and Eddie Nketiah) and it’s not hard to see why. As Newgens go this is dream territory and a player any of us would like to obtain in Football Manager - not only did he win Doop his final Champions League, he bagged 97 goals in 99 starts, won 3 Ballon d’Or awards and as attributes go, it’s easy to see why Doop has dubbed him “The best player I’ve seen in Football Manager”.

 
 

Matt - Benjamin Šeško

Every year we see a hallmark wonderkid for that particular version of Football Manager, that one player who pops up in the majority of FM saves who is almost unrivalled in terms of wonderkidness. Obtainable, affordable, dependable, exceptional - Benjamin Sesko most certainly ticks our wonderkid boxes and at the time of recording had scored 20 goals in 32 games for Matt’s Athletico Madrid side with a 7.39 average rating. Ridiculous physical attributes, outstanding technicals and ideal mentality to develop him rapidly in-game, it’s little wonder that only Haaland, Mbappe and Adeyemi have scored more goals across the entire of FM22. SIGN HIM UP.

 
 

That gives you our 4 nominees for our coveted 5 Star Potential FM22 Player of the Year (Dave probably would have nominated some Portugese chief he signed for Wolves) - after much deliberation and considering his impact across so many of your saves this year, we ulimately and almost unanimously agreed that Benjamin Sesko is the man most worthy of the award and thus takes home the spoils for this year’s game cycle. Would you agree? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments below or on Twitter - who was your own FM22 Player of the Year?

 
 

Roll on FM23 🚀.

5 Affordable Meta players in FM22

 
 

by MaddFM.

Let’s face it - we are all trying to break Football Manager. Not necessarily in a malicious or somewhat dishonest way (well, most of us at least), but rather that we as Football Manager fanatics are constantly on a quest to find a way to outsmart the game; to find gaps in terms of scouting, tactics, match engine and general FM gameplay as a way of proving that you are in fact the shrewdest Football Manager of them all through your ingenuity and astuteness in your handling of the game.

There is of course no simple way of doing this, and the sheer amount of code, complex algorithms and intertwined interdependencies mean there is no easy way to outsmart the game - however there are certain aspects that can help you to capitalise on how the game thinks and is designed to react when various factors are introduced and today we will be looking at how to best use Player Attributes when it comes to outsmarting the game and imposing a Meta approach when it comes to player recruitment, selection and deployment. 

What is Meta?

The concept of Meta in gaming refers to the idea that there are specific ways/approaches to defeating a game or succeeding within a particular game’s circumstances - effectively a way of capitalising on a game’s design/structure by building a strategy designed to capitalise on it’s flaws or exploit it’s perceived strengths accordingly (often seen as the early stages of overpowering a game to the extent where it becomes “broken”).

In Football Manager terms - Meta would more commonly refer to the in-game architecture which allows for certain tactics, attributes, actions or strategies to thrive by identifying weaknesses or capitalising on factors that the game relies on heavily. We have seen this in the past with things like 3-Striker formations, Long-Throws, Near-Post Corners etc - all aspects that in-turn became overpowered and subsequently “nerfed” by Sports Interactive in subsequent updates. There is a fine line between Meta, Overpowering and effectively cheating in-game and often it is up to you in terms of how comfortable you are trying to overpower the match engine or digress from reality when it comes to your FM strategy.

To be clear - this piece is not about cheating or trying to completely overpower the game; rather it’s about using some of the tools available to maximise how specific features/dependencies work within the game environment as well as areas that can truly compliment your tactic/playing style as well as maximising how you deploy certain players to capitalise and therefore reap the benefits from their individual strengths and attributes.

1. The Goal-Scoring Centre-Half

To quote Gary Neville regarding Cristiano Ronaldo’s match-winning header against Tottenham recently - “He's just gone and headed it like a non-league centre-back”. While a bit extreme especially for someone with the aerial ability and athleticism of Ronaldo, you can see Gary’s point. Teams that have had the stereotypical big centre-half to offer an aerial threat from set-pieces have largely reaped the benefits for many years gone by, where the likes of Sergio Ramos, John Terry, Nemanja Vidic, Shane Duffy and Harry Maguire have all proven to be highly effective assets to their team from an offensive perspective as well as defensively.


Football Manager loves a big Centre-Half, and improvements to the Set-Piece creator mean that you cause all kinds of damage by deploying a big Centre-Half and strategically targeting them for Free-Kicks and Corners effectively (in my own save we saw 6’3” Mattie Pollock (Jumping Reach 17, Heading 16) win the Championship Player of the Year award after bagging 11 goals and 6 assists in one season). Naturally Virgil Van Dijk is the ideal big Meta Centre-Half standing at 6’4” with 17 Jumping Reach, 17 Strength and 18 Heading however if you are after a slightly more affordable option then I recommend 26-year-old Czech Defender Patrizio Stronati of Hungarian side Puskas Akademia. Standing at 6’4” (197m) with 17 Jumping Reach, 17 Heading, 18 Strength and 16 Bravery this man will never fear an aerial challenge and with a transfer value of £250k -£2.6m, he could prove to be a bargain if you can have him bag a few crucial goals as well as shoring things up at the back.

 
 

2. Catch Me If You Can

For a long-time, Player Speed i.e. Pace/Acceleration was one of the most overpowered attributes in Football Manager, wherein the fastest players simply couldn’t be caught and became almost unplayable at times. Nowadays there is less overemphasis on player speed with more importance put on the combination of Physical, Mental and Technical attributes, however having a player that is lightning quick who can make those rapid bursts of pace going forward or on the counter can be hugely beneficial especially if they are competent with the ball and can pass and finish. Kylian Mbappe epitomises this role and is the ultimate Meta speedster in-game - however you shouldn’t have to spend £300m for such a player, and a much more affordable option is Porto’s Brazilian Winger Galeno, who at 23 already has 18 Pace, 17 Acceleration, 16 Flair, 16 Dribbling and 16 Agility with plenty of room for development across his other attributes. Valued at £9.2m -£14m at the start of FM22, Galeno is far more affordable and could prove to be equally as effective going forward. 

 
 

3. Architecture 101

Older versions of CM/FM included “Creativity” as a Player Attribute in the past, however as football has evolved and modernised so too has Football Manager when it comes to the more creative attributes in-game. Vision, Flair, Technique, First Touch, Passing, Decisions and Anticipation now form the main creative elements for an individual player and while an unlimited budget might allow you to target the likes of Kevin De Bruyne or Luis Alberto, a more affordable alternative comes in the form of Carles Aleñá, a former La Macia graduate who never quite broke into the first team at Barcelona and now plies his trade at Getafe in La Liga. 18 Flair, 16 Vision, 17 Passing, 17 Technique, 17 First Touch - signing Aleñá for a mid-sized club is a mouthwatering prospect for what he can bring to the team in terms of creativity and goal contributions.

 
 

4. Keeper or Giver?

If the last few seasons have taught us anything, it’s that Goalkeepers no longer just stop shots going in. The likes of Ederson, Neuer, Ter Stegen and Alisson have become essential components in build-up play and initiating offensive movements & counter-attacks for their respective clubs in recent seasons, and Football Manager is reflective of this not only with the introduction of the Sweeper Keeper role a few years back but also an increased emphasis on Distribution within the Goalkeeper attributes section. Kicking, Passing, First Touch and Throwing are now essential attributes for the modern goalkeeper and in the absence of whatever cash would be needed to sign one of the aforementioned elite keepers above, Argentinian stopper Lucas Chaves (Argentinos Juniors) is a very affordable option who fits the mould of an excellent distributor as well as shot-stopper. Passing (15), Throwing (15), Kicking (14) not to mention decent First Touch, Technique, Vision and Decisions - at 25 he is still young in Goalkeeping terms and could definitely be developed further to rival some of the more well known experts in this area at a much lower price.

 
 

5. A good kicker of the football


Never, ever, underestimate the value of a player who can strike a football. Whether it be Free-Kicks, Corners, Long-Shots, Penalties or a good old fashioned cross-field pass (Jonjo Shelvey likes this) - Football Manager respects if not relishes the influence and impact of a specialist with strong attributes in these areas not to mention what we have seen in real-life (think Koeman at Barcelona, Juninho at Lyon, Beckham at United, Ward-Prowse at Southampton, Ronaldo when he is in the mood). In FM the dream player for all-round ball-striking ability is Bruno Fernandes boasting 17 Free-Kick Taking, 16 Corners, 17 Long Shots, 17 Passing and 17 Technique, however at £88m-£111m he is beyond the reach of almost every club. Drop down to the £22m-£33m range and it’s Ruslan Malinovskyi who is the absolute Meta when it comes to ball-striking ability with 19 Long Shots, 17 Free Kicks, 17 Corners and 16 Technique. If the FM Streamer Showdown taught us anything - stick this guy on Set Pieces and Long-Shots and he won’t let you down (shout out to @RanksFC for the “good kicker of the football” inspiration).

 
 

There you have it - 5 “Meta” players who spike in certain attributes that can often be very favourable in-game and in the Football Manager match engine, who might just be the key catalyst in reigniting your save or turning 1 point into 3 at a crucial point in your season. There are plenty of other alternatives in-game should you know what you are looking for, and having this meta mindset might just give you the edge when it comes to leading your club to glory.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or @5StarPod on Twitter.

The Football Manager Regional Challenge (Regionnaire)

 
 

by MaddFM.

Save ideas are the bread and butter of the Football Manager community. Journeyman, Build a Nation, Achievement Hunter, Unemployed, Bottom at Christmas, Glory Hunter - the list goes on however if you are like me then you are always looking for something new and unique, something challenging yet equally rewarding and a save that has long-term potential to ensure you don’t hit that wall which many of us face when starting a new save.

That all ends here as we introduce a relatively new concept on which you can base your next FM save adventure. Having started a North-East only save at pre-Saudi Newcastle wherein the mission was to transition the team to a regional/local transfer policy within 4 seasons, the idea has become increasingly popular with many FM creators and enthusiasts trying their hand in other regions in England and abroad. Inspired by this, today we bring you The Football Manager Regional Challenge, or if you would like an even quirkier FM name for it: The Regionnaire.

What is it?

The idea is simple - you take a club and implement a regional/local squad and transfer policy, meaning you can only sign players that were born/raised within a specific region in which your club is located. There are already real-life examples of this with the most notable being Athletic Club de Bilbao in Spain who have a policy of only allowing players who are native to or were raised/trained in the Basque region - this means that although the club is relatively limited in terms of flexibility and accessibility in the transfer market, the increased emphasis on academy/youth production and regional football development has led to a highly successful output of elite players from this region who have gone on to play for the first team or have highly successful careers overseas and at international level, not to mention bringing in substantial transfer revenue for the club such is their importance to the club as a rare natural resource as well as their quality overall (see Ander Herrera, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Aymeric Laporte and Javi Martinez to name a few).

In Football Manager terms - though the game is not entirely set up for such a save idea it is relatively straightforward to implement a similar squad/transfer policy at a club within a specific region, and in this article we will look at how to set yourself up for a Regionnaire save in FM as well as looking at England as an option for a save with 9 regions to choose from as you look to conquer at domestic and continental level.

How do I set it up?

The good news is it doesn’t take too much to start a Regionnaire save in Football Manager as it largely comes down you in terms of following your own rules/constraints and deciding at which point to implement a domestic/regional transfer policy. You can either choose to start right away from the beginning of the save and immediately begin offloading all non-regional players accordingly, or you can try a more gradual transition by setting yourself a deadline by which the club must be fully migrated to local-born/raised players only. In terms of the Football Manager Editor - this is not even essential however it may help should you wish to make any changes to your governance and/or financial constraints. In my own save at #NorthernBoys (more on this later), we used the Editor to install a new Owner/Chairman at Newcastle (removing all traces of the new Saudi ownership) with the idea that the new policy is driven by the new Club Owners themselves - in this instance and to ensure our rigid transfer policy does not clash with the overall Club Vision (no point having a domestic/regional transfer policy if a club has a vision to sign overseas/high-reputation players), it was helpful to set the Chairman’s own vision/preferences to align with our vision as well as select the option to prevent any takeovers so as to reflect a long-term strategy by the board.

 
 
 
 

From here it’s simply a case of choosing your club/region and starting a new save! It helps to also install leagues/nations that may also contain/produce potential players from that region - for example at #NorthernBoys, I included as many players as possible from all UK and Ireland leagues to try and maximise our potential player pool each season.

How do I search for players?

Now comes not so much the hardest part but arguably the most time consuming part of setting up your save. In order to create a Player Search filter for your region, you need to identify all of the potential cities, towns and places in which players within that region have been or could be born so that you can easily search for eligible players and continue to locate Newgens who are born in these places accordingly. You then need to enter each of these as a “Place of Birth” in the advanced search section - entering multiple places with the “or” option selected between each one, as well as finishing with the “and Nation of Birth is” condition to ensure you don’t accidentally include a player from another nation with the same city or town! In my Newcastle save I have 84 cities and towns plugged into my search filter which usually results in approx. 900 player results when searching - this takes a short while to set up but once it is complete, you can save the filter and avoid having to do it again (note: Player Search filter does not work on Staff Search screen so if you are signing local staff also you will need to do it twice 🤦‍♂️).

 
 

Custom Views

Custom views help a lot in this type of save - you always want to have eyes on the Place of Birth column to ensure that (1) players/staff etc are eligible and (2) ensure you become very familiar with these so you don’t have to keep checking! You can simply add columns in your own views to see Place of Birth, or if you prefer it - below are some links to my own Custom Views for the Squad, Player Search and Staff Search screens.

These files should be placed in Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2022 > Views (if you don’t have a Views folder, create one).

The Football Manager Regional Challenge (England)

As I have eluded to earlier - this concept is inspired by my FM22 save at Newcastle entitled “Northern Boys” wherein we set ourselves a 4 year mission to transition the club to a fully North-East only player and staff policy as well as elevate football production in the North-East of England. As I began to drop blog posts and started streaming the save, more and more FM enthusiasts became interested and so the concept of the Football Manager Regional Challenge was born - this could be a solo save in which you choose a region and a club of your preference, or alternatively convert to a tournament or network save format. Below we will take a look at potential Regionnaire save ideas across the 9 regions in England to get a feel for what each region has to offer, once you select a region then it’s up to you to decide on a club and a method by which you will implement your new regional policy, not to mention the best part which is unearthing some gems within a limited playing pool and leading your new Regionnaire side to glory.

 

1. North-East

Main Towns/Clubs: Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Darlington.

Notable Regional Players: Jordan Henderson, Jordan Pickford, Giovanni Reyna, Adam Armstrong.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 
 

2. North-West

Main Towns/Clubs: Liverpool, Manchester (Utd & City), Everton, Blackburn, Burnley, Bolton, Wigan, Preston, Blackpool, Stockport.

Notable Regional Players: Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ross Barkley, Curtis Jones.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

3. Yorkshire & Humber

Main Towns/Clubs: Leeds, Bradford, York, Sheffield (Wednesday & Utd), Huddersfield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham.

Notable Regional Players: Erling Haaland, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Jamie Vardy, Kalvin Phillips, Domenic Calvert-Lewin.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 
 

4. West Midlands

Main Towns/Clubs: Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Aston Villa, Coventry, WBA, Stoke, Solihull.

Notable Regional Players: James Maddison, Jude Bellingham, Jack Grealish, Callum Wilson, Aaron Ramsdale, Jack Harrison, Ben Brereton Diaz.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

5. East Midlands

Main Towns/Clubs: Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Chesterfield.

Notable Regional Players: Ivan Toney, Jamaal Lascelles, Luke Thomas, Stephy Mavididi, Brennan Johnson, Tom Cairney, Che Adams.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 
 

6. South West

Main Towns/Clubs: Bristol, Bournemouth, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro, Swindon, Cheltenham, Torquay, Yeovil, Bath.

Notable Regional Players: Tyrone Mings, Eric Dier, Ashley Barnes, Ethan Ampadu, Lloyd Kelly.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 
 

7. East of England

Main Towns/Clubs: Norwich, Ipswich, Cambridge, Peterbrough, Colchester, Southend, Luton.

Notable Regional Players: Todd Cantwell, James Justin, Jamal Lewis, Angus Gunn, Jay Dasilva, Etienne Green.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 
 

8. South-East

Main Towns/Clubs: Oxford, Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Stevenage, Reading, Wycombe, Milton Keynes

Notable Regional Players: Mason Mount, Lewis Dunk, Dele Alli, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Ward-Prowse, Jack Wilshere.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 
 

9. Greater London

Main Towns/Clubs: Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Fulham, Brentford, QPR, West Ham, Charlton, Watford, Crystal Palace, Millwall, AFC Wimbledon.

Notable Regional Players: Harry Kane, Declan Rice, Jadon Sancho, Tammy Abraham, Bukayo Saka, Reece James, Emile Smith Rowe.

Sample Player Search Filter: Click Here

 

Regional Development

Why stop there? If you want to go one step further (as we have been doing at #NorthernBoys) - you can also focus on regional development and on elevating the level of football production within the region. Identifying smaller feeder clubs in the area and investing heavily in these through affiliations, transfers, loans and friendlies also helps to influence and improve the stature and youth development of the region which can only benefit the quality and longevity of your save. Remember - in order to have a long-term career you will need to ensure a quality cohort of Newgens are produced each season, and this can be driven both internally as well as externally across other clubs in the region.

There you have it! Of course, the Regionnaire save is not limited to England and can effectively be applied to almost any league or country of choice - all you need is some motivation, a touch of patience and a few minutes of geographical research to make the Regionnaire save idea a reality. The rest is up to you!

Best of luck and let us know how you get on either on Twitter or in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

MaddFM.

Nothing to Declare - 5 Undeclared Players in FM22

 
 

Three words: Ben Brereton Diaz. If you’ve been living under a rock and not heard one of the best FM-related stories in the past 12 months, the story of how Blackburn Rovers Striker Ben Brereton went from the Nottingham Forest academy to becoming the face of Pepsi in Chile and scoring for the Chilean International side in the Copa America is straight out of the FM book of dreams. After briefly mentioning that his mother is from Chile in a matchday programme interview for Blackburn, Football Manager researcher Mark Hitchin subsequently added Chile as Brereton’s second nationality and it was from here that the wheels were set in motion. A Twitter campaign by Chilean content creator Koke (@ChileanToon) drew the attention of the Chilean National authorities, and before long Ben Brereton became Ben Brereton Diaz and the rest as we know is history.

 
 
 
 

More recently we have also seen another Englishman pledge a new international allegiance with Aston Villa defender Matty Cash having just made his full debut for Poland after successfully obtaining his passport through qualification on his mother’s side. Cash has had a rapid ascent in recent years having never featured at underage level for England, and his form for Aston Villa means he now counts the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Piotr Zielinski and Arkadiusz Milik as international team mates. Not bad for a young lad from Slough right?

 
 

The release of FM22 brings about fresh opportunities for International Management enthusiasts to try and sway players to an alternative nation in-game before they declare or are capped for their primary nation. We last covered this in FM20 whereby the likes of Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli, Hossem Aouar, Josha Vagnoman and Harvey Barnes were all undeclared with second nationalities and while a few of those are yet to be declared or capped, a lot can happen in two years and we now have a fresh batch of undeclared players and wonderkids ready to be convinced to switch allegiances if you can charm them through the medium of Football Manager. Let the games begin.

Wesley Fofana (France → Mali / Ivory Coast)

Born in Marseille and capped for the France U21 side, Leicester’s €36m signing is eligible for not one but two African sides but the big question is - can you convince him to join the likes of Amadou Haidara and Yves Bissouma for Mali or alternatively a more tempting switch to Ivory Coast akin to Wilfried Zaha who followed a similar path? Considering he has to compete with the likes of Raphaël Varane, Presnel Kimpembe, Dayot Upamecano and Jules Koundé for a place in that France back line, it may not be as unlikely as you might think!

 
 

Conor Gallagher (England → Ireland / Scotland)

Arguably one of the most in-form players in the Premier League this season, Crystal Palace’s on-loan Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher has started this season like a house on fire, picking up six goals and and three assists in 15 games as well as impressing with his work rate, movement, ball progression and passing ability - so much so that he has just recently made his full England debut under manager Gareth Southgate. FM22 does not yet reflect this meaning the talented midfielder is eligible for both Ireland and Scotland at the start of a new save - can you tempt him either North of the border or across the Irish sea where his services would be much more valued and desired before the next data update renders him permanently declared for England?

 
 

Raphinha (Brazil → Italy)

Despite being capped 5 times for Brazil in real life since making his debut in August 2021, he remains uncapped and undeclared at the start of FM22 and more interestingly is eligible to play for European Champions Italy should an international stint with the Azurri take your fancy. Can you convince the in-form Brazilian to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Jorginho, Emerson and Rafael Toloi who now all boast a European Championship medal since switching allegiance?

 
 

Louie Barry (England → Ireland)

While Ireland’s striking options have slightly improved in the last couple of years through the likes of Adam Idah, Aaron Connolly and Troy Parrott - it’s fair to say that none of have yet shown a clear ability to emulate Ireland’s most successful and prolific goalscorer Robbie Keane. We love a bit of #narrative here at 5 Star Potential towers, and similar to how a 20-year-old Robbie Keane moved to Inter Milan from Coventry back in the year 2000, 2019 saw a 17-year-old Louie Barry also make the famed move abroad when he signed for Barcelona from West Bromwich Albion. His time at La Masia didn’t last as long as one might have hoped (he has since returned to England following a move to Aston Villa) - however despite already featuring for the England U18 team, he is still technically eligible to play for Ireland and should luck go your way there is always a small chance he might be tempted to turn out for the Boys in Green instead. Luck of the Irish right?

 
 

Michael Olise (France → England/Nigeria)

For some reason we rarely see “foreign” players declaring for England when the option is available - this writer’s mind drifts back to times when the likes of Carlo Cudicini, Manuel Almunia and Simone Perotta were linked with the England side due to potential eligibility - however with the exception of Owen Hargreaves who was born in Canada before joining the Bayern Munich academy at age 16, we are yet to see a more recent real-life example of a player completely switching allegiance to play for the English national side. Could Michael Olise be the one considering the ridiculous quality and pedigree available to the French authorities at present?

 
 

There you have it - if International Management is your thing or you enjoy Club & Country saves in Football Manager, then perhaps one of the above might sway you towards a particular country of choice in the hope that you can charm one of these guys to switch their allegiance. Honorable mentions must also go out to Tino Livramento (England - Portugal), Tariq Lamptey (England - Ghana), Jack Harrison (England - USA), Mohammed Ali-Cho (France - England) and Rayan Ait-Nouri (France - Algeria) all of whom are also eligible for an international switch at the start of FM22.

Did we miss anyone? Give it a go and let us know how you get on either in the comments below or on Twitter via @5StarPod!

Happy managing.

Deadline Day Diaries

 
 

by @adam_otbfm

One of the new features for Football Manager 2022 that you could argue has been spoken about slightly less than it should have been (perhaps due to the excitement surrounding the new Data Hub) has been the new revamped Transfer Deadline Day experience in-game. The new yellow & black branding and more prominent countdown timer really push the sense of urgency as the clock ticks making even the most organised managers reconsider their squad and look at chancing one more marquee signing. There’s a lot more to deadline day than that though, so to have a look at it properly, I’m going to play through the single most chaotic day in a manager’s calendar and desperately try to fill a huge void in Man UFC’s squad..

 
 

It’s no secret that United are crying out for a new Defensive Midfielder, not even the signings of Varane, Sancho and a certain CR7 can hide that. So with one day and £30m to spend, I’m going to jump into deadline day with no prior scouting done and see if I can secure a deal that genuinely improves the side.

🕗 8 AM - 15 HOURS TO GO

 
 

The first new feature that comes up is the early rumour mill. We’re being linked with Barca’s Sergiño Dest, an excellent full-back, but not the man we need the most. If the rumours of bids for Martial and Lingard materialise though, Dest could be a tasty little side project for today. Anyway, onto business. The midfield so far has been McTominay as the DM behind Pogba and Fernandes as the 8’s, but to be real title contenders I think an upgrade is needed. Declan Rice immediately springs to mind, but is probably out of budget. The same probably applies to Kalvin Phillips, especially since Leeds won’t want to lose their key man to us with no time to replace him! After a little bit of a look around, early thoughts are that the likes of Bentancur, Kessié, Bennacer, Rice and Guido Pizarro are among our potentially achievable targets. 

 
 

🕘 9 AM - 14 HOURS TO GO

Pat Deeley from ITV Sport wants to know if Pogba will be leaving today, I politely tell him that I’m not interested in selling. The new Attracting Interest tab confirms that the rumours around Martial and Lingard have a bit of substance; if we could get maybe £45m for the two combined we could really go big and make a Berbatov-esque impact today.

 

One of the more memorable 11th hour signings

 
 
 

I know less about Guido Pizarro than the rest of my shortlisted players, so I’ve got the entire scouting pool looking at him to hopefully get me some more info. He’s a bit of a last-ditch option, but if it comes to it I still want to be prepared. In my head, Kessié and Rice are the favourites, budget depending. If deals for those can’t be done, we’ll turn our attention to the likes of Bentancur and Bennacer.

🕙 10 AM - 13 HOURS TO GO

 
 

Agents are waking up and starting to get to work, with two getting in touch to test the waters and get their clients’ names out there. These new agent offers are great, it’s another avenue of finding interested players at short notice, although if they haven’t been on your scouts’ radar they could be a real risk. The only one of any particular interest is Emre Can, but as good as he is, I’m not sure he’s somebody I want to look at right now. There are no offers for Martial as most clubs have already concluded their business. Frustrating. I’ve asked him to get his name out there and he’s agreed, so hopefully somebody will panic and come in. I need to make some headway getting a body in, so I reach out to the agents of Rice and Kessié to see what their early thoughts are.

 
 
 
 

The improvement to agent conversations this year shows how likely we are to get either of these deals done. Kessié is the more affordable option but hasn’t got a whole lot of interest, which is a concern. My hope is that it’s because he’s happy at Milan, but would be willing if they do accept a bid for him. Rice is very interested which makes that aspect of the deal far more straightforward, but getting a bid accepted will be tough. Last year it would have just been “we’re glad you’re interested, this is what it’ll take” with no other context, whereas now we can confirm our interest and let them know a bid is coming. 

🕧 12:30 PM - 10.5 HOURS TO GO

Lunchtime must be an agent’s dream! We’ve had 30 players touted to us, all at once. There are actually some very interesting players in there for us, most notably Wilmar Barrios and Bryan Cristante. They don’t usurp the main targets though, and with still no offers for Martial I need to use what we have and make some bids. There’s no wiggle room in the budgets unfortunately, so we’re in with an opening bid of 30m for Kessié. If they accept it, I’ll be amazed!

🕐 1 PM - 10 HOURS TO GO

Milan come back with a negotiation that we just can’t match. They only want £32.5m up front, but the instalments make it £46m to come out of the budget which we can’t do. Plus they locked in signing a replacement first, not a chance! I reject that negotiation but I’ll check back in later. A bid of £22m does go in for Bryan Cristante though, just to test the water.

🕑 2 PM - 9 HOURS TO GO

Offer Accepted. Roma have accepted the £22m bid for Cristante and we can begin negotiations. He isn’t my first choice but an accepted bid is a good step. After a chat with Bennacer’s agent, we slap in a £24m bid for him too. I’m basically scatter-gunning at this point. Cristante wants to be a promised regular starter which is fine, and his demands are fairly basic, a 4 year deal on £94k p/w is agreed in principle. The next 9 hours now become about getting a player, or deal, I’m happier with. 

 
 

Having a look at the Transfer News tab, I can see that Newcastle are wielding some of their new found wealth, with the £40.5m signing of Maxi Gomez. The deal of the window will surely be over at Liverpool though, with them paying a measly £17m for World Cup winner Benjamin Pavard. The biggest deals could still be yet to come though, with City after Lautaro Martinez and the Pogba to Madrid rumours not going away. Hopefully their fax machine breaks!

🕝 2:30 PM - 8.5 HOURS TO GO

The offer for Bennacer has been leaked to the press! This is bad news, as Liverpool, Newcastle, Madrid and Bayern are all interested. That could push the price up and make him an unattainable target, time will tell I guess. I’m desperate to drum up some extra money for a Kessié deal, so I offer Martial out again at £25m, and Lingard with no asking price to see if I get any nibbles. There’s time left in the day but I feel I’m starting to rush things now. 

🕒 3 PM - 8 HOURS TO GO

Two bids for Lingard, but I don’t want to accept them. Spurs have made the better offer of the two, with £7m up front and £7m in installments. Leicester have matched the total but only £3.5m up front. Both rejected, with a £12m flat renegotiation sent. Milan come back to us with a small tweak to the Bennacer deal, so we accept as it’s all performance add-ons.

🕓 4 PM - 7 HOURS TO GO

We enter negotiations with Bennacer’s agent, and initially it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be as straightforward as Cristante’s dealings. Interestingly though his demands are far lower, so the deal is fairly simple after all. A 5 year deal on £80k p/w is agreed in principle. I’m frustrated that there’s no interest in Martial and no nibbles at the higher price for Lingard. I’m willing to drop price once more for each of them to try and do a deal for Kessié, but if not it’ll be a straight shootout between the two deals in progress.

 
 

At least the majority of fans think I’m doing my business in the right area - 36% have clearly forgotten we have Cristiano though!

5 PM - 6 HOURS TO GO

Bryan Cristante has been granted a work permit and can be confirmed as a Manchester UFC player. Ideally I’d like to delay it until I can see what happens with Bennacer, but I can’t. Another fan poll says that 60% of fans think Bennacer should be signed, and after a comparison I think I’m inclined to agree, although it’s close! The risk is cancelling the Cristante deal and then the Bennacer deal falling through, that would be catastrophic. It’s too late to get any meaningful info on anybody now and get a deal done, so if I take the risk I need a plan B I’m already familiar with.

 
 

A bid of £22m rising to £25.5 has been accepted for Bentancur, just in case the Bennacer deal falls through. A 4 year deal on £95k p/w has been agreed in principle too, but again it’ll depend on a work permit. Fingers crossed, now we wait!

🕡 6:30 PM - 4.5 HOURS TO GO

Things have gone quiet which is a bit of a concern, but we have had Patrice Briand from Maxifoot tap us up for a cheeky interview!

 
 

We definitely wouldn’t be foolish enough to suddenly act on a situation. Absolutely not!

 
 

Well now I well and truly feel like I’ve panicked!

🕗 8 PM - 3 HOURS TO GO

 
 

Relief. We will be bringing in a DM, the entire goal of the day, and we’ll do it with a couple of hours spare for a Horlicks and an early night! The only question now is which one? 

 
 

In the end we elect to sign Algerian International Ismael Bennacer, also of Milan and an absolute all round defensive midfield machine which is exactly what Man UFC need both in-game and of course in real life. Hopefully he can add the steel we need to this squad, definitely an improvement on our existing personnel.

 

With a DM finally signed and 2 hours left in the window, there’s only one thing left to do….

 
 
 

I’ve really enjoyed my first proper Deadline Day experience. The separate hub, the colour scheme changing everywhere, and touches like the countdown, the fan polls and rumours tab all genuinely make it feel like an event, rather than an extra set of continue presses like in previous editions. A few of these things have already been in the game, but have been greatly enhanced this year and really feel like they give the day much more meaning, enjoyment and immersion; even if you aren’t doing any business there’s still plenty to have a look around at and see what the competition are up to. The agent offers are excellent, not just as a way to find players that scouting may have missed, but also to give an idea of who might be looking for a move at short notice. All in all, definitely a good feature and something that adds some additional chaos to our saves!


Thanks for reading,

Adam.

If you enjoyed this then make sure to check out Adam’s wide variety of quality FM content on his own website here, and drop him a follow on Twitter to ensure you catch all his upcoming content!


Teams to Manage in FM22: TV Special

 
 

I tweeted that in September, still craving a Football Manager save, knowing that Football Manager 2022 was getting ever closer and I thought what better way to inspire a new save than by watching a documentary or series that will immerse you into the football club and take the save to a new level.

I have put this list together based on what I’ve actually watched, there are many that I won’t have seen so please feel free to recommend them to us and we’ll make sure we share them so other people can be as inspired as us!

Boca Juniors Confidencial - Netflix

 
 

Rewind to 2018 and you’ll be taken behind the scenes at one of South America’s biggest football teams. Carlos Tevez is back, Pavon is on the verge of greatness and the Boca supporters give you everything you need to start a save in the beautiful country of Argentina.

In FM22 you’ll start with a healthy transfer budget of £2m (For Argentina that’s good) but what you do have is a squad full of talent and plenty more in reserve that can take the challenge to bitter rivals River Plate.

That One Word - Feyenoord - Disney Plus

 
 

This documentary is one of my favourites of recent times, the way it is shot using the beautiful architecture of Rotterdam just adds to the behind the scenes footage of Dutch football as the Covid-19 pandemic strikes.

In FM22 the club has excellent youth facilities which you’ll have to rely on if you want to break the Ajax monopoly on the Eredivisie. You have also got a couple of star players that you’ll do well to keep hold over, goalkeeper, Justin Bijlow, & centre back, Marcos Senesi are destined for greater things so can you keep hold of them and bring back glory to De Kuip?

El Presidente - Valladolid - DAZN

 
 

The title says it all ‘He was the best, now he’s the boss’ - Ronaldo, R9, El Phenomenon is he the greatest striker of all time? Maybe. In the El Presidente you follow Ronaldo’s journey into club ownership, he’s not just a frontman for an ownership group, he’s done his homework taking courses in the UK and following how a club is run in America before purchasing Valladolid.

In FM22 you’ll find the club in the second division of Spain as it didn’t quite go to plan during the pandemic but you’ve still got a squad strong enough to battle for the title and with players like Chuki, Maroto & Vallejo you’ve got youth talent to cash in or build your squad around.

All or Nothing - Tottenham Hotspur - Amazon Prime

 
 

Well, well, well what do we have here then? Is there a better time to take over as Tottenham manager, probably not. The documentary starts with the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino & his replacement Jose Mourinho taking over, you’ll watch how the club deals with injuries, Covid & the difficult Danny Rose situation.

In FM22 Spurs have a good starting squad but there’s work to be done to turn them into a dominate force in Europe. Do you keep Harry Kane or move him on, does Deli Alli get a shot? As a business Spurs are second to none so financially you won’t struggle, the facilities are excellent and you’ve got a couple of really good youth products coming in so the future could be bright under your stewardship.

Inside Borussia Dortmund - Amazon Prime

 
 

The transfer strategy, the philosophy, the organisation. This documentary gives a great behind the scenes look at the Bundesliga’s perennial runners up.

In FM22 you need only one name to make this save special, Erling Haaland, want a second? Jude Bellingham. Dortmund’s strategy is to find quality talent before their big transfer move so if you love to sign wonderkids this save is for you PLUS you have the added incentive of trying to overcome the dominant Bayern Munich.

 

I hope you enjoyed Part One of this series, at the time of writing I haven’t decided on Part Two but I think it will focus on individuals rather than clubs so if you have any recommendations please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

 

Role Models - Using Specialist Roles in FM22 (Part II)

 
 

#WeGoAgain.

In Part 1 we brought you 5 specialist roles in Football Manager 2022 (Libero, Carrilero, Raumdeuter, Trequartista, and Wide Centre Back), advising on how best to deploy each role, the key attributes / traits needed to successfully use each one and finally some examples / recommendations of players whom are the perfect fit for these roles based on the fact that they are relatively natural in these positions and possess some or all of the key attributes and playing style to fulfil each of these specialised roles.

Of course we aren’t done. There are 44 individual player roles in Football Manager 2022, and today we bring you 5 more specialist individual player roles to further guide and assist you when making key decisions as you tailor and tweak your First XI to execute the perfect formation and tactic in FM22.

1. Sweeper Keeper

🗣️ “The Sweeper Keeper aims to perform two roles, those of the standard Goalkeeper and the outfield Sweeper. Alongside standard goalkeeping duties, he will sweep up balls in front of and wide of the penalty area and initiative counter-attacking moves with direct through balls to breaking players”.

Imagine it. An extra-man. In your First XI. For free. Traditional goalkeepers have always been, well, traditional - a man between the sticks, there to stop shots and command the area when it comes to crosses and set-pieces however the evolution of football in recent years has meant the demand for far more intelligence, technique and overall footballing ability from goalkeepers has dramatically increased with the likes of Ederson, Manuel Neuer and most recently Islan Meslier all standing out and raising the bar in terms of how goalkeepers can contribute more towards outfield and attacking play in addition to defensive contribution and goal-prevention. In FM terms - the introduction of the Sweeper Keeper a few versions back and it’s subsequent evolution means that if you find the right player to successfully operate in this role, you are basically adding an additional outfield / attacking element when in possession - more aggressively advancing from the goal-line and sweeping up loose balls as well as getting more involved in initiating counter-attacks and distributing long or through balls to players further up the field.

Key Attributes: Command of Area, Kicking, One On Ones, Reflexes, Passing, Rushing Out, Throwing, Anticipation, Composure, Concentration, Positioning, Agility.

Player Traits: Uses Long Throw to Start Counter Attacks, Tries to Play Way Out of Trouble. 

Elite Tier: Ederson (Man City) £196m-£216m

More Affordable: André Onana (Ajax) £17m -£26m

Cut Price Alternative: Kiko Casilla (Leeds) £850k-£1.9m

 
 

2. Inverted Wing-Back

🗣️ “The Inverted Wing-Back will function defensively much like a standard Full-back or Wing-Back. However, while a normal Wing-Back will offer width to an attack, the Inverted Wing-Back (when he has a player ahead of him and where there are fewer than two defensive midfielders) will attempt to drift inside and create space for players around him. If there is no team-mate ahead of him on his side of the pitch then the Inverted Wing-Back will look to support attacks in a more traditional manner; when there is, he will look at affect play in the middle of the pitch as much as possible.”

Trent-Alexander Arnold. Reece James. Joao Cancelo. Prime examples of players who arguably are too talented to operate in a traditional full-back or wing-back role and as such make for the ideal Inverted Wing-Back - a player that offers defensive and attacking width and energy who is equally adept at cutting inside, offering an additional man in midfield on the ball as well as helping to overload central areas on the attack, even providing a goal threat as we have frequently seen lately which was perfectly represented by Reece James’ double for Chelsea in the weekend just gone. Joshua Kimmich was so effective in this role they even made him a midfielder. In FM terms - you will need a talented, intelligent, hard-working and technical player to deploy this role successfully but if you find the right click in terms of attributes and positional play, again you will see increased success when it comes to dominating possession and aggressively attacking midfield areas by overloading the opposition in terms of space, passing options and creativity moving forward through the middle.

Key Attributes: Dribbling, Marking, Passing, Tackling, Technique, Decision, Off the Ball, Teamwork, Work Rate, Acceleration, Stamina.

Player Traits: Wants Ball to Feet More Often, Gets Forward Whenever Possible, Cuts Inside from Wings.

Elite Tier: Joao Cancelo (Man City) £68m-£86m

More Affordable: Benjamin Henrichs (Dortmund) £16.5m-£25m

Cut Price Alternative: Matteo De Sciglio (Juventus) £4m-£6.2m

 
 

3. Mezzala

🗣️ “A central player that likes to drift wide and operate in the half-spaces. The Mezzala is essentially a central/half-winger, who likes to do his defending slightly further up the field, although he does generally have less defensive responsibility. With an Attack duty, the Mezzala will often leave his midfield responsibilities to his team-mates whilst mainly looking to make attacking contributions in the final third.”

Attacking. Contributions. In FM this means clear-cut chances, shots on goal, creating assists and of course, goals. None have epitomised this role better than Kevin De Bruyne, although it’s fair to say he has evolved it into his own “Free 8” role such is the uniqueness of his positional awareness and style of play in the Man City midfield. In Football Manager, it’s all about space - a player with outstanding vision and movement in addition to being technically skilled and gifted on the ball. Usually deployed as part of a 3 man midfield, if you find the right player and the right balance (remember the Mezzala does very little defending or hard graft centrally) then you have a powerful creative weapon around which Strikers and Inside Forwards usually thrive.

Key Attributes: Dribbling, Passing, Technique, Decisions, Off the Ball, Vision, Work Rate, Acceleration.

Player Traits: Runs with Ball Through Centre, Tries Killer Balls Often, Arrives Late in Opponent’s Area, Moves Into Channels.

Elite Tier: Kevin De Bruyne (Man City) £215m-£234m

More Affordable: Gaetano Castrovilli (Fiorentina) £8.4m-£13m

Cut Price Alternative: Dani Ceballos (Real Madrid) £6.4m

 
 

4. Enganche

🗣️ “The side’s prime creator, a hook that joins midfield and attack and operates behind the strikers and is a playmaker who sticks to his position and becomes a pivot to his team as they move around him. Unlike the Trequartista, it is a more stationary role as the Enganche acts as the focal point instead of moving around into larger areas of space.”

While the aforementioned Carrilero, Trequartista and Mezzala roles are all about movement and energy, the Enganche is somewhat at the opposite spectrum in terms of liveliness and vibrancy but can be equally impactful in terms of their influence on a game and their creative output as the focal point through which most of a their team’s attacking play pivots. The Enganche role was best illustrated through the likes of Argentinians Juan Roman Riquelme, Ariel Ortega and Pablo Aimar however more recently the role was very much that of an in-form Mezut Ozil who was never the most mobile or energetic but had the ability to completely dictate the tempo and creative output of Real Madrid and Arsenal in his peak. In FM it is arguably one of the more difficult roles to deploy in a match-engine that often favours speed and off-the-ball movement, however if you are lacking creativity in midfield but have bundles of energy and stamina in other positions to support it (think Carrileros or Box-to-Box midfielders) - an Enganche can be a highly effective focal point on which to base your attacking and creative play. Who needs physicals right?

Key Attributes: First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Vision.

Player Traits: Likes Ball Played Into Feet, Tries Killer Balls Often, Dictates Tempo, Plays One-Twos.

Elite Tier: Riqui Puig (Barcelona) £16.5m-£21m

More Affordable: Isco (Real Madrid) £10m

Cut Price Option: James Rodriguez (Al-Rayyan) £6m-£8.8m

 
 

5. False Nine

🗣️ “The False Nine, in some ways, similar to a more advanced attacking midfielder/playmaker role, is an unconventional lone striker or centre-forward who drops deep into midfield. The purpose of this is that it creates a problem for opposing central defenders who can either follow him - leaving space behind them for onrushing midfielders, forwards or wingers to exploit - or leave him to have time and space to dribble or pick out a pass.

Bit of a gamble, right? Get it right and of course, you have a player and role that will cause absolute havoc for any defence due to their movement and intentional deviation from the standard striker role. However get it wrong (as this writer often has) and you risk making the role and the player null and void whereby they can become a ghost and have little or no impact on the game. While it’s essential to have the right player in the role who is technical, athletic, relentless and equally unselfish at times (we are talking the likes of Leo Messi, Roberto Firmino and more recently Harry Kane as his role evolves for Tottenham and England) - it is equally essential that you have the quality to make up for what a False Nine sacrifices in terms of being a goal threat or presence in the final third. Prime Messi had the likes of Ronaldinho, David Villa, Samuel Eto’o and Luis Suarez to thrive on his role as the ever-moving False Nine for Barcelona; Firmino’s selfless sacrifices in front of goal have paved the way for Salah and Mané to become Liverpool’s main goal-scoring threats over the past few season, while Harry Kane’s tendency to drop deeper into midfield to either get on the ball or draw out defenders has clearly (though not yet consistently) allowed the likes of Son Heung-Min and Raheem Sterling take advantage of the space created by Kane’s movement for both club and country. Can this be replicated in FM? Again, it’s risky when most of us are used to playing with out-and-out strikers or advanced forwards however as is the case with all of these specialist positions - fortune favours the bold.

Key Attributes: Dribbling, First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Off the Ball, Vision, Acceleration, Agility.

Player Traits: Comes Deep to Get Ball, Looks for Pass Rather Than Attempting to Score, Likes Ball to Feet.

Elite Tier: Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) £93m-£110m

More Affordable: Wissam Ben Yedder (Monaco) £45m-£56m

Cut Price Alternative: Gabriel Barbosa £9m-£13m

 
 

There you go - five more specialist roles that can be highly effective when deployed correctly in Football Manager, but equally require detailed knowledge and research rather than simply throwing any player into the role randomly without considering the tactical implications and pros/cons etc. Hopefully you are finding this somewhat useful as we gear up for the full version of FM22 to be released - as the game evolves, so too must we as Managers..right?

Best of luck - be sure to let us know how you get on either on Twitter or in the comments below as well as any other player roles you might like covered in future here on 5 Star Potential.

MaddFM.

Role Models - Using Specialist Roles in FM22 (Part I)

 
 

Defenders. Midfielders. Forwards. Simpler times eh? These days it’s not simply enough to master a position on the field and gone are the days when a player can simply be referred to as a bog-standard Centre-Half or Centre-Midfielder. The modern game has evolved so much in recent times that it has become commonplace, nay, essential for clubs to recruit and retain players who not only can play a specific position on the pitch but also bring a certain uniqueness to said position by creating or fulfilling a specific role in that area, and nowadays we associate players with specialised tactical roles as part of their game rather than just simply labelling them a defender, midfielder or attacker for their side. Heck, Goalkeepers aren’t even just shot stoppers any more and are now expected to be equally adept in terms of getting more involved in possession play and ball distribution, as well as acting as a Sweeper Keeper when needed.

Full-Backs have become wing-backs that tend to either overlap wide on the flanks or operate in an inverted role adding an extra man in midfield when on the attack. Centre-Backs have evolved from standard hard-men or aerial dominators to Ball-Playing Defenders or Attacking Wide Centre-Halves allowing wing backs to push on even further when on the front foot. Centre-Midfielders are no longer just that - what used to be defensive and attacking midfielders (akin to Keane and Scholes in the glory days) are now Defensive Playmakers, Mezzalas, Carrileros and Free 8’s while wingers are becoming a thing of the past in favour of Inside or Wide Forwards offering far more of a goal threat rather than just acting as providers for more advanced forwards. Even the Striker role has changed where we have observed the likes of Thierry Henry and Harry Kane drifting way out of position to have more of an influence on the game, or the likes of Roberto Firmino epitomising the False 9 role which allows the aforementioned Inside Forward role to thrive through the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané.

Football Manager has advanced further than ever in this regard, adding more and more layers of realism and complexity when assigning individual positions and roles in your team. In FM22 there are now 44 individual player roles to choose from across all areas of the pitch ranging from Sweeper Keeper all the way up to Target Man, and as such it is imperative that you garner a thorough understanding of each role to ensure that (a) it fits your system and (b) you recruit and deploy the right players accordingly. Today we will look at 5 specialist roles in Football Manager 2022 which are slightly out of the box in terms of their requirements and functionality - analysing how the role operates, when best to deploy it, the key attributes needed and subsequently some real-life recommendations of elite-tier and more affordable player options who are natural or partially natural in these roles and serve as an ideal benchmark or guideline against which you can deploy and utilise players in these roles to far greater effect.

 
 

1. Libero

🗣️ Drops behind the defensive line, aiming to sweep up through balls, pick up extra attackers and make goal saving tackles, blocks and interceptions. On Support they will step into the midfield when possession is secured and look to paly balls through to attacking teammates. On Attack they venture much higher up the pitch to provide a goal scoring threat from distance alongside looking to play in teammates.

We like a Libero around here. Usually planted deeper in the middle of a back three, the Libero is the closest thing to what was known as a Sweeper back in the early days, however brings an additional attacking element to their team through their ability to initiate attacks, play long cross-field balls and push forward to get goalscoring chances whenever the opportunity permits itself. The key thing about a Libero is finding the right player to play in the position as not just any centre-half can slot in and fulfil the role by default - it’s essential that whomever you train or select to play this role has all the attributes and traits needed for it’s effective deployment. Square pegs in round holes and all that.

Key Attributes: First Touch, Marking, Passing, Tackling, Anticipation, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Positioning, Teamwork, Vision, Pace.

Player Traits: Gets Forward Whenever Possible, Attempts Long Range Passes, Tries to Switch Possession to Other Side of the Pitch.

Elite Tier: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) £116m-£140m

More Affordable: Marcos Senesi (Feyenoord) £10m-£12.5m

Cut Price Alternative: Connor Goldson (Rangers) £5.8m -£7m

 
 

2. Carrilero

🗣️ The “shuttler” - a supporting role more often than not utilised as part of a midfield three, or as two central midfielders in a diamond midfield. It is the job of these shuttlers to cover lateral areas of the pitch and link the defensive midfield area with the attacking midfield area.

Carry by name, carry by nature. The Carrilero is everywhere, hence the reliance on Stamina and Positioning. In possession they help advance play and convert defence into attack, while out of possession they are expected to close down space and act as a blocker in key areas particularly when the opposition is on the counter and/or other players such as wing-backs or advanced midfielders are caught out of position and require instant cover. While the Carrilero is unlikely to feature in the goal contributions charts, they can be a highly effective in bridging the gap between your back line and final third as well as making up vital ground either with or without the ball when needed.

Key Attributes: First Touch, Passing, Tackling, Decisions, Positioning, Teamwork, Stamina.

Player Traits: Runs with Ball Through Centre, Dictates Tempo, Comes Deep to get the Ball.

Elite Tier: Rodri (Man City) £59m -£80m

More Affordable: Remo Freuler (Atalanta) £12.5m -£18.5m

Cut Price Alternative: Giulio Maggiore (Spezia) £700k -£8.4m

 
 

3. Raumdeuter

🗣️ Literally translated from German means “space investigator”. His main role is to find pockets of space in which to operate. Essentially a wide poacher, the Raumdeuter takes up seemingly harmless positions out wide, waiting for the opportune moment to burst through the defensive line for that telling shot or cross.

At this stage we all know the same truth. If you want to know what a Raumdeuter is, simply look at the career of Thomas Muller over the past 10-12 years. Unorthodox, unstructured, sometimes undefined or unclear - this is exactly what a player like Muller wants you to think, while the complete opposite is true. The Raumdeuter requires and is built on intelligence, awareness, coy and - a player that fashions chances from seemingly nowhere, capitalises on gaps and space left by defenders and always seems to be in the right place at the right time to punish imperfections in the opposition back line or defensive third. Muller has epitomised this role for Bayern and Germany consistently for over a decade, so much so that a Google search for the word itself will literally bring his name up with multiple results and detailed breakdowns of his positional play. Get this right in Football Manager and you have a weapon in your arsenal like no other - what you may sacrifice in speed and mobility you will more than make up for in goal contributions and clear-cut chances.

Key Attributes: Finishing, Anticipation, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Off the Ball, Balance.

Player Traits: Cuts Inside from Both Wings, Moves Into Channels, Gets Into Opposition Area Whenever Possible, Arrives Late in Box.

Elite Tier: Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad) £51m -£64m

More Affordable: Jonathan Bamba (Lille) £17m -£20m

Cut Price Alternative: Mohamed Bayo (Clermont Foot) £180k-£1.8m

 
 

4. Trequartista

🗣️ Can operate in the attacking midfield or centre forward positions. While similar to the Advanced Playmaker in that he aims to drop into the holes between the opposition’s midfield and defence, the Trequartista does far less defensively and simply drifts around looking for space when the team is not in possession.

@FMTreq likes this. Trequartistas are difficult to mark, impossible to predict and a pain in the a*se to defend against with Centre Halves and Defensive Midfielders frequently faced with the decision of who is responsible for marking or closing them down and therefore often caught out either double marking or neglecting to pick them up at all amongst the confusion and vivid movement of the role. Trequartistas take players out of the game while also providing a highly creative outlet on the ball - however choosing the right player is again essential for this role to capitalise on it’s assets, clearly relying on high vision, flair and off the ball skills to implement it successfully.

Key Attributes: Dribbling, First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Flair, Off the Ball, Vision, Acceleration.

Player Traits: Cuts in from Both Channels, Wants Ball to Feet More Often, Plays One-Twos, Tries Tricks.

Elite Tier: Neymar £169m -£203m

More Affordable: Jonas Wind (FC Kobenhavn) £9.8m-£12m

Cut Price Alternative: Hatem Ben Arfa (Free Agent)

 
 

5. Wide Centre Back

🗣️ Main job is to stop the opposing attackers from playing and to clear the ball from danger when required. However, unlike standard central defenders, the Wide Centre-Back is encouraged to stay wide in possession and support the midfield more like a fullback.

This is the big one for FM22. A new role for all of us to experiment with, and already we have seen some of the more enterprising FM enthusiasts ranging from deploying multiple WCB’s in a tactic to completely scrapping it altogether based on the risks and gaps it can leave when not deployed correctly. As football has evolved we have seen the role of Centre Backs become much more impactful and influential on the ball versus the more old-fashioned No-Nonsense Centre Half of yesteryear, however if you can set up a solidified defence which allows more freedom for a Wide Centre Back to advance on the ball and make overlaps when the opportunity presents itself, you suddenly have an additional attacking outlet to help overload when attacking which has proven to cause havoc for the opposition as they struggle to account for marauding wing-backs and the latest line of highly skilled defensive players who are equally adept at cutting inside and pushing higher up the field on the attack. It’s early days but this one has all of us mouthwatering at the concept of a brand new role and it’s implications in the match engine.

Key Attributes: Crossing, Dribbling, Heading, Marking, Tackling, Off the Ball, Jumping Reach, Pace, Stamina, Strength

Player Traits: Brings Ball out of Defence, Tries to Get Forward Whenever Possible, Wants Ball to Feet More Often.

Elite Tier: Ruben Dias (Man City) £137-£161m

More Affordable:  Jack O’Connell (Sheff Utd) £16m -£20m

Cut Price Alternative: Riccardo Gagliolo (Salernitana) £2.7m -£3.7m

 
 

That’s your lot for now - a brief overview on some of the more interesting tactical roles in FM22, how they are best utilised and some real-life examples upon which you can set a benchmark or better yet maybe even submit a sneaky bid if funds and circumstances permit! We will be back again for Part II where we will further analyse some of the specialist player roles available, if there are any specific roles you’d like covered be sure to let us know over on Twitter (@5StarPod) or in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

MaddFM.

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