by Brian Cook
I haven’t had what would be deemed as a “normal” experience with Football Manager. I just recently (in FM22) won my first Champions League. I haven’t had deep, 15-20 season saves where I take a club from the bowels of their country’s league system all the way to the top. I haven’t played in a completely random country (I haven’t even touched Italy yet) and I’ve played the game for over ten actual years.
However, I have had the chance to fall in love with some truly spectacular players over the course of my saves. I do usually have a Major League Soccer save each cycle to flex my American muscles and have a few players that did well there. I have moved from there to Arsenal and managed to win a Champions League (a feat I’m still confused about to this day).
I have had, what I would deem to be, unique experiences in this game.
With FM23 coming to a close I had to figure out who stood out above the rest. I recently started an AFC Wimbledon save to see if my wits could take a fan owned club from League Two to the Premier League before the end of the cycle. While the save isn’t terribly old, one player rose above the rest and played, as I like to say, “beyond his attributes” for us throughout the save.
My FM23 Player of the Year is Zach Robinson.
When you start a new save you usually try and pinpoint right away the players you can hold onto and who can be leaned on while you get your feet wet with the environment and how building the team would go. Starting from the off with Wimbledon, Robinson doesn’t possess anything flashy about him. He’s not physically gifted, not a clinical finisher, and generally looks, on attributes, that he is a bang average striker. And he is. But for whatever reason he just clicked with this team.
However, for a team on a budget and a team that looks to value homegrown, academy based players, he plays beyond that. With 13 off the ball, and some physical aspects to his game he was so often finding himself splitting defenses and opening up chances for a team that was below the average for League Two, and early season predictions didn’t have them anywhere near the playoffs, let alone second place, which we achieved in our first season.
I also think that for those who want to play something a little more advanced, Robinson provides a unique skillset not easily securable deep down the pyramid. Also his salary, while it has progressed over time, was certainly managed early on before I was able to start generating the cash.
He’s just a good player and a good guy to hold onto. Someone that, I believe, I experienced for the first time that emotion where I could see myself buying a jersey and put his name on the back of it. Football Manager eh?
Robinson won’t score you the winner in the Champions League Final. He might not get a start or even minutes in the Championship, but where his value came in was knowing I could focus on growing other aspects of the team safe in the knowledge that at the top I had a pillar willing and able to score when we needed it the most.
Up the Dons 💪.
Brian is the ultimate FM hype man and is well worth a follow over on Twitter (@SoccerWithBrian) as we gear up for FM24 - get it done! Also if you fancy writing about your FM23 Player of the Year, drop us a line on Twitter or reach out to MaddFM directly.
