Start Your Save Right

You are thinking of purchasing Football Manager 2024. But before you even think that, consider the following:

What team are you going to manage? What players are you going to buy? What tactic are you going to use? Is this squad the best it can be? What are the finances? Is your club broke? Do you have any staff members? Is your board on your side?

Yes, some of these questions need answers.

To get them, it’s best to grab something to write on and plan your save properly.

Even before deciding on the team you will manage, you need to decide on the playing style and tactic you are going to use.

These two points are going to bring more clarity on the team you will choose to manage.

Now, thank God, playing styles and tactics are abundant in the world of football…manager. The downside is…they are too many.

But for sure you have a favourite club in real life, a manager whose tactics you would like to emulate in the game, a playing style that caught your attention so much you really want to create in the game.

These are the filters that can guide you to choosing the best club to manage.

And once you have decided that, it is time to analyze the club and start your story.

One piece of advice, though. Don’t jump on buying and selling players right away. Knowing the playing style and the tactic to use is only a small part of the whole.

You must know your club’s finances first. This way, you can measure the club’s financial strength and the options you have.

As presented by the game’s creators, the more you overspend in Football Manager 2024, the more likely you are to run your club into financial troubles and ultimately administration and bankruptcy.

But you won’t get there. Because you are smart and you will check the club’s finances as soon as the save loaded.

Areas to focus on are the club’s available budgets, the income and the expenditures, the financial projection and the debt section.

Take notes of your club’s financial situation and use these notes as a basis for your next move.

Next move which will be checking the available players in your squad.

But before that, make sure you check the club’s and supporters’ vision, so you stay in line with them. Study them, familiarize yourself with them and don’t fail at too many. As failing to meet too many of them means only one thing…you being sacked.

And if your get sacked, there is no point in studying your squad. So make sure you keep an eye on these visions.

Assessing your squad can give you an in depth understanding of the possibility of employing the preferred tactic from the beginning, the amount of players you buy and sell and the available talent.

You can also identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses. To do so, go to the tactic tab, add your preferred tactic exactly as you wish to use it and start adding players to it.

Assessing every role and position this way helps you understand what areas of your squad need to be addressed.

Make sure that while you are on the squad assessing page, you take a look and familiarize yourself with the squad dynamics also. Understand the team’s hierarchy and make sure you start to impress more players with your FM knowledge.

You will not be able to influence the data in this tab right away, but you should check it from time to time to make sure the players still root for you and that the club atmosphere doesn’t go to waste.

Once you’ve done that, went on and bought and sold any player you needed to, it is time to decide on your staff moving forward.

The staff should not be underestimated in Football Manager in general. Without the proper staff members, you will be like a limping beast. I know, nice analogy.

If you don’t want to pick the staff manually, you can always hire a Technical Director and ask him to do it for you. You can go to Staff, Responsibilities, Staff and from their scroll down to First team staff recruitment and assign the Technical Director to do it.

I usually do this for all squad categories. And while you are here, make sure to set other settings as you wish.

After you have done this, you remain with the last piece of the puzzle. Creating your training schedules and assigning them to the training calendar. Plus scheduling friendlies.

Make sure that the training schedules are designed to train all three team units and that you train specific and unique attributes each day at least during a week.

Of course, the training schedules are going to be impacted by the planned fixtures and congestion later on during the season and that is why I would recommend tweaking the calendar on a monthly basis, at least.

If you need examples of training schedules, make sure to visit our Downloads section. We have created 3 schedules that can help you start your save right.

After you have done all of this, what remains are details. Creating shortlists for adding players, sending your scouts on scouting missions, deciding on the mentoring groups for your team and so on.

Of course, there are a lot of actions you can still take to start your save right and you can do them in the order that suits your team best.