Signing players in Football Manager is simple enough.
But how many people know how to put the right coaching team in place? A better coaching staff leads to better players, which (hopefully) results in a more enjoyable save. This guide brings you analysis on the role of every member of your coaching staff in FM22…
ASSISTANT MANAGER
Depending on how you delegate your responsibilities, your No 2 could be anything from a passive bystander in training to the person leading most of the sessions. As such, you ideally want them to be an expert in at least one area of coaching – attacking, defending, mental, tactical or technical.
Making sure your assistant has the right mental attributes can go a long way. A strong determination score will mean they are more driven to succeed and less likely to settle for less. A high level of discipline means they won't tolerate nonsense and a strong motivating attribute means they'll be more driven to maintain a high level of intensity.
Key attributes: People management, judging player ability, judging player potential
HEAD OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Once a year, you will get an email in FM22 announcing the club has a new intake of youth players. Your head of youth development is the person responsible for ensuring this crop of players is as strong as it can be. The better your head of youth development, the better your crop of incoming youngsters. They can also oversee your club's youth teams.
If they have a similar preferred formation and tactical style to the one you use, it increases the chances that you will find youth players in your yearly intake that suit your formation. For example, if you play a 4-4-2 and your head of youth development favours a 4-4-2, you're more likely to get left and right midfielders, rather than left or right-wingers.
Key attributes: Working with youngsters, judging player ability, judging player potential
COACHES
For bigger clubs, you should aim to bring a specialist coach for each area of play. That means finding an attacking coach who is an expert in that area, a defensive coach with a strong defensive attribute and so on. At smaller clubs, where budgets are more restricted and there are fewer coaches, aim to find good all-rounders, as they will likely be leading most training sessions.
The "mental" attribute listed under a person's coaching attributes is a possession-based trait. The better their mental attribute is, the better your team will be at operating in tight spaces, ball retention and passing. It's an important statistic that refers to your team's mentality when they have the ball.
As well as being an expert in a particular area, you want your coaches to have strong mental attributes too. Fitness coaches and goalkeeping coaches differ slightly here. They only need to specialise in fitness and goalkeeping attributes respectively. That means they could have low scores in other areas, but if their fitness or goalkeeping attributes are strong, that's all you need to worry about.
Key attributes: Determination, level of discipline, motivating
PERFORMANCE ANALYSTS
A good performance analyst will identify your opposition's weak points and also highlight your own team's fragile spots to allow you to prepare for matches. You should aim to use these reports to adjust your tactical instructions before each match.
For example, they may devise a report that shows your upcoming opponents have conceded most of their goals down the left-hand side, but your own team is extremely prone to conceding long-range shots, allowing you to adjust your approach accordingly.
Key attributes: Analysing data, tactical knowledge, determination, judging player ability
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL
Not every team has a director of football in FM22. Their usefulness depends on how many tasks you delegate to them. They can be effective in recommending players for you to sign, handling transfer negotiations on your behalf and choosing which young players to lock into longer contracts.
The better they are at judging a player's ability and negotiating, the more astutely they'll conduct the contractual negotiations. If these scores are lower, they may choose to let a high-potential young player leave your club, or even offer a poor player a contract to stay.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, judging player potential, negotiating
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Like a director of football, a technical director is more of a big-club luxury than a prerequisite for success with smaller teams. In FM22, their main role relates to the hiring and firing of staff. They will make recommendations about which coaches should obtain better coaching badges and if you choose to take a backseat with your team's training schedule, they will work with coaches to set up training sessions.
Planning training sessions yourself and tailoring them to your players can be beneficial but if you just want to focus on tactics and transfers, technical directors can fill a useful role.
Key attributes: Judging staff ability, negotiating
CHIEF SCOUT/SCOUTS
The obvious traits your scouts need are judging player ability and judging player potential. The less obvious attributes are adaptability and world knowledge. Adaptability refers to how well that person will settle in a new environment. If they have a high adaptability score, you can assign them to unfamiliar regions and they'll soon get up to speed.
World knowledge isn't classified as an attribute, but it is still something to be aware of. Ideally, you want the pool of knowledge among your scouts to cover as many countries as possible. Better world knowledge means a better chance of uncovering wonderkids.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, judging player potential, adaptability
RECRUITMENT ANALYSTS
Recruitment analysts work in tandem with scouts. A recruitment analyst will provide data-based reports on players you may want to sign, which you can then use to decide if you want to scout that player further.
Your scouts can't be everywhere at once. So use your recruitment analyst's reports to decide which players are worth additional scouting.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, analysing player data
LOAN MANAGER
A loan manager is important at bigger clubs who send lots of players out on loan, such as Atalanta, who have more loanees than any other European side but also don't have a loan manager in FM22.
You can get by without one, but having a loan manager helps makes things a little easier, as they will provide reports about how your players are fairing away from the club and if they're playing in the agreed position with the agreed amount of playing time.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, judging player potential, people management, analysing data
HEAD PHYSIO/PHYSIOS
A higher-quality physio will be better at dealing with muscle-related injuries — a three-month injury may become a two-month injury.
There isn't much of a difference between your head physio and other physios, other than their salary. So you ideally want to have your most trained physio as the lead, as you will be paying them more.
Key attributes: Physiotherapy
CHIEF DOCTOR
Your chief doctor handles non-muscle-related injuries and represents the only coaching staff role in FM22 that remains equal for every team.
You cannot hire or fire a new doctor, as the game automatically gives every team a doctor with equal capabilities, regardless of who you manage. The only time you can replace your club's doctor is if that person retires.
Key attributes: N/A
HEAD OF SPORTS SCIENCE/SPORTS SCIENTISTS
Like physios and scouts, the only difference between your head of sports science and regular sports scientist is their compensation. They will largely work on the same things, so if you're going to pay one more than the other, you want the person with the better attributes earning a higher salary. They represent one of the lesser-heralded roles in FM22, as they provide valuable reports on which players are at risk of injury, which is often overlooked by a lot of players.
Most players will look at match sharpness and physical condition feedback when selecting their teams. The information your sports scientist gives you is more accurate, detailed and will reveal potential injury risks that the options available on the tactics screen do not show. Be sure to utilise the medical centre tab to find their reports and be sure to heed their advice to avoid players developing injuries.
Key attributes: Sports science
But how many people know how to put the right coaching team in place? A better coaching staff leads to better players, which (hopefully) results in a more enjoyable save. This guide brings you analysis on the role of every member of your coaching staff in FM22…
ASSISTANT MANAGER
Depending on how you delegate your responsibilities, your No 2 could be anything from a passive bystander in training to the person leading most of the sessions. As such, you ideally want them to be an expert in at least one area of coaching – attacking, defending, mental, tactical or technical.
Making sure your assistant has the right mental attributes can go a long way. A strong determination score will mean they are more driven to succeed and less likely to settle for less. A high level of discipline means they won't tolerate nonsense and a strong motivating attribute means they'll be more driven to maintain a high level of intensity.
Key attributes: People management, judging player ability, judging player potential
HEAD OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Once a year, you will get an email in FM22 announcing the club has a new intake of youth players. Your head of youth development is the person responsible for ensuring this crop of players is as strong as it can be. The better your head of youth development, the better your crop of incoming youngsters. They can also oversee your club's youth teams.
If they have a similar preferred formation and tactical style to the one you use, it increases the chances that you will find youth players in your yearly intake that suit your formation. For example, if you play a 4-4-2 and your head of youth development favours a 4-4-2, you're more likely to get left and right midfielders, rather than left or right-wingers.
Key attributes: Working with youngsters, judging player ability, judging player potential
COACHES
For bigger clubs, you should aim to bring a specialist coach for each area of play. That means finding an attacking coach who is an expert in that area, a defensive coach with a strong defensive attribute and so on. At smaller clubs, where budgets are more restricted and there are fewer coaches, aim to find good all-rounders, as they will likely be leading most training sessions.
The "mental" attribute listed under a person's coaching attributes is a possession-based trait. The better their mental attribute is, the better your team will be at operating in tight spaces, ball retention and passing. It's an important statistic that refers to your team's mentality when they have the ball.
As well as being an expert in a particular area, you want your coaches to have strong mental attributes too. Fitness coaches and goalkeeping coaches differ slightly here. They only need to specialise in fitness and goalkeeping attributes respectively. That means they could have low scores in other areas, but if their fitness or goalkeeping attributes are strong, that's all you need to worry about.
Key attributes: Determination, level of discipline, motivating
PERFORMANCE ANALYSTS
A good performance analyst will identify your opposition's weak points and also highlight your own team's fragile spots to allow you to prepare for matches. You should aim to use these reports to adjust your tactical instructions before each match.
For example, they may devise a report that shows your upcoming opponents have conceded most of their goals down the left-hand side, but your own team is extremely prone to conceding long-range shots, allowing you to adjust your approach accordingly.
Key attributes: Analysing data, tactical knowledge, determination, judging player ability
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL
Not every team has a director of football in FM22. Their usefulness depends on how many tasks you delegate to them. They can be effective in recommending players for you to sign, handling transfer negotiations on your behalf and choosing which young players to lock into longer contracts.
The better they are at judging a player's ability and negotiating, the more astutely they'll conduct the contractual negotiations. If these scores are lower, they may choose to let a high-potential young player leave your club, or even offer a poor player a contract to stay.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, judging player potential, negotiating
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Like a director of football, a technical director is more of a big-club luxury than a prerequisite for success with smaller teams. In FM22, their main role relates to the hiring and firing of staff. They will make recommendations about which coaches should obtain better coaching badges and if you choose to take a backseat with your team's training schedule, they will work with coaches to set up training sessions.
Planning training sessions yourself and tailoring them to your players can be beneficial but if you just want to focus on tactics and transfers, technical directors can fill a useful role.
Key attributes: Judging staff ability, negotiating
CHIEF SCOUT/SCOUTS
The obvious traits your scouts need are judging player ability and judging player potential. The less obvious attributes are adaptability and world knowledge. Adaptability refers to how well that person will settle in a new environment. If they have a high adaptability score, you can assign them to unfamiliar regions and they'll soon get up to speed.
World knowledge isn't classified as an attribute, but it is still something to be aware of. Ideally, you want the pool of knowledge among your scouts to cover as many countries as possible. Better world knowledge means a better chance of uncovering wonderkids.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, judging player potential, adaptability
RECRUITMENT ANALYSTS
Recruitment analysts work in tandem with scouts. A recruitment analyst will provide data-based reports on players you may want to sign, which you can then use to decide if you want to scout that player further.
Your scouts can't be everywhere at once. So use your recruitment analyst's reports to decide which players are worth additional scouting.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, analysing player data
LOAN MANAGER
A loan manager is important at bigger clubs who send lots of players out on loan, such as Atalanta, who have more loanees than any other European side but also don't have a loan manager in FM22.
You can get by without one, but having a loan manager helps makes things a little easier, as they will provide reports about how your players are fairing away from the club and if they're playing in the agreed position with the agreed amount of playing time.
Key attributes: Judging player ability, judging player potential, people management, analysing data
HEAD PHYSIO/PHYSIOS
A higher-quality physio will be better at dealing with muscle-related injuries — a three-month injury may become a two-month injury.
There isn't much of a difference between your head physio and other physios, other than their salary. So you ideally want to have your most trained physio as the lead, as you will be paying them more.
Key attributes: Physiotherapy
CHIEF DOCTOR
Your chief doctor handles non-muscle-related injuries and represents the only coaching staff role in FM22 that remains equal for every team.
You cannot hire or fire a new doctor, as the game automatically gives every team a doctor with equal capabilities, regardless of who you manage. The only time you can replace your club's doctor is if that person retires.
Key attributes: N/A
HEAD OF SPORTS SCIENCE/SPORTS SCIENTISTS
Like physios and scouts, the only difference between your head of sports science and regular sports scientist is their compensation. They will largely work on the same things, so if you're going to pay one more than the other, you want the person with the better attributes earning a higher salary. They represent one of the lesser-heralded roles in FM22, as they provide valuable reports on which players are at risk of injury, which is often overlooked by a lot of players.
Most players will look at match sharpness and physical condition feedback when selecting their teams. The information your sports scientist gives you is more accurate, detailed and will reveal potential injury risks that the options available on the tactics screen do not show. Be sure to utilise the medical centre tab to find their reports and be sure to heed their advice to avoid players developing injuries.
Key attributes: Sports science
