When a Football Manager career isn’t going well, it’s natural to want something or someone to blame. From suggestions that the game is scripted to theories that the AI always gets better cup draws, we’ve seen pretty much everything over the years on our forums and social media.

While we appreciate your feelings, these beliefs are invariably just misconceptions about the way the game works. Football Manager is, and has always been, a complex game where thousands of decisions take place in every game and individual results, or a run of bad injuries, are almost never caused by a single factor. Here, we aim to dispel 10 of the most common Football Manager misconceptions.
 

Your FM22 managerial journey can be whatever you want it to be – and whether that means you take control of every little thing or just turn up for matchdays is entirely up to you.

Perhaps you’re not a fan of dealing with the media? Or maybe you prefer to be like a special Portuguese man who doesn’t get on too well with the media. Or do you prefer the warmth of your office to the more chilled environment of the training pitch?

Whatever type of manager you choose to be, we've put together a guide that explains how to delegate various aspects of your role to your very capable backroom team.

Signing Wonderkids and guiding Newgens from academy prospects to first-team stars forms an integral part of most Football Manager saves. You know what it’s like, that rush of seeing a team of talents you’ve developed defeat your biggest rivals and stand tall on cup final days.

Now imagine a scenario where one of those Newgens is a virtual version of you. That’s what one lucky FMFC member, Liam Kemp from Barnsley in England, got the chance to experience earlier this year.

The opportunity to be a Newgen in one of our games is extremely rare. However, after the enthusiasm we saw for the ‘Be a Newgen’ competition that we ran for FM21, which saw Jack Bassett join the game, we decided to run it again for FM22. 

Now, a little over three months after Liam entered the game, we’ve dug into the data to see what sort of impact he’s been having on you careers. 

The English Football League (EFL) playoffs are always a source of guaranteed drama. From the unmatched elation experienced by the fans of promotion-winning teams to the crushing low felt by those whose clubs just missed out, the playoffs manage to capture every emotion and wrap up the season in dramatic fashion.

Using Football Manager 2022, we’ve simulated the playoffs across all three divisions to see who might be celebrating over the next few weeks and to keep us entertained while we wait for the real action to take place.

Promotion is one of the biggest highs you can experience when playing Football Manager. We’ve all been there, though, when you think a season is going swimmingly and you’re dreaming of challenging the clubs in the division above before your team’s results suddenly fall off and you’re left thinking about what might have been. Here are five tips to help you convert a good start into a successful, promotion-winning campaign.

In two previous pieces, we touched upon the attacking and defensive insights you can take from Football Manager 2022’s brand-new Data Hub.

As Football Manager players, we usually put a lot of thought into our tactical approach. Not just the formation, player roles and instructions, but also how and when to press the opponent (enhanced by FM22’s overhauled pressing system), if we should pass short or long and if certain roles should principally Defend, Support or Attack. It’s a beautiful thing when you are winning but it can be a nightmarish puzzle to solve when results aren’t going your way. 

The rapid rise in popularity of analytics in football is now reflected in-game through a variety of useful visualisations in the Hub. You can maximise this feature to give you deeper insight into how your team are playing in every phase of play and part of the pitch. This insight can help you not only identify gaps in your team’s performances, but subsequently identify who might be a good transfer target to come in and fill those gaps in your squad.

In this third part of his series, FM Stag explores how you can leverage the Data Hub to identify appropriate scouting targets from within your division to address potential tactical problems.

Versus Mode is back, giving FMFC members the opportunity to challenge each other for the ultimate online bragging rights after returning as part of the FM22 (PC/Mac) Main Winter Update. 

Every manager wants to have the best players at their disposal. However, it’s not always possible. Whether you’re taking charge of your local lower league side or managing in an exotic location where you are unable to draw in the world’s top talents, you’ll have to make the best of the players in your squad and the signings you can make. That’s not always an easy task; players in lower reputation leagues haven’t always got the most complete skillsets and require careful managing to succeed. Rock’s End FM outlines some simple strategies to maximise the ability of more limited players.

The way you assign responsibilities to your staff can change the way you play Football Manager. Giving over more control to your Director of Football not only adds more realism to your game but also helps you get the best from your squad. Dan Gear explains how it’s done.

When Football Manager’s "In The Studio" feature showcase was released, something ‘Mr Transfer Deadline Day’ himself, Fabrizio Romano, said was quite striking: "Sometimes players are untouchable in June and on Deadline Day they're available on loan". 

Until now, common Football Manager wisdom said that you do your business early. Sign pre-contracts in January, make some smart deals that look like bargains in June and watch the world go crazy as the window draws to a close. That’s all changed now though, with Football Manager 2022's new Deadline Day feature opening up new possibilities. 

Whilst there are still benefits to be gained from moving quickly in the market, Rock’s End FM explains the advantages of getting your last business done as the final hours tick down.

Whether you’ve taken charge of a side accustomed to success or rewritten the history books by guiding a lower-tier side through the divisions, conquering the footballing world is what every single player Football Manager career is all about.

No matter how many wonderkids you pick up or trophies you lift, nothing tastes sweeter than toppling your mates and earning the ultimate bragging rights in one of FM’s multiplayer game modes*.

These modes have risen to prominence in recent seasons and we’ve put together a guide on how to make the most of them in the months to come. 

In a previous piece, we touched on the attacking insights you can take from Football Manager 2022’s brand-new Data Hub. 

As Football Manager players, we usually put a lot of thought into our tactical approach. Not just the formation, the player roles and the instructions, but also how and when to press the opponent (enhanced by FM22’s new pressing system), if we should pass short or long and if certain roles should principally Defend, Support or Attack. It’s a beautiful thing when you are winning but it can be a nightmarish puzzle to solve when you are on a losing streak. 

The rapid rise of the popularity of analytics in football is now reflected in-game through a variety of useful visualisations in the Hub. You can maximise this feature to give you deeper insight into how your team are playing in every phase of play and in every part of the pitch. 

Historically it can be difficult to figure out exactly where things are breaking down, but FM22’s new Data Hub can empower you to easily see some of these challenges and tweak your tactic to get more from your system and your current players. It’s worth bearing in mind that the better analysts you have, the more information you’ll have to play with.

In this second part of his series, FM Stag explores how you can obtain key Defensive Insights from the Data Hub.