The Byline

Our series interviewing our Head Researchers has seen us speak to people living and working in three continents and four very different countries – South Africa, Scotland, Switzerland and Argentina. This time we head to the footballing hotbed that is Portugal to speak to Carlos and Bruno, who have been contributing to our vast research team for a combined 16 years. 

Carlos: My name is Carlos Bessa and I’m from Porto. I started working on the Football Manager database for Football Manager 2010, when I was an assistant researcher. Since I was a kid I’d played hundreds of hours on the previous games, starting out in 2001 – this is a passion that has almost accompanied my whole life. I’ve played every single edition since FM10.

Bruno: I’m Bruno Luis, from Lisbon. When I was just a young kid, I used to go every other weekend to my cousin's house, where they had computers. They would spend whole days playing the older games, with just the English divisions, and I would be standing next to them, watching them play. By 1999 I had got my first computer and was finally able to start playing the game that I loved. Since then, I’ve spent uncountable hours playing most FMs, and ultimately joined the research team in 2014.
 

Football is a game of fine margins, with split-second decisions often deciding promotion and relegation, or who wins the title and who finishes second. As said countless times before, history is written by the victors. 

This is no different in Football Manager and for this reason it’s vitally important to focus on the attributes of your young players. Ensuring that they are mentally strong, capable of remaining calm under pressure and able to make the right decisions at the right times could be the difference between scintillating success and disappointing defeats. Here, Dan Gear talks us through the key steps for developing the mental attributes of your young stars.

When looking at young players I imagine most focus on the Physical and Technical attributes. I’m the same - I usually glance at Mental attributes but I'd would never back out of buying a young player because these were poor if the rest of their profile looks good. We must remember physical attributes develop earliest, followed by technical then finally mental. In other words, a youth player has time on their side when it comes to developing their mental attributes.

Some words of wisdom from Dan Gear on bolstering the mental fortitude of your latest wonderkids. 

As anyone who watched any of the recent EFL Football Manager Cup can attest, Birmingham City goalkeeper Lee Camp is an avid fan of the game. In the latest installment of Why I Love FM, we caught up with the former Northern Ireland international to discuss his approach to transfers, best saves and whether he’s considering a move into management when he eventually retires from playing.

Goalkeepers sometimes get a bad rap, and they seldom seem to get as much recognition within the Football Manager universe as perhaps they could and/or should. It’s arguably one of the most important positions on the pitch when you think about their individual contribution and influence on a game, but ask yourself – how much energy and attention do you give them when it comes to their recruitment, development and training? Does your work stop once you've signed the right man? How many goalkeeper wonderkids have you managed through the years?

Join me as we delve into developing a top quality keeper – analysing how to go about signing and training them to their full potential. What steps can you take to ensure your own stopper develops into Goalkeeper number one rather than Public Enemy number one?

Words of wisdom and some sage advice from @MaddFM_.

Why does football continually surprise us, when it’s essentially a game of 11 vs 11 on similar sized pitches played over 90 minutes each week? The answer is often related to how players and teams use ‘space’ differently; either in an attacking sense (creating it) or a defensive one (suppressing it). It’s why particular types of football are identified over time as ‘cultural styles’ or ’identities’.

It’s why I’ve come to The Byline to talk about space in an attacking sense. Firstly, looking at why it’s important and then explaining how you can create and utilise space to your advantage. You’ll learn more about your team in FM20 if you watch how your players move without the ball, as opposed to with it.

Words, advice and incredible insight from @FM_Grasshopper. 

Have you ever wondered how we gather all the information that’s in Football Manager? We are assisted by more than 1,000 researchers across the world who help put our database together. Our researchers are fans of the series, just like us, and many of them took on their roles because they were passionate about ensuring their clubs, domestic leagues and national football setups were represented as accurately as possible.

Many of those who have worked as researchers for FM have moved into jobs in the footballing world as a result of their knowledge and commitment, so it can be a pathway to the job of your dreams.

Facundo Delgado is our Argentine head researcher, who has grown the role over the years to the point where he now oversees the efforts of a team of 60 scouts, as well as guiding an online community of roughly 13,000 fans.

Most of us will have had to forget about having a holiday this summer because of the unusual times we’re in, but that’s where Football Manager comes into its own. Why head to the airport when the game can transport you to more than 50 countries across six continents? The possibilities for your adventures are almost endless. We’re here with nine teams that you should take charge of to banish the holiday blues. 

Scouring the globe and hunting for future superstars is a big reason why we play Football Manager. 

When your scouts present a player with five-star potential and a 90+ recommendation, you think you’ve hit the jackpot. The bid goes in, the contract is offered, and he signs on the dotted line. Your new wonderkid Attacking Midfielder joins the other four wonderkid Attacking Midfielders you already have in your squad… 

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can build a successful squad while maintaining balance. You can look beyond the star ratings and shape your recruitment strategy, in numerous ways, that’ll be much more beneficial in both the short and long term. Here are a few ideas from FMSamo.

Much emphasis is placed on finding the next wonderkid in FM, through global scouting and leaving no stone unturned your pursuit of a rare discovery. That’s natural, football is a dynamic and rapidly changing sport, but I want to encourage you to adapt your approach by considering older players to complement your squad of fledgling talents.

These players have been around the block before. Their minds are strengthened by experience, and they have the knowledge, skill and ability to cope with pressure. Whether it’s a lengthy relegation scrap, or the crunch fixtures in a title challenge; don’t underestimate the older guy in a profession where men usually peak young. Here are five reasons why…

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve picked out some of the best FM20 saves in the Bundesliga. In this series finale, we’re focusing on a side that are one of Germany’s biggest but have not lifted the title since 1958.

You’ve got the chance to not just win the Bundesliga but create a dynasty from a team that oozes potential.
The Ruhr region was traditionally the industrial powerhouse of Germany but industrial isn’t a word that can be used to describe Schalke 04, one of the region’s biggest teams. Die Königsblauen have a a squad packed with exciting young talent and look set to challenge for the top four in the coming seasons.
 

We’ve been profiling teams across the length and breadth of Germany, analysing the Bundesliga teams you should manage in Football Manager 2020. 

Die Wölfe started life as a worker’s team for Volkswagen and after spending most of the 20th century in Germany’s lower divisions, they have been Bundesliga mainstays since 1997. Many tipped the club to drop straight back down the divisions after their initial promotion, but they thrived in the top-flight, regularly qualifying for European competitions and winning the league title in the 2008/09 season. In fact, Wolfsburg were the last side other than Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund to win the Bundesliga. 

Since then, the club have regularly competed with Germany’s elite and in 2015 they enjoyed their best year of the last decade, finishing second in the league, winning the DfB Pokal and lifting the Supercup before the start of the following season. 

Being the only club from the state of Lower Saxony and challenging the elite is the sort of mission Football Manager was built for. Here’s everything you need to know before kicking off your adventure at the Volkswagen Arena. 

The Director of Football (DoF) may seem like a role which merely gets in the way, someone who takes tasks out of the manager’s hands. But, more recently we’ve seen many examples of a DoF working alongside a manager to propel the club forward; helping a manager to make key decisions and allowing them to focus more on tactics and team selection. 

While DoFs in the real world are increasingly commonplace, they are still perhaps underappreciated and underutilised in Football Manager.

In FM, if you’re not utilising a DoF you’re, potentially, not becoming the best boss you can be. Here’s how they can help and why you should seriously think about employing one. With words of advice from commentator, journalist and avid FM fan, Michael McCann.