The Byline

After choosing your new club in FM21, one of the first things you should do is identify the key players in your squad. When crafting a winning tactic, the number one rule is playing to your strengths. Invariably, your best players are going contribute to these strengths.

If you have one particularly impressive, clinical striker, it would be logical to build your tactic around this player. That involves arranging other players in supporting roles so that they can provide him service and act as decoys, opening up space for him to run into.

Alternatively, you might have an exceptional playmaker. In that case, you’d want him as the pivot around which all of your runners and attackers move. As such, the whole tactic needs to be created with your playmaking Enganche at its heart. Such considerations will invariably influence both the choice of the shape you employ and the other player roles in the starting XI.

Ihor Crusadertsar from Dictate the Game explains how to build a successful tactic around your key players.

For many years now, the ability to edit data in Football Manager has been a vital part of the FM experience. Whether you use the Pre-Game Editor (PGE) to update your favourite team with the latest transfer movements (so that you can start a season with your club’s latest signing already in the squad), create the European Super League you’ve always dreamt of, or save yourself the hassle of asking the board for a larger transfer budget (by simply increasing it yourself), the application allows to play the game your way. Here, Luke D’Alton offers some advice on how to get the most from the FM21 PGE.

The In-Game Editor is a great tool that can be used to alter a wide variety of aspects of your save ‘on the fly’. From editing player Attributes and viewing all of their hidden stats to boosting your finances during a transfer window, it gives you the flexibility to customise your save as you want it, when you want it. In this respect it differs from the Pre-Game Editor, which focuses more on competition rules and requires you to think about your changes before you play. The IGE gives you the freedom to truly make your save yours.

The tweaks you can make aren’t limited to just yourself or your squad. You can also tweak information, get an advanced look at the Attributes of a potential signing before your scouts are finished or amend the abilities of your staff. Jordan Millward provides a brief run through some of the things you can do.

You’ve seen it in real life - clubs losing a series of key players through injury or transfer deals and then struggling as they lack suitable backup in those areas. You’ll also have seen it in Football Manager, where you reach a pivotal point in a campaign only to suffer the ignominy of a mid-season injury crisis which can completely derail a good run of form or, worse still, your entire season. You feel these issues particularly when the transfer window is closed and/or you can’t afford to bring in like-for-like replacements. 

That ends here. MaddFM talks about the value of retraining players in new positions in FM21, explaining how it can assist your recruitment strategy and your overall player development in a longer-term save. Looking at different options and approaches will mean you’re maximising the impact each of your players can make. It’ll also ensure you’ve got sufficient Squad Depth, from first-choice starters to youngsters in your academy capable of providing cover.

“Never let a stumble be the end of your journey.  Never let an injury crisis be the cause and effect of your Football Manager demise”.

Injuries are often a hot topic for Football Manager players.  Injuries can prevent a Wonderkid from reaching his full potential and, perhaps more worryingly, can derail an entire season if they mount up to create what is commonly dubbed ‘an injury crisis’. FM Grasshopper has come to The Byline today to see if we can prevent that crisis from happening in the first place. Are there steps you can deploy to fight fatigue and limit the injuries?  

In short: yes there are, and in order to prove that I am going to pose four questions to you...

We’ve all seen it a hundred times. We have all scratched our heads. 

The striker who scores a hatful of goals every year despite only having a Finishing attribute of 10. 

The defender with a Tackling attribute of 11 who always seems to nail that last-ditch slide at your striker’s feet in the 91st minute whenever you play against his team, meaning you don’t grab that late winner.

How does this happen? Is there more to it than luck or form? More importantly, if we have players in our own squads capable of ‘overperforming’ their Attributes like this, how can we identify them to get the best out of our playing squad when picking our starting line-up?

FM Stag has come to The Byline to provide an overview of how to dig beyond the attributes to get the best understanding of your squad in FM21. 

The Winter Update is where we start to plot our next FM journey, our heads turned by ideas for new saves and the chance to get stuck into updated squads and the latest player data. It can be tough to find the right club to create your story with but to help you out we’ve pulled together eight of the most interesting sides waiting for you to lead them to glory.

If you’re anything like us, we know you love jumping into a new save as soon as the Winter Update drops so you can get your hands on the latest squads. 

So, this window wasn't the best for big money moves... or even average money moves. That said, there's still plenty to get excited about in the Main Winter Update though as we've tweaked a number of players' attributes based on their real-life performances through the first half of the season. We’ve gone through the list and picked out our favourites, so here are the 12 improved players YOU should be getting your scouts to track.

We’ve all got stories of the Wonderkids that we discovered in Football Manager long before they’d made an impact in real-life. Those players that not only lift your team to new heights on the game but let you drop that ever so slightly smug ‘oh him, yeah I signed him on FM a couple of years ago’ into the group chat. It’s even more satisfying when the player has flown completely under the radar so that you seem like some kind of Wonderkid Nostradamus.

To help get you up to speed on the latest crop of emerging talent, we’ve put together a Matchday squad of the brightest young stars, including one player you definitely won’t have discovered in FM21 so far…

If you were asked to name the most important part of a car, what would your answer be? The colour? The size? The interior? The bodywork?

No - you would (or at least should) answer with the correct response: the engine. While a car can be big, small, fast, shiny or stylish, ultimately the key determining factor in a car’s performance and longevity is the engine, and while often the more aesthetically pleasing aspects of a car get the most attention, it is, of course, what’s under the hood that counts.

The same can often be said for football teams. Usually the players grabbing the headlines are the flashy, stylish or more creative players that contribute crowd-pleasing stats such as goals, assists, clear-cut chances, or a high xG. It’s always much more exciting to watch or analyse a player that catches the limelight through their skill, goalscoring or technical ability, right? However, such rose-tinted spectacles often lead to one of the most important positions/roles being overlooked or underestimated (both in real life and in Football Manager), and if history has taught us anything, it’s that often the strongest individuals are not those who show strength in front of us, but those who win the battles we know nothing about.

Let’s see if we can change this shall we? Today, MaddFM has come to The Byline to look at the four defensive midfield roles available in Football Manager - the Ball Winning Midfielder, the Anchor Man, the Half Back and the Defensive Midfielder. These are the unsung/unappreciated roles which, on the surface, might be considered boring or unattractive (how many kids want a DMC’s name on the back of their shirt?) but in actual fact are often the engine of a midfield and the driving force behind a team’s performance. They can be the difference between success or failure in executing a well-balanced playing style as you attempt to conquer all in your latest FM save. 

By the end of the January transfer window, we’ve all usually got a good sense of how a league is going to play out and whether this year might actually be our team’s year. Things can still change of course but by the mid-point of a campaign it’s usually pretty clear who is leading the pack, who is prime for the drop and the teams more than capable of springing a surprise. 

We’ve picked out eight teams that have either underperformed or outdone their expectations going in to the 2020/21 season. Can you outdo the overachievers and turn around those who’d like to quit and restart?
 

This guide from Ihor Crusadertsar is all about using generic player roles to achieve ‘simple’ but effective football.

By ‘simple’ I don’t mean football that’s very direct or devoid of beautiful play. Rather it’s a style that requires the least tactical input from the virtual manager.