Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 12:11 pm
Getting the most out of the complex team training and individual player training in FM22 can be a pretty tedious task. However, it’s not as hard as you might initially think. Follow our training guide and your team will be set for the season and your players will improve drastically.
Interested in more Football Manager guides? Visit our Football Manager section – or check out the guides for all other games we cover on the website.
Coaches
- Try to get the best possible coaches and ensure that their individual coaching assignments are correct (Training -> Coaches -> Edit Coach Assignments). You want to have the highest possible star rating in each training category while keeping the coach’s workload at “Average” or below.
- If you can afford it, you want to have 2 good Fitness coaches, one for Strength training and one for Quickness training. During the pre-season (your entire team will have fitness training all at once), have your other coaches also help out with fitness coaching in order to reduce the fitness training workload to light or medium.
Pre-Season Training
Goals
- Get your team ready for the season
- Avoid injuries
Rigorous pre-season training should last approximately 4 weeks after the pre-season begins. If your pre-season lasts longer, you can gradually transition to the regular training schedule.
Pre-Season Matches
Schedule a pre-season match every 7 days during your 4-week pre-season. For simplicity, these matches should likely be played on Saturdays. In order to reduce traveling time and maximize the time your team spends on the training ground, play each of these matches at home.
If you’re managing pre-season friendlies yourself, play your starting 11 in the first 45 minutes of the first two pre-season matches and your backup 11 in the second half of the first two pre-season matches. This approach will maximize the match sharpness and fitness gain of all players in these matches.
At the end of the pre-season with actual competitive matches coming up, you want to play your starting 11 for about 60 minutes and swap in the backup 11 for the remaining 30 minutes.
Pre-Season Training Schedule
The Recovery training session is more effective at preventing injuries than the Rest training sessions which is why Rest training sessions are just prior to and after the pre-season matches. All training sessions that are not physical training do not significantly reduce the condition of our players but greatly improve the tactical familiarity, team cohesion, and the attributes of the individual roles of your players.
To help your players handle the workload of this intense training schedule, check the individual training screen after a day or two of pre-season team training, select each player and look at the “Individual Training Workload” of the player. If it says “Medium”, the player is fine with both the intense team training and the individual training assigned to him. Note that having players train physical attributes in their individual training will work especially well during pre-season.
Anything higher than “Medium” should be avoided (increases injury risk) and should result in you reducing this player’s workload by first suspending Additional Focus training and Player Traits training, and if absolutely necessary also suspending Position/Role/Duty training.
If players are complaining about the training schedule, just ignore them. You’re only training like this for a very limited amount of time and it likely won’t be a lasting problem. If the player that is complaining has a weekly training rating of 7.00 or higher, you can just praise that player for his training performance (see “Praising/Criticizing Players” below) and his complaint will disappear.
The last thing to note is that the workload of your fitness coaches will be higher than usual during the pre-season as there are a lot of physical training sessions for the entire team. Make sure that you assign additional coaches to strength and quickness training in the “Edit Coaching Assignments” screen as needed to keep the workload at “Average”.
Regular Training Schedule
One Game a Week
As matchdays tend to rotate during the course of a season, the training sessions on Monday don’t necessarily have to be done on Monday but should instead be on the second day after the last match as they are the most intensive training sessions of the week and you can most likely only get away with that two days after a match.
The “Attacking Corners” session on Thursday can be replaced with whatever you think is beneficial as set-piece training for the upcoming match.
The “Attacking Patient” session on Wednesday and the “Defending from the Front” session on Friday train a specific style of attacking and defending and can be swapped out for whatever style you prefer. Try to avoid “Gound Defense” and “Aerial Defense” as they are fairly specific.
You should alternate this training schedule with a week of more intense physical training (see below) every 3 or 4 weeks.
One Game a Week (Physical Variation)
Two Games a Week
Place the “Delivery” session on the day prior to the match you are not traveling for. If both matches are at home, you can add another “Team Bonding” session.
Match Boosts
- Match Preparation
- Teamwork
- Defensive Shape
- Attacking Movement
- Set Pieces
- Attacking Free Kicks
- Attacking Corners
- Defending Free Kicks
- Defending Corners
- Penalties
- Set Piece Delivery
Each of these training sessions provides a boost to the mentioned attributes not only for the upcoming match (as the tooltip would suggest) but for the following 7 days. If you have 2 matches in the span of 7 days, one of these training sessions will give your players a boost for both matches. This is especially useful if you have to rotate your starting eleven after a mid-week match.
It’s generally a good idea to have as many match boost training sessions as possible in a week prior to an important match. Adjust your training schedule accordingly.
Player Traits
- Working on player traits and the development of the weaker foot adds significantly to the individual training workload of a player.
- It takes time away from other areas the player is training at. Combining individual training with training a player trait and the development of a player’s weaker foot will significantly lengthen the time it takes for the player to achieve any of these goals.
- Make sure that training additional player traits doesn’t push the individual training workload above “Medium”.
- Player traits affect a player’s current ability reducing the gap to that player’s potential ability and thus reducing the gap that could instead be filled by increased attributes. Only add player traits if they fit the player and ensure that the player will be able to fulfill his role in your team.
- Don’t add player traits to your youth players. The time they spend developing these traits is better spent developing their attributes.
Praising/Criticizing Players
- Praise: Each player with a weekly rating of 7.75 and over
- Criticize: Each player with a weekly rating of 6.50 and under
The easiest and fastest way to praise or criticize your players’ training performance is to go to Training -> Training Performance. That brings you to the individual training screen. Now select each player from the top down and click either “Praise” or “Criticize” in the top right corner.
If you give your players feedback weekly, you can keep your team morale high and likely improve relationships with your players. In order to remember to do that, check the box that says “Receive training emails for [Your Club]” under Staff -> Responsibilities -> Training -> First Team Training.
Preventing Injuries
The easiest way to prevent injuries is via Training Intensity. You can set the intensity for your team training under Training -> Rest.
However, these settings will only be adhered to if the individual training intensity of each player is set to “Automatic”. Make sure that it’s on “Automatic” for every single player. If there is a circle next to the individual intensity level, the intensity is already set to automatic.
A good Sports Scientist will also significantly reduce the number of injuries your team suffers as they reduce fatigue. You really don’t need more than one.
Physios on the other hand work with players who are already injured. Good physios will help players get back to full health faster and will provide you with a better prediction of how long players will be injured.
Interested in more Football Manager guides? Visit our Football Manager section – or check out the guides for all other games we cover on the website.
