Mollers01’s Guide to International Management

I love international management – whether playing solely as an international manager, or combining it with a club job, it really brings an added flavour to the game. If I’m solely playing as an international boss, I spend a lot of my time on holiday, only coming back to pick squads and play games, so it’s interesting to see the game progress without taking an active part in it. If I’m a club manager too, international matches provide a nice break from the norm.

Unlike club management, taking on an international team has two main aspects – squad selection, and playing matches. You have no budgets, staff, training or transfers to worry about – this is management in its purest form.

Here are my top tips for success in the international arena, using examples from my latest journey with Ireland (and Everton).

Picking your squad

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In picking my squad, I try to follow a few basic principles:

• Set your level – This depends on the sort of nation you are playing has. England, for example, will always pick their squad from the Premier League, with the occasional player coming from abroad. However, for nations with smaller pools of players, you will have to look outside the top leagues. My advice is to set a level to ensure that you have the best quality squad possible –with Ireland, I will go no lower than the English Championship, the SPL, and the occasional player from the Irish leagues. That brings me on to my next point…
• Form is everything – Every squad I pick is different. That’s because I clear it out after every round of fixtures and then reselect the entire squad for the next one – picking players based on form and form alone (but only at a certain level). A couple of points on this – 1) if a player is in excellent form, but has played considerably fewer games than everyone else, that raises question marks. 2) There are always exceptions to the rules – above I’ve said I set a level, but if a player in a lower league is in truly exceptional form  (for example a League One striker with 13 goals in 11 games) then I may just give them a go.
• Superstars abound – So as I’ve said, form is key. However, let’s take Wales as an example – if I have four strikers in the Championship in better form than Gareth Bale, I’ll still always pick Bale in my squad at the expense of one of them. Why? Because he’s clearly a better player. While I truly believe form is the principle driver of squad selection, there’s no point not picking your best players. (Let me clarify this by saying that Bale is a world-class player – if it were a choice between a free-scoring Championship striker and an out-of-form Sam Vokes, I know who I’d pick, even though Vokes is the top-flight player.)
• Age is but a number – I am a firm believer that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough – and also the other way round. If John O’Shea is in the form of his life, the fact he is nearly 37 doesn’t bother me. If a 17 year old striker is tearing it up in the SPL, then into the squad he goes. I have no issues.
• Stockpile players – One of the key things to do, in my opinion, is to give yourself the biggest possible selection of players. Do a player search, filter by nationality to the nation you are managing, set the view to ‘general’, and then select the ‘nationality’ column. The first and last few pages will show players who are primarily from a different nation but are eligible for you. I heavily advise picking a couple of these in your squad every time, and giving them a run-out at the end of a game to lock them down to your nation– whether it’s a 17 year old from Australia with potential, or a Nigerian striker in the SPL who becomes a key player for you, giving yourself options is never a bad thing.
• Give experience – Much like with my point on age above, I don’t put much stock in international experience. If a player is in great form for his club side, he deserves the chance to represent his nation. In only my second match for Ireland, 7 of my starting XI were making their debut. Did that make a big difference? Not in my opinion.
• Look for key attributes – Unlike a club side, where you pick your penalty takers, captains etc at the start of the season, a changing international squad means changing player roles. It’s always worth keeping an eye on the players you are selecting and whether they can play one of the ‘assigned’ roles – it would be no good to have a squad full of great players but no natural leader, or corner taker, would it?

 

Playing matches

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So, the other main element of managing internationally: the games themselves.

• Watch the form – Between picking your squad and actually playing games, some players can have one, two or sometimes three matches for their club. That key centre back you picked? He’s picked up a red card and had a stinker of a match since selecting him. The striker who only just made his way into your squad? He’s scored four goals in two games and is in red hot form – you’d be foolish not to play him. It’s always worth double checking before picking your starting XI.
• Fitness concerns – In my club management games, I like to have a deep enough squad that I never start someone on lower than 90% condition unless I really have to. Unfortunately, in the international scene you don’t have that luxury – players can often report for duty unfit. And going back to my earlier example, am I really going to rest Gareth Bale in a key match just because he’s on 86%? No, I’m not – I’ll let his club manager deal with him coming back even more unfit after the international break!
• Pick your key men – A quick reminder – if you’re selecting a new team for every match, don’t forget to set your captain and penalty, corner and free kick taker. You’d be surprised about how much of an impact they can have.
• Strong and steady – This is the main part of international matches. Unlike a club side, where you have the time to develop a formation and tactic that works for you through friendlies and cup matches and the ability to recruit players to fit that system, you don’t have the same luxury at international level. Every player will be coming into your squad from a different system, and so you need to accommodate them in the best way possible. For example, I play as Everton with the below tactic:
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  That just wouldn’t work for Ireland, as I don’t have the players capable of playing that system, so instead I’ve gone for the below, a much more familiar and adaptable formation:

 

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So, what do you think? What stories do you have of international management? Has this inspired you? Let me know!

[Fish18ish]

Good guide, covers all the main points really. I'm just a little confused by the tactics you posted, rather unorthodox  

Unfortunately international management is neglected in FMM, we need features like training and staff to be added.

[mcandrew003]

A very good read mate, nice work. 

My best experiences with international management would either come on last years game, where I managed solely Australia until 2030 (Very enjoyable save) Or me winning the Euro's with England. 

[Mollers01]

2 hours ago, Fish18ish said:

Good guide, covers all the main points really. I'm just a little confused by the tactics you posted, rather unorthodox  

Unfortunately international management is neglected in FMM, we need features like training and staff to be added.

Which one is unorthodox? Everton - or Ireland? Or both?!

[JustM1kePlays]

Nice work mate. I agree with most of what you said. I did a video on this awhile back.

I feel your guide has alot more depth to it however. ??

 

 

 

[Fish18ish]

4 hours ago, Mollers01 said:

Which one is unorthodox? Everton - or Ireland? Or both?!

Everton in terms of a formation and Ireland in terms of roles (two BWMs?!)

[DarkdragonX7]

Cool

 

[BatiGoal]

I'm not a fan of spoilers in articles tbh. Exception was a recent top50 that was posted which had to include these to prevent "loading issues" etc. But personally I think it would look much better without them for this article.

The content is great and it's a very refreshing read, especially since I'm on the verge of starting an ITN challenge myself. Thanks for posting!

[Mollers01]

6 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

I'm not a fan of spoilers in articles tbh. Exception was a recent top50 that was posted which had to include these to prevent "loading issues" etc. But personally I think it would look much better without them for this article.

The content is great and it's a very refreshing read, especially since I'm on the verge of starting an ITN challenge myself. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the feedback mate - I never normally use the spoiler function but thought I'd try it out this time. I'm not a fan myself so won't be using again!

[BattleBravelyRelegation]

Have you used Akinade for Ireland? He won the golden boot for me at a world cup. 

[Mollers01]

9 hours ago, BattleBravelyRelegation said:

Have you used Akinade for Ireland? He won the golden boot for me at a world cup. 

He's the Nigerian striker I mentioned above haha 

[slambo]

If you keep going to player search when an international match is due there is usually a few more players to select from (I manage Colombia at the moment). At first my squad choice was poor but after a while I have got a considerable pool to choose from.

[arobbo92]

Brilliant guide mate, it's something I've not done too much on FMM17 but after reading this I really want to give it a go. Maybe recreate Northern Ireland's Euro 2016 journey! ??