Common mistakes in Football Manager 2021 Mobile

Some of these are originally from pro PC version of FM but still useful to us FMM21 players.

This guide is not only for beginners but also for the pros. I compiled some mistakes that I often saw players doing. Lets head to the first one:

#1 Assistant controlling trainings

I’m really sure lots of you actually do this but trust me you won’t get the best out of training with this method. Training on FMM is very easy it won’t take much time to setup. Spend 6-7 minutes setting up your players training and the result will amaze you.

#2 Over-creativity 

At first sight it’s a normal 4-3-1-2 but as you notice there’s 5 playmakers in the team. Having too many playmakers means they will all start to control the game and what happens when everyone trying to lead the team? They tremble.

Instead try to have only 1-2 playmakers. This for example:

I got 2 playmakers, one at the central midfield position and the other at left wing position.

Playmaker roles are: Libero, Depp-Lying Playmaker, Roaming Playmaker, Advance Playmaker and Deep-Lying Forward. Try to avoid having more than 2 of these roles.

#3 Instructions contradicting each other

This mainly due to poor choice of tempo

Use this instructions for example. As you can see I ticked Fast tempo but also ticked Look For Overlap and Work Into Box.

People often get confused with these two attacking instructions. Look For Overlap doesn’t mean it instructs your team to do overlaps but instead your players will slow down the game and wait for possible overlap as much as possible while Work Into Box means your team will pass around as much as possible to find openings to get into the box.

As you can see it doesn’t mean that ticking both options make your team to do no overplaps or to stay outside of the box. Both instructions slow down the pace of your build ups which means pairing them with Fast tempo would start to contradict. Instead it’s better to use Slow tempo as it would helps your team to be more patient to look for possible overlaps or opening to get inside the box.

Other contradicting instructions are Fast Tempo and Run at Defence. Basically a fast tempo means how fast you want a player to release the ball as soon as he receives it. Having Run At Defence ticked on means he’ll hold the ball a lot longer.

#4 Misconception of instructions 

Another instructions problem. Refer the Screenshots from no. 3 you can see I set my team to have high defensive line and goalkeeper to do long distributions. Logically they complement each other right? Well not really... Here’s a thing you don’t know. The distribution aren’t only during goal kicks but also whenever the goalkeeper have the ball. So lets say you got a group of short midfielders, and your goalkeeper launch the ball long what would happen? The opposition would easily counter you since your midfield’s weak in the air. So even if you have High or Deep Defensive Line, look at the outfield players’ ability. Set it at Mixed if you’re not entirely sure what to use.

#5 Holidaying to test tactics

Recognise these options? I’m sure most of you do. Ever make a tactic then went on to holiday for the whole season up until the Champions League Final and noticed that you eliminated Chelsea and Liverpool in the Group Stage, trashed Real Madrid in the Round of 16, PSG in the Quater Final, Bayern Munich in the Semi Final but for some reason when you play the Final by yourself, you lost 5-0 Atalanta that got lucky to win against Sevilla on away goals in the Semi Final? Well it’s because Holidaying results don’t have anything to do with your tactic. It’s mostly how good are your team compared to the others. So don’t be lazy, play slowly 10-15 matches to try your tactics. Also please never post holidaying results in the Tactic Section. There’s a lot of beginners out there looking for tactics.

 

I hope this would be useful for everyone. I might add some more in the future but it’s 5 for now. Cheers

[Rich]

This is very good, it will definitely help people out, good stuff Mr Sandwich 😁

[BlueZero]

Thanks you ! This is helpful

[Aaron Thornton]

Cracking article mate, i must admit, I have made some of these mistakes recently, I often get tunnel vision with the three sections, Shape, Defense and Attack where I only see them as singular sections and dont think of how they all combine together, I'm off now to see if my current tactic has any of these errors

Edited December 6, 2020 by Aaron Thornton

[FuddledFox]

Some good tips here.

I think the holidaying one is important as I think a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking they can test tactics by holidaying matches but it’s simply not the case.

[Scratch]

Great article mate, a few things in there I havn't really paid attention to before now.

[George Traistă]

Good article! Also there is the connection between width and passing focus that many don't seem to see. If you force the opposition players to go wide, don't focus your passing on the flanks and vice-versa 

[Ashez]

Some nice pointers there mate! 

The only one I do that I shouldn't is the assistant training as if I bother with that or not is save depending. 

[kowak]

Does any final third instruction work well with a fast tempo?

[broodje kip]

38 minutes ago, kowak said:

Does any final third instruction work well with a fast tempo?

If your players can pass the ball like Man City 2017/18 the  I’ll say yes. It really depends on your players passing and technique attributes 

[Mr Tree]

Quote

#1 Assistant controlling trainings

I’m really sure lots of you actually do this but trust me you won’t get the best out of training with this method. Training on FMM is very easy it won’t take much time to setup. Spend 6-7 minutes setting up your players training and the result will amaze you.

right, tell me - i don't bother setting up training, but obviously, CLEARLY, i have 6-7 minutes to spare

i found it so fiddly though, and then (e.g. with my Brentford Youth career last season) i found that i was getting good enough player development anyway.

what is a very easy way to set this up? do you check it on the first day of the season and then halfway through the season, or just once a year? do you just leave them on one focus attribute forever?

[broodje kip]

4 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

right, tell me - i don't bother setting up training, but obviously, CLEARLY, i have 6-7 minutes to spare

i found it so fiddly though, and then (e.g. with my Brentford Youth career last season) i found that i was getting good enough player development anyway.

what is a very easy way to set this up? do you check it on the first day of the season and then halfway through the season, or just once a year? do you just leave them on one focus attribute forever?

I usually check it at the start of the season and that’s the only time I do. Sometimes I even leave them to focus on the same attribute for 10+ years if it’s not going up as I wanted

[Mr Tree]

FINE. I'll do it and we'll see what happens

[JgRoller]

Good stuff dife6,informative! Thanks 

Jamie

[bayern munich Ar]

The tempo explanation really helped!

[Scratch]

13 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

right, tell me - i don't bother setting up training, but obviously, CLEARLY, i have 6-7 minutes to spare

i found it so fiddly though, and then (e.g. with my Brentford Youth career last season) i found that i was getting good enough player development anyway.

what is a very easy way to set this up? do you check it on the first day of the season and then halfway through the season, or just once a year? do you just leave them on one focus attribute forever?

I generally take some time to set it up at the beginning of the save, then check each player when they level up (not every single time, but often), just to double check where they are up to and whether I want to change their trained role or trained attribute.

Especially for midfielders, I swith roles a lot. I'll give them some time on CM training to increase their tackling, positioning and aerial, or maybe BBM to increase their stamina, or BMW for strength, then later on switch them to DLP for better creativity and movement etc. I do similar things for all positions, but midfield is the one I swap the most.

It'd take too long to sit down and go through all players (except for that first time when it has to be done), but checking them individually when they've leveled up feels much less effort (ie just quickly checking one player) and lets me shape them nicely.

Oh and with new players, I check this when they join and then follow the same system.

[Rjgreeno]

On 09/12/2020 at 13:00, kowak said:

Does any final third instruction work well with a fast tempo?

I’m trying to think logically and I think fast tempo and early cross should work. Like get everyone up the pitch quick and cross it quick 

[broodje kip]

53 minutes ago, Rjgreeno said:

I’m trying to think logically and I think fast tempo and early cross should work. Like get everyone up the pitch quick and cross it quick 

Logically yes but without striker with good movement and winger with good crossing and technique it’ll be hard to score goals

[Rjgreeno]

2 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Logically yes but without striker with good movement and winger with good crossing and technique it’ll be hard to score goals

Yeah 100% but I was just thinking about what instructions could go with fast tempo

[Rich]

Fast approach is something I’ve tried working in a few times myself, the only time I’ve got it work slightly is when I’ve had none of the attacking instructions on and I had very good players, this was a while ago though so I can’t go in too much detail cause I can’t remember why it worked 😁

[Alfredo88]

I assumed Run at Defense was a high tempo instruction and Through Balls was a low tempo instruction simply because Run at Defense is on the left below the other two “fast” instructions and Through Balls is on right with the “slow” instructions. What do people think about this?

[StuartM]

I thought that too but after reading this I have switched to play through balls and it seems to work well by playing the ball in front of runners, I play attacking at the moment but it might work well on the counter?

[Mr Tree]

Can't deny that the training is quick and easy, and effective, so thanks for that, Mr Sandwich. 

I've thought of one of those slightly counter-intuitive things in the game - don't substitute players who are performing badly; take off players who are performing well. If you take a player off who has a 6 or less, it's a guaranteed hit to morale (i believe?). And the reverse is true - players generally develop better and get more confidence if they get a 7 or higher. When i did my one successful goalscoring challenge - and I'm hardly a good one to talk because i generally can't do goalscoring challenges - i took my polish kids off all the time in their teens, as soon as they scored a goal. Guaranteed happiness and development...

Sorry, not "as soon as" they scored, but i always do two subs in the 60-70min range, and almost always it's the two players with the lowest condition, as long as they have 7 or higher. Sometimes someone has a knock so he has a 6 and he's 10% less than everyone else, so he's clearly struggling, fine to take him off. And otherwise i generally avoid doing both subs in the same place - taking both central midfielders or both wingers off. But otherwise, that's all i look at. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Mr Tree

[Pharel]

We surely need to a guide on this things

Morale and loyalty become grounded as the contract offer came promptly from another club.

While we need a century to develop young player trait without guarantee to succeed.

True BS imo.

Edited December 31, 2020 by Pharel

[broodje kip]

6 minutes ago, Pharel said:

We surely need to a guide on this things

Morale and loyalty become grounded as the contract offer came promptly from another club.

While we need a century to develop young player trait without guarantee to succeed.

True BS imo.

I’ll try to look for this matter and write about it if I have time

[broodje kip]

On 12/12/2020 at 01:51, Alfredo88 said:

I assumed Run at Defense was a high tempo instruction and Through Balls was a low tempo instruction simply because Run at Defense is on the left below the other two “fast” instructions and Through Balls is on right with the “slow” instructions. What do people think about this?

 

On 12/12/2020 at 02:16, StuartM said:

I thought that too but after reading this I have switched to play through balls and it seems to work well by playing the ball in front of runners, I play attacking at the moment but it might work well on the counter?

I’m sorry guys didn’t see your post. I don’t think it’s anything to do with sorting for the instructions. Generally, defensive or attacking doesn’t determine how the instructions would pair together. fast tempo and through balls are something that should be working very well.

added 0 minutes later

On 20/12/2020 at 17:44, Mr Tree said:

Can't deny that the training is quick and easy, and effective, so thanks for that, Mr Sandwich. 

I've thought of one of those slightly counter-intuitive things in the game - don't substitute players who are performing badly; take off players who are performing well. If you take a player off who has a 6 or less, it's a guaranteed hit to morale (i believe?). And the reverse is true - players generally develop better and get more confidence if they get a 7 or higher. When i did my one successful goalscoring challenge - and I'm hardly a good one to talk because i generally can't do goalscoring challenges - i took my polish kids off all the time in their teens, as soon as they scored a goal. Guaranteed happiness and development...

Sorry, not "as soon as" they scored, but i always do two subs in the 60-70min range, and almost always it's the two players with the lowest condition, as long as they have 7 or higher. Sometimes someone has a knock so he has a 6 and he's 10% less than everyone else, so he's clearly struggling, fine to take him off. And otherwise i generally avoid doing both subs in the same place - taking both central midfielders or both wingers off. But otherwise, that's all i look at. 

Thanks about the tips Tree. I’ve never notice that one befoe

[Deco Tez]

So what instructions complements best with fast tempo? 

[broodje kip]

33 minutes ago, Deco Tez said:

So what instructions complements best with fast tempo? 

I’d say through ball and shoot on sight works best for it. Early cross if you have good players

[JonnyLove]

So what about creative freedom? What is the difference and impact of Diciplined/Balaned/Expressive?

[broodje kip]

29 minutes ago, JonnyLove said:

So what about creative freedom? What is the difference and impact of Diciplined/Balaned/Expressive?

It shows how strict your players movements and acts on the pitch. Expressive means they’re free to change position between players like what you see Man City does whie they can change the passing style, focus, etc. if they feel it’s needed. Disciplined means they won’t change anything. They’ll stay in position and won’t do anything other than what instructed.