Across Football Manager 2023, there have been enhancements which align in-game actions with how real-life clubs operate more so than in any previous edition. 

Working with a variety of clubs and contacts across the globe, insight into how teams utilise their scouting network and complete player transfers has resulted in a fully updated scouting system for FM23. The main product of this is the brand new Recruitment Focus.

In this article, FM Stag and Dan Gear take us through what the Recruitment Focus is, how it works and how to get the best out of it to help with your player recruitment

In line with their increasing real-life popularity, football analytics are an increasingly important aspect of Football Manager. This is seen most clearly through the Data Hub, first introduced in Football Manager 2022 and hugely expanded in FM23. 

In his last post on The Byline, FM Stag introduced all of the newly-added team performance metrics in FM23.

Here, he walks through the newly added player performance metrics in FM23 and suggests ways you can translate these numbers into meaningful insights that’ll help elevate your player selection decision-making.

Seasoned Football Manager players will know that developing young players and watching them shine on the world’s biggest stages is one of the most satisfying feelings the game can provide. 

However, FM fans will also know that not every club has a strong youth team when you take over and that it can often take a while for you to be greeted with a ‘Golden Generation’ on Youth Intake Day. 

Although you can work with your board to improve your facilities and Youth Intake prospects, sometimes it’s necessary to look further afield to get the stars of tomorrow lining up in your team’s colours. Here’s a list of our top tips for youth recruitment in Football Manager 2023. 

Developing your promising squad into a world-class side is one of the most rewarding experiences in Football Manager.

There are a number of tools available for you to use in your quest to create future superstars, and the arrival of the Development Hub on Football Manager 2023 Mobile offers you a home in which you can nurture your squad.

Bringing together Training, Mentoring, Squad Management and Youth Development in one place, the key elements of squad development are easily accessible to you this season.

So, whether you want to keep track of your youth prospects, pair up experienced pros with exciting youngsters or make tweaks to your all-important training schedule, let’s take a look at how you can use the Development Hub to full effect…

The stratospheric rise in the popularity of analytics in football is undeniable. From various notable sports publications and football broadcasters embracing Expected Goals (xG), to websites and social media accounts dedicated entirely to the examination of the beautiful game in the form of meaningful numbers and useful metrics, it’s everywhere. Analytics have been an integral part of Football Manager for a number of years, and Football Manager 2023 takes this to new heights. 

In this article, FM Stag takes us through the newly added team performance metrics in FM23 and suggests ways you can translate these numbers into meaningful insights that’ll help you elevate your tactical decision-making.

Nearly all football managers rely on tools to help assist them during their career.  Some use cutting-edge technology to crunch data, while others make do with an old-fashioned pen and paper. However, every manager would give their best cup final suit for the power to change the footballing landscape like you can with Football Manager’s Editors. 

For Football Manager 2023 we’ve listened to calls from our community to increase the power available to you via our In-Game Editor (IGE), so let’s run through some of the new areas you can make serious changes to an existing save. 

In the current climate, it seems like debt and football go hand in hand. Whether it’s top-flight teams splashing the cash or a lower-league team desperate to stay afloat, many clubs are in a difficult place financially.

If you take over a team in debt in Football Manager 2023, don’t panic or throw the save aside and pick another club. Tackling that debt creates another fun challenge, one faced by many real-life clubs. 

Matthew Hallsworth provides eight top tips on how to manage a club in debt without having to sell all your best players.

When a Football Manager career isn’t going well, it’s natural to want something or someone to blame. From suggestions that the game is scripted to theories that the AI always gets better cup draws, we’ve seen pretty much everything over the years on our forums and social media.

While we appreciate your feelings, these beliefs are invariably just misconceptions about the way the game works. Football Manager is, and has always been, a complex game where thousands of decisions take place in every game and individual results, or a run of bad injuries, are almost never caused by a single factor. Here, we aim to dispel 10 of the most common Football Manager misconceptions.
 

Your FM22 managerial journey can be whatever you want it to be – and whether that means you take control of every little thing or just turn up for matchdays is entirely up to you.

Perhaps you’re not a fan of dealing with the media? Or maybe you prefer to be like a special Portuguese man who doesn’t get on too well with the media. Or do you prefer the warmth of your office to the more chilled environment of the training pitch?

Whatever type of manager you choose to be, we've put together a guide that explains how to delegate various aspects of your role to your very capable backroom team.

Promotion is one of the biggest highs you can experience when playing Football Manager. We’ve all been there, though, when you think a season is going swimmingly and you’re dreaming of challenging the clubs in the division above before your team’s results suddenly fall off and you’re left thinking about what might have been. Here are five tips to help you convert a good start into a successful, promotion-winning campaign.

In two previous pieces, we touched upon the attacking and defensive insights you can take from Football Manager 2022’s brand-new Data Hub.

As Football Manager players, we usually put a lot of thought into our tactical approach. Not just the formation, player roles and instructions, but also how and when to press the opponent (enhanced by FM22’s overhauled pressing system), if we should pass short or long and if certain roles should principally Defend, Support or Attack. It’s a beautiful thing when you are winning but it can be a nightmarish puzzle to solve when results aren’t going your way. 

The rapid rise in popularity of analytics in football is now reflected in-game through a variety of useful visualisations in the Hub. You can maximise this feature to give you deeper insight into how your team are playing in every phase of play and part of the pitch. This insight can help you not only identify gaps in your team’s performances, but subsequently identify who might be a good transfer target to come in and fill those gaps in your squad.

In this third part of his series, FM Stag explores how you can leverage the Data Hub to identify appropriate scouting targets from within your division to address potential tactical problems.

Versus Mode is back, giving FMFC members the opportunity to challenge each other for the ultimate online bragging rights after returning as part of the FM22 (PC/Mac) Main Winter Update.