master fm 11 scouting handbook
DESCRIPTION
FMTRANSCRIPT
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Daniel Monksfield
Dan is the 16 year old founder of Aid The Boss, a popular Football Manager 2011 blog
which focuses on serving the community with tips & downloads. He’s been an active FM
player since CM 03/04 and has a wealth of game experience.
Thomas Levin
With 10 years of CM/FM blogging under his belt, Thomas is the owner of FM Pundit, an
awesome FM11 blog which focuses on the strategic part of our beloved game. He has
developed a reputation around the community and can be seen on many of the forums,
helping out all with his advice on tactics, transfers, finances and strategy.
With special thanks to…
Jordan Cooper
Jordan is the site owner of popular Football Manager website FM-Britain - The Home
Nation of Football Manager Tactics. You can also find him on twitter @getsacked
Copyright © aidtheboss.com and the individual authors, 2011.
No part of this guide is to be reproduced without prior permission from the copyright owners.
Football Manager™ is a registered trademark of SEGA and Sports Interactive Games. Football Manager™ is owned and operated by SEGA and Sports Interactive Games
CONTENTS 1 - Developing a FM2011 Youth Team
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Training ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………….5
Tutoring ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
Loaning Out Youngsters ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 7
2 – Getting the Most Out of FM2011 Scouting
Utilising Scouting Staff ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
Spotting the Best Youngsters …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11
Quick Scouting Tips ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14
3 – Best Players
Goalkeepers ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………17
Defenders …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………18
Midfielders ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20
Strikers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23
4 – Wonderkids & Future Stars
Goalkeepers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25
Defenders ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………........................................ 25
Midfielders ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 27
Strikers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 29
5 – Freebies & Bargains
Free Players …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32
6 – Action Plan
FM2011 Action Plan & Useful Resources …………………………………………………………………………………………… 36
DEVELOPING A YOUTH TEAM We all love to find that hidden gem or wonderkid in Football Manager, that’s one of my favourite things
of the game. So, you’ve found a wonderkid, or signed some great youngsters from the wonderkid’s
section, they’re guaranteed to turn out to be the best player in the world right? Wrong.
There are many, many factors involved in developing youth players if you want them to hit their potential
ability. Potential ability you ask? Every player on FM has a CA (current ability) and PA (potential ability)
scored out of 200 points.
Current Ability: The higher the figure the better the player, CA ranges from 1-200 and is calculated from
the general score of attributes a player has. CA will increase as a player becomes more developed and
will usually decrease when a player is past his peak and his attributes will start to drop.
Potential Ability: Another hidden stat in FM, PA also ranges from 1-200, this shows the ability a player
could reach with the right development. Again, the higher the stat the better a player could be. Players
can also be assigned a negative PA in the editor. This means that every time you start a new game, the
players with a negative PA are randomly assigned a PA within a range.
- 10 = Random PA between 170 and 200
- 9 = Random PA between 150 and 180
-8 = Random PA between 130 and 160
-7 = Random PA between 110 and 140
-6 = Random PA between 90 and 120
-5 = Random PA between 70 and 100
-4 = Random PA between 50 and 80
-3 = Random PA between 30 and 60
-2 = Random PA between 10 and 40
-1 = Random PA between 0 and 30
TRAINING
Setting up the right training schedules for a youngster is vital, but can be quite difficult. You have to find
the right mixture of pushing them to improve their attributes, but not over-doing their workload at the
same time.
Look at a player’s attributes and specifically the area’s that you want them to improve in. For instance,
Neymar’s shooting on FM2011 isn’t the greatest, so you might want to up his shooting regime in the
training schedule, whilst lowering his workload on ball control if you think that it’s good enough.
For those who don’t know how to create training schedules, click onto the club your managing,
underneath the tabs navigate to the 2nd last button titled ‘Training’ and you will be presented with an in-
depth training screen. Go to the bottom and click new schedule, and get underway working on some
awesome schedules to help develop your youth!
For those who can’t be bothered creating their own schedules, check out the SI Games forums for already
made schedules available to download.
TUTORING
Tutoring is a great way to quickly develop youth players, it allows a more experienced member of your
squad to nurture a youngster at your club and allow the younger player to pick up the traits and PPM of
their tutor.
On FM2010 I had Aguero tutoring Romelu Lukaku and this done wonders, I pretty much instantly saw big
improvements from Lukaku, and he picked up 2 or 3 of Aguero’s world class PPM’s!
Tutoring lasts for a set period of time. It takes exactly 180 days from start to finish to tutor a youngster,
and in this time they will adapt to the experienced player’s way of playing. Make sure you pair players up
well! The only way a tutoring programme would finish early is if there was a personality clash.
Tip: Make sure you keep an eye out on both players personal status, every now and again, players can
have a personality clash, and if you carry on the tutor programme it will harm the youngster’s player
development.
To tutor players in Football Manager 2011, click on the profile of the player you want to tutor the
youngster, and then click have private chat. Navigate down to ‘Development’ and you will see the
tutoring option. Once pressed, you will see a screen like the one below:
From my personal experience, picking a specific option will not have a big impact on how it goes, but I
always go for the first option “as a senior member….” because I think this gives the senior player some
responsibility and they will react positively to this.
LOANING OUT YOUNGSTERS
When developing the young players of today to become the future of your club you take good care of
them while they are in your walls. But on strategy of developing these players quicker is to send them
looking for first team experience elsewhere. Therefore you will want the same level of care taken in your
players away from the club. It Is good to evaluate the side they are leaving for just as much as you would
evaluate your own training schedules.
Will your player get into the first team?
Gaining first team experience has to be the most important aspect of loaning a player out. If the player
isn’t going to get regular time on the pitch then they will be better staying with you Controlling yourself
how much time the players gets into the first team.
Consider where they are going to fit in to the squad you send them out too. How good are the other
players in comparison to your own? When sending your players out for free you will want something in
terms of value back.
Send players to playable leagues
The way that Football Manager works is when processing none playable leagues, or those not on full
detail it will generate results based mainly on reputation of the clubs involved to save processing power
and data size. The lack of detail that the game processors in terms of data will effect the development of
the loanee, so the more detail goes through each game the better it will develop your young players.
Training facilities
Sending a player out on loan you will want him to develop much quicker then he would if he stayed at
home. Young players once they hit 18 or 19 will be looking to gain first team experience and quickly
accelerate their attributes. The better the training facilities are the more likely it is that their attributes
will rise quicker. To send them to a club that has much substantially poorer training facilities then you
may be counter productive and better staying with you.
Coaching Staff
You will want to trust that your young players are in expert hands when they are away from the club.
Taking a look at the coaching staff before you allow the player to leave can give you an idea of how many
stars they will have in training. It is most important that they have a balanced team of coaches that will
allow development in different areas for your young players. But if you spend a lot of time developing
your own coaching team, you don’t want that time wasted with the young player out to substandard
coaching elsewhere.
I think that it would be great if you were able to gain friendships and connections with other coaches,
interact with them to ask the coach to concentrate on the development of certain areas when training
your player. This may work as a real pull factor when you want to loan people yourself, making
agreements to take good players on in order to use the expertise at your club, another way coaching
could be improved.
Affiliation links
It is handy to consider all of the above when looking for feeder clubs for your side. Having a variety of
feeder clubs to loan players out to could make it much easier to work in your own player development
strategy. Sending different levels of ability to clubs in different leagues. If these clubs are able to offer
balanced coaching with reasonable training facilities to develop a young player, giving plenty of first team
action to your player it is much easier to handle the strategy using affiliations.
Loaning players can be a considerable benefit to the clubs that get an extra player to bolster their squad.
But loans should also have a benefit for you, to help squad management and development when looking
for long term success.
The two obvious and most efficient ways to scout for young talent in Football Manager is to send your
club scouts out, or to search for the players yourself. In this section, we have put together some short,
useful tips for effectively scouting young talent.
UTILISING YOUR SCOUTING STAFF
Scouting is essential whether you are at the top or the bottom of the footballing world. Yet so many of us
seem to disregard it and just use the player search for our players or we sort out all our scouts and then
don’t listen to them at all.
1. Scouts are more than just two attributes
The most vital thing for any and every scout is his mental stats. A select few Mental stats at that, the first
stat I’m going to say is vital is a scouts adaptability.
Adaptability comes into effect when you send a scout to a country that he has little to no previous
knowledge of. A scout with higher adaptability will settle into his new country or region quicker and crack
on with his reports a lot quicker. A scout with lower adaptability will obviously take longer to settle and
he will take longer to produce reports of quality. So if you do bring in a scout and you have him scouting a
region or country he has no previous knowledge of or little knowledge of, give him time. Don’t keep
changing his assignments every two minutes, he will do a much better job if you actually give him a
chance and allow his knowledge to build.
Determination is also vital for a scout. The determination stat determines a scouts dedication to his job
and his dedication to finding you good players. A scout with higher determination will put more effort
into looking for players and more effort into compiling reports on players. On the flip side a less
determined scout will obviously not put as much effort into finding players and compiling the player
reports. This doesn’t mean that a scout with 20 Determination will find a host of world beaters in his first
few months of scouting. That depends on other factors such as his Adaptability, Judging Player Potential
(JPP), Judging Player Ability (JPA) and his country knowledge.
2. A scouts knowledge of a country is vital
For two main reasons;
1. Players appearing on the player search from that country
2. The quality of a scouts reports from that country
Generally a scout will be more effective in countries that he has knowledge of, but a scouts knowledge
can increase if the scout is based there for a while. The better scouts knowledge the better your clubs
knowledge, this means that more players from those countries will appear on your player search. A scout
with a higher knowledge will also be able to dive straight into scouting the country, whereas a scout with
less knowledge will obviously take more time as he will naturally have to take time to build his knowledge
of the country.
Say if you are managing in the Premiership you should try and get scouts with 14/15 + for these areas. In
the Championship try 13/14 +, in Leagues One and Two try for 11/12 + and when in the lower leagues try
for 10 and up. Obviously this won’t always be possible so eliminate stats you won’t need, for example
you won’t really need a good JCA stat if you have your scout just looking for U18s and if you can’t scout
foreign countries due to managing a small club you won’t really need a high Adaptability stat. But make
sure you always have at least one good scout, they can make or break you as a manager.
Now we can touch upon assignments for scouts. If you are looking for youth players make sure you
assign your scout to specifically look for U18s, U17s or U16s. If you fail to do this your scout will obviously
be wasting his and your time by looking at players over that age bracket and he will spend less time
looking for young players. If you can’t scout foreign countries and you are managing in the low leagues it
is worth having your scout just scouting your own nation with no specifics or scouting the next opposition
if you feel your backroom staff don’t give detailed enough advice, but if you have more than one scout
then it is worth having one of them scout the top divisions reserve league. In doing this he could find
prospective loan signings and cheap transfer signings.
In my opinion it is well worth getting as many scouts as you can. I like to have the majority of mine
scouting in regions for players U18, I only have a few scouting in domestic leagues and I have one scout
scouting the next opposition. Having too many scouts scouting competitions wastes them I think, as they
seem to collect fewer reports than they would scouting a nation or a region. Having one scout scouting
the next opposition will help you a lot when deciding on your tactics for the next game, you can find out
your opponents weaknesses to try and exploit them and their strengths so you can try and counter them.
SPOTTING THE BEST YOUNG PLAYERS
Before you can put together a good youth team you first need to know how to spot the talent of
tomorrow. As in the real world, much of spotting a wonderkid can be trial and error. Some will make it,
some will become squad fodder or sold on. But here are some of the key attributes and information to
look out for when picking up a player for the future.
Work Rate
It might pay to take attention to the articles from One-FM who put together a series of experimental
training articles. The first of the experiments looks at the effect of work rate.
Using their figures we can see the significant difference between two identical players, but for one with
low work rate and one with a high work rate:
Although not a test with much scientific merit it gives us an insight to how the game behaves, other
variables that we can’t control can also have an effect on the development, such as first team football,
training facilities and injuries. But nevertheless the difference between the two players is significant and
shows how work rate can affect your young players.
Work rate within games, given the player has the right physical strengths can be a fantastic attribute
allowing a player to try their best throughout the game. But he will also have the same attitude in
training putting 100% effort each time, to improve his own game. It is Debatable that Nani is the player
Ronaldo could have been, but only for Ronaldo’s work rate he is now regarded one of the best players in
the world, training hard in training to reach his potential.
Determination
An attribute that will determine how hard a player will commit themselves to the cause, but also to their
own success. Tied to hidden attribute such as ambition. Determination will help professional players from
being complacent and hopefully pull them through training to work harder and better in their careers.
This time using my own experiment and
numbers we see the influence of
determination. Both players starting the
game off in exactly the same way apart
from one with a determination of 20 and
the other of 1.
Both started at Everton until our ‘Low Determination’ player went to Manchester United a season in and
spent several seasons on loan before finding himself playing at Barcelona. But he broke into first team
late and but even in the peak of his career struggled to get a game for Barcelona. Whereas High
Determination stayed at Everton for many years waiting patiently for his chance which he grasped with
both hands, gaining many achievements before moving to Arsenal.
Although Low Determination was playing for the more reputable clubs, High Determination was truly the
better player, with the greater achievements and as you can see from the graph determination does go
along way for high and sustained ability.
Low Determination’s attributes were of one of a world class player, but High Determination was better in
each attribute, picked for more games, played consistently better and had double the caps Low
Determination had. Suggesting it is an important attribute for a successful professional.
Scouting Reports
In terms of player attributes we will assume that you already know which areas you will want to see a
decent foundation in relation to a players position. For example a ball winning midfielder you will want to
see good tackling. Good training and tutoring could help mould a players attributes to best suit his role.
Good scouts that can spot talent are vital if you are looking to spot the best young players. Scouts will be
able to sift through the hidden attributes in order to give you the best scouting reports that give you
enough information to keep you thinking, saving you the time of scouring through the database. Scouting
will give you an impression how a players will fit into your side and if he will make it.
Personality similar to work rate and determination as many of these are interlinked and can be a key
indicators of how your side is going to get on with each other, how or what they are motivated by. Many
professional sides will want ambitious, professional players who aren’t going to cause too many problems
in the dressing room or need little to keep them going in big games. The personality of your squad will be
determined about how you wish to play the game.
Taken from the hidden attributes, the best scouts will be able to give you good comparisons between
players you already have at the club and assess their potential ability and how they compare to your
current crop. This is where the scout reports could be vital. Be careful, your scout isn’t always right and
some of the most unlikely players can become incredibly useful in your team if played to their strengths
and CA/PA figures aren’t always the be all and end all. But sometimes the players that promise the most
may never make it.
This not only shows the value of good mental attributes for youngsters but for every player,
determination and work rate are two attributes that can hold providence in the youngest of players and
as you can see from the graphs, capturing a players with good mental attributes can help find the most
able players. Don’t forget the power of player tutoring, put the right formula together and you can also
develop these mental skills that will ensure a bright youth development.
QUICK SCOUTING TIPS
My personal favourite method of scouting is searching countries with high production of awesome
wonderkids (Brazil, Argentina etc.) and scouring some of the clubs in these countries for hidden gems.
This is an awesome method for finding out talented youngsters that nobody will have heard off, and
getting them before anywhere else. I often find hidden gems at the age of 15/16 years old in the squads
of Brazilian clubs such as Santos. I recommend trying this out every now and again because some of these
clubs can produce a fine quality of youngsters. However, it will be tricky to obtain work permits and you
may have to wait a season or two to sign the player.
Regen Dates
Something I’ve always found interesting is the dates that regens are created in Football Manager. If you
don’t know, regens are randomly created players within a save that are created to make sure there isn’t a
shortage of players. As the years go on, all of the top players will retire and this means new players must
come through the academies.
Here are the regen creation dates in FM11. These will be useful because it allows me to know exactly
when the regens are created, and gives me a chance to pick up the 15/16 year old wonderkids or hidden
gems before all the other teams can, and allow me to attempt to develop them into world class players!
01.01: Chile
02.01: Brazil
05.01: Iceland, Republic of Ireland
07.01: Finland
10.01: Colombia, Singapore
15.01: African teams (all but South Africa)
20.01: China PR, Norway
28.01: Peru
14.02: Belarus
09.05: Costa Rica
10.05: Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, St Vincent,
Guyana, Grenada, El Salvador, Cuba, Bermuda
07.06: Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzeg., Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova,
Montenegro, New Zealand, Georgia, Andorra, Albania, American Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Armenia, Malta
20.06: Australia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Northern Ireland, Scotland,
Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales
25.06: Austria, England
29.06: Slovakia
30.06: Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Cyprus, Indonesia,
01.07: Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania
07.07: Denmark, Netherlands
10.07: Serbia, Spain
15.07: Argentina, South Africa, India
20.07: Mexico
29.07: Poland
01.08: Uruguay
20.08: Mali
19.09: Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago
01.12: Sweden, Hong Kong
09.12: Canada, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, U.A.E, Uzbekistan,
Vietnam, Macau, Yemen, Thailand, Tajikistan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Palestine, Pakistan, Oman,
Northern Mariana Islands, Nepal, N. Korea, Mynamar, Mongolia, Maldives, Macau (China PR), Laos,
Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Guam, East Timor, Chinese Taipei, Cambodia, Brunei, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bahrain,
Bangladesh,
15.12: Malaysia,
27.12: Russia, Sth Korea, U.S.A
GOALKEEPERS
Goalkeepers are often looked past in Football Manager, but a good keeper could be vital in your
teams performance. They are the rock of the defence and a good goalkeeper could prove valuable
throughout the season as he saves shot upon shot.
Rene Adler – 25 - Bayern Levekusen - £6.5m
Hugo Lloris – 23 – Lyon - £8m
Igor Akinfeev – 24 - CSKA Moscow - £6.5m
Manuel Neuer – 24 – Schalke - £5.5m
Guillermo Ochoa – 24 - Club America - £1m
Sergio Asenjo – 21 Atletico Madrid - £3.5m
Doni – 30 – Roma - £4.2m
Salvatore Sirigu – 23 – Palermo - £3.7m
Joe Hart – 23 - Man City - £4m
Samir Handanovic – 25 – Udinese - £3.3m
Ralf Fahrmann 21 - Wolfsburg - - £1.3m
Stephane Ruffier – 23 – Monaco - £3.6m
Andrea Consigli – 23 Atalanta - £1.7m
Matej Delac – 17 – Vitesse - £3m
David De Gea – 19 - Atletico Madrid - £3m
Vincenzo Fiorillo – 20 – Spezia - £775k
DEFENDERS
Central Defenders, are the core of your defence and a good CB can be pivotal in your team‘s season. Wing
Backs can also play a great part in your teams success, but depend a lot on your tactics. Tweaking
your tactics plays a big role in the responsibilities of your players and setting up the right roles for
defenders can improve your clubs performance.
Left Backs
Aleksandar Kolarov – 24 - Man City - £19m
Gareth Bale – 20 – Tottenham - £6m
Federico Balzaretti – 28 – Palermo - £5.25m
Domenico Criscito – 23 – Genoa - £5.75m
Marcelo – 22 - Real Madrid - £6.75m
Fabio – 19 - Man Utd - £4.5m
Luca Antontini – 27 – Milan - £4.9m
Mattia Cassani – 26 – Palermo - £4.9m
Michel Bastos – 26 – Lyon - £7m
Diego Renan – 20 – Cruziero - £3.4m
Joe Mattock – 20 - West Brom - £2.1m
Right Backs
Davide Santon – 19 – Inter - £5.5m
Rafinha – 24- Genoa - £4.7m
Darijo Srna – 28 – Shakhtar - £6.75m
Lassana Diarra – 25 - Real Madrid - £7.5m
Lorenzo De Silvestri – 22 – Fiorentina - £4.5m
Rafael – 19 - Man Utd - £4.5m
Cesar Azpilicueta – 20 – Marseille - £5m
Alexandr Anyukov – 27 – Zenit - £6.25m
Daniele Bonera – 29 – Milan - £5.25m
Sebastian Corchia – 19 - Le Mans - £1.5m
Centre Backs
Nicolas Otamendi – 22 – Porto - £3.2m
Mamadou Sakho – 20 – PSG - £5.5m
Jan Vertonghen – 23 – Ajax - £3.2m
Lucio – 32 – Inter - £6.25m
Giorgio Chillieni – 25 – Juventus - £9.75m
Nedum Onuoha – 23 – Sunderland - £3.6m
Felipe – 25 – Fiorentina - £4.6m
Mirel Radoi – 29 - Al Hilal - £2.7m
Federico Fazio – 23 – Sevilla - £3.4m
Sami Khedira – Stuttgart
Marc Muniesa – 18 – Barcelona - £2.5m
Micah Richards – 22 - Man City - £4.7m
Gerard Pique – 23 – Barcelona - £14.75m
Breno – 20 -Bayern Munich - £3.9m
Thiago Heleno – 21 – Cruzeiro - £2.8m
Cristian Zapata – 23 – Udinese - £4.3m
Simon Kjaer – 21 – Wolfsburg - £4.6m
Rafael Miranda – 25 – Maritimo - £850k
David Luiz – 23 – Benfica – £2.9m
Thiago Silva – AC Milan
Gerson – 17 – Gremio - £450k
Kyriakos Papadopoulos – 18 – Olympiakos – £2m
Nelson Rivas – Inter - £4m
Naldo – 27 - Werder Bremen - £5.25m
Vincent Kompany – 24 - Man City - £4.9m
Gonzalo Rodriguez – 26 – Villarreal - £3.4m
MIDFIELDERS
Well what can we say about midfielders? Holding the defence together and tearing the opposition apart,
a good midfielder really can do wonders. This list is targeted for those with a bit of money, but we have
added in some awesome players who can be picked up for well under £10m.
Left Mids
Juan Angel Albin – 23 – Getafe - £1.9m
Zoran Tosic – 23 - CSKA Moscow - £4.4m
Juan Manuel Vargas – 26 – Fiorentina - £7.5m
Antonio Cassano – 27 – Sampdoria - £15.25m
Ibrahim Afellay – 24 – PSV - £2.3m
Sebastian Giovinco – 23 – Parma - £6.25m
Stevan Jovetic – 20 – Fiorentina - £8m
Mirko Vucinic – 26 – Roma - £12.25m
Danny – 26 – Zenit - £5.5m
Franck Ribery – 27 - FC Bayern - £14.5m
Mesut Ozil – 21 - Real Madrid - £9.25m
Angel Di Maria – 22 - Real Madrid - £6.5m
Adam Johnson – 22 - Man City - £7m
Santiago Cazorla – 25 – Villareal - £7.25m
Right Mids
Jesús Navas – 24 – Sevilla - £10m
Yoann Gourcuff – 23 – Lyon - £9m
Arjen Robben – 26 - FC Bayern - £19m
Pedro – 22 – Barcelona - £9m
Simone Pepe – 26 – Juventus - £6.75m
Jose Sosa – 25 – Napoli - £6.75m
Theo Walcott – 21 – Arsenal - £6.5m
Marko Marin – 21 - Werder Bremen - £4.4m
Steven Pienaar – 28 – Everton - £3.6m
Stephane Sessegnon – 26 – PSG - £4.2m
Simao – 30 - Atletico Madrid - £3.7m
Aaron Lennon – 23 – Tottenham - £5.5m
Maxi Rodriguez – 29 – Liverpool - £5m
Alexis Sanchez – 21 – Udinese - £7m
Chinedu Obasi – 24 - FC Bayern - £4.9m
Defensive Mids
Daniele De Rossi – 26 - Roma - £12.75m
Felipe Melo – 26 – Juventus - £6.75m
Jeremy Toulalan – 26 – Lyon - £8.5m
Miguel Veloso – 24 – Genoa - £6.25m
Etienne Capoue – 21 – Toulouse - £3m
Moussa Sissoko – 20 – Toulouse - £5.5m
Mohammed Sissoko – 25 – Juventus - £8m
Lorenzo Crisetig – 17 – Inter - £850k
Bastian Schweinsteiger – 25 – Bayern - £10.5m
Ever Banega – 22 – Valencia - £5.75m
Lars Bender – 21 – Leverkusen - £3.4m
Fernando Gago – 24 - Real Madrid -£3.5m
Claudio Marchisio – 24 – Juventus - £7.75m
Ignacio Camacho – 20 - Atletico Madrid - £775k
Tinga – 19 – Palmeiras - £2.6m
Sandro – 21 – Tottenham - £8m
Attacking Mids
Pablo Piatti – 21 – Almeria - £3.6m
Sofiane Feghouli – 20 – Valencia - £1.5m
Stefan Defour – 22 – Standard - £1.8m
Diego – 25 – Wolfsburg - £6.75m
Marek Hamsik – 22 – Napoli - £9.25m
Axel Witsel – 21 – Standard - £1m
Joao Moutinho – 23 – Sporting - £3.8m
Carlos Eduardo – 22 – Rubin - £5.5m
Paulo Henrique – 20 – Santos - £3.8m
Ismail Aissati – 21 – Ajax - £2.5m
Riccardo Montolivo – 25 – Fiorentina - £9.25m
Alan Dzagoev – 20 - CSKA Moscow - £6m
Miralem Pjanic – 20 – Lyon - £6m
Toni Kroos – 20 - FC Bayern - £5.5m
Renato Augusto – 22 - Leverkusen - £4.2m
STRIKERS
The match-winners, the game deciders, the boys that possess the lethal touch. These are some of our
favourite strikers on Football Manager 2011. Admittedly, they are all quite expensive; however, if you
want a world class striker that will rocket your team to success look no further!
Gonzalo Higuain – 22 - Real Madrid - £17.75m
Sergio Aguero – 22 - Atletico Madrid - £16.25m
Mario Balotelli – 19 - Man City – £24.5m
Pato – 20 – Milan - £15.75m
Karim Benzema – 22 - Real Madrid - £10.75m
Goran Pandev – 26 – Inter - £10.5m
Edinson Cavani – 23 – Napoli - £8.5m
Marco Borriello – 28 – Roma - £8.5m
Bojan – 19 – Barcelona - £7m
Ezequiel Lavezzi – 25 – Napoli - £7.5m
Edin Dzeko – 24 – Wolfsburg - £7.75m
Fabio Quagliarella – 27 – Juventus - £9.5m
Alexandr Kerzhakov – 27 – Zenit - £7.25m
Juan Manuel Mata – 22 – Valencia - £6.75m
Thomas Muller – 20 - FC Bayern - £6.5m
Lisandro Lopez – 27 – Lyon - £6.25m
Robert Acquafresca – 22 – Cagilari - £6.5m
Amauri – 30 – Juventus - £7m
Mario Gomez – 24 - FC Bayern - £6.25m
Jeremy Menez – 23 – Roma - £6.25m
Rodrigo Palacio – 28 – Genoa - £6m
After doing a bit of research and visiting many football manager forums, I have put together a list of some
of the young talents in Football Manager 2011. This list has taken me a couple of hours to make. Finding
that youngster that turns out to be amazing is one of the best aspects of the game, and in my opinion
makes you a very proud manager. The players are grouped in positions and I have highlighted my
personal favourites in the list.
GOALKEEPERS
Matej Delac – 17 – Vitesse - £3m
David De Gea - 19 – Atletico Madrid - £2.8m
Vincenzo Fiorillo – 20 – Sampdoria - £775k
Alphonse Areola – 17 – PSG - £650k
Luis Guilherme – 18 – Botafogo - £450k
David Ospina – 21 – Nice - £2.7m
Zacharie Boucher – 18 - £675k
Andrea Seculin – 19 – Fiorentina – £650k
Sinan Bolat – 21 – Standard - £600k
DEFENDERS
Davide Santon – 19 – Inter - £8m
Cesar Azpilicueta – 20 – Marseille - £4.9m
Fabio – 19 – Man Utd - £4.4m
Diego Renan – 20 – Cruzeiro - £2.9m
Mamadou Sakho – 20 – PSG - £5.25m
Nicolas Otamendi – 22 – Porto - £3.2m
Gareth Bale – 20 – Tottenham - £6m
Chris Smalling – 20 – Man Utd - £7m
Rafael – 19 – Man Utd - £4.9m
Marc Muniesa – 18 – Barcelona - £2.1m
Phil Jones – 18 – Blackburn - £3.9m
Mark Beevers – 20 – Sheff Wed - £725k
Sebastian Corchia – 19 – Le Mans - £1.5m
Loic Nestor – 21 – Le Harve - £1.2m
Breno – 20 – FC Bayern - £3.8m
Mario Fernandes – 19 – Gremio - £3.3m
Ezequiel Munoz – 19 – Palermo - £3.1m
Tamas Kadar – 20 – Newcastle - £2.3m
Kyriakos Papadopoulos – 18 – Schalke - £1.7m
Danny Wilson – 18 – Liverpool - £2m
Joe Mattock – 20 – West Brom - £2.1m
Serge Aurier – 17 – Lens - £2.1m
Guillermo Burdisso – 21 – Roma - £2.4m
Leonel Galeano – 18 – Independiente - £1.7m
Mateo Musacchio – 19 – Villarreal - £4.1m
Mathias Jorgensen – 20 – FC Kobenhavn - £1m
Daniel Carrico – 21 – Sporting - £3.1m
Jerome Boateng – 21 – Man City - £10.75m
Romario – 16 - Vitoria - £375k
Ryan Bertrand – 20 – Chelsea - £2.5m
MIDFIELDERS
Coutinho – 18 – Inter - £5.5m
Adem Ljajic – 18 – Fiorentina - £4.3m
Franco Zuculini – 19 - £3m
Bebe – 19 – Man Utd - £7.5m
Lewis Holtby – 19 – Mainz - £4.2m
Georginio Wijnaldum – 19 - £2.9m
Sandro – 21 – Tottenham - £8m
Steven Defour – 22 – Standard - £1.8m
Martin Galvan – 17 – Cruz Azul
Aaron Ramsey – 19 – Arsenal - £5.25m
Marko Marin – 21 – Werder Bremen - £4.4m
Carlos Eduardo – 22 – Rubin - £5.5m
Giuliano – 20 – Internacional - £3.9m
Sotiris Ninis – 20 – Panathinaikos - £2.5m
Henri Saivet – 19 – Bordeaux - £2.4m
Misrolav Stoch – 20 – Fenerbace - £3.7m
Zezinho – 18 – Santos - £1.9m
Sergio Canales – 19 – Castilla - £5.75m
Fabian Delph – 20 – Aston Villa - £4.6m
Clement Grenier – 19 – Lyon - £1.7m
Gael Kakuta – 19 – Chelsea - £1.6m
Miralem Pjanic – 20 – Lyon - £6m
Oscar – 18 – Internacional - £1.8m
Toni Kroos – 20 – FC Bayern - £5.5m
Fausto Rossi – 19 – Vicenza - £725k
Jonjo Shelvey – 18 – Liverpool - £1.7m
Jack Rodwell – 19 – Everton - £5m
Haris Vuckic – 17 – Newcastle - £1.6m
David Petrucci – 18 – Man Utd - £950k
Lorenzo Crisetig – 17 – Inter - £850k
Jack Wilshere – 18 – Arsenal - £5m
Gai Assulin – 19 – Free Agent - £0
Tinga – 19 – Palmeiras - £2.6m
Nuri Sahin – 21 – Dortmund - £4.4m
Marco Verratti – 17 – Pescara - £700k
Diego Perotti – 21 – Sevilla - £5.75m
James Rodriguez – 18 – Porto - £550k
Vladimir Weiss – 20 - Man City – £3.8m
Ryder Matos – 17 – Fiorentina – £1.3m
Douglas Costa – 19 – Shakhtar - £3.7m
Levan Kenia – 19 – Schalke – £3.1m
Alex Teixeira – 20 – Shakhtar - £3.7m
Willian – 21 – Shakhtar – £3.8m
Mesut Ozil – 21 – Real Madrid - £9.25m
STRIKERS
Mario Balotelli – 19 – Man City - £24.5m
Victor Moses – 19 – Wigan - £2.5m
Nile Ranger – 19 – Newcastle - £3m
Nathan Delfouneso – 19 – Aston Villa - £3.8m
Jonathan Cristaldo – 21 – Velez - £1.8m
Neymar – 18 – Santos - £5.5m
Bojan – 19 – Barcelona - £7m
Daniel Pacheco – 19 – Liverpool - £3.4m
Iker Muniain – 17 – Athletic - £3.8m
Guilherme – 21 – Dynamo Kyiv - £4m
Yannis Tafer – 19 – Toulouse - £2m
Andrej Kramaric – 19 – Dinamo - £950k
Dentinho – 21 – Corinthians - £3.2m
Keirison – 21 – Santos - £2.6m
Mattia Destro – 19 – Genoa - £1.8m
Romelu Lukaku – 17 – Anderlecht - £1.3m
Eden Hazard – 19 – Lille - £5.75m
Son Heung-Min – 17 – HSV - £3m
Borja Baston – 17 – Atletico Madrid – £1.5m
Khouma Babacar – 17 – Fiorentina -£3.8m
Yaya Sanogo – 17 – Auxerre - £1.9m
Abel Hernandez – 19 – Palermo - £9.25m
Thomas Muller – 20 – FC Bayern - £6.5m
Alberto Paloschi – 20 – Parma - £5.75m
Federico Macheda – 18 – Man Utd - £4.9m
Pato – 20 – Milan - £15.75m
Daniel Sturridge – 20 – Chelsea - £4.8m
Carlos Vela – 21 – Arsenal - £4.75m
Tomas Necid – 20 – CSKA Moscow - £2.3m
Jose Baxter – 18 – Everton - £1.2m
Vaclav Kadlec – 18 – Sparta Prague - £950k
Lacina Traore – 19 – Cluj - £975k
Deniz Naki – 20 – St Pauli - £2.1m
Cheik Gueye – 18 – Free Agent - £0
Leigh Griffiths – 19 – Dundee - £250k
Do you prefer managing lower league teams or clubs with a low budget? Look no further than this list! I
have collected some top player’s in FM2011 who you can pick up for absolutely nothing! Some of them
could prove tricky to sign (specifically the more well-known), but it’s definitely worth a shot as you have
nothing to lose!
Rivaldo – Brazil – 38
Robert Pires – France – 36
Ebou Sillah – Gambia – 30
Tomas Locatelli – Italy – 35
Jeremie Aliadiere – France – 27
Sylvain Wiltord – France – 36
Salva – Spain – 35
Christian Giminez – Argentina – 35
Julio Cruz – Argentina – 35
Dida – Brazil – 36
Michael Rensing – Germany – 26
Sylvinho – Brazil – 36
Ibrahima Faye – Senegal – 30
Liam Rosenior – England – 25
Abubakari Yakubu – Ghana – 28
Rigbert Song – Camerron – 32
Jose Goncalves – Portugal – 24
Jay DeMerit – USA – 30
Enzo Maresca – Italy – 30
Marko Babic – Croatia – 29
Bernard Mendy – France – 28
Kader Toure – Togo – 31
Patrick Muller – Switzerland – 33
Szilard Nemeth – Slovakia – 32
Pape Diop – Senegal – 35
Fabian Carini – Uruguay – 35
Jacek Krzynowek – Poland – 34
Stern John – Trinidad – 33
Nashat Akram – Iraq – 25
Tony Sylva – Senegal – 35
Ervin Skela – Albania – 33
Mustapha Hadji – Morroco - 38
To summarise the book, we thought it would be cool to put together a mini action plan on helping
you become a better manager, including all of the tips you have picked up in this book in a summary
format.
FM2011 ACTION PLAN
1. Start your game and sort your formation out, choosing who you want to keep and who needs to go
2. Send your scouts out and browse South American clubs for hidden gems
3. Use scout reports to get feedback from your staff, and sign any youngsters you believe have potential
4. Decide which youngsters you will be loaning out, and which youngsters will be staying
5. Choose the club you will be loaning them out to carefully
6. Set up effective training schedules for your youngsters and use tutor programs to get the best results
7. Give your youngsters first team football every now and again, bring them on in dominant games etc.
8. Tweak your tactics until you decide on the one best suited for your squad
9. Fast forward 3 or 4 seasons and all your youngsters are world class, and you will be the best club in the
world, hopefully!
USEFUL RESOURCES
Here are some awesome Football Manager resources for you to check out to even further your
knowledge of the game and become an even better manager.
Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide – My review of the monster 132 page walkthrough guide for FM2011.
It’s an awesome e-book packed with even more hints & tips, with in-depth guides to analysis, touchline
instructions, and scouting dynamics. Definitely worth a read.
FM-Britain – Home Nation of Football Manager Tactics. FMB is a wonderful website with the very best
tactical articles. If you want to know more about the tactical side of FM, and outsmart your opponents in
the game then FM-Britain is definitely recommended.
FM Pundit – Along with FMB, this is another one of my favourite Football Manager websites. FM Pundit is
a blog which takes a unique approach at the strategic side of FM2011. Not just by telling you what to do
but by offering discussion, advice and opinions about the game which can aid your own decision making.