There are different types of Football Manager players. There are those who casually play, largely skipping most aspects of the game, using a default tactic and letting their assistant do a lot of the nitty gritty stuff. There are those who are somewhere in the middle, who like to tinker tactics and training, but not really obsess over them. And then there are players who religiously watch every player movement and play to ensure everything is working exactly how they want it to.
And there is no right or wrong way to play Football Manager. However you play it is absolutely the right way, as long as you enjoy it.
It’s complicated, and really in depth. You may aspire to make Guardiola style tweaks and genius tactical changes, or transform your team like Bayern have, but it’s all really overwhelming. So just take your time. Play the game at your own pace, you’ll get there eventually.
I’ve been playing Football Manager religiously for 20 years, since the demo for Championship Manager 01/02 was released in cereal boxes in England.
And with the game growing more and more life-like, I knew I had to up my understanding of tactics. Where a player should be at any given time, how to defend set pieces, and how to play the style of football that I want.
To do this, I watched the games differently. I watched them from different angles, and paused the game often to observe the position of each player. I paused before each counter attack. Each set piece. Where should each player be? What tweaks can I make to our system to ensure this happens/doesn’t happen again?
And last month I treated myself to an ultrawide monitor that i could watch the whole pitch on. And trust me, it was a game changer.
And since then, you guys have been asking me every day what monitor I’m using. So, it’s this one, from Amazon.
It’s pretty cheap for the size of it, and the quality is spot on. It also runs smoothly with my Macbook Pro, so you shouldn’t have any issues.
If you want to go one step bigger than me, you could go for the absolute monster 34 inch. I’ll be very jealous if you do.
Either way, it’s fine. It has helped me watch the game more tactically, and increased my enjoyment of it. But for years I played with a normal monitor, and that was fine too.
Enjoying the game is all that matters.
Run meme pages and this website. But spend far too much time on Football Manager to do either very well.
