We all love Football Manager. That’s why FM sites are so popular with fans of the beloved game. However, certain aspects of the game can be frustrating.
That unexpected blip
One of those frustrations can all be that their team is on a good run of results, and then suddenly, you produce an unexpected result against a team that you would usually beat.
There could be many reasons for the defeat. No team can win every game, but I have found that one of the main reasons for that blip is that your players are tired.
That’s a problem I have with my teams. When your team is on a good run, you are reluctant to change a winning team. You know what they say about not changing a winning team.
Suppose you are enjoying watching your team playing outstanding football, scoring goals and dominating your opponents with a near-perfect tactic, like me. In that case, you don’t always remember to rotate your squad.
Unfortunately, one bad result can lead to a season-ruining run of form that can derail that title challenge, promotion push, or fight for survival. It can be a serious problem.
Getting the rotation balance right is crucial
This is a problem that I have with my current team. We are the dominant team in the league, even the world, with by far the best squad in the game.
That’s great. I have superstar players who regularly challenge for and win awards, such as the Ballon d’Or. Sounds great, doesn’t it? A dream come true, some would say.
Having such a good team makes the game more enjoyable, as I win game after game and trophy after trophy. The problem for me is that my squad is too good. You can only pick 11 players to start games, and that’s when you run into the issues.
I have a daft habit of offering every new signing star status, despite the fact that I know often they will only be squad players because I already have world-class players in their position.
I have struggled to rotate my squad sufficiently to keep all these quality players happy. When I start rotating my squad, some of my best players are then omitted from the team.
After a while, they complained about not playing enough because I am playing the other players, so I have to drop them to the bench. However, I have a 20-player squad, and they all want to play.
Usually, there are weak links that I would allow to leave and strengthen in their position. I have now got to the point where I don’t want to allow any of my squad players to go, as they all give my team something different.
As well as our star players, we have versatile players, players who are young and homegrown. I want to play some of my younger players, who I know have massive potential, but their path is blocked by players who complain when dropped.
In my current save, I have even gone as far as selling star performers in order to allow some of my youngsters to come into the team. This sometimes leads to the team’s results dropping while the youngster gets up to speed with playing first-team football.
One of my other issues with letting players go is that I have tried to build a team with a lot of homegrown players.
I feel more reluctant to let these players go, as apart from being quality, they are good in terms of meeting the homegrown quotas for the Premier League and the Champions League. That means that homegrown players may stay in my squad longer than those who are not.
However, if I had two players who are of similar ability, I would always sell the player who is not homegrown. The fact that I have challenged myself to make an all-homegrown team as a side challenge probably has something to do with my homegrown player bias.
I can solve this issue
In previous saves, I haven’t really had this issue as often as I have with this particular save, as I am usually pretty good with squad rotation.
I think one of the differences with this save is that I have played it for so many seasons. I tend to do the homegrown challenge every edition of FM. I am not always successful.
However, I have played that many years into the future that the game has produced some near-perfect players, with a lot of those being homegrown.
Obviously, when I see these players, I sign them as they are too good to turn down. This has led to the overpopulation of top-class players in my squad.
There is an easy fix to the situation, which is to sell some players. I will have to bite the bullet and sell those quality players. Unfortunately, the only clubs who can generally afford my star players are my ‘rivals’.
They then thrive at my rivals and compete with my players for the big individual trophies. Luckily, I am so far ahead of my closest rivals that strengthening them doesn’t make much of a difference in terms of winning trophies usually.
My big lesson from this scenario is that I must not promise players star status when, in reality, they are only likely to be squad players. Lesson learnt!
Do you have any problems with squad rotation on FM? Let us know here or via socials
