Without being biased, Football Manager is the greatest video game that has ever been produced. The game continuously has millions of fans playing simultaneously.

However, not all FM fans play the game as obsessively as we do at the Higher Tempo Press. There are undoubtedly different types of FM players. What are the various types of Football Manager players?

The hardcore player

This is the most serious FM player, who is utterly obsessed with the game. These are the players who look at every single detail of the game. They design their own tactics, training sessions and look at replacing the tea lady. Doris gets a complete performance evaluation when they take over at a club.

These hardcore players often use their obsession to their advantage by creating YouTube channels or FM sites, and some are majorly successful. They play a big part in the Football Manager scene, which seems to have sprung up.

The hardcore FM players are also the brave or mad ones who don suits for big games like derbies and cup finals. This band of players may sometimes take the game slightly too seriously.

However, these players are the lifeblood of the game. Without these diehard players, Football Manager would not be the success it is today.

Hardcore players don’t need food, drink, or showers. They enjoy marathon Football Manager sessions and carry on playing the game, whatever happens around them—often blocking out the outside world.

The former hardcore player

Unfortunately, I count myself among this number. These are hardcore players who have had to reign in their Football Manager addiction because they have been hit by adult responsibilities.

They used to be obsessed with Football Manager but have managed to wean themselves off the game slightly and slowly. Or they have accepted that their family will leave them if they don’t cut down or, heaven forbid, stop obsessing over the game.

However, the game never really leaves them. They still dream of playing the game and guiding their beloved Dorking Wanderers to Champions League glory or completing an even more impossible task like turning Everton into a competent team.

For these players, Football Manager is like a former partner love that they can’t stop thinking about. They may not play the game as much as they used to, but the flame still burns strong inside of them.

Despite the fact that they don’t play Football Manager as much or as long, they do play the game to death when they have a chance.

A long plane journey, a time when everybody is out of the house, or even just when they have that rare spare time in between their child’s busy sporting schedule.

For this group, there may even be a rare time when they can still get a few hours of a long gaming session in. However, this is usually a rare but beautiful thing. These sessions pull the former hardcore player back into the FM world.

It leads them to believe that they can once again become a hardcore. However, that little thing time is always an obstacle to recovering their hardcore status.

The casual player

Some would say that there is very little difference between the former hardcore player and the casual. There is nuance in the fact that casual players don’t have and never will have the same passion as the hardcore or former hardcore player has for Football Manager.

Maybe that’s a good thing, as the game hasn’t consumed them to the same extent as more serious players. Casual players can pick the game up and play without taking it too seriously. They don’t think about it in bed at night or while sitting on the toilet. Maybe they are the lucky ones.

I often think that maybe these casual players don’t understand the game, and that’s why they have such a casual attitude towards playing Football Manager.

My son is one of these players. He asked me to buy him the last two editions of Football Manager, but then he played only a few seasons in both games.

Most of the time, he asks me to help him out, and it just turns into one of my saves. He says to play a few more games for him while he wanders off and plays football in the garden, or even worse, goes to play the latest FIFA/EA FC Sports game. Then he won’t touch it again for months.

I know he doesn’t get FM like I do, and he probably never will. However, that may well be a generational thing. Unlike the hardcore and ex-hardcore players, casual players are unlikely to buy the game when it comes out.

They will wait until it’s reduced in price or even, sometimes free to download at specific periods from Epic Store. They may leave the game for months and then pick it up and just play. There are no planning transfers, strategy, or anything else. They just play on a whim.

This may seem like madness to me, but maybe the casuals are the ones who play Football Manager the right way. Perhaps they have life figured out, and it’s us obsessives who have everything wrong.

Maybe they don’t want to get to the stage where it consumes their life, and they play so much Football Manager that their partner decides they have had enough and decides to desert them.

However, maybe the more logical reason is that they prefer other video games or prefer to do different things in their spare time than playing Football Manager, and the unlikely scenario that FM is not every person’s favourite video game!

What sort of Football Manager player are you? Let us know via our socials

In previous posts, I have probably explained why I always manage Everton on my FM saves. However, I thought I would delve deeper into my thought process and why Everton is my chosen team.

I am a lifelong supporter of Everton

The main reason, of course, that I manage Everton on FM is that I am a lifelong Evertonian. I have been going to Goodison Park since I was five years old (I am now 41).

Having previously held a season ticket, I had a period when my visits to the grand old lady were few and far between. However, my son’s blossoming obsession with football a few years ago saw me and him go to virtually every home game in the last two years.

For any father and sons out there, it can be the ultimate bonding moment, especially as, in Everton’s case, you have to put up with more lows than highs. Some may say taking my son to Everton is tantamount to child abuse, considering the fortunes of our team recently.

However, we enjoy the time together, and sometimes, very rarely, we also enjoy the action on the pitch. We share the good, the bad, and often ugly aspects of what football is about. The atmosphere, the little traditions, it’s hard to beat as a father-son activity.

A new reality

For many, Everton is a sleeping giant of English football. The number of historic firsts the club has experienced is simply breath-taking. In recent years, unfortunately, my beloved football club has become one that experiences unwanted negative firsts.

The fans have been hit with blow after blow in the club’s recent history, but with the help of the fans, Everton keeps surviving in the Premier Leagues, often against all odds.

The quality of the team and squad has been diluted so severely recently that current head coach Sean Dyche has often had to put square pegs in round holes. Somewhat bafflingly, of late, he has also chosen to field some players whose days in the Premier League are far behind them.

Football Manager gives me, as an Everton fan, a chance to help my beloved team recover and return to glory, something that in the club’s current circumstances seems so far off in the distance in real life.

I suppose this is the same for all fans. It is one of the attractions of the game. You can make something special out of what might be a real-life mess, take your team to glory, and even feel slightly more optimistic about the future of the club, even if it’s only temporary and not reality.

FM, like other games, can transform your mood and take you away from the everyday trials and tribulations of what life can throw at you.

How do I do it?

We have had the why, and now here’s some of the how. As somebody who has played the game since its Championship Manager days, I have an unhealthy obsession with the game.

With a busy family schedule, I don’t really have time to play multiple games. FM has always been my game of choice, so I have sacrificed other games in order to have time to play the game.

If players concentrate on one game, most people get very good at it, usually developing a comprehensive knowledge of the game. That’s why I can turn Everton into English champions, European champions and the dominant force in the world in a short space of time.

It is, in reality, relatively easy to do, especially when you have so many excellent tactic creators finding ways to create such effective tactics. I am thankful to those creators, as although I know the game so well, I no longer have time to create tactics unless I am doing it for the Higher Tempo.

Do I use other teams on FM?

In my earlier days playing FM, I would like a challenge on the game. I would love nothing better than to get Chester City or Tranmere Rovers up from the fourth or even fifth tiers of the game and take them into Europe.

However, once I got there if the Everton job became available, I would always apply for it and usually get the job. The problem was that the smaller clubs I was managing often didn’t want to upgrade the ground or be competitive in the top flight.

Often, Everton would be in the second tier, but once you showed you could do the job, the club’s hierarchy would back you financially. The lore of Everton would always be too much not to make a return to the club.

In recent years, it again sometimes comes down to available time. I may not be a casual player, but I certainly don’t play as much of as I did in my Chester days.

Returning Everton to glory is a manageable challenge usually, despite the mess the hierarchy has made of it over the last three decades in real life. Usually, within a few seasons, my team either challenges for or wins the Premier League title. In three years, European dominance is possible.

I have had little stints with the likes of Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund in FM25. However, it just didn’t feel the same as managing Everton to glory.

So, there you have it, why I manage Everton on FM is because, by the Blues’ recent history, it’s the only way I am ever going to witness my team win a trophy or experience any glory. Quite frankly, the last 30 years have brought mainly disappointment and distress.

However, in my FM game, Everton are the kings of the world. That is why I love Football Manager so much.

Do you always manage the team that you support in FM?

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