Discover 5 essential tips to reduce player fatigue in Football Manager, ensuring your squad stays fresh for the entire season.
Avoid Player Fatigue in Football Manager with These Proven Strategies
We've all been there. You've started a new Football Manager save, analysed your squad, implemented your philosophy on the tactics page, and you’re met with the worst possible outcome: a maxed-out intensity bar.
I can already hear my physio banging on my office door because they're overworked; my players complaining about tiredness – especially once the fixtures begin to pile up – and my sports scientists working at full capacity all season. If this keeps happening to you, here are some tips for keeping your players fresh throughout the season, ensuring your best players are available to you for crunch time.
1. Drop your pressing intensity
You’ll notice in these two screenshots: two relatively small differences have made a noticeable difference to your tactic’s intensity. While gegenpressing is inherently a high-intensity tactic, any little helps when it comes to relieving the physical burden on your players.
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Dribbling is a major cause of individual fatigue. This is because you're asking certain players to face a lot of defensive attention, which can be quite a high burden on two or three individuals. You'll probably notice this most in wingers or full-backs - who have to cover large areas of the pitch and carry the ball out of position, to then have long distances to travel to recover when possession is lost. I like to have 'Dribble Less' as a team instruction, making the ball do the work and taking the burden off my players. I can then tailor player instructions so that only my best dribblers - or positions where I have a lot of cover to rotate - are asked to take on that burden. As an aside, this also lessens the likelihood of your players picking up impact injuries from heavy tackles, as they’ll be in possession less and giving the opposition fewer opportunities to tackle them hard.
Not all fatigue comes from your tactics. Sometimes it can be from over-training, particularly late in the season. A good way to limit this is to make sure your rest settings are optimised. Under training, select the 'Rest' tab, and you'll be able to set conditional rest settings for your squad.
A tale as old as time: sometimes players simply need a week off, and the best way to save their legs for later in the season is by letting the backup players have their chances. Pick less-important league fixtures or cup matches against lower-league opposition, and get your second-choice players out there. There’s no sense in risking your £100m winger on a Tuesday night in Torquay if you can avoid it, and he’ll thank you for avoiding the cumulative fatigue that comes from playing every match.
When it comes to tactics, I like to make use of all three slots on your tactics page. While I can’t justify having overly-exuberant pressing in my main tactic, I like to keep a second tactic for some match situations where I need to press high and tackle hard. I’ll even have a third tactic where we sit back and force the opposition to break us down – a far less intense tactic than 90 minutes of gegenpressing. Rotating between the three and knowing when to step off the gas in a match is key to ensuring your players aren’t overworking. Why waste energy when you have a comfortable lead?
Of course, not all of these tips will apply to every save, but if you're really struggling with a fatigued squad, these things are worth bearing in mind. With good rotations and sensible substitutions, these tips should keep your team fit enough to compete all season long.
2. Dribble Less
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This mainly concerns full-backs and midfielders. If you have too many players on attack duty from deep positions, you're dragging them out of position to influence the game in the final third. Then when possession is lost, they've got much further to go to get back in position. Support duties ask players to be more mindful of their defensive responsibilities, so while they will still get forward to support the attack, they won't be so far out of position and won't have so much ground to cover. They’ll also choose their moments more carefully, rather than attacking at every chance, therefore using a lot of energy in high-intensity moments.
3. Support Duties
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4. Training Rests
Late in the season, I tend to have both red hearts set to "no pitch or gym work" and the yellow heart to "half intensity". This is different from just granting players rest days, because "no pitch or gym work" means they'll still come in for recovery sessions or match reviews, but wouldn't participate in any other drills. Don't be afraid to listen to the physio's recommendations either; that's what you pay them for: if your medical team reckons a player needs a complete rest, give it to them.
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5. Rotation – Players and tactics
A tale as old as time: sometimes players simply need a week off, and the best way to save their legs for later in the season is by letting the backup players have their chances. Pick less-important league fixtures or cup matches against lower-league opposition, and get your second-choice players out there. There’s no sense in risking your £100m winger on a Tuesday night in Torquay if you can avoid it, and he’ll thank you for avoiding the cumulative fatigue that comes from playing every match.
When it comes to tactics, I like to make use of all three slots on your tactics page. While I can’t justify having overly-exuberant pressing in my main tactic, I like to keep a second tactic for some match situations where I need to press high and tackle hard. I’ll even have a third tactic where we sit back and force the opposition to break us down – a far less intense tactic than 90 minutes of gegenpressing. Rotating between the three and knowing when to step off the gas in a match is key to ensuring your players aren’t overworking. Why waste energy when you have a comfortable lead?
Final Thoughts
Of course, not all of these tips will apply to every save, but if you're really struggling with a fatigued squad, these things are worth bearing in mind. With good rotations and sensible substitutions, these tips should keep your team fit enough to compete all season long.
