How To Master Training On Football Manager

Pre-Season Training

Written by wellsy1498

Pre-season can either make or break the year ahead and with lots of different factors to think about it can sometimes become overwhelming for less experienced managers. If you can approach pre-season ready and willing to work hard and prepare well, you are in for a good season. However, if you see pre-season as a time to relax, you are in for an absolute nightmare.

During pre-season it is important to focus on four main areas; fitness, team cohesion, tactics and morale. If you focus on all of these areas, you should be set for that all important opening day fixture.

Fitness: Player that are not match fit are more likely to pick up little injuries and this eventually could lead to more serious ones and before you know it your star player is out until November. During pre-season, I try to give every player at least 40 minutes per game to ensure that at least 80% of my squad is fit. This means that if any of my starters get suspended or get injured, I can throw in other squad players.

Team Cohesion: During pre-season, many squad changes are made with new signings coming in and youth players being promoted. This can lead to disruption to the harmony of the squad. Once the fitness side of pre-season is near completion, changing the general training to team cohesion can get over such things such as language barriers for example.

Tactics: If the team has no idea how they have to play, you should just call it a day. It won’t end well. This is by far the most important part of pre-season, especially if you are joining a new club. To improve this, you should aim to try and play around 5-6 pre-season games. These can be against lower opposition so you are guaranteed to win.

Morale: Improving team morale in pre-season is simple, in theory. Claiming victories in pre-season friendly matches undoubtedly boosts squad confidence and morale, giving them a boost ahead of the competitive season. Integrating youngsters in pre-season by having them at least train with the senior squad will also boost their morale, provided they’re capable of performing to the standards of your senior side.