General hints | First steps in the club Football Manager 2016 Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

1. Set a goal for yourself. Make it different, depending on which team you are playing as. In one season, this may be the middle of the table, playing in European Cup in the second one and Championship in the third one. Thanks to this, you will be attaining better and better results managing a team and successive victories give more and more satisfaction.

2. Ensure appropriate depth of the team. Your base eleven is an obvious thing, but you need to remember about appropriate backup that depends on your finances. However, in each team that you manage, you should have a substitute ready for each and every position that you can use in case of injury or the player's exhaustion.

3. Match your tactic with the players you have. If you are playing as a team from an upper league, you can allow yourself remodeling the tactic and buying new players. Otherwise, you need to be smart enough to make your tactic use the potential of your players to the utmost.

4. Prepare for each match. Recognize your team, look through the scout's report, define individual instructions and do team talk, as it considerably affects the outcome of the match. Tactic is the key to winning matches, but it is no secret that a team with its morale high plays a better ball, which motivates for further victories.

5. Assign tasks to your assistants. You do not need to keep every aspect of managing the team, in mind. Instead, deal with the most important of tasks yourself, and leave the rest to the assistants hired by the club.

6. React to results, both during your preparations for the match and during the match itself. Experiment, if a given tactic does not yield results. During the match, do not hesitate to substitute a star that plays poorly for another player. Stagnation and lowering of results require your intervention, because nothing changes for the better itself.

7. Think ahead. Get new youngsters for he club, in hope that in 2-3 seasons they will get experienced enough to perform in the base eleven. Investing in promising youngsters also allows you to sell them for a profit, in the future.

8. Always negotiate the price. Never agree to the first contractual, or transfer offer. Initial financial conditions are steep, but by being patient in negotiations, you can bring the price down and save some money.

9. Use friendly matches for experimenting. Thanks to friendlies, you can test the team before the season and improve on its teamwork, when there are several new players to have joined in, whom you bought during the transfer window.

10. Buy and sell with consideration. Do not get carried away in the transfer window and do not organize a garden sale. Do not sell too much and do not buy several players for the same position. Otherwise, it may turn out that there are too many players on your team who do nothing and receive their salary.

11. Search for bargains, while playing as a less affluent club, such as free transfer players, or players whose contracts are running out. Also, some decent players do not have agents. For a smaller club, such savings are difficult to overestimate.

12. Remember that you can modify your budget, depending on your needs. Also, you an ask the Board for more money, or subsidize the purchase of a new player.

13. Depending on your club's reputation, find an affiliated club or for the patron club. Thanks to this, you will be able to lend players free of charge, as an affiliated club, or ensure your players, who do not make it to the base eleven, with jobs, as the patron club.

14. Players at the downturn of their careers can have very good attributes and very low price to come with it. Consider getting them for your club and pay attention to the considerable drop in physical attributes.

15. While playing as a weaker club with access to the European Cup, do your best to get the best results possible in such tournaments. This usually involves a large money injection that allows you to leave your league rivals (e.g. in East-European division) behind.

16. Make a reasonable assessment of the state of your preparations for the season and set goals that are possible for you to reach. On this basis, you are assessed by the Board, so setting an unreachable goal may result in your firing in the middle of the season.