Scout report | Match preparations Football Manager 2016 Guide

One of the first issues that you need to take care of, while preparing for a match, is recognize the situation. Expectations as to the result vary with each match and depending on the team and each team has different players, different style and different formation. You need to be flexible in this respect and change both your expectations and predispositions, to match them with the opponent. To recognize the situation properly, you can use reports on your next opponent, prepared b one of the club's scouts.

Knowing the opponent is a necessity.

You find the report in your inbox, among the rest of your mail. Analysis drafted by the scout lets you work out the formation of the opposing team and its tactic for the match (offensive, defensive) and it also lets look up the base eleven. These two pieces of information are unarguably the most important ones, because you can react accordingly, e.g. by modifying your own tactic to be more defensive, by changing your formation, or defining instructions for the players (also, you can find recommended changes in Backroom advice). Apart from that, you also receive warning concerning each of the players that you should attach the most care to, or the best defender of the opponent. The report is enriched with a number of statistics that analyze the team's tactic - you can learn how the team did during the previous matches and when they score goals. This provides you with the picture of the opponent's overall condition and tells you when to be most careful (e.g. when the opposing team scores the most goals towards the end of the match - this may mean that they then go into the offensive mode). Suggestions contained in reports also include suggestions concerning the match preparation training and elements that the team should focus on.

In a nutshell, in scout reports, there is lots of information about the opposing team that you are going to play against. The extent to which you use that information, appropriate modification of your tactic and mode, as well as preparing the match preparation training may decide about the outcome of the match.