In recent years, a trend has begun to emerge – the classical No.10 or advanced playmaker isn’t used in the same way anymore.

Given the importance of collective pressing and counter-pressing in the modern game, many managers don’t quite feel comfortable deploying a free-floating midfielder behind their leading striker. However, this doesn’t mean that playmakers aren’t important – in fact, they’ve probably got a more important role than ever. The main difference now is that they tend to operate in different places on the pitch.

Two of the best roles in Football Manager 2024 showcasing the evolution of the traditional playmaker are the Libero and the Roaming Playmaker. Here, Ihor Crusadertsar uses Manchester City stars John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne to illustrate how to use both roles in your latest FM24 saves.

Pep Guardiola’s deployment of John Stones as a central defender stepping up into midfield during the 2022/23 season led to the Libero role being significantly overhauled as part of FM24’s positional play changes.

Expected to defend against opposition attacks when out of possession and to receive the ball and advance it up in the pitch when your team has possession, a Libero is ideally placed to drive your build-up play from the heart of defence.

When identifying a good Libero, you need them to have strong Attribute scores for Passing, Technique, Decisions and Vision – essentially the areas you’d expect a more advanced playmaker to excel in. They also need to be good at the things a traditional centre-back is – namely Jumping Reach, Strength, and Tackling.

Unsurprisingly, John Stones is perfect in this role because he also boasts strong Attribute scores for Dribbling, First Touch, Composure, and Balance. Collectively, these will help him to ride out pressure from opposition players and comfortably transition the ball out of defence and into midfield.

When using the Libero to drive my team’s playmaking, I like to utilise a Sweeper Keeper who is comfortable on the ball and will be more likely to pass the ball short to the central defenders rather than instinctively kicking it long.

For the rest of the defence, I pair the Libero with a more traditional central defender like Nathan Aké or Ruben Dias and then make the most of FM24’s new Inverted Full-Back player role with one on each side.

In this set-up, the Libero will step up to the defensive midfield position when we’re in possession and will effectively act as a Deep-Lying Playmaker, regardless of whether you use a Support or Defend duty.

With the Libero stepping up, the two Inverted Full-Backs will tuck in and form a solid back three with the other central defender you’ve selected.

Further forward, by using a Defensive Midfielder or a Ball-Winning Midfielder at the base of your midfield, the Libero will form a double pivot with them in front of your back three. As such, you’ll have a 3-2 shape at the base of your tactic; an essential component in most progressive possession approaches.

Flipping the idea of a traditional playmaker on its head, the Libero allows you to successfully build up from deep without sacrificing any defensive solidity.

Having someone like John Stones at your disposal opens doors for playing with a Libero but you need a pretty specific Attribute profile for that role to work properly. So, how can you find a new home in midfield for your team’s designated playmaker?

One of the modern game’s best passers and most creative talents, Kevin De Bruyne is a great playmaker but he’s rarely acted as a traditional Number 10 in recent seasons. Instead, he’s often played a bit deeper and wider, operating in a role that allows him to press, defend, score and create a bunch of high-value chances for his teammates.

Here, FM24’s positional play changes once again take centre stage to level up the abilities of the Roaming Playmaker role.

In possession, a Roaming Playmaker will now push up from central midfield to take up a position behind your striker, thereby taking on an active role in your build-up play.

What’s exciting is the fact that they’ll do this from a starting position in defensive midfield too. If you’ve got a mobile, hard-working player, you can use the role to build your team around someone who will battle hard to win the ball and then push play up the pitch and drive chance creation when you’ve regained possession.

The tactic below indicates the kind of ‘total football’ approach you can achieve in FM24 by using the Roaming Playmaker in a deeper position.

Another approach can be to use an Advanced Playmaker in a central midfield position. Whether you go for a Support duty or a more Attacking one, this player will be more involved in pressing when your team is out of possession but will then drive forward when you’ve got the ball back.

Kevin De Bruyne is perfect here because it makes the most of his skillset and ensures that he’s involved with all phases of play.

Using the Advanced Playmaker role in central midfield also gives opposition defenders a dilemma. They can choose to move forward and try to mark your player but doing so runs the risk of leaving gaps for your attackers to exploit. Alternatively, they can stay back and end up giving someone like De Bruyne loads of space to roam around in and the time to pick the perfect pass to a teammate.

In the screenshot below you’ll see that I’ve opted for another aggressive role in the Mezzala next to De Bruyne. Using Phil Foden in this way helps us to get more players forward for De Bruyne to create chances for, while the use of two Wingers and Fairly Wide Tactical Instruction helps us to stretch and overload the opposition defence.

A final alternative route of using a playmaker is by deploying one on the flank.

The Wide Playmaker has been one of my favourite roles in FM for a few years now because it’s a role that increases the player’s time with the ball and decreases the chances of them being marked out of the game by the opposition.

To illustrate this with Manchester City, I’ve got a tactic using a 4-4-1-1 formation. Here, Rodri and Bernardo Silva stay fairly central, giving De Bruyne plenty of space out wide. Deploying him on an Attack duty opens up space for penetrative overlapping runs from Kyle Walker at Wing-Back.

So, there you have it, four different ways that you can use playmakers in FM24.

While the old-fashioned No. 10 playmaker might not be in vogue anymore, the art of playmaking has not been abandoned and you have several options to make your playmakers more versatile and valuable than ever in FM24.

Happy managing

Ihor Crusadertsar

Having players who can perform two different jobs at the same time can be an absolute game-changer for your tactics in Football Manager 2024. Few player roles fit that bill better than the Complete Forward.

Expected to lead the line but also link up with your team’s other attackers, the Complete Forward could be your top scorer or best playmaker in any given game. This makes them an ideal role to unlock your team’s full potential but also one that needs a special, well-rounded player to do it well.

In this guide, Rock’s End FM shows you the skills you need to look for in a Complete Forward and how to make the role fit into your tactics.

Let’s start with the basics: what is a Complete Forward?

The Complete Forward can operate across the entire final third of the pitch. They need the strength and anticipation to outmuscle opposition defenders and make late runs into the box, as well as clinical finishing instincts. They also need to be able to drop deeper to create space and contribute to your build-up play, playing passes in behind to teammates in the wide channels.

In FM24, the Complete Forward is available with two duties – Attack and Support. Each option has its pros and cons, with the Attack setting pushing their focus more towards goalscoring and Support prioritising collaboration with the rest of the team.

Finding such a jack-of-all-trades isn’t easy but there are some key Attributes that you can look for. From a Technical perspective, Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch, Heading, and Technique are key, as are Off The Ball, Composure, Anticipation, and Positioning from a Mental side. Having decent Pace, Acceleration, and Agility aren’t essential but they’re a nice bonus.

To round their profile out, the stronger their Passing, Teamwork, Vision, and Determination Attributes, the better.

Having taken a look at how the role works work and the key Attributes you need to look for, I’ve taken charge of two Bundesliga clubs to show the role in action in FM24.

Few players in the FM24 database are as perfect in a role as Harry Kane is as a Complete Forward.

Having initially burst onto the scene as a clinical finisher, Kane has evolved his game over time to become much more than that for club and country. Technically sublime, smart on and off the ball, and incredibly hard-working, Kane has the physical tools to make an impact across the final third.

However, even the best and most well-rounded players in the world will struggle if they’re not backed up suitably by their teammates.

I’m using Kane as a Complete Forward on Support and to make that role shine, you need two things: players who can supply balls into him and players who can receive them from him.

The below screenshot shows how I’ve set up FC Bayern for this experiment, with Kane leading the line in a fairly traditional 4-3-3.

As you can see, we have a good mix of passers and runners that will all work around Kane. The Wing-Backs will provide width and crossing options, while having both wingers inverted will give us both close-range passing options and darting runs that Kane can pick up when he drops deeper. In midfield, the Mezzala and the Box-to-Box Midfielder will both arrive late into the box, giving us more passing options and attacking threats.

Now we have our tactic assembled, let’s put it to the test on Matchday.

In possession, Kane drops into the pocket and effectively becomes an auxiliary midfielder. In the screenshot below, taken from a game with SV Darmstadt 98, you can see him in line with the other central midfielders.

However, he will still lead the line. In this second shot, you can see him pushing the defensive line back, thereby creating more space in the box for both him and our onrushing midfielders to drive into. As it happened, he opened the scoring from this passage of play, heading home a Serge Gnabry cross.

In this third example, you see him in full flow having picked up the ball from deep. On this occasion, he dribbled forward from a counter-attack, drawing some of the opposition defenders out of position and opening up a run in behind for Leroy Sané, who doubled our lead.

Kane was man of the match in this game and one of our best performers throughout the entire season.

As FC Bayern are a team that typically dominates possession, the Complete Forward on Support is an ideal role. In most games, FC Bayern will have to break down opposition teams who tend to sit deeper and look to play off turnovers. The Complete Forward offers you more flexibility in your tactic as their roving position opens up more avenues for attack, stopping your offence from becoming predictable and giving the opposition defence more to think about.

Some teams, however, will have less of the ball from game to game and will be more reliant on their strikers to shoulder a greater scoring responsibility. In this instance, you need to opt for the Attack duty.

The Complete Forward on Attack offers you a striker who can run into space, hit it long, or head it home while also offering a partner for creative midfielders and attacking wingers.

Perfect for illustrating this duty is VfB Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy, a sensation during the 2023/24 season. The Guinean forward has a skillset every bit as complete as other strikers but his playing style – based on strength, pace, and smart movement - lends itself better to him being the focal point of the attack.

As boss of VfB Stuttgart, this is how I’ve set up:

Contrasted to the previous example, the Complete Forward sits higher up in the pitch, allowing us to bring in Enzo Millot to sit in behind as a Number 10 who can drive the team’s playmaking efforts. Guirassy will get plenty of service from Silas Katompa Mvumpa and Maximilian Mittelstädt in the wide areas, while Mahmoud Dahoud will offer an on-rushing threat from midfield. Simply put, the Complete Forward in this example opens up room for the rest of the team to operate in, whereas Harry Kane was the cog that the rest of the team centred around.

How does it work in practice? Well, the Complete Forward is our furthest forward player while we’re in possession, pinning the opposition central defenders back and opening up space behind.

This high positioning means that Guirassy gets a higher volume of shots per game, as he has less ground to cover to join attacks. The screenshot below shows him about to get on the end of a Woo-Yeong Jeong cross to open the scoring against Eintracht Frankfurt.

On Attack duty, Guirassy is much more active in both the pressing and counter-pressing aspects of our play. You can see this illustrated by the heat map below - if you’re looking to regain the ball as high up the pitch as possible, this is a role you should be thinking about using.

Despite its high quality and ability threshold, the Complete Forward is a role that can adapt to many teams and styles of play. With the right player in it and a suitable tactic supporting, the Complete Forward could be the difference between a title triumph and a near miss in your next save.

Happy Managing,

Rock’s End FM

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Further information on the Premier League’s in-game integration with Football Manager, as well as partnership activities between the studio and the league, will be revealed later in the year.

Developing tactics and recreating the styles of football’s leading coaches is one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing Football Manager.

In Football Manager 2024, you have more creative tools for expressing your tactical philosophy thanks to the player rotation changes that have been added..

These rotations see players take up a different position while in possession than they occupy while defending, such as an Inverted Full-Back tucking in as an additional central defender or Central Midfielders pushing forward to join the attack.

Making the most of these rotations will allow you to implement positional play principles in your tactics and become a more dynamic attacking team in every career. In this blog, Dan Gear explains which roles trigger these positional rotations and shows them in action.

Positional rotations are largely reserved for your central midfield players, but there are also a few defensive roles that are crucial for pursuing positional play. These are:

• Inverted Wing-Back - During the possession phase, a player using this role will move into defensive midfield
  
• Inverted Full-Back – A new role for FM24, this is geared towards those players that tuck in to become an extra central defender while in possession
  
• Libero – Following some upgrades for FM24, a Libero can now play in any of the three centre-back positions, and in each one they will look to move into defensive midfield

• Half-Back – Now usable in both single and double midfield pivots, a player in this role will look to drop back into central defence while you’re in possession
  
• Segundo Volante – An aggressive role, players deployed as Segundo Volantes will push right up as an extra ‘Number 10’ just behind the strikers when your team is attacking
  
• Roaming Playmaker – Whether they’re used in defensive or central midfield, Roaming Playmakers will push up to become attacking midfielders during the possession phase
  
• Box to Box Midfielder/Mezzala/Advanced Playmaker – All of these roles will look to push up from a starting position in central midfield to one just behind the strikers. The same is also true for Central Midfielders used on an Attack duty

Now, you might be thinking that if all of your central midfield players push up, you’ll have a lot of overcrowding in the same area of the pitch.

Well, the players in FM24 are intelligent and aware of the movement of their teammates, meaning that this doesn’t happen.

To illustrate this with an example, let’s say you’re using a 4-2-3-1 formation and you’ve chosen to make one of your midfield pairing a Mezzala.

As the image below shows, the originally central Advanced Playmaker will acknowledge the Mezzala’s forward runs and will shuffle across to the left to accommodate them.

In this instance, your wide player will now stay closer to the touchline in order to accommodate the forward runs of the Mezzala, effectively making your formation a 4-1-4-1.

Alternatively, let’s say you chose to play a 4-2-3-1 with a Segundo Volante on the left and a Ball-Winning Midfieder on the right.

Here, the Segundo Volante will push up and on this occasion the player behind the striker will move to the right to once again create a strong 4-1-4-1 shape.

The same is true when you make use of the defensive player roles that shift their position during the attacking phase.

In the example below, we’re playing a 4-3-3 with an Inverted Wing-Back on the left of the defence. In this instance, the Defensive Midfielder will move across to the right to form a double pivot with the Inverted Wing-Back that pushes up.

Now, if you pull it all together in a wider tactical shape, you’ll see that your team’s starting formation will look quite different as your players look to progress possession up the pitch.

As the arrows on the screen below show, you’ll effectively have a 3-2-4-1 shape when you’re attacking. This opens up more passing lanes and gives you a greater ability to play through the lines, which in turn means you’re going to be much more effective in exploiting gaps in the opposition defence when you’re counter-attacking.

Now we’ve gone through the theory, let’s see how we can implement these player rotations and positional play principles in practice with a real team and tactic. Here, I’ve chosen to use Italian club Bologna.

In this first scenario, I’ve opted for a fairly simple 3-4-3 tactic. The formation makes the most of some of our most talented players, namely Victor Kristiansen, central defender Riccardo Calafiori and clinical striker Joshua Zirkzee.

I’ve kept it on a Balanced Mentality as the player roles chosen are attacking enough on their own, while I’ve only selected a few simple Team Instructions as I want the players to focus on their natural games and moving around the pitch in the way the roles intend them to.

As you can see from the screenshot below, Lewis Ferguson, Michael Aebischer and Jhon Lucumí all rotate into more advanced positions when we’re attacking the opposition.

In that instance we failed to score. When play restarted and the opposition were looking to progress possession, they all moved back into their starting positions to give us better defensive cover.

In the second example, I’ve used a 4-2-3-1 similar to the one outlined earlier on. From what we know of the positional rotations, the shape I’ve picked should see Aebischer push up and join Ferguson as a second attacking midfielder in a four-man unit behind Zirkzee.

Further back, Calafiori is playing as an Inverted Full-Back, meaning that he’ll push across and Lucumí and Sam Beukema will adapt accordingly to form a back three.

In terms of Mentality and Team Instructions, everything reflects the first example as all rotations and shifts are automatic. You don’t need to add any extra player or team instructions, you only need to understand which roles rotate into which areas and how you can make space for them in your tactic.

To take the previous example a bit further, you could make Stefan Posch an Inverted Wing-Back rather than a Wing-Back. You’ve got enough ability in the wide areas with Riccardo Orsolini and Jesper Karlsson, so you can instead use Posch in a capacity that makes him an extra ball receiver in midfield and more effective defensive cover should you lose possession.

As you can see from the screenshot below, Posch has moved up and across to form a defensive midfielder pivot with Nikola Moro, who has moved across into the space that Aebischer has vacated by pushing up.

Hopefully the information provided here will have given you a greater insight into how FM24’s positional rotations work in practice and how you can make the most of them to build more fluid tactics in FM24.

Happy managing,

Dan Gear

Being tactically flexible is one of the most important characteristics any manager can have. Having the insight to change your approach mid-game when things aren’t working or employing different game plans for different opponents stops you from being predictable and can keep the positive results coming.

One of the best ways to do this is by setting up different tactical approaches for home and away matches. Here, Rock’s End FM dives deep to show how you can do it in your latest FM24 careers to gain that extra edge with a newly-promoted team.

So, at this point, you’re probably thinking: why should I use different tactical approaches for home and away matches? Surely my team should just focus on one approach in training?

Well, the idea between using two separate tactics depending on where your team is playing is that it allows you to make the most of two different situations without giving away too much in any direction.

For home matches, you have more of your fans behind you, and on the pitch you’re likely to get more possession than you do away from home. This means your players will have a bit more time on the ball and therefore more space to generate attacks.

Conversely, when you’re away from home, you’ll be pressed harder by the opposition. This means that you’ll have less of the ball but when you do regain possession, you’ll likely have more avenues for direct counter-attacks.

With this in mind, you can prepare and create different tactical approaches to help your team exploit these gains and cover for any deficiencies in terms of personnel. Doing this will help you to clinch more key points, securing your spot in that league for another season and allowing you to focus your wider efforts on long-term squad-building.

To put this approach to the test, I’ve started a save with Sky Bet Championship team Plymouth Argyle. They won Sky Bet League One in 2023 but are considered to be one of the higher division's weaker teams when you begin a career in FM24.

When reviewing the Plymouth squad, it’s clear that the Pilgrims have a lot of quick attacking players with high Work Rate Attributes. This lends itself fantastically to a counter-pressing approach that will allow us to recover the ball higher up the pitch and take advantage of space when the opposition are in transition.

However, adopting such an aggressive approach does mean that we’ll naturally leave a lot of space in behind, which the division’s better teams will be able to exploit. How can we reduce that risk when we’re playing away and at our most fragile?

Creating a new tactical slot, we’re going to set up our away game plan. We’ll keep the same defensive structure as the home tactic but we’re going to adapt our formation to a 4-4-2 by making our number 10 a second striker. This will give us a more compact shape for the longer periods of play when we’re out of possession and defending. We’ll also drop our wide players back, which will allow them to start their runs in more space and from deep. It also means that they’re closer to our full-backs, which should give us more defensive cover.

In terms of our instructions, we’ll look to defend deeper and invite pressure, as this will create gaps in the opposition's defence that we can take advantage of with quick, direct transitions. To achieve this, we’ll drop our Mentality and Line of Engagement, and also stop Counter-Pressing in favour of regrouping quickly.

A key factor to bear in mind is that between our two tactics, we’ve maintained a lot of our original setup instead of opting for a completely different shape. By doing this, we’re making sure that both tactics make the best possible use of our players.

It is always worth thinking about the individual skillsets of your players. Different players will play roles differently, so there’s a lot to be gained by shifting who plays in each position from game to game.

With that all figured out, let’s put our approach to the test and jump into the season.

Just like in real life, our first game as Plymouth Argyle boss in FM24 is at home against another relegation candidate in Huddersfield.

Given that it’s the first game of the campaign and we’re playing at Home Park, we start the match with our home tactic. Our high press kept us in control of the game early on and secured us plenty of key chances in the opening minutes.

We scored midway through the first half thanks to striker Ryan Hardie and had several opportunities to extend our lead. We failed to make the most of them and were ultimately punished by a goal on the counter late in the second half as the match finished 1-1. While it wasn’t the result we wanted, the Shot Map of the game makes for impressive viewing and shows early promise for our home gameplan.

Our second game was away against Watford, a leading playoff contender at the beginning of the season. We used our away tactic for this game but made a personnel change. Instead of deploying him out wide, where the Inverted Winger (Support) position would have made him less of a scoring threat, we pushed Morgan Whittaker up as a striker to partner Hardie.

We ultimately end up being unlucky in this game, losing 3-1. Our xG was very similar to that of the Hornets but they ultimately proved more clinical, sealing victory with their third goal in the 89th minute. We never looked particularly outmatched against a stronger team on paper, which was encouraging, and despite sitting deeper we created some decent chances.

The positive signs from our first two games are reflected in our next two matches. At home against the highly-fancied Southampton, we create more chances and limit them to just two shots in the entire second half as we won 3-2.

That gave us our first win and our we got a second in our fourth match of the season away at Birmingham City. Whittaker scores off a quick transition to put us 1-0 up in the first half and another quick counter proves decisive in the second half, with Whittaker grabbing his second from the penalty spot after we capitalised on them committing too many men forward. That secured us a 2-1 win and put us up to seven points after four matches – far from the form you’d expect of a relegation favourite.

On its own, using differing tactics for home and away matches won’t save you from relegation. However, it is a useful tool to play to your strengths and help keep the opposition guessing. For teams that aren’t blessed with enormous resources, it can earn you a few extra points, which could prove crucial in a tight relegation race, and give you the platform to build from and push ahead.

Happy managing,

Rock’s End FM

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The role of the Winger in football has changed dramatically over the years. No longer are they just expected to hug the touchline and whip in lofted deliveries for tall, old-school centre forwards. Now, just like their teammates in other positions, they have to be much more versatile.

Modern wingers now serve a variety of roles across the pitch, something reflected in the growth in attacking and defensive outputs delivered by top wingers year after year.

Here, SteinkelssonFM uses Brighton & Hove Albion to break down all of the different winger roles in Football Manager 2024 and how you can effectively build your tactics around getting the most from them.

Kaoru Mitoma has been nothing short of sensational for Brighton since joining the south coast club from his native Japan in 2021.

What makes him so special? Like most players, it’s a unique combination of skills.

His biggest strength, and the thing that’s wowed fans and pundits the most, has been his movement and ability with the ball at his feet; his Dribbling Attribute of 18 is one of the best in the entire FM24 database.

He’s also mobile, with Attribute scores of 16 for Pace and 17 for Acceleration, while his rating of 16 for Flair highlights his natural talent for the creative and unpredictable.

These scores reflect his natural game, wherein he’s constantly working to create one-on-one situations with opposition defenders. In this way, he very much embodies all of the things that teams need modern wide players to be.

We’ll start this run-through of the modern winger roles with the one that’s alphabetically first, the Inside Forward.

Players used as Inside Forwards are typically those whose strongest foot is the opposite to the flank they’re being used on, allowing them to regularly cut inside from the flanks and run at the opposition defence. This movement can open up space for overlapping Full-Backs/Wing-Backs as well as overloading a retreating defender.

For this example, we’ll be using Mitoma as an Inside Forward on a Support duty, as this will encourage him to cut diagonally into the space behind the defence and play through balls or take long shots if the opportunity arises.

Mitoma’s strong Off the Ball Attribute (15) is important for him being successful in this role, as it means he’ll be constantly moving while not in possession, scanning for avenues to receive the ball and create attacking opportunities. It also likely means he’ll have more touches in the box when compared to the alternative roles covered in this post.

His strong scores for Pace and Acceleration make it easier for you to use a Support duty as he’s still likely to be able to break free beyond the opposition’s defensive line - even if his runs start from deeper positions.

With Mitoma in this role on the left, you’ll need something complementary on the right. The best option is using Solly March as a Winger on Attack. In this role, he’ll often look to play balls into Evan Ferguson as the Deep Lying Forward, who can slow the pace of the game with the instruction ‘Hold Up Ball’ as he waits for support. Due to Mitoma’s deeper starting position, he is already at full tilt when Ferguson plays the pass through the defensive line, meaning that he’s got a great shot of goal and João Pedro supporting for any rebound opportunities.

In FM24, the Winger aims to beat their opposite number on the outside, either through technical skill, speed or a combination of the two. Typically, you will see the winger hugging the touchline when their team is going forward, ready to surge into space and attack the byline.

When deployed with an Attack duty, the Winger will be much more direct in their runs in the final third, aiming to cause panic and indecision before shooting or attempting to make a through ball/cross to a teammate.

Mitoma’s previously outlined strengths make him a great fit for the Winger role but you need to make sure that he gets the requisite space to be able to run at the opposing full-back. To create this within a tactic, Pervis Estupiñán has been deployed as a Full-Back on Support to reduce the number of overlapping runs made. This is a fairly accurate representation of how Brighton plays out from the back in real life, with Mitoma being Brighton’s leader in terms of progressive passes received.

You will note the other players' roles highlighted within this tactical set-up all emphasise making runs into the box. Danny Welbeck, operating as the lone complete forward, will be supported through the late runs of Julio Enciso (Attacking Midfielder), and Simon Adingra (Inside Forward), as both roles have the ‘Get Further Forward’ instruction.

Last but not least is the Inverted Winger, whose primary aim is to cut inside to open up space for overlapping full-backs and overload opposition defenders. With an Attack duty, the Inverted Winger will run directly at the defence with the options of shooting, passing or crossing as he moves into the attacking third.

By being a bit more direct and having a naturally wider starting position than the Inside Forward, a player in this role is likely to face more direct resistance in terms of pressing when attempting to progress play.

In this role, Mitoma’s Attributes of 14 for Balance and Agility allow him to move between defenders to create a shooting opportunity or draw contact, resulting in a potential free kick or penalty. Mitoma also has 14 for Decisions, enabling him to make the correct choice more often or not in wide areas.

Much like in the example above, the roles of your defenders and wingers on the same side should be in tandem. As such, in this example, Estupiñán is deployed as a Wing-Back on Support to take advantage of the space vacated by Mitoma cutting in.

Again, I have opted to ensure that Mitoma has two players occupying the defensive line – namely Enciso and Ansu Fati. The Advanced Forward will look to exploit any vacant space behind and also take an opponent away from the defensive block, thereby leaving space for the Attacking Midfielder. March, meanwhile, ensures that width is maintained on the other flank.

These simple relationships will potentially help Mitoma’s attacking contribution, improving the likelihood of him playing a key pass into a goalscoring position.

While the default roles in FM24 will cover most of the things that we want our players to do, it’s sometimes worthwhile to add some additional Player and Team Instructions to give things a helping hand.

Regardless of which wide player roles you choose to use him in, Mitoma’s effectiveness is enhanced even further by the Shoot Less Often and Take More Risks Player Instructions. These will encourage him to be patient while in possession, particularly further away from the goal, meaning he has more avenues to pursue either mazy dribbles or lower-percentage passes.

To ramp up Brighton’s effectiveness down the left, you could also add in the ‘Focus Play Down the Left’ Team Instruction to create more overloads and opportunities.

Wide players are integral to almost every tactic in FM24, and with this guide, you should have a greater insight into whether a Winger, Inverted Winger or Inside Forward is best for your next career.

Happy managing,

SteinkelssonFM

In football, it's about being at the right place at the right time - and few players are better at that than a Segundo Volante.

One of several roles to be impacted by Football Manager 2024’s new positional play changes[www.footballmanager.com], the Segundo Volante can perform a range of duties, from long-range passes to darting runs and shots from distance.

In this guide, we’ll be taking an in-depth look into the role, what makes it so good, and how you can make the most of it in your latest FM24 career.

Originating from the 4-2-4s that revolutionised football in the 1950s and 60s, the Segundo Volante was a player typically deployed as the more creative outlet in a midfield two alongside a defensive pivot.

In modern times, the Segundo Volante is still used as part of a double pivot, often in a 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. Often paired with a pure ball-winner, the Segundo Volante will play a similar game to other defensive midfielders, focusing on recovery, holding their position and seeking to intercept misplaced passes or beat their man on individual duels.

However, the Segundo Volante has a more influential role in their team’s offence. Unlike a Regista or a Deep-Lying Playmaker, they don’t just influence games through passing. They also offer dynamic forward runs, attacking the box and offering passing options to their teammates with runs into space.

The Segundo Volante is a role that can complement your attacking approach without leaving gaps behind. However, that also means that you need a very complete player for the role to be effective in your tactic.

It’s not a specialist role per se but a good Segundo Volante is someone who can recover the ball, pass over a variety of distances, move well with the ball at their feet, and also offer a goal threat. That means you’re looking for a good combination of the following Attributes: Marking, Tackling, Positioning, Teamwork, First Touch, Dribbling, Agility, Passing, Vision, Decisions, Anticipation, Off the Ball, and Stamina. Not every player will excel in all of those but if their strengths lie in a few of them, they’ll be able to influence matches across the whole pitch.

To illustrate what a great Segundo Volante looks like in FM24 and how to use one, I’ve started a save with Yokohama F. Marinos. Why them? Well, their defensive midfielder Takuya Kida meets many of the requirements I laid out above.

As you can see from his profile screenshot above, Kida is a well-rounded midfielder. However, as with all roles in a tactic, it will only be as effective as it’s allowed to be by the supporting roles you’ve chosen in the rest of the team.

Given that movement is such a big part of the Segundo Volante’s game, they need to understand how their teammates shuttle around the pitch. For example, with Kida starting his runs from deep and arriving late in the opposition penalty area, you’ll need players on their side of the pitch like Wingers and Wing-Backs that will stretch the game and give them the space to arrive into.

With that movement, that also means that you also need to think about the risk of turnovers and opposition counter-attacks. As such, you need Kida’s defensive midfield partner to be someone who will cover the gaps left by him pushing forward and serve as the team’s primary ball-winner – think about using an Anchorman or a Defensive Midfielder on a Defend duty.

Further forward, you’ll need an aggressive striker that will keep the defence on their toes. Having a player that stays high up the pitch will occupy the opposition's central defenders, meaning that Kida will have space in behind. To achieve this effect, your best options are to use a Poacher, Advanced Forward, or Complete Forward on an Attack duty.

Taking all of those considerations into account, let’s head to the Tactics board to see how we’ve got the Yokohama F. Marinos lining up.

Using a slightly modified version of the Fluid Counter-Attack tactical preset, I’ve got Kida as a Segundo Volante alongside Eduardo as a Defensive Midfielder.

On the left, we’re taking advantage of the coverage provided by Kota Watanabe by deploying Katsuya Nagato as an overlapping Full-Back with Yan Matheus as a Winger on a Support duty.

However, on the right we’ll use Football Manager 2024’s new positional play features to maximise Kida’s impact as a Segundo Volante. Here, we’ve got Ryuta Koike as an Inverted Wing-Back on Support and Elber as a more attacking Winger. When our team is in possession, Koike will move into defensive midfield alongside Eduardo, meaning that Kida can push up freely without worrying about us losing a player through the middle.

Up front, Anderson Lopes will keep the opposition defence on edge as an Advanced Forward, while Kota Mizunuma as an Attacking Midfielder on Support will provide a passing outlet for all our runners.

Everything that we’ve discussed so far is the theory. Now it’s time to see how it all works in practice on a Matchday.

Looking at the screenshot below, it’s clear that the tactical shape and role combinations we’re using are working out perfectly.

Elber is staying wide on the right, keeping his opposition full-back occupied, while Anderson Lopes’ holding of a central position means that the centre-backs are keeping tight to him instead of spreading out more evenly across the pitch. This means that Kida can burst forward into the space created, ready to receive a pass from Mizunuma. Kida’s movement is also, as you can see, being covered by Koike drifting in centrally.

In each match, this space allowed Kida to push forward and arrive late at the edge of the box as we were attacking. This puts him in good position to finish off any cutbacks or, as in the screenshot below, take long-range shots with a clear sight of goal.

The Pass Map included below from one of our league games shows that the Kida covers a lot of ground in the Segundo Volante role. He consistently keeps the ball moving, using the space around him to open up the play and demonstrate his great range of passing.

The below image, meanwhile, is the converse – it’s a demonstration of Kida’s received passes during a match. Here, you can again see his movement across the pitch and the fact that he’s consistently making himself available as a relief option when his teammates come under pressure in the midfield.

The Segundo Volante is a special role and one of my favourites in FM24. Starting from deep positions, Segundo Volantes offer a unique blend of defensive coverage, ball-carrying, long passes and a scoring threat. While not all teams will have someone suitably versatile, this example with Takuya Kida and Yokohama F. Marinos shows how they can influence matches. Give it a try in your latest career.

Happy managing,

Rock’s End FM

YFM Squad

In recent years, Brighton & Hove Albion have been widely heralded for their style on the pitch and strategy off it. Many other clubs in Europe have taken note of their innovations and sought to replicate them.

What makes the Seagulls’ approach so special is their knack for matching the right players with the right roles to accelerate their development and help the club achieve an exciting playing style.

Here, MaddFM dives deep on the Wing-Back role in Football Manager 2024, using Brighton’s stars to showcase how best to deploy the role in your tactics.

Since being promoted from the Sky Bet Championship in 2017, Brighton have gone from strength to strength; 17th in their second top-flight season (2018) to a sixth-place finish in 2023 that secured them UEFA Europa League football for the first time.

One of the most impressive aspects of Brighton’s rise has been how they have, through successive managers, evolved their tactical philosophy. A key theme of their approach has been their developing use of full-backs and later wing-backs as the building blocks for their possession and attacking play.

Let's look back over the last five seasons. We can see clear progressive development in terms of the type of roles and players used in wide defensive positions - moving from a more traditional full-back pairing in 2018 through to a slightly more advanced full-back system in 2020 and then shifting towards a much more attacking pair of Wing-Backs in 2022 via the likes of Tariq Lamptey.

Since pivoting their approach from traditional Full-Backs to more mobile, technical and attack-minded Wing-Backs, Brighton have had to identify other key characteristics in the players they sign. The three most immediately important criteria are Pace, Crossing and Passing.

Pervis Estupiñán ticked all of those boxes and more when he signed in 2022. Not only is the Ecuador international lightning quick, but his combination of great Work Rate and Stamina Attributes, as well as the “Gets Forward Whenever Possible” Trait, make him incredibly well-rounded. The 25-year-old also ranks well for many other important metrics, including his Anticipation, Dribbling, Decisions, Off the Ball and First Touch.

As well as being impressive on paper, Estupiñán has delivered in practice. In his first season on England’s south coast, he notched eight assists and ranked among the league’s best for crossing, passing and progressive ball carries.

Still only 25, Estupiñán has continued to impress this season, recording three goals and three assists by February. However, that hasn’t stopped Brighton from futureproofing themselves in this vital position. In January 2024, the club followed in the steps of so many FM fans by signing FM24 Wonderkid Valentín Barco – described by manager Roberto De Zerbi as “an important player” for the club’s future.

Looking at Barco’s profile, Brighton’s preference for an attack-minded Wing-Back is again clear. Barco has the “Gets Forward Whenever Possible” trait, as well as strong Attribute scores for Stamina, Work Rate, Passing, Vision and Dribbling. At just 19, there’s even more time for him to develop and potentially represent the club’s next evolution in the role.

Now we’ve addressed the key elements of what Brighton look for in their Wing-Backs, it’s now time to turn to the other big question – how best to use them in FM24? If we look at the in-game definition, the Wing-Back is described as follows:

“Usually playing out wide with no wing support, the Wing-Back must fulfil all the attacking and defensive duties of wingers and full-backs. In attack, he must be prepared to run at his man and put in aggressive crosses, in midfield to help win the possession battle and in defence to close down opponents, block crosses and win back the ball when possible.”

That’s quite a lot for one player to do. So, that means that if you’re going to use Wing-Backs, they’ve got to be vital members of your team but they’ll also need some protection from their teammates against the risk of opposition counter-attacks.

Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi has interchanged frequently between a 4-2-3-1 shape and a 5-4-1 this season. The corresponding duties you’d use your Wing-Backs on in FM24 very much depends on which formation you go for.

In the 4-2-3-1, Estupiñán is employed as a Wing-Back on Support. In this role, he will get forward a lot but will hold a slightly deeper position, closer to your central midfielders. Within this tactical approach, you’d be expecting Estupiñán to fashion goal-scoring opportunities from the half-spaces, whether that’s via through balls or deeper crosses.

With the benefit and cover of an additional Central Defender in the 5-4-1 shape, there’s more scope to use your Wing-Back on an Attack duty.

In this example, Barco comes into the side. His role will be to push further up the pitch and stay wide, overlapping the wide player on his side to help overload the opposition defence and create more direct crossing opportunities closer to the byline.

Using the individual player analysis tool, we can take a look at player heatmaps to analyse player movement, space occupied and interceptions made to give ourselves a true insight as to how each wing-back role works.

In the first graphic, we can see that Estupiñán playing as a Wing-Back on Support duty occupied slightly deeper and more central areas, cutting inside to join the midfield (blue heatmap) and making most of his interceptions (numbered circles) in his half or the centre of midfield.

Conversely, Barco as a Wing-Back on Attack spent far more time in the opposition half, still making interceptions in similar areas but hugging the touchline more often and getting further forward to offer a greater crossing threat. This shows us where we can expect each role to be more effective and also where we might expect to see gaps and spaces as a result of the defensive positioning and attacking movement of the Wing-Backs.

These are just a couple of examples of how you can use Wing-Backs in FM24 but they should be effective in helping you to decide how you use them and how to sign them.

The important thing to ask yourself when trying to decide which role to play is “What do you want from a wing-back”? This will allow you to make the best decisions and tactical tweaks to get the most from the role.


Happy Managing,

MaddFM