La Cantera, literally means “the quarry” in Spanish, and it’s a term used in Spain to refer to youth academies and farm teams organized by sports clubs, specifically football clubs. It is also used to refer to the geographical area that clubs recruit players from. I find it’s a perfect term to apply to the process of “unearthing” some young gems of talent in FM24. And if that’s the case then I feel like at Real Sociedad I have hit upon a gold mine.
The following is a guide written using examples from FM24 on a topic that I wrote about many times before. In other articles from FM21, FM22 and FM23 where I was trying to answer an age-old question – Can defensively-responsible, low-to-mid intensity football be successful in Football Manager? I said YES to that question many times before and given my limited experience (one season under the belt so far) with FM24, my answer remains unchanged. You definitely don’t need to…
First day on the job at La Real! Over the years of managing them in FM, I have amassed quite a bit of knowledge about Real Sociedad’s players. And the following article is meant to share some of this knowledge, especially how it applies to their current 1st team in FM24. Hopefully it will act as a good starting point for those of you, who like me, intend to make San Sebastian your home away from home in this iteration…
Originally, I intended this to be a simple and short FM save reveal. But as things tend to happen it grew to be far bigger than intended when I set out to type it. You include a bit of contextual backstory to add flavour to the blog and before you know it you are writing backstory to the backstory. And the simple fluff piece became an introduction to a passion project. So bear with me, I’ll just provide a bit…
Sports Interactive have just announced the release date for FM24 which will be November 6, 2023. We can only assume the beta period will begin two weeks prior on October 23. Fingers crossed! Let’s have a look at what’s been announced and the features roadmap found on the Football Manager Twitter. Follow Dictate the Game on Twitter for the latest updates! The trailer doesn’t reveal a lot but we know that the graphic engine rebuild is still another year away….
In my last post for Dictate the Game, I outlined my approach to analyzing a squad and determining a tactical style to suit their strengths. That post was about working with what you’ve got, without needlessly signing new players. This time, in an almost one-hundred-and-eighty degree twist, I’ll be discussing how to rebuild a squad.
In our FM journeys there comes a time when we look for a little inspiration and to try something new that we haven’t done before. We’ve had other articles on obscure challenges, but looking back at the history of European Football, we can find clubs that were once dominant forces in the game. We dub them the Fallen Giants. You could apply this to any continent but today I will focus on Europe.
So I’m doing a little update on my Brazilian-style 4-2-3-1. It is mainly my attempt to adapt the original 1970 Brazil Tactic, “the most beautiful football in history” to mid-tier and lower league teams in Football Manager 2023. Or in case of the example in this article, good teams from less prestigious leagues (Portugal). For the Brazilian brand of attractive, free-flowing attacking football to work, you will still need to have suitably technical players. So an English Championship or League…
In many ways, the modern game of football has become a complex game of deception and tactical feints. A shadow striker is an attacking player who occupies the central attacking midfielder’s position (AMC) in Football manager, but rather than primarily acting as the playmaker for the team, mainly focuses on scoring goals. Out of possession, the Shadow Striker presses the opposition defenders in an effort to win the ball back as quickly as possible while limiting their ability to play…
I’ve gone Semi-Pro. I’ve taken everything I’ve learned in all my time at the top in FM, and now I’m in the wilds of Norway where my left-back is also my boss. How life has changed?