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. I have to say that trying to implement a Basque-only policy at Real Sociedad has been nothing if not challe ..read more

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 roll a Gegenpress Meta Tactic (ahem highest defensive line with highest line of engagement and maximum pressing on attackin ..read more

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 of the backstory then… The Story of Xabi Xabi Prieto – name that came to represent a noble, if somewhat antiquated (by current globalized standards of the game) concept. The idea of “one ..read more

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! Official Football Manager 24 TrailerRead more: FM24 Release Date Announced! The trailer doesn’t reveal a lot but we know that the graphic engine rebuild is still another year away. So I expect the UI and the Match Engine to be very similar to ..read more

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. Introduction The inspiration for this post came from my personal save, where I’ve taken SD Compostela from the fourth to the second division in Spain in two seasons. In that save, I faced a precarious situation at the end of the first season. Recently promoted, faci ..read more

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. Aston Villa Aston Villa are a historic club from Birmingham, England with a huge following. In recent years they have mainly been a mid-table side, with a dip a few years ago getting relegated to the Cha ..read more

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 One level team could very well work but probably not if you are in Vanarama North. Why Return to Brazil ..read more

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 off from the back. When used properly, the Shadow Striker can easily become the main source of goals for y ..read more

The term ‘regista’ is taken from the Italian word for ‘director’. The regista is quite literally the director of the football match – they retain their deep position and dictate their team’s play with their distribution. A regista likes to move forward up, sometimes even near the opponent box and to organize the buildup play — that’s why he’s called regista, Italian for regisseur, the one who conducts an opera. He needs to be a skilful player, and creative but also needs some cover, as he will move sometimes too high up the pitch and offer some pockets of space to the opponent. Regista Respons ..read more

In FM23, I’ve gone Semi-Pro. For the first time in my Content Creation days, my chosen club is a semi-professional side – Arendal Fotball in Norway’s Third Tier. Life here as a Lower League Manager is simple. We are a modestly financed club, our is a blend of professional and amateur players and we train twice a week to play a game at the weekend. While the ability to turn professional could become an opportunity that we take in the future, at the moment our situation is totally different to the experiences I have had in recent years and FM-editions. As such, I now play the game in a totally d ..read more