5 handy FM24 hacks you might not know about

Football Manager is a game of margins, and especially in the most competitive leagues, you’ll want to have every advantage you can get over your opponents. Luckily, as a human, there are a few sneaky tricks you can employ to get one over on your digital rivals. These range from powerful tactics and using glitches to simply making extra use of a few oft-forgotten features.

We’ve put together a list of five helpful hacks you can use to get the edge in FM24. If you’ve been playing the game for years, then you’ll probably already be familiar with a couple of these, but hopefully there’s something in here you might not know about.

Abuse set pieces

If you aren’t making the most of corners in FM24, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot. A good corner routine can have your centre-back as one of your top scorers and will essentially gift you free goals all season long. There are a few great corner tactics going around, but the one I’ve been using has seen my pretty average CB score 34 goals in 125 appearances – a better rate than some of my strikers. You can view it above, but here’s how to set it up:

• Aerial Threats:
  • A1 – Attack Near Post
  • A2 – Attack Far Post
  • A3 – Attack Far Post
• Box Threats:
  • B1 – Lurk at Far Post
• Creators:
  • C1 – Lurk Outside Area (Far Side)
  • C2 – Lurk Outside Area (Centre)
• Recovery Defenders:
  • D1 – Stay Back
  • D2 – Stay Back
  • D3 – Stay Back If Needed

With this setup, your players will draw opposing defenders away from your top aerial threat who will be able to get onto plenty of crosses to the near post. Of course, the taller and more physical your CB is and the better at crossing your corner taker is, the more goals you’ll score, but even with lower-level players, you’ll still get a decent number of goals with this tactic.

Never have to sell a player

It’s almost inevitable in FM that one day, big clubs are going to circle around your star players and try to unsettle them. This puts you in the position of either upsetting them by not accepting the offers, or losing your best players. Well, if you’re willing to use some underhanded tactics, there’s a way you can avoid having to sell these players while still not upsetting them too much. 

When a player asks to leave, promise to sell them if you receive any bids over a specific value, say £20 million. Next, open up the player page, select the ‘Transfer’ tab at the top of your screen and select ‘Transfer Status’. From here, you can manually lower your asking price to something like £1 million. Because of how the AI works in FM24, clubs will bid far lower than the asking price you agreed to sell the player for, meaning you can happily turn down any and all offers without your player getting annoyed at you for doing so.

Praise conduct

When your players are unhappy, they lose games, placing you in a downward spiral that it can often seem tough to escape. The key to this is talking to your players by praising or criticising their training and match performances, but there’s one trick that you can use at any time to get a quick boost to morale, and you can use it on every single player – praising their conduct. Regardless of how they’ve played or trained, you can praise the conduct of any player and you’ll get a free and easy boost to morale. Keep this up regularly with all your players and soon you’ll start turning the happiness of your entire squad around.

Constantly schedule friendlies

For most of us, friendlies are just an annoying barrier between us and the beginning of a new season, and one that we’ll typically palm off to the assistant manager. But just because you aren’t managing them yourself, doesn’t mean they can’t be incredibly important. Match fitness can play a big role in how your team starts the season, so I like to schedule in two friendlies every week before the season begins to ensure the entire team hits the ground running. 

Not only does it help with match fitness, but it can be an easy way to boost team morale as well. Hammering a few lower-league teams 8-0 every game for a month can make your team very happy indeed, and a happy, match-fit squad is the key to a successful start to the season, and can even be done during international breaks for a quick boost. This is even more important if you’re managing a squad in financial trouble, as the thousands of pounds of revenue these friendlies can provide could be what you need to get a couple of new signings down the line.

Rebind continue

This one isn’t so much a tip to help you win more matches, but a very nice quality of life update. By default, you can move the game forward by pressing the space bar or clicking ‘Continue’ in the top right corner. Well, you can rebind this to any button you want, including those on your mouse. Open up ‘Preferences’, select the ‘Most Common’ tab, and then ‘Shortcuts’. Right at the top, click on ‘Game – Continue’ and you can bind this to something like your mouse wheel so that you can control the entire game with only your mouse. Nothing groundbreaking, but boy is it handy. 

About the Author

Alex Raisbeck

Alex is a Guides Writer for VideoGamer. He is an indie gaming obsessive with a soft spot for Zelda, roguelikes, and Football Manager, as well as an unhealthy relationship with his backlog.

Football Manager 2024

• Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox Series X
• Genre(s): Management, Soccer, Sports

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