Football Manager 2024’s Best Formation Has Been Discovered – And It’s Not Even Close

Every year, the Football Manager ‘meta’ evolves, and with Football Manager 25 cancelled, we have another year of the FM24 meta continuing to dominate. Most editions see the usual suspects—4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1—dominating the tactical landscape. Occasionally, however, a rogue formation rises to power and takes the game by storm.

I still remember the Football Manager era when playing with three strikers was nothing short of a cheat code. It didn’t even matter if your team was merely half-competent—if you had three strikers, you were practically guaranteed victory. Tactics? Who needs them when your formation alone wins games?

Well, Football Manager 2024 has brought us another tactical juggernaut. One formation reigns supreme, and it’s not even up for debate. And before you accuse me of making wild claims, I’m not just going off personal experience here. There’s an actual website dedicated to testing tactics and crunching the numbers.

So, let’s take a look at the data and see what’s making managers around the world question everything they thought they knew about FM.

What is This Tactics Testing Place?

Enter FM Arena, the holy grail of Football Manager tactics testing. If you’re the type of manager who enjoys watching tactical breakdowns and deep dives into statistics, this website is a goldmine.

FM Arena doesn’t just test tactics in a handful of matches and call it a day. They simulate an absurd number of games. To put it into perspective, just for one patch, they’ve simulated over 6 million matches. Across Football Manager 2024 as a whole, the total simulation count exceeds 13 million games.

That’s a level of data that makes my personal FM save look like a single kick-a-bout in the park. And just to hammer the point home, the current best tactic on their leaderboard has been tested in 9,600 matches—which is more than most FM players will ever play in a single save. With a sample size that big, if FM Arena says a tactic is dominant, you can be pretty damn sure it’s the real deal.

The Undisputed King of Formations in FM24

So, what’s the ultimate formation in Football Manager 2024?

I filtered the FM Arena rankings by ‘most points’ to see what tactics consistently deliver the best results. The answer became immediately clear: 4-2-4.

Not just once or twice. Every single top tactic—without exception—was some variation of 4-2-4. Some versions push both wingers high, while others slightly drop one of them deeper. But the core idea remains the same: two strikers, two wide players, and relentless attacking football. It’s not just a strong formation. It’s the formation.

4-2-4 Has Been Strong for a While—But Now It’s Overpowered

This isn’t the first time 4-2-4 has been a viable option in Football Manager. If you take a trip down memory lane and check out the best tactics from FM23, you’ll find that 4-2-4 was already a top-tier setup.

However, back then, there was at least some competition. Other formations, like 4-1-2-1-2, could hold their own and give managers multiple ways to dominate. But in Football Manager 2024, it’s not even close.

The gap between 4-2-4 and every other formation is huge. If you want to maximize your team’s potential and crush the opposition, this is the way to go.

My Personal Experience With 4-2-4

Of course, stats and simulations are great, but nothing beats personal experience. So, how does 4-2-4 actually feel when you use it in a real save?

Well, in my Pentagon Challenge, I decided to give it a go—and it was ridiculous. I steamrolled through the South African league and won the Champions League without breaking a sweat. My team wasn’t even the best in the competition, but with 4-2-4, it felt like I was playing on easy mode.

It was so dominant that I actually had to switch formations the next season just to make things more challenging. If a tactic is so strong that it makes Football Manager feel too easy, you know something’s up.

Final Thoughts – What Do You Think?

So, have you tried 4-2-4 in Football Manager 2024? Do you agree that it’s the best formation, or have you found another setup that’s equally overpowered?

Let me know in the comments—I’d love to hear if anyone has found a way to break the meta.