Someone got so tired of their assistant manager they made their own one

If there’s one thing the Football Manager community can all agree on, it’s the hopelessness of assistant managers. Whether it’s them reminding you every three seconds that you’re “being overrun in midfield” when you’re playing a 4-1-2-1-2, or suggesting you put your right back up front for a laugh, they never seem to get it right. Even in press conferences, they churn out lines no sane human would say: “Yes, our League Two striker was so good tonight, I wouldn’t swap him for Kylian Mbappé.” The only real use for them is handling the mundane jobs you can’t be bothered with… and even then, they do it badly.

But from this frustration comes something genuinely interesting. One Football Manager player got so tired of his incompetent virtual assistant that he decided to build his own. A proper one.

Let’s take a look.

What is it?

The project is a website designed to analyse your Football Manager tactics and give you feedback that actually makes sense. You upload a screenshot of your tactic screen, and within seconds it highlights the strengths, weaknesses, and potential improvements in your setup.

The idea is simple: take the vague and often baffling comments from the in-game assistant and replace them with analysis that tells you what’s happening and why.

And there’s an extra twist. Once you’ve got the initial analysis, you can ask it questions. Wondering why your defensive midfielder keeps wandering off? Curious whether that asymmetric shape you’ve cooked up is genius or madness? It’s designed to give you a proper explanation rather than another “try a different formation” shrug.

How it works

Using the tool is straightforward:

• Take a screenshot of your tactics screen in Football Manager
• Upload it to the site or paste it directly from your clipboard
• Receive feedback showing strengths, weaknesses, and oddities in your tactic
• Ask follow-up questions to tweak and improve things further

It’s built to handle any tactical approach, whether you’re a die-hard gegenpresser or the proud owner of the world’s slowest low block.

What it covers

The site lists several key areas it analyses:

• Formation Analysis – How your players interact, where you might be leaving gaps, and whether you’re creating useful overloads
• Player Role Optimisation – Making sure roles complement each other instead of clashing
• Team Instructions Advice – Breaking down what different settings actually do in practice
• Tactical Flexibility – Suggesting when you might want to adjust things mid-game rather than hoping for the best

It’s essentially a breakdown of what your tactic is doing, explained in a way that lets you decide what to change rather than just telling you to change it.

Extra touches

The tool also includes a section showing players recently reviewed using the system, with details like position, age, club, and nationality. In the examples posted online, names like Arda Güler and Christian Cipriani appear, adding a bit of a Football Manager scouting feel alongside the tactical side of things.

Why it matters

Assistant managers in Football Manager have been a running joke for years. They repeat the same advice, miss obvious problems, and sometimes seem to be watching a different game entirely.

This project feels like a response to that frustration. It isn’t about spoon-feeding tactics or guaranteeing wins, but about giving players clearer explanations so they can actually learn what’s happening under the hood.

For newcomers, that means understanding the basics of roles, instructions, and shapes. For veterans, it’s a chance to experiment with unusual setups and see what the numbers say before risking humiliation in the Champions League final.

Final thoughts

Football Manager has always been a game of detail, but the assistant manager role has lagged behind. This fan-made tool hints at what a genuinely useful number two might look like – one who explains, analyses, and helps you learn, rather than repeating the same one-liners every match.

Whether Sports Interactive ever adds something like this to the official game is another question. But for now, it shows how creative the Football Manager community can be when the game itself leaves gaps to fill.