Football Manager 2022 training guide: How to develop your players and best schedules in FM22

Lloyd Coombes
Football Manager 2022 training guide

FM22 offers the chance to mold your squad how you see fit. Here’s how to get the most out of your team with our guide to training in Football Manager 2022.

Football Manager 2022 is here, with its huge database of players needing targeted training to be able to reach their full potential. Whether it’s your superstar striker getting extra time to improve finishing, or turning a right-back into a makeshift center half to cover for an injury, training schedules are crucial in FM22.

With more options in the game at your disposal than ever before, there’s a lot to learn, so let’s break down the types of training and what you should focus on when training in Football Manager 2022.


Contents


Football Manager 2022 training guide

Football Manager 2022 training screenshot
Good training makes a great player even better.

What does training do?

Training in Football Manager will influence player statistics, allowing younger players to improve, while also teaching older players some new tricks. It’ll help players increase their stats, within reason – your center half can practice shooting all he wants, but if he’s not as naturally gifted in that area as a striker then you’ll see diminishing returns.

While your assistant manager can take training, it’s best to go hands-on yourself. The AI is smart enough to handle the majority of training tasks, but your assistant won’t prepare your team sufficiently for matchday.

Types of training in Football Manager 2022

There are two main types of training in Football Manager: Individual and Team training.

Individual training is tailored to a specific player. This means it could allow for improving certain areas, but could also help a player move into a different position or role. Some training plans for positions focus on just a small set of attributes, while broader ones focus on more. Generally speaking, the broader the focus, the longer it’ll take to see improvements.

Team training applies to multiple players and can be focused on aspects of a match (set pieces, attacking, transitions, for example), and on tactical familiarity. The more familiar a team is with a manager’s tactics, the better they’ll tend to play on matchday.

Best coaches to hire

Football manager 2022 coaching screen screenshot
Managers will need to hire the best coaching staff.

The better your coaches, the more effective your training methods will be. Teams will set limits on the number of backroom staff that can be hired, with a variety of roles including defending, attacking, and goalkeeping coaches.

Here are some of our favorites so far:

Name Current Club Role
Flavio Tenius Botafogo Goalkeeping Coach
Adriano Bonaiuti Inter Goalkeeping Coach
Holger Broich FC Bayern Fitness Coach
Mario Monteiro SLB Fitness Coach
Rodolfo Borrell Man City Attacking Coach
Kevin Ball Sunderland Attacking Coach
Giuseppe Baresi Inter Defending Coach
Mario Cecchi Inter Defending Coach
Loris Beoni Free Agent Possession Coach

Best training schedules

Following our time with Football Manager 2022, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what training schedules tend to work best. The key thing to remember is that training schedules will change based on the number of matches you have in a given week. So if you’re playing at the weekend and in midweek, your core schedule will differ to if you’re only playing on Saturday or Sunday.

Our best setup so far is as follows for single-match weeks, but you’ll need to tweak it as you see fit. For example, if you’re an away side with a physical team, you may want to put more of an onus on attacking set-pieces knowing you’ll see less of the ball. Also, consider adding Penalties as a session if you’ve got a big cup game coming up.

Day S1 S2 S3
Monday Outfield (Team) Att. Shadow Play (Units) Def. Shadow Play (Units)
Tuesday Attacking Wings (Units) Transition – Restrict (Units) Team Bonding (Team)
Wednesday Transition – Press (Units) Chance Conversion (Units) Defending Engaged (Units)
Thursday Match Tactics (Team) Chance Conversion (Units) Att. Corners (Team)
Friday  Match Tactics (Team) Set Piece Delivery Match Preview (Team)
Saturday Rest Match Rest
Sunday Match Review (Team) Recovery (Team) Rest

 

For two-match weeks, things are a little different, with an increased focus on rest days.

Day S1 S2 S3
Monday Teamwork Recovery Rest
Tuesday Outfield (Team) Att. Shadow Play (Units) Match Preview
Wednesday Rest Match Rest
Thursday Transition – Press (Units) Chance Conversion (Units) Defending Engaged (Units)
Friday  Att. Movement (Units) Chance Conversion (Units) Att. Corners (Team)
Saturday Match Tactics (Team) Set Piece Delivery Match Preview (Team)
Sunday Rest Match Rest

 


That’s all we have so far on training in Football Manager 2022. For more on the game, be sure to check our other guide content at Dexerto.

Is Football Manager 2022 on Game Pass? |Biggest transfer budgets | Where is Football Manager 2022 Touch for iPad? | Best wonderkids | Best free signings | Tactics guide | Scouting guide

About The Author

Lloyd was formerly Dexerto's Games Editor. He can regularly be found playing Destiny 2 or any game that involves shiny loot.