Let’s be real, noot all clubs we manage on Football Manager has the luxury of signing wonderkids, or even the resources to scout for wonderkids across the world. Sometimes you’re in the lower divisions and you just want to find players that can improve your squad. In your search for players, there are several ways to find players that will become a good addition to the squad. Today, I will reveal my 5 most effective methods to find good squad players to improve your squad, as I give you some of my best FM24 scouting tips!
With these FM24 scouting tips at hand, you can easily boost your lower league team with some key players that will help your team in the hunt for promotions as you go about searching for players for the first team.
Without further ado, lets take a look at some of my best Football Manager 2024 scouting methods to improve your squad.
How to find the Squad’s Abilities: Attribute Comparison
Before we dive into these methods, it helps to find out what your league average for player attributes are in a specific position. For example, if you need a striker with good Finishing or Heading attribute, you want to find out what the average finishing attribute is for the league among strikers.
Let’s assume a value of 12 for Finishing for a decent Lower League striker. We’ll go into the market using the 5 Methods we’ll discuss, to find a player that has Finishing 12+ or better. I suggest aiming higher to beat the league average.
For a tall striker, you’ll want to check the jumping reach, and heading attributes of the defenders in that division. Then, find a striker that is slightly taller or has better jumping reach. That’s the logic of my we can find the better players for our team without looking for wonderkids.
Table of Contents
READ MORE | The Ultimate Guide to Scouting on Football Manager
5 Quick Methods to Scout for Players in the Lower Leagues
1. Using the FM24 Loan Market:
It helps to know that as mid-table or lower league team you can benefit from Loans and acquire players without spending too much money. Or if you see a player you like but you currently can’t afford, it helps to bring him in on loan and pay an optional future fee later. Check clubs in the divisions above you to find loan players and apply the league attribute average filter to make sure they are better than your league average.
2. FM24 Player Search:
This is self-explanatory. Here you manually search for players that may or may not be on the Loan List, using the attribute filter. Sort out the player valuation and make sure you’re not overpaying, and you can sign the player.
3. Free Agents:
These a players that are out of contract, or players currently approaching the end of their contract. You can use the search filter in FM24 to find players whose contracts are expired or expiring in 6 months and keep an eye on them so you can sign them for free. Remember, you always have to apply the league average attribute filter so you make sure the player is good enough. If you’re a slightly bigger club, you can shortlist players with 1 year left on their contract and unsettle them with transfer enquiry and interests to lure them to your club.
4. Senior Affiliate Club:
This is a powerful financial opportunity for lower league clubs as well as an opportunity to bolster weak areas at the club. If you don’t have an affiliate club, you can ask your board to recommend a few teams. If they accept, go ahead to search your senior affiliate club for players you can sign on loan. With affiliate clubs, you may not have to pay any percentage of the player’s salary.
5. Director of Football: Suggest Transfer Targets
Taking advantages of the Director of football’s scouting knowledge is another often overlooked method to find transfer targets on FM24, but it’s highly beneficial for lower league teams or teams operating on a budget. Your Director of Football can recommend signings for you that will fit into the squad fairly easily. To make a request, go over to the transfer tab, and check the top left corner for the DOF’s Office and ask him to suggest signings in specific positions and player roles.
When clicking the “Suggest Transfer Targets” you can quickly ask your Director of Football to recommend players available on sign either via Transfers or Loans and by players available on a Free Transfer or End of contract. He will then come up with a list of players which can later on be found under the tab: Director of football < Transfer Targets List.
BONUS TIP:
To me, this is by far one of my favorites. Another way you can sign players that improves your squad is by checking the player stats page of your league or the league below. This will show you players that are currently performing well and you can sign them fairly easily if you’re in the division above, or you got the financial muscles and reputation.
I hope these five FM24 scouting tips do help you to improve your squad! For more tips and tricks about scouting on Football Manager check out our repository of scouting guides.
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