Scouting in Football Manager 2018 Made More Realistic – New FM18 Features & Improvements
Football Manager 2018’s release date is closing in and we’re in the middle of handing you all the new features and improvements in Football Manager 2018 to let you decide better if pre-ordering FM18 should be done or not. We earlier looked closer at the FM18 squad dynamics and social groups – a guide that explains the new dynamic feature of Football Manager 2018.
Today we would like examine the new improvements and changes to scouting in Football Manager 2018 – an area that has been made more realistic to relate to how finding real transfer targets and potential signings are being done in the real footballing world. The Football Manager 2018 scouting improvements and new features detailed below has been provided to you in written form from the latest feature video that dropped on the 10th of October 2017.
We will of course come back to you with more scouting guides as soon as the release of Football Manager 2018 has been made. For now, please enjoy the new changes and improvements to Football Manager 2018 scouting, as we dissect the feature video.
Football Manager 2018 Scouting Center – The Center of Player Search & Identify New Transfer Targets
The new scouting center will be the place to go for all things related to player search and increasing the pool of eligible players to scout. Here you will get recommendations about players worthy to sign from your current scouting team, which includes the data analyst, other backroom staff and even playing staff. Unattached players may even occasionally recommend themselves!
The recommendation will show a snapshot of what is currently known about the player in additional to knowledge level, star ratings of current and potential ability.
From the scouting center you can change the staff responsible for scouting, either you take care of it yourself or delegate the task to the director of football or chief scout.
New! Inbox Delivery Option
Recommendations will be delivered to your inbox at regular intervals, but more often within transfer windows, as your scouting team and others within your club gains more knowledge. How frequently you’d like to get these recommendations can be assessed through the drop down menu of the inbox delivery option.
New! Numbered Recommendation Rating
A new magnifying glass featuring a rating between 0 and 100 will display alongside the knowledge level. This looks to describe the scout recommendation score. It looks to provide a more precise verdict on how good the player is compared to the star ratings we have been accustomed to. The number rating will fluctuate as the scout gains more knowledge about the player.
New! Scouting Focus
The scouting focus gives you new control over the clubs overall scouting system without having to sign individual scouts. There are two types of scouting focus;
- The General Scouting Focus; instructs your scout to look for players you wish to build your squad with. This is more of a long term option when squad building or rebuilding matters – a constant focus for every club.
- Short Term; is more an option in or around transfer windows, but can become a valuable option whenever you need to quickly identify new transfer targets, such as in the case of injury crises or due to player sales. When selected, it will pause the general scouting focus as scouts will attend matches in order to find suitable targets. You can filter by position and role, player style or goalkeeper style, his ability or potential level and his availability in additional to setting a limited duration for the scouting focus.
By selecting a scouting focus you can select by age range, the style of player, or goalkeeper style that fits your tactics and playing system, players age range and availability. Scouts will then go out to look for players that fit the focus over an indefinite timeline.
The Player style can be technical, physical, intelligent, creative or leader. This means that you will be able to scout from a set of player attributes according to the player you require and position (area of the field) you want strengthen.
The Type of Goalkeeper
Availability looks for either all players, players you can sign now or typically. By setting the scouting focus to typically it means you will get recommendations of players that have interest singing for your club, who are priced fairly according to a typical budget for the size of the club. More about this later on.
New! Scouting Budget & Scouting Packages
A designated scouting budget looks to pay for scouting packages available for senior and youth players and any individual scouting trips outside your permitted scouting range. The scouting budget can be altered from the scouting center and is directly attached to the available transfer budget, meaning spending a lot of money on scouting will decrease the available budget you can sign players for and the amount of wages you can offer.
The scouting packages lets you extend the knowledge and the size of the database that fits your playing level. It looks to replicate the investments real clubs need to make to identify players to scout that can be seen as a realistic transfer options. Finding potential signings outside the league or competition the team plays in are essential for the introduction of scouting packages in FM18, as it’s more difficult than knowing about the top players of the world, which in most cases won’t fit your budget.
The scouting packages ranges from cheap plans that extends the knowledge of your current division to broaden the amount of eligible players through out the entire world.
If you are playing in the lower leagues, it will only be natural to scout the league you are in and below it as you may not be able to afford to send out scouts traveling the entire nation. If you’re playing at a higher level, you will be able to spend X amount of money deducted per month to broaden your scouting knowledge, for example by extending it throughout your own nation and region, or simply scout worldwide for either senior or youth players or both, if you can afford it.
It’s important to note that putting money into any of the senior packages will be of highly importance, as it reveals player role visibility of the players covered in that area. For the clubs with the most money, it means that you can get knowledge of all the players in the world quicker. These scouting packages will of course come in addition to the current staffs knowledge.
There are 6 available packages for both senior and youth (players under 21);
- World; let’s you scout the entire footballing world for every player in it. It’s the most expensive package.
- Continent; makes all players in for example Europe or South America eligible – depending on the continent you’re in.
- Region; covers players in for example UK & Ireland, South Europe, Western Africa and so on.
- Nation; covers all players from the nation you are managing in.
- Your League & it’s surroundings; means that you will be able to get knowledge of players in the current division plus the tier below.
- Your Division; is the lowest package available and the cheapest option. It covers only players from your division.
It’s important to note that there are some slight difference in the packages. The top packages lets you search for players best role, something that’s not available at the cheapest plans.
Other Improvements to Scouting Are:
- Scouts will now hand you a specific reason for why they are impressed or not by pinpointing an actual feature about his playing style.
- International scouting
- NEW! Shortlist Screens
- NEW! Scouting Assignments; scouting for eligible players, at individual matches or in continents
- Ability to scout outside your scouting range for a fee
Football Manager 2018 Data Analyst Improvements
A major overhaul to the data analyst has been made for Football Manager 2018 as it’s fair to say the role had no impact in FM17.
Now you can actually ask your data analyst to provide reports about specific players which gives you an easy way of looking at their stats for the season.
Reports from the data analyst provides you with positive and negative statistical trends so far from the current season. In additional you will get information about their season stats such as current form, average rating, distance covered and other key data.
Finally you can even watch highlight packages of the player in action. The analyst reports and the scout reports gives you a more complete picture of the player than what has ever been available in Football Manager, meaning without one or the other you won’t be able to understand if the player is right for your playing system or not.
One of the most eye-catching improvements are the new staff attributes dedicated to the role of data analysis, which will determine the quality of him. The new staff attributes for data analysts are;
- Judging Player Data
- Judging Team Data
- Presenting Data
These comes in additional to the staff attributes we’ve been accustomed to for scouting.
New! Investment Option on Data Analyst Facilities
For the first time you will also be able to make investment in the department of analyzing data. By improving the data analyst facilities you will be able to get more detailed reports being produced by the analysts.
Football Manager 2018 Player Search Screen Revamped
Improved is also the player search screen for Football Manager 2018. It functions like a database, providing you with a list of players that includes not only the clubs scouting knowledge but the scouting package you’ve selected. With the set amount of players within the database you can do a search by filtering after position and/or roles, age, scout recommendation number, transfer status, contract status, specific attributes or add specific conditions according to your needs and requirements.
An advanced search option is also available, something we will come back to in a specific guide.
Football Manager 2018 Opposition Scout Report Cards Revamped
An improved opposition scout report card for Football Manager 2018 will feature more precise and relevant information than what was present before. The new opposition report shows you not only the strength and weaknesses of the next opposition, but also their most likely starting line-up, featuring the role each player will be assigned under the formation that may be used.
Recommendations about the most likely match preparation to be selected will of course be featured.
