Football Manager Staff Responsibilities & Backroom Advices Explained

Football Manager Staff responsibilities and backroom advices explained

A Football Manager Guide to the Football Manager Staff Responsibilities & Backroom Advices

Since I decided to blog about Football Manager some years back and share of my 20 years plus of FM experience I wanted to emphasize the importance of looking at the game in overall. As I see it, everything is related to another in football and especially Football Manager. You can not overlook one area of the game without putting a big dent on your ambitions to take your club to success.

The backroom staff of Football Manager is one of these areas of importance. I look at the coaching team and the clubs backroom staff as the blood running through the veins of the body. A body where the heart can be compared to training since it can be described as the main engine, while scouting can be compared to the lungs and the bodies breathing system. Before I take the comparison too far, I think you all understand what I’m trying to say. Without a 5-star coaching team and the best Football Manager coaches as possible, training won’t be as effective, players won’t develop at a preferable rate, they won’t get accustomed to the required player preferred moves*, player roles and duties that quickly (*individual capabilities and willingness is also present), and last but not least make your job as the manager more time consuming since you have to keep focus and partially control of all areas of the running of the club: from for example scouting to dealing with the transfer market.

Sections of This Guide

The backroom staff of Football Manager is there to both ease your job and make your ideas about how to play good football come through to the players. To get the most out of every backroom staff in Football Manager it’s important to take benefit of the backroom staff responsibilities and assign the right staff to their right focusing area and responsibility, and finally consider their advices – for example about the match tactic against your next opponent, about how to improve training performances or get worthy tips and information about each players ability level, the current level of team blend and squad happiness, and how to improve / maintain high levels of it, or other worthy feedback about your players so you can succeed with player and squad management.

Here I like to walk you through the Football Manager staff responsibilities and backroom advice screen to help you on your way to become a more successful manager within the game, before I take a closer look at the different Football Manager staff roles and their staff responsibilities in some additional articles.

About the Different Football Manager Backroom Staff Roles

Before we delve further into the different backroom staff responsibilities and focusing on the backroom advices and feedbacks it’s important to know what different types of Football Manager backroom staff roles that exists and what their main job will be.

The Assistant Manager can be considered as your right hand and requires the same abilities and high level of club and player knowledge as the main manager. The assistant manager have many of the same responsibilities available as yourself and can be in charge of selecting the starting line-up for the next match or help you with the team selection for some open positions, handling team talks, press conferences and tunnel interviews, manage the team in friendlies (or when you are on holiday), run the general training and/or set opposition instructions to counter specific strength and weaknesses of the opposing team. His main duties is mostly related to on-pitch or match related circumstances – what can be summed up as general day-by-day coaching assignments. Read more about the Assistant Managers staff role and responsibilities here.
- For me, his main duty will be to provide additional tactical feedback during the matches as well as providing information about team blend and squad depth. He can be considered as an extension of yourself and could be regarded as the second manager, a person that needs to be trusted in all club affairs related to squad management and tactical feedback.
The General coaches (hereby meaning goalkeeper -, fitness -, defending -, attacking -, ball control -, shooting – and tactical coaches) will be responsible for player development and match preparations through team training, individual player development and improving the level of tactical understanding about your formation and playing style to your players. The general coaches description used here relates to reserves and youth coaches too, where the only difference will be an higher level of “Working with Youngsters” required since they will spend all their time working on the training field with those at the Reserves or Under-18 squad.
The Head of Youth Development works with the youth coaches or on his own to recruit new youth talents (newgens) to your ‘hidden’ football academy (for those under 15 years old) and will provide important feedback about the development of your existing youth talents (part of the Under-19 / Under-18 / Under-17 squad). He will substantially influence the level of the players from the annual youth intake and will be an important figure (role model) for the youngsters ability to reach their next level of football because he can be part of the daily training program – motivating and supervising the youngsters about what’s required to become professional football players, earn a professional contract or get a chance in the reserves or first team squad. Similar to the general coaches and the assistant manager his personality and preferred formation will have an important impact on the output of newgen personalities and abilities and secondly which positions you get players for. He can be regarded as a role model for the new youth entering your club. Read more about the Head of Youth Development staff role and responsibilities here.
The Director of Football or the Sporting Director will be responsible for other sporting affairs unrelated to the day by day coaching which I summed up as player development, matches and squad management. His main duties will be in-going and out-going transfers, player contracts and/or secondly scouting. The responsibilities of the director of football will be to act as the main link between you and the board by having the board directors interests (specific club philosophies and ambitions) at heart in all matters and dealings. Here lays the importance of offloading unwanted players, extend contracts, negotiate on your behalf with agents and potential transfer targets or sign players who can improve the current squad giving you more time to focus on on-pitch performance rather than spending hours scouring for the next club legend. Read more about the Director of Football’s staff role and responsibilities here.
The Chief Scout will be your eyes and ears to the footballing world outside the clubs stadium and offices. He can notify you about recommended players, handing you the scout reports from the other scouts who are traveling regions, specific divisions or other countries. You can consider him as the main link between the man in charge of transfer incomes and the scouts who sweeps away the fog of war – increasing the scouting pool which finally enables you to find more talents and generally improves the level of scouting knowledge. Read more about how to find the best Football Manager scouts.
The Head Physio and the other physios will spend their focus on players injury recovery and getting players back to an overall high physical condition after injury setbacks and jadedness. The level of the medical team will practically determine how fast players will recover from their injuries and how accurate the medical team can determine type of injury. Their presence at matches will be of out most importance using their medical knowledge to take care of knocks and bruises or other match related injuries that can happen and which needs attention from a physio to ensure they can continue to play throughout the match.

READ MORE | A Football Manager Guide To Utilizing Your Scouting Network | The Start of a Scouting Program

Examining the Setup of The Football Manager Staff Responsibilities For The Overall Club

While I will take a closer look on the different responsibilities related to the specific Football Manager staff roles in there own articles I will provide you a summary of which responsibilities that are available for the different staff roles and finally give you the key attributes needed for the role in charge to successfully be responsible for the specific event.

It’s important to note that some coaching tendencies may increase or decrease the likeliness of firing / hiring specific staff or attend his responsible in a specific manner which may or may not negatively affect the overall club philosophy. It’s important, if selecting a backroom staff with a view-able profile, to select one with appropriate tendencies according to your club philosophy, the football philosophy and playing style you are trying to incorporate.

Hopefully this table of key attributes and available staff roles for the different types of staff responsibilities will make it easier to decide if you would need a director of football or not, or if one backroom staff can have dual responsibilities. For minor clubs with limited backroom staff budget and wages, some staff would need to be responsible for two or more areas, unless you aren’t a hands on manager who wants full control of both transfers, setting scouting assignments, manage the coaching team as well as being presence on press conferences and on meeting with agents about renewal of contracts or similar matters.

Note! There are 3 out of 4 areas related to the board which I won’t mention due to the inability to set an other staff member outside one of the chairmen and the club owner.

Preferred staff is marked in blue colour.

Area	Area Description	Staff Available	Key Attribute(s) Required
Board	Hires / fires Director of Football	Human Manager** Chairman Director(s)	Key: None Specific Secondary: Excellent Knowledge of the clubs Football Philosophy. High Level of Reputation
Staff Recruitment
	Hires / Fires Head of Youth Development	Human Manager** Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific Secondary: Excellent Knowledge about the clubs Football Philosophy High Level of Reputation
	Hires / Fires Chief Scout	Human Manager** Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific* Secondary: Excellent Knowledge about the clubs Football Philosophy High Level of Reputation
	Hires / Fires First Team Assistant Manager	Human Manager** Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific* Secondary: Excellent Knowledge about Club Philosophy High Level of Reputation
	Hires / Fires Coaching Staff (General coaches)	Human Manager** Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific* Secondary: Excellent Knowledge about Club Philosophy High Level of Reputation
	Hires / Fires Non-Coaching Staff (Physios, Scouts)	Human Manager** Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific* Secondary: High Level of Reputation
Transfer (Incoming)
	Finds & makes offers for players in your First Team	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Judging Player Ability Secondary: Judging Player Potential Good Scouting Knowledge High Level of Reputation Buying Players (Hidden Non Tactical Attribute) Preferred Formation Similar to Your Own Excellent Knowledge of Player Recruitment
	Finds & makes offers for young players for the future	Human Manager Director of Football Under-18 Manager Assistant Manager Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Judging Player Potential Secondary: Judging Player Ability Good Scouting Knowledge High Level of Reputation Preferred Formation Similar to Your Own Excellent Knowledge of Player Recruitment
	Handles new signing contract negotiations for players in your First Team	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation* Secondary: High Level of Reputation Business (Hidden)
	Handles new signing contract negotiations for players in your Youth Team	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation* Secondary: High Level of Reputation Business (Hidden)
	Finalises First Team Signings	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation, Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary:* Excellent Knowledge of Clubs Players High Level of Reputation Business (Hidden)
	Finalises signings for young players of the future	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation, Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary:* Excellent Knowledge of Clubs Players High Level of Reputation Business (Hidden)
Transfer (Outgoing)
	Handles / Finalises incoming offers for players in the First Team	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation, Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary:* Excellent Knowledge of Clubs Players High Level of Reputation Business (Hidden)
	Handles / Finalises incoming offers for players in the Youth Team	Human Manager Director of Football Under-18 Manager Assistant Manager Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation, Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary:* Excellent Knowledge of Clubs Players High Level of Reputation Business (Hidden)
	Offers First Team Players you’ve listed for transfer or loan to other clubs	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation, Business (Hidden) Secondary:* High Level of Reputation
	Offers Youth Players you’ve listed for transfer or loan to other clubs	Human Manager Director of Football Under-18 Manager Assistant Manager Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Motivation, Business (Hidden) Secondary:* High Level of Reputation
Contract Renewals
	Decides which First Team players’ contracts to extend and handles negotiations	Human Manager Director of Football Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Judging Player Ability Secondary: Judging Player Potential Excellent knowledge of players at the club (Backroom Advice bar) High Level of Reputation Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management Motivation*
	Decides which Youth Team players’ contracts to extend and handles negotiations	Human Manager Director of Football Under-18 Manager Assistant Manager Chairmen Director(s)	Key: Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary: Excellent knowledge of players at the club (Backroom Advice bar) High Level of Reputation Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management Motivation*
	Decides if Director of Football should be given a new contract and handles negotiations	Human Manager Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific Secondary: Excellent knowledge of Clubs Football Philosophy High Level of Reputation
	Decides if all other staff should be given a new contract and handles negotiations	Human Manager Chairmen Director(s)	Key: None Specific Secondary: Excellent knowledge of Clubs Football Philosophy Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management High Level of Reputation
Scouting
	Sets assignments for the scouting team	Human Manager Chief Scout Director of Football	Key: Man Management
	Updates you on the players your scouts have found	Chief Scout Director of Football	Key: None Specific Secondary: Level of Discipline
Training
	Runs general training for senior squads	Human Manager Assistant Manager	Key: Man Management & Motivation Secondary: Coaching Style similar to Your Playing Style or preferred general team training focus Excellent Knowledge about the Training of the Club Positive Personality Level of Discipline
	Runs general training for youth squads	Human Manager Under-18 Manager Assistant Manager	Key: Man Management & Motivation Secondary: Coaching Style similar to Your Playing Style or preferred general team training focus Highest level of Working With Youngsters Excellent Knowledge about the Training of the Club Positive Personality Level of Discipline
	Sets up individual training for senior players	Human Manager Assistant Manager	Key: Judging Player Ability, Man Management & Tactical Knowledge Secondary: Excellent Knowledge of Man Management (Backroom Advice Bar)
	Sets up individual training for youth players	Human Manager Under-18 Manager Assistant Manager	Key: Judging Player Ability, Man Management & Tactical Knowledge Secondary: Excellent Knowledge of Man Management (Backroom Advice Bar) Working with the Youngsters A Coaching Style similar to Your Playing Style
	Runs Match Training For First Team	Human Manager Assistant Manager	Key: Tactical Knowledge & Motivation Secondary: Level of Discipline
	Runs Match Training For U21 / Reserve Team	Human Manager Assistant Manager Under-21 Manager Under-21 Assistant Manager	Key: Tactical Knowledge & Motivation Secondary: Level of Discipline & Working With Youngsters
	Runs Match Training For U19 / U18 Team	Human Manager Assistant Manager Under-21 Manager Under-18 Manager Under-21 Assistant Manager	Key: Tactical Knowledge & Motivation Secondary: Level of Discipline & Working With Youngsters
Youth Development	Brings youth players into the club and informs you of their development	Head of Youth Development Director of Football Under-18 Manager	Key: Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary: Working With Youngsters Positive Personality (Professional, Ambitious, Determined, Driven and so on) A Tactical Preference (Preferred Formation, Playing Style, Pressing Style and Playing Mentality) which fits the overall tactical philosophy you have set with your created tactic. Excellent Knowledge of Player Recruitment High Level of Reputation

*In my point of view there are no obvious attributes (hidden or displayed) which proves that one director or chairmen, or a director of football besides the attribute ‘Motivation’ is better suited than another – proven by the ineligibility to see staff profile of directors and chairmen. As I see it, the staff attribute Motivation determines how well he convinces people to sign a (new) contract, terminate their contract or looks to get out on loan apart from individual preferences. When it comes to training motivation would mean how well the coach are able to boost their morale for the next match or in accordance with his developing progress.

**Ineligibility to see the staff profile of the chairman and any of the director(s) makes it recommended to select Yourself (Human Manager) as responsible. This to ensure you have control of whom Director of Football that is appointed, or when he’s fired – in order to not loose a director of football which has all the requirements to do a great job according to the current football philosophy and his level of reputation to attract better players to your club.

Specific Staff Responsibilities for First Team

In additional to the backroom staff responsibilities provided above there exists an opportunity to select a member of the coaching staff to handle press conferences, opposition instructions and advices about player search and coach report. Below I will give you a description of the different staff responsibilities that are unique for the first team and let you know which staff I recommend you to select and most importantly why.

Handles Team Talk

Team talks can be a great way to give your squad a morale boost before match kick-off as well as ensure players don’t loose concentration or gets carried away by being too aggressive for example. The person in charge must be present on matches and carefully study players body language as well as knowing what may trigger an improved performance in the first or second half, either it’s to ensure players are disciplined, gets more creative or simply enjoys the moment.

Team talks will be given by the staff responsible pre-match, at half time and pro-match. Team talks must not be confused with touchline team talks, which is active for the human manager throughout the match, no matter who you have selected as responsible for handling team talks.

Available Staff to Handle Team Talks:

Human Manager
Assistant Manager
Every General Coaches (Goalkeeper & Fitness coaches included)
Head of Youth Development

Required Attributes and personal skills to handle team talks successfully:

Motivation
Man Management
Knowledge of Clubs Players (and their personalities)

Handles Opposition Instructions

Countering opposition strengths and weaknesses is one important part of succeeding with your match tactic and increase your chance of a win. Opposition instructions is one part of emulating specific opposition weaknesses and counter specific strengths.

Opposition instructions are normally set pre-match but can be beneficial to be altered during the match, either because of substitutions, poor match condition and low match sharpness, a minor injury or a player exploiting an area of the field to such a degree you have to emulate him.

It’s important that the person responsible for handling opposition instructions can be accurate when setting these tactical instructions.

Available Staff to Handle Opposition Instructions:

Human Manager
Assistant Manager
Every General Coaches (Goalkeeper & Fitness coaches included)
Head of Youth Development

Required Attributes and personal skills to handle opposition instructions successfully:

Tactical Knowledge
Judging Player Ability
(Scouting) Knowledge of the players of the opposition team (and their strength and weaknesses)
Excellent knowledge of tactical suggestions on upcoming matches and notice trends from previous matches
A preferred coaching style similar to your tactic, especially in regard to pressing and marking style, so the team doesn’t play a style completely unfamiliar to them.

Handles Press Conferences

For some the press conferences are just a repetitive part of Football Manager, being asked ‘the same’ questions over and over again. Other sees the real value of handling the press conferences themselves. Press conferences can be an important way to manipulate the players state of mind prior to the next match by removing unnecessary pressure and handle the medias and fans expectations prior to the next match. It can be used to play mind games with the opposing manager, praise any of your players or simply divert the opposing managers attention to your first team line up and possible formation and divert pressure on to the opposing team instead of yours.

Apart from that the media can also use these events to put more pressure on you and your role, asking you about internal club affairs which has leaked to the media, current run of form and negative interviews and results that has happen in the past, which can have a negatively impact on the squad happiness and overall team morale. Ultimately it gives you an unique chance to play down the media expectations and remove unnecessary on your (young/injury fragile/weaken) squad.

Saying the right things to the media can ultimately improve player performances, while the opposite may increase the likeliness of seeing poor performances. Handling the media is a way to take matters with players over-confidence or simply influence the medias set match odds.

To summarize, handling the press conferences is a fine art. You need to be an expert of individual player personalities, analyze the opposing managers selected words and have the calmness to choose the right words at the right time and of course with the right tone. Handling press conferences should generally be done by one with long term experience with the media, often with a high level of reputation and who have an insight on how their presence affect others. A press conference can be about almost everything that has happened within the club since last match, for example unhappiness of players training workload, reaction about last team talk or rejection from the board about a board request as well as match related questions.

Available Staff to Handle Press Conferences:

Human Manager
Assistant Manager
Every General Coaches (Goalkeeper & Fitness coaches included)
Head of Youth Development

Required Attributes, personality or media handling style recommended to successfully handle press conferences:

Positive Media Handling Style:
- I favour to look for an assistant manager with a media handling style of; Media Friendly, Evasive, Reserved, Play Mind Games (Hidden staff trait) or Level Headed and/or Unflappable for clubs in the bottom tier. In general I recommend to find assistant managers with high pressure, professionalism and ambitions

Handles Tunnel Interviews

On bigger occasions, the media and general journalists may want to have a word with you at half time, asking you some questions about the next half and the current situation (read match score). Tunnel interviews is often highly influenced by the heat of the moment and requires one who can stay calm, handle the pressure and be professional no matter what questions he’s been asked.

Tunnel interviews can be a great situation where you send your assistant manager to talk to the media, while you are boosting the morale of your squad for the next half or give them the last tactical instructions to improve player performances and players state of mind.

Available Staff to Handle Tunnel Interviews:

Human Manager
Assistant Manager
Every General Coaches (Goalkeeper & Fitness coaches included)
Head of Youth Development

Required Attributes, personality or media handling style recommended to successfully handle tunnel interviews:

Positive Media Handling Style:
- I favour to look for an assistant manager with a media handling style of; Media Friendly, Evasive, Reserved, or Level Headed and/or Unflappable. Here there is an increased importance of the ability to control their temperament and show sportsmanship.

Manage The Team in Friendly Matches

For some the boredom of playing through X amount of unimportant friendly matches may make them opt for someone else to manage the squad. Friendly matches are a great opportunity to improve tactical familiarity levels and gel the squad together as well as giving those below the first team level a chance to get some first team experience.

This means that you will rely on your assistant manager or whoever in charge to get your squad comfortable with the chosen playing style and formation. The person in charge will have to select the starting line up (if you have not set any specific team selection guidelines), alter the match tactic and its tactical instruction during the match as well as handling team talks and touchline talks. You, as the human manager won’t be presence and will have no say in substitutions done or changes the person in charge may do.

It’s highly important that carefully consider whom to manage the team in friendly matches in order to not confuse your squad with difference in playing styles and formations, football philosophy and player development policy.

Available Staff to Manage Friendly Matches:

Human Manager
Assistant Manager
Head of Youth Development
Every General Coaches (Goalkeeper & Fitness coaches included)
Director of Football

Required Attributes, personality or media handling style recommended to successfully manage the squad in friendly matches:

Similar Coaching Style and Preferred formation as yourself. Pressing style and preferred playing mentality should be considered similar to yours overall football philosophy as well.
Tactical Knowledge
Motivation
Judging Player Ability (if required to name the starting line up)
High Level of Player Knowledge
Man Management
Positive Media Handling Style
Few or none contradiction coaching and managing tendencies which influences on how you want your team to play. For example tends to rely on set-pieces or favour attacking football when you put less focus on it or tries to incorporate the opposite.

Responsible for Player Search Advices

Available Staff to Be Responsible for Player Search Advice:

Director of Football
Chief Scout
Assistant Manager
Chairman
Director(s)

Responsible for Coach Report Advices

Available Staff to Be Responsible for Coach Report Advice:

Assistant Manager
General Coaches
Head of Youth Development

Under-21 / Under-18 Staff Responsibilities

There are also two tabs related to Under-21 (Reserves) or youth team (Under-18/Under-19) which is an important part of player development. The information on both screens are similar to eachother, with the minor difference of which staff role that will take care of the assignment; the Under-21 Manager or the Under-18 Manager.

The Under-21 staff responsibilities will be handled by the Under-21 Manager or reserves manager if the staff role is occupied, while the Under-18 staff responsibilities will be handled by the Under-18 Manager. If any of the positions is not occupied you can select these staff roles to handle the assignment:

Human Manager
Assistant Manager
General Coaches

Plays Matches With First Team’s Tactics ensures your reserve team or Under-21 and Under-18/Under-19 plays with the same formation, player role and duty selected for the first team. It ensures that all players in or around the first team and possible future first team members have the same tactical experience and ease the transition from reserves to first team squad as well as Under-19 to reserve team.

I personally recommend to make sure this option of letting your Under-21 and Youth team play all matches with similar tactics as the first team are enabled.

Another important part of player and more specifically youth development is to ensure that players in both Under-18 and Under-21 team gets regular matches and adds up as many minutes of match experience as possible throughout the season.

The new option of Football Manager 2016 ‘Team Manager arranges friendly matches‘ is a great addition. By setting more frequently friendlies you will ensure that players receive regular playing time, rather than playing every second week or one match a month. You have the option to select the frequency of these friendly matches;

Arrange a friendly if no fixture during the week
Arrange a friendly if eleven or more reserves / youth players are lacking match fitness
Arrange a friendly every week
Arrange a friendly every two weeks
Arrange a friendly every month

I recommend to tick this option for both Under-21 and Under-19 and select arrange a friendly if no fixture during the week.

B Teams & Second Clubs Staff Responsibilities Explained

Some divisions, like Spain and Italy uses B-Teams and second clubs that can be regarded as a club of their own, but can be described as something between an affiliate club and the normal reserve team you might have become accustomed to. Similar to an affiliate club you can move players from it to the first team squad, but you can’t influence on their training.

Apart from the ability to instruct the manager in charge of the B-team to play with first team tactics you have the option to let him arrange friendly matches. If it’s not ticked, you will have full license to arrange friendly matches. For a B-team not part of a competitive league it’s of highly importance to arrange friendly matches, either it’s you, the human manager who are in charge of it or the current B-team manager.

Other assignments and responsibilities that can be set for B-teams are:

Area Description	Staff Available	Key Attribute(s) Required
Purchases Players for B-Team	Human Manager B-Team Manager Director of Football B Club Assistant Manager Director(s) Chairman	Key: Business (Hidden), Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary: – A Tactical Preference (Preferred Formation, Playing Style, Pressing Style and Playing Mentality) which fits the overall tactical philosophy you have set with your created tactic. – Appropriate tendencies according to first teams football philosophy – Excellent Knowledge of Player Recruitment – High Level of Reputation
Deals with B-Team Player Sales	Human Manager B-Team Manager Director of Football B Club Assistant Manager Director(s) Chairman	Key: Business (Hidden), Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary: – Motivation* – Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management
Performs B Club Contract Renewals	Human Manager B-Team Manager Director of Football B Club Assistant Manager Director(s) Chairman	Key: Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential Secondary: – Motivation* – Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management – Excellent Knowledge of Players at the club
Hires/Fires B Club Staff	Human Manager B-Team Manager Director of Football B Club Assistant Manager Director(s) Chairman	Key: None Specific Secondary: – Excellent knowledge of Clubs Football Philosophy – Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management
Performs B Club Staff Contract Renewals	Human Manager B-Team Manager Director of Football B Club Assistant Manager Director(s) Chairman	Key: None Specific Secondary: – Excellent knowledge of Clubs Football Philosophy – Excellent Knowledge of Squad Management

About the Personal Assistant Section of Football Manager Staff Responsibilities Department

Below I will take a look at the backroom advice options in the personal assistant tab. The person in charge of the highlighted areas mentioned below will be the one who gives you vital information and recommendations at backroom advice meetings. In order to be responsible for giving advices about tactical assessments, the players and their development it’s important that they have excellent knowledge of the chosen area. Information about staffs knowledge level within the club can be found under Staff Information – Backroom Advice.

These meetings held between you and your coaching staff can occur; weekly, every fortnight, every month, every three months, every six months, start of pre-season or never. Due to some new changes and improvements in regard to tactical advices for Football Manager 2016 I recommend to set a weekly reminder as the screenshot below details. This will give you tactical suggestions ahead of the next match.

It’s important to understand that the bar only tells you how much knowledge he has about the current crop of players within the club and does not always tell you how well he will interact with the players or how good he is in that area; for example good knowledge of the clubs youth development program but low ability to work with the youngsters, or great knowledge about tactics but poor ability to analyze tactics which will ultimately make his advices and recommendations inaccurate.

You have to take into account that some staff attributes will relate to the backroom advice knowledge bars. Any differences between those should be considered when setting up who shall be responsible for the specific area, as it’s important to have good stats and excellent knowledge for the related areas. I will give you information about which staff attributes that might relate to a backroom advice knowledge bar below.

About The Knowledge Areas & the Personal Assistant Advices:

Knowledge of Clubs Players tells you how well the staff knows the players at the club. Herein lies knowledge about each and every player abilities (player attributes and player preferred moves), their current ability, potential ability, their personality and reactions and finally hidden attributes which can be important to know when setting individual training (injury proneness). For example an assistant manager with poor knowledge of Clubs players will inaccurately compare one players skills to another, rate players current and potential abilities wrong and might also set wrong training assignments. A newly appointed scout, coach or assistant manager will have lower knowledge of the club players than a staff who have been at the club for the last 10 years. This is only a knowledge bar which lies beneath all advices and recommendations mentioning in the backroom advice meetings.
Relates to the staffs time at the club and his overall ability in Judging Player Ability and Player Potential

Man Management tells you how well the staff will deal with player happiness or give advices about what you should do if a player is experiencing any issues or minor personal problems. It can be issues where players are homesick, are unhappy with how you dealt with their request in the private chat or general unhappiness about training workload or playing time. A staff with excellent knowledge of man management will be able to provide more accurate tips and recommendations on how you shall deal with the arisen situation(s).
Relates to Man Management, Motivation and Knowledge of Club Players

Available staff for man management are:

Assistant Manager
General Coaches (except GK coaches)
Director of Football
Under 21 Manager
Under 21 Assistant Manager

Depending on the level of your coaches I tend to select either the assistant manager or one of the coaches to provide tips about dealing with man management. I tend to put more focus on motivation than man management, but this might come down to man management is oftenly rather high for the assistant manager I have signed.

Player Recruitment focuses on how well the staff can provide recommendations and advices about players and staff to bring to the club. His level of knowledge in this department tells you his ability to suggest potential signings or how the club can expand it’s current scouting knowledge. In order to suggest new signings of players and staff, or new regions and divisions to expand knowledge of, the person in charge should have a great knowledge of the current abilities of the club players and staff, otherwise he may suggest signing a player which either does not fit the current system or that is no where the level of current squad depth.

The person responsible to provide advices about player recruitment will also suggest beneficial nations, competitions/leagues or regions to scout in order to improve scouting knowledge and increase the amount of current crop of players for the scouting knowledge range.
Relates to Scouting Knowledge, Knowledge of Club Players Judging player potential and ability

Available staff for player recruitment are:

Director of Football
Chief Scout
General Scouts
Assistant Manager
General Coaches (except GK coaches)
Under 21 Manager
Under 21 Assistant Manager

Normally I select either the chief scout or the director of football for this department as I believe they have the best knowledge of suitable players as well as excellent judging player ability and potential. Picking the chief scout as responsible for this area could be more favourable as he has excellent knowledge of the scouting team – where they have good knowledge and not and whom may be suitable to be send out to a specific nation or region.

Squad Management tells you how well the staffs are in dealings with advices about player contracts, transfers and squad status of players at the club. It can be a matter of players with the ‘wrong’ squad status set, players that should be placed on the transfer list as they are not good enough for your squad or should be awarded with a contract extension. You will also get hints about players who may come to you asking for an improved contract because of his current importance to the team.
Partially relates to Judging player ability and judging player potential, but also relates to Knowledge of Club Players and Man Management

Available staff for squad management are:

Assistant Manager
Director of Football
General Coaches (except GK coaches)
Under 21 Manager
Under 21 Assistant Manager

This position is often given either to the assistant manager since he works close with them on a daily basis, both in terms of match preparations and general training or my preference the director of football which the sole purpose of his role is to deal with player contracts, talk to their agents and use his long time experience within the footballing world to deal with players happiness and personal demands.

Tactical advices in the backroom staff meetings is a completely new feature of Football Manager 2016. The staff set to provide you with advices about tactical suggestions for upcoming matches will also identify trends from previous matches. It’s highly attached to the staff attribute tactical knowledge in order to provide you with accurate tips on how to deal with the next match. Tactical suggestions can be changing the team shape and fluidity setting, remove, add or alter team instructions and/or player instructions for the next match, in order to counter a specific weakness. These advices should be taken with a pinch of salt as it may contradict to your tactical philosophy, but can also be beneficial take into account when setting a match plan as his suggestions relates to oppositions stats, tactical system and preferred playing style. Some advices may be brought up simply because the staff in charge does not see it useful or beneficial for the team or the player for the forth coming match according to his current tactical knowledge. If you should put any relevance to them or not, is a personal matter, but the better the staff is in regard to tactical knowledge the more accurate will his recommendations be. It’s then up to you to decide if you should alter the system or use your preferred style. His tips can also be used as a plan B in case you see the team struggles in the first 10-15 minutes of the match.
Relates to Knowledge of Club players, Tactical Knowledge, Tactical Coaching and Judging player ability

Available staff for tactical advices are:

Assistant Manager
General Coaches (except GK coaches)
Director of Football
Under 21 Manager
Under 21 Assistant Manager

For this area I prefer to select the one with highest tactical knowledge and coaching. I feel it’s important to select a staff that spends time on the training ground, but is also present at matches. This is often the same staff that handles tactical coaching at the coaches training area tab, but mostly it’s the assistant manager as I have a preference to sign assistant manager with excellent tactical knowledge and good tactical coaching. I like you to remember that the staffs preferred formation and playing style is also important here, in order to not select roles that are go against your tactical philosophy.

Training tips can always be useful no matter if you are a Football Manager veteran or not. In this circumstance it relates to the staffs knowledge about the training of the players at the club. A change of training philosophy (new focus in team training, match preparation and individual training focuses) will not impact the staff’s level of training knowledge, nor will the level be impacted if the staff is completely new at the club (most prominently a bug?). The staff responsible to provide tips about training will give you advices about match preparations and general training as well as individual training focus. For example will the staff recommend you to put a player on a specific additional training focus which he thinks will be beneficial for his current player role and duty or to improve his performance on the pitch according to his individual preferred playing styles.
Relates to the staffs level of coaching attributes; level of tactical, technical, attacking, defending, mental attributes, as well as man management and judging player ability and potential.

The staff in charge will also provide more accurate progress reports in the individual Development Training

Available staff for training are:

Assistant Manager
General Coaches (except GK coaches)
Director of Football
Under 21 Manager
Under 21 Assistant Manager

I prefer to select the coach with the best overall coaching stats with the attention set to the staff with highest man management of them – a general coach rather than a specialist – a staff who have aren’t particularly excellent in shooting for example, but can lighten the coaches workload in 2 to 3 working areas. This means that the coach would need decent tactical coaching.

Youth Development details the specific staffs knowledge about the development of youth players at the club. It doesn’t influence the quality and amount of players coming through on the annual youth intake nor the training level and training assignments set for the youth team. Instead it relates to the players within the Under-19 squads development rate – have they progressed enough to earn a professional contract, be moved to the reserves team or would it be handy to send them out on loan to progress further. While you will get tactical advices every week, advices about youth development might not even occur on a monthly basis.
Relates to Working with Youth and judging player potential

Available staff for youth development are:

Head of Youth Development
Under 18 Manager
Under 18 Assistant Manager
Under-18 Coaches (except GK coaches)

Since the job description of the head of youth development is to partially inform you about the youths development I feel it’s only natural to let him hand you advices about the Under-18 players progression. If you have not signed a Head of Youth Development I would have selected the Under-18 Manager as he will have great knowledge about the youth players too. Due to him being on the training ground, setting their training focus and mentality prepare them for the future by selecting starting line ups and do team talks. He will have excellent knowledge about their abilities and how much they have progressed in the last months, and normally what it would take to develop any further. The Head of Youth development will spend time on the training ground too, but will not be as much involved with the daily training as he will also have the focus set on bringing new youth in to the club – scouring around the world (or the nation) monitoring the clubs’ invicible football academies.