How to Use Touchline Shouts in Football Manager

Do you struggle with complacent players or have a hard time inspiring your players to better results? Perhaps you are wondering how to use the touchline shouts in Football Manager to the best effect or when to use them?

Welcome to this comprehensive guide to touchline shouts in Football Manager which will answer all your questions about how to boost your player’s morale in matches. Today we will take a closer look at when to use the different touchline shouts in Football Manager, why they can be useful and how it can be used in the game to change the psychology of the match.

So, if you want to improve the success of your tactics and lead your club to more wins, don’t underestimate the effect of using shouts in Football Manager as a tactical plan to get the best out of your players. Channel your inner José Mourinho to master the art of shouting at your players from the touchline with our tips and tricks about Football Manager shouts.

What are touchline shouts in Football Manager?

Touchline shouts in Football Manager are motivational instructions that you can use throughout the match to boost your player’s mentalities and state of mind. They enables you to create a positive spirit amongst your players and aims to improve the players body language and thereby their mood, happiness and interest towards the match.

Like pre-match team talks, shouts can be used to inspire your team, either by encouraging a group of players or target individual players with specific shouts according to their spirit and current performances and is used to get the best out of them, and hopefully change the course of the match.

The Football Manager shouts feature aims to replicate how real managers can give directives to their players from the touchline through the course of the match. Unlike in reality, you’re not able to give tactical instructions and advices to your players but use shouts as a means to affect their state of mind.

Overall, the primarily objective using the Football Manager touchline shouts feature is to boost morale.

In general, shouts can be seen as a tool to give your team a mental edge over your opponents by looking to boost their morale in the short term, or react upon unfolding events by changing patterns of play and correct player’s body languages and state of mind from the negative to the more positive.

Delegating the Responsibilities of Touchline Shouts

Like anything else in Football Manager you have the opportunity to take charge of touchline shouts yourself, or delegate the responsibilities of issuing touchline shouts to another member within your coaching team.

If you delegate the task, the person in charge will issue touchline shouts how he sees fit. The person will consider the match score, statistics and performance data, players’ average rating and match expectations and the importance of the match to deliver shouts.

If you should delegate the responsibilities of touchline shouts in Football Manager to one of your members within the coaching team, you should pick a personell with high levels of:

• Motivation
• People Management

We could argue that a staff’s level of discipline (LoD) could affect the types of touchline shouts he used and when as a staff with high levels of ‘LoD’ will be more strict and take up a harder line by criticizing the players more often and therefor expect the players to perform to a higher levels. Since, I have no research that confirms my hypothesis, I have no reasons to include it as necessary attributes for one being in charge of touchline shouts.

To delegate the responsibility of shouts, simply click:

– Staff > Responsibilities > Match > Match Day: Touchline Shouts > Delegate

Worth to know!

Eventhough you delegate the task of issuing motivational instructions or shouts to your assistant manager, you will be able to issue shouts as well. It’s not like the feature is unavailable the minute you change the responsibility.

However, by delegating the task you won’t have full control of when shouts are issued and how the players may react. The person in charge may issue the ‘wrong’ shout and upset or frustrate the players, rather than motivate and increase focus. However, that’s the risk of delivering shouts yourself. It’s not like it’s a fool proof way of using shouts in Football Manager. It’s always a risk of an unsuccessful reaction despite the same shout has worked successfully in a same scenario in the past.

Delegating touchline shouts is a viable option if you aren’t 100% sure of how it works, or wish to shy away from destabilizing your squad by issuing the wrong shouts.

However, by reading this guide to Football Manager touchline shouts, I hope you will get the confidence and knowledge to motivate your players and take part in the psycological battle between you and your opponents. By continue reading, you will get a better insight to how I use touchline shouts to boost morale, improve focus and guard against complamency on Football Manager.

---

How do touchline shouts work in Football Manager 2024?

The touchline shouts in Football Manager are contextual and you need to take several factors in mind before channeling your inner Pep Guardiola or José Mourinho with some well-targeted shouts.

Similar to the team talks at half-time or pre-match dressing room team talks, you can use shouts to gain an advantage by looking to improve their morale and thereby the player’s performances by trying to influence their body language and confidence.

On the one hand, they can help to inspire your team to improve their performances and come to better goalscoring opportunities, but they can also make your players uninspired, nervous or unfocused – resulting in poorer performances, more individual errors and anxiety amongst your players that may have a negative effect on the player’s performances.

In general, shouts allows us to correct on-field behavior and prepare players for what’s to come. But be careful, what you say to your players can backfire on you resulting in the opposite of your intentions by affecting their on-pitch happiness, how they perceive you and their overall morale in a negatively manner.

In Football Manager, touchline shouts are temporarily and is made effective for around 10 minutes after issuing a shout. You will not be able to make a new shout until the time has elapsed unless you score a goal after the first five minutes have passed. Then the feature will get unlocked and you’re able to target the entire team or individual players by making new shouts to your players. That means, over the course of the match, you should be able to issue shouts around four times in each half to your entire team unless you have not made any individual shouts in the meantime.

When clicking on the ‘Shouts’ button attached above to the touchline tablet, you can choose to provide motivational instructions to all your players on the pitch, or select specific individuals that may benefit from some targeted inspirational directives.

Issuing Shouts to Individual Players

During the course of the match, your team will go through spells of good and bad performances and you will need to react upon individual players state of mind to try to get all your players pulling in the same direction.

To issue a shout to a specific individual, you will need to click the ‘Individuals’ button linked to that specific shout and click on the check mark button to the left of the players name before targeting an individual. When issuing shouts to individual players, you will notice the opportunity to issue shouts to the entire team will be unavailable for 10 to 15 minutes.

When issuing shouts to individual players you are allowed to target multiple players but whether you should do so depends on their current body language, personality and performance. Basically, their state of mind, body language and performance should correlate in order to get a similar successful reaction.

After issuing a shout to an individual player, the opportunity opens up to target other players on the pitch by issuing another touchline shouts and select the players you want to direct them to. To make shouts to the rest of the players, simply click Individuals and tick all the rest of the players that are available to shout to. If you continously target individuals with a series of shouts, you will notice the time before you can direct the entire team will increase so I suggest to keep it to a minimum.

This is worthy to take into account as you would probably be required to target the entire team if something major happends in the match, such as failuring to create chances or starting to make more mistakes and loosing momentum within the match. Perhaps you have just conceded a goal or more and more negativity starts to spread amongst the team like a pandemic.

The great thing is that you will still be able to target specific players with one type of shout before issuing another touchline shout to the rest of the team – for instance ‘Calm Down’ to one player while the rest of the players on the pitch are asked to step up their efforts by shouting ‘Demand More’.

When to issue shouts to individual players and in what cases will be discussed more closely further down in our FM24 touchline shouts guide.

The different types of shouts in Football Manager

In Football Manager 2024, there are eight different types of touchline shouts to choose from – all with their different intentions and consequences.

Here’s a quick list of the different opportunities of shouts to issue and what they affect:

• Encourage – Offer encouragement to your players and boost their morale
• Praise – Praise the performances of the players
• Demand More – Demand your players to work harder
• Fire Up – Fire up your players to show some passion and play for the shirt
• Berate – Berate your players for their performances
• Focus – Remind your players to stay focused on the task at hand
• Calm Down – Instruct your players to calm down in an effort to avoid yellow or red cards
• No Pressure – Encourage your players to relax in the hope that they will play without pressure

In fact, you can group the different touchline shouts into three different categories:

• i) those that shall direct negative behaviour to positive performances by influencing their motivation and spirit
• ii) those that shall relax the players to reduce the players level of anxiety, nervousness and change the level of perceived pressure
• iii) those that shall applaud positive performances to further boost morale and happiness.

The effect of shouts: unsuccessful or successful result?

When issuing a shout, either collectively or individually, the effect of shouts on Football Manager can be either successful or unsuccessful – meaning the same shout can result in either a positive or negative outcome.

What the effect is depends on a number of factors.

You need to take into account the players’ or your squad’s collective morale, motivation and body language, and try to select the best suited motivational instructions according to ongoing events to increase the likeliness of a positive outcome.

Here’s a quick overview of how shouts can influence the players body language, motivation and morale either positively or negatively depending on whether they are successfully or unsuccessfully received.

A table of the different categories of impact

After issuing a touchline shout, it may take a few seconds before the effect of your shouts are provided to you. Within the touchline tablet, you will be able to experience a change in the ‘happiness indicator’ icon – below represented with a green smiley, which is used to describe the player’s body language, happiness or mood – either positively or negatively.

A positive body language is coloured in a shade of green smiley, meanwhile a negative body language is described with a red or orange happiness indicator icon. When the body language is ‘neutral’ the colour of the icon will be purple. As I see it, when a player has a purple icon, he is ready to receive a shout.

You will need to click on the player’s individual smiley icon to get a deeper insight to how their spirit, motivation, focus, morale or happiness is. I recommend to frequently click on the body language icon to learn about their state of mind, happiness and focus level before issuing shouts to the entire team. The icon’s color and body language description will give you a better background to determine what type of shouts to direct to your players, especially when making individual shouts.

How to discover player’s body language descriptions?

When assessing player’s body language, you might use the touchline tablet and the information within the player boxes to find their current body language and state of mind. However, that requires you to click on each of the players to get an insight to the body language description.

Rather than clicking on each individual player, you can click the ‘Make Substitution’ button to gain a complete overview of the squads body language. At least, it’s available with the Tato24 skin which are available to download on our website.

Once done, simply click Cancel and proceed with the match – whether you use the information to make a shout, or continue to assess the player’s performance.

The Different Reactions & Body Language Icons

Here’s a quick list of what different moods, happiness levels or state of minds the players might go through within the course of the match:

• Green: Fired up by the Feedback (Very Positive)
• Green: Single-minded (Very Positive)
• Green: Looked Extremely Delighted (Very Positive)
• Green: Appeared Positively Chuffed (Positive)
• Green: Looked Happy (Positive)
• Light Green: Looked to gained confidence (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Motivated by the Feedback (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Seemed motivated (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Seemed pleased (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Looked more attentive (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Looked delighted (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Seemed a little happier (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Seemed to gain focus (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Appeared Inspired (Slightly Positive)
• Light Green: Appeared Very Happy (Slightly Positive)
• Purple: Appeared Interested (Slightly uplifting)
• Purple: Listened Passionately (Slightly uplifting)
• Purple: Listened Keenly (Slightly uplifting)
• Purple: Composed (Neutral)
• Purple: Calm (Neutral)
• Purple: Nothing specific noted (Neutral)
• Purple: Listened Nervously (Slightly concerning)
• Purple: Seemed deep in thought (Slightly concerning)
• Purple: Looked pensive (thoughtful) (Slightly concerning)
• Purple: Uninterested (Slightly concerning)
• Orange: Uninterested after the latest feedback (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Lost Focus (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Looked Stressed (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Seemed to lose confidence (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Appeared to be distracted (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Appeared uncertain & unhappy (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Struggling to meet the pace of the game (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Pressured by the feedback (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Frustrated (Negative)
• Orange: Looked to switch off (Negative)
• Orange: Seemed Anxious (Slightly Negative)
• Orange: Appeared to lack belief (Slightly Negative)
• Red: Complacent (Negative)
• Red: Anxious (Very Negative)
• Red: Apprehensive (Very Negative)
• Red: Furious (Very Negative)
• Red: Frustrated by the feedback (Very Negative)
• Red: Overwhelmed by the feedback (Very Negative)

These are just a few examples of how the players may react, or how their state of mind will be, within the matches described through their body language and happiness indicator icon linked to them.

What affects a successful or unsuccessful reaction?

How your players will perceive the different types of shouts you give, depends on their personality and what has happened within the match. Since all players are different, with different levels of professionalism, ambitions, morale, happiness and level of pressure, so will the result (successful or unsuccessful) of the shouts used.

What you say to your players by shouting at them from the touchline should be reflected by the match score, the team’s current performances according to the expectations ahead of the match relating to the quality of the opposition team, how the match has evolved and current trends, as well as individual performances and state of mind.

Issuing a series of contradicting shouts may lead to player’s being overwhelmed by the feedback and influence the player’s focus, motivation and happiness within the match negatively, especially if you’re selecting a number of different shouts from these different categories of impact within a short period of time, for instance three different shouts within 20-40 minutes of action that doesn’t correspond to player’s performances or the match result.

The effect of whether you manage to get a successful or unsuccessful reaction can also have a long standing affect – at least within the match. If you select the ‘wrong’ shout and happens to frustrate or upset the player by berating his performance when he perceives it as good, it can affect yours relationship, his overall performance throughout the match may drop and so will his overall motivation to do his best.

Constantly criticizing a player can really hurt his happiness and how happy he is with your management of the team – in the same manner ‘wrong’ team talks relating to the current situation can lead to decreased manager support and get the players to rally against you. The same matter is if you constantly throughout the match targets the player by delivering contradicting individual shouts. It may lead to frustration, the feeling of being overwhelmed by the feedback or feeling pressured by the criticism.

What you may discover is that players who are unhappy with your man management, you have a distant relationship with or for any reasons oppose you in the dressing room, will be less likely to react positively to your shouts. Most often, they will get more frustrated if you criticize them or it’s hard to get a reaction at all.

In a wider perspective, it may lead to a dip in form or less motivation to put in the necessary effort on the training ground.

Your task is to turn negative body language and mood into a positive state of mind. Having a bunch of frustrated players on the pitch and players who are complacent can quickly lead to goals conceded since the player’s doesn’t care and put in the required effort to play at their best.

That means, you will need to react to situations within the match, spells of good and bad performances and analyze players body language, spirit and confidence level according to expectations, to target the team with motivational instructions that can improve their performances and thereby get the upper hand over your opponents through psychology.

Let’s take a closer look at what actions you can take and when to apply certain shouts to direct your players onto better performances.

When to use the different Football Manager shouts?

To take advantage of the different shouts in Football Manager you need to take into account several factors. The current match score, the team’s overall performance, player’s individual performances, statistics and player’s body language and morale must be taken into account before choosing which shout to issue.

In-match scenarios, and specific events that occur within the match can help you to decide which touchline shouts that should be issued. Some of them is best used depending on the current scoreline or at specific periods of the match, whilst others may target more situational performances to address certain behaviors.

Using the same shout over and over will have no better impact than keeping yourself to the same tactical instructions regardless of how the match evolves. Over the course of the match, you will need to consider player’s state of mind through analyzing their performances and body language to get the best out of them.

What you say to your players and which shout you select will depend on the match expectations and who you are up against. If you are fighting a relegation battle and meeting the best team within the league, it might not be beneficial in the long term to demoralize your team even more by berating your players if you concede a goal. The type of goal you concede and how they play must be taken into account. It could be that they have just been unlucky and therefore should be treated thereafter.

---

When to Encourage Your Players?

“Come on guys! Keep trying! You can do it!” These are all examples of what we would say when we want to get the best out of our players and improve their performances.

Encourage is probably the most used and often the go-to standard shout in Football Manager to issue to your entire team when their body language is neutral (purple face without any expressions).

Personally, I tend to use it when the match score is currently a draw and we are seeking to score a goal. It can be used between the first 10 to 15 minutes of the match, or in circumstances where you are creating chances, playing decent football and perhaps dominating the match but hasn’t been able to score a goal, yet.

Encourage is used to boost low morale and could be directed to the entire team in more situations than any other shouts, and far more often. If the score is still draw after first half, you can try to get the players to step up their performances in the first 10 minutes of second half, or if you’re playing an important match and you’re chasing for an equaliser or a goal in the last 15 minutes of the match.

I like to encourage my players when their average ratings is between 6.7 and 7.2*, and there are trends in the match where it’s tendencies for the players to get frustrated – for instance if you come to goalscoring opportunities but the opposing goalkeeper is like a wall, the opposition teams defensive block seems impenetrable, or there are spells in the match the teams performance is actually really good but it’s not producing goals. Here we can use xG (expected goals, chances and ball share) as statistical data to back up whether to encourage the team, or not.

Encourage is the natural choice of shout when the players are demotivated and lost confidence.

You will even notice a great reaction from the players if you’re encouraging the players when you want to continue on a good spell and you wish your team to score a second goal.

*all depending on the players morale, their overall performance regarding of what you expect from them in terms of passing, tackling, shots or dribbles.

When to encourage individual players?

Encouragement is also used to try to pick the players heads up and keep trying. On an individual basis, encouragement is likely the correct choice if one individual is performing below average compared to the entire team. If a player makes a mistake that leads to a chance, or a goal, or struggles to meet the pace of the game and you experience his motivation drops.

He might be unmotivated, be ‘Composed’ despite having a poor average rating or have missed a lot of obvious goalscoring opportunities. In this instance, you might want to encourage a player who have just missed a penalty or have made an huge error either it’s in the defensive third, or attacking third.

---

When to Praise Your Team on Football Manager?

Praising your team can be a valuable choice to further boost morale and happiness after encouraging your players. When to praise your players will depend more on the match score and indidivual performances than anything else but can be used with great effect on several occasions within the match.

I like to praise my players if they have scored two or more goals, are playing above expectations with many players with an average rating of 7.5 or more, or are playing the perfect game according to my football philosophy. But, you can also praise players once you have scored a goal to boost players morale and signal to them that you appreciate their efforts and wants more of the same!

If you’re trying to establish a tiki-taka tactical style onto your team and they are dominating the opposition with lots of passes, chances and clearly impress you with their performances, praising could be a viable option for the long term.

It boost morale twice as much as showing encouragement and helps to increase the happiness and support for you.

I must admit that I’m no stranger to praising my players despite having to guard against complacency. Because, praising the players too often and without any consideration may lead the shout to become ineffective and make the players complacent when facing an equal or poorer opponent – something that may increase the chance of performance dropping and goal(s) conceceded.

However, the positive effect of praising most often outweights the cons.

Praising individuals on Football Manager

On a player to player basis, praising individuals will only be a viable option if a specific individual stands out from the rest of the team. I would praise the player if he scores a goal, has made a wonderful assist, constantely helps the team in the defensive third by important key tackles, interceptions, blocks or are playing good defensively that helps to avoid goals conceded.

Praise could be the right option if a player is heads above the rest and is the only reason your team is currently leading the match. For instance, in this match against Wrexham, where they have a far better team in all positions compared to my Crewe, Adebisi made a lovely assist by threading the ball in behind the opposition blocks for Austerfield to tap the ball into the back of the net.

Here, I was quick to praise Adebisi to tell him that I’m happy with his contribution and signal that I want something similar in the rest of the match, or in upcoming matches.

By praising individual players if they play well, I can easily guard against complamency as fewer players are likely to be influenced from the shout.

NOTE! By praising one player, his body language and state of mind can rub onto other players on the pitch – something that may help to increase the performances within the team in overall. At the same time, what you say to one player can also affect the other players state of mind negatively as they either doesn’t agree with what you say and stands with the player, or becomes nervous or loosing focus as they are afraid to get critic.

Successful reaction: Fired up by the feedback, Motivated, Happy/ Delighted
Unsuccessful reaction: Overwhelmed, Frustrated, Uninterested after the feedback

---

Demand More!

The ‘Demand More’ shout could be seen as the next step for your entire team or specific individual players if encouraging them doesn’t work. You might have started by encouraging your players but you can’t seem to get the proper response from them in terms of performance.

By demanding more of your players you signal to the team, or to specific individuals, that you feel they aren’t playing good enough and that you have expected more of them.

This type of touchline shout is suitable in matches when you’re facing a team you should have normally beaten or scored against. It might be a suitable option if the team is struggling to create quality chances, squanders possession with poor passes or shots, or there are situations within the match that displays general poor performance relating to how you wish to play and what you’ve instructed and expected of them through the selected team instructions.

A perfect example if the match score is 0-0 and you are facing a team of lesser quality where you’re expected to win, and the team is struggling to come to goalscoring opportunities or are shooting wide off the mark when the game enters the final 30 minutes of the match. The level of poor performances will determine whether you should encourage, berate or demand more.

It can be useful to demand more if the average rating is below, or between, 6.7 to 6.2 in matches where you should be superior over your opponents.

Personally, I would never issue the shout Demand More when facing a team far better than me, unless the team is playing well and is chasing a goal in the last 5-10 minutes of the match and it’s evident that the opposition is loosing momentum psycologically – represented with a red body language icon.

The risk of issuing ‘Demand More’ is that your players will feel the shout is unwarrant. In their opinion, they might feel they are playing well despite of not being able to score or that the score is rather good considering their current form and other relating factors to the match, such as wether the match is played home or away.

Be easy on your players at away games and if you’re form is very unstable regardless of the quality of the opposing team. Demand more is probably not the best option if you play away from home and have come from a loosing streak. Then it’s probably better to try to boost their morale by encouring the players rather than try to increase their focus and motivation.

However, if you have a bunch of players who is rather unprofessional and got low concentration and determination, demanding more of them, and asking them to extort an extra effort to try to win the match, might be the shout they need to get that wake-up call.

Demand more doesn’t necessarily need to be avoided if you are one goal up and is leading. I have used Demand More when leading 1-0 or 2-1, and I wish to maintain or improve the current performances, with great effect. It has helped to inspire the players and make players convinced to make a difference by extorting that little extra.

Normally, I use it towards the entire team if I see the player’s performances are dropping and the chances they create or their defending isn’t at its best. For instance, if you see the players are shooting from long range and misses the target by miles, if passes are inaccurate or they are showing signs of complamency.

Primary Intention: To improve performances or keep going

Successful reaction: Fired up by the feedback, Appeared Inspired, Seemed Very Motivated, Looked Fired-up
Unsuccessful reaction: Frustrated, Pressured by the feedback, Uninterested after the feedback, Looked disheartened

---

When to Berate the team’s performances?

Sometimes your players might need that ‘hairdryer treatment’ that Alex Ferguson was so famous for. The on-pitch performance might be despicable and they got their heads up their asses and simply underperforms. Nothing works, both tactically or mentally.

Berating your team’s performances is one of the shouts in Football Manager that won’t be used on a regular basis. You can’t, or shouldn’t, berate your players every match. One of the biggest reasons for not doing so, is to avoid to get your players against you and affect their motivation and focus even more negatively.

There are very few circumstances and situations where berating your team is the viable option. To get the best effect on your players it’s wise to use it sparingly. The biggest risk when berating the players is to further frustrate them and make their morale drop to a level where performance and form drops.

Personally, I like to use berate my players if the overall performance of the team is far below expected and what you witness is just abysmal poor performance from the entire team that should never represent how you want your team to appear.

Imagine heading into a match you’re favorite for just to experience a goal conceded in the first 30 minutes of the match, or less! Or, the team seems to have entered the pitch already thinking they have won the match or signals an over-complancency where positioning, movements and overall behaviour shows laziness and being unfocused.

In this situation, I would berate the entire team in the hope that they will step up their game and improve their performances for the rest of the match if their average rating is below 6.1 and the conceded goal(s) isn’t a result of individual mistakes. If that’s the case, it’s better to berate individual players who’s mistake led to a goal, or it’s an abysmal poor performance that you can’t simply tolerate.

A Practical Example

A great example came in my current Crewe save where I was up against Crawley, who is currently lying on the 23th place. I had into the match as favorites despite the media predicts Crewe to finish on 20th place. Even though I took the chance to rest some of my best players for the top encounter against Stockport three days later, we came off to a really shocking start. After a missed interception, their central midfielder was suddenly through and managed to score a goal after under 1 minutes of action.

Despite I would normally shy away from it, I berated my players immediately and luckily the players reacted postively to the critic and managed to score an equalizer 17 minutes later.

Unfortunately, it shouldn’t last. In the 29th minute, Crawley’s Kelly managed to score his second goal – 2-1! For the second time, I had to take the drastic step of berating my team! Yet again, a positive response with 2-2 equaliser around 15 minutes later.

That match was truly something special. Berating the players after just one minute of action. Frankly, I was really nervous before issuing the shout but felt it was warrant. Luckily, it didn’t backfire on me this time.

The morale of the story, is that you have to act upon the situations within the match. Sometimes, it’s worthy to follow your gut and just react instictively to how you read the game based on the score line, match expectations, match statistics and performances tanslated via average ratings.

It’s not a regular event to berate your players twice in a match – at least it’s not something I have ever had to do before despite years of FM experience.

Berating Individual players

When berating individual performances you want to correct players focus and motivation by criticizing their shocking poor performance. For instance, the striker may comes to high xG chances time and time again but misses the goal every time. The player might make a late last ditch tackle inside the penalty box that either costs the team a penalty, or gets a card for fouling a player in a dangerous position where there’s no reason to foul his opponent. Or, there may have been done other errors that have cost your team greatly due to one persons individual behaviour.

In this case, you berate to give an example of the minimum required effort you tolerate and what you expect of your players.

When berating the team or individual players it’s important to take into account their body language and state of mind before considering whether to berate the player or not. Berating a player who is demotivated or anxious can have a further negative effect on their morale.

Primarily Intention: Make the players more inspired to increase their effort & thereby improve performances

Successful reaction: Fired up by the feedback
Unsuccessful reaction: Very Frustrated

---

Fire Up!

Fire up is another touchline shout that you will hardly use very often. The effect of fire up is to motivate your players to a greater degree and could be regarded as the next level of Encourage as you look to pump the players up twice as much.

The Fire Up shout is very much a situational dependant option that should be used considered on the scoreline but could also be used according to team performances based on an analysis of the statistical data you have access to.

You might want to firing up the entire team if you are 2-0 down within the first half and hopes for a marvellous comeback in the final thirds of the match. It could be an option in cup games or other important matches, such as a relegation play off match, where your players struggles to score and you feel the need to increase their motivation to score a goal or improve their performances.

In situations where the players are starting to get more and more frustrasted, firing up can be a great option.

Let us imagine the team has experienced a lot of bad luck in the match with goals disallowed, lots of shots hitting the woodwork or missed penalties and a double figure shots on target achieved but still no chances converted into goals.

The risk of issuing ‘Fire Up’ is that your players may get easily overwhelmed by the feedback and should therefore be used very sparingly. Personally, I’m more likely to use ‘Demand More’ or ‘Encourage’ rather than Fire Up – but it all depends on the situation.

For some games, Fire Up can be the only required option to increase the likeliness of that final equaliser in the last 15 minutes of the match as you might want to avoid the match going into a penalty shoot-out and you desperately need a goal. It can be a solution in the extra time o in the last minutes of the match when you’re in dired need of a goal.

For a team struggling with motivation by finding themselves in the relegation battle, the option to fire up the players can be the most appropriate option to help the team secure their place. Same goes for a team hunting for a promotion and needs a goal, or a win, to help them get the number of points to become champions.

When to Shout ‘Fire Up’ to Individual Players?

In the case of firing up individual players you should consider their body language and level of bad luck within the game. A player who is unmotivated, experienced a run of bad luck, for instance by missing on a penalty or a major chance, scored an own goal or are clearly unhappy, could be a candidate to be shouted ‘Fire Up’ to.

Primarily Intention: Boost Morale

Successful reaction: Fired up by the feedback, Inspired, Motived by the feedback
Unsuccessful reaction: Very Frustrated, Overwhelmed by the feedback

---

Calm Down!

Calm down is the preferred option when you need to target players who are either aggressive, nervous or anxious.

You could ask players to calm down if they are likely to bend the rules, perhaps due to high levels of aggression, or the nerve of the match has made them more aggressive than usual and you see your players are starting to make fouls and thereby pick up yellow cards.

It could be used in situations where an individual player makes a tough tackle and are on verge of picking up a yellow or red card, or in circumstances where the match is getting out of hands and players are not able to control their temper.

Here’s an example of shouting calm down after one of my defenders received a yellow card after making a foul in a situation where he shoved the player after beating him with pure pace.

Eventhough calm down is the go-to option to shout when a player has picked up a yellow card, or you notice that the players are more likely to bend the rules and make “stupid” fouls, it can also be used before a player receives a yellow card that could make him get suspended for the next match.

Apart from just leveling out aggression and frustration to avoid further bookings, calm down can help the players to regain some focus if they are nervous or anxious. It can help to reduce their anxiety levels and make them more level-headed and regain concentration, something that will reduce the risk of making mistakes in important situations.

Calm down doesn’t only needs to be used when players are nervous or you experience a lot of bookings. It can be used in high pacy games to reduce stress level and frustration of feeling not up to grasp with the tempo of the game. It could be situations where you make substitutions and the player is showing a body language where it says “struggles to meet the pace of the game”. Then, you can shout calm down to make the player more relaxed and concentrated.

Hopefully, the player(s) will adjust to the tempo and become more composed.

Last, but not least, you can shout calm down in the last minutes of the match if the score is 1-0, 2-1 or you are leading with a goal and needs your players to regain focus and concentration for the final minutes. It can help to fight against over-confidence in a period where the opposition is doing all they can to chase an equaliser.

Calm Players Down After Scoring a Goal

Another scenario, is if you score a goal against an equal or better opponent and you wish to ensure the players don’t get carried away, complament or too confident. By shouting ‘calm down’ immediately after scoring a goal, you ensure your players maintain the necessary focus to keep doing their job and remains concentrated in all aspects of play.

---

Primarily Intention: To try to avoid bookings, maintain concentration & focus after goal scored, reduce nervousness and anxiety

Successful reaction: Single-minded after the feedback, Calmed down, Confident
Unsuccessful reaction: Nervous, Frustrated, Pressured by the feedback, Uninterested, Overwhelmed by the feedback

---

No Pressure!

Managing Nervousness Amongst Your Players

At big events like a cup match or when facing a better team than yours, nervousness amongst your players can easily erupt.

In cases where you spot players are listening nervously or are showing signs of anxiety and nervousness in their body language, you might find shouting ‘No Pressure’ to the individual player it’s concerning.

No pressure can also be be used in circumstantes where you face a better opponent, or in cup matches and other important matches where the outcome of the match has major consequences by trying to reduce the anxiety level amongst your entire team to make the players stay more level-headed and concentrated.

In my FA Cup 4th round match against Man City when managing Crewe in League Two, my task was to reduce players nervousness both before the match and within the match by shouting ‘No Pressure’ towards the end of each half to ensure they are focus in some of the most important parts of the game.

The reaction from the players were overall positive with players getting single-minded, calmed down and more focused after the feedback.

When to shout ‘No Pressure’ to individual players?

A player who is playing out of position may get more nervous than the rest, meaning shouting No Pressure to the individual player as soon as you see his body language displays anxious or nervous erupts.

No pressure is also used when players’ body language is decribed as “pressured by the feedback”.

This type of shout can also be used in events where a player is playing out of position, either due to necessities, tactical solutions to combat a specific opponent or injury crisis which forces you to play someone in a weak position. If the player is awkward, unconvicning or makeshift, you can use ‘No Pressure’ to reduce his nervousness.

Successful reaction: Single-minded after the feedback, Calmed by the feedback,
Unsuccessful reaction: Overwhelmed by feedback. Pressured by the feedback

---

Focus!

Focus is probably one of the most difficult Football Manager shouts to get right. If you don’t issue it at the right moment, or in the right situation, 9/10 times you will probably get a negative reaction. The player’s might become nervous, frustrated or overwhelmed by the feedback if you issue it at the wrong moment

However, if you’re timing is right you should be able to see your players regaining their focus.

Personally, I shout ‘Focus’ towards the end of each half if the score is still a draw but you can also issue the shout to the team after a goal conceded, in important situations within the match such as a deadball situation. It could be a dangerous free-kick or an important corner.

By issuing this type of shout, you aim to regain focus after a negative spell where the team is playing poorly. It could be an individual mistake, the team suddenly making sloppy passes that gifts the opposition the possession, or an easy goal conceded which shows that the players are unfocused or lacks concentration.

It might be used in the latter stages of the match, for instance within the last 10 minutes of the match against a better opponent where the opposition has come to lots of chances and you are one goal ahead and needs your team to be focused for the final minutes of the match.

Focus can also be issued to the team if you should be so unlucky to get a player sent off after receiving a red card. Hopefully, the team will regain some focus and manage to play out the match without dropping their heads with only 10 men against opposition’s eleven.

In general, you should only use this type of shout to individual players who are unfocused but can also be issued to players who seems unconcentrated and makes mistakes.

Successful reaction: Single-minded after the feedback, Focused by the feedback, Seemed to gain focus, Looked more attentive
Unsuccessful reaction: Nervous, Overwhelmed by feedback. Pressured by the feedback

---

FAQ About Touchline Shouts

---

Conclusion

Touchline shouts can be the missing puzzle in the quest of getting your tactic to work. A major part of Football Manager is to manage the team’s and the players’ morale and happiness to get the best performance out of them. Shouts are a major part of that – that should not be neglected.

Through my research and testing, by strategically using touchline shouts at special occasions and scenarios you are able to score more goals, concede less or in general see your players turn in better performances. It might help you to keep a narrow lead, score that final winner goal or reduce pressure at important matches.

Every now or then, you might see negative reactions from your positive or negative criticism but overall you should not be afraid to use this tool to motivate your players. As the time goes by and you get to know your players better, you will discover that you are able to get out the very best performances from your players and that they get motivated and inspired by playing under your leadership.

I hope this guide has given you further tools to master the art of issuing touchline shouts on Football Manager by giving you an insight on when to shout and what shouts to issue at that specific moment. Personally, I believe the way I use shouts has helped me build a better momentum in my latest FM24 save resulting in guiding Crewe – a team predicted to finish on 20th place – to a current second place with 8 games remaining.