Training has changed in FM 2013, there are no more individual schedules you can create for defenders, midfielders and so on. And I think it’s a much more realistic and simpler way to deal with training in the game, but I understand why many of you are a bit confused. Since quite a few readers have requested a FM 2013 training guide, I decided to do it earlier than planned. Today I will be trying to explain how to set up FM 2013 training, with a special part of the post dedicated to match preparation.
As I said, there are no more individual schedules now. The main part of training in FM 2013 is general training, where your team trains as a whole and as all real life teams do. Let’s see what this is about.
General training in FM 2013
If you go to your squad’s training screen you will see this: a calendar with a few settings above it.
The main part is on the top left hand side, where you can pick the type of training you want the team to perform and the intensity. On the left side you can set up the training parameters in advance for the future weeks.
There are seven types of training you can choose from in FM 2013:
- Balanced
- Fitness
- Tactics
- Ball Control
- Defending
- Attacking
- Team Cohesion
And there are five levels of intensity:
- Very Low
- Low
- Average
- High
- Very High
My advice:
Use fitness training with high or very high intensity during pre-season or during winter breaks if available in our league, in order to prepare your team for the long season ahead. Alternatively, if you have signed many new players during the transfer window, you might want to set the focus to team cohesion in order to help your squad gel.
Also, when you try a new tactic for your team you might want to change the focus to tactics for a while. The rest of the focus settings depend on your team and style of play: if you want to build a technical team with good ball possession then you might want to switch the focus to ball control, or if you want to have a sturdy defensive side you can choose defending and so on.
However, you have to know that if you choose tactics that doesn’t mean that the team will train only on tactics, they will spend time on the other areas as well, but with most of the time on tactics.
For a regular side that plays decent football I suggest setting the focus to balanced and the intensity to average during the season. You might want to lower the intensity though if you notice that your players are particularly tired.
Match preparation in FM 2013
First you have to decide whether you allow your lads a day’s rest before and after a match, using the check boxes on the top left hand side of the screen. My suggestion is to give them a day’s rest after a match and only give them an extra day off before matches if the squad is suffering from fatigue.
You can set the focus of the match training using the drop-down menu, with six available settings:
- Tactics Only
- Teamwork
- Defensive Positioning
- Attacking Movement
- Defending Set Pieces
- Attacking Set Pieces
My advice:
Focus on tactics only when you want to improve familiarity with a new tactic you are trying to set up. Focus on teamwork when you need your squad to gel. The other four settings are easy to understand, you just have to see what doesn’t work in your team’s play and focus on that particular area. My suggestion is to focus on defending set pieces for some time because generally that’s the main source of goals your team lets in.
As for the slider in the top centre of the screen, that’s where you can set how much time is spent on match preparation and how much for general training. My suggestion is to have that set at 30% during the season and 10 to 20% during pre-season.
Individual training in FM 2013
The second part of training in Football Manager 2013 is individual training, the place where you can fine tune the development of your players.
The individual training screen has two main settings: focus and intensity. The focus area has two main settings, you can choose to have your player focus on learning a tactical role (like trequartista for instance) or you can have him develop one of his attributes. The following attributes can be improved using individual training focus:
- Corners
- Crossing
- Dribbling
- Finishing
- First Touch
- Free Kicks
- Heading
- Long Shots
- Long Throws
- Marking
- Passing
- Penalties
- Tackling
- Technique
- Composure
- Off the Ball
- Positioning
- Agility
- Balance
- Jumping
- Quickness
- Stamina
- Strength
These are pretty much self-explanatory, you will have a player focus on learning the trequartista role if you play him in that role and he’s not fully familiar with it or you can train him to develop a specific attribute which you think will help him improve his performances.
Then you have to decide on the intensity, and there are three levels:
- Light
- Average
- Heavy
My advice is to leave it at average for first team players and only use heavy intensity when you want to boost a specific attribute on one of your young prospects.
You can also have your players learn a new position or a new preferred move using the drop-down menus on the right side of the individual training screen.
The last tab in the training screen is the coaches tab, where you can assign your coaches to specific training categories. All that is covered in the FM 2013 coaches guide, so you’ll need to read that if you haven’t already.
That’s about it, feel free to ask any questions in the comments area.
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Gaurav Chaddah
25 октября, 2012 at 16:07
This a an excellent guide Johnny, I wasn’t quite sure with all the new training things and all that but this has helped a great deal, cheers mate, really good read and a great help.
Johnny Karp
25 октября, 2012 at 16:21
Always happy to help mate, no problem at all.
TheZiggy
25 октября, 2012 at 17:01
Kind of strange not to have all the schedules, but to be honest they were a real pain, especially as I always set them myself. Never did download any set from somebody else.
I like the way you can have the rest days before and after matches, as you feel is needed. Decided to set Aston Villa to focus on Defensive Positioning before playing Arsenal at home. They looked much better at the back, and still created going forward, and really should have won what turned out to be a goalless draw. In FM12 when I set defensive positioning, we never seemed to be able to attack at all, so good to see it become a useful option at last.
Johnny Karp
25 октября, 2012 at 18:05
It looked a bit weird to me at first too but it’s much more realistic I think, I’ve never seen defenders training separately from midfielders in real life football to be honest.
TheZiggy
25 октября, 2012 at 21:11
13 must be my lucky number. 12 games, 6 draws and 6 losses, about 4 of those really unlucky not to win. Match 13 I finally got a victory with Villa and then followed it up with another. Feels like a miracle, but the team is at last managing to look more like they’ve seen a football before.
Darren Smith
25 октября, 2012 at 20:21
Definitely more realistic Johnny and just another feature everyone will have to adapt too. We all have different styles and how you train may vary on your tactic but this is a very good guide outlining everything you could do with the new system…I predict a lot of balanced training from my end :)
Nathan
26 октября, 2012 at 10:16
I wouldn’t be surprised if focusing on a tactical role will improve the attributes which are required to excel in that tactical role, for example getting a player to focus on inside forward will increase his speed, finishing, crossing etc. Can you confirm this? For me it makes the most sense anyway. So if you use a player as an advanced playmaker in games and don’t need to train a specific attribute, you set him to train advanced playmaker role.
Johnny Karp
26 октября, 2012 at 10:48
I am not sure, so I can’t confirm that. It would make sense though.
Chai Chien Liang
29 октября, 2012 at 01:51
Some nice insight into the new training system, nicely done Johnny
This is a bit embarassing, but how do I get into the individual training menu?
Johnny Karp
29 октября, 2012 at 06:21
Top right, you should see «individual training» over there, next to «coaches».
vaibhavc
29 октября, 2012 at 09:48
Thanks Johnny. I was struggling to understand the training system. You have helped me so much!
Johnny Karp
29 октября, 2012 at 11:13
No problem at all mate, glad I could help.
Simon
3 ноября, 2012 at 15:40
What will happen if you leave the training and match prep in your assistants capable hands? I for example have Johan Cruyff at Barca and he is epic on tactics.
Johnny Karp
3 ноября, 2012 at 15:58
Nothing wrong should happen.
Andrew Rodarme
5 ноября, 2012 at 03:18
Hey guys, I can’t find the individual training screen at all. Can someone please, please tell me how to get to it??? Thanks!
Johnny Karp
5 ноября, 2012 at 06:29
Top right, under training, there should be «individual» right next to «coaches».
Bhargav
5 ноября, 2012 at 05:13
Awesome guide, Johnny. Sweet and simple!
Johnny Karp
5 ноября, 2012 at 06:30
Thanks buddy, I like simple things :)
Pedro
7 ноября, 2012 at 02:59
This new training system its more realistic, but in real life a defender can have amazing ball control and pass without losing any skill in tackling and marking of course, but in FM with PA system, surely defenders will lose some of that CA learning other skills not related to defense.
Sorry for my english, thank you
Johnny Karp
7 ноября, 2012 at 07:51
Skills are not gained and maintained only through training, playing football matches is training as well. So I doubt they would lose their skills to be honest.
Pedro
7 ноября, 2012 at 14:54
I expressed myself wrong, what im trying to say is that they are gaining CA with this other unrelated defense skills, taking the space the would need to gain more skills in tackling and marking, etc…
Jeff
28 ноября, 2012 at 22:27
I’m having trouble sorting out how to give my players a day off after a match. I understand there should be tick boxes on the top left hand side. I’m on the team training screen and I can’t find them.
Also the slider for scheduling desn’t seem to work.
I’m managing a part time semi pro team and I’m in preseason if that makes any difference. Srry for such basic question but I’ve just switched from FM2011 and finding it a bit strange.
Johnny Karp
29 ноября, 2012 at 07:00
That is exactly because your players are on part time contracts. Once you will have them on professional contracts you will have those options in the training screen.
Jeff
29 ноября, 2012 at 10:19
Thanks, that explains it. Now all I need is some money.
micul_
10 декабря, 2012 at 18:40
When it is checked Runs Match as assistant takes care of everything that is training? (General training, scheduling and Match Training)
Johnny Karp
10 декабря, 2012 at 18:45
No, just match training.
micul_
10 декабря, 2012 at 19:05
Thanks a lot Johnny.
Jamie
22 декабря, 2012 at 19:02
Hi Johnny, on my save, I have training levels set to high, progress is good, but you get the maverick players not training high enough and they lose loads of attributes, is this because of their personality or I’m training them too much?
Johnny Karp
22 декабря, 2012 at 19:05
Remember that playing matches is the best training, I wouldn’t set the general training to high. But that’s just my view.
Jamie
22 декабря, 2012 at 19:27
Oh right ok, maybe that is the reason (although alot of them were regular starters) I shall now set to average. Great site by the way, you guys are great
K7
10 января, 2013 at 11:58
What is the different between match training (at the top right) and match preparation (at the calendar)..?..please advice..
Johnny Karp
10 января, 2013 at 12:25
It’s basically the same thing. At the top right you can set the default match training and you can select which type of training you want before each match in the calendar. If you don’t change those in the calendar, default match training will be performed.
K7
10 января, 2013 at 12:37
I see…thank’s for the advice..usually how long our new tactics will gel/full with our team?(sorry for my english)
Johnny Karp
10 января, 2013 at 13:11
2 to 3 months usually, depends on how many games you play with that tactic.
Charlie
13 февраля, 2013 at 02:03
Very good guide, but I have one good question.
For your U18 side, is it better to to train them on the Fitness general training schedule all season long since most youth players have terrible fitness stats, most notably acc/pace. What do you think?
Johnny Karp
13 февраля, 2013 at 06:58
Well, if ALL your under 18 players have weak physical attributes, then you might want to do that. But I prefer having the general training set to balanced and work on specific weaknesses in a player through individual training.
lee
22 февраля, 2013 at 19:15
Hi, can one of you please help me with regards to training young talent into world class players. Preferred moves, focus training etc. At the moment i have Mario gotze, isco, and yan m,vila. These are all young, but still very good players. But i know there attributes are capable of being better through my previous saves, Whats the best way in getting there attributes up?? Any advice would be appreciated.
Johnny Karp
23 февраля, 2013 at 17:31
We do have a special guide for that: https://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2012/12/fm-2013-guide-how-to-develop-youth-players/
Jack
20 апреля, 2013 at 22:32
I have a question please. Does turning each player’s individual training intensity to average help them progress better than if they’re set to heavy? It’s just that I’ve always set them to heavy and sometimes, for no reason whatsoever, players’ ratings just plummet. I bollock them for not training hard enough but I’m now wondering, having read this guide, that it might actually be my fault. Cheers. Great guide by the way.
Johnny Karp
21 апреля, 2013 at 09:24
You have to be careful with that, especially with young players. Personally I never set training levels to heavy, I always keep them at average.
Jack
21 апреля, 2013 at 17:32
Do you suggest I switch them to average then? Have you ever had problems with players’ attributes dropping for no reason? It’s pretty annoying tbh.
Johnny Karp
21 апреля, 2013 at 17:44
Attributes can decline for various reasons (during pre-season, due to age, due to lack of matches, due to injuries) but I’ve never seen them drop for no reason. As for the training level, I have told you how I play, it’s your decision if you want to do the same or not.
Jack
21 апреля, 2013 at 18:45
It’s just strange because I try my best to to keep players in the best possible condition, yet it still happens.
I’ll give it try and hopefully there’ll be some improvements. Cheers for that.
Gargantuan
12 июня, 2013 at 17:28
Is it wise to always take your assistent managers advice regarding the focus area of individual training?
Johnny Karp
12 июня, 2013 at 20:34
Generally the advice is good, at least that’s what I’ve seen while playing the game, but you always have to keep your eyes open and make a decision yourself become some suggestions from the staff in that area are not as good sometimes.
umorni bluz
11 сентября, 2013 at 15:17
Greetings friend!
Great article about training, but I do have a question (and my apologies if it’s stupid): When you write about the «slider bar» and the percentages, is a 100% towards Less Match Training or More Match Training?
Thanks in advance!
Johnny Karp
11 сентября, 2013 at 15:39
100% is towards more. It is confusing indeed, they should have put less towards the left and more towards the right.
Thomas
12 сентября, 2013 at 15:47
I’m having the same problem at International level. I select, lets say, ‘Attacking Movement’. When I click on another screen and go back to the tactic screen, the ‘Attacking Movement’ option is replaced by the’Tactics Only’ feature. I tried this for the other options, yet it still reverts to the Only’ option by default. This does not make sense as I have unchecked the ‘Runs Match Training’ option in the staff responsibilities screen. Please help.
Johnny Karp
12 сентября, 2013 at 16:23
Not sure but I think this might help: https://www.footballmanagerstory.com/fm-2013-how-to-fix-training-glitch/