ABOUT THE AUTHORS Daniel Monksfield

Dan is the 16 year old founder of Aid The Boss, a popular Football Manager 2011 blog

which focuses on serving the community with tips & downloads. He’s been an active FM

player since CM 03/04 and has a wealth of game experience.

Thomas Levin

With 10 years of CM/FM blogging under his belt, Thomas is the owner of FM Pundit, an

awesome FM11 blog which focuses on the strategic part of our beloved game. He has

developed a reputation around the community and can be seen on many of the forums,

helping out all with his advice on tactics, transfers, finances and strategy.

With special thanks to…

Jordan Cooper

Jordan is the site owner of popular Football Manager website FM-Britain - The Home

Nation of Football Manager Tactics. You can also find him on twitter @getsacked

Copyright © aidtheboss.com and the individual authors, 2011.

No part of this guide is to be reproduced without prior permission from the copyright owners.

Football Manager™ is a registered trademark of SEGA and Sports Interactive Games. Football Manager™ is owned and operated by SEGA and Sports Interactive Games

CONTENTS 1 - Developing a FM2011 Youth Team

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

Training ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………….5

Tutoring ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6

Loaning Out Youngsters ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 7

2 – Getting the Most Out of FM2011 Scouting

Utilising Scouting Staff ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10

Spotting the Best Youngsters …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11

Quick Scouting Tips ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14

3 – Best Players

Goalkeepers ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………17

Defenders …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………18

Midfielders ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20

Strikers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23

4 – Wonderkids & Future Stars

Goalkeepers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25

Defenders ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………........................................ 25

Midfielders ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 27

Strikers …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 29

5 – Freebies & Bargains

Free Players …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32

6 – Action Plan

FM2011 Action Plan & Useful Resources …………………………………………………………………………………………… 36

DEVELOPING A YOUTH TEAM We all love to find that hidden gem or wonderkid in Football Manager, that’s one of my favourite things

of the game. So, you’ve found a wonderkid, or signed some great youngsters from the wonderkid’s

section, they’re guaranteed to turn out to be the best player in the world right? Wrong.

There are many, many factors involved in developing youth players if you want them to hit their potential

ability. Potential ability you ask? Every player on FM has a CA (current ability) and PA (potential ability)

scored out of 200 points.

Current Ability: The higher the figure the better the player, CA ranges from 1-200 and is calculated from

the general score of attributes a player has. CA will increase as a player becomes more developed and

will usually decrease when a player is past his peak and his attributes will start to drop.

Potential Ability: Another hidden stat in FM, PA also ranges from 1-200, this shows the ability a player

could reach with the right development. Again, the higher the stat the better a player could be. Players

can also be assigned a negative PA in the editor. This means that every time you start a new game, the

players with a negative PA are randomly assigned a PA within a range.

- 10 = Random PA between 170 and 200

- 9 = Random PA between 150 and 180

-8 = Random PA between 130 and 160

-7 = Random PA between 110 and 140

-6 = Random PA between 90 and 120

-5 = Random PA between 70 and 100

-4 = Random PA between 50 and 80

-3 = Random PA between 30 and 60

-2 = Random PA between 10 and 40

-1 = Random PA between 0 and 30

TRAINING

Setting up the right training schedules for a youngster is vital, but can be quite difficult. You have to find

the right mixture of pushing them to improve their attributes, but not over-doing their workload at the

same time.

Look at a player’s attributes and specifically the area’s that you want them to improve in. For instance,

Neymar’s shooting on FM2011 isn’t the greatest, so you might want to up his shooting regime in the

training schedule, whilst lowering his workload on ball control if you think that it’s good enough.

For those who don’t know how to create training schedules, click onto the club your managing,

underneath the tabs navigate to the 2nd last button titled ‘Training’ and you will be presented with an in-

depth training screen. Go to the bottom and click new schedule, and get underway working on some

awesome schedules to help develop your youth!

For those who can’t be bothered creating their own schedules, check out the SI Games forums for already

made schedules available to download.

TUTORING

Tutoring is a great way to quickly develop youth players, it allows a more experienced member of your

squad to nurture a youngster at your club and allow the younger player to pick up the traits and PPM of

their tutor.

On FM2010 I had Aguero tutoring Romelu Lukaku and this done wonders, I pretty much instantly saw big

improvements from Lukaku, and he picked up 2 or 3 of Aguero’s world class PPM’s!

Tutoring lasts for a set period of time. It takes exactly 180 days from start to finish to tutor a youngster,

and in this time they will adapt to the experienced player’s way of playing. Make sure you pair players up

well! The only way a tutoring programme would finish early is if there was a personality clash.

Tip: Make sure you keep an eye out on both players personal status, every now and again, players can

have a personality clash, and if you carry on the tutor programme it will harm the youngster’s player

development.

To tutor players in Football Manager 2011, click on the profile of the player you want to tutor the

youngster, and then click have private chat. Navigate down to ‘Development’ and you will see the

tutoring option. Once pressed, you will see a screen like the one below:

From my personal experience, picking a specific option will not have a big impact on how it goes, but I

always go for the first option “as a senior member….” because I think this gives the senior player some

responsibility and they will react positively to this.

LOANING OUT YOUNGSTERS

When developing the young players of today to become the future of your club you take good care of

them while they are in your walls. But on strategy of developing these players quicker is to send them

looking for first team experience elsewhere. Therefore you will want the same level of care taken in your

players away from the club. It Is good to evaluate the side they are leaving for just as much as you would

evaluate your own training schedules.

Will your player get into the first team?

Gaining first team experience has to be the most important aspect of loaning a player out. If the player

isn’t going to get regular time on the pitch then they will be better staying with you Controlling yourself

how much time the players gets into the first team.

Consider where they are going to fit in to the squad you send them out too. How good are the other

players in comparison to your own? When sending your players out for free you will want something in

terms of value back.

Send players to playable leagues

The way that Football Manager works is when processing none playable leagues, or those not on full

detail it will generate results based mainly on reputation of the clubs involved to save processing power

and data size. The lack of detail that the game processors in terms of data will effect the development of

the loanee, so the more detail goes through each game the better it will develop your young players.

Training facilities

Sending a player out on loan you will want him to develop much quicker then he would if he stayed at

home. Young players once they hit 18 or 19 will be looking to gain first team experience and quickly

accelerate their attributes. The better the training facilities are the more likely it is that their attributes

will rise quicker. To send them to a club that has much substantially poorer training facilities then you

may be counter productive and better staying with you.

Coaching Staff

You will want to trust that your young players are in expert hands when they are away from the club.

Taking a look at the coaching staff before you allow the player to leave can give you an idea of how many

stars they will have in training. It is most important that they have a balanced team of coaches that will

allow development in different areas for your young players. But if you spend a lot of time developing

your own coaching team, you don’t want that time wasted with the young player out to substandard

coaching elsewhere.

I think that it would be great if you were able to gain friendships and connections with other coaches,

interact with them to ask the coach to concentrate on the development of certain areas when training

your player. This may work as a real pull factor when you want to loan people yourself, making

agreements to take good players on in order to use the expertise at your club, another way coaching

could be improved.

Affiliation links

It is handy to consider all of the above when looking for feeder clubs for your side. Having a variety of

feeder clubs to loan players out to could make it much easier to work in your own player development

strategy. Sending different levels of ability to clubs in different leagues. If these clubs are able to offer

balanced coaching with reasonable training facilities to develop a young player, giving plenty of first team

action to your player it is much easier to handle the strategy using affiliations.

Loaning players can be a considerable benefit to the clubs that get an extra player to bolster their squad.

But loans should also have a benefit for you, to help squad management and development when looking

for long term success.

The two obvious and most efficient ways to scout for young talent in Football Manager is to send your

club scouts out, or to search for the players yourself. In this section, we have put together some short,

useful tips for effectively scouting young talent.

UTILISING YOUR SCOUTING STAFF

Scouting is essential whether you are at the top or the bottom of the footballing world. Yet so many of us

seem to disregard it and just use the player search for our players or we sort out all our scouts and then

don’t listen to them at all.

1. Scouts are more than just two attributes

The most vital thing for any and every scout is his mental stats. A select few Mental stats at that, the first

stat I’m going to say is vital is a scouts adaptability.

Adaptability comes into effect when you send a scout to a country that he has little to no previous

knowledge of. A scout with higher adaptability will settle into his new country or region quicker and crack

on with his reports a lot quicker. A scout with lower adaptability will obviously take longer to settle and

he will take longer to produce reports of quality. So if you do bring in a scout and you have him scouting a

region or country he has no previous knowledge of or little knowledge of, give him time. Don’t keep

changing his assignments every two minutes, he will do a much better job if you actually give him a

chance and allow his knowledge to build.

Determination is also vital for a scout. The determination stat determines a scouts dedication to his job

and his dedication to finding you good players. A scout with higher determination will put more effort

into looking for players and more effort into compiling reports on players. On the flip side a less

determined scout will obviously not put as much effort into finding players and compiling the player

reports. This doesn’t mean that a scout with 20 Determination will find a host of world beaters in his first

few months of scouting. That depends on other factors such as his Adaptability, Judging Player Potential

(JPP), Judging Player Ability (JPA) and his country knowledge.

2. A scouts knowledge of a country is vital

For two main reasons;

1. Players appearing on the player search from that country

2. The quality of a scouts reports from that country

Generally a scout will be more effective in countries that he has knowledge of, but a scouts knowledge

can increase if the scout is based there for a while. The better scouts knowledge the better your clubs

knowledge, this means that more players from those countries will appear on your player search. A scout

with a higher knowledge will also be able to dive straight into scouting the country, whereas a scout with

less knowledge will obviously take more time as he will naturally have to take time to build his knowledge

of the country.

Say if you are managing in the Premiership you should try and get scouts with 14/15 + for these areas. In

the Championship try 13/14 +, in Leagues One and Two try for 11/12 + and when in the lower leagues try

for 10 and up. Obviously this won’t always be possible so eliminate stats you won’t need, for example

you won’t really need a good JCA stat if you have your scout just looking for U18s and if you can’t scout

foreign countries due to managing a small club you won’t really need a high Adaptability stat. But make

sure you always have at least one good scout, they can make or break you as a manager.

Now we can touch upon assignments for scouts. If you are looking for youth players make sure you

assign your scout to specifically look for U18s, U17s or U16s. If you fail to do this your scout will obviously

be wasting his and your time by looking at players over that age bracket and he will spend less time

looking for young players. If you can’t scout foreign countries and you are managing in the low leagues it

is worth having your scout just scouting your own nation with no specifics or scouting the next opposition

if you feel your backroom staff don’t give detailed enough advice, but if you have more than one scout

then it is worth having one of them scout the top divisions reserve league. In doing this he could find

prospective loan signings and cheap transfer signings.

In my opinion it is well worth getting as many scouts as you can. I like to have the majority of mine

scouting in regions for players U18, I only have a few scouting in domestic leagues and I have one scout

scouting the next opposition. Having too many scouts scouting competitions wastes them I think, as they

seem to collect fewer reports than they would scouting a nation or a region. Having one scout scouting

the next opposition will help you a lot when deciding on your tactics for the next game, you can find out

your opponents weaknesses to try and exploit them and their strengths so you can try and counter them.

SPOTTING THE BEST YOUNG PLAYERS

Before you can put together a good youth team you first need to know how to spot the talent of

tomorrow. As in the real world, much of spotting a wonderkid can be trial and error. Some will make it,

some will become squad fodder or sold on. But here are some of the key attributes and information to

look out for when picking up a player for the future.

Work Rate

It might pay to take attention to the articles from One-FM who put together a series of experimental

training articles. The first of the experiments looks at the effect of work rate.

Using their figures we can see the significant difference between two identical players, but for one with

low work rate and one with a high work rate:

Although not a test with much scientific merit it gives us an insight to how the game behaves, other

variables that we can’t control can also have an effect on the development, such as first team football,

training facilities and injuries. But nevertheless the difference between the two players is significant and

shows how work rate can affect your young players.

Work rate within games, given the player has the right physical strengths can be a fantastic attribute

allowing a player to try their best throughout the game. But he will also have the same attitude in

training putting 100% effort each time, to improve his own game. It is Debatable that Nani is the player

Ronaldo could have been, but only for Ronaldo’s work rate he is now regarded one of the best players in

the world, training hard in training to reach his potential.

Determination

An attribute that will determine how hard a player will commit themselves to the cause, but also to their

own success. Tied to hidden attribute such as ambition. Determination will help professional players from

being complacent and hopefully pull them through training to work harder and better in their careers.

This time using my own experiment and

numbers we see the influence of

determination. Both players starting the

game off in exactly the same way apart

from one with a determination of 20 and

the other of 1.

Both started at Everton until our ‘Low Determination’ player went to Manchester United a season in and

spent several seasons on loan before finding himself playing at Barcelona. But he broke into first team

late and but even in the peak of his career struggled to get a game for Barcelona. Whereas High

Determination stayed at Everton for many years waiting patiently for his chance which he grasped with

both hands, gaining many achievements before moving to Arsenal.

Although Low Determination was playing for the more reputable clubs, High Determination was truly the

better player, with the greater achievements and as you can see from the graph determination does go

along way for high and sustained ability.

Low Determination’s attributes were of one of a world class player, but High Determination was better in

each attribute, picked for more games, played consistently better and had double the caps Low

Determination had. Suggesting it is an important attribute for a successful professional.

Scouting Reports

In terms of player attributes we will assume that you already know which areas you will want to see a

decent foundation in relation to a players position. For example a ball winning midfielder you will want to

see good tackling. Good training and tutoring could help mould a players attributes to best suit his role.

Good scouts that can spot talent are vital if you are looking to spot the best young players. Scouts will be

able to sift through the hidden attributes in order to give you the best scouting reports that give you

enough information to keep you thinking, saving you the time of scouring through the database. Scouting

will give you an impression how a players will fit into your side and if he will make it.

Personality similar to work rate and determination as many of these are interlinked and can be a key

indicators of how your side is going to get on with each other, how or what they are motivated by. Many

professional sides will want ambitious, professional players who aren’t going to cause too many problems

in the dressing room or need little to keep them going in big games. The personality of your squad will be

determined about how you wish to play the game.

Taken from the hidden attributes, the best scouts will be able to give you good comparisons between

players you already have at the club and assess their potential ability and how they compare to your

current crop. This is where the scout reports could be vital. Be careful, your scout isn’t always right and

some of the most unlikely players can become incredibly useful in your team if played to their strengths

and CA/PA figures aren’t always the be all and end all. But sometimes the players that promise the most

may never make it.

This not only shows the value of good mental attributes for youngsters but for every player,

determination and work rate are two attributes that can hold providence in the youngest of players and

as you can see from the graphs, capturing a players with good mental attributes can help find the most

able players. Don’t forget the power of player tutoring, put the right formula together and you can also

develop these mental skills that will ensure a bright youth development.

QUICK SCOUTING TIPS

My personal favourite method of scouting is searching countries with high production of awesome

wonderkids (Brazil, Argentina etc.) and scouring some of the clubs in these countries for hidden gems.

This is an awesome method for finding out talented youngsters that nobody will have heard off, and

getting them before anywhere else. I often find hidden gems at the age of 15/16 years old in the squads

of Brazilian clubs such as Santos. I recommend trying this out every now and again because some of these

clubs can produce a fine quality of youngsters. However, it will be tricky to obtain work permits and you

may have to wait a season or two to sign the player.

Regen Dates

Something I’ve always found interesting is the dates that regens are created in Football Manager. If you

don’t know, regens are randomly created players within a save that are created to make sure there isn’t a

shortage of players. As the years go on, all of the top players will retire and this means new players must

come through the academies.

Here are the regen creation dates in FM11. These will be useful because it allows me to know exactly

when the regens are created, and gives me a chance to pick up the 15/16 year old wonderkids or hidden

gems before all the other teams can, and allow me to attempt to develop them into world class players!

01.01: Chile

02.01: Brazil

05.01: Iceland, Republic of Ireland

07.01: Finland

10.01: Colombia, Singapore

15.01: African teams (all but South Africa)

20.01: China PR, Norway

28.01: Peru

14.02: Belarus

09.05: Costa Rica

10.05: Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, St Vincent,

Guyana, Grenada, El Salvador, Cuba, Bermuda

07.06: Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzeg., Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova,

Montenegro, New Zealand, Georgia, Andorra, Albania, American Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,

Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Armenia, Malta

20.06: Australia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Northern Ireland, Scotland,

Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales

25.06: Austria, England

29.06: Slovakia

30.06: Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Cyprus, Indonesia,

01.07: Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania

07.07: Denmark, Netherlands

10.07: Serbia, Spain

15.07: Argentina, South Africa, India

20.07: Mexico

29.07: Poland

01.08: Uruguay

20.08: Mali

19.09: Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago

01.12: Sweden, Hong Kong

09.12: Canada, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, U.A.E, Uzbekistan,

Vietnam, Macau, Yemen, Thailand, Tajikistan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Palestine, Pakistan, Oman,

Northern Mariana Islands, Nepal, N. Korea, Mynamar, Mongolia, Maldives, Macau (China PR), Laos,

Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Guam, East Timor, Chinese Taipei, Cambodia, Brunei, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bahrain,

Bangladesh,

15.12: Malaysia,

27.12: Russia, Sth Korea, U.S.A

GOALKEEPERS

Goalkeepers are often looked past in Football Manager, but a good keeper could be vital in your

teams performance. They are the rock of the defence and a good goalkeeper could prove valuable

throughout the season as he saves shot upon shot.

Rene Adler – 25 - Bayern Levekusen - £6.5m

Hugo Lloris – 23 – Lyon - £8m

Igor Akinfeev – 24 - CSKA Moscow - £6.5m

Manuel Neuer – 24 – Schalke - £5.5m

Guillermo Ochoa – 24 - Club America - £1m

Sergio Asenjo – 21 Atletico Madrid - £3.5m

Doni – 30 – Roma - £4.2m

Salvatore Sirigu – 23 – Palermo - £3.7m

Joe Hart – 23 - Man City - £4m

Samir Handanovic – 25 – Udinese - £3.3m

Ralf Fahrmann 21 - Wolfsburg - - £1.3m

Stephane Ruffier – 23 – Monaco - £3.6m

Andrea Consigli – 23 Atalanta - £1.7m

Matej Delac – 17 – Vitesse - £3m

David De Gea – 19 - Atletico Madrid - £3m

Vincenzo Fiorillo – 20 – Spezia - £775k

DEFENDERS

Central Defenders, are the core of your defence and a good CB can be pivotal in your team‘s season. Wing

Backs can also play a great part in your teams success, but depend a lot on your tactics. Tweaking

your tactics plays a big role in the responsibilities of your players and setting up the right roles for

defenders can improve your clubs performance.

Left Backs

Aleksandar Kolarov – 24 - Man City - £19m

Gareth Bale – 20 – Tottenham - £6m

Federico Balzaretti – 28 – Palermo - £5.25m

Domenico Criscito – 23 – Genoa - £5.75m

Marcelo – 22 - Real Madrid - £6.75m

Fabio – 19 - Man Utd - £4.5m

Luca Antontini – 27 – Milan - £4.9m

Mattia Cassani – 26 – Palermo - £4.9m

Michel Bastos – 26 – Lyon - £7m

Diego Renan – 20 – Cruziero - £3.4m

Joe Mattock – 20 - West Brom - £2.1m

Right Backs

Davide Santon – 19 – Inter - £5.5m

Rafinha – 24- Genoa - £4.7m

Darijo Srna – 28 – Shakhtar - £6.75m

Lassana Diarra – 25 - Real Madrid - £7.5m

Lorenzo De Silvestri – 22 – Fiorentina - £4.5m

Rafael – 19 - Man Utd - £4.5m

Cesar Azpilicueta – 20 – Marseille - £5m

Alexandr Anyukov – 27 – Zenit - £6.25m

Daniele Bonera – 29 – Milan - £5.25m

Sebastian Corchia – 19 - Le Mans - £1.5m

Centre Backs

Nicolas Otamendi – 22 – Porto - £3.2m

Mamadou Sakho – 20 – PSG - £5.5m

Jan Vertonghen – 23 – Ajax - £3.2m

Lucio – 32 – Inter - £6.25m

Giorgio Chillieni – 25 – Juventus - £9.75m

Nedum Onuoha – 23 – Sunderland - £3.6m

Felipe – 25 – Fiorentina - £4.6m

Mirel Radoi – 29 - Al Hilal - £2.7m

Federico Fazio – 23 – Sevilla - £3.4m

Sami Khedira – Stuttgart

Marc Muniesa – 18 – Barcelona - £2.5m

Micah Richards – 22 - Man City - £4.7m

Gerard Pique – 23 – Barcelona - £14.75m

Breno – 20 -Bayern Munich - £3.9m

Thiago Heleno – 21 – Cruzeiro - £2.8m

Cristian Zapata – 23 – Udinese - £4.3m

Simon Kjaer – 21 – Wolfsburg - £4.6m

Rafael Miranda – 25 – Maritimo - £850k

David Luiz – 23 – Benfica – £2.9m

Thiago Silva – AC Milan

Gerson – 17 – Gremio - £450k

Kyriakos Papadopoulos – 18 – Olympiakos – £2m

Nelson Rivas – Inter - £4m

Naldo – 27 - Werder Bremen - £5.25m

Vincent Kompany – 24 - Man City - £4.9m

Gonzalo Rodriguez – 26 – Villarreal - £3.4m

MIDFIELDERS

Well what can we say about midfielders? Holding the defence together and tearing the opposition apart,

a good midfielder really can do wonders. This list is targeted for those with a bit of money, but we have

added in some awesome players who can be picked up for well under £10m.

Left Mids

Juan Angel Albin – 23 – Getafe - £1.9m

Zoran Tosic – 23 - CSKA Moscow - £4.4m

Juan Manuel Vargas – 26 – Fiorentina - £7.5m

Antonio Cassano – 27 – Sampdoria - £15.25m

Ibrahim Afellay – 24 – PSV - £2.3m

Sebastian Giovinco – 23 – Parma - £6.25m

Stevan Jovetic – 20 – Fiorentina - £8m

Mirko Vucinic – 26 – Roma - £12.25m

Danny – 26 – Zenit - £5.5m

Franck Ribery – 27 - FC Bayern - £14.5m

Mesut Ozil – 21 - Real Madrid - £9.25m

Angel Di Maria – 22 - Real Madrid - £6.5m

Adam Johnson – 22 - Man City - £7m

Santiago Cazorla – 25 – Villareal - £7.25m

Right Mids

Jesús Navas – 24 – Sevilla - £10m

Yoann Gourcuff – 23 – Lyon - £9m

Arjen Robben – 26 - FC Bayern - £19m

Pedro – 22 – Barcelona - £9m

Simone Pepe – 26 – Juventus - £6.75m

Jose Sosa – 25 – Napoli - £6.75m

Theo Walcott – 21 – Arsenal - £6.5m

Marko Marin – 21 - Werder Bremen - £4.4m

Steven Pienaar – 28 – Everton - £3.6m

Stephane Sessegnon – 26 – PSG - £4.2m

Simao – 30 - Atletico Madrid - £3.7m

Aaron Lennon – 23 – Tottenham - £5.5m

Maxi Rodriguez – 29 – Liverpool - £5m

Alexis Sanchez – 21 – Udinese - £7m

Chinedu Obasi – 24 - FC Bayern - £4.9m

Defensive Mids

Daniele De Rossi – 26 - Roma - £12.75m

Felipe Melo – 26 – Juventus - £6.75m

Jeremy Toulalan – 26 – Lyon - £8.5m

Miguel Veloso – 24 – Genoa - £6.25m

Etienne Capoue – 21 – Toulouse - £3m

Moussa Sissoko – 20 – Toulouse - £5.5m

Mohammed Sissoko – 25 – Juventus - £8m

Lorenzo Crisetig – 17 – Inter - £850k

Bastian Schweinsteiger – 25 – Bayern - £10.5m

Ever Banega – 22 – Valencia - £5.75m

Lars Bender – 21 – Leverkusen - £3.4m

Fernando Gago – 24 - Real Madrid -£3.5m

Claudio Marchisio – 24 – Juventus - £7.75m

Ignacio Camacho – 20 - Atletico Madrid - £775k

Tinga – 19 – Palmeiras - £2.6m

Sandro – 21 – Tottenham - £8m

Attacking Mids

Pablo Piatti – 21 – Almeria - £3.6m

Sofiane Feghouli – 20 – Valencia - £1.5m

Stefan Defour – 22 – Standard - £1.8m

Diego – 25 – Wolfsburg - £6.75m

Marek Hamsik – 22 – Napoli - £9.25m

Axel Witsel – 21 – Standard - £1m

Joao Moutinho – 23 – Sporting - £3.8m

Carlos Eduardo – 22 – Rubin - £5.5m

Paulo Henrique – 20 – Santos - £3.8m

Ismail Aissati – 21 – Ajax - £2.5m

Riccardo Montolivo – 25 – Fiorentina - £9.25m

Alan Dzagoev – 20 - CSKA Moscow - £6m

Miralem Pjanic – 20 – Lyon - £6m

Toni Kroos – 20 - FC Bayern - £5.5m

Renato Augusto – 22 - Leverkusen - £4.2m

STRIKERS

The match-winners, the game deciders, the boys that possess the lethal touch. These are some of our

favourite strikers on Football Manager 2011. Admittedly, they are all quite expensive; however, if you

want a world class striker that will rocket your team to success look no further!

Gonzalo Higuain – 22 - Real Madrid - £17.75m

Sergio Aguero – 22 - Atletico Madrid - £16.25m

Mario Balotelli – 19 - Man City – £24.5m

Pato – 20 – Milan - £15.75m

Karim Benzema – 22 - Real Madrid - £10.75m

Goran Pandev – 26 – Inter - £10.5m

Edinson Cavani – 23 – Napoli - £8.5m

Marco Borriello – 28 – Roma - £8.5m

Bojan – 19 – Barcelona - £7m

Ezequiel Lavezzi – 25 – Napoli - £7.5m

Edin Dzeko – 24 – Wolfsburg - £7.75m

Fabio Quagliarella – 27 – Juventus - £9.5m

Alexandr Kerzhakov – 27 – Zenit - £7.25m

Juan Manuel Mata – 22 – Valencia - £6.75m

Thomas Muller – 20 - FC Bayern - £6.5m

Lisandro Lopez – 27 – Lyon - £6.25m

Robert Acquafresca – 22 – Cagilari - £6.5m

Amauri – 30 – Juventus - £7m

Mario Gomez – 24 - FC Bayern - £6.25m

Jeremy Menez – 23 – Roma - £6.25m

Rodrigo Palacio – 28 – Genoa - £6m

After doing a bit of research and visiting many football manager forums, I have put together a list of some

of the young talents in Football Manager 2011. This list has taken me a couple of hours to make. Finding

that youngster that turns out to be amazing is one of the best aspects of the game, and in my opinion

makes you a very proud manager. The players are grouped in positions and I have highlighted my

personal favourites in the list.

GOALKEEPERS

Matej Delac – 17 – Vitesse - £3m

David De Gea - 19 – Atletico Madrid - £2.8m

Vincenzo Fiorillo – 20 – Sampdoria - £775k

Alphonse Areola – 17 – PSG - £650k

Luis Guilherme – 18 – Botafogo - £450k

David Ospina – 21 – Nice - £2.7m

Zacharie Boucher – 18 - £675k

Andrea Seculin – 19 – Fiorentina – £650k

Sinan Bolat – 21 – Standard - £600k

DEFENDERS

Davide Santon – 19 – Inter - £8m

Cesar Azpilicueta – 20 – Marseille - £4.9m

Fabio – 19 – Man Utd - £4.4m

Diego Renan – 20 – Cruzeiro - £2.9m

Mamadou Sakho – 20 – PSG - £5.25m

Nicolas Otamendi – 22 – Porto - £3.2m

Gareth Bale – 20 – Tottenham - £6m

Chris Smalling – 20 – Man Utd - £7m

Rafael – 19 – Man Utd - £4.9m

Marc Muniesa – 18 – Barcelona - £2.1m

Phil Jones – 18 – Blackburn - £3.9m

Mark Beevers – 20 – Sheff Wed - £725k

Sebastian Corchia – 19 – Le Mans - £1.5m

Loic Nestor – 21 – Le Harve - £1.2m

Breno – 20 – FC Bayern - £3.8m

Mario Fernandes – 19 – Gremio - £3.3m

Ezequiel Munoz – 19 – Palermo - £3.1m

Tamas Kadar – 20 – Newcastle - £2.3m

Kyriakos Papadopoulos – 18 – Schalke - £1.7m

Danny Wilson – 18 – Liverpool - £2m

Joe Mattock – 20 – West Brom - £2.1m

Serge Aurier – 17 – Lens - £2.1m

Guillermo Burdisso – 21 – Roma - £2.4m

Leonel Galeano – 18 – Independiente - £1.7m

Mateo Musacchio – 19 – Villarreal - £4.1m

Mathias Jorgensen – 20 – FC Kobenhavn - £1m

Daniel Carrico – 21 – Sporting - £3.1m

Jerome Boateng – 21 – Man City - £10.75m

Romario – 16 - Vitoria - £375k

Ryan Bertrand – 20 – Chelsea - £2.5m

MIDFIELDERS

Coutinho – 18 – Inter - £5.5m

Adem Ljajic – 18 – Fiorentina - £4.3m

Franco Zuculini – 19 - £3m

Bebe – 19 – Man Utd - £7.5m

Lewis Holtby – 19 – Mainz - £4.2m

Georginio Wijnaldum – 19 - £2.9m

Sandro – 21 – Tottenham - £8m

Steven Defour – 22 – Standard - £1.8m

Martin Galvan – 17 – Cruz Azul

Aaron Ramsey – 19 – Arsenal - £5.25m

Marko Marin – 21 – Werder Bremen - £4.4m

Carlos Eduardo – 22 – Rubin - £5.5m

Giuliano – 20 – Internacional - £3.9m

Sotiris Ninis – 20 – Panathinaikos - £2.5m

Henri Saivet – 19 – Bordeaux - £2.4m

Misrolav Stoch – 20 – Fenerbace - £3.7m

Zezinho – 18 – Santos - £1.9m

Sergio Canales – 19 – Castilla - £5.75m

Fabian Delph – 20 – Aston Villa - £4.6m

Clement Grenier – 19 – Lyon - £1.7m

Gael Kakuta – 19 – Chelsea - £1.6m

Miralem Pjanic – 20 – Lyon - £6m

Oscar – 18 – Internacional - £1.8m

Toni Kroos – 20 – FC Bayern - £5.5m

Fausto Rossi – 19 – Vicenza - £725k

Jonjo Shelvey – 18 – Liverpool - £1.7m

Jack Rodwell – 19 – Everton - £5m

Haris Vuckic – 17 – Newcastle - £1.6m

David Petrucci – 18 – Man Utd - £950k

Lorenzo Crisetig – 17 – Inter - £850k

Jack Wilshere – 18 – Arsenal - £5m

Gai Assulin – 19 – Free Agent - £0

Tinga – 19 – Palmeiras - £2.6m

Nuri Sahin – 21 – Dortmund - £4.4m

Marco Verratti – 17 – Pescara - £700k

Diego Perotti – 21 – Sevilla - £5.75m

James Rodriguez – 18 – Porto - £550k

Vladimir Weiss – 20 - Man City – £3.8m

Ryder Matos – 17 – Fiorentina – £1.3m

Douglas Costa – 19 – Shakhtar - £3.7m

Levan Kenia – 19 – Schalke – £3.1m

Alex Teixeira – 20 – Shakhtar - £3.7m

Willian – 21 – Shakhtar – £3.8m

Mesut Ozil – 21 – Real Madrid - £9.25m

STRIKERS

Mario Balotelli – 19 – Man City - £24.5m

Victor Moses – 19 – Wigan - £2.5m

Nile Ranger – 19 – Newcastle - £3m

Nathan Delfouneso – 19 – Aston Villa - £3.8m

Jonathan Cristaldo – 21 – Velez - £1.8m

Neymar – 18 – Santos - £5.5m

Bojan – 19 – Barcelona - £7m

Daniel Pacheco – 19 – Liverpool - £3.4m

Iker Muniain – 17 – Athletic - £3.8m

Guilherme – 21 – Dynamo Kyiv - £4m

Yannis Tafer – 19 – Toulouse - £2m

Andrej Kramaric – 19 – Dinamo - £950k

Dentinho – 21 – Corinthians - £3.2m

Keirison – 21 – Santos - £2.6m

Mattia Destro – 19 – Genoa - £1.8m

Romelu Lukaku – 17 – Anderlecht - £1.3m

Eden Hazard – 19 – Lille - £5.75m

Son Heung-Min – 17 – HSV - £3m

Borja Baston – 17 – Atletico Madrid – £1.5m

Khouma Babacar – 17 – Fiorentina -£3.8m

Yaya Sanogo – 17 – Auxerre - £1.9m

Abel Hernandez – 19 – Palermo - £9.25m

Thomas Muller – 20 – FC Bayern - £6.5m

Alberto Paloschi – 20 – Parma - £5.75m

Federico Macheda – 18 – Man Utd - £4.9m

Pato – 20 – Milan - £15.75m

Daniel Sturridge – 20 – Chelsea - £4.8m

Carlos Vela – 21 – Arsenal - £4.75m

Tomas Necid – 20 – CSKA Moscow - £2.3m

Jose Baxter – 18 – Everton - £1.2m

Vaclav Kadlec – 18 – Sparta Prague - £950k

Lacina Traore – 19 – Cluj - £975k

Deniz Naki – 20 – St Pauli - £2.1m

Cheik Gueye – 18 – Free Agent - £0

Leigh Griffiths – 19 – Dundee - £250k

Do you prefer managing lower league teams or clubs with a low budget? Look no further than this list! I

have collected some top player’s in FM2011 who you can pick up for absolutely nothing! Some of them

could prove tricky to sign (specifically the more well-known), but it’s definitely worth a shot as you have

nothing to lose!

Rivaldo – Brazil – 38

Robert Pires – France – 36

Ebou Sillah – Gambia – 30

Tomas Locatelli – Italy – 35

Jeremie Aliadiere – France – 27

Sylvain Wiltord – France – 36

Salva – Spain – 35

Christian Giminez – Argentina – 35

Julio Cruz – Argentina – 35

Dida – Brazil – 36

Michael Rensing – Germany – 26

Sylvinho – Brazil – 36

Ibrahima Faye – Senegal – 30

Liam Rosenior – England – 25

Abubakari Yakubu – Ghana – 28

Rigbert Song – Camerron – 32

Jose Goncalves – Portugal – 24

Jay DeMerit – USA – 30

Enzo Maresca – Italy – 30

Marko Babic – Croatia – 29

Bernard Mendy – France – 28

Kader Toure – Togo – 31

Patrick Muller – Switzerland – 33

Szilard Nemeth – Slovakia – 32

Pape Diop – Senegal – 35

Fabian Carini – Uruguay – 35

Jacek Krzynowek – Poland – 34

Stern John – Trinidad – 33

Nashat Akram – Iraq – 25

Tony Sylva – Senegal – 35

Ervin Skela – Albania – 33

Mustapha Hadji – Morroco - 38

To summarise the book, we thought it would be cool to put together a mini action plan on helping

you become a better manager, including all of the tips you have picked up in this book in a summary

format.

FM2011 ACTION PLAN

1. Start your game and sort your formation out, choosing who you want to keep and who needs to go

2. Send your scouts out and browse South American clubs for hidden gems

3. Use scout reports to get feedback from your staff, and sign any youngsters you believe have potential

4. Decide which youngsters you will be loaning out, and which youngsters will be staying

5. Choose the club you will be loaning them out to carefully

6. Set up effective training schedules for your youngsters and use tutor programs to get the best results

7. Give your youngsters first team football every now and again, bring them on in dominant games etc.

8. Tweak your tactics until you decide on the one best suited for your squad

9. Fast forward 3 or 4 seasons and all your youngsters are world class, and you will be the best club in the

world, hopefully!

USEFUL RESOURCES

Here are some awesome Football Manager resources for you to check out to even further your

knowledge of the game and become an even better manager.

Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide – My review of the monster 132 page walkthrough guide for FM2011.

It’s an awesome e-book packed with even more hints & tips, with in-depth guides to analysis, touchline

instructions, and scouting dynamics. Definitely worth a read.

FM-Britain – Home Nation of Football Manager Tactics. FMB is a wonderful website with the very best

tactical articles. If you want to know more about the tactical side of FM, and outsmart your opponents in

the game then FM-Britain is definitely recommended.

FM Pundit – Along with FMB, this is another one of my favourite Football Manager websites. FM Pundit is

a blog which takes a unique approach at the strategic side of FM2011. Not just by telling you what to do

but by offering discussion, advice and opinions about the game which can aid your own decision making.