With the new installment of Football Manager, everybody wants to become the best manager of all time. That will naturally take time in game and requires lots of effort from players. These guides will help you to accelerate this process whilst we do the leg-work for you and give you the best tips for 2019. This week its Youth Scouting.

These guides on Youth Development will cover all areas of the game regarding producing young players. I plan to make a few of these articles as covering all the information in one article might be a bit overwhelming! I plan to make guides on the following topics and will link them as I complete them:

Introduction: Regens/Newgens and Youth Ratings for top Countries and Clubs.

LINK TO THAT ARTICLE: Football Manager 2019 Guides | Youth Development Scouting: Youth Intakes, What to look for in young players and how to sign them. Facilities: How to improve your facilities to maximize your youth academy. Development: How to grow and develop young talent and knowing when to offload.

Part 1: The stats to look for

Determination

In the game, most attributes (technical, mental and physical) are visible in game and players can see exactly what they are getting. However some attributes are hidden in the game but can be approximated.

Compare these two centre-backs from a youth intake: The first has low determination, natural fitness and key stats for defense where as the second player is better in every respect. A real difference in players to scout!

They are:

Ambition: How much a player wants to achieve success.

Controversy: Information on how is the measure of exactly how outspoken player is going to be with the press.

Dirtiness: How frequently player is going to look to break the rules to win in the match.

Important Matches: How effectively player deals while playing big, high-pressure matches.

Injury Proneness: Information on how likely player is to become getting injured while in the match.

Loyalty: This would be the way of measuring player’s wish to remain at his club. It could affect whether he stays at his club whenever a bigger team or perhaps a more financially rewarding offer occurs.

Pressure: A way of measuring player’s mental ability to manage difficult circumstances.

Professionalism: A way of measuring a player’s approach to work.

Sportsmanship: A way of measuring a player’s attitude when it comes to fair play. This illustrates just how moral player is going to be on the pitch.

Temperament: A way of measuring a player’s calmness while involved with specific match situations – things like tackles, fouls as well as bookings.

Versatility: Assesses how good player will perform in a different position, than his natural one and how fast he’ll get accustomed to new position/role.

All of these affect a player’s personality, as well as Determination. Determination is the only attribute that can be manipulated by a manager via mentoring in the new mentoring groups function in game. Determination is also a measure of how likely a player is to improve in training and will affect how likely he is give up in a game when they go behind. If you find a player who is very promising and has good stats other than their determination, its still worth buying because you can train it.

Natural Fitness

This is a fairly self-explanatory one; this determines how naturally fit a youngster is, and is very difficult to improve (hence the natural part). This is particularly good in the lower leagues when the difference in fitness is more noticeable. Natural fitness is harder to get around and tends to be associated with being injury prone. I don’t like signing players with Natural Fitness lower than 14/15.

Again another comparison between two youth intake players: Which one would you rather sign? Bear in mind that both are 16… I’d take the second!

Technical skills for role

This is just specific stats for specific roles, there are usually 3 or 4 I look for per position and like having them above average in younger players. Sometimes I need a player to fill a specific role, so I might prioritise heading on a striker in some teams where I want to play a target man.

Defence: Heading, Marking, Tackling

Midfield: (Defensive): Passing, First Touch, Work Rate

Midfield: (Offensive): Technique, Dribbling, Flair

Strikers: Finishing, Composure, Off the Ball

With Goalkeepers I like to have a balance of attributes as they tend to need all/most of them. Physical stats are always good. I find that players who have good physicals tend to better in the lower leagues, but youngsters will grow both in height and weight and as a result their physical attributes might change.

Part 2: How to sign youth intake players

Learn the Dates

Youth Intake players will always arrive around the same time. However its never actually the same date every year, but is always the same date in everyone’s save. To find the youth intake days, use this website. They are the same as in 2018 hence the URL.

https://www.passion4fm.com/football-manager-2018-newgens-dates-annual-youth-intake/

On the first day they still haven’t technically signed a contract as they are still on a youth contract, but will very shortly sign a contract. It is on the very first day that it is possible to poach players from other clubs on youth contract deals.

Offer them smart contracts, not good ones

When you see a good player that you want to snag from another club. You’ll be able to offer them a contract. Sometimes it’s too soon in their career so the player won’t be interested in signing for you. Don’t worry about this as you can’t do anything about it. However if you do find that hidden gem, to guarantee you sign them, look at this contract:

So this is a youth player I’ve spotted from Crewe, a very good side to poach players from. Its 1st March, the day when I can sign youth players for compensation. What do you notice about this wage offer? 16.25k per week?!?

No but check the details, he needs to play 30 games for that to kick in. As I’m Arsenal, 16.25k is nothing compared to what I could spend. Also if he players 30 1st team matches for me then he must be good enough to play and therefore worth the money. The agent will say ‘My client feels this is a very acceptable offer’ that implies that the player will likely choose your deal over their own clubs. You can also scout the player on the day, and then delay the confirmation of the deal until you’ve received a full scouting report.

This is a great skill for poaching players, and it doesn’t have to be in your intake day! During February/March I regularly pause on key dates and then scout the major leagues to find some hidden gems at some mediocre clubs. The more effort you put into the finding players, the better players you will find for better deals.

From this, you should be able to instantly spot exactly what young players are good for and how to sign players from other clubs on youth contracts.

As I do more research into the youth development aspect of this game. I may revisit this article and update where I see necessary. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you learnt something new!

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