Hello and welcome along to this special edition of the blog. As we all gear up to the forthcoming release of FM22, I thought it might be interesting to have a look at how the world of Football Manager sometimes collides with the 3-dimensional world outside our bedroom windows, and the results are staggering (sorry for adding that last bit, I thought it might make the intro sound more click-baity).
Both in terms of Football Manager, and in the real-world clubs we all support around the globe, we're all ultimately in search of the same thing: success. What success looks like is different depending on your circumstances, but it still all boils down to winning football matches, whether that's to win a championship, to secure enough points to avoid relegation, or to navigate your way to a cup final.
Over the years we've seen an undeniable correlation between results on the pitch, and money into the club. In other words, usually more money equals more football matches won. Invariably, it's the richest clubs that secure all the silverware, and even at the other end of the scale, it's often the club's that have more financial backing than their opponents around them, that survive relegations.
Of course there are no hard and fast rules, and in the past few years we've seen some anomalies that have broken the mould. Leicester City winning the Premier League is an obvious example, as is LOSC Lille securing the Ligue 1 title last season. And, as you've probably guessed given the title of this blog, I'm throwing in West Ham's qualification for Europa League football as a bit of a shock as well. In all three of these cases, all three clubs went from a significant low point, to incredible success, within a single season.
Following Leicester's promotion to the Premier League in 2014, the club laboured to a 14th place finish in their first season back in the top flight, only to then be crowned champions a year later. LOSC Lille narrowly avoided relegation in 2018, to then go on and finish 2nd, 4th and 1st in the three seasons that followed. Meanwhile, West Ham United, having only managed one top-half finish in over a decade and who narrowly avoided relegation in 2020, went on to secure a place in the Europa League group stages for the first time in our history (and had a good go at trying for Champions League qualification in the process).
So how did they do it? At the time of their initial success, none of these clubs had what Football Manager would term "sugar daddy's" at the helm, and yet they overcame the vast financial muscle of the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea, Paris St. Germain and Arsenal to secure their success. They didn't have the best players, nor did they buy in expensive recruits, and many would argue they didn't have the biggest names in football management either. Yet somehow, they defied the odds and although it's too early to tell for West Ham, in the case of Leicester and Lille, they have continued to build on their success in the years that followed.
In an attempt to better understand their recipe for success, I want to drill down in to the key components that led them there, and for me, it all starts with the boss man.
FYI, since I'm far more knowledgeable on the subject of West Ham United, I'll be using them as my primary example from here on in, although I'll try and include other topical references where I can as well. Anyway, without further ado, let's chat more about East London's Moyesiah.
The Manager
David Moyes, a man on a mission and one with a point to prove. Probably best known for his time at Everton where he established them as a decent top half team on a low budget, his spells with Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland were unsuccessful to say the least. However, since his time with West Ham United, the man has seemingly reinvented himself and our club simultaneously, slowly rebuilding his reputation in the process.
One thing he has had to depend on is his own skillset. In the absence of big budgets for star names, instead he would need to rely on his own abilities to coach and man-manage his way to success.
For us FM players, this is where the Squad Dynamics tab comes into it's own, giving you instant feedback on how your relationships with the players are developing, what impact the inter-squad influencers are having, and what seems to be bothering the players at any given moment in the season. I think in the case of Moyes (and presumably Ranieri and Galtier), he must have spent a lot of time on this screen, painstakingly identifying exactly where the issues lie, and then subtly but systematically removing them from the squad.
Moyes seems to have a knack for getting more out of his players, even those whose ability had declined under previous managers (I'm thinking of Cresswell and Antonio for example). Instilling a desire and hunger for success, while also ensuring that that drive doesn't threaten the overall equilibrium of the squad's mentality is a balancing act that any circus performer would be proud of. And yet, far from West Ham looking like a circus (on the pitch at least), instead he's made it look like a well oiled machine.
My takeaway here is to spend less time on the scouting tab and more time on the welfare of the individuals I have at my disposal. Just like in any real-world business, that approach is guaranteed to create a workplace that anyone would thrive in, so I don't see why my Football Manager world would be any different.
Backroom Staff
One of the first things I do when I start at a new club on FM is to comb through the backroom staff and hire the best in the business I can afford. For me that usually consists of filtering by attributes first, and then casually looking at personality, and occasionally their preferred formation as well. Rarely do I consider attributes that are outside the scope of the role I'm hiring for, and when the personality isn't ideal, I'll happily sacrifice it if it means my Fitness Coach has an attribute rating of 20 for fitness.
Now, call me crazy, but I don't think Moyes has followed my approach when hiring his team at West Ham. That's not to say that he's not brought in some excellent coaching staff, but Paul Nevin, Stuart Pearce and Kevin Nolan aren't necessarily three names synonymous with technical prowess and attacking flair. From my perspective, what Moyes has done is genius. He's hired people that first and foremost adopt the same ethos and mentality as his own, but these are then also coaches that compliment the players already at the club.
Rather than blindly trying to hire the best people on paper, he's instead taken the time to build a team (emphasis on 'team') that fits what he's trying to do. I'm convinced this has been the biggest factor in West Ham's improvements of the last 18 months, and if you look at the prolonged success of Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester Utd), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) and even Eddie Howe (Bournemouth) over their respective tenures, they built exactly the same thing - a backroom team.
In contrast, a quick glance to the north of the capital will give you a very different picture, where it seems to me that Mikel Arteta casts a very lonely figure at Arsenal at the moment. He's definitely missing that team spirit on the touchline and while I don't believe for a second that the Gunner's poor form will continue for long, I do think he needs to take some time to create a backroom team that can inspire and motivate his side so he's not doing it all alone.
In conclusion, I'll be prioritising personality and mental attributes over anything else for my backroom team going forward, and if they're good at tactical coaching as well then that's a bonus.
Recruitment
Ok, I mentioned earlier that neither West Ham, nor the likes of Leicester or Lille, had big transfer kitty's to transform their poor form, and while this was absolutely true, of course none of them were completely penniless. After years of poor investment on the pitch, West Ham have found themselves with a manager with a polarising approach to recruitment, as David Moyes repeatedly states that he won't sign players to fill squad places just for the sake of it.
As a fan of the club, this is both refreshing and alarming in equal measure. On the one hand, he only wants to sign players that improve the side, and on the other that means that we're now into the 21/22 season and still only have one recognised striker on our books.
However, ignoring the short term implications an injury to Antonio would have on the squad's form, it also means that any remaining budget Moyes has from the Summer transfer window will be available to spend in January. Similarly, he's kept his wage bill down in the process, and perhaps even more important than both of those points, he's kept the squad small.
In FM, I often get carried away buying two players for every position, and then making half a dozen random swings at exciting young talent I find on Transfer Deadline Day. Most of the time these are flops and so leave on a free a couple of years later, and all the while my ballooning squad becomes disjointed and restless as I struggle to balance everyone's playing time.
Moyes' approach has it's risks, but if you're smart with who you buy, you can avoid those players with long-term injury concerns and can unearth some absolute gems in the process - and all for a low low price! When you think that the likes of Bowen, Benrahma, Coufal and Soucek were all relatively unknown to most Premier League football fans, and yet their impact on West Ham's fortunes has been immeasurable at times.
What's interesting about these signings, is that their work rate and determination in particular are standout qualities that have contributed to their own and to the collective team's success. When you couple it with the likes of Declan Rice, Angelo Ogbonna and Pablo Fornals, you start to see a pattern emerging, and then you start to see how that attitude has rubbed off on some of the club's longer serving players, such as Cresswell and Antonio.
In short, Moyes has built a team that mirrors the desire and drive of his back room staff on the pitch, and in club legend, Mark Noble, he's been able to instil a culture of hard work and determination across the whole squad that is now paying dividends.
At this point, it would be remiss of me to not also mention the coaching ability of Moyes and his backroom team as well. When you see how Rice, Benrahma, Fornals, Johnson and several others have continued to improve week-in, week-out, it's evident that in addition to their desire to improve as individuals, you've also got a collective of coaches that know how to get the best out of them and continue to enahnce their game.
Conclusion? As any self-respecting Football Manager will tell you, success in the transfer market is one area that can have the biggest impact on your journey to glory. Going forward, I'll again be looking much more closely at the mental side of the players I'm bringing in, and won't be afraid to sacrifice on technical ability if it means we get someone that fits the mould of the rest of the squad.
The System
Finally, the good stuff. Signing players and tweaking the training schedules is all well and good but what we all really enjoy is creating a tactic and watching it play out on screen in front of us. Amiright?! For me, this is by far and away the best and worst thing about my FM experience. On the one hand I enjoy creating a tactic and trying to get it working, but on the other, I always struggle to know how to improve and adapt it, especially when your opponents start to get wise to what you're doing.
Curiously, in the case of West Ham, Moyes has created a system that even I small footballing brain can understand, and yet he rarely adapts it, even though teams must know how he's going to play. Of course, that has led to some embarrassing results where our opponents have been able to anticipate exactly what we're trying to do, but for the most part, I think the key to his success with this approach has been in the work ethic of the players. When we lose the ball, you see the whole team working hard to win it back, and similarly when we're on the front foot, you see the whole team patiently working together to create an opening.
It's fair to say that we're also not short of creativity in the front four either, and here again I think Moyes has done well to use players that are capable of both creating and scoring goals. For many years now, West Ham fans have debated how much we need a "20-goal-a-season" striker, but with this system, the front four share the goals, making life very difficult for our opponents who can't work out who the main threat is.
In FM terms, and fairly obviously, I think the key to replicating this is in the roles and duties you assign, particularly for the three attacking midfielders who do so much work across the width of the final third to create chances. It can't be understated that having players with the right mentality in those roles is also important, but getting the balance in terms of player instructions is key.
Last season, we also scored a lot of goals from set pieces, and so Dawson, Ogbonna and Soucek were all able to contribute to our final tally as well. FM's set piece interface is desperately in need of an update, but FMer's with far more tactical nouse than me have still found some success from taking the time to set up a solid corner routine, or two.
In terms of takeaways from this section, I'd say Moyes's system is all about balance and so, while it may be tempting to create a system that demonstrates your sides full attacking prowess, ensuring you are solid in defence is equally as important and so a more patient approach to goal hunting may be the solution.
Limitations
This article has offered a lot by way of compliments for the transformation of West Ham United that David Moyes has overseen across two spells at the club in recent years. Despite the positives, there are of course several limitations to his approach which I also wanted to mention.
While I applaud the reluctance to waste our resources on poor recruitment, it is very concerning that we don't have a 'plan B' on the bench for when things aren't going as expected. In truth, that's less Moyes' fault and more the lack of strategy from the board, although that may well be changing soon as former Manchester City scout Rob Newman will be joining as our new Head of Recruitment.
A symptom of our lack of squad depth also leads me to my next criticism of Moyes, which is his reluctance towards making substitutes in a game. Whether the subs are made late, or there are too few of them, it's frustrating as a fan to watch when surely a fresh pair of legs, or a different type of player might mix things up a bit. It's clear that we don't have much quality outside of our first XI, but the counter to that is that they are more susceptible to injuries if they play too many games.
Finally, a word on the Academy of Football. While most football fans will have long forgotten West Ham's tradition when it comes to producing wonderkids, for Hammers fans it's a proud part of our history that we cling to with whatever we can find to hold on with! With the exception of Rice, it's been a while since we produced any noteworthy players, and you'd probably have to go back to the era of Ferdinand, Lampard, Carrick, Cole, De Foe and Glen Johnson to understand what I'm talking about.
I'm a firm believer that if you can give youngsters the playing time they need to develop, then you can unearth a potential gem in the process, while simultaneously offering some respite to your first team regulars as well. This is one area that is probably more easily done in Football Manager than in the real world, especially when you consider how it may disrupt the harmony of the group if you start dropping in a bunch of unknown 18 year olds into squad training. Still, hard not to when playing the game I think!
Conclusion
Despite some shortcomings within the game, Football Manager does in fact provide most of the tools you need to mimic David Moyes' success at West Ham and create a winning 'club culture'. When it comes to transfers and tactics, I suspect most players are well versed in these aspects of the game, however squad dynamics and a focus on mental attributes may be something that get's overlooked a little.
By way of an exit, I thought I'd distil my thoughts down into short form by channelling the poet in me and mimicking another great man, Rudyard Kipling:
If you can be a manager that can work with what he's got;
Who's a great man-motivator and is happy with his lot.
If you can build a backroom team, who believe in what you do;
And trust them to impart your work ethic in the players too.
If your new signings will always try their best and work hard;
Will run non-stop all game long, and even take a card.
If you can make a tactic that will focus on your strength;
But won't ignore your weaknesses by any stretch or length.
If you can fill the unforgiving match, with 90 minutes worth of distance run;
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.
And which is more, you'll be a Moyes, my son.FM Athlete
I hope you enjoyed this unscheduled update. The fact that you've read down this far would suggest you at least enjoyed it enough to want to make it stop by getting to the end. Thanks for that, I appreciate you. Timing is everything in this game and so I wanted to get this out there before West Ham's form capitulates into the anarchy we're used to seeing at the London Stadium. If you're reading this mid-way through the season with our form at rock bottom, try to imagine that I was right and Moyes really did know what he was doing at one point.
I'll be back in the not to distant future to share my plans for FM22, but in the meantime please feel free to check out other updates from my blog, or find me on FM Slack and Twitter by searching for FM_athlete. See ya!