The FM Technical Area - A Football Manager Podcast

Welcome to the Technical Area, your (mostly) weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're taking a step back, to take some time to breathe, reflect, and see what’s happened over the past version of the game and what we can do to improve going into the next version. A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece entitled “Management Self-Evaluation”, after a time where engagement...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're pushing forward from Ep44 to the Unorthodox Wingers, the wide players who are not exactly what we stereotype as wide players. When FM introduced the Inside Forward, suddenly our wing play had a new dimension. With the additional developments in the wide areas, suddenly, our options on the wings...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're indulging in the new era of football, where the game changers are not high up the pitch, but more the humble fullback, a player who has become more dynamic as time has gone on. Sources: https://sports.yahoo.com/manchester-city-tottenham-show-how-fullbacks-are-critically-important-in-modern-socce...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM  podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, it's all about those final moments, when a result may be slipping away or you're trying to hold on to what you got, there's plenty you can do to inspire your side to get the result. Now it's time we talked about them. Just before you head off to weave some magic in the final moments, why not lea...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, it's a calmer pod, with the focus going to a manager who's impressing me and many others alike - Graham Potter. From Ostersunds to Brighton (via Swansea), Potter has emerged as an interesting manager to watch, from his philosophy to emphasis on building up cohesion & atmosphere, Potter has become...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, it's all gone off! With an angry set of notes written after a game which will not be mentioned last Sunday night, I've tried to channel the frustration to discussing how to cope with fixture congestion, shortened weeks and wondering if FM21 will begin with a truncated season to reflect real life, or n...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, I'm going off script again with another contentious FM topic, Save Reveals. There's also an FM21 exclusive (not from SI) and some thank yous for World Podcast Day! Just before you head off to scribble these notes in your diaries, why not leave a positive review, or share on your socials with your foll...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, I'm going off script again with a contentious FM topic, but recording was gatecrashed by SI releasing the first FM21 teaser, so that takes over the start of the pod too... Just before you head off to plan your future, why not leave a positive review, or share on your socials with your followers if you...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly (once again) FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, I'm going off script to look back on the 2nd half of my second season with Bayern, where PIs and Tis became a lot less rigid and players were given the opportunity to be themselves Just before you head off to free your players, why not leave a positive review, or share on your socials wit...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly (once again) FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're exploring the humble FM Notebook. I remember when I first heard about someone keeping a notebook for their CM/FM playing experiences. I was 16 years old…10 years later I named an FM Podcast after my own notebook and 12 years later, I have 2 on the go and 3 ready and waiting on the s...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're exploring reinvention, when clubs or managers feel the need to take stock and move in a new direction. While sticking to your principles is to be admired, evolving them can bring a fresh change to your perceptions of football, help you and potentially your side, to create a new identity. Source:...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're exploring the Dark Arts of Anti-Fútbol, touching on the cynical origins of Vélez & Estudiantes and how Simeone is taking over with his take on the style.  Sources: https://www.thefalse9.com/2017/01/diego-simeone-tactics-atletico-madrid-formation.html https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're finding inspiration from outside the football sphere, with a particular focus on Basketball & the approaches of the Golden State Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr. Sources: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/tactical-theory-transferring-basketball-concepts-positional-play-football-tactic...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo.  This week, we're looking at pre-season. Pre-Season is, for most of us, where our save begins, and as each season comes and the squad/challenges evolve and change, the basis for any success is based on the work done on the training pitch. Any building, empire, dynasty is built upon a foundation, where hard-...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're looking at rejuvenating a winning squad. Successful times for clubs often arise when players are in their prime collectively. Sustaining this period is difficult, as other challenges rise up and luck can run out. So, when the time comes to make changes, timing is crucial. Squad Building is a nat...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. This week, we're looking at retraining positions, a familiar topic of conversation amongst FMers as the years go by. When gaps begin to appear in a team, finding a player to fill them is not always straightforward. What may seem to be a logical choice may not be a seamless fit. Even in the Transfer Market, findi...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Back to a usual feature of the pod, this time we’re heading to the Bundesliga and a manager who’s winning plaudits from his own fans and peers thanks to the way his first season has gone (adjusting to the pandemic nature of football aside) - Marco Rose. His development as a manager, style of play and successes t...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Back to normal programming this week, and after facing months of issues with Training Programmes & Fixture Congestion, it's time I sink my teeth back into a dedicated podcast on Tactical Periodisation. Sources: https://trainingground.guru/articles/tactical-periodisation-man-who-taught-eddie-jones https://tra...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Part 3 of 3 in the mini-series on the pod, the focus is on The Rise of the New Clubs, clubs who have gotten clever in order to buck the trend of the rich rising to the top, clubs evolving and changing in order to reach new heights. Part 3 we focus on the Moneyball & Analytics methods clubs are using to fuel...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Part 2 of 3 in a new mini-series on the pod, the focus is on The Rise of the New Clubs, clubs who have gotten clever in order to buck the trend of the rich rising to the top, clubs evolving and changing in order to reach new heights. Part 2 we focus on the club's using the B-Teams to grow sustained success, afte...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Part 1 of 3 in a new mini-series on the pod, the focus is on The Rise of the New Clubs, clubs who have gotten clever in order to buck the trend of the rich rising to the top, clubs evolving and changing in order to reach new heights. Part 1 we focus on the affiliate links between clubs, before diving into Part 2...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Humans love symmetry. Psychologists believe we're more attracted to symmetry than asymmetry. The same applies in football. We confine tactical shifts to crude shapes: 4-4-2, 4-3-3, etc. However, when we look under the hood of the game, symmetry is an ideology, not what really happens. In a sport where asymmetry...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Finances are a dirty word in FM circles. While Transfer fees may be exorbitant, wage demands verging on ridiculous and the Bank Manager personally knocking on the door, the key to your success as a Manager could come with the numbers on every payslip to the players in your squad. This week, we look at these numb...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Attributes are perhaps the most determining factor in FM, but how often do we think beyond the numbers? Thanks to a Twitter suggestion, we delve beyond the numbers to understand how they work together, why Hidden Attributes are important to be kept hidden and how deciding on a formula for your squad building can...

Welcome to the Technical Area, your weekly FM podcast brought to you by Gaffer Graemo. Before the season was suspended, Atalanta were becoming the talk of Europe. Their 8-4 aggregate win over Valencia brought their high scoring exploits onto Europe's biggest stage, while Gasperini's side continue to outscore all of their domestic rivals, all on the back of roughly Cristano Ronaldo's wage for 6 mon...