In many ways over the year or so of pre-release, FM Live has been compared as a hybrid of a management simulation and fantasy football. Unlike it’s standalone counterpart, users will not be taking over existing club sides but forming their own fictional team from scratch. Every manager upon signup has the ability to select players from their gameworld’s database to make up their starting team - the phase easily described as the initial squad selection.

For those unfamiliar with the game, there are limitations set down on the players able to be selected during this phase. There is also unlocking mechanism that is programmed so that managers cannot claim a portion of high caliber players faster than others just because they may have signed up to a gameworld earlier. For every new manager that signs up (up to a total of about 1000), an extra 25 players are released into the database. This allows newer users to get an opportunity to sign similar caliber players in their initial squad as well as prevents top ranked teams from scooping up all world class talent once they reach that status. Be aware of this throughout the course of your first season on FML as well - the database will dramatically change daily as managers start signing in to a newly formed gameworld.

The limitations on your squad in the initial selection phase are as follows:

Starting cash of 500k
Exactly 16 total players (effectively a starting eleven + five subs)
Total player wages not to exceed 100k

Upon selection of specified players, each will be given a provisional contract - you hold the right to sign them exclusively for the next 24 hours. Within that time frame you are free to mix and match your squad until you switch over to full contracts by confirming your squad. Be aware that you will not be able to play any games until confirmation and provisional contracts are only in FM Live to allow users to easily select players in and out to make sure everything is to your liking. Although there is an auto-select function (for the program to choose a squad for you), it’s recommended that you take the time to handpick your initial squad if you’d like more control in the direction you’d like to take in your first season.

With tens of thousands of players in the database, how do you manage to hand select players without giving yourself a headache? While it seems like a massive undertaking, it is actually much simpler than it looks due to the many options given to you in the way of player search filters. Basically, by setting up certain conditions you choose, it will only show those players meeting those criteria in your list window. You may then sort the list by any column and even add additional attributes to be displayed by use of view customization. It’s strongly advised during this period to set up and save filter conditions that highlight every positions most important attributes and name them as “center back”, “defensive midfielder”, “target men”, “winger”, “playmaker”, etc. as you see fit. For more information on the qualities sought after in each position, please refer to FM-Britain’s Tactics Bible article that discusses this. Once these filters are sorted out, you should easily be able to look through the database and highlight players suited for your initial squad.

Upon first glance, many of the players at the top of your search lists will be well-known world class talents and unavailable for you to sign. This is not due to the fact that they are “locked” from your use - they’re just too costly for managers at this phase with an acquisition fee over 500k and wages in the 30-40k range. Over time you will earn enough money to purchase these players (being that you’re making a profit to increase your bank balance) but for this initial squad selection period, your prime targets will be those with an acquisition fee & wage within the set limitations of your new club. For more ease, it may also be wise to add conditions to all your search filters to exclude players that are out of reach in this aspect.

In the previous part of this guide, we discussed the two generalized approaches to the first season of FM Live - potential & reputation routes. The mindset you have chosen to start your game career is paramount in the initial squad selection process. Your choices in players should go hand-in-hand with the direction you have planned which may even mean bypassing higher quality targets in order to achieve your overall goal. A more detailed description of the conceptual thinking by both routes are as follows:

Reputation Route: Squad Selection Concepts

The overall goal of this first season approach is to make your club rise in status as quickly as possible - a higher reputation reaps more daily income. While this can be easily accomplished by purchasing the highest caliber players you can afford with 500k total AF and 100k total wage, it will not satisfy the profit-making condition of this approach. Keeping money in the bank and paying low wages is also extremely important your first season as it will allow you to purchase even better players than you can during this phase. Not taking this into account by maxing out your cash and wage budget will see you handcuffed later financially when trying to improve your squad.

The types of targets you are seeking with this approach are older players (32+) with good overall stats across the board, especially in the mental areas. Their AFs should be of relative value to their wage with most fitting the mold of around 20k fee with 2k wage. There will be plenty of players that fit these criteria and it’s also advised to add the “reputation” attribute to the search list view. Besides your ranking, results & financial status, your combined invididual player reputations will also be used in calculating your overall team’s rep - by signing as many players with higher rep stars, it will allow your club to rise quicker. These older, mentally tough selections typically have 2-2.5 stars in this attribute in comparison to younger, better & possibly more costly players that are considered unknown or obscure.

Discipline in keeping to your defined goals this stage is very important as well as not to attach yourself emotionally to any players selected in this process. It is highly likely that after your first season is completed, you will end up turning over nearly your entire squad with all the money you have saved up by not spending massively during this phase. For this reason, it’s best to offer most players only one-year contracts so you will not be in the position having to release players (and give them compensation) when they no longer are good enough for any use on your squad. Realize one of the caveats of the reputation route is the likely inability to offload players in the transfer market for a profit or even for $1 as most managers will also find no need for such aged talent. Don’t knock veterans though - while it may seem like your team is low in caliber than many others in the gameworld, you would be surprised how effective an strong older squad is in FM Live.

Potential Route: Squad Selection Concepts

The overall goal of this first season approach is to build your team from the bottom up with youth and reap the rewards at a later date by either integrating developed players into your senior squad or transferring them at high profit. While it seems easy at first with the sheer amount of youngsters available in the database, finding those “gems” that develop into million dollar players is a whole different story. In a running theme with the reputation route, keeping money in the bank and paying low wages is extremely important. Your intention after the first season is to supplement your squad with prime-age talents (typically very expensive) as well as top rated “wonderkids” that are typically highly sought after and more costly to attain because of that fact.

The types of targets you are seeking with this approach are youth-eligible players (21 or under) with good positional templates in the attributes, especially in the technical areas. (the term “template” is used to describe a youth’s attribute set that is below average for a senior player, but higher in areas that relate to his position) Their AFs should be of relative value to their wage with most fitting the mold of around 12k with 400 wage. There will be plenty of players that fit this criteria and it’s advised to add the “age” attribute to the search list view. While a hardline approach would be to sign the youngest players available, it may be a good idea to mix in talent of all youth levels as well as a few 22-26 year olds that can compete right away on your senior squad. The reputation of these players will typically be very low (1-1.5 stars) and those that are higher will be world class stars already and too expensive to sign at the moment. (hence the need to save money!)

Discipline is also important with this approach during this stage and you must have the mindset that most of these youths will end up either as merely average players or complete duds once they reach their prime age. For this fact alone, it’s wise to keep wages as low as possible no matter how certain you are a specific player will develop into a world class star. It’s a fairly common caveat when managers pay excessive wages for young unknowns that there’s a high risk the player doesn’t flourish - sometimes it’s worth taking that chance, but statistically you’re more likely to fail by offering 16 year old kids big pay. Make sure you sign all players under two-year contracts and expect to stick with most of them through that period and then some - the key is to accumulate as many high potential youths as you can and hope to churn out many above average seniors or million dollar wonderkids.

The biggest failing of this selection approach is that it’s unlikely your senior team will be able to compete at the onset of play so expect to be handily beaten quite often. As you develop players for your senior squad, also realize that players with low mental stats will be highly unpredictable - flashes of sheer brilliance mixed with unfathomable mistakes. By signing some slightly older 22-26 year-olds, you can diminish this effect and stabilize your results to a much more easier level to manage.

Summary & Advantages

Once you go past the initial selection phase, you’ll only be able to sign free agent players by initiating a wage auction lasting 24 hours. During this period, any manager may submit a sealed bid on the specified player with the maximum wages willing to pay - highest bid wins. This auction process in completely bypassed in your initial squad selection. You will be able to sign any player in the database (not currently in wage auction) outright at their proclaimed wage demand with no opposition.

Being that this is the case, a high-risk strategy in addition to the generalized approaches can be to scoop up players that you will be able to sell at a profit short-term. Buying one key player with low wages in comparison to a high AF can result in a small windfall after a week. This may be especially true in new gameworlds with well-known targets still existing in the database and exploiting emotional attachments certain opposition managers have with “favorite” real-life footballers. It would probably be wise to limit this practice to one player though (as it will likely be only one of these types you can afford), compute the total cost of the purchase for one week (AF + 7 days wage) and assess your success rate in actually selling the player for a healthy sum over that amount. Additionally, be aware that many users will not have ample money to purchase new talent in the first week of play, so this strategy may be more effective if you are selecting a squad several weeks into the gameworld’s life.

During the selection process, it’s important to be aware that once you have confirmed your squad, you will then be able to enter the transfer market, initiate wage auctions and conduct business as any other manager. Your initial selections will not be the end-all of your first season’s squad so take any further transactions into account - the money you don’t use during initial squad selection goes into your bank balance and is available for you to use. Also, make sure that you are fully satisfied with your squad before confirming as there is a probationary period of 7 days on any new player signed - you will not be able to transfer them anywhere until a week has passed. (although you may release players at any time by paying them compensation of 50% wages on their remaining contract)

Taking either approach, this guide doesn’t stress an extremely high importance on the initial squad selection as many new users might think. We believe it can definitely give you a head start over others if time is taken to carefully plan your course and properly assess every target searched, although there are high majority of top FML managers who completely auto-selected their initial squad. In the next parts of the first season guide, you will see that your decisions made afterwards have much more impact on your success or failure in FM Live.