Need input on scouting assignments

[sigurd2resen]

Hi guys,

 

Not sure if this is the right forum for this topic - but I will try.

I need some input on how I should set up my scouting assignments.

 

I am currently managing Napoli in my journeyman save on FM22, and I have 11 scouts available. 

My signing philosophy is to mostly sign younger players for the future, that I can develop and sell for a profit (inspired by what Dortmund does).

At the same time, I need to keep an eye on world class players that can have an instant impact on my team, and help us compete in Champions League. I can't just be signing young prospects for the future. 

 

How would you guys set up your scouting network? What types of assignments should I prioritise, do you think?

Edited January 9, 2022 by sigurd2resen

[achortagus]

Hi, here is some info on my setup:

I am managing Mannheim and have been in the Bundesliga for 4-5 seasons now. As you can understand, i dont have the sponsorship of the big clubs, so i can only rely on cheap-ish transfers (never have bought a player above 15 mil). So, signing prospects is my bread and butter. Especially under 18 so they can become home-grown.

I constantly ask for more scouts. Currently have 22+1 chief scout. I try to sign scouts of different nationalities (so i can have knowledge of more nations). Same for other staff. Also my scouts are all 16+ on attribute judging.

Regarding the assignments, in this years version, i think that they are not working pretty well. Scouts struggle to find good talents. My usual assignment uses filters bellow:

- Age at most 18

- Potential ability 5 stars

- Current ability 1 star

- Ongoing

- Scout a region (i.e. South America East), or specific nation

- Unlimited budget

U can adjust filters above to search for first team players. I.e. no potential but current ability 3.5 stars, specific budget, or contract expiring in a year or something

Of my 23 scouts, i have only 5-6 doing assignments. As I said, i dont find them effective and most of my scouting happens with methods bellow, which require scouts free of assignments:

- Manually browsing National U23-U21-U18 etc teams of South America, top 5 North America, Top 5 Africa, Top 3 Asia, most of Europe without big 5 nations. Depending on the time you want to invest in this there are different methods. You can:

A) mark all and scout for a week

B) scout only under 17 of age

C) scout young players in older squads. I.e. 17yo in under 23 or first team.

D) hover to see stats before scouting

E) scout only players with "Wanted" symbol

F) whatever method seems best for you

- Manually browsing clubs. Its similar to above with nations, but for the actual clubs of nations.

- Scouting all players on the nextGen e-mail that you get once per year

- Utilising Player Search. This is a big one. It requires good world knowledge and max scouting package if possible. You can use it in multiple ways:

A) Create and save filter per role and position. You can add filter for lets say top 10 attributes for the role, the position you want, the max age etc. Some tips: play with the attributes. You can lower them, or you can lower the match required. Maybe you can find a better player with match 8/10 because you dont see their attributes. The rule is: increase match-->decrease attributes. Dicrease match--> increase attributes. Also, set positions as accomplished and not natural. And add more position. I.e. Search for accomplished at ML or AML or MR or AMR. All in one filter. This way you combine multiple positions in one filter.

B) Search for players with max age of 18 with at least 1 international cap.

C) Search for players under 18. Sort by value or something. Hover only over those who are wanted by big clubs. Then scout them.

D) In player search add column for realease clauses. Then you can find gems with small release clauses.

 

These are the most common methods that I use. Of course, there are multiple more. I.e. some people use the results in World-->Transfers-->Youth intake, which lists all you intakes form the world. It is effective, but we are talking about thousands of players per year.

My general advise is to try and get your world knowledge up, as well as a nice big scouting package. This way your player search will have more players and their stats will be more visible. Affiliating clubs can also help with knowledge. After that scout every canidate for a week, and depending on first report, add them to shortlist for further scouting. You can have multiple shortlists to organize things.

Having a lot of scouts really helps with that. In my case, i can scout more than 100 players in a single week.

 

[sigurd2resen]

Thank you for your response! A lot of very nice tips. 

 

What are the 5-6 assignments you actually have on ongoing (besides the next opposition scout report)?