Does anyone actually enjoy doing training, or do we all just pretend?
Does anyone actually enjoy doing training, or do we all just pretend?
I don’t mean that as a dig at FM exactly, because I get why training is the way it is now. It’s more realistic, it’s deeper, and there probably are people who love squeezing every little edge out of the schedule.
But for me, it’s one of those features I respect more than I actually enjoy.
Older training was obviously much simpler, maybe too simple, but at least I understood what I was doing. You had a rough idea of whether you were focusing on fitness, tactics, attack, defence, youth development, whatever. It felt readable.
Now I sometimes feel like I’m managing a calendar instead of a football team.
There’s team training, unit training, individual training, mentoring, rest, sharpness, fatigue, tactical familiarity, coaches, physios, match prep, recovery sessions, chance creation, chance conversion, attacking shadow play, defensive shape, transition press, transition restrict…
And after all that, half the time I still just end up downloading a schedule or leaving it to the assistant.
That feels like a bit of a problem. Not because training should be dumbed down, but because the decision making should feel clearer.
For me, the ideal version would be somewhere in the middle. Give me meaningful choices, but make them football choices.
Are we working on set pieces because we’re poor at them?
Are we trying to make a young winger more complete?
Are we resting the squad because the fixtures are piling up?
Are we drilling defensive shape before playing a better team?
Are we sharpening the forwards because we keep missing chances?
That’s the stuff I want to think about.
I don’t really want to micromanage a full week of sessions unless the feedback is strong enough that I can actually feel the difference.
Maybe I’m just lazy with it, but I’d love training to be less about building the perfect spreadsheet and more about setting a clear football direction for the squad.
Was it actually better when it was simpler, or is this just nostalgia talking?