Scouting is an integral part of Football Manager, and it’s arguably one of the most fun parts to experiment with when you’re starting out.
With the right scouting setup and staff, you can develop strong relationships with your scouts while also identifying players who will suit your style of play.
But since it can be difficult to find the right balance between scouting coverage and budgeting, I’ve put together a guide on how to get started with scouting in FM2023.
Managing Your Scouting Department
Scouting is a key part of being successful in Football Manager 2023. The more you know about your future opponents, the better prepared you will be for any eventuality.
- Scouting Players
You can scout players from all over the world and should do so as much as possible. There are three ways to do this:
- Scout for players manually by clicking on countries, regions or teams
- Send scouts to specific countries and regions (the best ones) or clubs (the ones with good youth systems) to look for talent
- Use scouting assignments to look at specific positions or age ranges within a certain club
Backroom Staff
The Chief Scout is an integral part of your scouting team, as he will be responsible for organizing and deciding on the best players to scout. They’re also important since they have a huge say in who you should sign from other clubs!
The Scouting Staff are what make up the bulk of your scouting network. This includes the Scouting Team and Assistants to help organize your efforts into more effective ones, as well as the Scouting Manager and Scouting Coordinator who ensure that everything goes smoothly.
The next step is selecting which staff members you’ll assign each task to – after all, it’s not fair if everyone gets their own job when there’s plenty left over!
Chief Scout
The Chief Scout is the person responsible for the scouting department. The Chief Scout is responsible for the quality of scouting reports, as well as the direction and recruitment of scouts.
The Chief Scout has a number of responsibilities:
Manage your current staff, including assigning them to specific roles within your scouting network, setting their workloads and monitoring their performance.
Create a scouting network that covers all areas of your club – either by hiring new staff or delegating to existing employees.
As you scout more players as a result of this expansion, you’ll also begin to receive feedback on which areas are most successful at finding talent and which need improvement (for example; if lots of players from Argentina are missing from your database but you don’t have anyone who specialises in that region).
This allows you to focus resources where they’re needed most effectively so that no stone goes unturned when it comes time for transfers.* Set up recruitment processes for both domestic and international targets – how do these differ? Are there different criteria depending on whether someone qualifies for an “emerging” team?
The Best Free Scouts in FM23
Here’s a list of the best free scouts in FM2023:
Jonathan Andersson (Copenhagen, Denmark) – Strengths: Physically Strong, Mentally Strong, Versatility. Weaknesses: None.
How to find him: Hiring an agent to look for you and He is currently unemployed so you can take him on for nothing! Where to send him? Anywhere you want but if your looking for a good player he should be sent out as much as possible so keep an eye out for potential players so that when one does come along he will be able to spot them first then hopefully persuade the player to join your club
Managing Your Scouting Budget
When you first start playing Football Manager 2023, your club will have a set amount of money to spend on transfers.
This transfer budget is determined by many factors: the reputation of your club, the level of scouting facilities at your club and the size of its scouting department. The scouting budget is a percentage of this overall transfer budget.
Once you’ve had some experience as manager, you’ll have more control over how much money goes towards scouting versus other departments in your team.
But if you’re just getting started with Football Manager 2023 and don’t know where to begin when it comes to recruiting new players for your squad (or even if you’re an experienced player who wants more information about how scouting works), then this guide will help explain what types of decisions can affect the size of that number—and how they impact each other
Recruitment Focus
Recruitment focus is a tool that allows you to improve the likelihood of signing players by focusing on certain attributes. To set your recruitment focus, open up the Simming menu and select Recruitment Focus.
You will see a list of attributes and be able to either set one as your main focus or add it as an additional focus alongside another attribute (e.g., if you have no intention of making transfers this season but want to improve your squad’s physicality then setting “Physicality” as both a main focus and additional focus would be ideal).
It’s worth noting that once you’ve chosen an attribute for any given role in FM2023 then it won’t change until next season—so make sure any decisions made here aren’t based on short-term needs!
Instead, think about where weaknesses lie within your squad over time so that when these areas emerge again later down the line they can be addressed more efficiently through careful planning rather than reactionary transfer decisions.
Scouting Recommendations
Team Recommendations Tool
Player Recommendations Tool
League Recommendations Tool
Managing Shortlists
The Scouting section of Football Manager 2023 is a great way to save time when scouting. You can save your shortlist by clicking the Save Shortlist button in the top right corner and then use this list when you are looking through reports.
This will allow you to check players within your chosen age range, league and country much quicker than searching through reports one by one each time.
In this guide we’ll show you how to create, edit, delete and export/import shortlists in Football Manager 2023 so that they are easy for everyone on your team or club!
You can also share them with other users via email if they have the same version of FM2023 as yourself (on PC or Mac).
Scouting Assignments
Scouting assignments are a great way to get the most out of your scouts. They can be used to ensure that experienced scouts are working on specific leagues or nations, while also helping you find those young promising talents.
Just like in real life football, it’s important for teams to have a good balance between experienced and inexperienced players on their books.
There are two types of scouting assignments: games assignments and region assignments.
Scouting Players
When scouting players for your team, there are a few things to look out for. First, you should always look for players with high potential. This means that the player will develop into a strong player later in his career.
You can find this information under the “Development Log” tab of each player’s profile screen within Scouting Mode.
Second, remember that you want to look at what position they play and if they’re already playing well there or if they have room to grow as an upcoming talent (see screenshot 2).
If they are already performing well in their current position but have room to improve as well, then it may be worth bringing them onto your team—especially if their salary is low enough!
Scouting Teams
Scouting teams is an important part of your recruitment strategy. You should be recording the results of scouting assignments and monitoring them regularly so you can make informed decisions when it comes to team improvements, but you might also want to consider limiting your scouting focus in order to get more bang for your buck.
You can do this by setting up a special coverage area or using the search term “scout all” when creating assignments. This way, only players from certain countries or leagues will be considered for your scouts’ attention—and as a result, they’ll spend less time looking at players who probably won’t fit into their plans anyway!
The good news is that there are plenty of ways for us here at [Name] FM 2023 Scouting Guide HQ™️to help: we’ve got plenty of tips on how best-case scenarios play out (and why those scenarios happen) so don’t hesitate to come back often if you’re struggling with anything related specifically football manager 2020/2021 scouting guide – finding new talent on Football Manager 2020 (or 2021).
Scouting Leagues & Nations
First, you have to decide what league or nation you’re going to scout.
Then, assign scouts to leagues and nations using the ‘Scout Network’ box in the ‘Scouting’ section of your tactics screen.
You can set up a scouting network for a specific league or nation by clicking on its name in the list of available countries/leagues (shown above).
This will bring up a pop-up window where you can add as many scouts as required for your chosen club or nation. If there isn’t one already set up for them at this time then simply select ‘No’ from that list when asked whether they’re part of an existing network:
Scouting Regions
Scouting regions is a crucial part of your career as a manager. You need to focus on the highest rated leagues, ones that have the most active players, and countries with an abundance of talent.
In addition to these factors, you should also look for leagues with coaches and facilities that give you extra staff bonuses when assigning your team’s own resources.
If a country has a great youth system and youth development program, it can mean having access to some very talented youngsters whose potential is unrealized outside their current club or league.
Scouting Coverage
Scouting coverage is the way you decide where your scouts go to look for new players. It’s also how you keep track of all of the information they gather, so it’s important to set up a good system that works for you.
You can manage this in your scouting assignments and recommendations tabs on the Scouting menu:
Scout Coverage – This allows you to set up shortlists (see below) and manage your scouting budget. You can also see how many assignments each scout has left, as well as the amount of time until their next assignment will end.
Scout Assignments – This tab shows which scouts are currently at work, what leagues or nations they are covering, when their next assignment will begin/end, and any special conditions that might apply to those assignments (like being limited by budget).
In addition, each assignment has its own leaderboard where all players scouted during an assignment are ranked based on some combination of attributes like age range and potential ability level (PA). A player with higher PA means he should be better than someone with lower PA—that’s why his name is above theirs!
As you can see, scouting is a key aspect of managing a club in Football Manager (and real life!) and it’s one that can be very rewarding. You probably won’t find any shortcuts to success in this area, but if you put in the time and effort then your chances of finding hidden gems will increase exponentially.
