Guide to scouting to build a hard-working, driven team which will relentlessly dominate world football in FM24

I did some Guides for FM22 - for a system which works insanely well and for Scouting players to fit that system ( https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/177rd35/a_guide_to_a_system_which_guarantees_success_in_fm/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/1796y5g/guide_to_scouting_to_build_a_hardworking_driven/ ) - and a few of you have DMed me to ask if I’ve got any updated FM24 scouting filters. I’ve shared my FM24 ones with a few of you, but as we’ve still got 4 or 5 months of FM24 to go before 25’s release, I thought I might as well make a quick post about my Guide to Scouting for FM24. Now, you can 100% just buy the fastest players and probably rinse every trophy going (as per FM Arena’s research), but for my personal immersion’s sake I continue to play the game as if the attributes I think should matter most actually *do* matter most, and I want to build a squad in that image. Go buy players with 18+ Acceleration and Pace and no other attributes if that’d give you satisfaction, 100% no hate, but this guide is for scouting to build a hard-working, driven team which will relentlessly dominate world football regardless of speed. 

As many of you have pointed out when asking to transfer my ’22 guide to ’24: the search criteria are different this year (last year?!), but the same principles for identifying the best players to make that relentless winning machine apply: Potential, Key attributes, Personality and Media Handling Style (MHS). These filters are for clubs at the top of world football, but obviously tailor for your club’s level as applicable: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1HUttsOeoBViYuSZGHhPR9nSiIimsfe?usp=sharing

I’ve included a screenshot of the order I use them in. I use the first Filter on the Player Search screen to find the players worth scouting: World Reputation above 1,000 and not free transfers. Some of you have said the World Reputation criteria has led to no players at all showing up on the search, so maybe try going through all the decent nations’ squads (Senior, U20s, U19s, etc.), selecting all the players and Scouting them to Full Knowledge. You can also do the same for the clubs with the best academies, and these last two methods are something I do once a year just to keep my knowledge fresh anyway.

Once I’ve got a Shortlist full of potentially suitable players, I then use the other Filters on my Shortlist screen (in the order shown in the photo) to highlight players it’s not worth bothering your scouts with - adding them to my Discard List for the prescribed period.

I know players’ star ratings aren’t perfect, but I find only those of 4* potential or above are likely to improve your club, so focus on them. I do prefer 5* though, and be wary of players with 3 solid stars and one hollow one, as they can often have their potential reduce once you buy them, or after a few months of owning them.

I only buy outfield players 29 and under (this filter wont exclude ‘keepers aged 30+ though, as they’re obviously still in / reaching their prime), and next I focus on Teamwork and Natural Fitness. Now, those of you aware of FM Arena’s research will be wary of Teamwork, but Teamwork is still the attribute I prioritise above all others. FM is not 11 individual players playing against 11 individual players: the team is everything. I’m not dismissing FM Arena’s very valid research for one second, but that was for a series of isolated single games, not a season / career. If each individual player spends their entire time on the pitch working their best for the team, they’re / you’re naturally going to have more success…as a team. This is one of three attributes which will basically never change (or at least extremely rarely) throughout a player’s entire career. Literally, aged 15 to 40: it’ll almost always be the same. The others are Bravery (though this can decrease from injury, etc.) and Aggression, but I’m not so bothered about those two. Check it, look at your players’ attribute progressions. I’ve literally never seen a player’s Teamwork progress more than one from its score when they’re 15. Sometimes it goes down one then occasionally back up, but I find it’s basically stuck for life. Which is why when I’m buying young players I priorities this above all other attributes, and this filter highlight player whose Teamwork is 11 or fewer. Also, if you want your players to work their tits off, all the time, then you want them to naturally maintain and take care of their bodies and have high Natural Fitness. This attribute can improve through their careers, but not a lot, and mainly while they’re young, so I want even my 15 year olds to have at least 12 in this attribute too.

The next filter highlights those aged at least 21 with rubbish scores in the attributes that matter most and / or that I think matter most:

Acceleration

Agility

Anticipation

Balance

Concentration

Determination

Pace

Stamina

Strength

Work Rate

(bearing in mind you’ve already filtered for Teamwork and Natural Fitness).

They might improve, of course they might, but having scores of 5 or fewer in any of these at age 21 or more and they’re probably never going to be worth it. To be honest, I'd prefer 12+ for those attributes, but those players can be quite pricey, and you'll have to use discretion about which attributes you compromise on for which positions / roles. I'll do a post soon with my custom views which would make that much easier.

I find those over the age of 18 whose contracts have been allowed to expire aren’t usually up to it either, so why bother. Also, those under the value of £1m are probably a waste of time / resource too (adjust to your club’s level as required though of course).

Those who show for all the above filters I put on my Discard List for life, as they’ll never be up to it, but for the Personality / MHS filters I only do it for a year, as these are much more prone to improve, especially in terms of Professionalism as they age. I have two age brackets for Personality types, as the younger they are the more malleable they are, but there are still some that just aren’t worth the hassle. For those who don’t know, a player’s personality elucidates a number of hidden attributes relating to their character. You can find my list at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-EzRanZ0Ymra4B6SdUxL\_BnBiEBkErIV/view?usp=sharing. Why did Arteta literally pay some players to leave Arsenal? Aubameyand, Lacazetta, Pepe, David Luiz, Willian, etc., aren’t bad players. They just weren’t the right *Personality* to be at his club. If you get the Personality of your squad right, literally everything will be better / easier to manage:

Fewer strops from players when things don’t go their way;

Constant acceptance of your way of doing things

No repeated asking for new contracts / more playing time (or at least they’re easily swayed to drop their concerns by the captain);

More harmonious team atmosphere;

Greater team cohesion;

Basically better football full stop.

So the only personalities I really want in my club (players OR staff) are, in order of preference:

Model Professional

Model Citizen

Professional

Resolute

Light-Heated

Spirited

(Resilient)

(Fairly Professional)

(Driven)

(Perfectionist)

I’m not really a fan of the last four, but will allow it only for young players who can get their faults mentored out of them and / or get greater Professionalism mentored into them as they mature. It is *ALL* about professionalism. It helps in every facet of building a team, a squad, a winning club. I know some people really like Perfectionists, I just dislike their Temperament (they get pissy quite easily). Within reason, you could absolutely add them in, or Determined and Fairly Determined, Ambitious and Fairy Ambitious, and I don’t dislike Iron Willed, Leader / Born Leader / Charismatic Leader. Even Fickle or Mercenary can work if they’re young enough, but if you prioritise the top 4 (maybe at a stretch top 6) personalities listed above, *literally everything* in your save will be so much easier and better.

Media Handling Style is just an extension of Personality really. It’s not so much which MHSs I allow into the club, it’s more which I don’t allow in. This filter will show all the ones to exclude plus a few others, so you have to manually remove any which contain Volatile, Confrontational, Outspoken, or Short-tempered. All others can work, and they’re much of a muchness as to which is better, but any containing the four I mentioned are rejected, for the same reasons as above for Personalities: they elucidate negative hidden behavioural attributes.

Then I either ensure those I don’t yet have Extensive knowledge on are Scouted to 100%, or those I do are scouted for 3 months (in perpetuity) to build more knowledge / keep it fresh.

You should now have a list of 500 or so players whom you can manually look through to find the absolute beasts which will win you everything.

P.S. I’ll do a post in a few days’ time with some custom views which make this easier to do, and will help a lot in the general management of your squad too.