Liverpool's Elite Modern Structure in FM24
Arne Slot's Equilibrium
Replacing Jürgen Klopp is impossible; the passion, the charisma, and the bear-hugs - not to mention the “gegen-pressing” and the “heavy metal football” - make him simply one of a kind.
Jürgen Klopp proceeded Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger in the lineage of managerial legends who forged great teams and revolutionised football in their era through sheer strength of character and force of personality. Their legacy still shapes their clubs decades after their departure, empitomising the “Cult of the Manager” which has shaped English football culture.
Rather than an inevitably futile attempt to find a like-for-like Jürgen Klopp replacement, Liverpool implemented a new managerial structure at the club, appointing Arne Slot as Head Coach - notably not Manager - to work alongside Michael Edwards as Chief Executive of Football, and Richard Hughes as Sporting Director.
Liverpool’s new managerial structure puts the club at the forefront of the ongoing paradigm shift, replacing the all-powerful, all-encompassing ‘Manager’ with a collective, collaborative, and - hopefully - symbiotic leadership structure; in much the same way that collectivism has replaced individualism in most elite-level teams.
Head Coach
Traditional Managers have simultaneously been chief scout, tactical genius, motivational guru, and master negotiator. In contrast, Arne Slot’s role as Head Coach is clearly defined and realistically attainable: to maximise Liverpool’s on-field performance.
As Head Coach, Arne Slot aligns with specialist units responsible for scouting, transfers, contracts, and, more generally, off-field operations; contributing and having a significant say, but without full autonomy.
Liverpool’s new managerial structure can be implemented in Football Manager 2024 using Staff Responsibilities to allocate responsibilities more collectively throughout each unit:
Director of Football leads scouting and transfer negotiations
Technical Director handles staff & contracts
Chief Scout assigns scouts & leads scouting meetings
Opposition reports may be further delegated to specialist scouts
Head Coach oversees first team selection, tactics, and training
You may wish to further delegate to an Assistant Manager / Coach with:
Strong Man Management to lead Team Training
Strong Motivation to lead Team Talks & Shouts
Strong Tactical Knowledge to set Opposition Instructions
Professional personality to handle Press Conferences
Set Piece Coach handles set pieces
Head of Youth Development oversees the overall youth development process
U21 and U18 Managers manage youth teams
Loan Manager manages player loans and feedback
Having the ‘Head Coach’ retain responsibility for initiating and finalising the transfers, whilst the Director of Football negotiates the transfers, creates a nice balance. The Head Coach identifies transfer targets and has the final say, whilst the Director of Football negotiates the specifics, which seems quite realistic.
Data & Analytics
Liverpool’s new managerial structure streamlines Arne Slot’s role as Head Coach, freeing time to engage with data and analytics to inform decision-making.
Data and Analytics is unfortunately still fairly underdeveloped in Football Manager 2024, but the Data Hub, Medical Centre, and Scouting Centre at least offer some basic analysis.
For readers looking for inspiration for a new save idea, leaning further into data and analytics might be a fun twist?
Managing Injury Risk
Arne Slot has been credited with using data and analytics to keep the Liverpool squad fit and injury-free, in a season where injuries have decimated title rivals.
Injury Risk in Football Manager 2024 is determined by:
Injury Susceptibility
Training Load
Match Load
Tactical Intensity
Interestingly, over the course of his first season, Arne Slot barely rotated his side.
Consistent team selections quickly build tactical cohesion and strong playing relationships, but means a heavy match load for first team players. Football Manager 2024 defines a heavy match load as 3 or more games within a 14-day period.
It is still possible to manage injury risk despite a heavy match load through:
Medium/Light training
Moderate tactical intensity
Training in Football Manager 2024 can be time clumsy and cumbersome but fortunately Balanced training sessions give an adequate training stimulus with enough rest and recovery sessions to give a medium training load.
Evidence Based Football Manager is a wonderful resource for readers wishing to delve further into training.
Reducing training intensity for players with low Physical Condition in the Training > Rest tab ensures that those playing regularly recover quickly and reduce their risk of injury with low intensity training, whilst those in good condition train normally.
Tactical Intensity is displayed at the top right side of the Tactics Creator.
A moderate tactical intensity will further help manage the risk of injury.
The ability to consistently field their strongest team with minimal risk of injury was arguably the key factor which won Liverpool the Premier League title.
Tactical Equilibrium
Arne Slot has proven a perfect foil Jürgen Klopp, counter-balancing Klopp’s acclaimed “heavy metal” football with patience and control to find an equilibrium between intensity and sustainability.
A beautifully simple tactical system, executed extremely well.
Tactical Intensity
Jürgen Klopp’s “heavy metal” football was electric and revolutionised pressing in the Premier League but pushed his players to play at an intensity that few could sustain for long.
In the current context of modern football, pressing is non-negotiable for the majority of elite teams. Arne Slot retained the pressing and counter-pressing approach the team was built to play, but tapered the intensity with a controlled possession game, flexible enough to counter at times, but also allowing players to retain their energy.
Tactical Intensity in Football Manager is determined by:
Team mentality
Pressing
Tempo
Counter attacking
Balancing an aggressive off-the-ball pressing strategy with a controlled on-the-ball strategy we were able to maintain moderate intensity, even with counter attacking in transitions.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
The Trent Alexander-Arnold transfer saga has made him a divisive player but his vision, composure, passing, crossing, and technique make him an elite deep-playmaker and playing at fullback makes him one of the most unique profiles in Football Manager 2024.
As such a unique profile, the Tactics Creator does not have a preset Role which maximises his abilities. All of the Inverted Wingback roles cross the ball rarely, whilst Wingback / Complete Wingback (Attack) both go to the byline; both failing to maximise his strengths.
Wingback (Support) combined with a Positive team mentality and Overlapping Wingback team instructions gives an Attacking mentality; the role offers an - fairly - blank slate so I asked him to cross from deep, cut inside, pass directly, and take more risks. Ideally he would roam from position, but there is no combination of role and player instructions which allows that without impacting something else.
We removed ‘Play out of Defence’ from the Team Instructions so that Trent could pass more directly to you know who..
Mo Salah
Mo Salah is - of course - the archetypical Inside Forward.
An Inside Forward (Support) - combined with a Positive team mentality and Overlapping Wingbacks team instruction means - plays with an Attacking individual mentality.
In addition to this, asking him to press less often will help preserve energy as he ages and roam from position will give him a bit more freedom to get into goalscoring positions.
Mo Salah’s quality - particularly combined with the False 9 and the selfless Szoboszlai in the centre - will see him score a lot of goals in this system.
Thankyou!
Thank you very much - as always - for reading and supporting my content; I hope you can appreciate how difficult this was to write as an Arsenal fan but I wanted to share my congratulations and create something Liverpool fans could enjoy!
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Which role would you use Nunez in in this tactic, pressing forward?
Hi bud and player instructions and did you you any oi’s with this tactic?