Football Manager Training Guide

Training is one of the most misunderstood systems in Football Manager. Most players set a schedule in pre-season and never touch it again. Their wonderkids stagnate, their squad picks up injuries in clusters, and they blame the match engine.

The reality is that training in FM26 is powerful if you understand what actually drives development and what causes problems. This guide covers the FM26-specific changes, gives you schedules you can follow week by week, and explains the individual training and mentoring systems that separate good saves from great ones.

If you want training advice specific to your squad, ask FootballGPT. Describe your team, your formation, and the players you want to develop, and it will recommend a training approach that fits your situation.

What Changed in FM26

FM26 is built on a new Unity engine and follows directly from FM24 (FM25 was cancelled). The core training mechanics are familiar, but there are meaningful changes.

**Dual-phase individual training.** Because FM26 lets you set different formations for in-possession and out-of-possession, individual training now has three slots per player. You can train a player for their in-possession role, their out-of-possession role, and an additional attribute focus. This is a significant upgrade for versatile players who play differently in each phase.

**Coaching attributes simplified.** Goalkeeping coaching is now a single attribute instead of three, and Fitness is now a single attribute instead of two. There are 9 coaching areas total: Attacking, Defending, Possession, Tactical, Technical, Set Pieces, Fitness, Goalkeeping, and Working with Youngsters.

**Youth squad training restored.** FM26 initially removed direct training control for B teams and youth squads. Update 3 restored it. You can now edit youth team general training schedules as well as individual focuses.

Training Schedules by Season Phase

You need a minimum of three schedules saved: pre-season, one-match week, and two-match week. Using one schedule all year is one of the most common mistakes in FM.

### Pre-Season (4-6 Weeks)

This is the only time in the year where heavy physical sessions are appropriate. Players arrive in poor condition and need to build a fitness base for the entire season.

**Weeks 1-2: Physical Foundation** Heavy Endurance and Strength sessions. Quickness work. Minimal tactical content. Players will be exhausted and their condition will drop before it improves. This is normal. Set automatic intensity (see below) and trust the process.

**Week 3: Introduce Tactics** Start adding Match Tactics, Team Shape, and your first friendly matches. Schedule 1-2 friendlies per week from this point. Friendlies build match sharpness and tactical familiarity simultaneously. They are essential, not optional.

**Week 4+: Match Preparation** Shift toward a structure that resembles your in-season schedule. Reduce pure physical sessions. Increase tactical familiarity work. Add Match Review sessions after friendlies. By the end of pre-season, your tactical familiarity should be well on its way to full.

### One-Match Week (Standard)

This is your bread-and-butter schedule for weeks with a single fixture, typically Saturday.

**Sunday (post-match):** Match Review plus Recovery or Rest. Match Review builds tactical familiarity with minimal physical load. Rest is better than the Recovery session type for actual condition recovery.

**Monday:** Rest or light recovery. No heavy sessions.

**Tuesday:** Your heaviest training day of the week. Physical work (Endurance, Quickness), plus technical sessions (Ball Control, Attacking, or Defending). This is where development happens.

**Wednesday:** Tactical and technical work. Team Shape, Set Pieces, 11-a-side Match Practice. This is where cohesion builds.

**Thursday:** Moderate intensity. Tactical work, individual focus sessions. Start reducing physical load ahead of the match.

**Friday:** Light day. Match Tactics, Set Pieces review. Nothing physically demanding. The day before a match should protect condition, not build fitness.

**Saturday:** Match Day.

### Two-Match Week (Congested Fixtures)

When you play every three or four days, development stops and survival takes over.

Drop all heavy physical sessions entirely. Your entire schedule should consist of Match Preparation, Set Pieces, Recovery, Rest, and Match Tactics. Individual training still applies in the background but team sessions should protect condition above everything else.

This is not the time to develop players. This is the time to keep them fit enough to perform. If you try to maintain your normal training load during congested fixtures, you will get injury clusters. The FM26 community documented this extensively in the first months after release.

### International Breaks

The opposite of congested fixtures. Use these periods aggressively for development. Run heavier physical sessions, work on Set Pieces in dedicated sessions, progress position retraining, and give extra tactical work to new signings who need to build familiarity.

Automatic Intensity Settings

This is the single most important training configuration in FM26. Set it once and it prevents most injury issues automatically.

Go to Squad, then Training, then Training Intensity. Set the following for every player:

• **Superb/Full condition:** Double Intensity
• **Good condition:** Normal Intensity
• **Fair condition:** Half Intensity
• **Poor condition:** No Pitch or Gym Work
• **Very Poor condition:** No Pitch or Gym Work

Double intensity at full condition doubles the development benefit from each session. The trade-off is slightly higher injury risk for top-condition players, but since everyone below full condition is automatically protected, the overall injury rate stays manageable.

Set every player to Automatic Intensity from day one of a new save. This is not optional. The community consensus, backed by extensive testing, is that failing to set this properly is the primary cause of the injury clusters FM26 players reported at launch.

Not sure whether your intensity settings are optimal for your squad? Ask FootballGPT to review your setup. Describe your schedule and injury issues and it will suggest adjustments.

Individual Training Focus

Individual training is separate from team training. It does not reduce the time available for team sessions. Think of it as additional work layered on top.

### The Three Slots (New in FM26)

Each player now has three individual training slots: 1. **In-possession role** - trains attributes for their role when your team has the ball 2. **Out-of-possession role** - trains attributes for their role when defending 3. **Additional focus** - targets a specific attribute or attribute group

The role-based slots are new to FM26 and work alongside the traditional additional focus slot. Set all three for every player.

### What Focus to Set

The FM26 community tested this extensively. The near-universal recommendation from attribute testing across hundreds of simulated matches:

**All outfield players: Quickness** as the additional focus. This develops Pace and Acceleration, which remain the most impactful physical attributes in FM26. Attribute testing confirmed they are Tier 1 attributes, slightly less dominant than FM24 but still the foundation of effective players at every position.

**Goalkeepers: Reactions** as the additional focus.

**Young players (15-17):** Physical Attributes as the additional focus. This is the window where physical development is fastest. Technical and mental attributes can be trained later, but the physical foundation needs to be built early.

**Players 30+:** Consider switching to a Mental focus. Physical attributes are declining at this age regardless of training. Mental attributes continue to improve throughout a career and can offset some physical decline.

### Key Principles

Set individual training from day one for every player. Every month without a focus is wasted development time.

Physical attributes develop fastest between 17 and 21, then slow dramatically after 24. If you want a player to be fast, the training window is narrow. Technical attributes develop more steadily from 16 to 26. Mental attributes improve throughout a career and are heavily influenced by match experience.

Role-specific focuses should match the role you actually play the player in. A young striker you use as an Advanced Forward should be trained on the Advanced Forward in-possession focus, not generic Striker training. The focus determines which attributes get the training bonus.

Mentoring Groups

Mentoring does not improve football attributes directly. It changes personality, which determines how consistently and quickly a player develops everything else. A player with Model Citizen personality and 13 Determination will outgrow a more talented player with Fickle personality and 8 Determination every single time.

### How to Set Up Groups

Go to Dynamics in your squad overview, find the Mentoring section, and create groups of 2-5 players. Each group needs at least one experienced player as the mentor.

**The principle:** Pair 1-2 senior players who have positive personalities with 2-3 younger players, ideally in the same position group.

**Best mentor personalities:** - Model Citizen (guaranteed high Professionalism, Determination, Pressure handling) - Driven - Professional - Resolute - Perfectionist

**Never put these personalities in a mentor role:** - Unambitious - Casual - Easily Discouraged - Any personality with Determination under 10

One unambitious veteran in a mentoring group can actively harm the development of every young player in that group. Audit your mentoring setup whenever you make new signings.

### How Long It Takes

Personality changes through mentoring are slow. Expect 6-12 months for noticeable shifts. The effect is strongest for players under 23 and weakest for established senior players. Rotate groups every few months to expose young players to different positive influences.

The hidden attributes that improve through mentoring include Professionalism, Determination, Pressure handling, Temperament, and Leadership. Of these, Determination is the most important for long-term development. Research from the FM community found that raising a Head of Youth Development's Professionalism from 10 to 15 produced an average swing of over 4 attribute points across the squad.

FootballGPT can help you plan mentoring groups based on your squad's personality profiles. Ask something like "I have a wonderkid with Fickle personality, which senior players should I group him with?" and the AI will suggest a mentoring strategy.

Position Retraining

FM26 lets you retrain players to new positions through individual training. This is valuable for adding versatility or converting players whose attributes fit a different role.

### Timeline

From zero familiarity in a position, expect roughly 6-9 months to reach Accomplished and around 12 months to reach Natural. These timescales assume consistent match time in the new position. Training alone is not enough. The player needs actual game time in the new role, starting with friendlies, then cup games, then competitive matches.

### What Affects Speed

**Versatility** is the single most important factor. This hidden attribute determines how quickly a player adapts. Players with high Versatility learn new positions significantly faster.

**Age** matters. Younger players adapt faster than older ones.

**Attribute suitability** matters. Retraining a slow centre back as a wing back will be slow and unsuccessful because the physical attributes do not match. The player's existing attributes need to broadly fit the target position.

**Important:** During active position retraining, remove the Additional Focus and Traits learning. These compete for development resources and slow the retraining process.

Common Training Mistakes

**Using one schedule all season.** Pre-season needs heavy physical work. Congested fixture periods need almost no physical work. One schedule cannot serve both purposes.

**Not setting automatic intensity.** This is the primary cause of injury clusters in FM26. Set it from day one and most injury issues disappear.

**Running heavy sessions during congested fixtures.** When you play every three or four days, drop all physical sessions. Recovery and match preparation only. The community documented FM26 injury spikes extensively and this is the root cause in most cases.

**Overloading coaches.** A coach assigned to multiple training areas loses effectiveness in each. Keep coaches specialised. Monitor the workload indicator. If a coach shows Heavy workload, either reassign them or reduce sessions in their area.

**Ignoring Match Review sessions.** Match Review after every game builds tactical familiarity and team cohesion with minimal physical load. Skipping it noticeably slows familiarity development, especially for new signings.

**Putting negative personalities in mentoring groups.** One casual or unambitious mentor can damage the development of every young player in the group. Check personalities before creating groups.

**Expecting position retraining without match time.** Training sets the foundation but match experience drives the actual progress. Players retraining to a new position need game time in that role to progress beyond Competent.

**Ignoring the Medical Centre.** The condition indicators (green, orange, red hearts) tell you exactly which players are at risk. Managers who check this regularly catch problems before they become injuries. Managers who ignore it get crises at the worst possible time.

Quick Start Checklist

When starting a new save or taking over a club, do this before your first competitive match:

1. Set automatic intensity for all players (double at full, half at fair, none at poor) 2. Assign coaches to single areas where possible, check workload indicators 3. Save three schedules: pre-season, one-match week, two-match week 4. Set individual training for every player (Quickness for outfield, Reactions for keepers) 5. Set up mentoring groups with positive-personality seniors and younger players 6. Apply pre-season schedule and add 1-2 friendlies per week from week 3 7. Switch to one-match week schedule when the competitive season starts

If you are unsure about any of these steps for your specific squad, describe your situation to FootballGPT. Tell it your formation, the players you want to develop, and any issues you are having, and it will give you a training plan tailored to your save.