Football Manager 2023 launched on 8 November 2022 and was the first entry to carry official UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League branding, complete with the music, scoreboards and redrawn draws. Sports Interactive rebuilt recruitment around the Squad Planner and Recruitment Focus, and added Supporter Confidence, which splits your fanbase into Hardcore, Core, Family, Fair Weather, Corporate and Casual segments that judge you separately from the board. Match engine work went into goalkeeper distribution, spread blocks and aerial defending.
Starting Football Manager 2023 can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Football Manager 2023 is a sports game built around Squad Planner and Recruitment Focus. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Role
| Role | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sweeper Keeper | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Inverted Wing-Back | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Mezzala | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Segundo Volante | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Pressing Forward | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Inverted Wing-Back. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Pressing Forward as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Squad Planner
Ranks every player against your tactic by choice order, folds in your shortlist, and runs plans for the current season plus the next two. The Experience Matrix sitting beside it is where squad depth gaps become visible before an injury exposes them.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Squad Planner works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to UEFA Champions League
Fully branded in FM23 for the first time, with official music, scoreboards, kit badges and reworked draws, alongside the Europa League, Europa Conference League, Super Cup and Youth League.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Pass Into Space: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Pushes players to hit the area ahead of a runner rather than into feet. It raises turnovers and chance quality at the same time, so it is a trade rather than a free upgrade.
Step 4: Understand Recruitment Focus
Replaces FM22's assignment system. You set filters for position, age and potential, scouts work targets through four stages, finalists receive full reports, and a near misses view surfaces players who failed one or two of your criteria.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Premier League
Playable but not licensed as a competition. Sports Interactive has never held the Premier League licence, so it appears generically while individual clubs such as Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion are licensed.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Squad Planner
Ranks every player against your tactic by choice order, folds in your shortlist, and runs plans for the current season plus the next two. The Experience Matrix sitting beside it is where squad depth gaps become visible before an injury exposes them.
Recruitment Focus
Replaces FM22's assignment system. You set filters for position, age and potential, scouts work targets through four stages, finalists receive full reports, and a near misses view surfaces players who failed one or two of your criteria.
Supporter Confidence
Your fanbase divides into Hardcore, Core, Family, Fair Weather, Corporate and Casual segments, each judging Match Performance, Transfer Activity, Tactics and Squad separately from board objectives. How far that feeds back into your job security varies by club.
Mentality and team instructions
Mentality sets your baseline risk and the instructions moderate it, grouped as In Possession, In Transition and Out of Possession. FM23 simplified the Line of Engagement wording, added a low block option, and replaced the Offside Trap with Drop Off and Hold the Line.
Role and duty familiarity
Every player carries a familiarity rating for each role, and individual training set to their assigned role is what raises it. Leaving individual training on a default quietly caps both familiarity and attribute growth across a season.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Piling instructions on top of an already aggressive mentality until the tactic contradicts itself
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
2. Leaving individual training on defaults, so role familiarity never climbs and development stalls
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
3. Watching board confidence while Supporter Confidence collapses across the Hardcore and Core segments
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
4. Running a gegenpress with a squad that lacks the Stamina, Work Rate and Aggression to sustain it
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
5. Starting at a small club with no tactical experience, where the learning curve and board pressure arrive together
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Squad Planner and Recruitment Focus
- Choose Inverted Wing-Back as starting role
- Clear UEFA Champions League main content
- Acquire Pass Into Space or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Premier League
- Mentality is your baseline risk and roles, duties and instructions are the moderators. Stacking a much higher tempo, much more direct passing and an Attacking mentality does not produce an aggressive side, it produces an incoherent one.
- Individual training should match the role a player actually plays. Role familiarity climbs from that setting, and leaving it on a default caps both familiarity and attribute growth for the whole season without any warning.
Tips for New Players
- Mentality is your baseline risk and roles, duties and instructions are the moderators. Stacking a much higher tempo, much more direct passing and an Attacking mentality does not produce an aggressive side, it produces an incoherent one.
- Individual training should match the role a player actually plays. Role familiarity climbs from that setting, and leaving it on a default caps both familiarity and attribute growth for the whole season without any warning.
- The Squad Planner ranks your squad by choice order against your tactic and plans three seasons out. Run the Experience Matrix in pre-season to find the position where one injury leaves you with nobody, then buy for that rather than for the position you enjoy.
- Recruitment Focus replaced FM22's assignments and works from filters rather than named targets. The near misses view is the most useful part of it, because a player failing a single criterion is frequently the bargain a strict filter would have hidden.
- Supporter Confidence is tracked separately from board confidence, across Match Performance, Transfer Activity, Tactics and Squad, and split across six fan segments. At clubs where supporters influence the board heavily, losing the Hardcore segment can end a job that results alone would have saved.
- FM23 replaced the Offside Trap with Drop Off and Hold the Line. If your centre-backs are slow, Drop Off combined with a lower Line of Engagement is a genuine structural fix rather than a compromise.
- The 4-2-3-1 gegenpress is the most widely used FM23 system, but it needs Work Rate, Stamina and Aggression across the front five. Bolting it onto a squad without those attributes produces a team that is finished by the hour mark.
- Dynamics is not an optional screen. Squad hierarchy, player relationships and social groups drive morale, and a fractured dressing room degrades performances in ways no tactical adjustment will repair.
- AI managers in FM23 were rebuilt around real world tactical styles derived from analysis of actual managers, so scouting an opponent's shape genuinely pays. Their counter-attacking in particular is far more dangerous than it was in FM22.
- The dedicated Set Piece Coach role does not exist in FM23. It arrived in FM24 along with a Set Pieces coaching attribute, so in FM23 set piece output comes from your routines and your players' attributes rather than a specialist hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is actually new in FM23 compared to FM22?
The Squad Planner, Recruitment Focus replacing assignments, restructured recruitment meetings, expanded agent and intermediary negotiations, Supporter Confidence, a dynamic manager timeline, and full UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League branding. The match engine gained goalkeeper spread blocks, better distribution and improved aerial defending.
Is the Premier League licensed in FM23?
No. Sports Interactive has never held the Premier League competition licence, so it appears generically while individual clubs such as Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion are licensed. Fully licensed competitions include the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 Uber Eats, the Eredivisie, the cinch Scottish Premiership, MLS and the UEFA club competitions.
Does FM23 have a set piece coach?
No. That backroom role and the Set Pieces coaching attribute both arrived in FM24. In FM23 your set piece output depends entirely on the routines you build and the attributes of the players taking and attacking them.
What is the best formation in FM23?
The 4-2-3-1 gegenpress is the most widely cited dominant system, using a high press, quick transitions and Play Out Of Defence. The 4-3-3 DM Wide is the usual pick for a more secure defensive base, while a 4-4-2 diamond or 4-1-3-2 suits possession football.
How does Supporter Confidence differ from board confidence?
The board judges you against its own stated objectives. Supporters split into six segments and judge Match Performance, Transfer Activity, Tactics and Squad on their own terms. How much weight that carries with the board depends on the club you manage.
More Football Manager 2023 Guides
- Football Manager 2023 Football Manager 2023 Overview
- Football Manager 2023 Best Builds
- Football Manager 2023 Tier List
- Football Manager 2023 Walkthrough
- Football Manager 2023 Tips & Tricks
- Football Manager 2023 Weapons Guide
- Football Manager 2023 Combat Guide
- Football Manager 2023 Boss Guide
- Football Manager 2023 Maps & Locations
- Football Manager 2023 Crafting Guide
- Football Manager 2023 Classes & Characters
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- Football Manager 2024 Beginner's Guide: sports game with similar mechanics
