This article is brought to you by the Football Manager Academy.[footballmanageracademy.com]

Football Manager is a complex game, and one that evolves year after year. Sometimes though we make it harder for ourselves, sometimes we forget to do the simple things. This article will hopefully give you five hints, or tips that you sometimes forget about, or have just completely ignored.

1. Set Pieces

In real life over 30% of goals come from set pieces, and there not all Stokes. I have to admit this is one area I used to struggle with until I took it seriously. How many of you have not even set your corner takers, your penalty takers, and your throw in takers. Set Pieces are something that you hold completely control over, so why not use it. The key to me are corners, of course free kicks and thrown ins can bring you goals, but I feel you have far more chance from corners. My technique will always be the same, get the balls to the back post, and have two men on the keeper. Another useful tip is defending corners, leave three men out, great way to catch your opponent on the break.

2. Match Preparation

The issue with this is, in your first meeting you have the option to delegate it out. Never, ever do this. Your assistant no matter how good he is will not know the area’s you need your side to concentrate on. Personally I like to tie Match Preparation into my first tip, I have it set on defending set pieces a lot. This allows me to keep my defence tight and control games a lot more. If you are unsure on Match Preparation read this brilliant article[footballmanageracademy.com] on how to make the most of match preparation in Football Manager.

3. Shortlists

Honestly how many of us use shortlists in Football Manager? Who here just scouts tons of players and adds them randomly to shortlists as they go along. What is the benefit to shortlists I hear you ask? Well it allows you to keep track of your targets. I am very strict on my shortlists, as it allows me to manage the players that I am interested in. If you haven’t got any shortlists or unsure on them, why not download a couple and give it a try. Maybe try our Free Agents shortlists and our wonderkids shortlist[footballmanageracademy.com]

4. Making the most of your Staff

This is something that may go against my second hint, but It’s a vital one. I am very hands on with my clubs as much as I can be, however there are certain things you can’t do yourself. The first one is training, the key to that is to review your staff year on year and see if you can improve upon the coaches you can. The same goes with scouts, always try and upgrade on the scouts that you have. Another great addition to this year’s FM is the Director of Football. If you can have one I would get one, they are brilliant at selling unwanted players and they can sign you some very good youngsters. If you’re unsure what to look for in Staff, find out here.[footballmanageracademy.com]

5. Tactical Consistency

This is something I find a lot of us don’t do enough of. Quite often I find people searching for that one magic tactic, more often than not it doesn’t exist unfortunately. So you find yourself experimenting to try and find that system that suits your team. Sometimes its worth sticking with a system, yes you may lose your first three games, quite often that isn’t the system it’s the player or the opposition or one of numerous other reasons. Flicking from tactic to tactic isn’t going to help you. Whatever system you choose give it time to settle in, the main mistake FM players make is that a new team and new tactics all in one go don’t work, so give them both time to settle.

There are your five hints, some of them are obvious, but some of us don’t take advantage of the features in FM and that’s why we aren’t so successful. If you want anymore come on over to the FM Academy, and read our Ultimate Tactic Piece,[footballmanageracademy.com] as part of our Football Manager Tactics series.