The Best Tactic in Football Manager 2024 and Going Into FM25

The Best Tactic in Football Manager is here and we’ve got it for you. After over 900 hours of testing in FM24, we are confident that this is the cheat code you need.

A good FM 24 Tactic can set you up for a great season, get it wrong, however, and you’ll be struggling from day one. While FM 24 is only just out, there are already some solid tactics floating around the web. If you want to see our first tactic seen in action, we highly suggest checking out our NUFC FM 24 Story, we change the tactic in part 3, and, well, it’s solid.

We’ll update this article with more tactics as the game rolls out, and look to test these all ourselves.

Best FM 24 Tactics
4-2-3-1 – “Death Star”

Some special instructions on this one:

GK – Tackle Harder

WB – Take More Risks – Dribble More – Run Wide With Ball – Shoot Less Often – Stay Wider – Tackle Harder

CB – Dribble More – Tackle Harder

DM – Take More Risks – Tackle Harder

Wingers – Sit Narrower – Tackle Harder

AM – Move Into Channels – Tackle Harder

ST – Tackle Harder

While the screenshot is from my PSG save, I had a lot of success with this on my Everton save. In three seasons, I saved them from relegation, got them into Europe, won the Europa and then took them to the Champions League. It’s very attacking, and you will concede a lot of goals… my Everton side really struggled as Sean Dyche had some DCL the season I joined, leaving me with Maupay as my only real option up top. But, we signed a new striker who went on to secure the Golden Boot 3 seasons in a row.

So far in FM24, it’s my favourite tactic because it allows me to use every role I like. I love wide play, I have a soft spot for a number 10, and while the two DMs aren’t normally my style, it makes it work here.

Update for Winter Update: I have doubled-down on this t tactic now as my main tactic. A reset test saw me use it at Skövde AIK in Sweden, and we managed promotion in the first season. While this is very anecdotal, this is by far my most consistent tactic in FM24 and the one that feels the easiest to use no matter the club.

The ‘Death Star’ formation in Football Manager 2025
While it’s very early days, in the past few years any form of “4-2-3-1” or Gegenpressing (counter-pressing) formation has been dominant in Football Manager. Having played nearly 900 hours of FM24 at this point, “Death Star” has been my go-to formation for a reason. The formation also works at any level, with a few tweaks, of course.

As we move closer to Football Manager 2025, the “Death Star” is likely to continue to shine as it has in Football Manager 24. One key thing that is worth noting is that the Gegenpressing style has been overpowered for several years now. With Football Manager 2025 switching to a new game engine, this might have an impact on what is overpowered. That said, this formation works well because so many players in Football Manager play in similar roles in real life. Meaning that you have a wealth of talent to pick from. As mentioned above, the formation is also very versatile and can be tweaked to make it work for a number of different squads.

To be more specific, if you are playing in the lower leagues, you can change the keeper and CBs on “Keeper” and “No-nonsense” respectively. The wing-backs can also change to “Support”, with the DM moved to “Defend”. The attacking roles we would suggest stay the same as they are vital to how the formation scores goals. The original version of this formation has the DLP as a second DM, which is something you can also do, though put them on “Support

David has written for games media outlets for the last ten years. With his first major esports role being with Esports News UK covering mostly UK League of Legends. David is also a member of the British Esports Association and is an advisor to them on World of Warcraft Esports. More recently David has worked for Esports Insider and Red Bull as an esports journalist.

David later became Editor at ESTNN and now leads the current team.