A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
That saying is certainly true in Football Manager, where a strong coaching staff can help wonderkids blossom into world-class footballers and a weak one could turn a five-star-rated player sub-par.
To help you achieve the former rather than the latter, the following is a list of coaches who start every save in FM23 unemployed, with two choices included for each role.
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Just a note first, though: you should also use the ‘staff search’ feature to find assistants by position. In every save, there are almost always a bunch of regenerated coaches who don’t exist in real life, and they often have strong stats.
However, seeing as we can’t randomly predict which regens will be in every save, our focus here is on the best real-life options who can help make your team better in Football Manager 2023.
Remember, they don’t need to have across-the-board high attributes, you just need to ensure they only work on aspects of the game they specialise in during training.
To help with that, we’ve listed the key categories each coach needs expertise in, with each category rated out of 20; so if there are five categories, their maximum total score is 100, and so on.
Here we go…
Assistant manager
Key attributes: judging player ability, judging player potential, people management
First pick — Hermann Gerland
Key attributes score: 51 out of 60
Just look at the sea of green in the screengrab below. It’s exactly what you want to find when you go looking for a new coach.
For the uninitiated, attributes highlighted in green (a rating of 16/20 or higher), indicate the person in question is pretty damn good at that particular thing. With Gerland, you’ll be getting an assistant who can wear multiple hats and be productive in each role.
Great assistants aren’t in abundance in FM23, but if you can dot the Is and cross the Ts on Gerland’s contract, you’ll have taken a major step forward.
Second pick — Nuno Gomes
Key attributes score: 48 out of 60
In FM23, your assistant manager is expected to provide feedback on the squad and offer man-management in moments where you can’t be bothered to address dramas such as a player being unhappy with their playing time. But when you have a No 2 who’s also capable of leading a few training sessions, you’ve really struck gold.
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Former Portugal international Gomes is more than capable of doubling up as your attacking coach if needs be, and comes with the bonus of being willing to sign for not just all Premier League clubs but promotion-chasing sides in the Championship, too.
Attacking coaches: technical
Key attributes: attacking, technical, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Fabio Mahseredjian
Key attributes score: 80 out of 100
Mahseredjian is a Brazilian coach who, for some reason, prefers to stick to fitness coaching despite having elite stats across the board.
His level of discipline (12 out of 20) is mediocre at best, but who cares? That means he can play the role of Good Cop while other coaches send players to run laps if they don’t hit their training goals.
Second pick — Brian McDermott
Key attributes score: 71 out of 100
There is a slight drop-off between Mahseredjian and McDermott, but I am a man of the people. It’s not all about the coaches who want to join Liverpool or Manchester City. This pick is for clubs lower down the leagues.
And McDermott, as a former Premier League manager, still has extremely solid attributes in key areas.
Attacking coaches: tactical
Key attributes: attacking, tactical, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Loris Beoni
Key attributes score: 80 out of 100
Beoni’s tactical rating is a maximum, and the rest of his numbers are where you’d want them to be.
If you’re someone who likes to use a few different formations or change your team shape, depending on if you’re winning, drawing or losing, Beoni would be a smart hire.
Second pick — Kevin Ball
Key attributes score: 79 out of 100
Ball has the intangibles Beoni lacks, so while his tactical rating (13 out of 20) doesn’t jump off the page he can help instil the right culture at your club.
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Most importantly, he is willing to join clubs with lesser reputations and would arrive at a Championship side with attributes strong enough to make the grade a division higher.
Defensive coaches: tactical
Key attributes: defending, technical, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Daniele Baldini
Key attributes score: 82 out of 100
A large part of building a team with a defensively solid base revolves around having a strong understanding of where your defenders should be on the pitch and when. In FM23, you’ll need a Baldini in your ranks to help construct that immovable object.
Having coached at big clubs in Italy, Baldini wouldn’t be fazed helping an aspiring manager such as yourself create an elite-level defence. His 15 out of 20 adaptability rating, which refers to how well a coach will settle in a new environment, is a nice bonus too, even if it isn’t a key attribute for the role he’d undertake.
Second pick — Giancarlo Marini
Key attributes score: 70 out of 100
Marini is another smart choice for FM players in charge of EFL clubs. Why? Aside from his key attribute score, I spent hours researching hundreds of random coaches to arrive at this pick — take that as you wish.
In all seriousness, Marini is solid enough that he can be relied on to help you build a strong defensive unit, but the most honest advice I can give here is: load up a staff search and look for regenerated coaches with better stats than his. If/when you can’t find one, fall back on Marini and expect solid returns.
Defending coaches: technical
Key attributes: defending, tactical, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Arno Michels
Key attributes score: 70 out of 100
Michels has been one of Thomas Tuchel’s trusted lieutenants for over a decade, having worked with him at Mainz, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. Tuchel currently being out of work makes Michels a free agent too, and one of the better coaches to begin each FM23 save without a club.
His best attribute is his technical ranking (16 out of 20), so for that reason, whenever you need to work on playing from out from the back, Michels is a strong choice to lead those training sessions.
Second pick — Carlo Regno
Key attributes score: 67 out of 100
Look, I am a man of the people who provides coaching solutions for all types of clubs. But nobody is perfect. Regno cannot easily be signed by smaller clubs, and for that, I can only apologise.
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On the flip side, if you do manage a side of interest to him, I’d like to take this time to revel in my brilliance for uncovering this coaching gem. Regno’s preference is to become an assistant manager, but I think he’s better suited as a specialist defensive coach, as his 18 out of 20 defending score would suggest.
Possession coaches: tactical
Key attributes = mental, technical, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Miguel D’Agostino
Key attributes score: 78 out of 100
Back when Mauricio Pochettino bought his first car as a teenager, D’Agostino broke one of its doors. And not only did he leave a chilly Pochettino to drive home with an extra waft of wind, in the approaching 30 years since he’s never offered to pay for a replacement.
That kind of ruthless energy could work wonders for your squad when doing possession training, though.
D’Agostino will not tolerate players who easily give the ball away.
A coach under Pochettino at Tottenham for five years and his assistant at Paris Saint-Germain too, he’s got both the CV and mental fortitude to succeed at another big club in FM23.
Second pick — Renato Baldi
Key attributes score: 73 out of 100
If for some reason you can’t sign the menace who slammed Pochettino’s car door too hard and broke it all those years ago, Baldi is a nice fallback option. He ticks the boxes you want to be ticked.
Not a particularly groundbreaking appointment, but you can certainly do a lot worse.
Possession coaches: technical
Key attributes: mental, tactical, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Mark Chamberlain
Key attributes score: 72 out of 100
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s father, Mark, spent close to a decade coaching at Southampton and worked at neighbours and arch-rivals Portsmouth for 12 years. He’s put in the hard yards to hone his craft and would add good value to any club able to sign him in FM23.
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Another option for this role would be Silvino Morais. He wasn’t included here, despite having a better key attributes number (83 out of 100) than those who are, because he’s a member of the Portugal Under-19s coaching staff in FM23, which makes him employed and ineligible to feature. But because he’s an under-19s coach, it shouldn’t be too hard to prise him out of that gig.
Second pick — Lee Wallace
Key attributes score: 65 out of 100
The former Rangers captain recently became a coach, and although his preference is to become a manager in FM23, Wallace would be willing to accept a coaching role at a wide variety of clubs.
The technical side of Wallace’s coaching attributes is very good. His determination, level of discipline and motivating stats are a little low, but that’s not the worst thing in the world given how strong his mental (15 out of 20) and tactical (16 out of 20) numbers are.
Goalkeeping coaches
Key attributes: shot stopping, handling, distribution, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Alessandro Nista
Key attributes score: 100 out of 120
Nista is about as good as it gets when it comes to unemployed goalkeeping coaches in FM23.
The ‘KISS’ principle stands for ‘keep it simple stupid’. That’s all that needs to be said here. Nista has great stats, so get a deal done right away.
Second pick — Joel Bats
Key attributes score: 99 out of 120
Nista has better intangibles, Bats has better technical attributes. To-may-to, to-marr-to.
Of all the coaching groups we’ve listed here, the goalkeeping specialists are by far the strongest, with two elite coaches available — albeit only for top sides. I’d advise signing Nista and Bats, who won 50 caps as France’s goalkeeper and helped them win the 1984 European Championship and reach the World Cup semi-finals two years later, rather than one or the other.
Fitness coaches
Key attributes: fitness, determination, level of discipline, motivating
First pick — Mario Monteiro
Key attributes score: 71 out of 80
Monteiro’s key attributes score make him an absolute must.
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A perfect fitness rating, accompanied with elite-level intangibles, means it would be foolish to overlook him.
In other words, there aren’t many better fitness coaches available than the former Benfica and Sporting Lisbon coach, so get a deal done as soon as possible.
Second pick — Ismael Fernandez
Key attributes score: 68/80
Fernandez’s attributes are also in the realm of being too good to overlook. But, like Monteiro, he will often only join bigger teams. So if you have the necessary level of reputation and the wage budget available to get him in one of your club’s tracksuits, do it.
If Fernandez is unwilling to come, consider looking at Roberto De Bellis, who has a key attributes score of 65 out of 80, and is often more willing to sign for clubs with less gaudy reputations.
