FC 24: How to use Coaches in Career Mode

FC 24 has been out for five months now, and players continue to explore what EA's latest football title has to offer as we approach the halfway mark since its release.

Career Mode is one of a few modes which received new and upgraded features in the first instalment of the EA FC franchise, with Coaches allowing you to develop your players faster and build a well-rounded team that can eventually help you win trophies.

In this article, we're going to be covering how coaching works in FC 24 by outlining the approaches to developing players in different positions as well as through overall training. So without further ado, let's get stuck in!

FC 24 Career Mode coaches

FC 24 has a coaching system that works in a logical way, as coaches are assigned to either goalkeeping, defensive, midfield or attacking departments. They then use the following dimensions to develop players within their allocated department:

• Tactical knowledge
• Player development

Concerning tactical knowledge, the game consists of seven different philosophies which govern how teams should play within the game. These are:

• Standard
• Wing play
• Tiki-taka
• Counter-attack
• Gegenpressing
• Kick & rush
• Park the bus

Coaches in career mode have either a novice, accomplished or expert-level knowledge of the aforementioned tactical approaches, and this is what differentiates one coach from another within the game when it comes to competency.

So, for example, you could have a coach at Manchester City who has expert-level knowledge of the “Tiki-taka” tactical vision, but a novice level of knowledge about the “Park the Bus” approach.

As a baseline (i.e. a minimum), each coach is a novice on all seven different types of tactical vision. It's up to you as a manager to select the best coaches for your team based on the tactical vision you want to employ during matches.

For instance, let's say you're managing a dominant Leicester City team in the EFL Championship and employing a Gegenpressing tactic that's working to great effect. Now, you'll be able to get more performance improvement from your players by hiring coaches who have accomplished or expert-level knowledge of this particular tactical vision.

Match XP earnings

EA has gone a step further by making this tactical knowledge element of coaching a dynamic one. This is because coaches can gain experience points (XP) over time when the team plays matches, more so through wins which provide a considerable boost to the knowledge level of a certain tactical approach.

It's also important to note that all coaches at a club are eligible to earn specific tactical vision XP from matches played, except those who've already attained expert-level knowledge of the active tactical vision.

Attribute development

Now here's where you get the benefits from coaching. Players can reap the rewards of their dedication to following their coaches' training via attribute increases.

Here's how developers outlined this feature prior to the game's release:

“The Knowledge the Head Coach has can increase attributes of players in their department. The higher the Knowledge level is, the more Attributes there can be. Novice level Coaches typically increase 3 attributes at most, while Expert level coaches can increase up to 9 attributes.”

This is pretty self-explanatory, but in a nutshell, it means that coaches with a higher level of tactical knowledge are able to offer a greater boost to the attributes of players. Let's look through some examples of this below.

Wing play coaching example

Here we have Jack Grealish, a first-choice left winger at Manchester City.

With the wing play tactical vision in force, Grealish is able to benefit from increases to his Crossing, Sprint Speed, Acceleration and Dribbling attributes.

Similarly, Erling Haaland gets a boost to Strength, Heading, Shot Power, Jumping and Finishing from having a wing play coach working on making him a better striker.

Counter attack coaching example

On the other hand, a counter-attacking coach will be able to influence a different set of player attributes.

In the screenshot below, you can see that Grealish's Agility, Stamina, Finishing, Dribbling and Acceleration all get a positive bump from counter-attacking coaching.

Therefore, managers have to choose their coaches carefully because the tactical knowledge a coach can impart has a direct effect on the physical and technical growth of the players being trained.

One other thing that's worth noting is that the size of the attribute increase is also determined by player sharpness, so regardless of Coach Knowledge level, it's up to each manager to get players at the right levels of sharpness to get a strong increase, while also having enough energy to be eligible to play the entire match.

Player development

Earlier on in the article, we introduced the two main coaching dimensions in the Career Mode module, but we only spoke about tactical knowledge.

Now, here's where we look at the impact of a coach's player development capability.

How this works is that each coach has a set of skills for developing players over time. This quality is comprised of a star rating system ranging from one to five, which is also department-specific. Here's what this looks like within the game:

What this basically means is that a coach can have a rating of four stars for attacking skills and a lower rating of two stars for defensive skills. In essence, they're better suited to training attacking players than defensive ones, and their attribute boosts will be weighted heavier towards the players on the offensive side of the field.

Overall coach management

Lastly, when it comes to the overall management of coaching duties within Career Mode, you have the flexibility to determine how to allocate hired coaches among the various departments of the club, tailoring the assignments to the unique requirements of each department.

However, it's important to note that each club has a limited number of open positions for hiring coaches, primarily based on the club's status and value.

Additional coaching slots can potentially be unlocked on an annual basis by the board, contingent upon achieving a favourable manager rating after the preceding season.

Also worth noting is that the pool of available coaches on the market is periodically refreshed. So, if you're unable to find the perfect candidates to fill all the vacant slots, you can revisit the market at a later time for a fresh selection.

Moreover, EA has introduced a coach wish list feature that empowers managers to specify desired attributes for potential coaches such as Tactical Vision, Knowledge, and specific coaching skills. This tool even offers notifications when a suitable candidate matching the criteria becomes accessible.

On a separate note, coaches also have the freedom to transition between departments without any repercussions, allowing for the maintenance of an optimal quality balance within each department.

Additionally, coaches can be released by the club to make room for more qualified available candidates. It's important to note that releasing a coach in this manner incurs a severance package cost, and the released coach will not reappear on the market for consideration.

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