(Feature Requests): International Management Features

[FourFiveOne]

1. National teams can now have 26 players (max. in tournaments) and some coaches even select up to over 30 players for Qualifiers, Nations League matches and friendlies  (Italy for example) - ofcourse you can only have a certain amount of players on the bench for a match; the rest of players are sent to sit with the crowd in the stands (but are mostly grateful to be with the squad anyway and proud to be called up. However older players with less national team experience (matches) like Brandon Mechele from Belgium for example and 30+ aged experienced players could have a morale drop and doing this several times could perhaps lead to such older players retiring from the nat. team. Players who are back from injury but were called up anyway because they are seen important and who feel ready to play could also be disappointed when not being selected on matchday, aswell as young players and debutants when the match is a friendly but they dont get a chance yet despite being in the squad and thus were sent to the stands. However they would comprehend it when the match is important and not a friendly).

2. Be able to set up specific training chosen by the nat. team manager, which ofcourse will differ from the training the players receive at their club. This could either satisfy or frustrate the club managers of the selected players. For example when a player comes back injured from international duty the club coach could blaim it on the training said players had to do at the nat. team or because the player played 2-3 times the full match in a row and goes back to his club with incredible fatigue and risk of injury or injured, or actually positive when a player comes back stronger after learning a certain focus that was given to him by his nat. team manager, like being able to play on a new position or having improved a set of skills or a particular skill. On the other hand the nat. team coach should also be able to praise or criticise/question it the other way around when a club coach does these things to players he calls up.

3. Being able to give recommendations/advice and a new trait focus (see 2.) to nat. team players on where to improve; like when Roberto Martinez used Yannick Carrasco as a wingback for Belgium instead of the offensive winger that he naturally is and supposedly asked him to train his defensive skills (in this scenario the club coach of said player (in this case Simeone, who did agree with the defensive focus irl) could agree with your advice/task/new trait given to the player.. or not, lets take Carrasco for example; if his coach would be Klopp he might be worried about Carrasco turning too defensive and losing out on his offensive qualities as he sees Carrasco to be higher on the field where defensive qualities are less important. Another example is Camavinga. Ancelotti decided to use Camavinga as a left back (he even played there yesterday vs Barcelona) instead of a central midfielder and Deschamps said he agreed with it and also plans to use Camavinga as a left back for France. Id like a club/nat. team coach to speak about these new traits and recommendations/advice in the media/press conferences whether they agree with it or not, maybe even have a chat with the other coach about it.).

4. The ability as a nat. team coach to chat with the U21 & U19 nat. team coaches when there is a "supertalent" or very interesting young player who you'd like to call up for the full nat. team (or promote a player from the U19 to the U21) because that young player has better season stats or ratings/form despite his age and lack of experience than other players on his position in said national team/country, or because he has various nationalities and you want to tie him to your country by playing him in the full nat. team already so he cant switch back to his other nationalities. Thus taking away that player from their U21/U19 squad, which could lead to frustation with that U21/U19 nat. team coach unless they agree with the (your) decision (for reasons i mentioned earlier but also if said coach has found a good replacement on the player's position or they (U19/U21) dont play any important games in that period. Its not uncommon to see very young players making their full international debut (and some even skipping the U19/U21nat. team or with just a handful of matches there). Just some examples; Romelu Lukaku made his debut for Belgium at 16 years old. Õdegaard same or even 15 years old for Norway, Gavi at 16 (?) for Spain. Etc.. National team managers (U19/U21/Full) do communicate with eachother about upcoming talents. Roberto Martinez even used to go watch the Belgium U21 in person.

5. More "hunting"/pressure put on players to switch nationalities/tie a player to a nation in football. In the multicultural world we live in where many football players have several nationalities, we should be able to have more conversations with said players and try to convince them to choose to represent the national team we coach, or receive chats from said players asking us if we see a future for them in our national team. If we like said player we need to be able to pursue him more, maybe even pressure, and if we dont, we could be honest and tell the player we dont see a future for him aslong as we are a coach because we dont rate him.. or when we do, put pressure on him to move to a bigger club or league if he wants to be considered for a call up. An example: just a few weeks ago we've seen Italy call up Mateo Retegui (because of his italian origin) who plays in Argentina but wasn't considered by the Argentinian national team. He made his debut for Italy and even scored some goals.

6. When coaching a national team we should also receive messages from certain players who are not of said nationality of the country you are coaching but who are eligible for naturalization/a nationality switch/passport because they've played and lived the required amount of time in the domestic league(s) of that country. As a nat. team coach we should also be able to approach them/said player if we find a player that is interesting/good enough and could help us a lot and try to convince him, various times if necessary. For example; check the full national team call ups of the past 12 months from Armenia, you will see a naturalized nigerian and colombian player amongst others. Cyprus naturalized french CB Valentin Roberge (ex-Sunderland) and Spain is currently trying to naturalize french CB Robin Le Normand (Real Sociedad).

All the things i mentioned in this thread are happening in real life, some since a long time, and should be a priority to add (or improve)  in Football Manager to improve International management, which desperately needs innovation. These features would bring so much immersion, realism and professionalism into the game. Thank you!

Edited April 6, 2023 by FourFiveOne

[FourFiveOne]

More things came in mind overnight 

7. The ability to 'give transfer advice' to players of the nation that we are managing. For example; Leander Dendoncker played a lot with the belgian national team last year, however since he then moved from Wolves to Aston Villa he barely played at his new club. Dendoncker has been a regular in the Belgium squad for the past few years (and was in the squadlist for several Euro's and Worldcups). Regarding his current situation irl we should be able to have a chat with him in FM and ask him to 'reconsider his options in the next transfer window' if his situation (playing time) does not improve so he could possibly end up at another club where he plays a lot of football again and we can call him up for the national team. Another example is Mike Trésor Ndayishimiye at Genk (Belgium) who is this season's assists king in the domestic league since the start of the season. However, he still hasn't received a call up for Belgium, not from Roberto Martinez and not from new coach Domenico Tedesco, the latter being more skeptical of calling up players who still play in the domestic league instead of bigger leagues abroad. In this situation we should also be able to give this player 'transfer advice' as a national team manager on FM and encourage the player to 'move to a bigger competition' in order to increase his chances for a call up for the national team. Like i said; a new 'give transfer advice' tap in FM for every player of the nation we are coaching. National team managers really do this and speak with players they see potential in for a call up.

8. A squad planner with the integration of the U21 & U19 national team players selected by their respective national team managers. For example this would allow us to see who the best goalkeeper will be in 5 years from now (in theory ofcourse, injuries can happen or not playing at his club) and thus would give us a better overview of the talent we have in the national team/country we manage. Its a small quality of life improvement where we could see the potential of the (in theory) best young talents in said nation on one screen ordered by position.

Edited April 7, 2023 by FourFiveOne

[Zachary Whyte]

Thank you for the extremely detailed suggestions, these will be reviewed and considered by the developers and could feature in future FM's.