Why B Teams Suck (and How to Fix Them)

Reserves in Football Manager are typically overlooked. Yet, I get a load of questions about why they don’t seem to be doing what they should be doing for your FM side. Do B teams help with fitness? Do they help wonderkid development? Do FM reserves ever play games? Is it a glitch when they don’t? Enough questions, this video has the Football Manager answers. As they do.

Using reserve teams to organize your development and keep your team fit can actually have a huge impact on your FM save. That’s my way of saying in my escapades I should have made this video earlier for my Football Manager catalog. As always, if you have any B team questions about fitness and development and the other points I make in the video, I’m one comment away.

Sincerely,
FM Senpai

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[CookieWithACat]

The EFL trophy in England went from competitive, to being seen as a bit of a joke when they brought in the Prem U-23 teams. Lower league teams are forced to play a certain number of the starting 11 from their previous match because they weren't fielding full sides. Bradford subbed their goalkeeper after three minutes as the assistant manager said 'he had a poor first 45 seconds' to get round the rules!

[joaocarlosferreirabarbosa]

In Portugal some B teams play in the 2nd division, a very competitive league. I think that's why Portugal is developing more youngsters with better qualitiy. It's a good example of how B teams can be really good in the game.

[JMThought]

This is the most rambly one yet lol Hugely helpful though, I was wondering why my Dortmund side was such a mess.

[PikaShockedEmote]

quit the info and just get to the damn jokes

[Hyde_Hill]

Extra reasons to keep around a reserve level player: Home grown in nation/club if it is a talented youngster you bought. Two smaller ones: More control over their development, better coaching staff and facilities then where loan them too (less likely if B team). Note on having them in main team and available for reserves, this cuts down their training by one day as they are then playing for the reserves and it puts more pressure on your coaches lowering general coaching quality (depending on amount of coaches you have). So that is not a full positive. Also important to note irrespective of B team or reserves is that player's don't develop from playing time before the age of 18 so if you have good coaching and facilities might not want to loan them out.

[CrazyNathan]

The Nepenthez line killed me 😂 keep up the great work Z!

[HIM]

I am playing a Braga save. It has 4 sub-teams; Braga B, under 23s, under 19s and under 19s-B.

I know its crazy.

[arsvi]

One thing that's also worth mentioning is Homegrown players, you shouldn't loan a player out if you want them to be an HGC (if you only want them to be an HGN you can loan them out to any club in the same country as you), players dont count as being in your team during a loan spell, while they do if they're playing for your B/U21 team.

[barrylassche]

Jong Ajax, PSV, AZ and Utrecht play in the second division because some clubs went bankrupt and they had to fill the division.

[DMurphyApple]

one handy thing though: wages in the reserve team dont count towards your wage budget (at least in germany). so if you cant pay like a signing bonus just move a high wage player briefly to the reserves and voila

[vgor]

I never paid much attention to reserve teams in the past, until my current save in Peru. The rules in this league are absolutely bonkers, and one of them is that your senior team gets extra points in the table at the end of the season if your reserve team finishes top-2 in the reserves competition. Two extra points for 1st place, and one extra point for 2nd place. Considering that I'm even on points right now with one of my rivals half way through the season, this particular league makes it worth it to keep the reserves team in good shape.

[alexkangaroo]

One reason to have youth players play in the Reservers or youth squad is so that they will become "home grown" at club/nation.

[fredrikparkell]

Werder Bremen got a B team (Bremen II) and a C team/U21 team (Bremen III), both of which are in the league system. Can both climb up to 3. Liga (div 3) but not further than that. I use both of them and honestly the Bremen III side is amazing, as I can put a bunch of 17-18 year olds playing in a fairly high level league, developing their abilitys alot in many cases.

[timfeyenoord]

There was a big discussion in The Netherlands about adding the Jong (which means young btw) to the professional football league pyramid which led to some clubs being added to the pyramid and some staying in the Jong league. To add to the confusion we're adding a U21 league from next year on

[alexcayer]

After finishing 1pts short on the title in the vanarama national league south with Dulwich Hamlet, I won the final playoff match 7-0. thanks to your tips Z

[aronhuinink]

This game is unbelievable. I watch zealand's every video and I still suck.

[dvl_shosetsuka]

With Perak FA, I can beat all teams in Malaysia Super League but I can't beat my own B Team 😭

[Mohammad_.-]

This is not totally unrelated .. but every year in my PL save .. I usually make the U23 as strong as League 2 or even 1 in course of like 3 or 4 seasons i guess .. first of all i can afford it .. second and the most important one .. the HGC .. i have to be ready for the inevitable .. so i do loan out players that i'm not quite sure will make it .. and sometimes the 5 star potentials as well cause it's better for their development or they're pushing for one .. but i try to keep the good ones and make them HGC .. and of course i play them here and there in Cup games and occasionally in PL

[henriquedaumas]

Playing in Spain is soooo fun because the Spanish second division has a lot more quality than other nations's that allow B teams in the second tier

[Captain_McClutch]

I have a couple uses for my B team.

1. To get the final couple years in for my youth players to get them home grown to the club before I loan them out.

2. To store my players for loan (either youth I'm hoping grow or players I couldn't sell and have settled for loaning out to get them off my wages).

3. To store players I either intend to sell or am in the process of selling especially to unsettle ones who think they should be in the first team.

It's generally a graveyard and a mess, the coaches and amount I check in on those players is minimal. But it's a good place to drop all players you're unsure about in to, if I want to know where to trim the team I can just put them all in one place and clear through it. So when you look at your youth team and first team you get a clear look of how those two sides really are.