There are a lot of parts to building a team in Football Manager 2022, but it all starts with which formation you choose to play.

Before you can even think about your style of play, you need to figure out where you want to put your players. You get ultimate freedom and the ability to drag your players wherever you want in FM22, so you can try out absolutely anything you can think of.

Here are a few good places to start off.

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A firm favourite here, the 4-2-3-1 is popular among managers on both the real and virtual pitch, and with good reason.

It’s balanced both in attack and in defence, but can be manipulated to overload at either end of the pitch. You can easily have eight players joining your attack if you want to (probably don’t do that though).

Overlapping full-backs, perhaps combined with inverted wingers, is a proven method for success, but there are so many different ways for you to experiment.

It’s impossible to choose one version of the 4-3-3 to go with. It’s so versatile and can be moulded to sculpt any desire.

The most common use of the 4-3-3 comes with a deeper defensive midfielder and two wingers, the DM Wide variant, but you’ll see managers play a flat three-man midfield or even with two deeper options if they reckon they’re going to be in a battle for possession.

Even out wide, you can use traditional wingers or push them further forwards and use them as inside strikers. The possibilities are endless.

It’s not flashy, but the 4-4-2 is actually one of the most effective formations available on FM22.

Having two strikers can work out great, but the real stars of his formation are the midfielders, who you need to make sure have strong physical stats as they’ll likely be filling it at both ends of the field.

You can give one of those midfielders an attacking mindset if you’re feeling adventurous, or stick with more of an anchor role if you feel as though you’ll need the extra cover.

I know, 4-2-4 sounds a little too adventurous. That’s so much in attack and so little in defence… but that’s the whole point.

All that firepower makes for some thoroughly entertaining viewing, with your two wingers combining flawlessly with the two strikers to create overload after overload after overload.

Of course, you’ll need a solid foundation to make this work. A defensive-minded midfielder is a good start, and a couple of conservative full-backs wouldn’t go amiss either.

A lot of the game’s top managers love the 5-3-2 (or the 3-5-2, whatever you want to call it).

In FM22, this formation has been given a whole new lease of life following the introduction of the wide centre-back role. Those defenders can now become attackers, and experimenting with that is a whole lot of fun.

Outside of that, the three-man midfield can be moulded in your own image. A flat three, a deep anchor or an attack-minded playmaker can change this formation completely.

While the 5-3-2 focuses on playing through the centre, the 5-2-3 (or 3-4-3) is all about width and overloads down the wing.

Wing-backs must be supremely fit and capable of impacting the game at both ends of the field (which is perfect for most modern defenders), and you can even use wide centre-backs to overload on overloads.

With so many players making runs forwards, you’ll want to make sure you have at least one midfielder capable of picking them out.