So you think you can manage a football team, huh? Shouting expletives at the TV or the dugout won’t get you anywhere, that’s for sure. That’s why football management games are so popular – especially right now.
Games like Top Eleven test your knowledge of tactics, transfers and team talks without any danger of messing anything up in real life.
But what happens when pro-level Top Eleven players try being managers for real? Well, gamemaker Nordeus took four superfans and tried exactly that.
During an immersive three-day experience at Stoke City FC, they talked tactics with the club’s management, sat in on gym, nutrition and psychology sessions and tagged along to first team training.
“To have the chance to talk directly with
Over the course of three days, the Top Eleven players were completely immersed in life at Stoke City.
“He even discussed with us the strategy he used the previous day against Manchester City, asking us questions, confronting our views, challenging us to think about important points – it was a master class.”
Brit and Stoke fan Jason Dean was just as awestruck. "Sitting down with a Premier League manager to talk tactics was an unbelievable thing to do,” he tells us. “He sent away the cameras and went into great detail about how he set up his team – and I have now implemented some of his tactics into Top Eleven, with great success.”
After two days immersed in the world of top-flight football, the four Top Eleven players were given teams of under 23 and under 18 players to manage, with a mini tournament deciding who could best transfer their videogame skills into reality.
“Using terminology I know from Top Eleven it was easier to communicate and to set up how my team would play,” says Greek player Greg Eleftheriou.
Fittingly, Stoke fan Jason Dean managed his team to victory, and all four Top Eleven players came away from the experience with a deeper understanding of the game. And the experience even enhanced their Top Eleven tactics, says French superfan Romain Migliaccio.
“I can now see football from a different point of view,” he tells us. “Since this trip, I have adapted my team strategies according to each of my opponents and it works.”