🧭 Beginner’s Guide to Managing Your Team on KickoffBoss (KOB)

This little guide will help you understand what’s most important when starting out as a manager on KickoffBoss and how to properly set up your team to compete effectively.

⚽ Set Up Player Roles

Getting your player roles right is one of the first key steps. From the tactics screen, top left corner you can find the Player Roles button.

• Captain: Choose the player with the highest Leadership rating.
  The captain gives your team a Captain Boost (CB) during matches — up to 5% depending on their Leadership rating.

• Other roles: Don’t overlook these! They improve your chances of scoring from corners, free kicks, and penalties.

• Priority numbers: The player with the highest priority number will take the role.
  👉 Example: A player with priority 10 will be chosen over a player with priority 1 — a common mistake new managers make!

🧩 Player Selection

• For a quick setup, use the “Fill Lineup” button on the tactics panel.
  The game will automatically pick a "decent" team, but it won’t always be optimal — think of it as a shortcut, not a strategy.

• You can use Average Quality as a rough indicator, but remember:
  During matches, it’s the individual skills that matter, not the average. Each position values certain skills more (you can see the key ones underlined in the player info panel).

• Avoid playing players out of position.
  They’ll perform worse than usual and may cost you important plays.

🧠 Check How Your Opponent Plays

If your next opponent is a bot team, good news — they always play the same way!
You can use this to counter their tactics and gain a big advantage. This also works for human managers but obviously they can change their tactics to confuse you!

Check their last matches:

Marking ↔ Approach

• If they use Closing down, don’t use Shoot on sight

• If they use Dropping deep, don’t use Pass into space

• If they use Man marking, don’t use Cross to box

Approach ↔ Marking

• If they use Shoot on sight, use Closing down

• If they use Pass into space, use Dropping deep

• If they use Cross to box, use Man marking

Extra Tips:

• If you have the stronger team, play High Tempo — this creates more chances and increases the odds of scoring.

• If you’re aiming for a draw or defensive result, go with Slow Tempo and a Defensive Mentality.

🔁 Rotate Your Team

Player condition and fatigue can make or break your season.

• Don’t play anyone below 90% condition — a player at 90% will perform roughly 10% worse than their full potential.

• Watch out for double match days — these happen on days 5, 10, 15, and 20, when there are two league games.
  You might also have cup or international matches mixed in on other days.

• For teams that play a lot of matches, fatigue can be a problem as minutes buildup during the season, players will lose more condition per match. You can either use your medical center to give players massages or have some of them skip training.

Pro Tips:

• Train Natural Fitness to reduce how much energy players lose during matches.

• Playing Slow Tempo also conserves energy since there are fewer match buildups.