Long Shots
Thirty yards, one touch, and a prayer the keeper dives the wrong way.
Long Shots is a Technical player attribute in Football Manager that quantifies a player's ability to strike the ball accurately and with power from outside the penalty area. Ranging from 1 to 20 like all player attributes, it sits alongside Finishing, First Touch, and Vision in the Technical group, and it is the single most important number a manager checks when evaluating whether a midfielder or winger will dare to pull a shot from thirty yards rather than recycling possession.
In practical terms, Long Shots governs how often the AI (and the player, when controlling directly) will attempt a shot from distance, how accurate that shot tends to be, and how much power it carries. It is deliberately distinct from Long Passing, which measures the ability to send a controlled ball across the pitch, and from Free Kick Taking, which handles set-piece delivery. A player can be a master of the long ball yet a liability from open play, or vice versa, making Long Shots a critical differentiator in squad planning for roles that thrive on directness.
- Type
- Player Attribute (Technical group)
- Scale
- 1 – 20
- Distinct from
- Long Passing (a separate Technical attribute)
- Most relevant roles
- Winger, Inside Forward, Attacking Midfielder, Advanced Playmaker
- Developer
- Sports Interactive
- Game series
- Football Manager (and earlier Soccer Manager titles)
Lore & Background
In the Football Manager universe, the Long Shots attribute is where the romance of the beautiful game meets spreadsheet logic. Every manager who has ever watched a 14-year-old academy prospect light up a training ground with a thunderous strike from the edge of the box, only to see the number read a modest 8, knows the quiet frustration of the metric. Yet the attribute is not merely a rating; it is a behavioural signal. The AI's decision engine weighs Long Shots against the player's current position, the angle to goal, the number of defenders between them and the keeper, and the team's tactical instructions. A player with a 16 in Long Shots and a high Off the Ball rating will be far more likely to receive the ball in a half-space and immediately look to shoot, whereas the same player with a low Off the Ball rating will tend to lay the ball off and wait for a better opportunity.
The attribute also carries narrative weight in the game's scouting and youth development systems. When a young player's Long Shots rating ticks up by two or three points during a season, it often signals a genuine developmental leap, and the player's on-pitch behaviour shifts almost immediately. They start taking shots they would previously have passed on. Their free-kick routine gains an extra curl. The goalkeeper's save percentage against them drops. In a way that is hard to replicate in any other football simulation, a single number going from 9 to 12 can change the entire rhythm of a team's attacking play, turning a patient possession side into one that occasionally detonates from distance.
Fans of the series will recall countless forum threads and community discussions debating whether Long Shots is over- or under-weighted in the AI's shooting decisions, particularly in later versions of the game where the shot-selection algorithm was refined. The consensus has generally been that the attribute is one of several inputs, not a guarantee, and that context—angle, pressure, body shape—matters just as much as the raw number. Still, for the manager who builds a system around a single long-range specialist, that number is everything.
In Their Own Story
The floodlights hummed over the artificial turf as the fourth official's clock crept toward the seventy-second minute. The score was 1-1, and the away manager had just pulled his holding midfielder for a second striker, a desperate gesture that left the midfield thin. The ball looped into the edge of the box, where the number eight, a wiry left-footer with a Long Shots rating that had climbed from 11 to 14 over the season, caught it on his chest. Two defenders closed. He didn't look at the keeper. He didn't need to. The instep connected with the laces, and the ball left his foot with a sound like a cracked whip, threading the gap between the centre-back's outstretched arm and the near post. The keeper's glove brushed the air. The net rippled. The away dugout went silent for a beat before the roar hit, and the number eight was already jogging back, arms wide, as if the shot had cost him nothing. In the manager's office, a single attribute on a single screen had just decided the match.
Reader's Guide
Mechanically, Long Shots sits in the Technical attribute group and is evaluated on the standard 1-to-20 scale. It is one of several inputs the AI considers when a player is in a shooting position outside the penalty area. The engine weighs the player's Long Shots rating against the angle to goal, the number of defenders in the shooting lane, the player's current body shape, and the team's tactical instruction for shooting (Set to Shoot vs. Play Safe). A higher Long Shots rating increases both the likelihood that the AI will attempt the shot and the accuracy of the resulting strike.
Interaction with other attributes is key. Long Shots works in tandem with Vision (to find the right moment), First Touch (to shape the strike), and Off the Ball (to arrive in a shooting position). A player with a 17 in Long Shots but a 6 in Off the Ball will rarely be in the right place to use it. Conversely, a player with high Off the Ball and moderate Long Shots will arrive at the edge of the box but may lack the power or curl to beat a well-set keeper. Finishing also plays a supporting role, as it governs general shot quality, while Long Shots specifically governs the decision and execution from distance.
A common misconception is that Long Shots is the same as Long Passing. They are entirely separate attributes. Long Passing measures the ability to send a controlled, accurate ball across the field; Long Shots measures the ability to strike toward goal from range. A deep-lying playmaker may have a 19 in Long Passing and a 9 in Long Shots, and that is perfectly normal.
For managers, the practical advice is to identify one or two players in your squad with a Long Shots rating of 14 or higher and build your attacking shape around them. Set their individual instruction to 'Shoot from outside the box' and ensure they are positioned in the half-spaces or the edge of the D. Pair them with a high-Vision midfielder who can feed them the ball in those zones. In youth development, a high aptitude in Long Shots combined with a high work rate makes for a dangerous outside midfielder who can unlock stubborn defences. Do not, however, expect a 12-rated Long Shots player to become a 18-rated one overnight; the attribute develops slowly and is heavily influenced by the player's age, training focus, and playing time.
Did You Know?
- Long Shots and Long Passing are two completely separate attributes in Football Manager; a player can excel at one and be average at the other, which is why a deep-lying playmaker and a direct winger can have very differe
- The AI's shot-selection algorithm does not rely on Long Shots alone; it cross-references the player's angle to goal, the number of defenders in the shooting lane, and the team's shooting instruction, meaning a 19-rated L
- In the youth academy system, a player's Long Shots attribute can be targeted for development through specific technical training, but the rate of improvement is heavily gated by the player's age and their aptitude rating
- The attribute has been present in the series since the earliest Soccer Manager and Football Manager titles, though the exact weight it carries in the AI's decision-making has been tweaked across multiple versions as Spor