In January 1987, he joined Chester City as a player and assistant manager. The long-term plan was for qualified coach Fazackerley to succeed Harry McNally as manager,[4] but he grew unhappy at the lack of progress at the club.[5] He moved on in the summer of 1988 to York City to assist ex-Rovers manager Bobby Saxton. In February 1989, he joined Bury where Martin Dobson was manager and ended the season helping run the side after Dobson departed. This was his final playing season in professional football.
In May 1990, he became player-manager of Kumu in Finland[6] before moving to Newcastle United as first team coach. He was involved in the England setup as assistant manager under Kevin Keegan, working alongside Les Reed.
He has since coached at other clubs, including Blackburn, Bolton Wanderers and Barnsley.
He was a scout for Manchester City and sat alongside Sven-Göran Eriksson on the bench at City's matches during his only season in charge. His position at the club was placed under review following Eriksson's departure,[7] and left in July after Mark Hughes was appointed as manager.[8]
On 11 December 2008, he was made the new first team coach at Football League One side Huddersfield Town, following the appointment of Lee Clark as manager.
On 4 October 2010, he was made the new assistant manager at Football League Championship side Leicester City, following the appointment of Sven-Göran Eriksson as manager. He left the club in October 2011.
When Clark took over as manager of Birmingham City in June 2012, he appointed Fazackerley to the role of first-team coach.[9] On 17 February 2014, it was widely reported that he and assistant manager Terry McDermott had left Birmingham;[10] the club stated they had "no comment to issue on the matter at this moment in time."[11]
Fazackerley joined Oxford United as assistant manager under Michael Appleton on 21 July 2014.[12] He remained at the club when Appleton joined Leicester City as assistant manager at the end of the 2016–17 season, and when Appleton's successor Pep Clotet was sacked in January 2018, Fazackerley took over as caretaker manager.[13] He was in charge for two months, during which time the team won twice in eight games,[14] before the appointment of Karl Robinson on 22 March 2018.[15] He left his coaching position in 2020, though he retained an advisory position at the club[16] and was involved in the recruitment of Robinson's successor, Liam Manning, in 2023.[17]