Football Manager is back, but with all the new changes, is it better than ever, and does this new leap of faith to a new Unity engine make a huge difference?
The first thing you’ll notice when diving into the game, if you’re a veteran of Football Manager (FM), is everything looks and feels different.
This is the first time the user interface has changed for years, and whilst as humans we’re not fans of change, after a couple of hours, you soon realise this is definitely for the better.
The new ‘Portal’ tab is designed to give you all the information you need in a snapshot. There’s no need to look at different screens to get the information you want access to, it’s all there in one place.
From here you can see your emails, calendar, fixture schedule, league table and any breaking news stories from the elements of the game you’re following. It’s designed to be smarter, and give you access to all the essential parts of the game.
For those who love to delve deeper into the role of a football manager, there are still all the screens and drama that you love about the old versions of FM. They’re just in a slightly different place, which can take some getting used to.
From recruitment to shaping your tactics to the new match day screen, you can be assured this game has a plethora of information and options at your fingertips, all in one easy to navigate space. The new ‘sidebar’ displayed at the top is all about faster access to the heart of the game.
With this in mind, we jumped straight into the beta version* supplied by Football Manager to get to grips with the game ahead of its release on November 4. We decided to take over Manchester United to see if we can repair the club’s on pitch fortunes after more than a decade without a Premier League title.
During our meeting with Chief Executive Officer Omar Berrada, he made it very clear that our main objective was to qualify for the Europa League, a tall order for a club that finished 15th last season.
But after heavy spending during the summer before we arrived on the likes of Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha, Senne Lammens and Benjamin Sesko, the squad was already in a much healthier place. However, we knew that if we wanted to jump around 10 league places, then further business would need to be done.
Speaking of recruitment, transfers have almost become a business within the football industry in real life, and thanks to a partnership with TransferRoom, you’re able to use a new system to help you buy, sell and loan players more easily.
Don’t worry, you can still negotiate transfers by simply contacting a club and offering them a value you think is fair and thrash out a deal that way. But after Joshua Zirkzee requested to leave the club, we looked on TransferRoom for a team looking for a player in his position. Bologna were looking for someone just like him to suit their system, so we simply sent a message to ask whether they would be interested, and a few weeks later agreed a deal.
Due to the summer spending, we had to make use of selling a few players and negotiating early payments for future transfer fees owed to club such as the deal that took Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea.
This boosted our transfer kitty and allowed us to flex our muscles by agreeing a fee for Brighton and Hove Albion’s Carlos Baleba, sadly a contract could not be agreed with the player.
We soon pivoted to sign a central midfielder the club desperately needed and brought in Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid, before further strengthening the squad with right-back Martim Fernandes from Porto and went back to Brighton to bring in Bart Verbruggen.
It was then time to start the season. The new Premier League licence allows you to fully immerse yourself in the world of the biggest league on the planet, and the upgraded on-pitch visuals are the best in the series’ history, making it feel like you’re on the sidelines.
The new tactics screen is arguably the greatest new feature FM has had in nearly a decade, with the introduction of in and out of possession roles for each player in your starting XI. You now have more flexibility than ever before.
For example, you may wish to set up with a 4-3-3 system when you have the ball, and when defending swap to a 4-5-1. The in and out of possession split allows you to replicate how football is played in real life with players also given individual roles. We still lost the first game of the season 4-1 to Arsenal.
We did improve results though over the coming months after tweaking the system to a 4-3-3 in January which resulted in a strong finish to the season, where we finished above expectations by delivering a fourth place finish, and crucially, that all important Champions League money.
Elsewhere, there is the introduction of women’s football, which has over 36,000 players to manage across 14 different playable leagues including the Women’s Super League and Super League 2, Serie A Femminile, the National Women’s Soccer League and the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
There’s also nice touches to the create a manager function, with new haircuts, higher quality renders, new clothing options and, more excitingly, the ability to create your own backstory. You’re asked about any previous non-playing roles you’ve had in football such as coaching, punditry, recruitment, media, football operations and even if you’ve been a referee. On top of that you’re also able to create your coaching style and flesh out your personality.
Rating 8.5/10