After the previous edition of Football Manager was cancelled, the first time in the franchise’s 20-year history, anticipation and expectation has never been higher ahead of this month’s new title.
The most recent edition of Football Manager was played by an astonishing 20 million people worldwide, showcasing its adoration among football fanatics across the globe.
With the unrivalled football management simulation series promising a new damn with redefining features and inclusion of the women’s game, SHOOT Football have been playing the console edition of FM26 on PlayStation 5, taking over Premier League title contenders Arsenal to see whether the new game lives up to the billing.
For those Football Manager veterans, and us British in general, the thought of changing something that isn’t broken fills us with dread and fear as to what the new system or set-up will look like. We hate it when supermarkets mix-up their aisles and therefore you can’t find your favourite groceries and walk around aimlessly trying to find the damn eggs! Change isn’t for all. Football Manager have promised a totally revamped user interface to deliver the most immersive experience for us wannabe managers. The first thing you are greeted with in the game is the rebuilt UI and the new ‘Tile and Card’ system.
Pop-up bars and boxes are the future for FM26 in a bid to make the layout clearer and easier to navigate, enabling the gamer to click on each tile to open up a card that brings up more information on the chosen topic you wish to explore. Amid social media backlash and other reviews, we actually preferred the new UI layout, making it look sleeker, smoother and more modernised, but the inability to choose or close certain options left us frustrated.
Football Manager are aware the opening day release of the 2026 title does include bugs and errors, which are strenuously being worked on as we speak, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that some aspects of the game seem annoyingly unplayable. We were unable to set up any specific player instructions for our chosen 4-2-3-1 formation, we couldn’t save any set piece routines after many attempts, radial wheels do not open, text boxes overflow and are unreadable and certain buttons or options don’t launch at all.
The Portal is your new home page for everything you need to know there and then each day, including snippets of your fixtures and/or results, news, calendar and of course any incoming messages. The rebuilt search function and FMPedia, which is a brand new in-game glossary, are nice touches and make it much simpler and functional to shortcut certain enquiries and questions you want answered quickly.
One of the most exciting new features in this year’s title is the separation of both In Possession and Out of Possession tactics, something hardcore FM fans have been wanting for years. Sports Interactive have been working with leading experts in the football industry to bring these tactical developments to our screens, suggesting three Out of Possession formations that naturally complement your set-up and show how your players defend when they lose the ball.
Shifting between ‘Both’, In Possession and Out of Possession; gamers have even further in-depth control of their line-ups, which comes to life via the new Visualiser, a tool that shows exactly how your tactics play out on the pitch with each player’s role, behaviour and instructions demoed in front of you.
Sadly the initial release of FM26 does not include international management. However, fear not! Taking the reigns of your country will be coming to the game next year after Sports Interactive announced their first partnership with FIFA, meaning Football Manager will bring official licences for the 2026 World Cup held in Canada, Mexico and USA in a future content update. This partnership will also include the introduction of the FIFA Club World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Speaking of female footballers, this year’s title finally sees women’s football make its debut, with 14 playable leagues across 11 nations, with a starting database of over 36,000 players and 5,000 staff. You have to go back four years when the gaming franchise revealed their plan to include our favourite heroines. But finally access has been granted to the likes of the Barclays Women’s Super League, National Women’s Soccer League, Serie A Femminile and the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
No expense has been cut when it comes to the recruitment side neither, with female players’ contracts typically shorter than the men’s, release clauses far less common, free transfers dominating the market, accurate wage demands and realistic individual club revenues.
This compliments FM26’s recruitment overhaul, where the TransferRoom takes centre stage with a significant improvement of the online marketplace. It has become a lot easier to recruit in those areas of the pitch you’re lacking via ‘Requirements’, enabling you to post a notice of what requirements you seek, whether it is a loanee, back-up goalkeeper, squad player in midfield or a star striker up front. Other clubs will see and respond to your advertisement, suggesting players that meet your criteria, therefore shortcutting some of the searching, small talk and bringing a deal closer to fruition quicker. You communicate what position you are wishing to bring in, what their expected playing time will be, and opposing sides will come to your rescue with viable options.
On the flip side of the coin, ‘Pitch Opportunities’ is another tab inside TransferRoom where you can suggest a player you’re looking to offload to another team that suits their requirements. With the help of seeing what other clubs are looking to bring in, it allowed me to offload unwanted striker Gabriel Jesus to Atalanta for some extra spending money, whilst also loaning out talented goalkeeper Jack Porter for some much-needed game time for his development. Even without the new ‘Requirements’ and ‘Pitch Opportunities’ features, you can still sell, loan and buy players the organic way you always have done on FM26, giving you endless methods to build your ultimate squad going forward.
We found the mainstay of Arsenal’s first-team squad almost untouchable, with the likes of forward Bukayo Saka and midfield maestro Declan Rice our absolute favourites, with this star duo claiming multiple man of the match accolades throughout the season, meanwhile Gabriel and William Saliba’s premium centre-back partnership makes for the meanest of defences. Quite like real life, hey!
But perhaps the biggest introduction in Football Manager 26 is the actual matchday gameplay and experience, again making it the most immersive experience for us football fanatics. Player intelligence has vastly improved to show greater creativity and fluidity during play, including dribbling, skill moves, beating an opponent and acrobatic attempts on goal. Working closely with Hawk-Eye Innovations, FM26 possesses greater dribbling adaptability, defensive improvements including pressing, interceptions, blocks and lunges. Goalkeepers also show off more realistic saves, reflexes, distribution and cross claiming.
And whether you’re playing at the Emirates Stadium, in the Women’s Super League or in the Enterprise National League South; game day is enhanced with new lighting effects to bring alive stadia infrastructure, shadows and weather conditions. Meanwhile the title’s triumph to secure official titles of the Premier League and UEFA Club competitions only further enhances the realism as your players walk out onto the pitch.
In summary, the features introduced to FM26 are ambitious and appreciated, but the execution is under-par, so far. No doubt Sports Interactive will be working tirelessly to resolve the bugs, faults and errors that have dominated social media backlash, but the game has real potential to be one of the best titles in its 20-year history. Asking for patience with the developers after waiting two years for the latest instalment may sound ridiculous to some gamers, but if you’re a true Football Manager fan, we believe it is a game you’ll learn to understand and love in time.
Overall matchday experience is exciting and uplifted, particularly with the new graphics, player intelligence and official licensing standing out, but the new UI layout lets the side down with consistent clunkiness and the inability to carry out simple tasks. Getting used to an entirely new game and era of Football Manager was never going to be straightforward, much like following your own beloved football clubs, it doesn’t always go plain sailing or flawlessly, so buckle up and back your favourite simulation series. It will all be okay in the end!
Rating: 7/10