Football Manager (FM) 23 is only a little over a month old. But while FM players around the globe are still familiarising themselves with the latest edition, some are already creating wishlists of improvements they want to see in the next edition, which is most likely already in its early stages of development.
The latest edition delivered several refreshing features ranging from an improved matchday experience and transfer system to tweaks to match predictions and how sports betting odds are presented, but it is still far from the perfect game.
With the game developers, Sports Interactive, always eager to keep pushing boundaries, here are some improvements we would like to see in FM24.
Match Engine Improvement (Gameplay)
FM23’s player animation match engine is a significant improvement to older versions, but the gameplay experience can still be enhanced in the next version.
Granted that not all devices can successfully carry an improved graphical quality without experiencing some form of lag. But providing an option to turn it on or off depending on the user’s device could solve that problem.
A more fluid display of individual dynamism from players will get more players glued to their screens.
Introduce Set Piece coaches
Set pieces are an important part of every manager’s tactical plan and the game in general. But a lack of variety of options makes that section a little ineffective.
Introducing set-piece coaches to take charge of setting up and practising different routines and combinations for attack and defence would reduce the burden on managers.
Routines set up by head coaches stay the same until having to modify tactical positions forces a change, and not only does it take up much of the manager’s time, but sometimes it’s not even efficient.
Team talk improvements
Team talks could be the difference between winning and losing a game, depending on how the players react to your intended words of encouragement. Sometimes what seems to be the right words end up having the opposite effect.
While that needs to be worked on, team captains and vice-captains should also be more involved in team talks.
The option to click a “now I’ll hand over to X briefly” button for the captain/vice-captain to say a few words will be a massive improvement to what is currently in store.
Tactical flexibility (formations)
Certain improvements were made to the formation and tactical section in FM23, but asking your team to attack or defend is more complex than it seems.
There should be an option for managers to set up their teams to play different formations when in and out of possession.
However, team pressing also has to improve for that to be effective as sometimes players commit to a press, only to create a hole behind them, instead of the team pressing coordinately.
More media drama
Conferences (pre-match, post-match), interview questions, and praising/criticising players should all be refreshed as they have become redundant and tend not to have any effect on the manager or players involved.
The opinion to storm out of interviews and conferences is alright. But there should be one where managers can tell off journalists for repeated questions as more drama around the media would spice up the game more.
Players should also have unsanctioned interviews once in a while, especially when they are not getting the playing time or style they signed up for.
