Football Manager is the game that football fans have been dreaming of since they got their first Atari. It’s the most realistic game to date. I was lucky enough to get my hands on Football Manager 2022 and this is my review of it. This is a long read so get comfortable!
If you love football like I do and have been playing the annual football manager game series as long as I have, you’ll probably know that there is always some sort of a game being played throughout the year by fans. This also seems to happen during the off-season when we aren’t getting any actual games to watch.
A while back a friend of mine introduced me to the Football Manager Reddit page and a minor meme that was taking place there: imagining Football Manager games in future years.
Now, in your nostalgic search for tender chicken legs, you will be met with a modernized user-interface, new tactical possibilities and fascinating new careers.
When you first boot up Football Manager 2022 the one thing that sticks out to you is the improved graphics. For the upcoming release from Sports Interactive, the graphics are drastically different from previous entries in the series. While I could spend all day talking about how much better FM 2022 looks, I’m going to start by mentioning something that is less obvious — FM 2022’s slower pace despite all of the new features.
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Football Manager 2022 is an incredibly well-detailed game, with a host of fantastic features. With a classic interface and player database, Football Manager allows you to take control of any football club in 100 different leagues.
Football Manager has been a long-running franchise for decades now, and it has become one of the most popular games in the world. The game is based on a simple concept: you take on the role of a football manager and try to build your own team from scratch. You can choose from any number of leagues, or you can create your own league if you want to play with teams from your favorite country.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Football Manager 2022 varies little from previous versions of the game. It is still a turn-based simulation game that focuses on coaching a football club through a season of matches (or multiple seasons) in order to achieve success on the pitch.
The amount of control you have over your team will vary depending on your managerial skills and training regime but there are always areas where you can improve your squad or tactics in order to succeed in your chosen league or competition.
One new feature for Football Manager 2022 is that players can now play as female managers for the first time ever in the series’ history – although this does not mean that female players are included in the game itself; only male players are available. The developers have also added more depth to transfers from other clubs and player contracts – these two features combined make it easier than ever before to sign top quality players without paying over their market value.
You can choose from 1st division teams or lower leagues across Europe and South America, North America and Asia/Africa. You can also choose from different leagues within those countries if you wish to take over a smaller club or one that’s not quite as successful as others in its country. Each country has between 8-10 clubs available for managers to take charge of too!
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In Football Manager 2022, the player is in charge of managing a football team, from the beginning of a season to its end. Each match has to be planned in detail with instructions for players and substitutions.
The outcome of a match depends on the tactical decisions made by the player during the match, as well as other factors such as individual player performance, team harmony, morale and disciplinary problems that may arise during the season.
Players can be bought, sold or loaned between clubs during their career. Their contracts may include clauses which allow them to leave if they are not offered a certain number of first-team appearances or if they do not have enough playing time in each match.
Players may also request transfers if they are unhappy with their current clubs or if they wish to move closer to home (if they don’t live in their club’s city). Players who have played at least one match for an English league club are also eligible for international selection; this includes those who play outside England but have represented England at youth levels or were born in England.
The first thing you’ll do when starting a new game is choose a team to manage. You can either create your own team by selecting a club from scratch or choose a pre-existing team that already exists within the game database. To start with, it’s best if you choose a smaller club so you can get used to managing teams before progressing onto bigger ones later on in your career as manager!
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Once you’ve picked your club, it’s time to start managing! The first thing you need to do is take control over transfers by signing new players or selling current ones who don’t fit into your plans anymore. Once this is done, you can begin setting up training schedules.
The game allows you to live the life of a real football manager – you decide who plays and who sits on the bench, you’re in total control of tactics, team-talks and pitch-side instructions as well as handling the transfers and contracts. You’re also under enormous pressure to deliver success on a weekly basis – get results or face the consequences!
After increasing my expenditure in Football Manager every year for the last five years, I was a bit weary about what was going to happen with this game. While Football Manager 2019 did a great job of fixing issues that had been around for years and even introducing new features, there were still a few quirks in the game I wasn’t fully satisfied with.
It seemed as if I had already started to hit that “sticking point” where I could no longer conceive playing the game any other way, but didn’t have enough to offer up to make it worth doing again. Thankfully, Sports Interactive has continued their tradition of improving upon the aspects of previous iterations while still maintaining some of my favorite features, something they’ve even jokingly celebrated with its tagline: “Football’s Brightest Minds Don’t Want You To Change Anything.”
In terms of match and competition management, FM22 is a bit more advanced than before. The game’s AI has been adjusted to account for certain player roles, along with very specific tactical instructions being given.
A social media interface has been added which allows you keep up with your fans’ concerns and queries. This is also where you can begin to see the effects of tasks you and your staff have been assigned to complete in your free time.
While it can be frustrating at times to try and figure out exactly where something is, it also makes it more realistic. All sports games have a learning curve and this one is no different. Once you get the hang of it though, you’ll feel how easy FM really is.
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The level of customization is almost staggering, and an entire game can be played without ever having to worry about the pitch if you so desire. That said, you will probably never want to do that, because the attention to detail in regards to the players really brings all of your managerial decisions into focus.
Football Manager is the most realistic and in-depth football management simulation game on the market and is constantly evolving to reflect real life.
This year, there are lots of improvements for FM2022. They have added player roles and the importance of knowing each role if you are playing as a manager is quite huge. For example, if you have a player who is assigned as a playmaker, then he will do his best to use all his abilities to try to score or make an assist.
But if you put this player on the wing, he will do his best to beat the defender and deliver the ball to centre midfielders or wingers. Also, players who are assigned as central midfielders play in this part of the pitch with more freedom when compared to other roles.
If you put him on wing or support striker he will do his best to get into the box and score a goal. The match engine has undergone lots of improvements during the years and I feel that most of them are great.
Storyline
The storyline allows you to experience the life of a manager as you move from club to club on your journey to becoming a legend.
In the story, you will be able to manage in any league in the world and compete against any team in the world with no restrictions on your career path.
The game starts by following some of your early years as a manager, including your trials and tribulations with lower league teams before eventually being offered a chance to manage one of Europe’s top clubs. If you are successful at the big club, there is no limit on how far you can go within the game – it’s all up to you!
Football Manager is a game that can seem intimidating from the outside, with its obtuse user interface and a lot of information to soak in. You might have heard or read that it’s too complicated or time-consuming.
But it’s not, once you get the hang of it. When you’re just starting out in your new role as manager of your favorite club, there can be a lot of information to take in and figure out. Thankfully, there are a lot of help systems and tutorials built into the game to ease you into managing your football team for glory.
Let me be frank: there is something about sports-related games that turns me off. Growing up, I played Football, Cricket, and basketball; the latter two were always my favorites, but the first always left a bit to be desired. Dota could never replace sports for me — no game could — but Football Manager works because it offers an entirely different experience.
It’s not a bunch of people running back and forth on a field; it’s about managing players and keeping them happy (and most importantly, playing well), gaining points for your team as you progress through matches, and negotiating contracts to make sure everyone is getting what they need out of their time here. And it sounds boring when I type it out, but Football Manager keeps me coming back every single year despite having no direct involvement with the sport itself.
It is hard to create a review of Football Manager in a way that encapsulates how much a game like this can really bring you. The joy of managing a football club is not the same as managing any other kind of team. I have spent countless hours in this game on various different levels, I would play it for hours before I had even brushed my teeth in the morning, and whenever there’s a lull in my day I’m always checking up on what is going on at my current side.
As always, the match engine is the best part of FM. You never really win or lose based on your execution of tactics in those half-time team talks or any manual input you make (other than a quick slant pass to get out of trouble).
That’s why it’s so much fun to point at one of your players and see him call for that run or noodle around on the ball. This year, I could occasionally see how my decisions affected my team’s mentality, even if only subtly; in some games, I couldn’t sub a striker off with another striker unless I brought on an attacking midfielder.
Even better was a match where I went up 5 – 0 early, then made attacking subs with no defensive cover to try and run up the score even further. My three-man back line turned into two when their striker beat our left back and pinged a shot into the goal.
The verdict
Football Manager impressed me. I love the new match engine, making matches more realistic and dynamic. The game improved in general, with more focus on your role as a manager and the strategic side of the sport. This year’s edition is both an improvement and a necessity over last year’s game. It’s addictive because being a football manager has its similarities to being a manager: It may not be easy, but it will always be rewarding when you achieve success through hard work.
Improvements to the match engine have been made alongside a host of other features and upgrades to enhance this already excellent game. With more attention devoted to that side of the game, manager mode is much improved, so you can spend more time on whatever aspect of the game you enjoy.
Ultimately, Football Manager’s greatest decision-making tool is your ability to adapt to any scenario. It’s a game of patience where you can endure short-term pain for long-term gain, and it offers up the freedom to do whatever you want in between matches. If an awkward conversation with a player is necessary, it’s possible. If you need to micromanage every inch of your team’s pitch or go completely hands-off without so much as reading team reports, Football Manager will let you do that.
Overall, Football Manager is still top of the class when it comes to sports simulation games. The changes made in the match engine this time around bring the experience to a whole new level.
After all, being able to manage your team directly in 2D and 3D views brings you that much closer to the action and elevates your experience as a virtual manager. No other titles currently offer so many ways to play: through classic matches, transfers or leagues, there’s plenty of room for your preferred style of play. If you’re looking for a soccer management game with depth and options, it’s hard to go wrong with Football Manager.