Sports games have come under a lot of scrutiny lately, with criticisms predominantly being directed at franchises with yearly releases. Fans and critics have been unhappy with what they perceive to be a lack of effort, as many series' like FIFA and NBA 2K tend to only have a small handful of changes each year.
The Football Manager series doesn't tend to get as much criticism as most other yearly sports games in this regard. However, this is more because the current product already offers an excellent single-player experience that most players are satisfied with, rather than it being because the series makes bucket-loads of changes with each iteration.
This has led to many people only buying Football Manager games every two or three years, opting to stick with their save file and take it into the 2040s and 2050s. It seems that Sega and Sports Interactive have responded to this, as Football Manager 22 is set to launch on Game Pass this year, which will undoubtedly tempt players into closing the book on their current careers.
Although Football Manager 22 doesn't buck the trend of sports games only implementing a handful of features each year, the ones that have been introduced are all worthy additions that make the latest game the best way to play the esteemed management series.
5 Wide Center-Back
With three-at-the-back and five-at-the-back formations becoming increasingly popular in the sport today, Sports Interactive has implemented a new role for defenders. The wide center-back role essentially does what it says on the tin, instructing the left and/or right-sided center-back to move out wide into a full-back role when the team is in possession.
The role comes with Defend, Support, and even Attack duties, a rarity for the center back role. With the Attack duty selected, the wide center-back will almost play as a wing-back in possession, with the intention of creating an overload on their side of the pitch, which is great for teams wanting to pump crosses into the box.
Sheffield United are one of a handful of teams to have popularized the wide center-back role. During their time in the Premier League under Chris Wilder, the team made use of the wide center-back tactic, which worked wonders for them during their first season back in the top-flight, taking many teams by surprise and helping them earn a shock top-half finish.
4 Match Engine Improvements
The Football Manager series' match engine is one of its most divisive features. The visuals and animations fall significantly short of franchises like FIFA and eFootball, which puts a lot of new players off the game immediately, and will likely cause a lot of Game Pass users to snub the game.
However, like many aspects of the Football Manager series, the match engine isn't supposed to look flashy; it's supposed to be an accurate representation of how the manager's tactics are being implemented through the team's shape, passing style, pressing intensity, and more.
Like many of the series' yearly releases, the match engine has received some improvements this time around. A new animation engine has been implemented to make players look more natural and true-to-life, which is a nice step in the right direction for the aesthetic appeal of the matches.
3 Data Hub
The Data Hub is one of this year's most interesting new features, adding further tactical insight and analysis than ever before. The Data Hub contains a plethora of useful stats, figures, and graphs about the manager's team and the upcoming opposition. Such data includes pass maps, cross accuracy, team shape, XG performance, formation effectiveness, shot accuracy, and much, much more.
Essentially, the Data Hub is what the Football Manager series is all about, letting managers analyze their team's performance from a tactical standpoint and adjust their style of play accordingly.
2 Expanded Deadline Day
Deadline Day can be one of the most exciting days in the sport's calendar. As the name suggests, the day is when the transfer window (period of time that clubs can buy, sell, and loan players) closes, and the final time that deals can be made until the next window opens months later.
One would think that teams worth hundreds of millions with armies of board members would be better prepared, but every transfer window, there are numerous teams desperately trying to get deals done before the deadline, like a kid trying to finish their homework minutes before the class starts.
Football Manager 22's expanded deadline day is essentially a transfer version of the data hub that takes all of the necessary information and puts it in one neat, easy to view and understand package. The feature may not sound too significant on paper, though it does serve its purpose of making the game's deadline day more engaging and exciting.
1 Revamped Staff Meetings
Meetings and regular communication with staff is a vital part of real-life management that is often overlooked by Football Manager players, who often spend an age trying to recruit the perfect staff member for their team to then only speak to them once every three years.
Football Manager 22 aims to increase the manager's willingness to speak to staff by refining its meeting feature. The feature schedules regular meetings with the backroom staff, who will then take turns offering advice; the manager then has the choice to either accept or reject the advice at the press of a button, essentially turning backroom staff meetings into managerial Tinder.
It seems that with the revamped staff meetings, new Data Hub, and better-packaged deadline day - Sports Interactive aimed to make Football Manager 22 more concise, which is a smart move with the new wave of managers expected to arrive from Game Pass.
Football Manager 22's beta is out now on PC. The full game is set to release on November 9th for PC, Xbox, and Mobile. A Nintendo Switch version is also in the works.