After a year’s break, Sports Interactive returns with its virtual (and non-virtual) football bible
Football Manager 26 arrives with the weight and responsibility of a generational change, after a year’s break that left the faithful dumbfounded (and literally empty-handed). It is the first chapter of the Sports Interactive series created with a new graphics engine and, in theory, with the ambition of relaunching a brand that has been the Bible of virtual managers for twenty years. At the end of dozens of hours spent on the troubled Juventus bench, between sweaty victories and surreal injuries, the verdict is clear: FM26 is a visual and structural step forward but, even in this watershed iteration, it still remains a game that thrives more on refinements than on revolutions.
football manager 26 changes skin
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The aspect that immediately catches the eye is the graphic one. The adoption of Unity does not change the look but the new animations, especially in the top players, manage to make team movements and plays more credible. However, with the speed of the games increased by several “x”s – as most long-time fans do – the wow effect soon ends up taking a backseat. There is always that feeling of being faced with a management system that cannot and does not want to shake off its “Excel with cleats” nature. And with the numbers, the cards, the statistics that continue to exert their magnetic charm, it is difficult not to think that historic fans will continue to pay attention to the values and graphs more than the new animations on the pitch. Hence the question: what was the point of a year’s break if the result, in the end, is always the same?
in the field and in the office
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On a tactical level, the most publicized innovation is the possibility of setting a module and a specific game system for the non-possession phase. It is an interesting addition, which introduces a new level of complexity not so much in the construction of strategies (the non-possession module is suggested to us when we choose the possession one), but in the selection of players on the market. From now on we really have to ask ourselves if a player will be able to adapt to our defensive demands as well as the offensive ones. All very nice, especially when we can see the execution with our own eyes in a more credible way, but it is still an idea that FC (the former Fifa) had already proposed years ago. It’s more of a step in the direction of modern football than a new idea, so excuse us if we don’t call it a miracle. In terms of content, Football Manager 26 carries on the tradition and little else. Some good ideas from the last chapter – such as roles separated from positions or a more rational market – seem curiously scaled down. Apart from some (quite) inflated values in terms of wages and transfers, what is certain is that realism is at home here. Curiously, on FC 26 we had been able to perform financial miracles using the same club, creating pharaonic markets thanks to the many redundancies that anyone would make at Juventus; on FM26, these maneuvers have done nothing more than free us of some hefty salaries and little else.
On the management front, the routine remains substantially intact. Office work is still massive and often unskippable, from meetings to press outlets. Although it is part of the series’ DNA, it would have been the right time to lighten up a well-established loop and try to truly surprise. Some reductions have actually been implemented – for example, you no longer have to choose your body posture during conversations with players, a low-impact gimmick introduced some time ago – but they are not enough to change the underlying perception. FM remains FM, with all its bureaucratic rituals that have always divided the community between those who love them and those who tolerate them.
full nursing
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Injuries deserve a separate chapter. Even in this edition the plague is felt: after a few months from the start of the season, we found ourselves with multiple missed double roles and McKennie forced to reinvent himself as right back while waiting for it to be his turn to end up in the infirmary too. It’s an almost ironic constant, but one that continues to penalize long-term experience, especially when the alternatives in the squad (and budgets) are limited. It matters little that, on the occasion of the launch of Football Manager 2024, Miles Jacobson himself had reassured that it was only an impression dictated by the accelerated pace of the game… On the linguistic side, the Italian translation seems more uncertain than usual. Nothing dramatic, but some oversight or unnatural formulation is out of place in a title of this caliber, which is also so meticulous when it comes to calculating even the most microscopic influence of an injury on performance. Allow us this little revenge after finding ourselves with the locker room decimated… More seriously, watch out for a few too many bugs, like the one that blocked our campaign at an eternal start to the second half in an Italian Cup match against Como.
Fifa is back…?
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However, the real off-field innovation will arrive during the year: the FIFA license, which will debut in the form of a playable World Cup. It is an event of symbolic weight, the first official rapprochement between the global federation and the world of video games after the separation from EA Sports. Well done Sports Interactive which, after having signed with the Premier League, Champions League and the first women’s championships, will thus add another important brand (no matter what anyone says) to its portfolio.
Football Manager 26, the verdict
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All things considered, although well packaged and always enchanting, Football Manager 26 is strangely another chapter of transition. It is visually more refined, tactically deeper, but also a slave to its own heritage. The technical leap does not correspond to a true conceptual leap: those who expected a revolution will be disappointed, while those who were looking for the usual refuge of graphs, forms and statistics will instead be able to continue wasting their nights without regrets. And tell us, at the next fantasy football auction, that you’ve known that “wonderkid” for years…
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