Sega’sFootball Managerhas solidified itself as the top management sim of the world’s most-watched sport. Other games have come and gone. LikeChampionship Manager, LMA Manager,andEA’soddFifa Managerseries that for some reason gave players a virtual girlfriend;Football Managerhas successfully outlasted its competition with FM 21 set to be the series 17th installment.
The game turned heads and peaked ears immediately with the announcement of an Xbox release.The Xbox One and Xbox Series X|Swill be receiving a version of the game based on FM touch.Football Manager Touchis a streamlined version of the game that comes as a free alternative to each entry. Unfortunately,PlayStation userswill still be unable to play the game. However, the yearly mobile version is returning for those without a capable PC.
RELATED:2K Sports Versus EA Sports: Who Makes Better Sports Games?
On the 12th of October, fans were finally treated to a feature trailer. It was just one minute long but crammed in a multitude of exciting information.
10There Is No Gameplay Engine Update
Before delving intothe new features, it is worth pointing something that isn’t coming to the new game.Fans have been hoping for a revamped match engine for years, but it seems they’ll be kept waiting for at least another year.
It hasn’t been officially stated that the match engine won’t be overhauled. But considering how desired an updated engine is, it would have certainly featured in the trailer if it was. Furthermore, the few seconds of match engine footage that we did see looked disappointingly similar to the previous games.
So it seems players will have another year of conceding late goals because their keeper got bored and decided to take a stroll up the pitch.
9Press-Conferences Have Been Revamped
There is one request that is seemingly being fulfilled though, an update to press-conferences. Players for many years have had to answer the same collection of questions in the same redundant way. Alternatively, they’ve had to deal with their Media Handling attribute be at rock-bottom as they gave up and just started sending their assistant instead.
The clip of the new press-conferences lasted only a couple of seconds, but it showed that the conferences will be laid out more like real-life. With a text-based audience of journalists in front of the player, sporadically asking questions.
8Tapping Up Players
An elephant in the room of the real-life transfers revolves around ‘tapping up’. Tapping up is against UEFA and FIFA’s laws, yet it is common knowledge that it consistently occurs. The governing body’s laws state that two clubs must agree on a fee for a player before the buying club can speak directly to the player or their agent. Yet reliable journalists are often reporting that clubs have agreed on personal terms with a player, long before a fee is agreed between the clubs.
Football Manager 21looks set to annoy FIFA by undermining this frequently exploited law. As managers are now able to select an option titled ‘Ask Agent About Availablity’. The trailer didn’t show what the option does, but it’s possible that managers can have detailed conversations with agents and players before making an official bid.
7Recruitment Meetings
An update to scouting meetings is another realistic feature that players have requested. Modern teams, especially the top ones, have huge scouting and recruitment departments. MakingFM 20’slimited recruitment meetings a bit lackluster.
RELATED:10 Best Nintendo Sports Games, Ranked
FM 21looks set to give managers plenty of new options and reports. The trailer shows that during staff meetings, the recruitment department will give a list of positions that they feel need improvement. They will accompany this with a detailed explanation behind their reasoning and possibly a list of targets.
6Body Language
Ever been desperate to hug your virtual players after a big win? Probably not, but you can now anyway. During private meetings with your players, you can now accompany your dialog with body language. In the trailer,Watford’s Tom Cleverlycomes in for a meeting. Before speaking, the manager uses the new body language feature to better convey their emotions. The in-game text describes the chosen body language as “You opened your arms widely towards the player, which appears to improve their body language.”
Why the manager widely opening his or her arms towards the player improves their body language remains a mystery. It is unknown whether you can throw anything at your players for missing a last-minute chance. Fingers crossed.
5Expected Goals
Along with a new match engine, expected goals, better known as XGs, have been requested by fans for years.
Fans were split on XG when it began to emerge. Some dismissed it, trusting their ability to naturally analyze a match, while also believing the stat was a way of appealing tofans of the stat-heavy NFLand NBA. However, the metric has proved its worth and is now believed by many to be a reliable way ofjudging a player’s shooting ability.
The trailer confirmed that XG, along with more detailed heat maps, will be in the game. For those unsure what the up and coming statistic is,Opta Sports provides a quick summary.
4A New UI
A new user-interface may sound like the boring feature imaginable for non-FM players, but for fans of the series, it’s a feature that will both excite and worry.
RELATED:5 Mario Sports Games Nintendo Should Make (& 5 They Shouldn’t)
Football Manager’s UI has been very similar for the last few entries. Fans haven’t minded this though, content with Sports Interactive’s ideology of not fixing what isn’t broken. The new trailer seems to suggest that the key left-hand menu column will remain the same. But the analysis and tactical screens will be getting a complete overhaul.
3New Sponsorships
Manchester United managed to wind up fans all over the world when theysued Sega Publishing and Sports Interactive for the use of their name.It’s yet to be seen if this will have any effect on the game. But the Manchester club may be given a fake name, similar to how Juventus are Piemonte CalcioinFifa 21and Zebre inFM 20. United’s lawsuit has worried fans, who dread to think that all teams will be given fake nameslike in thePro Evolution Soccerseries.
2Tactics Overhaul
Undoubtedly the key to any football manager game is getting the tactics right. If the developers failed to create well-balanced tactics, it would make the game unplayable. One of the many keys toFootball Manager’ssuccess has been its ability to consistently create well-balanced and deep tactical options in their games.
Sports Interactive looks set to make the risky, but exciting move of adding new tactical mechanics. The tactics section of the trailer is very short, simply showing a pre-match instruction for a player to drop deeper. However, its inclusion in the trailer implies that there will be many new tactical options available to players on November 24th when the game is released.
1Moments To Remember
The precious final few seconds of the one-minute trailer belong to a new feature titled Moments To Remember. No explicit detail is given to what exactly this feature is, though it seems to be some form of highlight reel.
Three categories are shown, biggest win, highest scoring match, and goal of the season. The feature will likely be a more in-depth way for players to relive the highlights of their season in a more cinematic way than before.
NEXT:5 Best (& 5 Worst) EA Sports Games Of All Time, According To Metacritic
