Football Manager 2019 takes the series to a whole new level and finally brings in some long needed refreshment. What we have is easily the most accessible Football Manager in recent memory but one that can still take many moons to master.
Football Manager is a title that’s seen me through the best of times and the worst of times. Ever since my brother introduced me to the multi-disk Championship Manager on the Amiga I’ve been hooked. I wanted to play it so badly back then that I would often sneak up to my brother’s room when he was out, take a note of where everything was, play as long as I dared and made sure to put everything back again. I didn’t always get away with it mind but if I’m honest, it was worth it every time.
The desire to play Championship Manager, or Football Manager as it has been known since developers, Sports Interactive, split from Eidos in 2003 has never really left me. There are good years when I’ve sunk hours into just one save and there have been others where life just takes me away and I barely get chance to play. These generally coincide with years where I’ve found things more accessible which, for Football Manager, is saying something. That’s not to say that it’s unwelcoming because, especially in recent years, it isn’t. It’s that I have often felt that there has, for me, been a disconnect between what I think the game should be doing and what it’s actually doing.
That’s, err, very purple
One of the main areas I’d struggle with is training. Generally I’d hand this over to my Assistant Manager irrespective of his ability to carry this out as, in all honesty, the 18 year old centre-back I just bought could probably do it better than me. Mostly, I think, this was down to the fact that you were never quite sure how everything was affecting your team. I always had a general idea of what went on but often I’d have my first team complaining before we got out of pre-season.
It mostly made sense but there was a disconnect to real life. Having played for a football club (albeit Sunday League level) and, therefore trained in some meaningful manner, our coach would never be so vague as to say we’re doing “defending” and that was it. Instead we’d do some formation work, perhaps some shadow play or defending set pieces. In what is probably it’s biggest ever overhaul, training has seen a lot of care and attention from Sports Interactive. There’s now plenty of presets to choose from, an induction you can go through again at any time and more training options than you can shake a stick at.
Whilst this may seem daunting at first, the further you dig and the more you learn, the more things start to make sense. More importantly, the disconnect is gone and, for once, if my team is being rather porous on set-pieces, I can mould our training to work on that. Moreover, there’s greater feedback on the risk of injuries to various players and the team as a whole. It’s a puzzle that’s going to take some time for me to completely solve and start to get some presets of my own going but it has some real-world meaning which increases immersion and that’s never a bad thing.
Training that, you know, makes sense!
Speaking of real-world meaning, the tactics section has also seen a little bit of polish too. Whilst sliders will never be making a comeback, and that’s no bad thing in my opinion as I don’t think Sir Alex Ferguson ever told Rooney to be “9 Attacking” today, the newer system that replaced it was, like training, a little tricky to get right. For me, the tactics section also suffered from this disconnect where I’d tell my team to do one thing but they were doing another on the pitch. I’d also never fully understand what the changes I was making were doing and as someone who likes to figure things out for myself, I avoided guides in the hope it’d all make sense at some point.
If I’m honest, it never really clicked and for the last few years I’ve relied on a few guides and, occasionally, I’d just acquire a tactic that worked and stuck with it. I shouldn’t feel ashamed at admitting that, there are countless others who also use community created tactics, but as someone who, in the old system had created unbeatable tactics to do so was to admit defeat. The changes in Football Manager 2019, however, has spurred me on to try again and I’m starting to see some positive results. It’s all very subtle and really, all Sports Interactive have done is to split your tactics into three sections “In Possession”, “Out of Possession” and “In Transition”.
Each of the three sections then has further options that dictate your teams’ style of play during each of these three phases. Some of them will be familiar such as directing how your team approaches the final third when in possession by working into the box or whipping in crosses. However there’s been subtle changes here and there such as setting your defensive line but also being able to set your line of engagement. The latter option being new and key in some of modern football’s high-pressing tactics. You may, for example, keep a deep defensive line but have a higher line of engagement hoping that you strikers and attacking midfielders might be able to win back possession.
Some lovely new animations this year
If you’re not keen on creating your own tactic from scratch, there’s plenty of presets to choose from with recommendations on formations to go with them. These are great to get started with and, if you’re like me, you’ll end up tweaking these before setting out on your own. These presets, suggestions and the induction you can take if you wish, help soften things a touch and makes Football Manager 2019 easily one of the most accessible in the series.
Despite these improvements, however, Football Manager 2019 is still unforgiving as ever and I’ve already lost count of the number of expletives that’ve have left my mouth in exasperation team’s inability to convert chances. Right now I’m not sure whether this down to my tactics or the players I’m putting on the park but shows that, no matter how well things are laid out, tactics are still a dark art. I’m still confident I’ll make sense of it all, moreso than any recent edition but for newcomers or those out for the quick win, this is still something of a putt-off.
There’s also the new colour scheme and skin for this years edition and the first thing that anyone notices is the purple and there’s lots of it! Personally, I quite like it but it is a touch jarring at first. It feels like a compromise between the light version of old and those who routinely request and acquire darker skins. For me, it marks the first time since skinning become an option that I’m highly likely to keep the default skin.
Backing the mighty Greenock Morton!
Other notable changes include the addition of the Bundesliga for the first time (officially at least), VAR in leagues and competitions that use it and a swell of changes to the match engine and the 3D match engine. There’s also the usual updates to teams and leagues with all the summer transfers present and correct. In addition to all of this I was also pleasantly surprised to find that my Surface Go was more than adequate to run things for when I wanted to take Football Manager 2019 on the go though, if I’m honest, I’m more likely to play the Touch version for its leaner take and leave its big brother for my PC.
When all is said and done Football Manager continues to be the best simulation of football management bar none. It’s had its ups and downs and there have been years when it seems that the only thing that’s changed is the data and nothing else. Football Manager 2019, on the other hand, feels fresh. From the new pack shot (no more faceless manager) to the logo and the new default skin, everything about Football Manager 2019 reflects this desire to feel fresh and different from its predecessors. It hasn’t fully gotten away from their drawbacks as things like press conferences and tunnel interviews are still boring as ever but if this is a sign of things to come then I’m all for it.
Too often franchises that are as big as Football Manager and who have little to no competition slowly start to rest on their laurels and churn things over knowing that, because there’s nothing else out there, gamers will still buy it. Personally I’d started to feel that Football Manager was slowly winding down this path but Football Manager 2019 has restored my faith. Like an inspiring team talk at half-time I’m inspired and fired-up for what lies ahead. I can only hope things continue in this upward and refreshing manner into the future.
