Football Manager 26 review – a fresh slice of the modern game | games

YYou can imagine what the local fans are singing at the Stadium of Light: “League leaders, you’re laughing!” Your Liverpool side, who until this afternoon were five points clear at the top of the standings, trail by two goals in the 82nd minute. You wonder where Mohamed Salah left his shooting boots, or why Virgil van Dijk seems to have forgotten the whole concept of a tackle. But that’s not on the players, it’s on you – or so you’ll tell the press – as you stare at the tactics screen trying to figure out which of dozens of potential tweaks will turn the tide of this frustrating landscape.

Football Manager has always been the data-driven alternative to the visually sumptuous Fifa series (now known as EA Sports FC), but the latest installment begins to bridge the graphical gap. Highlights of the 3D rendered matches have been upgraded via the new Unity engine, and the results are impressive. Premier League derbies, Champions League finals and even away games in the north-east have visual heft now, even if replays and so-called big moments often overstay their welcome. There are no authentic FIFA-style chants blaring around the stadiums, but the atmosphere is palpable and your imagination fills in the blanks.

This new engine and elevated matchday experience are two of the biggest signs of Football Manager’s vision for the future. However, the visual upgrade is more than just spectacle – there is a tangible impact on tactics. While watching the match, you can study the movement of your players on the field, and make changes accordingly. But when you’re desperate to shake things up in front of 45,000 noisy people, data-driven metrics still reign supreme. You may want to switch up your build-up strategy to play through pressing, or overload one side with overlapping runs. There are countless possibilities and you will try them all.

The biggest change is the separation between tactical strategies when you have the ball and when you don’t. It’s the most significant overhaul in a decade, and it accurately represents the complexities of the modern game. You can now change the entire formation, switch player positions, and give precise instructions that change depending on which team has the ball. Do you want to turn your full-back on when you get into the final third? Not only is this possible, but they will dutifully return to their correct position when Alexander Isak is put to the ground on the edge of the box.

But there is We are problems. After a year off to manage the transition to the new engine, Football Manager 26 remains noticeably unpolished. It’s already received several hotfixes to address the worst bugs, but there are still plenty of them, from a cluttered UI and subs running onto the field in their tracksuits, to menu bugs that block progression altogether.

Between matches, the new UI will take some getting used to, especially since some important screens are just a few taps away when they were more accessible. You have the same information at your disposal (and even more so, with the addition of women’s leagues), just in slightly different places. Re-learning muscle memory for a lifetime is frustrating and it would be better to do more customization, but unfortunately time will slow down.

Despite these issues, this is still Football Manager, with all its delicious tactical details to get lost in. Thanks to modern tactics and a match engine, making the perfect tactical adjustments to start a stoppage-time comeback and silence those overconfident home fans has never felt better. Football Manager 26 provides concrete feedback on your real-time decisions and lets you visualize fantasy competitions that could last for several seasons. And when you beat Sunderland by three goals in the last five minutes, the excitement remains unprecedented.