Welcome to Passion4FM’s massive Football Manager 2021 feature wishlist, which looks at the improvements I want to see included for FM21.
Well before we can expect the official news on Football Manager 2021 features to be revealed, I thought it would be fun to write down some of the pet peeves I have had with Football Manager in the past years and what new features I want to see added or improved for FM21, FM22 or future versions of Football Manager.
My Football Manager 2021 feature wishlist is made up by improvements and changes I like to see incorporated into the next versions of the game and features necessary improvements which I believe can make the Football Manager series even better and even more realistic!
Before I begin, I have to admit, Football Manager 2020 is very close to perfection, and it’s one of the best versions in the series, at least from my perspective.
Despite it’s hard to see where the game shall be revamped at this point and how the game should evolve, I wanted to share with you some of the improvements I personally like to see incorporated, no matter if they are too unrealistic or too advanced at this point to make it happen.
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Football Manager 2021 Feature Wishlist of New Improvements & Changes I Want to See
1. Tactical Revamps & Improvements To Tactics
Improve Player Role Movements
The difference in movements is what distinguishes a player role to another. While Football Manager 2019 saw an improvement to diagonal runs and movements especially with the inclusion of the Mezzala, the current match engine and its reflection to player movements within the analytics section is fairly limited. To make it easier for you as the manager I’d like to see more stats and analysis to better understand the movements of the player roles. Today, the only tool to help you understand how a player role moves compared to another are by hints within the player role description, by looking at the locked-in player instruction, look closely within the match or watch the movement map within the analysis. The current movement analysis of a player looks solely on situations where a player dribbles past an opponent. Instead, I’d like to see a more detailed analysis of runs made past opponents without the ball, showing you where the player started his run and where he ended up – if it was a diagonal run, cut in or vertical run behind the defensive line.
Another option is to provide multiple options for all player roles that is not too specialized (e.g. the false nine or the inverted wing back). In my opinion, I would like different options depending on whether the ball is on the near side to a specific player or on the far side of the pitch. The different options in regard to movements whether the ball is near or far is to help you be able to create third runs and opposite movements within a specific zone. Currently, it seems like ‘everything’ revolves around how close the ball is, as players don’t make the best movements before the ball is closer to him.
The current player instruction ‘Get Further Forward’ could be renamed to ‘Get in behind’ if the ball is on the far side of the pitch, meaning the player will more often look to penetrate the opposition defensive line with a movement (e.g inside the box). Then you can have an option to occasionally make forward runs when the opportunity arises for both near and far side of the pitch. The hope is that the player roles becomes not as restricted as you might want to exploit one feature from a role, enhance it with specific situational movements, which might not be able by simply changing to another role (due to his mentality, passing length or creativity).
One solution is to split movements and runs instruction between attacking transition (build-up play) and in attacking third, which means that you draw a subtle line between when the defensive unit has the ball and the offensive unit and where the ball corresponds to the half way line. If the ball is deep and you have selected to play short passes, it will be natural to instruct more of your players to come short, drop deep or move wider / narrower, whilst one or two moves forward. Whilst, if the ball is located on the opposite half of the field, it could be advantageous to instruct more players to get in behind the opposition line, occasionally make forward runs if situation dictates it, cut inside or move wider. These instructions relating to movement and runs has less to do with the player role and should therefore be removed as locked in instructions.
For example it could be an option to instruct an advanced playmaker to run in behind the opposition defensive line when the ball is on opposite flank or instruct the forward to move horizontal (move wide) when the box to box midfielder dribbles forward with the ball to create more space for him. These situational movement instructions should help you create tactical plans that aim to create spaces no matter what the player role, mentality and duty of the player is and dictates.
The whole point is giving you the ability to create gaps within the opposition teams defensive line and be able to instruct a player to move to a specific area of the pitch when a specific teammate is in possession of the ball. It looks to bring another level to the tactical planning and be more involved with the planning of creating goalscoring opportunities, as I feel the game currently is too basic relating to this.
Include ‘Dribble Past’ Stat
As well as a stat and the option to analyze runs made into space, a stat showing Dribbled Past for the defensive phase will be valuable, which reflects the Opta statistics of Virgil van Dijk which was never dribbled past in the 2018-2019 season.
Also, I’d like to see more stats relating to sprints made per match, which looks to help you understand how physical demanding your playing style and use of player roles are.
Improvement to Pressing
While the changes made to the tactical instructions and splitting it up after out of possession, in possession and in transition was a highly welcomed improvement for Football Manager 2019, I’m still not fully satisfied with how pressing works.
I really like pressing to be applied even smarter and even more accurately, instead of simply dragging a slider to more or less urgent. My wish is to include pressing triggers in FM.
This means that you can instruct your team to press more urgently when no player has complete control of the ball e.g if the opposite player looks down, are positioned wrongly or if a poor touch has been made, and otherwise instruct them to stand off.
Another point would be not only vertical pressing but also horizontal pressing. I want, perhaps by arrows, instruct specific players to take up position and narrow the space between himself and another player(s) to create pressing traps. Perhaps even the option to select how many who will press for full at all times (to avoid situations where 2 midfielders push out of their line), how many who will support and who will man-mark a specific player/position.
The key might giving you the option to create a pressing game model (similar in style to the current tactics overview). From here you can ask specific players to full press when the ball is in specific positions on the pitch and create a shape the team can work on in training.
You can from here either ask the MCL to play more central when the MCR push out from the midfield line, while the MC man-marks an opposite player. Then you can ask the striker to stand off, lurk around and press occasionally or press with maximum urgency to force mistakes if the ball comes back to any of the central defenders.
How the user interface should look like and how it should work is not something I have put much thought in. What I do know, is that the current changes to pressing do not work as realistically as it could have, nor as accurate as it should, as you might not have the control to press in a certain way with specific players, and in specific channels and zones.
Revamp Player Traits – Add Player Tendencies
One aspect of the game that has not been revamped or changed for a long time is the player traits. Currently, the player traits exist of a number of both tactical and technical moves. My opinion is that the tactical preferred moves is removed as player traits and instead added as ‘Player Tendencies’. The player tendencies means that they won’t override tactical player instructions, which is the case today, but mean that the player is more lenient to move in a specific way – something reflected in better performances.
Tactical traits that could be removed and added under player tendencies are ‘hugs line’, ‘comes deep to get ball’, ‘tries first-time shots’, crosses early, cuts inside, brings ball out of defence, shoots from distance and ‘gets forward whenever possible’. These tendencies could even work as situational based instructions apart from their role which can be ticked on and off before the match.
I’m afraid that the researchers have been to focus on specific coaching instructions part of a players role under a specific manager and not taken into account that the player might be able to be instructed to do the opposite, like in the case of ‘Likes to round the keeper’.
Instead I’d like the player traits to solely features technical abilities either useful for the position or the role. It could include learning the ‘Panenka’ penalty kick, Iniesta’s La Croqueta, the roulette or other signature movements with or without the ball to get more space, finish the attack with a specific shot or dribble with the ball to get out of press.
Improvement to Crossing
Another issue in Football Manager 2019 is crossing. At the moment crossing is hard coded to almost every role in the wider channel. As soon as you select an attacking duty the player will cross more often, most often from the byline, and 8 out of 10 times the cross is blocked. Instead I want the freedom to select the type of crossing, how often and from where it should happened for every player and position. This means that the default instructions relating to crossing must be disabled for all roles, and give you more freedom.
Perhaps you like to instruct a player to not cross at all, despite the player should have an attacking duty which aggressively looks to get forward. Perhaps you want your attacking winger to dribble past his marker if he’s being closed down before trying to cross the ball.
New instructions to crossing could be:
- Cross when the opportunity arises
- Cross from wide position, which asks the player to deliver crosses from the touch-line.
- Cross from more central position, which asks the player to move inside with the ball and deliver crosses from the edge of the penalty box.
- Make cut-backs instead of crossing, which instructs the player to not cross but try 45 degrees passes from the byline towards players who are positioned on the edge of the box.
In regard to the ‘Aim crosses at’ instruction I like the ‘Target Man’ being renamed and changed to cut backs, which means that players looks to try a 45 degree pass from out wide towards a supporting player who stands outside the penalty area or who are moving into it. The cross or pass is then aimed towards either the center area outside of the penalty box or to one of the sides of the penalty spot.
As things currently stands, I find the description of the ‘Aim crosses at the target man’ fairly confusing. firstly, we don’t have the option to select a designated target man, secondly what happens if you don’t use any of the target man roles? Will the instruction not work?
Further Improvements to Set-Piece Setup
The improvements made to set-pieces was a highly welcomed revamp before FM17. Now I feel it’s time to improve the user-interface and the flexibility of the set-piece setup.
In regard to attacking corners I’d like to have more available options about runs and movements for the players to select by, in addition to more slots / positions for players to originate from. The idea is to be able to create unique corner routines with its specific movements.
Every season we see teams spending more and more time coming up with set-piece routines at free-kicks and corners that looks to confuse and create gaps for specific players. A good example is how England lined up at corners in the World Cup 2018 with four players standing centrally in front of the goal within the penalty arc, before making runs to 4 different directions.
For future versions of Football Manager, I’d like to see more available slots and more specific instructions about where a player can stand and run into. My requests are;
- Include an option to instruct a player to stand in offside position in the seconds leading up to the corner or free-kick is being taken.
- Add the opportunity to instruct a player to make decoy runs and move to a specific location:
- move horizontally – either from wide and towards the penalty spot
- drop deep stand around the 6 yard box and get clear by moving in the opposite direction (towards the edge of area)
- to instruct 2 or more players to start their runs from almost the same position of the field towards different locations (as of today)
- to include several options of ‘Come Short’ (as a player may take up position not as close to the ball, but move towards it from greater distance)
This is long way from the three available slots in FM18; 1 x ‘attack ball from deep’ and 2 x ‘lurk outside area’.
In regard to available movements and runs, I’d like to see the ability to let a player run towards the six yard box far or near centre, or the ability to stand at the edge of the penalty box and make diagonal runs from wide and into center – towards the penalty spot. Perhaps also the ability to ask players to stay inside the penalty box before making runs towards the first or far post, the ball or out of the area to give space to a player that comes into his starting position.
The whole point with this is to create opposite movements and more opportunities to lure the opposition.
To make this happen I actually like to see arrows added back into the game in addition to more freedom of where you can position the players.
With more flexibility of selecting a players position and more movements set-piece setup will be even more interesting for me. Individual creativity and solutions based on analyzing former set-piece situations of your next opposition will give you similar options to what the top team coaches and managers addresses on a weekly basis.
Set-Piece Routines Feedback & Expert Advises; New Set-Piece Attributes
The whole point of having a coaching team is to divide their expertise and get feedback and advises in regard to their coaching area.
When talking about set-pieces I’d firstly like to see new attributes for Data Analysts about how well they perceive the opponent’s set-piece routines in order to offer advice and feedback about what you need to be aware of. It may be to analyze trends that have happened in the past fixtures for your next opposition in order to give you more information about weaknesses and strength at defensive or attacking set-pieces (e.g. corners and free-kicks).
It doesn’t limit itself to pinpointing the players you need to be aware of in defensive corners, but also how the players may move. Of course, the more you scout the next opposition, the more information about how they may line up at corners or free-kicks.
Secondly, I’d like to get video analyses of the set-pieces in question. For example by asking your data analyst or the coach with the best abilities to perceive set-pieces to give you highlights from the last 5 goals scored by your opponent. This shall be delivered minimum 1 week ahead of the match in order to let your team train on specific set-piece routines that you plan to set-up before the match.
Lastly, I’d like to see a detailed set-piece analysis, similar to how the in-depth tactical analysis work, providing you with information at defensive corners and free-kicks about specific weakness areas. It may include an overview of where goals have come from, either most goals come from headers from the far post or the team is poorly positioned in front of the goal inside the six yard box.
Include Set-Piece Coaches [New Staff Role]
With an even higher competition level in top football, clubs like Liverpool and others has put more effort on becoming more effective at set-pieces, such as throw-ins and corners. When Liverpool hired Danish Thomas Grønnemark September 2018 few would understand the effect his work would have on the throw-ins and its efficient. Unfortunately, I can’t find any sources about it, but listening to the Norwegian broadcaster TV2’s Premier League pre-match show they talked about 90% efficiency at throw ins. Thomas Grønnemark is a professional throw-in coach who analysis and improves the throw-in routines for the team. He can improve the accuracy at throw-ins as well as finding solutions on how the team shall create better goal-scoring opportunities from it.
For Football Manager 2020 I’d like to see a new coach role designated at set-pieces. This means that you will have new columns under Training – Coaches where throw-ins, corners and free-kicks are included in a similar fashion as ‘Possession’ tactical and technical.
The Set-Piece coach requires that three new coaching attributes relating to free-kicks, throw-ins or corners are provided similarly to fitness coaches and goalkeeping coaches. You will then be able to determine which staff that’s most suited to take care of free-kicks, throw-ins or corners at the training ground. These three new coaching attributes will all be linked to the technical and tactical attribute plus the attacking or defending attribute. The better the attribute within an area, the more effective he is at teaching the technical and tactical side of a specific type of set pieces.
Ability To Create & Style Your Own Football Academy
Regens or newgens becomes a major part of Football Manager and your squad as the season progresses. Every year newly generated players are created and imported to every single club – a necessity to ensure it exists players in all age groups and positions for your club and AI manager as former starlets retires with the progression of the game. Newgens, who arrives at your club is mostly influenced by your formation, the mentalities of the head of youth development and the coaching qualifications of the youth coaches as well as the level of youth training facilities.
But I would like further abilities to influence on the production of newgens by having the ability to create and style your own football academies both locally and/or around the globe (depending on the club economic). My vision is that you go through a streamlined selection window after you’ve got your board request accepted to add a new youth academy. Questions whether you’d like to add a training academy in your local region, in a specific nation (national) or create an international football academy, which lets players from all over the world attend, can be options to select by. At this point of selection, the same design as the scouting packages (which was introduced for FM18) can be used when creating your football academy in terms of both what player nationalities that can attend and the cost per year of creating a youth academy in a specific region.
Later in the progress, you’ll decide upon how are the style and philosophy of the football academy. Here I imagine a percentage bar where you can select how much time of training shall be based around technique and ball control, tactical, attacking, defending and fitness (according to the choices of general training).
Further, you will be able to select the type of coaches according to their main coaching style and preferred formation, so it will fit your football philosophy, your tactics and/or the clubs football philosophy.
By giving you more control of the youth intake you’ll be one step closer to let your football philosophy come to live!
Revamp Newgen Creation
While being on the subject about newgens I really like to see a major revamp to the creation of newgens in Football Manager. At the moment I have come across cases where potential national stars capable of playing for minor Premier League clubs have been added at the start of a new season (depending on which playable nations you select). I’ve also come across newgens with attributes above 15 at a young age. This means that it’s easier for any manager to go hunting for newgens immediately in second season, which means that real life under-17 talents might stagnate.
What I’d like is that attributes should be weighed and limited based on the club he’s originated from. If the player has come through from a minor club or academy outside the top nations, then his ability and potential shall reflect that. The probability of U.S.A or Ukraine to produce world-class players from a minor club should be low.
Another option I’d like to see in regard to newgen creation is an option to select when the game shall start to produce newgens. For example, you might have an option at the start of the game to decide if the youth intake shall come in first, second or third season. With the ability to postpone the youth intake you’ll be forced to take care of the youngsters at the club, look to unattached players or look to promising youth from other clubs, which might help the financial situation of the clubs around you.
Adding Women’s Football to the Game
Born in Moss, a small town in the outskirt of Oslo, women’s football has always been a part of my life. With my local club Sprint-Jeløy producing some of the best Norwegian women footballers in the late 1980 and early 1990s and winning numerous national cup trophies and league trophies, women’s football has always attracted my interest. Perhaps the major interest dates back to the time Norway won the Women’s World cup of 1995, or perhaps it’s just the former achievements of the women’s first team of Sprint-Jeløy that made an eternal impression on a young lad.
Now I feel it’s time to incorporate women’s football into Football Manager.
With its increasing popularity and rising reputation a whole new managing world would open up for us armchair managers. Since more and more of the bigger clubs around the top leagues of Europe sees opportunities in women’s football, with Manchester United the latest club as far as I know to establish a women’s league before the 2018/2019 season, it would only be fair by Sports Interactive to add the top leagues of Europe as well as the biggest tournaments.
When we know women’s football is played across the whole world with nearly 140 national teams participate in international competitions, and the growing reputation of the English FA Women’s Super League and the French Division 1 Féminine who attracts some of the best women players around the globe, it would only be political correct in these modern times with equality to incorporate women’s football in Football Manager 2019 / 2020.
I don’t know how realistic it would be at this point to introduce women’s leagues, as the teaser for FM19 states that the database will feature 500000 players and staff – a number that seems to have been reduced with 100,000 players from the previous edition, according to the information about FM18 on Steam.
Incorporating a database with ‘all’ women players, clubs, tournaments and leagues in additional to the surrounded staff of each club would become a major project and requires hundreds of new researchers working solely with women’s football.
I’m not sure if Sports Interactive has the assets and resources to make such huge changes to their franchise, but it would be extremely cool to incorporate women’s football at one point, no matter if it’s unlocked bits by bits with just some few leagues at first.
Imagine to boost a squad with Dzsenifer Marozsán, Ada Hegerberg, Wendy Renard, Amandine Henry and Lucy Bronze or attract the interest of Lieke Martens (FC Barcelona, Holland), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride, USA), hot prospect Guro Reiten (Lillestrøm SK, Norway) and Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg, Denmark) as you battle for the fourth consecutive win in the UEFA Women’s Champions League with Olympique Lyonnais Féminin.
What We Want To See Improved in Training
Varying Player Physic
There are some years ago we saw the sports science backroom staff role included in Football Manager, and since then the role has worked in the background. A quality sports scientist has helped to manage the fitness level of the players and keep them in a condition that ensures the players are able to play regular matches.
For future versions of the game I would like to see the sport scientists making a more important role within the medical team. If players would be able to gain and lose weight as in reality, the sport scientists could provide messages about unfit players and providing feedback and tips on how to get them back to shape.
Another point could make the role be able to provide health tests and deliver data about concerns or improvements of an individual from the latest training session or from the past months training. The data could detail if a players stamina and quickness has progressed if the players condition has reduced for a particular case, and provide you with suggestions on how to improve the player’s condition.
Improve Training Ratings
The current training ratings provides you with a great overview of the players performances. But I would like the option to get a full list of all players training ratings with a highlighted box on mouse-over a players name showing which training sessions that’s been most influential to his performance and which areas he has particularly stood out on.
Here the coaches could also provide even more feedback about why a player has failed to perform in training, and what we can do about it despite having a personal chat with him to step up his game. Feedback about whether the training was too hard for him, he has personal issues with one of the teammates, he’s starting to get jaded or simply does not have the familiarity of the role/duty and the playing style to perform at his best.
Training Equipment Packages; Improve Decision-making by Computer Tools
Just like scouting packages, I would like the ability to develop the club by purchasing training equipment packages. These packages may range from basic to professional high-tech equipment and technological innovations that look to improve both technical and tactical abilities, such as decision-making, concentration, anticipation, vision, technique, first touch, passing and dribbling.
For some, this may be a bit off-hand as it has not much to do with Football Manager as we know it, but in terms of player development working on improving decision-making on the field is one area of the game coaches focus more and more on. When Per-Mathias Høgmo was the national coach of Norway he made sure NFF invested in computer programs and equipment to improve a player’s decisions by learning to think faster and make rapid decisions (something similar to the Neurotracker used by Manchester United and other English Premier League clubs uses to enhance situational awareness.
As of now, we have the training facilities divided from poor to state of the art without providing any more information about what the club can offer of training facilities. When the truth is that clubs focus on different areas of the game, and have not the same economic strength to invest in the latest high-tech equipment I’d like to see a more detailed representation of what the club can offer, either they are better at aerobic or strength, technique and ball control, passing or mental attributes such as decision-making, concentration, vision and composure.
Similar to the scouting packages I’d like to see something similar for the training facilities. The screen can be split up by three columns featuring physic, technique and mental with the ability to buy packages ranging from limited to high-tech in every department, giving you a chance to develop specific players decision-making and concentration to an example. This means that for a club with limited resources they will need to make a decision on what area of training they will invest the most on.
Perhaps a manager will prefer to improve the physic of his players by investing in high-tech equipment to improve quickness, balance or strength, while another may find passing and vision key to their style of play.
Source about Neurotracker was found in FourFourTwo October 2016 edition.
Include New Staff Roles Relating To Training/Medical Team
Modern football asks more from the players than ever before. With hardly any rest during a season, up to and perhaps even beyond 50 competitive matches played throughout a season, it puts more demands on the top clubs to keep them in the best condition as possible and avoid injuries.
Footballers have become more professional in the way they train, how they train and last but not least what they eat. A squad of professional coaches and backroom staff looks after the players and help them recover in the best possible way.
For Football Manager 2020, I think it’s time to include Nutritionists and Personal Trainers to the backroom staff team. The nutritionists will work alongside the sport scientists and ensure the players will get the right diet according to the stress level your playing style and amount of matches puts on the players. If FM includes more varying physic than it currently does, the nutritionists and Personal trainers can assist you by providing suggestions on how to get a player back in shape after an injury, avoid future injuries by looking after his diet and provide specific individual training programs to improve a players strength, quickness, balance or agility.
Changes & Requested New Features to Finances
Set Season Ticket Prices & Alter Average Ticket Prices
For a lower league manager, the financial side of Football Manager may be the most difficult challenge of the save. Unable to sell players with a profit, as most comes and leaves on amateur contract, may ensure that promotion is the only way of generating income.
With ticket prices set by default, I would like the ability to alter the season ticket prices at the beginning of a new season. My vision is that the board can set up a meeting with you to discuss a change of ticket prices, providing you with a slider to decrease or increase the average season ticket price, with a recommended price set in the middle. In relation to this, I’d also like the ability to modify ticket prices for specific games (that may record lower attendance) in order to maximize the attendance as much as possible.
With the option to alter (season) ticket prices, it’s important that you are provided with a percentage of stadium attendance for the previous season in addition to the expected attendance for every match. In order to make this realistic, it’s important that attendance may decrease if your club relegates or the club is on a bad roll.
By having more control of ticket prices I would expect you to generate a slighter more income than what’s the case today as you have more chances to increase attendance.
Ability to Negotiate (Shirt) Sponsorship Deals
Similar to making a board request of looking for new affiliate clubs, I would like the opportunity to look for new sponsorship deals, either they are the main sponsor, a secondary or minor one. I’m not sure how realistic it would be in terms of the Football Manager database, as you can’t include all businesses in the world, but just giving the option of making agreement to a new sponsor can be an option to generate income for both mid-table clubs as well as those in the lower leagues.
This would go hand in hand with the shirt sponsorship agreement Football Manager just did with Hashtag United.
Estimated Value Graph plus More Market Movements
Similar to the stock market, the estimated value of players increases or decreases depending on playing time, records, good or bad form. I would like to see a graph representing how the value increases and decreases over time for any player, both while being at your managing club as well as after transfers.
With a visual graph you can see what the original estimated value was at start of your save and give you indication of when it’s peaking.
Additionally, I’d like to see more market movements with the estimated value increase or decrease according to specific incidents, such as a player has not received playing time for months, form or unhappiness. While the final transfer fee somehow dictates a players value, the estimated value graph will become a valuable asset in the process of signing new players.
Accordingly, the value graph gives you the chance to go back and see a specific players value of the start of the game compared to his current value after X seasons in the game.
Streamline the Editor
Another minor improvement I’d like to see for future editions is that the Football Manager Editor is being overhauled. Here I like to see an improvement to the user interface and a more streamlined tool. I want the editor to become more smarter and assist you if there should be errors. Perhaps you’ll be transferred to the specific screen if an error has occurred, or if multiple, be brought to a listed page with a checklist that can be addressed if some changes do not go hand in hand, or something has been forgotten to apply, which is required for the database to work.
The editor can be laid out in a page-by-page design, where you enter basic information first before you click next to get to more important information that’s required.
For example, to create a new league you follow the current set-up to enable the nation and season start/end. As page 3, you’ll get the chance to enable the divisions and cups, before giving the chance to apply disciplinary rules, transfer rules and work permit rules. This ensures that required changes to make a specific feature work are given attention, instead of getting errors as something has been forgotten.
Put simply, more intuitive design and an easier user interface which makes it even easier to understand and apply changes.
Other Changes & Minor Improvements
- Ability to scout local region(s) and counties of a country. This would mean that you can determine that your scouts shall focus their attention to specific areas within a country and reduce the cost compared to players available. This means that the scouting knowledge map should be made even more detailed and that clubs shall have even better knowledge of players within their local region rather than players within a country (as this may not be the fact for lower league clubs). For a club, it means that it would be more valuable to scout regions close to major cities instead of having scouts travelling willy-nilly around the nation.
- One aspect of modern football is the impact agents and agencies has over their players and in the transfer market. I would love to see real-life football agents and agencies included in Football Manager 2020 / 2021, with their specific traits and personalities, to make the game mimic the real world. This means that you will be able to sit face to face with Mino Raiola at contract negotiations and be contacted by real agents like him about players. Because of past relationships and transfer sagas included within his profile, it means that some transfers will be harder to make true. In the cases where one agent has a positive relationship with a club, it means that it will be easier to successfully come to terms with one of his clients. Adding the real agents also means that players are more likely to get more influenced by the agents business strategy and his effect over the player relating to visions the agent has over the players future.
- Add the new staff role Groundskeeper, who’s in charge of watering and maintaining the pitch before the matches. Here I’d like to get a message from the groundskeeper pre-matches and give him instructions of how much he should water the pitch or how short the grass should be in order to make a certain playing style more effective or ineffective. The groundskeeper and his expertise will go hand in hand with the condition of the pitch. Having a top groundskeeper means that the condition of the pitch is ‘superb’ for a longer period of time compared to a minor club which can’t afford one.
- The groundskeeper staff role will go hand in hand with the improvements I’d like to see on pitch conditions. I want pitch conditions to vary more often than what it currently does, not only according to the weather or the season of the year but also according to the location of the pitch and it’s natural wear and tear. For instance, a stadium which is used more often within a short period of time in a specific season of the year is more reliant to being poor than one that is only played on every other week. A pre-match information message from the warm-up (or the last training session on the pitch) can provide valuable information about the state of the pitch. Long grass, bumpy pitch or areas with sand forces the manager to think twice before employing a specific playing style or using specific instructions.
- add the ability to talk directly to managers pre- or post match outside press conferences.
- add the ability to praise opposite players pre- or post match outside press conferences.
- revamp the player profile by including real social media links and a player analysis tab with heat map and key stats
- within Team Report it would be beneficial to see Team Characteristic such as preferred ‘Style of play’ similar to what WhoScored.com uses.
- add an option to see the League Table split up in Home and Away form featuring goals for/against, points and wins/draws and losses.
These are just some of my ideas on how Football Manager can become even better, even harder and even more fun to play. Share your suggestions about new FM21 features with us by using the comments below!
Disclaimer
This article is written without any knowledge of what it requires to implement certain features and how advanced it may be to include them. I have not taken into account copyright issues or licenses which Sports Interactive and SEGA may require to include specific features.
The article will be updated with more changes I’d like to see for Football Manager 2022 release.