Football Manager 17 review

Football Manager 2017, for all of us who believe we know more than our clubs’ managers and want to unleash our genius tactical minds to lead our team to success.

This year is more of a gradual progression then a major overhaul of the game. New features such as social media feed and extensive pre and post match analysis make for a nice upgrade.

The player roles on this game are more visible than in previous games so setting up your tactics takes more thought and consideration. Whether you want your left and right backs bombing forward attacking, or sitting defensively to maintain shape is a big decision to make. As well as the role of your attacking players, as a big fan of wingers it’s more visible now whether you have them attacking the by line or support and whipping in early crosses. All big decisions to make when setting up your tactics.

Whatever your journey is, from one of the footballing powerhouses to a non league journey to the top, the new pre and post match analysis will help you to your success. There is more need to tinker with your tactics for each opposition you face to remove the predictability of your team and adapt to your next fixture. As well as this more in depth feedback from your backroom staff helps you give your players with training to improve their weaknesses as well as with contract negotiations and any discontent your players may have.

In game animations have been added such as manager handshakes, walking out the tunnel and other pre-match events. A nice feature but personally doesn’t excite me as much as it would others. The new 3D camera angles make for a better way to analyse your team’s performance to see where your team is struggling or ways to adapt to attack the opposition more effectively.

The social media feed helps connect more with modern football yet personally I don’t feel is of any benefit. The same statements are repeated and often I’ve found that there are 2 positive and 1 negative comments about performances/signings etc. regularly. This has no worth as to whether the fans are actually happy or not as it is all very repetitive.

Brexit is a part of football manager now with multiple scenarios that can affect your game. I experienced a generous scenario where nothing actually changed. There are however more extreme scenarios that lead to difficulty signing EU players and creating financial difficulty.

Transfer windows are always a big part of your season whether it’s holding onto your key players or signing that one player to fill the void in your team. Work permits are more difficult to obtain but that does make it more difficult then to raid the inevitable cluster of Brazilian and Argentinian wonder kids. Ambitious signings are now more achievable with making promises to the players in pre-contract negotiations. However, should these be broken they will throw a bigger paddy then you could possibly imagine. Keeping players happy is much more difficult. If they miss a couple of games you might have the same player banging on your door asking for game time when they’re a rotation/back up player.

SUMMARY

Overall, the upgrades from last years football manager are both positive and negative. The attempt to connect more with modern football with social media etc. is a nice feature but not that useful. However, the tactical analysis and coach reports are of significant use and benefit to both the experienced and novice player. Once again though it is an excellent game and more difficult to achieve success. So be prepared to put in long hours to win the major trophies and brag about your success to your friends.