The game’s overall presentation is much slicker than in previous versions

Football Manager 26/Sports Interactive

Football Manager 26 may be one of the most pivotal releases in the game’s 33-year history. The cancellation of last year’s game, along with the promise of a new match graphics engine and a complete overhaul of the user interface has fans of the game both excited and on edge.

Ahead of the preview release of Football Manager 26, I was one of a small group of journalists allowed to spend a day playing the game at Sports Interactive’s Studio in London. There are features in there that will delight FM fans, others that raise eyebrows. Here’s what it was like spending a day with FM26.

Football Manager 26 Early Access

The first thing to point out about the Football Manager 26 that we played is that it was a pre-release version – the code was about a month old compared to where the game would be today.

It was buggy, very buggy. Studio boss Miles Jacobson told me there were still around 430 bugs still to fix before the game was launched. But that’s to be expected at that stage in the game’s development, especially one that’s had a new match engine and user interface after years of relatively minor tinkering. You can find out more about the inspiration for the interface design in this interview with Miles Jacobson.

It’s a culture shock when you first fire up the game and start playing. Features aren’t where you expect them to be, things look very different. If your immediate reaction when you first play FM26 is one of sheer alienation, stick with it. After an hour or two, you start to feel more at home, more comfortable with the changes to the game’s layout.

There’s a new feature to help with that, too: bookmarks. If you want quick access to screens that are buried two or three clicks deep in the user interface, you can add them to bookmarks and reach them with a single click. Given everyone plays the game differently, that’s a clever touch.

Slick-Looking Match Engine

The big thing everyone wants to know is what the new 3D graphics engine looks like. We’ve seen snippets of tightly edited highlights from Sports Interactive, but what difference does it make over the course of a few matches?

Well, here’s something that might shock you. The biggest difference to the match experience isn’t the shiny new 3D engine, but the fact that the 2D overhead match engine of old is now displayed in between highlights.

This is a huge tactical bonus. Previously, all you had to go on was match statistics and the odd bit of text commentary to decipher how you were playing in between highlights. Now you can see the full 90 or so minutes play out on the 2D engine. You can see if your midfield is getting over-run, or you’re being repeatedly exposed down one flank because there’s a visual representation of the entire game in front of you.

That 2D match action takes place at a rapid speed by default, but you can slow it down and see how the match is unfolding, with the game cutting to the 3D highlights for key moments.

What of that 3D engine? It’s definitely a step up from the dated look of Football Manager 24. The lighting looks more realistic, stadiums look more detailed, and the players themselves look more authentic, if imperfect. There are no recognizable faces, for example. Animations such as players dribbling past opponents now look more convincing, less wooden than before.

That said, we’re still a long way from the graphical quality you’d get in a game such as EA Sports FC 26 – and understandably so. This game is designed to run on ten-year-old laptops, not the latest console hardware. Compromises have to be made, but I wonder if some players will question whether the 3D match engine has improved enough?

Tactical Depth

In the tactics department, the major change is the ability to set positions for players both for when the team is in possession and out of possession. This is potentially a huge upgrade for players who like to wade in and design their own tactics, but it does add another layer of complexity for newcomers or casual players.

It also breaks some expected behaviors. When I first tried to manually adjust my formation midway through a game, dropping a player from the midfield into the defense, it wouldn’t let me drag-and-drop them as before. That’s because you now need to move players individually for both scenarios: in possession and out of possession. Again, it takes some getting used to.

It also requires you to think much more carefully about which players fit into your systems. For example, if you’re asking wingers to drop deeper when the opponent has the ball, you now must consider their strengths and weaknesses in two positions. As always, some players are more versatile than others.

That extends to recruitment, too. When you’re sizing up new signings, you have to think about how that player will fit into both your formations, if you have different in-and-out-of-possession shapes. It’s a lot to think about, although there are now better tools for evaluating the suitability of potential signings in the revamped Recruitment screens. You can also put the word out that you’re looking for players in a particular position, inviting clubs to offer their unwanted players. They will do likewise, giving you another chance to offload unwanted squad members.

Women’s Football In Football Manager 26

A major new feature for FM26 is women’s football, with leagues from across the world now included for the first time.

Women’s football isn’t a separate game – if you start a career with a women’s club, the men’s game will still be simulated alongside it. Coaches can move between men and women’s football, and you as manager can move between the two different sides of the game.

If anything, the attention to detail on female players in the match engine was even better than the men’s in the preview version I played, partly because Sports Interactive has spent the past couple of years taking motion capture of female players to make it look as authentic as possible and not just male players with a female skin – something Sports Interactive should be applauded for.

My only doubt over the women’s aspect of Football Manager 2026 is the size of the player database. In England, for example, only Women’s Super League 1 and 2 are included, whereas the men’s game in England stretches down six divisions to Non-League. This might be a reflection of how little data there is available about the lower reaches of the women’s game, and that it’s currently much smaller than men’s football, but it does pose game play challenges. When I searched for a transfer listed player in one common position, for example, no players were returned.

What’s Missing From Football Manager 26?

Even though last year’s game was eventually abandoned, there are still some features that have been cut from the game.

International management is the big one. This had already been trailed for the cancelled FM25, but even with the extra year’s development time, Sports Interactive hasn’t managed to get it back into the game. That’s especially disappointing given we’re in a World Cup season.

The fantasy football-style Draft Mode was also absent from the game I tested. Sports Interactive staff couldn’t confirm whether that would be back in by the time the game launches in early November.

On a much smaller scale, the ability to encourage or shout instructions at your players during games has also gone. There was always an element of doubt over whether these made any difference in the first place, but that’s not even an option anymore.

On the flip side, some things that needed changing or even removing are still in place. Chief among those are the tedious press conferences, which still seem to be pulling from the same questions-and-answers bank that have been in the game for years.

Football Manager 26 – Worth The Wait?

This isn’t a review. The game I played was too early in its development cycle to reach any firm conclusions on, and Football Manager games often can’t be judged properly until the first major patch appears anyway.

That said, there is a lot to like about how FM26 is shaping up. The game looks much more polished and modern, there are several big new features that all add to the game’s depth, and by the end of my day with Football Manager 26 there was definitely that “just one more game” itch.

Some of the new menus need work, there’s an awful lot of bug squishing to do, and removing features such as international management after a two-year hiatus is disappointing. But if Sports Interactive can pull it together, Football Manager 26 could quickly expunge memories of last season’s miss.