Headline Features for Football Manager 2023

The announcement came this past Thursday with Sports Interactive saying they had FIVE headline features they would be discussing. This started off by the mentioning of the new Squad Planner in game in which you can import your team & all it's players, add any transfer targets, youth prospects & compare these players alongside whom you already have in your side, you can plan up to three seasons within the planner so if you're planning on a future where some players will be sold, out of contract or loaned out you could see where your gaps will lie within the side and where you need to add options. I myself have always done this on notebooks so this coming into the game seems to be a great feature & something anyone playing the game should really look forward to.

Next up was the announcement of the new and improved Scouting Centre being rebranded as Recruitment Focus where we've been told the game will add four Key Stages into your recruitment program, they will be getting rid of the dreaded in game knowledge percentages and your scouting will become a lot more clear within the game which lead to the conversation on Footballers Agents being more prominent in the game taking more of a lead when discussing signings & new contracts of players.

Following this the team in the video went on to discuss AI Managers taking a more realistic feel to what they do in game whether it be based on tactics they would play such as Antonio Conte being known for playing a five back system, this would be more replicated in game which lead onto talking tactics and what the player could do in game as the manager. There has been a slight revamp to how the Out of Possession tactics are labeled and setup & adding features such as Drop Deeper and Hold Defensive Line which should make defending against bigger sides more reliable and easier to control a game but this will be something we'll hopefully see more of in the coming weeks and how this works within the match engine.

The team at Sports Interactive then dived into the license agreement with UEFA which we had touched on previously in another article as we were showcased how it would look in game with images of the Team Sheets as you start a game, the Cup Draw screen within the Champions League & the stage in which you will lift your UEFA trophy if you're so lucky to make a final. Of course adding the Name Fixes & Badges have been a fix people can make via download links in the past but this is a great feature which will really add some nostalgia into those European nights in game.

The remainder of the video then touched on what else we could expect showing us briefly the new Supporter Confidence screen which to any current players of the Football Manager series is very similar to the current Board Confidence where you can be outlined guidelines for you to follow as the manager but now you'll have a Supporter section in which you will be told what your supports expect of you as a manager to do for the club, whether these will be in line with the Board or it could be to resign a fan favourite back to the club who knows but I'm looking forward to finding out more on this. Finally we were shown the new Dynamic Manager Timeline which will show up during your End of Season review each season, the new timeline will show achievements made across the season by yourself as the manager and your team, a new graphic to basically show all you've done that season within FM23.