FM20 Headline Features | FM20

September 19, 2019 Luke Hume Comments 1 Comment

After weeks of expectation, Sports Interactive finally announced the first FM20 headline features today. In this article, we will explain every headline feature announced so far, and how it could enhance your FM20 experience. For our list of teams to manage, click here.

Table of Contents

Club Vision

Unlike previous Football Manager installments where the board would set you singular season requirements, FM20 is different. The board will now set you a club vision. This involves multiple seasons and what you plan for success in these seasons.

FM20 headline features — Image taken from https://www.footballmanager.com/feature/club-vision

As you can see from the screenshot above, the board will ask you to pick a culture, e.g. signing players under 20, or signing high profile players. This is the first of three different sections in the Club Vision stagnant.

Ongoing objectives

The second section is ‘Ongoing Objectives’. According to SI, they reflect the change of power from the board in both footballing and business matters over the last decade. Again, as you can see from the screenshot above, these can vary from transfer policy to style of play to working within your wage budget. Each one of these may have different importance from Preferred to Required.

The final section is your five-year plan for the club. Where do you see the club in 5 years time? The board wants to know. The plan is split into each season, and the plan can be a mix of playing, finance and infrastructure. If you’re playing as Ipswich Town, and the plan is to be in the Premier League within five years. Your plan would look like this:

Win promotion to the Sky Bet Championship

Survive relegation in the Championship, and be financially stable
Finish midtable
Finish in the top 6/10

Achieve promotion to the Premier League.

As part of the new Club Vision section, board confidence has seen a complete face lift, allowing Club Vision to be marked on. Board confidence is no longer marked from Very Insecure to Untouchable, but instead now A+-F. These are localized for every country, depending on the grade system.

Development Centre

Developing that future world talent whilst manager of a lower league side is one of the best parts of Football Manager. In the new game, it will be easier than ever to track your youth players.

Everything you need will be in the new ‘Development Centre’, this replaces the buttons on the sidebar for youth and reserves teams (commonly U23s)

You will be able to get a report from a number of staff on players out on loan, the 2nd team, and in this case, the U19 squad. Your staff will also point out some players they feel are ready to make an impact in the first time. They will also point out who need attention, and who you need to keep an eye on as they could be star players in the future.

Youth intake will never be the same. No more waiting anxiously as FM20 allows you to see the talent before the day arrives. You’ll only see a preview of the class of that year, including if there will be high potential players and the positions you will get the most of. When the day arrives, individual reports will be there for you to assess the crop!

Playing Time Pathway

FM20 has changed the way you set players playing time when offering them a contract. Unlike previous editions, where you set them a set status, FM20 will allow you to create a pathway for them over the years.

For example, if you’re offering a contract to an experienced player, e.g. Gerard Deulofeu as in the screenshot above. To start with, you can set his status as an Important Player. Then the following season, you can set it as a Star Player. This will help when signing players who you want to sign for the long term and keep happy in the mean time.

When you are offering a contract to an young player, obviously each season his rol e will change and this new feature will allow squad status to change each season. When he first signs for the club, he can be registered as a future prospect. Year by year, his role at the club can slowly change before finally becoming a first team regular if all goes to plan.

According to SI, this should solve some issues with squad issues over playing time as both parties now have a mutual agreement on what game time they expect/should be getting.

Backroom Staff

Your staff are better than ever in FM20, and will be able to give more advice regarding the team.

Along with the usual pre-match news, you will get a message from your assistant manager offering his choice for the best team selection for the match. This is basically the previous ‘Pick Team’ on the Tactics screen.

Team selection advice is also available on the Tactics screen by clicking ‘Selection Advice’ button at the top of the screen. You can see advice from any member of staff. You can either take all the advice or select certain ones.

A number of new staff roles introduced includes, Head of Player Development (these are common in the big clubs, focusing on players out on loan) and Technical Director. The technical director will focus on improving the staff by suggesting coaching courses and reporting on the progession of the staff.

Graphic Improvements

SI have announced improvements to both the player and manager models for FM20 as you can see below. Improvements to the manager include laces on his shoes and buttons on his shirt.

Other improvements also include the pitches where a rainy pitch will now have puddles of water and when a player slide, a mark of water will be left behind.

The damp pitch (Image taken from https://www.footballmanager.com/feature/graphic-improvements)

The dry pitch (Image taken from https://www.footballmanager.com/feature/graphic-improvements)

There are new headline features for FM20 released today – what are you most looking forward to? Let us know us on Twitter or Facebook

Watch Paul aka The Northman’s video on the new features by clicking here.

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