It’s that time of the year again! Football Manager is announced with a release date of 8th November 2022. We are all waiting to see what new features get added to this year’s edition. This year in Football Manager 2023, we will see the debut of FM on PlayStation and a return to Football Manager Touch for Apple Arcade. FM announced that UEFA branding will be in the game for the first time! Miles has teased that is not the only benefit of the partnership.

At Dictate The Game, we have come together to give you our Wishlist covering various areas of the game. We would like to see improvements in areas such as:

Improvements to Football Manager AI transfers and focus on Club Vision/DNA

The likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are known for their style of play. However, there are clubs out there known for attracting players that fit a club’s DNA. The likes of Brighton often find gems across the world and take a chance on a lower transfer fee in the hope they develop or can be sold. It’s ultimately how a lot of clubs go about their recruitment methods. Two particular players stand out in recent years and that’s Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella, both players were brought in for relatively low transfer fees and were then sold for a much greater profit.

Recruitment is fundamental in today’s game. Especially with the transfer market varying so much in terms of quality, and players available. It’s important the players you sign, match what the club want to do, and have a system that compliments the players. I think adding this to Football Manager 2023 will really improve the longevity of a save.

Having AI managers adopt different recruitment styles, which match a club’s DNA would ultimately make the game more challenging. It would also offer a bit more variety to the game. Currently, it seems a lot of FM AI managers sign players but they don’t often match the system. Such as a left inside forward who is signed for a club record fee, when the manager plays with wing backs and no inside forwards.

These little changes will offer a lot more emersion to the game, and really allow saves to blossom in a way you can spot trends. It would also be great to see clubs go up the rankings based on these changes, and adopt different methods, like a Moneyball philosophy.

Training and Squad Dynamics for National Teams

JonnyGames – In FM22 I had a few different international jobs, which were very rewarding. I kind of kept my own inventory of players and who’s familiar with who based on the National Pool. Also, just knowing my squad through managing them through major tournaments. It would be nice to add a bit more depth and detail to International management, with the addition of training schedules and squad dynamics. These players often grow up together. They come through the ranks of the youth programs internationally, so they would have some relationships that are fostered this way. We also know that national teams go into training camps and have training sessions together before their International fixtures. So it seems only natural to add this into Football Manager, for the realism alone.

Even revamping the look and feel of the National team program screens. You could get more of a full picture, from the youth teams all the way up to the senior side. Here’s hoping!

Enhanced Training

TheFM_Teacher – Training in Football Manager is, in my opinion too simplistic. It is far too easy to hand over the training to a staff member within the staff responsibilities. This, I believe is due to the task not being aesthetically pleasing and rather monotonous. Whilst the schedules already available in the game allow for training of certain tactical styles. It would be nice to focus on youth as well as looking outwards towards the community. I, personally would like to see more. 

The categories that are available break things down nicely, but I like specifics. What does each training session look like? How long does it last? Even the review of training by the selected staff member seems to miss vital information that as a manager I would like to see. We regularly get to see the best and worst-rated players in training. However, we are not given a reason for these ratings. 

Am I looking for more of a visual aspect to training? In a sense, yes. However, I do understand that there will be a lot of people that play Football Manager who won’t have the time to sit and watch animated coded training sessions. However, I feel that an image in the inbox of what each session consists of would add more depth to training on Football Manager. 

Player Development

Alongside whole team training, I would like to see more added to individual development within training on Football Manager. Are individual player development plans a possibility on Football Manager? I would like to think so. How? Well, I think this could come down to the enhancement of staff responsibilities allowing for coaches to better work with players aiding their development – important for the younger players who are still being moulded into players to fit your requirements. 

I do understand that this may not be something that we see on FM23 however, I would hope that training is looked at and enhanced allowing for a better understanding of how training works on Football Manager, aiding both team and player development

Improved Director of Football and Recruitment Analyst interactions

ThrowingCopperFM – Two of my favourite elements of FM22 has been having improved ways to find and sign players. Like many, I opt to lean towards adding a nice burst of realism into my saves and rely on my Recruitment Analysts and Director of Football to assist with this part of the game. Recruitment Analysts give the extra level of information which you don’t get from a scout report. However, I’ve found the information they give can be very contradictory. For example, I was looking at a Centre Back who has his 95% pass completion ration listed as a strength and ranked highly against his peers. Upon looking at his “negatives” it said he lost possession too often, even though he was ranked around 300th against the rest of the division. Things like these don’t really make sense. There were more examples of contradictory feedback, but you get the picture.

Whilst on the topic of the Recruitment Analysts, it seems you can only have reports for 250 players. After this analysis seems to stop and I can’t see a way to clear players from the “analysed” hub to allow for more.

Onto Directors of Football.

Improved Set Piece set ups in Football Manager

CraigsFM – the biggest issue I had in FM22 was continually having to change my set pieces to fit the players that I was using for each match. Even rotating one or two players resulted in me constantly checking my corner and throw in routines before each match and swapping players around so it makes sense. My biggest example is when rotating my central defenders between matches and I have to swap my players around to ensure my tallest players were at the near post for corners (yes, that old trick!). It gets tiresome very quickly.

I would love to see an option when setting up set pieces where you can select a pecking order of players to insert into each position, whether its corners; throw ins or free kicks. It would be very similar to penalties where the highest ranked player on the pitch slots into that position at set pieces (whether rotating a player or making a substitution during the game), without having to change everything around between matches. A time saving feature and less frustration for the player.

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