Football Manager 2021

[RazorsEdge]

Well I would've thought so but here we are.

After playing through a preseason and a bit I have to say that I'm not overly fond of the match day UI either. I'm sure I'll get used to it in time but early thoughts are that I'm a bit disappointed with what's been served up to be honest.

[The Lusophone]

I'm the opposite tbh, this is thus far the best entry to the series since the 3d match engine was added. The hearts/thumbs up is a bit of an issue but it'll be fixed either by SI themselves or by skinners.

[DFF]

5 hours ago, RazorsEdge said:

So it has basically been explained on the SI forums that the percentages for fitness and sharpness are gone because people "weren't using them correctly" eg. if a player is at 86% fitness he was being rested by players when he would play IRL.

Not sure I like it to be honest.

Pfft... I get players at over 90% fitness still complain about being tired/jaded and you pretty much have to give them a game or two off. 

 

Ia the BETA for everyone or is it like some previous versions where you've had to buy it to get it early? 

[METALMAN]

6 hours ago, hugobomb said:

As someone who is red/green colourblind I really hope there is a way to switch back to the traditional percentages, otherwise it's going to be a nightmare for me 

Bit weird that as so many other games are getting better at this and including special colourblind settings FM appears to be moving the opposite direction.

[JasonM]

27 minutes ago, DFF said:

Pfft... I get players at over 90% fitness still complain about being tired/jaded and you pretty much have to give them a game or two off. 

 

Ia the BETA for everyone or is it like some previous versions where you've had to buy it to get it early? 

You need to buy to get beta access

[The Lusophone]

Lol.

Spoiler

 

[JasonM]

I don't get it @MadJack

---

My takes so far.

So I have been boshing about a bit with the beta trying to come to grips with everything. They really tried to streamline things, but I negatively feel too constrained during a game. No widgets, and pausing + accessing menus takes time and doesn't feel intuitive.

Also the changes to the team talk screens are a negative to me, it just feels too busy on the eyes with all the players just strewn about rather than neatly ordered in an easy to peruse list.

Especially using a 1440p screen, it requires me to scan a lot more to get the information I need, when in FM20 and prior the same information was easier to access.

I think i'll get used to it, but it just feels obtuse and messing with something just make it look better, whilst making it work worse.

Like the previous team talk screen was fine and didn't need changes, why they couldn't have just adjusted that and added the gestures (which is basically just 'assertive/aggressive/calm' etc. with a new hat) to that screen, no idea.

So yeah, the gameplay itself looks good, the normal screens are still fine. But especially having talks with staff and players have become a whole lot more tiring and cumbersome to do just because the layout has become awful.

I've done about 4 games right now, and it doesn't invite me to do more than two matches in one sitting because of how exhausting those poorly designed screens are, and how it no longer feels in games themselves that I can easily have all the information I want/need at a glance due to them removing the widgets.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Jasonmufc

[Baddar]

I presume he means that Brandon Williams is far better than Alphonso Davies somehow.

[Gazz]

What does Tariq Lamptey look like now? In FM20, he was pub league level.

[The Lusophone]

18 minutes ago, Baddar said:

I presume he means that Brandon Williams is far better than Alphonso Davies somehow.

This, @Jasonmufc. They've massively underrated Davies, who has a claim to be the best or second best full back in Europe last season.

11 minutes ago, Gazz said:

What does Tariq Lamptey look like now? In FM20, he was pub league level.

Physically amazing. Everything else though:

Spoiler

He reminds me of this guy, who has utterly insane physicals for a random player let go by Dunfermline last season:

Spoiler

 

[FLiam]

Does anyone know if there's been any adjustments to international management in this year's game?

[Bobfoc]

I haven't heard anything about it. For me, the biggest problem with international management is the gulf in quality between the top nations and the mid-level ones. In one of my saves, Italy beat Saudi Arabia 20-0 at the World Cup. When the 48-team World Cup starts, double-figure scorelines are a regular occurrence, and it makes it less exciting.

[Gazz]

I dunno, it was quite funny when the opening game of the 2022 World Cup was Qatar getting dicked 9-0 by Portugal.

[FLiam]

Even funnier when Nigeria or Iran actually win the World Cup in some of my previous games. 

[RazorsEdge]

Game seems as easy as it ever has.

Playing as United. First transfer window signed Pau Torres as Harry Maguire's partner. Sold Lingard to Roma for about 15M and Rojo to AC Milan for a touch under 10M. Nobody wants Phil Jones (realistic to be fair). Middle of the season and I'm 13-5-1 and in second on the table just a point behind Liverpool. January I've signed Dominik Szoboszlai as a long term replacement for Matic and Jeremie Frimpong as a cheap backup right back.

Still not sold on the match day UI but I'm getting used to it. Still don't like the UI for press conferences (there's so much unused space and they've resorted to using a small font instead of utilising more of the space by making it larger and easier to read). But overall I think it is probably a step up from last year, if not a huge one (which I wasn't expecting in a Covid world). I have noticed that assistant coaches don't seem to recommend individual training ideas or traits anymore which is a bit of an odd exclusion.

So yeah tl;dr: it's good if not a bit easy.

[JasonM]

So 4231 is as disgustingly strong as it has ever been. My mate's made a 4231 Vertical Tiki-Taka and he's been destroying the premier league.

[RazorsEdge]

Yeah 4-2-3-1 is way OP still. I'm using a normal tiki-taka version of it and have been rolling along nicely.

[The Lusophone]

4-2-3-1 very much wasn't OP last year.

[RazorsEdge]

5 minutes ago, MadJack said:

4-2-3-1 very much wasn't OP last year.

Really? For me it seemed like you set your tactic as a 4-2-3-1 gegenpress and then proceeded to win everything even as a lower team.

[The Lusophone]

Just now, RazorsEdge said:

Really? For me it seemed like you set your tactic as a 4-2-3-1 gegenpress and then proceeded to win everything even as a lower team.

It was the gegenpress that was OP last year - anyone not playing a gegenpress with a 4-2-3-1 (or any formation with a CAM) quickly found out how poor CAM formations were.