Football Manager’s Twitter has dropped another batch of information regarding Football Manager 2021. Finally, players will be able to emulate the all-time greats by pioneering their own style of play. Ash-ball has often been overlooked by the media in past games. Still, now in FM21, the media will acknowledge your footballing philosophy and refer to your style as “manager-ball,” where “manager” is replaced with your custom manager’s last name. God help the people who create Mr Touchmy or Mrs Ligma.
Backing up that critical addition (What? It is!) is a suite of nice refinements that tweak the manager’s experience in useful and realistic ways. One of these additions to Football Manager 2021 is the ability to promise a player that you sign more playing time once an existing player that would compete for the same position leaves. This is great for people who like to gradually replace their squad frequently, with senior players making way for younger talent, as now there’s a pathway you can promise in contract negotiations. Contract negotiations in FM21 now include the option for bonuses for combined goals and assists – perfect for those attacking players that can play a multitude of roles and are just as capable of finding a teammate as they are scoring themselves.
The backroom staff in FM21 now will let you know when your squad size exceeds competition requirements, so you can leave out those senior players you were trying to get rid of anyway. Speaking of those senior players, you now have new conversational options for when they’re approaching retirement and considering transitioning into a staff role. You can now nudge your player into going down a specific route, so if you think that Lionel Messi would be a better Attacking Coach than an Assistant Manager, you can try and talk him into seeing your way of things.
Finally, imagine you’re the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers. You’ve been told to sign Portuguese players as much as possible, but now in FM21, you have the ability to request an affiliate club to facilitate this need directly. Having an affiliate club will vastly improve the chances of getting more talent from the country you want players from, as you get options to buy and better scouting within that country.
We’ve already detailed the headline features in a previous article, as well as the last info drop, including changes to the match engine and how FM21 will deal with COVID-19. The beta is out now for people who’ve preordered, so let us know if you’ve been playing and what your Football Manager style is like.
