Football Manager 26 adds In and Out of Possession tactics

Friday was a great day, not only did I get around to catching up on the latest trailer for FM26 showcasing the tactical changes, but the firemen came with a chainsaw since a tree fell on a car and blocked the driveway. That and watching Russell Martin be smuggled out of Falkirk Stadium yesterday. So I’ve been having all the fun. Though that’s enough about things that aren’t a Football Manager, so let’s talk about the latest deep dive ahead of FM26‘s release in November and advance access in the next couple of weeks.

The latest trailer isn’t so much about gameplay, but rather a round table of presenter Nubaid Haroon, match QA Analyst Jack Sarahs, and Senior Lead QA Analyst (Match) CJ Ramson, talking about the changes to tactics. The heavily rumored, somewhat leaked, and recently teased changes include In Possession and Out of Possession tactics, which are the biggest changes to tactics this side of renaming the Trequartista. Oh, they’ve also done that too, by the way.

The change has been needed for a while to truly mimic the sport. With a yearly release, an update like this isn’t impossible, but it is certainly a lot of work for one year. Each player now has different roles depending on which team has the ball and where they are in the tactic. A striker might become a midfielder out of possession so they can feed the ball onto the wings, make a breakthrough run, and slide in for a sneaky goal. This update is about giving you depth to create the tactics you want.

At least that’s the idea. We’ve got the round table “This is what has changed,” we’ve got screenshots of players like Phil Foden to showcase new roles, and a very dry blog post giving a very PR-friendly rundown of these changes. I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing, but it is odd to showcase the menus, showcase the tactics planning, showcase the bits where you can fiddle with it a bit more, but not try to showcase something like that in the match engine. CJ makes note that teams can have similar or the same tactical formation, but the roles will make a difference; however, we won’t see that until advanced access/the beta in two or so weeks.

A lot of what we’re talking about today is visual, and I think there is a lack of actually showing what these changes do in the menus and in the match engine individually. First off, there is a whole new tactics board overall, which you can view in four different ways: Combined showing a mix of In and Out of Possession tactics, In Possession on its own, Out of possession on its own, allowing you to refine those individually, and then you have the option to look at both. A good mix of options for customization of the experience.

Much like before, though, if you’re not tactically minded or the type of nerdy person who sits further up in the stands to see a clearer tactical picture of the team (me). Then the setup wizard thing is still there, giving you advice from the coaching staff on which tactics might be best used. If you were wondering, that does extend to more than just the in-possession tactic. I don’t want to say that it is hand-holding, but the “learning the basics” handrails are still there.

“Introducing the Visualiser,” as the blog post notes, is a showcase of team instructions in each section of the field. This is where you change your tempo, time wasting, and such, which can be broken down into four separate categories in both In and Out of Possession tactics. You have the overall instructions for attacking width, you have build-up in the defensive areas, progression in the midfield area, and the final third for your attacking instructions.

Inadvertently, I’ve seen some of the comments saying they don’t like the look of this new screen, but very often that’s all they say without explaining what is wrong. It is a bit blocky, it is a bit big and bold, and could be a touch cleaner without leaving space and feeling like certain things are taking up too much space. I think the problem I have with it is the continued lack of intuitive customization: In that bar on the left in FM24, you can move things around. On the home screen where you load into, you could change what you see in certain areas, but here that doesn’t look to be the case really.

I’m looking mostly at the Data Hub on the right of this Team Instructions screen, which shows the pie chart data for the Premier League as of October 11th or November 10th for Manchester City. Ok, but that isn’t the only competition Man City would be in, there is Europe, cups and community shields, and generally something else I’d like to see. When looking at the Team Instructions and focusing on the Progression section of the pitch, I’d like to see the data of transitions in that area, tackles won, possession gained and maintained in this area, and progression from plays in that area.

I don’t need goals conceded or team goals from the season thus far when looking at that. If I’m going to be nerdy about stats and figures, I want to see it for the area that I’m focused on and decide if we should be dribbling more or making the overlap in those areas. Of course, these are still “Non-Final Capture,” so things can and probably will change; it is just something odd to note that has been notable throughout the trailers thus far.

As I said towards the top, the Trequartista will be making “an Irish goodbye” or as I call it, goodbye. As will be Mezzala and Enganché, presumably along with all those foreign words that had to be removed due to fearmongering. Some of the new roles noted are, of course, the leaked ones we’ve seen, “if you’ve been keeping a close eye on our FM26 content,” so that’s your ball-playing goalkeeper, Playmaking wing-back, Midfield Playmaker, Wide Forward, Channel Forward, and more you’ll see looking at player profiles. Including Phil Foden’s “Free Role.”

Some have gone tepid on their hype for Football Manager 26, and there are points where I can see why. I’m still like a rabid monkey in a science lab cage, grabbing those bars and throwing myself at them, screaming, “Give it to me now!!!” The new tactical depth you can hopefully create with this new system is interesting, but there are elements where I feel like, and I think a lot of people feel like, we’re just waiting for that next teaser video. One that maybe focuses on the other new licenses that Miles mentioned a while ago, or the echo we all keep hearing, international management.

Football Manager 26 is set to release properly on November 4th, 2025, for PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, or Windows, and for Xbox Series X|S, with the store page noting Xbox One compatibility, and of course PS5. More details should be available this month for FM26 Touch for the Nintendo Switch, which will be released on December 4th. With FM26 Mobile for iOS and Android via Netflix is also seemingly releasing on November 4th. Though, of course, as has been said umpteen times now, if you decide to pre-order, you will get advanced access sometime starting around the 19th-21st of October until the release in November.