Last week I posed the question of whether Football Manager 27 is a revolution or an evolution; basically, does it start over or does it build on top of the legacy, not just of FM24 but even 26. With more hours than a sane person would probably like to admit, I’ve been head deep in Football Manager 27, trying to work out the answer to that question. Honestly, I think it is a bit of both. An answer that won’t please reactionary FM26 haters, but hear me out here.

As we’ve seen with the deep dives before the Advance Access towards the end of October, Football Manager 27 has burnt off the metaphorical face of 26 and reverted to a more logical, FM24-style UI and UX. A lot of the marketing, a lot of the PR, and a lot of the discussion has been about going back to old faithful. Even under that veneer of the skin, which there have already been a few created. There is a lot of detail being surfaced, bringing that sense of immersion to the front and actually showing you, not once in a while, but regularly enough that you’ll see stories happen in real time.

With that, and talking to some people, there is a sense that FM27 isn’t really doing anything new at all. While we’ll grumble about the lack of new licensed leagues or sweeping changes, there is certainly more going on than what you initially see. Tactical Effectiveness is probably the nearest we’re getting to a revolution within FM27, as it is now forcing long-term, plug-and-play players to think before they jump headfirst into 4-2-3-1 Gegenpressing in the National League. In fact, it is forcing everyone to think more about their tactics. Some are taking it better than others.

If we’re just talking surface level, is it Football Manager or is it something not quite there? Then yes, it is Football Manager. There is a heavy focus on spreadsheet-like data and football, but no, it is not plug-and-play: win the Champions League at the first time of asking after winning the FA Cup while in the National League. At least not how you think it would be, coming from FM24. Also, ahead of the pedants, I know you don’t get Champions League football from the FA Cup. I won that last year with Tranmere in League 1, making the Championship season very congested.

Speaking about this year’s game, though, there is plenty that has changed and plenty that has somewhat “stayed the same,” but I guess it is brought forward more. For fans of immersion and telling stories, the new news tabs, Transfer Hub, and beyond that with the Competition Hub, all bring news and details to your face more often. I could go into it all again, but we did a First Impressions-style editorial last week for that purpose.

In essence, after more than 100 hours (shh!) and a handful of saves in that time to see as much as I possibly could, I think it wouldn’t be unfair to say “we’re back to business as usual.” To use the metaphor, Football Manager 26 felt like we were relegated, even if I found my own enjoyment out of it. FM27 is being promoted back into the top flight, beating last year’s two title contenders back-to-back, and now sitting in the European spots. That’s my only reference to it, I promise.

Less metaphorically, there is a sense of familiarity. There are still problems, and believe me, I get the genuine criticisms that can be had with it: Some things aren’t explained too well, the match engine has one or two oddities, and my own criticism I’ve previously mentioned; despite an opportunity to expand on it, women’s football is more or less the same as last year. Despite acknowledging all of this, some voices raised above the parapet seem to suggest that Tactical Effectiveness makes the game bad because they are losing.

It sounds antithetical, but that’s a good thing. If you asked me three hours in how I felt about it, sure, I’d have been similarly annoyed, for lack of a better term. A few oddities aside, though, last year’s game engine improvement with in- and out-of-possession tactics, alongside Tactical Effectiveness and the new Tweaks system, feels somewhat more alive, more responsive, and more like football itself. You don’t see a manager go in and immediately win six on the bounce because they are rigid with their system despite the players. Managers who do that will struggle.

Straying away from the Gegenpress comments, it is a system that requires fluidity from you as a player (as a manager) to get the best out of the players that are available. Effectively, if you don’t have the players to play that low-block, counter-attacking system of football you want, then you’re going to struggle. If you aren’t looking at training semi-regularly, then you’ll see that players who can score but aren’t getting service from their wingers or #10 aren’t going to score. Take that as a thinly veiled Høgh comment if you want.

I’m not saying you need to make the training schedule; I’m not saying you need to interact with it all the time, but you need to pay attention to what is and what isn’t being trained tactically to get the most out of the system. There may be some tweaks from Sports Interactive’s perspective that could balance that system out more, yes, but from a more “realistic” view, it is a step in the right direction. As a system that is building a more active gameplay loop, it is a very good step forward into the world of football itself in a game that is spreadsheets.

When I say “realistic,” it isn’t about FM27 being #Realism, but rather about implementing a system that reflects the job more than what was there years prior. I think where it is most effectively shown is during international management. If you’re a fan of a national team, the one criticism you have more often than not, especially with a new manager or a new system from the manager, is that the team feels disconnected from each other. They don’t know what they are supposed to be doing because they get three days of training before the first game, and it is three days between games.

However, that’s just one part of this positive change going forward. The Tweak system is, in short, fantastic. If I may tell a short story of why I love it so much, I was playing a Man United save to see if I could do what no one else can do. Spoiler: I did; it turns out that boy needs a Scottish manager who can win the SPL so he can cut his hair. After winning five games in a row, I played on to the Fourth Round of the Carabao Cup where I’d face a decent Liverpool side. A Liverpool side that went 2-0 up by half-time.

Substitutions couldn’t do much initially; the little changes I’d made individually to the system weren’t working, but I pressed on to about the 75th minute. The whole second half, Liverpool were dominating the game. It is after the 75th minute subs come on, and I’ve said, “Throw the kitchen sink,”; that’s when the tide changed. Amad drops the ball to Andrey Santos, who, outside the box, half-volleys it into the far corner. Then, in the 90th minute, Mazraoui chips it to the far post where Cunha is there to nod it into the net. 2-2 and it goes to penalties; we move on to play Palace in December.

Stories like that, stories where you scrape by a win or get that narrow defeat despite all attempts, are what make or break Football Manager. I can tell you stories of transfers, I can tell you kids that developed, and I can tell you the story of a season in FM26, but with Football Manager 27 there is so much more of “let me tell you the story of a match.” That’s what I love about the Effectiveness and the Tweaks; it is little things within gameplay systems building up to make those moments feel important and impactful.

The only real negative I have for that entire system is that it doesn’t explain itself too well before you are impacting it. This is more so the Tactical Effectiveness than Tweaks, but they can have an effect, I’m sure. Before you even pick a team, you need to create your manager, and in that itself, you can ruin opportunities and burn bridges before a ball has even been kicked. One part of Tactical Effectiveness is “Player Buy-In,” which is affected by what you are known for as a manager.

Well, if you’re an unknown journeyman with a penchant for attacking football but are hired by a relegation favorite that sacked a beloved legend of the club. Well, I am sorry, but players aren’t going to buy your tiki-taka, prime Dutch Total Football system when they can’t keep a ball outside the goal to save themselves, literally. Yet, if you abandon your principles of attacking football, players won’t buy it because you are expected to play attacking football. I’m using an exaggeration, but that’s the gist of it.

Part of me wants to say that Football Manager 27 will be beloved, especially by those who play between 1,500-3,000 hours a year. Stop looking at me! It will have a somewhat negative perception for that mythical “casual/average” player who plays the team they support for a couple of seasons, then moves on to play something else. More specifically, the min-maxing type who are rigid in their way of playing, they will hate it. That’s not a dig at any one player; there is no “right way” to play, but it highlights where certain players will sit on FM27.

As I say, you don’t need to be hands-on with training every week, but ignoring that system completely will have an impact that can make you dislike your time. Again, I think there are balances with that system that could be made, but things like that will be the sticking point for people. Moreover, when training is delegated, and you have to correct things your assistant manager (or whoever you delegated training to) isn’t addressing, then being asked: “Do you want to take full control with this change?” No. That’s annoying.

Little bits like that, with training especially, would be greatly improved (especially with the new UI/UX) if you could keep it delegated but make and keep those changes if, when, and as needed. Clicking “Yes, but only this once” multiple times when making a handful of changes isn’t quite as fun. Something akin to “Yes, but keep delegated for the next month” might be less frustrating.

The UI/UX is generally improved, with basically everything being more or less in a place you feel it would be or you can get to it fairly quickly. The only gripe, and it is one that I think is fair both ways: Bookmarks are lovely, but would only really make sense if you could make custom ones. Depending on the save or time during a save, certain pages aren’t as useful to engage with. Building a Nation saves would do well if you could easily get to those coefficient pages, and non-league saves don’t always need youth setup stuff, scouts, or a number of other things.

Again, that’s something that a lot of skins and mods could address, something that you can’t really talk about in a review given Football Manager 27 just released and those will become the staple of the next several weeks and months. Though that does link me nicely to something else that was disappointing, and still is at launch, but could be addressed soon.

In the initial Deep Dive showcases, we saw this Information Display scaling thing, which could add more detail to screens overall. Very nice stuff that looks very interesting during the between-highlight match screens. I wouldn’t know, though, as it was later revealed in a blog post that those scaling options were only for 2K and 4K monitor users. In the forum post about the launch update, Sports Interactive has stated: “[T]he first post-launch update is set to arrive later this month. […] Alongside this, we expect to be able to include the additional scaling options for 1080p monitors,” and if true, I am very happy.

No, Football Manager 27 isn’t a ground-up revolution that supersedes FM24, and it isn’t going to be the game that stops FM24 Evangelists from thumping their metaphorical bible. However, its improvements are noticeable; its gameplay is improved; the pace at which you can get through games and screens between games is better, and it is telling you about the world. Some could argue a little too much on that latter point. From a gameplay perspective, it beats 24 no problem, but from a few functionality points (and it is only a few), there are still improvements to be made.

Ultimately, as I said in the first impressions piece, I think Football Manager 27 is an evolution of what 24 and 26 wanted to be, and arguably where 26 should have been to begin with. Sports Interactive could have explained Tactical Effectiveness in better detail, but by the end of this week someone on YouTube will have min-maxed it and explained some sort of meta anyway. I’m still disappointed with the lack of depth added to the women’s game, but that’s what databases evidently are for. Football Manager 27 is brilliantly effective tactically and almost seamless to play; it is going to be my most played game for the next year, again.

A PC review copy of Football Manager 27 was provided by SEGA for this review.

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Football Manager 27

$59.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Tactical Effectiveness and training.
• Tweaks.
• Such an improved UI and UX.
• So much immersion - I know which wonderkid farted.

Cons

• Missed opportunity for depth in the women's game.
• The scaling options being restricted at launch.