Football Manager 2022 review: Welcome to a new era of FM games

Football Manager 2022 isn’t actually out yet, but it’s already on track to become the most popular Football Manager game ever.

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive, has been tweeting about the popularity of the Football Manager 2022 beta in recent days, with players able to get hands-on with the beta version prior to the game’s official release date if they’ve pre-ordered the game.

According to Jacobson’s tweets, over ten million matches have been played on the FM22 beta as of November 3, 2021, with players completing over 100,000 seasons, making over 1.5 million transfers, spending over £20 trillion in the transfer market and winning over 100,000 trophies. And by the time you’ve read those figures, they’ll be much, much higher.

Again, FM22 isn’t even officially out yet, which is a testament to the quality and immersion of this superb video game.

Football Manager 2022 will be released on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 for PC, Mac, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and mobile devices, And, FM22 and FM22 Xbox Edition will be available with Xbox Game Pass from Day One when both titles launch.

Ahead of the game’s official launch, Mirror Football played Football Manager 2022 on PC, and here’s what we thought.

Football Manager 2022 review

When players load up FM22 for the first time and start a new game save, they’ll have a very similar experience to the last few FM games, aside from the added manager customisation options and fresh press questioning, it feels very familiar and very FM-like.

And as does the general day-to-day managerial experience within FM22, there are the usual tasks of squad management, tactics, training, friendlies, transfers and more are on your to-do list when you first start. One detail that is different though is the introduction of a new weekly in-depth staff meeting, which is handy and can give you some really good recommendations.

Apart from a few select clubs, like Newcastle United, you’ll find that transfer budgets have been lowered significantly compared to previous generations of FM, for obvious reasons, but a few seasons in, they do return to normal, thanks to full stadiums.

Sports Interactive also decided against having COVID-19 in the game, so players can’t be ill and won’t be isolating, which was the right decision in my view, as FM is supposed to be an escape from real life!

But when your first game comes along, it’s here where you notice that there have been some huge changes under the hood, specifically in regards to animations and Match AI.

For Football Manager 2022, the guys and girls at Sports Interactive and Sega have overhauled the animation engine, a change that will be the basis for Football Manager games for years to come.

The previous FM animation engine actually tied players to the 2D discs that formed the basis of our switch from the 2D to 3D view, restricting real-life movement and motion.

But the new engine is built around the new addition of root motion, which means that the players move off those 2D discs, and the 3D model movement is instead now based on the animation of their skeleton, allowing for much more realistic movements.

Personally, I have watched FM matches on 2D classic for as long as I can remember, but honestly, the improvements to the animations have converted me to 3D. I still revert to 2D when trying out new tactics or am trying to figure out tactical changes in-game, but other than that, watching the match in 3D on FM22 is a great experience.

Player movement is more realistic than ever, and that goes for every part of a football match including dribbling, passing, shooting, running, slide tackles, headers and more.

But that’s only half the story because the overhaul of the animations has led to huge changes to the match engine and the match AI, with players now able to do more and in a more realistic way.

Players now take much more varied and definitive touches on the ball and can dribble in more ways than ever before, leading to more variety and even the odd Cruyff turn! Having been very familiar with previous FM match engines, the match engine in FM22 looks and feels very fresh with more variety in almost every situation on the pitch.

You’ll see things that you just wouldn’t have seen before in an FM game. Players will now pass backwards more often, misplace passes, mess up their first touches, make better decisions on the ball, will produce cutbacks and make more passes overall as a team, with the game slowed down to more realistic levels.

There’s also a brand new player role, the Wide Centre-Back, à la Jack O’Connell, which gives players even more tactical options and is a really interesting addition to the game.

Pressing, something that is absolutely central to modern-day football, has also had a big overhaul in FM22, with players now able to select pressing triggers, where you can target specific opposition players that will trigger pressing actions.

But unlike in FM21, where the Gegenpress tactic was incredibly powerful with pretty much any team, players will be have to be very aware of their first-team squad because if you don’t have players who have the attributes to play a pressing game, you will come unstuck very quickly.

For example, it’s difficult to create a true Gegenpress side in the lower leagues as the players just don’t have the physical or mental attributes to make it work for 90 minutes.

And, as I and United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are now fully aware of, it’s very difficult to press with Cristiano Ronaldo up front, with the legendary striker only having 8 for work rate, 7 for teamwork, 6 for aggression, 10 for bravery and just 2 for tackling.

Playing as United, I was up against Leeds United in the first game of the season and tried playing with a full-on Gegenpress tactical style to try out the new pressing system, and it ended very badly indeed.

With Ronaldo playing as an Advanced Forward in a 4-3-3, Leeds bypassed my press really easily and were able to dominate the game. Long story short, if you don’t have the players to Gegenpress, you won’t be able to make it work.

Once you’ve played three competitive games, you’ll be able to access the other major new feature on this year’s game, the Data Hub.

In previous editions of FM, apart from being able to look at plain stats with no context and xG graphs, it could be quite difficult to contextualise the vast amount of information into something you can actually use to become a better manager.

But, the Data Hub changes the game.

Instead of just laying out loads of bare numbers, the data is compiled into various visualisations, giving you even more information but in a much more consumable way, allowing you to make tactical and personnel change decisions with more confidence.

There are visualisations that tell you where your team compares overall with the rest of the league, a summary that explains the visualisation, five key findings from the data, visualisations about your next opponent and you can even request specific visualisations.

The Data Hub is an incredible tool that you can use to your advantage, whether you glance at it every now and then or delve into the data. But, be aware that your Data Hub will only be as good as your analyst team.

There are other new features too, including a revamped Fantasy Draft game mode, a revamped transfer market, revamped player values that fluctuate season to season, more agent involvement, enhanced scouting reports and much more.

Football Manager 2022 verdict

Sports Interactive and Sega have managed to introduce a host of impressive new features in FM22, including a brand new animation engine, an updated match engine, a new Data Hub sections, a revamped transfer market and much, much more. And they’ve done all this during a worldwide pandemic.

Football Manager 2022 feels like a big step forward for Sports Interactive and Sega’s Football Manager series, thanks to a raft of significant new features that successfully bring a freshness to the game, without losing that Football Manager magic that we all know and love.

The new animation engine and the match AI changes are genuine game-changers for FM22 and future Football Manager games because although they’ve been integrated into FM22 successfully, there’s a feeling that Sports Interactive and Sega have only scratched the surface of what’s possible with this new technology.

Welcome to a new era of Football Manager games, and it starts with Football Manager 2022.

Football Manager 2022 will be released on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 for PC, Mac, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Mobile devices.

Football Manager (FM) is the world’s leading football management simulation title. With more than 50 countries to manage in and a database of over 800,000 players and staff it offers an incredibly detailed and immersive experience.

In FM you make all of the key decisions, from signing (and selling) players through training, team selection and tactics as you take your team to the top of the footballing world while carving out your own philosophy and strengthening your club’s identity.