Football Manager 2020 - Review

Football Manager 2020 - Review

Review for F. Game for PC and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 19/11/2019
Version for Google Stadia from 31/12/2019

For every good football fan who respects the annual appointment with Football Manager it is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated. The now twenty-year saga by Sports Interactive continues to grind important sales and, above all, to keep close to itself a loyal and boundless fanbase. A bit like it happens with FIFA and PES it is undeniable how much football fans in particular are waiting almost irrepressibly for the month of November, which has now become a symbol of the release date of a product that, unlike the other two exponents of the game of ball just mentioned, it offers a totally different vision and approach to videogame football. Let's talk about Football Manager 2020.



Football Manager 2020 - Review

Forget, therefore, the cheerful challenges with friends (neighbors or online) and the frantic hunt for the most striking trick to show off: Football Manager 2020 is a hymn to the intellectual and applicative power dormant in each of us who, inevitably, must 'be pulled out in order to fully enjoy a product with almost infinite potential. Thanks to the satisfactory amount of additions made to the playful formula of the title in the last edition, which have touched up thorny aspects such as the management of tactics and negotiations in general, the annual episode aims to complete this path, resulting perhaps less "revolutionary" but extremely efficacy if one speaks of refinement and completeness.

During the trial, however, the Football Manager 2020 of Miles Jacobsen and associates was unable to polish all those historical defects of the series, postponing once again the appointment with the definitive improvement.



Football Manager 2020 - Review

The news: Development and Research

In recent years, the attention of the developers has focused more on some elements of the game which, appealing to the memory of a player since the days of the saga, have always scourged the overall experience: the management of tactics and, above all, , of workouts. The search for an increasingly adequate and credible formula for what is the management of the fundamental part of the game of football, but more generally of every sporting discipline, reached its sublimation during the past edition, in which the two elements mentioned above represented the main areas of interest in the development path.

As regards the management of the squad, two appreciated and vital additions have arrived, such as the tactical styles and the planning of weekly training, which have offered a distinctly different dimension to the managerial par excellence. For this reason, the work of the developers on this year has focused on a different aspect, related more to the management of the squad "away from the pitch". We refer in particular to what are the main additions brought as a dowry by the edition of Football Manager 2020, namely the Developement Center, Club Vision and playback of the time path.

Football Manager 2020 - Review

These changes, as their name implies, concerning the 360 ° management of the company in a much wider way than the "only" direction of the field, and offer all players a feeling of control of things much greater. In truth these solutions appear to be a bit experimental, and do not give total freedom to virtual coaches, "forced" however, in many cases, to passively assist in what some aspects of management are. However, the graph that takes into account general expectations is very pleasant and above all it can help a lot in trying to be as close as possible to company policies, if they are clearly in line with our management and vision of football.



The addition of two new roles within the staff, which can be decisive for the purposes of the market and the construction - possibly over the long distance - of a winning team, takes care of everything: the Responsible for player development and Technical director. Choosing carefully and sparingly (within the limits, of course, of economic availability) the ideal figure in these two roles can be an additional weapon both in the search for young talents and in the development of players in one's squad. Without revolutionizing, this feature certainly offers a greater dimension to team management, although the news in this sense could increase during the next chapters of the long-lived saga.

Football Manager 2020 - Review

Ball in play!

Leaving aside the new features introduced in Football manager 2020, once you get on the pitch you immediately notice the excellent work done by Sports Interactive in streamlining and making the various steps between one screen and another more practical. Net of rather minor aesthetic changes, the whole structure appears much more manageable and less grim, which also makes it much easier to control the general trend of things. Once the game has started, after selecting our favorite team and our coaching style, we realize, however, that the great efforts made in perfecting the gameplay are accompanied by a long series of mechanics that need a rather urgent update. The first is undoubtedly the one related to press conferences which, net of some small improvements, are still boring and not very effective.


The question and answer sessions sport a stale and antiquated look, and we hope a strong improvement from this point of view already from the next edition of the game. Once we have overcome this now classic obstacle, which we encounter practically every year, the most succulent part of the game opens up in our hands quickly, making us quickly understand how and how we can shape our team like never before. Thanks to the great work done in the management of player information one realizes how effectively the latter tend to follow the instructions much more faithfully, always reacting very well to the numerous indications that can be given to each of them.


Football Manager 2020 - Review

This year in particular, the psychological component seemed to us to be very predominant: many players at the limits of the project, with the right motivations, seem to literally be reborn, and seeing them play on the field listening to the most suitable indications is a very satisfying feeling. Football Manager 2020 also puts us in the delicate situation of choosing numerous tactical approaches to the various matches, or even of remaining anchored to one's own football ideas, regardless of the opponent, with always relevant consequences. We happened to choose to play it openly against the favorite Naples and to dominate the match, while in facing Juventus (which here, without licenses, is called "Zebre") we preferred to distort the tactical approach to take less risks. The result was disappointing, with the team that, without the right tactical familiarity, proved distinctly subdued.

We like to underline this aspect, since it is clear how much the work on tactical identity has now reached an excellent level, even if it seems to clash quite a lot with what we could define “artificial intelligence”. With Lazio, in fact, we have won a dominated season from start to finish, with matches in which the team also showed off performances from over forty shots on goal. As much as we like to imagine having created an almost infallible tactic, it is impossible not to notice how the overall game seems to be characterized by a rather low level of challenge, at least when you decide to start at the helm of already well-equipped (but certainly not dominant teams. ), as in the case of the Biancoceleste team.

Football Manager 2020 - Review

Tell me about the VAR

In Football manager 2020 the progress of the matches has also revealed some aspects that - according to our point of view - need to be revised. The first of all certainly concerns the use of VAR. The advanced feature, introduced last year, seems to be quite problematic this year. The referee, in fact, relies on the aforementioned mechanics practically always on the same occasions, ie for offside (sporadically) and almost always to assign or not (almost impossible) a penalty kick.

It is clear that a full use of mechanics could not be imagined, but a greater variation in terms of results or perhaps some occasional blunder could help in giving the game that feeling of realism that, in these cases, tends to get out of hand. The impressive amount of goals scored from volley shots or from outside the area, which tends to encourage the player to abuse them during the games, also left us a bit dumbfounded. Berisha, Cataldi and Luis Alberto have scored over three goals each with incredible ballistic shots, and we're experts enough in football to say it's not exactly deeply realistic. In general, however, we were a bit disappointed with the aspect linked to the variety of actions.

Football Manager 2020 - Review

It seemed to us that the actions were all a bit the same, with an exploitation of the lateral bands that was dominating to say the least. With these considerations, however, we absolutely do not want to diminish the playful formula of the title. As we also said at the beginning, the new tactics management system helps a lot to ensure that the players on the pitch do exactly what they are asked to do, and this actually happens very often, especially in the defensive phase. What affects the latter for better or worse is the ability (on both sides) to exploit excessively in an infallible way at every slightest opportunity: many times we have suffered goals even from low-ranking teams at the first useful attempt. , with all that this entails in terms of various imprecations and delusions.

Overall, however, the management performance of Football Manager 2020 satisfied us halfway. If the structural part, i.e. that of the scouting, The allenamenti and tactical arrangements it works wonders, once you get on the pitch you feel a series of problems (both new and old) that we would not have expected to find. We look forward to improvement in upcoming editions and, knowing the development team, we don't have many doubts.

Football Manager 2020 - Review

Market: give me a lever and… I'll buy you Ronaldo!

The long examination of the "played" part of the title leaves, inexorably, space for what is the other crucial component of the title: the market. The many options added over the years, both in terms of player search and card acquisition itself, give the player a practically maniacal and total control of the grafts, which, however, are once again plagued by an imbalance in the evaluations of some players nothing short of sensational. We happened, for one thing, to quietly buy Izzo from Torino for "only" 18 million (conveniently paid in installments) and then see us requesting 103 million from Fiorentina for Castrovilli, just to give an example. However, this aspect only partially affects the quality and depth of a market that gives its best, especially when it comes to seeking staff and players for future planning of corporate successes. Finding good observers guarantees excellent low-cost grafts, and can greatly help fight the insatiable pockets of some companies, actually few.

In general, we have ascertained how teams tend to be very willing to sell their players, unless they are the most influential ones, who (rightly) enjoy a different treatment. And if budget management seemed confusing to us for a moment, since it seems different according to different circumstances (renewal of contracts or "external" acquisitions), we greatly appreciated the opportunity to take advice from all the staff. to perform the in and out movements. In general, once again, the feedback from the assistants seems decisive to us, and our advice is to work mainly on the staff before putting your wallet to change the men on the pitch.

Football Manager 2020 - Review

In closing, we want to say a few words regarding the new Football Manager 2020 graphics engine: i 3D models of the players have reached a very satisfactory level, and more generally we are happy with the great progress made in recent years. This, unfortunately, does not go well with the loss of numerous licenses, such as that of Juventus (which this year will be called "Zebre") which is gradually becoming an increasingly widespread problem as regards the general database of football management. .

Football manager 2020 is an excellent “transition” chapter that adds up all in all good things, but does not revolutionize the excellent formula achieved in recent years. The addition of the new managerial roles and above all the more direct approach given to the player regarding the development of a long-term planning of the team are mechanics still to be discovered and evaluated in the long term and which, for now, seem to be in a decidedly experimental phase. If overall everything works wonderfully, what we hope will be revised as soon as possible is the now usual problem linked to press conferences, always absolutely useless (or almost) and that linked to the management of transfers in general, still excessively unbalanced and not very realistic in terms of figures. A more streamlined interface, an even more precise tactical management and the new graphics are more than valid reasons to reward the work done by Sports Interactive, perhaps waiting for a next chapter a little more revolutionary and less conservative.

► Football Manager 2020 is a Simulation-Sport game developed and published by Sports Interactive for PC and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 19/11/2019
Version for Google Stadia from 31/12/2019

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