A Major Revamp on Realism

Lots of good improvements and ‘revamps’ were made for the release of Football Manager 2008 and have generally has been a success to improve the game. The realistic Match Engine is still widely unmatched among football manager and is in my opinion, the best the game has to offer. Other aspects like signing players, affiliating with clubs and making player’s morale hit the roof is too easy.

The Match Engine

Okay, you might find this a bit strange that I am going to write about what I believe to be the most realistic thing in Football Manager, in an article which is focusing on the lack of realism but I feel this is important because the game would be simply unplayable without the fantastic Match Engine.

Putting managers into a generalisation, I came up with three different types you could find in modern day football and in football manager. Take into consideration that I am talking about the variations of tactics managers use. Not whether they like to play an attacking or defensive style!


Arsene Wenger

Arsene believes his way of football is the best way to play football for his team and should not have any major alterations; no matter where, when or who he might be playing. Whether you think his way is the best or not is irrelevant, there are lots of other managers around like him who have the same principles but play a totally different ball game. I have gathered the idea other the years that he believes football to be more of an art and tactics are almost a smokescreen for this.

Rafael Benitez

Rafa is very much the tactical guru when it comes too football and although he obviously has general style of play throughout his team, he is constantly rotating players and changing the rhythm and style of the team to counter the opposition’s tactic. These types of managers are perfectionists, which can often lead to big successes or it could in fact, consequently lead them to their managerial sacking. I listened to a lot of Benitez over the years and he is so similar to Arsene until comes to the ‘art belief’. Rafa is very much a believer that football is more of a science and tactics should tweaked a tampered constantly until you find a perfect tactic that will beat the opposition.

Sam Allardyce

Big Sam is your run of the mill, no nonsense ‘classic’ manager. The classic approach to tactics is to have two alternatives, home and away, with slight alterations depending on who the opposition may be. The general idea for these tactics is to play more attacking and adventurous at home and play a more defensive, closing down game when away. Big Sam is very much down to the earth in terms of football and is not too fussed on the matter of arts and science in football.

You’re probably wondering what the hell that has to do with the realistic match engine, fear not, all will be explained young Jedi.

You can argue all day about how sliders, mentalities and basic frameworks are a load of bollocks and do not simulate football managing at all. Okay, fair dos, Rafa Benitez does not have a spreadsheet on his PC and move sliders around until he has perfect match plan to beat Chelsea (all-though I wouldn’t put it past him). But you have got to understand these sliders are simulations themselves, simulating what you would be instructing your team players to actually do.

These different types of managers are what really make the match engine and the game itself realistic. One single match engine, created by SI can handle three different stereotypical managers. All can be successful and win matches but they all use different types of BvariationsB of tactics. Also, take into account; these are only three typical generalisations of the managers that exist today. If you were to take all the managers, whether that’s in real life or us ‘wannabee’ managers, there would be thousands upon thousand of different, more confined types of variations tactics used by individual managers. At the match engine is designed to suit all of these and each different variation these managers use, can be successful. BIfs that not simulation I don’t know what isB.


Despite my beliefs on why the match engine is a fantastic simulation, I still believe the game as a whole, the realism is lacking a cutting edge which would really make the game brilliant.


The Transfer Market

Wheeling and dealing in the transfer market has always been so easy for me in Football Manager, especially in the lower league where I literally can sign my whole team on free transfers. I do not use the genie scout, the editor or any other kind of utility that would make transfers any easier than it already is. Finding and purchasing players should be a lot harder. I say this because unless you are the Chelsea manager, buying players in the real world take a lot of well thought planning and negotiating. The AI wheeling and dealing is somewhat ‘dodgy’ in football manager. How can Arsene Wenger buying two players for a combined forty million pounds be realistic? Quite simply it is not. Different managers have different policies on transfers and know matter how much dosh you give Arsene he is never going to buy a player for double figures unless he deems them an extraordinary talent. Other managers, like Martin O’Neill and Paul Jewell generally like to buy British talent and keep a sense of national atmosphere around their club. A manager like Rafael Benitez like to buy players from Spain, because he has a good knowledge of that country. How can SI simulate all this into Football Manager? I don’t know. It would definitely be a hard one, but in my opinion, it is high priority on the realism list.

Media Interaction

The media-interaction is good, like in real life everything managers may say or do can affect a players’ morale; and sub-consequently lead to incidents like players requesting transfers or growing a bad relationship with their manager. But what I believe the media-interaction needs to give it more realism it the media creating problems among players by itself, because in real life it does. You may say that it is unfair and players could become unhappy by no fault of your own, but I guess you have to ask yourself, do you want to win loads of trophies and be top of the hall of fame or do you, dare I ask, want a football management simulation?  One example of how the media can affect player’s happiness and their careers is the so far, unimpressive career of Theo Walcott. This is not to say Theo is not a good player, or will not be a good player one day, but he has so far not lived up to his status of a wonder-kid. The media hyped him up so much and told everyone he is going to be fantastic, which at the time probably did wonders for the kid’s confidence. When he was announced in the world cup squad the media went Walcott Crazy and by now, Theo is going to the best thing that has happened to English football since Thierry Henry. So why hasn’t this happened yet?  I put it down him being constantly under media’s pressure to do well and make an impact like a young Wayne did a few years back. Imagine having a situation like this in Football Manager, it would certainly create a new sense of realism and give you a new challenge to somehow mould your wounded wonder-kid into what he can truly be.

Obviously, there is alot more to the 'lack of realism' than the Transfer Market and Media Interaction, but these too are probably the two major issues and I do not want to start nit-picking on other small things that are very much controversial.

Generally, I think SI get less credit than they deserve for bringing us the best football management simulation year in year out, but that is another debate for another article. In all honestly, I think with out the match engine and its realism, the game wouldn’t be half the simulation and fun that is. The game would become too easy, just like transfers are and keeping players happy. For the ordinary bloke who likes the odd game of FM, there is no problem. But for us hard-core Football Managers, the game needs more realism to entice us and make the game addictive like it is to the ‘ordinary bloke’.