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Credit: Sports Interactive

New feature day

Scouting revamped and more! Football Manager 2023 new features announced




Long have fans been awaiting the announcement of new features that will be introduced when Football Manager 2023 is released.

Speculation is always rife this time of year about those new features, but today, we finally got some answers.

The ‘Headline Features’ announcement video posted by Football Manager on their YouTube Channel comes a week after the announcement that UEFA competitions would now be licensed within the game.

There’s a whole host of other new features and advancements in Football Manager 2023 to cover following the announcement, so let’s get into it.

Big changes to scouting

Scouting is one of the most important elements of Football Manager as a whole and in Football Manager 2023 it is seeing many new features added to ‘revamp’ it within the game.

The introduction of the Squad Planner is the most exciting change. The squad planner allows the player to rank the players in their squad by importance, as well as strength, by each position. More importantly, it allows players to include players from their Shortlist in their squad to see how their potential purchase may affect team shape and tactics.

This is a big change that will be huge for players committing to rebuilds or long-term saves. Players will now be able to plan ahead and work their way towards implementing their chosen style easier.

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A further change to scouting is how the system works as a whole. Players will now be able to refine searches so that scouts search for specific stats for players rather than just their attributes. For example, a player could now search for a player by their pass completion percentage or minutes per goal. Scouts will then filter out players who don’t meet these benchmarks when they report back.

One of the more exciting parts about this, however, is that these filtered-out players won’t then disappear into the abyss. If a player sets four benchmarks for player stats to be scouted for, scouted players who only hit three of those marks will go into the ‘Near Matches’ section. This section will be great for when the players that do hit all the benchmarks become unsuitable targets for whatever reason.

Agents have also been expanded upon within the new features for Football Manager 2023. In Football Manager 2022 the ‘Ask Agent About Availability’ option was introduced. This feature allowed the player to first ask an agent about a player and then gain knowledge on their potential fee and wage demands. This feature became a crutch for players, however, it had a lack of interactivity.

The additions to agents will allow for further negotiations within that initial contact. If a player wants to move to your club but wants too high of a wage to do so, you will now be able to tell the agent they will have to bring their demands down.

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There have also been changes made to Recruitment Meetings within Football Manager 2023. Like agents, Recruitment Meetings were added to the game in the previous edition. Unlike agents, however, they became something tedious and skippable rather than an important feature.

The new changes in Football Manager 2023 make those meetings more dynamic and add more quality of life elements for the player. They will particularly be important for Transfer Deadline Days, where they will be used to make the day ‘more chaotic’, should the player wish to do so.

Further advancements to the Match Engine

The Match Engine is one of the most contentious elements of Football Manager. Purists love their 2D Engine, while newer players respect the advancements made to the 3D Match Engine. These advancements, as they are every year, have been furthered once more in Football Manager 2023.

Goalkeepers in Football Manager 2023 will now have a host of new animations within the 3D Match Engine. These changes will help to make the game more immersive as well as give more depth to the idea of a ‘world-class’ keeper within the game.

One of the biggest upgrades to the Match Engine within Football Manager 2023 is to the AI managers within the game. The aim of this upgrade is to create a bigger tactical battle between the player manager and the AI managers. It will also add to the immersive aspect of the game, aiming to be more true to real life in the context of these AI managers’ real-life tactics and styles.

There have also been tactical changes made to the match engine. One of the biggest criticisms of FM22 is that playing a counter-attacking, low-block style was near impossible to do within the game. This has been improved upon within FM23, and players should now be free to play in that style should they choose to do so. This is also represented within the Tactics screen as the ‘Out of Possession’ screen has been changed to feel more ‘true to football.’

UEFA licensing in Football Manager 2023

UEFA licensing is one of the biggest new features in Football Manager 2023. Football Manager is a game obsessed with the idea of immersion and making the game feel as realistic as possible for the players playing the game.

Previously for elements such as the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League, playing will have had to go to sites such as sortitoutsi.net to download ‘Real Name Fixes’ for tournaments such as these. This will no longer be the case.

The licensing goes as far as the sleeve patches that teams wear when competing in these competitions. The inclusion of these sleeve patches has also led to another new feature in Football Manager 2023. There will now be dynamic sleeve patches within the game, meaning that sleeve patches will also change when a team gains a promotion from a league.

The licensing also feeds down into cup draws in Football Manager 2023. Each of the UEFA tournaments will now have ‘full-screen experiences’ for their draws, making the draw feel like more of an event within the save.

There are also custom podiums for each of the competitions, giving players extra incentive to go all out to win each one and experience each of the competitions from that winner’s podium. The custom graphics also extend to squad graphics within the pre-match build-up of games.

Finally, as most fans were excited to hear, Football Manager Director Miles Jacobsen has confirmed that the licensed music for each competition will also be featured within the game. Let’s hope it’s a separate setting to the sound settings within the game though, the crowd noises will always be insufferable within Football Manager.

Football Manager 2023 adds Supporter Confidence

Board confidence has long been an element of Football Manager games. It allows the player to see how they are performing in the eyes of their club’s board, giving huge insight into the current security status of their job.

In Football Manager 2023, one of the new features is the addition of Supporter Confidence. Supporter Confidence is dynamic and dependent on the team that you are managing. It gives percentages of the fanbase split, from hardcore down to casual and even including the corporate and family-based fan sections.

The supporter confidence element can even play into the chance for a manager to lose or keep their job. If the fans love you, you will be more likely to be shown leniency from the board during a difficult spell. However, if they aren’t fond of you, it might mean that the executioner’s axe is swung just a little quicker.

This element of Supporter Confidence will also vary on a club-to-club basis. We can’t wait to be the manager of Arsenal and have AFTV screaming us out of our jobs.

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Dynamic Manager Timeline builds the story of your save

The Dynamic Manager Timeline is the final new feature announced for Football Manager 2023. The timeline will help to build the story of a save by showing important managerial milestones during the End of Season Review.

One of the big things focussed on within the new feature video is the idea of nostalgia within the game. Football Manager players when discussing the game very rarely discuss their own achievements, but rather the achievements and stories of their players. The Dynamic Manager Timeline aims to bring that into the game by creating a narrative for players.

If you start a player and they become the club’s oldest or youngest player, this will be included on the timeline. So too will if a player becomes a record goalscorer or record appearance maker for a club.

Sam McKenzie covers a variety of competitive first-person shooters, with an emphasis on Valorant and Counter-Strike esports. He also has a passion for football in both the real and virtual worlds, and contributes his expertise in FIFA esports.