FM24 Feature Blog: Truer Football Motion, Match Authenticity & Positional Play

[Jimmy Wong]

Matchdays are the moments that get the adrenaline flowing in every Football Manager career. They’re where tactical visions come to life, underdog stories are written and players win a lifelong place in your heart with their heroics.  

With every release of Football Manager, our Match team strive to make those moments feel closer to a perfect simulation of real-world football. 

In FM24, the most complete version in the series to-date, the team have vastly improved the way players behave in our engine. From animation locomotion upgrades that improve off-the-ball movement right through to player rotation enhancements that enable you to incorporate more positional play in your tactics, you’ll notice the changes from your first kick-off.

The introduction of a brand-new player role brings you closer to the cutting edge of the professional game, while other roles have had their functionality refined to complement some of our other changes. 

We’ve also made upgrades to our ball physics and matchday lighting to level up the immersion.

Visit the Football Manager Website to find out more about this feature.

[kandersson]

Easily my favorite feature blog so far. New positional play could be a huge addition.

[91427]

This looks brilliant. Players actually understanding the positioning of their teammates and adapting to it is a big step forward.

[gunner86]

Is anyone else missing the FM23 vs 24 comparison at the bottom of the blog?

[DarJ]

5 minutes ago, gunner86 said:

Is anyone else missing the FM23 vs 24 comparison at the bottom of the blog?

It was there for me when I first read it and I went back now to check and it’s not there anymore.

If you’re on twitter click on the video with the link of the blog it should open the blog post and then you will be able to see it. I’m on an iPhone so I have no idea if that’s relevant or not 

Edited September 27, 2023 by DarJ

[ianscousemac]

This look fantastic

 

[ElJuanvito]

Small thing, but I really like that we can again use inverted wingers to stretch play and still have them cut inside with the ball (in FM23, the best way to achieve this is regular wingers on the "wrong" flank).

[sverige91]

It looks promising and seeing players behave more intelligent on the pitch is always good & i think it would have been even better if we could have set up a formation without the ball. That way, we could have specified the roles players should have without the ball, for example, the HB without the ball but DLP with the ball.

[gunner86]

15 minutes ago, DarJ said:

It was there for me when I first read it and I went back now to check and it’s not there anymore.

If you’re on twitter click on the video with the link of the blog it should open the blog post and then you will be able to see it. I’m on an iPhone so I have no idea if that’s relevant or not 

Thanks, tried that route and still the same. Also on iPhone

 

Seems appropriate in a blog about creating space though…

[Dagenham_Dave]

Still there for me...

 

[Cmdr Christoff]

I refreshed my screen, and it came back.

[gunner86]

9 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Still there for me...

 

Thanks. That’s quite the improvement

[pedrosantos]

Very, very exciting the cherry on the top of the cake would be some upgrade of tactical instructions.

[Viking]

The volley into the ground shot is something I've been missing from FM. I also liked how a player waved his arm in one of the videos to get the attention of his teammate (I assume). Looking good.

[Iggy Hassan]

I'm absolutely loving these blogs. It's about time SI were more open & transparent about features. It's so refreshing. I haven't seen any negativity from the community since about fm24. Absolutely brilliant and has to be applauded. It really helps to whet peoples appetite. 

[fc.cadoni]

Despite new role of Inverted Full Back, there is something new as well: Libero will be available when you have four, means that you can pair CD De + Libero along with DRL positions. Cool!

[CARRERA]

Lovely, take my money SI 

[ElJuanvito]

I wonder if now inverted wing backs will actually invert if there is a segundo volante on their side of the pitch. That would be pretty neat.

[(sic)]

Like I said in the other thread, I am lost for words. Thank you SI for listening to our feedback/requests. 

 

The new roles, and the way existing roles move to accommodate the movement of other players is just what I wanted to hear from this preview.

DM dropping to the side to form a back 3? Check.

Fullback forming a back 3, acting as a 3rd CB? Check.

John Stones role? Check.

 

I love the new movement animations as well, especially when a player starts to run from a standstill. It finally resembles something somewhat realistic

The lighting and the textures finally look like a large improvement over the past few years, and honestly I'm very happy with those.

This is the level of graphics everyone expected, not the FIFA level of graphics, but at least something like this. It looks much better.

 

 

Can't wait to actually play this.

[GOODNAME]

Oh My God that goal from Foden is a beauty!

Finally the IF/IW can be more wider but dribble and cut inside like in the real word.

Loved also the play from the back, movement of players and the ball physics 

Really looking forward now to the game 

 

[Dagenham_Dave]

SI must really hate Pep Guardiola, the headaches that man has caused for the match engine team 

[Grez]

 

The animation, physics and lighting stuff looks nice. There's always going to be a limit given we're still on the old graphics engine, but I think it looks pretty good from what we can see.

I'm a little torn on the positional stuff. I like what you're trying to do with it and I can see myself trying to make use of the role changes, but I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a missed opportunity when this could be achieved by offering the ability to split offensive and defensive formations into two. It wouldn't have to be mandatory (to avoid confusing new managers), but it would let managers achieve this kind of positional fluidity in a more customisable way.

It feels to me like there's going to be a lot of new rules and interactions attached to player roles that you just have to know. How well documented in game will the interactions between a libero and inverted wingback be? How obvious will it be to new players that a CAM will move over to accommodate a marauding Segundo Volante? What if you have two Segundo Volantes, does the CAM stay more central in a more crowded space, or do the Segundo Volantes go more wide? What about a Segundo Volante behind a CM-attack, does the SV progress less in order to stay in a separate space from the CM-A? These interactions are not all entirely obvious to me and I doubt the tactics screen goes into this kind of depth.

It also potentially takes away a level of creativity from managers if your players automatically move - what if I WANT my CAM and Segundo Volante to move into the same space to create an overload and potentially draw more defenders over to that area - I can't because my CAM insists on drifting away into another space. What if I want my Libero to take priority over my IWB when moving forward? I can't do that because it's hard coded into the game.

I think having these new movements as a default is a solid first step, but the logical conclusion to all this is to provide an option of a split defensive/offensive tactics page where you can set up two formations, and instructions for each phase of play, so that I can tell my players exactly what I want them to do rather than the players assuming or me having to guess how two roles interact.

[Dagenham_Dave]

3 minutes ago, Grez said:

It feels to me like there's going to be a lot of new rules and interactions attached to player roles that you just have to know. How well documented in game will the interactions between a libero and inverted wingback be? How obvious will it be to new players that a CAM will move over to accommodate a marauding Segundo Volante? What if you have two Segundo Volantes, does the CAM stay more central in a more crowded space, or do the Segundo Volantes go more wide? What about a Segundo Volante behind a CM-attack, does the SV progress less in order to stay in a separate space from the CM-A? These interactions are not all entirely obvious to me and I doubt the tactics screen goes into this kind of depth.

 

Call me crazy, but actually watching the games and seeing how the roles interact with each other, particuarly during pre-season, would be the most sensible method. Then you can tweak until you get something you are comfortable with. 

Putting a sandbox tactical instruction where you can do whatever you want might sound nice in principle, but remember, they would have to give every single AI manager the same tools, and the game would just become a mess. At least until AI is advanced enough to handle it. 

I think the current tactical set up is fine. On a personal level, I would much rather users actually be restricted to the default formations in the game, as this would be a proper challenge vs the AI, but I suppose you can do that yourself anyway, and we wouldn't want to upset people, would we?  I would one day like to see the end of the downloaded tactic, and all the cheap exploits they create. 

[alian62]

Nothing about Stadiums ?  When playing in Japan or the USA or Australia I want the Stadiums to reflect that . Also lower league Stadiums or just a park with a small pavilion.  Also the crowd noise? Has it been improved so home game cheers are louder when a goal is score and lower for an away team . The sound has not changed since the start of the series 

[arthurbf10]

Absolutely brilliant

[Passion Fruit]

Everything I read and saw was a tick box for me and more.

I've been very critical of SI over the last few years with regards to the rigidity of players, especially regarding inverted wingers and inside forwards, blocked shots and other things. The game was getting very stale from a match day perspective. Which eventually became game breaking because all you'd see is the things that constantly annoyed you. I'd often stop playing around February, or restart again and then stop.

All of this should have happened a few years ago, but I'm glad we're going to get one last hoorah in the old FM before the "next generation" or FM next year.

At least from what I can see, the match engine is looking really good from the new additions with a fluidity we've never experienced yet and hopefully those repetitively annoying broken things that have plagued the engine for many years ave been ironed out. I haven't been this excited for a new FM in many many years.

 

[wazzaflow10]

Question I'd have for the team - in regards to player positioning/off the ball movement/rotational fluidity should we expect an increase in importance of tactical familiarity and team cohesion during match days?

Have there been any adjustments in how quickly/slowly a team/player can get up to speed and retain competence in a role/shape/creative freedom? 

10/10 so far on the new features though. Really well done.

Edited September 28, 2023 by wazzaflow10

[vrig]

Now these are the features I want! Very happy with the role interaction changes. The inverted fullback, along with changes to the libero and half back should make build up play a lot more interesting. Changes to wide attackers have been a long time coming, so good to have that too.

Judging by the screenshots, the game won't try using star ratings to strong arm me into playing a left footer a right back just because I want them to invert, which is a nice little thing.

9 hours ago, Grez said:

 

The animation, physics and lighting stuff looks nice. There's always going to be a limit given we're still on the old graphics engine, but I think it looks pretty good from what we can see.

I'm a little torn on the positional stuff. I like what you're trying to do with it and I can see myself trying to make use of the role changes, but I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a missed opportunity when this could be achieved by offering the ability to split offensive and defensive formations into two. It wouldn't have to be mandatory (to avoid confusing new managers), but it would let managers achieve this kind of positional fluidity in a more customisable way.

It feels to me like there's going to be a lot of new rules and interactions attached to player roles that you just have to know. How well documented in game will the interactions between a libero and inverted wingback be? How obvious will it be to new players that a CAM will move over to accommodate a marauding Segundo Volante? What if you have two Segundo Volantes, does the CAM stay more central in a more crowded space, or do the Segundo Volantes go more wide? What about a Segundo Volante behind a CM-attack, does the SV progress less in order to stay in a separate space from the CM-A? These interactions are not all entirely obvious to me and I doubt the tactics screen goes into this kind of depth.

It also potentially takes away a level of creativity from managers if your players automatically move - what if I WANT my CAM and Segundo Volante to move into the same space to create an overload and potentially draw more defenders over to that area - I can't because my CAM insists on drifting away into another space. What if I want my Libero to take priority over my IWB when moving forward? I can't do that because it's hard coded into the game.

I think having these new movements as a default is a solid first step, but the logical conclusion to all this is to provide an option of a split defensive/offensive tactics page where you can set up two formations, and instructions for each phase of play, so that I can tell my players exactly what I want them to do rather than the players assuming or me having to guess how two roles interact.

In the first trailer, it looked as though there would be a visual representation of how the roles would interact with each other. Hopefully that checks out.

[ak71]

I am impressed so far by the match animation.  However, the placement of the photographers really driving me nuts.  It is totally unrealistic.

Any possibility that we can toggle off the photographers..?

[Lempicka]

8 hours ago, alian62 said:

Nothing about Stadiums ?  When playing in Japan or the USA or Australia I want the Stadiums to reflect that . Also lower league Stadiums or just a park with a small pavilion.  Also the crowd noise? Has it been improved so home game cheers are louder when a goal is score and lower for an away team . The sound has not changed since the start of the series 

Totally agree. It would be great to see more variety this year. I also really hope that SI have looked into stadium scales. 3k capacity non-league grounds should look small and not look like 15k stadiums. Same applies the larger stadiums as a 30k seater stadium (e.g. Hull, Coventry, Derby) should not look bigger than in-game Wembley or San Siro.

I haven't seen any pictures of the corner infills yet. Have they been revamped - or it it still large buildings, empty car parks and massive TV screens?

Loving the pitch though!

[Dagenham_Dave]

I can't see there being any upgrade to the stadiums this year. The move to the new graphics engine for FM25 is where we should see real improvement. And if we don't, well, inexcusable really. But I'll give them a grudging pass for this game. 

[chewbaccaloveaddiction]

This is huge, we can finally play a 4231 that switches to a proper 325 in possession. And the smarter movement opens up so many new possibilities for tactics

Edited September 28, 2023 by chewbaccaloveaddiction

[CLS]

11 hours ago, alian62 said:

Nothing about Stadiums ?  When playing in Japan or the USA or Australia I want the Stadiums to reflect that . Also lower league Stadiums or just a park with a small pavilion.  Also the crowd noise? Has it been improved so home game cheers are louder when a goal is score and lower for an away team . The sound has not changed since the start of the series 

I can't see them doing significant modelling work for stadiums when it would be completely useless after this year with the move to Unity for FM25. Similarly, I expect that's when the sound might change to make it "feel" more like an entirely new game, rather than the last of the 'classic' FM games like FM24 is.

[alian62]

7 minutes ago, CLS said:

I can't see them doing significant modelling work for stadiums when it would be completely useless after this year with the move to Unity for FM25. Similarly, I expect that's when the sound might change to make it "feel" more like an entirely new game, rather than the last of the 'classic' FM games like FM24 is.

Well i would disagree to the point of having pride in your own game that you would be trying your best for this very last game of this type of franchise . Anything less and it wouild be disappoining not to go out on a high ? 

[CLS]

3 minutes ago, alian62 said:

Well i would disagree to the point of having pride in your own game that you would be trying your best for this very last game of this type of franchise . Anything less and it wouild be disappoining not to go out on a high ? 

You can't do everything in a year. You've got to choose. Makes much more sense to get the core aspects of the game right for FM24 - the match engine, player development, interactions, set pieces. And then have FM25 as the game that looks and sounds new.

[gunner86]

15 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

SI must really hate Pep Guardiola, the headaches that man has caused for the match engine team 

That’s why he always gets sacked in the second season… 

[gam945]

This feature alone will make me buy FM24, I began playing since FM20 and bought all editions since but barely played the 2023 one, and I was always frustrated of not being able to recreate 4-3-3 or 3-1-3-3 from a simple 4-4-2/4-4-1-1. Looks like this edition solves the issue with the new roles so it's going to be very fun - looking forward to the release date

[_mxrky]

Will the wingers actually hug the touchline in the final third in this edition? That’s what makes or breaks this game for me

[Grez]

18 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Call me crazy, but actually watching the games and seeing how the roles interact with each other, particuarly during pre-season, would be the most sensible method. Then you can tweak until you get something you are comfortable with. 

Putting a sandbox tactical instruction where you can do whatever you want might sound nice in principle, but remember, they would have to give every single AI manager the same tools, and the game would just become a mess. At least until AI is advanced enough to handle it. 

I think the current tactical set up is fine. On a personal level, I would much rather users actually be restricted to the default formations in the game, as this would be a proper challenge vs the AI, but I suppose you can do that yourself anyway, and we wouldn't want to upset people, would we?  I would one day like to see the end of the downloaded tactic, and all the cheap exploits they create. 

Yeah I think my main issue is just that in certain scenarios your players are essentially just ignoring your tactics. You can't have an IWB and Libero pushing up together. Why not? Because it doesn't align with some arbitrary set of rules for what football should look like? Maybe it's a bad tactic that will leave me defensively weak - but surely that's my decision as a manager. Any change that automates positions/tactics rather than putting it in the hands of the manager is a bad change that risks making every tactic feel the same.

I like the idea of players adjusting their positioning to cover for each other, it's fundamentally a good idea, but I feel like you should have control over how that happens and who covers for who. Perhaps these current rules would make a good default, but the fact that you can't change them is disappointing. Deciding on the offensive and defensive team structure seems like a core decision for management, so the fact that we can only choose one side of it seems a little crazy in an update that is supposed to be focused around player positioning.

[Lord Duffucus]

Will there be a more realistic pitch texture for 3G surfaces? At the moment they look the same as normal grass whereas in reality, aesthetically they're usually quite different. Also curious as to whether ball physics on a 3G surface will be affected as in real life? This used to be the case in old versions, particularly the visual side of it.

 

Hoping someone from SI can answer this given their continued prominence in the game, especially at lower levels and in some top divisions worldwide.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Lord Duffucus

[wazzaflow10]

1 hour ago, Grez said:

Yeah I think my main issue is just that in certain scenarios your players are essentially just ignoring your tactics. You can't have an IWB and Libero pushing up together. Why not? Because it doesn't align with some arbitrary set of rules for what football should look like? Maybe it's a bad tactic that will leave me defensively weak - but surely that's my decision as a manager. Any change that automates positions/tactics rather than putting it in the hands of the manager is a bad change that risks making every tactic feel the same.

I like the idea of players adjusting their positioning to cover for each other, it's fundamentally a good idea, but I feel like you should have control over how that happens and who covers for who. Perhaps these current rules would make a good default, but the fact that you can't change them is disappointing. Deciding on the offensive and defensive team structure seems like a core decision for management, so the fact that we can only choose one side of it seems a little crazy in an update that is supposed to be focused around player positioning.

You can control who's covering for who based on roles and positions so long as its somewhat logical. If your goal is to create some extreme variant of total football it should fail spectacularly ever time. But SI doesn't have the time to test every single possible thing a user could do to find weaknesses/exploits. 

The adjustment of the DM to move across if there's an IWB on their side and a vacated area from a DM pushing forward is a massive, massive improvement. The effectiveness of that movement probably depends on the player too. I don't think you could have a player with poor positioning/OTB movement and poor physicals play that kind of role. 

You don't have total freedom because the AI isn't capable of creating a tactic with total freedom. WIBWOB in theory is the best answer but it doesn't work in practice because the possibilities are infinite. Give enough people enough time and someone will break the match engine. The tactics page is meant to keep users honest to a degree so that SI can create an AI that is competitive and a match engine that provides repeatable feedback. The other alternative is SI allows the AI to see the match engine under the hood and work out in game what the best tactic is with total freedom. It wouldn't take very long before the AI converges on a game breaking tactic that no one can beat. 

What SI is trying to do is keep the user and AI honest within the context of the match engine they've created. As the game evolves they'll evolve the engine like they've done with Pep's new tactics or the Raumdeuter 10-15 years ago. You're never going to create a never before seen tactic in this game. Its just not designed to be a free for all simulator. Maybe one day in the future with enough data on player movements and patterns of play from real life they'll tell us to go hog wild. And I'd expect unbalanced/unrealistic tactics at that stage to be severely punished.

 

[Grez]

15 hours ago, wazzaflow10 said:

You can control who's covering for who based on roles and positions so long as its somewhat logical. If your goal is to create some extreme variant of total football it should fail spectacularly ever time. But SI doesn't have the time to test every single possible thing a user could do to find weaknesses/exploits. 

The adjustment of the DM to move across if there's an IWB on their side and a vacated area from a DM pushing forward is a massive, massive improvement. The effectiveness of that movement probably depends on the player too. I don't think you could have a player with poor positioning/OTB movement and poor physicals play that kind of role. 

You don't have total freedom because the AI isn't capable of creating a tactic with total freedom. WIBWOB in theory is the best answer but it doesn't work in practice because the possibilities are infinite. Give enough people enough time and someone will break the match engine. The tactics page is meant to keep users honest to a degree so that SI can create an AI that is competitive and a match engine that provides repeatable feedback. The other alternative is SI allows the AI to see the match engine under the hood and work out in game what the best tactic is with total freedom. It wouldn't take very long before the AI converges on a game breaking tactic that no one can beat. 

What SI is trying to do is keep the user and AI honest within the context of the match engine they've created. As the game evolves they'll evolve the engine like they've done with Pep's new tactics or the Raumdeuter 10-15 years ago. You're never going to create a never before seen tactic in this game. Its just not designed to be a free for all simulator. Maybe one day in the future with enough data on player movements and patterns of play from real life they'll tell us to go hog wild. And I'd expect unbalanced/unrealistic tactics at that stage to be severely punished.

 

I don't think it necessarily matters whether the AI can make use of the changes or not. The AI doesn't make use of everything that the current tactics page provides either, it clearly just chooses from a list of preset tactics. There's no reason why having split offensive and defensive tactics would need to function any differently - give the AI a long enough list of options to choose from and they'll provide a decent competition.

As for "game-breaking" tactics, I don't really see any point in worrying about that. We shouldn't be avoiding making progress just in case somebody finds a tactic that's too strong. Even if somebody did - so what? It's mostly a single player game, there's no real competition or money on the line here, it doesn't matter if somebody finds a game breaking tactic as long as it's not *every* tactic or something the average player is likely to find. People who want to ruin the game for themselves already do by save scumming or using the editor, so an overpowered tactic to download really shouldn't be a big deal (especially since you can patch it out later anyway).

I get what you're saying about it not being a free for all simulator, I just think the game would be better if it was. I'm not necessarily saying that it's a bad update, it's just we've come so close to adding the ability to assign proper offensive/defensive cover but taken it out of the hands of the manager, which is a real shame.

[Kickballz]

13 minutes ago, Grez said:

I don't think it necessarily matters whether the AI can make use of the changes or not. The AI doesn't make use of everything that the current tactics page provides either, it clearly just chooses from a list of preset tactics. There's no reason why having split offensive and defensive tactics would need to function any differently - give the AI a long enough list of options to choose from and they'll provide a decent competition.

As for "game-breaking" tactics, I don't really see any point in worrying about that. We shouldn't be avoiding making progress just in case somebody finds a tactic that's too strong. Even if somebody did - so what? It's mostly a single player game, there's no real competition or money on the line here, it doesn't matter if somebody finds a game breaking tactic as long as it's not *every* tactic or something the average player is likely to find. People who want to ruin the game for themselves already do by save scumming or using the editor, so an overpowered tactic to download really shouldn't be a big deal (especially since you can patch it out later anyway).

I get what you're saying about it not being a free for all simulator, I just think the game would be better if it was. I'm not necessarily saying that it's a bad update, it's just we've come so close to adding the ability to assign proper offensive/defensive cover but taken it out of the hands of the manager, which is a real shame.

You should try fm 2009 or fm 2010 to see how this kind of freedom is counter-productive.

Back then, it was all sliders and the same arguments were taking place. Only back then, people were arguing for a more relatable form of management, which is what we have now. There is no way that fm is going back to that kind of freedom simply because, as mentioned, it is impossible for the AI and too easy to create game-breaking tactics. It was actually an essential step forward for the simulation to limit the parameters.

 

[JamieTC13]

its a brilliant direction but the players still look like they'er ice skating 

[DarJ]

3 hours ago, Grez said:

There's no reason why having split offensive and defensive tactics would need to function any differently

One could make the argument that you already have that because of the movement you get from the roles but the problem like someone has already mentioned is that SI have to predict what monstrosity is users will create and have to make that make sense somehow.

I’m really curious to see the revamped set pieces today because we’re not going to get the “do whatever you want” like some people are expecting. It still has to be somehow rigid so people don’t exploit it.

[FourFiveOne]

Great job! However i still see goals being scored with the tip of the boot, which is quite unrealistic as most goals in real life are scored with the exterior inside of the boot, mostly with some degree of curling. Long shots on the other hand are scored with the outside front of the boot, and rarely with the tip (toes). I hope this will be improved for FM 25 to make it look much more realistic, aswell as the stadiums ofcourse including more sizes and variety in them

[ElJuanvito]

In the Libero/IFB goal clip, what roles are Walker and Gvardiol on? IFBs both?

[Jack Sarahs]

5 hours ago, ElJuanvito said:

In the Libero/IFB goal clip, what roles are Walker and Gvardiol on? IFBs both?

Yes they are both Inverted Full-backs. 

[autohoratio]

4 minutes ago, Jack Sarahs said:

Yes they are both Inverted Full-backs. 

Will the Libero function the same as a CD/BPD out of possession, or will it still drop slightly deeper to fulfill the sweeper duties?

[Iggy Hassan]

I think a lot of us, myself included, were worried about FM24 just being a stepping stone to the big FM25 extravaganza. Merely becoming a slight inprovement on FM23 with a few token upgrades. But basically, FM23.2

But it's just been so positive. Lots of exiting editions, loads of welcome early reveals and just much more communication. 

I think you would be hard pressed to find a community of loyal gamers that span over 40 years who have grown up with & love this game in it's different guises. 

I can't wait... Plus I'm really glad my favourite wonderkid, Martin Baturina hasn't left Dinomo Zagreb so I can still sign him. I wept real tears when Fabricio Diaz left for Qatar..

As for tactics, well I'm sure @knap will find a way around it 

Edited October 1, 2023 by Iggy Hassan