FM 2014: Five desired improvements

Football Manager has firmly established itself as the top Football Strategy game in the world. Beating competition in the form of FIFA Manager, FM has been the sole ruler since the past half a decade.

It is understood that the upcoming FM 2014 will be a whole new ball game and will be very different from the current engine of FM 2013. Wholesome changes have been made to make the line between real and virtual world disappear.

Here are a few improvements from FM 2013 that the players are hoping to see in FM 2014:

Press Conferences

One of the most important off-field aspects of modern day football are press conferences. However, the pressers have been lacking in the previous versions of the game.

Instead of the one customary question that the users are asked prior to every important match, it will be better if there are full-fledged press conferences with more than one journalist and varied questions which can affect the morale of the team, instead of the one answer the users get accustomed to after playing about three big matches in the game.

This way, the developers can also introduce a complex morale system where some of the players are positively affected by the comments, while others are affected negatively.

This will also give them a chance to develop the press, who can hold the manager at gun-point by asking them controversial questions based on their previous answers.

Also, these pressers can be used by the managers to their benefit and could also spark a war of words with other managers.

Graphic tactic support

The Football Manager series is widely known for its in-depth tactical analysis. However, there are a lot of minor issues with it. First being the lag that takes place after you make a tactical change and the time it takes to apply it.

Then, there should be more combinations which we can apply during the match. We should be able to demarcate the specific runs of the players in a graphic format, so that things go exactly as the manager plans.

One should also be able to decide the direction of the passes in a more detailed way rather than just the current options of ‘Down the Flanks’, ‘Mixed’ and more. One should be able to demarcate passes according to specific players, again, graphically.

Even though the current amount of tactics is enough for a normal football fan, there should be something special for the ‘control freaks’ amongst us.

Quicker Simulation

Probably the biggest pain in FM 2013 is to wait while non-relevant matches across the leagues get processed.

Simulation, in FM 2013, is slow and it should be dealt with immediately. Especially in case of the matches that are irrelevant to the user’s team.

A quicker simulation will only help with the overall experience of the game as you can browse through the results and set your team accordingly and prepare for the next match.

Agents being ‘agents’

Agents do a very good job when it comes to ripping us of money in the game. However, their role is only limited to negotiations.

It will be much better if they started acting like the real agents and started promoting their players by spamming our inbox.

They can advertise their players and inform us about the availability of the same. They can also give us under-the-table offers where they can get us players on the cheap if we pay them a higher sum.

Also, it could be used by the managers to do the same, just the other way around.

Directors of Football

Director of Football is a prestigious position in a modern day football club. However, their role in the game is minimal.

It would be much better if these Directors started acting like the same and made decisions hard for us. They could have gone ahead and signed players against our will and force us to play them at the risk of losing our jobs.

Good results produced by you should not be the only thing that keeps you in job, it should also be based upon your relationship with the owners and the Director of Football.

One should also get in regular talks with these important people in order to keep them pleased. All of this, will only add to the game and will help erase the line between real and virtual football world.