Football Manager 2023 is a football management simulation video game wherein you can aid and train a football team aspiring to win in the big leagues. Developed by Sports Interactive, this sports simulator is an interactive football game with more administrative-centric gameplay.

As a follow-up to Football Manager 2022, Football Manager 2023 is part of the popular football manager franchise and still retains its much-loved features. For this installment, there’s more focus on immersive league matches, a revamped recruitment system, match tactics, and fostering a closer relationship with your team’s fans. This PC version has a free demo available.

Some new mechanics to get used to

Football Manager is a series of football management simulation video games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. Unlike titles such as FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, FM is all about handling the more tedious but eventually rewarding aspects of the sport, which is managing the recruitment, training, marketing, and matches of your chosen team. Over the years, it developed its mainstay gameplay features and experimented with new ones.

In Football Manager 2023, there are five main improvements. The recruitment mechanic has been revamped—allowing you to plan your squads ahead of the seasons, give more specific player requirements to your AI scouts, and compromise with agents. The match AIs and animations have more strategies to display. New tournaments like the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Europa Conference League have been licensed, too.

As a manager, you can now also become closer to your team’s fan base using the Supporter Confidence system. Lastly, you can relive your journey as a manager through the Dynamic Manager Timeline—which records achievements that you and your team reached. However, compared to the previous games, this installment still missed some crucial improvements. The biggest offender is the fact that the international management mechanic remains basic and bland.

Still has the potential to grow

All in all, Football Manager 2023 is a nice football management game to try out if you’re interested in this simulation subgenre, but it doesn’t have everything that can make it highly realistic and much more enjoyable. It has new features that give it a more immersive experience for players, but old fans of the series find it lackluster when compared to previous titles.