The Football Manager series has come a long way since its inception. Originally released in 1992 as Championship Manager under Eidos Interactive, Football Manager has since evolved into its own identity since its transfer to Sega in 2005. With each successive release, developers Sports Interactive continue to improve upon the previous games in the series until it has become the triumphant line of games it has become today. Football Manager 2019 is another addition to this great line. Can it surpass the quality of previous Football Manager games, and does it set a high bar for the succeeding games in the series?

Classic Football Manager 

The Football Manager series, in a nutshell, is a management video game where the player’s goal is to lead their chosen team to victory by overseeing every aspect of their training. Players will be able to choose who goes on the team, who trains for what position and with which coach, and the tactics that will be used on the field. When match day arrives, players must put all of their tactics and training to the test. As it is in real life, all these factors will be critical in order to achieve victory for the team. Football Manager 2019 doesn’t change any element of the original Football Manager series that worked. The general gameplay of the series is pretty enjoyable, especially if you fancy micro-managing. 

Innovation and Improvements

Though the management gameplay is enjoyable, match day itself tends to be quite annoying since the AI of the game in previous releases tend to behave erratically. Football Manager 2019 overhauled its entire system and now provide much more accurate matches. It’s also great that the game can be viewed in both 2D and 3D. Obviously, if your machine can’t handle the 3D graphics, switch to 2D as this game is prone to a bit of lagging.

Other improvements include additional tactical formations with helpful information included. Football Manager 2009 also has a more in-depth training system that provides players with more flexibility when it comes to assigning coaches and training regimes.

Issues and Concerns

The biggest concern with Football Manager 2019 is its design aesthetic. The color scheme they chose for this game is extremely unappealing. The base color is a rich purple and it’s accentuated by a deep red. There are also smatterings of green and yellow that just didn’t blend well with the color scheme. The UI is also not pleasing. It’s very crowded and cluttered. A lot of text is being been crammed on the screen, and it ends making the text too small to read. Other than the design, though, there’s no major issue with this game. 

A Satisfying Football Manager Game

There’s definitely room for improvement in Football Manager 2019, especially when it comes to the design choices. However, all in all, this is a stable release that will satisfy any fan of the Football Manager series. The classic mechanics are still there for old players to enjoy, and in some cases, a lot of them had even been improved upon. Still, the next games in the series won’t have any problems surpassing this one if they really want to.