The Best New Features in Football Manager 2023 Groups

[David76]

Football Manager 2023 didn't need a revolutionary upgrade from FM22, because any new features outside the core functions are enjoyable side dishes but won't come close to the classic main course.

However, there are some tweaks that will cause some discussion among fans…

NEW FEATURES

The squad planner tool is arguably the game's best new feature. It allows you to look at the profile of your squad for the next three seasons and make decisions about when you need to replace players.

This is particularly useful if you're managing a team you have no prior knowledge of. It's a massive time saver to have, in one place, your players' potential, age, wage and estimated transfer value.

Another useful feature is being able to document when players will reach their potential. The season-by-season breakdown of how each player's predicted ability is expected to rise or decline is extremely useful. It means you can make better decisions about how to develop young players, when to send them out on loan and which ageing players you need to replace sooner rather than later.




Another way to help you build your squad is FM23's scouting system refresh. One of the new features is the "recruitment focus" section, which is essentially a simpler way to assign scouting missions.

Our suggestion is to always look for five-star players and make sure to use the transfer value feature, which can be found in the further details section, to ensure you only look for players you can actually afford.

If you're in charge of a club that could do with an entire squad revamp, it's worth making a note of the "any position from tactic" option when deciding which players you'd like to discover.




Being able to enjoy UEFA club competition licensed assets (such as the Champions League) is another small but enjoyable addition to the game. The change makes those competitions feel much more realistic — the pre-game Champions League line-up graphics also give you a reason to never skip the pre-match build-up again.

Most importantly, you'll also be able to hear the Champions League music in FM23, which makes things just a bit more special when you inevitably take a team from the National League to Europe's premium competition.

 

[David76]

TALKING POINTS

Everything about the in-game match experience remains pretty much the same. The touchline tablet features the same options, the team talks are similar, and the gameplay is almost identical to previous versions.

There are some minor additions, such as a momentum graphic that appears throughout the game with feedback about how your team are performing, and pop-up graphics to show when the opposition has made a substitution, but overall, it's largely the same experience as before.

FM23 also includes AI manager improvements, which means opposing managers are supposed to be smarter than ever before and more capable of making in-game tweaks.

On a purely visual level though, the in-game experience feels largely the same as what you saw in FM22, which is fine — I'm from an era when Championship Manager's moving dots were more than enough entertainment.





Regenerated avatars on Football Manager, until now, were often random creations. In FM23, you'll be able to make a regenerated version of your own face to use as your manager's avatar.

We tried this feature out on the beta version of the game using a picture of Lionel Messi. The process of adding the photo and selecting the points in a person's face that need to be replicated is easy enough. The one thing that looks odd here is that it captures a person's face but not their hairstyle.

Without the corresponding hairstyle — in this case, Messi's quiff — the face re-creation feature leads to some strange-looking avatars. On the plus side, you can now add accessories like a wedding ring or smartwatch to your manager's appearance.




FM23 features more statistics in its data hub, with at least 10 new data visualisations that will allow you to analyse player and team stats in more depth than before. Of those, expected assists, expected goals prevented and non-penalty xG are some of the more common stats.

There is a dynamic manager timeline, which documents each of your achievements, and there's a greater emphasis on the influence supporters have. The club vision tab now features a section for supporters' expectations, such as finishing above your nearest rivals. It also provides a breakdown of your club's supporter profile.

Those are the enjoyable accompaniments that make the overall experience more pleasant. But the main selling point of FM23 remains the same: addictive and thoroughly enjoyable spreadsheet management.