Football Manager 2015: 7 significant improvements in the game

Football Manager 2015 video game released last month and was an instant hit among football manager lovers. The game mostly received positive reviews, even though many criticized for its match engine.They weren’t happy about the defensive blunders in this new game, which were more than what they experienced in Football Manager 2014. But, the game developers showed no signs of complacency, as this game boasts the best features and developments to date in the entire Football Manager series. Miles Jacobson, Director of Football Manager 15 said, “Football management is a multi-faceted role nowadays and many of the new features in FM15 reflect this. Whether a manager wants to be old school, or a head coach, they can now dictate this from the very start of their managerial career – and improve their skills throughout by taking virtual coaching badges.”The management, scouting, tactics, interactions and user interface have been revamped in the new installment of the long-running FM series. This latest release in the best-selling series features more improvements and enhancements over its predecessors, many of which have been designed to make the experience of managing a club more personal and customizable.This game brings us the true word of Football Manager. Listed below are the best improvements made in this FM 2015 game over its predecessors.

#1 User Interface

The User Interface is refreshing and looks new when compared to the entire series. Long gone are the drop down boxes. Everything is there from Squad list to Training to Scouting to Finances, all in one sidebar. The game developers have completely redesigned the interface, making things much easier and quicker.

The horizontal sidebar consists of all the main pages to navigate. If you want Staff related queries just click the Staff in the sidebar, the right side of the window opens the Staff list, and a tab above helps us navigate to Backroom advices, Responsibilities, Staff Search, Job Centre and Job Security.

This just makes us easier to hire and fire staff by just moving from tabs. The Schedule page in the sidebar provides us Calendars, Events, Remainders, Senior Fixtures, U21 and U18 fixtures under one roof.

This is the major improvement in the entire FM series. All we need to do are just in the screen’s sidebar. Easy and Best.

#2 Improved Scouting and Searching

The second major improvement in the game is the Scouting system, which has been remodelled and updated.

Also, searching for the players, clubs or staffs has been made easier by the new search bar, which is present at the top of the game's UI, functions like internet browser bars –simply start typing into it to search, and suggestions will begin to appear. It's supposed to work faster and more intelligently than the previous installment, which has turned out as a much-needed improvement from its predecessors.

The scouting options are improved. including the ability to filter only by players you have scouted before, those unhappy at their clubs, and players who will satisfy your homegrown requirements.

The scout reports have also been replaced with a new look, pro and con section, to give better insight about the player who is being scouted.

#3 Type of manager

After choosing the countries and leagues to play with and creating your profile, comes a new page where you have to choose the type of manager you want to be in the game. You can either choose to be a Tracksuit Manager or Tactical Manager.

The former means that the managers work with the players in the training ground, helping them improve their skills and the latter implies that the managers will work more with the players off the pitch.

The attributes change accordingly with the Coaching Badges and Past Playing Experiences section. You have to choose the appropriate badge and the playing experience, and there are two checkboxes below each section, stating, Suggest Badge based on (the club you chose) and Suggest Experience based on (the club you chose).

By clicking any one of these checkboxes, it automatically displays the experience or coaching badges and the attributes increases.

#4 Promises

A new tab on the top bar will track the promises you've made to the players and the board, including the relevant details and timeframe. Players often issue smaller requests that might agree to and forget about, but the promises page saves all the minor or major promises made to the players or club officials in a single page.

Players often interact with you regarding what happened to the promise you made to them. They can even track it in the promises section.

This is a welcome addition and major improvement in the game. In the previous games, we might make some promises to our star players and forget it soon. If we didn’t do as said in the promise, the players, morale start to decrease and the player give us a transfer request soon.

But, with this new Promises feature, we can track every promise and fulfill it without any problem.

#5 3D Match Engine

Even though many criticize about this game’s match engine, it is really good at certain areas compared to previous games. For instance, new animations (nearly 2000 animations have been added) – that includes real motion capture – have been added to make the simulations more realistic and the developers say these changes are the biggest in years.

The players, weather, lighting, fans, the stands and the stadiums have all been improved.

This is the first time in the game’s history, where the hand crafted animations have been removed and replaced with actions recorded by AFC Wimbledon at state of the art motion sensor locations.

The players look more realistic and will react more naturally to all situations. New skill move animations have also been added to this engine.

#6 Tactical formations

The tactical formations have undergone major improvements from the last year’s game. Player roles have been given an extra importance with more flexible tactical formations employed this year.

Four new player roles have been added: Roaming midfielders, Inverted wing backs, Creative wide players and wingers can play as 'Raumdeuter', means a space investigator in German.

If you look at the picture above, the left side in the tactic screen shows different colours for different positions, Brown for Goalkeeper, Blue for defenders, Light Grey for Defensive midfielders, Dark Grey for central midfielders, attacking midfielders and wingers, finally Purple for the strikers. When we click each position, we can choose the role and duty of the players.

In the Players column, a drop down arrow is present on the side, by clicking it, we can choose the next best player for that particular position. For example, when you click on one of the arrows next to the defenders name, the best players who play in that position list appears, helping us to choose the best player for the position. The players average rating and condition also appears.

These flexible tactical formations are a major improvement to this game.

#7 Finance Management

The Financial Fair Play regulations have become an increasingly important aspect of football club operations. The game developers have made it easier to manage your accounts in the game.

These FFP regulations, including wage restrictions that will be discussed with managers in their initial meeting with the board. The mangers will be able to plan ahead for the upcoming season as the budgets is set earlier in the year.

In addition to this, the expiring contracts is also taken into account, so it will be clearer how much cash you will have to spend in the next season.