Football Manager 2019 New Features we'd like to see

Hello everyone and welcome to the FM19 wishlist article. Naturally many of us FM fans are starting to eagerly await the next episode in the Football Manager series.

We asked our followers on Facebook and Twitter in what ways FM 2019 can be better than FM18. We received hundreds of comments, and in this article I present you with some of the most interesting.

It's always interesting to know what the community wants and expects from the next iteration in the series, and to find out how these ideas will match the new features that make it in the new game.

Pre-purchase FM19 from FM Scout Start playing 2 weeks earlier with early beta access, and get FM Touch 2019 for PC/Mac (worth £21.99) as a gift!

FM19 Facts

The people at Sports Interactive use their official forums to collect feature requests and evaluate them for inclusion on the next FM.

The production cycle for Football Manager 2019 has actually started months ago. This year Sports Interactive didn't even have feature meetings like they usually do every year during January and February.



Why? They've had roughly 5,000 approved features from previous years. Miles Jacobson chose to work with the pool of ideas that seems to remain full. That's not a negative thing though.

As always, the FM19 release date should be sometime between late October and early November.

FM19 to debut in German market

FM 2019 will be on sale in Germany for the first time with German language as Sega agreed licensing with Bundesliga.

German fans will be really looking forward to this release.

---

Are you still playing FM 2018 with passion or has it gotten stale for you by now?

Be sure to like the dedicated Football Manager 2019 page we created on Facebook to stay tuned with the latest news and discussion as it happens.

Now, let’s get underway with your own feature requests!

Football Manager 2019 Features Wishlist

5 Most requested

• Revamp the training module
  
• More realistic transfer AI
  
• Expand tactics with clear attacking and defending phases (with and without the ball)
  
• Chairman / own a club mode
  
• Add women football
  

Match Day

VAR. It was utilized successfully in the recent World Cup. And apparently refs make mistakes even in FM.

Be able to influence referee during the match with your protests (with tone and options similar to other interactions or shouts) and in exchange getting the risk of receiving cards or being removed from game immediately, not having consequences only after match.

Opposition managers should rotate or substitute in a more smart way and not have idle or overused players to the point of injury.

Add a skip / get out of match button.

Improved interaction with the subs, i.e. tell them to warm up either because you actually intend on bringing them on or because you need to push a player that's currently playing to try harder.

Include touchline shouts as something that can be cancelled when a goal is scored, like we now have with tactical changes. Demanding more of your players when you pull a goal back or get an equalizer is likely to be confusing.

Vastly reduced number of shot hitting woodwork.

Be able to ask your assistant to give individual touchline instructions to players.

Have pre / post match reaction from pundits.

Goalkeepers are (still) flopping excessively, even world class ones. Fix that.

Youth

Provide an option to hide potential. It’s unrealistic to look at your youth team and know which players will make it and which won’t. In real life youth player potential is judged on their current ability and mentality. Would make stocking up on youth more of a lottery like it is in real life.

An expansion on youth recruitment when the current player database gets replaced some youth tournaments or local matches to scout would be great.

Being able to build youth academies around the world and be able to invite the better players to trial with your youth teams.

Transfers & Contracts

More realistic transfers. Timeless problem, I know. But I'm not going to sell my captain for exactly his value but then be expected to pay £30 million over someone else's value.

Free agents shouldn't retire so fast! The players should not end their careers so quickly when they are free and have problems looking for a new club to continue their paths - in reality, they would rather consider playing in a smaller team for a while.

Have the ability to suggest which positions the DoF should look to sign. It seems pointless at times to have a Director of Football who keeps signing several players in the same positions.

When you disable first transfer window, it should also disable free transfers and loan deals in this period.

Have the ability to talk to players that have no interest in joining to try and change their mind on joining the club.

Add a clause in a transfer offer where a player can be made unavailable for selection once the offer has been accepted.

Be able to take a break in contract negotiations for a day or two. Negotiations are never done in one session, taking a break could be good instead of a contract being straight up rejected. Could be used by the manager (us), the footballer, the agent even as a tactic. Like if I try to low-ball a player, instead of just rejecting they could say something like "let's revisit these discussions in a few days when you decide to be serious" just to add a bit of realism.

Remove relationships with agents. How many times did you feel after being in a save for some time (at least 5-6 years) that every agent dislikes you. That screws up all your contract talks with the players and really makes no sense.

Set budget limits for DOF negotiations. Make it possible for players to go to DOF and be given the option for each player as to what you are will to pay per week for the DOF to work with.

Make it easier to sell players on the first transfer window.

Tactics

Different kind of approach in defending and in attacking. For example I want everyone to be involved in attacking, but not in defending, because then I screw up my counter attacking opportunities. Structured and fluid approaches should be separated to two halves of the pitch. Maybe you could use different formations when the team is attacking and when the team is defending.

Be able to set different team instructions or even formations with and without the ball. Lots of teams attack using a different formation than defending and this should be implemented.

Rework the set pieces module.

• There are very few options for defensive set pieces and also we should choose player roles individually and not by positions.
  
• Make set pieces more detailed and / or specific too. Or maybe more positions. I'd like to have a 3 passes or 2 passes before cross option for corners, etc.
  
• Like you could train certain movements, maybe invent a new one on the training ground and maybe you could simulate it and try again and again.
  

Introduce a series of 'scenarios' in the tactical options. For example, I use wing backs and when one goes on the attack, I want the other to stay in defence and we go to a back 3. I know I can simply set one to attack and one to defend, but I want to be able to attack down either flank.

Introduce a new system of instructions to the team, let’s call it "studied plays", that could be implemented in the game as something similar to set pieces. For example, by controlling the movement of the players, when to pass, where to cross. That could help the players of FM feeling they have more and more control of the game.

Make player position swapping simple like in FM15. Not buried under layers of instructions.

Interactions

When a player asks for a transfer give me the option to tell the players they asked for a transfer when they ask why I let the player leave.

Being able to praise full back / wing back for creating chances.

Change reactions on the expectations at the start of the season. If you’re telling your team you want them to fight to succeed they shouldn’t hold It against you.

Correct some absurd results, product of options and effects being too predetermined and unreal. Guys protesting when things have improved or prices going incredibly high is not realistic.

Conversation tone should be removed; I don’t see any difference between speaking calmly or assertively.

Talk to players / managers outside your club (future transfer, influence him).

Better answers when having a conversation with your player, board etc. Emotions in the game should be drastically changed. How many times have you felt you don't have the right option to say.

Better chat with the players when you try to sign them. Advise them of your vision in taking the club forward.

Be able to initiate conversation with a player when ever not just during periods of form or discipline or asking if they want a player bought, just even a quick chat to build relationship.

Having multiple squad players moan every 2-3 months for unreasonable issues becomes monotonous after a while and feels like a chore.

Less players pissed off when you make a compliment to them.

Fix ongoing issue of players asking to move to a more successful club when you have just won every competition at top level!

The player happiness needs to be more realistic. Backup keepers are backup keepers; Rob Green wouldn’t complain he’s not playing at Chelsea.

Training

Watch your players train to an extent on the training ground, seeing who has improved and worked hard. Also get their opinion on how they think they’ve been doing in recent sessions along with the coaches’ personal opinion.

Sort out the training load. If you have 2 coaches sharing training responsibilities along with the assistant and the manager, the training load is always heavy.

Add a tab in the training menu where you can see the 11 best trained players the last week in every position on your tactic and then you could choose to pick from that.

Training ground games. Option to play friendly matches on the training ground behind closed doors.

A training system with sessions should be introduced. For example 5 mins warm up, 45 mins working on tactics, 30 mins defending and small match at the end, this will help prepare the team in a better way.

Possible new staff role of sports psychologist to incorporate more realistic, improvable mental attributes.

Individual training: Allow skills to be trained in groups without choosing a role or position. Let's say I want to train strength, corners and flair. Maybe this can also reduce the difficulty or workload from individual training in an according percentage.

The potential should be relative; if a player does good in training, then potential should go up. Or if he’s injured for a long period than potential should go down. But I think the key for potential should be training sessions.

A new entry under player's coach report stating ease of being trained to a new position for every non-natural positions (similar to the position pitch map). Coaches should be able to judge versatility that way.

Manager

Be able to do something with the wage you get paid; really a pointless thing in the game at the moment negotiating a contract with a club just for leaderboard points. An acceptable way of utilizing your manager wages could be investing them into coaching courses when the club turns down your request.

Be able to manage U23/U19 teams for all clubs rather than just internationals. Reserve team to first team management is a reasonably well-trodden path.

Add more of a backstory for your manager; who did they play for, when did they retire (a few years ago or just retired), has the manager gone up through their starting teams management structure (youth and reserve) before getting the job. That could change how players and press initially react to you as they know you already. A negative could be youth players expecting more game time.

Be able to be a real manager, like for example Guardiola or Zidane.

Be able to add a favorite club during your career. After managing a club for ten years you should have the option to add as a favorite one.

Force retirement when you get over 74 in the game, as you can manage forever.

Introduce the interim manager role in AI clubs.

Newgens

Possibility to choose the amount of newgens. As I never play more than a 10-12 seasons per the edition, I like to play using only real footballers and I really don't need like a bazillion of players generated by the game, making my database as big as galaxy far, far away and slowly killing my processor.

Add a search filter which would allow to screen out the newgens when looking for new players.

National Teams

Fix the recuperation period. If you are a national team manager, it’s impossible to field a squad that is even half decent fit for a second game.

No "chosen nationality" when a player hasn't played a single game in the senior national team of any country! Lots of footballers hold a dual or even triple nationality and in reality they often chose a different one than you set it up in the game. For example, you can expect that an English player with Carribean roots with CA/PA hovering around 100 would never be called up to play for England, but he would probably agree to play for Antigua, Barbados or other smaller team if asked to.

If the national team is supposed to participate in two tournaments at the same time, it should be manager's decision to choose which tournament will be played by the main team and which by Team B.

It should be made easier to play international friendlies on the date which is not included in official FIFA calendar. It is quite common that national teams play some games in winter to check out if some young talents or players from domestic leagues are ready to compete in more important matches.

Introduce training at national teams.

Players not getting ridiculously tired during knockout phase of international tournaments when they have as much of a break in between games as they do in the regular season.

Fixtures

Pick date for a match reschedule. If the match is postponed, the manager should be allowed to chose the new date in the calendar. If you, for example, play in lower English leagues and are doing well in the domestic cups, the last weeks of the season are a nightmare as you have to play all the postponed games almost day by day.

Choose how to travel to away matches (bus, train, flight). It’s a matter of economy and how it affects the players.

Get invited to join international friendly tournaments overseas for money.

Finances

Be able to make a request to the board to look at sponsorship deals they don't already have; e.g. stadium sponsorship, or stand sponsorship.

Prize money should increase every 3 or 5 years; TV money should be the same.

New board request: Speed up debt repayment. Should definitely be possible if you have a bank balance in the several millions.

A separate budget for staff members. I’m fed up arguing with the board about how many coaches I want. It shouldn’t be about numbers, but about how many you can get in on your budget.

Be able to choose which sponsor we will work with for the new season.

Seek sponsors for a pre-season tour, more likely to happen the higher reputation they have.

User Interface

Make instant result button default in regular FM edition as well.

Revamp media further. After a season having read every news outlet once, it's just the same story over and over again.

Winning a league or a cup is a big deal, so make it a big deal.

Career stats section to show all appearances in competitive matches, not just domestic league games.

Make the cup draw system more appealing, instead of just the teams appearing.

Improve the in-game tutorials to provide better understanding for newcomers.

Get rid of useless “features” nobody’s really using as they offer no value.

Bring back the regen faces from FM17. They didn’t change skin colour every time you loaded back your save, and there were custom hairstyle packs to enhance them.

In network game, when one person changes the menu layout it changes it in the other players too. Fix that.

Various

Women’s football.

New mode: Create a new club from scratch. Not change the name of an existing club and take over the list.

Some players could be convinced to return from retirement.

Add an eSports section with information on upcoming tournaments.

Players not show up for pre season. And have occasional things out your hands like a player shown in a club at 3am before a big game.

New mode (or DLC): Nostalgia. Choose between certain eras and play in the past.

Brexit realism. Until we fully know how, if at all, it will affect the English leagues, it shouldn't be implemented to the game.

The role of chairman should be changed to match what it is in real life. For a lot of clubs, chairmen are very active in the decision making for the playing & backroom staff, and I would like to see them becoming a bigger feature.

New staff role: Sports Nutritionist, to help with recovery from games.

Opportunity to encourage squad to do extracurricular activities, such as visiting kids in hospitals (media / fan base impact).

Let players grow in height and weight. Weight should be check every pre-season period like in reality.

Stadium designer: Design your own stadium and seats and see it in game.

Improve the scouting module. Or revamp it even.

Be able to use editor data files on touch mode / edition.

Add set piece attribute to coaches. For more effective training to corners and free kick taking.

The league rules should change over the course of the game - or at least you should add the feature to change them in the in-game editor. It's another feature that would make the game closer to reality.

Mobile

Add half time and full time team talks. No need to have any tone option.

Keep adding more players and leagues.

Add 3D match viewer. Possibly as an optional feature for devices powerful enough to handle it.

Be able to play with friends online. That could lead to many more hours of gameplay.

---

That sums up all interesting suggestions people posted in our forums and our social profiles. I tried to organize everything into categories, but please keep in the mind the order is random and not optimal.

If you have any suggestions you don't see here, feel free to comment either on this page or on the relevant forum topic.

A big “thank you” to everyone who contributed to this list, I hope we can join forces for another FM cause soon!

Pre-purchase FM19 from fmscout.com to enjoy early access to the Beta version by mid-late October, a free copy of FM Touch 2019 for PC/Mac (also with early Beta access), a unique buyer badge on our site, and our gratitude for supporting our community financially.