Football Manager 26 feels like a split personality. On one side, it features the most tactically rewarding match engine the series has ever had. On the other hand, the redesigned UI turns basic management tasks into a frustrating scavenger hunt. It’s a strange contradiction: the better FM26 feels on the pitch, the worse it feels everywhere else.
Football Manager 26 Review
What I Like
FM26‘s biggest triumph is its tactical evolution. The introduction of in-possession and out-of-possession tactical slates is a legit gamechanger, allowing you to build systems that feel creative, expressive, and purposeful. Constructing a setup feels like painting — adjusting pressing triggers, possession shapes, and player movement until everything clicks. For the first time in years, success in the game doesn’t feel dependent on the comically overpowered gegenpress meta. Patient buildup, low blocks, and possession-heavy shapes all feel viable, especially in lower divisions.
The new graphics engine only enhances that. The new Unity-powered visuals are the best the series has ever had. Animations are smoother, players make more believable runs, and the action simply looks better. It’s still outdated visually compared to modern sports games, but for a management sim, it’s a massive step forward. Watching matches play out is genuinely fun again.
Even the removal of touchline shouts — something I initially hated — ended up improving the experience for me personally. Instead of spamming “Encourage” every ten in-game minutes, I’m actually making mid-match adjustments. Small tactical tweaks matter. In my Vicenza save, I had a match where we dominated possession but couldn’t create a clear chance against a low block. A slight positional shift and enabling “Pass Into Space” completely changed the match. Instead of defaulting to the initial plan and just hitting some shout to let my players know I had their back (as if they needed that reminder), I was compelled to actually do something.
In that way, FM26 feels like it rewards smart, hands-on coaching more than any entry before it.
What I Don’t Like
Unfortunately, you have to fight the game to reach the fun parts.
The new UI is clunky, unintuitive, and packed with bizarre design choices. It’s more responsive and less buggy now than it was in the beta, but it still feels like a chore to navigate. Scouting reports, transfer activity, and club news feel more hidden than ever. Instead of feeling immersed in a dynamic football world, the UI makes everything feel distant and disconnected.
Even after multiple beta hotfixes and a “Day One” patch (which wasn’t even released upon full launch), core quality-of-life features feel incomplete. Importing custom training schedules barely works, even when you’ve managed to successfully load them. Second and third-round pep talks during substitution windows never trigger. And with mod support limited early on, the community can’t even fix the problems themselves.
The real issue is that Football Manager has always been a game played mostly inside menus. When the menus fight you, it affects everything — planning transfers, player development, scouting new talent, even reading news about your own club. FM26’s UI actively reduces the joy of managing.
The Bottom Line
So is FM26 worth recommending? That’s tricky. On the pitch, it’s the most innovative and rewarding Football Manager to date. Off the pitch, it’s weighed down by frustrating decisions that make basic tasks feel like busywork. I’m having fun — especially during matches — but every step forward is paired with a baffling step backward, if not three.
Football Manager 26 could have been the huge leap fans wanted. Instead, it’s a brilliant tactical sandbox trapped inside a messy interface. It improves the heart of the series, but weakens the body around it. The match engine is fantastic. The tactics are the best they’ve ever been. But the game surrounding them makes it hard to fully enjoy.
