Before we get into the subject, I have to say that I have not played a Football Manager for many years. So my contact with this Touch version catches me practically new. What I have not stopped doing is in one version or another play to manage the interiors of my favorite football clubs, almost religiously year after year since that already archaic PC Soccer . Whether religiously waiting at the kiosk each year for the arrival of the new delivery in those years, either with the manager mode provided by the never sufficiently praised Sensible Soccer or as I have done in recent years with the club management mode provided by the saga FIFA, which even had an independent program until a few years ago.
The version am about analyse is the one that debuts in Switch, so in addition to the game itself we will check its behavior on a device much less powerful than a PC. The performance in this type of games is key, since the experience it offers depends directly on the technical behavior and the speed in passing from one section to another. It would be useless to have the most complete and balanced game if we later spend half our life waiting from one menu to another.
One of the first aspects that attracts attention in the game is the lack of licenses. Something that in principle is a barrier, and although it might seem a minor evil, since all player names are real, and most teams are named after their city, even some - like Real Madrid - keeps the original , the fact that they do not have a license, and therefore with their shields, hinders the arrival of information at a first glance. When you see the leaderboard or the list of results, you have to, at least at the beginning of the game, read the names of each team given the impossibility of associating name and shield. It is true that it has some licenses, such as Series A and some loose Premier teams, but most major teams lack licensed representation.
Obviously, the first thing that defines the experience is the game interface. It should be noted that all my hours of play have been spent in portable mode, without connecting the console to the TV, and therefore in the worst of scenarios for a game in which you have to read a lot. It is true that the text is small, but it does not become annoying in any case. The use of buttons, using the small superiors to access the menus, the left crossarm to navigate those menus and the large superiors to move forward or backward from one menu to another manage to give a compact sensation and that the game is not a simple one copy-paste for Switch, leaving it clear that this version has been worked on specifically. Amen that you can also access everything through the touch screen, which will facilitate the task on many occasions.
Regarding the content of the game we will not miss anything. The first of the menus takes us to the home screen, from where we can manage our profile. Check the level of satisfaction of our club with us or look for a new job if it is the case that we want to change the air. From here we can request a new job in a club or selection of those that appear, although it depends on the level that we have given previously they will attend or they will deny our request.
The club that we work for will contact us through a mailbox from which we will have direct access to the event indicated to us by message, and from there our real work begins.
The first thing we need to do is to get to know the staff, the club's employees and decide on the most suitable tactics to face the majority of the matches. One recommendation is that you have assistants of the highest quality that the club can afford, since the analyzes that these make of both our staff and the rivals depends to a great extent on our success.
In the tactical section everything is very visual and very simple. We can choose a scheme from the wide list that is presented to us, perhaps listening to the recommendations of our second coach, and from there build the team. One of the characteristics of this section is that we will see quickly on the field which areas are stronger and which are weaker. There is no need to comment that placing your players in their ideal position will give us more chances of success, but what will You have to know is that the same player can play different roles within the same position.
For example, a center can play as a conservative defense or defense with touch, each with its own characteristics, and within each of these options you can choose to be a player who goes up more to the attack, who tries to go out with the ball played or that takes the ball off at the slightest hint of problems.
Spending time studying your template and adapting the scheme to the players you have is a guarantee of success. In addition, from this section you can see the areas in which your team weakens and remedy in the transfer market, which we will talk about later.
From the tactics section you can get an idea of what you will find on the pitch, from the team report section to everything related to the cub. With a particularly useful section from where to see at a glance the weaknesses and strengths of your team. A valuable tool that should be reviewed from time to time to prevent future problems. In addition, from this same section you can see at a glance the depth of the template, which will help you a lot with planning.
But if tactics and planning are key to sporting success, the very basis of this is training. Perhaps the most complex section and that most headaches of us, although there is always the option to delegate to the second coach. If we decide to put our own feet in the mud, the options are the most varied. Divided into two sections, individual or collective training, we will be able to improve the players or areas that we consider convenient ... or finish with all of them injured.
And is that the management of fatigue is another point where we should pay more attention. Read the emails where our physical trainers warn us and above all be attentive to the level of fatigue of each player before games is key. Here the rotations come into play. Manage them properly is a must, and that makes a big difference with other football management games. Injuries will be our most frequent headache throughout the season, and avoiding them as much as possible is our duty.
But the control we have over our club does not end in the sporting section. From the club section we have access to a large number of reports that will tell us what the board and the fans think of us, in all aspects. If they are happy or excited about a new signing, if that sale we have made seems like a good operation, their opinion on each game individually ... a huge amount of data that in a very visual way and without overwhelming us serves as a tool for the development of our work. In addition, we also have access to the economic section of the club, from where we can control the finances adjusting budgets for cards and signings according to our needs. At the time we will also have to deal with sponsors to get a positive balance in our general budget.
A budget, which as you can imagine, will determine our position in the windows of signings, both to retain our stars and to make new additions. The new additions will almost always be suggestions from our assistants, who with their network of scouts and the instructions that we have given them previously will be presenting new players to incorporate our staff. It should be noted that we do not have to wait for that period to try to incorporate players into our ranks, since we can negotiate with their representatives at any time, but obviously they will not be incorporated until the next open period. In any case, it is an important help to not have to do everything at the last minute and in just a couple of months. Another option that has seemed important to us at the same time as curious, is the possibility of taking part in the last hours of the market. If we have left something to do, the last day of signings has a special treatment that will allow us to close maybe some operation that has remained in the inkwell.
This transfer market and the success we have in it will define the course of the season and will lead us to glory - or failure - match by match.
In the end here we have come to play, and everything we have done so far would not be worth anything if it is not put into practice on match day. All the tactics that we have tried and trained can be modified, both in the full pre-match menu - identical to the tactics menu - and during the match itself. The game takes place mostly in "text mode" where we see in real time the most important actions written on our interface, without losing sight of the fatigue of the players, who is injured and who receive cards. As the match time passes very fast, we can always pause the same with the simple push of a button (the upper right trigger in the case of Switch) and make our decisions more calmly.
From here, as from our tactics, we can decide what kind of match to face, from a defensive approach to a control game, going through a total attack or against the game. Adapt to what statistics and our assistants are telling us is one of the keys to victory. The options that we can modify go through absolutely all aspects of a football game. We can decide if we want the defense more advanced or less, if we prefer to load the game by the center of the field or give priority to the bands, the general aggressiveness of the team in addition to giving specific instructions to each player. The sense of control that Football Manager Touch offers in this sense is something that will not catch the players of the saga unprepared and that will hook the newcomers.
The intuitive and visual way by means of graphic menus to do all this is another of its outstanding virtues.
The visual aspect is left for the end because in this type of games is perhaps the least important of all. Although it could be tempting to leave it aside, both SEGA and Sports Interactive have taken care of this element, offering an image during match scenes that happen in real time that fit perfectly to what the game offers us. You can see how the orders you have given your guys have real effect on the ground, seeing how the team presses as you want and how the most skilled players look for the wall and uncheck many times making you forget that what you are seeing in your little one Screen is a simulation. The sound section is much weaker, although it does not have more incidence in the game, it is perhaps where there is more room for improvement.
Football Manager Touch comes to fill the gap in football management in the Nintendo console and becomes a must if you are a lover of the sport king. An overwhelming database and a number of options that leave nothing to chance make up the most complete game that can be found, not only in portable consoles. The complexity inherent to this type of games is something that in Football Manager Touch does not become a major impediment when it comes to taking your team to glory. It is an absolute pleasure to start with a small team, to get involved little by little, to improve the team month by month and thereby improve your reputation as a technician to access the most important club offers, or why not, to bring maximum to the team where you start. The realism that oozes and the feeling that you have influence in all aspects of the game is something that hooks from the first moment.
Happy Gaming!!!!
