Sports Interactive在一番深思熟虑之后，做出了一个艰难的决定，《足球经理 25》的发售日将会再度延期。

在与SEGA、授权商及合作伙伴的深入讨论之后，我们一致认为发售日延期到2025年3月是目前的最佳方案。各平台的具体发售日期将在确认之后公布。

在9月发布的《开发日志》中[www.bilibili.com]，我们说明了《足球经理 25》的原定发售日期将会延期，因为我们需要更多时间来继续打磨这款新时代《足球经理》系列的首部作品，力求为大家提供最佳的游戏体验。

截至目前为止，这段额外的开发时间仍不足以确保游戏的质量和体验能够达到玩家的预期和团队内部的高标准。

在之前的博客中，我们曾提到这段开发周期对工作室来说颇为艰难。尽管团队中的每个人都在以惊人的速度努力完成所有工作，许多进度仍比我们的预期更加缓慢。

正如近期许多评论所指出的一样，计划安排的相当紧迫，整个团队也急于推进项目，这可能会影响到我们一贯的高质量标准。虽然工作室里的所有人都满怀激情，致力于创造出最好的游戏，但这一情况给大家带来了巨大的压力。

《足球经理 25》是整个系列中在技术和视觉方面进步最大的一代作品。这是《足球经理》历史上的关键时刻，我们不能为了在11月仓促推出本作，而对产品质量做出妥协。

距离原定的发售日期还有7周时间，目前的进度未能达到我们的预期。秉持工作室的价值观，我们始终要考虑更多长远的目标，因此我们需要更多时间来推出一款能够令人引以为傲的游戏。

对于已经预购游戏的广大玩家，我们非常感谢大家的信任与支持。鉴于此次延期，如果您希望申请退款，请联系零售商。

各位也曾注意到我们在9月30日的公告中遗漏了有关PC与Mac平台的抢先体验权说明。目前可以确认游戏将在新的发售日之前提供抢先体验权。一旦我们确定了抢先体验权的具体日期，将会第一时间向大家公布消息。新的游戏玩法内容揭晓也将延期至2025年1月底。

我们深知这个消息会让大家倍感失望。我们对此有同样的感觉，并向各位深表歉意。

感谢您的耐心阅读。我们正在全力以赴地为《足球经理》创造一个崭新的时代，您的支持对我们意义重大。

在本次《足球经理25》开发更新日志的开头，我想在这里首先感谢阅读过6月份更新日志[链接]的玩家们。我们一直在关注玩家们的反应与社群的交流，并且期待能在《足球经理25》发布时回应玩家们的意见与建议。

在6月份的博客中，我提到了上周圆满结束的首届《足球经理》FIFAe世界杯。我非常荣幸能去利物浦，参加这场为期4天的精彩赛事的最后几天。我认为FIFAe这次做得非常出色，不论是整场赛事的制作、所有参与进来的制作者们，以及网络社群上的内容，所有一切都很棒。对我来说亲眼看到《足球经理》活跃在电竞领域是一件令人激动的事情。不管是亲自参加了本次活动的朋友，或是在网络上一直关注并观看了本次比赛的朋友，我衷心希望大家都能有相同的感受。让我们祝贺冠军，来自印度尼西亚的Ichsan Rahmat Taufiq和Budi Muhamad Manar。恭喜，这是一件非常了不起的成就！我们也要向来自德国的亚军，Sven Goly和Tery Whenett送上祝贺，他们在整场赛事中表现非常出色。本次参赛的20位经理全都非常出色，比赛水平高到令人难以置信，同时也显示出了《足球经理》玩家群体的全球化程度之高。对我个人而言，坐在观众席上听到主持人和评论员们谈起《足球经理》是SI团队付出毕生心血的作品等话题，真的非常令人心潮澎湃，甚至有一种在做梦的感觉。在接下来的几周时间，我们将和FIFAe团队一起评估并总结本次赛事。我希望我们可以从中总结出宝贵的经验和教训，并且评估未来的合作前景。

上次的6月份开发更新日志为大家带来了该系列的大致构想，在那之后我们也重新对一些曾提到过的问题进行了回顾。借此机会，我想向大家介绍一下我们在《足球经理25》开发方面做出的一些新决定，以及对未来几个月的日程安排做出的调整。

我们曾提到过将在9月初确定《足球经理25》的发售日期（同时开启预购），紧接着就是游戏玩法的发布阶段。

首先，我们不得不将《足球经理25》的正式发布时间推迟到9月底，随后会很快进入游戏玩法的测试调整阶段。因此游戏发售日期也随之发生变化，发售日期从以往的11月初调整至11月底。

《足球经理25》的开发周期对整个团队来说非常具有挑战性。我们曾预想过把整个游戏迁移至Unity引擎会是一件十分复杂的工作，但随着开发过程不断深入，在我们学习到了更多经验后，可以说一切都要比最初的设想更加复杂。开发团队在制作过程中遭遇了众多新的挑战，但他们的表现始终十分出色。我非常开心终于能够和大家分享一些艰辛工作带来的成果。不过在正式把作品带给大家前，我们还需要一点时间。

正如我在6月份的博客中所提到的，以下3个核心问题始终是我们负责的重点。
• 如果时间重来，我们是否还会采取同样的方式来制作？
• 我们还会从一开始就选择这样做吗？
• 在该系列进入新时代的首个周期内，我们是否有足够的时间可以制作出最高标准的品质？

过去的几个月里，在开发过程中遭遇的挑战迫使我们对游戏内容做出了另一个艰难的决定，“国家队管理”内容将不会成为《足球经理25》《足球经理25主机版》或《足球经理25 Touch》的可玩模式。

经历了一个夏天的足球锦标赛和本周的国际休赛期之后，我们审视了《足球经理》的国家队管理游戏内容，并确认本该加入游戏的内容未能达到最初的品质标准。

我们也参考了现有的游戏数据，数据表明仅5.6%的《足球经理2024》PC版存档曾使用过该模式。我们认为该数据恰好印证了上述的观点，我们需要将该模式的游玩体验提升到更高的水准。此外，使用过该模式的存档在主机版上占比更小。

因此在大幅推迟《足球经理25》的发布和暂停上述部分的工作之中，我们选择了后者，并且重新分配了资源给其他关键部分的内容。国家队管理将继续作为庞大足球模拟世界的一部分，保留在《足球经理25》《足球经理25主机版》和《足球经理25 触摸版》之中，只是无法进行游玩。

然而，国家队管理在《足球经理25移动版》中依然为可玩内容，因为移动版的开发方式与代码库和其他版本不同。2026年是令人兴奋的一年，世界杯将会扩充至48支队伍，而国家队管理也将会带着更加丰富的功能和体验回归到《足球经理26》《足球经理26主机版》和《足球经理26 触摸版》。另外需要声明的是，国家队管理将会作为基础游戏内容的一部分回归，而不是以任何形式的额外下载内容（DLC）回归。

虽然这是一个十分艰难的决定，但也是为了保证游戏品质以及大多数玩家的体验。作为第一款使用新引擎的游戏，我们决心在有限的游戏开发周期里把《足球经理25》打磨到尽可能完美。通过推迟《足球经理25》的发布，我们能够获得额外几周的开发时间，希望可以在新时代《足球经理》系列的首款作品里为大家尽力提供最佳的游戏体验。

最近几周，我本人也尝试腾出更多时间专注于开发工作，为更多团队提供帮助和支持。为游戏设计更大的规划和构想一直是我们工作室的核心价值之一，但当下最重要的工作无疑是专注于《足球经理25》的开发。我曾在6月份提到过我将会在巴塞罗那举行的Unite会议上发表讲话，虽然足球经理系列依旧会出现在会议现场，但我本人无法参与本次活动。目前我需要集中精力，指导《足球经理25》的开发工作是我现在的首要任务。这同时也是我无法参加今年东京电玩展的原因。我去年曾参加该展会，并且十分喜欢。该展会也对《足球经理》在日本的首次发布带来了帮助，让我们取得了巨大的成功。我还取消了我十分期待的美国之旅，因为对我来说这款游戏以及作为游戏玩家的大家才是最重要的。

当进入游戏发布阶段时，我十分期待与大家分享的内容之一就是我们在女子足球领域取得的成果。

大家也许已经知道女子足球始终是我们的长期项目。除了游戏迁移至Unity引擎之外，这也是近期最重大的一件事情。在整个项目过程中，我们一直专注于将女子足球以最真实的方式带入《足球经理》的世界。正如一直以来在设计和开发领域所坚持的那些理念一样，我们一如既往地将这份理念实际运用至手上所有的工作。从游戏玩法的角度来考虑，如何在同一个世界和体系下切换管理男子和女子足球俱乐部，并做到不产生割裂感是我们的首要任务。这让我们不得不慎重考虑如何塑造游戏的各个方面。

所以在这里我可以和大家分享一个《足球经理25》的小改动，游戏中的球员体重数据将被隐藏。

在制作女子球员数据库的过程中，我们发现女子球员的体重变化比男子球员更大。男子球员的体重每个月都会有一些变化，但女子球员的体重波动通常更大，每周都会发生一些变化。

如同我们在其他方面做出改动时一样，这项发现让我们重新审视了整个游戏系统，最终决定在《足球经理25》中不再显示任何球员的体重。在游戏引擎中依然存在一个基础的体重数据系统，但该系统的数据将不再显示在前端中。

我们还在6月份宣布过欢迎伦敦附近的足球经理俱乐部（FMFC）会员来到我们的工作场地，参与《足球经理25》的全新UI/UX试玩测试。我们收到了海量的反馈，在这里感谢每一位申请者，感谢他们愿意为《足球经理》提供自己宝贵的时间。游戏测试仍将举行，但由于上述日程安排的变化，开始日期会发生相应的小变动。在我们确认最终日程安排后，我们会立即与足球经理俱乐部（FMFC）的申请者们取得联系，通知最新的日程安排。

在《足球经理25》的更多游戏细节曝光之前，这应该是最后一次开发更新日志。我们还有很多令人兴奋的好内容向大家展示。在此我想重申：《足球经理25》是游戏系列进入新时代的首款作品，它将为我们带来比以前更多的可能性。

在这个令人兴奋的长寿游戏系列中，《足球经理25》只是一个起点。

感谢大家的耐心阅读。

下次见
Miles

去年我们发布的两篇开发日志证明了一件事——各位经理很喜欢来自工作室的更高透明度。

如何找到合适的透明度对我们非常重要。有很多经理已经陪伴我们走过30年了，还有一些则是在这段旅程的中途加入的 —— 你们都是《足球经理》最重要的代言人。这就是为什么我们在有新消息时会与你们分享，并解释我们的决策，以便你们理解《足球经理》的开发过程。这对《足球经理25》来说尤为重要，因为它标志着许多方面的新开端。

为什么说“合适的透明度”，而不只是“透明度”？因为总会有一些我们不能讨论的事情 —— 我们是上市公司的一部分，对各种合作伙伴都有承诺；而且作为一个模拟真实足球世界的游戏，总会有一些不断变化的因素。现实情况是，并非每个人都想要所有事情都被抽丝剥茧，而且正如我们最近官宣的新授权一样， 惊喜也可能会带来意想不到的乐趣。

我会继续保持透明，并在此给你们带来《足球经理25》的最新消息，总结过去几个月的开发周期，并揭开即将到来的新时代的面纱。

最近几周，我们的工作室迎来了一个重要历史时刻，首先是揭晓了我们全新的Sports Interactive的logo和品牌形象，接着是我们与英超联赛合作的重大官宣。这是我们追求了20多年的授权，我们为最终的成功而感到无比骄傲 —— 我们迫不及待想让你们在FM中体验。在官宣视频[www.bilibili.com]中，您可能也已经注意到了全新的《足球经理》logo。

同时，你可能也看到了FM24达成了一个巨大的里程碑——我们拥有了1000万的玩家经理——这是有史以来《足球经理》系列的玩家数量之最。我想感谢每一位经理，无论是老经理还是第一次体验《足球经理》的人，感谢你们的支持。

然而今天我想分享的消息是关于《足球经理25》[PC/Mac]、《足球经理25 主机版》（Xbox One/S/X & PlayStation 5）这些平台的。有关《足球经理25 触摸版》和《足球经理25 手机版》的更多消息将在后续公布。

《足球经理25》标志着我们在最真实的足球管理经营游戏之旅中到达的下一个重要篇章。简而言之，这是自我们从以前的品牌变更为《足球经理》以来所进行的最大变革，也是20多年来的最大技术变革。

改用Unity引擎是一项巨大的工程。它为我们提供了不可思议的构建模块，方便我们打造新的基础，解放我们的潜力，并为《足球经理》的未来愿景提供动力，实现更强大的视觉细节和更高效的开发流程。未来，随着更多的经验积累，Unity将为我们带来更快的游戏特性设计和落地，以及基于这些设计的调整。

本质上，《足球经理25》是工作室未来20年的起点。

在这个日志中，我们将首次展示全新的用户界面，也是Unity引擎帮助我们做到的。同时，我们也会透明化一些艰难的决策，这些决策影响了一小部分玩家在游戏中的某些体验。

在进入这个话题之前，如您所知，多年来我们一直在努力将女子足球引入《足球经理》。现在我可以确定得说，我们已经为《足球经理25》获得了多个授权，并且相信会有更多的授权。相关联赛的详细信息将在未来几个月内公布，但正如您所想，您将在管理男子和女子球队之间无缝切换。一款游戏，一个生态。

当我在去年六月的开发日志中首次提到《足球经理25》即将发生的变化时，我强调了新的用户界面一直是我们考虑的关键要素。

在开发这个项目时，我们一直在问自己：“如果能重新来过，我们会以同样的方式来做吗？”

在过去的一年里，我们将这个问题带到了《足球经理》中的每一个特性和界面。这些讨论和过程导致了游戏的某些领域发生了巨大的变化。今天我将谈论其中的一些，但您需要再等一段时间才能了解更多了。

除了“我们会以同样的方式来做吗”之外，我们还问了自己一些艰难的问题：“我们真的需要这个特性吗？”以及更重要的是，“在新时代的第一个周期内，我们是否有足够的时间以最高标准来完成这项工作？”

我们已经开发游戏30年了，所以我们习惯了做出重大决策，而其中有许多都是根据您的体验方式来制定的。您可能已经知道，我们会收集《足球经理》体验的匿名数据，为我们开发新作提供参考。分析这些数据可以告诉我们有多少玩家体验了某个特性 —— 我们发现几乎没有人使用某些特性，除了我们内部的质量保证团队。

因此，我想借此机会和您分享我们迄今为止移除的一些特性和其原因。虽然我们去掉的一些特性不会有人会怀念，但其他一些功能则被《足球经理2024》一小部分PC玩家群体经常使用。

首先，让我们谈谈在《足球经理25》中暂时不会出现的功能和模式：
场边喊话
《足球经理》系列中的最常用的功能——场边喊话，将在《足球经理25》及可预见的未来内暂时缺席。

喊话功能在游戏中已经存在多年了，但坦率地说，我一直对它不太满意。一条指令发出后本应该是即时生效的，而它们只能在球出界后才会生效。同时对于玩家来说，也很难搞清楚一条指令到底会持续多长时间。因此，我们暂时从游戏中移除了场边喊话功能。

我真的希望这个功能可以再次出现，但也只有在我们妥善优化它们之后才会。

社交媒体界面和数据分析板
为了优化用户界 面和用户体验 ，我们在《足球经理25》中取消了定制化社交媒体界面，但是不用担心——所有关键信息仍将出现在游戏的其他区域，并且支持者仍然是游戏中不可或缺的一部分。

随着足球数据的不断演变和发展，我们也认真考虑了如何在《足球经理》中显示这些数据。大部分现有的数据指标和数据可视化仍将在《足球经理25》中保留，而且我们在未来版本中将设计并加入的更多可视化效果。
不过数据板，这个通过球员档案页面进入的额外的个人和球队数据页面，现在已被移除。随着近年来数据中心的推出，它在向经理们提供数据分析方面表现更佳，这也使数据板变得多余，并让其使用率从10%下降至不到1%。

创造俱乐部模式
我们知道这是我们除了生涯和在线生涯模式之外最受欢迎的模式，目前也有5%的经理们在享受此模式，不过这一比例一直在稳步下降。

不幸的是，我们无法在今年的《足球经理25》发布之前，将创造俱乐部模式的体验提升到我们期望的水平，所以我们决定要放慢节奏来更好地优化，并在《足球经理26》中重新引入该模式，到时候经理们将会看到该模式的许多变化和改进。

对战模式
我个人非常喜欢这一玩法。我们知道玩对战模式的玩家通常会反复体验，不过这个模式占所有玩家的比例只有0.5%。

我们还没有开始重新设计这个模式。虽然我们仍然喜欢这个玩法，但它有可能会被其他模式取代，或者以完全不同的形式回归。

挑战模式
挑战模式是我们主机版、触摸版和手游版本的一部分，目前计划在《足球经理26》或《足球经理27》中彻底改版后回归。

在首次推出时它曾非常受欢迎，但在过去几年中，除了手游版之外，挑战模式的体验次数急剧下降，现在玩这个模式的经理不到0.5%。

我们目前正在讨论挑战模式将以何种形式以及何时回归，以确保它拥有最好和最沉浸的体验。

梦幻选秀
幻想选秀模式在《足球经理25》上线时将暂时缺席，但它会在接下来的时间内得到充分改进，并将在本周期的大型数据更新中回归 。未来我们还会更加定期地在上线后的中期阶段推出新特性。

当我们最初构想梦幻选秀模式时，我们就看到了它在电子竞技方面的潜力。多年来，我们知道你们中的许多人在以电竞这种方式探索这个模式，并通过各种形式组织了一些比赛。

我们已经决定在《足球经理25》上线时先移除这个模式，而促成这个决定的是某个有二十多年赛事组织经验的团体正在和我们探讨电竞领域的合作机会。

而这个我们决定合作的伙伴正是FIFAe, 国际足联的电子竞技部门, 我们将合作在2024年8月29日的英国利物浦举办《足球经理》FIFAe世界杯邀请赛，该赛事将使用《足球经理2024》，届时会有24名选手代表他们的国家参加这个最高舞台的比赛，在那里等待选手们的不仅是FIFAe世界杯的冠军头衔，还会有10万美元的奖金！

FIFA从2004年就开始组织电竞活动，而在最近也发展成了职业体育的一部分——同时还将体育无国界的精神通过足球和游戏传递给世界各地的粉丝们。

通过这次基本上是试运行的赛事，我们将与FIFAe一起探索实现我们在电子竞技方面的潜力。我们将一起评估这项赛事的表现和梦幻选秀模式的发展方向，也许还会在2025年使用全新的《足球经理》梦幻选秀模式，举办2025年FIFAe世界杯的第一轮预选赛。

所有的参与者都非常对这次赛事感到十分激动，我们希望能通过本次获得的经验，为未来的潜在活动打下坚实的基础。无论首次赛事的结果如何，我们都会让梦幻选秀模式强势归来。

与此同时，也希望您能够喜欢FIFAe对今年邀请赛的公告，其中还包括阿尔塞纳·温格。想试试身手吗？前往FIFA.GG注册并获得更多当地比赛的讯息。

现在，让我们来谈谈各位经理们在《足球经理25》上线时将会体验到的一个重大变化...

我之前谈到了用户界面将会有很大不同。虽然我们知道把界面做好有多么重要，但同样重要的是用户体验。

通过新的用户界面，我们的团队建立了强大的设计和技术基础，可以轻松地在未来进行扩展和改进。这意味着未来每一个更新都将增强用户体验，而不会影响界面的一致性。

我们花了数年时间研究了各种不同的经理——从新手到老经理，以了解了不同阶段的经理是怎么体验游戏的。
凭借这些经验，我们意识到需要找到一种方法，能够在合适的时机提供所有必要的信息，同时又不会让玩家感到不知所措。这确实是一个艰难的平衡。

同样的道理，在与平台无关的设计也是如此，这样可以让您无论是使用鼠标和键盘、手柄，甚至触摸屏，都能轻松游玩。

在应对这一挑战时，我们与Unity的工程师密切合作，通过调整游戏引擎以便从用户界面的角度给予我们所需的灵活性和动态性。我们将在即将到来的9月份的Unite活动上更详细地谈论这段旅程，并介绍我们如何共同努力使《足球经理25》的用户界面成为现实的更多技术细节。

当然，我们将在活动后不久与大家分享更多信息，但现在，我们想先让您了解即将到来的变化。

瓦片和卡片
《足球经理25》的全新用户界面/用户体验是由我们称之为“瓦片和卡片”的系统驱动的。

“瓦片”是一个信息面板，具有多种不同状态，从少量信息到更多细节的“卡片”。

我们的设计团队希望借此可以帮助每个玩家建立一种探索的感觉，并展示《足球经理》的深度和细节。

在这个系统中，瓦片是通过提供简要信息来建立好奇心的一种方式，点击进入卡片会用更多的细节来回报你的好奇心。

瓦片有多种不同大小，我们称之为“状态”——这样我们可以在不同的屏幕和场景中适当地使用信息。
以下是一个 球员状态瓦片的示例，展示了不同的状态。对于那些觉得上面的描述过于术语的人来说，这个截图能帮你了解更多的背景。
然后在下面的截图中，您可以看到当您点击“状态”瓦片时会发生什么——它会打开一个带有更多信息的“卡片”。
这种设计减少了游戏中的页面数量，使页面切换更容易的同时而又不会牺牲细节。减少大段文字是一件好事，对吧？

告别收件箱，欢迎使用门户
用户界面工作的另一个方面是研究人们在互动、沟通和消化信息方式的不断变化。过去经理们在《足球经理》中花费时间最多的是收件箱——也就是你在游戏中的电子邮件。

不过这种设计已经有点过时了——现代的足球经理在电话上花费的时间比在笔记本电脑上要多得多。

所以说，欢迎来到我们现在称之为“门户”的界面。

门户将是一个更丰富的窗口，让您可以更好地通过议程和消息部分来推进您的旅程，同时还可以通过新闻和比赛让您了解更多其他地方发生的事情。
最后，我想分享一个展示瓦片和卡片系统潜力的页面。这是您在比赛高光时刻之间看到的新页面——关于它的工作原理的更多信息将在我们9月的游戏玩法展示期间公布。
我们深知这些变化代表着与以往的足球经理版本有着很大的变革。以往的经验、研究和更广泛的行业合作使我们意识到，用户界面的变化可能需要一段时间才能被适应。

但是，我们已经做好了功课，并且相信我们正在向正确的方向迈进。

我们也希望您的帮助来验证这个方向。在接下来的几周内，在合理的旅行距离内的FMFC会员将收到一封电子邮件，我们将询问您是否有兴趣和是否能够前往我们位于伦敦的工作室，帮助我们继续测试《足球经理25》的用户界面/用户体验。根据各位经理的兴趣和参与情况，我们可能会进一步扩大调查范围。

我们计划将这一活动持续到9月初至10月初，所以如果您还不是FMFC会员，想要参与其中，请现在就订阅[fmfc.footballmanager.com]。请确保选择接收推广信息，否则我们将无法给您发送电子邮件。

谢谢您的时间和阅读。几乎就这些了，但我还有一些其他内容要和您分享…

《足球经理25》的上线日期将于9月初确认，届时预购也将同时开始。我们将在此之后不久开始揭示新的游戏元素。正如您从我们分享的内容和已公开的信息所看到的那样，将有许多内容等待您探索——请确保您已经注册了FMFC并在各种社交媒体上关注@足球经理。

除了FM25和《足球经理》FIFAe世界杯之外，我们也在考虑一些其他事情，其中包括官方《足球经理》播客的回归。

与广播领域的一家大型公司合作，使用外部的主持人和制作团队，这个播客将越过《足球经理》，探索更广泛的足球世界，可以说是面向所有听众的。播客将包括专业足球界内的采访、特写和故事，以及一些能够更详细地了解我们游戏的环节。

感谢阅读。

祝好
Miles

感受到夏日足球狂欢的狂热了么？快来《足球经理2024》试试您的带队能力——现在起在各平台购买将可享受半价优惠。

《足球经理2024》PC和Mac版本的折扣截止时间为北京时间7月12日星期五凌晨1:00。

PlayStation 5 上的《足球经理2024主机版》将在各地区本地时间的7月3日星期三午夜0:00开始优惠活动。
PS5和 Switch版本的折扣截止时间因平台和地区而异，具体信息请参见下表。

《足球经理2024》竭尽所能助您实现自己的管理和战术风格。签下一球成名的新星，寻找名扬世界的神童，发挥球队的最大潜力。如果一切皆由您做主，您将带领球队到达什么高度？

请访问我们的游戏对比页面[www.footballmanager.com]，来寻找最适合您的版本。
*折扣截止时间为北京时间7月12日星期五早上7点
**折扣截止时间为北京时间7月12日星期五早上7点

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2252570/Football_Manager_2024/

In recent years, a trend has begun to emerge – the classical No.10 or advanced playmaker isn’t used in the same way anymore.

Given the importance of collective pressing and counter-pressing in the modern game, many managers don’t quite feel comfortable deploying a free-floating midfielder behind their leading striker. However, this doesn’t mean that playmakers aren’t important – in fact, they’ve probably got a more important role than ever. The main difference now is that they tend to operate in different places on the pitch.

Two of the best roles in Football Manager 2024 showcasing the evolution of the traditional playmaker are the Libero and the Roaming Playmaker. Here, Ihor Crusadertsar uses Manchester City stars John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne to illustrate how to use both roles in your latest FM24 saves.

Pep Guardiola’s deployment of John Stones as a central defender stepping up into midfield during the 2022/23 season led to the Libero role being significantly overhauled as part of FM24’s positional play changes.

Expected to defend against opposition attacks when out of possession and to receive the ball and advance it up in the pitch when your team has possession, a Libero is ideally placed to drive your build-up play from the heart of defence.

When identifying a good Libero, you need them to have strong Attribute scores for Passing, Technique, Decisions and Vision – essentially the areas you’d expect a more advanced playmaker to excel in. They also need to be good at the things a traditional centre-back is – namely Jumping Reach, Strength, and Tackling.

Unsurprisingly, John Stones is perfect in this role because he also boasts strong Attribute scores for Dribbling, First Touch, Composure, and Balance. Collectively, these will help him to ride out pressure from opposition players and comfortably transition the ball out of defence and into midfield.

When using the Libero to drive my team’s playmaking, I like to utilise a Sweeper Keeper who is comfortable on the ball and will be more likely to pass the ball short to the central defenders rather than instinctively kicking it long.

For the rest of the defence, I pair the Libero with a more traditional central defender like Nathan Aké or Ruben Dias and then make the most of FM24’s new Inverted Full-Back player role with one on each side.

In this set-up, the Libero will step up to the defensive midfield position when we’re in possession and will effectively act as a Deep-Lying Playmaker, regardless of whether you use a Support or Defend duty.

With the Libero stepping up, the two Inverted Full-Backs will tuck in and form a solid back three with the other central defender you’ve selected.

Further forward, by using a Defensive Midfielder or a Ball-Winning Midfielder at the base of your midfield, the Libero will form a double pivot with them in front of your back three. As such, you’ll have a 3-2 shape at the base of your tactic; an essential component in most progressive possession approaches.

Flipping the idea of a traditional playmaker on its head, the Libero allows you to successfully build up from deep without sacrificing any defensive solidity.

Having someone like John Stones at your disposal opens doors for playing with a Libero but you need a pretty specific Attribute profile for that role to work properly. So, how can you find a new home in midfield for your team’s designated playmaker?

One of the modern game’s best passers and most creative talents, Kevin De Bruyne is a great playmaker but he’s rarely acted as a traditional Number 10 in recent seasons. Instead, he’s often played a bit deeper and wider, operating in a role that allows him to press, defend, score and create a bunch of high-value chances for his teammates.

Here, FM24’s positional play changes once again take centre stage to level up the abilities of the Roaming Playmaker role.

In possession, a Roaming Playmaker will now push up from central midfield to take up a position behind your striker, thereby taking on an active role in your build-up play.

What’s exciting is the fact that they’ll do this from a starting position in defensive midfield too. If you’ve got a mobile, hard-working player, you can use the role to build your team around someone who will battle hard to win the ball and then push play up the pitch and drive chance creation when you’ve regained possession.

The tactic below indicates the kind of ‘total football’ approach you can achieve in FM24 by using the Roaming Playmaker in a deeper position.

Another approach can be to use an Advanced Playmaker in a central midfield position. Whether you go for a Support duty or a more Attacking one, this player will be more involved in pressing when your team is out of possession but will then drive forward when you’ve got the ball back.

Kevin De Bruyne is perfect here because it makes the most of his skillset and ensures that he’s involved with all phases of play.

Using the Advanced Playmaker role in central midfield also gives opposition defenders a dilemma. They can choose to move forward and try to mark your player but doing so runs the risk of leaving gaps for your attackers to exploit. Alternatively, they can stay back and end up giving someone like De Bruyne loads of space to roam around in and the time to pick the perfect pass to a teammate.

In the screenshot below you’ll see that I’ve opted for another aggressive role in the Mezzala next to De Bruyne. Using Phil Foden in this way helps us to get more players forward for De Bruyne to create chances for, while the use of two Wingers and Fairly Wide Tactical Instruction helps us to stretch and overload the opposition defence.

A final alternative route of using a playmaker is by deploying one on the flank.

The Wide Playmaker has been one of my favourite roles in FM for a few years now because it’s a role that increases the player’s time with the ball and decreases the chances of them being marked out of the game by the opposition.

To illustrate this with Manchester City, I’ve got a tactic using a 4-4-1-1 formation. Here, Rodri and Bernardo Silva stay fairly central, giving De Bruyne plenty of space out wide. Deploying him on an Attack duty opens up space for penetrative overlapping runs from Kyle Walker at Wing-Back.

So, there you have it, four different ways that you can use playmakers in FM24.

While the old-fashioned No. 10 playmaker might not be in vogue anymore, the art of playmaking has not been abandoned and you have several options to make your playmakers more versatile and valuable than ever in FM24.

Happy managing

Ihor Crusadertsar

Having players who can perform two different jobs at the same time can be an absolute game-changer for your tactics in Football Manager 2024. Few player roles fit that bill better than the Complete Forward.

Expected to lead the line but also link up with your team’s other attackers, the Complete Forward could be your top scorer or best playmaker in any given game. This makes them an ideal role to unlock your team’s full potential but also one that needs a special, well-rounded player to do it well.

In this guide, Rock’s End FM shows you the skills you need to look for in a Complete Forward and how to make the role fit into your tactics.

Let’s start with the basics: what is a Complete Forward?

The Complete Forward can operate across the entire final third of the pitch. They need the strength and anticipation to outmuscle opposition defenders and make late runs into the box, as well as clinical finishing instincts. They also need to be able to drop deeper to create space and contribute to your build-up play, playing passes in behind to teammates in the wide channels.

In FM24, the Complete Forward is available with two duties – Attack and Support. Each option has its pros and cons, with the Attack setting pushing their focus more towards goalscoring and Support prioritising collaboration with the rest of the team.

Finding such a jack-of-all-trades isn’t easy but there are some key Attributes that you can look for. From a Technical perspective, Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch, Heading, and Technique are key, as are Off The Ball, Composure, Anticipation, and Positioning from a Mental side. Having decent Pace, Acceleration, and Agility aren’t essential but they’re a nice bonus.

To round their profile out, the stronger their Passing, Teamwork, Vision, and Determination Attributes, the better.

Having taken a look at how the role works work and the key Attributes you need to look for, I’ve taken charge of two Bundesliga clubs to show the role in action in FM24.

Few players in the FM24 database are as perfect in a role as Harry Kane is as a Complete Forward.

Having initially burst onto the scene as a clinical finisher, Kane has evolved his game over time to become much more than that for club and country. Technically sublime, smart on and off the ball, and incredibly hard-working, Kane has the physical tools to make an impact across the final third.

However, even the best and most well-rounded players in the world will struggle if they’re not backed up suitably by their teammates.

I’m using Kane as a Complete Forward on Support and to make that role shine, you need two things: players who can supply balls into him and players who can receive them from him.

The below screenshot shows how I’ve set up FC Bayern for this experiment, with Kane leading the line in a fairly traditional 4-3-3.

As you can see, we have a good mix of passers and runners that will all work around Kane. The Wing-Backs will provide width and crossing options, while having both wingers inverted will give us both close-range passing options and darting runs that Kane can pick up when he drops deeper. In midfield, the Mezzala and the Box-to-Box Midfielder will both arrive late into the box, giving us more passing options and attacking threats.

Now we have our tactic assembled, let’s put it to the test on Matchday.

In possession, Kane drops into the pocket and effectively becomes an auxiliary midfielder. In the screenshot below, taken from a game with SV Darmstadt 98, you can see him in line with the other central midfielders.

However, he will still lead the line. In this second shot, you can see him pushing the defensive line back, thereby creating more space in the box for both him and our onrushing midfielders to drive into. As it happened, he opened the scoring from this passage of play, heading home a Serge Gnabry cross.

In this third example, you see him in full flow having picked up the ball from deep. On this occasion, he dribbled forward from a counter-attack, drawing some of the opposition defenders out of position and opening up a run in behind for Leroy Sané, who doubled our lead.

Kane was man of the match in this game and one of our best performers throughout the entire season.

As FC Bayern are a team that typically dominates possession, the Complete Forward on Support is an ideal role. In most games, FC Bayern will have to break down opposition teams who tend to sit deeper and look to play off turnovers. The Complete Forward offers you more flexibility in your tactic as their roving position opens up more avenues for attack, stopping your offence from becoming predictable and giving the opposition defence more to think about.

Some teams, however, will have less of the ball from game to game and will be more reliant on their strikers to shoulder a greater scoring responsibility. In this instance, you need to opt for the Attack duty.

The Complete Forward on Attack offers you a striker who can run into space, hit it long, or head it home while also offering a partner for creative midfielders and attacking wingers.

Perfect for illustrating this duty is VfB Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy, a sensation during the 2023/24 season. The Guinean forward has a skillset every bit as complete as other strikers but his playing style – based on strength, pace, and smart movement - lends itself better to him being the focal point of the attack.

As boss of VfB Stuttgart, this is how I’ve set up:

Contrasted to the previous example, the Complete Forward sits higher up in the pitch, allowing us to bring in Enzo Millot to sit in behind as a Number 10 who can drive the team’s playmaking efforts. Guirassy will get plenty of service from Silas Katompa Mvumpa and Maximilian Mittelstädt in the wide areas, while Mahmoud Dahoud will offer an on-rushing threat from midfield. Simply put, the Complete Forward in this example opens up room for the rest of the team to operate in, whereas Harry Kane was the cog that the rest of the team centred around.

How does it work in practice? Well, the Complete Forward is our furthest forward player while we’re in possession, pinning the opposition central defenders back and opening up space behind.

This high positioning means that Guirassy gets a higher volume of shots per game, as he has less ground to cover to join attacks. The screenshot below shows him about to get on the end of a Woo-Yeong Jeong cross to open the scoring against Eintracht Frankfurt.

On Attack duty, Guirassy is much more active in both the pressing and counter-pressing aspects of our play. You can see this illustrated by the heat map below - if you’re looking to regain the ball as high up the pitch as possible, this is a role you should be thinking about using.

Despite its high quality and ability threshold, the Complete Forward is a role that can adapt to many teams and styles of play. With the right player in it and a suitable tactic supporting, the Complete Forward could be the difference between a title triumph and a near miss in your next save.

Happy Managing,

Rock’s End FM

在过去三十多年中，英超联赛作为英国足球的最高峰，充满了令人印象深刻的故事和回忆，而每个难忘的时刻背后，都是每一个伟大的足球经理在竭力付出……

在《足球经理》中，每一个伟大的故事皆是如此。

现在，随着Sports Interactive与英超达成一项为期多年的合作，各位经理将能够在未来的《足球经理》版本中创造属于您自己的英超时刻和里程碑。

从2024/25赛季开始，所有20家英超俱乐部将获得全面授权，包括官方标志、球衣和球员照片。他们将在未来的《足球经理》系列游戏中隆重登场。

因此，各位经理们无论是为利物浦或阿森纳规划未来蓝图，帮助水晶宫打进欧洲联赛，还是带领伊普斯维奇镇重返巅峰，您将前所未有地沉浸在英格兰顶级联赛的激烈比赛中。

有关英超联赛在《足球经理》中的更多信息，以及工作室与联赛之间的合作，将在今年晚些时候公布。

Developing tactics and recreating the styles of football’s leading coaches is one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing Football Manager.

In Football Manager 2024, you have more creative tools for expressing your tactical philosophy thanks to the player rotation changes that have been added..

These rotations see players take up a different position while in possession than they occupy while defending, such as an Inverted Full-Back tucking in as an additional central defender or Central Midfielders pushing forward to join the attack.

Making the most of these rotations will allow you to implement positional play principles in your tactics and become a more dynamic attacking team in every career. In this blog, Dan Gear explains which roles trigger these positional rotations and shows them in action.

Positional rotations are largely reserved for your central midfield players, but there are also a few defensive roles that are crucial for pursuing positional play. These are:

• Inverted Wing-Back - During the possession phase, a player using this role will move into defensive midfield
  
• Inverted Full-Back – A new role for FM24, this is geared towards those players that tuck in to become an extra central defender while in possession
  
• Libero – Following some upgrades for FM24, a Libero can now play in any of the three centre-back positions, and in each one they will look to move into defensive midfield

• Half-Back – Now usable in both single and double midfield pivots, a player in this role will look to drop back into central defence while you’re in possession
  
• Segundo Volante – An aggressive role, players deployed as Segundo Volantes will push right up as an extra ‘Number 10’ just behind the strikers when your team is attacking
  
• Roaming Playmaker – Whether they’re used in defensive or central midfield, Roaming Playmakers will push up to become attacking midfielders during the possession phase
  
• Box to Box Midfielder/Mezzala/Advanced Playmaker – All of these roles will look to push up from a starting position in central midfield to one just behind the strikers. The same is also true for Central Midfielders used on an Attack duty

Now, you might be thinking that if all of your central midfield players push up, you’ll have a lot of overcrowding in the same area of the pitch.

Well, the players in FM24 are intelligent and aware of the movement of their teammates, meaning that this doesn’t happen.

To illustrate this with an example, let’s say you’re using a 4-2-3-1 formation and you’ve chosen to make one of your midfield pairing a Mezzala.

As the image below shows, the originally central Advanced Playmaker will acknowledge the Mezzala’s forward runs and will shuffle across to the left to accommodate them.

In this instance, your wide player will now stay closer to the touchline in order to accommodate the forward runs of the Mezzala, effectively making your formation a 4-1-4-1.

Alternatively, let’s say you chose to play a 4-2-3-1 with a Segundo Volante on the left and a Ball-Winning Midfieder on the right.

Here, the Segundo Volante will push up and on this occasion the player behind the striker will move to the right to once again create a strong 4-1-4-1 shape.

The same is true when you make use of the defensive player roles that shift their position during the attacking phase.

In the example below, we’re playing a 4-3-3 with an Inverted Wing-Back on the left of the defence. In this instance, the Defensive Midfielder will move across to the right to form a double pivot with the Inverted Wing-Back that pushes up.

Now, if you pull it all together in a wider tactical shape, you’ll see that your team’s starting formation will look quite different as your players look to progress possession up the pitch.

As the arrows on the screen below show, you’ll effectively have a 3-2-4-1 shape when you’re attacking. This opens up more passing lanes and gives you a greater ability to play through the lines, which in turn means you’re going to be much more effective in exploiting gaps in the opposition defence when you’re counter-attacking.

Now we’ve gone through the theory, let’s see how we can implement these player rotations and positional play principles in practice with a real team and tactic. Here, I’ve chosen to use Italian club Bologna.

In this first scenario, I’ve opted for a fairly simple 3-4-3 tactic. The formation makes the most of some of our most talented players, namely Victor Kristiansen, central defender Riccardo Calafiori and clinical striker Joshua Zirkzee.

I’ve kept it on a Balanced Mentality as the player roles chosen are attacking enough on their own, while I’ve only selected a few simple Team Instructions as I want the players to focus on their natural games and moving around the pitch in the way the roles intend them to.

As you can see from the screenshot below, Lewis Ferguson, Michael Aebischer and Jhon Lucumí all rotate into more advanced positions when we’re attacking the opposition.

In that instance we failed to score. When play restarted and the opposition were looking to progress possession, they all moved back into their starting positions to give us better defensive cover.

In the second example, I’ve used a 4-2-3-1 similar to the one outlined earlier on. From what we know of the positional rotations, the shape I’ve picked should see Aebischer push up and join Ferguson as a second attacking midfielder in a four-man unit behind Zirkzee.

Further back, Calafiori is playing as an Inverted Full-Back, meaning that he’ll push across and Lucumí and Sam Beukema will adapt accordingly to form a back three.

In terms of Mentality and Team Instructions, everything reflects the first example as all rotations and shifts are automatic. You don’t need to add any extra player or team instructions, you only need to understand which roles rotate into which areas and how you can make space for them in your tactic.

To take the previous example a bit further, you could make Stefan Posch an Inverted Wing-Back rather than a Wing-Back. You’ve got enough ability in the wide areas with Riccardo Orsolini and Jesper Karlsson, so you can instead use Posch in a capacity that makes him an extra ball receiver in midfield and more effective defensive cover should you lose possession.

As you can see from the screenshot below, Posch has moved up and across to form a defensive midfielder pivot with Nikola Moro, who has moved across into the space that Aebischer has vacated by pushing up.

Hopefully the information provided here will have given you a greater insight into how FM24’s positional rotations work in practice and how you can make the most of them to build more fluid tactics in FM24.

Happy managing,

Dan Gear

Being tactically flexible is one of the most important characteristics any manager can have. Having the insight to change your approach mid-game when things aren’t working or employing different game plans for different opponents stops you from being predictable and can keep the positive results coming.

One of the best ways to do this is by setting up different tactical approaches for home and away matches. Here, Rock’s End FM dives deep to show how you can do it in your latest FM24 careers to gain that extra edge with a newly-promoted team.

So, at this point, you’re probably thinking: why should I use different tactical approaches for home and away matches? Surely my team should just focus on one approach in training?

Well, the idea between using two separate tactics depending on where your team is playing is that it allows you to make the most of two different situations without giving away too much in any direction.

For home matches, you have more of your fans behind you, and on the pitch you’re likely to get more possession than you do away from home. This means your players will have a bit more time on the ball and therefore more space to generate attacks.

Conversely, when you’re away from home, you’ll be pressed harder by the opposition. This means that you’ll have less of the ball but when you do regain possession, you’ll likely have more avenues for direct counter-attacks.

With this in mind, you can prepare and create different tactical approaches to help your team exploit these gains and cover for any deficiencies in terms of personnel. Doing this will help you to clinch more key points, securing your spot in that league for another season and allowing you to focus your wider efforts on long-term squad-building.

To put this approach to the test, I’ve started a save with Sky Bet Championship team Plymouth Argyle. They won Sky Bet League One in 2023 but are considered to be one of the higher division's weaker teams when you begin a career in FM24.

When reviewing the Plymouth squad, it’s clear that the Pilgrims have a lot of quick attacking players with high Work Rate Attributes. This lends itself fantastically to a counter-pressing approach that will allow us to recover the ball higher up the pitch and take advantage of space when the opposition are in transition.

However, adopting such an aggressive approach does mean that we’ll naturally leave a lot of space in behind, which the division’s better teams will be able to exploit. How can we reduce that risk when we’re playing away and at our most fragile?

Creating a new tactical slot, we’re going to set up our away game plan. We’ll keep the same defensive structure as the home tactic but we’re going to adapt our formation to a 4-4-2 by making our number 10 a second striker. This will give us a more compact shape for the longer periods of play when we’re out of possession and defending. We’ll also drop our wide players back, which will allow them to start their runs in more space and from deep. It also means that they’re closer to our full-backs, which should give us more defensive cover.

In terms of our instructions, we’ll look to defend deeper and invite pressure, as this will create gaps in the opposition's defence that we can take advantage of with quick, direct transitions. To achieve this, we’ll drop our Mentality and Line of Engagement, and also stop Counter-Pressing in favour of regrouping quickly.

A key factor to bear in mind is that between our two tactics, we’ve maintained a lot of our original setup instead of opting for a completely different shape. By doing this, we’re making sure that both tactics make the best possible use of our players.

It is always worth thinking about the individual skillsets of your players. Different players will play roles differently, so there’s a lot to be gained by shifting who plays in each position from game to game.

With that all figured out, let’s put our approach to the test and jump into the season.

Just like in real life, our first game as Plymouth Argyle boss in FM24 is at home against another relegation candidate in Huddersfield.

Given that it’s the first game of the campaign and we’re playing at Home Park, we start the match with our home tactic. Our high press kept us in control of the game early on and secured us plenty of key chances in the opening minutes.

We scored midway through the first half thanks to striker Ryan Hardie and had several opportunities to extend our lead. We failed to make the most of them and were ultimately punished by a goal on the counter late in the second half as the match finished 1-1. While it wasn’t the result we wanted, the Shot Map of the game makes for impressive viewing and shows early promise for our home gameplan.

Our second game was away against Watford, a leading playoff contender at the beginning of the season. We used our away tactic for this game but made a personnel change. Instead of deploying him out wide, where the Inverted Winger (Support) position would have made him less of a scoring threat, we pushed Morgan Whittaker up as a striker to partner Hardie.

We ultimately end up being unlucky in this game, losing 3-1. Our xG was very similar to that of the Hornets but they ultimately proved more clinical, sealing victory with their third goal in the 89th minute. We never looked particularly outmatched against a stronger team on paper, which was encouraging, and despite sitting deeper we created some decent chances.

The positive signs from our first two games are reflected in our next two matches. At home against the highly-fancied Southampton, we create more chances and limit them to just two shots in the entire second half as we won 3-2.

That gave us our first win and our we got a second in our fourth match of the season away at Birmingham City. Whittaker scores off a quick transition to put us 1-0 up in the first half and another quick counter proves decisive in the second half, with Whittaker grabbing his second from the penalty spot after we capitalised on them committing too many men forward. That secured us a 2-1 win and put us up to seven points after four matches – far from the form you’d expect of a relegation favourite.

On its own, using differing tactics for home and away matches won’t save you from relegation. However, it is a useful tool to play to your strengths and help keep the opposition guessing. For teams that aren’t blessed with enormous resources, it can earn you a few extra points, which could prove crucial in a tight relegation race, and give you the platform to build from and push ahead.

Happy managing,

Rock’s End FM