Completely changing the engine of a 20+ year game is hard, would i have recommended this game at launch? Absolutely not, but 2 months later and it's clearly visible that the game is in a much better state, both in ui and in the match engine.
There is still a long way to go and many more improvements are needed to the ui, because there are still a LOT of screens with a bunch of unused space, but right now after getting used to navigating the new ui i am enjoying the game and i have hopes that they can continue to listen to the feedback so that the future iterations of the game in the new engine are at a much better state at launch.

FM26 is a genuinely good step forward.

Yes, the UI takes time to adapt to. Yes, it needs refinement. That’s normal for a game that changes this much. The important part is that the developers are actively listening and fixing things. This isn’t an abandoned direction, it’s an evolving one.

What FM26 does really well is force players to actually understand the game again. You can’t just copy-paste tactics, training schedules, or plug-and-play systems and expect results. The match engine now punishes lazy setups and rewards people who test, tweak, and think.

And that’s why a lot of the negativity exists.

Most of the loud criticism comes from players who relied heavily on recycled tactics and presets in previous versions. FM26 removes that comfort. For the first time in a while, players have to face their own tactical ability, and some don’t like that reality.

On the positive side:

Player movement and positioning feel more natural

Pressing and defensive shape are more contextual and less exploitable

Roles behave closer to real football logic

Transitions are more dangerous and more rewarding

Fewer “meta” tactics dominating everything

What still needs work:

The UI can feel cluttered and unintuitive in places

Too many clicks to reach key information

Match visuals and clarity still need polishing

These are valid issues. They’re also fixable.

FM26 has a strong core. It rewards patience, understanding, and adaptation. Over time, the same people complaining now will get new copy-paste solutions made for them, as always. Until then, this version separates those who play Football Manager from those who actually manage.

If you enjoy learning and thinking football, FM26 is worth your time.

my only regret in life is that i tried to give this abomination an honest chance so i couldnt refund it

trash

Worst fm created. The ui is buggy and bad. Also the players just dont score. Moving back to fm24 thanks for a bad game. I feel scammed.

TL;DR - Abandon hope all ye who purchase here. No, this is not an upgrade from FM24 (nor FM23, nor FM22, nor FM21 tbh). Don't buy this game unless you're being held at gunpoint. Then refund it.

Let's break this down (I've got 135ish hours into the game at the time of reviewing, Plus 1000s of hours into previous games)

The good:
- A marginal upgrade to the in-match graphics.
- The addition of the real names to competitions (something that could be modded since at least FM12 when I started playing, so not really an upgrade)

The neutral:
- The in-game engine has not changed despite the reskin. All that is present now is that you can better see the nonsense that occurs in-match e.g. players still attempt to shoot from roughly 5 degree angles instead of crossing to a central player. This has been an issue with the game logic for over a decade.

The bad (and oh dear, there is so much bad. Let's breakdown how much worse this game is to previous editions):
- The UI is astonishingly bad. Let's be clear here: they took two whole years to take a functional UI and make it so bad that the SI forums are littered with people trying to find workarounds for simple functions (search "how do I create friendly matches for U21 teams" if you want to claw your eyes out in frustration)
- There is still an extraordinary backend bias towards some teams and their players (and thus the reverse against their opponents). The exceptional scouting of FM of old departed years ago and we've been fighting an uphill battle against the SI shills ever since.
- If you care about anything more than shots, possession or corners, then the in-match data set will make you cry. That's all you get. Care about, for instance, chances created? You have to wait until the match is over.
- I genuinely thought that the 'shouts' feature had been abolished. Nope, it's just harder to find AND use.
- Opposition instructions for player can only be set before a match for "anticipated lineup", so if a player is selected that falls outside that ambiguous parameter then you'll have to set it yourself.
- Related to the above: in-match opposition instructions are a weird little button that you have to fumble around to find like a blind man looking for Babylon.
- In-match, should a sub be made by your opponent, it will 9 times out of 10 not be reflected in the opposition instructions section anyway so I hope you remembered the name from the 2 second pop up that occurred in-game.
- Online saves are capped so that even in a single team save, you will run out of space before the end of a single season. Have SI run out of Sega money for cloud saves? Or are they pocketing the money for future game failures? Who is to say? Not I, a humble acolyte and football devotee. I care only for the game, and there is no game here.
- Set pieces are fundamentally broken. Throughout an entire season as Arsenal, I’ve scored two goals from corners (and neither were directly, they came from unforced errors after the fact), nobody has scored one against me (nor in other games). Nobody in the entire league has scored a free kick, which is unsurprising when I note that in my own matches no free kicks are ever shot at the goal, they’re always laid off to a nearby player.

There are more problems but right now I can't recall them. The above represents a good cross section of the worst of them.

All in all, this game is a disgrace. SI should refund the lot of us and spend a good long time sitting in the corner alone thinking about what they've done (or rather, spent 2 years not doing).

worst game ive ever played

I never leave reviews for games, and it really hurts to write this one. I've tried so hard to like this game (400+ hours so far).

I just can't recommend this game. While the match engine looks better, it has so many flaws that can be exploited. Fullbacks can't defend, but turn into prime Messi going forward.

Each patch with a match engine update funnels you to play a way that is not conducive to fun. I've played FM since the Champ Manager days. This is by far the worst in terms of tactical variety. At the start of this game, you could experiment, but every update now makes double DM pivot, more direct passing, high press, much lower defensive line and much narrower attacking width a must. It's obnoxious, every tactic must use the same team instructions to perform at their best. If you want to play a short passing, more possession based tactic, you will simply be nerfing yourself.

The only positive I have for this game is the in/out of possession which was a great inclusion.

Don't even buy this on sale - stick with FM24, SI do better!

I bought a $2000+ high end gaming PC and waited almost 3 years for this game (that's about 2 full weeks of physical labor work for me). I would have been better off lighting $2200 on fire, at least I'd have a few seconds of pyrotechnics and a bit of warmth. The game I knew and loved is gone, thanks to inept leadership and money grabbing leeching investors that don't care about the OG fanbase. THE UI is ATROCIOUS. I would love to be in the boardroom to see if any of the senior leadership played this game and went OH YEAH I'M LOVING ME SOME OF THIS!!!! Make it make sense. All I want now is the old game back and keep the game engine. If I could have the FM 2013 interface with this game engine I'd take it. If I had the CM 01/02 interface with this engine I'd take it. I would take any interface of any previous version with this engine and be happy. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ALMIGHTY SI, ALLOW MODS/SKINS to change this GODFORSAKEN interface, DO SOMETHING

I have been playing footballl manager games since 2005. All the way back whenthe split happened after CM 03/04.

In every iteration of the game , some years were good, some where bad. But you could still play the game and get engrossed in it.

FM26 is barely a game. Its a slap in the face for anyone who waited and spent hard earned money with the way it was hyped. Its unplayable, too many bugs, the worst UI i have ever seen.

For me nothing sums up the game more than the silly boxes when creating your tactics. It feels like something out of a flash game on a website. All this in the name of bringing in more players via console/mobile.

Dont buy into any of their excuses. They have had 2 years to produce a playable game. They then hyped the gamed up and released rubbish. I was a big FM fan. I am literally installing the old FM 24 to play ahead of this tripe.

DO NOT BUY. DO NOT LISTEN TO ANY YOUTUBER OR STREAMER THAT SAYS ITS PLAYABLE.

I've been playing Championship Manager/Football Manager off and on since CM97/98, and it pains me to say that I really don't enjoy FM26 and that I've had to give up on it. There's a good game lurking in there somewhere, and I was initially enjoying it. But then the bugs started to appear...

My first attempt at a save on FM26 came to a grinding halt due to a player registration bug. This happened in the second season of my save, so it was very frustrating as I was really getting into the game, but I was unable to continue because none of my players could be register for a major competition.

After this problem, I gave the game another go with a new save, but since then FM26 has become really unstable for me following the last couple of updates from SI. I no longer have fans in the stadium (apparently this is connected to playing on the lowest graphics setting) and I've experienced several crashes, including the latest one that occurred at half-time of my opening league game. I really can't trust the game to run smoothly at this point, so I can't commit to a long-term save.

There are also many other little bugs connected to the UI. I've encountered buttons that don't work and had the game crash when clicking on other buttons. That's not to mention the poor design that leaves huge blank spaces everywhere and requires endless clicking and scrolling to find information.

Despite all this, I think the game can be salvaged. The new in and out of possession tactical system is great fun to tinker with, and the matches look good with improved animations compared to FM24. But SI desperately need to stamp out the bugs and seriously polish the UI. I really hope they can do it because I need my FM fix!