All about FM 2010

Sports Interactive has done it again. The London based studio has been tinkering with Football Manager's interface for the second time in as many years. Last time this happened, in FM08, the sensation was something like going into your local supermarket only to find that the floor plan had been completely rearranged. This year, it's more like going to your usual place of work one morning to discover that the cubicle layout has been replaced by an open-plan office setup with empty spaces where racks of files used to be and a smiley faced young secretary in place of the withering old lady who looked like her next cigarette could be her last.

Football Manager's continual efforts to modernise have this time come at the expense of the game's navigational sidebar, which has been a staple of the series for decades, providing easy access to your team's squad interface, competition info, and manager options to name but a few. Navigating to these parts of the game is now catered for by tabs across the top of the interface, providing a setup that looks more like a Microsoft Office program than it does the FMs of old. Still, Sports Interactive has been gradually moving the interface in this direction for a few years now, so the transition is actually easier to get used to than you might initially think.

Joining these changes to the basic interface is an all-new setup for team tactics, which borrows from the Touchline Shouts feature of FM Live to produce a complete overhaul of the old tactics system. The new setup is confusing and frustrating at first - tactical sliders have been thrown out in favour of a team "philosophy" and "starting strategy", while the stalwart system of commanding player runs on the right mouse button is also a thing of the past. Replacing it is a system of micro-management for each player, which asks the manager whether their striker is a "complete forward" or "goal poacher", if their midfielder is of the "box to box" or "ball winning" archetypes, or whether a particular central defender should drop into cover while the other has the freedom to move forward.

Some of these man management options were possible in the old system (in some form at least), although it's worth acknowledging that the new tactics system brings a wealth of new options to the table as well. For those gamers who really can't stand the change though, there's always the option to turn off the new system and revert back, although doing this comes at the expense of the new Touchline Shouts feature. This goes hand in hand with the starting strategy we mentioned earlier, and allows you to make slight changes from within FM's 3D match engine while a game is playing out.

There are a wide variety of options from the list of shouts, from the likes of "exploit the flanks" to "push higher up" and "get stuck in". All of them will tweak your style of play slightly but perhaps in more subtle ways than was previously possible, allowing you to apply finer strokes than was possible with the old tactics system. All of this benefits a particular type of FM player - the sort of manager who hasn't indulged himself in the deeper side of FM's micro-management options until now. If you're the type of player who sets the team formation and strategy of your side at the start of a season, and then won't change them unless you're forced to by injuries, then we're talking about you.

FM2010 dishes out a much more streamlined entry into these areas of micro-management, encouraging players to tailor their tactics around each team they face rather than sticking with the same old routines. This is also the case with FM2010's backroom staff, the assistant manager of which will now arrange regular meetings for you to attend that coral all of the relevant staff issues and present them as simple yes or no answers for you to sign-off on. When you couple this with the improvements made to the tactical side of the game, it's fair to say that FM's interface is more user-friendly at its deeper levels this year. Even if it might raise a few eyebrows from seasoned players at first, it'll most definitely please more basic players of the game by easing them into the game's more complicated areas.

The headlining new addition to the series this year is the Match Analysis Tool, which provides a breakdown of how your team - and specific players within that team - have performed during a game. From a simple top-down pitch diagram, it's possible to view the range of passes, shots, and runs that a player has made during a game, where they've made them from, and how successful they were when they did. The tool is very similar in style to Champ Man's ProZone tool, which has been in the series for a few years now and we're inclined to think that Football Manager's tool doesn't quite have the level of statistical depth that ProZone has reached, although it's still a welcome addition to the FM series nonetheless.

And then there's the all-important 3D match engine, which added so much to last year's game but, in hindsight (once we'd played over 30 hours of FM2009 in the weeks following its release), also took so much away. Annoying glitches, such as inactive goalkeepers during penalties, players that dawdled for long periods at set-pieces, and a tendency for players to take excessive amounts of over-optimistic long shots, didn't help the long-term appeal of an engine that was still very much in its infancy. This year, player animations have seen the most sizeable improvement overall. With Champ Man taking such huge strides forward with its match engine this year, it was important for Football Manager to compete on the same level and it has certainly achieved this in FM2010.

Player animations are perhaps not quite as detailed as their Champ Man counterparts, although FM's 3D engine is animated in a more refined form for the most part. FM2010 avoids the overly floppy legs of players when shooting or hyper-acute dribbling turns that were sometimes suffered in Champ Man's 2010's engine, although it's got to be said that there are marked similarities between the two engines as well. In an interview with TVG earlier this year, Champ Man's General Manager, Roy Meredith revealed that one of the lead animators on their team was poached by Sports Interactive at some point along the line this year, which is no doubt a sizeable factor in the marked improvement to FM's engine. However, there's still evidence of teething problems with it as well.

When we've been playing through FM2010 matches, we've noticed that most opposition sides will regularly send up only three or four attackers for a corner. Conversely, when we had a corner ourselves, our team would send up six or seven players, which is the standard amount for a corner (with the fullbacks and a defensive midfielder hanging back). Hopefully this is the sort of problem that can be rectified with patches because we'd hate to see the improvements of this year's engine be marred by simple errors, which was arguably the game's main problem last year. Nonetheless, while FM's engine may not be as detailed and dynamic as Champ Man's this year, it's more simplistic animation arguably makes it perform more solidly in some key areas (such as in-and-around-the-box when the action gets dense).

Although Sports Interactive has added Touchline Shouts and the Match Analysis Tool this year, we can't help but think that the series is still crying out for more innovation. Perhaps we wouldn't be saying this if Champ Man hadn't done such a sterling job of delivering new ideas and features in this year's game. Maybe we're being a bit unfair on a series that's always taken the wise path of gradual evolution over revolutionary back-of-the-box features. Still, Champ Man has raised the bar this year with features such as creating your own set-pieces and Eidos has certainly placed the ball firmly in Sports Interactive's court for next year's round of games. As always though, Football Manager's superior database and transfer market still make it the most well-founded footie management sim available.

Football Manager Handheld 2010

It's still the best solution for Football Manager addicts who simply have to play the game at every available opportunity, and it's still a good source for on-the-go scouting of FM's database that you can then apply to the main game when you get home. However, there's no avoiding the fact that FM Handheld still plays suspiciously like a Championship Manager game from the turn of the century.

The PSP's lack of internal memory, processing power, and RAM are the main factors that will limit the FM Handheld series from ever becoming a substantial complement to its much bigger brother on PC. Thinly veiled gameplay that seems to react more to your decisions like a random throw of the dice than a complex set of stats, as well as sweet-spot formation settings that encourage a rinse-and-repeat action from one game to the next, make FM Handheld's formula thoroughly outdated (albeit one that retains the classic addiction levels of late nineties/early noughties Champ Man sessions).

This year's instalment remains largely the same as last year's game, although you will find slight improvements here and there. Player comparison screens have been implemented, while scouting and coach reports have been more tightly bound into the game, but Sports Interactive's claims that the AI of its 2D match engine is much improved are vastly overstated. The engine (which still doesn't run continuously and is only available at specified goal scoring opportunities) will still throw up crazy anomalies, such as a striker only having the keeper to beat and then passing the ball 20 yards back to a teammate. Similarly, goal scoring opportunities tend to be formulaic with set-piece templates that crop up overly frequently and players that simply stop moving on the pitch once they've passed the ball on.

In a few words, if you simply have to play Football Manager at any given opportunity (or you own a PSP but not a PC) then FM handheld 2010 might be worth a punt. Otherwise, stick to the main PC game.

Wonderkids and Young Talented Lists

1. -10 Potential Ability

Goalkeepers

-Alphonse Areola - PSG

Defenders

- Nicolas Otamendi - Velez

Midfielders

- Eduardo Salvio - Lanus
- Martin Galvan - Cruz Azul
- Toni Kroos - Bayern Muenchen

Strikers

- Mario Balotelli

2. -9 Potential Ability

Goalkeepers

Zakarie Boucher - Havre
Bill Hamid - D.C. Utd
Josh Lambo - Dallas
Vincenzo Fiorillo - Sampdoria
Matej Delac - Chelsea
Luis Guilherme - Botafogo
Damian Martinez - Independiente
Silviu Lung jr - Craiova
Asmir Begovic - Portsmouth

Defenders

Renan Diego - Cruzeiro
Cristian Ansaldi - Rubin Kazan
Davide Santon - Inter Milan
Sebastien Corchia - Le Mans
Daniel Opare - Real Madrid
Rafael - Man Utd
Joao Paulo - Fluminense
Jeremy Helan - Man City
Timothee Kolodzieczak - Lyon
Dodo - Corinthians
Joe Mattock - West Brom
Fabio - Man Utd
Jordan Spence - West Ham
Mateo Musacchio - Villarreal
Leandro Cabrera - At. Madrid
Andrea Esposito - Genoa
Brek Shea - Dallas
Havard Nordtveit - Arsenal
Marek Suchy - Slavia Prague
Damel Situ - Lens
Dennis Appiah - Monaco
Marc Muniesa - Barcelona
Jorge Pulido - At. Madrid
Lorenzo Ariaudo - Juventus
Kyriakos Papadopoulos - Olympiakos
Rafhael - Figueirense
Gerson - Gremio
Emir Faccioli - Argentina
Ezequiel Munoz - Boca Juniors
Sidnei - Benfica
Alessandro Tuia - Lazio
Juan Forlin - Espanyol
Simon Kjaer - Palermo

Midfielders

Franco Zuculini - Hoffenheim
Arturo Vidal - Bayer Leverkusen
Necip Uysal - Besiktas
Koke - At. Madrid
Ignacio Camacho - At. Madrid
Adrien - Sporting CP
Lorenzo Crisetig - Inter Milan
Andrea Poli - Sampdoria
Lars Bender - Bayer Leverkusen
Omar Benzerga - Lille
Lukman Haruna - Monaco
Tinga - Ponte Preta
Torric - Hearts of Oak
Bruno Zuculini - Racing Club
Rodney Sneijder - Ajax
Alexandre Coeff - Lens
Fabian Delph - Aston Villa
Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal
Jose McEachran - Chelsea
Roman Zozulya - Dinamo
Deniz Naki - St. Pauli
Dudu - Cruzeiro
Joel Acosta - Boca Juniors
Keko - At. Madrid
Adem Ljajic - Man Utd
Stephan El Shaarawy - Genoa
Clement Grenier - Lyon
Ravel Morrison - Man Utd
Oscar - Sao Paulo
Erick Flores - Flamango
Vladimir Weiss - Man City
Bernardo - Cruzeiro
Sotiris Ninis - Panathinaikos
Marco D'Alessandro - Roma
Gael Nlundulu - Portsmouth
James Rodriguez - Banfield
Alan Gatagov - Lokomotiv Moskow
Gael Kakuta - Chelsea
Zezinho - Juventude
Douglas Costa - Gremio
Angel Di Maria - Benfica
Antoine N'Gossan - Mimosas
Willian - Shakhtar Donetsk
Sergio Mota - Sao Paulo
Yago - Juventus
Diego Buonanotte - River Plate
Jack Wilshere - Arsenal
German Pacheco - At. Madrid
Guido Marilungo - Sampdoria
Mauricio - Villarreal
Daniel Sturridge - Chelsea
Savio - Fiorentina
Gerardo Bruna - Liverpool
Jefferson Montero - Villarreal
Celso Borges - Fredrikstad
Emre Colak - Galatasaray
Daniel Parejo - Getafe
Thiago - Barcelona
Jano Ananidze - Spartak Moscow
Alan Dzagoev - CSKA Moscow
Edgar Ivan Pacheco - Atlas
Marco Verratti - Pescara
Mario Gotze - Dortmund
Yacine Brahimi - Rennais
Levan Kenia - Schalke
Rabiu Ibrahim - Sporting CP
Davide Petrucci - Man Utd
Adam Pepper - Liverpool
Jonjo Shelvey - Charlton Ath
Javier Pastore - Palermo
Patricio Rodriguez - Independiente
Albin Ekdal - Juventus
John Bostock - Tottenham
Mauro Formica - Newell's Old Boys
Daniel Pacheco - Liverpool
Jung-Bin Lee -
Harris Vuckic - Newcastle Utd
Luc Castaignos - Feyenoord
Maxim Choupo-Moting - Hamburg
Felix Kroos - Hansa Rostock
Damien Le Tallec - Dortmund
Sambou Yatabare - Caen
Andrej Kramaric - Dinamo Zagreb
Marquinhos - Internacional
Nikao - Brasa
Coutinho - Vasco
Marcelinho - Corinthians
Walter - Internacional
Eden Hazard - Lille
Fernando Forestieri - Genoa
Odion Ighalo - Udinese

Strikers

Chris Gadi - Marseille
Abel Hernandez - Palermo
Eren Derdiyok - Leverkusen
Alberto Bueno - Valladolid
Ahmed Khalil - Al-Ahli
Matias Defederico - Corinthians
Jonathan Cristaldo - Velez
Gabriel Rodriguez - Boca Juniors
Ishak Belfodil - Lyon
Terence Makengo - Monaco
Jozy Altidore - Villarreal
Sercan Yildirim - Bursaspor
Batuhan Karadeniz - Besiktas
Iker Muniain - Bilbao
Borja Baston - At. Madrid
Denis Alibec - Inter Milan
Alipio - Real Madrid
Raul Nava - Deportivo Toluca
Khouma Babacar - Fiorentina
Giacomo Beretta - A.C. Milan
Alberto Paloschi - Parma
Mattia Destro - Inter Milan
Krisztian Nemeth - Liverpool
Yannis Tafer - Lyon
Lauri Dalla Valle - Liverpool
Ransford Osei - Maccabi Haifa
Macauley Chrisantus - Hamburg
Aaron Spear - Newcastle Utd
Nathan Delfouneso - Aston Villa
Danny Welbeck - Man Utd
Vaclav Kadlec - Sparta Prague
Tomas Necid - CSKA Moscow
Wellington Silva - Fluminense
Romelu Lukaku - Anderlecht
Philipp Prosenik - Chelsea
Daniel Villalva - River Plate
Alex Nimely-Tchuimeni - Man City
Vincent Acapendie - Auxerre
Federico Macheda - Man Utd
Adrian - Deportivo La Coruna
Ettore Mendicino - Lazio

3. Fixed Potential Ability 170 - 200 (21 and under)

189 - Aguero - Atletico Madrid
187 - Pato - AC Milan
186 - Benzema - Real Madrid
186 - Pjanic - Lyon
184 - Sakho - PSG
182 - Hamsik - Napoli
180 - Marin - Werder Bremen
180 - Sissoko - Toulouse
180 - Sanchez - Udinese
178 - Higuain - Real Madrid
178 - Ozil - Werder Bremen
177 - Jovetic - Fiorentina
177 - Neymar - Santos
176 - Asenjo - Atletico Madrid
175 - Anderon - Man Utd
175 - Capoue - Toulouse
175 - Feghouli - Grenoble
174 - Evans - Man Utd
174 - Marcelo - Real Madrid
174 - Boateng - HSV
174 - Vela - Arsenal
173 - Paulo Henrique - Sanots
172 - Renato Augusto - Leverkusen
172 - Walcott - Arsenal
172 - Rakitic - Schalke 04
172 - Mata - Valencia
170 - Aissati - Ajax
170 - Bojan - Barcelona
170 - Papastathopoulos - Genoa
170 - Guilherme - Dinamo Kiev
170 - Breno - Bayern
170 - Keirrison - Barcelona
170 - Bale - Tottenham
170 - Fatic - Genoa
170 - Witsel - Standard Leige
170 - Obertan - Man Utd
170 - Chantome - PSG
170 - Boudebouz - Sochaux
170 - N'Koulou - Monaco
170 - Asamoah - Udinese
170 - Perotti - Sevilla
170 - Camilleri - Reggina
170 - Mollo - Monaco
170 - Sukuta-Pasu - Leverkusen
170 - Jose Angel - Real Sporting

4. Fixed Potential Ability 160 - 169 (21 and under)

169 - Kuzmanovic - Stuttgart
169 - Toprak - Freiburg
168 - Kalinic - Blackburn
168 - Yttergard - Tromso
168 - Acquafresca - Genoa
168 - Di Gennaro - AC Milan
168 - Defour - Standard Leige
168 - Skavysh - BATE
168 - Dentinho - Corinthians
168 - Sandro - Internacional
168 - Rodwell - Everton
168 - Subotic - Dortmund
167 - Cissokho - Lyon
167 - Sahin - Dortmund
167 - Golasa - Maccabi Haifa
167 - Isla - Udinese
166 - Bendtner - Arsenal
166 - Fellaini - Everton
166 - Agbossoumonde - Miami FC
165 - Lewandowski - Lech Poznan
165 - Beerens - Heerenveen
165 - Freddy Adu - Benfica
165 - De Silvestri - Fiorentina
165 - Felipe - Santos
165 - Cattermole - Sunderland
165 - Capel - Sevilla
165 - Bakar - AS Nancy
165 - Nestor - Havre Athletic
165 - Ospina - OGC Nice
165 - Agyemang - Al-Sadd
165 - Gohi Bi - Standard Leige
165 - Insua - Liverpool
165 - Alaba - Bayern
165 - Giuliano - Internacional
165 - Taison - Internacional
165 - Badelj - Dinamo
165 - Dossevi - Le Mans
165 - M'Bengue - Toulouse
165 - Ecuela - Angers SCO
165 - Gueye - Strasbourg
165 - Kabore - Marseille
165 - Schwaab - Leverkusen
165 - Badstuber - Bayern
165 - Gadir - Maccabi haifa
165 - Bolzoni - Genoa
165 - Zigoni - AC Milan
164 - Javi Martinez - Athletic Club
164 - Raul - Atletico Paranaense
164 - Johnson - Man City
164 - Leo - Gremio
163 - Morimoto - Catania
163 - Gungor - Kayserispor
163 - Willians - EC Vitoria
162 - Marcellis - PSV
162 - Busguets - Barcelona
162 - Richards - Man City
162 - Hummels - Dortmund
162 - Howedes - Schalke 04
162 - Vered - Beitar Jerusalem
161 - Assulin - Barcelona
160 - Denilson - Arsenal
160 - De Guzman - Feyenoord
160 - Barilla - Reggina
160 - Russotto - AC Bellinzona
160 - Mancienne - Chelsea
160 - Collison - West Ham
160 - Sulejmani - Ajax
160 - Mirallas - AS Saint Ettienne
160 - Bolat - Standard Leige
160 - Lamah - Le Mans
160 - Nimani - Monaco
160 - Mongongu - Monaco
160 - Riou - Auxerre
160 - Bocaly - Marseille
160 - Monnet-Paquet - Lens
160 - Mounier - OGC Nice
160 - Kembo-Ekoko - Stade Rennais
160 - Martin - Sochaux
160 - Ayew - Marseille
160 - Chermiti - Hertha Berlin
160 - Diamande - ASEC Mimosas
160 - Echiejile - Stade Rennais
160 - Nekhaychik - BATE
160 - Rits - G. Beerschot
160 - Alex Teixeira - Vasco da Gama
160 - Renan - Botafogo
160 - Jorgensen - FC Kobenhavn
160 - Gibbs - Arsenal
160 - Sako - AS Saint Ettienne
160 - Fanchone - RC Strasbourg
160 - Ayite - Bordeaux
160 - N'Diaye - AS Nancy
160 - Traore - Bordeaux
160 - Kana-Biyik - Havre Athletic
160 - Khazri - SC Bastia
160 - Gassama - Lyon
160 - Muller - Bayern
160 - Prib - Greuther Furth
160 - Simao - Panathinaikos
160 - Aubameyang - AC Milan
160 - Grimaudo -
160 - Diouf - Man utd
160 - Matic - Chelsea
160 - Alba - Valencia
160 - Lustenberger - Hertha Berlin
160 - Doubai - CD Universidad Catolica
160 - Leudo - CD La Equidad
160 - Cuadrado - Udinese
160 - Hyland - SV Zulte Waregem
160 - Toure - US Boulogne Cote d'Opale