Football Manager 2020

 PC
User Score
6.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 137 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 137
  2. Mixed: 30 out of 137
  3. Negative: 42 out of 137

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  1. MaiklGuz
    Dec 18, 2019
    2
    The game engine is completely broken. On the forum of the game there are a lot of complaints, endless casts on horseback from defenders and endless one-on-one exits. This game is not about football, but about ping pong
  2. claudiufulga
    Jan 1, 2020
    4
    Maybe SI will read this and want to understand why this has come about and how to improve this going forward. At this stage I highly doubt I will be making another purchase of Football Manager. I am saying this after playing this for nearly 20 years, year after year buying the game and supporting the studio as best as I can.

    My major gripes. They are ALL match engine related. Without    Maybe SI will read this and want to understand why this has come about and how to improve this going forward. At this stage I highly doubt I will be making another purchase of Football Manager. I am saying this after playing this for nearly 20 years, year after year buying the game and supporting the studio as best as I can.

    My major gripes. They are ALL match engine related. Without being a pessimist here, or being too harsh - but this is the worst match engine I have seen from SI in many years. It's horrible. Really awful experience and all successful tactics are exploiting these through balls which are totally overpowered.

    1. Jesus - the amount of one on ones in this game is just out of this world.
    2. See point 1. Defenders are appalling. Absolutely trash defending, especially reacting and defending of long balls, through balls, rogue clearances that all become xavi/pirlo like through balls.
    3. The very odd occurance of my own player (Haaland) missing most of his one on ones. Yet the AI runs one on one twice and slots both away.
    4. My team has the most accurate shots on target ratio in the league. 54% of our shots are on target. We have been averaging 30-50 shots per game. Absolutely insane domination, insane shooting accuracy. We have insane amount of clear cut chances, mostly one on ones. There is literally nothing more I can do, when I have 25+ shots ON TARGET in a game - and players like Haaland or Cutrone are missing either one on ones or shots from 2 yards out. Then I lose the match 3-1 at home to a team who had 2 shots on target and scored with both. It is NOT my tactic. It is your game. I have run countless test saves now, with tactics from FMBASE, those reported to be the best tactics - and the issue remains.
    5. Players who are quick and have good dribbling are OVERPOWERED. They dribble past defenders and run on into the box. Then they won't even pass to open players just standing unmarked, nope. They will shoot from silly angles.
    6. Heading in this game is woeful. Woeful from defending positions and woeful from attacking positions. Rarely do you see headed goals from crosses. Most of the time their headers are going straight up and over.
    7. Did I mention defending? Yeh it doesn't exist in this version of the game. It is absolutely garbage. Might as well not have anyone defending at all.
    8. Slow - big and strong strikers are useless. It's all about having quick players.
    9. The game is now too heavily focused around Gegenpress. It just takes Liverpool and Klopp to do well with this for it to be suddenly overpowered. A few years ago it was Tiki Taka. The match engine needs to stop being altered to cater for whatever is in style tactically. We should be able to create our own styles. I for one had successful tactics on the workshop for years. My tactics are now garbage. The way I win now, is by being FORCED to exploit the engine's pressing/long balls and through balls. Still - even with that - I see games where I totally dominate, literally statistics are perfection - but the AI wins with just 2 shots. It doesn't make sense. If I have had 20+ shots on target and 14 one on ones. A few should go in right?? On the other side of the coin - I have had sides dominate me and I have scored with just a handful of shots. Most of the goals and chances I see on all the highlights of every round - are one on one chances. This as stated, needs to be fixed.

    Sorry for the rant, but I love this game and if we are not vocal about it, this game will die. I still think FM is one of the greatest games ever made - life would be a lot less enjoyable without it. I am grateful for its existence but without us fans, it wouldn't exist either.    … Expand
  3. Gesib
    Jan 14, 2020
    0
    Can't understand the reviews that don't acknowledge the massive ME flaws. Whatever perfect user interface you have, whatever scouting all around the world is done, all matters when you get to the match engine and you play a game. And it's not enjoyable at all when you see defenders failing to clean the easy balls over the top, strikers with 18 finishing failing over and over again to scoreCan't understand the reviews that don't acknowledge the massive ME flaws. Whatever perfect user interface you have, whatever scouting all around the world is done, all matters when you get to the match engine and you play a game. And it's not enjoyable at all when you see defenders failing to clean the easy balls over the top, strikers with 18 finishing failing over and over again to score one on ones. Wingers shooting at any possible angle, while could just pass to a player who can just tap in...
    And for ffs update the press conferences and team talks. For a game that had to pay 54 € would expect something more from the developers.    … Expand
  4. emilian079
    Jun 20, 2020
    1
    I've been playing every version of fm since 2015 and regrettably I must say this version is the worse.

    The match engine is so bad that I cannot even describe it in words. You can literally count on your fingers the ways you can score in a match: 1. set pieces, 2. crosses, 3. first time shots, 4. rebounds. THAT'S IT. Also, in 9/10 matches you dominate the game and by that I mean you have    I've been playing every version of fm since 2015 and regrettably I must say this version is the worse.

    The match engine is so bad that I cannot even describe it in words. You can literally count on your fingers the ways you can score in a match: 1. set pieces, 2. crosses, 3. first time shots, 4. rebounds. THAT'S IT. Also, in 9/10 matches you dominate the game and by that I mean you have 15+ shots on target while the opposition barely gets 3 and for some reason you lose 1-0, draw, or best case scenario win by one or two goals. And this has nothing to do with the players or the tactics because I'm telling players to work ball into box and shoot less often while my strikers have 16+ finishing and yet still miss big clear cut chances that in real life would be converted without much effort especially when they are world class strikers. This happens too frequently now and it got to the point where it's just too disgusting to still be playing.

    Not to mention the tactics system which is also terribly weak developed. If you are playing this fm, let me just save you the effort and tell you that the only tactical style that gets you points is the gegenpress. Forget about any other tactical style because it won't work even if you spend hours studying other tactics that in real life would get you results. To give you an idea of how bad this is, I've implemented a vertical tiki taka style of play to teams like Ajax and Napoli (teams which in real life are extremely efficient using this approach). The results? I got knocked out of the champions league group stage with Ajax while finishing 3rd in Eredivise and with Napoli I finished on the 6th place in Serie A and got knocked out of the cup competitions in the early stages. Completely opposite results of how these teams would normally perform. There is only one tactical style recognised by fm and that ladies and gentlemen is gegenpress.

    All these things should not be part of a game which promotes itself as a real life football simulator because there is still a massive gap of the expectations and what the game actually delivers. With that being said, this version of fm will probably be my last for a long time because it's clear that the developers put no effort in improving this game so why would I continue buying year after year a product which doesn't show any real progress.    … Expand
  5. FlavioSoeiro
    Apr 10, 2020
    0
    Decided to run two easy tests to see how much the match engine is broken. I added another coach to play against my main team (Flamengo).
    1: I put a CB as goalkeeper and Gabriel Barbosa, on of the best brazilian strikers, miss one clear chance in front of the goal.
    2: I altered the tactics of the other team to 442. But it was four midfields, 4 OM and 2 strikers (yeah no CBs and no WBs). I    Decided to run two easy tests to see how much the match engine is broken. I added another coach to play against my main team (Flamengo).
    1: I put a CB as goalkeeper and Gabriel Barbosa, on of the best brazilian strikers, miss one clear chance in front of the goal.
    2: I altered the tactics of the other team to 442. But it was four midfields, 4 OM and 2 strikers (yeah no CBs and no WBs). I suffered a goal from a twenty years old WB playing as deep lying playmaker. His finishig is 6 and the ball entered in top angle, he shoot with his left foot and he is only right feet.
    This game is worse than Covid-19    … Expand
  6. SuperMax156
    Dec 4, 2019
    2
    The yearly release cycle for this game is nothing but a cash grab, but I guess we are all used to that now. Only superficially different from the last game. Unfortunately this game stopped been fun a while back. Its super hard, I don't mind that, but this game seems bizarrely hard. I still play FM 12. Not as complex but more enjoyable.
  7. manotech
    Dec 5, 2019
    4
    Let the following: I'm in November, playing with a contender in a medium European league, best attack in the league, have won all games great dynamics, most games opponents don't even have one single shot. Out of nowhere my team stops scoring so for three weeks straight I put them in offensive training (modified by the addition of further chance creating and finalization) (I have 4 1/2Let the following: I'm in November, playing with a contender in a medium European league, best attack in the league, have won all games great dynamics, most games opponents don't even have one single shot. Out of nowhere my team stops scoring so for three weeks straight I put them in offensive training (modified by the addition of further chance creating and finalization) (I have 4 1/2 stars in offensive coaches). In this period my team scored a grand total of ZERO goals in 250+ shots made, despite having 5 VAR offside goals and 3 missed penalties. In this period I played in Europa League against a team so bad that my scouts can't produce a single piece of data and still despite having 73% possession, 33 shoots, 18 of which on target.… Expand
  8. bobboll
    Jan 14, 2020
    1
    I'll make it straight and simple: this year the Match Engine is completely broken. SI knows it since Early Acces, but it apparently doesn't care. 1V1 are always missed, no-one passes the ball to free team-mates (players always prefer to shoot from impossible angles), every long throw goes to the attackers.

    That's not football. That's not a "working game". It's already half    I'll make it straight and simple: this year the Match Engine is completely broken. SI knows it since Early Acces, but it apparently doesn't care. 1V1 are always missed, no-one passes the ball to free team-mates (players always prefer to shoot from impossible angles), every long throw goes to the attackers.

    That's not football. That's not a "working game". It's already half January!!!!!!!!!

    They should be ashamed and the supposed "critics" should be even more. How is it possible that no critics at all revised all these problems? Just go to the SI blog to check out the anger from ppl who bought the game.    … Expand
  9. badmark
    Nov 20, 2019
    0
    This game followed the path of FIFA
    Same old game in a new shell
    i don't recommend it
  10. Karel86
    Jan 23, 2020
    4
    I have bought this game since Football Manager 2010, every version every year. And this one is absolutely one of the worst, if not the worst. Every match atleast 60-70% of the time my team always has more chances, more possesions and way more shots. But score no goals what so ever. I tried a lot of different tactics but nothing works. I never been of the best in this game but I playI have bought this game since Football Manager 2010, every version every year. And this one is absolutely one of the worst, if not the worst. Every match atleast 60-70% of the time my team always has more chances, more possesions and way more shots. But score no goals what so ever. I tried a lot of different tactics but nothing works. I never been of the best in this game but I play average of atleast 400 hours each version or more. I was at Arsenal and I left for I got fired I took Bolton Wanderes at Npower League 2 I play a FA Cup match with 11 vs10 men from minute 16 on and still lose 0-3. Other examples I had I was in my second season with Heracles Almelo the Dutch Eredvisie club the objective was to qualify for Champions League!! CL!! This dutch team never even in the world and in real life ever has been in Europa League alone or let alone finish higher then 6th. And I forget the most important negative about this version of FM... The Goal Keepers are like God in this game. A lot of the time they get rated a 7,5, 8 or sometimes even a 9 out of 10. Almost impossible to score 1 on 1. Ofcourse goal keepers can be and are good with football/soccer but this time it's insane.… Expand
  11. robldux
    Jan 24, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is just horrible.
    This is my first experience in FM, and I am very disappointed. Yes, the management stuff looks realistic, but matches are just disaster. And I am not saying this because I am failing. Quite the opposite. I won Segunda with Zaragoza, and almost won a ECL qualification next season (1 points behind). So why am I unsatisfied?
    Every match my players shoot 20-30 times, and near 30% on target. But I always win 1-0, or 2-1. My players are getting one on ones 4-5 times every game, but they only score one time (and sometimes they don't even score at all). Also, it's very obvious that some part of the season my team is weaker, just because of the so called "realism". My team may have 200 shots in one month and score 2 goals, while my finishers are 15 and 16 skilled of finishing. Yet my opponents shoot 6-7 times, and win or get a draw. Also, with my Zaragoza squad I won Barcelona's first squad 4-0, but then at spanish cup, against one man down Eibar, 37 shots, 1 goal, while Eibar did 4 shots and 1 goal. And during the penalty shootout the players who messed up all the 100% goal situations, missed the penalty shots. Now look at my eyes, and tell me honestly if this game is not scripted. I was happy to find a game that I was enjoying. And again, my career is going quite successful there. My complaint is that if your positioning as a game is "realism", it must also indicate to the matches, not only the management and transfer window (I will not describe how bad is it again. Players got no ambitions, they are so easy to transfer if your team got the money).
    Please make good FM 21, cuz this one is a huge fail.    … Expand
  12. Jokunen
    Mar 6, 2020
    1
    Do this game series a favor and dont pre-order fm 2021. Buy it earliest feb or March. ME is going worse and worse every year. Its time as customers to make a difference and send message to SI. Tell them that you cant release unfinished products anymore.
  13. EdwinFr
    Aug 6, 2020
    2
    Very poor, match engine completely broken, feels random and not fun,

    game crashed and all saves corrupted.

    Don't bother with it
  14. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    0
    Football manager barely changes anything and republishes their game for full price. Greedy cheap basterds. The game database is great, but if you play for long enough and understand the mechanics the game becomes easy to beat, because it requires little adaption to the opponent and the scouting system is easy to game. There is also always some game breaking problem, such as crossingsFootball manager barely changes anything and republishes their game for full price. Greedy cheap basterds. The game database is great, but if you play for long enough and understand the mechanics the game becomes easy to beat, because it requires little adaption to the opponent and the scouting system is easy to game. There is also always some game breaking problem, such as crossings working insanely well.… Expand
  15. Umperio
    Mar 9, 2020
    3
    Long data fan of the Football Manager series here.

    Don't believe critic reviews - most of them got the game for free and wrote the review shortly after no more than 2 hours playing, and half of the reviews came out on the official release date or even before! FM20 is a big NO for me. I pre-ordered it in October 2019, but as of March 9th 2020 I wouldn't buy it again - and I am    Long data fan of the Football Manager series here.

    Don't believe critic reviews - most of them got the game for free and wrote the review shortly after no more than 2 hours playing, and half of the reviews came out on the official release date or even before!

    FM20 is a big NO for me.
    I pre-ordered it in October 2019, but as of March 9th 2020 I wouldn't buy it again - and I am convinced at the current date I won't buy FM21 since Sports Interactive disappointed me, once again.

    When the game beta was first released, we all knew it was full of bugs - it was a beta, it was understandable.
    Then the game was released, and still some of those bugs were still in. But that's ok, they needed time to fix what was broken in beta.
    4 months from the official release date, we've come to the latest patch and still many and many bugs are featured in the match engine, in the interface and in the online.
    What's more, Sports Interactive officially announced on its forums that game development for the current title has been stopped.

    Now, I can acknowledge people and resources are limited, but Sports Interactive has to acknowledge that several of the bugs FM20 features come from previous titles of the series - and it is poor thing they couldn't fix them.

    Some bugs are featured in the user interface - little thing tho.
    Many bugs are featured in the online part - and that's quite annoying since you might be forced to leave the game under certain occasions.

    Most bugs concern the match engine and there's nothing you can do to avoid them. Match engine itself can be exploited with tactics who know where match engine can be forced and defeated. The whole gaming experience is compromised, unless you're one of those who only want to win the league no matter what.

    User Interface itself is good, and it is so that you won't think about bugs until you take part in a match. That's good, but also some of a decoy.

    However, Sports Interactive is quite content, since there's no other software house developing a football manager game - and they can claim it's the #1 football manager in the world. It's way too easy, when you have no competitors!

    I have very low expectations for the upcoming titles of the series, and I'm so disappointed I will wonder many times whether to buy FM21 or not - I sadly guess not.    … Expand
  16. AjayAgath
    Jan 25, 2020
    1
    Broken game that they tried to reduce how op it was from last year, tactics are pointless and so are player ratings, disgraceful game. Players drop ratings for no reason, 1 on 1’s are so broken, goalkeepers are useless may as well not have one and have made the cpu op, ruined a beloved game, not worth the money you pay and time you put in.
  17. Enerla
    Nov 4, 2020
    0
    How do you spot the obvious cash-grab? When the developer and the publisher don't even try to target new players, don't even pretend to try to attract new players, it is a cash grab. They hope the people who always buy their games will keep paying for more...

    When a player who loves to play various manager, business strategy (or tycoon) games would try to manage a football club in this    How do you spot the obvious cash-grab? When the developer and the publisher don't even try to target new players, don't even pretend to try to attract new players, it is a cash grab. They hope the people who always buy their games will keep paying for more...

    When a player who loves to play various manager, business strategy (or tycoon) games would try to manage a football club in this game and sees this game included with Xbox Game Pass (for PC, or Ultimate) it is easy to downloads this. You start the game and make your profile, where you even say you are inexperienced with the game. Now you have to select which leagues will be active.

    It tells you that too many leagues will be a problem performance-wise. But otherwise? If I want to have friendly matches with international teams, do I have to add their league? If we want to see them in international leagues, do we have to select their national leagues?

    Well, looks like the most inexperienced players should already know that, just to start the game, as these questions are left unanswered. The game is a bit ugly, but we don't play games for their graphics, if we would I wouldn't love OpenTTD so much. But even that game does a better job of explaining the options.

    I see an option to start in "around the present day", and in 2 leagues in my country. If I would assume a new manager, freshly graduated from the relevant university, would have a chance to start with a new team and gather the experience, he or she would start much lower. You can't start with something simple. Even if you would fancy trying the editor (not usual for newbies), you would still manage a highly complex and much larger team. And you would start too late to reach the top tiers of the sport before you would reach the present time.

    While some business simulation is part of the game, other aspects of the business are missing. So for fans of the business strategy/manager/tycoon genre too many features are missing or out of reach for now, and the game assumes you have an in-depth knowledge of the topic.

    For fans of the sport? Most wouldn't be happy with a game that is only a "manager game", and they would still see some local clubs are missing and are restricted to other clubs in bigger leagues. The graphics are ugly, and even seasoned fans complain about the pretty unrealistic behavior of the match engine.

    When fans of the franchise see that sometimes stats and decisions don't make much sense, then new players would have very little chance to learn and understand their importance.    … Expand
  18. Gamercritic777
    Feb 17, 2021
    3
    As long as you do not play matches and care about tactics it is a fun game. If you get inot tactics download a set cheating one as the game is broken
  19. Kludd4Ever
    Jun 6, 2020
    0
    The same as 2019 version or every version before that. No difference then last year.
  20. Marciogalo2000
    Jul 7, 2020
    1
    O jogo tem qualidade, mas uma coisa que desanimou com o jogo é que apenas uma formação realmente funciona, que é com Extremos 4-3-2-1,o resto das formações nenhuma da certo, o time começa à jogar mal sem nenhum sentindo isso, tira a realidade do jogo que é simulafor
  21. AlexMakesToast
    Nov 20, 2022
    3
    FM 20 = 3/10
    ..............................................................

Awards & Rankings

25
#25 Best PC Game of 2019
79
#79 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. Cubed3
    Apr 10, 2020
    90
    Football Manager is still the ultimate football simulation series, and this latest addition makes enough positive changes to keep the gameplay fresh, and improve on some of the minor frustrations of previous entries. With a better UI, enhanced match engine, and some high-quality decisions around player motivations, it is easier than ever to get sucked into hundreds of hours of addictive gameplay. Football Manager 2020 is the perfect game for spending long days in quarantine, as the time will fly by.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Jan 10, 2020
    75
    The 2020 edition is as engrossing as always... but also as irritating as never before – in part because of the quite appalling match engine. [01/2020, p.46]
  3. Gaming Nexus
    Jan 7, 2020
    88
    It won't convert a casual fan of the sport into a rabid follower of the series, but it is one that will take anyone who wanted to live the fantasy of managing a football club and give them every opportunity to find their heart's content.
    Read full review
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