Football Manager 2021

Football Manager 2021 may not revolutionise the series, but instead it adds countless quality-of-life improvements – including ones to the match engine – that make it the best Football Manager game to date.

Football Manager 2021 is by far the closest representation to the beautiful game you can find. With an improved matchday engine, improved AI and even more datapoints than ever before, all represented in a more digestible method, making it more accessible than ever before. However, there's still no doubt that the series is still going to have a high barrier to entry, and it has some irritating issues, such as repetition in the press conferences and other interaction aspects. Issues aside, this is yet another improvement and superior entry to the series.

Football Manager 2020 is another confirmation of Sports Interactive’s ability in crafting a great title every year. No revolution is to be expected, but many smaller improvements bring the game ever closer to technical perfection. FM 2021 is clean and optimized, probably also thanks to the fact that the game will also release on Xbox One and Series X|S.

Football Manager 2021 combines the best elements of previous games and undergoes a dramatic improvement that cuts deeper than the superficial. It’s heavy, detailed, and been given a new texture by a more personal take on management.

Football Manager 2021 is a continual improvement over its predecessor. While not doing anything that radically shifts the dial, this latest addition further improves the user experience and gives even more ways to set up and run a successful football team. With a 3D match engine that is really starting to do a great job at bringing the action to life, and further touches of realism to player and media interactions, there's enough innovation here for fans to jump onboard. Social life be warned, FM21 is a fantastic time sink and once stuck inside, it's hard to get out.

It still has its quirks, but this year's Football Manager is the best one yet.

Football Manager 2021 is a very good management game. It offers more options than before, takes up more time than ever, delivers such an accurate take on the real-world sport that it is sometimes unnerving. It also makes it a little harder to create truly alternate worlds, like one where Wrexhman wins the Premier League. For those who want something that moves faster and is more focused on just tactics, the Touch version of the game is a better choice. I love the depth that the series has been adding and I don’t mind playing at the most 3 or 4 seasons in one run. But for those who want 20 year-long attempts at greatness, with plenty of regens and takeovers, delegation and quick matches are the right way to go. Football Manager 2021 is a game best enjoyed a few virtual matches a night, preferably with some real-world football in the background, wondering whether you can get Fulham out of that bind (maybe, in a season or three) or if you can be the one to lead 1. FC Koln to greatness (it might take a decade).

With Football Manager 2021, Sports Interactive have once again delivered a game that countless fans will happily be pouring hundreds of hours of their lives into.

Despite a lack of big ticket new features Football Manager 2021 delivers its best ever matchday experience and the series’ most realistic on-pitch simulation of football.

Football Manager 2021 is a deep, detailed football management sim that rewards you for paying attention to your team. From the board of directors to your under-18 team, if you are willing to put in the time to achieve success, every win reaps tons of satisfaction.

There are very few new features in this year's Football Manager but the game's match engine is the star of the show. The graphical upgrade is slight but numerous improvements in AI and animation make the beautiful game more beautiful than ever before.

This is the most ambitious, realistic and deep entry in the series, with tweaks that make our actions more meaningful that ever.

FM 2021 offers no groundbreaking innovations, but this year it is better than ever where it really matters: on the pitch.

Football Manager 2021 fully retains the soul of this franchise with a history of more than 20 years, which only develops gradually in some details. It is not suitable for all players, and even many players who love football will be dismissed. Only those who really want to become hardcore football fans are willing to patiently study and fall in love with this game.

Football Manager 2021 is still the undisputed king of the soccer management sim. It's sheer content and the new features added this year make this opus a must-have for every soccer fan.

The pandemic didn't stop the folks at Sports Interactive: even this year, their product is the undisputed king in the genre it created. A deep and rewarding medicine for all the weeks spent indoors.

With a newfound litheness on the pitch and deep data analysis, FM21 gives you an easy excuse to relapse.

Football Manager 2021 is the best episode ever of the series on the pitch, where the experience is nearly perfect in terms of simulation, while off the pitch the game has really a clumsy and obnoxious user interface. Overall, the experience is great and the football world feels tense, realistic and dynamic as never before, but there's still more room to improve the game in terms of narration, flow and emotional storytelling.

Football Manager 2021 introduces some features and improvements that make it a bit more realistic and enjoyable, but it is hard for me to recommend buying it if you own the last year’s edition. As a whole, FM2020 might not be as good as its successor, but it is not much different in the most important aspect – both games are ridiculously addictive. [01/2021, p.52]

It’s been a long time since we attended university. When our parents asked what we did when we were supposed to have been studying, we always replied by saying we were making a statistical analysis of To Madeira and Tsigalko. Little did they know they were cult players in the addictive first versions of Football manager.

After years of waiting, we’ve finally gotten to feel like we’re not just getting updated lists, but a really improved part to spend a few hundred hours with. Baby steps. [Issue#308]

Football Manager 2021 has done something that great managers do: it has acknowledged its weaknesses and improved upon them without completely rocking the boat.

Football Manager 2021 is another great entry into the franchise, with minor improvements from last year coupled with some major changes. The immersion and depth make for a rewarding experience.

Football Manager 21 may not look like a revolutionary entry, but the sum of its advancements, the new analytic tools, and the numerous improvements inside the match engine are enough to keep you hooked again for hundreds of hours.

A game that is both more accessible to newcomers and even deeper for old hands. Most importantly it continues to improve in its storytelling and humanity, providing a richer escape to fantasy football at a time we need it the most.

By making some interesting changes and staying true to its nature, with its solid database, Football Manager 2021 is, as expected, the game that every football fan will need and play, without being disappointed.

Difficult to revolutionize a beast that is already running at full speed. On the tracks traced by its last two successful seasons, Football Manager 2021 is still as intense and complete to be the drug of budding sports directors. Celestial in its construction, more aesthetic in its in-game interface, the title is a bit more exuberant through the addition of interactions. 3D modeling is still the point with Football Manager's big room for improvement, and we hope that Sports Interactive will quickly pass this new milestone to mark its time even more.

The novelties of the annual edition, as expected, are not substantial, yet they contribute to the growth and improvement of a complete and extremely dedicated formula not only to realism and simulation, but also to involvement.

A noticeable improvement over last year's installment. Football Manager 2021 addresses many of my personal peeves with the series whilst keeping the core design philosophy of the franchise intact. However, it is lacking a little in the way of new game-changing features and the few added haven't been implemented too well.

Still addictive as ever, but some of the new features don't seem so convincing.