Let’s not beat around the bush. Football Manager 2026 has not been received well. And I’m saying that as someone who is actually enjoying the game, so you know I’m not biased. At the time of writing, FM26’s overall Steam rating is “Mostly Negative”, with roughly 81% of reviews being negative.
For context, the last two Football Manager releases were rated “Overwhelmingly Positive”. Within two hours of launch, over 1,000 reviews had poured in – mostly negative. Just go on Twitter and check the replies under Football Manager’s posts. The level of backlash is enormous. And it’s not like critic reviews are much better either. PC Gamer said the redesigned interface “makes my brain hurt”, comparing it to “someone breaking into the home you’ve lived in for 15 years and rearranging everything.” Meanwhile, AnalogStick Gaming called the new interface “a step backwards in usability.” Clearly, the majority aren’t happy.
Even if you are enjoying FM26, it’s probably because of your love for the series, not the new release itself. You like Football Manager despite FM26, rather than because of it. So, what needs to change? Here’s what I think Sports Interactive needs to fix to start winning people back.
My essential Football Manager 26 changes
Below, I’ve gone through all the key issues SI needs to address – ranging from small tweaks to larger overhauls and additions. We know that SI will likely get around to a number of these, as they have with prior FM26 hotfixes, so the best thing we can do is keep flagging and raising issues.
| User Pain Point | Necessary Fix / Impact on Gameplay |
| 1. Broken UI and Unintuitive Navigation | Fix the back button so it behaves logically. Streamline the interface to eliminate excessive clicks and return to efficient, one-page screens. |
| 2. Persistent Menu Lag and Slowness | Optimize the UI code to eliminate lag and make menus more responsive. The game speed should not rely on community mods. |
| 3. Missing Core Match Analytics & Data | Restore long-time staples like detailed Heat Maps, Pass Maps, and the full Match Analytics Suite to rebuild the game’s famous depth. |
| 4. Lack of In-Match Shouts | Bring back the ability to shout tactical and motivational instructions at players during the match. This adds to the realism and engagement. |
| 5. Broken 4K and Ultrawide Scaling | Fix DPI scaling and reintroduce the zoom slider. Ensure proper support for high-resolution and ultrawide monitors to eliminate a blurry and stretched UI. We’d expect this in a hotfix soon. |
| 6. Fiddly Tactics Screen Usability | Overhaul the drag-and-drop system to make it quick and simple to adjust tactical instructions, fixing the awkward execution of the new possession system. |
| 7. Player Sorting Reset Bug | Stop resetting player order every time a new filter or comparison screen is selected. The sort order should remain consistent for efficient data analysis. |
| 8. Unstable Mod Support | Work with the modding community and ensure mods do not break immediately after every patch. FM has a huge modding community, and stable mod support is vital to the game’s longevity. |
| 9. Poor Community Engagement | Introduce transparent communication methods, such as Dev Diary, to explain why changes are made and provide more context on the cadence of patches and updates. The frequency of hotfixes is a great start. |
1. Fix the UI navigation and the back button
Right now, the redesigned interface is a nightmare and incredibly unintuitive. Core screens are split into pop-ups, forcing you to make twice as many clicks for simple, everyday tasks. The back button often doesn’t do what you expect. Instead of returning to the previous menu, it can jump to a completely unrelated screen.
Even after three hotfixes, navigation remains the single biggest complaint on Steam, Reddit, and Sports Interactive’s own forums. Football Manager’s strength has always been how quickly you could move between scouting, tactics, and data. That rhythm is gone. They need to streamline navigation, bring back one-page screens, and fix the back button so it behaves like every other game in existence.
2. Improve the speed of the UI
Thanks to modders, there’s already a community mod that makes the interface faster and more responsive. But it shouldn’t be on them to fix this. Menus still lag horribly and it feels clunky to click through everything. If modders can make the game faster in under a week, surely Sports Interactive – a studio worth millions – can optimise it properly too.
3. Add back core features or at least make them easier to find
Long-time staples like heat maps, pass maps, and team meetings are either gone or buried deep in the interface. A few features, like player comparisons, have returned via hotfix, but the level of world-building and data depth we had in previous editions is still missing.
Football Manager thrives on detail – that’s what made the series special in the first place. They need to reintroduce the full match analytics suite, restore in-depth comparison tools, and bring back detailed stat pages.
Not everything needs to be simplified, even if that seems to be the trend these days. And if features are still in the game, make them easier to find. There are so many screens that I’ve simply given up on locating because it’s not obvious where they’re hidden.
4. Bring back shouts
Why can’t I shout at my players anymore? If José Mourinho wants to shout at his players in a match, he’s allowed – he’s not sworn to silence. It might not make a huge difference tactically, but it’s another layer of engagement. It makes you feel like a manager who can actually influence the game in real time. At its core, it’s just more realistic. Real managers can speak to their players, and FM should reflect that.
5. Sort out 4K and ultrawide scaling
It’s a mess. On 4K or ultrawide monitors, the game looks blurry and oversized, with no proper zoom or scaling option. Text alignment breaks, and the interface ends up looking like a stretched mobile app. It’s 2025 – scalable UI should not be an issue.
They need to bring back the zoom slider, fix DPI scaling, and support proper ultrawide resolutions before the game’s PC reputation takes an even bigger hit.
6. Fix the tactics screen
The drag-and-drop system rarely works as intended. Adjusting tactical instructions is fiddly and takes far too long. In previous versions, changing tactics was quick and simple. Now, you’re digging through multiple menus just to tweak one instruction.
The new “in possession” and “out of possession” system is a great idea, but it’s let down by an awkward, buggy interface. The concept works – the execution doesn’t.
7. Stop resetting player order every time I select a new filter
If I sort my players by star rating, then switch to another view, it completely resets the order. Sometimes I just want the same order to remain while looking at different data. For example, if I want to view the star ratings of players from one club, I can’t do that because it reorders the list every single time. It’s a small thing, but it’s incredibly irritating. Just let the order stay consistent like it used to.
8. Support modding
Modders have been doing amazing work already, but there are reports that their mods break as soon as a new update is released. There are even rumours that mod support could be restricted entirely. That cannot happen.
Without mods, many people will simply stop playing. Modders have been the lifeblood of this community for years, and their work has improved every version of the game. Sports Interactive should be working with them, not making their lives harder.
9. Engage properly with the community
Look at a game like Europa Universalis. The developers constantly engage with their community through dev diaries and transparent communication. Players understand why changes are made because the studio explains them. That level of honesty builds trust and gives fans confidence that they’re being listened to.
Football Manager desperately needs something similar. The hotfixes are a good start, but we need far more transparency going forward if they want to rebuild trust with players.
Final thoughts
I don’t think this is the end for Sports Interactive. But if they don’t listen to the community and start implementing these quality-of-life improvements quickly, it could be the beginning of a serious decline.
They have an incredibly loyal fanbase who’ve shown time and again that they’re willing to put up with a lot – including a two-year wait between FM24 and FM26. But that patience won’t last forever. At some point, people will stop waiting and move on. Football Manager doesn’t need to reinvent itself to win fans back. It just needs to respect the players who’ve been here all along.
