Football Manager 2009 Game Review
A Review of the World's Premier Soccer Management Simulation
While slightly intimidating at first glance, Worldwide Soccer Manager remains the definitive interactive experience for any fan. Take charge of any one of 5000 teams available, from over 50 countries and their destiny will rest in your hands.
From there a manager can pretty much take the club in any direction they wish. The transfer system fully incorporates every aspect of professional sports management. If a team has underperformed in recent seasons then perhaps a clear out is in order. A manager can then bring in new players while scrutinizing existing ones as they decide who is worthy of staying and who can clear out their locker.
Taking a good look at your reserve teams and youth academy, which can be micro managed directly or handed off to one of the backroom staff, is vital. From there managers can monitor the progress of fringe players and promote and demote throughout the squad at their leisure.
As for the backroom staff, well, they can't rest on their laurels either. The job center feature allows for a complete overhaul of coaches, physios, scouts and trainers, allowing a manager to search for specific attributes and bring in the staff that best suits their regime.
Bring Your Personality to the Game
For those who prefer a more long-term view, and delight at the thought of discovering the next Ronaldinho in the lower divisions of Eastern Europe and molding him into a superstar, then the scouting system will be paradise. From recruiting scouts and sending them anywhere in the world to taking a general overview or search for a specific kind of player, anything is possible.
Team management is both extensive and exhaustive as everything from player wages and contracts to team tactics, formation and youth development can be commanded from the game interface. Either addressing the team as a unit, or counseling players individually, how players react differently to contrasting styles of management will have an impact on the performance on the field.
The training system allows group functions or the assigning of specific skill sets to focus on. If the manager needs a left sided winger and doesn't have one, then a two-footed right-sided player can be trained. They can learn the position over a few months and the manager can then see if that suits their needs.
Even if the manager wants their star striker to learn how to play in goal, they can. It probably isn't the best idea in the world, but it is just another option available to managers in the detailed set up.
Interaction with the board is also an important feature and allows the player to ensure that their vision is brought to fruition.
The manager can request stadium expansions, feeder or parent clubs, ask them to relay the field or just ask for more money for to play the transfer market, or pay players. For the very lucky few, a takeover by a rich foreign cartel might just happen for the club.
This needs careful consideration though, they may hand the manager a vast war chest of transfer funds to spend, or they may equally decide to terminate the manager's contract.
New Soccer Management Features
Shiny new features this year include pre and post match press conferences where the media will grill managers about the team and their tactics. The advice is simple : be mindful of what you say, the world and your players are listening. Also available for the first time ever is a superbly detailed 3D match engine for game day that gives a detailed overview of the action like never before.
The sheer amount of fun that can be had with all these different options and set ups is just ridiculous. Picking a top team to start with is no guarantee of winning and choosing the worst team in the league doesn't mean failure either.
The game genuinely does react to input and everyone is largely free to do what they like. Run a club no one likes into a ground and destroy their dynasty if you want to. Don't like a particular player? Buy him and then send him out on loan to one of your feeder clubs, so he can rot in the Belgian third division.
Quite simply this game is as fun and as addictive soccer management simulation as anyone is likely to find. Sega Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 is now available anywhere games are sold.
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