Understanding why Football Manager captures the imaginations of so many will always be a mystery. One of the long unanswered questions of the universe, understanding why fans come back to what is, in essence, a glorified spreadsheet ever year, is impossible to explain. If you've wondered what the big deal with FM is, 2011 does nothing to change your mind. Fan service is one thing, but this is an entirely new level. Sports Interactive’s love for its community is repaid at the tills – year on year men are lost for months to simulative football as dreams are realised and ambitions crushed. Such is the life of a football manager and worryingly, 2011 is the best year yet.

Having mastered the football management formula years ago, it’s understandingly difficult for the momentum of game-changing ideas to be maintained. Like in 2010, FM 11 is a maintenance affair rather than a re-envisioning – the core concepts are already laid out as Sports Interactive give the game a new lick of paint. Careful not to score an own goal, the new features this year come straight from player feedback.

Mini Manchester City

Dynamic leagues, for example, have long been asked for – trawl through the forums and you’ll see posts pleading for its inclusion. It’s a welcome addition – instead of the reputation of leagues staying static, they change according to the performance of clubs, players and managers within. Before it meant the Premiership and La Liga were destined for continual dominance. Manage a team in that league, and it’d be easy to coerce talent to jump ship. Now if the Germany national league has a renaissance in the Champions League in the 2020s, you’ll see a shift of power occur. It’s exciting stuff, especially for those who enjoy playing far into the future to explore ‘what-if’ situations.

Elsewhere you’ve got the overhaul of FM’s tactics and training system. There’s now a helpful wizard that holds your hand in the creation of custom tactical setups and even more appreciated is the set piece creator. This allows you to place players in specific set piece positions – for example, if your team are committing too many members forward at corners leading to consistent counter attacks, you can hold some defenders back. What it does is flesh out an already competent system and provides the player with even more options to tinker with.

Statistics Turn Me On

Supporting the creation wizards is the new match preparation system. It allows for multiple tactical setups, ready for instant-deployment in matches, as well improving the current training system. Before you were only able to train individual players – in 2011 you’re now able to mentor your men according to your 442. Having trouble with squad cooperation? Look towards training in the specific formation to increase squad harmony. Likewise, if your defensive positioning is weak, you can instruct your players to hopefully end the influx of goals being conceded. It’s a vast improvement over the movement of obscure sliders in the blind hope they’ll improve your team’s performance.

Supporting your players is one thing, but getting them is a whole different matter. Thankfully player contracts and negotiations is another area that the developers have looked to improve in 2011. The system in place before was not only realistic, it was also time consuming. Football doesn’t run by email – it’s a people business. Now when you’re chasing down your dream midfielder, you’ll enter a live negotiation screen with either an agent (yes, the bane of modern football finally make an appearance, complete with fees) or the player himself. You’ll tussle to and fro as you try to come to a mutual conclusion. Push too hard and you’ll be shut out for a season. Go in too high and you can find a quickly escalating wage bill. This movement to real-time simulation within, what is still a turn-based game, is an interesting development. Regardless of whether it’s exploitable, the new system is miles ahead of its old counterpart.

Tactical Trials

Elsewhere are the usual mountain of tweaks and changes that work behind the scenes to improve overall play. A reworked news/email system means you can customize your interests to cut out the noise while no longer missing those crucial rival deals. The match engine comes alive with a new sense of atmosphere – a factor that’s mirrored by players who celebrate their goals in full miniature fashion. Throw in social media support for bragging rights, faster media conferences (which sadly still offer the same stagnant answers) and an overall improvement to FM’s usability, and you’ve got a highly polished example of how a simulation title should be.

It might not reinvent the wheel, but that doesn’t stop it from being the most addictive version yet. Fantastic in every sense – here’s to a year of imaginary goals.

Top Game Moment: 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go, 3-2 by the FT whistle – priceless.