Dedicated Football Manager players (such as myself) have had a hard go of it recently. Just weeks ago, developer Sports Interactive announced that it would be canceling Football Manager 25 after a long-term delay. The much-hyped FM 25 promised a ton of new innovations such as a brand new match Engine using Unity, as well as the introduction of women’s football into the long-running sim. Unfortunately, with the game canceled, FM players will be stuck with Football Manager 2024 until at least later this year, assuming Sports Interactive has all of their ducks in a row by that point.
Never the type to be complacent, the core FM community has banded together and used FM25‘s cancellation as a means to begin making their own improvements to Football Manager 2024. Previously, we talked about mods that can keep your FM24 experience fresh. But the FM Tweak project might be the most comprehensive mod yet, and could completely change how you play the game.
The FM Tweak Project
Developed by the eponymous FM player, FM Tweak offers a completely revamped match engine. According to the horse’s mouth, FM Tweak is “designed to elevate your Football Manager experience by refining the match engine for greater realism, balance, and tactical depth.” According to its official website, the FM Tweak ME project was built on the back of of other popular FM modifications such as the Chinese Engine, Korean mod, and Asian Fusion.
As advertised, the FM Tweak match engine is built around creating more realism when actually viewing the game. These improvements are bourn from things such as improved player movements and ball physics, among other modifications.
But what about the actual results and tactics? You know, the things most FM players cherish? Well, the FM Tweak has promised to address this as well. As most seasoned FM players know, the gegenpress system has been the undisputed king in the last several entries, forcing virtual managers to recruit athletic beasts in order to be competitive at the highest levels of the game. FM Tweak has promised that gegenpress will get a much-needed nerf in its third-party match engine mod, and will be buffing other tactical choices to make them more viable. As far as stats are concerned, FM Tweak is designed to prevent “unrealistic scorelines” and makes adjustments to stats that are more in line with real life (maybe that means the xG system is overhauled, because it’s not great as is).
On top of the promised match engine refining, FM Tweak is also bringing another popular FM mod to the table: Lower-league football! Depending on what country you decide to manage in, you may only have so many divisions to choose from. By default, the English league structure goes all the way down to the Vanarama National League North/South, the sixth tier of English football. This offers plenty of options, no doubt. But other countries such as Italy don’t have as many options, only letting you manage clubs as low as the third tier. This mod adds so much more.
FM Tweak Has Been Warmly Received By The Community
OK, so all of this sounds pretty good on paper. But how has the FM Tweak match engine actually performed with consumers? As it turns out, pretty good.
One user on Reddit gave FM Tweak positive marks, saying the mod allowed them to more effectively employ a low-block tactic — something that is pretty much the polar opposite of the aforementioned meta. And others have chimed in as well.
Many others in the thread also praised the mod, though the amount of experience they’ve had with it has varied. Midfield play has been tweaked to be more essential to success. Wing play from fullbacks and wingbacks have also been noted to have received a much-needed update, with good athletic players now being necessary to succeed in the wide areas.
Defensively speaking, other users have noted that aggressive high-line defensive tactics are more prone to being exposed without having the talent or tactical redundancy to cope. Granted, the match used as a test was against Aston Villa, who are far from being a super club. But it is significant nonetheless.
Not everything is perfect, however. Some users have reported a few things they perceive as issue, such as more corner kicks, midfielders shooting the ball on more occasions, and inside forward wingers not making as many diagonal runs when using a false nine up top.
As time goes on, I expect different versions of FM Tweak to iron out any unwanted wrinkles that it provides. But with the future of the Football Manager series being uncertain at the moment, user-created mods such as these will be essential to keeping Football Manager 2024 fresh and offering new challenges to even its more experienced players.
Published: Feb 24, 2025 7:26 PM UTC