Football Manager 2018 dives into the fragile world of dressing room politics
Keane?
Oh dear! Has your captain headbutt your goalkeeper in a Hong Kong hotel? Has your Lurch of a defender turned your dressing room against you? Is your Chilean star sulking? Is your team not performing as it should because life is less than harmonious behind the scenes? Move over, puny FIFA Ultimate Team chemistry, because here comes Football Manager 2018's brand new feature, Dynamics.
Dynamics is a whole new layer to think about. Whereas in previous Football Manager games you could see who your players favoured, be it another player or manager, in Football Manager 2018, players now organise into entire social hierarchies, based around time spent at club, language spoken and so on. You have team leaders who form the core and influence the dressing room, and if they're happy, that's great, but what do you do when their contracts are up and you have a better player for their position - risk a mutiny?
There's a Dynamics subsection of the menu to keep track of all this, where your assistant manager compiles reports and helps you out. The gauges affected by Dynamics are Match Cohesion, Dressing Room Atmosphere and Managerial Support. The idea is that if you can skilfully keep them all in the very positives, your squad could do a Leicester and perform out of their skins, or you could slump like Chelsea in 2015/2016.
That's Dynamics in a nutshell but there's more detail, and explanation, in the embedded video.
In addition to Dynamics, Football Manager 2018 is getting new graphics for the match engine, an altered scouting system, improved stadium design and match presentation, and deeper sports science and tactics systems.
Football Manager 2018, Football Manager Touch 2018, and Football Manager Mobile 2018 are all due out 10th November.