Some of them like player skill statistics (and there is a lot of them for each player) are the easiest to grasp. There is a dizzying number of factors that can come into play. However, instead of directly controlling your players, you make key decisions about the club that subtly affects the performance of the team on the field based on numbers being crunched behind the scenes.

Now that we have that established, what is Football Manager 2016? It is an opportunity to take over a team (or if you get fired, as I did several times early on) and try to lead that team to greatness on the field.

To be clear for those new to the series, as well as our American readers (and because we have readers all over the world), when we are talking about football in this review, we are talking about soccer, and not the NFL. Related reading: For a look at last year’s version of the game, check out Matt’s review of Football Manager 2015 on iPad.

This makes the title slow to get into, but the end result is a rewarding experience that football fans should enjoy. This is a simulation experience that drills into far greater detail than and typical sports games do, offering a more strategic line of thinking and slower pacing. If you are looking for hands-on action, Football Manager 2016 will likely disappoint, because as the name of the game should indicate, this is all about running a football team, and not running around on the field personally.

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