Football Manager 26 has received a lot of negative feedback but we got to applaud the developers for listening to the community and publishing updates to Football Manager 26 every third week! This evening, it’s time for another fix – the FM26 Update 26.1.3.
This update to FM26 is a welcome one – featuring both the return of the Pass Map, and the first major match engine tweaks since the launch of Football Manager 26!
Let us take a closer look at the most significant new improvements and additions with the FM26 26.1.3 update, before providing you with a non-exhaustive changelist that summaries the key changes to the latest Football Manager 26 update.
The Return of the Pass Map
By adding Pass Map back into Football Manager, we’re able to visualize a club’s passing combinations. Who receives the ball the most, where and to whom are they most frequently passing the ball to, and what’s the accuracy of their passes? Alongside giving you a visual overview of your own clubs’ passes and its passing patterns, you’ll be able to compare how your players link up compared to the opposition.
The Pass Map Comparison tile both within matches and in the Data Hub gives you a wonderful opportunity to analyze both your own club’s performance and your opposition. You can use the information within the Pass Map about how players are linking up, their average positioning in possession of the ball, the passing frequency and length of passes to help you set up opposition instructions.
In FM26, you’ll also be able to select specific players within the Pass Map to get a closer insight into their passing game and which other players around them they receives the ball from, the most. Useful, if you’d like to counter a specific strength, or find specific key players in the opposition’s build-up and progression phase to limit his threat.
The Pass Map and Pass Map Comparison will be available in different areas within the game; both inside the match, in the Data Hub at Last Match report card as well as in Dugout advices.
Significant Match Engine Improvements in FM26 26.1.3 Update
For anyone enjoying the tactical side of Football Manager, there are several notable improvements to the match engine and how player roles behave both in and out of possession, which is highly welcomed. It addresses some of the pet-peeves I’ve had with the FM26 match engine, especially in regards to defensive improvements in wide areas, reduce how overpowered strikerless formations are in FM26, as well as how well player’s are marking runs from deep.
Apart from major improvements to tactics in Football Manager and the defensive logic within the match engine, the changelist reveals a major update has been done both to the user interface and the gameplay.
One of the most requested features apart from adding Pass Map back into Football Manager 26 is the opportunity to add multiple player’s name in the match by clicking CTRL/ALT + left click on the person’s shirt. This will be a handy addition to visualize how a player move or where multiple players position themselves in relationship to another – useful if you want to compare how two different player roles behaves, or if you’re analyzing your tactics for certain weaknesses in or out of possession.
Below you’ll find a full summary of the changes coming to Football Manager 26 26.1.3 update.
FM26 Update 26.1.3 Changelist (non-exhaustive)
Technical Issues
- Various Crash and Stability fixes
- Fixed a Crash on Hotseat Mode after finishing the 1st match of the day
- Fixed Crash on Tactics screen when rapidly switching between In & Out Possession
- Fixed an issue causing a black screen appearing for several seconds when entering second match as hot seat manager
Match Engine (Changes include but are not limited to)
- Lowered the frequency of rain in matches across all leagues
- Defensive improvements against strikerless formations
- Tweaks to the frequency that AI managers make substitutions during matches
- Improvements to how players react to shots that hit the post
- Improvements to short goal kick decisions from GK
- Improvements to wide player pressing logic
- Improvements to marking decisions from midfielders during pressing situations
- Improvements to marking of runs made from deep
- Improved dribbling logic to allow dribbler to perform 180-turns where appropriate instead of running into a dead end
- Improvements to how ‘trap inside’ instruction affects team shape when opposition has a goal kick
- Fixes to wide midfielders sitting too deep in 442 OOP formation in high press setups
- Channel Midfielder at CM now correctly rotates into AM strata after build-up phase
- Added ability for players to control the ball with their head in certain situations to bring the ball down
- Adjustments to OOP tactical positions of Wide AMs to now keep width better
- You are now able to select more than one player in a match to bring up the player’s name with Ctrl/Alt, Left Click
- Fixed an issue where VAR captions would sometimes display over a goal replay
- Fixed an issue where league trophy celebration wouldn’t trigger in certain leagues
- Assortment of animation fixes
- Increased the quality of the 2D Discs when on 2D Classic View
User Interface (UI)
- Added Pass Maps to the Last Match section in the Data Hub
- Added Pass Maps to the Match UI in the Formation carousel and Half Time/Full Time Reports
- Added Pass Maps as Dugout advice
- Added icons next to the shout instructions on the Shouts dropdown menu
- Added latest scores and live league table to in-highlights tile that opens from pressing the ‘stats’ button at the top right
- Improvements made to Club League History Graph
- Fixed an issue where Latest Scores/Dugout event would inform user about a goal before it happened
- Users team is now clearly labelled on both the Tile and Card in Data Hub visuals
- Striker’s shirt is no longer cutoff in Tactics tile on Match Day screen
- Player name no longer appears at the top of the sub bench when subbed off
- Fixed an issue causing Subs to display out of order in a match
- Penalties scored during a match are now visible within Post Match News
- Fixed an issue causing the Past Winners card being empty for certain competitions
- Added a formations tile in the Past Match – Match Report card
- Added a scroll bar to Tactical Styles on the Training Schedules card
- Added a carousel on the medical centre tile so users can view U21 or U18 injuries
- Fixed an issue where the incorrect Out of Possession Role tile could appear on Player Instructions > Out of Possession
- Fixed an issue causing low-res images to be present on Set Pieces screen
- Choosing Clean Slate on Tactics creator will now correctly take you to the fully populated “All” tab
- B-Team ability and potential is now correctly displayed on Squad & Player Report screens
- Resolved an issue where ‘Grey’ players in subs list could cause player positions to display incorrectly in the squad bar menu
- Fixed a very rare issue making the user unable to enter matches after using Clear Squad or Quick Pick
- The hierarchy column within Squad > Dynamics > Happiness will now sort correctly
- No longer able to select a player as a vice captain if they’re out on loan
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue where B-Team staff weren’t joining the club after they were recruited
- Fixed an issue where some transfers would not display within Transfer History tool
- Staff search now displays comparable ratings to Staff Report
- Fixed a rare issue where the Board would be delighted about an objective being completed that occurred before user took over at the club
- Agents no longer illogically suggest to ‘Make an Offer Now’ alongside ‘Wait for Contract Expiry.’
- Young players with Training Targets won’t become unhappy after a loan offer is accepted for them
- Scouted players will now appear in the Squad Comparison section of the Shortlist tool
- Tweaks to Saudi clubs making repeated lowball offers for a star player
- Teams should no longer take excessively long to appoint a new manager
- Fixed an issue within Match Meetings that would state that the team could ‘qualify for the Premier League’ when it should be referencing the Champions League.
- UAE clubs now have a more realistic number of first team players
- Advice button no longer shows when users manager is unemployed
- Tweaked the AI logic to ensure when you use the Ask Assistant button to select an MLS squad it will no longer breach the salary cap
- Recruitment Transfer History > Appearance column will now specify if appearances were starts or substitutions
- User will now receive a message that a requested coaching course is confirmed/rejected by the board
- User is now able to manually select coach assignments for Reserve/Youth teams
- If a player is deemed ‘Not for Sale’, the fee cited in the Media Speculation News Item will no longer display as £226m
- News articles will now make reference to a player’s previous stint at the same club if they’re a former player, rather than treating them like a brand-new signing.
- Player Biographies should no longer have any inaccurate information
- Set Transfer Status action is now correctly disabled for Non-Contract Players
- The agreed transfer fee now displays correctly on Transfer Activity screen if user has negotiated a deal with an intermediary
- User will now get a summary news item about recent press conferences if media responsibilities have been delegated
- Fixed an issue causing Women’s Football news story to appear under Men’s News classification
- Tweaked the number of injuries occurring at AI controlled clubs within Women’s Football
- NWSL Clubs are no longer given sponsorship deals with relegation clauses within Women’s Football
- Adjustments made to female player wage demands in the Australian League
In-Game Editor (IGE)
- The Editor icon is now correctly enabled when on the First Team card
- In-game currency will no longer change if user edits financial information with the IGE tools
- Nation information now visible on lists when moving a player using the IGE
- Hidden columns on 1-20 scale are now correctly colour coded
- User can now add multiple Club Affiliations to a player
- “Move to my club” option now showing on all unemployed staff
- Added confirmation dialog when moving a person to a role that is taken or maxed out
- Fixed ‘Become Unsackable’ incorrectly appearing as right-click action when multiple players were selected
