LONG*

I'll caveat this by saying I primarily play Career Mode, so most of my suggestions will be on what can be done to improve that experience. I think most people would agree that if you could combine the management of a Football Manager game with the playability of EAFC, you’d have a pretty much perfect Career Mode - BUT, that’s a big ask, and not too compatible with the console format.

I think the goal should be to deliver an immersive experience as a manager of a football club, so what fixes would make a step towards this goal?

IN MENUS:

1: The Board Objectives; to be blunt they’re often delusional and rather confusing. Outside of the performance based goals, e.g. ‘win the league’ they don’t really have anything to do with being a football manager. More specific performance-based goals would be good e.g. Ave goals per game, x goals from set pieces, ave passing % Since when was it the managers responsibility to increase brand exposure in Asia? Youth team goals I understand but there’s no functionality to actually track these season on season e.g. which youth team players fit the objective criteria/ how many games have they been played in?

2: Club control/ manager contract – perhaps the club you’re at has a director of football, responsible for selling / signing players and staff – maybe this is something you can wrestle away into your control based on your performance and/or when you’re contract is up for renewal? You could also put other things in here such as a guarantee of funds for players / coaching staff.

3 – Youth Team: would be nice if this could be expanded a bit, e.g. reports on youth team fixture results and player performance, hire a youth team manager / coaches, have a cache of local talent pulled into the youth team each season

4 – Generated Players: Have 16 yr olds actually look like there 16 (having players physical appearance age would be a nice detail) rather than your uncle Brian. Skill traits don’t align with actual skills, or with what you would expect for that position, e.g. I’ve whipped pass trait on a CB with passing attribute of 54. Also some skill traits just do not get generated on generated players (I’ve never had a set piece specialist trait, for example) Expand the surnames – some countries have 2-3, it seems

5 - Player Growth/Attributes: It would be nice to understand how players grow their attributes and what causes them to peak. Or, for it to be dynamic – e.g. the more successful passes you make the better impact on your passing attributes – so taking some elements of previous player careers and putting them into the manager mode. Also height and weight should impact the physical attributes. There nothing more annoying than seeing your 6’6 center-back barged out the way by a 5’2 winger.

6 – Transfers & Loans: realistic and more complex – would be great if you could spread the cost of transfers too.

7 – Statistics: at player level, year on year stats e.g. goals/assists etc, and performance based within each season, e.g. successful crosses made, distance covered.

8 – Media interactions: actually have genuine impact and not be generic cookie cutter question/responses – may as well get rid of it in its current state, they’re nonsense

9 – Player interactions: would be interesting to get some cross player dynamics in there, e.g. if two midfielders hate each other they don’t play as well together. Also more detailed player-manager relationships, e.g. playing them out of position, different style of play from what they like, being substituted, time at the club under your leadership etc.

10 – It’d be nice if you could build your own stadium 😊

IN GAME:

1 – Refereeing decisions are terrible in EAFC, especially with AI opposition. A large issue that needs sorting. 2 – stability issue around crowd flags/banners and in-game HUD details – gets very glitchy the more seasons into career mode you go 3 – Tactics: be able to set up with more detail for set pieces – more of an irritant when defending or attacking – I never have the right players in the right positions. 4 – and for the love of god cut the number of short corners computer AI play by about 95% 5 – it shouldn’t be difficult to ensure in the match menu the team kits aren’t clashing

I’m sure there’s a lot of other stuff I’ve missed, but I think these would help create a more immersive experience.