Football Manager have been very careful not to reveal too much about this years edition and they continued that with the 1 minute 48 second video they released Thursday evening. This small snippet is a prelude to the full Headline Feature Reveal video dropping on Youtube next week. Despite the very vague video, fans have been excited at the prospect of the potential new features and have been speculating on how this may affect gameplay.

So what did we find out?

Levelled up

The video was started by saying that they have 'levelled up' the game this year which is a pretty bold statement and we're hoping they can back it up with the feature video dropping next week. We know that they've increased their design team in specific areas, this means they've put more attention and focus into certain aspects and felt the need to bring in more people to create the desired outcomes. This is very promising and could mean one or a couple of aspects are being improved or they've decided to work on a whole new area. Hopefully we may also get a more polished and smooth running game as soon as it's released and have less bugs to deal with if there is a bigger force working on the game, regardless this is very good news for FM fans. It was also mentioned that they have tried to maximise the value so despite the pricey tag the game comes with, we should have good value for money - yet another win.

UEFA

We already know that FM23 will include UEFA leagues as this incredibly exciting news was dropped when the release was announced a couple of weeks ago. The teaser video briefly mentioned the Championship League and budding managers can't wait to conquer this and lift the Championship Cup.

Planner and Shortlists

This is a very exciting area that we've all been teased with. 'Anyone on your shortlist can be brought into your planner at anytime.' How this will work we've yet to find out. The prospect of being able to see how a player can fit into your team long term is very intriguing. This would be incredibly helpful for managers everywhere, being able to evaluate if a player would have a positive impact and how it will affect your team moving forward. We're interested to see how fluid the planner will be with gameplay but if done correctly we imagine it will be of huge importance. Imagine having a player on your shortlist that you move to your planner and you can see how this players attributes fit in with your team, you could save yourself a lot of money! This is a feature we'll be keeping a close eye on and seeing how it changes our style of gameplay.

Supporter Confidence

'To capture this emotional part about the game and the club'. It seems that the fan social pages may be getting some much needed love and attention and fan opinion may have more impact moving forward. So far in the game fan social pages haven't really held much weight, they've just sort of been there. But now it seems it's getting perhaps a revamp and will play a more integral part of the game. How this will look, again we don't know, but it will be exciting to see how and if  this impacts decisions you make at your club.

Better Defending

This has been long awaited. In recent years attacking has been over-powered and there hasn't been much opportunity to play on the defensive if you wished to play that style. This year it seems that we will be able to party in the low block. We've been promised better defending, better counter-attacking and the ability to soak up pressure better. Defensive low block is here!

The full video will be dropping next week and we are on the edge of out seats until then to find out about all the new features that will be dropped in this years FM.