A closer look at FM26’s new in and out of possession systems, the Visualiser, refreshed roles and smarter match engine
Football Manager 2026 is just under a month away and, in recent weeks, Sports Interactive and Football Manager have been releasing teasers and deep-dives into all the exciting, new features to ramp up the anticipation for November 4th – now, Football Manager have released information regarding the facet of the game we all truly love most: Breaking Down Football Manager’s New Tactical Evolution. Let’s delve into the details…
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In and Out of Possession Formations
FM players, for many a year, have been pining for a separation of ‘In Possession’ and ‘Out of Possession’ formations as, in prior iterations, including the recent FM24, if you were to make a structural adjustment to your formation, it would directly affect your team’s shape without the ball. Brand new to Football Manager is the introduction of separate ‘In Possession’ and ‘Out of Possession’ formations, eradicating the aforementioned issue managers would frequently run into.
Football Manager have suggested that the “setup flow will feel familiar to returning players” as the process is strikingly similar to the current process in FM24. However, through Football Manager’s explanation of the new system, many might’ve failed to spot a crucial detail to take into account when picking your ‘In Possession’ formation:
Your ’In Possession’ formation is actually your build-up shape: For example, if you were to choose a 4-2-3-1 formation for your ‘In Possession’ formation, your team would set-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation in your team’s build-up phase, as demonstrated below:
You may be asking: “Does this mean my team will always play a 4-2-3-1 when we have the ball?” – No. In this case, the player roles you select will dictate the positioning of your players and, thus, will determine your ‘In Possession’ shape beyond the build-up phase. Therefore, theoretically speaking, you could have a tactic wherefrom your team is set-up in a 4-2-4 shape in build-up, before transitioning into a 3-2-5 shape once your team has progressed beyond the build-up phase – take Roberto De Zerbi and his Brighton side.
You may also be asking how we know of this tactical intricacy: Within Football Manager’s blog post, they said the following regarding the ‘In Possession formation:
“Think of this as your base structure for when your team has the ball, laying out where your players position themselves as you build from the back.”
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Another intricacy you may have not spotted is that the ‘Out of Possession’ formation you select is actually your team’s shape when in a “settled block”. Essentially, your ‘Out of Possession’ formation is your mid-block shape – akin to the effect player roles have on your ‘In Possession’ shape, as previously explained, your players’ roles will determine your shape in both the high-pressing phase and low-block phase. A brief summary of these intricacies can be found below:
‘In Possession’ Formation – Determines your build-up shape.
‘In Possession’ Roles – Effects your team’s shape in the progression phase and final third.
‘Out of Possession’ Formation – Determines your team’s mid-block shape.
‘Out of Possession’ Roles – Effects your team’s shape in the high-press and low-block.
‘Out of Possession’ roles, themselves, have a slight nuance to them too, as you can essentially split them into two brackets:
Pressing Roles – Roles that effect your team’s pressing structure (Pressing Full-Back, for example).
Retreating Roles – Roles that effect your team’s settled defensive shape (Tracking Winger roles, for example).
The New Visualiser
The Visualiser is a groundbreaking addition by Football Manager, as it will allow us managers to visualise our players’ positioning on the pitch in accordance with our formation and our players’ respective roles – this will be a very handy feature for players who often find themselves perplexed with the nuances of the tactical side of FM. The Visualiser is broken down into three vertical zones, of which all represent the main three phases of play both in-possession and out-of-possession: The ‘Build-Up’, ‘Progression’ and ‘Final Third’ phases; The ‘High Press’, ‘Mid Block’ and ‘Low Block’.
The Visualiser isn’t just for show – depending on the phase of play you select in the ‘Team Instructions’ tab, the Visualiser will display your team’s shape corresponding with the selected phase. To put it simply, if you select the ‘Buildup’ phase in ‘Team Instructions’, the Visualiser will display your team’s shape during the ‘Buildup’ phase – the same goes for every other phase.
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New, and Evolved, Player Roles
Football Manager have also announced an influx of new player roles, some of which are directly replacing previous favourites, such as the ‘Mezzala’. As previously mentioned, you can effectively separate the roles and their effects into specific brackets depending on the effects each role has – there is actually a third bracket of which the new roles can be separated into, and that is a ‘Possessional’ role, which is essentially a role that effects your team’s shape in-possession; Every role directly confirmed by Football Manager and Sports Interactive falls into this bracket, however, other roles, of which have been leaked online and have yet to have been confirmed, fall into the previously mentioned two ‘Out of Possession’ brackets. The list of new ‘In Possession’ roles can be found below:
- No-Nonsense Goalkeeper
- Ball-Playing Goalkeeper
- Overlapping Centre-Back
- Playmaking Wing-Back
- Advanced Wing-Back
- Midfield Playmaker
- Wide Central Midfielder
- Wide Forward
- Channel Forward
Crucially, from a tactic creator’s perspective, Football Manager have confirmed that they have also “stripped back the number of hardcoded instructions tied to each role.” This change makes for happy reading, as it gives us FM ‘tacticos’ an added sense of freedom when creating our tactics, allowing for more flexibility in the process.
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Match Engine Intelligence
Football Manager haven’t just improved the experience for players/managers off the pitch, they also improved the experience on it as they have announced further improvements to the game’s match engine – this time, in regards to the match engine’s intelligence. According to Football Manager, “Players now better judge the danger of a potential pass based on their attributes, leading to more incisive line-breaking passes through the middle.” This is a welcome improvement, as the game’s passing could feel quite repetitive at times in FM24 – however, it doesn’t end there…
Football Manager also noted key improvements to players’ creativity when trying to bypass defenders, ball-carrying animations and midfielder’s half-space runs, among others – the middle of which is a particularly exciting improvement, as there definitely needs to be more of a distinction between ‘dribbling’ and ‘ball-carrying’.
Changes have also been made to the match engine’s intelligence in defensive moments too, as team structures and pressing shapes have been the beneficiaries of refinement, along with improvements to players’ ‘interception logic’. Additionally, goalkeepers are apparently ‘more dependable’ in FM26, according to Football Manager, with ‘significant upgrades’ being made to their ‘save logic’, cross claiming, blocks, ‘spread saves’ and distribution; This is another improvement that, if executed well, will be welcomed with open, grateful arms by the FM community.
Refurbished Team Instructions
In Football Manager 2026, Team Instructions have been refurbished to add more clarity to the intricacies of the game’s tactical side, allowing for more people to understand exactly what they may, or may not, be asking of their team from a tactical perspective. Said refurbishment includes a switch to a ‘far more visual’ approach to each instruction’s diagram in the Team Instructions, along with a separation of every instruction into the relevant phases of play – for example, your team’s tempo affects every part of your team’s possession ventures, thus meaning that particular instruction resides in the ‘Overview’ section of Team Instructions. Evidence of this has been provided by Football Manager, which can be seen below:
Additionally, when making changes to instructions that may directly affect your team’s in-possession/out-of-possession shapes, said effects will be visualised by the Visualiser, providing you with a preliminary view of the effect certain instructions make on your tactics; I anticipate certain team instructions, such as your team’s width choice and prevention of the opposition goalkeeper’s distribution, may lead to more effects than most.
Finally, new to FM26 is the inclusion of relevant extracts from the ‘Data Hub’ beside your Team Instructions page.
Conclusion
There is certainly a lot of exciting, new features in Football Manager 2026 and, personally, I am very excited. The introduction of separate ‘In Possession’ and ‘Out of Possession’ roles is one that has been requested by many for a number of years now, whilst the emphasis on more tactical depth in team instructions and player roles is a welcome addition. That’s not to say that I don’t have concerns – firstly, I’m not the biggest fan of the new tile-based template being implemented in the tactics screen, although, I do concede that it is likely an accommodative implementation to please console players. Additionally, I do have a concern, primarily based off of experiences playing other games (FIFA/FC games), that perhaps so much tactical detail may be too much detail for the match engine to hack… I really hope, however, that my concern is redundant come the game’s eventual release on November 4th, as FM26 is shaping up to be one of, if not, the greatest Football Manager yet!
If you have enjoyed this article, make sure to follow FM Blog (@fmbIog) and myself (@AshtonGgmu) on our respective social pages to be kept up to date with the latest Football Manager news, trends and tactics ahead of FM26. Thanks for reading.
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