Football Manager 27 (PC) Review

Honestly, when I was assigned to review one of my favourite games since my university days, my feelings were still mixed. My favourite footballer had just announced his decision to end the international career he had been building since 2003.

That spectacular 23-year career had to come to an end because of conflict and other circumstances. And it seems there will be no perfect farewell to close the long, remarkable chapter of that career.

But then an idea suddenly came to me. Why not let FM27 be my consolation, and give my favourite star, Cristiano Ronaldo, the best possible send-off? Here is how.

Use the Deeper Customisation

As usual, before the season starts, we need to set up which national leagues will have their player databases loaded and which ones we can play in. This time, we will be managing a club and a national team at once. In line with the plan, of course I chose to manage Al Nassr and Portugal at the same time.

For reference, the Saudi league was not available by default in FM26. In FM27, the league is available and playable.

All right, Al Nassr is selected, then we take charge of Portugal. As it turns out, the country’s Top Players are Rúben Dias, Bruno Fernandes, and Vitinha. Even Cristiano Ronaldo is not in the squad. Hmm… so that’s how it is. Fine then, let’s start the managerial career.

There are no significant changes to FM27’s main interface compared with FM26. However, the Overview tab now looks tidier, with a countdown notification for the next match clearly displayed in the top-right corner. For example, there is a match against Al Fateh in the next three days. The information is simple, but it is very useful for preparation, so there is no need to keep going back and forth to the Calendar.

When we open the Welcome message, the information shown in FM27 is more complete and comprehensive. For example, the competitions the club is entering this season, right through to the club’s various facilities and their condition, are all laid out in detail. Well done, Sports Interactive!

Formations, Squad Selection, and Transfers

To support that noble aim of seeing Cristiano Ronaldo end his club and international career in golden ink, complete with a thousand-goal collection, we start setting the team’s strategy. We pick the squad and sign the players who will help us get there.

As is well known, CR7 is indeed an excellent finisher. But because his pace is no longer what it was in his golden years, he needs a partner up front, with the classic 4-2-4 DM Wide Wing Play formation and a 4-4-1-1 2DM when Out of Possession.

Al Nassr already has a fairly sharp striking duo in Cristiano Ronaldo and João Félix. On the left wing, there is the excellent Sadio Mané and Kingsley Coman, who also looks solid on the stats. But we need cover who can play on both flanks. My option: buy Jadon Sancho.

This player is still young (26 years old). His skills can still be improved, and most importantly, he is a Free Agent, matching the real-world situation. Sure enough. No fuss, we can get him. Psst. At Al Nassr there is also a promising Midfielder/Attacking Midfielder (Left) named Cristiano Júnior 😛

So, here is the Al Nassr lineup I prepared:

After setting up the Al Nassr squad, we head to Portugal. And sure enough, we need to call Cristiano Ronaldo into the national-team squad, just like Pedro Neto and João Palhinha, who were also left off the list.

With a little nepotism, I also pair João Félix and Cristiano Ronaldo up front here. For their teammates, I just leave it on auto.

A More Complete Training Menu and Notifications

To improve individual skill and teamwork, Training in FM27 now comes with a more complete UI. Take the Training Intensity sub-menu, for example. In FM26, we had to scroll a lot, and each player’s training-intensity settings were not shown in full.

In FM27, as well as player positions being shown, we can also see each player’s Training Happiness. That makes it easier to give each individual a more suitable training intensity.

Training Happiness may or may not seem important. If you overdo the training until the player in question is unhappy, then even with high skill stats, he will not necessarily play well.

As mentioned earlier, FM27’s overhead bar now shows the upcoming match schedule, so we can also adjust training sessions and intensity to keep players fresher when matchday arrives.

Or if you cannot be bothered to handle all those settings, just click in the bottom-right corner and the assistant manager will take care of everything for you. Job done. Right?

Another interesting point: the coaching staff also send a notification about which positions are short of squad depth. If a player in that position is injured or suspended, we will struggle to fill it.

For example, Al Nassr’s coaching staff said we were still short of depth at right-back. Here I intended to poach Diogo Dalot, who does not quite feel like the right fit at Manchester United.

Unfortunately, Al Nassr’s wage budget was not enough. Even though Dalot himself was very keen to join. In the end, I just promoted a junior player as cover in the first team.

An Old-and-Young Duo Taking Turns to Shine

Across the matches I have played so far, both with Al Nassr and with the Portugal national team, the CR7 and João Félix duo have taken turns to shine. From time to time, this old-and-young striking pair have also scored in the same match, and even assisted each other.

Signing Jadon Sancho to fill the right wing (or the left) in rotation with Sadio Mané and Kingsley Coman has paid off. Unlike in the real world, Jadon Sancho is not individualistic here and sends plenty of passes to the striking duo up front, complementing Mané, who also delivers plenty of lofted balls or pull-backs into the penalty box.

In the Portugal national team, Gonçalo Ramos and Paulinho take turns filling the front line to keep CR7 and João Félix fit and in form. In midfield, meanwhile, the Vitinha and João Neves pairing is irreplaceable unless something gets in the way. Bruno Fernandes? For him, we only bring him on occasionally, and only when it really matters.

With all of the setup above, I managed to take Al Nassr to the top of the Saudi League with 15 wins and 2 losses, into the Saudi Cup quarter-finals and the Super Cup semi-finals, and to second place in the AFC Champions League Elite Group Stage West with 4 wins and 2 draws, also qualifying for the last 16.

Portugal also topped European International League Division A Group 4 with 5 wins and 1 loss, qualifying for a quarter-final against the Netherlands on 26 March 2027. Mission (almost) accomplished!

Still Smooth on a Non-Gaming PC

Anyway, I played this game on a 24-inch ASUS ExpertCenter AIO M3400WYA all-in-one desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, AMD Radeon Graphics, Full HD resolution, 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD (for the OS and Steam), and a 1TB SATA III 6Gb/s HDD (for the game installation). It is not a gaming PC spec, but it is enough to meet the recommended requirements, namely a Core i5-1035G7 or AMD Ryzen 7 3750H with 12GB of RAM.

In my experience, the game runs relatively smoothly, similar to FM26, except in 3D mode, which sometimes feels a little stuttery, especially during replays.

This problem can be fixed by lowering Graphics Quality to Very Low. But then, of course, it no longer looks realistic. The stands are completely empty, and the crowd only starts cheering in the stadium seats if we play on the Low setting. Even so, a PC with those specs is still decent enough for Graphics Quality set to Balanced.

Conclusion

Overall, FM27 offers an exciting playing experience, just as the Football Manager series should. Even though a few bugs still get in the way from time to time, the tweaks compared with previous releases, namely FM26 and FM24, mean I will probably uninstall those two entries and may buy the In-Game Editor DLC later.

One thing is certain: FM27 has become my tribute to the GOAT, who is scheduled to retire on 30 June 2027. I hope that after he recovers from a two-week injury (because I overplayed him), he can still add to his goal tally and break through more than 1,000 goals. All right, that is my FM27 playing experience over the past 17.9 hours. For me, FM27 is highly recommended for Football Manager fans!

Pros

• The addition of small but useful features, such as the countdown to the next match that is always shown in the top-right corner, has a real impact on training strategy and player rotation
• The more complete, detailed information on the club and the competitions it is entering that season, along with the addition of leagues that were not playable in FM26, is a welcome improvement

Disadvantages

• Text labels in the detail menu window often overlap when the text is too long, with no scroll option. It is a small issue, but fairly annoying when we want that information
• It does not have a licence for some major clubs, so you need to change the names of those clubs to feel comfortable playing