Soccer Manager 2017

Soccer Manager 2017 is built for people who want to run a football club from the dugout side, not control the players directly. By our assessment, its appeal comes from squad choices, transfers, tactics and the long chain of small managerial decisions that football management games live on. That also defines its limit: if someone wants to feel the match minute by minute, this kind of game can seem detached, because the drama comes through menus and reports. In practice it is a numbers-and-plan game with a football skin, less about reflexes than about balancing wages, lineups and form. It sits in the football management niche beside the Football Manager series, but the appeal is the same broad one: building a club rather than playing a striker. The name's 2017 is just part of the title as recorded, not a claim about what the game measures. It suits players who enjoy the season-long view and do not mind spending time in tables, squad screens and tactical setups.