Football Manager 2021 Update 21.2: Patch Notes, New Match Engine, Gameplay Changes & more

Football Manager 2021 Update 21.2 is here, and it makes some big upgrades for the new Match Engine and fixes on the gameplay side.

Let's dive right into the newest FM 21 update's patch notes and what you'll see in-game the next time you hit the pitch.

FM 21 Update 21.2 Patch Notes

Football Manager 21 pushed the series forward massively, and a new update is here to add even more! The biggest changes are the many upgrades to the new FM 21 match engine, which will better emulate real football in FM 21. But that's far from all that's in this incredibly large update!

These changes also mean better balance on the pitch, which will challenge players to think outside of the box in their tactics, UI improvements, and more.

Stability and Technical

• Further changes to issues related to blurry text and mouse-cursor appearing misaligned
• Re-added options to change resolution settings in full screen mode
• Number of stability improvements

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about FM 21

Gameplay

• Unable to set some staff members to certain responsibilities
• Improvements to player logic when considering loan moves when they don’t have a work permit
• Board incorrectly blocking deals due to wanting vast fees for players
• Recalculating how analysts produce their overall report ratings
• Caretaker manager tweaks, meaning they’re more likely to be offered permanent role or replaced depending on success
• Board request logic tweaks related to senior affiliates, staff numbers and youth coaching/recruitment
• Staff missing from coaching assignment list for relevant squads
• Further improvements to inactive leagues generating newgens
• Tweaks to ages of youth candidates coming through
• Improvements to logic of questions being asked during press conference including VAR, short term targets, takeovers and players on international duty
• Promise and interaction tweaks including related to player traits, domestic silverware, finding loan moves and blank ‘unhappiness’ appearing

READ MORE: FM 21 Wonderkids: The best teenage stars to buy

Match Engine 21.4.0

• Better clearances
• Attackers attacking area/far post better
• Better balancing to defenders challenging for aerial balls
• Defenders marking too literally tweaks\
• Move to offer passing options improvements
• Passing focus fix to long lateral passes
• Some improvements to aerial interceptions for defenders
• Sent assistant referees on training course to remove some overzealous offsides being given and sort positioning during penalties
• Improvements to ball collision detection with posts/crossbar
• Keeper logic improvements for narrowing shooting angles and rushing out
• Players less likely to slide tackle opposition players who are static
• Removed some suggestions with multiple subs recommended
• Assists not being counted correctly from free kicks
• Crosses that are cleared are being counted as completed
• Fix for players being swapped into positions they can't play during the match by AI managers
• Prevent defenders from attacking ball too close to the feet of a standing opponent too often
• Fixed rare case of popup showing wrong number of goals being scored
• Goalkeeper punches in response to shots are now correctly marked as saves
• Fix to wall behaviour in free kicks, facing and posture
• GK reaction tweaks to freekick shots so the ball position in relation to wall is better taken into account to delay keeper reaction
• Change for lone deep lying forwards and false 9 strikers to be set to support duty by AI managers allowing other support players to be set to attack
• Fix for GK frozen for too long after a lobbed shot is blocked/deflected at the last second
• Small tweak to make defenders do a better last ditch effort after the ball if the keeper is lobbed
• Tweaks to stop goalkeeper kicking the ball into opponent or teammate
• Fixed team talk options which appear before penalty shoot out
• Some improvements with goalkeeper narrowing decisions, made them a bit more likely to intercept the ball when the opponent hasn't received the ball
• Give cumulative bonuses to player ratings when they score/assist more than once, give keepers with not much to do a boost
• Fixed assistant referee following the last defender into the other half of the pitch
• Fix for low rated match officials leading to multiple penalties in friendlies
• Defender dropping marking close to own goal needlessly
• Fix to GK punching ball on close range shot/header when a tipped save/not saved is more appropriate for reaction time
• Fix to referee minimum movement speed when going over to punish a player

READ MORE: FM 21: Best Centre Midfielders (DM, MC, AMC)

Competitions

• Various rule updates for Croatia, Serbia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brazil, Uruguay, Romania, Russia and Scotland
• Fix for Croatian newgens not gaining homegrown status. All eligible newgens should now have homegrown status, even in old saves
• Croatian Second Division to have 16 teams for 21/22 season
• Cannot move players to B team in Finland "because the specific transfer window is now closed"
• Spanish and Portuguese B-Team promotion fixes
• Fix for B teams incorrectly appearing in the Italian Cup
• Fix so second teams present in the Romanian Second Division no longer enter the Champions Playoff
• Fix for Serbian Cup picking wrong entrants
• Copa America originally scheduled for 2020 will now be played in 2021.
• Further work to Chinese naturalisation
• Fixed issue related to Israeli squad numbers being forgotten
• Alterations for transfer / registration window dates in India and Romania
• Fix for rare occurrences of incorrect scheduling of league playoff stages in Colombia and Peru.
• Further tweaks to work permit and Brexit rules
• Third tier teams selected in Mexican Cup instead of Expansion League teams
• Updated US Cup Format

READ MORE: Football Manager 2021 Wonderkids: Defenders (DR, DC, DL)

UI

• General improvements to watching Past Matches
• Live scores on the Touchline tablet no longer duplicating
• User can't view 1 Jan to 14 Feb on arranging friendlies UI
• Can't proceed into a match if pressing back on Team Selection panel when managing international side
• League name is Cut Off in 'History in The Making' during End of Season Review
• Team stats showing goals conceded to be 'worst' when it should be 'best'
• Changing manager appearance from the Start Screen does not remember any changes
• Tweaks to how role ability logic and ratings on tactics screen
• Removed any inconsistencies in how xG appeared on certain panels

READ MORE: Football Manager 2021 Touch Features

FM 21 Touch

FM 21 Touch takes the Football Manager experience to a more casual approach on different platforms including tablets.

FM 21 Touch will also be receiving an update correlating with FM 21 Update 21.4, but we don't have the release date for the upcoming patch just yet.

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