Master League is the mode for footballing purists.
Take any club available on PES and take them all the way to domestic and continental glory.
Unlike other management games, Master League has a story mode feel to it with literal "chapters" making it feel like you are progressing on your journey.
So what do we expect from PES 2022's Master League?
Trailer
We should see a Master League trailer ahead of PES 2022's release.
We last saw one for PES 2020, with the following trailer arriving on 30 August, 10 days ahead of release.
This brought us new manager models, storyline cutscenes and special experiences around pre-season and derby matches.
New Managers
It would be great to see new managers to use as your avatar for PES 2022.
PES 2021 Managers
- Johan Cruyff
- Diego Maradona
- Zico
- Romario
- Bebeto
- Roberto Carlos
- Lothar Matthaus
- Ruud Gullit
- Frank Lampard
- Ryan Giggs
- Pep Guardiola
- Steven Gerrard
So who are realistic options to join this list?
It's best to start with PES' partner clubs with Arsenal's Mikel Arteta and Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the hot favourites to join the managers' list for PES 2022.
Of course, Bayern Munich's Hansi Flick is yet to appear, and nor is Juventus' Andrea Pirlo - but the Italian legend may struggle to keep his job if the Old Lady misses out on the Serie A title.
Roma's Paulo Fonseca and rival manager Simone Inzaghi of Lazio would be great to see for derby matches, whilst we are yet to see Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman or club legend Xavi.
Wishlist
With it being two years since the last significant update to Master League, there should be plenty for Konami to work on.
Training
Training on PES 2021 is very simplistic can you're not really able to work on your players, like say you do in FIFA 21's Career Mode.
Yes you can get them to improve their abilities and have them learn new skills or positions, but you don't get the opportunity to be hand on, and run the sessions like you do in FIFA 21.
A fine balance is required between training not taking up too much time to getting what you want out of it - something Konami should look at.
Transfers
An improvement in transfer negotiations is perhaps required, with any bid being rejected meaning that the deal is dead in the water.
That aside, the transfer breakdown of the fee, sell-on option as well as player salary, contract length, release fee and bonuses all work brilliantly.
Perhaps an added realism of breaking these up into two parts, with separate negotiations between the club and the player making transfers more realistic.