Build your tactic, pick an opponent and play the match. No player ratings: just shape against shape, idea against idea.
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Every player is equal. The match engine only knows where your players stand with and without the ball, what each role does, and your team instructions. It plays the game possession by possession on a 6×5 grid: passes succeed or fail depending on who has more bodies around the ball, pressing forces turnovers, high lines leave space behind, and full-backs who bomb on leave you open to counters.
One match is noisy, like real football, so we also replay the same matchup 200 times and test single changes to your plan. Everything runs on your device in a fraction of a second. Club profiles come from the FM26 cards in our match analyses: shapes and instructions only, no player data.
The Lab is a simplified model for fun and for thinking about tactics. It is not a prediction of real matches, and it is not affiliated with Football Manager or Sports Interactive.
What did you make of it? Short takes from readers.