Before games, you’ll get a pre-match report in your inbox with a handy graphic that displays your opposition’s formation in their last game, details on how and when they tend to score and concede goals, and other such info that you can use to inform your strategy. The improvements in the way the game presents information to you extends to match reports. It’s something that would otherwise be easy to overlook, but as anyone who has tried to turn around the fortunes of a team low on confidence will know, the small morale boost the player will get from this is the kind of detail that can make all the difference. Take the example of a player whose form has picked up: you now get an email pointing out that they’ve been playing well and suggesting it might be worth praising the player. Things that you couldn’t be bothered to do, or would just forget about, now get done by virtue of the fact that you don’t have to go out of your way to do them. Lest you wonder why I am getting so excited about a new report style, let me assure you that it makes a big difference to the way you play the game. Paying attention to fluctuations in form and changing your team selection, or making a tactical tweak to exploit a weakness you have identified in an opponent are the kinds of details that are rewarded with success, and it is incredibly satisfying to have the time you spend drilling down into stats to inform those decisions pay off. These stories are given their power by virtue of the fact that your decisions matter. The game continues to create the compulsion to share the kinds of stories that experienced football managers will be familiar with-about the inspired tactical tweak that turned around a two goal deficit and delivered an extra time winner, about the rough diamond that you picked from obscurity and turned into a star, or about the non-league non-entity that you transformed into a force to be reckoned with. That remains the case in Football Manager 2017. The game comes to life through the tales we tell ourselves and our fellow managers about our successes and failures-indeed, you can find entire forums dedicated to just such a purpose. Though often described (not entirely without merit) as a glorified spreadsheet, Football Manager’s bedrock of stats and attribute numbers has proven to be fertile ground for the imagination.