With so many changes coming to Football Manager 24, I decided to play with a big team for my Early Access save. And what better big team than one in crisis in real life – Ajax. I played in Original Mode, but will probably do Real World when I start my main save.

When I started the save, I decided to try out some of the new player roles and made my left back an inverted fullback so I could take advantage of the libero benefits with one of my center backs. But we started off slow so I switched to more traditional roles in my 4-3-3, and we took off like a rocket.

We looked destined for the title from the beginning. Our offense had multiple weapons, and I avoided the injury bug that has hit some other FM players. At first it looked like we would crash out of the Europa League group stage, but we rallied and eventually made it to the semi finals before losing to Atalanta.

We also made the Dutch Cup semis where lower-level Willem II beat us, but I had a rotated side in that one because fixture congestion was coming hot and heavy.

The save really gave me a chance to see the improvements in the match engine. Here are a few things I really liked:

Little animations like an injured player calling for a rub or the raised hands from defenders appealing for offside add a fun element
It’s small, but lower camera angles for pre- and post-match animations is pretty cool
The set piece creator can be a lot to handle, but I liked it when I sat down to set some things up. I let my set piece coach do it until partway through the season when I felt comfortable experimenting. I still only did corners so may do free kicks and throw ins once I start my main save
The target system is nice
The deflections and bounces really change everything.
A few years ago (maybe last year), one of the promises was that player fitness would be more accurately reflected if you played Gegenpress or some other high-pace tactic. I never noticed a huge effect until now. I definitely had to make second-half adjustments in my tempo and some other instructions to keep my guys from dying

I only did this one season and am messing around with international management with Solomon Islands just for giggles. My main save will be a King of the North save where I try to win as many titles/cups in the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark). I think I will start in the fourth division of Sweden and see where the journey takes me.