Big reasons to be happy today for fans of the Football Manager franchise, since the 2009 version is ready to be purchased. Even better, a patch has been released at the same time with the game launch, fixing a ton of problems and making sure that the problems we’ve mentioned in our Football Manager 2009 preview are obsolete now. But it’s not a problem, I was going to love playing the game anyway.

So, without further ado, here are just a few of the things this Football Manager 2009 patch 9.1.0 brings (full list can be found here):

3D Match Viewer:
– Animations (e.g. kicks, saves, headers, tackles) now synchronised better with actual ball contact
– Fixed bug where user isn’t taken back to a highlight in split view after making tactical changes
– Fixed bug where if a human watching a match leaves, then comes back, the match time slider was not showing the correct highlights/periods

Match engine:
– Reduced ratio of serious injuries compared to light ones in match
– Fixed bug where defenders continued marking strikers too long when ball clearly in their teams possession
– Encouraged certain players to try risky dribble when out of options in attacking area
– Encouraged shot when player cutting in at edge of area and on good foot ( or confident )
– Made players attack penalty area quicker when team mate is on wing and in crossing position
– Removed some confusion created by small deflections that can cause players to react illogically

And many, many more. I am really happy that I was correct and Sports Interactive addressed so many of the match engine problems. I’m thrilled, actually.