Football Manager is known for its depth and large player database. This version goes a little less deep but the database remains the same size. With less tactical choices available the accessibility is a lot bigger than with the previous titles though.

Starting is done by making a team. You choose a name and club colors after which you have to get a bunch of existing players lined up. Getting top names from the start is something you can forget already, you're stuck with a certain budget for transfers. After having assembled your team you can give these guys a contract and even during the season it's still possible to hire others.

Even before the season starts you need to choose for a Football Association. These are competitions that differ from each other in the playing day. There's for instance a Weekend Casual Association for those that prefer playing in the weekend and you can only challenge another player when he/she is also online. The matches themselves are quite similar with those from previous games and those that after a while still haven't been able to play a match against someone from his/her competition can go head-on against the computer. The system is partially depending on the activity of the players but it does seem to work well.

Also to transfer players during a season you need to negotiate with other people. Many will offer their redundant players through mail and if you don't check your mailbox for a couple of days you'll see it spammed with transfer requests. Maybe a forum or another way to place advertisements would have been better.