Football Manager was created by people, who used to work on Championship Manager and who added their input into demise of CM. Their product was slightly better, but at the same time the direction of the game was different. FM concentrates mainly on the game tactics, each of the player that takes part in the match can have several parameters attached that (at least in theory) changes his behaviour on the field. In practice it is often really hard to spot the difference that those parameters make, but devoted fans of the series spend hours, days, weeks and months on improving slight details of their formation.
The 2020 version is kept in the same area, there are new scouting options, there are few changes in club background, but overall the game remain the same. Match engine uses 3D technology to simulate the matches, which is not always a good news, often the situations have very little with reality and do not give you much data to work on. Number of staff members has expended, but to be honest it is hardly worth to mention - you hire people once a few years, extend their contracts and that is about it. Player details have not changed in years, still the same system is used to define the players, still the same options are used for scouting purposes.
After Championship Manager stopped Football Manager became, in reality, the only tripple-A football manager game on the market and it begins to show - with each of the versions in recent years less and less improved is made to the game, but the yearly tax for updating team data is still being collected. In 2020 versions only marginal changes were made to the gameplay, some slight improvements to graphics (although they are hard to spot to be honest), so it looks like FM is just stuck in the loop and there is no way out.
Overall a good game, but rather for more hardcore fans of the genre, new users can be put off by lots and lots of parameters and settings that take a lot of time to understand and even more to master.
