The ""Total Football Experience"" is a new feature in which football news from around the Manager Mode world is visible, including player transfers, fixtures and results in foreign leagues. A new ""Assistant Manager"" can be used to take care of the team's line-up and to rotate the squad based on importance of the upcoming match. For example, if the next match is against a low rated team, he will make sure that players normally on the bench will start the match. Pre-season friendlies have been introduced to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, as a chance to flatten out any wrinkles in a team's lineup before the domestic season begins.
Results for simulated matches are more heavily based on team strength and do not appear to be as ""random"" as has been the case in the past. This results in more realistic performances and eliminates instances where stronger clubs would be fighting relegation and clubs with weaker players were winning the league. Non-player clubs also now rotate players more often based on factors such as fatigue, player form, and the relative importance of a match, so the lineup for a top team in the early rounds of a domestic cup may consist of less-able and younger players as opposed to a full-strength squad. The names of the ""generic"" stadiums can be changed in Manager Mode to reflect the name of the player's club's home ground.