In the past, FIFA Manager has tended to be the second choice behind the Football Manager series, but the host of new features in this year's offspring has undoubtedly breathed life into a genre that has always been so caught up in charts and statistics that it was starting to resemble an accountant's half-yearly report.

Accompanied by a constantly changing, upbeat, rock and footie theme soundtrack, you begin by choosing your personal profile (for which you can upload a real photo!), whether you want to take on the role of anything from player manager to club owner, which countries' leagues you want to include and which specific team you want to be in charge of.

The game features licensed league, club and player data from 33 countries and has a comprehensive player data bank containing over 1,500 clubs and more than 25,000 players (of which over 7,000 are original player photos). In addition, there's an extensive editor which allows you to add leagues, clubs and players and more attention has been paid to local changes in league systems and new special foreign player rules.

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It's easy to be swamped by the vast ocean of data that can come your way, but to help you get started there's a home menu which collates all the main headings together and gives key tips on hiring more coaching and scouting staff, building up training and even increasing your favour with the Board by learning how to play golf and sail.

Staffing levels have been revamped with several new positions like fitness coach, talent scout and lawyer. Likewise, the line-up and tactics sections have lot more options, such as giving specific single-player commands (like forward runs and passing styles), allocating specialist roles (captain, free kick taker, target man) and team instructions (long shots, offside trap, counter-attack). Team morale has a central role, too, and this can be heightened by parties, special meals and even a trip to a theme park.

Once you've got through the last weeks of summer and are ready to play your first friendly, this is where the pièce de résistance comes to the fore - the new 3D match engine. While the character modelling is pretty wayward (Steve Gerrard will not be happy about his avatar) and the graphics are hardly state of the art, it's good at last to be able to see the action and have direct access to substitutions, tactical changes and statistics while the match is live.

You can also schedule up to six 3D match replays of other fixtures happening that day, complete with text and live commentaries. The text mode now boasts an Internet live ticker, more emphasis on defenders and a huge Live Stats section, plus there's a helpful Assistant Manager to help with minute by minute analysis. Some of the live commentaries contain random remarks (a patch maybe, someone?) but it's great to hear “You'll Never Walk Alone” ringing out while Liverpool are playing an away fixture in Europe, for example.

If that wasn't enough, other new features include a youth transfer market, a match prognosis tool which helps you to predict the result of every match, an improved stadium generator and a complete overhaul of the audio.

It may still feel like you're awash with a tsunami of statistics but FIFA manager 09 has injected a number of new features to appeal to micromanagement fans and included a fully interactive 3D match mode that will make budding managers feel they're making vital decisions.