FIFA 20 Career Mode Patch

Poor old Career Mode, consistently left behind to stagnate as Ultimate Team gets all the attention. But hey, EA's finally made some nice improvements to Career Mode in FIFA 20, allowing for custom managers and one-on-one conversations with players, while also making a range of behind-the-scenes tweaks. However, despite all the good stuff, the mode's in desperate need of an update or two in its current state.

FIFA 20 launches on the 27th September, but you can play the game right now either through the ten hour trial on EA Access, or if you buy the Ultimate Edition. It's technically in early access, then, but that doesn't really excuse a lot of the issues that are, in some cases, ruining Career Mode for players.

The problems range from minor bugs all the way to seemingly broken systems. Individually, these issues may not be a huge deal, but add them all together and it's clear that the developer's got some work to do.

First thing's first: the Champions League groups haven't been updated -- they're actually last season's groups, with Spurs having to fend off Barcelona, and Liverpool being stuck in a tough group with PSG and Napoli. It's something a lot of people will be able to look past, but come on. How hard is it to make sure the groups are up to date? Do we really need a "day one" patch for this?

The same applies to players out on loan, or even some players who were sold back in the summer. Many squads haven't been updated properly, with numerous youngsters and reserves still sitting pretty on your player list, even though they were shipped off months ago.

FIFA 20 Career Mode

Okay, so this kind of stuff is usually patched up on release, but you can pay £90 (ninety bloody quid!) for the aforementioned Ultimate Edition and get the full game right now. Is it really too much to ask for team sheets to be accurate?

Now, this is where the issues really start impacting the Career Mode experience. Currently, the most talked about problem is that the game has a particularly bad habit of fielding weaker teams, regardless of the opposition and regardless of the occasion. You can be playing Manchester City in a crucial title-deciding clash, and Pep will field a team of kids you've never even heard of. Baffling.

But here's the thing: City might not even be at the top of the table -- they might be struggling down in the relegation zone. Yep, you read that right: users are reporting scenarios where top teams are constantly dropping points -- presumably because they keep fielding significantly weaker players. While you might find Guardiola's apparent breakdown entertaining, this obviously means that Career Mode is doing an awful job of portraying a realistic season.

We could go on and on about all the little problems that we've ran into, or the complaints that we've seen on Reddit, social media, and the official FIFA forums, but we'd be here all day. The bottom line is that while Career Mode is functional, it's seriously wonky right now. And for a game that's as popular and as successful as FIFA, that's not good enough, especially when handing over £90 for early access is an option.

Have you been playing FIFA 20? Have you run into any of these problems yourself? Give us a post-match press conference in the comments section below.