Ive been playing every CM/FM game since CM2 96/97 and its always been about three things:
Match engine - This is where the main experience lies of course.
Opposition AI - In order to maintain a well balanced and challenging game world.
Newgen development - To maintain the player balance and to be able to build a squad year after year with the same player balance as in the beginning.
This year I really feel the match engine is better than ever, BIG plus.
The other two points however seems to be lacking, especially the newgen development. Very disappointing but I hope, as I hope every year, this can be fixed with a patch.