Unlike other console football management games at the time which were ports of existing PC titles, LMA Manager was designed exclusively for the PlayStation. The game is notable for its intuitive control system, where the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons of the controller switch between different sections of the game (e.g. from the Transfers section to the Squad section), and L2 and R2 switch between sub-screens within a section (e.g. from the Select Team screen to Editing Tactics). As a full management sim, players can start an open-ended game, or face one of the ten challenges.