Arsenal - Project keep it somewhat real

Hi!

First of all, sorry for wall of text, and bad formatting, might fill in pictures later on.

My Betasave this time was going to be with Arsenal, its fairly obvious they aint doing great IRL, but on the game they are really potent. It seems the Beta is kinda more relaxed and forgiving than the "real" releases, as i had literally no problems with squad dynamic even tho i left out the majority of the players on "high" wages. And they kinda "overperformed" threwout the season.


Wanted to try this as realistic as possible with no transfers in start window, and no buys in januar. Instead of looking at the market i desided to run youngsters, and Saliba was played way more than Holding. Smith Rowe was 2nd choice midfield and did good. Saka and Nelson had insane season, tallying up combined 14 goals, 17 assists in PL.

Filled up staff ofcourse, but kept all current first team staff members.

Start of the season was good, got the random draw but overall the team performed well. Youngsters especially fluxed abit, some games really good, and some they didnt show up to. Where they didnt show up i swapped em out after 60min. Main youngguns played before januar transfer window was Saka and Nelson.

The transfer window in january was a odd one, i tried everything to sell players, but literally no clubs wanted to buy. Had to go for loandeals to keep the bads out:

January window :
Sokratis - loan Burnley
Mustafi - loan Leicester
Matt Macey - loan Coventry
Calum Chambers - loan Everton
Gabriel Martinelli - loan Brentford (wanted to get him loads of matches, was a mistake :P)
Mesut Ozil - Transfer Al-Sadd 2.3m

Only deals IN are young players HoYD desided he wanted to bring in. Non played for the first 11.
In januar we started off really well, played youngsters in all cups, and had the "mainteam" doing PL matches, so i didnt get fatigued so easy. It was early Desember the youngguns started fiering off properly and Smith Rowe/Willock started to push for playing PL games.


Its now 24 of mai and the season is done. We did insanely well compared to what ive been thinking. The season ended up with 28wins, 10draws, 0losses!!
Won Premier League 2 points ahead of Man Utd(Cavani slayed the league) and 6 points ahead of liverpool on 3rd.

My main team looked like this: Firstchoice/2ndchoice
GK: Leno / Runarsson (Runarsson played all cup matches)
RB: Bellerin/Maitland-Niles/Cedric
LB: Tierney/Kolasinac/Maitland-Niles
CBR: Saliba/Holding
CBL: Gabriel/Mari
DM: Elneny/xhaka
CMR: Ceballos/Willock
CML: Partey/Smith Rowe
AMR: Willian/Nelson
AML: Saka/Pepe
CF: Aubameyang/Lacazette

The team was setup like this:

GK
LB CBL CBR RB
DM
CML CMR
AML AMR
CF

Last thing to mention, noteworthy stats:
Aubameyang, 33games, 32 goals running as a CF. Think he had like 1 game on left side because of injuries. Tried to field youngsters there since Saka is insane on this game :-p

Partey played 33 matches, and honestly never really kicked off. Felt like i struggled all season to get his ratings to kick off. played him CML since he "likes to be on left in a 2man pairing" but only ended on a 6.94 rating of the season. Statswise, he did 33 games, 6 goals and 4 assists so all in all it was allright.
Think his ratings tanked towards the end of the season, dont really know why, but felt like i was struggeling to keep playing him. Didnt notice any diffrence, tried him in DM and CML, and ended up playing him CML as i felt his games was better there. More involved even tho the stats doesnt really say that.

The one player i regret not giving a chance was Nketiah. Should have loned him out, ended up with combined 11 matches threw all competitions and 9 goals, 3 assists..Probably should have played him over Lacazette, but Laca didnt do to bad with 14games threw all competitions and scored 14 goasls and 1 assist.


For next season i want to get rid of more deadwood, and bring in to reinforce our youngsters. Since i like Ceballos i managed to get him on a transfer after loan for 28m. Maybe a bit high, but im going to try keep him as a CMR and see how it goes.

Main transfer target will be DM and a AMR as i want to try move Willian in to CMR as he has started to loose his speed quite rapidly threw the season. Also need a LB since Kolasinac is out for 5 months.

Will try to post here again before season 2 starts, to update on transferwindow and possible tactic changes.

Congratulations on bringing the title to the Emirates... and in some style!

Thanks was quite supriced myself, dont think i will be able to redo it next season since im shifting out alot of players but yea we will see :-)
Will try do a transfer write up later today.

Summer transfer window is up and im ready for some heavy shifting.
I want to try keep the young core i got going.

I started looking at the squad and what i really wanted to change. I wanted to offload quite alot of players. Of the players i wanted to sell i only got Kolasinac left. He got injured for 5-8 months so will stay until jan window.
Guendouzi i really liked when Arsenal struggled under Emery, so i desided to keep him as there was no interest whatsoever. He will be 3rd choice for my DM spot, and can fill CM if needed threw the season.

Players OUT:

David Luiz - Free transfer. only played 2 matches last season.

Mustafi - Free transfer, joining Ozil in Al-Sadd

Sokratis - 2.3m - Transfer Cruz Azul

Xhaka - 25m - Sevilla - I feel his loosing the ball to much, and to slow. Also get atleast 1 red card a season.

Chambers - 20.5m - Leicester - Compared him with Holding and Holding has a better progress. Sold because he was unhappy over playtime.

Torreira - 27.5m - Bayern - Sold him as i got other options.

Cedric - 22m - Marseille (Insane price, but played him quite abit last season because of injuries)

Nketiah - Loan - Bournemouth - No interest in Laca, so im loaning him out to PL club to get gametime. Going to try let Nketiah take over after Auba.

Bellerin - 50m - PSG (This i really didnt want to happend, but he went totally ragedoll so let him go in the end. Expected to get way more but looks like corona time is still a thing :P)


Transfers IN:

Szoboszlai 22m - Wanted to try him since Arsenal has been linked with him IRL. They wanted 75m for Aouar so i left the battle to sign him. Turned out he stayed in Lyon, so might go for him next window.

Renan Lodi - 28m - DL from Atletico Madrid, got this up as a option when asking my Director of football so i went for it. Tierney and Lodi swaps over playing DL now.

Noussair Mazraoui - 20.5m/25.5m - After beeing in a tugwar for Odriozola, Max Arons and a few others i had to settle with this guy. the other options was 50m and up witch i dont want to invest in a rightback. Sadly i only had a 66% scout report to go after, once i bought him i noticed he is actually injury prone. Might be shifted out next summer, dependant on how the season goes.

Thomas Lemar - 29.5m - Listed by Atletico. Arsenal had a real interest in the player when he went to Atletico so i tought it would be fun to see how it worked out bringing him in to Arsenal. Will compete with Saka.



With so many players shifting and so many coming in, i am expecting some issues in the start of the season. Players got unhappy about Bellerin leaving so hopefully it doesnt take to long for the team to mesh again.
For my new lineup im quite unsure if i got to many youngsters in main positions. Especially with all these youngsters beeing first choice. Saliba, Maitland-Niles, Szoboszlai, Saka.

New lineup for the 21/22 season.

Leno/Runarsson

DEF Maitland/Mazra Saliba/Holding Gabriel/Mari Tierney/Lodi

DM Partey/Elneny

MID Ceballos/Willock Szoboszlai/SmithRowe

AM Pepe/Nelson Saka/Lemar

CF Aubameyang/Lacazeette/Martinelli

Im unsure where to play Partey as i didnt feel he meshed properly last season. Checked stats and he has like 10-15 games with under 6.5 witch is horrible. Moved him down to DM for now as a DLP or straight DM. If that doesnt work i might bring him up to MC again, but sadly i don't get him to work in BoxToBox or Mezzala role.

As i said im expecting quite a downfall in the start of the season since ive brought in alot of new players, and the hierarchy is massively changed with all the "older" guys leaving. Hopefully going to be in a position to attack for the title, but ive agreed with the board to go for Champions league qualify for season goal. Will try post again in winter window to tell how its been going.

From Summer to Christmas!

As i indicated on the last forum post ive been really worried about shifting to much players around, My unbeaten run ended at 41 games. and my tactic was too agressive, players go down to poor in every freaking match. My gegen GUNGHO style of attack and press surely is killing my players. It was killing my players last season to, but then i could fill inn all cups and euro with my "2nd" lineup

After the first few games i made a backup tactic with way less player instructions and way less overall instructions in tactic. I wanted to simplify the game without changing my main focus of doubling up wide with WB/CWB while still getting MC's going forward. I also needed to lower the intensity of my tactic as it was killing my players conditions. Noticed i couldnt just play a 2nd lineup in Championsleague like i did in Europa League, so fitness was a major issue.

I ended up with 4-3-3 DM Wide, but a bit easier going on instructions and less agressive. Following a positive mentality with shorter passing and high tempo. Main change was changing from Wingers to InvertedWingers witch screwed up my winger layout, but luckily most of em can play Inverted winger just as good on oposite side.

Winter transfer window 21/22 season

Goal was to sell off Lacazette, Kolasinac and try see if i could swap out Mari. Willian is also now 33 going at 34, if i could i would offload him too. After trying to deal with this all winter window NO offers came in for any of em. This got me abit mad since they are holding spots on registration sheet. This eneded up with me having a massive plan witch i couldnt fulfill.

OUT:
Nketiah - Bournemouth loan deal as important player in PL.

IN:
Alvaro Odriozola - 29.5m - After poaching and bids in all directions last summer where i stopped at 58.5m or something Manchester United put in a cheeky transferbid now in januar for 29.5m witch i followed up on. Promised important player and a good contract and he was in the squad Meaning i have to shift Maitland-Niles over to leftback and just unreg Kolasinac.

So now, winter window is closed, im kinda lacking CF and a DC, but i will make it work to the summer. Want to swap my focus of signings to english players as im sick of the Championleague requirement thingy :-p

After the first 2 months of the season things have tied up and we are back up at top with 19 wins, 3draws and 3 losses.Currently leading just ahead of Liverpool.

My squad is kinda light and we are still inn all competitions so i dont see us holding the title at the end. Will probably finish 1-4 as its really tight up top. Guardiola has been sacked and he currently manages Tottenham...

Victorious Arsenal celebrate famous quadruple!!

UEFA Champions League, Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Community Shield.
(yes i had to count the Community shield:p)

Got to the final in FA CUP, but the players just went AFK'ing, average standing of 6.2 to 6.4 :o
Might have been because i threw the water bottle in the half time teamtalk after beeing under 1-0 :-p


So from January to finish of season we did quite well. We had a bad patch of games where we did quite a few draws and 2 more losses.. For some reason Man Utd is a real struggle every game :o Luckily we beat em in CL semi final


Premier League finished with us on top at 28wins, 5draws and 5losses.
I actually tought we where way behind allready, but Man Utd and Liverpool didnt really kick off after january and dropping points just a tad more than me. Won PL with 4 points on them both.

From last season where i played my youngsters alot, this season i've been rotating alot harder. It feels like i have to because of all the cups, but i need to sort this so i got a "main11" to field for PL.

We also had major injuries on Lemar, Gabriel, Partey and Tierney. They where all between 2-4 months. Luckily they didnt happen at the same time, but spread threw from jan to may.

Players that really deserves some credits :

Auba - 32 games in league, 30 goals. 50 games total, 45 goals! also had 5 assists:D

Lemar - Insane before injury. literally took Sakas place, so when i changed tactic i worked it out so i can field them both. 26matches 7 goals, 11 assists.

Leno - 54 games 1 assist. INSANE season. has saved so many matches. 26 Clean sheets in league, and 40 clean sheets total!! Feel the keeper rating is way off again this year.

Gabriel - Just simply insane, was Worldclass when he got injuried. He and Saliba main reason the season has gone so well.

Saliba - Played him in cup first season, and then straight to first 11 2nd season. Been insane. Rocking 7.38 in the league and 7.22 in the CL. Him and Gabriel is also a superb partnership where they both got "feel his strong partnership at the back with Saliba/Gab has contributed to the recent success" And gabriel got "Thinks Saliba organises the defence well"

Szoboszlai - Main man in the mid, 4 goals and 10 assists from MCL. 5POM. Ended on 41 games, 6 goals and 13 assists. And he got the "rather pass than attempt to score" trait.

Pepe - Decent season, 22matches 15 goals and 7 assists. Has abit more goals this season as he also was backup when i couldnt play auba for fitness/injury.

Saka - 33games 8 goals and 6 assists. Often score in difficult games where he creates the goal himself. Awesome player. Injuries sat him back abit, but hopefully ill get him going again next year.

Nketiah on Loan at Bournemouth - 27 PL games, 20 goals and 7 assists. Will compete for first team next year. Auba is 33 and his stats has tanked hard.


Plans for the summer window is still folding, as im hoping to get rid of the players mentioned in the winter update. That and i really need to look at my backups in the backline. I got to many, and they are poor. Mari has fallen down like a stone, since i havent played him much..

Main plan. Get rid of Willian, Kolasinac, Lacazette, Mari and maybe Guendouzi(hes unhappy over playing time). Also got to see if i need to swap out my 2 injury prone wingbacks as its horrible getting the small 2-4weeks injuries all the time.

And the signings i do, need to have "home-grown" status to fix my overspending this season. Got registration issues for CL :-p


Been sick so played way more than usual as this save was quite fun. Will update with summer window when its closed down.