FM26 No More 'Boring' Arsenal

It is June 2026, and Arteta's Arsenal have just come off the back of beating Real Madrid in the Champions League final to complete a league, FA cup and UCL treble. The mainstream sports media has been in such a state of hysteria, that the governing bodies of football have decided that unless Fergie's disciples deem their playing style entertaining enough, Arsenal will never be allowed to win a trophy again. In the knowledge that they will never approve of a manager that uses set pieces as a way to break down teams that stick 10 men on the edge of their box from kick off, Arsenal's owners have taken the difficult decision to relieve Arteta of his duties as their manager.



In what feels like a post-apocalyptic aftermath of Arsenal's most successful season ever, I am taking over the club with a clear mandate. Can I transform the identity of this Arsenal squad, make them the most technically brilliant, easy on the eye team in the history of sport all while maintaining the level of expectation that Arteta has set? No consistently scraping top 4 but looking good while doing it, no getting dumped out on the round of 16 10-2 on aggregate.

But just what will pass as exciting enough football? It is a fine line to tread, long balls and direct football? Boring. Old fashioned. Dominating possession and slowly passing your opponents to death? Boring. Set pieces, crosses, attacking players with no flair or technical ability? You guessed it, BORING.

Wenger set some great precedents for exciting football. 4 number 10s on the pitch at once, quick one-twos and 3rd man runs is certainly 1 style of football that will meet the criteria. People also love to watch great dribblers and players that can score from range. These 3 different types of excitement will greatly inform our recruitment policy moving forwards, and the tactical identity of the team.

Out With the Old

Due to the successful nature of the previous season, plenty of my players are attracting interest from elsewhere. The first thought on my mind when deciding on how to reshape the squad for the 26/27 season is that I don't want Ødegaard being the most attacking of the 3 on midfield. For more entertaining football I'd much rather have 1 player behind him, and a role ahead of him that Eze, Nwaneri, Havertz etc. can play. I also want to try and keep the transfers fairly realistic, looking at players that have been linked with the club in real life, and players around the right price and age profile that the club usually look for. On top of obviously requiring players that will contribute to the desired style of play.

With these things in mind, some players are out the door early.

Transfers Out

Declan Rice PSG - £70m
Obviously a laughably low fee for a player of his quality, but the planned midfield restructuring combined with Rice's profile as a player, I decided to take the money and reinvest it in the squad. A world class all rounder, but not the type of player that excites the crowd with their technique and aesthetic quality. (Besides the odd free kick or 2 ;))

Ben White Liverpool - £35m
A decent fee for someone that is not our first choice option at right back, and another well rounded player, not the most attacking option at right back, and if we need a solid player to deal with a dangerous left winger, Timber is already great defensively anyway.

Viktor Gyökeres Real Madrid - £48m
Despite currently having recorded the 2nd fastest sprint speed in the UCL this season out of the whole Arsenal squad (in real life I should clarify), Paul Scholes says he runs like he's got jeans on. You'd be forgiven for falling over laughing at that crushing witticism (or indeed the fee I've sold Rice for), but either way it is clear we can't continue with him up front.

Leandro Trossard Real Madrid - £20m
31. 1 year left on his deal. No brainer.

With £170m already recouped in transfer fees, we have a metaphorical chasm of wiggle room in the transfer window to spice up our life. Exciting news on the way soon...

In With the New

With over £200m of raw dosh burning a hole in my pocket, I got to work on acquiring some suitable transfer targets. The DNA of this team will be centred around certain attributes and player traits in order to make sure the squad at my disposable is as capable of implementing our new tactical identity as possible. In the main, the attributes and traits I'll be looking for are as follows:

Dribbling, Long Shots, Technique, Flair & Vision.
Plays one-twos, Likes to beat man repeatedly, shoots from distance, runs with ball often etc.

Obviously the position of the player will determine which of these attributes are most important, but by and large, these things are what I believe will make us the most exciting team to watch in the world.

Transfers In

Morgan Rogers - £45m - £135k p/w
Still only 23, Rogers has been regarded as one of the most exciting players in the league over the last couple of seasons, and his 18 flair and 17 dribbling are a testament to that. Combined with player traits that encourage dribbling and playing killer balls, this made him a perfect target to replace Trossard as an option at left wing, and to prop up our homegrown quota with Rice and White also leaving. While his general intelligence on the pitch may still leave something to be desired, the fact he still has room to grow means he will be at worst a solid rotation option, and at best an elite forward in the coming years.

Amar Dedic - £40m - £67k p/w
1 scouting report on this guy was all it took to convince me he was the man to replace White as our 2nd option at right back. Only paying 67 grand a week for a 23 year old right back with 17 flair and 16 dribbling is far more than I had hoped for. His ability to competently fill in at LB as well should not be understated, especially as I am using the brilliant Daveincid's realism pack, which increases the quantity of injuries compared to the base game.

HUGE SWAP DEAL!

Julian Alvarez - £90m (+£25m incentives) - £175k p/w
Gabriel Jesus Athletico Madrid - £35m

Ok it wasn't technically a direct swap deal but it might as well have been, with both transfers going through within 4 days of each other. With Gyökeres leaving, I felt like we could use another striking option, ideally with more of a direct goal threat than the excellent but never prolific Kai Havertz. Alvarez who, like Rogers, has been linked with a move to Arsenal, certainly provides that, as well as so much more. An unbelievably versatile profile that can play anywhere across the attack, who averages over 15 for the 5 attributes mentioned as the DNA of the team, he could add some serious star power to support Saka at the top end of the pitch. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I see he also has the plays one-twos trait! It is a major fee, but when considering the cost recouped from Jesus moving the other way, and Gyökeres moving to the other side of Madrid already, it doesn't eat as big of a chunk out of this season's budget as you might think.

With these 3 signings over the line, I had a thought to modify my usual views on the squad, player database and shortlist screens to include the 5 attributes mentioned repeatedly in this post. This will give me a nice quick way to evaluate players at a glance. Here we can clearly see the players in the squad that fit our identity down to a tee. Ødegaard, Saka and Eze lead the way in this regard, with Alvarez, Nwaneri and Rogers not far behind.


I have gotten to the end of this post without making any jokes or sarcastic remarks about Fergie's managerial prodigies. Whoops! Maybe I'm just worried that our 3 open play goals today against Sunderland might cause one of them to complement our football in real life, rendering this endeavour pointless and making me look quite the fool.

Transfer Window Slams Shut

Deadline day has been and gone, and there has not been much more movement since the last update. Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson have moved on for less than £10m each, but 1 new player has been brought in to fill out the first team squad for the upcoming season.

Manu Kone - £38m - £100k p/w
Combining great physicality and work ethic with an impressive technical skillset for a defensive midfielder, Kone has come in to provide depth to the two roles currently occupied by Zubimendi and Ødegaard. With 16s in dribbling and technique, and 15 flair, Kone offers more dynamism and ball carrying ability than Zubimendi, but less of a passing range. At 25 he fits in well with the general age profile of the squad, and is coming into his prime years.



On the pitch we are off to a good start, picking up 2 minor trophies including the UEFA Super Cup for the first time. The only game we failed to win was a disappointing 1-0 loss away at Bournemouth where we had all the possession, but only managed to create 1 big chance all game.

Player of the Month - August

Martin Ødegaard
1 Goal, 3 Assists
2 MotM Awards (Palace, Coventry)

Moving the captain form the right to the left side of the midfield and dropping him back to be a box-to-box playmaker has been a successful endeavour so far this season. At the time of writing he has just scored a brace and picked up a 3rd MotM award in our League Cup tie against Sheffield United. I will post the tactics I've been using in more detail once I have played more games but in essence we've been using a 4-2-3-1 with
Ødegaard on the left of the 2, and Zubimendi playing a more conservative role next to him. This allows Ødegaard to get involved in every phase of play, and really make the most of his world class ability on the ball.

I have also started training him to try more tricks, to get the most out of his flair and creativity.

In other news, we have been given a bit of a nightmare draw in the league stage of the Champions League, facing 3 very tough away trips to Italy against Inter, Juventus and Napoli and hosting PSG on the final day. The other 4 games are very winnable, but we'll have to pick up at least a couple of good results from those 4 tough games if we want to finish in the top 8.

UCL Defence Underway

The first round of fixtures saw us travel to Italy, where we faced recent finalists Inter Milan. An edgy start to the game saw Inter have the better of the chances in the first half, and Lautaro Martinez capitalized in the 34th minute after Calhanoglu curled a defence splitting pass in behind for him to latch on to. Going into half time we looked 2nd best and heading for a defeat, but Martin Zubimendi made quick work of getting us back on level terms after the restart. Starting from the keeper, we played out from the back with Zubimendi receiving the ball in the middle of the pitch and playing forward into Alvarez, the Spaniard kept running and received the ball from Saka on the edge of the box, driving in and powering an effort past the helpless Sommer. We stayed on top in the 2nd half but ultimately couldn't convert any more chances, leaving the game at 1-1 at full time, a fair result on balance of the 90 minutes.

Inter Milan 1 - 1 Arsenal
35' Martinez
49' Zubimendi
MotM Calhanoglu

September Review

A blistering start to the month saw us score 10 goals in our first 2 games, breezing past Sheffield united and Leeds at home. Using the shape below, Ødegaard continued his great run of form, but as the moth progressed, the rest of the team's form began to drop off.


In the 4 games after this, we only managed to score 5 goals, despite not losing any of the games. The aforementioned away game at Inter, a narrow 1-0 win at Fulham, A disappointing 1-1 draw to home to Club Brugge and coming from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1 saw a sever drop in our attacking output begin to cause concerns. The draw against Brugge the major cause for concern, and could leave us needing to pull some impressive results out of the hat later on in the campaign. Failure to beat Malmo in GW3 could leave us paddleless up an infamous proverbial creek.

Player of the Month - September

Martin Ødegaard
3 Goals, 2 Assists
3 MotM Awards (Sheffield Utd., Fulham, Brugge)

5 goal contributions in 5 starts and 1 sub appearance from DM gives the captain a much deserved second consecutive Arsenal PotM award. 2 goals sending us through to the next round of the Carabao cup, the equalizer against Brugge and setting up the winner at Fulham, he played a crucial roll in keeping the results ticking over for the most part, even if our form dropped off.

October Review

Oh dear. Our drop off in form and the goals drying up has finally caught up with us. Back to back away trips to the north east saw us lose 2-1 and draw 2-2 to Sunderland and Newcastle respectively, despite agent Xhaka scoring an own goal for us in the former. Our 3rd game was the away trip to Malmo, and at half time the game remained goalless. Fearing a 3rd game without a win, I made a radical tactical change. Inspired by an old tactical Idea of Wenger's from the early-mid 2010s, I went to a narrow diamond shape in possession, with the 2 wide players moving into the midfield and the 10 moving up into a free role up front, while maintaining the same 4231/442 OOP shape. Staying on the left of the midfield but moving up to be the left 8 as a midfield playmaker, Ødegaard assisted the first goal and took home the MotM award in an eventual 2-0 win for us. I hope he's good at DIY because he's going to be needing some new shelves at this rate, with this already being his 6th MotM in his first 13 appearances of the season. I think using this new shape moving forward might cause this to slow down however, as I think it platforms the rest of our attacking talent better to get the most out of them as well.

We took the success of that 2nd half into our next game, hosting a Haalandless Manchester City at the Emirates. Having failed to win the league at the last 2 attempts, City stood little chance of convincing him to stay when Real Madrid came offering over £100m for him. Sidenote, that leaves Madrid with one of the most terrifying front 4s in football history on paper, of Bellingham, Vini Jr., Mbappe and Haaland all lining up together. Begs the question why they bothered signing Trossard and Gyokeres from us in the summer as well but I'm certainly not complaining about that. We're going to need all the money we can get if we're going to compete with them in Europe.

Anyway where was I? City game, right yes. So we went out with the same shape we finished the last game with, the narrow diamond. From minute 1 we were on top, controlling the game and completely nullifying the threat of Man City, but failed to create anything clear cut before half time. Our dominance continued in the 2nd half and we starting creating some real chances, but couldn't take any. Edging closer and closer to full time things started getting nervy but City handed us a gift. In the 87th minute Dias brought down Havertz in the box and Ødegaard gleefully dispatched the resulting spot kick. The game ended 1-0, and to be honest, that flattered city. We had 14 shots to their 3 and generated 2.63 xG to their 0.14, so despite not scoring from open play, more very promising signs for our new shape.

This bounce in form continued in our next 2 games, with convincing wins against Burnely in the league cup, and Everton in the league.

Player of the Month - October

Ebere Eze
2 Goals, 2 Assists
2 MotM Awards (Newcastle, Man City)

A goal and an assist in both the Newcastle game and the Everton game, combined with an impressive 8.2 rating without a goal or an assist against City sees Eze pick up Arsenal's PotM for October. Since the switch he has been playing the false 9, roaming kind of role up front next to Alvarez or Havertz, and has taken to it very well indeed.

November Review

November saw us continue our fine run of form with the new tactic, winning and scoring 3 goals in all of our next 4 games. A huge 3-0 win away at Juventus and a solid display at home against Rangers saw us shoot up the league table in Europe to 6th place with 11 points from 5 games. 3-1 wins against both Chelsea and newly promoted Hull City kept us within touching distance of league leaders Liverpool, however a poor 1-1 draw at home to Forest where we had 75% of the ball saw us drop to 1 point behind them with 1 more game played than them.

Player of the Month - November

Bukayo Saka
3 Goals, 2 Assists
2 MotM Awards (Hull, Rangers)

Saka has been getting to grips with his new role in midfield well, and really put Hull and Rangers to the sword notching all 5 of his goal contributions this month in those 2 games. While I'm happy with our shape, I'm still not fully decided on who plays where and with Saka's goalscoring ability, he may well end up as the 10 or one of the strikers in the future.

December Review

As 2026 comes to a close, the league is slowly slipping away from us, but we are still going strong in the cup competitions. An unbelievable 4-0 win against Liverpool saw us close the gap to 3 points, but poor finishing cost us against Brighton and Ipswich, leaving us 7 points off the pace going into the new year. A 4-0 win against Gremio in the Intercontinental Cup saw us complete what has got to be the most tinpot treble of all time.


After playing 8 games in December we've now got to play 9 in January. Merino is out for an extended period with an ACL problem so I'll be looking to dip into the market for someone who can play a role as Ødegaard's Understudy, moving from DM OOP to the midfield playmaker in possession. With the games coming thick and fast, Ødegaard, Kone and Zubimendi need some support to stop them burning out or getting injured.

Player of the Month - December

Julian Alvarez
2 Goals, 4 Assists
1 MotM Award (Viktoria Plzen)

Alvarez has struggled to make the impact you'd expect from such a marquee signing so far, but this month saw his form pick up a bit. He put in a great performance against Villa to see us through to the League Cup semi finals, scoring an assisting in one of the tightest games we've played so far this season.

January Review & Transfer Window

January saw us continue our good form in the cup competitions, but a big slip up at home to Coventry and being well beaten at Old Trafford sees us end the moth miles off the pace in the league, 14 points behind Liverpool with 1 game in hand. 2-1 wins against Napoli and PSG saw us finish 3rd in the UCL group phase and cruise through into the round of 16 so at least that's 2 less games we'll have to play. a 5-0 Demolition of Palace sees us through to the 4th round of the FA Cup, and Lammens earnt MotM for his efforts in the first leg of the league cup semi final, holding us to 0-0 at Old Trafford.

Player of the Month - January

Bukayo Saka
5 Goals, 4 Assists
2 MotM Awards (Palace, PSG)

Saka played the majority of this month up front, as a DLF and really exploded in that role in the 2nd half of the month. In the 4 games from Bournemouth to PSG, he racked up 4 goals and 3 assist from that position, the best of which really encapsulated the style of play I'm trying to achieve with this shape. We progress the ball well through the middle and as it goes into ska with his back to goal, he backheels it first time into Rogers, who takes a touch and lays it back into Saka's path as he bursts through the middle of the PSG defence and slots a cool finish past the keeper.

Early Incomings

The first week of January saw 2 new arrivals at Arsenal. A pair of 18 year old bargains from Brazil, Gabriel Mec and Ze Lucas arrive for a combined £14m. Ze Lucas looks the more promising of the 2, boasting an alarmingly well rounded set of attributes at such a young age. Eventually both of them were sent on loan to the championship for the remainder of the season, to gain some valuable match experience in England.

Offers for Key Players

Within the next week or so, We had received offers for Saliba and Eze from PSG, and Calafiori from Bayern. Saliba wanted to go but the offer was far too low, so I agreed with him if they came back with £100m he could leave, and immediately got my scouts to find me a shortlist of the best right footed CBs on the market in case we had to let him go. The Eze offer was around £50m which I did consider taking due to his age, but his versatility across the frontline is very useful to us with the way that we set up, not to mention him being homegrown and having great flair, technique etc. Calafiori has been injured a fair bit this season, so I didn't want to let him go without giving him fair chance to prove himself, however Lewis-Skelly has been incredible going forward so he will get most of the game time still anyway.

Release Clause Activated

£59m was all we had to pay for Merino's replacement in the end, but we found so much more than just that in this player. His performances in Serie A this season were sending shockwaves around Europe, and with 7 MotM awards in 17 league games for Roma, it was almost certain one of the bigger fish would stump up the cash for what has to be considered a pretty reasonable release clause in this day and age. Naturally a right winger or attacking midfielder, he is just the kind of player the Wenger would have converted into a deeper 6/8 (think Santi Cazorla). Ladies and gentlemen I give you: Matias Soule.

16+ in all 5 of the attributes I'm focusing on (really need to come up with a name for them), a hatful of exciting traits and a surprising 12 tackling and 10 positioning. I couldn't believe my luck when I opened us his player profile. He'll need some retraining to learn that Ødegaard role, but overtime I think he could be great there, or any position further forward since he carries such threat both in front of goal and creatively.

Deadline Day

Not wanting to make anymore signings, I thought I'd have a pretty quiet deadline day. Nuno Tavares has moved from Lazio to Spurs, netting us a nice £8m from a sell-on clause. Man City are making big moves for Marcus Thuram, presumably to belatedly replace Haaland, and for one of my shortlisted players in Francisco Conceicao (he has 19 flair). But they weren't done there. At 12:46, I was just trying to enjoy a bacon roll in the my office, when I see an offer from Man City. £110m for our captain. You can imagine my relief when I saw that he wasn't interested in going anyway, so I rejected the offer. He's been the best player in the league so far this season, and there's no way I'd sell him anyway but it's always a relief when you know they're not going to get unsettled.
God knows what their recruitment strategy is at this point, because just 1 hour later, they've come in with £83m for Timber. I wouldn't be completely opposed to selling him for that much, but not when I've only got 10 hours to find a replacement, and certainly not to a premier league rival. Thankfully he was also content to stay, so we make it through deadline day unscathed, looking ahead to the 2nd leg of our league cup semi final against United.

The Weird Diamond

Since I've played a lot of games with this new set up now, I thought I'd give a quick overview on the tactic(s) I've been using since half time in the Malmo game back in October. The first variation of this tactic was a classic diamond in possession, that looked like this:


And the second variation we adopted in some situations where the first one wasn't creating enough chances looked like this:

This one looks weird on paper, but essentially ends up the same in the final third, just with the 2 8s moved up to play next either side of the AM. The BBP also starts deeper and helps more in build up than the MPM.

The team instructions are pretty much what you'd expect for this style of play, and are exactly the same for both variations.

On Our Way to Wembley?

Our first game of February was the return leg in the Carabao Cup semi-final, at the Emirates. In what can only be described as an unbelievable individual display from Saka, he recorded a whopping 4 assists in a 4-2 thriller, that saw United battle back from 2-0 down in the first half, only to conceded without even touching the ball after the second half kicked off. We followed up with a fourth only 6 minutes later and killed the game off for the most part. A first red card of the season in the 88th minute was inconsequential in the end, and we got over the line with the 4-2 score line intact, sending us to the final and giving us our first shot at some proper silverware next month.


The next 4 games saw us extend our win streak from 3 games to 7 in all competitions, with a much welcomed break from facing elite teams, until we went away to Stamford Bridge in our final game of the month. A defensive calamity allowed Evil Saka Tyrique George to run through unopposed and coolly slot past Raya, and we struggled to create much in the way of chances, leading us to a 1-0 defeat.

Player of the Month - February

Martin Ødegaard
4 Goals, 0 Assists
1 MotM Award (Hull)
An unfortunate injury for Saka halfway through the month saw Ødegaard end up as PotM for February, although not as impressive as his early wins. It was difficult to pick a winner this month, no one won multiple MotMs and due to squad rotation, goals and moments of quality were spread evenly throughout the squad.

UCL Round of 16

With Saka still out injured, being drawn against PSG in the first knockout round of the champions league was far from ideal. The first leg took us to France and saw our former number 41 Declan Rice put in a MotM performance in what was a fairly even game in terms of chances created. Quality of finishing proved to be the difference, with PSG coming away with a flattering 3-1 win, giving us a lot to do in the second leg.
After a 4-0 demolition of Bournemouth at the weekend to lift our spirits, the French champions travelled to London, looking to hold on to their 2 goal lead. We came flying out of the blocks, and our early pressure was rewarded in the 15th minute when Ødegaard reduced the deficit to 1 with a great finish from the edge of the area. This didn't last long however, as PSG struck back with goals in the 26th and 36th minutes to make it 5-2 on aggregate. Going into half time it looked all over, but early in the 2nd half a goal from Alvarez offered us a glimmer of hope. We were absolutely dominating the game, possession, shots, xG you name it, we were superior to PSG in every way, but they put the final nail in the coffin in the 73rd minute when Fabian Ruiz made it 3-2 on the night, and 6-3 on aggregate. Once again just a masterclass in finishing from the Parisians proving to be the difference between the 2 sides, with Nuno Mendes solidifying his spot as the best left back in world football by getting all 3 assists. A late consolation goal from Eze did little to lift the despondent mood of the crowd, that were now looking at the Carabao Cup and FA Cup as the last 2 options for trophies this season. The final for the former was coming only 4 days later so the team were going to need to regroup and get their heads back in the game without delay.

League Cup Final

With the 3 least important pieces of silverware already in the bag for the season, mid March came with an opportunity to pick up the 4th least important trophy of the season. Having lost 1-0 to them less than 3 weeks ago, and the recent defeat to PSG, things were starting to look a bit bleak heading into the final at Wembley. Thankfully Saka was just about fit enough to start the game, giving us a much needed boost going into the game with him back up front with Alvarez.

The game started off cagey, with neither team taking too much risk. The first chance fell to Joao Pedro, who tested the gloves of Raya from the edge of the area, but it was comfortable enough in the end for him to push wide. We were dominating possession, and comfortably passing the ball around the back for a lot of the first half, and in the BLANK minute, we worked the ball well into Saka who had dropped off into midfield to received the ball on the half turn, and switch it long to the right flank where Madueke was marauding in behind Cucurella. Noni took the ball in his stride, drove into the penalty area and cut inside onto his left foot just as the left back caught up with him. He had created a couple of years of space to play a great ball to the back post where Martinelli was arriving to finish from 6 yards out. 1-0 Arsenal, and with the way Chelsea were playing, that wasn't going to change before half time. And it didn't.

Going into the second half, I knew all we needed to do was carry on the way were we going, controlling the game with the ball, rather than dropping off, playing safe and letting Chelsea pile on the pressure. And Chelsea continued to struggle with creating chances. A snapshot from Olise on his weak foot was the closest they came to beating Raya, in what was a largely uneventful half, seeing Arsenal lift the League Cup for the first time since 1993, and only the 3rd time in their history! Thank god for that, it might be the only thing that keeps me in the job this season, as you shall soon see...

And just to rub salt in the wounds, former Chelsea man Madueke walks off with the MotM award.

Season Over

Only 1 week later, we were faced with back to back home games against NLD rivals Tottenham. First in the premier league, then the FA cup semi final. I'm not going to sugar-coat tit or draw it out, we were crap in both. The first game we dominated but couldn't finish our chances in a 2-2 draw where we had more than triple their shots and xG. The FA cup game was much the same in the sense that we dominated the possession and had more and better chances than our opponents, but this time we couldn't even muster a draw. Falling to a 2-1 defeat and crashing out of the FA cup essentially put the final nail in the coffin of our season, with just 8 games to go and a nigh impossible task to catch runaway leaders Liverpool in the league. An anti-climax to our season, but lessons learned across the board.

Tactically I think the narrow diamond shape made it too easy for other teams to stop us going forward, as we offered so little in the way of wide threat. Asking the full back on each side be the sole source of width wasn't a good enough incentive for other teams to defend with any width at all, meaning they could just pack the middle, and make it really difficult for us to work nice combinations in that are of the pitch. This and with the fact that we were often left with just the 2 centre backs left back when we lost the ball making us very vulnerable on the counter, were in my view the main reasons we dropped so many points in the league. So going into the new season, I'll be looking at 2 main tactical tweaks. Firstly having at least one proper winger, staying wide and stretching the opponents backline at all time. They'll need to be a great 1-on-1 dribbler, and capable in front of goal. This means that we always have an option to switch the ball to them, unless the opponents leave 2 men on him, which would in turn make it much easier to play through the middle or the opposite wing. Secondly, we need a 3rd man in the backline when we're in the final 3rd to defend against the counter and solidify our rest defence. Given the personnel we have in the squad, using an inside full back makes the most sense to achieve this, and they will still provide some support and an option to recycle when the ball is on their side.

Looking forward to the transfer window, I think our incomings will be largely dependant on our outgoings. Saka & Alvarez will have the right wing and striker positions nailed down for the new season so long as they say, but I would like to add some star power to either the 10 or left wing position, as Martinelli, Rogers, Eze and Nwaneri all showed good signs at points throughout the season, but none of them really nailed down their spot in the starting XI, or carried any consistency through the season. Ødegaard, Soule, Kone & Zubimendi I am happy with for those 2 positions, and likewise, I think we have a nice balance and versatility across our defence, having 1 more attacking and 1 more defensive option at both right and left back. Raya I wouldn't mind moving on after that season, he did have some poor performances, but it will be difficult to find a keeper with better attributes without breaking the bank. But, if someone comes in for him, we could look at someone like Seimen or Svilar.