FM26 No More 'Boring' Arsenal

Tactical Musings

The first idea I had to try and maintain our main attacking shape while offering a greater wide threat, and having more solidity at the back looked something like this:


The central diamond shape moving back slightly is what facilitates all of the previously discussed changes, and I think also does a good job of putting our players right where they thrive. Ødegaard becomes the centrepiece of the team, being able to roam freely instead of being limited to 1 side, all our wingers being able to play out wide giving them more opportunities to go past their man, Lewis-Skelly coming into the midfield when we have the ball and Timber tucking in at centre back, which we can also reverse with Hincapie/Calafiori playing as the IFB and Dedic moving into the midfield (Timber & Calafiori both very capable of playing in the midfield as well).

The main thing I'll need to test with this is the shape in deep build up. The screenshot shows us going straight to that 3-2 shape back there, but we could also move the LB to an IWB, so it starts as a 4-1, and morphs into that 3-2 shape as we progress the ball. This is something we can tweak during the game, I think the 4-1 shape will lend itself more towards wide progression, which can be a safer route against teams that press aggressively, but the 3-2 will better encourage that short sharp passing, and central progressions with the ball getting into the 10 and the strikers quicker.

To be honest I have no idea how this will work, it's not a shape I've really tried before, the closest would probably be a 3412 with wingbacks in terms of what I've played with before, so it might make some time for A. the team to adapt to and B. for me to refine based on what I observe in the first few games. Could be a disaster and send me back to the drawing board for all I know but I'll give it a fair chance before then.

Stay posted for some transfers...

July 2027 - Early Transfer Update

A quick summary of all the moves we made in the first month of the transfer window, including some big outgoings and a couple of big big signings...

DMs Depart

The story of the start of our transfer window was as the title suggests, we received bis for Norgaard, Merino, Zubimendi and Kone all at the start of the window, and ended up selling 3 of the 4.

Christian Norgaard Burnley - £4m
Mikel Merino Crystal Palace - £14m
These 2 barely played for us at all last season. Merino would've played a bit more if not for a big injury, and these were mainly to free up space in the squad as the money was not hige on these, but getting ~£250k p/w off the wage bill is a massive help as well.

Martin Zubimendi Real Madrid - £53m (+ £15m)
When Real Madrid came knocking, Zubimendi had made his mind up instantly. Having done a solid, if unspectacular, job for us last season, I was failry content with recouping the entirety of the fee we paid for him, plus some extra if he reaches 20 league appearances. At 28, I felt his value was never going to be higher than right now, and inability to sell players at the right time has been a huge weakness for arsenal for the last 20 years, so felt it was a beneficial move all round, and that there were some interesting opportunities we could explore in the transfer market to replace him.

We rejected the offer we had for Kone, but did have to promise him that we'd accept an offer of £55m or more if anyone came back in for him.

Left Backs Leave

I was originally only planning on letting one of the leave, but as you'll soon see, the offer we received for the 2nd after the 1st had already gone was too good to turn down.

Pierro Hincapie Liverpool - £55m (+ £6m)
Not someone I was desperate to get rid of, a good versatile defender but the money Liverpool were offering was almost double what I knew the ideal replacement would cost us, so I was happy to accept. The replacement was someone that I had already scouted, and is very similar in ability and age, but even more versatile.

Ricciardo Calafiori Real Madrid - £72m (+ £20m)
Becoming the 4th player to leave for Real Madrid since I took over little more than a year ago, it's clear to see I let 2 players with a very similar role in the squad leave in the same window. Provided he plays 20 league games for Real, over £90m for a player that doesn't even make our starting XI is just ridiculous. I didn't have a ready made replacement already scouted and decided for this scenario, so will have some work to do there later on in the window, but this gives us such a great amount of funds to go out and potentially buy that star left winger/10/false 9 that we could really use, maybe even 2 of those as the board gave us a generous £140m budget at the start of the window.

(worth noting that the 3 big deals involve a lot of instalments, so we are not just getting £180m straight into the budget, but does give us the ability to finance incoming deals in a similar manner).

Replacements and a Release Clause

Cheung Yat Long Derby County - £5m - Youth Contract
As hard to believe as it may be, 1 of our scouts actually did their job completely unprompted! Saw the report for this guy: 16, homegrown, 4-5 star potential, only £5m, and bought him instantly. Absolute no brainer for that price. Already possessing great speed, passing and technique, I'll probably end up retraining him either as a midfielder or a left winger, but he definitely could be one to watch in the future.


Ayyoub Bouaddi Lille - £60m (+ £15m) - £76k p/w
By now I'm sure we all know how good this guy is for a teenager. There was a few other players I was looking at to come in and fill the gap left by Zubimendi, namely Joao Neves and Zaire-Emery from PSG, but their wage demands were at least double what Bouaddi's were, and both are a couple years older as well. He has so much room to grow, and I'm sure it won't be long before he secures his place as a starter, and benches Manu Kone, but we can rotate them well to start with while he's still adapting to the league.


Murrilo Nottingham Forest - £30m - £100k p/w
This guy not only fits the squad perfectly with his versatility to play LB, CB & DM, but he also fits the bill for what we want to achieve here so well. His crazy runs with the ball out from the back, all the way up the pitch are exactly the kind of thing that excite the crowd and get them off their feet. He's so good at dribbling in fact, his dribbling attribute is the same as Julian Alvarez. Combine this with his incredibly well rounded defensive attributes and passing ability, and you can clearly see why I had this guy already lined up and ready to come in as soon as we lost someone in that area of the pitch.


Kenan Yildiz Juventus - £88m - £150k p/w

Okay so funny story. I had pretty much already made up my mind on wanting to activate the 22 year old's release clause and bring him to Arsenal going into our friendly against Juventus, and when he scored the opener in the 5th minute, it made it a certainty for me. Little did I know he was going to tear his meniscus later in the same game This didn't stop us from buying him, although he is out for 2 months which is not ideal, but I believe he is someone for the long term project here, and we have Martinelli, Rogers and Eze that can all play on the left in the meantime. as you can see below, he looks incredible and at such a yound age still, has room to develop even further.


This transfer when through on the 31st of July, so that brings us to the end of this update. We still have well over £100m and £600k p/w in wages left in the budget at the moment, so there is still plenty of scope for a couple more players coming in, I may even look to bring German GK Dennis Seimen in while he still has his £50m release clause, even if Raya doesn't move on. Watch this space...

August 2027 - Final Transfers and Season Start

With 2 left sided defenders leaving and only 1 coming in so far, I was in the market for another. I could've gone with a pure LB and had Murillo as the LCB rotation option, but I struggled to find any real quality in terms of market opportunities there. Alphonso Davies could've been a fun attacking option but had just signed a new deal with Bayern, and outside of that the players were all ageing or just pretty average looking. So instead I went for a left footed CB.

Castello Lukeba RB Leipzig - £55m - £160k p/w
Coming in for pretty much the same fee we sold Hincapie for, Lukeba could really challenge Gabriel for his spot over the next couple of years. Gabriel is turning 30 in a couple months time, and while he is far stronger and better defensively, Lukeba is superior on the ball, and at 24 still has a few years yet before reaching his prime. With the versatility to fill in at left back as well and a couple of standout defensive attributes as well, his arrival makes me feel pretty secure about our future in this area of the pitch, with him ready to step up whenever anything happens to Gabriel.


Hugo Ekitike Liverpool - £30m - £195k p/w
With Isak's time at Liverpool working out far better in this game world than real life so far, Ekitike has been struggling for starts and sat on the transfer list since part way through last season and I have been keeping him on my radar. For that kind of price he can definitely come in and be a squad player for us and as someone I really enjoy watching in real life, I can say for sure that he fits the bill as far as excitement is concerned.


I have also agreed a couple of future transfers for 2 Brazilian 17 year old newgens that my scouts recommended me, not sure why they only seem to be bringing me good youngsters from Brazil and nowhere else but these 2 look pretty good and cost only around £5m each. The last 2 we bought, Ze Lucas and Gabriel Mec, have both gone out on loan again this season.

With no tinpot trophies to play for this season, we jumped straight into a challenging start in the premier league, facing Chelsea and a tricky trip to St. James' Park in our first 2 games. A great 3 points in the opener in a 3-1 win coming from behind, saw us get off to a great start but I did feel the score line flattered us somewhat. They created chances throughout, and out 3 goals came from 2 crosses and a deflected shot, so didn't really feel like it was down to the tactic at all. And then a week later Newcastle completely exposed us, creating double our xG and taking twice as many shots as us, we just could not get going at all and lost 2-1, which once again, I'm not even sure we deserved that. So after that I completely binned off the tactic. It wasn't working and to be honest I think it was just a bit too weird, and trying to do things a bit to complicated for the current tactical creator. So I went back to basics, to the same idea of Wenger's 4231 that becomes a diamond, but instead of forcing it into the diamond, in possession, I just select roles that made the wingers come inside, and the 10 move up further, which left us looking like this. Ødegaard is back in the role that saw him earn back to back PotM awards last season, and the front 4 get nice and narrow once we move up into the final 3rd, which results in those nice quick 1 touch passing moves that are so synonymous with 'Wengerball'. Pairing this with a fairly standard vertical tiki-taka style of instructions in order to focus play through the middle where all our threats would end up, we went on a great run in our next few games in terms as results.

3 1-0 wins in a row may look like the boring boring Arsenal of old, but the nature of the goals we scored in those games showed me we were moving in the right direction. The best of which came against Palace in the first of the 3 games, where the front 5 (inc. Ødegaard) put together a silky 11 pass sequence between themselves all in zone 14, culminating in Nwaneri (the second striker) sliding the ball through to Madueke, after the latter had come deep to pick up the ball earlier in the sequence, and then made a run around and in behind the defender that Nwaneri had dragged out of position with his movement.


To be honest, 9 points isn't bad from those first 4 games in the league, with 2 tricky away trips that often prove to be banana skins for us in real life out the way nice and early, and our defence of the league cup of to a good start, I felt optimistic about the season ahead. Another very fun UCL draw sees us play Barcelona and Atleti in our first 2 continental games of the season, thankfully both are at home, but that just means we have to go away to Dortmund and Leipzig consecutively later on in the campaign. The other 4 games aren't too bad thankfully, but I feel like we need to grab at least 3 points from those first 2 games to put us in good stead.

Player of the Month - August

Morgan Rogers
2 Goals, 0 Assists
1 MotM Award (Villa)

No huge standouts this month, but Rogers scored a couple of goals, including a crucial winner against Villa, his former club. He is adapting well to the new system, and is a constant threat coming in off that left hand side.

September & October 2027

We continued our run of winning form into September, easing past Bournemouth in a truly dominant display. Barcelona was up next, and we continued that dominance. while the possession numbers were fairly equal, all the chances were falling to us. Garcia in the Barca net was forced into making some great saves to keep the score 0-0. As the clock ran down further and further in the 2nd half, it looked more and more like we were going to only come away with a draw, and have nothing to show for our attacking superiority. With only 3 minutes left on the clock, and the crowd getting desperate, Timber carried the ball down the right flank, and sent a hopeful cross towards the back post. Rogers was in a great position to meet it with his head, when Arnau Martinez gave him a shove in the back. Penalty. With all of our regular penalty takers having been subbed off, Matias Soule stepped up and coolly dispatched to make it 1-0. In the dying embers of the game Barca continued to offer no threat, and we took all 3 points. Joan Garcia still got the MotM award for an outstanding (or for me, frustrating) display. our 2-0 win at Turf Moor was very comfortable, after a 5th minute goal eased the pressure early on. Having to host Atletico Madrid just after Barcelona turned out to be just as difficult as it sounds. Similar to the Barcelona game, but having more but lesser quality chances, we were still locked at 0-0 late in the game. This time it was the 90th minute where we managed to break through. In a stylistically unusual fashion, the ball flew up in the air on the right hand side, and Dedic headed forward towards Madueke, who in turn leapt above his man and flicked the ball on even further, across the D to the other side of the penalty area. Rogers latched on it it and violently slammed the ball into the roof of the net from ~12 yards to send the Emirates ballistic. It hadn't been pretty but we had made it through our very tough start to the UCL unscathed. Our last game saw us concede our fist goal of the month, as Liam Delap ran through unchallenged to make it 1-0 in the 60th minute. Thankfully we hit back quickly through Lewis-Skelly only 3 minutes later, but we once again were bailed out by a late penalty, as this time Alvarez was on hand to make it 2-1 in the 78th minute, and keep our winning run going, now reaching 8 games in all competitions.

Player of the Month - September

Myles Lewis-Skelly
1 Goal, 1 Assist
3 MotM Awards (Bournemouth, Burnley, West Ham)

A fantastic moth for our academy graduate, as he was the best plyer on the park in all 3 of our league games this month, including an impressive 8.4 rating against Burnley despite not recording a goal contribution. His immense physicality makes him such a presence on that left hand side, and combined with his fantastic ability on the ball make sit hard to believe he's still only 21 years old. He has all the makings of a great midfielder as well, and that option will always be there for us to move him inside whenever the opportunity/need arises.


October was the month that really saw us fully find our stride, and start blowing teams away. After a tricky fixture against Everton, where we scored in the 1st and 89th minutes to come away with all the points from Goodison Park, our next 3 games saw us score 12 goals and concede only 2. Those 3 games also saw Yildiz finally fit to start for us, and he scored 3 goals in these 3 games, to get his Arsenal career off to a great start. Our final game of this period saw us travel to the Etihad, for one of the toughest fixtures of the season. This summer had seen Vinicius Jr. join the likes of Marcus Thuram, Conceicao, Gibbs-White and Frenkie De Jong at the the club in a new look Man City side since Haaland's departure for Madrid. We got off to a good start in the game, keeping pace with City and not letting them settle into a dominant spell. We were rewarded quickly for our efforts in the 11th minute, as some good interchange play between Dedic and Saka on the right hand side saw Dedic underlap and get into a good position in the half space. He fed a great ball through to Eze on the right hand side of the penalty area, but the former Palace man still had much to do himself, turning Gvardiol inside out before firing a precise shot across the keeper into the bottom left corner. From then on we really kicked on, and had all the chances for the rest of the half, city were struggling to create, and when they won a throw in near the halfway line Rico Lewis made an error and new signing Ekitike stole in and nicked the ball off Dias. He drive down the left flank at pace, and cut inside onto his right foot, leaving the City defence in his wake. Showing great composure, he curled a low shot round the helpless Donnarumma in the the far corner, reminiscent of a previous French number 14. The rest of the game was very comfortale for us, with all the chances falling our way, but 2-0 it stayed in the end, despite a ridiculous red card for Murillo, as he went through the back of a City player like a freight train, only minutes after subbing him on.

Player of the Month - October

Amar Dedic
1 Goal, 2 Assists
1 MotM Award (Man City)

With Timber out Injured for most of the month Dedic really stepped up and made that right back role his own, playing a crucial role in wins over Slovan Bratislava, Ipswich and City and putting in solid performances in the other 2 games. He has been a great squad player for us since he came in to replace Ben White, playing 29 premier league games since joining, at an average rating of 7.23.

November & December 2027

A solid start to the month of November saw us extend our winning run to 13 games in all competitions. The highlight of those 3 games was a 14 minute hattrick from Saka against Leeds. The following 3 games were the first games we failed to win since switching to our new tactic, and although 2 of these draws were tricky games, it did start to feel like we'd been figured out after such a long winning run. Lewis-Skelly getting sent off in the 47th minute against Dortmund did us no favours, although we still managed to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw. The Forest game was the only big disappointment, in a game where as you might expect, we completely dominated, had loads of chances and their goalkeeper came away as man of the match with an 8.3 rating. The Liverpool game was a much fairer result. A far more even game, although we were slightly on top in terms of chances by the final whistle, it was an absolute thriller for the neutral. Early goals from Alvarez and Ødegaard put us 2-0 up inside 25 minutes, but Liverpool struck back quickly, equalizing only 8 minutes later. a 53rd minute goal from Wirtz put them ahead, but once again, it didn't take long before Nwaneri scored an equalizer. Even with their new look attack now boasting Musiala and Kvaratskhelia in addition to Salah, Isak and Wirtz, Liverpool couldn't find a way to restore their lead. The game finished 3-3 with Timber taking home the MotM award for his 2 assists.


3 draws on the trot made me fell like I needed to change something soon, but seeing as we had been preforming so well and managed good results against everyone but forest really, I decided to leave it for the time being.

Player of the Month - November

Bukayo Saka
4 Goals, 1 Assist
2 MotM Awards (Leeds, Brighton)


December was a perfect month for us domestically, winning every game except the away trip to RB Leipzig. Coming just 1 game after our 3 back-to-back draws, after that loss I decided to make a small tweak, to try and better capitalize on our dominant spells in games, where we have all the possession and all the chances. I pushed the striker forward to be a Centre Forward instead of a DLF, and moved the 10 back slightly to be an AM instead of an SS. I also added roam from position and take more risks to all of the front 4, to give them a bit more freedom and allow them to play the killer ball quicker, hopefully leading to some better quality chances in a less crowded penalty box than when we create slower. These cahnges saw us go and take all 3 points from Spurs, batter Wrexham 7-0 with a rotated side and thump Man United 5-0 in our next 3 games. Southampton and Ipswich were both brushed aside without conceding a goal in our last 2 games before the new year, seeing us stay top of the league by 6 points (with a game in hand) over Newcastle who are sat in second. Liverpool and Man City both had fairly poor starts to the season and are quite a way off the pace that we're setting, but expect them to push on and climb back up into the top 4 in the coming months.

Player of the Month - December

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

With all of his goal contributions coming in the games besides Wrexham, Alvarez is finally finding the form expected of our starting number 9. Perhaps thankful for playing slightly closer to the goal since the tactical tweaks, he has already scored more league goals this season than all of last season.


I am already part way through January at the time of writing, and offers have been coming in left right and centre for our players...

January 2028

January saw the games start coming really thick and fast, with a whopping 9 games to be played. This didn't stop us though, as we put together another incredible win streak, winning all 9 games! Early in the month we face Man City in the 1st leg of the league cup semi final, and Eberechi Eze singlehandedly put 4 goals past them, in a convincing 4-2 win, although we have to wait until early February to see if we can make it to the final. Alvarez continued his good run scoring 5 over the course of the month, and putting himself in the race for the golden boot in the league. Wins against AEK Athens and Rangers saw us finish on 19 points and go through to the round of 16 in the UCL and a straightforward win in the FA cup sees us get through January still competing on all 4 fronts.

Player of the Month - January

Eberechi Eze
5 Goals, 3 Assists
2 MotM Awards (Man City, Burnley)

Transfer Window

January saw an unusual amount of movement in the market for Arsenal, but with the offers we received it could have been even more! 3 significant senior players left and 2 joined, with a few young prospects both joining us and some going out on loan as well. First the outs:

Gabriel Martinelli Real Madrid - £46m
With Yildiz coming in for big money this season, and Morgan Rogers' form being far superior to Martinelli's, he was starting to complain about a lack of game time. Real Madrid came in with an offer maybe a bit low for someone of his ability but given his lack of playing time, I figured we'd be hard pressed to get any more than that for him. it also gets £350k p/w off our wage bill as Arteta had handed him a bumper contract at the start of this save before I took over.

Christian Mosquera Juventus - £22m
Another player complaining about his game time, we had to let Mosquera go for a modest fee. His lack of game time means hea hasn't really developed a whole lot, so I wasn't too hesitant to allow him to move on.

Ethan Nwaneri Real Madrid - £48m (+ £15m)
This one hurts. He hasn't been incredible for us, but it always sucks to lose such a promising academy graduate. Eze's form has meant he's only really been used at a rotation option this season, and while he is now out on loan, we do have Dowman coming through that can take his place in the squad when he gets back.

These transfers did mean we had to dip into the market, firstly for a right footed centre back and also for an attacking option that can ideally play as a 10 and on the left wing.

Ezri Konsa Aston Villa - £30m - £115k p/w
I couldn't find much in the way of young centre backs that are already good enough to play a role for us in cup competitions or in the case of an injury to Salbia, so I opted instead for a solid, experienced, homegrown player instead. We may need to wait for some newgens to develop before we can find a true heir to Saliba.


Emile Smith-Rowe Fulham - £36m - £130k p/w
Another homegrown player, Smith-Rowe is not only an Arsenal fan favourite, but a huge personal favourite of mine. Injuries may have brought his career to a halt last time he was at the club, but after a great season last year registering 10 assists in the league for Fulham, I have decided to bring him home. He is so well rounded offensively, and can fill in wherever we require, and for only just over 1/3 of Martinelli's wages as well.


Perhaps the biggest story of the transfer window though, related to Smith-Rowe's former partner in crime: Bukayo Saka. PSG came in for him early offering around £90m. I obviously rejected it, but our starboy, who has been at the club since he was waist-high came and informed me of his desire to leave and join PSG. Nothing I could say would change his mind, but I managed to get him to agree to hold out for an offer of at least £120m. I immediately started searching for replacements, but outside of Cole Palmer, I struggled to find any right wingers of anywhere near Saka's quality that would be affordable for us. Beyond him, we were looking at players like Savinho and Doue, who are just not on the same level and would have left us much worse off. Not ideal in a season where we're leading the way in the title race, and looking to pick up more trophies than just that. The likes of Olise, Yamal & Rodrygo were all going to cost us well over £200m, money we didn't have. PSG kept sending us offers that fell just short of the £120m mark in terms of guaranteed fees, and on deadline day I think they sent us the same offer about 10 times (great job SI). All of which were a guaranteed £118m with £7m of potential addons, so much to my relief, that meant Saka was happy to stay with us for the rest of the season.

Halfway through Feb, but just thought I'd share a very exciting email I just received minutes after being informed that the board was placing us under a transfer embargo. I don't want to get my hopes up too soon but I may or may not already be plotting on who to spend that ludicrous amount of money on.

Right well whoever the journalist is who ran that story has done me up like a kipper there. The takeover did indeed go through, but we only had £50m added to our transfer budget, so we can wave goodbye to that move for Yamal I guess.

February & March 2028

Despite another slip up against Nottingham Forest (who were responsible for 5 out of the 10 points we'd dropped in the league after that game), we were still cruising miles clear in the premier league. with a lead of more than 10 points for most of the month after our dominant run in January. Our first game was the return fixture away at Man City in the Carabao cup, but with our 2 goal lead going into the game, it was a comfortable affair, that we won 2-1 in the end to make it 6-3 on aggregate.

Player of the Month - February

Martin Ødegaard
2 Goals, 1 Assist
1 MotM Awards (Liverpool)

Primarily for an assist and the winning goal in the Liverpool game, as there wasn't really any standouts this month, and that was the most impressive result really given the context of the City game.

March Saw Man City get their revenge on us. Again we fall to defeat in the round of 16 in the champions league. We got absolutely battered in the first leg, and were lucky to come away only 1 goal behind. We dominated the home leg but still came away with a loss there as well, but overall deserved to be sent packing by the better side over the 2 legs. And once again, only a few days after crashing out of the UCL, we go to Webley for the league cup final, facing Burnley. An early goal from Alvarez put as at ease, and we were in cruise control for the rest of the match, going 4-0 up before conceding a late consolation goal. An 8-1 thrashing of Hull leaves us still in the FA cup going into the quarter finals, and with the league all but a formality, our attention turns away from continental glory towards a potentially historic domestic treble. We face West Ham in our next game, at the start of April. We currently sit 15 points clear at the top of the league, with a game in hand over Newcastle who sit in 2nd. While we have been unlucky with our draws in the UCL knockouts the last 2 seasons, we'll need to beat teams like PSG and Man City at some point regardless of who we draw early on, so we need to improve and find a way to beat these kind of teams over 2 legs. While this tactic has been working much much better than last year, I still can help but feel the ball falls to our full backs too often in promising situations in wide areas. So I might try some things out in the last few games once we've (hopefully) wrapped the league up that get the wingers wide, but still have players flooding zone 14 to combine with the striker.

Player of the Month - March

Bukayo Saka
5 Goals, 2 Assists
1 MotM Award (Bournemouth)

Saka has been continued to be one of the best players in the world this season, now with 16 goals and 6 assists in the league from 22 starts and 4 sub appearances. A perfect 10 rating was well earned in the 5-4 thriller against Bournemouth where he scored 2 and assisted another 2.

April & May 2028

After comfortably breezing past West Ham to reach the FA Cup semi-finals, it only took us 2 games to wrap up the Premier League title. A poor draw against Ipswich proved inconsequential, as our 2-0 win against Southampton sealed the deal. An early Alvarez penalty to put us ahead, was consolidated late on by the big centre back Gabriel, in his 8th year at the club. In the second phase from one of our now trademark short corner routines, the ball fell to him on the edge of the box and he hit an absolute rocket into the top corner to wrap up the game and in doing so, the title.

After this our league form took an understandable hit, I tried a couple of things tactically but they clearly didn't work, so when the semi final came around I reverted back to our trusted 4231. Having lost to Manchester United just the previous week, and drawing against Everton midweek, we weren't exactly on a hot run of form going into the game. This did not matter one bit as we absolutely thrashed them 3-0, but it could have been so many more. United created nothing, and we created 4 big chances, and over 3 xG. Saka, Eze and Alvarez all got on the scoresheet but it was Jurrien Timber that won MotM with 1 assist and an impressive 9.1 rating.


This leaves us with just a couple more meaningless league games, and then another trip to Wembley, where we face Liverpool in the FA Cup final. We started the game well, and in the 8th minute, Ødegaard curled a great ball through to Eze, who ran into the box and had his shirt pulled. The referee didn't hesitate to award the penalty, and Alvarez stepped up to take it. He send the keeper the wrong way, and gently strokes it into the left side netting. 1-0. We continued to control the game for the rest of the first half, with Liverpool having nothing in the way of chances but we couldn't find another goal. Early in the second half a botched clearance landed at the feet of Morgan Rogers, and he proved why he deserved to start over Yildiz today, after having such a great season for us. Taking a touch onto his right foot, he powered an effort past the keeper into the top corner at the near post, giving Alisson no time to react, and giving us a 2 goal lead. After this Liverpool started to go more direct, and began actually getting some shots away. Isak was looking threatening running in behind and in the 78th minute he got away from our centre backs on the counter and pulled one back for Liverpool. With around 15 minutes remaining, I decided to drop our defence right back, and try and stop the direct threat of balls over the top. Liverpool managed to create a couple of half chances late on, but ultimately fell short, and we held out to win the game 2-1 to complete a fantastic domestic treble.


So we've proven to be a top team, winning trophies, all while playing beautiful short passing football, and taking all our corners short. So what more could we possibly have left to achieve? Well for starters, we only scored 88 goals in the league, which was less than Liverpool who finished 4th, obviously we fell way short in the UCL, similarly to the Wenger teams whose style of play we were trying to emulate. Also, while many of the goals we scored were certainly beautiful football, with the play being quite patient and slow at times, and having games where we have 70% or more possession, people might not all deem that to be particularly exciting. Especially as a neutral, people want to see high tempo, end to end football ,and our distinct lack of directness might would be deemed by many as particularly un-exciting. Having the ability to be good in transition may also be a good thing to have for the UCL knockout games, playing against top sides that will leave space in behind for us to exploit on the break, so I will be taking us into a new era tactically for the next season. I'll also look into making us a bit wider, in order to create more space for our attacking players to express themselves. Finally, I feel like I may have leant a bit too heavily into the quick one-twos side of 'exciting football' and not enough into the dribbling, fast tempo and long shots, so that will be something to consider going forward as well. Maybe we could have one side of the pitch where we create overloads and play our short sharp passing, and then the other side where we try and isolate our winger and their fullback in as many 1v1s as possible and let them try to dribble past them over and over again.

The new board have stumped up some decent cash for the upcoming transfer window, giving us a budget upwards of £250m to spend, and plenty of wiggle room in the wage budget. So we have plenty of scope to bring in some top top players, although I'll need to decide on a few things tactically before making any moves like that. I'm thinking now about potentially a more direct striker option, as offering a direct threat in behind is not exactly Alvarez's game, so might be nice to have another option there. I'm happy with our wingers, but with Nwaneri leaving, we are left with 30y/o Eze and and Smith-Rowe as our attacking midfield options, so we could look for a player there as well.

If I remember to do it, I will make a quick post at some point highlighting some of the best youngsters at the club, to showcase players that have come through our youth intakes, and some players we have brought in as well. There is 1 midfielder arriving this summer whose signature I secured a while ago that I'm really excited about. He has 19 flair already, is rapid, and has very solid all round technicals and mentals for a squad player, and he has only just turned 18...

The Future Looks Bright

Hale End Academy Graduates

Fruits of our Scouts' Labour

Good morning. I apologize, but I wanted to ask a question. How did you manage to put Max Downman's face on it? I've tried several ways and haven't been able to. Thank you.

2026-02-19 11:10#309642 pi100pe : Good morning. I apologize, but I wanted to ask a question. How did you manage to put Max Downman's face on it? I've tried several ways and haven't been able to. Thank you.

Hi Mate, give the steps on here a go: https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/18fudu2/a_guide_on_how_to_add_a_single_players_face_to/

Busy Window

With a huge war chest of over £250m at my disposal, as previously mentioned, I would love to be able to bring in Lamine Yamal, but he was marked as not for sale so I wasn't getting my hopes up. Either way, I shot a £160m bid across to Barca, to see if they came back with any negotiations or just flat out rejected it. They just rejected it. With that Yamal bid rejected, I moved my focus across Spain to another young left footed attacker...

At the end of June, Kai Havertz left the club for free, going back to Germany to play for Bayern.

Endrick Real Madrid - £90m (+ £20m) - £160k p/w
Now that we're a few years into the save, and Nwaneri has left, the age profile of the squad is is growing older, and Yildiz is the only attacker we have under 26 besides 18 year old Dowman. So bringing in someone so young that can already play a big role in the team was something I thought was important to the future of the club. Quicker and more of a direct goal threat than Alvarez, he may well also be better suited to the new tactical direction we'll be taking this season.


I got a promising email informing me that Yamal was unsettled, but at the moment there was no formal transfer request. I sent another offer anyway but once again it was rejected.

Matias Soule Barcelona - £49m
He's had some good moments for us over the last 18 months, but has been fairly unspectacular. His lack of composure and decision making severely limits his ability to control & dictate games.

Lamine Yamal had now handed in a formal transfer request due to his bitter disappointment at not being able to join Arsenal, and an asking price of £192m had been set. Due to the Endrick deal, I had to structure the deal with a significant portion to be paid later, but ultimately got them to agree to £120m up front, £45m in instalments and another £30m in performance based incentives. And after agreeing a £300k p/w deal with his agent, we had got our golden goose.



Noni Madueke PSG - £53m
With Yamal coming in, Madueke would be blocking game time opportunities for Dowman so I accepted gladly when we had a couple of good offers come in for Madueke. He's been good for us, but I doubt we would ever be able to get this much for him in future with his game time likely to decrease even more as he gets older.

Julian Alvarez Real Madrid - £79m (+ £25m)
Despite being a lot better than in his first season, only 17 goals in the league, taking his total up to 26 in 64 games overall for the club, I'd say Alvarez has been a 6.5 or 7 /10 signing for us. So I wasn't actively looking to get rid of him. but when Real Madrid came offering a deal over £100m, I decided it was too good to turn down. At 28, he's another player who's value probably won't get any higher than this, and with Endrick coming in, the plan was obviously to supplant him within a year or 2 anyway. We also still have Ekitike at the club who is still a very solid player, and 1 more player who can also play up front, who I shall not name until I go through the new tactic for this season.


With these 2 sales, our budget was back at over £200 million for this window, but I knew we had a lot of future clauses to pay for so decided I wouldn't go big on anyone else, and besides, I was happy with the squad as it was anyway. We had a couple of slots left in the squad, so I decided to bring in Pierre Kalulu for a modest fee as a bit more depth, and then a few young talents to bolster the U21 squad.

Tactical Changes for 2028/29

With our main consideration for this season being speeding up our attacking play, and being a bit more direct, I have completely changed the shape, along with our style of play and the position of our star player...

I have another version that is basically identical except it is mirrored, so that when we have Murillo and Dedic at full back for example, we have Dedic bombing on and Murillo tucking in instead of how you see it in the screenshot.


I have omitted the OOP instructions for now as I'm still not completely set on them ,it is still very early in the season ATW and I haven't had much time to tinker around and find what works best. I may also change the OOP shape to a 433 or 4141 at some point depending on how things go.

So Saka moves into midfield to accommodate Yamal, as he can already play there due to our stint with the narrow diamond. He can also play as a striker from some time playing as a F9 then as well, giving us a 3rd option as a striker along with Endrick and Ekitike since Alvarez's departure. The front 5 we now have in this shape is absolutely frightening, and with other players like Eze and Rogers that can off the bench and affect the game as well, we have an overwhelming amount of attacking talent that can excite and entertain the fans and neutrals alike. The IFB and and DM give us a solid 3-1 horizontal diamond shape as our rest defence to guard against counter attacks, and the CBs on each side can also push up and support attacks on their sides. Bouaddi is becoming a very intelligent player, and always stays available to give us an option to recycle the ball when our quick counter attacks don't work out, and can receive the ball off the defenders, turn and play forward in the build up phase as well. Having a WB on just one side, often gives us an overload on that side as discussed in a previous post, allowing more of those quick combinations on one side of the pitch, drawing defenders in and free up space for the winger and box crashing 8 on the opposite side.

As well as switching to the mirrored version in game, we have a few simple changes we can make to switch things up. Changing the WB to an IWB, MPM to an AP and the IF to a WFD, gives us that classic box midfield and 3241 in possession shape that has become so popular in the modern game. Changing the IFB to a FB or WB makes us more attacking, but leaves us more exposed to the counter attack, and there are so many changes we can make to the team instructions as well if we feel like it.

Here is an overview of our squad depth in the new formation for the upcoming season: