[FM 21] Arsenal - Still Waiting For Arteta's Tiki Taka!

[VP.]

Stadium: The Emirates

Capacity: 60,432

Training Facilities: Superb

Youth Facilities: Excellent

Junior Coaching: Good

Youth Recruitment: Excellent

Finances: Rich

Transfer Budget: £4.5m

Wage budget: £3m

Media Prediction: 5th

Club Culture

Play Attacking Football

Play Entertaining Football

Sign Players u18 For The Future

Develop Players Using Youth System

End Of Season Objectives

Reach Euro League Final

Premier League: Qualify For Euro League

FA Cup: Reach Semi Final

Work Towards Challenging For The Premier League

First Team Squad

Spoiler

U23 Squad

Spoiler

Spoiler

U18 Squad

Spoiler

 

[VP.]

I'll start us off with this.

[Carmi88]

 

This is how i line up the team at the moment, Partey spent the first season being on the right of that midfield, but he partners with Torreira really well.

 

 

I don't fiddle with creating set pieces etc. as i'm scared i'll break the game and get something super unrealistic  

[Aizo4576]

9 minutes ago, Carmi88 said:

 

This is how i line up the team at the moment, Partey spent the first season being on the right of that midfield, but he partners with Torreira really well.

 

 

I don't fiddle with creating set pieces etc. as i'm scared i'll break the game and get something super unrealistic  

Interesting! How is Auba as an IW?

 

So far I've started and convinced the board to buy me Aouar. Now to decide how to play him! Stuck between a 4123 and 4231 really

[VP.]

This is mine, though Partney would play instead of Elneny but is injured. Only 6 games in (W5 L1) and no signings made, also stuck with Ozil at the moment but has recently requested a move.

Sold -

Cedric to Ajax £9m

Kolasinac loan to Sevilla future fee £11m

Sokratis to Burnley £4.3m

Edited November 12, 2020 by SortitoutsiVP

[LucasBR]

I've started with Arsenal but my save crashed, I'll start over again right now thanks to this topic.

I'll try to get rid of Sokratis, Luiz, Cedric and others.

Any tips on how set up the team in the first season?

[LucasBR]

How do I add pictures in the topic?

Edited November 12, 2020 by LucasBR

[Carmi88]

36 minutes ago, Aizo4576 said:

Interesting! How is Auba as an IW?

 

So far I've started and convinced the board to buy me Aouar. Now to decide how to play him! Stuck between a 4123 and 4231 really

Auba has been hit and miss, he and Lacazette never seem to be in form at the same time, reiss nelson however has been more useful on the left wing 

[Fragnat]

It seems Saka, Martinelli or even ESR didnt get an upgrade at all sadly

[VP.]

11 hours ago, LucasBR said:

How do I add pictures in the topic?

Whilst playing press Alt+S, this will save a screenshot in this folder Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2021\screenshots. You can then either add the picture to your post using the attach files option or upload to an image sharing site like imgur.com.

[Sean3h]

4 hours ago, Fragnat said:

It seems Saka, Martinelli or even ESR didnt get an upgrade at all sadly

Yeah it's a little disappointing to see that. Saka and Martinelli especially were the main positives from last season, so it seems weird that they've not been given a PA bump at least.

[DE94]

4 hours ago, Fragnat said:

It seems Saka, Martinelli or even ESR didnt get an upgrade at all sadly

Are there any chances that player ratings are "fixed" in the full version or are they final?

[Poddy]

I won the league and Euro cup in my first season. Having big problems selling people at end of season. Is this due to covid? Or what?

[Carmi88]

29 minutes ago, Poddy said:

I won the league and Euro cup in my first season. Having big problems selling people at end of season. Is this due to covid? Or what?

Any deadwood on high wages I've offered to pay 50% of wages for new club just to get them out the door.. 

 

The board can block sales they feel are too low in cost depending on players value 

[1984mattyd]

selling players has been a nightmare in the first window,

ozil i let go on a free transfer to lazio and pay half his wages for a year, better than a full wage i think

cedric was sold for 7.25 to brighton

mustafi to wolves for 10

papa was in a swap deal to psg and 2.5 for kehrer

 

incomings was

Milik for 8.25

almada for 7.5

kehrer for 2.5 and papa

went crazy and got wilshere in on a 26k contract

Nelson on loan to Soton

Saliba on loan to Villa

 

playing a 4-2-3-1 wide custom fluid counter attack, hardest part has been getting Auba to actually be effective on the wings, has anyone had much luck with him? 8 appearances and only 3 goals and 0 assists yet pepe is 5 goals in 9 appearances and 4 assists

 

should also add, 8 games in, lost the first game against leicester, then won the next 7, this includes a 3-1 against man city and a hard fought 1-0 against man utd, chelsea are next -_-

Edited November 13, 2020 by 1984mattyd

[Carmi88]

1 hour ago, 1984mattyd said:

 

went crazy and got wilshere in on a 26k contract

 

He just scored a header against Chelsea for me, best decision you will ever make  

 

 

[1984mattyd]

14 minutes ago, Carmi88 said:

He just scored a header against Chelsea for me, best decision you will ever make  

 

 

we lost 3-1,i find him great as a backup and play non major games for me. he is a steal on a freebie and small contract

[TokyoWanderer]

Looking at the ratings is always infuriating. They lowered Auba's ratings but left Xhaka's and Lacazette's pretty much untouched even though they've been **** for two years?!?!?

What they did (didn't do) with Saka's ratings is even worse. The lad is clearly among Arsenal's best five players IRL and in the game he is like decent for premier league ffs.

[VP.]

46 minutes ago, kidd_05_u2 said:

Looking at the ratings is always infuriating. They lowered Auba's ratings but left Xhaka's and Lacazette's pretty much untouched even though they've been **** for two years?!?!?

What they did (didn't do) with Saka's ratings is even worse. The lad is clearly among Arsenal's best five players IRL and in the game he is like decent for premier league ffs.

Its not SI themselves but the Arsenal researcher who has control over ratings etc.

Any changes you feel should be made can be requested here, though I doubt anything will change. Certain in the past it was a Tottenham fan doing our data  

 

[Sean3h]

I'll do a full write up at the end of the season, but Lacazette has decided he wants to leave to get more first team football. I'm fine with this and have jumped ahead and signed his replacement... Zlatan Ibrahimovic! An incredibly short term signing as he's now 39, but his experience will be invaluable and I'm hoping he'll be a good influence on some of my younger players.

[CalumF]

Thought I would try 3 at the back with wingbacks. Training Tierney up as a DC and also plays as my WB when I dont play Saka. Laca out for 3 months so playing Auba as a pressing forward with Pepe or Eddie as the AF. Willian in the middle and Partey is a beast BTB. 

[bigman]

Hi guys, not been around since fm 14 so it’s good to be back. Finally got a laptop that can just about play fm

 

i started the game as my beloved arsenal. Managed to wind up the whole squad putting kolacinac down to a rotation player squad status and transfer list him. Looking to offload sokratis, mustafi, Cedric and kol if possible. I was prepared to let Laca go as he hinted at wanting to leave but he said as I spoke to him he would stay (he looks very overrated)

 

I managed to convince Stan to buy camavinga. They decided to spend 76 mill on him which seems a bit mental

 

only used him in one game, a 1-1 with Liverpool in the charity shield which I lost on pens 

 

I have 3 tactical styles. A gegen press 433, a controlling 4231 and a deeper counter attacking 442 or a 4411 which worked well vs Liverpool 

 

I will start a new game when the full game is released but enjoying it so far 

[VP.]

Just finished January window.

[Carmi88]

Needing somebody for my left wing, Ousmane Dembele is 6 months from leaving but wants to run down his contract, and Barca wanted 60m for him  

 

Went for the commercial sales approach and bagged a transfer listed Neymar for 40m, who wanted to get a big contract for only a 5 month contract!!! Got him up to a year and take it from there

[YouGotNoFans]

Started my first save with the team I support, too. It started off awfully as we lost to Liverpool in the Community Shield on pens, luckily drew with City and then just kept drawing but since then it has been awesome. I don't know why, but Leno and my defence have been unstoppable. We've conceded 7 goals in the PL and it's nearly February.

Is anyone else's fixtures messed up? I played City twice in a month and had three Europa league games in a row.

Signed Grealish and Demiral whose stats are unreal. Originally I thought I was going to play 3 at the back so stupidly signed Bruno Alves. I've sold a few but didn't attempt to do this till Jan. Like everyone else got a board injection in December. 

Plan in the summer is to get a new defensive midfielder to replace Elneny and hopefully another central midfielder. I've been playing Auba up front, but surprisingly Eddie has been scoring too. Might sell Lacazette in the summer although I expected Martinelli's stats to be higher. Saka's stats need to be higher but still been playing him as a winger most games till I've signed Grealish. I'm still trying to figure out his most effective position. Pepe has been unreal. He got injured for 6 weeks at the start but since then has been on fire. 

Hopefully if we continue our form we can win the title but will settle for CL. In the Carabao final against Watford and still in the others.
 

[YankeeDeuce]

Only to November in game so far but looking good. Only transfer was Papa out to Wolves for 7.5 million  (up to 10 w/ bonuses). Using a 4-3-1-2, Pepe has 9 goals, Auba 5, Laca and Eddie at 4 each.

Auba at CF(a), Pepe at PF(s), Laca and Eddie rotate in at both

Willian/Ozil/Nelson at T(a).

Saka/Willian/Ceballos/Willock as MEZ(s)

Xhaka/Partey/Elneny/AMN in the DLP(d) and CAR(s)

Tierney/ Saka/Kola at FB(s)

Gabriel/Mari and Holding/Luiz/Chambers at CD(d)

Bellerin/Cedric/AMN at FB(a)

 

Formation gets flipped sometimes  with Saka/Kola FB(a), Cedric/AMN FB(s), Ceballos as MEZ(s) on the right, and Xhaka CAR(s) on the left.

[Sean3h]

Season 1 Review

Ok, so the 20/21 season is now out of the way and it went... A LOT better than expected. I'm almost a little disappointed, as I was expecting it to take a year or two to get to where we are.

 

Competitions

Overall we can't have any real complaints here. We did need to rely on 3 penalty shootout wins though, one in each of the cup competitions. I can't quite believe we managed to win the league. We were quietly doing our own thing for most of the season, but grabbed our chance at gameweek 34 and held on for dear life! Despite losing to Spurs in the last game, we were still able to lift the trophy in their ground as United also failed to win. We were pretty unfortunate in the Europa League final, coming up against Barcelona and losing 1-0.

 

Transfers

 

Squad stats

 

I'm really happy with how a few of our players did. Nelson didn't play much earlier in the season, but as we can see by his stats he made it very hard to leave him out. Ozil was alright as a RPM - I didn't want to completely leave him out due to his wages and while I'll be sad to see him go at the end of his contract it will be nice to free up the £350k/w. Ceballos was really good as well. His stats aren't world beating, but he scored some really important goals to win me multiple games. Hauksson is the first youth intake player to make it into my squad - the 16 year old 'keeper has a lot more potential (4.5 stars) than Runarsson, so I'd rather give him the minutes to aid his development.

 

End of season awards

The team did pretty well here. Eric García picked up the PFA Young Player of the Year award, Bernd Leno got the golden glove and I picked up manager of the year. We also had Bernd Leno, Gabriel, Hector Bellerin, Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the team of the season. Andrea Papetti picked up the EFL Young Player of the Year award while out on loan as well.

 

Plans for next season

David Luiz is already on his way out. He'll be joining Flamengo on a free transfer. Young Turkish midfielders Omer Beyaz and Emre Demir are both joining us on free transfers when their contracts expire. I've also agreed to bring in another newgen player - Omar Guthrie will be joining us from TNS.

If I can renew the Ceballos loan deal I will, as I think I'll be needing him in the season ahead. Ozil will be released unless he agrees to drop his wages massively. Lacazette will be allowed to leave, and I will also be trying to sell Willian before his value drops too much due to his age. Guendouzi and Torreira will have a chance to play with the team over pre-season as I'm looking a little short in midfield, but I'll probably be looking to bring in at least 1 central midfielder.

[BrickCommo23]

This is what I am trying to make work this time round. I have got a fair few player instructions too. 

My biggest two hopes are to have Partey involved in plenty of goals and getting up alongside Lacazette. And for this punt on having Aubameyang as a RMD (the description sounds perfect but I have never managed to get that role to work before)

[BrickCommo23]

50 minutes ago, Sean3h said:

Season 1 Review

Ok, so the 20/21 season is now out of the way and it went... A LOT better than expected. I'm almost a little disappointed, as I was expecting it to take a year or two to get to where we are.

 

Competitions

Overall we can't have any real complaints here. We did need to rely on 3 penalty shootout wins though, one in each of the cup competitions. I can't quite believe we managed to win the league. We were quietly doing our own thing for most of the season, but grabbed our chance at gameweek 34 and held on for dear life! Despite losing to Spurs in the last game, we were still able to lift the trophy in their ground as United also failed to win. We were pretty unfortunate in the Europa League final, coming up against Barcelona and losing 1-0.

 

Transfers

 

Squad stats

 

I'm really happy with how a few of our players did. Nelson didn't play much earlier in the season, but as we can see by his stats he made it very hard to leave him out. Ozil was alright as a RPM - I didn't want to completely leave him out due to his wages and while I'll be sad to see him go at the end of his contract it will be nice to free up the £350k/w. Ceballos was really good as well. His stats aren't world beating, but he scored some really important goals to win me multiple games. Hauksson is the first youth intake player to make it into my squad - the 16 year old 'keeper has a lot more potential (4.5 stars) than Runarsson, so I'd rather give him the minutes to aid his development.

 

End of season awards

The team did pretty well here. Eric García picked up the PFA Young Player of the Year award, Bernd Leno got the golden glove and I picked up manager of the year. We also had Bernd Leno, Gabriel, Hector Bellerin, Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the team of the season. Andrea Papetti picked up the EFL Young Player of the Year award while out on loan as well.

 

Plans for next season

David Luiz is already on his way out. He'll be joining Flamengo on a free transfer. Young Turkish midfielders Omer Beyaz and Emre Demir are both joining us on free transfers when their contracts expire. I've also agreed to bring in another newgen player - Omar Guthrie will be joining us from TNS.

If I can renew the Ceballos loan deal I will, as I think I'll be needing him in the season ahead. Ozil will be released unless he agrees to drop his wages massively. Lacazette will be allowed to leave, and I will also be trying to sell Willian before his value drops too much due to his age. Guendouzi and Torreira will have a chance to play with the team over pre-season as I'm looking a little short in midfield, but I'll probably be looking to bring in at least 1 central midfielder.

Great work - what sort of system have you got on the go?

[RogerC]

I removed first transfer window, been playing without Ozil and David Luiz up to January. Done much better than expected TBH. I will try to offload some players.

I signed Wilshire on a free just for funs. Playing with 41221 or 4231 depending on opposition. Elneny playing great as well as Bellerin/AMN on right back. 

[TokyoWanderer]

hace 5 horas, BrickCommo23 dijo:

This is what I am trying to make work this time round. I have got a fair few player instructions too. 

My biggest two hopes are to have Partey involved in plenty of goals and getting up alongside Lacazette. And for this punt on having Aubameyang as a RMD (the description sounds perfect but I have never managed to get that role to work before)

I'm interested in seeing if Auba as RMD works for you. I found the role to be awful, so I abandoned it after just three matches. From what I saw, the role is too static and Auba was almost never in position to get a run behind the defense or arrive to the box to connect on a cross.

[canry]

1 transfer (Milik, 4.3M€)

Last XI

[BrickCommo23]

53 minutes ago, kidd_05_u2 said:

I'm interested in seeing if Auba as RMD works for you. I found the role to be awful, so I abandoned it after just three matches. From what I saw, the role is too static and Auba was almost never in position to get a run behind the defense or arrive to the box to connect on a cross.

To be honest, that's always been my experience previously too but I have made a few little tweaks to hopefully help, including setting the team to look for the underlap, pass into space and having the attacking fullback overlapping with get further forward and stay wide instructions. Who knows though. All else fails, will just stick him up top and hope to get production from the likes of Willian, ESR and Nelson. 

@kidd_05_u2 - what did you end up doing?

[RandomGuy.]

Started an Arsenal save. Felt like the best "big club" who both need to rebuild their squad, and return to lost glory days.

AC Milan have too many talented youngsters already established, while seeing out the likes of Luiz, Xhaka, Ozil, Laca and Aubamayeng sounds fun.

Refuse to ever spend a fortune so it should be a process that takes years.

[VP.]

Season finished, probably done better than I expected but no silverware to show, really should have beaten AC Milan in the europa semi but wasn't to be. Also good to see Man Utd as OP as always, something really needs to be done about it as every year they're the best team in England no matter how bad they're IRL. You've probably also noticed Tottenham finishing 17th, had Chelsea not scored a 92nd min winner against Newcastle on the final day they'd have been relegated.

No idea where to strengthen the side, maybe a CB partner for Gabrielle but that would push Saliba back. Original plan was to sell Lacazette to play Auba central and then have Martenelli on the left but I cannot sell someone who has just scored 27 goals. Ceballos will spend another season on loan which gives me a midfield three of him, Grealish and Partey. Torreira and Guendouzi will be sold once they return and also one of either Xhaka or Elneny.

[TokyoWanderer]

hace 6 horas, BrickCommo23 dijo:

To be honest, that's always been my experience previously too but I have made a few little tweaks to hopefully help, including setting the team to look for the underlap, pass into space and having the attacking fullback overlapping with get further forward and stay wide instructions. Who knows though. All else fails, will just stick him up top and hope to get production from the likes of Willian, ESR and Nelson. 

@kidd_05_u2 - what did you end up doing?

I change my tactics a lot, so I don't have anything to show here for now. In the early season I'm winning with uninspiring performances on attack and a very solid defense. I even won 1-0 against Liverpool in the Community Shield playing counter with five at the back, which I see most people posting couldn't do. My save is looking like a very realistic Arsenal season, so I'm sure I will start dropping points against the **** teams any time now.

[YouGotNoFans]

First season is over and what a whirlwind it was. We definitely overachieved. 

The premier league really went down to the last few games. Liverpool were top but we had games in hand and then we played them in our 4th last game and this is what happened (screenshot). We were second best the whole game but somehow got a draw. Then in the penultimate game they were two up till Tottenham came back and then we scored. 

We had an awful run of form where we got knocked out in the FA cup and nearly Europe. We survived and also managed to miss playing Real Madrid in final. 

The team performed so well. Grealish has been so unimpressive as a signing. Pepe, Auba, Bellerin, Leno, Gabriel and Demeral were so good though. Leno kept 21 clean sheets. 

Next season we need to improve but hopeful we can win CL.

[RogerC]

I didn't get any money injection in December and offloading Ozil has been a nightmare in January... Still a few days left hopefully he frees up all those wages.

[bigman]

I’m currently 4 league games in. Won 3 lost away to Tottenham. Still dominated them but got fm’d by son

lost with a weaker side to Burnley in the league cup then Thrashed them 5-1 away in the league

 

just signed papetti and loaned him to Burnley for some prem experience

Got Chelsea next, they look strong so I’m not sure whether to switch from my 433 gegen press or not

 

My starting 11 has been

 

st - Laca - dlf/a

lw - auba - if/a

rw - Pepe - if/a (been amazing)

lcm - camavinga - mezz/s

rcm - partey b2b/s

dm - xhaka dlp/s 

lb - tierney wb/s

Lcb - Gabriel - cd/d

Rcb - holding - cd/d

rb - bellerin - rwb/s

gk - Leno - sk

 

any changes you guys would make? Ideally martinelli and saka get more game time when fit and auba slots up top but Laca is extremely overrated imo and is a god performer 

 

I really want a more mobile dlp eventually and want to swap bellerin for Aaron’s at some point. Saliba will become a great cb partner for Gabriel and holding and chambers are more than adequate backup with papetti coming through. Managed to offload kol and mustafi on loans with kol having a future fee. Tried to get rid of ozil but no one came. He’s a backup ten/rpm for me now. Smith Rowe is on loan in Germany, he will be in the team next season for sure, looks good. Reiss nelson also seems really good. I will offload Willian at the end of the season 

 

how has everyone else set up? Seems like counter attacking is a strong play style this year (not played since 14) 

 

I will re start as arsenal when the full game comes out but it’s cool trying to work out the best lineups etc

 

i have no idea about mentoring and training this year though

 

 

[Aizo4576]

Board bought me Aouar in the summer and have just given me £40m for summer. No idea who I'll sign though... I do need to sign some u18s but not sure who

[1984mattyd]

6 hours ago, RogerC said:

I didn't get any money injection in December and offloading Ozil has been a nightmare in January... Still a few days left hopefully he frees up all those wages.

do what i did, offer him out on a free, a club probably will take him, lazio did in my game, and i had to pay half his wages for rest of the season, was worth it compared to paying the full whack

[RogerC]

1 hour ago, 1984mattyd said:

do what i did, offer him out on a free, a club probably will take him, lazio did in my game, and i had to pay half his wages for rest of the season, was worth it compared to paying the full whack

Done it 4 times, he rejected the teams contracts lol

[Sean3h]

On 14/11/2020 at 12:51, BrickCommo23 said:

Great work - what sort of system have you got on the go?

I'm currently using a possession heavy 4-1-2-2-1/4-3-3. When I've got myself an AMC I want to build the team around though I'm planning on changing to a 4-3-1-2 or 4-2-3-1, I just didn't want to put all of my eggs in the Ozil basket.

[VP.]

Anyone else find that you'll be brilliant for on match then crap the next. Seems to be a constant theme second season.

[Aizo4576]

My board bought Aouar in the summer for 40m, and have just given me another 40m to spend in Jan.

 

Looking for a midfielder to partner Partey. Determined to get a 4231 working, currently rotating Willock and Aouar at AMC. Not sure I like Xhaka or Ceballos next to Partey. Looking for a hard working playmaker who could also fill in for Partey (El Neny is currently injured). Maybe McTominey but not sure he is creative enough. Mount would be the dream but doubt Chelsea would sell. Not necessarily British, but have 17 foreign player limit coming in.

 

And any suggestions for u18s to sign?

[Kieran87]

On 14/11/2020 at 18:13, canry said:

1 transfer (Milik, 4.3M€)

 

Last XI

 

 

 

How do you get the player faces next to shirts on the tactics screen please?

[james_wilko]

Reiss Nelson is so so good.

First season, 20 starts and 6 appearances as a sub he's managed 13 goals and 10 assists playing as an IF-A in a Gegenpress 3-4-3/3-2-2-2-1 

Auba is on 28(6) appearances with 25 goals (4 pens) and 8 assists, so it's not as if he's miles ahead of Nelson.

 

[evilpimp972]

il y a 35 minutes, james_wilko a dit :

Reiss Nelson is so so good.

First season, 20 starts and 6 appearances as a sub he's managed 13 goals and 10 assists playing as an IF-A in a Gegenpress 3-4-3/3-2-2-2-1 

Auba is on 28(6) appearances with 25 goals (4 pens) and 8 assists, so it's not as if he's miles ahead of Nelson.

 

He looks better than Saka and Martinelli tbh

[canry]

20 saat önce, Kieran87 said:

How do you get the player faces next to shirts on the tactics screen please?

I use this skin

https://www.fmscout.com/a-dark-polish-fm21-skin.html

[1984mattyd]

On 16/11/2020 at 19:15, Aizo4576 said:

My board bought Aouar in the summer for 40m, and have just given me another 40m to spend in Jan.

 

Looking for a midfielder to partner Partey. Determined to get a 4231 working, currently rotating Willock and Aouar at AMC. Not sure I like Xhaka or Ceballos next to Partey. Looking for a hard working playmaker who could also fill in for Partey (El Neny is currently injured). Maybe McTominey but not sure he is creative enough. Mount would be the dream but doubt Chelsea would sell. Not necessarily British, but have 17 foreign player limit coming in.

 

And any suggestions for u18s to sign?

i play 4-2-3-1 and i play willock next to partey, best cm pairing tbh