Brian

What do you want him to do? Score, give assist or both? At the moment, when he comes deep to get the ball who is going to score? The only other player that is looking to get inside the penalty box and score is your inside forward. The Mez on support and your Box-to-Box midfielder aren’t going to get in the box. They will stay outside, looking for passing options, which you don’t have in the penalty area.

Yea, just a few. IW have Stay Wider AM have Roam from Position FB(R) have Sit Narrower BPD(De) have Stay Wider

Evolving and adapting the Celtic 4-3-3 to Arsenal The main focus point is that in Scotland, I was the dominate side in every league match. In England however, I'm likely to be the dominated side in most matches, but the quality of the teams is far higher than in Scotland. The main focus to adapting in England is building more defensive stability. Player role changes Ball playing defender (L) (De) becomes Central Defender (L) (De) There is no need to have two center backs playing with more risk. Losing the ball would be much worse in England than in Scotland. Fullback (R) (Su) becomes Fullback (R) (De) Having two wonderful fullbacks that are more defensive minded, I switched to a defensive fullback. This way he can sit narrow and look to create a back 3 when we attack or build-up play. Ball wining midfielder (Su) becomes Deep lying playmaker (De) I want a player that sits in front of the defence, while looking to make plays out of the back. De DLP holds position on defence, while looking to make plays. This is also the most changed role in my new 4-3-3, as Partey is gifted in more areas. When playing against a 4-2-3-1, he becomes a Halfback to create a back 4 against their 4-man press. When playing a 5-2-3, he sits in a open slot as a Deep lying playmaker looking to move the ball forwards quicker. Advanced playmaker (At) becomes Central midfielder (At) Already having a playmaker in front of my defence, I switched to a more attacking minded midfielder which I can change instructions to depending on the strength of the player. He sits around the same space as the Advanced playmaker, but having more freedom to play in that position. Winger (Su) becomes Inverted winger (Su) This is mostly because Arsenal still has Saka. It's a shame to keep a winger, when Saka is thát good. He will look to create plays with the Central midfielder. Team instruction changes Added: Lower crosses Distribute Quickly Adapting in game The most used changes I make before a match is looking at which formation the opposition is likely to play and what there roles are. Here I make little tweaks in two area's. First area Identifying where the space will be for my number 6 and where they are most likely to press. Second area Because I know where the space will be, I changed the distribution from my Sweeper Keeper. First match vs Watford (away) When faced Watford my scout showed me in which formation Watford is likely to be playing. The would likely to be playing a 5-2-2-1. When we look at our tactical board, we can see where the space is going to be. So I switched the distribution from my goalkeeper to Take short kicks and Distribute to wingback. When we looked at the player statistics, Kieran Tierney had the second best rating, played the second most key passes and creating the most clear cut changes. Also played the most crosses of the game. Due to a missed penalty and a lack of scoring, we still won 0-1 very easy. Second games vs Everton Everton, who surprisingly won on the opening day 2-0 against Manchester United, played a 4-2-3-1. Again, taking a look at the tactic board, we could see where my possibilities where. So I switched the distribution from my goalkeeper to Roll it out and Distribute to centerbacks and Partey from Deep lying playmaker to Halfback. Even if the number 10 looked to press the two defenders with their striker, there was always a centerback going to be free. When we looked at the player statistics, even though Scalvini is the Ball playing defender it was Gabriel who had a very good game from the back and Odegaard having a field day against their Ball winning midfielder. Overall I'm very happy with the evolving of the Celtic 4-3-3 to a Arsenal 4-3-3. Playing from the strength of my squad and utilizing space that the opposition give away.

Managing Celtic, I took the Gegenpress 4-3-3 preset tactic and tweaked it to my liking. Player roles Player role changes Sweeper Keeper (At) becomes Sweeper Keeper (Su) I don’t need my keeper to dribble more with two more than capable defenders in front of him that are comfortable on the ball to either dribble or give a pass. Wingback R (Su) becomes Fullback (Su) I don’t want two backs that are aggressive. With the inside forward on one side instead of two, I want more support on the outside on the left side and a more stable approach on the right side (winger). Deep lying playmaker (Su) becomes Ball winning midfielder (Su) Due to Celtic FC being the dominated force, I wanted to have a playmaker further across the field and a more defensive minded, ball winner ahead of my defence. Giving us more security when being countered. Carrillo (Su) becomes Advanced playmaker (At) We are the dominate side most of the games, so I want a playmaker in front of the pitch rather than on the back of the pitch. And with the Winger on support on the right side, they can link up nicely. Inside forward (At) becomes Winger (Su) Having Liel Abada as a first team started and a very high potential, I wanted him on the first team. Two Inside forwards on attack seemed to aggressive, and with Abada having Hugs Line and Comes inside from both wings he can make the pitch wider, stretching the opposition who likes to sit deep to make a move or wait for the fullback. Otherwise, he can also cut inside when needed being left- and right footed. Pressing forward (At) becomes Advanced forward (At) The pressing forward will look to score himself, while the advanced forward will also look to create chances for the inside forward, box-to-box midfielder, advanced playmaker and winger. This way I have a more systematic approach with multiple people able to create chances or score, rather than relying to much on the striker to score. Team instruction changes Removed: Extremely high tempo Distribute to centerbacks Counter Press Prevent short GK distribution Added: Higher Tempo Trophy's 1x Europa League 4x Scottish Premiere League 2x Scottish Cup 3x Scottish Leage Cup Honorable mentions 2x Quarterfinal Champions League 1x Semifinal Champions League Fifth season - Arsenal At the beginning of my fifth season, I applied for the Arsenal job and got accepted! Probably going to explore some variations of the 4-3-3 because I will play a lot against the 4-2-3-1 in the Premiere League. First thought of the 4-2-2-2, due to the quality in strikers (3 world-class strikers) and they still have Saka and Martinelli on the wing, but it was too offensive in pre-season. Leaving huge gaps in the midfield area. Will post another tactic when I've settled with a 4-3-3 at Arsenal, as that is going to be my main tactic (exploiting Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard and Sesko). P.S. I still play FM22.

Last season, we unfortunately lost 2-1 on aggregate to Liverpool who went on to win the Champions League. This season, we are off to a good start already. Although it's still coming down to the wire in Group G..

Managing Celtic FC, from season one I play on Positive both home and away. But thats more due the fact I'm expected to be the dominate side in every game. I tried attacking, but that just exhaust my players as I'm playing a Geggenpress system. And I found that I get more balls over the top when playing attacking vs positive. In the Champions League I play on Cautious in away games. Expect against the big boys like Real Madrid, Dortmund, PSG, etc.. There I play both home and away Cautious on the counter.

Could this be the season....

Season 3 is going to be a blast. Won my first ever Football Manager trophy in Europa with the win in the Europa League final.

I won my first Europa trophy with the win against Sevilla for the Europa League

I've been having some fun with Celtic FC lately. I have turned the squad around where they can compete in the Champions League, even though we were placed in a group with Manchester City and Real Madrid. I noticed that their squad depth in the first season is lacking real quality on the bench, where in the Scottish League it was fine, but in Europe I really struggled. Probably going to switch to another save after 3-5 seasons, but this save really sparked my love for Football Manager again. Starting XI (second season 23/24) Results in the Champions League and Europa League Knockout phase 23/24 League standings 23/24

The history of my FM career Last year I created my last forum topic in this section, managing Villareal and creating my own tactic. After years of downloading or copying other people’s tactics, it was time for me to create my own. Spoiler alert, it didn't work. Every save went in the same cycle that includes the following 5 steps: Create tactic Still copying other people’s tactic/player roles/team instructions Starting on Key Highlights Losing matches Repeat from step 1 That continued to the point I stopped completely. But after coming across some video’s of Football Manager, it started itching again. After watching a video of Zealand in which he suggest starting as Rangers FC, Celtic FC or Dinamo Zagreb (clubs that are already dominating their respective competitions) I decided to try again. Hopefully this helps people just like me, struggling to get a good tactic going and being frustrated all the time with playing Football Manager. FM 22 – Starting as Celtic FC I booted up steam and opened up Football Manager to start a new save as Celtic FC. As I mentioned previously, they are so far ahead of the other teams (expect Rangers FC to some degree) in their league, I didn’t have to feel the pressure of getting sacked and have a bad overall atmosphere around the players and the board. Step 1 – Creating my own tactic When creating my own tactics before (see step 1 of my devastating 5 step cycle) I overthink to much and started tweaking player roles to much only to suit my team. This time around I started a preset tactic that FM offers. Celtic being the dominate force and we are dominated in stamina, I chose the Gegenpressing preset tactic. I have tweaked some team instructions and player roles, depending on what Celtic FC have to offer and how I want to cover most areas on the pitch. My main thought I had was to creating and offensive tactic, due to Celtic being the dominated force in the league. Player roles Player role changes · Sweeper Keeper (At) becomes Sweeper Keeper (Su) I don’t need my keeper to dribble more with two more than capable defenders in front of him that are comfortable on the ball to either dribble or give a pass. Wingback R (Su) becomes Fullback (Su) I don’t want two backs that are aggressive. With the inside forward on one side instead of two, I want more support on the outside on the left side and a more stable approach on the right side (winger). Deep lying playmaker (Su) becomes Ball winning midfielder (Su) Due to Celtic FC being the dominated force, I wanted to have a playmaker further across the field and a more defensive minded, ball winner ahead of my defence. Giving us more security when being countered. Carrillo (Su) becomes Advanced playmaker (At) We are the dominate side most of the games, so I want a playmaker in front of the pitch rather than on the back of the pitch. And with the Winger on support on the right side, they can link up nicely. Inside forward (At) becomes Winger (Su) Having Liel Abada as a first team started and a very high potential, I wanted him on the first team. Two Inside forwards on attack seemed to aggressive, and with Abada having Hugs Line and Comes inside from both wings he can make the pitch wider, stretching the opposition who likes to sit deep to make a move or wait for the fullback. Otherwise, he can also cut inside when needed being left- and right footed. Pressing forward (At) becomes Advanced forward (At) The pressing forward will look to score himself, while the advanced forward will also look to create chances for the inside forward, box-to-box midfielder, advanced playmaker and winger. This way I have a more systematic approach with multiple people able to create chances or score, rather than relying to much on the striker to score. Team instruction changes Removed: Extremely high tempo Distribute to centerbacks Counter Press Prevent short GK distribution Added: Higher Tempo How do my tactic look after the changes? Step 2 – Getting results and winning games (so I don’t get frustrated..) Competition The Scottish League went far better than expected, only losing once to our rivals Rangers FC in the far end of the season. Remaining (almost) unbeaten and winning the League with no issue at all. The only downside was that because we secured the league early in the latter stages of the competition, the ‘’champions’’ poule was shaky in terms of results. With 2 wins and 4 draws. Scottish cups We won the Scottish Premier Sports Cup and lost in the 4th round against Hearts for the Scottish Cup Europe The real test was playing in the Champions League qualifiers. Due to a lack of tactical familiarization and fitness, we lost the qualifiers for the Champions League and for the Europa League.. We did qualify for the Conference League. P.S. That game against SK Rapid Vienna still haunts me. In the 1-1 draw in the home leg, we had 3,94 xG against their 0,76 xG.. ouch! Conference League In the Conference League we did alright. Although topping our group, we fell 3-2 on aggregate against the winners Napoli FC. Stand out players We had a fantastic year as a team, but there were 3 players that really stood out. 1. Kyôgo Furuhashi Bagging in 37 goals in 52 matches, he was our star player. Although in the beginning of the season he had some competition from Giorgos Giakoumakis (25 goals in 38 matches), but he came out on top. This year he is on fire again with 20 goals in 18 matches. 2. David Turnbull As our main box-to-box midfielders, he had a outstanding season. In 39 matches, he scored 12 times and assisted 10 times. 3. Oscar Melendo Our new advanced playmaker. The Spaniard scored 9 times and assisted 8 times in 42 matches. Step 3 - Next season and beyond Squad This season I noticed that our depth lacked quality and talent. Because I want to focus more on Europe and scouting for talents is not my main priority, I will use the summer transfer window to really strengthen our main XI and bench. This way I hope to be more competitive in Europa, while still having a strong XI in the competition. Tactic I will mainly focus on getting better players in the player roles I have currently in my tactic. Because this is my first tactic and even though I’m very happy with the results, I want to look if this tactic will work in Europe. After that I will look to bring in another tactic, that will work more towards a philosophy and evolving that year in and year out. Tactical approach I will be looking to update this thread as my tactic will evolve in the third season and focus more on how I want to play in the future and evolving my tactic. Also creating a second and third tactic to switch to and focusing more on adapting in game, rather than focusing on having the better players alone. It’s save to say I’ve found joy again in playing Football Manager! Hopefully this was helpful. Thank you for reading! P.S. In our next season, we did win 3-0 at home to Real Madrid using this specific tactic.