llama3

On a rare visit - totally agree. @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! your articles give me lots of food for thought and ideas. I'm not normally short of a balanced and sensible system, but the systems I have used, inspired by your ideas on here has helped me to 9 league titles, a champions league, countless domestic cups, a world club cup, nations league, euros, world cup in a glittering 15 year career. I love learning from what other people do.

You've got one player dropping off and attacking from deep and one pushing up - that's fine. It's a pairing that are quite direct in style - so I'd basically say to use it in the right circumstances. For example, I can imagine a Wing Play 4-4-2 being ideal - TM to attack crosses and a CF(s) dropping off and can pick up knock-downs, receive the ball off central midfield and act as a creative hub. Use with caution... So it's one you need to watch carefully and see if it behaves in the right way. If it works well, you could have a very aggressive flank, overloading the full back. If it wo

I don’t, it’s about everything working together in a balanced system.

Absolutely vouch for Tavares, really impressive. A bargain option is Zeki Celik who is also good.

@raeburn have you considered a 3-4-3 instead? Having wide players at MR and ML will help your defensive shape more. You can tweak into a 3-1-4-2 or 3-4-1-2 too, giving players in different areas of the pitch.

Champions League Winners! After reaching my 3rd final in 3 seasons, we finally won the big one! We lost the 2024 final to Barcelona 4-2 on penalties, after a 0-0 draw. We lost the 2025 final 1-0 to Inter after extra time. I was determined not to lose this one. I was even more concerned when looking back at the results against opponents Man City and Klopp who is managing them. I won 1-0 away in a game we were indebted to De Ligt, Saliba & Donnarumma, before losing 1-0 in the reverse fixture at the Emirates in a game we created little and offered too much space in behind. My record agai

Wow, that's a bizarre season indeed!

@TheInvisibleMan my bad luck with Champions Leagues has continued. I lost the 23/24 final to Barcelona on penalties, then the 24/25 final to Inter 0-1 after extra time. Both times, couldn't break down opponents. I got a decent measure of revenge though over Inter by winning the Club World Cup in summer 2025, beating Inter in the final 3-1 after extra time. A game which frankly went much the same way, but I played on the break a bit more and thankfully it opened up some space to win it 3-1. It's literally just the Champions League I haven't won yet. Juventus and me did quite a bit of busin

Completed my 6th season, winning a 6th consecutive league title. However, I just lost a 2nd consecutive Champions League Final. It's been a bit of a "what else do I need to do to win it" type situation really.

@TheInvisibleMan - I have had 2 cracks at beating that Invincible run and fallen short. Managed 40 games when I went the season unbeaten (had lost on final day of previous season and 3rd game of the following season). then crossing over the middle of 2 seasons managed 47 games, losing to Liverpool at Anfield. Still, at least I knocked them out of the Champions League.

It's more than likely a wider tactical issue - might be worth a trip to tactics forum?

Lost my Champions League Final 4-2 on penalties to Barcelona after a 0-0 draw. Only one team was trying to win it, but counts for nothing if you can't take the trophy. Time for a think and to try again.

I'm in the UEFA Champions League Final - at the end of my 5th season. I am playing Barcelona at the Stade de France... a bit of a flashback there.

It's set in the editor with no expansion capacity - in real life the Emirates was capped at 60,000 due to the transport links being insufficient to cope with more - originally 80,000 was considered

Good comeback win there