Fantasista10

Season 4: A Rich Vein of Form Something I missed in the previous update was highlighting the impact that La Dea’s Youth Academy has, and is still having in the football world. It’s been recognised amongst the world’s best, no doubt boosted by the likes of Scalvini, Okoli, Ruggeri and Carnesecchi (all products of our academy) playing key roles in our team. Atalanta have also produced the most players currently representing the Italian national team, with the four aforementioned players all featuring in the National side. So if Italy go onto win the World Cup in this save, we know which team can brag about it! It’s not just the players that we produce that are grabbing headlines at the moment. The guys we bring in are also being recognised for their talent. Midfield metronome William Clem, ran Barcelona starts Gavi and Yamal close to winning the World U21 Footballer of the Year, finishing in 3rd place. His stats obviously don’t compare with the others, but then again he is a holding midfield player. A credit to his development and further proof that we have a gem on our hands. January 2027 January was a stellar month. We began the New Year with a bang, boasting a 100% win record across all competitions. And it was literally all competitions as we featured in all four across a jam packed month. After a convincing victory over Napoli in the league, we then faced them just days later in the Super Cup semi (a Classic FM fixture schedule), where we cruised past them. That set up a tasty final against our biggest rivals, AC Milan. What a brilliant performance and result. Yes, the Super Cup doesn’t mean much, but to beat Milan so convincingly, does. Hopefully this wasn’t a one off and we can repeat this against them, and other top teams in the league and Champions League. The return to Serie A action almost went horribly wrong. I was preparing to launch my laptop out the window during the Cremonese game. They levelled from the penalty spot in the 27th minute, right before we missed a penalty of our own, a rare CDK miss. That was followed by a disallowed goal early in the second half, and then moments later Cremonese took the lead from a set piece. They took 2 shots and had scored 2 goals. Luckily for me, Simone Pafundi is having a remarkable breakout season, developing superbly, and he inspired us to a truly deserved comeback. Phew! Returning to UCL action, and our favourable fixtures gave us a good chance of progressing. And we didn’t disappoint, cruising past our final two UCL opponents with 5-1 and 4-0 wins, sealing our automatic place in the Round of 16! For the first time we manage to avoid the pesky Playoff round. Finishing 5th in the League Phase is something I’m quite proud of. The final game of the month was a tricky away trip to Lazio who were 3rd in the table and in great form. Let’s not forget they beat us at home at the start of the season too! It may have been tricky on paper, but truth be told they couldn’t handle us. A very satisfying result against a team, and a formation (5-3-2) which we have previously struggled to cope with. The Window Towards the end of the January window we received a non-negotiable bid from Real Madrid (who else) for our star striker, Gianluca Scamacca. Obviously I had no desire to sell him, as he’s the most in from striker in Europe right now, but also because just £56m up front felt like a bit of an insult for a man who’s currently averaging more than a goal a game! However, as you can see in the image, he would need some convincing to remain in Bergamo, and this was due to his desire to win the Champions League. I had to settle for promising him that we would reach the latter stages this season, which he accepted. It’s not out the question since we reached the Semis last year, whether we could repeat it though, is not guaranteed. But that’s a future me problem. For now he will stay, and hopefully he keeps on firing in the meantime. There was to be some movement this window, however. It was a case of one out, one in. The departure was Luca Ranieri. Frustrated by the lack of game time, he requested a loan, which I accepted. I made sure to include a mandatory sell on clause, as I don’t see a future for him. He was only signed 18 months ago, for £5.5m but was never going to be more than a squad player at best. I decided that given the fact that we had £48m remaining in the transfer budget after signing nobody in the summer, that I shouldn’t just settle for a cheap backup. Halfway through last season I decided to move Ranieri to the backup left centre back role, meaning Robert Renan became the backup IWB on the left. But spoiler alert, there has been a slight change in the tactical system (more on this later), so I opted to move Renan back into the centre back role, meaning a vacancy opens up as Ruggeri’s deputy on the left. You might remember in the last update I sent my scouts off to Bologna. Well they didn’t just return with lots of Mortadella, they also returned with a recommendation. The Bologna left back, Riccardo Calafiori. His current and potential ability don’t do him justice. At 24 years old, his profile is remarkably similar to Ruggeri, meaning we shouldn’t see a huge drop off in performance, especially in how they play the role. At 6’2” he is superior in the air to Ruggeri, and also competent at centre back should we need cover there too. February 2027 Another month full of greens! 🥬 The goals have been flying in recently courtesy of the tactical tweak, and the Coppa Italia clash against our Lombardo rivals, Inter, was no different. We managed to put five goals past them without reply in one of the best first half performances of this save to date. Naturally Diego Simeone gave them the hairdryer at half time and they responded, but the 6-2 scoreline was certainly fair, even if two goals came from set pieces. We rounded up a tough week with Juventus visiting Bergamo. Enzo Maresca, the new Juventus coach (I’ve lost count how many they’ve had in this save!) had been criticising us in build up to the game for not being direct enough. I hope he enjoyed the goal scoring clinic we put on in this one. It was men against boys, total domination. Not a single shot on target for Juve. One shot, worth a measly 0.01xG - that was very nice to see. The win against Juve also broke the club record for consecutive wins, bringing us to 10 in a row. A routine 2-0 away victory at Salernitana followed before a massive game, away to Inter. I wasn’t expecting anything like the 6-2 in the Cup, but it was a lot tricker than I’d have liked. But Pafundi again came up with the goods as we nicked a crucial 1-0 win on the road. The highlight of the game was limiting them to just four attempts on goal, whilst we also won the xG and possession battle. But our win at the San Siro wasn’t to be the biggest story of the week, as AC Milan finally lost! Sassuolo caused a massive upset, beating them 2-0, meaning we now sit at the top of the table, albeit having played a game more. Perhaps buoyed by the recent winning run and surprise Milan defeat, we proceeded to smash struggling Empoli 6-0 in our next game. Scamacca with another brace, but João Marques stole the show with a brilliant hat trick from midfield. Scamacca’s opener also broke a club record for fastest goal, just fifteen seconds into the match. Start as you mean to go on and all that. Sassuolo at Home felt very reminiscent of the Cremonese game. Ruggeri got us off to a good start before we found ourselves behind, after Sottil scored a brilliant solo goal, and then immediately after the restart some poor defending left him free at the back post for a tap in. The scoreline remained 1-2 until an unbelievable last 10 minutes saw a spirited comeback from La Dea. The old reliable CDK and Scamacca coming up with the important goals when we need them most. My laptop survives another day. There was some comfortable Coppa Italia action against Roma, where a slightly rotated XI got the job done. The final game of the month against Udinese was our fourth consecutive home game, slightly weird, but in no doubt helped us to maintain our winning run. The 5-2 victory over Udinese made it 16 consecutive wins in all competitions. UCL Draw It was time to find out who are opponents were in the upcoming Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, and it was the Red Bulls once again! I guess we can’t have too many complaints with the draw, RB Leipzig are on paper at least, one of the weakest teams left in the competition. However, we did face them in the Quarter Final in last year’s competition, losing 2-1 away from home before dispatching them by two goals to zero in the second leg. So we know from experience that it won’t be that easy. March 2027 Our first taste of defeat since the 13th December! And how we lost this one, I really don’t know. They managed to score 3 times despite only having 2 shots on target! In fact, they were 3-0 up after registering just 2 attempts by that point. Some poor keeping from Carnesecchi didn’t help, and he has been in poor form of late. Against both Sassuolo and Udinese he conceded twice from four shots on target, earning a rating of 6.2 and 6.6 respectively. Our defence has been rock solid, we limit the opposition to very few chances but at the moment, it feels like they only need one chance to score a goal. Still, our attacking play filled me with confidence that we could turn it around, providing we took our chances in the return leg. And we did just that - and in spectacular fashion! Fagioli got us off to a great start, narrowing the deficit to just one goal. But we had to wait until the 54th minute to level the tie on aggregate, William Clem the unlikely scorer, before super subs Lauriente and Guler clinched a 5-3 aggregate win for La Dea. Over the two legs we accumulated an xG of 5.17 with Leipzig managing just 1.76 - it’s amazing that the scoreline was as close as it was! It was a hugely important win, as Scamacca had forced me into promising him we’d make it to the latter stages, after I stopped him moving to perennial UCL winners Real Madrid. So we keep him happy, for now. The 1/4 Draw has thrown up another familiar tie. We face Liverpool again! It’s a reverse of last year’s campaign where we met The Reds in the Last 16 before beating Leipzig in the Quarters. Let’s see if we can repeat out great victory from one year ago. In between the Second Leg against Leipzig, we had some very routine victories in Serie A, beating Frosinone, Monza and Cagliari with ease. Unfortunately Milan also keep winning, including their crucial game in hand which was against Cagliari as well. This leaves the table looking like this with just eight games remaining: The juggernaut that is AC Milan keep on going, winning a remarkable 27 out of 30 games so far. For context, the treble winning Manchester City side of last year only managed to win 28/38 league games. We are having an incredible season ourselves, and our form since the New Year has been flawless as we boast a 100% record in Serie A… but we still trail! We still need to welcome Milan to the Gewiss Stadium at the end of April. It goes without saying that we need to win that game in order to lift the title, and if Milan win then we can probably kiss our title hopes goodbye! On the player front, Scamacca is having the best season of his career to date, and young João Rêgo isn’t doing too badly either! In fact he’s playing so well, I rejected Armand Lauriente’s request for a new contract - he already earns 85k p/w and expects to be an important player, but Rêgo’s form and development has meant that we have simply outgrown Armand and he will be offered out in the summer window. João on the other hand, was rewarded for his performances with a new bumper contract. Taking a deeper dive into Scamacca’s stats for the season makes for very impressive reading. 30 goals in 25 Serie A appearances so far, and in all competitions it’s 39 in 37 appearances. By far his best season for Atalanta, and nobody has come close to putting up those sort of numbers in this save yet. You can see why I was so quick to turn down Real Madrid’s offer. A striking statistic, if you’ll pardon the pun, is that his xG is only 25.25 - but this for me, is the mark of an elite striker. Wrapping up the month, our Youth Intake came in, and it’s only ‘Average’. None of the talents really excite me, but let’s see how they develop. If there is one area of the save which I need to focus on more on, it’s developing Atalanta’s own academy products. Giving them game time in Serie A has proven difficult, especially when I’m in a constant battle with Milan. Evolving The 4-3-3 So here it is then: the evolution which has brought us a 100% record in the league for the past three months, and the most consistent tactical system I have used to date. On the face of it, it looks like quite a drastic change from the more ‘basic’ system we had previously. In fact, it’s a lot more similar to the ‘Tiki Taka’ approach I used towards the end of Season 2 where we won the league, especially from looking at the Out of Possession setup. The main difference is that we are more Attacking, and less focussed on sterile possession. This style of play does see us dominate possession still, but this is mostly down to how effective we are at counter pressing and regaining the ball. The cynics might say that I’ve gone a bit ‘Meta’ with the maxed out pressing and high lines, but ultimately this is the style of football I have envisioned from Day 1 - but I just couldn’t get it to work how I wanted defensively, until now. These changes have meant that we lead the Serie A in the majority of the key defensive performance metrics. An important point to make is that this tactical system has only been used for the last three months. So it’s impressive that we lead the league for Shots Against, Passes Attempted and Completed Against, Final Third Passes Against per game, and the all important pressing metric: Opposition Passes per Defensive Action. We also have the best Tackle Percentage in the league at 80% further demonstrating our effectiveness at winning the ball back. The attacking statistics also bode well for us. We have scored the most goals and have the highest Non Penalty xG. We have scored 10 times from the penalty spot on top of that, and we are incredibly effective from Set Pieces, scoring 18 times (our corner routine works well with Scamacca and Okoli attacking the near post). We have created the most chances in the division, take the most shots (and hit the target efficiently too). Atalanta also have the Most Final Third Passes per game at 128. The next closest team is Inter with 98! Again this shows how good a ‘camping’ tactic this is. We look to dominate the game, and play the majority of the 90 minutes in the opponents third. Looking at the system in action demonstrates how the principles remain. I always want to attack with at least five players, making sure that all the channels are occupied, giving us the best chance of stretching the defence and exploiting gaps. You can see from this screenshot here, we morph into a slightly staggered 2-3-5 attacking shape. The #2 in the image is our right back, Nagalo, playing as an IWB(S), and he has our DM (#6) next to him to form a double pivot, with the third man in midfield being a completely new role in our system - the CM on Support (#8). We now create a front five in a different way. The right winger is largely unchanged, since we now invert from the right instead of the left back however, the AMR is asked to Stay Wider and create some width on this side. We use the IW(S) role instead of a Winger, and this is a mix of personal preference and it suiting Pafundi and Arda Guler’s creative attributes. Essentially they play as a wide playmaker in this system. The main beneficiary of this ‘false’ wide playmaker role, is the #7 in that screenshot, who is playing as a CM(A) - he will be our shadow striker if you will, playing quite close to the #9 and being our second box threat. I often see the CM(A) make underlapping runs in the half space, regularly being picked out by the IW to his right. This puts the CM(A) into good shooting positions or areas where he can cut it back via a low cross to the AF in the penalty box. In this image, Arda Guler playing as the IW(S), has picked up the ball from the right wing, cut inside and threaded a delightful through ball to Scamacaa who beats the keeper in a 1v1 situation. The other player in midfield, the CM(S), performs more of a ‘Hybrid’ role. It’s not quite a box to box, but it’s not a holding midfielder either. Instead, he will pick and choose his moments to arrive in the box, or to sit alongside / just ahead of the DM. Interestingly, I am getting much better ratings and performances out of Fagioli using this role, compared to using him as a MEZ or AP(S) previously. I put this down to the fact that he has more options in closer proximity than before. On the left is where our structure differs from before. I now ask the left winger, playing as an IF(S), to Sit Narrow. He will occupy the left half space, and since it’s hard coded to Get Forward, he will become our third box threat. Given that he is tucking in, and playing more of a hybrid goalscorer / creator role instead of pure creator, I need someone else to create width on the left. So I now instruct the left back to play as a Wingback on Attack. However, I don’t ask him to Stay Wider. I often leave this on default, or occasionally ask him to also Sit Narrower, as this can help us create quick one-two combinations to release the Inside Forward in behind. When he does go wide with the ball, he now has four genuine goal threats to aim for in the box. Like in this image here in the game against Juventus, his cross into the box from out wide picks out our narrow Inside Forward (Rego) who scores, but we also have our striker, centre mid on attack, and right winger looking to get on the end of a cross or cut back. As I mentioned previously, this is more of an evolution. I think if we abandoned the 4-3-3 and went with the 4-2-4 I envisioned in Pre Season (or even a Gasperini inspired 5-2-3 that popped into my head) then it would resemble more of a revolution. As it is, with this system we have the exact same defensive shape, albeit much more aggressive in its approach, and maintain a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 build up (if we tweak one full back role). The results we have achieved over the past three months show that it is certainly the most potent and effective system used in this save to date, and hopefully will give us the best chance of beating the winning machine that is AC Milan! #GoAtalantaGo!

Shame that you abandoned the Palermo save, I will follow your move to Torino keenly, particularly due to my hatred of Juve but they also have such an interesting history with 'Grande Torino' and some exciting players like Samuele Ricci. Good luck! Thank you - it's been a tough couple of seasons fighting them, can also be a bit soul destroying as they never seem to drop points! But we are making steady progress as the next update will show. Thanks mate. I don't think the man marking will be returning any time soon but it's definitely a useful tool to have up your sleeve if you're feeling brave enough! Interestingly we currently have the best OPPDA in the league. I will touch on that a little and how we do that in the upcoming post. The B Team managed to reach the playoffs in Season 1 and 2 (losing in the final in Season 2!) but suffered a bit of a slump in Season 3 as I made it much more of a development squad, so a lot of the more experienced heads left. The current crop of youngsters, ranging from the age of 17 to 20yrs old, currently occupy 3rd place in the Serie C/A and have secured a Playoff spot already! I am a little sceptical about the idea of seeing them in Serie B if it were to happen though. None of the youngsters are ready for football at that level. But maybe they need to be thrown into the deep end if they are ever to be ready for Serie A action?

Season 4: Evolution, Not Revolution First off, thank you to everyone who's taken the time to comment and engage - I'm really enjoying writing about my save and sharing it with you guys. This will be a slightly different update in which I will cover everything from Pre-Season until the end of December, as I got carried away with playing and then work commitments meant I struggled to find time to write anything up. Some months may lack a bit of detail, which I hope to make up for in future posts. Pre-Season (2026/2027) Despite boasting a 100% record during pre-season, I wasn’t entirely comfortable with with the 4-2-4 shape which I’d previously proposed. As expected, scoring goals was not a problem, but keeping them out, appeared to be an issue. In all our games, we allowed the opposition around 1xG, sometimes even higher, and this was too much for my liking, especially as we had been so solid when playing 4-3-3. So for the final game of pre-season against Roma, I reverted to the tried and tested system and it was much more sturdy. I’m not disregarding the 4-2-4 / 4-2-3-1 completely, it may be revisited in the future, but I feel like our best chance of winning the title again is by sticking to what worked for us, and maybe making small tweaks here and there. On the transfer front, it was an incredibly quiet window for La Dea. The board gave me the largest budget of the save to date, at £42m, but I was satisfied with the balance of the squad that I felt no need to dip into the market. The team is incredibly young, and I can’t see how I can improve my first XI without stunting the growth of these exceptional talents. So there was just one first team arrival, the previously agreed free transfer of Jorginho from Arsenal. Jorgi comes in to replace the outgoing Marten de Roon, who expressed his desire to return to the Netherlands… which is why he decided to move to Sevilla? Lol. We did sign an 18yr old centre half from Uruguay, who will move straight into the B Team. In terms of outgoings, there were several, but they all came from the B Team / U21 level. I have a few young academy players which I want to prioritise in terms of development and creating a pathway to the first team. Therefore, making sure all three youth teams are small (maximum of 16/17 players), ensures that they get guaranteed game time at their required level. I did have to fend off some offers for key players though, namely Carnesecchi who attracted interest from Real Madrid. It was a mega offer, and I tested the waters, managing to negotiate a deal worth £100m after their initial offer of £70m… But I quickly came to my senses. He would be virtually impossible to replace, and he is a homegrown Atalanta player. If I begin to start selling our best players, who are one of our own no less, then I fear I’d lose interest in this save quite rapidly. Of course there was only one way to keep him happy after rejecting the offer, and that was to give him a much improved contract. Man City came in for right back Emil Holm, I wasn’t impressed by the offer and had no intention of letting him go. The Real Madrid came back, but this time for wonderkid Joao Rego! Again, a poor offer, and Joao didn’t show much interest in the move, so I swiftly rebuffed their offer. The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice from those screenshots that Berat Djimsiti has taken up the role of Director of Football, alongside his backup Centre Back role. He requested the role during his contract renewal, and given that my previous DoF was approaching the end of his deal, and it’s a bit of a redundant role in the game (since I handle basically everything), I was happy to give it to him, along with minimum responsibilities. There was one player who really tempted me this window. Smith Rowe became available for £30m, and he would fit the profile of this squad perfectly. His mixture of technical ability and high levels of Teamwork and Work Rate meant he’d fit us like a glove in midfield. But I simply didn’t need him, so we rounded up the window with just his ex-Gunners teammate, Jorginho, as our only arrival. I have £45m remaining in the transfer kitty now, which gives me the option to strengthen in the January window should we need to. Oh, and on the managerial front, there was some major news which sent shock waves around Italy… Unai chose to go out on a high and take up the Spain national team job. Perhaps an opportunity for us to take advantage and return to the summit of Italian football. August 2026 To the season proper then, and August was a bit of a mixed month. A good start at home to our two bogey teams from last season, although Bologna annoyingly put two goals past us from just 0.59xG. Safe to say Carnesecchi didn’t have his finest game, despite not making any obvious errors, he’d have been disappointed to get beaten so easily at his near post by Dan Ndoye. Roberto Piccoli scored against his old side once again. In other news, water is wet. Thankfully, the ex-Atalanta striker, who I sold to Bologna, won’t be causing us any problems anymore as he was sold to Leipzig just after this game. We are due to pocket £9,750,000 thanks to the sell on clause I included in the deal. The Lazio game was incredibly frustrating. We dominated in the fist half but couldn’t capitalise on all our chances, going into half time only 1-0 up. After the interval, it was as if a different team came out. As you can see by the momentum, it was virtually all Lazio. Inzaghi’s 5-3-2 gave us all sorts of problems and we simply couldn’t deal with the trickery and pace of both right wing back Lazzari, and striker Moise Kean. A proper game of two halves leaves me incredibly disappointed losing a winnable game at home so early in the season. The bright side is it is early in the season, plenty football left to play. September 2026 A tricky game to start the month away to rivals Juventus, now coached by Zidane. I felt we could have won this game on another day after we won the xG battle with 2.20 to their 1.30. Our UCL fixtures were revealed, and it looked promising. PSG aside, they all seemed like very winnable games on paper. It turned out to be the case this month, as we coasted past Galatasaray, even if it was only 1-0. I did use this game as an opportunity to try something a little radical. I deployed a Cruyff inspired 3-4-3 diamond, which is unlikely to be used often if I’m honest, but it was fun. In this screenshot here, the ball is with our goalkeeper who has dribbled forward with the ball, giving us an extra man in the backline as we now create a 4-1-6 shape. He then launched a defence splitting pass to our #10 (Pafundi) who you can just about see behind the Galatasaray #34, but Pafundi failed to convert his 1v1 opportunity. What an assist that would have been from the keeper. For the games against Inter and PSG, I wanted to revert back to the usual 4-3-3, but it had a slight twist to it. Essentially, it became a 4-2-3-1, for one specific purpose. Concerned by the result and performance against Lazio’s 5-3-2 setup, I opted to try something a little adventurous against Inter’s 5-3-2. Inspired by Marcelo Bielsa, I deployed a radical man marking system: I went man for man, instructing individual players to tight mark their assigned opponent, which was simple enough to pull off in the 4-2-3-1 shape. It worked a treat as we limited them to just five attempts on our goal, for a total xG of 0.54 - we also had the momentum in our favour as we controlled proceedings. Call me crazy but I went for the same approach away to the Parisians. La Dea were good money for their draw away to PSG, and would have won the game if not for Nagalo completely forgetting his man marking duties as Mbappe was left completely free on the left to receive the ball and drive into the box before curling a beauty past Carnesecchi. Our goal may have come from a penalty, but limiting them to just 7 shots left me feeling like our aggressive man marking system did its job. The Sassuolo game, however, was a clear indication to me that this ‘MurderBall’ man marking approach was not going to be sustainable. Their 4-2-3-1 ripped through us on many occasions as they created 2.28xG from open play! What a let off. Luckily, Scamacca was on hand to score four times against his former club - a man on fire. October 2026 October was a straightforward month in the league as we won 4/4 games, all against favourable opponents. The only defeat of the month came in the UCL, away to Sporting Lisbon, in what was a dismal performance. Their narrow 4-4-2 diamond compacted the centre, and despite all my efforts to exploit their flanks, we remained incredibly toothless in attack. Strange, as we are scoring goals for fun domestically, it’s the defence which gives me the most concern thus far. November 2026 We navigated through November unbeaten across all competitions. Ludogorets, however, was one to forget. The game got off to a disastrous start, as Arda Guler picked up a straight red card just 13 minutes in. The visitors broke the deadlock on the half hour mark, before CDK came off the bench to grab a leveller for the 10 men of Atalanta. Probably the easiest fixture in our UCL campaign, and we threw it away. I did schedule a friendly against Cremonese during the international break to give some much needed match sharpness to some of our fringe players, as well as experiment a little bit tactically. Those experiments were worthwhile as we smashed both Fiorentina and Marseille (our 4.10xg from open play was a particular highlight), before rounding up the month with a professional away performance in Rome. December 2026 The final month of the year began with a bang. We’ve beaten our bogey team on two occasions now this season, and our electric start to the game ensured we grabbed all three points against a top Bologna side. I’m so impressed with them that I’ve sent my scouts after a number of their players, and I’ll keep tabs on them ahead of the January window if an opportunity arises. Some good wins against Torino and Leipzig followed, before the major disappointment of the month. Once again we were beaten by our title rivals, Milan. I haven’t shown the league standings as of yet, that will follow below, but a victory here would have put us level on points. We can’t complain either, the stats show that we were second best in a cagey affair. Lecce (Salento) at home gave us an opportunity to bounce back, and didn’t we just?! The biggest victory of the season so far, with Joao Marques playing in a central midfield role nowadays, grabbing the headlines after an excellent hat trick. Frustratingly, we ended the month, and the year with a point apiece against struggling Verona. One of those games where you just can’t understand how you didn’t win. Not a classic FM’ing, but we were far superior. We lost Scamacca to illness just before the game, perhaps the result may have been different had he been fit. His deputy, Esposito, did find the net though, and is in decent form himself, in fairness. As the table below shows, that result now opens up a five point gap to league leaders, Milan. Who else would we be chasing? Life under new manager, Michel, is going very well for them much to my annoyance. However, they have dropped points away to Napoli (1-1) and crucially in the Derby vs Inter (losing 2-0) - so they are far from invincible. Perhaps a little unlike me, we have sacrificed some defensive stability for attacking prowess. We lead the league for goals scored, xG and non-penalty xG, chances created and basically every key attacking metric. What I am pleased with is we seem to have found the balance between possession and goals. We still have the highest av. possession (at 63%), and the most final third passes. Compare that to where we were this stage last year, if you remember, we couldn’t buy a goal despite keeping the ball so well. Despite all that, we do need to tighten up at the back, and hope that Milan drop some points, if we are to win the league. Perhaps a bit of luck might be nice too, as the xG Table shows that we should be top! A couple of my favourite metrics from the Data Hub at the halfway point also show that we are in a league of our own when it comes to Pressing Intensity (more on that in the next post). And the same goes for our Pitch Tilt. Both graphics give us a good visualisation of how we look to impose our game on the opposition to another level this season. This is my evolution. A quick glance at the UCL standings shows that we’re doing okay in Europe. I can’t help but think we should be in those automatic spots given the fixtures we had. But to be just 1pt off with two games to go, leaves us in a good position still. Our remaining games are both away from home, however fairly easy on paper, as we take on FC Midtjylland and Anderlecht. A look at the player stats at this point should be no surprise. Both Scamacca and Rego are picking up where they left off last season, leading scorer and assister respectively. Our No.9 is averaging a goal per game at this stage, he is in frightening form. ——— In the next update I will try to focus on the key tactical tweaks which we have made to our 4-3-3. Despite some tactical experiments with a 3-4-3 or the man marking approach in the 4-2-3-1, as I have hinted, it’s more evolution than revolution with my preferred tactical setup. I will also try and make the next post a little more detailed and will probably look to update on either a monthly or bi-monthly basis in game time. #GoAtalantaGo!

Unbelievable run in the UCL mate, very unfortunate to lose on penalties. Perhaps it was just one big team too many. But can take a lot of confidence and belief from those results and performances though, certainly something to build on! Congrats on sealing another top 3 finish too. For a club like Vigo, it’s a huge achievement. And a decent size transfer budget for next year, I’m interested to see who you bring in!

Fantastic results against Real Madrid! Couldn’t help but notice João Rêgo scoring the winner in the away leg - he has established himself as a big game player for me. He seems to be humming along nicely for you looking at his stats as well. And Bartesaghi looks to be developing superbly at left back, what a player. Keep up the good work mate, you look on course to have another successful season in the top 3, and maybe, just maybe, you can cause another upset vs Liverpool! I’ll give you my notes on how I beat them if you like (kidding, because just like you, I’ve no idea how I did it )

The Run In May 2026 We kicked off the Run In with a convincing away win against Empoli, albeit it was a 1-0 scoreline but we really hammered them. A nice confidence booster going into the big fixture… PSG (A) - UEFA Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg Absolute heartbreak in Paris. We narrowly lost 1-0 on the night, with PSG’s goal coming courtesy of a moment of brilliance from Ousmane Dembele, but with the scores still level on aggregate, we took them to Extra Time before falling at the final hurdle: the penalty shootout. The stats will show that PSG were marginally better than us, but to be honest we held our own. Of course I am disappointed with the outcome, especially to lose it on penalties, but I’ve got to be happy with our UCL campaign. We didn’t win it, but we still made history by getting this far. And we had some memorable victories at the Gewiss Stadium, beating both Liverpool and PSG. The boys had to put the Champions League heartbreak to one side and pick themselves up again as we were still in the hunt for the title. Roma (H) On paper this had the potential to be a bit of a banana skin. Roma, although hovering around mid table, still have some top players who can cause problems for any side. Luckily for us however, the likes of Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini were completely omitted from their squad for this game - no idea why! That certainly made things a little easier for us, but I wasn’t expecting to batter them in this manner… Scoring four goals and restricting the opposition to just 0.11xG is very satisfying. Unfortunately for us though, Milan’s thrashing of Palermo meant that they were now just one win away from clinching the title. Look away now @El Payaso... Poor old Palermo have been hit for 10 on two occasions this season now. Our record victory lasted less than 5 months! This once again show the powerhouse that we are having to compete with at the moment. Will Milan drop points in their final two games? And more importantly, can we take advantage if they do? Here we go then, the penultimate day of the season and Milan are out to clinch the title away to Hellas Verona. If you were a betting man, your money would certainly be on Red & Black. It would be pointless thinking about their game however, as we had a pretty big battle of our own… Inter Milan (A) It was 3rd vs 2nd in the league but with Inter now seven points adrift of their city rivals, they were playing for the runners up spot. For us, it was simply about winning our game and hoping Milan dropped points. Adamo Nagalo bagged a rare goal, from an indirect free kick, to claim all three points in what was a pretty tight game. Overall I was pleased with the performance away to such a strong defensive team. So we held up our end of the bargain but, and to be honest this was really annoying and demoralising, Milan actually played BEFORE us, and therefore I already knew the outcome… and of course, they had beaten Verona in the earlier game. The dream of a back to back Scudetto was over then. I can’t say I’m surprised, as we never really looked or felt like a title winning side this season. There was far too much inconsistency in our performances and you can’t have that if you are competing with a team as good as Milan. In a way it feels like trying to compete with Manchester City in the Premier League. How close have the likes of Liverpool pushed them over the years, and only won the title once! At least the victory over Inter confirmed our 2nd place finish in the league, which means we have finished in the top two in all three seasons of this save so far - not bad going. The final day of the season was no longer an important game, but a good chance to give some other players an opportunity. Torino (H) Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have proven to be a tricky opponent on occasion, so it was satisfying to beat them pretty convincingly here and give the likes of Pafundi and Arda Guler starts. Pafundi took full advantage of his opportunity, with his fierce shot from outside the box sealing the victory for us. Another dominant performance at home, restricting the opponent to just 3 shots, worth a total of 0.27xG. The results from this month show that we did all we could, unfortunately Milan did just as well and kept their noses in front. —— All in all, Season 3 was a good campaign. Of course I have bemoaned our inconsistency, but our performance in Europe is what has given me the greatest encouragement. It is of course disappointing to finish the season without a trophy, for the first time in this save. However, we reached the Semi Final of the Coppa Italia, losing on penalties. We finished 2nd in Serie A to a great Milan side. And we reached the Semi Final of the Champions League - a record for the club, again losing on penalties. I can’t be too harsh on the team. Focussing on our domestic campaign, here is the final league classification: We finish the season with 87pts, just three shy of the league winners. The most interesting stat that jumped out to me is that we only lost 3 games. The fewest defeats in the league. Even more surprising, it was one less defeat than our title winning campaign last season! The difference being last year we only drew 4 games, winning 30, and this time around we drew far too many, 9 in total. We had the 2nd best attack, and the 2nd best defence, so I guess we can’t complain about finishing second best. Milan dominated in pretty much every metric, unsurprisingly. From a player’s perspective, there could only be one player who topped the charts: the born again Advanced Forward, Gianluca Scamacca. What a season he had, after torrid start too. The change of his role, and simplification of our tactical setup, really helped us to get the best out of him. Gianluca also finished the season with 12 assists in all competitions, making his total G/A 42 in 51 appearances. The only other player in the squad to hit double figures for both Goals and Assists, is without doubt our signing of the season, João Rêgo. The Wonderkid added 10 goals to his 13 assists, leading the charts for that metric, in a really impressive debut season. Given the fact 23 of his 45 appearances came off the bench, I’m even more impressed. He demonstrated that he can deliver from the start, as well as being a useful impact player. Taking a look at some stats and performance metrics, the General Performance view shows that we were considerably better than the league average where it matters: putting the ball in their net, and keeping it out of ours. I’m happy with our Non Penalty xG being considerably higher than our xG Against - a hallmark of any good side. Some of my favourite metrics from the Data Hub can be seen below. The one which I keep a keen eye on is Pitch Tilt. Basically a chart that measures your territorial dominance. It shows that we play lots of passes in the opposition’s final third, while allowing very few passes in ours. If you have a high Pitch Tilt, chances are you are dominating the majority of your football matches. Overall, we look to be performing well across a number of important metrics. The season review picked out a few moments to remember, most notably that emphatic win over Palermo. It’s just a shame Milan went and beat them 10-0! Both our leading goal scorer and leading assister broke club records this season, with Scamacca also winning the most Player of the Match awards. No surprises that is was a Milan player who won the Serie A Player of the Year Award. Chukwueze contributed to 22 goals in 29 league appearances for the Champions. It was our goalkeeper though, Carnesecchi, who won the ‘keeper award. I was actually surprised he only made 26 appearances, but then I remembered I was rotating between him and Juan Musso at the start of the season, before selling Musso in January. And of course he also picked up an injury around Feb/March. We did manage to get two players in the Team of the Year, Caleb Okoli had a very solid season at centre back. He’s improved immensely, especially the technical aspect of his game, and physically he has to be one of the quickest and strongest defenders in the division. —— Next Season As I write this, my mind is already thinking about how to approach next season. The objectives lined out by the board are attainable. I can definitely see us challenging again next year, of course I’d like to go one better and win it again, but as a minimum we need to be in the top 2/3 positions. But aside from breaking the bank to look for ways to improve an already strong squad, how can I go one better? Maybe it’s time for a tactical change? I don’t mean another little tweak to my 4-3-3 setup, but maybe something a little more drastic this time. It’s not necessarily because I’ve lost faith in the 4-3-3, it’s still been successful. But I am getting a little bored of it, and somewhat frustrated with it as a defensive shape. So if you can’t beat em, join em? Unai Emery has had great success with his 4-2-4 shape, pushing us almightily close last year in his first season, and winning it quite comfortably this year. Given that Milan had wrapped up the title before we even played our penultimate game away to Inter, I had a “what do we have to lose moment” and changed it up for that massive fixture: So our shape resembled Milan’s 4-2-4, both in and out of possession. They also deploy an IFB and IWB, and this is something we have done for some time now in our 4-3-3 and I wasn’t prepared to move away from that. Therefore our in possession principles remain largely intact. We create a 3-2-5 shape using the exact same roles and duties for the 3-2 base. It’s the construction of our front 5 that has changed completely, though. Where Fagioli or Ederson would have previously lined up as a MEZ(S), we now drop them into the DM strata, but as a Segundo Volante, which will move further forward and join the attack. To the left of the SV, we have a Winger on Attack, providing the width on that side as the IWB tucks in. Ahead, there is a DLF on Support, who will drop in and link up with the SV, and should have plenty of space due to the winger on that side stretching the defence. It is here, on the left side, where will probably create the majority of chances from. There is an intentional overload created here, with the IWB, SV, DLF and Winger all combining on this side, with the hope of dragging defenders over, before we play a pass into our Advanced Forward who should hopefully have fewer defenders to deal with. On the right, I will use an IW on Support, with the added instruction to stay wider. This should open up more space for the Advanced Forward - our main goal threat. This isn’t strictly just theory, I’ve used it in the games against Inter and Torino, and was pleased with how it worked. I won’t ditch our 4-3-3 entirely, it will most likely still be trained in one of the three tactics slots, but I do plan on giving the 4-2-4 some more game time during Pre-Season. —— Looking ahead to the future… Of course building a new stadium should be seen as good news - but spending 76m on a ground which has only 9,000 extra seats (roughly), doesn’t seem to make much sense? I’d imagine the new stadium will be built with the option to expand it further, how much I don’t know, but I do imagine that in the interim, our purse strings may be a little tighter than before. —— Thanks for reading and engaging in this thread. Next time it’s Season 4, and the Goddess wants her crown back! #GoAtalantaGo

What a reaction to the Madrid and Barcelona games. Benfica aside, it seems like you’ve been pretty much flawless. There is something weird about facing 10 men at times. The same happened to me on my save when I played Milan. They were 1-0 up, went a player down, we equalised, but they were still the better side! Maybe the game requires us to be more aggressive in those situations. Not sure what you did, but I didn’t really change anything as I just imagined the extra man would make a difference. Impressive UCL campaign too, hoping for a favourable draw if you go via the Playoffs.

Thank you! Sure, here is the current Palermo squad with my DNA view. Not sure how helpful that is since I don’t have full scouting knowledge on all their players. If you prefer, this is the General Info view. Good luck with your save. They’re battling away in the relegation places in mine, but their squad isn’t the best as you can see.

Thanks! I think the story around Atalanta is what made this save so attractive and you're right about the players. For example, if I hadn't been able to trigger De Ketelaere's option to buy, who knows where this save might have gone! Thank you mate. It definitely feels like we are working towards something big, but the inconsistency has been a source of great frustration for me. Certainly not giving up, this team is young and has the potential to dominate for years to come. Thank you! You may be right actually. He didn't do great initially as an AF in Season 1, but that could have been down to loads of factors such as Team Familiarity etc. Right now though, he's banging them in so I certainly won't be changing the role! Thanks mate, and welcome back btw, looking forward to the updates on your thread It is incredibly difficult. I'm having to give players 1-2 days rest from training after each game. Scalvini, Okoli and Scamacca have been in need of rest for about 6 months...you can rest when you retire, lads! But it's to be expected if we run out of steam, I do have a good squad but it's not as deep as Milan's - who are now out of the UCL and Coppa Italia, and Inter do not have any European competition this year so have benefited from playing one game a week basically (which I forgot to mention in my post, so thanks for reminding me of that!).

Wow, he is developing into a beast! Don't you just love those green arrows Do you tailor training plans out of curiosity? I'm sure playing regular football at this level is a key driving force for his progress too.

I think your assessment here is completely understandable, and after all, you watch the games and can come to this conclusion. But if I can add my two cents: I think you've had a great first half of the season, purely based on where Palermo should be. Sometimes stats, especially midway through the season, can be misleading and don't tell the full story. My only piece of advice is to be wary of changing too much as it can have an adverse affect on performances/familiarity but I'm sure you know this already. If you were to stick with the same system (and principles) you may find performances improve to match the results and over achievement to this date. Errors are part of football, even from top players, so it's something promoted sides will always have an issue with unfortunately. Over time try looking for players with high levels of Concentration and Composure, and avoid those who 'Dread Playing in Big Matches'. Superb work though, mate - I'm really enjoying this thread and your graphics / presentation makes it a beautiful read!

Just catching up on this - a great job as always, especially with the transfers. It's not easy to lose your best players year after year and maintain that consistency, so to be where you are still in the league is very impressive... and after that brutal month you just had too. Bartesaghi is a player I had an eye on in my save at one point, but a bid didn't materialise in the end. So I'm all the more interested to see how he does for you. Keep up the good work!

Dare To Dream? February 2026 The shortest month of the year packed the most games in as we played every three days in February across all three competitions. Despite that challenge, it proved to be a really successful month. We started with a comfortable victory over Roma in the Coppa Italia. The Giallorossi didn’t lay a glove on us and it felt like we barely had to get out of first gear, courtesy of two goals from the in-form Scamacca. Another 2-0 victory followed, with a nice win on the road against Verona. Scamacca was the hero again, with another brace in this one. He really is thriving in his new role. Speaking of new roles, as I prepared to take on Verona’s stubborn back five, I had an idea of changing the IFB role to a slightly more adventurous, Full Back on Support. No added PIs, just letting him pick and choose his moments to tuck in, sit back, or go on the overlap. And it worked a treat. It’s probably the closest you can get to an IFB, whilst also providing an extra body in attack against a parked bus. Our average positions (above) at half time resembled a 2-3-5 albeit #5 (Full Back) is a little bit wider, but this is good - I want him to play closer to the Winger on Attack, and create a 2vs1 against Verona’s wingback on that side. It’s a little bit like what Ben White does for Arsenal, supporting Saka with overlapping runs, but not exactly an out and out wingback either, and capable of tucking in to create a back three or midfield three depending on the situation. In the Champions League Play Off Round, we were drawn against Bayer Leverkusen, the team who FM’d us (undeserved 1-0 win) not too long ago in the League Phase. Revenge was on the cards, and in the end it was a humiliating 5-1 defeat for Xabi Alonso’s side. There was some bad news during this impressive win, however. Our No.1 keeper broke his hand during the game, and would be sidelined for 4-5 weeks. We just sold Musso, and I opted to sign an average keeper to play backup, since I expected Marco to play every game, and he gets injured. Typical isn’t it? Plizarri will now have to prove his doubters wrong, and show he’s more than just a backup. Returning to Serie A action, there was a big game to be played at the Gewiss, with more revenge on the cards. In the pre-match press conference, a reporter reminded me that we have failed to score against Alex Meret in our last three outings. Our record against Napoli, not just their shot stopper, has been woeful since the start of this save: September 2023: Napoli 1-0 Atalanta January 2024: Atalanta 1-1 Napoli August 2024: Napoli 1-0 Atalanta February 2025: Atalanta 0-1 Napoli September 2025: Napoli 1-0 Atalanta In a total of five games against them so far, we have failed to win any of them, and only scoring once, in a draw, having lost the other four games by the same 1-0 scoreline. We had our customary 1-0 away defeat earlier this season, so it was incredibly pleasing to be able to enact some revenge on Gli Azzurri - despite the referee doing his best to ruin the spectacle. My entire backline were booked in the first half, with five fouls resulting in four yellows, whilst the Napoli players escaped without a single booking. The scoreline reflected our excellent performance, even if the stats do not do us justice. We truly dominated them, creating some really good chances in the process, with three beautiful open play goals. Ederson was terrific, he bagged himself two assists along with 11 progressive passes. Most of our good attacking play went through him, and he is making the most of his opportunities after complaining about a lack of game time. I’ve no idea how they managed to amass an xG of 1.21, they never really threatened and 6 of their 10 attempts were from distance. A huge win, and hopefully a turning point in this rivalry, which will give us even more confidence and belief in this difficult title race. More good news for us was that Milan dropped points after a 3-3 draw away to the 10 men of Bologna. Robbie Keane’s men are proving a tricky side to play against. This allowed us to leapfrog them in the table. However, we remained in 2nd due to Inter having played two more games than us at this point. Next up we had to go to Germany and play the 2nd Leg against Leverkusen, which was tough. As expected they came out the blocks and gave everything. However, we were fairly comfortable, after going 1-0 down we responded well in the 2nd half, before two late goals sealed victory for them on the night, but it wasn’t enough for Xabi’s side. So for the first time in this save, we go through to the Last 16 of the Champions League! The draw, however, was not particularly kind to us: The defending champions, Liverpool, were another team which we came up against (and failed to beat) in the League Phase. Returning to league action, and Lazio away felt like a tough game on paper, particularly with little recovery time from the midweek UCL game. Even though we were able to rest 2/3 players, the boys were getting a little leggy. Several players starting to get fatigued and in need of rest, so I was fearful that Simone Inzaghi’s side could take advantage of that. In the end, it was another superb away performance. Yes, they had 13 shots and in the end amassed 1.14xG but we were very good value for the win. As much as I’d love to restrict all my opponents to less than 0.50xG a game, it’s simply not realistic. The good news is we are creating chances for fun, and CDK is becoming our very own Cole Palmer, tucking away every penalty with supreme confidence (I’ve probably jinxed him now). The Quarter Final of the Coppa Italia put us up against Napoli (in typical FM fashion, having just recently played them in the league). It was another comfortable victory over Brendan Rodgers, that’s now two wins from two against his Napoli side. Given how comfortable we were in the 3-0 league win, I opted to rotate my entire back line, with Ranieri, Renan and Djimsiti coming in, and Nagalo rotating with Holm at right back which has become a regular occurrence. Scamacca of course continued his fine goal scoring form. He is on course to have his most prolific season for the club, being just a few goals shy of his best record, and we’re still in February! Up next was the second most difficult fixture on the calendar after Milan away… Milan at home. A bizarre game, but the 1-1 result was difficult to argue against. They went 1-0 up early on, Rafa Leao bending a shot towards the far post from the edge of the box. Plizarri didn’t cover himself in glory, as we appeared to be sorely missing our first choice keeper. It didn’t take us too long to find the leveller, a nice passing sequence which saw João Rêgo put it on a plate for our in-form striker, Scamacca to beat Maignan in a 1v1. And then suddenly Milan were down to 10 men after just 26 minutes - Zaniolo, who we came so close to signing, completely losing his head. Unfortunately we couldn’t capitalise on the man advantage, and Milan’s change in shape after the red, going from a 4-2-4 to a 4-2-1-2 actually caused us more problems, particularly on the counter attack, with direct balls over the top to their pacey strikers. A draw was a fair result, we may have had more shots and accumulated a higher xG but we didn’t do enough against 10 men in my opinion. Unai Emery was certainly the happier man on the dugout at full time, an impressive away performance considering their circumstances. So we dropped points in our three-way fight for the title, with Inter Milan the real winners from this one. We have a way to go still, but this title race is starting to resemble the one we are currently seeing in the Premier League IRL with Arsenal, Liverpool and City - three top sides with very little between them. At the end of the month, our in form centre forward picked up the Player of the Month award after scoring 4 from 4. March 2026 As you can see, we kicked off March with a bang. Who would have seen this result coming? When we drew Liverpool I had zero expectation of getting through, so to beat them 4-1 is the stuff of dreams. And it was thoroughly deserved too as the stats and xG show. The best night in Atalanta’s Champions League history? It might well be. But just as the FM Gods gave La Dea a night to remember, they tooketh away. Juventus love a late goal against us it seems. Two injury time goals to draw 2-2 earlier in the season, and now two late goals to beat us at The Allianz. It was from a set piece as well which makes it even more infuriating. A direct free kick was pushed back into play by Plizarri, the ball then gets nodded back into the box into the path of Colombo who scored after initially being flagged offside. These are the margins. And it was a real gut punch. The loss to Juve ended our 20 game unbeaten run. As we prepared for the second leg at Anfield, the round of UCL matches on the Tuesday provided somewhat of a shock. In case you needed further proof of the mammoth task we face in Italy…Milan have knocked out Man City with a 5-4 aggregate win! They’re playing at such a high level right now and with the squad they have, they are capable of competing on both fronts. Back to our game on the European main stage, and we got the job done, in incredibly impressive fashion. A 0-0 at Anfield in a UCL knock out was an unbelievable achievement, given the quality in their side. How many times have we seen Liverpool, with the crowd behind them, annihilate teams? But not La Dea, she is made of sterner stuff it seems. We didn’t give them a sniff, and against all odds, progress to the Quarter Final of the Champions League! And the draw, it seemed, was somewhat favourable to us. The only downside being that if we do get the better of Leipzig, we will face the winner of AC Milan / PSG. Two teams who are very capable of beating us, one which we are all too familiar with. The Importance of Squad Rotation: I’ve started to implement a rule of rotating a maximum of 4 players per game. I actually had the idea of doing so after watching Arsenal play at home to Luton IRL. Arteta made four changes to the side, and the Gunners were able to maintain enough rhythm to get a comfortable result. 3-4 is a good number I feel, it enables you to rotate and rest some key players, without completely destroying your team’s cohesion. So with the rest of this month’s fixtures being quite favourable, it was a good opportunity to do just that. Facing lowly Genoa at home gave me the chance to rest a few players after the trip to the northwest of England. It’s always nice when a rotated side gets the job done emphatically like this. One of the players who won’t get much rest is Scamacca, he is just in too good form to take out the side. Instead of rotating him out, I look to take him off after 60-70 minutes when the game looks to be in our control. He scored from the spot against Genoa, after Fagioli missed from 12 yards earlier in the game, and continued his fine scoring form in the next game against Parma, with a brace away from home. We did eventually give him a break against Salernitana at home, and luckily we didn’t need to bring him off the bench as who else, but João Rêgo, scored two. I am starting to get a little worried about the form of Scamacca’s backup, Esposito. He has now failed to score since the 6th December, where he netted a brace against Monza. In fairness, it’s been 13 appearances, of which only one has been a start (Salerintana). Weirdly, Esposito performed far better in the Target Man/Deep Lying Forward role on Support, than he is in the AF role, which is a polar opposite of Scamacca. I’m not too keen on changing the role for when Esposito plays, just to get more out of him, because it could have an adverse effect on the team as a whole, which is performing really well. Taking a look at the League Standings at the end of March, with everyone finally on equal games played, it’s incredibly tight at the top. Just eight games to go at this point, and it really is shaping up to be a title race for the ages! Time would tell if we could maintain the push… A brief look at the player stats at the end of the month, and you can see how Scamacca really is a born again striker, thriving in the Advanced Forward role. Our next top scorer by comparison, is CDK, who has 12 goals to his name. Our Portuguese wonderkid, João Rêgo, leads the assists chart. Squad Evolution: Working with what we have I spoke about rotation, one player who is starting to see more game time, is Robert Renan. Initially signed to play as a backup Libero to Scalvini, due to the young Italian’s importance to the side, he was yet to start a game all season. Now with the slight tweak to our roles, the Libero is now a BPD, and the IWB tucks in to form our 3-2 base. Due to his technical quality, and useful player traits such as ‘Switches Ball to Other Flank’, I had the idea of retraining him as a left back, to play in the IWB role. This meant moving Luca Ranieri into the backup BPD role, which he is more than comfortable with. April 2026 As we were hitting form just in time for the final 8 games in a three-way title race, our opponents unfortunately had other plans in April. We began the penultimate month of the season with Robbie Keane’s Bologna visiting Bergamo. I was asked in the pre-match presser what I thought about Keane’s perceived overachievement with Bologna, who were 5th, and punching well above their weight. I was complementary, especially as they gave us a good game in the 0-0 earlier in the season. And I was right to praise them, they’re a really good side. Their use of a double Volante in midfield and two standard full backs with inside forwards ahead, proves to be a tricky system to deal with. It didn’t help that our first choice left back, Ruggeri, was suspended for this one, and the goal came from that left hand side which he probably would have dealt with. It’s difficult to say it, but we do not look like potential champions right now. Suddenly Bologna have become our bogey team, after another disappointing draw and lacklustre performance, we’ve taken just 2pts out of a possible 6 against them. Even more frustrating given that Milan won 2-0 away at Inter in the Derby della Madonnina. Keen to get back to winning ways, our trip to Leipzig looked even more daunting as both my left backs Ruggeri, and Renan in his new role, have picked up injuries right before the game, making our list of first team absentees five-strong. The left back position proved to be a problem area. Moving Luca Ranieri back out to left back in the IWB role, was an option, but one which he isn’t really suited to. So Nagalo went over to the left, and didn’t have the best of games, giving away a penalty to make matters worse. Defeat in Leipzig, but taking their penalty away, they managed just 0.73xg which is virtually the same as our 0.70xg. Things got a lot worse from here though. A shock defeat to Cremonese, and our hopes of lifting the title begin to look rather slim at this point. Just when I thought we were back, our up and down, inconsistent season, reared its ugly head once again. I can’t say it was bad luck, they put us under a good amount of pressure. It’s weird how our toughest games have come against Bologna and Cremonese, of all teams. Finally, after three games, I had the satisfaction of winning a game again. We overturned our 2-1 deficit in Germany, with a dominant display against Leipzig. Maybe I should put all my eggs in the shiny Champions League basket at this point? …or not? A daunting task lay ahead of us as we drew Le PSG in the Semi Final. Regardless of what happens, this proud club from Bergamo has made history at least - we are Champions League Semi Finalists for the first time in their history, besting the 2019/2020 side who reached the 1/4 Final in the COVID-19 bubble. A routine 3-1 victory followed in the league as we pray for a miracle in our attempts to retain the Scudetto. The up and down Dea then suffered fefeat in the Coppa Italia on penalties to Napoli. We weren’t at full strength it must be said, as we had our eyes focused on the Serie A and UCL instead. We could take some joy from Milan’s 6-0 thrashing to Lazio though! Perhaps that could damage their morale a little? Here’s hoping. As we prepared for the final league game of the month, the old title race email popped into the mail box. The fixtures actually look pretty even for all, everyone facing three teams in the bottom half - but it’s the penultimate game of the season which could have huge ramifications: Inter vs Atalanta. Advantage AC Milan, you’d think. Monza at home was a fairly routine 4-2 win, although I was disappointed with the two late goals we conceded. I did change shape to a back five towards the end of the game (at 4-0) in order to shuffle the pack and rest some attacking players due to the upcoming visit of PSG… *Champions League anthem plays* THIS IS ATALANTA!!! Another historic UEFA Champions League victory for La Dea. Sure, it was the first leg, and who knows what kind of barrage we’ll face in Paris, but plucky Atalanta, with their modest budget, achieved a memorable win over the state-backed Parisians. And Kylian Mbappe still plays for them, but you wouldn’t know given how quiet he was! So that wraps up April, and as we head into May, we’ve got 4 games to go in the league, and we do need a miracle if we are to retain the title. Milan look odds on to win it from here, 3pts clear of their arch rivals Inter, and we sit a further 2pts back. Perhaps I really should put all our eggs in that UCL basket and dare to dream? ——— Thanks for reading as always. Work is manic at the moment but I’ll hopefully get some time to finish the season by the end of the week. Until next time! #GoAtalantaGo!

Impressive season mate, it’s not easy competing on all fronts especially when the Saudi sharks are always out to get your best players! The finances are looking extremely healthy, hopefully gives you plenty wriggle room to strengthen the side and hold onto your top talent. Certainly a lot easier to do as you become an established UCL side.

This is a brilliant thread, I love your graphics and presentation. Your tactical ideas and principles around using the Libero, Regista, Mezzala, Treq really are interesting, and quintessentially Italian On your new tactical idea, have you thought about perhaps ditching the Libero for a BPD, and maybe using a WCB on Support or Attack on one side to add a bit more variation, and create some more overloads on the flank? I’ve used that to good effect in previous FM’s as I was inspired by Gasperini and his attacking centre backs. However I completely understand if the use of certain roles like the Libero are set in stone from what you laid out at the beginning, and it can certainly still work. The Diamond in midfield that you’re proposing is exciting and should bring more balance to the midfield especially as the Treq is a bit of a lazy role. I’d imagine the defensive shape would remain as a 5-3-2. Keep up the good work!