Fantasista10

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!

Thanks mate. I think the fans are an incredibly realistic representation of real life, us football fans can be so fickle at times You’re right, I definitely over complicated things before and the simpler approach is far easier to manage if you want to adjust in game. Although I have simplified the tactic, I’m now using a whole bunch of OI’s again - which is a deliberate ploy to funnel play (without using the Trap Outside/Inside). Working well so far though. Thanks! Palermo were (and still are) 18th when we played, and we only beat them 2-0 away from home so they’re certainly not the worst side in the division. Perhaps it was a freak result, and they’ve got some good players so I hope it doesn’t put too many doubts in your mind. I had a really fun save with Palermo in FM22 I believe. It’s a massive club which deserves Serie A football. Also fair play to you for going attribute-less, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do but I’m far too obsessed with having the right ‘DNA’ which is tricky to do without attributes. Good luck with your save!

January 2026 The New Year began with a tightly contested draw at Torino. Ruud van Nistelrooy has them playing extremely well, and we struggled to get our game going on the road in this one. We then had a break from Serie A action, with Super Cup commencing. The draw put us up against Inter in the Semi Final, offering Simeone a chance for revenge, and he got it. A match in which we dominated but failed to break down their stubborn back five, ended with a penalty shootout and the Nerrazzuri coming out on top. The board wanted us the reach the final, so no doubt they’ll be disappointed, even if it was against Inter. Annoyingly, we don’t get a break, we have to play what is in my eyes, a pointless 3rd Place Playoff, against AC Milan. Another game which we dominated yet still come out on the losing side. A late, incredibly contentious penalty won it for Milan. Looking at the Non Penalty xG, we smashed them 2.52 - 0.91 and still lost. Perhaps there is a pattern emerging and something to be investigated here. Are we really wasteful, or just unlucky? I’m not too bothered about this result, it would have been nice to win, but considering we rested 3-4 key players (including our starting centre backs), we performed well. We were to get revenge on Inter soon after, as we defeated them 2-1 in the Coppa Italia Third Round, somewhat fortunately if you look at the xG. Although, Bastoni scored virtually an open goal from a rebound off a set-piece which has inflated that a little, and given they didn’t create anything clear cut, I wasn’t worried. Three days later we had to return to Serie A action, with a tired squad after 120 mins of football against Inter and another 90 just three days later vs Milan, before facing Inter again in the Cup. The boys would have to recover quickly for our away trip to Udinese. Scalvini and Okoli came back into the side after their much needed rest in the Super Cup, and managed to lockdown Udinese‘s attack. Another professional and brilliantly executed away performance brings us some much needed 3 points, and 3 goals too. João Rêgo found the net once again, and it must be said that he is so far having a very impressive debut season. CDK was unfortunate not to be credited with the 3rd goal, as his header hit the post and then the helpless goalkeeper, Silvestri, to put the icing on the cake for La Dea. This result sees our unbeaten run stretch to 15 games in the league now. More importantly, with Milan losing away to Lazio, it puts us top of the table for the first time this season! Even if it’s temporary (with both Milan clubs having played fewer games), a little moment to celebrate after such a difficult start to the season. Champions League Time for our penultimate UCL League Phase match. We’re up against my beloved Arsenal in what will no doubt be a tightly contested match. It proved to be the case, even if we were the better side. The Gunners took the lead against the run of play, with a fine assist from Martin Ødegaard, but Laurienté pegged Arsenal back immediately. The point was enough to secure a playoff spot for us, so we have at least equalled what we did last year. Due to no Serie A action for us (as we’d played a game more), we faced the weird situation where we had back to back UCL games. It doesn’t get much tougher than this, Real Madrid away. Luckily this game was a bit of a free hit, since Real had already qualified and we would be unable to better our playoff position. We gave it a good go, but in the end the quality of Bellingham and Vini Jr made the difference. Transfers Before I move onto the final game of the month, let’s talk about all the transfers that happened and didn’t happen. The name Niccolo Zaniolo should be one that most recognise. A very talented attacker, capable of playing a number of roles, has still been plying his trade in Turkey, even after a successful loan spell at Aston Villa. A player who’s been on my radar for some time, particularly as I would like a left footed right winger, the 26yr old has a £30m release clause which expires this summer, and was triggered by a host of clubs at the beginning of January. I had no intention of signing anyone this January, as the squad is in decent enough shape and I’m keen to maximise Team Cohesion (and signing players, perhaps even one, can affect this). However, once rival clubs, particularly Milan, made a move, I decided to join in the fight. £30m would eat up the remainder of our transfer budget, but he would be a huge player for us, so it was a no brainer really. However, to rebalance the squad, I would need to depart with Alessio Zerbin, also 26yrs old, who has always been a fringe player anyway. Plus he is another right footed winger, of which we already have three in the squad. We had to hire an intermediary to generate interest, and Real Sociedad came in with an offer of £15m plus add-ons, which I accepted. The deal will rise to £18.75m, a very good fee considering we only paid £700k for him back in the Summer of ‘23. And then of course, this happened: What the above doesn’t say, is that we offered him a 45k p/w less than Milan did. I’m sure that was the real reason why he chose them. I’ve committed to selling Zerbin now, as I really want a left footed winger to bring some variety to our attack. Having four right footers felt too predictable. Luckily for us, an opportunity came up to sign an even better prospect, even if it will end up costing us a bit more than the £30m we’d have parted for Zaniolo. Turkish starlet, Arda Güler found himself somewhat out of favour at Real Madrid. The 20yr old was still on the fringes of their first team, and we’d offer him the chance to become a Regular Starter. It’s a deal which will eventually rise to £43m, but I see no downside to this one. Another deal which we have secured, although for the upcoming summer, is the free transfer of the Italian international, Jorginho. He will join us from Arsenal on the expiry of his deal there, and will be a much welcomed replacement for our Captain, De Roon. For the second time in this save, he came to me complaining about feeling home sick. Last time this happened, I let him return home for a brief period. This time, with him being 34 and having a year left after this year, I decided to let him go, but at the end of the season - which he accepted. It’s almost like for like, a 34yr old DM with the same Resolute character and great Leadership, albeit Jorginho is superior technically but a little less physical. Jorgi will play as a backup to Clem, but will bring some much needed experience which would be otherwise sorely missed with De Roon’s impending departure. I’m looking forward to his arrival. A dependable player, and one of the best Regista’s of his generation. As an Arsenal and Napoli supporter, he is a player I know very well, and appreciate very much. Deadline Day Thinking that my transfer business was done and dusted, we received an offer out of the blue, on Deadline Day, for the last season’s Best Goalkeeper, Juan Musso. The meteoric rise of Carnesecchi has meant that Juan has had to accept being second fiddle, even after signing the bumper contract in the summer. Because of this, when the unexpected offer came in, I thought it was too good to refuse. We haggled a little, and got Salzburg to pay another £3m. So Juan leaves us after being a great servant, for an initial fee of £22.5m Given that Carnesecchi is 25yrs old, an Atalanta youth product, and now established himself as our No.1, I felt this was a good opportunity to create a clear goalkeeper hierarchy and sign a useful No.2, and that player was Alessandro Plizzari. Former Milan youth player, Plizzari joins us for just £1.1m from Serie B side, Pescara. He is experienced, but not old either, and has been performing really well in the second tier of Italian football. None of the fans are particular excited about this one, with most feeling that he isn’t good enough for play for the club. However, with a number of decent young prospects at the club, Plizzari will simply be a stop-gap No.2 until they are ready to step into the first team. Here is the summary of our January activity. Two players came in for a total of £36m, whilst we parted with three for £48m. A healthy profit as we aim to maintain the strong financial position and whilst bringing more balance to the first team squad. Milan showed no sign of slowing down as they spent a whopping £94m this month on nine players. As well as signing Zaniolo for £30m, they also splashed out £59m on Raspadori from Napoli. Their already well stacked front line just got even stronger - it’s going to be a daunting task for the other 19 teams in the league to stop them. ——— We returned to Serie A action on the 31st January, and it gave me the opportunity to rest a few players after the difficult run of games which have been tough on the legs. Palermo were sitting in 18th place, winless in their last 12 games, and therefore I was confident that making four changes wouldn’t disrupt the side too much. But even the most confident Dea fans would not have seen this one coming… No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, that really does say 10-1 TEN goals in a competitive league game. I’m struggling to think of the last time I’ve scored 10 in a league game on FM. Some tremendous individual performances worth mentioning: Two goals and two assists for the reborn Gianluca Scamacca. A hat trick and one assist for both Armand Laurienté and Simone Pafundi (even if one was from the spot). And as the crowd were chanting “We want ten!”, the new signing Arda Güler curled a beauty past the helpless Palermo keeper to put the cherry, on the icing, on the cake. Yes, Palermo were shocking defensively, but you can only beat what’s in front of you, and we destroyed them. Normally a result like this could be due to a red card, or multiple, but no - this was 11v11, although it certainly resembled the old phrase ‘men against boys’. Me being the perfectionist that I am, I was really disappointed with no clean sheet If you can score ten goals against a team, you can keep a clean sheet too. But let’s not be too harsh, this was one for the history books. So a month jam packed full of games, in which only three were in the league, ended in spectacular fashion. At the end of January, with the Milan clubs now having played equal games, we find ourselves in 2nd place, just one point behind the leaders - although only ahead of Inter due to our head-to-head record. With just over half the games played, there is a prospect of a tantalising three horse title race. The goal fest against Palermo now means we have the 3rd best attack, and joint best defence. It was a good month all round, with Scamacca picking up the player of the month award. Whilst Pafundi grabbed another young player of the month award. Five of our players made the team of the month too. Nice to see João Rêgo getting recognition for his fine form on the wing, and our entire front three making the cut. Perhaps the 10-1 victory over Palermo has inflated their stats, but a sure sign that we are firing on all cylinders once more. ——— I’ll leave it there for now and hopefully the next post will take us up to the end of April 2026, before we buckle up for what will hopefully be an exciting run-in (if we’re still up there, of course). Thanks for taking the time to read as always. #GoAtalantaGo

Season 3: Crisis? What Crisis? November 2025 On the 1st November, the monthly performance reviews entered my inbox, and for the first time in this save, it made for some pretty grim reading. The Board are being reasonable, remembering the title triumph only a few months ago - and I’d be worried about them if they didn’t! The Fans on the other hand, are less patient. My fears have become a reality then. We are truly under pressure to turn this around now. It does feel a little harsh, since we aren’t playing that badly and still boast the best defensive record in the league, and let’s not forget we won the club’s first ever Scudetto last May! But, football fans are fickle and can have little patience, meaning a win in our next game is crucial. So we kick off the month with a home game against Parma. We’ve had some favourable games on paper turn into disappointing draws of late, so I wasn’t in the mood to make any predictions. However, to say this game came at the right time would be a massive understatement. For the first time in what feels like forever, we finally clicked from an attacking sense. Aside from the fourth goal which Okoli headed home, we scored three great goals from open play. Yes, I am also counting the own goal because it came from some great play by João Rêgo on the left hand side whose low cross was turned into his own net by Valenti. The xG amassed in this game is our highest tally this season, and only the second time we have created over 2xG in a game (2.02 vs Salernitana in match day two). I know it was at home to Parma, but perhaps we have turned a corner here. It’s our first home win in the League since the opening day of the season, after a series of draws against Fiorentina, Verona, Lazio and Juventus. That result propels us up the table, to the dizzy heights of 3rd! You would have thought we were in a real crisis from the Board and Fan reviews! Despite the tactical tweak paying dividends, especially in the last game, I’ve been tinkering with the Tempo setting, as I’m not convinced the Higher Tempo is doing us any favours. We are often guilty of missed place passes, in considerably dangerous areas, which is where pretty much all the chances we concede come from - our own mistakes. Lowering the Tempo seems to reduce that. There is a small sample size thus far, but I’m willing to try this from the start of games and see how we do, rather than adding it during. Champions League Our next game however, has the potential to bring us crashing back down to earth, regardless of how we set up. It’s another Home tie, but this time we welcome some real quality to the Gewiss Stadium as we return to UCL action against Premier League giants, Liverpool. We were under the cosh for large periods of this one, but a 1-1 draw at home to a world class side like Liverpool, is not a bad result. The dramatic late equaliser from Cortinovis, who is no more than a bit part player, sent the Gewiss stadium into pandemonium and it almost felt like a victory. Credit to Cortinovis, he’s been retrained as a False 9 to give us a different option, and find another way to use him off the bench, and he came on to dramatic effect in this one. Still, it leaves us sitting in the Play Off places as it stands, with plenty room for improvement in Europe so far. Back to the Serie A action, our next game was a trip to Bologna. Robbie Keane’s side (yes, Robbie Keane is somehow a manager in Italy) have been lighting the league up, playing an exciting brand of football. Despite their 7th place league position and my praise for some of their results so far, I was still surprised by how well they played and they were good value for their point in what was for us, a disappointing 0-0. This was hands down the trickiest game we’ve had all season, they were stubborn in defence, and with their creative wingers, always very dangerous in attack. The Match Momentum shows that we did dominate (without penetrating too much) until midway through the second half, when Bologna threw everything at us. We held firm, and a 0-0 was a fair result when looking at the match overall. The stats show that they failed to create anything clear cut, despite winning on xG. Four of their shots were from long range too, and a number of attempts on goal were from set pieces. Perhaps the use of Get Stuck In (seen by our 14 fouls) resulted in too many set piece chances for them - something for me to consider removing. You may be pleased to learn that the ‘Tactical Tinkerer’ has returned once again. Frustrated by our lack of attacking threat this season, I decided that for the games against Bologna and Cremonese, to revert back to the system which performed so well for me not just in my previous save with Malaga, but which also served as the base tactic for the start of this journey with Atalanta: So we’ve gone back to basics, almost. Perhaps I was overcomplicating things before, and our Tiki Taka approach was certainly to blame for our stale attack. I’ve stripped things back, with fewer instructions, upping the passing directness to ‘Shorter’, and leaving tempo and width on default for Positive mentality - which is naturally higher and wider. We also add ‘Be More Expressive’ with the hopes of giving players increased creative freedom to unpick a defence. Granted, it did not produce any goals against Bologna, but I did see some more opportunities created in attack, shown by the two clear cut chances. The tweak is also the biggest change we have made for some time in regards to Team Instructions and Roles/Duties, so it may take a while for Tactical Familiarity to increase, where we may see the benefits. The two major role changes are: Moving away from a Libero, instead using a BPD and an IWB to tuck into midfield to maintain the 3-2 Rest Defence Reverting back to the Advanced Forward role. The Support duty striker experiment has failed miserably. Unfortunately I think this is a flaw in the current Match Engine, which fails to get Support duty strikers involved enough whilst also being a threat. We had a favourable home tie next where we could put the new tweaked system to work for a second time. Cremonese were the visitors, and we got back to winning ways, amassing our highest xG total of the season so far. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the tactical tweak is Scamacca, who playing as an AF, managed to find his shooting boots again and finally break that goal drought. A non-penalty xG of 3.25 compared to just 0.25 for them is superb, and for the first time this season I have seen the team ‘click’ in an attacking sense, and perhaps reward for our tactical tweak. Champions League But our stuttering season continued as we failed to win what should have been a reasonably comfortable away trip to Copenhagen. Young striker Esposito nicked a point for us late on. Who knows how valuable this could be for our hopes of qualifying to for the Knock Out stages. We rounded out the month with a convincing away victory against Sassuolo. Off the pitch, our young winger João Rêgo has won the Portuguese U21 Player Of the Year award - further proof that we might have a gem on our hands. In other news around Italy: Mourinho gonna Mourinho. I’m surprised it’s taken this long, but November 2025 saw the end of his spell in Rome with the club languishing in 15th place. December 2025 We’re not yet at the January window, but we have already agreed a future transfer, and it’s the departure of the hard working central midfielder, Adopo. He has fallen behind in the pecking order, especially since the arrival of Fagioli, and after requesting a loan move to get some game time, I decided that letting him go permanently would be the best outcome for both parties. The fee isn’t spectacular, and we might miss his Resolute characteristics and work rate, but ultimately our squad is currently 25 strong, and I would like a smaller squad to work with. Two players in each position is the maximum required, and with a 3rd choice keeper, that means 23 is the limit. Having a smaller squad will not only help to keep players happy as we aim to field a consistent XI, it should also allow for more opportunities to younger players, particularly if we are to be hit with a spate of injuries. Anyway, to the League action we go, and we started the month brilliantly with two impressive away victories against Fiorentina and Monza. Champions League A trip to Monaco had the prospect of a tricky game, a potential banana skin, if you will. With our UCL campaign flattering to deceive so far (1 win, 3 draws, 1 defeat), this felt like a crucial game, especially since we have to take on giants Arsenal and Real Madrid in our final two games. João Rêgo, the Portuguese ‘Wonderkid’, our saviour in Europe. A massive goal off the bench with time running out, was no less than we deserved, even though Monaco’s own ‘Wonderkid’, Ben Seghir put on a playmaking clinic with 1.05 expected assists! Shame he’s valued at £146-186m, would love him in Bergamo. We returned to Serie A action next, and if you wanted more proof of our inconsistency this season, here it is. Determined to keep the winning run going, we welcomed lowly Empoli to the Gewiss, but once again dropped points at home in what should have been a routine win. Ignore their xG total, taking the penalty away (which fortunately for us, they missed) they had just three attempts worth a grand total of 0.24 xG. A game we should have won at a canter, but ultimately dropping points at home once again. The following game was away to struggling Roma, who are under new management, and was a good opportunity to put the previous result behind us - and luckily we did. It wasn’t the most convincing defensive performance, especially in the second half, in which they had a 10-15 minute spell of dominance, but we were good value for the 3 points. I would like to highlight our opening goal, however. It’s a brilliant example of how we use positional play to manipulate and manoeuvre the opposition to create chances: In this first image, Scalvini (#42), playing as a BPD, passes the ball inside to our DLP, Clem. Notice how with the use of the IWB role (even on Support), we have seamlessly created a front 6 as our #3, Ruggeri, has joined the attack in the left half space. This has completely disrupted Roma’s 4-2-3-1 defensive shape, with one of the wingers tucking into the defensive line, gaps have now appeared in the midfield. Clem receives and turns, playing a forward pass to Ederson (#13), who is positioned between the lines. He plays a first time pass into our AF, Scamacca. Scamacca, who is thriving in his new role, holds the ball up and waits for the run of CDK in behind, plays him in and he slots home in his typically cool fashion. This has become our most lethal combination since the tactical tweak - Scamacca to CDK or vice versa. The two central attack duties linking up perfectly, and regularly too. I am surprised by how the Advanced Forward is leading the line so selflessly. It makes no sense to me how this role is creating more chances, key passes and ultimately, assists, compared to the DLF or TM on Support. You’d think it would be the other way around? Anyway, we are most definitely seeing the benefit of having the 6 foot 5 Scamacca and 6 foot 4 CDK playing on Attack duties. Two big guys crashing the box is a nightmare for defences. The creation of a front 6 is not something that happens constantly, and if I’m honest this was not deliberate, but this certainly appears to be an advantage of using the IFB-IWB combination over the double IFB and Libero that we have used before. A major gripe with the Libero role for me is that he would often pick the ball up on the edge of the box and go for goal - with 99% of those flying over the bar. It felt like such a waste. I want someone to step into midfield and create, or keep things moving, not constantly going for speculative long shots. The IWB role probably sees the ball a little bit less than the Libero, certainly in central positions, performs that second pivot role much better in my opinion. Depending how we go, I can dive into the intricacies of this tactical setup at a later date, but so far it’s all quite similar to what I’ve previously written. To the final game in December now, and its a mouth watering Lombardo derby against Inter. It’s 2nd vs 3rd in the league, and our first encounter with legendary defence-first coach, Diego Simeone. A fantastic result for La Dea, and just like he did in Monaco, João Rêgo popped up with the late winner. He’s starting to make a habit of this! Given that they are a ‘Wing Play’ side as described in the game, forcing them wide would only be playing to their strengths. So I made a tweak on the half hour mark to remove the instruction ‘Trap Outside’, As the xG Match Story shows, this worked wonders. They failed to generate any sort of opportunity, until the 85th minute. And wow, what a freak of a goal we conceded here. Inter have a thrown in on the right, the ball gets played centrally to Calhanoglu. But take a look at what’s going on in our penalty area. The two Inter strikers, Thuram and Lautaro, are outnumbering Scalvini, who is several yards behind the defensive line. But it gets worse. From this still, it looks as though the ball gets played into Luis Alberto #7 (which was the intention), but he is tackled by Clem (no. 6), and the ball rolls through to Lautaro, in an offside position, to tap home from close range. There is a VAR check, but the goal stands. Since Luis Alberto does not touch the ball, the line’s must be drawn from when the original pass was played, by Calhanoglu, at which point Scalvini is for reasons unknown to me, playing Lautaro onside. It almost feels like bug. Nobody would defend like this IRL, certainly not a defender of Scalvini’s intelligence and ability. I have previously raised a bug about defending from Throw Ins, maybe it’s been improved, but there are still bizarre situations like this from time to time. Thankfully, we won on this occasion, and were good value for it. So we finish the month unbeaten, a run that now stretches to 13 games in the league. The only gripe is that we failed to keep a clean sheet in any of our games this month. Still, the number of goals conceded is low, and we are certainly playing better football and becoming more of a free flowing attacking side. The above set of results leaves us sitting in 2nd in the table, just 2pts behind the league leaders Milan, and importantly, 3pts above Inter after that crucial victory. Unfortunately, both the Milanese clubs have played a game fewer, and therefore we could slip to 5pts behind before long. Player Stats Since we are at the end of the calendar year, I think it’s a good time to see how the players are performing so far. Perhaps unsurprisingly, last year’s top scorer and the league’s reining MVP, Charles De Ketelaere, is our top scorer at this stage. Not bad considering he had a little injury at the start of the season, and has played a handful of games on a Support duty. Like Scamacca, reverting his duty back to an Attacking one, has seen his goal output improve. Scamacca, as I mentioned above, has been thriving as an AF, with 4 goals and 4 assists in 10 games in the new role. He can certainly improve still, as he is currently underperforming his xG of 5.27, but the role change is certainly a move in the right direction, having previously gone over eight hours of football without finding the net. A stark contrast to his first four games of the season, in which he failed to score or assist, and we only generated 0.11xG for him across four games. Yikes. I think this proves that our now ditched Tiki Taka system, with a Support duty forward, was not geared toward creating chances for him. ——— Off the pitch we have some good news on the facilities, our training ground has been refurbished and is now regarded as ‘Superb’. There has also been somewhat of a managerial merry-go-round across the league. Zidane is back at Juve, this time in the dugout, replacing Nuno Espírito Santo, who lasted just 4 months in the job. Napoli have hired Brendan Rodgers after sacking Valverde. And after Sergio Conceicao left Lazio to join Man Utd (Vincenzo Italiano didn’t last long in England), they have brought back their former manager, and the recently unemployed ex-Inter boss, Simone Inzaghi. Safe to say the quality of coaches has gone up a level once more, which should make the league all the more exciting, and challenging. Some more End of Year awards, and this time our midfield metronome, William Clem, has picked up the Danish Male Talent of the Year award. No less than he deserves, and we also awarded him with a new contract to reflect his importance to the team. ——— I've hit the upload limit so January 2026 will follow in the next post...

What a season, mate Obviously a shame about the slump towards the end but to finish 2nd is unreal. Perhaps with consistent UCL football (looks like you’re on the track for another good season) you can build a squad capable of challenging Real Madrid. Interesting tactical idea which makes sense considering Swedberg is the key player. You’ve got a gem on your hands with Joao Rego - he’s been electric for me in my save, an exciting young prospect if you can give him enough game time. And yeah those UCL fixtures aren’t very nice Keep it up!

That‘s a boost, should deter a few clubs at least. And personally I would stick with what’s working. I don’t think the game does a great job of defining a player’s best position/role/duty. If he has good enough attributes for a certain role, your system accommodates him, and he performs well, stick with it. I fear you’ve hit the inevitable FM blip. As you said, it’s likely because teams are paying you more respect, and in fairness you have a squad that is on paper, a mid table contender - might be fair to say that a mid table side could struggle against low blocks? It’s hard to say what exactly the reason for the dip in form is, but you’re still top for the moment and my advice would be not to tweak too much and potentially derail the season - stick with what has worked and your fortunes may turn. Good luck for the run-in!

The good times keep rolling! Superb work so far. Nice transfer business, especially Bisseck who is an absolute steal at that price. Very good business for a young defender with huge potential. Curious to know how Gragera, a DM, scored a hat trick?! He looks good in the air, so I imagine set pieces? Unbelievably impressive debut Do you expect the sharks to come circling for Swedberg sooner rather than later? Exceptional talent, having a great season by the looks of it.

Season 3: Is The Pressure Getting To Us? August 2025 First game of the season, home to Udinese, was fairly routine. As is becoming the norm, absolutely dominating possession and limiting the opponent to just one shot worth 0.18xG. Our attacking play left a lot to be desired though, but this is some part down to the disciplined deep block 5-3-2 that we faced. We followed up the opening day victory with a dramatic late win away at Salernitana. Two goals in injury time, with the deadlock broken by new signing Pafundi, before his fellow new signing Esposito sealed the victory. We had to be patient but we were on top for the entire game, and got our reward late on. In doing so, we were about to set a new winning run for the team. So far we have won nine games on the bounce, one more and we create a new club record. We did break the club’s defensive record, going on a run of seven games without conceding a goal! Naturally both of those records had to come to an end once they popped into my inbox. And in the most infuriating fashion. I couldn’t understand how open this game was. Where did our usual control and dominance go? At home to Fiorentina, I expected a lot better. It’s not like we were up against fellow title contenders. The Momentum shows we controlled most of the flow, but they definitely had their moments. I am really disappointed about the defensive performance in this game. Allowing Fiorentina to have an xG of 1.04 isn’t good enough, particularly in a tactic that is supposed to give nothing away, at the expense of some attacking flair. When we concede, it becomes a challenging task for us because the system isn’t really designed to win games 5-4, but more 1-0/2-0 at the moment. Alas, bad days can happen. It was all about how we reacted after the international break. September 2025 Upon return from the break, the next league game was a trip to recently promoted Palermo. It was back to business as usual. A very comfortable and dominant victory, as it should be against a newly promoted side. Champions League Mid September signalled the beginning of our Champions League campaign, and weirdly, we were drawn against fellow Italians, Juventus in the League Phase. Perhaps that’s a new rule within the revamped format, but I was always under the impression that you cannot face a team from the same nation until the 1/4 Finals? Anyway, we got a good draw away from home in what was otherwise a poor performance. We allowed them too many opportunities on the counter attack, and they exploted our high line on more than one occasion but I was not prepared to change our style. This is who we are now, we will live or die by the sword. The stats will show that it wasn’t as bad as it seems, they failed to create a single Clear Cut Chance, whereas we did. A common theme of this new ‘Dominate’ tactic is that we don’t tend to take many shots, rather looking to work the ball patiently and wait for good opportunities. Perhaps it’s not that dominant in an attacking sense? Time will tell, it’s too early to make sudden tactical changes. The Momentum graphic was all white for some reason, which makes it difficult to tell who’s who on first glance, but Atalanta are at the bottom, underneath the line. Using the summary on the left of the graph, it does tell us we maintained a stronger momentum, so not all bad. Verona at home should be another routine victory, on paper. But as we are becoming increasingly aware of, football matches aren’t won on paper - you have to earn it. And our attacking play has certainly not been good enough, or deserving of victories. Once again, just like the Fiorentina game, I’m concerned about how easily Verona generated goalscoring opportunities. Just the five shots, but a total of 0.90xG is too high considering we don’t create an awful lot ourselves. The xG difference (the difference between our xG and the opposition’s) is suffering this season. In this game it’s just a 0.09 swing in our favour, for Fiorentina it was a tad higher at 0.47 but we are seeing a consistent drop off from last season. They were under pressure for almost the entire match, but we could not make it count. A trip to Napoli away is probably the last thing we need after such a disappointing performance. It was always going to be a tough game, they always are, but we played like a team who are well and truly in a rut. It was a low key affair, 6 shots to 4, but again the xG tells us all we need to know. In this game, it’s a 0.51 swing in the opponents favour. Not acceptable for defending champions. So far our title defence is actually reminded me of Napoli’s current season IRL - really disappointing. Champions League Thankfully our next game was a bit kinder on paper, Celtic visit Bergamo in the UCL, and we are desperate to get back to winning ways and scoring a few goals. We won, but I really thought we would thump Celtic. It was a big chance for us to prove our doubters wrong, that we can score goals. Sure, the game was always in our control but now I am having serious doubts about the lack of potency in this tactic. It dictates games really well, better than anything else we have used to this point, and is more often than not extremely solid. Defence wins you titles after all, as last season demonstrated, but the lack of goals will, and has already hurt us this season. How long before I make a change, I’m not sure. I’ll see what the next couple league games give us, assess our attacking play and go from there. We end the month with a victory at least, and our first win of the UCL campaign, putting an end to the three match winless streak. ———— Some bad news on the injury front, our second choice Libero, Robert Renan, will be sidelined for a significant period of time, meaning Scalvini’s minutes will need to be managed extra carefully otherwise we risk losing both. October 2025 Lazio is never a straightforward game, now managed by the disciplined taskmaster Sergio Conceciao, their 5-2-3 is often a tough nut to crack. It proved to be the case for us… We were good value for the win, and the xG shows that we were unlucky not to score here. Again though, just 7 shots at home, and the away side managed just two less than us, with our keeper being named Player of the Match. Strange because they hardly threatened, but maybe a sign of how mediocre our attacking play was that no outfield player was worthy enough. Scoring goals is certainly a team effort, everyone needs to chip in, not just with scoring but creating chances too. However, one player in particular faces a similar situation to which he faced last season: That new bumper contract looks to be a bigger mistake by the day. In fairness, he doesn’t have a great deal to work with. I’d have a word with him about it if he was squandering lots of chances, but it’s more concerning that we aren’t creating enough for him. Up next is the Lombardo Derby against our rivals, Milan. They often get the better of us, and a trip to San Siro really couldn’t have arrived at a worse time. Milan are absolutely flying, and scoring goals for fun. Hardly surprising given their 4-2-4 fits Pulisic, Leao, Zirkzee and Chukwueze into the front line. The pace in that attack is frightening, and given Serie A doesn’t boast the riches of the Premier League, that truly is a star studded lineup for this division. The Super League would be proud. La Dea, in stark contrast, just can’t buy a goal right now. Defensively we still boast the best record in the league despite my complaints, but we haven’t faced an attack as talented as this so far. Football is a funny old game, isn’t it? Against all the odds, we turned up when it really really mattered. It genuinely doesn’t come any bigger than this in Serie A. Restricting them to just 4 attempts, with the xG inflated by an Okoli mistake on the halfway line allowing Leao to burst through one-on-one, but Carnesecchi stood firm to keep the score 1-0 to La Dea. We were good value for our lead at half time, and Milan unsurprisingly came out the blocks with a point to prove in the second period, but we never looked like we were in any real danger. As away performances go against top opposition, this was top draw and has to be the benchmark now. The secret? We made a little tactical tweak: I’ve always liked the theory behind using tonnes of support duties and having a ‘Very Fluid’ team structure, but it’s not always worked, especially from an attacking sense. But given our attack has been poor anyway, I wanted to err on the side of caution, and having more support duties should in theory enhance the collective effort both in and out of possession. I took some inspiration from this great thread: Club DNA: El rondo - Tactics, Training & Strategies Discussion - Sports Interactive Community The biggest influence was to go even Narrower with our width, to increase compactness, and change the roles of the wide attackers to Inverted Wingers. The only other added instruction was to Be More Disciplined, which we also used early in this save. It seemed to work a treat, and our setup was already pretty close to this so it had very little effect to tactical familiarity, the biggest impact being the role change for the wide players. Immediately, the Inverted Wingers felt less isolated and more threatening as a goal threat. Champions League Our up and down season continued though, as we welcomed Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen to the Gewiss Stadium. We can feel extremely hard done by in this one. Florian Wirtz scored with Bayer’s first two shots, and they would be their only efforts on target all game. The stats backup this harsh result, they created just a single half chance, compared to one Clear Cut for us, and a further two Half Chances. The fixture schedule threw another big game at us and we look to try and bounce back from disappointment. Juventus were the next team to visit Bergamo, this time in the league. How? I’m still speechless. We were so comfortable, cruising in fact. Literally the last moment in the game, in which there was only supposed to be 5 minutes of injury time may I add, Juventus as they so often do, get the benefit of the doubt from the officials. An extra minute played, from which they scored. Unbelievable. A look at the xG story shows how they offered nothing, had not even a sniff, until the 95th and 96th minute of the game. That now makes it (x amount of games) without a win at home in the league. Abysmal form for the reigning champions. Moving on from that gut punch, we needed two late goals to beat struggling Genoa away in our next game. At this point, I’m not complaining. The performance was fine, they scored with their only shot on target which came from their big centre forward nodding home from a cross. We showed the sort of fight and character that I wanted to see after such disappointing results. This is Atalanta, we are the champions, let’s start bloody playing like it. What a time for Nicolò Fagioli to score his first goal for La Dea. So we end the month with a much needed win, but it currently leaves us 5th in the table (forgot to take a screenshot of that), and six points off the league leaders, Milan - a good thing we beat them! Two wins out of five this month is not great, and the pressure is certainly starting to build. In a recent press conference a reporter asked me if I’m starting to ‘feel the heat’, I downplayed it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. ———— Off the pitch, some good news at least: we are recognised for having one of the best youth setups in world football - very pleasing indeed. I’ll leave it there for now, plenty of big games coming up in November. The winter period could make or break our season as the pressure from the Board and the Fans intensifies... #GoAtalantaGo!

Yeah I often add the 'Endurance' specific focus for individual training to try and boost work rate. I might be mistaken, but I think praising training performances can also boost a player's work rate - which I often do. Thanks, posting an update shortly...

That makes perfect sense to me, you found something that worked, and is very simple as you say. I think simple works best when you haven’t got top players for your division. Tweaking it based on the players you have is also a very smart move. Interesting point about shifting to Cautious or Positive mentality depending on the situation. Changing mentality is something I used to avoid like the plague as I thought it would change too many TI’s by default, but it’s a risk modifier in simple terms - so this does make sense. Have you had a lot of success doing that? You must not be a fan of the style of football I’ve got Atalanta playing then!

Great start to the season! The result against Atletico is particularly impressive. If I was a betting man I’d say you l should definitely meet and even surpass the mid table expectation. Just out of curiosity, are you using the same 4-2-3-1 that you deployed at Southampton?

Excellent work with Southampton, mate. Thoroughly enjoyable read! Will see you over at Celta Vigo!

Really enjoying this thread, and the tactical ideas that you laid out. I take my hat off to you for sticking to your principles and still moving to the back three after the initial success of the 4-2-3-1. It’s a shame it didn’t work, but with the right players it might be worth revisiting in the future. I find the 4-3-3 to be one of the most solid defensive systems, and I think in your case it could go along way to shoring up that defence. Good luck!

Season 3 Preview (2025-2026) A quick recap of our Title Winning Season in 2024/2025 with The Athletic's Serie A Review, tells us that we were the league's biggest overachievers in the previous campaign. That should come as no real surprise since we only had expectations of challenging for a Champions League spot, and the media prediction was 5th. Now, after winning the title, even if it was unexpected, expectations have risen. The media now predict us to finish 3rd this year, and the board expect a title challenge. So we go into a season with a bit of pressure for perhaps the first time in this save. But it wasn’t just how we performed (or over-performed) on the pitch last year, we clearly did some great business in the market as well. The top two signings of the season were both Atalanta players. Nobody could argue with CDK, but it was pleasing to see Joao Marques up there too after his excellent season. The upcoming Summer window is shaping up to be the busiest window of the save thus far, with a big focus on bringing quality youth players into the club, and being quite ruthless with talents who perhaps haven’t developed as we would have liked after two years. Time will tell if we can ‘win’ the transfer window again. Pre-Season There has been something of a manager merry-go round in Serie A during the off-season. Perhaps the biggest name coming into the league, is none other than the hot headed Argentine, Diego Simeone. El Cholo takes charge of one of his former clubs from his playing days, Inter. I look forward to what is sure to be a challenging tactical battle against him. Focusing on ourselves, when it came to friendly matches, we were flawless during pre-season. I was pleased with the performances, continuing our dominant displays which dragged us over the line last season. So there is plenty of optimism, no doubt helped by getting a rare victory of Milan (albeit a friendly). Transfer Window Using our DNA Scores to Assess A Player’s Future: Going into our third season, there were just two first team players who were entering their final 12 months of their contracts: the experienced Club Captain, Marten De Roon, and our backup left back, Sead Kolasinac. Our two most experienced players, both are very influential in the dressing room, with great personality’s along with high Determination, which I value very highly, particularly for mentoring younger players. So we had a decision to make. De Roon, as mentioned, is also club captain after Toloi’s departure, and a valued leader in the dressing room. With that in mind, and given that he has always performed well, I moved quickly to extend his deal since a couple clubs showed interest. Even at 34yrs old, he remains an important player. We would certainly miss his personality, exceptional work rate and teamwork. An added bonus is he agreed to a wage decrease, from around 65k to 45k p/w. There are few players at the club who boast his mental attributes of Kolasinac. But before I could decide what to do with Sead, the Saudi sharks came in, with a reasonable offer of 9.25m which isn’t bad for a 32yr old with a year left on his deal. Given the fact he was not a starter for us (Ruggeri has been first choice since Day 1), the decision was a simple one in the end, we cash in on him now. Sead unfortunately never felt like an Atalanta player for me. His mental were great, but his technical weaknesses highlighted by his DNA score, never filled me with confidence. Speaking of DNA, I fired up the old spreadsheet again, making some adjustments to the attributes which we measure our DNA against (removing some of the physical attributes as I thought it was a little redundant for youth players who obviously need to and will improve physically). The DNA score has now been heavily influenced by the Ajax T.I.P.S Model, and I’ve split the score into two categories, with the overall score combining both the Technical + Insight attributes (TI DNA), and the Personality + Speed attributes (PS DNA). Here’s the U18’s for example: I spent a long time focussing on the youth teams, trimming the squads down to around 16-18 players to ensure sufficient game time and a pathway into the first team. The B Team had the biggest overhaul. I decided that those players who were 21 or over, would be out. If good enough (and none were) they would be promoted to the Senior squad, or sold. Those who did not attract interest for a permanent move away, were loaned out. The reason behind this was to ensure that our best talents, regardless of their age, would get exposure to senior football. Playing in Serie C is great for the development of these young players. I have also set a rule that no player can play for more than two seasons in the B Team, as this will reduce the opportunities for players in the U20 and U18 squads from getting Serie C experience. Once a player has played two seasons, even if they are under 21, the same rules of promotion to first team, sale or loan will be applied. I won’t delve into the detail around which youth players were cut, but there were many. Our Youth Teams are now looking leaner, and filled with more talent than at any point in this save so far. Which is great, as I look to continue Atalanta’s proud history of developing some of Italy’s top talent. Going back to the First Team, revisiting the DNA scores was helpful once I started to consider extending the contracts of key players. Here is how the First Team DNA scores looked at the end of Season 2: The Squad in this image is inflated by the B Team players which I have promoted (as discussed above). Those highlighted in Red were deemed to have no future at the club, and I would try to sell. There are two players highlighted in Green: Juan Musso (Goalkeeper), who has the lowest DNA score of our First Team, and Berat Djimsiti who was the lowest scoring Outfield player in the First Team - their scores will serve as the Benchmark score for any newcomers into the First Team. If I have a youth team outfield player whose score is around 180, he will be integrated into the First Team. De Roon leads the way with the highest score (217), backing up my decision to extend his contract. Ederson was another one of those players whose score backed up his importance, and we rewarded him with a new contract (which he asked for). I am in the market for a player to compete with him however, because as it stands we rely on him and CDK too much. If we lose either of those to injury, the drop off in quality is massive. Adopo, Adli and Cortinovis aren’t up to the standard for a team that wants to consistently compete for the title. We also gave Scamacca a new deal, as he had just two years left on his contract. He becomes the highest earner at the club, eclipsing Scalvini’s 120k p/w wages, but for a striker entering his prime with a high market value, I see plenty of upside in this deal. We just need him to hope he can find the net more regularly than last season! There were to be a few more outgoings from the First Team: Despite having decent DNA scores, Aldi, Orsolini and Toure have thus far failed to convince me. For El Bilal Toure, his future was determined by the Scamacca decision, since both of them had deals expiring in 2027, I was certainly going to keep one and sell the other.So Toure was placed on the Transfer List, and we managed to do a deal with Valencia for 30m. Time will tell if that was the correct decision, and he is certainly a talented forward but the average levels of Determination, Teamwork and Work Rate would always be an issue for me. Adli only started 12 league games in one and half years at the club, never really pushing on as I’d have hoped. I thought we could cash in on him, and recruit a significant upgrade in this area to compete with Ederson (more on that later). We received an offer of 18m from Villarreal, and although I’d offered him out for more, it was reasonable enough and we make a profit of 12.75m on him. The departure of Orsolini was not high on the priority list, but it was certainly accelerated when he came to me demanding an improvement to his £66k p/w deal, which I straight up refused. For me, he had a disappointing campaign last year and is quite clearly our backup option to Joao Marques. Why would I want to give him a bigger salary when I don’t deem him good enough to start? His Teamwork of 10, compared to Joao’s 14, is telling. Joao also led the team for assists, and when Orsolini played, with that pesky Shoots From Distance trait, his selfishness resulted in many good attacking moves ending with a speculative shot whistling over the crossbar. Add to that his anger around not getting a new deal, and subsequent poor training performances, it was an easy decision to part with an unhappy player with unreasonable wage demands and playing expectations. In all honesty, Orsolini was always going to be a stop gap-player. He arrived at a time when we had no wingers and I had a desire to implement a 4-3-3 in my first season, despite having inherited a squad suited to a back five. He served his purpose in his two seasons but we have now outgrown him. We offered him out to no avail. Forced to decrease the asking price to a measly 15m, we received a bid from Lazio, before something I have never seen before popped into my inbox. The board stepped in to stop the sale of Orsolini, because it was £1m less than what they deemed the minimum - ridiculous. I tried to talk to the board, but they weren’t having it, and blocked the deal. In the end, he ended up going on loan to Monaco for a 400k fee, with an option to buy for 17.75m - not sure if they will trigger that, if they do then fair play to the board, but it seems like a bad decision to me. There were a number of players on the fringes, who had either been on loan or involved with the B Team, that we decided to part ways with. One of those was Idumbo Muzambo. Signed on a free from Ajax just one year prior, he did not develop as much as I’d hoped, and despite his enormous potential, we decided to make a very healthy profit on a player who’s Teamwork and Work Rate lagged considerably behind his peers. We struck a deal for just over 10m with Aston Villa, including future sell on clauses too. Another young player on the fringes that faced a similar fate, was Delle Monache. Signed in the summer of Season 1, I had high hopes for him, but he failed to impose himself on the first team. We capitalised on a decent loan spell he had at Spezia, and managed to offload him to Bournemouth for 8.5m, with a sell on clause. We pocketed a healthy profit of 4.7m and interestingly he has been immediately loaned out to Derby in the Championship, a strong indication of his current ability (or lack of). The departure of these two young players might normally be cause for concern, but I have a number of Atalanta youth products coming through in attacking positions, and selling these two for a profit also creates a more viable pathway for them. That was that in terms of big name departures, but with several B Team players also being offloaded (essentially all those highlighted in Red or Orange in the DNA spreadsheet), we managed to reap in £88m in player sells - impressive considering we did not part with any ‘key’ players. This gave us plenty room to manoeuvre in the market, adding to our considerably small starting budget of just £20m. Arrivals: First in the door, and a very ‘Atalanta’ signing, is a player I’d had tabs on for a while. The Udinese wonderkid, Simone Pafundi. Pafundi was entering his final year at Udinese, and we were able to prize away one of Italy’s top young talents for just £12m. I will look to train him to play in central midfield, with the possibility of deploying him as either the AP(S) or MEZ(A) in our system. He has the versatility to play on the right wing as a W(S) or even up front in a F9 role too. A star in the making, who will also don the Number 10 shirt. The next player to come through the doors in the summer of 2025 was Luca Ranieri of Fiorentina. With Kolasinac departing, I wanted a ‘like for like’ replacement, without breaking the bank. Ideally he would be an upgrade technically, but he must be a defender first, and therefore very adept at the Inverted Fullback role. He suits the role well, and although I’d prefer someone better technically, to play second fiddle to Ruggeri, and for just £5.5m, he will do. The third first team arrival, and the reason why I was keen to sell Bilal Toure, was because of the opportunity to sign this wonderkid, for a great price: Esposito, who is the youngest of three footballing brothers (Salvatore and Sebastiano are the other two), had enormous potential and is quite similar to Scamacca in terms of profile. Which is great, because ideally I want my striker to be either a creative/false nine type, or a physical target man. Bilal Toure was neither of those, and Pio Esposito can play as an understudy to Scamacca without me having to change the role/system at all. For £10.5m, I think it's a great but of business which Inter may live to regret. Orsolini’s replacement, another young Portuguese wonderkid, Joao Rego was the fourth man through the doors: Signed from Benfica for what I feel is a steal at £11.25m, his only weakness is his Teamwork and Work Rate but hopefully we can work on those, especially the work rate. Comfortable playing in numerous positions, I envisage him playing a backup role to Luariente on the left wing (Winger on Attack), and instead Zerbin will now provide cover on the right wing (Winger on Support) and rotate with Joao Marques. The fifth and final first team arrival, our marquee singing of the summer, and one which smashed the Atalanta transfer record… welcome to Bergamo, Nicolo Fagioli! I think it speaks volumes about where we are as a club, that we can poach key players from Juventus. A sure sign that we are becoming a ‘Big’ club. No doubt it was a hefty fee, but I like to think his unique skillset is worth it. There are not many players under 24 with his exceptional playmaking attributes, and available at this price. This is the player who will not only compete with Ederson in midfield, but hopefully lead this team to greatness in the years to come. He only has one cap for Italy, but with his ability and hopefully the exposure we will give him, I envisage him becoming a key player for club and country. Hopefully he has put his gambling problems behind him, and I’m very excited to have this player at La Dea. We had other targets, such as the well known wonderkid Joao Neves, but he would have cost more, and demanding a lot more in wages. We also need to keep an eye on our Home Grown quota and the young Italian helps us with that too. Also, have we finally replaced Koopmeiners?! Losing Teun was a massive blow at the end of Season 1, and we haven’t got anyone near his calibre or skillset, but Fagioli is probably the closest we could get, and a few years younger! Unsurprisingly, Fagioli isn’t just an excellent DNA fit, he now leads the pack in that regard. Here is the summary of our transfer activity. With no fewer than eight players signed to beef up our various youth teams, and some huge talent coming into the strengthen the first team, our Net Spend was just 1m. Not bad! Safeguarding Our Future It’s not just about signing young players... Our success on the pitch has prompted the board to consider building a new, bigger stadium for our ambitious future. As our financial update showed (prior to the record signing of Fagioli), we are suitably placed to become the footballing powerhouse of Italian football which I am aiming for. By ensuring we are sensible in the market, never spending beyond our means, and always looking to move players on for a profit (especially those who may not be first choice), we can sustain our strong financial position. This is of course enhanced by consistently qualifying for the UCL - something we have done for two years on the bounce now. IRL Atalanta managed to qualify for three years in a row between 2019 and 2021 before dropping out and have not returned since, I will try to continue getting this club into Europe’s elite as a minimum, without breaking the bank. With the club boasting a strong financial position, I was able to convince the board to invest into various areas of the club. For starters, we needed to upgrade our Training Facilities, which are already at an ‘Excellent’ level, but we can and should strive for better. The next items on the agenda was to focus on improving both our Youth Recruitment and increasing our Junior Coaching budget. Ensuring the quality of newgen we bring into the club is of the highest standard is essential for a club like Atalanta, who have always looked to develop young players. Hopefully the investment pays dividends in the years to come. Right, time to get stuck into the Season proper now. Wish me luck for Season 3, it should be a good one! #GoAtalantaGo!

Thanks! Appreciate you taking the time to comment There will be an update either later today or tomorrow hopefully. Just started Season 3!