Fantasista10

Thanks, it's been a good turnaround for sure! Defensively we have been good, boasting one of the best XG against per game, but it's not the highest in the league which might suggest we've been a bit lucky or that Juan Musso has been superb in goal! Time will tell if our defensive numbers are sustainable.

The Story So Far FYI - From now on I am making use of Gyazo for most screenshots, so please click on the hyperlinks to view images. Pre Season: I had a decision to make at the beginning of the campaign, whether to continue forcing players who aren’t a good fit for my 4-3-3 system and hope that it works, or do I opt for the easy choice and play a 5-2-3 of sorts. I have used back three/five formations many times in the past, so if I did decide to go with a back five here, at least I have some experience with it. However, the 4-3-3 is my bread and butter, and as I have detailed in one of my earlier posts, that is how I intend to set the team up in this save - I will try to stick to that religiously. I used pre-season to try out my 4-3-3 with these players, and see how the team shaped up. It went pretty well, as you can see by the results below. The only defeat came against Inter, in which we outplayed them, losing narrowly curtesy of a great strike from the edge of the box by Calhanoglu. So naturally, I went into the season feeling quite confident after beating Juve and producing a really positive performance against Inter. The team was also showing signs of progress in terms of tactical familiarity, which would only improve over time. The Serie A Season Kicks Off: Despite the positive trends of pre-season, when the competitive season kicked off, the team’s technical shortcomings, not helped the shock transfer request from Ademola Lookman (more on that in a later post), meant results flattered to deceive. I don’t think I will go into this much detail for every game throughout this save, but I feel it’s important to add a bit of context early on, and our first four fixtures proved quite key, tactically at least. So, here is how we got on in our first four games: Not great. We managed just 1 win from 4 (a total of 4 points from a possible 12). Let’s get into the bones of each game… Sassuolo (A) 1-0 Defeat: We kicked off our Serie A campaign with a trip to Sassuolo. I expected a tricky game given the technical quality in their team (boasting the likes of Domenico Berardi), but I have to say the result shocked me. We were the better side to be fair, but were punished for not taking our chances. The winner came curtesy of a 78th minute goal by attacking midfielder Nedim Bajrami, after a swift counter attack, set up brilliantly by winger Armand Laurientè - a player I am keeping tabs on as a possible Lookman replacement. You can see from the stats just how unfortunate we were. They scored with their only shot on target, whereas we failed to convert any of our seven. The xG also points to us being hard done by. Still, in terms of attacking statistics, I was pleased. The metrics told me we were unlucky, and it was just one game, right? Bologna (H) 2-0 Win: After a disappointing opening day, we bounced back in great fashion with a convincing win at home to Bologna. In fairness, we had just taken their star player, Orsolini, so they were considerably weaker in attack. Nevertheless, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and given that they are flying high IRL under Thiago Motta, I was surprised at how dominant we were. If you look at the stats from the game, we didn’t give them a sniff and probably should have scored a few more! Napoli (A) 1-0 Defeat: After picking up our first win and points of the season, we went away to the Champions. It was always going to be a tough ask to get a good result here, but our task became even harder after our skipper Rafael Toloi saw red in the 34th minute. As the stats might suggest, we got lucky that the scoreline stayed at 1-0. With Osimhen out injured, Kvaratskeila played as a striker alongside Raspadori in Mazzarri’s 3-5-2 shape, and they always had a threat in behind with their pace. I dread to think how much worse it could have been if Osimhen, last season’s top goalscorer, was available. Cagliari (H) 1-1 Draw: We wanted to bounce back from another away defeat with a win, and up against newly promoted Cagliari, I thought we’d do it. In the end, this result was a real kick in the teeth. I expected a similar performance as the Bologna game, at home to a weaker side. Instead, we blew a 1-0 win late on, conceding right at the death. It was a frustrating result, particularly when you factor in all the chances we had to kill the game. A lack of concentration at the end perhaps, cost us all three points. ————————————————— Up next was a chance to put the poor start to the Serie A season to one side, as we kicked off our Europa League campaign in a pretty straightforward group containing Panathinaikos, Molde and LASK. The dropped points against Cagliari and our poor start to the season left us in 11th place, and I was becoming increasingly aware of how quickly our season could unravel if this form continued. Despite the media predicting us to finish 7th this year, I have loftier ambitions of pushing for the top four spots. Conscious of trying to stop the rut, I thought I would use the Europa League as an opportunity to try something different. We’d only played four competitive fixtures but I could see patterns emerging, which were not present in pre season, that I did not like. We were creating chances, maybe not enough, but crucially, we weren’t taking them. That is fine, and I did not think this was entirely a systemic issue, and it could be a matter of luck which can resolve itself over time. What we needed to address however, was how easy the opposition broke through our defence - or more accurately, our entire team. Most chances conceded tended to be on the break, so we needed to sure things up in that regard. As I discussed previously, this squad is inherently used to playing in a back three/five. So you might have guessed it, I decided to try a 3-4-2-1 (or 5-2-2-1) for our game against Molde, with the two big games coming up against Roma and Milan in mind. Here is what the tactic looked like: The 3-4-2-1 shape enabled us to keep our same build up structure with a 3-2 base, but this time the width was created by our wingbacks, who are of course very well suited to performing this task. It also allowed me to play CDK in his natural #10 position and it took him just 49 minutes to score his first Atalanta goal from there in our 2-0 victory over Molde. And as you can see above, the temporary change worked a treat. I did not expect much competition against Molde, but still for a European away game we were exceptional and totally wiped the floor with them. ——————————————— Roma (A) 1-1 Draw: We returned to Serie A action with a difficult to trip to the capital. Roma were set up in a 5-3-2 with Argentine talisman Paulo Dybala alongside the big Belgian Romelu Lukaku, and we continued with our 3-4-2-1 experiment with the hopes of containing them. It was all going brilliantly, until an 85th minute strike from Dybala levelled things up. We can’t be too disheartened though, as the stats suggest it was a fair result. Still, our tactical experiment earned us a hard fought point away from home against a top 6 rival and I’m pleased with that. Milan (H) 1-0 Win: This game was heart attack material. We started pretty well, but midfielder Marten De Roon saw red in the 27th minute, leaving us in a perilous position. It was also our second red card in what is just our 6th league game. I had to dial a few things down, such as our high press and counter press but we dug in, and curtesy of a goal from our supporting Mezzala, Ederson. It was backs against the wall stuff for the majority of the game, but we managed to limit Milan to just three attempts on target with 10 men. Obviously the xG against and general stats in both these games does not look great, but we got the results we wanted. Therefore I think the tactical switch served its purpose for a couple big games, and equalling our points tally from the previous four games in the process. ———————————— Speaking of process, I was reminded that I should trust in mine. So after that difficult Milan game, we restored faith in the 4-3-3. It’s safe to say that it was the correct decision. We’ve playing some great football and the results have picked up massively: We went on an incredible EIGHT game winning run between October and November in all competitions (excluding that friendly). Granted, the fixture list was a lot kinder to us, but we then had a couple of big tests with Lazio away and Inter at home and managed to secure four valuable points. This recent upturn in form has seen us propel up to 3rd place in the table after 15 games, and we also boast the leagues best defence with 11 goals conceded. We also sailed through our Europa League group with minimal fuss. Let’s see what sort of challenge the Knockout Stages bring! Slight Tactical Tweak: I will go into more detail in a later post, but I made a small tweak to the 4-3-3, swapping out the IWB for another IFB-D and using either Scalvini or Toloi as a Libero on support. The reason behind this was because none of my wingbacks are good enough (Zappacosta is reasonable) at playing the IWB role, but both Scalvini and Toloi are excellent ball players, so it made sense to utilise their skill set and maintain our 3-2 base albeit from different roles. Our pass map shows this shape in action. I really like how clearly you can see the front 5 spread out across the vertical channels I talked about in one of the opening posts. You can also see the re-worked 3-2 build up, with the two IFBs flanking the CD, creating our ‘3 base’ and #42 Scalvini is positioned slightly higher in his new Libero role. I plan to write up a revised tactical post in the future, hopefully with some clips too. For now I’ll focus on the daunting trip to the Allianz Stadium to play Juventus and the upcoming January window. #GoAtalantaGo!

Thank you @SixPointer appreciate the kind words! I was a keen follower of your Gasperini thread actually, I hadn't seen anyone replicate his style as closely as yourself, it was a great read! I gave it a go myself too a few years ago and it's a really fun system. I was tempted to revert back to it simply because it's Atalanta, and as you say the new roles and match engine, but I feel it's a bigger (and more enjoyable) challenge to mould the squad into one that's capable of playing a 4-3-3! I guess Gasperini takes a lot of influence from the Dutch Total Football too, so it's not a complete shift in style either. Thanks @rich ruzzian, I was also really surprised by Miranchuk - I might have to consider giving him some more game time now. I'm pleased with the transfers too, neither have set the world alight yet but they're doing okay enough for the moment. I'll post a more detailed update in the coming days hopefully, but it looks like we may need to dip into the market again, this time to replace Lookman who's kicking up a fuss about leaving...

Part 3 Cont. - Creating our ‘DNA’ 🧬 Creating a Club ‘DNA’ As I touched on in the previous post, Determination, Teamwork and Work Rate are the core mental attributes I like to prioritise. If a player ranks badly in any of those three, chances are I will overlook them. It should be pretty clear why Determination is important: how does a player carry themselves, do they strive to be the best? How do they react when the chips are down? Low Determination results in a player with a lax attitude to the game, and for me, that simply won’t do. Teamwork reflects how well a player is able to follow instructions and how they function and work with their teammates. This is an undervalued attribute particularly for a team which wants to Press High. Most people look at Stamina and Natural Fitness (and Work Rate) as the key attributes for a high pressing side, and they are important, but to execute a good press, you need your players to work together and hunt in a pack - as one unit. Having a High Teamwork rating ensures that players are working in tandem, not as individuals. Above is a great image showing how Atalanta, under Gasperini, press from the front - together. It also works in possession too, and this is a particularly important attribute for your creative players to have. It’s no good having excellent Passing and Vision if you’re selfish and going for goal yourself instead of playing others in. I briefly touched on Work Rate above, this is important in regards to pressing, and tracking back. I want my wide players to help out defensively, so I look for a minimum of 13 here, potentially a little lower if they are of exceptional technical ability. A high value is also a good barometer of how hard these players will work in training, pushing themselves to their limits. I feel it works in tandem with Determination and Teamwork in that respect. The other attributes, Technical, Mental and Physical are vitally important for the style I want. First Touch, Passing, Technique and Vision are essential for a possession based side, but without good Decision making and Composure, players will often make the wrong pass or get caught out. Physical attributes are something that I’ve often overlooked in previous years, and I still think they are less vital than being strong mentally and technically, but ultimately if you have Speed and Strength, it should serve you well at any level of the game. Luckily, I’ve inherited a squad which might be the tallest I’ve ever managed on FM, with some quite physically imposing attributes. Time will tell if I can make the most of that! A Look at the Data: Those of you who love a good old spreadsheet, will enjoy this next part! I have taken great inspiration from @MattyLewis11 excellent blog, The Ajax Way, in which the measuring of a players ‘DNA score’ (via Google Sheets) becomes an efficient way of determining how well suited a player is to our ‘DNA’ which I have chosen. You might be able to make out from the screenshot of the Squad DNA view, but there are 19 attributes which I’m looking to measure. I’ve exported this data into a spreadsheet, and this is a snapshot (taken from early in the season) of where our players rank in terms of their DNA score: Our highest scoring player, by no surprise, is midfield maestro Koopmeiners - replacing him will prove very difficult should he continue to force a move away. The average score amongst all the outfield players in the first team is 249.8 - and those who sit above that score have been colour coded in green, those who almost make the grade are in yellow, and the orange signals those who are a way off the average. Those in orange may not have a future at the club, unless they’re young of course. The likes of Djimsiti and Palomino, although strong physically and good defenders, fall some way short of the technical and mental quality required for our kind of football - and this is reflected in their overall score. Assessing the DNA Score of a player can often help you identify an important player which you might otherwise discard when looking solely at the Star rating system. Take Miranchuk for example, he has a CA and PA of just 2.5 stars, but in terms of his DNA profile, is one of the best players at the club with an impressive score of 260, incidentally just 5 points short of Orsolini, who is currently rated much higher in the game at 3.5 stars. Some of our most talented youngsters can be seen below: Scalvini is of course the best U20 player at the club, and our first choice centre back. The others have some way to go before they can break into the first team, but I will monitor them closely and ensure there are opportunities for them. 16yr old Niccolo Gariani could be one to watch, currently in the U18 squad, I will keep a close eye on his development. Whether any of these kids turn out to be star players for the club, our huge sources of revenue such as Amad Diallo and Dejan Kulusevski, remains to be seen - but this commitment to developing youth, especially with the aforementioned 'DNA', will be a key part of this save. I will continue to monitor the players DNA scores, probably twice a season, with the aim of keeping tabs on our hot prospects in the youth squads in particular. ——————————————————————— In my next post, which might be a while away due to work commitments, I’ll dive into some actual games and results as I’m creeping up the midway point of the season now - also detailing how I’ve set the team up.

Assessing The Squad Part 3 - I imagine this will be the final bit of background before we actually delve into some matches and results. Due to the amount/size of images I've had to split this into two posts. This post will detail our current squad and transfers, before I go into how created our Club 'DNA' in the following post. Drawing Comparisons As always when starting a new save, it’s important to take a look at the tools at your disposal. As a keen follower of Serie A, Atalanta are a team that I know pretty well, but it can still be difficult to know how they stack up against the competition in FM. I discussed my philosophy and how I ideally want to set the team up in the previous post, but this is all well and good in theory. It’s vital to make sure you have players who are capable of following your instructions, be it from a tactical/mental or technical perspective. From a mental standpoint, I have very few concerns about the squad. Most display Resolute characteristics, with relatively high levels of Determination, Teamwork and Work Rate across the board. In fact for our outfield players only, for Determination we rank 3rd, Work Rate 6th, and Teamwork 9th (can do with some improvement). For me, those are the most vital attributes, and will form the backbone of our DNA - more of that later. However, potential issues lie in the squads ability on a technical level. Below you can see how they stack up against the rest of the league: As a squad, we have a lot of room for improvement in terms of technical ability. I have some concerns about the standard of Passing in particular, ranking just 12th in the league. Not ideal for a side who want to place an emphasis on playing out from the back, and patiently probing in the final third. The Squad: Here is a look at the squad which I inherited (during Pre -Season): This screenshot was taken late in pre-season, and I am playing on ‘Real World’ so the right wingback Emil Holm had yet to arrive from Spezia. I have selected my ‘DNA’ squad view which highlights the most important attributes for me and my play style (more on that later). It gives me a great overview of each players strengths and weaknesses in regards to their attributes. One of the most pleasing things which I noticed about this squad right away, is the amount of ‘positive’ Personality types we have - in particular, ‘Resolute’. This should serve us well, particularly when it comes to mentoring young players. Key Players: After taking a detailed look at the playing squad, and also scouring through the various squads within the club - including the newly formed B Team which compete in Serie C - I decided to focus on a few players who I signalled out for attention. These could be the guys which we look to build around, if all goes well: Charles De Ketelaere First up, we have talented attacking midfielder Charles De Ketelaere. When he signed for AC Milan after promising so much in his home country with Club Brugge, fans were expecting big things. However, he struggled to make an impact in Milan. Somewhat surprisingly, he made a move across Lombardy to Atalanta this summer, on loan with an option to buy. At the time of writing, IRL he has amassed 7 goals and 5 assists in 24 games in all competitions for Atalanta. Those are pretty steady numbers, and far better than 0 goals and 1 assist in 40 for Milan. One of the main goals of my save will be to get the best out of him. Although if I fail to do so in season 1, it remains to be seen if I will activate that option to buy (which stands at 20.5m). I have plans to use him as my Attacking Mezzala, but we may be forced to use him as a Winger at times due to the lack of options there. His 6ft 4 frame could also prove useful from Set Pieces. Giorgio Scalvini A wonderkid whom many will be familiar with. A central defender with enormous potential, who is already one of the better players in this Atalanta side. He’s comfortable on the ball, and physically imposing - he should suit my possession style and high line very nicely. Another 6ft 4 frame, I imagine he will chip in with the odd goal. A big challenge of mine will be keeping him at the club. I’m sure it won’t be long until Premier League giants come sniffing. I hope I can mould him into a modern-day Maldini, and if he’s also a one club man like Paolo was, then that’s even better! Teun Koopmeiners The Dutchman arrived from AZ Alkmaar two years ago and made an instant impact in Serie A. A hard working, technically figured midfielder, he is also capable of chipping in with a few goals from midfield - a real asset to any side. I envision him playing as either a support duty Mezalla or a sort of Box to Box-ish role in the midfield. He does also have the technical and mental capability to play as the No. 6 in the side as well, but this might depend on what other options I have for the two ‘free 8 roles’ ahead. Annoyingly, he is currently Unhappy at the club as we turned down a pretty poor offer from Saudi Arabia. He, like Lookman, were subject to bids which we rejected, only for them to say they would stay at the club if we offered them, wait for it… £475,000 a week. Not a chance, lads. Transfers With the squad I inherited being accustomed to playing in a back five with wingbacks, and usually a couple of 10s behind a striker, or one 10 behind two strikers, there was an obvious weakness in the team. Wingers. One of the benefits of using a 4-3-3 system is the width that it can give you, whilst still having plenty of players in the centre. The issue we had, is there were only two natural wide players in the squad: Ademola Lookman and Alexey Miranchuk. Both have been deployed more centrally IRL by Gasperini, and Miranchuk especially, looks more like a 10 to me than an out and out wide player. Youngsters Lukas Vorlicky and Vanja Vlahovic are not quite at the required level to start for Atalanta in Serie A, so to the transfer market we went. Incomings: There was little budget available, but we needed reinforcements in the wide areas. I opted to stay in Italy when looking at options as this is where I was able to find the best deals. Primary target for the right wing slot, was Riccardo Orsolini from Bologna. At 26yrs old, he is a little older than the player I’d like to bring in, but importantly, he is a marked improvement on Miranchuk. We managed to secure him on loan for 1.9m with an obligation to buy for a further 10.5m in the summer: For the left wing, I had Lookman who would be nailed on for a starting berth, so I wanted a decent backup. We managed to strike a bargain deal for 24yr old Alessio Zerbin from Napoli for just 700k. A peripheral player for the current reigning champions, he’ll likely get more opportunities here: My scouts also found an interesting prospect. At 18yrs old he has some developing to do, but another option at Left Wing wouldn’t hurt, and for a good price too. For 3.8m (rising to 4.8m), I hope Delle Monache becomes another one of Atalanta’s great finds: Outgoings: Given that we had too many wingbacks, and we needed to raise some funds to get some depth for the LW/RW positions, someone had to make way. We parted with Zortea, a product of the Atalanta youth team, he didn’t seem like a bad option but we were stacked there, and he was the only right back who generated some interest. Plus, his personality and Determination, although not bad, was not as impressive as his direct competitors. We only managed to fetch 1.9m for him from Crystal Palace, but it was better than nothing. So only one sale under my stewardship thus far, but we will have to continue to trim the squad since we have too many players, particularly in defence. Getting the wage bill down and hopefully raising some funds, might put us in a decent position to make CDK's loan move permanent should we wish. Up Next: Please read on in the next post, where I'll discuss our Club 'DNA'.

It might be old news, but it's certainly more noticeable this year. Look around the forums and on Twitter, many players are noticing it. Regardless of if they end up with a goal or not, it's getting quite boring just how many highlights come from throw-ins (and set pieces in general). They may as well call it Set Piece Manager 24

FM24 - Positional Play is Alive and Well: Before I delve into my philosophy, I want to touch on the Club Vision and Objectives set by the board, which I feel marry very well with how I want to approach the game… Atalanta’s Vision and the legacy of Gasperini’s Philosophy: Gian Piero Gasperini, although being a staunch back five user, has always played entertaining attacking football with Atalanta. They are brave in possession, often playing out from the back rather than going long, and use constant rotations and triangles, particularly in wider areas to create overloads. They are a bit more vertical than how I would ideally set a team up, but this has no doubt led to entertaining football at the Gewiss Stadium over the years. My aim is to continue that entertaining brand of football, with my own philosophy and system, and hopefully take Atalanta to the promised land: winning the Scudetto. I was really pleased to see that the Club’s vision/objectives line up with how Atalanta are perceived in real life. As I already discussed, under Gasperini, they play a high-tempo pressing football. They play entertaining (attacking football, with the aim of scoring lots of goals of course). And Atalanta are notorious for developing some of the best talent in Italian football. All of these things happen to be part of the ‘Board Culture’ above. I believe this ties up very nicely with how I aim to set this team up and take the club forward - it fits my vision and philosophy, and gives me something tangible to measure my style against. Now onto my football manager philosophy… My Tactical Approach in FM: I feel that my philosophy is one that suits Atalanta and the way that they try and play IRL under Gasperini. I always set my teams up in a similar vein in FM, regardless of the team/save. I want to play attacking football, dominating possession and creating good chances. Possession should be used as a tool for both attacking and defending. As the old saying goes, if we have the ball then the opponent can’t score! Juego de Posicion (Positional Play in English) is a term coined in Spain, where it is synonymous with the football of Pep Guardiola and Barcelona. A student of the Dutch school of football, Guardiola brought this style, an obsession with keeping the ball and dominating certain areas of the field, to England with Manchester City. Since arriving in 2016 he has influenced English football a great deal. If you go up and down the English football pyramid, you will find plenty of teams playing out from the back and utilising inverted fullbacks/wingbacks. From a tactical perspective, I don’t think anyone has influenced the modern game more than he has, in my opinion at least. Guardiola sees the game, or the field, quite differently to many coaches before him. This is what a football pitch looks like to Pep: The field is split into various zones. The most important, are the five vertical zones, or channels. The two Wing zones, the two Halfspaces, and the Centre. One of key principles of Positional Play is to ensure that you have a player in each vertical zone of the field at all times. Doing so, gives you the best coverage of the field and should in theory, create problems for the opponent. You may find you have an overload in a certain zone, or a free man. This is why the majority of teams now attack with five players (creating a five channel attack). They do this with either a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 build up shape. In FM24, we now have the tools to implement this at a near perfect level. This has already been covered extensively in the Tactics forum, so I won’t elaborate any further on the in-game specifics but you can find one of the best threads here if you have not read it: https://community.sigames.com/forums/topic/577981-fm24-positional-play-explained-with-examples/ Laying down the ground rules: To achieve the style of play we are looking for, we must first lay out some Pep-like ground rules. A good few years back, I read a couple of books on (no surprises here) one of my favourite managers, Pep Guardiola. One was the biography by Guillem Balague: Another Way Of Winning, which focused on his days at Barcelona and coaching that super team. The other, is Pep Confidential by Marti Perarnau, who had unprecedented access to Pep and his team when coaching Bayern Munich. Being a bit of a tactics nerd, I enjoyed these books a lot and made a few notes with the aim of applying these concepts to FM. Notes on the philosophy and game model: Always be in control. We want to be the ‘protagonists’ on the pitch Attacking football Keep possession, but with a purpose Create numerical advantages all over the pitch When the ball is lost, try to win it back instantly. Pep is famed for his ‘five second rule’ (counter pressing) Each player has a zone, fluid movement is of course encouraged but each zone must be occupied at all times In simpler terms, there were three rules of thumb which Guardiola applies according to his former goalkeeper at Barcelona, Victor Valdes, and they all revolve around the ball: To have the ball - when we have the ball, the opposing team suffers and we are in total control. To not lose the ball in compromising positions since this could cause a dangerous situation - if the opponent wins the ball it should be of their own merit, not our mistakes. We must bite. Be intense. When possession is lost, each player has a zone in which they must apply pressure. We should all help each other, and not lose concentration, ever. “Guardiola says that those three concepts are our strong point, one of the things he repeats most in the dressing room. When we apply all three, everything works.” - Victor Valdes Other Points to Note: Keep a small squad (16 starters, 20 total) High Defensive Line Make 15 Passes before any attack Pressing/Trapping the Free Man Passes must be tight, fast and unsettle opponent. Players must position themselves closely but not all, some must stretch the pitch Dominate the centre of the pitch, always maintain superiority there Striker must vacate the box, but always arrive there to finish a chance False 9 must drop deep and create superiority, leaving the centre backs unopposed before either dribbling at them or arriving into space The No. 6 or ‘organising midfielder’ is the fulcrum of the team. Make sure he is your best player, tactically and technically. Must play line breaking passes. I will try and constantly refer back to these points, like a sort of mantra, throughout my save. The first point, regarding squad size, will be quite tricky especially at the start as Atalanta have a 26 man squad. So I will begin analysing who fits, and who doesn’t, and look to move on certain players over the first few windows. Taking all of these points on board, let’s dive into how I implement this into FM24… The Tactics: The system which I have used on my only other save on FM24, with Malaga, is an Arsenal/Man City (or Pep) inspired positional play 4-3-3 system: I have decided to flip the roles and duties of my full backs from my original replication (also having a knock on of swapping my MEZ and Winger duties), because it suits the full back profiles a lot better. Kolasinac is fairly comfortable as a centre back, in fact he plays on the left of the back three for Atalanta IRL. So it makes more sense utilising him as an Inverted Fullback on Defend. He will tuck in to create our back three in build up, filling in as an auxiliary central defender. Whereas Zappacosta is much more attack minded and more comfortable on the ball. So he will be our main IWB, tucking into midfield. The switch also allows me to use our best (and only true Winger) Ademola Lookman, on an Attack duty. I suspect he will be our biggest goal threat aside from our Advanced Forward. The aim behind my setup is to try and create the 3-2-5 attacking shape which you can see below: First brought to prominence in the Premier League by Pep, many managers such as Arteta and Klopp, are now adopting this build up shape and attacking structure. It enables you to have an almost perfect coverage of the field, in all phases. You have three defenders spread out across the back line, making it easier to play out against a front two pressing, and with the option to also use the keeper, you can have a 4v2 or 4v3 if the opposition try to go man for man. There is also the crucial ‘box’ structure in midfield. Having the 4 man box, can help outnumber your typical midfield 3 that we see nowadays. Or, if the opposition line up in a 4-4-2, you are outnumbering them in the first phase of build up, allowing easy progression into the midfield 4/box who, as you can see in the above image, are staggered in between the lines of the midfield. Another key aspect, is the very wide wingers. One of the key routes to goal in this system is getting your tricky winger isolated in a 1v1 against his fullback. If you have a quality player here, you will generate good chances as this winger should be beating his fullback more often than not. The overall aim of the tactic is to create numerical superiority (quantitative) by creating overloads and technical/physical superiority (qualitative) when switching to underloaded side for 1v1 opportunities. We also give ourselves great coverage of the five vertical zones which I mentioned earlier. The above image is taken from a pre-season game. You can see that thanks to the improvements to FM24’s match engine, we can get an almost perfect 3-2-5 shape. #3 is my IFB, tucking in to create the back three, and #2 is the IWB(S) who is playing the ‘Zinchenko’ role, sitting alongside the DM and completing our 3-2 base. The wide players (Wingers, one on attack and one support) are stretching the play and giving us width. Our front five are occupying the right zones, and we outnumber there back four with ease, having a free man, in this case #10. We actually score from that image, Scalvini sprays the ball out to #10 on the right, who plays a pass inside to our attacking MEZ #8 and puts our striker through. This is a common pattern, the winger draws out the full back, the Mezalla attacks the space vacated to either shoot or play in the striker. So far, so good. There will be plenty of work ahead, particularly in shaping the Atalanta squad to play the kind of football I want. Team Instructions: One thing is for sure, the Mentality and general Team Instructions will not change. I have a preferred way of playing, and that, to quote Mikel Arteta, is a “non-negotiable”. We will look to play on a Positive mentality pretty much all the time. I feel that this is the most effective out of the more adventurous/attacking mentalities. The Attacking mentality is more vertical, perhaps truer to Gasperini, but everything is more rushed (higher tempo) and generally more risky. For me, it’s counter productive, even when playing a lesser team or chasing a goal. If you’re facing a parked bus, they’re not going to give you any room or space to exploit, so you’re better off patiently probing, perhaps going wider, or running at a defence instead. Positive balances that risk and reward approach much better. Any lower than Positive and you create stale, meaningless possession. Any higher, and you risk sloppy turnovers and leaving yourself vulnerable on the counter. Opposition Instructions: For those interested in Opposition Instructions, this is what I use for each game. I have a clear strategy here, to press the entire back line, and funnel play into specific areas. I force centre backs to go out wide, and then look to trap the full backs, but I don’t want to show them up the line. I tried this, and it resulted in quite a few goals from crosses conceded. Showing them inside, with the numbers we have, along with the Trap Outside team instruction, means we defend quite narrow and protect the centre and engaging out wide, rather than in the midfield. —————— As this is quite a long post, I’ll be ending this here and diving into the Squad, Key Players and an update on the start of Season in my next post.

No problem. Thank you for confirming

Thank you, I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this save. Yes, I will try my best to make it as realistic as possible. I really like their recruitment and transfer strategy IRL, so will try to emulate that. Perhaps the one part which I will try to avoid, as the team hopefully becomes the best in Italy, is selling our best young talent. For example, I’d love to keep hold of Scalvini!

Atalanta BC (Bergamasca Calico) are a team which I have admired and followed rather closely for a number of years now. When contemplating a new FM save, I pondered over many clubs and challenges, and ultimately felt like I wanted to manage in Italy. Initially, I had my sights set on Serie B, and Sampdoria in particular. However, having recently taken Malaga from the Spanish third tier to La Liga, I wanted a break from managing smaller clubs. Atalanta sit in a weird position of not being a massive club, certainly not financially, but have also had far too much success and quality in recent years to be deemed as a ‘big challenge’ in FM terms. Although, the idea of taking this ‘Queen of the Provincial Clubs’, who have not one a major trophy in 60 years, and never been crowned Serie A champions, to the top of the italian summit, is for me at least, an exciting challenge. Helped by the fact that Atalanta boast one of the best, if not the best, academies in Italy, I aim to make this quite a Youth ‘heavy’ save, incorporating as many homegrown / Bergamo natives into the team as possible. Affectionally known as La Dea (The Goddess) by their fans, they are often referred to by others as Regina delle Provinciali (The Queen of the Provincial clubs) as they are one of the most successful and consistent Italian clubs, not based in a regional capital (like their Lombardy rivals Milan or Inter). Atalanta lifted the Coppa Italia in 1963 - they're only major trophy to this date. The Remarkable Rise under Gasperini: An unstable period followed between the years 1994 and 2011, with the club experiencing several relegations and promotions. After a tumultuous 2009–10 season, which saw the club change coach three times, the club was once again relegated to Serie B. After this latest fall from the top flight, Antonio Percassi became the club’s new President - a role which he still occupies today. He appointed Stefano Colantuano as Head Coach, and the club swiftly returned to Serie A in 2011. Unfortunately for Atalanta, club captain Cristiano Doni was embroiled in a match fixing scandal which earned him a three and a half year ban, with the club being docked six points in the 2011-12 season and a further two points in the 2012-13 season. Colontuano kept the club affloat in that time, but Atalanta lingered in the lower mid table positions. This all changed in 2016, when Gian Piero Gasperini took the reins as Head Coach. Gasperini, was in fact, on the verge of the sack just five games into his first season with Atalanta lying in 19th place. Patience in the coach was rewarded, as form improved drastically and Atalanta went on a six game winning streak, beating the likes of Inter, Roma and Napoli and lay in 6th place come the winter break. They continued their fine run, and ended up in 4th place with 72 points, a club record, and qualifying for the UEFA Europa League after 26 years out of European competition. Atalanta reached the round of 16 in the UEL, before being knocked out by Borussia Dortmund. They went onto achieve a 7th place finish that year, but qualified for the Europa League once more, as well as a Coppa Italia semi-final. It was his third season in charge in which Atalanta really took Italian football by storm. They played some dazzling football with the attacking trident of Papa Gomez, Josip Ilicic and Duvan Zapata regularly combining and taking Atalanta to a 3rd place finish - qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history! It was their best ever league position, and they were the leagues top goalscorers, as well as being Coppa Italia finalists - unfortunately losing 2-0 to cup specialists Lazio. The club went onto achieve consecutive 3rd place finishes in 2019-20 and 2020-21, cementing themselves as one of the top Italian sides, and a Champions League participant for three straight seasons. Atalanta have been on the rise since his appointment, playing an attractive, attacking brand of high pressing football along the way. They have regressed a little over the last few seasons, finishing 8th in 2021-22, but returned to Europe with a 5th place finish last season. After losing key attacking players such as Papu Gomez and Josip Ilicic, you cannot be too surprised by the recent regression. The two of them, behind Duvan Zapata, who moved on this summer to Torino, were an unplayable trio who gave many Serie A defenders nightmares for a good few seasons. Gasperini had to install a great work ethic, one that is synonymous with the City of Bergamo and its people, into the team itself. They do not boast the riches of their Milan rivals, or Juventus for that matter. However, Gasperini could lean quite heavily on the impressive talent pool within the Academy, and the club’s fantastic work in the scouting department by always finding hidden gems at a good price. Atalanta also do a great job of flipping these players for a profit, take the recent sale of Rasmus Højlund to Manchester United for an initial £64m, after signing him for 17m euros just one year earlier. It speaks volumes for Gasperini to be able to turn Atalanta from a club who’s goal was to avoid elegation, into a team fighting for Serie A dominance, and constantly participating in European competitions, and on top of that, being one of the most exciting teams to watch in Europe. He does so with a fairly modest playing squad, a true testament to his tactical nouse. I will now look to build on the great foundations which he has laid down at the club, and try and deliver not just a Scudetto, but ensure Atalanta becomes not just the mythical Goddess it already is, but a behemoth of Italian football. Next I will delve into My Philosophy and the Tactics, before going through some of my techniques to Training/Player Development and how this will work at Atalanta. #GoAtalantaGo

Thank you for confirming @Rashidi - much appreciated!

I'm having serious issues with defending throw ins, so many goals have been conceded in this way. I had them on the Default setting for a while, but even after tweaking them to my own configuration, I'm still having no luck. Now something just happened to me in a game which has left me speechless. I took a screen recording but the file was too big to upload, so I hope this URL is accessible: https://jmp.sh/RHhgFutz Keep an eye on my left back Victor Garcia (#24) in the bottom right corner. He is tight to his man, as the opponent prepares to take the throw in, but as play develops, he decides to leave him completely free, and just runs further into the box towards nobody, where there is no danger, whilst his marker scores the easiest tap in at the back post. If it makes any difference, his instruction for the set piece is to 'Player Mark' - which he does initially, before abandoning that duty, and running away from his man like a headless chicken. I can understand conceding the odd throw in, and it's been a problem but not one worth highlighting, until this, which is just ridiculous and makes me think it has to be a bug? There is no logical explanation to see this type of behaviour. Apologies if this is the incorrect forum to raise this, I'm not sure if it's a genuine bug or tactical issue.

I have the exact same issue - most of our goals conceded tend to come late on, in the last 15-20 minutes especially: They tend to be from crosses as well. Most teams we come up against tend to use 'Wing Play' which I'm starting to think could be a little over powered as well. You are right though, some adjustments can be made to counter that, and definitely not at the expense of the attacking play. Like yourself, I have not done much to address the issue, since we are outscoring our opponents anyway - but something to keep an eye on especially next season in the Second Division.

Following this with great interest as I’m also playing with Malaga at the moment. Almost finished the first season, just clinched the title with 5 games to spare. It’s been great fun, I suspect next season will be a lot more challenging in L2. Regarding your struggles to keep a clean sheet: I have also had a real problem keeping the goals out, despite having the best Expected Goals Against by some margin. We were leading the league in all stats and metrics, but now can only boast the second best defensive record with 35 conceded in 33. After seeing your defensive struggles, I am wondering if it’s just an issue with the defence/goalkeepers at Malaga - or maybe just the goal-friendly Match Engine, rather than any glaring tactical issues. Nevertheless, you seem to be on an unstoppable run. I can’t quite boast the same record, as we got XG’d (or FM’d) a few times and did end up losing 5 games so far but 80pts from 33 games is not too shabby. Keep up the good work!

Can’t wait for this! The ‘Ajax way’ of playing, that Dutch Total Football, has always been my favourite style to try and replicate. Excited to see how you interpret this in the new match engine with the improved positional play and roles. Good luck!

That's a good result with that lineup! The injuries can be a bit rough, I'm having to rest/rotate a lot more than in FM23 just to keep players fit. Nwaneri is an absolute gem as well btw! Tactic looks a lot more balanced - actually very similar to what I've been using. How's it going now? Regarding the Jesus problem...I signed Ivan Toney (for just 48m) in January and he's scored 17 in 16 so far - playing him either as a PF-A or DLF-A.

This looks better than the original you posted, a lot more balance now with White as a FB. I've set up quite similar to this, except I've been using either a CM-A or BBM (Rice plays there vs big teams) in the left 8 role. If you're having issues with the CAR leaving gaps, I'd try a BBM and maybe ask him to 'Move into Channels'. I also have Martinelli on Support rather than Attack, but either as an IW or IF - not decided which one is better so far. How is Jesus performing for you? In all comps he has 11 goals in 22(4), and a minutes per goal of just 151. Nketiah has a goal every 112 by contrast. I have been chopping and changing his role, either a PF-A, or DLF-S / CF-S if I want him to drop deep and drag defenders away. He just seems to get low ratings, regardless of the role.

I think that sounds about right for Martinelli, especially as players make more intelligent decisions in regards to their position and rotations in the new ME - such as holding width for an 8/10 to move into the half space. Interesting set up. I've not tried a 4-2-3-1 yet, it would definitely replicate the off ball/pressing shape a lot better than a 4-3-3 but I'm not sure if it's better at creating the 3-2-5 build up? The other reason I'm yet to try it is due to the double DM meaning there isn't a natural place for a Havertz/Vieira/ESR in there since Odegaard is the #10 However, that is the most accurate representation of the current lineup IRL form the past 3 games (City, Chelsea, Sevilla). Jesus is a tricky role. When I watch him play, he screams Support duty to me - he's always dropping deep, both on and off the ball, and more often than not meaning we do not have a presence in the box. Whereas Nketiah, not saying he does not drop deep from time to time, definitely plays more like a traditional #9 - and I'd say a PF-A represents him. Jesus could be a CF-S perhaps? The Saka - Martinelli debate is interesting too. I view Saka as more of a creator out of the two, Martinelli is the guy that wants to run in behind and get into goalscoring positions more frequently.

Also playing as my beloved Arsenal in FM24, it's going pretty well and like you I am trying to play as close as I can to how we set up IRL. I have mostly been using Saka as a W-A like yourself, but the roles around him can change. He's probably been my most consistent attacker, but that might be down to his sheer quality. Overall I can't complain too much, we are top joint top and have the best defence in the league after 19 games. However, whilst we also have the 3rd best attack, I'm not entirely pleased with the output. To be fair I have been tweaking a lot as this will most likely be my 'Beta save' and I'm using it to test my Arteta inspired tactic. I have a couple questions however, how do you/would you set up the left side of the attack? I see Martinelli and Saka's roles to be pretty similar, both hug the touchline and look for 1v1 opportunities. Although Martinelli is more of a threat in behind and can pop up in central positions (like his goal vs Sevilla tonight!) which is why I've tried IW and IF for him too. Then the left 8 role has been troublesome - much like real life I guess. RE Havertz, I've had a decent output from him and Vieira/ESR from a CM-A, but none of them setting the world alight. I feel to get this to work best, a Winger role for Martinelli makes sense to create space for the CM-A to run into. I've also not settled on my 'In Possession' instructions thus far. I feel with the pace in the side, I score a lot of goals on the counter and with through balls in behind. But when I try to 'dominate' games by controlling possession, it results in next to no highlights with barely any shots on goal. Definitely enjoying the new ME, with the new and tweaked roles to enable better positional play, and I feel like I've pretty much nailed the first third (build up), it's after that where I still need some tweaking!

It could well be because of that. I’m going into the next season with the aim of dominating possession even more, so we reduce the amount of counter attack opportunities for the AI. Thanks for the suggestion on the centre backs. I used one on Cover due to one of my CB’s (Enzo Boyomo) being more suited to that role. I haven’t really noticed the Cover defender doing any ‘covering’ or sweeping up balls in behind, or anything that a Defend duty wouldn’t do. So maybe reverting to both on Defend is a good idea. Appreciate the feedback

As the title suggests, I am having a hard time keeping clean sheets at the moment. However, I'm struggling to understand why, since we lead the league in almost every metric (including expected goals against). Yet, despite only giving up a few chances per game, the AI seem to score with almost every opportunity they get, and are in fact consistently outperforming their XG against me. I have been managing SC Braga in Portugal, and had won the league for five years on the bounce - so I'm not doing too bad. However, this season we lost the league by a single point, and conceded the most goals in a single campaign of my six seasons thus far. Last season, we only one the league by a couple points thanks to Porto bottling the title towards the end. There was a similar pattern last season, which I did nothing to address as I thought it might have been an anomaly (and also my old goalkeeper made a load of costly errors). This season I signed a top goalkeeper, for a Portuguese record at the time, hoping it would change my fortunes. It did not. The tactic I have been using for the past season and a half, is largely inspired by the great @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! and his Attacking + Very Fluid approach. In fact his recent twitter thread caught my eye, and I have been rocking a similar system since. It produces some of the best football I've seen from a 4-3-3 in this year's game, and we score lots of goals. It suits my players too, they are technically superb and hard working. Some Tis are situational, I often lower the Tempo, remove Pass Into Space, Counter and Be More Expressive as I don't want to gift possession away. I don't believe there is anything glaringly wrong with the tactical system. As you can see by the stats, on paper, we are a really strong side defensively. However, in reality, we are conceding far more than we should. Is it just bad luck, or is there more to it? Despite having the lowest XGa in the league, 17.32 from 34 games, we actually conceded 26. What I also find amazing, is that we conceded the fewest shots against in the league. Lastly, here is how my 'world class' goalkeeper performed in terms of Save Percentage. I didn't notice him make too many errors, maybe just one or two leading to a goal. But a 68% save percentage, from 31 league games, is pretty shocking. However, the fact my other goalkeeper performed poorly last season too, makes me think there could be a deeper, underlying issue. Can anyone see anything wrong here? When I look at the stats I am encouraged. We often dominate games too, it tends to be the AI's only highlight which turns into a goal. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

I think the game does a pretty good job at trying to get as close to real life as possible, and that's all it can do. However, I do think it can be improved and is overdue a bit of an upgrade. Especially as football has evolved quite a lot in the last few years with Pep and his disciples. Even Roberto De Zerbi is transforming English football with his style of play and results at a so called 'smaller club'. I think it goes beyond adding new player roles. Sure, we'd like a John Stones-esque role where the Centre Back becomes a second midfield pivot, or even a Ben White role where a full back plays as a wide centre back. I'm not sure what the answer is - I'll leave that to the talented people at SI. But I think they need to prioritise bringing the game up to speed with modern football, where formations are no longer a thing. As I understand it, the game understands formations as a teams defensive shape, which I agree on, and that part is fine. You can ask your team to defend in a 4-4-2 high or mid block, but in today's football, this can take on all forms of shapes and positions when the team has the ball, which are simply not viable in the tactics creator in its current state.

Off the top of my head just the following: IW - Stay Wider, Take More Risks W - Cross Aim Centre Majority of players are also told to Shoot Less (apart from front 4) I try and keep PIs to a minimum. For example, Take More Risks I sometimes turn off on my IW if I notice him giving the ball away (I’m often told this in the recent match analysis)

In my main save with Braga I have been running some variant of a 4-4-2 or 4-2-4 for the past couple seasons and it has now naturally developed into more of a De Zerbi 4-2-3-1. I’ve certainly taken some inspiration and pointers from others in this thread and also the View from the Touchline recreation. As someone who has followed RDZ since his Sassuolo days, I was keen to get some key principles of his to work: - Building out from the back with a 4+2 (or 2+4), with the goalkeeper also involved creating another passing outlet - Baiting the press with a slower build up that involves lots of passes (in particular wall passes) - Two wingers who stay wide and stretch play, with license to cut inside and link up with the front two in the final third I feel like the above tactic I’ve been using does these three things very well, and quite effectively in the match engine. Both fullbacks are told to Sit Narrow to aid build up by playing closer to the centre backs and double pivot. The two BPDs dribble less with the intention of passing into the DMs ahead (who also dribble less) rather than dribbling their way out of the back. We try to bait the press this way, also aided by our Keeper slowing things down. I think the Advanced Forward is probably the one role which I could change depending on the player. However I think currently at Brighton, Ferguson is more of a Complete Forward. I tested this with Brighton too, with great results. It can probably be tweaked further, as I play more games with it but so far it’s incredibly solid defensively and plays some great RDZ football. The Winger on attack is very strong in this tactic.