[FM20] A decade of disappointment - We want our Arsenal back!

[Sysiphus]

Arsenal FC

"Get the Basque Tony Pulis out for literally anyone else!"

"Well - what about Frank Johnson? The 34 year old guy from the stats department who's never managed a team before?"

Hey guys - and welcome to what should be a short-lived thread. Every year I use the Beta to play a short Arsenal save to familiarise myself with the game before doing something more fun. Have never played more than 3 seasons with the Gunners. I am a lifelong supporter of the Arsenal - and I want my Arsenal back! Lets win the EPL and the CL and call it a day.

I know Arsenal are a money making machine on Football Manager but I don't intend on buying Pogba, Mbappe, Kante and Neymar in order to win everything - we'll do it the Arsenal way.

The club's vision is not to ambitious - I have 5 years to win the Premier League. Regarding the club culture it seems that the upper hierarchy wants their Arsenal back as well; dynamic and fun football and youngsters to boot. 

Edited October 31, 2019 by Sysiphus

[withnail316]

Hope you get relegat....Err, I mean, best of luck, man. 

[Sysiphus]

21 minutes ago, withnail316 said:

Hope you get relegat....Err, I mean, best of luck, man. 

Thanks - I guess 

[Sysiphus]

Squad thoughts

The squad isn't bad - far from it. However, there have to be some changes. It needs injection of power, pace, determination and leadership qualities. Along with that, players that have been causing stir-ups with and between fans for the last few years are holding the club back and need to be moved on, regardless of their quality. Mesut Özil, Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi are symbolic of the late Wenger era and his failure at rebuilding a champions team. These players must be moved at the earliest opportunity so the squad can progress with a clean slate.

We play entertaining football where we see a lot of the ball, so being an amazing athlete is not enough to play for Arsenal. As much as the squad needs their muscles, Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis Papastathopoulos lack the quality on the ball that is needed to play from our goal. They'll be replaced sooner rather than late, but there's no rush to do that at once.

I have started with the first transfer window disabled so there won't be any incoming, but some youngsters should leave on loan. Below are the tactics I've set up, and our best 11 in my opinion. For me, it is a key that the midfield is athletic and can recycle the ball quickly. Xhaka and Dani Ceballos are able footballers, but they lack the power and directness required.

Going into the save I had fears that Özil would be hard to get rid of because of his massive wages and his popularity in the dressing room. There don't seem to be personal problems incoming though:

Now we just have to be able to get rid. Another of the same messages reached me, but a much less pleasant one. Luckily, we managed to convince him that we'd reach CL qualification this season:

[Nobby_McDonald]

Good luck at the Arse.

[BillHoudini24]

Good luck, I really enjoyed your FM19 save with Borewood. I hope this is just a beta save 

[go2_ars]

So did you manage to sell Ozil?

[Sysiphus]

On 05/11/2019 at 08:01, go2_ars said:

So did you manage to sell Ozil?

I had the first transfer window disabled - let's see what happens in January.

[Sysiphus]

August 2019

We had a rocky start to the season with a humbling loss to the Southampton - but any manager except for Brendan Rodgers will tell you that it's always a tough away day when you visit the Saints. We had no time to sulk after that loss, went straight to the training pitch and practiced attacking movement, which was lacking at St Mary's. That resulted in a great 3-2 victory against a good Liverpool team, which I hoped would give us some much needed confidence for the next few games. It appeared to have done so, as we came home from our trip to Molineux with three points. It was a tough game and I am very pleased with Gabriel Martinelli getting his first goal for the club. We rounded the month off with a hard fought victory against the Blades, where our ball winner Torreira scored directly from a free kick. This has us ending the month right outside of the desired top 4 on goal difference. It's still very early in the season but next up awaits us a stern test against Leicester who have made a flying start to the season and look in real good form - still unbeaten and their three victories have been won by an average of 3 goals each.

Aubameyang has been phenomenal in these first four games, scoring four goals from the left hand side. Lacazette has been very good as a deep lying forward at getting their teammates involved in attacking play and Torreira has bossed the midfield. The new star Nico Pépé has been slowly but surely finding his form, providing one assist and being an absolute menace on the counter. He just needs that little bit of luck to kickstart his goalscoring.

[Sysiphus]

September 2019

September started with a big match against 2nd placed Leicester. Expecting a difficult game, I was surprised to see us lead 3 to 0 when the ref blew for halftime - after that it was a cruise. Pépé scored his first goal for the club which I hoped would spark him into life, but he's still finding his feet it seems. The young guns got the job done against William Saliba and teammates in Saint-Etienne with Bukayo Saka scoring his first goal for the first team. What a talent that kid is. Then we were stunned by a late Miguel Almirón equalizer up north in Tyneside, really not the result we came for:

As the away win against Newcastle slipped out of our hands, another shock occurred when Aubameyang, who has bee in absolutely electric form this season, had to go off injured. Auba had scored 7 goals from the left wing in 6 games with the average rating of 8.50, topping the goalscoring and rating charts in the league. He might be out for up to 6 weeks so this presents a chance for the starlets Saka, Nelson and Martinelli to shine.

Two of those three, Nelson and Martinelli, would then score in the next game to see us advance in the Carabao cup. The month ended with a stern test against Manchester City, where a David Luiz penalty ensured our victory with only 5 minutes remaining. We end the month in the 3rd place, equalling the top side Manchester United on points but with one more game played. Auba's injury might prove costly, but this month has seen us give game time to players recovering from long term injuries, like Héctor Bellerin, Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding. These three have been working their match fitness up and are now able to start games in November.

[walterjocoski]

I'm following.

Will you use Gabriel Martinelli in your squad?

[Sysiphus]

3 hours ago, walterjocoski said:

I'm following.

Will you use Gabriel Martinelli in your squad?

I am - have him on the bench in the PL and he starts the EL and Carabao cup games up top. Often comes on for either Lacazette (DLF) or Aubameyang (IF) if they're too tired to continue or if our lead is solid (which hasn't really happened much so far). However, with Auba out for 3-6 weeks that creates an opportunity for for more first team football Martinelli to grab. It's difficult though as Nelson, Saka and Smith-Rowe are also all very promising and command game time and attention.

[hasdgfas]

Definitely going to follow this. I'm similarly doing an Arsenal save to get my feet under me with the new 2020 changes.

Be careful though, you may hit the CL qualification promise bug. I had that with Auba with like 10 games left in the season, he said he was leaving since we hadn't qualified for the CL, even though we were top of the league. He now wants me to sell him the next summer. I'm glad this is a beta save.

[Sysiphus]

9 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Definitely going to follow this. I'm similarly doing an Arsenal save to get my feet under me with the new 2020 changes.

Be careful though, you may hit the CL qualification promise bug. I had that with Auba with like 10 games left in the season, he said he was leaving since we hadn't qualified for the CL, even though we were top of the league. He now wants me to sell him the next summer. I'm glad this is a beta save.

Yeah I've heard about this one. That's why I like to do my beta save as a quick one with a team I know, not a long term save I'll get immersed in - as the game hasn't been finished and bugs like these will creep up.

[Sysiphus]

Quite the hot take by the media.

[Sysiphus]

October 2019

October was the month of the young guns - Smith Rowe, Saka, Martinelli and Nelson scored combined 9 goals. The Europa League games against Getafe and Lugano were easy and we're all but through from the group. In the league we drew on the south beach against Brighton, very disappointing. We bounced back from that game with a good home win against Chelsea and have now won against Liverpool, City and Chelsea so far this season. Rather bizarrely we managed to draw against Burnley, being man up for about an hour and having over 30 shots - well done Nick Pope.

Bellerin and Holding had injury setbacks and will be eased into the side in November. Tierney is playing with full force after his injury and Aubameyang is back up to speed after his injury. We end the month in a fourth place, and pray that Man Utd start to slow down soon.

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Sysiphus

[Sysiphus]

Emile Smith Rowe came knocking for a new contract - and on 10k p/w, playing well in the EL, I thought he merited a new one. I asked my DoF to handle the negotiations, as is done at Arsenal irl, and he has given the young man an absolutely farcical contract, both wages vice and squad status vice:

Mesut now wants to stay - is there a way back for him?

...yes - if he performs.

[Sysiphus]

November 2019

Only four games in November, preceding a nine game December where we'll have to be at our best if we are to keep up with the leading sides in the league. We managed a solid if unspectacular victory against Bournemouth at home before winning by three goals in Switzerland mid week, where Folarin Balogun made his debut for the club.

The North London derby saw the sides split their points at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs have had a difficult season so far and would have relinquished a victory against us to pull closer to top 4, but luckily we managed to snatch the draw. The month ended with a victory against Saint-Etienne in France. We still sit fourth in the league and there is nothing stopping Man Utd at the moment - but we'll play them in our next game at home and hopefully manage to reduce the gap between us to 6 points.

Some words on Saka - he's some player all right:

And some on Smith Rowe - why on earth does my coaching staff think he's a 4 star player having maxed his potential out by now? Has been playing well in the EL though.

[Sysiphus]

December 2019

My days, what a hectic month! We started it off by being the first team to win United in the league - and thank god that we did so, they were absolutely cruising. We followed that with strong victories against Villa and Watford before being absolutely floored by Everton, with Alex Iwobi scoring a hat-trick against his old club. Very humbling defeat but I would definitely have taken 21 points out of 24 possible in the league in December beforehand, even though it would mean this humiliation.

We progressed through to the Carabao Cup's semi finals after a solid win vs Wolves, where we'll play Chelsea. We ended the year on a high with 3 wins in a row in the league and enter the new year in high spirits and good form. We also had our final Europa League group game this month, beating Getafe who still managed the 2nd place - leaving William Saliba's St Etienne behind.

In the first knockout round we have a "tough" draw. Zenit are definitely one of the stronger teams in the competition, but the Russian side should not give us much trouble if we go about our way as we should.

So, this is the league position at the turn of the year. We are on course for an 86 point season which I am very happy with, but the problem is that City are on course for 98 points, United 94 and Liverpool 90-96 (game in hand). Everton are playing well (as seen above) with Moise Kean leading their line very efficiently. Chelsea are not far behind and could pose trouble for us if they kick into gear. Wolves are on their heals but I do not expect them to be a threat in the 4th place running. Tottenham are absolutely hopeless in 9th place, providing smiles and happiness in the red side of North London.

Lastly, we had our youth intake preview. I was hoping for good news on defenders, as we don't seem to have any good youngsters who can play there. We got the news we wanted, and hopefully this lot will do well for us in the future.

[Sysiphus]

Awards and January thoughts

Aubameyang has been in electric form from the left flank this season and that has resulted in him picking up the second place in Ballon d'Or and World Player of the Year. He's of course in the World Team of the Year as well.

Now, January has come and I will be doing some business here as I did none in the summer. I want to trim down my squad; lose a central defender (likely to be Mustafi) and a central midfielder (likely to be Özil or Xhaka). I'm slowly but surely trying to turn the squad over to be a lot more athletic in central areas (Özil, Xhaka and Ceballos are casualties here) and better with the ball in defence (Sokratis and Kolasinac can't stay for long). However, I'm realise that we can't lose 5+ first teamer in January, they would be hell to replace and wreak havoc on the dressing room, so I will be focusing on losing Mustafi, who doesn't play at all, and Özil, who brings with him an aura of discontent along with his huge wage package. Özil will be difficult to move on as he's no longer transfer listed (mistake by me to accept that request) and he's a team leader. The other two team leaders are Xhaka and Sokratis, so they'll probably stay put until summer unless I'm unable to move Özil on - as I can't lose all three team leaders in one window.

I'm not desperate to strengthen, but I might sign a youngster or two - and if the opportunity arises to sign a midfielder or a central defender in the mould I'm looking for, I'll do it and get rid of one more player in corresponding position. The board have been generous and given me 77 million pounds to spend - let's see what happens.

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 09/11/2019 at 20:54, Sysiphus said:

Emile Smith Rowe came knocking for a new contract - and on 10k p/w, playing well in the EL, I thought he merited a new one. I asked my DoF to handle the negotiations, as is done at Arsenal irl, and he has given the young man an absolutely farcical contract, both wages vice and squad status vice:

 

Maybe it's time you didn't have a Director of Football?

[Sysiphus]

2 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Maybe it's time you didn't have a Director of Football?

Yeah in a long term save I'm invested in I'm not a fan of DoFs. This is convenient in a quick Beta game .

[Sysiphus]

January 2020 transfer window

The squad needed a little trimming in January. Shkodran Mustafi hadn't really played at all over the season, and was happy to accept a move to China, away from the spotlight and ensuring financial security for himself and his family.

Following him to China on a free went Mo Elneny, who is currently on loan at Besiktas. His contract would have ran out in the summer and we weren't interested in renewing it. The deal he got speaks volume about the advantage of being a free agent, as he quintuples his salary from 50k p/w to 250k p/w. We wish him luck with and good fortune. Tidy little player but not of the requisite standard for Arsenal.

The bad apple in the squad, Mesut Özil, had seemingly come to peace with staying at Arsenal and finally got his playing time - but he didn't really fit into the system and was unable to find his feet, providing a string of bad performances which made me pull the trigger of getting rid of him. On his gargantuan salary that was always going to be difficult, so he follows his former pal Alexis Sánchez and goes to the Red Devils in Manchester. They took him on loan and will pay 275k p/w of his wages, which in 6 months saves us 7.15 million pounds plus appearance fees and bonuses. 

A number of players in the squad kicked up a fuss about the team leader leaving, but I manage to calm all of them down, except for one. Another team leader, Granit Xhaka left angry from that meeting and I saw this as an opportunity to let him go and restructure my midfield. Granit was happy to leave at the earliest opportunity and follows Mustafi and Elneny to China, where he'll no doubt play very well away from fan and media scrutiny. With Xhaka and Özil leaving, David Luiz and Sokratis stepped up as team leaders alongside Aubameyang.

Arsenal do not have the appeal, they used to have, having been in the Europa League for three seasons running and not winning the Premier League in 15 years. This means that we have to go differently about our transfer business, buying players before they reach their peak and mould them into superstars. The academy also plays a big part here, as we'll need homegrown players to fill in squad gaps, and we also need to maximise their potential to be able to make money off of them. Two young up and coming players were brought in this transfer window. Though of as a future partner to William Saliba in our centre defence, his fellow national Benoit Badiashile joins us from AS Monaco for 18 million pounds. He'll linger around the first team squad the second half of the season, hopefully collecting some minutes and then maybe leave on a loan for the next season.

Benoit has everything we want from our centre backs. He's got an imposing figure, standing at 194 cm and very physically able. He's already fairly professional at 18 years old and potentially a leader in the making. He's got good defensive attributes and can play the ball with confidence. A fantastic plus is his left footedness, which partners very well with Saliba's right footedness.

Another young and exciting player joined us from Birmingham, Jude Bellingham. Bellingham is one of the most promising English players, and joins us for 22 million pounds (half in instalments), with possible 5 millions on top after 5 international caps. He'll play with our u23s as he's only 16 years old, but may see some minutes in injury crises, as our midfield is a bit thin with both Özil and Xhaka leaving.

Bellingham is the perfect mezzala. He's got all the correct attributes and great traits already, complimenting the role. I play with a mezzala on the right of my midfield setup and he'll compete with Joe Willock for that place in the next few years. He's professional at just 16 years of age and with good leadership qualities. I'm very excited to see how he develops for us.

[hasdgfas]

Wow! Big changes in January for you. That's a LOT of possible instability in the middle of the season. Good luck keeping up your momentum!

[Sysiphus]

22 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Wow! Big changes in January for you. That's a LOT of possible instability in the middle of the season. Good luck keeping up your momentum!

Many changes, but I have the same starting eleven, and most importantly in the midfield (where the biggest changes happened) as in the first half of the season. Guendouzi, Torreira and Willock have been my midfield starters with Smith-Rowe being the first one of the bench usually. Ceballos is my 5th man and now Bellerin and Tierney are fully back Maitland-Niles can play there as well. These changes no doubt hurt the team in the short term, but we have our eye on the future here. 4th place or above was the goal this season, and with Tottenham and Chelsea so bad I think we can 100% ride it out until the end of the season, unless Everton go on a crazy run.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Sysiphus

[Sysiphus]

January 2020

Another 8 game month followed December as January was equally busy. We managed to do pretty well in my opinion and only lost points against the league favourites, Liverpool. That was a game that would have been very nice to win, but they proved too strong for us. Our defence seems to be coming together better after Tierney, Bellerin and Holding have all come to full fitness and play most games. Luiz and Holding have played well together, and it's very good for our playing from the back to be able to sit Sokratis down against pressure happy Premier League teams. In the Carabao semi finals we absolutely destroyed Chelsea in the second leg, winning them 6-0 and getting new signings Badiashile and Bellingham off the marks in their debut.

We have a five point lead on 5th placed Everton and Chelsea are out of the rase with 15 games to go. I would love to have a good February and extend our lead on Everton to a safe distance of 8-10 points and in the meantime gain ground on the teams above us. We're 9 points off the top team (possible top two teams if Liverpool win their games in hand) so that looks a distant dream at the moment. Now we'll have to focus on cementing our top 4 place, proceed in the Europa League and FA Cup and the upcoming Carabao Cup final against Liverpool. Big months ahead for our young squad.

[Sysiphus]

February 2020

February started with a bad draw against Newcastle, where we lead two times in the last 15 minutes but both times they managed to claw back a goal. After that game, we closed the shop and kept a clean sheet in each game for the rest of the month - winning them all. Two of them were in the Europa League which might make the month look better than it was, but 10 points from 12 possible in the league I'm happy with, especially the important 0-1 away win in Manchester, beating the then-league leaders. We were dealt a bit of a blow with Luiz picking up a 2 month hip injury. 32 years old, this may be a curtain closing moment for him and his career, depending on how Sokratis and Badiashile do in his absence. Luiz is the club captain after Xhaka left, and the only real leader in the dressing room. This is a big blow to our well defence who's been coming together in the last two months.

The month sees us moving further away from Everton, having now a 12 point lead over them and the 4th place all but secured. We move a closer to the Manchester team but Liverpool are on a great run and it'll prove tough to catch up with them.

We started our summer shopping early, finishing up our first transfer early February. Roman Zobnin will join us from Spartak Moscow on July 9th. He'll add to our midfield depth which has been missing after Xhaka's and Özil's departures. Zobnin is a hard working warrior who doesn't give up, and a true model professional. He'll hopefully be an important figure in the dressing room and be able to play a part in the changes I want to make in the atmosphere amongst the players.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Decent month fella.

[Sysiphus]

22 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Decent month fella.

Thanks Nobby. The next one has started terribly, hopefully we can turn it around.

[Sysiphus]

Carabao Cup final

Almost. Liverpool scored twice in the first 16 minutes of the games and looked likely to hang on to that lead. Martinelli and Lacazette managed to get us back on level terms in the last 10 minutes, but a 95th minutes goal from Mo Salah gave Liverpool the cup final victory. Disappointing, but not heartbreaking.

[Sysiphus]

Youth intake 2020

Our youth intake came through today. It's honestly nothing special, but you can't expect to get players who'll be able to play at the very top every year. Hopefully next year.

Scott Batch (DC) and Dan Smith (GK) might come good enough for squad rotation in the future, if they hold their cards right in training. Let's see - we'll have to be patient with this group.

These are the players who've been offered contracts:

Edited November 26, 2019 by Sysiphus

[Sysiphus]

March 2020

A tough month. We were beaten in the Carabao Cup final in a brutal way as defined in one of the posts above and a few days later knocked out of the FA Cup with shame. I'll have to take blame for the heavy defeat against Leicester, as I underestimated them due to their poor league form and played a few kids. On the plus side, we're through to the Europa League's quarter finals, where we'll face Sevilla, and we won both of our league games, not convincingly enough though for my taste. After a tough 2-0 loss to Napoli in Italy, we found ourselves with the back up against the wall in London a week later. At half time we led 2-0 and the tie was even. The margins were very tight as a goal from Napoli would require two goals from us. However, we still needed the third to qualify in regular time. Lacazette scored in the 84th minute and the Emirates went wild. One minute later, Eljif Elmas pegged one back for Napoli and as it stood, we were going out. Late Aubameyang heroics saved our ass in the 92nd minute, as the Gabonese scored a crucial winning goal for us - not for the first time this season. We deservedly advanced from the tie.

We're back down to 4th but have two games in hand. We can get as close as two points from the top if we win both of those. One of them is at Old Trafford though, so we remain realistically optimistic. Big months ahead.

[Carambau]

This is good...

[Sysiphus]

5 hours ago, Carambau said:

This is good...

Thanks mate. Keeping it simple for a short and simple save. Really like your Toulouse thread as well. 

[Carambau]

Thank you! Its a good idea and a great read so far. Getting rid of the rotten apples first would also have been my approach Ozil now on loan at United is just fantastic 

[Sysiphus]

1 hour ago, Carambau said:

Thank you! Its a good idea and a great read so far. Getting rid of the rotten apples first would also have been my approach Ozil now on loan at United is just fantastic 

Yeah serves them right . His wage package is just stupidly high, especially as I don't play with an attacking midfielder and would mainly have used him as a sub. In FM19 he was my best player for 4 seasons as a mezzala, picking up awards left, right and centre. The match engine this year (and after some patch last year as well), doesn't seem as forgiving of defensive incapabilities in the mezzala role.

[Sysiphus]

April 2020

Overall a very good month, advancing to the Europa League semi finals (and all but advancing to the final as well) and only dropping points away to Man Utd and Chelsea. However, that's not good enough to keep the title race going. We need Liverpool to drop 5 points in the last three games and meanwhile we have to win our remaining four games. 

[1984mattyd]

Doing good there! Have started mine. Managed to sell xhaka to utd for £35 mill, Mustafa to wolves for £12mill. Managed to get wague from Barcelona on loan with a future fee of £50mill if I want to, ajer from Celtic was £19 managed to put £5mill on top of it...if I win the euro the first season.

Biggest surprise was Madison! £40mill bargain, tries to get him less, unsettled him and he requeuto leave Leicester and I got the board to give extra cash to sign him up, just need to ditch ozil in January.

4 games in at the moment, 3 wins 1 draw, top of the league..Watford are 4th 😂 with 9 points same as city, s*um and Chelsea. Saka has been awesome as well. Considering to ditch lacazette at the end of the season to.

[Sysiphus]

4 hours ago, 1984mattyd said:

Doing good there! Have started mine. Managed to sell xhaka to utd for £35 mill, Mustafa to wolves for £12mill. Managed to get wague from Barcelona on loan with a future fee of £50mill if I want to, ajer from Celtic was £19 managed to put £5mill on top of it...if I win the euro the first season.

Biggest surprise was Madison! £40mill bargain, tries to get him less, unsettled him and he requeuto leave Leicester and I got the board to give extra cash to sign him up, just need to ditch ozil in January.

4 games in at the moment, 3 wins 1 draw, top of the league..Watford are 4th 😂 with 9 points same as city, s*um and Chelsea. Saka has been awesome as well. Considering to ditch lacazette at the end of the season to.

Nice one! Ajer looks class, was looking at him in January but City snapped him up for about 45 millions. Saka has also been very good for me and I understand wanting to sell either Aubameyang or Lacazette to accommodate Saka into the team. However, for me the combination of Lacazette as a DLF support has worked very well with Auba and Pepe as IF attack on each flank. Auba finished the league campaign as the top goalscorer and Lacazette is in double figures in both goals and assists in the league. Think Lacazette is a really fun player to work with on FM, has such a rounded game.

[sourgrapes11]

Loving this, would you consider replacing Unai?

Good stuff

[Sysiphus]

May 2020

A loss against Crystal Palace right off the bat ruins the month for us as it destroys our chance of the Premier League title. However, it didn't matter in the end as Liverpool didn't stumble on their way to their first title for about 30 years. Deserved I say. We ended the season on a high with a very pleasing win in the North London Derby and an Aubameyang hat-trick against another London side, West Ham. So, we end the season in 2nd place with 88 points total, 76 goals scored and 33 goals conceded. Auba picks up the golden boot playing exclusively from the AML position. What a player he is.

As careful readers may have seen, we are in the Europa League final and will play...

Exciting game. They're a good side with a lot of young talent. One concern of mine is if the game goes to a penalty shoot-out, as our record from the spot has been nothing short of atrocious as of late, where we have missed our last 5 penalties and only have an overall record of 53% penalties converted, despite having very able spot kick takers.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Sysiphus

[Sysiphus]

5 minutes ago, sourgrapes11 said:

Loving this, would you consider replacing Unai?

Good stuff

Thanks man!

Oh, how I wish... the trigger must be pulled soon and it can't be soon enough.

[Sysiphus]

Europa League final

This was definitely a very tough match. Leverkusen went ahead early after a scrappy goal by Leon Bailey, my word that boy's got some dribble on him. It looked like I would have to give a stern half time team talk, but goals from Pépé and Lacazette shortly before the break ensured that we led and left the German side stunned going into the tunnels. The penalty curse seems to have been lifted as Aubameyang broke our streak of 5 penalties missed in a row by slotting one home calmly. Roughly 15 minutes before the final whistle Bailey pulled one back for Leverkusen, and proper stress broke out in my team, especially after I told them to concentrate, which always seems to get a bad reaction from the team. In the end we manage to hold onto our slim lead and stand up as winners. The fans are delighted with the win, given as Arsenal haven't exactly been known for their European glory.

[1984mattyd]

1 hour ago, Sysiphus said:

Nice one! Ajer looks class, was looking at him in January but City snapped him up for about 45 millions. Saka has also been very good for me and I understand wanting to sell either Aubameyang or Lacazette to accommodate Saka into the team. However, for me the combination of Lacazette as a DLF support has worked very well with Auba and Pepe as IF attack on each flank. Auba finished the league campaign as the top goalscorer and Lacazette is in double figures in both goals and assists in the league. Think Lacazette is a really fun player to work with on FM, has such a rounded game.

Pepe is a IF for me. 7 apps 8 goals 3 assists, auba is the same on the other side but been lacking lately with 3 goals and 2 assists in 8. Got spanked by Chelsea 5-0 thanks to an early red card to guendouzi 🤦ajer is definitely class almost pushing David Luis out the team now and now holding is coming back it will be a youthful back 4

[Sysiphus]

9 hours ago, 1984mattyd said:

Pepe is a IF for me. 7 apps 8 goals 3 assists, auba is the same on the other side but been lacking lately with 3 goals and 2 assists in 8. Got spanked by Chelsea 5-0 thanks to an early red card to guendouzi 🤦ajer is definitely class almost pushing David Luis out the team now and now holding is coming back it will be a youthful back 4

Yes, Pepe's an IF for me as well. Auba will start scoring more for you I'd think, but 5 goal contributions in 8 games from the wing is nothing to be sniffed at. Luiz got injured in my games for about 2 months and his ability has fallen off a cliff. I think I'll hold onto him for the 2nd season and let him run his contract out, as he's my captain and the only true leader in the squad. I have him "tutoring" my younger centre backs and think therefore that Sokratis is more dispensable at the time being. He also get much more irritated about lack of game time than Luiz does.

[1984mattyd]

54 minutes ago, Sysiphus said:

Yes, Pepe's an IF for me as well. Auba will start scoring more for you I'd think, but 5 goal contributions in 8 games from the wing is nothing to be sniffed at. Luiz got injured in my games for about 2 months and his ability has fallen off a cliff. I think I'll hold onto him for the 2nd season and let him run his contract out, as he's my captain and the only true leader in the squad. I have him "tutoring" my younger centre backs and think therefore that Sokratis is more dispensable at the time being. He also get much more irritated about lack of game time than Luiz does.

I've been the opposite way with my CBS, both Papa and luiz are slowing being worked out my team, holding and ajer are the way I'm going forwards. Lacazette for injured so auba went as st but he's been poor there lately so need to move him back out wide again. The whole team are performing well. Just got hector back and in first game he got a goal

[Sysiphus]

Loan report

Marcel Lucassen, our in-game loan manager, came to us with a report on the exciting prospects who were out on loan for this season. Although, I'm pretty sure Ben Knapper is our loan manager in real life though and Lucassen head of coach and player development (close enough). Some of the players enjoyed good seasons with fair development and others may need to shake their post-loan hangover off of them.

Eddie Nketiah had a very good season on loan at Leeds, helping them win the Sky Bet Championship and leading the goalscoring charts with 23 goals in 39(6) games, and only 1 of them was from a penalty. In my opinion he's shown that he's ready to make the step up and back Lacazette up next season, which might mean that Martinelli leaves on a loan, to give him more solid appearance runs.

Tyreece John-Jules, another striker, had a rather poor season in League 1 with Bolton, getting relegated in the end and only scoring 5 league goals in 33(4) appearances. He'll get another loan move for the upcoming season but between Nketiah, Martinelli and John-Jules, he has to develop rapidly to stand a chance of establishing himself here.

William Saliba is a very exciting central defender, but had a really poor season at St. Etienne. His development has been up and down and he had a bad injury mid way through the season which haltered his progress. He'll be backup to Holding and Luiz next season along with Badiashile, and will have to impress to knock those players out of the team. He is still a fine prospect and a man mountain, over 100 kg, and could become very good.

Dinos Mavropanos played okay in Israel for Maccabi Tel-Aviv, but didn't develop much. He's now 22 and isn't really of the requisite standard to play in front of the central defenders we currently have, and has a lower ceiling then the young French guys, Saliba and Badiashile. He'll most likely be sold this summer if interest is shown in him.

I won't spend time focusing on other players out on loan, Mkhitaryan will go permanently to Roma for about 20 million pounds, Elneny goes to China and other youngsters do not really have a future here, such as Matt Smith and Ben Sheaf.

 

[Sysiphus]

12 minutes ago, 1984mattyd said:

I've been the opposite way with my CBS, both Papa and luiz are slowing being worked out my team, holding and ajer are the way I'm going forwards. Lacazette for injured so auba went as st but he's been poor there lately so need to move him back out wide again. The whole team are performing well. Just got hector back and in first game he got a goal

Yes, I'm also going forward with Holding at the heart of the defence and slowly trying to introduce Badiashile alongside him and will do the same for Saliba next season, but they're not completely ready.

Yeah - Hector's great and crucial for the team in my opinion.

[Sysiphus]

2019/20 season review

Our first season in charge at Arsenal FC was in my opinion, a success. We ended the season with 88 points, which is the most the club has gotten since the Invincibles season 15 years ago. Along with the 2nd place in the league, we also ended 2nd to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, losing in added time. Leicester knocked us out of the FA cup in the Fifth round and there's a lot of room for improvement there. We managed to win the Europa League which was a nice bonus to a solid season, and will hopefully get us into the habit of winning European trophies. Overall the team played well in the various competitions, and that is shown by the PL's team of the season, which we dominate along with Liverpool.

These guys weren't our only good players though and a lot of young and exciting prospects played very well, especially in the Europa League. Bukayo Saka has really cemented himself as a first team player, and the same can be said for Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock and Benoit Badiashile. Players like Gabriel Martinelli and Reiss Nelson played very well in the cups and Europa, but didn't show me enough in the league to warrant a bigger role in the squad. They might be sent out on loan the next season to kick their development on.

 

[Sysiphus]

The future of the save

Originally I intended for this to be a short beta save, but due to time restrictions I don't feel like starting up my main save just yet, and will therefore continue with this save until mid December at least. Hopefully we'll manage to get another season or two in. Although I'm not used to work with big clubs in FM, I'm really enjoying this save.