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Arsenal's Invincibles 2003/04
View attachment 448987
In the 2003/04 season Arsenal achieved the fantastic feat of going a whole Premier League season unbeaten with a record of W26 D12 L0. It was also the last season that they won the League. The team was built on solid defensive foundations with an experienced keeper and commanding centre back in Campbell. Cole, Toure and Lauren were all converted midfielders and as such were comfortable in possession and driving forward with the ball. In front of them was the ball winning Gilberto Silva, who as with most Brazilians was equally competent in possession as he was in winning it. Vieira was the work horse of the team, acting as a true dynamic box to box midfielder. Out wide were Ljungberg and Pires, who were renowned for outside to inside runs and regularly getting in the penalty box to finish off attacking moves. Then there was the geniuses of the team, Henry and Bergkamp. Bergkamp drifted deep using his intelligence to find the pockets of space between the oppositions midfield and defence, enabling him to link up the play creatively. Whereas Henry looked to stretch the defence with his pace and movement, acting as a real goal poacher but also allowed to roam from his position and drift into the channels, in particular linking with Cole and Pires down the left. The team played slick, creative football with a short passing game, but were also lethal on the counter. This is, in my opinion of course, one of the greatest teams of my lifetime (I'm not an Arsenal fan BTW)
FM Re-creation
View attachment 448989
View attachment 448985
Above is how I have tried to re-create the tactic, getting it as close to possible to how they played. As you can see, I have a different team from the usual Arsenal as I am doing a home grown at club challenge.
Strategies
I generally start every game using the Control Mentality. Against weaker teams if I am dominating the game but lacking potency after around 20 minutes I will switch to Attacking. I will switch back to control if I go 2 goals up. Against stronger teams I will still start with Control. If I go 2 goals up, I will always switch to Counter, however if I am up by 1 goal in the last 20-25 minutes I wil also switch to Counter. If I am winning by 1 goal in the last 10 minutes I switch to counter irrespective of who I am playing.
Training
Until the tactic was fluid I put it into all three slots, match training all the way up and worked on Tactics only. Since it has become fluid, I reduced match training by 2 notches and worked on defensive positioning / attacking movement depending on who the next opposition were and how we have been performing recently (i.e. leaking goals or lacking attacking threat).
Opposition Instructions
I've just left this to the Assistant Manager
Development
The tactic is still in the early stages of development and I am forever tweaking it, particularly player roles. If you have any feedback / advice it would be appreciated.
Results
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The tactic has only been used for 20 games so far, achieving 16 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss. The loss came in the 2nd leg of the League Cup, where I fielded an U18s/U21s team to give them the experience but they weren't ready for the level.
Download File Attached and Cheers for Reading!
Arsenal's Invincibles 2003/04
View attachment 448987
In the 2003/04 season Arsenal achieved the fantastic feat of going a whole Premier League season unbeaten with a record of W26 D12 L0. It was also the last season that they won the League. The team was built on solid defensive foundations with an experienced keeper and commanding centre back in Campbell. Cole, Toure and Lauren were all converted midfielders and as such were comfortable in possession and driving forward with the ball. In front of them was the ball winning Gilberto Silva, who as with most Brazilians was equally competent in possession as he was in winning it. Vieira was the work horse of the team, acting as a true dynamic box to box midfielder. Out wide were Ljungberg and Pires, who were renowned for outside to inside runs and regularly getting in the penalty box to finish off attacking moves. Then there was the geniuses of the team, Henry and Bergkamp. Bergkamp drifted deep using his intelligence to find the pockets of space between the oppositions midfield and defence, enabling him to link up the play creatively. Whereas Henry looked to stretch the defence with his pace and movement, acting as a real goal poacher but also allowed to roam from his position and drift into the channels, in particular linking with Cole and Pires down the left. The team played slick, creative football with a short passing game, but were also lethal on the counter. This is, in my opinion of course, one of the greatest teams of my lifetime (I'm not an Arsenal fan BTW)
FM Re-creation
View attachment 448989
View attachment 448985
Above is how I have tried to re-create the tactic, getting it as close to possible to how they played. As you can see, I have a different team from the usual Arsenal as I am doing a home grown at club challenge.
Strategies
I generally start every game using the Control Mentality. Against weaker teams if I am dominating the game but lacking potency after around 20 minutes I will switch to Attacking. I will switch back to control if I go 2 goals up. Against stronger teams I will still start with Control. If I go 2 goals up, I will always switch to Counter, however if I am up by 1 goal in the last 20-25 minutes I wil also switch to Counter. If I am winning by 1 goal in the last 10 minutes I switch to counter irrespective of who I am playing.
Training
Until the tactic was fluid I put it into all three slots, match training all the way up and worked on Tactics only. Since it has become fluid, I reduced match training by 2 notches and worked on defensive positioning / attacking movement depending on who the next opposition were and how we have been performing recently (i.e. leaking goals or lacking attacking threat).
Opposition Instructions
I've just left this to the Assistant Manager
Development
The tactic is still in the early stages of development and I am forever tweaking it, particularly player roles. If you have any feedback / advice it would be appreciated.
Results
View attachment 448988
The tactic has only been used for 20 games so far, achieving 16 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss. The loss came in the 2nd leg of the League Cup, where I fielded an U18s/U21s team to give them the experience but they weren't ready for the level.
Download File Attached and Cheers for Reading!
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