First off I would like to start out by saying this guide was made by Mantralux on thedugout, but it was so in depth and comprehensive I received his blessing to post it here on base and I hope you all appreciate the sheer depth and detail of this guide. Original Thread: Link
The Arsenal Guide
INTRO
I've been playing Football Manager for many years, and everytime I do, I try playing as realistically as possible with Arsenal, as it annoys the **** out of me when Wenger buys £40m superstars and other unlikely events during the game.
This article will be as in-depth as humanly possible, going through every little aspect of how to set up the Emirates Cup, how to train, what tactic to use, what kind of players to look for, what staff in what positions, etc etc.
DATABASE
First thing we have to do, is start off on a realistic base, meaning we have to use a custom database with better appreciation of the main Arsenal characters.
INTRO
While creating the realistic tactic for Arsenal, I found myself annoyed with some of the features of the team in FM, so I decided to make a more realistic database for playing with Arsenal.
This DB includes lots of stuff, like new home kits every other year, attribute upgrades to the underestimated players, etc etc.
TEAM
Increased morale, since the team has performed above expectations in this years season.
STAFF
Arsene Wenger
If we're going to play with Arsenal, that means that Wenger won't be manager. Which means that he'll take over another team, which is unrealistic in my opinion. So first thing I did was to make him Football Director of the club, making way for you to be manager but still have Wenger attached to Arsenal to some capacity.
Steve Bould
Seeing as he is head coach of the Arsenal U18 Academy, who won both league and cup in the 08/09 season with Bould as manager, I gave him 18 in the position of manager and 15 in AssMan. Also boosted his PA slightly + attributes boost.
Colin Lewin
PA & CA boost.
PLAYERS
Thomas Vermaelen
Boosted PA, CA and some attributes. Ticked 'Shoots With Power'.
Emmanuel Eboué
Boosted CA, PA, dribbling and finishing slightly.
Theo Walcott
Boosted CA, PA, and increased pace and acceleration to 20.
Bakary Sagna
PA & CA boost, ticked 'Runs With Ball Rarely' and 'Hugs Line'.
Alex Song
PA & CA Boost.
Cesc Fabregas
Attributes, CA and PA boost.
Abou Diaby
Attributes boost + ticked 'Looks For Pass...'.
Andrey Arshavin
PA, CA & Attributes boost + added FC to position.
Robin Van Persie
Attributes boost.
Nicklas Bendtner
PA + attributes boost.
I've also made some slight adjustments on the U18 players, as their PA's were way off in some cases.
STARTING A NEW GAME
How many leagues you want to run is up to you, but try using the biggest database possible, as Arsenal are all about youngsters from all over the world, including Africa and South America.
Turn off transfers in the first window.
CREATING A MANAGER
We don't really know how the club thinks when it comes to managers, apart from the fact that they employed Arsene Wenger, a virtually unproven manager out in the cold at that time.
We also know that some of the Arsenal-created icons have been touted as potential replacements for Wenger someday, like Thierry Henry and Tony Adams.
This makes creating a realistic manager somewhat easy, as we can go for unknown without it feeling too out there. We could also go for a former Arsenal player, just to give it that little 'punch'.
Here are some suggestions for manager names that aren't used in the game, but still relates to Arsenal (all are former players):
Marc Overmars (Holland)
Currently a Football Director at Go Ahead Eagles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Overmars
Dennis Bergkamp (Holland)
Has been studying coaching stuff under Wenger, and is now in a trainee role at Ajax under Marco van Basten.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Bergkamp
John Jensen (Denmark)
Not in the game, but was a real life manager of Danish side Randers just over a year ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jensen
I usually don't really go for the real names though, I just pretend I'm a new Wenger type manager; unknown and talented.
FIRST DAY ON THE JOB
Team Settings
First thing we do is to go into Arsenal - Team Settings, and put Neil Banfield in control of the reserves, and Steve Bould in control of the U18's. In reality, Bould is coach of the Academy U18's, and Banfield always leads the reserves in the Reserve League.
Both the reserves and the U18's use the same tactic as the first team, so tick 'Use current match tactics' in both sections for now. We'll get to the tactics later.
I usually tick 'Contract renewals handled by assistant manager/coach for the U18's. Don't do this for the reserve team, as we'll have players over 30 in there, and we only offer them 1 year contracts.
Pre-Season Fixtures
Arsenal always kick off their pre-season against Barnet on the THIRD Saturday of July. This is usually around the 20th of July.
Austrian Training Camp
After the Barnet game, the team goes to Austria on their annual training camp, and when they're there they usually play an Austrian team, an eastern European team (Hungarian/Polish/etc) and finally a Bundesliga team. Last year it was Stuttgart, this year it was Hannover 96.
A team frequently featured in this mini-tour is Szombathelyi, but they don't seem to exist in FM, so we'll have to skip that idea.
So the first 4 fixtures should follow this template:
Third Saturday of July
Barnet
3 days later
Austrian low reputation team
6 days later
Eastern European low reputation team
2 days later
Medium level Bundesliga team
Emirates Cup
After this mini-tour and training camp, the team heads back to London in preparation for the Emirates Cup, held every year exactly two weeks after the Barnet game, usually around August 2nd.
The teams participating are different every year, but Paris St Germain seems to have a standing invite, as does Hamburg. Other teams who have participated are Inter Milan, Valencia, Real Madrid, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Rangers.
The format seems to be Paris St Germain, a high profile Italian team, and a high profile Spanish team (if I remember correctly, Rangers actually replaced Milan in 2009).
Last Friendly
If we're not playing the Community Shield, we usually have one more friendly away game. This seems to be totally random, as last year was Huddersfield Town, and the year before that was Valencia.
Amsterdam Tournament
We used to be involved in Ajax's Amsterdam Tournament, but since 2008 we've skipped this tournament.
Boreham Wood
We also used to play Boreham Wood, but that ended in 2007. SI Games seems to have missed this, but I've fixed it in the custom database.
Final Pre-Season Fixtures
Using the guide above, this is how I set up my pre-season at the start of my game:
STAFF
Here comes the first problem with trying to do realistic stuff in FM. Arsenal currently only have 2 coaches + Manager & *** Man. Boro Primorac is the first team coach, and Neil Banfield is the other coach. In Football Manager, we really need to have more coaches to make some progress in training, even though 2 coaches seems to be enough in reality.
To compromise, I'd say employ only a couple of more coaches, don't go overboard. Maybe even just promote a couple of the youth team coaches, that will probably be the most realistic option.
In my save, I chose to promote Steve Gatting and David Court.
Steve Rowley is Arsenal's head coach, and I think he's assigned to Next Opposition by default. If not, give him that assignment.
PLAYERS
According to Arsenal's website, these are the players currently listed as belonging to the first team:
Goalkeepers
Manuel Almunia
Lukasz Fabianski
Vito Mannone*
Wojciech Szczesny*
Defenders
Mikael Silvestre
Thomas Vermaelen
Sol Campbell
Johan Djorou*
William Gallas
Philippe Senderos*
Bakary Sagna
Gael Clichy
Kiean Gibbs
Armand Traore*
Midfielders
Emmanuel Eboue
Alex Song
Denilson
Aaron Ramsey
Jack Wilshere*
Fran Merida*
Tomas Rosicky
Abou Diaby
Cesc Fabregas
Samir Nasri
Forwards
Andrey Arshavin
Theo Walcott
Carlos Vela
Robin Van Persie
Nicklas Bendtner
Eduardo
...and all the players with a star next to their name, you could either keep them in the first team but right-click them and pick Squad - Available for Reserve Squad...OR just move them to the reserves if you want to keep the first team screen clean.
TACTICS & LINE-UP
INTRODUCTION
Being both an Arsenal fan and a tactics fan, I've wanted to re-create Arsenals real life 4-3-3 tactic in FM since the 2009/2010 season started.
After watching every first team game so far (as well as a bunch of youth fixtures), then trying to implement it into FM for about 6 months...I think I've been able to come very close to the real deal.
Now, there are a couple of important things in the real tactic that will not work in FM. One is to instruct players to cover for other players if they roam out of position. They can do it on their own, but it won't work for simulating how Gallas, Vermaelen and Song interact with eachother.
In the real life tactic, Vermaelen and Gallas both go on forward runs, and when one of them do; Song falls back and becomes a temporary CB. I've tried putting both CB's on max creativity, roam, forward run, etc...but the game will not allow the CB's to launch forward while a midfielder covers for them.
Another thing that won't work is keeping the crosses down to a minimum. The match engine in FM has an abnormal amount of crosses it wants to include in every game. But in the real Arsenal 4-3-3, crosses are very rare, as players usually try to play their way into the box. Even with the touchline instruction Work Ball Into Box, the crosses in FM will still outnumber reality.
So keep those points in mind if you're trying it out.
My goal here was to try and simulate the real tactic so that it:
1. Looks like the real deal in the match engine
2. Emulates the real life results
This thread is both a HOW TO re-create the real Arsenal 4-3-3, as well as the main download section for the actual tactic.
If you come across any tweaks that makes the tactic behave more realistic, let me know in this thread and I'll update the tactic. Newest version and changelog is on the bottom of this article.
REAL TACTIC & KEY PLAYERS
General
Arsenal are playing a wide, probing, short/mixed passing game - highly attacking in nature. Many players have free roles, which makes the formation very fluid. Unlike most Premier League teams, Arsenal use very little pressure on the opponent, choosing instead to stand off a little and counter, if the opportunity comes.
Solid Core
The central core of the tactic is static in the sense that the roles of the central players are always the same, no matter who's playing in the position. The central positions are:
Central Defenders
Defensive Midfielder
Central Forward
The Role/Duty of these never change, as this is Wenger's 'solid core'. All other players have floating Roles/Duties depending on who's playing in the position.
[Note: this is why Arshavin took over Van Persies position when RVP got injured...Arshavin is more of a complete forward than the other available forwards in the squad]
Free Floaters
Surrounding the 'solid core' are free floating positions. Cesc, Diaby, Arshavin and Walcott all have varying degrees of free roles, but the main point is that they're supposed to 'float' around the solid core, offering passing options.
If you read Arsene Wenger - The Biography (by Xavier Rivoire), there is alot of information about how Wenger trains his players in the passing aspect of the game. Arsenal's passing game is about offering at least three clear choices for the player with the ball, at all times. So the reason for having floating players around the core, is to make it even easier for the core to pass the ball.
Players
As the personality of the tactic is highly dependant on who's playing on the day, lets take a look at the key players in the first choice squad:
Vermaelen & Gallas
Starting off with the dynamic duo, we can see that their duties are much more attacking than a traditional centre back pair. First Gallas, then Vermaelen:
Gallas is more condensed, while Vermaelen has a longer, or even wider, leash. If you've watched Arsenal games during the 2009/2010 season, you'd know that Vermaelen is a very aggressive defender in terms of anticipation. His strength is reading the game well enough to be able to come out far and stop attacks early on.
Gallas is more of a traditional defender, but he gets pushed forward by the attacking nature of the squad (just like everyone else).
Clichy & Sagna
First Clichy, then Sagna:
Sagna is the more condensed player. Clichy generally travels further into the pitch. Sagna is focused on the middle of the field for the most part of the game, and seems to hug the touchline pretty tight.
Sagna is more of a wing back, and the reason for this is most likely that he has both Cesc and Walcott in front of him on his side of the pitch. Walcott is a very wide playing forward, and Cesc often ventures out on the sides.
On the left hand side, Arshavin and Diaby both cut inside to run down the middle, getting Clichy more area to cover. This is the reason for Clichy having a wider area of play than Sagna.
Alex Song
Alex Song is the holding midfield player. The midfield consists of a defensive midfielder, a 'normal' midfielder and then Cesc, who's free to do anything basically.
Looking at Song, we can clearly see that he has a holding role, these are his last 3 games:
...and also that he ventures out on the right quite a bit, mainly because Fabregas is usually on that side, and he covers behind him.
Against weaker opposition, he goes further up the pitch, but that's natural since the whole team is pushed up.
Fabregas
Fabregas, shown here in 3 of his last games in a very free role:
Cesc starts out on the right hand side of the midfield, but travels all over. His personal preference is actually playing fairly deep, so he can control the game more, but this season Wenger wanted him to play much higher so that he can add something to the attack. Apparently a good move, since he's currently equal with Pires for most goals scored by a midfielder in a season.
His natural replacement is Nasri, who has the same role in the same position.
Diaby
Diaby has a similar movement pattern to Cesc, but sits slightly deeper:
Diaby has a very different personality to Cesc, even though they have a very similar pattern. Diaby has 'Kanu-Feet', and what I mean by that is that he has an weird control of the ball. He keeps the ball very close to his feet, and is very quick with it, making it very hard taking the ball from him and stopping him going past you.
Arshavin
This is also a very free player, who travels all over. These are the first 3 games of the season:
He almost drops down to a midfielder position during games. He cuts inside, and mostly operates in the AMC/AML area of the pitch.
Walcott
Walcott has a basic wide role, waiting for through passes so he can utilize his immense speed.
Many times throughout the season, a through ball has been made far out on the right flank, for Walcott to outrun any wing backs and get an early cross or pass in to Cesc or RVP.
His natural replacement is Eboué, who nowadays comes in and behaves very much like Walcott.
Van Persie
In his Complete Forward role, his playground is the center field, to orchestrate attacks and come from a deep position. These are from the first 3 games of the season:
As he is in the same area as Arshavin, you could argue that he is a 'false 9' in a somewhat strikerless formation. Van Persie isn't really a striker in the true sense of the word (like Drogba, Torres or Eto'o), he's more of a Bergkamp type player.
Main duty here is to orchestrate an attack, with Cesc slightly behind his right shoulder, and Arshavin on his left.
His natural replacement is Bendtner, but Bendtner takes on a slightly different role when in the central striker position (Advanced Forward/Attack).
Building in FM: FORMATION
In real life, Arsenal is playing a very wide 4-3-3 variant, but unfortunately FM won't allow any halfway steps between positions. Therefor we're stuck with either having the wingers on level with the striker, or out on the wings, as AMR/L's.
Ideally, the wingers would be somewhere in between those positions, but we have to adapt this to the match engine. The front three have to be asymmetrical. Partly because Walcott's role is different from a striker, and partly because it looks mor elike the real deal when plsying Walcott as a AMR (which is also his natural starting position).
When it comes to the central midfield position (DM), the realistic position here would be halfway between MC and DM. Once again, it looks more like the real deal when he's in the MC position.
So we basically end up with this, an asymmetrical 4-3-3:
Building in FM: TEAM INSTRUCTIONS
Wenger has always been interested in total football, and you can see some of it in the way Arsenal play. Before going to the new 4-3-3 formation in 2009, he used to have a very fluid 4-4-2, where the wingers would interchange with the forwards and wing backs, and often end up in the forward positions, scoring loads of goals (like Pires, Ljungberg, etc).
Philosophy is always Very Fluid.
Starting strategy is either Control or Attacking, depending on the opposition. Dial Square v1.7-74 Update; Attacking strategy seems to create a more realistic behaviour.
Arsenal play a fast paced passing game, so set it to More Direct. It also allows players to be more creative, so put it to More Expressive.
Primary Playmaker is always Cesc, of course.
In the advanced tab, we need to tweak a little. First we need to up the width, as Arsenal play a very wide formation. Tempo needs to come up as well.
In the end it should look like this:
Building in FM: PLAYER ROLES/DUTIES
Now we can get down to details. It is hard doing a 100% accurate role distribution, since we haven't really seen the first pick squad play together much this season.
This would be Wenger's first choice squad if everyone was healthy:
Diaby is the only one not regarded as automatic first choice, as he shares his position with Rosicky/Nasri/Denilson/Ramsey. Also, player roles would change depending on what player is playing, but I'll go through that in every section.
Manuel Almunia
Role: Goalkeeper
Duty: Defend
Lets start with the keeper. Almunia is an irrational guy, to put it mildly. Sweeper Keeper/Support seems to be a good representation of his behaviour in real life, but in the game we have to set him to a regular Goalkeeper/Defend to make it seem realistic. Remember to set his distribution to short throw, as he almost always throws a short ball to Clichy for a counter-attack.
Gael Clichy & Bacary Sagna
Bacary Sagna Role: Full Back
Bacary Sagna Duty: Automatic
Gael Clichy Role: Full Back
Gael Clichy Duty: Defend
These two are the hardest to get right, weirdly enough. In reality, they're very attack-minded players, but if we set them to attacking wing backs in the game, their behaviour won't be realistic in the match engine.
In Dial Square v1.7+, I've managed to get them very close to real life behaviour. First Clichy:
And then Sagna:
I've also tried keeping their crosses down, by having them rarely cross, and if they do; cross from deep. I also always have the Work Ball Into Box instruction, but they still cross much more than in reality.
Thomas Vermaelen & William Gallas
Thomas Vermaelen Role: Ball Playing Defender
Thomas Vermaelen Duty: Stopper
William Gallas Role: Central Defender
William Gallas Duty: Defend
Vermaelen has an important role to play in emulating the real formation. First off, he's a Ball Playing Defender with a Stopper duty, often coming far out to head away any high balls. Second, he has instructions to run with ball, forward run, long shot and roam from position.
Gallas is set to CB/Defend, and is the more defensive of the two CB's.
Alex Song
Role: Ball Winning Midfielder
Duty: Defend
Compared to real life, this is how he behaves in Dial Square:
Abou Diaby
Role: Box To Box Midfielder
Duty: Support
Diaby has a similar role to Cesc, but slightly deeper. RL comparison:
Starting to look more like it now in v1.7+
Cesc Fabregas
Role: Central Midfielder
Duty: Attack
When it comes to Fabregas, he is an Advanced Playmaker with an Attack duty in the real 4-3-3. This is the way Wenger employs him, even though he's had a couple of other roles throughout the season, especially when playing with both Song and Denilson.
In FM though, we have to set him to Central Midfielder/Attack, otherwise he travels too far up the pitch.
Here is the comparison to real behaviour:
We have to instruct him to swap positions with Diaby during a match, to emulate his coverage of both flanks.
Theo Walcott
Role: Winger
Duty: Support
...is usually way out on the right flank, so be sure to instruct him to hug the touchline. His role is Winger/Support. Comparison:
Robin Van Persie
Role: Complete Forward
Duty: Support
The focal point of the offensive line. He is a pure Complete Forward/Support, and will do that job very well. He comes very deep to get the ball, as you can see in the chalkboards earlier in the article.
Here's the comparison:
Andrey Arshavin
Role: Trequartista
Duty: Attack
Arshavin is set to Trequartista/Attack, and has a 'Cut Inside' instruction to keep him more central.
Here's the comparison:
Building in FM: TOUCHLINE INSTRUCTIONS
Always tick Work Ball Into Box and Retain Possession at the start of every game. That will create the 'pass ball into goal' behaviour common for Arsenal. If it feels to sluggish compared to the real deal, un-tick Retain Possession. But always have Work Ball Into Box active.
EDIT 1.7.77: removing 'Work Ball Into Box' seems to help getting more goals, so use this as you wish. It looks more realistic with WBIB activated, but the scorelines are more realistic without it.
Building in FM: OTHER DETAILS
Remember to put Cesc as corner taker for the left side, Van Persie as corner taker for the right side, and Sagna and Clichy should do all throw-ins on their respective sides.
Unfortunately we can't make Cesc kick-off together with Van Persie without changing the formation to a 4-5-1...but now we're touching on insane detail territory.
If every player would be 100% fit in the Arsenal squad, this is how Wenger would play them (with pecking order):
GK 1. Manuel Almunia - 2. Lukasz Fabianski - 3. Vito Mannone
DR 1. Bakary Sagna - 2. Emmanuel Eboue - 3. ?
DL 1. Gael Clichy - 2. Kieran Gibbs - 3. Armand Traore
DRC 1. William Gallas - 2. Sol Campbell - 3. Mikael Silvestre
DLC 1. Thomas Vermaelen - 2. Sol Campbell - 3. Mikael Silvestre
DMC 1. Alex Song - 2. Denilson - 3. Cesc Fabregas
MRC 1. Cesc Fabregas - 2. Samir Nasri - 3. Aaron Ramsey
MLC 1. Abou Diaby - 2. Tomas Rosicky - 3. Denilson
AMR 1. Theo Walcott - 2. Emmanuel Eboue - 3. Tomas Rosicky
FL 1. Andey Arshavin - 2. Eduardo - 3. Carlos Vela
FC 1. Robin Van Persie - 2. Nicklas Bendtner - 3. Andrey Arshavin
Set Robin Van Persie as first penalty taker, and Cesc as second. Cesc also takes the left side corners, with Van Persie taking the right hand side. If Van Persie is out, Cesc takes the right hand corner as well. If Cesc is out, Eboue takes the left hand corner.
Throw ins are always taken by the wing backs, so that the entire team can push forward.
Most regular substitutes are:
S1 - Lukasz Fabianski
S2 - Sol Campbell
S3 - Emmanuel Eboue
S4 - Denilson
S5 - Samir Nasri
S6 - Eduardo (change to Poacher/Attack if brought on)
S7 - Nicklas Bendtner (change to Advanced Forward/Attack if brought on)
After you've applied the Dial Square tactic, chosen the line-up + substitutes, set the corner takers/penalty takers/throw in takers...save the selection as 'First Team Squad' so you can easily bring the first choice squad into effect.
REMEMBER: apply the Dial Square Academy tactic to the Reserve Team and the U18's.
TRAINING & COACHES
DS Training Schedule
I created a set of training schedules that focus heavily on what Arsenal does best: ball control, passing, speed and positioning. I won't go too in-depth here, but Arsene Wenger has always been teaching his squad a passing technique that's more about the options than the distributor.
What this means is that in training, the Arsenal team do lots of tight movement training, and the goal is to always make yourself available for a clear pass. The player with the ball should always have at least three clear passing options, and this is done by everyone finding positions around the ball keeper.
Apart from that specific movement training (in FM terms this is the Tactics slider) and passing training (Attack slider in FM), the squad does focus a lot on speed training. Sprints, agility and stamina mostly.
You can find the training schedule attached to the bottom of the article.
Put all players in General to the DS Pre-Season schedule to get their condition up for the Barnet game.
Coaches
First we'll have to wait to either get some more coaches, or until Steve Gatting and David Court accepts their promotion.
When we have more options in the coaches department, appoint them in the following areas:
Mart Poom & Gerrry Peyton - Goalkeeping
Tony Colbert - Aerobic & Strength (we'll change this when we go to regular training in August)
Craig Gant - Aerobic & Strength
Pat Rice - Tactics
Boro Primorac - Attacking
Steve Gatting - Shooting & Set Pieces
Neil Banfield - Ball Control
David Court - Defending
We should end up with something like this:
If you feel better about bringing in a specific Shooting coach, go ahead. I usually just keep it like that, in the family so to speak.
Regular Training
After the Emirates Cup, we go into regular training. Assign the players into their respective schedules. Remember: Craig Eastmond, Jay-Emmanuel Thomas and Alex Song are all defensive midfielders.
CUSTOM GRAPHICS
In the Dial Square database, there will be new away and third kits every year for the first 10 years or so. I have made custom graphics to switch every year according to how the kits look in the 3D match engine.
The kits are in the LS'10 style, so if you want to pimp out your entire game with LS'10 kits, this thread is for you:
INTRO
This is the last article in a series of Arsenal articles aimed at anyone wanting to play a realistic game with the Gunners.
All these articles are interconnected, the 'main' article being the The Arsenal Guide, and the others (including this one) are more like in-depth supplements to the main article.
When playing Arsenal, or any team for that matter, I'm always frustrated that we're still using the same away/third colours after a couple of years into the game. I might be the only one caring about this, but I cared enough to create a database and a graphics xml which:
1. Changes the away and third kits to different colours/designs every year, as they do in reality
2. Change the actual kit graphics (on the information tab) to show fantasy kit designs in the same colours as the current seasons away/third kits are shown in the 3D match engine
So in essence; every year, the away kit design changes, both in the 3D match engine and in the kit graphics on the info screen.
Home Kit (2010-2028)
The home kit changes every other year, and this is reflected in the game by the info screen (kit graphics) only. The reason is that the editor will only accept a set amount of added kits, and so I kept the home kit red with ***** sleeves from the 2010/2011 season onwards.
Even though the kits in the 3D match engine doesn't change, the kit graphics will.
Cue the fantasy kits.
Batch #1 are the kits for 2010-2012, 2012-2014 and 2014-2016:
First one is a 'back to basics' kind of kit after two years of semi-white sleeves. Second one is flirting with the current design, but is more asymmetrical. Third goes back to the classic full sleeves again, similar to the first one.
Batch #2 are kits for 2016-2018, 2018-2020 and 2020-2022:
First one is a commemorative shirt, celebrating the 130th anniversary of the club. Second is yet another classic design, and the third is more contemporary.
Batch #3 is for 2022-2024, 2024-2026 and 2026-2028:
First shirt flips out a little, with a very white design and centered logos. Second shirt is the result of a stroke in the Nike design office. Third one is yet another commemorative shirt, this time for the clubs 140th anniversary.
So this is what has been done for the home shirt up until 2028 in terms of continuous change.
Away Kit (2010-2020 - Changing Colours)
This changes every year, but due to editor restrictions we could only do different designs up until 2020. After that we'll have to pretend that Arsenal decides to stick with a strict set of colours. We will still vary the actual designs after 2020, but we'll keep to specific colours.
Batch #1 is for 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013:
First shirt is a classic yellow/blue kit, second is an all dark grey outfit, and the third is a light blue/dark grey style.
Batch #2 is for 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons:
First one is a version of the classic FA cup winner gold/black shirt, second one is a maroon/white/black outfit which is the same colours as the clubs original kit. Thirdly I've done a british racing green/gold away kit.
Batch #3 is for the 2016-2017, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons:
First shirt is a classic yellow/blue again, due to the 130th anniversary. Second is a weird one....military green/sand coloured, chroma logo and diagonal stripe. Third is an all-black outfit.
Batch #4 is for the last season we can change colours, namely the 2019-2020 season. The away colours we use in the last switch (2020-2021) will be the away colours we have to stick with, so this is the last kit before we head into the yellow/blue era:
Away Kit (2020-2028 - Yellow/Blue)
So from the 2020-2021 season, we're stuck at yellow/blue due to the editor being weak like Phil Brown's arguments. I've actually made the standard away kit yellow/blue, but in the Champions League we play in a gold/black kit.
Batch #1 is for seasons 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023
All just different designs in yellow/blue. During the 2022-2023 season you'll see your Champions League kit in the away kit slot, just to switch things up a little.
Batch #2, for the 2023-2024, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 season:
Also just standard yellow/blue. Third one is my vision of what would happen if Vic Akers and Nike decided to do some horrible 80's kits for a while. Hey, this wouldn't be realistic without some absolute oddjobs!
Batch #3 is for the last two seasons of changing kits, the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 seasons:
First kit is a commemorative kit in the same style as the home kit used in 2026, to celebrate the 140th anniversary.
Third Kit (2010-2015 - Changing Colours)
Third kit is always last years away kit, so the third kit between 2010-2015 will be the 2009-2014 away kits basically.
Third Kit (2016-2028 - Maroon/White/Black)
Once again due to editor restrictions, I couldn't create enough kits. So I had to settle on one colour scheme for the third kits from the 2015-2016 season onwards, and why not settle for the original club colours? Maroon shirts with white trim, white shorts and black socks with minor red trim.
Maroon was really hard to design around, so the third kit design will only change every two years.
Batch #1 is for 2017-2019, 2019-2021 and 2021-2023 (the 2015/2017 third kit will have the maroon kit used as away shirt in the 2014/2015 season):
And lastly, batch #2 is the two remaining kits for 2023-2025 and 2025-2027:
First kit is slightly different with a black/maroon instead of white/maroon. Second one is the 2026 commemorative kit for the 140th anniversary.
Colour Combinations Year by Year
So now you know what every individual kit looks like, here's an overview of the colour combinations of every season:
How do I use the kits?
To make these kits work, first of all you need to use the Dial Square database. It contains all the kit changes + some other Arsenal stuff, AND...it fixes the kit bug.
This will only work if you have ALL of the following: kit graphics, xml file and database.
Alright, but what if you want all teams in the game to have this kit style? There are two files to download:
1. Arsenal Custom Lite
This has just the Arsenal kits + XML file. Download this if you only want to change the Arsenal kits.
2. Arsenal Custom Plus
This has MOST 2009/2010 kits for a large amount of leagues, all in the LS'10 style I used for making the Arsenal kits. There are 900+ kits in this pack. I have NOT made all these kits, just some of the Premier League ones.
For both packs: Unzip, place the folder 'kits' inside your Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/graphics folder.
Credit
The LS'10 style kits were made by Cristi at the FMG Live forums, and the templates used for the fantasy kits were made by several users on the FMG Live forum.
The kits in the Plus Pack are made by several users on the FMG Live forum.
PLAYING PRE-SEASON GAMES
In pre-season, there is a lot of squad rotation. Players going to the Austrian training camp is usually the first team + a bunch of the most promising youngsters. Last year, Jack Wilshere went and had a very good pre-season (man of the match on both days of the Emirates Cup), but as the season started he faded back into reserve team action.
So I would suggest playing a mixture between the first team and some of the more prominent youngsters like Wilshere, Afobe, Merida, Watt, Coquelin and Eastmond.
PLAYING REGULAR SEASON
General Stuff
Use the Dial Square tactic, and switch between Counter/Control/Attacking mentality. Also use the Work Ball Into box and Retain Possession touchline instructions as you see fit.
For Carling Cup action, Arsenal always lets the Academy players fight for the trophy. This means U18 + some reserve players if needed.
In the first stages of the FA Cup, we use mostly reserves, if we're not unlucky with the draw.
In all "pointless" games, like last game of a Champions League group we've already qualified in, we also tend to play reserve players.
Team Talks
Even though it's tempting to rip these youngsters a new ******* when they play like some sort of handicapped U10 team...remember that our motto is Victory Through Harmony. Wenger rarely shouts or kick shoes into his players eyebrows.
If the team is down at half-time, a simple Disappointed is good enough...and if we lose the game, take the high road and do sympathy. Unless you're losing 10-0 of course.
I always tend to use the 'For The Supporters!' instruction at the start of each game, it seems to work pretty well.
TRANSFER WINDOWS
This is really the key to playing a realistic Arsenal game, in my opinion. It's extremely hard summarizing Arsenal's transfer policy, but we can at least agree on one basic truth: Arsenal does not want to pay FM money for any player.
Even though the general consensus is that Arsenal only buy cheap young talent, our two latest signings destroys that argument (Arshavin & Vermaelen). The amount we paid for Arshavin is very big in Arsenal terms (same amount we got for Henry, basically), and it's doubtful we'll make another move like that in the near future.
So what do we look for? I'd say that this list could probably find you some realistic Arsenal targets:
1. Undiscovered young wonderkids from all over the world, mostly French or african though.
2. Overlooked (but good) early/mid-20's players in medium sized european teams, with a good price. Vermaelen being a good example in this category. Sagna too.
3. Free or very cheap older backup players for temporary duties. Silvestre and Sol Campbell are good examples here.
Keeping to this transfer policy will make the club very healthy economically as well, which makes the game even more realistic, seeing as Arsenal is probably the healthiest club in the Premier League when it comes to economical sustainability.
Some realistic targets would be Marouane Chamakh, Huntelaar and Felipe Melo.
In the book Arsene Wenger The Biography, Wenger is qoted as saying that he is only interested in players who are fast and intelligent, so to make it even more realistic, watch players with high mentality and physical attributes.
Lastly, if you want to make it super-realistic, just go for players with an injury proneness of 2399 and has some sort of weak bone disease.
CONTRACTS
As a general policy, Arsenal players over 30 will only get 1-year contracts. The only player above this policy in recent times is Gallas, but other than him it always applies. Young players are often tied up in long-term contracts, to protect the investment.
I Hope all football fans (not just Gunners) enjoy this guide and have fun!
The Arsenal Guide
INTRO
I've been playing Football Manager for many years, and everytime I do, I try playing as realistically as possible with Arsenal, as it annoys the **** out of me when Wenger buys £40m superstars and other unlikely events during the game.
This article will be as in-depth as humanly possible, going through every little aspect of how to set up the Emirates Cup, how to train, what tactic to use, what kind of players to look for, what staff in what positions, etc etc.
DATABASE
First thing we have to do, is start off on a realistic base, meaning we have to use a custom database with better appreciation of the main Arsenal characters.
INTRO
While creating the realistic tactic for Arsenal, I found myself annoyed with some of the features of the team in FM, so I decided to make a more realistic database for playing with Arsenal.
This DB includes lots of stuff, like new home kits every other year, attribute upgrades to the underestimated players, etc etc.
TEAM
Increased morale, since the team has performed above expectations in this years season.
STAFF
Arsene Wenger
If we're going to play with Arsenal, that means that Wenger won't be manager. Which means that he'll take over another team, which is unrealistic in my opinion. So first thing I did was to make him Football Director of the club, making way for you to be manager but still have Wenger attached to Arsenal to some capacity.
Steve Bould
Seeing as he is head coach of the Arsenal U18 Academy, who won both league and cup in the 08/09 season with Bould as manager, I gave him 18 in the position of manager and 15 in AssMan. Also boosted his PA slightly + attributes boost.
Colin Lewin
PA & CA boost.
PLAYERS
Thomas Vermaelen
Boosted PA, CA and some attributes. Ticked 'Shoots With Power'.
Emmanuel Eboué
Boosted CA, PA, dribbling and finishing slightly.
Theo Walcott
Boosted CA, PA, and increased pace and acceleration to 20.
Bakary Sagna
PA & CA boost, ticked 'Runs With Ball Rarely' and 'Hugs Line'.
Alex Song
PA & CA Boost.
Cesc Fabregas
Attributes, CA and PA boost.
Abou Diaby
Attributes boost + ticked 'Looks For Pass...'.
Andrey Arshavin
PA, CA & Attributes boost + added FC to position.
Robin Van Persie
Attributes boost.
Nicklas Bendtner
PA + attributes boost.
I've also made some slight adjustments on the U18 players, as their PA's were way off in some cases.
STARTING A NEW GAME
How many leagues you want to run is up to you, but try using the biggest database possible, as Arsenal are all about youngsters from all over the world, including Africa and South America.
Turn off transfers in the first window.
CREATING A MANAGER
We don't really know how the club thinks when it comes to managers, apart from the fact that they employed Arsene Wenger, a virtually unproven manager out in the cold at that time.
We also know that some of the Arsenal-created icons have been touted as potential replacements for Wenger someday, like Thierry Henry and Tony Adams.
This makes creating a realistic manager somewhat easy, as we can go for unknown without it feeling too out there. We could also go for a former Arsenal player, just to give it that little 'punch'.
Here are some suggestions for manager names that aren't used in the game, but still relates to Arsenal (all are former players):
Marc Overmars (Holland)
Currently a Football Director at Go Ahead Eagles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Overmars
Dennis Bergkamp (Holland)
Has been studying coaching stuff under Wenger, and is now in a trainee role at Ajax under Marco van Basten.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Bergkamp
John Jensen (Denmark)
Not in the game, but was a real life manager of Danish side Randers just over a year ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jensen
I usually don't really go for the real names though, I just pretend I'm a new Wenger type manager; unknown and talented.
FIRST DAY ON THE JOB
Team Settings
First thing we do is to go into Arsenal - Team Settings, and put Neil Banfield in control of the reserves, and Steve Bould in control of the U18's. In reality, Bould is coach of the Academy U18's, and Banfield always leads the reserves in the Reserve League.
Both the reserves and the U18's use the same tactic as the first team, so tick 'Use current match tactics' in both sections for now. We'll get to the tactics later.
I usually tick 'Contract renewals handled by assistant manager/coach for the U18's. Don't do this for the reserve team, as we'll have players over 30 in there, and we only offer them 1 year contracts.
Pre-Season Fixtures
Arsenal always kick off their pre-season against Barnet on the THIRD Saturday of July. This is usually around the 20th of July.
Austrian Training Camp
After the Barnet game, the team goes to Austria on their annual training camp, and when they're there they usually play an Austrian team, an eastern European team (Hungarian/Polish/etc) and finally a Bundesliga team. Last year it was Stuttgart, this year it was Hannover 96.
A team frequently featured in this mini-tour is Szombathelyi, but they don't seem to exist in FM, so we'll have to skip that idea.
So the first 4 fixtures should follow this template:
Third Saturday of July
Barnet
3 days later
Austrian low reputation team
6 days later
Eastern European low reputation team
2 days later
Medium level Bundesliga team
Emirates Cup
After this mini-tour and training camp, the team heads back to London in preparation for the Emirates Cup, held every year exactly two weeks after the Barnet game, usually around August 2nd.
The teams participating are different every year, but Paris St Germain seems to have a standing invite, as does Hamburg. Other teams who have participated are Inter Milan, Valencia, Real Madrid, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Rangers.
The format seems to be Paris St Germain, a high profile Italian team, and a high profile Spanish team (if I remember correctly, Rangers actually replaced Milan in 2009).
Last Friendly
If we're not playing the Community Shield, we usually have one more friendly away game. This seems to be totally random, as last year was Huddersfield Town, and the year before that was Valencia.
Amsterdam Tournament
We used to be involved in Ajax's Amsterdam Tournament, but since 2008 we've skipped this tournament.
Boreham Wood
We also used to play Boreham Wood, but that ended in 2007. SI Games seems to have missed this, but I've fixed it in the custom database.
Final Pre-Season Fixtures
Using the guide above, this is how I set up my pre-season at the start of my game:
STAFF
Here comes the first problem with trying to do realistic stuff in FM. Arsenal currently only have 2 coaches + Manager & *** Man. Boro Primorac is the first team coach, and Neil Banfield is the other coach. In Football Manager, we really need to have more coaches to make some progress in training, even though 2 coaches seems to be enough in reality.
To compromise, I'd say employ only a couple of more coaches, don't go overboard. Maybe even just promote a couple of the youth team coaches, that will probably be the most realistic option.
In my save, I chose to promote Steve Gatting and David Court.
Steve Rowley is Arsenal's head coach, and I think he's assigned to Next Opposition by default. If not, give him that assignment.
PLAYERS
According to Arsenal's website, these are the players currently listed as belonging to the first team:
Goalkeepers
Manuel Almunia
Lukasz Fabianski
Vito Mannone*
Wojciech Szczesny*
Defenders
Mikael Silvestre
Thomas Vermaelen
Sol Campbell
Johan Djorou*
William Gallas
Philippe Senderos*
Bakary Sagna
Gael Clichy
Kiean Gibbs
Armand Traore*
Midfielders
Emmanuel Eboue
Alex Song
Denilson
Aaron Ramsey
Jack Wilshere*
Fran Merida*
Tomas Rosicky
Abou Diaby
Cesc Fabregas
Samir Nasri
Forwards
Andrey Arshavin
Theo Walcott
Carlos Vela
Robin Van Persie
Nicklas Bendtner
Eduardo
...and all the players with a star next to their name, you could either keep them in the first team but right-click them and pick Squad - Available for Reserve Squad...OR just move them to the reserves if you want to keep the first team screen clean.
TACTICS & LINE-UP
INTRODUCTION
Being both an Arsenal fan and a tactics fan, I've wanted to re-create Arsenals real life 4-3-3 tactic in FM since the 2009/2010 season started.
After watching every first team game so far (as well as a bunch of youth fixtures), then trying to implement it into FM for about 6 months...I think I've been able to come very close to the real deal.
Now, there are a couple of important things in the real tactic that will not work in FM. One is to instruct players to cover for other players if they roam out of position. They can do it on their own, but it won't work for simulating how Gallas, Vermaelen and Song interact with eachother.
In the real life tactic, Vermaelen and Gallas both go on forward runs, and when one of them do; Song falls back and becomes a temporary CB. I've tried putting both CB's on max creativity, roam, forward run, etc...but the game will not allow the CB's to launch forward while a midfielder covers for them.
Another thing that won't work is keeping the crosses down to a minimum. The match engine in FM has an abnormal amount of crosses it wants to include in every game. But in the real Arsenal 4-3-3, crosses are very rare, as players usually try to play their way into the box. Even with the touchline instruction Work Ball Into Box, the crosses in FM will still outnumber reality.
So keep those points in mind if you're trying it out.
My goal here was to try and simulate the real tactic so that it:
1. Looks like the real deal in the match engine
2. Emulates the real life results
This thread is both a HOW TO re-create the real Arsenal 4-3-3, as well as the main download section for the actual tactic.
If you come across any tweaks that makes the tactic behave more realistic, let me know in this thread and I'll update the tactic. Newest version and changelog is on the bottom of this article.
REAL TACTIC & KEY PLAYERS
General
Arsenal are playing a wide, probing, short/mixed passing game - highly attacking in nature. Many players have free roles, which makes the formation very fluid. Unlike most Premier League teams, Arsenal use very little pressure on the opponent, choosing instead to stand off a little and counter, if the opportunity comes.
Solid Core
The central core of the tactic is static in the sense that the roles of the central players are always the same, no matter who's playing in the position. The central positions are:
Central Defenders
Defensive Midfielder
Central Forward
The Role/Duty of these never change, as this is Wenger's 'solid core'. All other players have floating Roles/Duties depending on who's playing in the position.
[Note: this is why Arshavin took over Van Persies position when RVP got injured...Arshavin is more of a complete forward than the other available forwards in the squad]
Free Floaters
Surrounding the 'solid core' are free floating positions. Cesc, Diaby, Arshavin and Walcott all have varying degrees of free roles, but the main point is that they're supposed to 'float' around the solid core, offering passing options.
If you read Arsene Wenger - The Biography (by Xavier Rivoire), there is alot of information about how Wenger trains his players in the passing aspect of the game. Arsenal's passing game is about offering at least three clear choices for the player with the ball, at all times. So the reason for having floating players around the core, is to make it even easier for the core to pass the ball.
Players
As the personality of the tactic is highly dependant on who's playing on the day, lets take a look at the key players in the first choice squad:
Vermaelen & Gallas
Starting off with the dynamic duo, we can see that their duties are much more attacking than a traditional centre back pair. First Gallas, then Vermaelen:
Gallas is more condensed, while Vermaelen has a longer, or even wider, leash. If you've watched Arsenal games during the 2009/2010 season, you'd know that Vermaelen is a very aggressive defender in terms of anticipation. His strength is reading the game well enough to be able to come out far and stop attacks early on.
Gallas is more of a traditional defender, but he gets pushed forward by the attacking nature of the squad (just like everyone else).
Clichy & Sagna
First Clichy, then Sagna:
Sagna is the more condensed player. Clichy generally travels further into the pitch. Sagna is focused on the middle of the field for the most part of the game, and seems to hug the touchline pretty tight.
Sagna is more of a wing back, and the reason for this is most likely that he has both Cesc and Walcott in front of him on his side of the pitch. Walcott is a very wide playing forward, and Cesc often ventures out on the sides.
On the left hand side, Arshavin and Diaby both cut inside to run down the middle, getting Clichy more area to cover. This is the reason for Clichy having a wider area of play than Sagna.
Alex Song
Alex Song is the holding midfield player. The midfield consists of a defensive midfielder, a 'normal' midfielder and then Cesc, who's free to do anything basically.
Looking at Song, we can clearly see that he has a holding role, these are his last 3 games:
...and also that he ventures out on the right quite a bit, mainly because Fabregas is usually on that side, and he covers behind him.
Against weaker opposition, he goes further up the pitch, but that's natural since the whole team is pushed up.
Fabregas
Fabregas, shown here in 3 of his last games in a very free role:
Cesc starts out on the right hand side of the midfield, but travels all over. His personal preference is actually playing fairly deep, so he can control the game more, but this season Wenger wanted him to play much higher so that he can add something to the attack. Apparently a good move, since he's currently equal with Pires for most goals scored by a midfielder in a season.
His natural replacement is Nasri, who has the same role in the same position.
Diaby
Diaby has a similar movement pattern to Cesc, but sits slightly deeper:
Diaby has a very different personality to Cesc, even though they have a very similar pattern. Diaby has 'Kanu-Feet', and what I mean by that is that he has an weird control of the ball. He keeps the ball very close to his feet, and is very quick with it, making it very hard taking the ball from him and stopping him going past you.
Arshavin
This is also a very free player, who travels all over. These are the first 3 games of the season:
He almost drops down to a midfielder position during games. He cuts inside, and mostly operates in the AMC/AML area of the pitch.
Walcott
Walcott has a basic wide role, waiting for through passes so he can utilize his immense speed.
Many times throughout the season, a through ball has been made far out on the right flank, for Walcott to outrun any wing backs and get an early cross or pass in to Cesc or RVP.
His natural replacement is Eboué, who nowadays comes in and behaves very much like Walcott.
Van Persie
In his Complete Forward role, his playground is the center field, to orchestrate attacks and come from a deep position. These are from the first 3 games of the season:
As he is in the same area as Arshavin, you could argue that he is a 'false 9' in a somewhat strikerless formation. Van Persie isn't really a striker in the true sense of the word (like Drogba, Torres or Eto'o), he's more of a Bergkamp type player.
Main duty here is to orchestrate an attack, with Cesc slightly behind his right shoulder, and Arshavin on his left.
His natural replacement is Bendtner, but Bendtner takes on a slightly different role when in the central striker position (Advanced Forward/Attack).
Building in FM: FORMATION
In real life, Arsenal is playing a very wide 4-3-3 variant, but unfortunately FM won't allow any halfway steps between positions. Therefor we're stuck with either having the wingers on level with the striker, or out on the wings, as AMR/L's.
Ideally, the wingers would be somewhere in between those positions, but we have to adapt this to the match engine. The front three have to be asymmetrical. Partly because Walcott's role is different from a striker, and partly because it looks mor elike the real deal when plsying Walcott as a AMR (which is also his natural starting position).
When it comes to the central midfield position (DM), the realistic position here would be halfway between MC and DM. Once again, it looks more like the real deal when he's in the MC position.
So we basically end up with this, an asymmetrical 4-3-3:
Building in FM: TEAM INSTRUCTIONS
Wenger has always been interested in total football, and you can see some of it in the way Arsenal play. Before going to the new 4-3-3 formation in 2009, he used to have a very fluid 4-4-2, where the wingers would interchange with the forwards and wing backs, and often end up in the forward positions, scoring loads of goals (like Pires, Ljungberg, etc).
Philosophy is always Very Fluid.
Starting strategy is either Control or Attacking, depending on the opposition. Dial Square v1.7-74 Update; Attacking strategy seems to create a more realistic behaviour.
Arsenal play a fast paced passing game, so set it to More Direct. It also allows players to be more creative, so put it to More Expressive.
Primary Playmaker is always Cesc, of course.
In the advanced tab, we need to tweak a little. First we need to up the width, as Arsenal play a very wide formation. Tempo needs to come up as well.
In the end it should look like this:
Building in FM: PLAYER ROLES/DUTIES
Now we can get down to details. It is hard doing a 100% accurate role distribution, since we haven't really seen the first pick squad play together much this season.
This would be Wenger's first choice squad if everyone was healthy:
Diaby is the only one not regarded as automatic first choice, as he shares his position with Rosicky/Nasri/Denilson/Ramsey. Also, player roles would change depending on what player is playing, but I'll go through that in every section.
Manuel Almunia
Role: Goalkeeper
Duty: Defend
Lets start with the keeper. Almunia is an irrational guy, to put it mildly. Sweeper Keeper/Support seems to be a good representation of his behaviour in real life, but in the game we have to set him to a regular Goalkeeper/Defend to make it seem realistic. Remember to set his distribution to short throw, as he almost always throws a short ball to Clichy for a counter-attack.
Gael Clichy & Bacary Sagna
Bacary Sagna Role: Full Back
Bacary Sagna Duty: Automatic
Gael Clichy Role: Full Back
Gael Clichy Duty: Defend
These two are the hardest to get right, weirdly enough. In reality, they're very attack-minded players, but if we set them to attacking wing backs in the game, their behaviour won't be realistic in the match engine.
In Dial Square v1.7+, I've managed to get them very close to real life behaviour. First Clichy:
And then Sagna:
I've also tried keeping their crosses down, by having them rarely cross, and if they do; cross from deep. I also always have the Work Ball Into Box instruction, but they still cross much more than in reality.
Thomas Vermaelen & William Gallas
Thomas Vermaelen Role: Ball Playing Defender
Thomas Vermaelen Duty: Stopper
William Gallas Role: Central Defender
William Gallas Duty: Defend
Vermaelen has an important role to play in emulating the real formation. First off, he's a Ball Playing Defender with a Stopper duty, often coming far out to head away any high balls. Second, he has instructions to run with ball, forward run, long shot and roam from position.
Gallas is set to CB/Defend, and is the more defensive of the two CB's.
Alex Song
Role: Ball Winning Midfielder
Duty: Defend
Compared to real life, this is how he behaves in Dial Square:
Abou Diaby
Role: Box To Box Midfielder
Duty: Support
Diaby has a similar role to Cesc, but slightly deeper. RL comparison:
Starting to look more like it now in v1.7+
Cesc Fabregas
Role: Central Midfielder
Duty: Attack
When it comes to Fabregas, he is an Advanced Playmaker with an Attack duty in the real 4-3-3. This is the way Wenger employs him, even though he's had a couple of other roles throughout the season, especially when playing with both Song and Denilson.
In FM though, we have to set him to Central Midfielder/Attack, otherwise he travels too far up the pitch.
Here is the comparison to real behaviour:
We have to instruct him to swap positions with Diaby during a match, to emulate his coverage of both flanks.
Theo Walcott
Role: Winger
Duty: Support
...is usually way out on the right flank, so be sure to instruct him to hug the touchline. His role is Winger/Support. Comparison:
Robin Van Persie
Role: Complete Forward
Duty: Support
The focal point of the offensive line. He is a pure Complete Forward/Support, and will do that job very well. He comes very deep to get the ball, as you can see in the chalkboards earlier in the article.
Here's the comparison:
Andrey Arshavin
Role: Trequartista
Duty: Attack
Arshavin is set to Trequartista/Attack, and has a 'Cut Inside' instruction to keep him more central.
Here's the comparison:
Building in FM: TOUCHLINE INSTRUCTIONS
Always tick Work Ball Into Box and Retain Possession at the start of every game. That will create the 'pass ball into goal' behaviour common for Arsenal. If it feels to sluggish compared to the real deal, un-tick Retain Possession. But always have Work Ball Into Box active.
EDIT 1.7.77: removing 'Work Ball Into Box' seems to help getting more goals, so use this as you wish. It looks more realistic with WBIB activated, but the scorelines are more realistic without it.
Building in FM: OTHER DETAILS
Remember to put Cesc as corner taker for the left side, Van Persie as corner taker for the right side, and Sagna and Clichy should do all throw-ins on their respective sides.
Unfortunately we can't make Cesc kick-off together with Van Persie without changing the formation to a 4-5-1...but now we're touching on insane detail territory.
If every player would be 100% fit in the Arsenal squad, this is how Wenger would play them (with pecking order):
GK 1. Manuel Almunia - 2. Lukasz Fabianski - 3. Vito Mannone
DR 1. Bakary Sagna - 2. Emmanuel Eboue - 3. ?
DL 1. Gael Clichy - 2. Kieran Gibbs - 3. Armand Traore
DRC 1. William Gallas - 2. Sol Campbell - 3. Mikael Silvestre
DLC 1. Thomas Vermaelen - 2. Sol Campbell - 3. Mikael Silvestre
DMC 1. Alex Song - 2. Denilson - 3. Cesc Fabregas
MRC 1. Cesc Fabregas - 2. Samir Nasri - 3. Aaron Ramsey
MLC 1. Abou Diaby - 2. Tomas Rosicky - 3. Denilson
AMR 1. Theo Walcott - 2. Emmanuel Eboue - 3. Tomas Rosicky
FL 1. Andey Arshavin - 2. Eduardo - 3. Carlos Vela
FC 1. Robin Van Persie - 2. Nicklas Bendtner - 3. Andrey Arshavin
Set Robin Van Persie as first penalty taker, and Cesc as second. Cesc also takes the left side corners, with Van Persie taking the right hand side. If Van Persie is out, Cesc takes the right hand corner as well. If Cesc is out, Eboue takes the left hand corner.
Throw ins are always taken by the wing backs, so that the entire team can push forward.
Most regular substitutes are:
S1 - Lukasz Fabianski
S2 - Sol Campbell
S3 - Emmanuel Eboue
S4 - Denilson
S5 - Samir Nasri
S6 - Eduardo (change to Poacher/Attack if brought on)
S7 - Nicklas Bendtner (change to Advanced Forward/Attack if brought on)
After you've applied the Dial Square tactic, chosen the line-up + substitutes, set the corner takers/penalty takers/throw in takers...save the selection as 'First Team Squad' so you can easily bring the first choice squad into effect.
REMEMBER: apply the Dial Square Academy tactic to the Reserve Team and the U18's.
TRAINING & COACHES
DS Training Schedule
I created a set of training schedules that focus heavily on what Arsenal does best: ball control, passing, speed and positioning. I won't go too in-depth here, but Arsene Wenger has always been teaching his squad a passing technique that's more about the options than the distributor.
What this means is that in training, the Arsenal team do lots of tight movement training, and the goal is to always make yourself available for a clear pass. The player with the ball should always have at least three clear passing options, and this is done by everyone finding positions around the ball keeper.
Apart from that specific movement training (in FM terms this is the Tactics slider) and passing training (Attack slider in FM), the squad does focus a lot on speed training. Sprints, agility and stamina mostly.
You can find the training schedule attached to the bottom of the article.
Put all players in General to the DS Pre-Season schedule to get their condition up for the Barnet game.
Coaches
First we'll have to wait to either get some more coaches, or until Steve Gatting and David Court accepts their promotion.
When we have more options in the coaches department, appoint them in the following areas:
Mart Poom & Gerrry Peyton - Goalkeeping
Tony Colbert - Aerobic & Strength (we'll change this when we go to regular training in August)
Craig Gant - Aerobic & Strength
Pat Rice - Tactics
Boro Primorac - Attacking
Steve Gatting - Shooting & Set Pieces
Neil Banfield - Ball Control
David Court - Defending
We should end up with something like this:
If you feel better about bringing in a specific Shooting coach, go ahead. I usually just keep it like that, in the family so to speak.
Regular Training
After the Emirates Cup, we go into regular training. Assign the players into their respective schedules. Remember: Craig Eastmond, Jay-Emmanuel Thomas and Alex Song are all defensive midfielders.
CUSTOM GRAPHICS
In the Dial Square database, there will be new away and third kits every year for the first 10 years or so. I have made custom graphics to switch every year according to how the kits look in the 3D match engine.
The kits are in the LS'10 style, so if you want to pimp out your entire game with LS'10 kits, this thread is for you:
INTRO
This is the last article in a series of Arsenal articles aimed at anyone wanting to play a realistic game with the Gunners.
All these articles are interconnected, the 'main' article being the The Arsenal Guide, and the others (including this one) are more like in-depth supplements to the main article.
When playing Arsenal, or any team for that matter, I'm always frustrated that we're still using the same away/third colours after a couple of years into the game. I might be the only one caring about this, but I cared enough to create a database and a graphics xml which:
1. Changes the away and third kits to different colours/designs every year, as they do in reality
2. Change the actual kit graphics (on the information tab) to show fantasy kit designs in the same colours as the current seasons away/third kits are shown in the 3D match engine
So in essence; every year, the away kit design changes, both in the 3D match engine and in the kit graphics on the info screen.
Home Kit (2010-2028)
The home kit changes every other year, and this is reflected in the game by the info screen (kit graphics) only. The reason is that the editor will only accept a set amount of added kits, and so I kept the home kit red with ***** sleeves from the 2010/2011 season onwards.
Even though the kits in the 3D match engine doesn't change, the kit graphics will.
Cue the fantasy kits.
Batch #1 are the kits for 2010-2012, 2012-2014 and 2014-2016:
First one is a 'back to basics' kind of kit after two years of semi-white sleeves. Second one is flirting with the current design, but is more asymmetrical. Third goes back to the classic full sleeves again, similar to the first one.
Batch #2 are kits for 2016-2018, 2018-2020 and 2020-2022:
First one is a commemorative shirt, celebrating the 130th anniversary of the club. Second is yet another classic design, and the third is more contemporary.
Batch #3 is for 2022-2024, 2024-2026 and 2026-2028:
First shirt flips out a little, with a very white design and centered logos. Second shirt is the result of a stroke in the Nike design office. Third one is yet another commemorative shirt, this time for the clubs 140th anniversary.
So this is what has been done for the home shirt up until 2028 in terms of continuous change.
Away Kit (2010-2020 - Changing Colours)
This changes every year, but due to editor restrictions we could only do different designs up until 2020. After that we'll have to pretend that Arsenal decides to stick with a strict set of colours. We will still vary the actual designs after 2020, but we'll keep to specific colours.
Batch #1 is for 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013:
First shirt is a classic yellow/blue kit, second is an all dark grey outfit, and the third is a light blue/dark grey style.
Batch #2 is for 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons:
First one is a version of the classic FA cup winner gold/black shirt, second one is a maroon/white/black outfit which is the same colours as the clubs original kit. Thirdly I've done a british racing green/gold away kit.
Batch #3 is for the 2016-2017, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons:
First shirt is a classic yellow/blue again, due to the 130th anniversary. Second is a weird one....military green/sand coloured, chroma logo and diagonal stripe. Third is an all-black outfit.
Batch #4 is for the last season we can change colours, namely the 2019-2020 season. The away colours we use in the last switch (2020-2021) will be the away colours we have to stick with, so this is the last kit before we head into the yellow/blue era:
Away Kit (2020-2028 - Yellow/Blue)
So from the 2020-2021 season, we're stuck at yellow/blue due to the editor being weak like Phil Brown's arguments. I've actually made the standard away kit yellow/blue, but in the Champions League we play in a gold/black kit.
Batch #1 is for seasons 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023
All just different designs in yellow/blue. During the 2022-2023 season you'll see your Champions League kit in the away kit slot, just to switch things up a little.
Batch #2, for the 2023-2024, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 season:
Also just standard yellow/blue. Third one is my vision of what would happen if Vic Akers and Nike decided to do some horrible 80's kits for a while. Hey, this wouldn't be realistic without some absolute oddjobs!
Batch #3 is for the last two seasons of changing kits, the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 seasons:
First kit is a commemorative kit in the same style as the home kit used in 2026, to celebrate the 140th anniversary.
Third Kit (2010-2015 - Changing Colours)
Third kit is always last years away kit, so the third kit between 2010-2015 will be the 2009-2014 away kits basically.
Third Kit (2016-2028 - Maroon/White/Black)
Once again due to editor restrictions, I couldn't create enough kits. So I had to settle on one colour scheme for the third kits from the 2015-2016 season onwards, and why not settle for the original club colours? Maroon shirts with white trim, white shorts and black socks with minor red trim.
Maroon was really hard to design around, so the third kit design will only change every two years.
Batch #1 is for 2017-2019, 2019-2021 and 2021-2023 (the 2015/2017 third kit will have the maroon kit used as away shirt in the 2014/2015 season):
And lastly, batch #2 is the two remaining kits for 2023-2025 and 2025-2027:
First kit is slightly different with a black/maroon instead of white/maroon. Second one is the 2026 commemorative kit for the 140th anniversary.
Colour Combinations Year by Year
So now you know what every individual kit looks like, here's an overview of the colour combinations of every season:
How do I use the kits?
To make these kits work, first of all you need to use the Dial Square database. It contains all the kit changes + some other Arsenal stuff, AND...it fixes the kit bug.
This will only work if you have ALL of the following: kit graphics, xml file and database.
Alright, but what if you want all teams in the game to have this kit style? There are two files to download:
1. Arsenal Custom Lite
This has just the Arsenal kits + XML file. Download this if you only want to change the Arsenal kits.
2. Arsenal Custom Plus
This has MOST 2009/2010 kits for a large amount of leagues, all in the LS'10 style I used for making the Arsenal kits. There are 900+ kits in this pack. I have NOT made all these kits, just some of the Premier League ones.
For both packs: Unzip, place the folder 'kits' inside your Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/graphics folder.
Credit
The LS'10 style kits were made by Cristi at the FMG Live forums, and the templates used for the fantasy kits were made by several users on the FMG Live forum.
The kits in the Plus Pack are made by several users on the FMG Live forum.
PLAYING PRE-SEASON GAMES
In pre-season, there is a lot of squad rotation. Players going to the Austrian training camp is usually the first team + a bunch of the most promising youngsters. Last year, Jack Wilshere went and had a very good pre-season (man of the match on both days of the Emirates Cup), but as the season started he faded back into reserve team action.
So I would suggest playing a mixture between the first team and some of the more prominent youngsters like Wilshere, Afobe, Merida, Watt, Coquelin and Eastmond.
PLAYING REGULAR SEASON
General Stuff
Use the Dial Square tactic, and switch between Counter/Control/Attacking mentality. Also use the Work Ball Into box and Retain Possession touchline instructions as you see fit.
For Carling Cup action, Arsenal always lets the Academy players fight for the trophy. This means U18 + some reserve players if needed.
In the first stages of the FA Cup, we use mostly reserves, if we're not unlucky with the draw.
In all "pointless" games, like last game of a Champions League group we've already qualified in, we also tend to play reserve players.
Team Talks
Even though it's tempting to rip these youngsters a new ******* when they play like some sort of handicapped U10 team...remember that our motto is Victory Through Harmony. Wenger rarely shouts or kick shoes into his players eyebrows.
If the team is down at half-time, a simple Disappointed is good enough...and if we lose the game, take the high road and do sympathy. Unless you're losing 10-0 of course.
I always tend to use the 'For The Supporters!' instruction at the start of each game, it seems to work pretty well.
TRANSFER WINDOWS
This is really the key to playing a realistic Arsenal game, in my opinion. It's extremely hard summarizing Arsenal's transfer policy, but we can at least agree on one basic truth: Arsenal does not want to pay FM money for any player.
Even though the general consensus is that Arsenal only buy cheap young talent, our two latest signings destroys that argument (Arshavin & Vermaelen). The amount we paid for Arshavin is very big in Arsenal terms (same amount we got for Henry, basically), and it's doubtful we'll make another move like that in the near future.
So what do we look for? I'd say that this list could probably find you some realistic Arsenal targets:
1. Undiscovered young wonderkids from all over the world, mostly French or african though.
2. Overlooked (but good) early/mid-20's players in medium sized european teams, with a good price. Vermaelen being a good example in this category. Sagna too.
3. Free or very cheap older backup players for temporary duties. Silvestre and Sol Campbell are good examples here.
Keeping to this transfer policy will make the club very healthy economically as well, which makes the game even more realistic, seeing as Arsenal is probably the healthiest club in the Premier League when it comes to economical sustainability.
Some realistic targets would be Marouane Chamakh, Huntelaar and Felipe Melo.
In the book Arsene Wenger The Biography, Wenger is qoted as saying that he is only interested in players who are fast and intelligent, so to make it even more realistic, watch players with high mentality and physical attributes.
Lastly, if you want to make it super-realistic, just go for players with an injury proneness of 2399 and has some sort of weak bone disease.
CONTRACTS
As a general policy, Arsenal players over 30 will only get 1-year contracts. The only player above this policy in recent times is Gallas, but other than him it always applies. Young players are often tied up in long-term contracts, to protect the investment.
I Hope all football fans (not just Gunners) enjoy this guide and have fun!
Last edited by a moderator:
