OK..I'm 31 games unbeaten in the premier league as Arsenal and have only lost 2 games in cup competitions. One being in the fifth round of the fa cup 2nd leg to Manchester city and the other in a away leg in the europa league (as I was already through I fielded a weaker team).
Firstly I will go back to the beginning of the season and go through the main changes I made to my Arsenal team. As we all know there are many players who are not at the top level at arsenal so I wanted to get rid of them before I started.
Walcott - west ham 15m
Chambers - stoke 14m
Coquelin - Swansea 13.75m
Carzola - celta vigo 10.25m
Holding - Aston villa 9.75m
Mertesacker - Leicester 9m
Elneny - Southampton 9m
Debuchy - Leicester 4.5m
Total = 85m
As you can see I was very busy in the first transfer window and wished to get rid of most of my aged player's and the ones I believed are not good enough quality. In total I had a 135 million to spend on new players which I seemed to be more than happy with to attract the players I wanted.
As being a life long arsenal fan I'm aware of our teams strengths and weaknesses as a club so I wanted to attract a strong 'ball winning' midfielder which we haven't had since Patrick Viera. Some can say Alex Song was decent and players like Flamini and Coquelin had a good couple of seasons before fading off, but no one to the standards of Viera. My main target was Casemiro from real Madrid. I had a couple of high bids rejected at first at around the 40-50m mark so decided to do a part exange deal of 55m including Danny welbeck which to my suprise was accepted. I also bought a young Brazilian cm called Arthur for 9m. His stats developed tremendously and is now worth 76mil. Only 21 can play dmc, cm and as a advanced playmaker he is definitely a bargain and is pushing into my first team plans. With 12 assist's and 5 goals he is a player I would recommend to anybody.
I next moved my attention to my attacking options as I sold many of them I needed to bring in some reinforcement's. I went in for malcom from bordeaux who seemed to have all the attributes to fit in at arsenal. 35m was the price and I got my man. It's funny that we are actually linked to him in real life but whether he will come or not is something we will have to wait and see for at the end of January. In the 20 games hes played as I prefer ozil to him he hasn't do too badly with 5 goals and 6 assists at a remarkable 7.70 average rating. The next player I went in for was Lucas Pratto from SPO a Brazilian team. Some of you are probably thinking who is Lucas Pratto as I've being playing FM sincentre 1995 (championship manager it was called then) there have always been these bargain buys out there and Pratto is one of them. What a bargain he has been. Bought for 3.6mil he has scored 33 goals in 36 games on all comps is the 2nd leading scorer in the premiership so far with 18 goals.
Defensively the only signing I made was matthijs de ligt for 14mil from ajax. He's not played much for me as he is still young so mainly used as a squad player. Also made a part exchange deal with Leicester for 8m including ospina for kaser schmeichel. He has been my no1 all season and very reliable as he has only conceded 21 goals in the 37 he played at a average rating of 7.08.
So they have been the in's and out's. I next moved onto my formation and the players I kept and the training regimes I would assign to them. I have a method of training I've always used since the 2000 versions which have always worked wonders (I'll do a whole post on this in the future) . Regrading my squad I always like to have 2 players in each positions and a couple of squad players who can play a number of positions to unsure I have the depth. See below for squad : -
Gk
Schmeichel
Cech
Defenders
De ligt
Koscienly
Mustafi
Monreal
Bielik - youth
Kolansinac
Bellerin
Maitland-niles - youth
Josh dailva - youth
Midfielders
Wilshere - 10 assist's
Ramsey - 7 assist's
Xhaka - 8 assists
Arthur - 12 assists
Casemiro
Wingers/attacking midfielder's
Malcom - 6 assists
Ozil - 17 assist's
Iwobi - 8 assist's
Reine-Adelaide
Reiss Nelson - youth
Edmondson - youth
Strikers
Lacazatte - 31 goals
Giroud - 19 goals
Sanchez - 15 goals
As you can see most my squad are performing well. I play a 4-2-3-1 formation which is very popular in this along with the 3-5-2 formations used by other teams. My goal keeper plays a normal role as finding sweeper keepers are difficult i kept a conservative option with kasper.
Right back i play Bellerin used as a wing back role and has the freedom in my back 4 to push on and help support my midfield. Mustafi plays centre back as my ball playing defender who also has the licence to bring thr ball out of defence, more so than my other centre back Koscienly who stays as my defensive option as a normal centre back. Left full back I play kolasinac who also a keep back as I have a very attacking team I do not wished to be exposed on both flanks by my opposition.
My midfield consists of 2 centre midfielders who are Wilshere on the left side and Casemiro on the right of him. Wilshere play's as a deep lying midfielder and initiatives the moves foward by collecting the ball from the defenders. Although wilshere preffered role is as a advanced playmaker I used him a lot deeper mainly because of his shooting is very poor compared to the other players in that position. Casemiro plays as a ball winning midfielder and breaks up play very nicely. He's strong, good on the ball so I kept him in his favourite role as a ball winning midfielder.
Leaving Lacazatte, Pratto, Sanchez, Ozil as my front 4. Sanchez plays on the right as a inside foward. Lacazzatte up front as a poacher, Ozil on the left deployed as a winger. Pratto fits in behind Lacazatte as a second striker.
My main subs used were malcom, de ligt, Giroud, Iwobi, Ramsey, Maitland-niles. Who are all playing there part well. In game I would wait usually until 55min before making my first sub. Which would be Giroud for Lacazatte. He'd come on as a target man mainly for the like's of Ramsey, malcom and Iwobi to exploit there movement and pace with his hold up play to either come back into games or look to 'kill the game off'.
I'd never change my options and styles and keep it the same all game. My shape being balanced along with the width and play a fast tempo game in a very expressive style allowing creative frredom for all my players (the arsenal way) My defensive line would be balanced with my players closing down all over the pitch. Also with very committed tackling I would receive the odd red cards but I prefered a attacking team than a defensive one. My Gk distrubution was set to short with a mixed passing focus for my defenders with a short passing style. This meant my build up play would be focused on a more 'keep ball attitude'. In the final third I went for my wingers to rUn at defenders, with a shoot on sight policy and early crosses. This meant that my chances were looked to be created in a more direct sense of play than working the ball around and looking for overlaps.
Overall I am currently 19 points clear in the league from my closest rivals man utd with 7 games to go. The league seems secure but going unbeaten is the main goal now. Still being in the Europa league with A.Bilboa waiting in the the quarter finals would be my 3rd trophy if successful, after securing the community shield with a 1-0 over Chelsea and the carabao cup with a 2-1 win over arch nemesis man utd. All in all I've got the best from my players and they are playing some very attractive football. My next goal will be securing a couple more addition's for my aging player's like koscienly and Monreal in defence and a replacemental for sanchez. No matter what you do you cannot get him to sign a new contract even by almost getting sacked for annoying the board for numerous request to increase the wage budgets. Iwobi is almost some what too good in this game and turns out to be very unrealistic considering his terrible form in real life but his stats are just ridiculously good. Also Maitland-niles, beilik, Reine-Adelaide, Reiss Nelson develop very nicely if you improve your facilities and change your training schedules. With only 7 games left I will inform you in my future posts on FM18 whether my team can replicated the Invincible team of season 03/04.
Firstly I will go back to the beginning of the season and go through the main changes I made to my Arsenal team. As we all know there are many players who are not at the top level at arsenal so I wanted to get rid of them before I started.
Walcott - west ham 15m
Chambers - stoke 14m
Coquelin - Swansea 13.75m
Carzola - celta vigo 10.25m
Holding - Aston villa 9.75m
Mertesacker - Leicester 9m
Elneny - Southampton 9m
Debuchy - Leicester 4.5m
Total = 85m
As you can see I was very busy in the first transfer window and wished to get rid of most of my aged player's and the ones I believed are not good enough quality. In total I had a 135 million to spend on new players which I seemed to be more than happy with to attract the players I wanted.
As being a life long arsenal fan I'm aware of our teams strengths and weaknesses as a club so I wanted to attract a strong 'ball winning' midfielder which we haven't had since Patrick Viera. Some can say Alex Song was decent and players like Flamini and Coquelin had a good couple of seasons before fading off, but no one to the standards of Viera. My main target was Casemiro from real Madrid. I had a couple of high bids rejected at first at around the 40-50m mark so decided to do a part exange deal of 55m including Danny welbeck which to my suprise was accepted. I also bought a young Brazilian cm called Arthur for 9m. His stats developed tremendously and is now worth 76mil. Only 21 can play dmc, cm and as a advanced playmaker he is definitely a bargain and is pushing into my first team plans. With 12 assist's and 5 goals he is a player I would recommend to anybody.
I next moved my attention to my attacking options as I sold many of them I needed to bring in some reinforcement's. I went in for malcom from bordeaux who seemed to have all the attributes to fit in at arsenal. 35m was the price and I got my man. It's funny that we are actually linked to him in real life but whether he will come or not is something we will have to wait and see for at the end of January. In the 20 games hes played as I prefer ozil to him he hasn't do too badly with 5 goals and 6 assists at a remarkable 7.70 average rating. The next player I went in for was Lucas Pratto from SPO a Brazilian team. Some of you are probably thinking who is Lucas Pratto as I've being playing FM sincentre 1995 (championship manager it was called then) there have always been these bargain buys out there and Pratto is one of them. What a bargain he has been. Bought for 3.6mil he has scored 33 goals in 36 games on all comps is the 2nd leading scorer in the premiership so far with 18 goals.
Defensively the only signing I made was matthijs de ligt for 14mil from ajax. He's not played much for me as he is still young so mainly used as a squad player. Also made a part exchange deal with Leicester for 8m including ospina for kaser schmeichel. He has been my no1 all season and very reliable as he has only conceded 21 goals in the 37 he played at a average rating of 7.08.
So they have been the in's and out's. I next moved onto my formation and the players I kept and the training regimes I would assign to them. I have a method of training I've always used since the 2000 versions which have always worked wonders (I'll do a whole post on this in the future) . Regrading my squad I always like to have 2 players in each positions and a couple of squad players who can play a number of positions to unsure I have the depth. See below for squad : -
Gk
Schmeichel
Cech
Defenders
De ligt
Koscienly
Mustafi
Monreal
Bielik - youth
Kolansinac
Bellerin
Maitland-niles - youth
Josh dailva - youth
Midfielders
Wilshere - 10 assist's
Ramsey - 7 assist's
Xhaka - 8 assists
Arthur - 12 assists
Casemiro
Wingers/attacking midfielder's
Malcom - 6 assists
Ozil - 17 assist's
Iwobi - 8 assist's
Reine-Adelaide
Reiss Nelson - youth
Edmondson - youth
Strikers
Lacazatte - 31 goals
Giroud - 19 goals
Sanchez - 15 goals
As you can see most my squad are performing well. I play a 4-2-3-1 formation which is very popular in this along with the 3-5-2 formations used by other teams. My goal keeper plays a normal role as finding sweeper keepers are difficult i kept a conservative option with kasper.
Right back i play Bellerin used as a wing back role and has the freedom in my back 4 to push on and help support my midfield. Mustafi plays centre back as my ball playing defender who also has the licence to bring thr ball out of defence, more so than my other centre back Koscienly who stays as my defensive option as a normal centre back. Left full back I play kolasinac who also a keep back as I have a very attacking team I do not wished to be exposed on both flanks by my opposition.
My midfield consists of 2 centre midfielders who are Wilshere on the left side and Casemiro on the right of him. Wilshere play's as a deep lying midfielder and initiatives the moves foward by collecting the ball from the defenders. Although wilshere preffered role is as a advanced playmaker I used him a lot deeper mainly because of his shooting is very poor compared to the other players in that position. Casemiro plays as a ball winning midfielder and breaks up play very nicely. He's strong, good on the ball so I kept him in his favourite role as a ball winning midfielder.
Leaving Lacazatte, Pratto, Sanchez, Ozil as my front 4. Sanchez plays on the right as a inside foward. Lacazzatte up front as a poacher, Ozil on the left deployed as a winger. Pratto fits in behind Lacazatte as a second striker.
My main subs used were malcom, de ligt, Giroud, Iwobi, Ramsey, Maitland-niles. Who are all playing there part well. In game I would wait usually until 55min before making my first sub. Which would be Giroud for Lacazatte. He'd come on as a target man mainly for the like's of Ramsey, malcom and Iwobi to exploit there movement and pace with his hold up play to either come back into games or look to 'kill the game off'.
I'd never change my options and styles and keep it the same all game. My shape being balanced along with the width and play a fast tempo game in a very expressive style allowing creative frredom for all my players (the arsenal way) My defensive line would be balanced with my players closing down all over the pitch. Also with very committed tackling I would receive the odd red cards but I prefered a attacking team than a defensive one. My Gk distrubution was set to short with a mixed passing focus for my defenders with a short passing style. This meant my build up play would be focused on a more 'keep ball attitude'. In the final third I went for my wingers to rUn at defenders, with a shoot on sight policy and early crosses. This meant that my chances were looked to be created in a more direct sense of play than working the ball around and looking for overlaps.
Overall I am currently 19 points clear in the league from my closest rivals man utd with 7 games to go. The league seems secure but going unbeaten is the main goal now. Still being in the Europa league with A.Bilboa waiting in the the quarter finals would be my 3rd trophy if successful, after securing the community shield with a 1-0 over Chelsea and the carabao cup with a 2-1 win over arch nemesis man utd. All in all I've got the best from my players and they are playing some very attractive football. My next goal will be securing a couple more addition's for my aging player's like koscienly and Monreal in defence and a replacemental for sanchez. No matter what you do you cannot get him to sign a new contract even by almost getting sacked for annoying the board for numerous request to increase the wage budgets. Iwobi is almost some what too good in this game and turns out to be very unrealistic considering his terrible form in real life but his stats are just ridiculously good. Also Maitland-niles, beilik, Reine-Adelaide, Reiss Nelson develop very nicely if you improve your facilities and change your training schedules. With only 7 games left I will inform you in my future posts on FM18 whether my team can replicated the Invincible team of season 03/04.