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The Arsenal Simulation Compendium

I’ve been playing Football Manager for many years, and everytime I do, I try playing as realistic as possible with Arsenal, as it annoys the hell out of me when Wenger buys £40m superstars, sells Cesc 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. All the other Arsenal articles will be used as supplements to this article, to avoid repetition as much as possible.

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 Arsenal club, players and staff. For in-depth information about what’s in this database, read through the Realistic Arsenal Database article (newly updated to v2).

It’s basically a lot of minor PA, CA, preferred moves and attributes boosts when it comes to the first team squad. It also has changing home kits every other year (and away/third kits every year), and staff changes. Also putting Wenger as Director of Football, so he wouldn’t manage another team.

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, but not currently appearing in the game.
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. He’s not in the game though, so we could use him if we wanted to.
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

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 formation 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.

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.

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.

Final Pre-Season Fixtures

Using the guide above, this is how I set up my pre-season at the start of my game:

Third Saturday of July
Barnet

3 days after the Barnet game
Austrian low reputation team

6 days later
Eastern European low reputation team

2 days later
Medium level Bundesliga team

Two weeks after the Barnet game
Emirates Cup

Three days after the Emirates Cup
Medium level random team

7 pre-season fixtures in total.

Former Pre-Seasons

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.

Staff

Here comes another problem with trying to do realistic stuff in FM. Arsenal currently only have 2 coaches + Manager & Ass 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. Also, when your scouts finds promising players they highly recommend, scout them with Steve Rowley to get his final opinion.

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

All the players with a star next to their name: you could 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

Arsenal play a fast, attacking, floating 4-3-3. For a full in-depth analysis and download of the tactic, read The Real Arsenal 4-3-3 article (newly updated to version 2.2).

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
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
AML 1. Andey Arshavin – 2. Eduardo/Tomas Rosicky – 3. Carlos Vela/Samir Nasri

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 common substitutes are:

S1 – Lukasz Fabianski
S2 – Sol Campbell
S3 – Emmanuel Eboue
S4 – Denilson/Ramsey
S5 – Samir Nasri/Rosicky
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 before every game.

REMEMBER: apply the Dial Square Academy tactic to the Reserve Team and the U18′s.

Training & Coaches – NEW!

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.

When making these V2 schedules, I used the rule of clicks, better explained here. In short, the training engine in FM has a simple functionality: position 8 on the slider maintains a skill, position 14 on the slider increase a skill and position 20 is where skills stops increasing. This means that you should never have to have a slider above position 20 (as that is when the skill stops improving), and there is really no need to have the sliders at anything except position 0, 8, 14 or 20.

At the start of pre-season: 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 & Gerry 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 (or promote one of the scouts to coach).

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.

To see more of these kits, and to read about how they work, read the Changing Arsenal Kits article

Home Kit

Every other year, Arsenal change their home kits. I’ve made several home kit designs, here are some examples:

There are many more in the Arsenal Fantasy Kits thread.

Away Kit

Unlike the home kit, the away kit changes every year. The editor won’t allow too many kits, so I had to stop around 2019. From 2019, I had to settle for the classic yellow/blue colours, but I still change the actual design every year. Here are some examples:

Third Kit

Just like the away kit, the third kit changes every year. Difference is that the third kit is always last years away kit. After 2015 I had to settle on a colour scheme, due to the editor restrictions. I chose the first colours of the club for this purpose; maroon shirt, white shorts and black socks. Just like the away kit, the design still changes even though the colours are the same. Here are some of the maroon designs:

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 a Regular Season

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. Wenger has played the reserves all the way to quarter finals and above…but he has also played some of the first team regulars in this mix, so play the FA Cup with a mixture of both.

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 asshole 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.

2. Overlooked (but good) early/mid-20′s players in medium sized European teams, at a fair 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 (or the world?) when it comes to economic sustainability.

Some realistic targets would be Marouane Chamakh, Huntelaar or Felipe Melo. Wenger has said several times that we don’t need more attackers though. We currently have Van Persie, Bendtner, Vela, Arshavin, Walcott, Eduardo in the first team, and the club feel they’re good enough to stick with. But he has said that they’ve been looking at both defensive midfielders and defenders lately.

We usually just go for one medium/big signing per transfer window, but we usually bring in 2-3 young players for the academy. A healthy way of playing would be scouting for young kids around 15-18, and buying a couple of the best ones. Then perhaps go for a bigger signing once a year to help the squad.

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. There is also a passing element to Arsenal’s playing style, so these are the attributes you should be looking for when buying players in any position:

First Touch
Passing*

Anticipation*
Composure
Creativity
Off The Ball*

Acceleration*
Agility*
Natural Fitness
Pace

The attributes with a star next to them, are the important ones.

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.

Realistic Transfer Suggestions

Marouane Chamakh
Hugo Lloris (if you can get him for less than £15m)
Neven Subotic
Brede Hangeland
Felipe Melo
Loic Remy
Damian Marcq

Some very unrealistic transfers I’ve seen in people’s saves include: Dzeko (even though Arsenal have looked at him, they have said that he’s too expensive), Daniel De Rossi, David Villa, etc. Try not to overdo it with transfers.

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.

Downloads

Dial Square v2.2
Dial Square Academy v2.2

Dial Square Training – V2

Dial Square Database – V2

Arsenal Custom Kits Lite

Arsenal Custom Kits Plus

Put the tactics in: Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/tactics

Put the training schedules in: Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/schedules

Put the database in Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/editor data – you have to activate it by starting a new game and ticking the ‘change’ box when selecting database

Put the kits in Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/graphics/kits