The first pre-season of a new save is most definitely the slowest of any season in a save. There are so many different processes and decisions that are inter-woven or involve a level of repetition: assessing the squad, deciding on a tactical style, looking at the transfer market, reassessing the squad, tweaking the tactic, dumping the deadwood, etc.
So at this point, I’ve already picked out the key players in my squad that I feel will play a big part in the first season. Now I needed to try and get my head around this new Tactics screen.
Tactics By Serendipity
I never really enter into a new save with a clear vision of how I want my team to play. It’s usually something that just comes about through a long process of trial and error. I started this new career immediately following Copenhagen’s loss to Spurs and decided I would go with a simple 4-2-4 (IP) / 4-2DM-2-1-1 (OOP). It was very much ‘no frills’ - mentality as balanced and no Team Instructions to begin with.
The early signs were satisfactory. The clichéd struggling win in a first pre-season friendly against a local side but then we pulled off a superb 1-1 draw with Real Madrid. We followed that up with a 3-3 draw with Monaco. After 6 competitive games, I felt it just wasn’t what I wanted. Enter serendipity.
I remembered seeing how Monaco lined up against us - 3 at the back. 1 DM with 2 wingbacks. 2 central midfielders and 2 in attack. I liked how it looked. I’m not 100% sure on why, or what I wanted from it but I had to try it. We switched - again, starting off bland with a balanced mentality and no TIs - allowing a chance to watch play unfold before eventually deciding to make minor tweaks: low crosses, quick GK distribution, stop short GK distribution, high press and press more often.
It worked! Then it didn’t. Then it worked again!
Essentially we play three bog standard Centre-Backs s in front of a bog standard Goalkeeper. A simple defensive midfielder holds his position in front of the defence, allowing two Attacking Wing Backs to stream forward. A jack of all traders Central Midfielder partners with a creative Midfield Playmaker. A Deep Lying Forward links play alongside the busy Channel Forward making runs and getting into dangerous positions. The same basic shape is retained in an Out Of Possession shape. I’m calling it a 3-5-2.
Trialist 7 - SIGNED
I think this is probably the first FM in a long time that the free agent market has looked so attractive. While plenty were well out of my reach at FC Copenhagen, I took a number of players in on trial: Andrea Consigli, Rick Karsdorp, Mattia Caldara, Sergio Reguilon, Miralem Pjanic, Lucas Andersen and Diego Costa.
I would have happily brought Reguilon and Pjanic in, if it weren’t for their exorbitant wage demands for this level. Lucas Andersen really caught my attention - misty eyed memories of Andersen, Eriksen and Fischer in their breakout seasons at Ajax - but sadly he just wasn’t up to the standard.
The only signing made from the group was 36 year old Diego Costa. “Fresh” from a couple of seasons in Brazil’s First Division, the aggressive, controversy courting striker is the sort of player I wanted to batter his way through the Danish league - spoiler alert: 7 goals in 15 games before moving back to Brazil with Santos for £275k just 6 months after joining… profit is profit.
Oliver Provstgaard was a summer deadline day signing on loan from Celeste (apparently Lazio..?) with a £9.25m option to buy. It’s a steep price but the 22 year old Danish Centre-Back has the potential to be a buy player in this team and not least of all because he is 6 foot 4.
Tanguy Ndombele was the next signing. A free transfer secured on 11/11/25 (LWF). I thought long about signing him pre-season but his wage demands were too steep. In the end, I splashed out on his £26k per week pocket money anyway. He’s ex-Spurs and needs a redemption arc. I couldn’t turn it down.
One January signing was made - Ivan Illic. Just £6m from Torino - which was a Copenhagen record fee - it felt like a bargain to complete the ultimate midfield pairing with the aforementioned Frenchman.
There were outgoings too. In the summer, Oliver Hojer and Abdul Daramy were sent out on loan to Halmstads (6 month) and AC Horsens (full season) respectively. Come January, I cashed in on Diego Costa as mentioned, along with a further £275k for Viktor Claesson to go to Al-Riyadh.
Talented attackers Robert and Elias Achouri just weren’t fitting into my side right now and both go on loan. Robert with FC Union Berlin and Achouri to Crystal Palace - Achouri’s deal also including a mandatory £20m (£10m up front and £10m in installments) should Palace avoid the drop, which at the moment they are lingering dangerously close to.
Patchy Spells but Patches to Blame?
I’m told it’s not SI’s fault. It’s in my head. But the moment a patch came out, it seemed my form went to the dogs. Maybe it’s coincidence and I’m just paranoid, maybe it’s the planes filling the air with chemicals and the 5G masts making us all ill. Who knows. There are metals in the water for sure. Also, I make an apology on SI’s behalf for not including a screenshot of results - that page is hideously formatted.
Anyway, despite being Champions we still have to qualify for the Champions League. Thanks UEFA. We entered in the Second Qualifying Round of the Champions Path. We did what Linfield couldn’t (twice) and knocked Shelbourne out 3-0 on aggregate. Lech Poznan were denied their silly hug-looking-away-from-the-pitch celebration as we beat them 9-1. Steaua Bucuresti were our final obstacle in the Play Off round and our 4-0 first leg victory was enough to see us through, even as we fell in defeat in the second leg, 4-1 to us over two legs.
Our Champions League group fixtures were never going to be easy but we gave a really good account of ourselves. Lost 2-1 to Liverpool and Napoli (Parthenope?), we were well beaten by Galatasaray 4-0 before an audacious 4-2 victory over Benfica. Belgian side Union SG claimed a 1-0 victory at their ground before we beat real life by drawing 1-1 with Spurs in Denmark. Proving it wasn’t a fluke, we went out to Germany and pulled off another superb 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich. Into the last game of the group phase and there was still an outside chance of progression - Atlético Madrid standing in our way. Unbelievably we were a goal ahead by half time. A second and third followed soon into the second half and we had secured a place in the Knock Out Play Off Round!
Our foes in the Champions League Knock Out Play Off Round were Bergamo - former fmadventure team Atalanta! In the Parken Stadium it was a goalless draw, Copenhagen definitely seemed like the more likely to go on and grab a winner in the game but it wasn’t to be. In the second leg, Copenhagen picked up where they left off, Rodrigo Huescas finally opening the scoring in the tie to give us the lead. It looked like we might hold out but then Gianluca Scamacca equalised on 40 minutes. Nicola Zalewski put Atalanta ahead on 45+1 and Scamacca extended the lead on 45+2. Any hopes of a resurgent second half were stopped dead just 3 minutes into the second half when Gianluca Scamacca completed his hattrick and it finished 4-1 to Atalanta over the two legs. A valiant effort from us.
In amongst the excitement of Europe, there was a Danish 3F Superliga campaign to be fought. A win, loss and a draw started the league against Viborg, Velje and FC Fredericia. At this point we switched tactic to our 3-5-2 and went on to win the next 7 league games scoring 24 goals and conceding just twice. Going into October and November we hit indifferent form - losing to title challengers Midtjylland as well as mid tablers Silkeborg and AGF. Wins over Viborg and FC Fredericia were brief highlights but poorly fought draws against Vejle and Brondby raised questions over the tactics, players and whether I - a 35 year old Civil Servant from Belfast - was truly the right man to lead FC Copenhagen to glory.
Things picked up just before the Winter break with a 4-1 win against Sonderjyske. When the league started back in February, the players showed a renewed endeavour claiming four wins in the next four games including revenge against Midtjylland thanks to a Youssouff Moukoko freekick.
The Danish 3F Superliga now heads into a Championship / Relegation Split with a match against the rest of the top half home and away to play.
Well placed for a title push despite some of our earlier falls
We entered the Danish Cup in the Third Round, facing Amateur side Roskilde KFUM, making short work of them as expected with six different scorers in a 6-0 win. An 82nd minute Andreas Cornelius goal pushed us to victory in the Fourth Round against Velje. We knocked out second tier side Kolding IF in a two legged Quarter Final - 2-0 away and 5-0 at home. All the work was done in the first leg of the Semi Final against Viborg FF with a 4-1 victory away meaning the 1-1 draw at home was enough to set us up for a Danish Cup Final against Silkeborg come May!
Mou Than A Feeling!
Former Dortmund Wünderkid Yousouffa Moukoko leads the scoring charts with 18 goals in just 25 appearances (22 starts, 3 as sub). A fantastic return for a player who has missed 37% of the season so far through injury - including a stress fracture of the foot. Unsurprisingly Moukouko is also the highest average rated player this season with 7.52. Strike partner Jordan Larsson is second on 15 goals in 31 appearances (26 starts, 5 as sub).
Three players are joint on 8 assists - Wing Backs Marcos Lopez and Rodrigo Huescas along with Mohamed Elyounoussi who has all but lost his place to Ivan Illic since his January signing.
Goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski has conceded 33 goals in his 38 appearances, keeping 18 clean sheets.
Grandstand Finish - I Can Hardly Cope-nhagen
In a league of 12 teams, we play each other twice (home and away) for a total of 22 games before the league splits. The top half is the Championship Group and competes for European places while the bottom half is the Relegation Group - who compete to… not be relegated, obviously.
In the Championship Group, we now face the other 5 teams home and away once more to decide the fate of the league title and the various European places.
In our games against our fellow Championship Group teams, the results have gone as follows:
Midtjylland: home loss, away win
Vejle: home loss, away draw
Brondby: home draw, away win
AGF: home win, away loss
Silkeborg: home win, away loss
Just four wins and two draws in those ten games probably doesn’t instil a great amount of hope however I feel we have slowly picked up momentum as the league campaign has trotted along. We are very much still a favourite for the title and with a Danish Cup final to come, it’s an exciting end to the season for us…
