My 4222 Brazilian tactic with Shimizu S-Pulse (Season 2)

November 29, 2025

I imagine that any view you have on ‘Seleção’ (the Brazilian National Team) would depend on how old you were when you first saw them play. ‘Boomers’ like my dad’s generation would rave about the teams of 1958 and 1962, led by the all-scoring Pelé. My brothers’ would have seen the 1980s teams with mavericks like Sócrates fail against more streetwise European sides. Whereas me, being notably younger than my siblings, would have first enjoyed watching the successes of the 1990s and early 2000s sides. A more recent generation of football fans would have seen Brazil for the first time as a team lacking experience, cunning and capitulations on the most epic of scales. However, despite the contrasting fortunes of the Brazilian national team three common themes are usually present:

Improvisation and creativity - Brazil has always valued individual flair over rigid systems. Whilst recent Brazil teams have been more pragmatic and defensively organised, the classic traits of improvisation are never far to be found.
Attacking Full Backs/Wing Backs - Brazil like their Wing Backs to advance high up the pitch, overlap, and often act like extra wingers in attack. Nílton Santos in the 1950s revolutionised the full-back position and since then there have been too many to name in this blog. But three of my favourites are well known: Cafu, Roberto Carlos and Dani Alves.
Technical mastery - the street and futsal influences within Brazil’s youth pathway mean that players are comfortable when receiving, turning, and passing under pressure.

A common formation, allowing Brazilian players to do all of that, has been the 4222. It is often dubbed the ‘Brazilian Box’ or ‘Magic Box’ and has been used extensively throughout football over the years. This post is not a direct translation of a particular 4222 system in time, or a replication of a particular manager's philosophy…rather it is me taking the bits I think make Brazil football what it is and adding it to my Shimizu S-Pulse side for the second season in FM26.

Firstly, here’s a quick three-part Q&A with myself that is a quick way to get up to speed as to why I am changing tactics this early into a save…

Question 1: Why change a title winning tactic for something untried and untested?

It’s true, Shimizu were the No.1 team in the J1 league last season…topping a lot of metrics and playing some great football. However, we cannot stand still. The 4231 was built around two MVPs (Takashi Inui - a playmaker and Capixaba - a winger) who have decided to leave on Free Transfers. Whilst I could find similar players, would those players signed live up to what the previous two did for S-Pulse last time out?

Question 2: Shimizu will play in the 2026 Asian Champions League, is changing now a risky move?

Yes. It will be interesting to see how I fare in this competition…however the Asian Champions League is not until the end of the calendar year. Due to a league restructure (with the J1 now delayed to start until August 2026), a special J1 tournament fills the formative months of the year. It is the perfect time to try out a new system, without any domestic cup or J1 games intertwined, and get everybody familiar with this before the Asian Champions League.

Question3: Were you always going to change to a 4222 tactic?

Yep. Even if Takashi Inu and Capixaba signed deals to stay this season…eventually I would have phased out wider players and recruited players to suit a more narrow 4222. Afterall, I am focusing on signing Brazilians in this save. It would be rude not to try a form of 4222 on the new FM26 engine.

The 4222 tactic

Key differences with my 4231: Firstly, let’s look at a high level of what the previous 4231 was all about: Direct long-ball counter attacks with lots of dribbles (you can read about that here). You may have differing views when reading this (again with whichever lens your first experience of watching Seleção was), but those traits I just mentioned are not Brazilian. Whilst Brazilians can clearly dribble…they have often been a ‘pass first’ team. So, the only frequent dribblers in the 4222 will be my Wing Backs. I would even say that the Direct Counter Attack needs to change too, I would like my Brazilian side to progress with more calmness and exert more control on the game.

Team Instructions: Usually I introduce the Player Roles first, but I thought I would treat this post differently and summarise the style of football first. I have already given detail above of some of the key flavours of football, but here are the instructions in their entirety. Note - my starting Mentality is Balanced (and I rarely change it).

Now the purists would come and tell me that Creative Freedom ought to be maxed out, a reminder that this is not a total replication. But the samba in this tactic is best shown in the Progression. I want to move my team forward, and to do that I have instructed the team to progress through the middle, play into feet and encourage underlapping runs on each side of the pitch. Out of possession we are very aggressive. We will regroup and get back into a disciplined 442/451 shape as soon as reasonably possible, but we will press like rabid animals and get stuck in with tackles when the opportunity arises.

Player Roles: Now to the fun part: the roles! The 4222 can be grouped into four outfield sections…Defenders, Wing Backs, Playmakers and Strikers:

**Note** - When out of possession the AP and the SS become left/right sided midfielders respectively to form 442.

Three Defenders - in real-life I am currently infatuated with Martín Zubimendi and the way he slots into the Arsenal backline when in possession and the knock-on benefits that has brought to the team. Those benefits are that it allows the centre-backs to position themselves wider and also pushes the full backs forward. In my 4222 this is crucial too…with the Half Back slotting into the back three (as a left sided CB), the Wing Backs then have licence to move forward and offer the width needed further upfield. If we go back to the Brazil team I used to watch as a teenager…I remember Centre Back/Defensive Midfielder hybrid Edmilson in World Cup 2002 doing something similar, which allowed Roberto Carlos and Cafu to effectively play as wingers for Brazil.

Two Wing Backs - There is no need for ‘Advanced Wing Backs’...standard ones will suffice. The ‘three at the back’ security is there and the higher lines of engagement out of possession will move them up to play predominantly in the opponent’s half. I need guys who are good in the 1v1 (Dribbling) and have an end product to their game (Crossing). I have Player Instructions added to increase the frequency of their dribbling, apart from that it is very simple.

Two Playmakers - Usually I only have one playmaker in my side, but to enhance the central play I have a Deep Lying Playmaker at DM and an Advance Playmaker between the lines at AM. These are two ball magnets, one for the build up + progression and one for the final third. I have positioned them diagonally from one another (one left side and one right) in order to provide distance for both to flourish.

Three Strikers - I am ultra-attacking here with three goal-threat strikers. But my reasoning is that one of those strikers (Shadow Striker) resets into a wide position when out of possession. This means he will be somewhere between the two areas during a transition. When our build up is paced right, he will move into the striker position with the Channel Forward often making wider runs out wide (see example goal further on in this post). I see great interchanges between the two roles here, whilst the Centre Forward remains a constant goal threat and a focal point of the attack.

2026 Shimizu S-Pulse New Signings

I have outlined my approach to recruitment in a previous post (read here), and the good news is that it is going well. There have been plenty of Brazilians signed and the relaxed restrictions from 2026 mean I have near limitless opportunities to sign and field foreign players (maximum squad size of 99 + no restrictions on how many are fielded in a match day squad). In total 16 players were signed and 11 of them are Brazilians (that’s 69% lads). All signings have been recruited with the 4222 in mind, so there has been a focus on Wing Backs and also players capable of playing DM and AM. I will not go through every player signed, but I will take a selection of seven recruited players from the above split of (Defenders, Half Backs, Wing Backs, Playmakers and Strikers).

Defenders - Roger Ibañez (Free) + Erick Noriega (Loan to buy)

The Marquee signing of 2026 is undoubtedly Roger Ibañez, who joins on a Free Transfer after a two-year stay in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ahli. ‘Mad Dog Rog’ becomes our highest earner and is the only one special enough for ‘Star Player’ squad status. I remember this guy kicking people in Serie A and I look forward to him adding a bit of steel to our defence. Alongside him is Erick Noriega who will be the No.1 Half-Back in our new-look 4222. He appeared in a Brazilian Serie B Recruitment Focus, and agreed to re-join Shimizu for €3.3m after an 18-month loan. The eagled eyed reader(s) will notice I wrote re-join there…because incredibly Erick is a Shimizu S-Pulse homegrown player (being born in Japan and playing in various Shimizu youth squads between 2017-2022)…something I did not know until he appeared in my recruitment focus. A wonderful, and surprising, homecoming.

Wing Backs - Saidazamat Mirsaidov (€550k) + Wesley Gasolina (Free Transfer)

€550k was spent bringing Uzbek Saidazamat Mirsaidov to Japan. He hugs the line and likes it played into his feet, more than enough justification for making him my first choice right sided Wing Back. His deputy is Wesley Gasolina, who was discarded from the Brazilian Second Division having been released by Athletic Club (Minas Gerais). A huge part of my recruitment at Shimizu S-Pulse is to give emerging talents overlooked by Europe, and within Brazil itself, another chance. Gasolina is a good example of this, he is relatively average in places but he is good off the ball, can dribble and cross.

Playmaker - Yuri Leles (Loan)

Yuri Leles appeared in a Recruitment Focus with a strong scout report. Red Bull Bragantino were agreeable to a loan that means he returns to them as a 20-year-old in June 2027. Their only insistence was that Yuri plays AMC, so that’s where he will play most of the time: as our new Advanced Playmaker. I quickly saw on his debut (where he made two great assists) Vs Kobe that he will be a special player for Shimizu S-Pulse over the next year.

Strikers - Damián Bobadilla (Free) + Ado Onaiwu (Loan with option to buy)

Damián Bobadilla is another marquee signing, a full International already with Paraguay…he leaves Brazil Serie A for Shimizu S-Pulse and has a big wage. His versatility is his biggest strength, he can play as the Deep Lying Playmaker or the Advanced Playmaker…but most of the time he has been our Shadow Striker. His traits of ‘getting into the opposition area’ and ‘gets forward whenever possible’ complement the role well. It is therefore no surprise that he finished as our 2nd highest top scorer within the J1 Special Tournament with 8 goals.

The side’s top scorer however was Japanese international Ado Onaiwu, who joined on loan from FC Magdeburg in Germany thanks to an Agent Offer in the Recruitment area of FM26. Ado Onaiwu has been a lethal Channel Forward for us, contributing to ten goals in 18 games. There is a €1m optional deal agreed as part of the loan and I think I would be a fool not to sign Ado permanently.

2026 ‘J1 Special Tournament’

The season started brightly with a 6-2 Super Cup trophy win Vs last season’s Emperor's Cup winners Yokohama FC 🏆 The 4222 then continued strongly with 11 wins in the J1 Special Tournament, where the top league has split into two groups of ten clubs. I was not sure what would happen after winning the group, but it turns out that each team plays their opposite ranked team in the other group (1st Vs 1st, 2nd Vs 2nd etc). It hardly seemed a good reward for topping the group…however the resulting 6-5 two-legged victory Vs Group B Winners Kashiwa meant we had won another trophy (and the third of the save)! The special tournament ended with the 19th and 20th game 🏆

How did the tactic perform?

We did not top as many of the attacking metrics compared to last season’s 4231. However we can take a lot of comfort seeing us top the ‘Chances Created’ metric with 88 over the twenty games (4.4 per 90). The 4222 is highly successful from a defensive viewpoint though. Shimizu S-Pulse were undoubtedly the best defence in those twenty games with 21 goals conceded in 20 games (1.05 per 90), and the side had the ‘Fewest Final Third Passes' against with 77 in 20 games (3.85 per 90). The aggressive press and telling the players to ‘get stuck in’ meant we also topped the ‘Fouls’ table with 231 over the twenty games (11.55 per 90) 🔥

The J1 League Special Tournament is the third trophy of the save so far.

My favourite goals from the 4222 came in the same game, Vs Yokohama FC in the J1 Special Tournament league stage. Succulent interplay…

A lovely team move with Onaiwu finishing to make it 1-0.

2-0. Lovely central play between Half Back-Channel Forward-Shadow Striker

Season’s Greetings

This is most likely my 5th and final blog post of 2025, so it’s time for me to wish you a Happy Christmas and great New Year! Reminder to readers that a new FM26 patch arrives sometime within the first two weeks of December, so get that in your festive download queue via Steam Public Beta Track! 🎁

Thank you for reading/sharing and caring. See you next year.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

4141 to 4231: my tactic with Shimizu S-Pulse (Season 1)

November 17, 2025

It has been a tremendous season for the newly promoted Shimizu S-Pulse in Japan. By playing a clean slate 4231 tactic we have ended the season with silverware. Today’s blog post focuses on this tactic and provides an update on the events of my first season at the club. This post will be broken down into the following sections:

Tactical Roles
Shapes, Instructions + Rotations (4141 to 4231)
Season 1
Squad Overhaul

Tactical Roles

In Possession

I start my tactic creations with how I want my teams to be in possession of the ball: particularly thinking about how I want my players to create chances and score goals. Each time I do this I am faced with the same dilemma: build a tactic that suits the players I currently have OR place the players in a tactic that I want them to play. For Season 1 at Shimizu I have done the former, and something I usually end up doing: we build around two main players:

Takashi Inui - a creative presence at attacking midfield, who I will play as a No.10.
Capixaba - a pacey winger, who looks best deployed out wide.

With those two positions filled, I wanted to give the Advanced Playmaker more options in attack. My thinking is that the Wide Forward will create width right up into the ball entering the final third and stretch the opponent’s backline. This, in turn, also creates space for the Advanced Playmaker to exploit. This is where the final attacking role comes into play: the Centre Forward. It is no surprise that this role will be the more central threat, whilst it will sometimes channel run…its primary job is to stay central (hence the name, duh).

I would like one more goal threat in the side, and this is where the Box to Box Midfielder comes in. This role moves up to attacking midfield position when in the final third, becoming a threat from outside the box and helps pen the opposition in. It offers a different way to attack than the previously mentioned advanced roles, who all look to get into the box. It also has a nice knock on effect for our Advanced Playmaker’s positioning which I will detail further on in this post. With a Box to Box Midfielder selected, this means I should field appropriate cover in this area. I have gone with an adjacent Defensive Midfielder.

My defensive choices are rudimental: a back four. The Full Backs are chosen on the basis that my wide attacking roles will hold their width until the attack is in an advanced stage. My Full Backs can simply offer width, and security, from a deeper position and support the progression of our play forwards. My Goalkeeper is a more traditional shot stopper and not somebody who is necessarily great with his feet. I have therefore selected ‘no nonsense’ as a result.

Out of Possession

It is going to be very difficult for me to use anything other than two banks of four out of possession in FM26. Two rows of four is an effective shape to provide cover to the routes into our defensive ‘house’ (the penalty box). Stop the crosses? I think we can. Play through us centrally? Good luck. I have also placed a screening DM in here too for good measure, which is the more conservative Defensive Midfielder. Here are the defensive movements, you can see that I am not asking too much of the players to switch from 4231 to 4141:

Centre Forward stays forward and becomes our Outlet.
Both Winger and Wide Forward drop down to become Wide Midfielders.
Advance Playmaker and Box to Box Midfielder drop down to central midfield.

Shapes, Instructions + Rotations (4141 to 4231)

Here are the two shapes alongside one another:

Below are the Team Instructions I used. You will see that I have used Regroup when out of possession, and then to counter attack once the possession is regained. I chose these two instructions because we are a newly promoted team, and therefore expect teams to be more aggressive against us. This means we need to be defensively solid, but also attack the spaces that the opposition gives up. To make the counter attack effective, I’ve chosen to do this at a higher tempo and to be more direct. Once in the final third I have encouraged dribbling due to the tricky ball players I have upfront. Despite the urgency with getting the ball forward, I have gone with more patience to get the ball into the box, as opposed to shooting for low % chances. I am happy to have fewer shots, but with those shots having higher Expected Goals (xG). You will also see that I am encouraging the players to pass to feet, to support the forward advances into the opposition’s penalty area. The pass to feet instruction also complements our build up from the goal, where I ask players to play out from the back and play through the press.

The 4231 tactic has only one Positional Play rotation: the Box to Box Midfielder pushing up to the AMC spot has a knock-on for the Advanced Playmaker who will shift slightly over to the left hand size of the pitch. This is proven to be helpful to the attack, as the playmaker is positioned nicely to thread some line breaking balls into the left sided Wide Forward role and other roles around him. Note - to find out more about the Box to Box Midfielder role, I recommend watching The Deep Lying Playmaker’s FM26 video (released on the day I am writing this). It says exactly what I wanted to write right now, especially with pairing the Box to Box Midfielder with a playmaker role in a more advanced area. That partnership is shown below from a 2-0 win away against Frontale Kawasaki in my save, where the Box to Box Midfielder (Chinen) will drive forward centrally. You can see he makes a one-two with the Winger (Capixaba) before using the Advanced Playmaker (Inui), who has undergone that Positional Play rotation. The technical approach is eventually rewarded with a ball onto the onrushing Wide Forward (Fessin) to score.

It is also worth noting that there would be an additional rotation if I had the AMR inverting (I do not). For example, if you placed an Inverting Winger/Inside Forward then their starting positions would be moved further wide to accommodate the Box to Box Midfielder. The Tactical Evaluation tool in the creator would likely prompt you to address this anyway, which is a nice/under the radar FM26 feature. Anyway, Capixaba in the WInger role will instead stay wide and only drift in until the final third moments. Again, this has worked really well with Capixaba being predominantly left footed. It is very similar to Bukayo Saka’s behaviour in Arsenal’s real-life 433.

Season 1

So, how well did the tactic work? Well, the header image to this blog was a big spoiler…as the guard of honour from Tokyo Verdy on the penultimate weekend of the season was recognition for our immense efforts. Newly promoted Shimizu S-Pulse are 2025 J1 League winners. Here are some top level stats, which from a basic level show how good we were this season:

To further the point, here are a few more statistics from the season:

1st place in Expected Goals For (xGF) with 68.44.
1st place in Goals From Corners with 11 goals.
1st place in Chances Created with 175.

I am finding so much of FM26 hard to capture for a blog post, especially the Fixtures for the season played and Data Hub. Please make do with the final league table and the competitions recap screen (below).

What is most pleasing, and contrary to my Stade Brestois 29 Advanced Access beta ™ save which relied solely on one man, is how well we distributed the goals around the squad. Club Captain Koya Kitagawa (Centre Forward) leads the way with 17 goals + 9 assists, closely followed by Takashi Inui with 14 goals and 15 assists and Capixaba with 10 goals and 13 assists. With another sixteen players registering goals this campaign.

Squad Overhaul

Usually I am not this good, this quickly, in Football Manager saves. It all feels very CM4, not just in how I approach the game this year…but also the instant success I have experienced (see a recent Monaco save). Whilst I could continue with the 4231/4141 tactic, I am going to revise formation for Season 2. Whilst many aspects of our game may remain similar, I will look to recruit around a few different player roles. Also, my conviction to do this was set in stone after club MVPs (and the guys I introduced at the start of this post) Takashi Inui and Capixaba refused to sign new deals with Shimizu S-Pulse. They now leave on Free Transfers 🕯️

With the relaxed squad registration and foreign player rules coming into effect from 2026, we may just have to go heavy on Brazilians.

To find out what I do, perhaps come back and visit the blog in a little while? Thank you for reading/sharing and caring.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

Editor’s note: Special thanks to Ed Wilson and Mike According for sponsoring this latest blog post.

Recruitment at Shimizu S-Pulse in Football Manager 26

November 8, 2025

This is an update from my Shimizu S-Pulse save in the J1 league, Japan. The in-game date is May 2025, and I have set up my recruitment team and have begun to scout players. I thought I would show how I intend to find and sign players in FM26, as it is a bit different to what I have done in previous years. You can read my save introduction here.

This post will be broken down into the following sections:

Orange Samba
Backroom Staff
Recruitment Focuses
TransferRoom
Shortlists
Results

1. Orange Samba

Shimizu wears orange, and we’re focussing on signing Brazilians in this save. Put these two things together and we have Orange Samba. This will be the name of the club culture I will reference throughout the blog series. In Season 1 we already have five foreign players and the J1 league restrictions prohibit more than this in a matchday line up. However, there are upcoming changes to the Japanese leagues from August 2026 which I am very excited about:

The league will move to a ‘European’ format, beginning in August and ending in May. It is intended that this will make it easier for Japanese clubs to do business.
Squad size will change from 25 maximum players to a whopping 99.
No restrictions on foreign players.

With all the above in mind, it is important I lay down the ground work now in order to have a long list of scouted players for Shimizu S-Pulse in time for Summer 2026.

2. Backroom Staff

Navigate: Club/Staff

Setting up a good recruitment team and organising my scouting is key to this save as I have decided not to use the ‘Player Database’ (formerly known as ‘Player Search’). This means I solely rely on staff recommendations and agent offers to add an extra challenge to my save.

On Day 1 of the save, Shimizu had no recruitment staff whatsoever. So, Orange Samba starts with me building a predominantly Brazilian recruitment team. Now, with FM26, I am unsure how much of this makes a difference in the new era of FM…but my reasoning for recruiting Brazilian staff is pretty logical. (1) they already have a comprehensive knowledge of their home country + domestic leagues and (2) they help increase the likelihood of Brazilian newgens coming through into the club youth teams. This was also the case in previous FMs, so I hope it helps this time round in FM26. To find staff I head to Recruitment/Staff Database and use search filters.

I have maxed out on the number of Scouts allowed by the Board, I also recruited a Chief Scout and Director of Football to handle transfer negotiations. This takes our recruitment team to a total of six, five Brazilians and a solitary Japanese guy who will be stationed at home so he can scout our own domestic J leagues.

3. Recruitment Focuses

Navigate: Recruitment/Recruitment Focuses

Once I have a team in place, I will use Recruitment Focuses for ongoing Orange Samba scouting in Brazil. Here are the two recruitment focuses I set up for Brazil:

Brazil Youth (15-23)

Number of scouts: 2

Probably the most important Recruitment Focus for Orange Samba is the Brazilian Youth focus. I’ve chosen 15-23 year olds who have a minimum 3 star Potential Ability, for Current Ability I have set zero stars. Remember: the idea of this save is not to chase stars, but to find hidden gems instead who can improve.

Brazil Série B

Number of scouts: 2

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players are likely to be out of our range in terms of transfer fee and likely wage. Instead I have targeted Campeonato Brasileiro Série B sides, in order to see if any players meet my recruitments. I have gone with a minimum ability of 2 stars for Current Ability and 2.5 starts for Potential Ability. No restrictions of age, or anything else really. Just show me who is decent in Série B and who could hold their own in the J1 league.

I also have a couple of domestic Recruitment Focuses too. This is because the majority of my squad still needs to be domestic players in order to comply with 2025 J1 league rules. Here is what I have set up:

Japan J1

Number of scouts: 1

I have set a current ability of 2.5 stars and potential ability of 3 stars. This is reflective of the J1 league status.

Japan J2

Number of scouts: 1

I have set 2.5 stars for both current and potential ability. Despite being from a league below, I want the J2 players to be competitive with the current make-up of our squad.

4. TransferRoom

Navigate: Recruitment/Transfer Room In (or Out)

I will be using TransferRoom Out for outgoing players, I have often struggled with selling players in previous FMs. I loaned out a couple of players this season using the approach, and I think it will also be useful for permanent outgoings too.

It is perhaps TransferRoom In that I have enjoyed more, despite not yet using to sign a player. It has opened my eyes up to a few targets I would not have seen from my Recruitment Focuses. I see TransferRoom In as a way to fill a gap in the squad in a relatively short period of time. Have you had a long term injury rock you with a couple of weeks to go before the transfer deadline approaches? Use Transfer Room In, you will be offered players who are willing to come (for the right price and wage of course).

Note - unfortunately, at the time of writing, the TransferRoom In requests are pertinent to the time of your enquiry and do not seem to update (i.e the suggested sum of players do not change). So, you may want to strategically time your adverts within Transfer Windows and perhaps publish several. It is unclear if this is a bug, by design or just some quirk with my saves so far. The official feature blog stated: “Your ad will be circulated to every club in the game, and they’ll have the ability to come back to you with players they have that might fit your needs. Your Director of Football will make recommendations to you based on what the clubs come back to you with, with you then able to approach their agent, scout the player for yourself, make an offer or wait for more options to arise”.

5. Shortlists

Navigate: Recruitment/Shortlists

Once targets are identified, I will move the players into Shortlists (Right Click/Add To Shortlist). These will usually be A-B recommendations. From here I will review the scout reports and then initiate my Director of Football to start making bids. I do this by right clicking on the player and selecting ‘Transfer/Add As Transfer Target’.

If you want to see how it’s going, I go to the Director of Football workflow in Transfer/Recruitment Activity. The Negotiating attribute is the key Director of Football attribute here. Mazinho Patrão is ‘Good’, and I have captured what FMPedia says about Negotiating too:

When asking the Director of Football to make the deal I will set the agreed playing time, right now FM26 is defaulting to ‘Surplus to Requirements’ for me…I would advise giving an agreed playing time that is reflective in how you intend to use this player when they arrive. Overpromise and you may get an unhappy player soon into their contract. Another thing I set is the wage amount. I usually match their current wage and increase it slightly. Most people in life want a bit more money when they change jobs. The below is how it currently looks like in my save, as I chase a few domestic end of contract signings when we are legally allowed to do so in about 6 weeks time…

6. Results

I have been successful with two signings so far from two Recruitment Focuses (Brazil Série B and Japan J1).

Daniel Cruz - Shimizu’s Number 9

Daniel Cruz is a good example of the kind of signing I want to make on this save, not a household name and unlikely to get any opportunity at Club Athletico Paranaense; even with them being in Série B. The signing made sense because he can play in three forward roles in my 4231 (something i will write about in a future blog). He can play the right sided winger well (Acceleration, Dribbling, First Touch and Off The Ball all being 14s) and he also has the attribute spread to play Wide Forward and Centre Forward with relative ease (Finishing, Flair, Pace and Strength all 13s). The scout report says he is unlikely to improve considerably, but I think can do well in Japan. He joins on loan with an option to buy for €350k, should he settle in well. Orange Samba is up and running!

Kei Chinen - Deadline Day Signing

Whilst the Transfer Deadline Day interface was not added back into Unity FM26, I did experience the drama of a deal running down to the last hours of a Transfer Window. It is unclear if this is ‘by design’, but I had agreed both the €1.4m transfer with Kashima Antlers and contract with Box to Box Midfielder Kei Chinen 20-or-so days before the deadline was due. However, Gamaba Osaka were also trying to sign Chinen and were having their loan bids rejected by Kashima. It looked like the player held out until the final moments before joining us at Shimizu. I really liked this, as it felt realistic to how a lot of deals go in real life.

Kei Chinen is a brilliant Box To Box Midfielder, high attribute scores in Determination, Off The Ball, Stamina, Teamwork and Work Rate. Like Daniel Cruz, he also has the versatility to play in a couple of other roles in the 4231: Defensive Midfielder and Advanced Playmaker. I have made him one of my higher earners on €400k annual salary.

Next Up

My next post on the blog will most likely be a summary from Season 1, where I still have 6 months of J League football left to play. Let’s see how Daniel Cruz and Kei Chinen settle into life at Shimizu S-Pulse.

Thanks for reading/sharing and caring.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

Why Shimizu S-Pulse in FM26?

November 2, 2025

Welcome back to CoffeehouseFM.

Post-imperial Japan is fascinating. The country’s culture had previously been one of the most secluded and preserved, until Allied forces occupied it for 6 years after World War II. Under US General Douglas MacArthur there were sweeping reforms in order to change Japan’s political systems, the ultimate power was put in the hands of the people and not the emperor.

While the ink was still drying on the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco paperwork, which saw the Allied occupation end, the cultural change in those few years was irreversible too. Food, entertainment, fashion would all change; and so would sport. Perhaps ‘soccer’ was one of the last to catch on. The 1960s saw Japanese soccer mirror baseball, where large co-operations would own a team of amateur players. But the big change came in 1992, when most of those co-operations were brought into the new professional-era called the ‘J-League’.

Ten clubs kicked off that inaugural campaign, nine of them big corporation owned…but there was one outlier. A newly formed non-company club was formed in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka: it was initially called Shimizu FC, but after a few months it would be renamed to Shimizu S-Pulse (in keeping with Japanese tradition of using English, French, Portuguese or Spanish in many club names). The pulse is a literal embodiment of its fans' enthusiasm for soccer and, with my pulse now raised, it is where I want to manage on the full release of Football Manager 2026.

Really, why Japan?

Fully licensed league

I think it is fair to say there were a few hiccups with the launch of the J-League into FM24. Certain players were not in the game right away and the database perhaps needed more eyes on it to increase the accuracy. But an excruciating time has passed, and I’m more confident about dipping my toes into the league for a J League save. That confidence was also demonstrated at the inaugural FIFAe tournament, where Yokohoma F. Marinos was one of the Group Stage clubs (something which I also played along with at the end of the FM24 cycle). It is a really enjoyable league, and it will have all the fancy player/club pictures.

Finding the next Hulk

The J League has a love affair with Brazil (around 50% of all foreigners in the J League are from the country). Although S-Pulse started its history with a cantera type policy of fielding players only from the Shizuoka Prefecture, I intend to keep with the current fashion of signing Brazillians. However do not expect them to be big names though, instead I plan to unearth some Brazilian talent that is perhaps beneath the classification of ‘Wonderkid’. Players who are talented enough to have a decent career as long as they have gametime. The best example I can give is that of Givanildo Vieira de Sousa, but you would know him as ‘Hulk’. As a teenager he made the move from Serie A fringe player to Japan and excelled at the chance to play competitive football. After 74 goals in Japanese football over three years Hulk earned the big move to Europe, ending up at FC Porto for the 2008/09 season. Can I find the next Hulk in FM26 and move them on to Europe?

Another example is my chosen Manager Man: Bismarck Barreto Faria, better known as just ‘Bismarck’, who at 24-years-old moved to Japan. In real-life the attacking midfielder went on to play for Verdy Kawasaki, Kashima Antlers and Vissel Kobe over a 9 year spell in Japan in the 90s. I will be stealing his identity for my save, which fits narratively with the save’s ethos as I focus on Brazil’s Série A, B and C for emerging talents overlooked by Europe: technical midfielders, explosive wingers, and clever forwards. The idea is not to chase stars, but to find hidden gems instead.

Adopt a salary cap

Out of necessity, every club operates within its own salary cap. Players are usually organised in salary bands, and that usually is a private matter between player and club. Some leagues (e.g. Major League Soccer in North America) and confederations go a bit further and set caps on spending, in order to ensure parity between league members…or to at least look like parity is an aspiration in the case of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play.

In my opinion, Major League Soccer’s approach is great and they do that via their franchise structure. FM22 has been one of my favourite saves since blogging so far. I loved working and operating within a strict budget + salary cap with Inter Miami. There’s something very ‘socialist’ about it all: players getting comparable pay in a team sport. Furthermore, it was great to get the spreadsheet out and organise my squad to the minute detail, ensuring I got the most ‘bang for my buck’. Just like Japan adopted some American traits in its post-war history, I want to adopt the MLS salary cap system.

In order to get to the number that I feel offers the balance between FM challenge Vs realism, I would look to get my salary cap number based on a % of my club turnover. This is similar to how UEFA’s FFP operates. As a reminder, from 2025/26, UEFA’s new Financial Fair Play rule limits spending on player and coach wages, transfers and agent fees to 70% of club revenue. I am not quite sure what my salary cap needs to be just yet, Season 1 will probably be the cap that the Board has set in-game. However for subsequent years I will likely take the % of turnover model.

Other miscellaneous reasons

Cherry blossom/sakura trees in bloom are great. I also like vegetable sushi, mochi, karate, the colour orange and Japanese lo-fi. Put them all in the Grasshopper blender, season it with an S-Pulse FM save and I am good to go for FM26. See you there?

My FM26 aims ✅

Sign young Brazilians, and let them use Shimizu as a stepping stone.
Adopt a salary cap.
Maintain J League status, and work to challenge for the title within 3-5 years.
Ultimately: win things, lots of things. FIFAe style.

Changing how I play…

I have deliberately put this section towards the end of this post, because I do not wish to kill peoples’ enthusiasm towards FM26. But it has got to be noted: Football Manager 26 will change the way I play the game. To be fair, this is probably in keeping with Miles Jacobson’s remarks who said in several pre-release interviews that FM26 is a totally different game to the previous titles before it.

There are a number of UI pain points, and whilst you can play FM26 and progress through seasons…in order to have a long(ish) term save I feel like I need to delegate a lot of tasks in the game to my backroom staff in order to keep sane. I will not be conducting media duties, take the training or handle [most of] the scouting functions. It means I will be processing the game much quicker than usual, but I am unsure if this means I will have longer saves. I do plan to write a bit more about how I delegate certain functions, including transfers, scouting and utilising the (new and great btw) Transfer Room system.

Another blow for me personally is that you cannot currently export data out from the game, and the data that is there in-game is also sketchy. Deep dive Football Manager saves, adopting data driven recruitment practices for example are perhaps too complicated to do this time around. Football Manager 26 has stripped out some of the immersiveness that made the previous 20 years so good for us Bloggers.

Despite all this, I remain eager to get going with FM26 🙂

Thank you for reading/sharing and caring.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

The Ultimate Target Forward in FM26 (Advanced Access Beta)

October 30, 2025

Hi Reader. I hope you are well, it has been a while. This post is a spiritual successor to ‘The Ultimate Target Forward’ post from the FM24 cycle. But before that, let me share my brief thoughts on the Advanced Access Beta…

I ‘wanted’ FM26 to live up to the levels of hype. To make the generational leap that caters for all existing players and attracts the new. I kind of ‘needed’ it too from a personal level. It’s been so long without a new game, and, without going into too much detail, I need it for the winter nights ahead. I hoped Football Manager 26 was a saviour. Everywhere I look (BlueSky, Facebook, reddit, SI Forums, X) there is a lot of negativity about the Advanced Access Beta. Yet, I have enjoyed the beta period. It is unclear if this is because I am so thirsty, or that I am blinded by the shiny new match engine.

It is here in the match engine where I sink a lot of my cognitive load. FM26’s engine does not disappoint, it has the familiarity of old editions but also the leap forwards with In Possession and Out of Possession shapes. It also continues the Positional Play rotations from FM24, which I enjoyed so much. It is the match engine I hoped we would get: familiar, yet flexible enough to push it in many directions.

Elsewhere in the game, FM26 reminds me of CM4. The feeling of a game built within different silos. Many areas feel like they were rushed when designed too; fragmented and inconsistent. The potential for success is there though, and perhaps the legacy of FM26’s will be like CM4’s? When we look back in 5-10 years time, I hope that is the case. Anyway, back to Target Forwards…

Brest in the Beta

This save update is set in Brest, a city in the North West of France. Why did I choose Brest? There is one main reason: Ludovic Ajorque, who is 196cm tall and a bit of a Ligue 1 cult hero. The Target Forward role is perfect for him. Stade Brestois 29 is also a good fit for me. I know the league well, and the Brest Board have modest ambitions (top half). I am hoping this relaxed target gives me more than enough time to get to grips with the early access beta FM26 experience.

The Tactic

As mentioned at the start of the post, this is a continuation in using the Target Forward role. Similar principles and logic apply for FM26. This is because the FM26 match engine is not too dissimilar to FM24’s. There are two obvious changes worth pointing out:

In Possession and Out of Possession shapes are defined by the player. This is a nice throwback to an earlier CM game where you think about your tactics with and without the ball. It follows football discourse too, where out of possession shapes are just as important as in possession shapes when theorising tactics.
Mentality is now only defined at the team level. Setting individual mentalities is gone, and FM26 has also stripped back a lot of hardcoded instructions on roles. So, we now have greater flexibility in how we want our players to behave. The role mentalities would only have added a needless complexity to all of that going along in addition to the IP/OOP shapes.

Supply and Demand revisited in FM26

In FM24, I previously spoke about Supply and Demand with Target Forwards and the same things apply to getting the very best out of Ludovic Ajorque in FM26:

Supply - How do we get the ball to our Target Forward?
Demand - Once supplied with the ball, who demands the ball from our Target Forward?

I could have tried the same 4231 DM tactic from FM24, but I thought I would take a clean slate and build this tactic around the current Stade Brestois 29 squad. This also allows me to try a few new player roles too, such as the Wide Forward. I ended up with a 433 In Possession and a 4141 Out of Possession…I appreciate it is not overly daring between the two shapes. But can I really overlook two banks of four as my first Out of Possession shape in FM26? It’s just too tempting…

Whilst in possession and progressing into the final third, we attack as a 343…

My tactics are first built without Team Instructions. So, let us first look at the roles I have selected and see how many obvious supply + demand options I have for the Target Forward. There is a nice varied split across the pitch:

Supply (how do we get the ball to our Target Forward)

Wingback, as a cross from a deeper/byline position.
Winger, as a cross from a more advanced position.
Midfield Playmaker, as central through balls.

Demand (who demands the ball from our Target Forward)

Wide Forward, goal threat running from the left flank.
Attacking central midfielder, goal threat running from a central position.
Winger, goal threat running from the right flank.

Note - I have included the Winger in both lists above. You can see that in the In Possession visualiser the role advances centrally in the final third. This is also true of the Wide Forward. Both these two wide roles provide the most attacking width before that final stage. It is only in the final third where they will come in centrally in order to attack. If this post was about maximising a different striker role, for example a Channel Forward, a wide role that drifts in centrally much sooner could be more beneficial. An example of this is a Playmaking Winger who would be threading balls in behind the defence for the Channel Forward to reach.

Team Instructions

My roles alone, without any Team Instructions, would give you the flavour of a wing play tactic. By adding a few more Team Instructions I go further in maximising the Target Forward’s effectiveness:

In Possession we are quick and direct. I want the players to go wide and get forward more often in a counter attack. I am particularly descriptive in what I want within the final third. I want us to dribble and win a 1v1, before hitting early crosses and float them when we can. Crossing types in FM26 feels much more noticeable than FM24, which I am enjoying. For the build-up, I’ve chosen to play through the press because our Half-Back gives us superior numbers with a back three in possession.

Out of possession we are moving the defensive line up. The Half-Back will move up to DM and hold his position to screen, which gives us decent cover in a 4141. Trapping inside and stopping the crosses is to mainly stop what I am doing to the AI, as wing play in FM26 is currently very effective.

Player Instructions

I am low on player instructions (I usually am). But I have asked the Wide Forward to Dribble More and Cut Inside. This would happen with the role selected and the team instructions mentioned above, but the Player Instruction will make it happen even more. I want the Wide Forward to be a real menace, and I’ve tasked Pathé Mboup with this role who looks very tricky. Behind Pathé Mboup, my first choice Wing Back is Bradley Locko…another great young player in FM26. I want him to cross from the byline, from the space opened up by Mboup moving inside.

Corners

I have used the exact same set piece routines as FM24, there was no point reinventing the wheel here, it’s obviously built for a Target Forward. Here are the corners:

Season 2025/26

I completed the whole Ligue 1 season during this beta period and we finished 6th, which secures Europa League football for next year. A great achievement, which also included a French Cup final appearance. But the less said about that final performance Vs PSG the better:

But the most important thing for this post is to ask if the tactic got the best out of Ludovic Ajorque? I think I can say, with definite certainty, ‘oui’:

Ludovic Ajorque’s 2025/26 season statistics.

Having started every match this season in the 433 , the tactic generated 22.38 xG (xG per90 of 0.66) for big Ludo. This is an impressive return when you consider that last season’s real-life top scorer Ousmane Dembélé (21 goals) only had an xG of 16.7. You have to go back to 2022/23 season in Ligue 1 for 22.38 xG to be beaten (by four players that year: Balogun, Mbappé, Lacazette and J.David). Ludovic Ajorque’s 35 league goals (1.02 goals per 90) sees him join the Ligue 1 elite strikers of modern history. He is equal to Edinson Cavani’s return in 2016/17 (which was 0.87 goals per 90) and only beaten by another fellow Target Forward in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored 38 goals from 31 games (1.22 goals per 90) in 2015/16.

It is only fair to share some goals, but perhaps not all 38. I have selected 4 goals, which show the variety of chances the tactic produce and the great link-up play between some of the roles (including the Target Forward, of course). Do you have a favourite? If so, let me know.

Midfield Playmaker ➡️ Wide Forward ➡️ Target Forward ⚽️

Midfield Playmaker ➡️ Attacking Midfielder ➡️ Target Forward ⚽️

Midfield Playmaker ➡️ Target Forward ➡️ Winger ➡️ Target Forward ⚽️

Winger ➡️ Target Forward ⚽️

Next up on the blog

Tl;dr: I used 31-year-old Ludovic Ajorque in a 433 (in possession) / 4141 (out of possession) Target Forward tactic. He scored a bucket load of goals and it rained xG in the Breton city of Brest whilst Stade Brestois 29 finished the campaign in 6th.

This was a ‘one season and done’ sacrificial save, and I will take a few days rest from the game in order to build up the thirst again for my next project. That will be discussed in my ‘save reveal’ (remember them?). I expect to publish this in the coming days in the lead up to the ‘proper’ release day: Tuesday 04 November 2025 (aka Miles Jacobson’s birthday 🎂).

Thanks for reading/sharing and caring. It’s nice to be back writing about something I love.

Tony / FM Grasshopper