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