FM16: Seventeen years with AB

This is the last part of my FM16 AB save. You were able to read the last season summary and story about regen Nichlas Meyer in recent time and this part is about club changes during the long seventeen years with the club. 

We started as a semi-professional club and ended as the best Danish club and part of the Champions League knockout stages.

It all started in 2015 when I took charge of this club. We were a semi-professional club in the third Danish tier. We have won promotion straight in the first season from the 2. division to the NordicBet Liga.

We stayed in NordicBet Liga for another three seasons before promotion to the Superliga. We finished 7th in the two first seasons in the top flight, second in the third season and we won our first league title in the fourth season in Superliga. There were another nine league titles in the next nine years...

Finances

When 2015/2016 started club had a balance of about -£200K. During the last seventeen years, we made a big step forward as we had more than £100M. We had no money for transfers at the start and we had more than £150M before the last season.

Staff

At the start of this save we had three coaches including a goalkeeping coach and fitness coach and one assistant manager. The coaching team was bigger and bigger during the save including the reserve and U19 team.

Before the last season, we had 24 coaches for Senior Squad, 5 coaches for the Reserve squad and 14 for the U19 team.

The most famous coaches during the years were Cesc Fabregas, Dennis Bergkamp, Michu, Thomas Sorensen, Lasse Schöne, Miroslav Klose, Jon Dal Thomasson, Kasper Schmeichel, Urby Emanuelson or Magnus Wolf Eikrem...

There were also two coaches - Nicolai Hogh and Rasmus Hansen. These two players were in the squad at the start of the save and I signed them as a coach after their retirement.

Save stats, league history and records

I think it's not needed to write many words about it. The most important thing is that we won ten league titles in a row and 11 domestic cup trophies overall. We were also twice in the Champions League Semifinal and once in the Europa League Final where we lost on penalties.

During the last three seasons of this save we were unbeaten and we finished this save with 131 matches without losing. It was from 13th October 2028 until 9th May 2032. We also have a record of 84 wins in a row.

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During the 2024/2025 season, we were able to keep 11 clean sheets in a row and we had 108 points from 36 matches in two seasons in a row.

My stats

Same as players or coaches there was progress by myself during the save. I started with the low attributes and finished with some "20".

Memorable players & icons

There were many players during this save about I could write many words. As I wrote Nichlas Meyer was my most favourite player.

I also want to mention Alexander Tved Hansen. This midfielder came to our club in 2019, became captain for more than ten years and played more than around more than 300 matches.

Sergei Eremenko were a great player as I wrote earlier and one of the legends is also defender Lars Sorensen who was in our club for ten years and he provided many important assists.

I can't forget about Thomas Randrup who was in our club from 2016 same as Nichlas Meyer or Martin Hansen who has voted European Golden Boy twice. Goalkeeper William Thorhauge was also a great servant for many years despite he was no our no.1 he was patient and reliable.

Players who were in the club for many years had to play the last match of this save in the starting XI. (rounded) It was the emotional end of save especially when Nichlas Meyer scored the winner and Lars Sorensen was PoM...

FM16 is over for me and I want to thank you for your support here and on Twitter. It was a very good choice as I really enjoyed this save.

FM16: In love with Wide Playmaker

There are many variations of 4-2-3-1 formation around the FM Community during FM16 time. I played with it too during the first seasons with Akademisk Boldklub but I changed it to 4-1-4-1 after ten years in charge of the club. 

It took some time when the team played as I want. Especially some roles did not work and I tested it for more than one year when I was happy with that. One of the most important roles is Wide Playmaker.

I never used a tactic where wide playmakers were included but I really like this role because they are very versatile and they could play more in the centre of the pitch but also as wingers.

What the game says:

“The Wide Playmaker will act as the team’s primary source of creativity, drifting inside to find space from which to play the killer ball and create chances. Coming in from the wing allows the Wide Playmaker to escape the hustle and bustle of central midfield and can result in him being unmarked by opposition players.

Defensively the Wide Playmaker will take up his position on the wing to provide cover for his full-back; however, his is not expected to make as many tackles but instead, he should take up good defensive positions and provide another body in the defensive line.”

This is our 4-1-4-1 formation with False Nine, Deep Lying Playmaker in DM position or Roaming Playmaker in central midfield.

There were some changes during the last seasons and it ended with Mentality and Team Shape change as we now play with Counter Mentality and High Structured Shape. Thanks to it we conceded a really low amount of goals as you can read there.

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But let's concentrate on the Wide Playmaker role.

What player instructions we use?

Get Further Forward, More Direct Passes, Close Down Much More, Roar From Position, Dribble More, Cut Inside With Ball, Shoot Less Often, Cross Less Often.

This role was probably the most problematic for us because we have many typical wingers or inside forwards but it was not a problem in the end.

One of the players who had to change his playing style was our regen Nichlas Meyer who is played mainly as a winger. But he played newly as Wide Playmaker and he had the best statistics from all our players.

I chose another midfielder - Martin Hansen - as an example for this post. He has decent attributes for this role but he does his job very good.

A typical movement

There is one of our most typical movement leading to scoring chance or goal.

Hansen has the ball in the middle and our Wide Playmaker is upfront and Full Back is on the right side.

Hansen passes the ball to Dupuy (BBM) and Full Back move forward. The Wide Playmaker has two options - he could go to the centre or to the side. If he goes to the right side he will wrongly fill the space and Full Back would have to go back with the ball.

Dupuy passed the ball to Full Back and Wide Playmaker stayed just around the penalty area. Full Back is attacked by two players and WP is free. There is one-two between them...

...and Full Back continued his move to the penalty area and he received a pass from WP who continued to the penalty area as well between defenders.

As you can see Full Back very quickly passed the ball to the WP who moved before the goal and then scored easily...

It's important to say that Full Back is very important as well in this scenario. Both players have set Attack duty.

My Full Backs have very often the most assists per season because they very often go forward and have key passes to the goals or chances because WP sits narrower and cuts inside with or without the ball.

Average positions

This is the Average positions and a Heat map of Martin Hansen in a Champions League match against Leverkusen...

...and comparison between domestic league match and Champions League match against Dortmund.

Our regen Nichlas Meyer plays at the left side as Wide Playmaker and this is a screen of his stats in the 2030/2031 season and comparison (heat map & passes) of a league match against FC Kobenhavn and Champions League match against Real Madrid.

Typical counterattack and goal by Meyer after assisting from Full Back...

I'm also very happy with how Wide Playmaker defends in the case of High Pressing mentality. He really good cooperates with central midfielders when we lose the ball and he is able to get the ball back very quickly thanks to his more central position.

As I wrote earlier I never used this role before this save with AB but I have to say it's great if it works rightly in cooperation with Full Back. If you have some question, just let me know there or on Twitter as any feedback is appreciated...