Goodbye South America, goodbye FM19.

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to Vincent Guzman and his perfect guides about South America nations, before Football Manager 2019 was released. It was one of the main reasons why I decided to leave Europe and I wanted to try a different continent.

Now, after almost one year, the FM19 cycle is over. And it was a good decision to try different nations, different league system, different continental competitions and to discover different players.

The first part was in Chile with CD Magallanes and I thought it will be my only club for the whole FM19 time. But I was wrong. As I already wrote in the past, the success with the Chilean club was too fast.

Simple stats summary: Nine seasons, 466 matches played, 327 matches won, 870 goals scored, 27 trophies won, new stadium, most reputable South American club in the world…

…the club growth was perfect in all areas but as I had a lot of time to play, it was too fast and I ended this part of the journey at the end of February 2019 of real-life date.

When I wrote about this part of the save I included my three favourite players. They were real-life players, not newgens. I wrote about the central defender Rodrigo Echeverría and two midfielders Diego Aravena and Tomás Aránguiz. You can read it about them HERE.

I decided to share my favourite newgen from the time with Magallanes. Despite the fact, this young player was not wonderkid and he was not the best newgen from the youth intake, he was able to develop in the player who spent a big part of his career in Manchester City.

His name is Alfonso Reiman and he was part of the Youth Intake of our affiliate club Unión San Felipe in 2021. I bought him for €195k and he played mainly as CM(S).

We sold him for €10M four years later to Corinthians and it was a new club record for outgoing transfer. He spent three and a half years with Corinthians before Manchester City bought him for €21M.

To my big surprise, he was not just one of many players here. He became a very important member of the squad and his value was €90M in 2035 when he was 30 years old.

He moved to Bayern in 2037 and to PSG one year later where he is at the end of this save in his 35 years and with 137 caps for Chilean national team.

I didn't have him in my own squad for a long time before he moved elsewhere but it was great to follow his career.

Alfonso Reimann in 2022, 2025, 2030, 2035 and 2040.

The seasons in Chile are from January to December and I knew during the last season already I will leave. I started to look around other nations and leagues.

I wanted a new challenge. And I spotted Arsenal de Sarandí. The bottom team of the Argentinian second tier. The magic of the relegation rules in Argentina is that you can stay in the division even if you end the season at the last place in the table thanks to "Average Points Over 3 Years Table".

And that was also the case of my first half of the season with Sarandí. It was a risk as there was a possibility we will not gain enough points, the club will be relegated to the non-playable third tier and I will have to look for another team.

But we made it, finished 21st in the table but 17th in the Average Points Table.

Since the 2026/2027 survive, I started to build the club on my own and as I like the most - young players, selling the key players to have enough money for club facilities improvement and playing with many own newgens.

We won the promotion in my first full season with the club and we finished 7th in the first season in the Superliga. Sixth place in the 2029/2030 season was the start of the next three years with the first trophies after many years.

We won the Superliga, Superleague Cup, Copa Sudamericana and Recopa Sudamericana.

When I wrote about the 2038/2039 season, the title was "The season like no other" because of some records and perfect results. But the next season, the last one of the save, was even more successful. We won 7 trophies including all 4 domestic competitions and also Copa Libertadores, Recopa Sudamericana and FIFA Club World Cup.

The biggest difference between Magallanes and Arsenal de Sarandí board was the willingness to move the club forward.

Every time we earned some money thanks to transfers or via competitions with Magallanes, the board accepted my requests to improve facilities. That was the main reason why I spent only 9 years with Magallanes but 14 years with Sarandí.

Finances of Arsenal de Sarandí in 2027 vs. 2040

When we won the second league title with Sarandí in 2031/2032 and the first Copa Libertadores trophy, the club still had the bellow average training & youth facilities, average youth recruitment and the board was happy with the level of everything.

And they also rejected all my requests despite a lot of money in the bank and prematurely repaid loans.

But the situation has changed after elections in 2032 and the new board was willing to move the club to the highest level. That was the moment when I got new blood and new motivation to continue in the save. I said to myself I will improve all facilities to the top and the save will be over.

We are in June 2040 and all facilities are within the best possible level except the Youth Facilities as they are "only" Superb and the last upgrade will be done in November 2040.

I mentioned in the last post one of the reasons why I joined this club - the captain Agustin Chocobar. The central midfielder who was able to play in several roles including BWM but also DLP or classic CM. If you missed it, you can find it in the bottom part of THIS POST.

You can see there are several players included in the club details section as Icons or Favoured Personnel.

There are almost all my favourite players from the time with Sarandí including Santiago Ortiz, Lautaro Contreras, Franco Somoza, Damián Guevara, Marcelo Pérez, Darío González or Luciano Cambiasso. 

The last one is probably my most favourite newgen from the Sarandí Youth Intake in 2031. He played mainly as CM(S) or CM(A) and despite he didn't score too many goals, he usually broke the net when he scored from the long distance.

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Luciano Cambiasso in 2032, 2035 and 2040.

I used several tactics during this FM19 save. It all started with defensive-minded 4-1-2-3 but it continued with a more positive version of this formation and several variations of 4-1-4-1.

And (almost) as always it ended with many versions of 4-3-3 with the flat midfield trio - Development of 4-3-3 with Magallanes.

The 4-3-3 with the flat midfield trio was the main tactic for the time with Sarandí as well. You can find some versions and modifications in the previous posts.

The last part of the save, the last half of the season, I used 4-4-2 formation with very simple instructions and it resulted in stupid results (click to see the results).

The Football Manager 2019 save in South America is over. I mentioned it in the Football Manager 2019 (#FM19) - in retrospect I was able to contribute to thanks to FMGrasshopper that FM19 became predictable and I didn't enjoy it as much as previous versions of the game. 

On the other side, as I already mentioned at the start, it was great to discover something new outside Europe. 

If you would like to read the whole South America save from the beginning, just open this link.

Now, it's time to find some ideal challenge for the Football Manager 2020. 

Thank you, everyone, for following the save. 

FM19: Development of 4-3-3 with CD Magallanes

I tried a lot of formations and tactical styles during my life so far. In real life football and in the virtual world as well. But every time I look back there are two formations I prefer the most.

It's 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-3 with the flat central midfield. The first one is great and it was a pleasure to use it in the previous versions of Football Manager but I used only very briefly during FM19 because I wanted to test myself and set the other one properly.

The idea to develop 4-3-3 formation with flat midfield came to me shortly after the start of the 2021 season.

I played with the 4-1-2-2-1 formation or 4-3-3DM, it depends how you prefer to call it, before and we won the first five matches of the season with 10 goals scored and 2 conceded including matches with bigger clubs like Colo Colo or Universidad de Chile.

We had the first Copa Libertadores group stage match ahead against Liga de Quito at home. I decided to remove the previous formation and created 4-3-3 with set pieces etc. The process was almost the same as with the set pieces.

4-3-3 v2021

The first idea was to use something similar as in FM18 with BFC Siófok when I used CM(S) - DLP(D) - CM(A) as central midfield trio. But I decided to use different roles this time.

As long shots goal were/are 'a little bit' overpowered I decided to use Mezzala with support duty because this role is an ideal choice (in my eyes) to take advantage of players who are capable to shoot from distance.

I used MEZ(S) on the left side of central midfield trio in combination with WB(S) and IF(A). These three players were able to create some very good situations on the left side and enjoyable to watch as well.

For example like this...

Another perfect example of the simplicity of this formation is this goal and usage of a short throw-in. Player in DLP(D) role is set to come short and his main aim is to decide what team will do next. In this example, he switched the ball with the Winger (number 9) and stayed in the right position to receive the ball back from Full back.

He then found our Box to Box midfielder (number 15) who made a long pass to open space for the Inside Forward and Complete Forward was at the end of the whole action with a precise volley.

As I mentioned Box to Box midfielder role, that was the biggest "?" during the first weeks with this version of a formation. I wanted to have DLP(D) in the middle of central trio so I didn't want to use a second playmaker and I also didn't want to use CM(A) this time because of a lack movement in the final third due to several reasons and the CM(A) would almost every time be in the penalty area in the wrong position.

I decided to try BBM and save the BWM role for the future, mainly because this version was less aggressive. The BBM is a demanding role and my main player almost every time had to be taken off the pitch before the end of the match as he was not physically best suited for it.

But...

The midfielder I chose to use in this role was one of these players who were able to score in BBM or Mezzala roles. That meant Tomás Aránguiz scored 20 goals this season as a midfielder and added also 13 assists.

This is the complete first version of my 4-3-3 with the flat central midfield. The Winger on the right side was a player with the most assist this season with 16 assists. He also scored 19 goals from this position.

Probably the most typical assist from winger to inside forward...

As I already mentioned, Aránguiz was our best goalscorer this season from his central midfield position. Our main striker who played as CF(S) scored 17 goals in 43 matches. It's not too many as you would maybe expect or you would want from striker but I liked it.

Same as I liked the number of short assists in the last 40 matches in combination with the rest of these stats.

If something went as I planned it was to create a patient play with the build-up play from the back and midfielders effectivity.

4-3-3 v2023

The year 2023 was the first time when we won the Copa Libertadores with this team. The formation was tweaked a little bit during the previous two years and it resulted in slightly different variation without winger as I switched AMR to IF(A) so we used inside forwards on both sides.

Complete Forward with the support duty remained but there were other changes. We used WB(A) on both sides, one central defender was changed to Ball Playing Defender. Most importantly, the central midfielders roles were changed.

I decided to try Advanced Playmaker with the support duty instead of BBM and that meant I wanted to get rid of Deep Lying Playmaker. Another position in the midfield was now BWM(S) and to have at least one player deeper I placed there Central Midfielder with the defend duty and Dribble Less instruction.

You can see the differences in overall average positions. The version with CM(D) from the 2023 season is on the left pitch, the older version is on the right.

I also tried to defend narrower and in a combination with BWM(S), I moved to Extremely Urgent pressing intensity.

I wanted good "wing style" but with IF(A) on both sides and players in WB(A) and IF(A) roles worked very well together.

And it resulted in this for example...

or this...

This change also resulted in some stats differences. Aránguiz was no more the best goalscorer but he still managed to score 9 goals from AP(S). Sebastian Romero was the best goalscorer with 15 goals from IF(A), Christián Ledezma scored 14 as CF(S) and Joaquín Verdugo 10 goals as another IF(A).

And meanwhile, there were 12 different players who scored at least one goal during the 2021 season, in this version it was by 17 players.

We won not only a domestic league and Libertadores but also the FIFA Club World Cup.

4-3-3 v2025

This was the last season of the save so far and the formation made some other changes again during the previous period. I decided to get rid of Complete Forward role as the only one suitable striker for this role (based on his attributes, not due to coaches rating) was no more our number one striker after I bought a new one.

Another reason to change something was Nicolás Lobos, the young midfielder who appeared in our Youth Intake last year and he was that good that I decided to place him straight to the starting XI.

I still remember the advice from FMGrasshopper during FM18 when he mentioned he likes to use DLP(D) in the left central midfield position alongside Wing back as the DLP(D) is able to cover the space when the wing back moves up.

I used it and Tony is right but I'm an idiot about the positions almost the whole my life.

The role like Deep Lying Playmaker with the defend duty is my favourite role not only in the game but I like to play in this role myself in a real life. I like to sit deeper, dictate tempo of the game, wait for the second balls etc.

That my idiocy about the flat midfield positions is like 🤨😐😊 in terms of the picture bellow. I don't like when the positions are like stairs. I like when they form something like a small "v" and that's the reason why I decided to go back DLP(D) in a combination with BWM(S) and CM(S).

The central midfield with the support duty player (mainly Lobos) has also Take More Risks, Dribble More and Stay Wider instructions so he can act little bit like a playmaker.

Inside Forward on the left side newly has Roam From Position, Sit Narrower and Tackle Harder instructions except the default instructions so mostly the same instructions as when I used WM/A within the 4-1-4-1 formation.

Winger with the support duty on the right side has also Tackle Harder instruction and I also try Cross Aim Near Post. And as I mentioned a new striker the role was changed to Advanced Forward.

The previous versions of this formation were not too much complicated in terms of Team Instructions but I made even more simple for this third version and mainly I get rid of shorter passing.

The new striker José Cortés scored 27 goals in this role and Ronaldo Vaca scored 20 goals from IF(A) role as I wrote in the seasonal summary.

This goal I shared to Twitter a couple of days ago as I really enjoyed it.

And there are some other very beautiful goals...

There is also comparison of the overall average positions from 2025 and 2023. If you spotted the difference within the right central midfield role, your eyes are perfect.

I started to use Stay wider instructions for this CM(S) role to try if it will have impact of his position in the midlle 'triangle' as this player was very often close to the centre of the pitch same as DLP(D) or BWM(S). I know he is still in the middle of the pitch in this picture but when I watched matches he was wider and he had better option to receive ball and he had more space around.

I'm not a tactical master and I will not make some professional tactical analysis with arrows, circles and lines. I'm only glad that something I wanted to try to create worked and works with the principles I like and I was able to create something around my favourite role(s) like Deep Lying Playmaker.