Three in-game years can take a couple of days for someone. It was more than two real life months for me including writing a summary blog post about it. I wrote about my Football Manager 2023 save in April this year for the last when the fourth season ended. It’s now June 2029 in my save universe and I finished the third season in a row of developing the 3-5-2 system.

We also earned a lot of money thanks to the Champions League or big outgoing transfers and we are around €100M bank balance now. One long era of league domination also ended and I thought it was the best time to write again.

BACK IN TIME

It is May 2029 in my FM23 universe when I started writing this post. If we take a quick look back in time within this save with VVV-Venlo, maybe some of you remember I spent the first four seasons of the save using the “Lone central defender formation”. I wrote about these four seasons in THIS POST.

I decided during the fourth season that I should end at the best. I knew I won’t be able to win the league with this formation while conceding so many goals and some other limitations. Finishing third in a quality league, as the Eredivisie is, is the best result I was able to achieve with this.

A 3-5-2 EVOLUTION IN THREE SEASONS

I was very motivated to start the 2026/2027 season with a new formation as it was also a new motivation to continue playing this save. I knew I have some challenges ahead and that was the best possible that could happen to my save.

The first challenge was to find the right players for both left and right wing-back positions because I didn’t use this position before and I had too many wingers. I had two options: I could buy a couple of new players or I could start retraining/replaying current wingers to wing-backs. I think many of you who know me a little bit knew the answer immediately.

Yes, it was the second option. Yahcuroo Roemer, originally M/AMR started playing as a wing-back with the attacking duty. He is not and he will never be a perfect wing-back, mainly because of the defensive phase of the game but I wanted to take advantage of his acceleration/pace and very solid dribbling/crossing/technique. He managed to make 10+ assists in all four seasons so I think it’s not a disaster. Especially as his 14 assists were enough to be the best in the league in the first season after this change.

On another side of the pitch, Quilindschy Hartman was our main man for the WB(S) role while I preferred the support duty on this side of the pitch. It’s obvious he was better in terms of defending and his best assist record was 6 assists in the 2027/28 season. He had CM(A) on his side in central midfield so his main aim was to cover his side and the area behind the CM(A).

The last season with the “lone central defender formation” was our most aggressive from all four seasons. The second challenge was to decide about the pressing/aggressiveness approach within the 3-5-2. Will I be more cautious? Keep the high press? Something between?

The latter was the answer for the opening 25/26 season with the 3-5-2. I kept the mid-block in combination with shorter passing and playing from the back.

• 2026/27: The main change, obviously, was there were three central defenders instead of just one. And I was able to use my favourite role as the central defender with the stopper duty. The left wing-back started with the CWB(S) role and I kept it for the whole season despite it was not 100% good enough. But the player in the DLP(S) role next to the CWB(S) was able to make a lot of dirty work while the CWB player was everywhere around the pitch except his position. Another change was within the attacking duo as I decided to use the CF(S) role instead of the PF(S/A) next to the Advanced Forward. The reason was simple - both Nick Venema and Sydney van Hooijdonk were able to play in this role so I wanted to have this deadly duo in these two most dangerous roles (at least in my eyes) = Venema scored 27 goals & van Hooijdonk 21, just in Eredivisie. We finished 2nd in the league and we won the Europa Conference League after beating Celta Viga 1:0 after an extra time in the final.

• 2027/28: The second season with the 3-5-2 and I decided to make some changes. In terms of instructions: Distribute To Centre-Backs replaced Take Short Kicks and I added Much More Often trigger press. In terms of player roles: the BPD(D) was changed to a simple CD(D) in combination with the CD(St) and CD(D). The left wing-back was changed to WB(S) instead of CWB(S) - I had enough of seeing this player everywhere due to the roam from position default individual instruction. The CM(A) role changed to AP(A) and DLP(S) to BBM. The reason for changing to BBM was that I changed also the WB role so I didn’t have to worry about some big gap here. And I also changed CF(S) back to PF(S) because I felt I want to see more pressing activity by this player and Sydney van Hooijdonk is still more familiar with it. We finished 2nd in the league again. Richard Sedláček made 12 assists in the league as AP(A), the same number as in the previous season as DLP(S). It was our first season in the Champions League and we made it to the Round of 16 where we lost to AC Milan 1:4 on aggregate.

• 2028/29: The in-possession instructions didn’t change. The in-transition instructions changed in just one thing - I decided to use the Distribute To Specific Team-Mate instructions and it’s linked with the Ball Playing Defender with Cover duty. It’s probably one of the main changes because I decided to use this role instead of my beloved CD(St). The reason was that no matter which player I used in the CD(St) role we started conceding some stupid goals after long balls, the same as when we used just one central defender and he was alone in the defensive line. It resulted in some very good passing plays and I also was able to start retraining one central midfielder to the central defender and take advantage of his passing and decision abilities. It also resulted in six clean sheets in the last eight league matches and bigger stability at the back. Maybe it was only a coincidence but I like the idea of a deeper “passer” central defender. I also decided to change the left wing-back to attacking duty. And the flat central midfielders were CM(S) with hold position instruction & CM(A) & DLP(S). Also, the right-positioned striker was DLF(S) for most of the season changing to False Nine time from time. Mainly because of the fact that Nick Venema and Sydney van Hooijdonk were out of action alternately. We made it to the Champions League Knock Out Play Off Round this time where we lost to Lazio 3:4 on aggregate. And domestically? Read bellow…

END OF THE AJAX DOMINATION

2018. That’s the year when someone else than Ajax won the Eredivisie. It was PSV Eindhoven. Ajax won the 2018/19 season, the next was was cancelled because of COVID. This save started in 2022/2023 and Ajax won it every ear. That’s nine titles in a row. I’m sure it would be ten if that 2019/20 season was not cancelled.

We won the promotion from the second tier in the first season of the save. We ended third in 2024/25 & 2025/26. We ended second in the 2026/27 & 2027/2028. What was next?

Yes, we won the league in 2028/29 and we ended Ajax’s league domination.

A proper narrative

Our best position this season was second place after the second and 21st league rounds. We were inconsistent due to a combination of many matches and quite a lot of small injuries. But we moved up slowly after elimination from the Champions League and we reached the top spot after the 30th round.

We played against Feyenoord at home in the last round and we needed to beat them or at least earn a point for a draw but Ajax would have to lose some points. While Ajax was 2:0 up already in the last round, we scored our only goal in the 50th minute after the club captain Richard Sedláček scored the winning goal.

It’s a super and proper narrative as this Czech midfielder is one of the main reasons why I play with this club in the Football Manager 2023. I made him a captain after Nick Ketting left the club before this season. And it ended in the best possible way.

OVERALL CLUB DEVELOPMENT

The on and off-the-pitch events during the last three seasons had the biggest impact on our finances for sure. At the beginning of the 2026/2027 season, the first when I changed formation, we had around €25M in the bank balance. At the beginning of May 2029, just after the end of our season (ignoring the European places play-off that other clubs play), we have €99,5M in the bank balance.

The Champions League prize money had the biggest impact as we made it to the Round of 16 and to the Knockou Out Play-Off Round in the last two seasons. And we also won the Europa Conference League in 2027 but the Champions League money always had the biggest impact.

Small barriers

Despite very healthy finances, the club board stuck in 2022 or 2023 when the save started. They are rejecting improving the training or youth facilities, they are rejecting improving the junior coaching, and they are rejecting the numbers of staff. Despite finishing in the top three in the league and competing in Europe very well, their response is still the same: “…it’s good enough for our club.”

I really like this save so I will continue in it until the new FM version but it would be great if the club board would switch their AI minds to the modern era of the club. Including expanding the current stadium with a capacity of 12K or building a completely new stadium. Especially as I know we will earn some (a lot of) money again in summer and during the next season.

I’m looking forward to playing the next season as I already signed a couple of very talented and promising players to refresh the squad a little bit. Especially as both our goalkeepers will leave the club. A long-term backup Ennio van der Gouw didn’t want to renew his contract and Marius Gersbeck, our number one in the last three years wanted to go back to his native country so I decided to end his contract as it would take so long to sell him.

There will be a small change maybe in terms of tactic as I would like to try to use the False 9 role instead of DLF(S). I’m not sure how it will end but I think I have at least two ideal players for this role…

Thanks for reading as always. If you would like to see something from my save, just let me know.

Some contextual updates from the save will be available in FMSlack or via my Twitter account as always.