My Football Manager 2024 series continues… but after 13 seasons, Nacka FC’s ascent to the top of Swedish football is almost complete.
Nacka came painfully close to winning their first Allsvenskan title in the 2036 season, only missing out by a single point. But after finishing the campaign on a lengthy unbeaten run, hopes are high that 2037 will be their year.
In today’s chapter, we’ll look at the new additions who could take ‘Örnana’ from contenders to champions. We also have a couple of deep cup runs to discuss before we even get to the league! But first…
ANOTHER NEW STADIUM?
…it’s time for another installment of “FM Logic”!
Having been held up by some dodgy builders, we finally moved into our new 4,330-capacity stadium at Gröna Dalen in May 2036. Now, after a full seven months at our new home, our board have realised that it’s too small to accommodate our growing fanbase. So now they’re expanding it to a capacity of 6,495…
As a consequence, we’ve had to move back out of Gröna Dalen for the 2037 season, and take up residence at another new ground. For the first time in this save, Nacka FC will be playing home matches in the town of Nacka.
Despite what the inbox message says, ‘Nacka IP’ was not actually built in 2036. Our reserve and youth teams have played their matches there throughout this save. It also has a capacity of 5,000 – larger than our new stadium than when it was first built!
That begs the question. Why did the board spend £6million to build a brand new stadium in Fisksätra, when we already had a larger and perfectly useable stadium right on our doorstep?
Yes, we don’t technically own Nacka IP (the council does), and the stadium condition is ‘Very Poor’. But surely we could have spent that money to refurbish the ground, ready for us to move in? Alas, such perfectly rational and sensible logic does not exist in FM.
All that means we won’t get to play a full season at Gröna Dalen until 2038… and when we inevitably sell out every game and need to expand it again, we’ll probably have to move out once more for the 2039 season!
Okay, okay, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk transfers.
MAJOR TRANSFERS OUT
| PLAYERS | POSITIONS | NEW CLUB | FEE |
| Tahirou Dioussé | AM (LC), ST (C) | Eintracht Frankfurt | £10.25m (£15.5m) |
| Mohammad Rasoulzadeh | M (L), AM (RL) | Groningen | £4m (£5m) |
| Noel Sergel | ST (C) | GAIS | £250k |
| Aron Gauti Lárusson | M/AM (R) | Hudiksvall | £75k |
| Allen Smajić | DM, M (C) | Östersund | Free |
| Hamdi Aslan | DM, M (RC), AM (C) | Start | Loan |
| Leonel Grine | ST (C) | FF Jaro | Loan |
| Aleksandar Stojkov | ST (C) | Strømmen | Loan |
I’ve had to make some very tough choices this winter to take my Nacka team to the next level. The first was to cash in on Mohammad Rasoulzadeh – the mercurial but injury-prone right-winger, who moved to Groningen for an initial £4million. The deal includes a sell-on clause, so hopefully we can make even more money off Raz in the future.
I then risked upsetting the Nacka fans even more by selling Noel Sergel. Noel scored 66 goals in six seasons, but he was now our third-choice striker and couldn’t get in the team anymore. Aron Gauti Lárusson and Allen Smajić were also moved on, while 36-year-old right-back Andy Lyons joined our coaching staff after hanging up his boots.
And you’ve probably noticed that we’ve also sold Tahirou Dioussé. After sparking a bidding war between Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen, we eventually agreed a record-breaking deal with Frankfurt.
Eintracht are paying us £10.25million up front, potentially rising to £15.5million – and 40% of the profit from Dioussé’s next sale. Oh yes, and we get to keep Tahirou on loan for one more season.
MAJOR TRANSFERS IN
| PLAYERS | POSITIONS | PREVIOUS CLUB | FEE |
| Dragan Ljubenović | D (RC), DM | Čukarički | £500k (£1.3m) |
| Kristo Tamm | GK | Dunajská Streda | £500k |
| Samuel Koné | M/AM (R) | RC Abidjan | £150k (£300k) |
| Hannu Åström | D/WB (R) | PEPO | Free |
| Karlo Tomić | D (C) | Čepin | Free |
| Tahirou Dioussé | AM (LC), ST (C) | Eintracht Frankfurt | Loan |
We’re now at the stage where we don’t need to make a load of first-team signings between seasons. Instead, I’ve brought in a few more teenagers to develop, such as the 17-year-old Estonian goalkeeper Kristo Tamm. Kristo actually played against us in the Conference League, and he looked so promising that I bought him.
Dragan Ljubenović has a bit more experience under his belt. The 24-year-old is not one of FM’s typical Serbian centre-halves (he can’t head the ball, for one thing), but I’ve brought him in to be our new defensive midfield enforcer.
And lastly, let’s meet Samuel Koné – the hard-working speedster who will replace Raz on the right wing. With his Perfectionist personality, I expect him to develop pretty quickly… but I also expect the odd tantrum from time to time. Maybe he’ll also strike up a chord with his Ivorian compatriot and namesake David Koné?
SQUAD REPORT
So here’s the squad that I hope (and many people expect) to bring the Allsvenskan title home to Nacka. We’ve lost a few homegrown players over the winter, but we still have our Egyptian princes Ahmed Fouad and Hazem Reda and our Iranian centre-back Mohammad Alipour. 20-year-old goalkeeper Vladimir Lazarevski – who is now our official number 1 – will also become ‘trained at club’ very soon.
Instead of signing a new backup keeper who can deputise for Lazarevski, I promoted one from the reserves. We signed Steve Turner in 2035 after he was released by Chelsea, and he spent the past couple of seasons out on loan. Despite his low Agility, Steve has developed well in other departments, so surely he can’t be that bad… right?
I’ve also promoted 18-year-old Aleksa Markićević – the little homegrown magician who has shown great promise as an attacking Central Midfielder. Defensive midfielder Jean-Claude Ateba and right-back Dianka Sanou will also be blooded into the first-team after joining us last summer and then spending time out on loan.
We’re in with the big boys now. The bookies have priced us at just 6-1 to win our first Allsvenskan title, while our media prediction has gone up from 5th last season to 2nd. Despite not winning the league in the past five years, and despite not even qualifying for Europe last term, Malmö are still rated as favourites.
I beg to differ. I believe we have one of the strongest and most balanced teams in the Allsvenskan, and that we now have enough quality and depth to sustain a challenge.
To underline that point, we have had as many as FOUR different players in the media dream XI: full-back Hassan Msengi, playmaker Denis Fleckner, vice-captain Fouad, and centre-forward Mamadou Diop. Not even Malmö or Djurgården can get more than two players in the best XI at the same time these days.
We are already safely into next summer’s Champions League qualifiers, which means the Svenska Cupen doesn’t really matter to us now, at least in terms of European qualification. That said, it would still be nice to get it back in our trophy cabinet…
CUPEN
We were heavy favourites to win our Cupen group, but we didn’t exactly make it easy for ourselves. We did win our first match at home to Täby (despite gifting them a couple of goals), only to then concede a 90th-minute equaliser at Värnamo.
That meant we needed to beat Division 2 side Ängelholm by at least two goals to win the group. We scored FOUR in the first 13 minutes. Huh, that was easy.
We were through to our first Cupen Quarter Final for three years. Newly-promoted Brommapojkarna put up a real fight, but we eventually overpowered them to secure a Semi Final showdown at Göteborg – and an early reunion with our former loanee goalkeeper Arvid Hellman.
The Semi Final was very scrappy. Göteborg had a couple of goals disallowed for offside, and their defence frustrated us for 105 minutes until Fouad went, “Screw it, I’m just gonna blast one.”
Markićević doubled our lead late in extra-time, sending Nacka into their second Svenska Cupen Final. On Saturday 16 May, we hosted our city rivals Djurgården, who had lost in three of the previous six Finals – and who hadn’t lifted the trophy since 2025.
Djurgården took the lead just before half-time, but a defensive howler allowed Dioussé to pull us level. The scores remained locked at 1-1 after two exhausting hours, so the Cupen was decided on penalties…
…and we pulled it out the bag! Turner saved Djurgården’s first two spot-kicks, and our African teenagers kept their nerve before Fleckner stepped up to complete a famous victory.
Nacka had won the Cupen again – this time IN Nacka! Surely the chairman would have been giddy with joy, right?
CONFERENCE LEAGUE
Having finished 3rd in the Conference League… er, League Phase, we got a bye to the Round of 16, where we would face one of the Playoff winners. That team was Dunajská Streda, who had dominated the Slovakian league for the best part of a decade.
Fouad’s double helped us a narrow win in Slovakia, before we finished the job in front of over 24,000 fans at another temporary home – the Södermalm Community Stadium. Diop scored one penalty and then had another saved by that young Estonian kid, but that was enough to see us into another Quarter Final.
After an unexpected reunion with a Nacka legend, we encountered Primeira Liga side Famalicão… and yet another familiar face. The Famalicenses were coached by Filipe Antunes, who was previously in charge of Dundee when we eliminated them in the qualifying rounds!
Famalicão would obviously present a much stiffer test than Dundee, but they were still no match for Fouad. Ahmed scored two goals – including his 100th for Nacka – to pinch a 2-1 victory in Portugal, and then found the net again at home as we battled to a 2-2 draw.
Nacka were in the Semi Finals, but now came our toughest test yet. Fulham were 10th in the Premier League, they won every match in the League Phase, and their best player earned three times as much money as our entire squad. Oh yes… and we were going through an unbelievable injury crisis, forcing me to play Elton Fischerström Opančar in goal and name half our youth team on the bench.
Unsurprisingly, this was where our fairytale ended. Fulham creamed us at Craven Cottage, though our kids did restore some pride by squeezing out a home win, meaning we could bow out with our heads held high.
The top four teams in the League Phase – us, Union Berlin, Fulham and Inter – had all reached the last four of the knockout phase. That’s the sort of company we’re keeping in Europe now, and that gives me real confidence heading into the Champions League qualifiers later this year.
But for now, let’s turn our attention back to the league…
ALLSVENSKAN
Oh, the joys of fixture congestion. Because of our European exploits, we started our Allsvenskan with three consecutive home matches, followed by five successive games on the road.
Things started well enough with a 5-2 win against Norrköping – and a hat-trick from Big Mama Diop – but then we hit a rough patch. We had scored in 30 consecutive matches before Landskrona (of all teams!) shut us out… and then we drew another blank at Kalmar, who ended our 24-match unbeaten record.
And then there were the injuries.
We had TEN first-team injuries in April – including THREE in the same match at Halmstad. It was just our luck that Lazarevski tore his wrist in stoppage time, which meant midfielder Sigge Jansson went in goal for the final few minutes! Luckily, we won 2-0, because Ronnie Paulsson is a legend.
But another 2-0 away win at Göteborg, it all started to go horribly wrong. We failed to win any of our next five league games – even dropping points against Helsingborg and newly-promoted Mjällby – as we fell further and further adrift of the leaders.
We were barely creating anything. Our forwards were often disappearing from matches. Since scoring a hat-trick on opening day, Diop had turned into a Senegalese Darwin Núñez. For the first time since getting promoted to the Allsvenskan, we were underperforming against expectations.
Our last match before the mid-season break was at home to a struggling Häcken side who had conceded 30 goals in 11 matches. Surely we had to snap the winless streak here?
You bet we did. Diop ended his goal drought with ANOTHER hat-trick in a 6-0 demolition! Talk about feast or famine!
We finish this chapter in 7th place – six points adrift of the top. Just like last year, we’re a bit fortunate that there are no clear frontrunners… but we must hit the ground running again in July, before the European qualifiers distract us again.
At first glance, you’d think we’re not doing too badly. We have an impressive defensive record (not giving up many goals or even many chances), and we’re still technically among the top scorers with 20 goals.
But remember: 11 of those goals came in those bookend matches against Norrköping and Häcken. In the 10 intervening league games, we only scored NINE goals and were shut out FOUR times. (For comparison, we only failed to score in TWO of our league games last year.)
Why have we become so poor on the attacking front? I think it’s time to look at our tactics…
TACTICS
Through pretty much this entire save, I’ve employed a balanced, counter-attacking 4-3-3 formation. The roles have often changed, but the general premise has always been the same – to stay defensively sound, put the opposition under pressure, then counter with pace.
This approach was successful for over a decade because we were underdogs and our opponents often underestimated our abilities. Not anymore. We’re 2nd-favourites for the title and the underlying statistics suggest that we are serious contenders, but we’ve performed more like a mid-table team that’s scared of making mistakes.
When using the ‘Balanced’ mentality, I find that we struggle to create good opportunities or hit the target with much consistency. Before the Häcken game, our shooting accuracy percentage was down in the 30s.
Even now, Fouad is still only getting 37% of his shots on target. I’m starting to think that the “Places Shots” trait Ahmed learned two years ago actually means “Places Shots Into Opponent’s Groin”… and that Diop’s “Likes To Try To Beat Offside Trap” trait is a polite way of saying “Doesn’t Know The Offside Rule”.
So I’ve now switched up to using a ‘Positive’ mentality for most matches, and the early results are encouraging. We’ve become more willing to take risks and create better openings, but we also don’t rush into low-percentage shots as much.
However, our 4-3-3 has major problems against one specific formation. Landskrona, Elfsborg and Helsingborg all used a 4-2-3-1 against us, and that formation has frustrated the hell out of me. Yes, I can switch to a ‘Low Block’ and instruct my DM to man-mark their AM, which effectively stifles their attacking threat… but our own attackers don’t know how to break through the double pivot in the opposition’s defensive midfield.
One thing I’ve tried is to go 4-2-4 – with a Deep-Lying/Advanced Forward duo supported by a Winger and an Inside Forward. This is great at breaking apart those dreaded back-three formations, but the risks of pitting it against a three-man midfield are obvious. There’s a reason why a 4-3-3 always beats a 4-4-2 on Football Manager.
Also, I’m so used to coaching underdogs that I consistently struggle whenever I’m managing one of the top teams in a particular league. I failed at Sporting CP, I failed at Wieczysta Kraków… and even at Arsenal on FM22, it took me five years to win the Premier League.
Winning the Allsvenskan is my final goal of this save, but I don’t have enough confidence in my tactical acumen to truly believe that it will ever happen. In all honesty, I’ve been tinkering and tweaking my tactics for so long that I make Claudio Ranieri look like Russell Martin. I am now officially at my wits’ end, so I am once again asking for your help.
What do I need to change over the next half-season to turn our fortunes around? Any tactical advice would be greatly appreciated, so please drop a comment below or message me on BlueSky. (If you say “Just use 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress”, I will feed you through a wood-chipper.)
So we’ve got our Cup back, but we are still no closer to the big prize we crave the most. Can we turn our league form around and finish 2037 as champions? Tune in next week to find out…
Oh, yes, and we’ll also have this to look forward to…
Fuller FM 