The year is 2034, and you join me at Guangdong Sports Arena - in Guangzhou, China - where Hale End’s finest become Three Lions legends at the pinnacle of football, the FIFA World Cup.

Background

International management was not part of the plan.

The opportunity arose when Ruud van Nistelrooy left England to manage Manchester United in late 2033, and I could not resist taking a Hale End-dominated team to the 2034 World Cup.

Football’s Coming Home.. Again

Somewhat inconveniently for the narrative of this post, England actually already won the 2026 World Cup in the United States.

Myles and Ethan were on the field, but in no way the dominant force they are today.

Rivalry with France

France bounced back from defeat in the 2026 final to win the 2030 World Cup, fueled by their own Golden Generation, boasting Kylian Mbappé, William Saliba, Guillaume Restes, Warren Zaire-Emery, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurellien Tchouameni, and Leny Yoro.

The stars are aging now, but remain the team to beat.

England’s Centurions

England’s Golden Generation grew up to become Centurions.

The England squad is essentially an abundance of elite midfielders; they have never replaced Harry Kane with an out-and-out striker, and their only stand-out defender is Levi Colwill.

Lack of Newgens

I made a comment on Twitter this week about a lack of newgens coming through, and you can see the issue here: in 2034, and no newgen player has yet established themselves in the England squad.

Given the delay to Football Manager 2025, I am now playing with a number of different database updates installed, and I wondered if one has impacted the AI / newgen behaviour; I noticed earlier in the save that AI were keeping established players far, far too long.

We even faced Italy playing two Francesco Camarda’s up front! 😂

Sadly, it’ll likely be the death of this save.

I have since installed the two latest Passion4FM databases and deleted all other databases:

1. Transfer & Data Update

2. NextGen Update

Hopefully this should resolve the issue.

Positionless Attack

To get the best out of Max Dowman, Ethan Nwaneri, and Bukayo Saka - the most talented attackers in the squad - we set up in an unorthodox, ‘Number 10 + two Attackers’, positionally fluid to the point of being virtually positionless.

Dowman, Nwaneri, and Saka are all left-footed, creative and technical players who thrive attacking the right half-space; moreover, England do not have an elite out-and-out striker or left winger in the squad, and Saka - 32 years old at this point - is now more effective playing inside.

False 9 (Support), Shadow Striker (Attack), and Attacking Midfielder (Support) all:

• Interchange positions with fluidity

  • Saka & Nwaneri swap positions

• Roam from Position

• Play with complete creative freedom

• Dribble at opposition defenders

This results in a devastating, positionless attack.

Wait a minute.. is that an Attack duty?

Many readers may have noticed that I rarely use ‘Attack’ duties.

The reason is that Team Mentality and Player Duty are accumulative - explained in detail on Twitter - and my general preference is to use a Positive or Attacking team mentality, with Support duties for balance.

I use Attacking duties rarely, often to:

1. Platform an individual

2. Add depth to an attack

In this case, we have three central attacking players operating in the same area so I use the Shadow Striker (Attack) duty to add depth to the attack

1. Dowman is deeper, and roams

2. Saka starts deeper, and moves forward

3. Nwaneri is more advanced, and roams

Balanced Team Mentality

A balanced team mentality is essential - in my opinion - to prevent a player with an Attack duty from having an excessively attacking individual mentality.

A balanced team mentality is often more attacking than many might assume.

How many readers expected a Balanced team mentality with 8 Support duties to yield two Defend, four Balanced, and five Attack individual mentalities?

Balanced systems can be much more attacking than you might expect.

4-3-1-2

There are two main ways to play a Number 10 + two Attackers:

1. 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-2 diamond

2. 3-4-1-2

Initially, I thought that a diamond would give me an extra midfielder.

The system worked nicely - so I wanted to include it in the post in case readers like the look of it - but didn’t maximise the profiles we had available.

Rico Lewis is OK, but didn’t offer much on the right-hand side and I was concerned about Declan Rice as a single pivot at 35 years old.

3-4-1-2

The ‘lightbulb moment’ came when I realised that Kobbie Mainoo offered a very similar profile to Myles Lewis-Skelly, but on the right side.

Mainoo had never played as a fullback - so 4-3-1-2 was out of the question - but he had been used as a wide midfielder, and with that, the 3-4-1-2 was born.

Branthwaite added extra defensive stability, Bellingham partnered Rice in midfield, and Mainoo patrolled the flanks.

Wide “Box-to-Box Midfielders”

The most interesting aspect of the 3-4-1-2 is the profile of the wide players.

They played as Winger (Support) with no Player Instructions, hence why I say the profile was more interesting than the role.

Myles Lewis-Skelly and Kobbie Mainoo are both complete all-action, box-to-box midfielders, playing in a wide position.

They remind me of flankers in rugby, with huge engines, dominating their flanks, and creating the platform for the rest of the team to play.

St George’s New DNA 🔥

The end result is a fluid, free-flowing brand of attacking football; pressing and controlling possession like a top European club-side, whilst platforming World Class talents to the best of their ability.

🏆 World Champions 🏆

Thank you

Thank you very much - as always - for reading and supporting my writing; I hope you enjoy reading and find something useful to apply to your own saves.