Delicious Story - FM26 Enzo Maresca Manchester City 2026-27 | 4-2-3-1 to 3-2-5 Recreation

This is my FM26 Enzo Maresca Manchester City 2026-27 recreation, starting from a 4-2-3-1 and developing into the 3-2-5 attacking structure I wanted to reproduce in possession.

The final result was an unbeaten Premier League season with 100 points, 121 goals, two trophies and a Champions League Final.

Season Results

Premier League Champions — 100 Points, UNBEATEN Carabao Cup Winners UEFA Champions League Runner-Up — lost 2-1 vs PSG FA Cup Semi Final — eliminated by Arsenal

Premier League

38 Games 31 Wins 7 Draws 0 Losses

121 Goals Scored 36 Goals Conceded +85 Goal Difference

Underlying numbers:

105.20 xG31.30 xGA85.20 xPTS

The most important part for me is not simply the 100 points.

It is that we completed the entire league season without losing.

Home: 15W 4D 0LAway: 16W 3D 0L

The Tactical Idea

The starting shape is a 4-2-3-1, but that number does not really explain what I wanted from the tactic.

In possession, the objective was to create a 3-2-5 structure.

Three players provide the first line, two players support the build-up centrally, and five players occupy the attacking line and the spaces around the opposition defence.

This is exactly where FM26's separation between In Possession and Out of Possession roles becomes useful.

I am not choosing roles because their names look correct on the tactic screen.

I am choosing them because of the behaviour they create inside the match engine.

For me, that is always more important than the starting formation.

Attacking Performance

The attacking output was excellent.

Manchester City averaged approximately:

3.2 goals per game20.9 shots per game2.6 non-penalty xG per 9050% shots on target91.5% pass completion

The league season ended with:

121 goals in 38 games

But the production was not only coming from Haaland.

Erling Haaland

64 appearances 81 goals 13 assists 7.70 average rating

Then behind him:

Antoine Semenyo23 goals24 assists7.63 average rating

Jérémy Doku18 goals28 assists7.64 average rating

Tijjani Reijnders18 goals11 assists

Omar Marmoush15 goals16 assists

That matters because I do not want a system where one striker scoring ridiculous numbers hides problems elsewhere.

The attacking structure was producing contributions from several areas.

Defensive Performance

For such an aggressive attacking structure, the defensive numbers remained very strong.

36 Premier League goals conceded

Approximately:

0.9 goals conceded per game0.8 xGA per game13 clean sheets

The final league xGA was 31.30, so this was not simply a case of surviving through goalkeeper performance or finishing variance.

The structure was still controlling chance quality reasonably well while committing a lot of players forward.

Possession

Manchester City finished with approximately:

57% average possession

That was the third-highest figure in the Premier League.

And I am completely fine with that.

I could probably change a few things and push possession higher, but possession for the sake of possession is not the objective.

What matters is whether the possession produces:

→ territorial control→ progression→ good spacing→ attacking occupation→ chances

This team produced 105.20 xG and 121 goals.

So I am not particularly interested in turning 57% into 65% just because the screenshot would look more "positional".

Champions League

The Champions League was the one that got away.

We reached the Final against PSG and lost 2-1.

PSG produced 2.34 xG, while we finished on 1.92 xG.

Haaland scored our goal, but PSG won the match.

No treble.

And that is fine.

This is also why I prefer playing full seasons instead of selecting isolated screenshots.

A tactic can produce an unbeaten 100-point Premier League season and still lose one important match.

Complete Season Record

Across all competitions:

64 Games 53 Wins 7 Draws 4 Losses

199 Goals Scored 59 Goals Conceded +140 Goal Difference 82% Win Rate

That is an extremely strong complete-season test.

Recreation vs Adaptation

There is one distinction I always want to make with these projects.

This is a recreation, but every recreation inside Football Manager necessarily requires adaptation.

FM26 is not real football.

The roles are not literal translations of real-life positions, and the match engine has its own movement rules.

So the process is not:

"Which FM role has the same name as the real-life role?"

The process is:

What behaviour do I need, and which FM26 combination gives me something close to it?

That is adaptation.

But adaptation does not automatically mean exploiting the match engine.

If I changed the shape purely because another combination generated another 10 goals or another five points, then I would be moving toward meta optimisation.

There is nothing wrong with that, but it would be a different project.

Here I wanted the 4-2-3-1 → 3-2-5 idea to remain recognisable while still working inside FM26.

And it did.

Final Thoughts

I think this is one of those recreations where the result speaks for itself.

100 Premier League points Unbeaten 121 league goals 36 conceded Premier League Carabao Cup Champions League Final 199 goals in all competitions 82% overall win rate

And Haaland scored 81 goals.

The most interesting part for me, however, is that the structure worked without needing to turn it into something completely different just to chase the engine.

That is exactly what I want from these recreation projects.

The idea has to be recognisable.

Then it has to survive Football Manager.

This one did both.

Included

The FM26 tactic file is included below.

For console players, I also include a Team Instructions / Player Instructions video so the tactic can be recreated manually.

As always, the season results shown here come from the actual full-season test, not from selected matches or isolated screenshots.