After the Sporting CP season, I wanted to run the same Rui Borges-inspired 4-2-3-1 Control Possession recreation in a more demanding environment.

With Newcastle, the final outcome was excellent: we won the Champions League, finished second in the Premier League and reached the Carabao Cup final.

However, the most interesting part of this run was not the trophies. It was the enormous difference between our home and away performances in the Premier League.

Season Results

🏆 Champions League winners🥈 Premier League runners-up🥈 Carabao Cup runners-up🏅 FA Cup quarter-final

Newcastle finished only two points behind Manchester City despite scoring the same number of league goals and producing a better goal difference.

Overall Solo-Shot Record

🎮 63 matches played✅ 45 wins🤝 8 draws❌ 10 defeats⚽ 167 goals scored🥅 54 goals conceded📈 +113 goal difference📊 71% win percentage🏆 1 trophy won

Every match was played in 3D.

No vacation.No in-game editor.

Premier League Performance

🥈 2nd place📊 84 points✅ 26 wins🤝 6 draws❌ 6 defeats⚽ 98 goals scored🥅 33 goals conceded📈 +65 goal difference🎯 56% average possession🔄 90% pass completion

The underlying league numbers were also very strong:

→ 85.36 xG→ 37.73 xGA→ 75.51 xPTS

Newcastle scored 12.64 goals above xG, conceded 4.73 fewer goals than xGA and finished 8.49 points above xPTS.

This was not a poor league season. The problem was how differently the same team performed depending on where the match was played.

Home vs Away: The Real Story

Premier League Home Record

✅ 17 wins🤝 1 draw❌ 1 defeat⚽ 69 goals scored🥅 10 goals conceded📈 +59 goal difference📊 52 points📈 2.74 points per game⚽ 3.63 goals per game🥅 0.53 conceded per game✅ 89.5% win rate

At home, Newcastle looked almost unstoppable.

We collected 52 of the 57 available points, scored nearly four goals per match and conceded only ten times across the entire home league campaign.

Premier League Away Record

✅ 9 wins🤝 5 draws❌ 5 defeats⚽ 29 goals scored🥅 23 goals conceded📈 +6 goal difference📊 32 points📉 1.68 points per game⚽ 1.53 goals per game🥅 1.21 conceded per game✅ 47.4% win rate

The away record was not disastrous, but the difference compared with our home performances was enormous.

Away from home, Newcastle produced:

→ 38.5% fewer points per game→ 58% fewer goals per game→ 130% more goals conceded per game→ A win-rate drop from 89.5% to 47.4%

More than 70% of our Premier League goals were scored at home, while almost 70% of the goals conceded came away from home.

That is a level of imbalance that deserves further analysis.

Was It Simply a Problem With the Tactic?

I do not think we can immediately say that the tactic does not work away from home.

The Champions League tells a very different story.

Newcastle finished first in the league phase with:

🥇 1st place📊 22 points✅ 7 wins🤝 1 draw❌ 0 defeats⚽ 27 goals scored🥅 10 goals conceded

The Champions League away record during the league phase was:

✅ 4 wins from 4⚽ 16 goals scored🥅 4 goals conceded

So the same tactic that struggled to reproduce its home output in Premier League away matches won every European away match during the league phase.

That is why I do not want to force a simple conclusion.

It could be connected to the tactical structure, the opposition, player profiles, match momentum, morale, finishing variance or the way Premier League teams approached Newcastle away from St James’ Park.

One solo shot can reveal a pattern, but it cannot explain the complete cause by itself.

Champions League Final

🏆 Tottenham 0-3 Newcastle

Newcastle completed the European run with a dominant final:

⚽ 3 goals🎯 21 shots🥅 13 shots on target📊 2.91 xG⚽ 55% possession

Jacob Ramsey opened the scoring after only three minutes. Lewis Hall added the second before Nick Woltemade completed the result late in the match.

Whatever happened during the Premier League away campaign, the tactic delivered when it mattered most in Europe.

Tactical Structure

The system remains the same Rui Borges-inspired 4-2-3-1 Control Possession recreation used with Sporting.

In possession, the left side becomes particularly aggressive through Lewis Hall, while Bruno Guimarães protects and connects the structure from the deeper midfield position.

Sandro Tonali provides the central link, while the three attacking midfielders operate around Nick Woltemade.

The shape includes:

→ An aggressive attacking wing-back on the left→ A more controlled right-back structure→ A deep playmaker protecting midfield→ A central midfielder connecting the phases→ Two wide attackers moving into central areas→ An attacking midfielder behind the striker→ A complete central reference up front

This is still a recreation and engine adaptation. It was not built simply to maximise long balls or reproduce a standard meta setup.

Key Player Performances

Nick Woltemade

⚽ 44 goals🎯 11 assists⭐ 7.24 average rating

Woltemade led the attack and provided both goals and a central reference for the players moving around him.

Anthony Gordon

⚽ 38 goals🎯 15 assists⭐ 7.38 average rating

Gordon’s season changed after moving away from the flank and into the central attacking-midfield position.

From there, he became one of the main scoring threats in the system.

Anthony Elanga

⚽ 16 goals🎯 19 assists⭐ 7.52 average rating

Elanga recorded the highest average rating among the regular starters and provided consistent production from the right side.

Jacob Ramsey

⚽ 19 goals🎯 11 assists⭐ 7.18 average rating

Ramsey added another reliable source of goals and also opened the scoring in the Champions League final.

Lewis Hall

⚽ 10 goals🎯 28 assists⭐ 7.27 average rating

Hall was fundamental to the entire attacking structure.

His 38 direct goal contributions from the left wing-back position show how important that role is within this system.

Sandro Tonali

⚽ 8 goals🎯 15 assists⭐ 7.14 average rating

Tonali provided balance, progression and a consistent connection between the deeper structure and the attacking unit.

Final Assessment

The overall performance remains top level.

Newcastle scored 167 goals, won the Champions League, finished with 84 Premier League points and lost the title by only two points.

But this run also produced one of the clearest home-and-away discrepancies I have seen.

At home, the tactic generated title-winning numbers. Away from home in the Premier League, the scoring output fell dramatically and the defensive record became much more ordinary.

At the same time, Newcastle won all four Champions League league-phase away matches and then defeated Tottenham 3-0 in the final.

That contradiction is more interesting to me than simply calling the tactic strong or weak.

The next step is not tactic time. It is data time.

I want to analyse a larger number of saves and understand whether this home-and-away difference is connected to this particular season, the Newcastle squad, the tactical structure or something broader inside FM26.

Package Contents

📁 FM26 tactic file💾 Complete Newcastle save-game file🖼️ Full season and player-stat screenshots🎥 TI and PI mini-video for console players📊 Home and away performance data📈 Full tactical and statistical overview