FM26 Imanol Alguacil Real Sociedad 4-3-3 to 4-1-4-1 Recreation (Patreon)

This one was a proper Imanol Alguacil recreation, not just a generic strong 4-3-3 with a different label on it.

The idea was to stay close to what makes his teams recognisable: a 4-3-3 base, good structure in possession, strong wide contribution, and a shape that settles into a 4-1-4-1 out of possession without forcing it into something too far away from the original concept just to squeeze a few more FM26 numbers out of it.

And overall, the result was very strong.

Not title-winning strong, because Barcelona and Real Madrid are still Barcelona and Real Madrid, but definitely strong enough to show that this recreation can compete at a very high level.

🏁 Season Recap

🥉 First Division – 3rd, 88 points

📊 27W – 7D – 4L

⚽ 92 goals scored

🛡️ 44 goals conceded

➕ +48 goal difference

🏆 Spanish Cup – Knocked out in the 4th Round by Leganés

🎮 Overall: 42 matches, 30 wins, 7 draws, 5 losses

⚽ 111 goals scored / 46 conceded

📈 71% win rate

🧠 57% average possession

✅ 90% pass completion

📉 3rd in xPTS as well

That is a very good season for Real Sociedad, and it is also the kind of result that makes sense for a recreation like this.

We were not trying to build an unrealistic machine. The goal was to recreate the behaviour and see how far it could go in a full-season run.

And it went pretty far.

What the Recreation Was Trying to Do

The important part here is that this was not about taking Real Sociedad and turning them into a completely engine-optimised meta setup.

If I wanted pure optimisation, I could have gone much further away from the Imanol idea.

Instead, the point was to keep the identity clear:

4-3-3 base

4-1-4-1 out of possession

possession-oriented approach

high technical security

strong winger involvement

midfielders supporting circulation and final-third combinations

a front structure that still gives Oyarzabal enough influence

That is why I am happy with the result.

Because the outcome still looks like a recreation, not just a stronger FM tactic wearing an Imanol badge.

League Performance

The league campaign was excellent.

Real Sociedad finished on 88 points, which is already enough to tell you the system worked over a long sample.

Only Barcelona (96) and Real Madrid (93) finished above us, so we were basically right behind the two giants and well clear of the rest.

Scoring 92 goals while also keeping a +48 goal difference is a strong return, especially when you remember this is still Real Sociedad and not a superteam built to brute-force the match engine.

The home/away split was also solid:

Home: 15W, 3D, 1L — 50 GF, 18 GA

Away: 12W, 4D, 3L — 42 GF, 26 GA

That is a very healthy balance and one of the reasons the team stayed competitive all year.

There were some bad results, of course, and a couple of games where things got too open, but over the course of the season the setup held up really well.

The Stats Behind It

This is one of those recreations where the numbers support the eye test quite well.

A few of the main league indicators:

57% average possession

90% pass completion

15.9 shots per game

2.0 non-penalty xG per 90

1.0 xGA per game

15 clean sheets

The team stats page also had Real Sociedad 3rd in the league for average possession, which is exactly the kind of profile you want from an Imanol-inspired setup.

So this was not just a team winning randomly through isolated moments.

There was genuine control here.

The xPTS table also had Real Sociedad 3rd, so the final league position was not some weird outlier. The team earned its place.

If anything, the biggest takeaway is that this recreation was not only aesthetically coherent, but also statistically stable across a full season.

Attacking Output

The attack was the best part of the run.

Real Sociedad finished the full season with 111 goals in 42 matches, and the player output reflects that very clearly.

Key performers

Mikel Oyarzabal – 33 goals, 10 assists

Ander Barrenetxea – 16 goals, 17 assists

Takefusa Kubo – 9 goals, 15 assists

Arsen Zakharyan – 14 goals, 9 assists

Luka Sučić – 13 goals, 11 assists

That is exactly the kind of distribution I like to see in a recreation.

It was not just one player carrying everything on his own.

Oyarzabal was obviously the main scorer, but the wide players and the midfielders all contributed heavily. That makes the attack feel much more organic and much closer to the footballing idea behind the setup.

Barrenetxea and Kubo in particular were huge.

If you are looking at where the tactic really came alive, it was in the combination between the wide players, the central support underneath them, and the forward being able to finish the moves rather than having to do everything alone.

Defensive Side

Defensively, the season was good, even if this was not a super-defensive monster.

In the league:

44 conceded

15 clean sheets

1.0 xGA per game

That is more than enough to support a top-level finish.

And it makes sense for the kind of system this is.

This is not a low-block, damage-limitation setup. It is a team that wants possession, wants structure, and wants to defend through organisation rather than just retreating and surviving.

There were still a few matches where the team gave away too much, and you can see that from some of the bigger scorelines during the season, but in general the balance was there.

That matters, because with possession-based recreations the line between control and vulnerability can get very thin if the structure is not right.

Here, it was mostly right.

The Disappointment: Spanish Cup

The obvious negative is the Spanish Cup exit in the 4th Round against Leganés.

That is not a good result.

There is no real point trying to dress it up differently.

The league campaign was excellent, but the cup run was a letdown and it takes away the chance to call this season complete.

Still, for the purposes of evaluating the recreation itself, the league sample is the part that matters most, and that sample was strong.

My View on the Recreation

I think this is one of those builds where the balance between faithfulness and playability came out well.

Could I have pushed it harder toward pure FM optimisation? Yes.

Could I probably have found a few more shortcuts to try to squeeze even more points out of it? Also yes.

But then the question becomes the same as always: is it still Imanol, or is it just a stronger FM tactic?

For me, this version still sits on the right side of that line.

It behaves like a recreation.

It gives you the possession profile you want.

It gives you the wide output you want.

It gives you a real 4-3-3 to 4-1-4-1 feel.

And it is still strong enough to produce a serious season with Real Sociedad.

That is exactly what I wanted from it.

Final Verdict

This was a very good full-season result for a proper recreation.

Not a title, not a cup, but:

3rd in La Liga

88 points

92 league goals

111 goals in all competitions

strong possession numbers

clear tactical identity

excellent output from the wingers and attacking midfield profiles

So if you want an Imanol Alguacil-style FM26 recreation that still performs over a long test, this one absolutely did enough to justify itself.

The FM26 tactic file is included with this post.

For console players, there is also a TI/PI mini-video included so you can recreate the Team Instructions and Player Instructions manually.