the complete how-to-play guide
How to play 38-0
38-0 is a spin-to-draft football sim. The wheel picks a real club from a real season, you pick who makes the XI, then the sim plays out all 38 games. This guide takes you from your first spin to a verdict, and the strategy that turns a good run into played 38, won 38.
Every run is one squad and one season. You take what the wheel gives you, shape it into an eleven, read the pre-season odds, then simulate the lot and live with the verdict. The skill is not in getting lucky spins, it is in turning whatever lands into a side that wins every week.
the complete how-to-play guide
How to play 38-0
Every run is one squad and one season. You take what the wheel gives you, shape it into an eleven, read the pre-season odds, then simulate the lot and live with the verdict. The skill is not in getting lucky spins, it is in turning whatever lands into a side that wins every week.
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1
Pick a formation
Start by choosing one of seven shapes, from an attacking 4-3-3 to a defensive 5-4-1. Your formation fixes how many defenders, midfielders and forwards you will draft, so it is a strategic call, not cosmetic. A back five gives you more slots to soak up the hardest fixtures; three up top leans on outscoring everyone. Decide whether you are building to grind out 1-0 wins or to bury teams 4-1.
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2
Spin and draft
Each pick begins with a spin of the club-and-season wheel. It can land on any team from 30+ years of top-flight history, one side’s title-winning year, another’s relegation campaign. You then draft a single player from that exact squad into an open position. If the spin is poor you can reroll, but rerolls are limited, so spend them on the slots that matter most and learn to make a modest squad work.
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3
Build the XI
Fill all eleven positions and watch your live Overall, broken into attack, midfield, defence and goalkeeper, climb with every pick. Most players are eligible in more than one position, so when a generational talent lands with no natural slot free, shuffle an already-drafted player into another eligible spot to open the door. Balance matters: a back line of superstars and a threadbare midfield will still leak goals.
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4
Read the odds
Before a ball is kicked, 38-0 prices up your side: a projected league finish, an expected points total, and your odds of the title and of relegation. Treat this as a scouting report, not a verdict. If the model has you mid-table, you know which areas to strengthen on your next run, and whether this XI has any realistic path to going unbeaten or just to a respectable season.
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5
Simulate 38 games
Run the season. The deterministic sim resolves all 38 fixtures from your team’s real strengths, with wins, draws, losses, goals and scorers rolling in match by match, or skip straight to full time. One defeat ends the 38-0 dream, so the tension builds with every result. The same XI and the same run always play out the same way, so your result is yours to own.
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6
Get your verdict
At full time you get the final table, season awards (top scorer, most assists, best keeper, player of the season), any badges you earned, and a blunt, often very funny verdict on how it went. Then you run it back: a sharper formation, smarter rerolls and a better-balanced XI, chasing the only line that matters, played 38, won 38.
Five tips for going unbeaten
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Defense wins 38-0. Goals draw the eye, but an unbeaten run is built on a back line and keeper that turn would-be defeats into draws and draws into wins. Draft your spine first.
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Hoard rerolls early. The wheel will eventually land on a side you love. Spend rerolls sparingly on low-value slots so you still have spins left when a marquee position is open.
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Use multi-position eligibility on purpose. Drafting a star out of position to free a slot is fine, but check it does not gut your Overall in the area you moved them from.
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Let the odds pick your targets. If the pre-season model flags a weak midfield or shaky defense, those are the positions to gamble your remaining rerolls on, not the ones already strong.
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Match difficulty to your goal. Easy and Normal show ratings as you draft; Hard hides them for a blind draft. Step up only once you can read squads by name, era and reputation alone.
Ready to spin your first season?
You have the playbook. Take what the wheel gives you, build an XI that can win the lot, and find out how close you get to 38-0.