Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC narrowly miss out on a playoff spot and rebuild for the future.
Intro
During a Last 16 match in the 2022 World Cup, Spain attempted 1,050 passes against Morocco with 975 of them succeeding. It was the football from 10-years ago, yet the players to really make it click were no longer in the team. I saw one meme implying that tiki-taka had become tik-tok, with an obvious dig at young players Gavi and Pedri. Harsh, but I can see why Luis Enrique’s approach has so universally slammed after that Morocco penalty exit. It all seemed rather stale.
But is tiki-taka stale in FM too?
Whichever answer I give will obviously be subjective, as it’s formed from my opinion. But seeing that this is my blog, let me explore further. Warning: this is a rather short blog post, to avoid any disappointment, please think of it as an interlude.
Season 2023/24
July - December 2023
On Spain’s North African coastline, there’s a duality happening between the real-life Spain National Team and my AD Ceuta FC FM23 side. Like Luis Enrique, I seem to have built a possession orientated 433, in part due to the Board’s request of more high-tempo pressing football. We’re doing well in a few league metrics, and on paper it’s looking good/exciting:
2nd in possession (60%)
1st in pass completion (89%)
3rd in shots per game (12.78)
3rd in dribbles per game (13.28)
Yet there is a definite spark missing. No doubt about it, sometimes the football is rancid. Despite sitting 3rd in the league at the half way point, I feel we should be doing even better. Those metrics tempered by such a low Conversion rate of 8% (ranked 19th) and with relatively mediocre shots on target ratio of 38% (ranked 11th). I guess the spark I am after is the one that left us 6 months ago: Lorenzo Gonzalez…a striker so good that he almost jumped off the top-right of his xG scatter plot.
Here are the Season 2 results so far and table at the start of our Winter Break:
Season 2.
Seven straight wins saw us become the team to knock-off the summit of the table, which is exactly what has happened as we’ve laboured into December 2023. We need to find that killer instinct once again if we’re going to ever get out of this league. Passing, dribbling and shooting…just isn’t enough against some of the league’s best sides. So, I’m therefore going to look at our strengths and weaknesses to see if we can fine tune things a bit more in order to solidify our promotion challenge. Not a lot needs to change, as mentioned above, we’re doing well in a lot of good metrics [and in a lot of games]…it’s just the Lorenzo spark needs to be re-discovered.
Players
Previous 433 that has been used in this last 6 months can be read here.
Inverted Winger (Support)
My main Inverted Winger, Luismi, tops Chances Created in the league with 1.02 Per 90. Luismi is currently the most creative spark in the front three (5 assists), all for the Pressing Forward upfront. He is one to keep as-is for now.
Pressing Forward (Support)
Seven goals in 16 starts is pretty decent for a supportive Striker tasked with holding up the ball and bringing others into play. The goals are a mix of headers and classy finishing. The main worry I have is Arturo’s mobility, and he doesn't seem to be working well with the IF-A alongside him (0 assists).
Inside Forward (Attack)
The Inside Forward has good moments, but is not the main scorer of the three…which worries me. Just three goals, when I expected this guy to regularly be on the scoresheet. Liberto, the usual IF, has the trait to Runs With Ball Down Left and in hindsight is better suited to the Winger role than IF. Perhaps one to change.
Advanced Playmaker (Support)
My main playmaker is Adri Cuevas currently holds the best average rating in squad (7.25). His playmaking powers are not being utilised by the players ahead of him though. He has a squad best of 2.29 Open Play Key Passes Per 90 but just two assists for the first half of the season. Now in his 34th year, his physical attributes are now also on the wane.
Mezzala (Attack)
Another disappointment for goals and assists. Nowhere near getting advanced enough, and any option seems to fluff changes when they have them.
Team
What formations do we struggle against? Well, in the seven games we failed to score (four defeats and three 0-0s)…six of them were against the FM23 AI’s flavour of the month: 4231 DM. The only other defeat that wasn’t a 4231 DM was against Real Madrid B’s 433 DM. Ouch. We seem to hate coming against a DM or two. We also seem to hate top 10 teams, with six of the seven blanks coming up against them. Finding a route to goal in these games could see us take control of our title charge. It’s something we need to tweak, and tweak I shall.
Ceuta 4231 Vs 4231 DMs/Top 10 sides.
Crash and burn, we will match the 4231 DMs with a similar shape. Gone is the DM, instead there is an AMC running into channels to give the DM at least one more headache than usual. Summary of changes: IF-A switch to an Attacking Winger, who will cross to an Attacking Target Forward and on-rushing Shadow Striker. The midfield two are more conservative, with a Deep Lying Playmaker and supportive Central Midfielder. I will use this formation against the seven sides I ‘blanked’ in OR when I notice I am struggling against any other DM formation…will it work? Find out next time on the blog.
18 Virtual Months
I outlined my plans during my save intro, and now 18-months into the save I feel I can tick off the 1st Save Objective: Do not get sacked. The remaining objectives are quite long-term, and I very much doubt you will see the below graphic again for a while. So, please take a moment to savour my immediate achievements…
Not a real clipboard.
With 18 virtual months on the clock, the save will now be on a little hiatus as December is a typically busy month in-real-life. I would therefore like to wish readers a great festive season with friends and family, whilst I hope to be back playing [and writing] in the New Year with more AD Ceuta FC.
Season’s Greetings.
Tony / FM Grasshopper