The title of this blog isn’t just a very thinly disguised dig at the third best team in North London (Tottenham and Tottenham U23s are one and two, if you were curious). It’s one of my most common post-game comments in the team talk.
I didn’t have a great time with Bastia - understatement of the century - but I feel like I bounced back in my first season with Mallorca. Something I kept telling myself was that I shouldn’t get comfortable as this first season was definitely a bit false when you dig past the season summary. My two top performers (Fer Niño and Take Kubo) were both loanees who were a level above the current stature of Mallorca in its current state and I had little hope of seeing either return for 2022/23.
Tactically, my first season was all over the place as I searched for something to mitigate the otherwise poor levels of ability I had at my disposal. As it happens, the second season started in a similar trend.
A torch, a torch. My Kingdom for a torch…
Why? Because in my search to find something that worked I switched from one style to another akin to a desperate fumble in the darkness. 442, 352, 4141 and 424 but nothing would stick.
We started the season off with five straight defeats. I noted that the fixture scheduling gods had been truly unkind to us given the level of opponents we faced in the opening phase of the season but in truth the performances gave me very little glimpses of positivity for the season going forward.
Reaching October we sat dangerously within the relegation zone in a lowly 17th with a solitary win and two accompanying draws to give us just 5 points from the opening 9 games. After a 4-0 away defeat to Atlético de Madrid I stopped and took a break from playing FM for a week or two.
I discuss my next actions in the upcoming Latte Quarterly where I revert to the old method of exporting to MS Excel. It’s a road much travelled amongst FMers these days. Why would I export from glorified spreadsheet to actual spreadsheet? It allowed me to cut out the noise around the numbers and ask myself a few key questions but the main one being a very simple question - am I picking the right players?
It may seem so simple as to even sound stupid but I didn’t know who my best players were. A very simple look on a very, very basic level allowed me to see that three of my five best players (based on attributes alone) where central midfielders. It seemed daft not to build my team from that point.
A change to 4312 (a formation that served me well previously with Mallorca) gave me the chance to a solid base in midfield. Very simply it was a Deep Lying Playmaker flanked by Central Midfielders (Support on the left and Attack on the right). From that point I had the foundations to build around and create the movement I felt would see us start to gain a foothold in games.
So “Trust The Process” - things didn’t start magnificently well if we isolate things based on results. A 3-1 loss to Bilbao and a 3-2 loss to Villarreal either side of a plucky 3-2 win over Levante add in that we bowed out of the Copa del Rey to second tier side Racing de Santander. I could have thrown the head up and started again from scratch but it was reading some comments from Dan Gear on twitter that made me take a step back. Yes, the results were not great but the patterns of play had a lot of promise. The goals we conceded were generally from stupid mistakes that I could fix via minor tweaks and with the right signings come January. We created a lot of great scoring opportunities but for whatever reason they just weren’t landing. Tactical Familiarity? Maybe. My decision was clear thought: stick with it and things will start to click.
As we returned from the long winter break enforced by the 2022 World Cup, things began to change. 3 wins in my next 5 league games proved that I was on to something and with the right signings we’d start to see real progress.
You might trot out the cliché here that “the rest, as they say, is history” but that would be to suggest that we have a finished product on our hands. Far from it but we’re on the road to finding some success. There were still hiccups along the way with heavy defeats to Real Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla and Espanyol but as the season played out we also took some great results - a scoreless draw with Barcelona, victory over Bilbao and demolishing Tenerife, Celta Vigo and Real Zaragoza. As we closed the season against Barcelona at Son Moix I approached the game with an unexpected hope verging on expectation.
We twice led Barcelona only for the Catalan giants to fire back with goals in the 88th and 93rd minute to see them take the points. This was partly of my own doing as I brought Antonio Raillo and Manolo Reina on for their final appearances for the club in the final ten minutes. Sentiment rides high for me, even in the virtual world of FM. Raillo is not capable of playing at the level I want to see Mallorca rise to and Reina, at 38 years old, will retire after six seasons in Palma helping the club rise back from the third tier of Spanish football.
4312: The tactic that saved our season
As I mentioned, it was very simple. two central defenders with full backs on either side. Attack on the left to give us movement down the flank and Support on the right to… you know… support the play. The Deep Lying Playmaker on Defend to sit slightly deeper and dictate play with defence splitting passes, a Central Midfielder on support to provide an option and a Central Midfielder on Attack to make runs from deep. An Attacking Midfielder to support the strikers who were a Target Forward and Advanced Forward. The Target Forward assigned PIs to Stay Wider and Run Wide With Ball - this opened up space for the CM(A) to venture into.
The TIs were minimal - simply to press more and employ the offside trap. Indicative of the way I like my teams to play. The mentality was set to Positive to try and impose ourselves on the game but with consciousness of the risks of counter attacks from our opponents.
Transfer Business
The tactic was set but that’s only part of the problem fixed.
Summer 2022
Shane Duffy was my only permanent signing of the summer for a paltry sum of £600k from Brighton. Thanks to La Liga’s ridiculous squad number rulings he had to take the number 9 shirt. A shirt that he more than earned in the second half of the season thanks to my focus on creating an effective attacking corner routine. His near post headers finding him on the scoresheet five times in our race for mid table.
Aleksander Buksa came in a season long loan from Genoa for which I had to pay £1.4m for the privilege. Scouting for new players can come in many forms, I became aware of Buksa through the LQ article ‘Running From FM’ where myself, FMGrasshopper and FM Rensie took charge of Wisla Krakow for a season. Buksa has a lot of the attributes I like to see in a striker - he’s tall, relatively physical and capable with both feet. His work as our Target Forward in the second half of the season was simply fantastic as he finished the season with 10 goals / 5 assists in his 29 appearances. At just 20 years old there is plenty more to come from him.
The final three signings of the summer were loaned in from Bayern Munich’s stockpile in their Bayern II squad. Firstly it was Michaël Cuisance. The French midfielder will hardly need much introduction to FM fans, alongside paying his wages I also stumped up an additional £135k for the loan fee. Cuisance can play all manner of positions from DM-forward, he primarily played as my CM on support but often filled in at DLP when needed. It was a role he thrived in thanks to his aptitude in passing, technique and vision.
Gabriel Vidović came to me highly recommended by ScoreOneMore on FMSlack. Another player who can basically play anything from DM onward. He deputised at CM on attack for me during much of the season but also found himself thrown up top as our Advanced Forward. 3 goals / 4 assists may seem like a meagre return in his 28 appearances but his direct running through the middle of the pitch created all sorts of problems for the opposition even though it didn’t lead to direct goal involvements.
Joshua Zirkzee was the final signing of this window. You may remember him from his time with FMGrasshopper. Again, a tall and physical forward who is adept with either foot. He was initially my choice for Target Forward before that position was usurped by Aleksander Buksa. As an Advanced Forward, Zirkzee led the line in a fine manner - his 12 goals / 2 assists in 33 appearances wasn’t quite on par with Fer Niño but it was a great contribution in our time of need.
Winter 2023
I started off by bringing in two young lads to supplement by B team with a view to the future. Daniel Melo was a loanee from Botafogo with an optional fee involved - sadly he never really showed any great promise and will return to his parent club as the season ends. The second was a show of nepotism in its truest form: Ryan McKay is a left wing back signed from Northern Irish club Dundela on a free transfer once he had turned 18. Ryan is my nephew (in the real world setting) and although his attributes may never reach the levels I desire for my Mallorca team, I couldn’t pass up the chance to sign him.
Matteo Gabbia cost me £6m from Milan, the game tells me this is a record high transfer for Mallorca. It was a huge outlay but one that I think can be justified as I feel he will greatly improve my defensive options. Sadly it won’t be noted as a debut season to remember for Gabbia. I tried to introduce him gradually so as not to upset the apple cart of team morale. He ended the season as a regular starter alongside Duffy but he was found to be at fault for a lot of goals conceded - missed interceptions and headers leading to goals. I’ll put it down to a tough integration to regular senior football and look forward to better from him next season.
Fahd Moufi for £750k from Portimonense feels like an absolute steal. We’d been lacking in a right back who could impact the game in an attacking sense since Pablo Maffeo’s loan ended. Joan Sastre wasn’t quite cutting it so the move for Moufi made absolute sense. Yet again, the stats don’t tell the full story as he scored once and didn’t lay on a single goal but his participation in the build up play became a vital component of how we attacked teams.
Javi López as a free transfer must go down as the signing of the season. The (then) 20 year old was brought in on a free transfer from second tier Alavés simply to provide cover for Brian Oliván. When Oliván picked up a broken ankle just a week after López’s signing, the young wing back was thrust into first team action. His impact was immediate, laying on an assist for Danilo Cataldi within 30 seconds of his first appearance. He only went on to record a further 3 assists in his other 21 appearances but his impact on that left hand side complemented Moufi’s emergence on the right.
Goals, Assists, Clean Sheets?!
No self-respecting FM blog is complete without a run down of the key stats. Here goes…
Kang-In Lee topped the scoring charts with 17 goals in 39 appearances, another 6 assists laid on for his peers.
Danilo Cataldi was the top assister with 7 added to his 7 goals in 30 appearances. He finally started to fulfil his promise following that winter break putting his 17 for free kicks and 16 for long shots attributes to effective use. His 14 for corners also came in handy for our new routine targeting Shane Duffy.
Speaking of the Irishman, Duffy managed the highest average rating in the squad with a 7.09. He may have seemed like an unusual acquisition but he’s fully justified the signing.
Kang-In Lee had the most appearances with his 39 (37 starts and 2 as a sub) as mentioned but it was Dominik Grief, our goalkeeper, who racked up the most minutes with 3,213 - that’s 110 more than Lee.
Forward Planning
I feel like I’m really getting into my stride now with Mallorca and so it’s a return to what I normally do. I like to plan ahead, I like to be able to anticipate what’s coming around the corner.
In terms of club infrastructure, I have already had the board agree and complete an upgrade to both the youth and training facilities. The youth facilities are now rated as Good and the training facilities are Great. In addition to this we’ve seen the board agree to increase funding for youth coaching to what is now considered as Good academy coaching.
Mallorca has always been kind to me with youth intakes and this save is no different. Even before the upgrades had taken place I was graced with this young lad in our season two intake. Andreu Barba is already at a level to compete for a first team place despite being just 15 years old. I’m very excited about his potential.
Ahead of next season I’ve already sorted a fair bit of transfer business. The rest will come in the next season’s update but for now the big announcement is that I have secure pre-contract deals for Joshua Zirkzee and Gabriel Vidović at the end of their Bayern contracts in the summer - I consider these both to be a massive coup for Mallorca at this level.
The aims for next season in the board’s eyes are to avoid a relegation battle. Having finished this season in 10th place, it would be unambitious to consider anything less than a top half finish.