“442: Strictly Come Defending” - Plazas de Soberanía #FM23 — CoffeehouseFM

Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, I outlined my FM23 plans with AD Ceuta FC.

Welcome back to mainland Africa,

This post covers a brief save update from the first 6 months of fútbol at newly promoted AD Ceuta FC in the Spanish 3rd tier. I’ll write about the initial tactic, subsequent recruitment and then document where we currently sit at the point of the European winter break. Are you excited? I am…

¡Vamos!

The ‘Opening Day Tactic’

The new FM23 Squad Planner inadvertently generates a chicken Vs egg discussion in my head. Do FM players want to see their team in the new Planner before choosing a tactic OR are they happy to choose a tactical style or custom formation first? I’m torn, some managers IRL would walk into a job with strict ideals with how they're going to set out their team in terms of shape and a playstyle e.g. think Sarri or Bielsa. The current squad's make-up, to them, would likely be immaterial: it’s their vision or nothing.

Like those managers mentioned, I’ve come into FM23 with an idea of some of the roles and flavours of football I want to replicate. However, I know that 2022 Ceuta does not have that make-up just yet - I’ve checked them out in the Beta. The skillset is somewhat ‘raw’ (see: dire). I therefore decided not to force a tactical pre-set on my players…I simply choose 442 with no instructions [because I have to select an ‘Opening Day Tactic’].

The game immediately tells me who my best players are: Two wide players in Liberto & Luismi, central midfielder Adri Cuevas and striker Lorenzo Gonzalez. 442 sees me slot them in their best positions, and I’ve given them roles which suit their skillset. This could work:

The next best player looks to be Goalkeeper Leandro, who is quite decent for the level I am in. He’s been designated a Sweeper Keeper role, with Vision 9 and Flair 14 he is actually one of the most creative players in the squad *grits teeth*!

The rest of the squad is lacking, with a gap for a defensively minded central midfielder to hold Cuevas’ advances, and a striker that is going to support Gonzalez in the quest for goals.

Team Instructions

Over time I would like to evolve this tactic to be something that controls the game a bit more on a slower tempo, perhaps building out of the back by playing out of defence. But I personally do not see this as our strength right now, so I would rather be a bit quicker in getting it up to our two central forwards.

For now, I’m going to adapt something from the Statistical Fibra post I made at the tail end of the FM22 cycle. There are few team instructions, but there are the foundations of a style that I can build on in future years. For now, we’ll pass the ball shorter and we’ll make decisions at a higher tempo. We will generally build from the back via full-backs, but we’re not slowing down our build up by doing so. It’s 442 Simplicity. This is how we look, minus potential recruitments…

Note - several tweaks were made to the 442 in the first 10 games of league football. This isn’t the blog that details a tactical evolution, but a subtle (+ important) change was adding ‘Gets Further Forward’ Player Instruction to the WP-S, and also adding WB-A on that side. It’s a nice combination of duties, instructions and roles as the WP-S will always be keen to get in-field, but also with enough space separating the roles so that they are not on top of each other.

Season 2022/2023 Recruitment

So, the brief assessment of the squad sees me want two players: (1) a creative striker and (2) a defensive workhorse. But before I do all that, I wanted to assemble a better backroom of staff supporting me. I delegate more and more responsibilities these days in FM. For example, I no longer hold any team talks or motivational bits on the sideline…and I like the Director of Football role to undertake recruitment and contract negotiations. It’s therefore critical I have good coaching and scouting staff members to fall back on.

I will not dwell on each staff member recruited, but just know that we went from no analysts, coaches, physios or scouts to a good complement of staff who can support me. The two I will share though are pretty decent. First up is the suitably named Albert Puigdollers, who will be responsible for holding the purse strings when conducting transfers as our Director of Football. Albert has modest negotiating skills, and has a nice footballing philosophy.

Next up is somebody I am named after IRL: Tony Adams. He is actually a decent coach, and with a good grasp of Spanish football (lol)...I think he will do well here in Ceuta if I can stop him dancing 🕺

What I am most proud about though, is how we improved our National Knowledge in the key geographical areas of this save in just a few weeks. As previous Ceuta readers will know, I am focussing non-domestic recruitment within the Maghreb nations of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, along with some Affiliate clubs twinned with Ceuta in Argentina, Italy and Portugal; so it’s important I improve our reach within these North African nations.

Via an increase player pool and a Recruitment Focus, a couple of appropriate players were brought to my attention for the 2022/23 season: Moroccans Yassine Salhi (signed on a Free transfer) and Bilal Kandoussi El Khallak (loaned from Castellón)…

Yassine Salhi comes in as my first choice Deep Lying Forward. He becomes our Vice Captain and a dependable head upfront. I think you will agree he is absolutely smoking hot for the Spanish Third Division? Great Passing + Vision combination, and also strong aerially. Perfecto!

Bilal Kandoussi El Khallak was on the pricey side to get in permanently, so I settled on a season-long loan in the end. He will rotate with Liberto as the attacking Winger, but could also fill in centrally as the CM-A in the 442. Ex-Real Madrid graduate Kandoussi has a touch of the North African flair I wrote about in my save intro. Flair, First Touch and Vision, Diego Mendoza would be proud of me.

You may note that I never found that defensive central midfielder. The recruitment focus did not yield much, and we lost out on a few players to other clubs with the Director of Football handling bids. It is what it is, we ran out of time in the end. For 2022/23 we will use a combination of David Castro (a natural CM) and Central Defenders who can step up to play CM-D.

2022 recruitment ends, with two Moroccans. We’re ready for the season…

Season 2022/23 - “Strictly Come Defending”

July - December 2022

The back-line at Ceuta was nothing to write home about during my initial squad assessment. But I saw my side start the season with repeated defensive masterclasses, something Tony Adams would be proud about: 10 clean sheets in 19 league games. Why, despite being one of the relegation favourites, have we been so solid? I think there are a few contributing factors:

I particularly find the 442 a defensively strong formation. In order to see out games, I am able to drop defensive lines from our mid-block position, add time wasting and play for set pieces. I’m sure some of the tweaks I have made have meant we’ve been that little bit stronger in the final moments of games.
I also think the opposition finishing has been woeful…when we were carved open the opposition would fluff his chance. Higher opposition opponents would surely have obliterated us.
Credit also to my Goalkeeper, who in this post was noted down as being one of our top players. He’s been excellent and has kept us in games, just look at him on the Advanced Goalkeeping scatter plot:

So, here is the Primera Federación Grupo I table and results after 19 league games, just over the halfway point in the season:

After a terrifying start with no goals scored in the first four league matches, we’ve managed to find goals from the front two strikers (Gonzalez with 14 and Salhi with 9 - all comps). In the 442 they currently represent 82% of all goals scored (all comps). Whilst I do not mind this, the one player I feel could chip in with more goals is the attacking Central Midfielder…because I give a free pass to the wider players in the 442 as they are more suppliers (in terms of crosses + passes) to the two central forwards.

My Strikers’ stats, via a condensed version of FM Stag’s neat squad view. Download here: fmstag.com

Next Steps

To even entertain the thought of a promotion playoff spot seems absurd, but that’s where we currently find ourselves. On top of this, AD Ceuta FC will no longer have the distraction of The Lana Del Rey trophy (having strategically exited at the 1st Round)…leaving a promotion push as the sole focus for the remainder of 2022/23 season. Can we do it? Read the next blog, one day, to find out.

Thanks for reading/sharing and caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper