Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC produced tiki-taka football to varying degrees of success.

Intro

Dear Reader,

Happy soon-to-be New Year to you. The title of today’s post is a massive spoiler in how the 2nd half of my second season with AD Ceuta FC went: we have reached the Spanish Playoffs. Eight teams from two leagues coming together, playing games in neutral venues with some nice little oddities like the ‘higher place’ advantages. AD Ceuta FC’s appearance in the 2023/24 version could simply be a footnote for the history books, or they could take centre stage and upset the odds by reaching LaLiga 2.

Just like Spanish tapas, the 2023/24 Playoffs could also be something I mention in passing as a quick snack. Or it becomes the full meal of a blog post. There is only one way to finding out which one I choose to do. Let’s tuck in…

Season 2023/24

January - June 2024

I have seen a couple of the popular leaders of the FM scene having a hard time with FM23 and slamming it publicly due to defensive decision-making being off. It could be the way I am playing FM23, but I do not feel I am seeing more mistakes than I would do in real-life. In fact, my Ceuta boys love a clean sheet with 0.68 goals conceded per 90 (26 goals against)…we’re officially the best defence in Grupo I. As mentioned last time out, I was adopting a mixture of 4231 / 433 in the second half of the season. A few wobbles in March and April would not prevent us from ending on a strong run with 5 wins on the bounce. Hooray, we’re in the playoffs and bettered on last season’s 6th place.

If I was to look at myself in the mirror (which I often do to be fair), I’d tell myself that the Statistical Rebuild™ has been successful. Most satisfyingly, I’ve managed to circulate Lorenzo González’s 34 goals from Season 1 around my attack. Our supportive Pressing Forward, Arturo Rodríguez, is the main man with 17 goals in the regular campaign. But goals (38 of them) have been spread around the five players regularly occupying the attacking zones of the opposition half:

Overall, our goal difference is +3 better off from Season 1. We have scored 8 fewer goals this year, but I was always accepting that this may happen seeing as Lorenzo González was a bit of a freak in our league. I would certainly like more goals from my Inside Forward and Mezzala and that’s something I will be trying to address for Season 3. However, eleven fewer goals conceded is what Tony Adams and co. in my backroom staff will be happy with. Here is the final table from Season 2:

The Semi Final Playoff

So, I’m drawn against 3rd place from the adjacent league (Grupo II): Real Sociedad B. I am a bit apprehensive, as a B side can call on much greater resources for a game…but these playoff matches are classed as ‘cup games’ in Football Manager. Shocks can, and will, happen.

Real Sociedad B holds a ‘higher place’ advantage, having finished in a higher position.  So, if the scores are level after extra time…it’s a win for the Basque club.  AD Ceuta FC must win, and in a way it makes our objective a little easier.  Do I have a variety of routes to goal?  Are there marginal gains I can add in to make the difference?  Are there 1v1 mismatches that could decide the game in our favour?  These are things I must explore in today’s blog post.

Scouting

No scouting or analyst reports…as the Board feels it's too expensive.  So, I wait for the usual Next Opposition report and I give it to my main man: Diego Buitrago (12 in Judging Player Ability and Potential).

This report arrives 5 days before the match and I obviously scrutinise it in-depth.  I am shown a Performance Report, Team Report and an Analyst Report.

1. Performance Report - From reading this it is clear that Real Sociedad B align with a lot of the averages in Primera Federación Grupo II.  Comparing it with our own general performance, I can see that we’re better passers of the ball…

2. Team Report - I receive a line-up, which shows the Sociedad B side lining up in a 4231.  The Strengths and Weaknesses are quite enlightening, I’ve plucked a few Sociedad B Strengths which I need to worry about and also a few weaknesses I feel can be targeted (below).

3. Analyst Report - the data anal report is really lacking.  There’s no fixture data to display (for some reason), and a lot of the information was already in the two items above.  The only extra bit to glean from this report is that Real Sociedad B conceded a large % of goals in the first fifteen minutes (Don’t worry I worked it out: 40% - eight goals conceded in 20 games have come in the first 15 minutes).

Out of all the above, what am I going to do in the huge Semi?  Well, I’ll:

• Stick with 433 DM Wide.  Sociedad B seems to struggle against it.  We also should be confident of our ball playing ability against them.  I’ll be wary of their top scorer from AMC (Roberto López) but having a DM in the side means I can Man Mark and hopefully take him out of the game.

• I’ll play the 193cm tall Álvaro Télis to combat the deep crosses.

• I’ll ask the team to ‘Get Stuck In’, as I feel we can beat Sociedad in the mental and physical battles.  Let’s see if they can cope with it in the first 15 minutes.

• I’ll ask the team to Trigger Press on the weaker of Sociedad B’s CBs (Josu Rezola)...as the aforementioned Urko González de Zárate does look pretty beasty for our level and would probably cope with it.  This will, more often than not, be carried out by Pressing Forward, Arturo Rodríguez, who matches up very well against Rezola.  So, I’ll throw Hard tackling in for good measure.

Training

At this stage of the season there is little point training to boost attributes or fitness levels.  Instead, we’ll conduct Tactical sessions and anything that can give us a little boost before the big match.  Usually, I would train penalties ahead of a knockout match but given the quirks of the Spanish ‘higher place’ ruling…no game can go to penalties.  Here is what I went with:

The Result

One of the beauties of Football Manager is that you can never quantify exactly how much influence the tweaks you make have on your end result.  I guess the ambiguity is what makes us come back for more…the challenge is knowing some of the game mechanics, but crucially not enough so that we do not ‘hack the game’ and always win.

The tweaks I made hopefully contributed to the 2-0 win Vs Real Sociedad, and in truth we never looked like losing as we controlled a lot of the game (63% ball share).  Arturo Rodríguez scored his 18th goal of the season shortly before half-time, running on to a through ball from my attacking Mezzala, Iker Kortajarena.  I was expecting a second half onslaught from Real Sociedad B…but it never came.  Instead, Adri Cuevas fired in from range in injury time to see Ceuta book their place in the Final.  Two men in their mid-30s firing Ceuta to a 2-0 win, it’s now starting to sound a bit more like an FM Grasshopper save!

The 2023/24 season was not over just yet…

The Final Playoff

My AD Ceuta FC side is one game away from reaching the Spanish second division, but in our way is another B team: Celta B. Worryingly, the Galician side has twice beaten my Ceuta side during this season, so I am aware of the threats they pose. I do not need a scout report to tell me that Iker Losada in the No.10 position supplying striker Lautaro de León is a dream combination in the third division. In my opinion, both are future La Liga players in my save and are thriving this season; especially in Celta B’s Semi Final 3-0 victory against Intercity where de León opened the scoring before a Losada brace. Stopping them is essential if Ceuta are to progress.

Some positive news though, Ceuta holds the higher place advantage going into the final. So, a draw after either 90 or 120 minutes would be enough to see North African’s best Spanish side promoted.

Scouting

Although Álvaro Télis was the right fit last time round at Centre-Back, I feel I need a stronger defender…both in Mentals and also Marking/Tackling in order to cope with Lautaro De León. So, I call upon the soon-to-be-retiring 34-year-old Moisés. The little comparison graphic that pops up in the Tactic screen when you hover over a player sums it up nicely:

The scouting report summarises Celta B’s strengths as a fast and agile team. This does not surprise me, seeing that most of their team is aged 19-24 years of age. For this reason, it is their weaknesses that I want to go after:

I have plucked some weaknesses out that clearly show this is a side that can be kicked and mentally subdued. I will continue with the more frequent press and ask the players to get stuck in. I will also instruct the team to tackle harder on the seven players in Celta’s B previous XI who have relatively weak Aggression, Bravery and Strength (more than two attributes below 10).

Training

Not a lot to say on training, other than I thought we’d get the pen and paper out for two sessions on the Monday before we hug one another. On the day before the big match, we’ll practice some set pieces before having a match preview. I like to think this is how Terry Venables approached team training when on the Spanish mainland with Barcelona…

The Result

I’m not a huge lover in too many changes, especially when the performance against Real Sociedad B was so strong. So, other than the Moisés-Télis swap at CB my Ceuta side remains unchanged in the 433. Luckily for myself, the AI seems to be a huge lover in changes. Inexcusably, Iker Losada was called up to Celta’s main squad on either the eve of the match OR the match day itself. Why? No idea. Is it to give the human player a chance? Celta’s main squad has no game scheduled, having finished La Liga exactly a month ago. So, hope springs eternal once more. A 20-year-old Robert Carril filled the place as Celta B’s attacking No.10…Aggression 5, Bravery 4 and Strength 6. He will be murdered.

However, the first wound Celta B would experience would fall on Winger ‘Alfon’ on 14 minutes, my Right Back rightly received a yellow for the assault (and he was instantly told to ease off the tackles). Alfon played through the rest of the game gingerly, but it was yet another route to goal taken away from Celta B as he could only run in straight lines after the incident.

Despite our dominance, Celta B’s only highlight of the 1st half was a huge opportunity from the penalty spot. Ceuta Club Captain Adri Cuevas hacking down a Celta B player on minute 28. Penalty to Celta B…

At Half Time, I took a perusal at the match statistics: we were bloody dominant. 16 shots, but only 5 on target. 69% ball share, but zero clear cut chances created. 0-0 is good enough for Ceuta, but way too risky with Lautaro De León still on the pitch. The only team instruction I changed was to ask the players to work the ball into the box. We required only the one goal to take a hold of this tie…

…does this count as working the ball into the box? I’ll take it anyway, Iker Kortajarena makes it 1-0 Ceuta on 53 minutes.

I am led to believe that Kortajarena translates as “Bus” in his native Basque language, and like a bus…his goals arrive in twos. Ironically (is it?) two minutes later than his 1st goal. Ceuta 2-0 Celta B on 55 minutes…

There would be no more goals, as I started to ring the changes and slow the game down from minute 60. The match would finish 2-0, a 23rd clean sheet of the season with De León limited to just the two shots at goal all game. AD Ceuta FC are promoted to LaLiga 2 🍺🍺🍺

We’re Up!

Who knows if this was all down to my tactical tweaks and man-management wizardry…or just the AI being awful in knockout football. I’ll take it. The promotion playoff victory sees the first significant financial boost (+€115k) arrive in the coffers since the sale of Lorenzo González 12 months ago. But we remain debt ridden (-€1.4m balance), meaning it will be another transfer window of frugality as I try my best to now stay up in a superior league.

Can we do it? Feel free to keep following my journey as I progress with this enjoyable save into real-life 2023.

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper