Previously in this story, Ángel Bastardo was shot dead and kicked into the Rio Negro.
The Shinigami
What happens at the moment of death is unknown, it’s an unmapped road that science is yet to take us down. Some people believe all the memories ever lived flash before one’s eyes…others believe in a purgatory where good deeds are weighed up against bad ones; whilst others believe death gods such as The Shinigami / 死神 visit you. These supposed Japanese spirits invite humans towards death in their final moments, guiding them towards darkness.
Ángel Bastardo would never have believed in The Shinigami prior to the events of what happened in the jungle, but now he did. He had looked into their purple eyes. First they resembled people he knew, such as Father Martinez and other habitants from the jungle all those years ago. Then they were people he did not know; men, women and children staring at his lifeless body from the river banks as he floated along the River Negro from Colombia towards Brazil. In the night, the motionless riverside statues had no faces; only their eyes shining a bright purple onto the moonlit river. The Shinigami never once took him as they were supposed to. Instead, he was allowed to float downstream as the river widened and its current slowed.
His face was all but gone now. The tissue that remained had turned a cloudy milk colour, as had the rest of his body. “Nobody will know who you are,” Hugo had said to him shortly before his death. It had been a number of days until he was found on the outskirts of Manaus, where the Negro converged into the Amazon. He was taken to a local tribe’s Shaman, an expert in healing, medicine and, most importantly, revivals.
There was still enough poison in his system for the Shaman to get creative, and use the deadly tonic on itself in order to kick-start vital organs from within the comatose body. Secret ancient Amazonian practices, honed over thousands of years, had culminated in the resurrection of Ángel Bastardo. It was the Shaman’s greatest achievement.
A few weeks after his revival, a metal mask was passed to Bastardo as he lay on his patient bed; inside it was carefully laced fabric in a meshed pattern. It was a perfect remedy for the fire that still felt like it burned on his face. When placed over, the wounds instantly became cooler; and henceforth he would continue to wear the mask day and night.
“The injuries are permanent. Infection, if exposed face. You must wear this” said the Shaman’s translator to the man they now called The Faceless. Even to himself, he never felt like Ángel Bastardo again…his memory foggy, unable to remember much about the past life he once lived. He quickly stopped thinking of himself as the dead man from Colombia’s jungle, no longer able to justify to anybody what Ángel Bastardo meant…or stood for. Like the Amazonians, he would also use the title of The Faceless.
The legend of The Faceless was an increasingly popular tale now told to every child in the Amazonas. The tale talks of a prophet who floated down the river, rejected by the jungle spirits who would cast him back down to Earth until it had complete forgiveness from its people. After several months, The Faceless finally managed the courage to leave the outskirts and head towards the city of Manaus. From there it patiently waited to find meaning and purpose again, before travelling east to the ocean coast in search of acceptance. Some would laugh at it; but nobody could ignore it.
“Fútbol forgives and forgets” it thought. Fútbol would provide another chance for meaning and purpose. The Faceless didn’t know how the tale ended, like in the stories told to the children, but it knew how it would begin…
Sampaio Corrêa Futebol Clube
July 2023
Congratulations, you got past the CreativeFM…well done. Typically in an FM journeyman save the journey is upwardly mobile, the reputation grows and human managed clubs rise up the leagues. Success is [generally] a formality. However, I believe the twisted/unique nature of my story arc this year (i.e. Bastardo getting his face burnt off and chucked in a river) means I can drop down the leagues from the relative high of Major League Soccer to the gutter in an anonymous way. An intentional parallel with FM20’s La Plata: Mexico, where I built up Hugo Ojeda’s reputation by going to Murciélagos FC and Dorados de Sinaloa after smashing it up with Bastardo’s Peñarol. It’s almost like starting again…the narrative allows me to go to the depths of some country and take on a big challenge for the remainder of FM22.
After simulating around 6 months on from The MLS Save’s finale, I think Northeastern Brazilian side Sampaio Corrêa (based in São Luís, Maranhão) is exactly that kind of challenge. With nine games to go in the 2023 First Stage Serie C they are in danger of dropping out of Football Manager (see below). It’s been quite the decline too, from Serie B relegation in 2021; the club has had a terrible time in my save universe. Their Estádio Castelão can hold up to 40k spectators, but they’d be lucky to host even 10% of that these days. For the fans that do turn up, they’ve hardly seen top earner (and current No.9) Lucas Gabriel in the yellow/white/green “Bolivianos” jersey, who has missed 11 months in two years through five major injuries. Top earners missing most of the season is not what Sampaio Corrêa needs right now. They’re nearing $500k in debt, and have a skeleton coaching, scouting and medical staffing ensemble. Why am I doing this again?
Lucas Gabriel - star man.
Oh yes, the narrative. However, I do think this is going to be fun. Sink or swim*, Sampaio Corrêa is my next FM22 club!
*Deliberate homage paid towards the Sampaio Corrêa’s club name, which was given after the Sampaio Corrêa II seaplane visited São Luís in 1922:
Why 4-2-3-1 DM?
I think the 4-2-3-1 is a really popular tactic among FMers. When I asked myself why that might be the case, I reasoned it’s because the formation covers all of the general positions of the pitch. You’ve got wide men, a No.10, a central striker and a back four. It’s easy to fit all those hot Newgens into your side, and transition them from youth intake all the way into the first team. However, it’s not a system I’ve usually gone for in recent FMs; instead I’ve generally favoured two striker systems. Despite that, it made sense to use it with Sampaio Corrêa for reasons explained below.
I name my tactics. This is the Shinigami 4-2-3-1.
I’ve found that attribute distribution in Brazil, and also on the wider South American continent, means sides often have a number of viable DM/MC options capable of playing the Segundo Volante role. I was pretty excited to use it again with Sampaio Corrêa, having used it previously to good effect with FC Lorient in FM19. The role gets forward at a surprising rate, and the DM position can be misleading to those that have not used it. The attacking version will advance forward, and will often be finishing moves and taking shots in advance of the Attacking Midfielder. It’s why I have placed an Inverted Wing Back behind him, who will form a double pivot at the base of the midfield when in possession of the ball alongside the supportive defensive midfielder (Note - which sadly at the time of writing does not happen. There has to be fewer than two DMs, even if one of those DMs is a SV on attack 😢).
The wider system, and justification in using a 4-2-3-1, fell into place from there. For instance, I knew I needed width on the right hand side of the pitch (seeing as the IWB would be drifting infield - if not for the above), so I opted for a supportive Winger. The Winger role will stay wide and cross, simple really. In the centre of the pitch, I chose a supportive Attacking Midfielder who will generally stay central and link up with the rest of the attack, especially with the onrushing SV.
To the left, we have an attacking Inside Forward…who alongside the Poacher should be the main source of goals for this Sampaio Corrêa side. They are my best finishers and movers with/without the ball. The attack is usually a ‘four or five’, which is pretty nice. If you can get that amount of players near to the goal, and have them in varied complementary roles; you ought to be scoring.
Too long; didn’t read? I built the tactic on the two initial desires: (1) to use a Segundo Volante and (2) to score varied goals. Everything else, formation included, followed on from those two things.
Team Instructions: Proactive Vs Reactive
Seeing as I joined Sampaio Corrêa in a dark place, I figured I would keep it simple. I would go with the eleven roles as shown above and go instruction-less, adding instructions as I see fit. The reasoning for doing this is because I had no friendly matches to test a certain philosophy/identity/playing style. I basically had nine matches to keep Sampaio Corrêa in Serie C and avoid the anonymity of falling out of the playable out-of-the-box FM leagues. There was no time to reverse engineer already pre-conceived tactical blueprints that I could have [mistakenly] embedded into my tactic.
However, the one decision I had to make before playing games was deciding which Team Mentality to start games with. I chose Positive because, despite being bottom of the league, we definitely needed to exert ourselves on the games from the first minute. It may not be the most sensible approach, but Sampaio Corrêa needed points; so let’s attack!
Moving onto Team Instructions, I first wanted to see how we behaved when In Possession before changing anything else. Why? Well, like choosing Positive, I wanted to control how we’d play football before thinking about how I would counter the opposition. It is easier to be proactive in this moment, as the In Transition and Out Of Possession instructions required a level of reaction on my part (from watching the match highlights). So, very early on (from the first match Vs Bangu) I added in some instructions that I believe helped us and refined them in subsequent games. For now, I’ve settled on the below:
Play Out Of Defence - I want to build attacks from our back four and get our two defensive midfielders on the ball (after all I want to make sure the game doesn’t pass them by).
Work Ball Into Box - I want us to be patient and create higher xG chances, even if that means we take fewer shots at goal. This should also allow the Segundo Volante to advance into attacking positions. Again, like with playing out of defence, the game could pass the DM by if we’re too direct and counter attacking…so working it more patiently should see the whole team move up and not rush our attacks.
Narrow - I want my attacking trio to be closer together. On a Positive mentality we will be passing slightly shorter, so I want my players to be closer together. I’ll still get some width with the supportive Winger and Fullback at opposite sides of the pitch, but our strength in a 4-2-3-1 will be in central areas.
From the second and subsequent games I made several In Transition and Out of Possession tweaks. These were made after seeing goals/chances against us, remember: these are the reactionary moments of tactic building…
Slow Pace Down - this can be seen as a superfluous instruction, seeing as I already have the Play Out Of Defence instruction set. However, it does not hurt to ask the Goalkeeper to take time on playing out to the backline. We’re not looking to quickly counter the opponents here, so I’d rather our Goalkeeper took a few seconds longer in making sure the side repositions and gets ready to go again with the ball at our feet.
Lower Defensive Line - A few goals were conceded with balls over the top, and a number of chances in favour of the opposition. I had two choices: I could have (1) opted for playing an offside trap on a higher line OR (2) drop the starting position of our CBs. I chose the latter, mainly because my CBs do not have the mental attributes to pull off an effective trap.
Lower Line Of Engagement - I like to keep our engagement lines in tandem with the defensive line, especially in a 4-2-3-1. Otherwise, there could be too great a distance between attacking midfielders and the two DMs’ starting positions out of possession.
You may notice that my Sampaio Corrêa does not align to any one of Counter/Re-group/Counter Pressing/Hold Shape team instructions. I feel we don’t have to pick a side in this regard…I still see my team counter. I also still see them get into relatively good positions in and out of possession. “Doing nothing” is always a viable option in any walk of life, and that includes on the FM tactics screen.
2023 Serie C[limax] - 9 games
Five straight wins to kick-start my Sampaio Corrêa tenure is pretty sweet. Most of the performances were brilliant, particularly the 6-3 away win Vs Santa Cruz which saw the Inside Forward and Poacher role cause a riot, however I felt we got lucky in a couple of games. A couple of those one nil margin wins could have easily been draws, or worse. Away at Campinese and Botafogo (PB) we were awful and deserved to lose.
8 games in.
One game to go.
It was quite an interesting final day in the First Stage in Group A of Serie C. Eight out of the ten clubs were going for the second Promotion Stage (where two groups of four battle it out for Serie B participation), however seven of those sides (incl. us) were also trying their best to avoid relegation!
Despite winning six out of eight games, we entered the home tie Vs Floresta (CE) needing a win to confirm survival. Lucas Gabriel was now back in the side upfront as the Poacher after recovering from two month injury; but other than that we were pretty settled. And…
FM Penhopper!
Due to Brasilense’s early lead away at Santa Cruz (which they ended up winning), we spent 30 mins in the relegation zone, and were making a horrible habit of wasting xG throughout…until the second penalty was scored on minute 71. Nine matches played: 21 points. But wow, we did get lucky with two penalties on the final day to keep us in the league. Obviously, good work was done before this tie, 21 points out of a possible 27 is promotion chasing form…but it shows how competitive the teams around us had also been in the final two months of the season.
A few statistical snapshots from the nine games played:
21 goals in nine games is encouraging. In those name games, a combined xG of 15.27 was earned. A MAX of 2.70 Vs Floresta (CE) and a MIN Vs Botafogo (PB) if 0.55.
Of those 21 goals, our front four accounted for all but two of the goals: Poacher (8 goals), Inside Forward (6 goals), Winger (3 goals) and Attacking Midfielder (2 goals). Note - the Segundo Volante scored our other 2 goals.
We scored three penalties, but no corners or freekicks (we were using default routines).
We conceded ten goals, however we did earn three clean sheets which had not happened often at Sampaio Corrêa before my arrival.
Can I glean anything from this?
Well, recruiting a decent set piece specialist, some big lads and custom routines could see us further our goal scoring numbers. That’s a must for 2024.
I quite like the distribution between Inside Forward and Poacher in terms of goals, however any manager would like to spread the goals even further across the side.
On two occasions we conceded 3 goals away from home. It would be nice not to get hammered wouldn't it? Perhaps I need a more conservative option at times (because I never moved away from Positive mentality in these nine games).
2024 - 9 games
The 4-2-3-1 DM tactic was by no means perfect, however it worked well to get Sampaio Corrêa out of a hole. I remained to be convinced about certain roles in the tactic like the Attacking Midfielder and Winger, but I decided to stick with it and try to recruit better players on loans or Free Transfers for 2024 year. You may be reading this and noticing a past tense in use. Yep, nine 2024 games have been played, and for some reason things did not go quite to plan.
We began the season with a negative bank balance now in excess of half a million US dollars. So, an attractive bid of $120k from Atlético Clube Goianiense for star striker Lucas Gabriel simply had to be accepted (at least I could not justify keeping him knowing that IRL that bid would have been accepted). There was also a preseason presidential election with a change of ownership at Sampaio Corrêa; it did not result in any financial changes or apparent expectations of my Head Coach role in Série C (Avoid a relegation battle). So, I felt safe.
Until that is, I embarked on my first full season with Sampaio Corrêa:
Can’t get nova not beating my mum.
In my opinion, the results are not that bad. We opened with a Copa do Nordeste defeat away to Série B side Ferroviário, and then stuttered in the state championships. Apparently that’s a big drama, as we failed to secure the top two places for the Maranhão State Final. After a 0-0 Copa do Brasil result away at Nova Mutum (with Sampaio Corrêa only progressing due to a higher league ranking), I was called into the dreaded board meeting.
That’s when I roleplayed like Bastardo, and got dealt a swift lesson in FM brutality. I didn’t want to beg for a chance to get “X points in Y games”, or tell board members to “trust the process”. I simply stated that they likely couldn’t get a better Head Coach. Appears that honesty is not always the best policy in FM:
Sacked in FM22 ✅
My Sampaio Corrêa record over 17 competitive games stands at 10 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats. I helped them avoid a likely Série C relegation, and cut a quarter of their debt with the sale of our [supposedly] best player in Lucas Gabriel. Thank you for the memories Sampaio Corrêa, it’s time to leave.
What next?
Sampaio Corrêa had the potential to be a nice fmadventure, and to see it cut short so quickly means I do not feel finished in Brazil. So, I’ll look to hang about here for a little longer; in order to find my true place in this huge footballing nation. I’m heading off to the Job Centre once again…
Obrigado por ler,
Tony / FM Grasshopper