Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC faced a relegation battle.

Intro

My experience of LaLiga 2 is that it is a two-tier league. An upper tier of ‘LaLiga ready’ clubs capable of obliterating most teams, and then the rest. AD Ceuta FC obviously find themselves at the lowest end of the lower tier. Smallest salary bill, smallest stadium and smallest squad. When I last blogged, I was becoming increasingly worried of a downward slide into the relegation zone and I did not think we had the squad to cope. A single point separated Ceuta from the relegation places.

Fears were amplified when 1st choice Striker, Arturo, went down with knee tendonitis days before the league restarted in January 2025…

Commence emergency recruitment: find a replacement Pressing Forward who could lead us to safety. We need to talk about Kevin…

Kevin

In this short save I signed a few players based on their performance data within the FM23 match engine. I have also used Recruitment Focuses appropriately, signing some top Spanish talent in line with the club parameters. But the 6-month loan signing of Kevin Carlos Omoruyi Benjamin is your typical Blogger nerd signing, based on previous pre-save research. I was always going to be keeping an eye on Kevin during the duration of this FM save…

Why Kevin? Well, Kevin is the only known player [to me at least] of notoriety to be born in Ceuta (with dual citizenship of Spain and Nigeria). So, when I saw that he had become available for loan from Torino of Serie A…there was only one Striker for me. Fortuitously, he also ticks a lot of the boxes that I need to replace the ageing Pressing Forward Arturo Rodríguez who is on the two-month sabbatical with knee tendonitis:

But previous FM research sadly means Kevin’s arrival is not quite the homecoming I had expected, as he is listed in-game as being born 1,000km away in Huesca which sits close to the Pyrenees Mountains. Oh well, in my mind at least, this is a major coup for the club…a Pressing Forward who wants to be here more ways than one. But how does this signing change our approach? Or should it?

Personally, I feel that any new signing subtlety changes the tactic anyway…but Kevin’s make-up is a lot different than what I had in Arturo. I think I should tweak the role a little to make use of his great pressing attributes: Acceleration 14, Bravery 13, Pace 14, Stamina 14, Strength 15, Teamwork 13 and Work Rate 15. Instead of the Support role, where he would be tasked to Hold Up Ball, I feel the Attack role better suits Kevin because he will be more mobile making use of those attributes previously listed. For our level he is a real workhorse, and given the fact we’re in a relegation battle, we need that fight more than ever.

I have shown the PIs above that Kevin has on the PF-A role. The only further tweak I have made is to see how he fares at marking the left sided central defender. I have done this with the intention to make use of his good pressing attributes to see if he can capitalise on defensive mishaps. Kevin is my first defender. Additionally, this could leave my other main attacker (left sided attacking Inside Forward) with a potential 1v1 against the other right-sided centre-back when facing a two-CB pairing. Note - if facing a back-three system, I would opt for the central CB.

Imagine scoring your first home goal during a match with a capacity crowd against LaLiga leaders: Atlético de Madrid in the Lana Del Rey! Because that is what Kevin did…

Season 2024/25

January - June 2025

Kevin took a couple of games to warm up, but then sparked to life with 10 goals over the next eight matches. Once that honeymoon was over, Kevin’s dry spell covered six games and coincided with a bleak period for the club during March and April. A disgusting nine games without a win (eight defeats ffs) is the worst run in FM that I can remember (including my time at Murciélagos in FM20). In my opinion, the reason for the downturn in form was injury and suspensions (reinforcing the fact that going into this season with an 18-man-squad was a pretty dumb idea). We needed a few more utility players to plug the gaping holes in the squad, so that’s on me 😔

But we did come through it, and I still sigh in relief from looking at the recovery in May with three back-to-back wins. I tweaked the 433 ever-so-slightly by dropping Txus Alba into DM as a Regista and then having a CM-S and CM-A in front of him. I did this because I noticed we continued to dominate possession despite losing so frequently, so having the idle DM-D swapped for something a bit more probing [like a Regista] was the thinking here. The result of the switch is that Alba’s passing increased by around 20% (Passes Completed) and he saw a noticeable surge in Key Passes compared to his previous AP-S role. I’m unsure if it’s a long-term fixture however, as recruitment will dictate as to whether we keep with the 433 DM or go for something different in Season 4.

As for Kevin, he finished with 15 goals in 23 starts (all comps). A Non-Penalty xG per 90 of 0.52 (0.16 more than league average) and a solid 7.73 Headers Won per 90 (2.26 more than league average). He is undoubtedly the reason what kept AD Ceuta FC in LaLiga 2, which makes Torino’s decision to reject my advances to extend his loan into next season ever more concerning. 6 months of Pressing Forward bliss, Ceuta remembers.

Here are the 2025 results and the finalised 2024/25 league table:

If that is not enough, here is a use of the FM23 Manager Timeline™…it confirmed to me the league table is indeed true: we are staying up:

Looking ahead to Season 4

A couple of FM Bloggers laughed when I said about challenging for LaLiga within 5 years at the commencement of this save. I wonder if they are getting worried now? Season 4 will see AD Ceuta FC flesh out the squad a bit more and build on the solid foundation of players that will soon be moving from ‘Emerging’ to ‘Peak’ within the FM23 Experience Matrix. So, I am going to spend a lot of time on Season 4 recruitment, which means loads of data in spreadsheets and countless hours in the Scouting Centre. All in the aim of getting this done right, Blogger style, so blog frequency may slow down.

I am excited to begin Rebuilt Part II, I hope you will join me.

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper