Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC survived their 1st season in LaLiga 2.
Intro
AD Ceuta FC and I enter our fourth season together in Football Manager 2023. My love for the save is probably quite apparent, I am zooming through the seasons and have enjoyed the various save scenarios I have encountered so far (promotions and relegation battles). As we enter the second consecutive season in LaLiga 2, a rebuild of sorts is needed to consolidate our position in Spain’s second tier.
The Board have tweaked the Club Vision in three of the four FM23 seasons, with this year’s tweak seeing the Board wanting more Possession Football. Luckily for me it’s not too dissimilar to what I have been playing anyway (a 433), but receiving the new vision guides my recruitment somewhat. This is the subject of today’s post…
Rebuild Part II
Seven new signings in one transfer window is quite a lot by my standards, but with stalwart Adri Ceuvas and Arturo Rodriguez retiring and a few others leaving the club after their contracts expire…I was back down to a squad number of just eleven again! The critical positions where I needed immediate cover were in Central Defence, Left Back and in Attack. I also wanted a new Goalkeeper, to replace Leandro who has negotiated a cheaper contract to stay on for one more year as a Back-Up Goalkeeper.
In short, I got a lot of my top choices. The Director of Football missed out on 1-2 to other teams offering more money, but largely Ceuta have made some decent signings within the same transfer budget as last year: €300k. The targets were a mixture of Recruitment Focuses and me running the numbers within FM23 itself, dialling in to the 2024/25 player data to help us with the Possession Football club vision.
Marcelo Djaló (Lugo) – Central Defender - Free
193cm tall Marcelo Djaló appeared in a Recruitment Focus for expiring Centre-Backs, and was head and shoulders above best for Passing and Vision. He is a Real Madrid graduate and I feel he has enough experience to take the Captain’s armband from the departing Ceuvas.
Luis Valcarce (Badajoz) - Full Back - €93k
Another bit of experience in the back-line was to bring in Luis Valcarce. At 32-years-old he is probably at his peak and his 2024/25 numbers reflect that: 91% pass completion + 4.46 progressive passes per 90 and he played every minute of Badajoz’s La Liga 2 campaign. The Director of Football has perhaps overpaid slightly with a €93k transfer fee, but I’m prepared to take the risk on him seeing that he’s been every present for Badajoz.
Andy (Burgos) – Midfielder - Free
Andy has been relegated with Burgos, but the 35-year-old playmaker has an Open Play Key Pass per 90 stat of 0.98. He has an 88% pass completion stat and attractive player traits of Dictates Tempo and Curls Ball which will also help with the Possession Football club vision. Usually a relegated player is a big turn-off for me, but Andy was creating chances in a piss-poor team…I hope I can give him one last dance in the sun.
Omar Faraj (Levante) - Striker - Season long loan
I always hoped that the poster boy from the last post, Kevin Carlos, would be attainable once more on loan. Sadly, Torino were not agreeable to him moving back on loan for another year…so with 7 days remaining of the window I plumped for Levante’s Omar Faraj and offer to pay for 50% of his €156k annual salary. He suits the physical Pressing Forward role in my 433 and can interchange with Ethyan for the central Striker position. Note - this is a departure from my Spanish/North African recruitment, but seeing as Omar has resided in Spain for 4 years and has Real Madrid as his favourite club, I’m classing him as technically Spanish.
"North African Galácticos"
There’s more! Whilst, the previous four signings mentioned above were carefully scrutinised in terms of data/reports…the next three players signed are a bit more romantic. Players that meet the self-imposed North African element of this save…
Luca Zidane (Eibar) - Goalkeeper - €100k (potentially rising to €140k)
The Director of Football (Albert Puigdollers) breaks a transfer record and also raises Ceuta’s top wage by €42k per annum. But it is quite the coup: Luca Zidane! Luca has decided to represent Algeria for International Football and meets the North African recruitment model, but he’s also a great Sweeper Keeper with First Touch 15, Passing 15, Technique 14 and Vision 11. I’m hoping he has as much of a role to play with Possession Football as the other ten outfield players. New Ceuta No.1 and also a new Vice-Captain.
Yassin Fekir (Betis Deportivo) - Attacker - €45k
Another North African Galáctico signing for Ceuta is Yassin Fekir, brother to France International Nabil. Yassin is a versatile player, as he can play on both flanks but also in midfield or upfront. In 2024/25 he has 2.85 dribbles per 90 and 1.85 Open Play Key Passes in the Spanish 4th tier with Real Betis B. It may be that LaLiga 2 is a step too far for him, but at 28-years-old I still think he has some potential to unlock.
Hicham Khaloua (US Touarga) – Attacker - Free
Wide Attacker Hicham Khaloua has played in LaLiga 2 before (Almería in 2018/19) but has since moved back to Morocco in real life, recently spending three seasons with Union Sportive de Touarga. Despite it not being a loaded league in my save, Khaloua has done well there: 30 goals in all 102 league games possible (perhaps his strong Natural Fitness of 15 means he’s a sturdy guy). He also has strong Flair and suits a fluid passing game with strong Technicals…including 15 in Penalty Taking. It’s a gamble, but we also fended off a lot of interest from other Spanish clubs to get him. Like Fekir, he can also play out wide or in the middle upfront…so the extra versatility means I have more attacking variety going into Season 4.
With the three North African arrivals, it takes my overall tally to seven Maghrébin players recruited to Ceuta. Three from Morocco and two from Algeria. I am relatively happy with this, even though we have missed out on a few targets, we have not forced the recruitment by bringing any old Jabbour in. Those seven players have been first team players, with the latest three players perhaps being the most exciting.
I think the next step phase of the save would be to target some of the North African Newgens that have entered the save Universe. Some will not come cheaply, so I need to make sure we are an established regular in LaLiga 2 before I decide to splash the cash on players that do not make an immediate first team impact.
'🎵 “This time for [North] Africa” 🎵
Season 2025/26
July - December 2025
As mentioned previously, I would once again stick with the 433 DM system that has been used for the previous two seasons. In order to meet the club objective for possession football, I decided to lower our tempo when in possession. But I quickly changed that back to a higher tempo as I did not like what I saw with aimless passing and nonchalantly dwelling on the ball in key areas. Consistency is a problem, but five wins in a row saw Ceuta surge up the table before another barren spell of finding the net. This has been my experience of LaLiga 2 in FM23 so far: ‘fits and starts’ of form…
Season 4 in LaLiga2…wild.
Despite my grumblings, AD Ceuta FC are in a really good position. To remedy the barren spell I’ve gone narrow, and have moved the two wider players into the attacking midfielder area behind Omar Faraj’s pressing. Two goals away at Santander saw me deposit a value three points, before three at home Vs Sporting de Gijón. Sandwiched between those victories is the defeat away at Alavés, but even then we held our own for 65 minutes and had lovely moments of play.
Despite the starting formation changing, the Mentality & Team Instructions remain exactly the same; meaning that the players do not require too much adjustment in playing it. Crucially, it also means that I can list our team metrics with a degree of confidence that it should not skew them:
Ceuta are 6th in terms of Average Possession (55%)
Ceuta are 6th in terms of Pass Completion Ratio (88%).
Ceuta are 9th in terms of Opposition Passes Per Defensive Action (5.15).
There are also lots of things we are not that good at too: Cross Completion, Shots Per Game and Tackling to name just three. But on the things we are being judged on, it’s going pretty well and hopefully the recruitment has played a part in that…
Board Feedback December 2025.
I honestly don’t know if we’re in a promotion race for the playoffs, or the start of a downward slide into mid-table…or worse: a relegation battle. But I’m thoroughly enjoying the save and I look forward to updating you on the climax to Season 4 soon.
Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,
Tony / FM Grasshopper