Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, Kevin returned.
Intro
Please excuse the blog title. It’s not a new or inventive pun, and probably heavily used each year in Fantasy Football team names across the land…but it’s got some meaning behind today’s post. AD Ceuta FC enter their third year in the dizzying height of Spain’s LaLiga 2, and that’s where this blog post begins:
Season 5 - Summer of 2026…
Season 2026/27
July - December 2026
Before I update you on the nitty and gritty of LaLiga 2 results, there was one further signing after my previous post: Theo Zidane! ‘T16’ swoops in to join AD Ceuta on a Free Transfer, having left Real Madrid earlier on in the Summer. With one week until the transfer window softly shut, Theo was agreeable to joining his brother on the North African Coast. What a player we have here, albeit a luxury signing, Theo is an absolute monster at 196cm tall and Jumping Reach of 17. He also has a lot of his dad’s artistry (relative to our level at least):
Theo Zidane.
As mentioned last time out, I’d be setting up Ceuta in a 442 for Season 5. I was in total ecstasy after ten goals in the first 3 games, could we be on the way to LaLiga? Seems FM23 could sense my overconfidence, and duly brought be back down to Earth with Traffic Light FM'™. However, the sporadic wins are a lot better than the frustrating barren runs I had experienced within the previous two seasons in LaLiga 2. The most painful moment of the season so far is the 2-1 defeat away to Deportivo de La Coruña. A last minute header from Mangel (a €300k sale at the start of the season) came back to haunt his old club…a perfectly scripted "‘Against His Old Club’ FM moment that you just have to applaud 🔮
TRAFFIC LIGHTS 🚦
Kevin boasts a modest nine goals in 16 games, before taking a month’s absence with pulled knee ligaments. At this point I decided to play a 4141 with just Ethyan as the central Striker (more on this below) for the final three matches of LaLiga 2…and kept three much needed clean sheets! It’s now going to be a shape I will interchange with the 442, perhaps in challenging games away from home.
Murder on Zidane’s floor
I don’t usually update readers on the Lana del Rey trophy, as we’re usually out in the first round anyway. 2026/27 is no different, as we crashed and burned with the 4141 by losing 2-3 at home against Girona after Extra-Time. But an outstanding scissor kick was spotted when Xavi Sintes saw straight red in the 1st half…fair play to Miloš Veljković as he got up and saw out the full 120 minute match. The murder on Zidane’s floor (there we go, boom) was a classic ‘Tackle Harder’ player instruction you see on a Ball Winning Midfielder. So, I think it’s a role I will use going forward in 4141 to screen in front of our playmaker, and commit more atrocities.
🎵 Sintes, gonna burn this goddamn house right down 🎵
So, when it looks like I’m tactic hopping…I’m not really changing much from 442 to 4141 in terms of Team Instructions. The biggest tweak is positioning the playmaker at DM and having a little reshuffle in midfield. To give Sintes the respite when he is inevitably suspended in the future, I’ve used a large portion of the Mangel money by signing Cameroonian (but Spanish nationalised) Frank Angong for €165k. It’s quite a watershed moment in the save, as there is usually no money to go out and spend in the January window…but the Ceuta coffers are in their best position ever (€2m balance as of December 2026).
Frank Angong is physically strong, similar to Kevin, and I think his energy in the last few months could be crucial in maintaining our momentum. Despite playing a league down, due to Inter City’s relegation from LaLiga 2 last year, Frank is ranked 7th for tackles won, 8th for tackles attempted and 10th for possession won per 90. His Pressures Attempted per 90 stat is also decent (15.59 per 90), I am hoping he can be on the opposition like a rash when deployed as a BWM.
BWM-S in 4141. Sometimes balanced, sometimes cautious.
Groundhog Save
There’s repetition to the recent LaLiga 2 seasons in this save. Last season, AD Ceuta finished 13th…the same position as the year before. Last season, we entered the Winter Break in 8th…the same as this year. Can I therefore break the groundhog save curse this time round in Season 5, OR am I destined to have a post-January dip to finish 13th? Check back here soon to find out.
Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,
Tony / FM Grasshopper