Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC signed Kevin for the third time in this save, along with a €1m teenager.

Intro

The blog post’s title is not a typo. It should become clear as we progress with the blog that I’ve had help tweaking a 4222 tactic, as I look to build on AD Ceuta FC’s third consecutive mid-table finish in LaLiga 2. The year is 2027 and this covers the first six months of my 6th season in Football Manager 2023.

If attacking midfielders, xG and goals are your thing, you may want to stick around…

Season 2027/28

July - December 2027

Due to a new President being elected to preside over AD Ceuta FC, all tactical Club Visions were removed; leaving me with a blank canvas of what I could do for Season 6. After evaluating the squad I decided to sign a left sided Full Back called Jonathan Gómez from Real Sociedad on loan and long-term AMC target, Iker Losada (a Free Signing from Celta). I now had 3-4 quality attacking midfielders, who are all suited to playing centrally. We also had no real out-and-out Wingers anymore, so I quickly decided that I wanted to play a narrow 4222 formation for Season 6.

The 4222 spine of the side would allow me to field two attack minded strikers up top, who would stretch the pitch by pushing back the opponent CBs with forward runs, affording two supportive No.10s the space to link moves together or run into half-spaces. The double pivot would hold it all together…allowing Wing Backs to get bomb forward. On a team level, I wanted us to defend deep and play cautiously, but then attack with a bit more impetus when we have regained possession (Run At Defence, Higher Tempo, Counter and GK Quick Distribution). The only extra player instruction selected was placed on the AM-S, asking him to Move Into Channels (more on this later)…my thinking here is that I wanted more channel running from one of our technically blessed AMCs due to the Poacher remaining central.

Here is v1 of the 4222…

The first eight games of the season were pretty wild. We had the worst defensive record in the league, yet still found ourselves in mid-table (13th) with crazy wins against Mirandés, Leganés, and Córdoba. There were many elements I liked about my first draft 4222…the Poacher was accumulating a decent supply of xG (averaging 0.54 xG Per 90) and my Segundo Volante was getting involved in some nice exchanges offensively. Yet, that strength was also a weakness now that I look back. The Double Pivot wasn’t protective enough for the dual-Wing Backs who would often be caught out too high up the pitch to prevent the opposition counters.

The Grasscopper 4222 DM

I feel I could have continued with the bat-shit crazy 4222 v1 and ended up mid-table again, but luckily for me…somebody answered my frustrations on FM Twitter. His name is Matt/ThrowingCopperFM, welcome him…

I always maintain that a second pair of eyes on things is always good when it comes to FM (I even wrote about this before back in FM20 when I was struggling). Often I will commit to a Player Role or Team Instruction and be overly stubborn about not changing things, even when it is not working so well. When passing over the save file, my only comment to Matt was that I wanted to keep the 4222 starting shape. I still wanted to field two Strikers, and I’ve already mentioned the recruitment that has gone into attracting some great AMC talents. Over a cigar on a lazy Saturday afternoon, Matt got to work evaluating where he thought I was going wrong by rewatching highlights of my eight games and noted down what was working well and what was not so good.

Matt came back to me later that afternoon with his proposed revised tactic, which has 5 key changes:

(1) Change WBs to FBs, with the RB made attacking.

“Watched the goals conceded in the last game and the Alaves game and this backed this up as 4 of the goals came from the flanks. So, the first thing I'd do [if you want to keep the DMs as they are] would be to make the WBs into FBs and honestly you won't lose much attacking impetus”

…

(2) New Double Pivot

“Swapped players’ positions, I made Angong a DM-D and Alba a supporting DLP. They will cover the flanks more [than SV + DLP]”

…

(3) Change Theo Zidane’s role

“Theo changed to an Attacking Midfielder on Support - I didn’t like him as a playmaker as he was very selfish and wasteful so he looks better as a AM. Also asked him to move into the channels [like you had already done to Losada in other AMC slot], to give width and make use of his dribbling skills”

…

(4) Added Work The Ball Into Box

“Your Strikers were snatching at a lot of shots and there’s some good quality up there, so they can afford to take their time a bit more”

…

(5) Mentality moved to Balanced

“Turned off Stay Wider as result, and moved Line of Engagement to standard as they were pulled too deep for my liking. Also switched on Counter-Pressing”

The only further change I made from Matt’s comments was a tweak from Poacher to Advanced Forward. Despite the Poacher getting good levels of xG in v1…in v2 he was often on the periphery of our moves. The change to AF has helped him get involved more. Here is v2 of 4222, let’s call it The Grasscopper:

So, how did the rest of the first half of the season go with the new changes? In short: pretty spectacularly tbqfh…

Expected Goals (xG) Analysis: v1 Vs v2

Before moving on to individual performances, the xG For and Against analysis from each league game so far in Season 6 paints an interesting picture between the two tactics (below). Offensively there is not a great deal of difference between v1 and v2, in fact it’s a measly difference of +0.09 xG. However small the boost in xG For is, a 50% reduction in xG Against is exceptional tactical business. In the 11 leagues games with v2, Ceuta came out with more xG in 9 of them.

I have used colour scales in each of the columns to show how the results sit in the overall range of their respective xG type. As mentioned, the xG For will not be that noticeable on the eye…but a quick glance of the xG Against column should show you how defensively solid we have become under v2 of the 4222:

Individuals

The upturn in form could see me single out a number of high performing players. For instance, Kevin has seven goals in the 11 games in the v2 4222 but I’ve previously written a lot about him on the blog. Instead, it’s time to wax lyrical about our new No.7: Iker Losada. As previously mentioned, 26-year-old signed on a Free transfer from Celta B this season, who had been a long-term target of mine throughout this save. Although his role was one that remained unchanged in the 4222 tweaks, he has sprung to life in v2 with twelve goal contributions in the 11 games. A combination of the Move Into Channels instruction, his player traits and his overall attribute make-up, has seen him play like a dreamy AMC behind the front two strikers…

Assistant to FM Grasshopper 🤝

This post hopefully shows that even when a tactic isn’t quite firing on all cylinders OR, in my case, is leaky in defence; everything is salvageable. Matt’s proposed changes are logical, he did not rip up the tactic and start again…he tweaked in a way that kept a lot of the attacking threat and style of play, but crucially solidified the defence. If the recent few months have shown, it’s turned a mid-table side into one now looking to mount a promotion challenge. Seems incredible to think that LaLiga might be in our sights!

Can we do it? Check back here soon to find out how Season 6 concluded.

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper & Matt / Throwing Copper FM