Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, Ceuta survived in LaLiga.
Intro
Despite functionality being added to FM to allow the continuation of saves cross-edition, I know that this is the beginning of the end for my Ceuta save. Season 9 (which this post covers) is my penultimate one, with the aim to finish FM23 at the conclusion of a décima season. For this reason, I thought I would have a look back on the tactical evolution we have made over the save.
Why change a tactic?
It is important to stress you don’t have to change a winning tactic in FM. If one works for you, then you’re free to simply keep using it. However, I have two main reasons why I like to review and evolve tactically year-on-year:
Changing leagues / reputation
AD Ceuta FC have been relegation favourites at various points in the save (notably Seasons 1, 3 and 8) . But in other moments, they’ve been stronger than most in the league and have been chasing promotion (Seasons 2 and 7). As a result, the tactics have had to adjust over time; and hopefully that’s evident from when you read on below.
Meeting Club Vision
Another factor for the subtle changes is the varying flavours of football desired by the Club’s Board, who enter elections every few years. For instance, they were agnostic to any style of football early on in the save. But as we have progressed, the Board have craved for more Attacking and High Tempo/Pressing styles of football. I have tried to adapt my playstyle to suit. FM Eadster has done thing similar in FM23, and has documented his approach [very well] here.
The current tactic (4222) is the one I will keep now until the end regardless of the Board…it fits the current composition of the squad and also suits our plucky underdog style too. But I’ll first start with the 442 and remember where it all began in 2022…
Ceuta’s Tactical Evolution - 442, 433, 4141/442 and 4222
Season 1 (2022) - 442
Season 1’s 442.
The 442 tactic is class in most editions of Football Manager. What I like about the 442 the most is that it offers both a defensive shield and also fluid attacking movements with two wide players. I used this formation as it was the tactic that best suited the skillset I inherited with wide players, Liberto & Luismi, being the two best players in the squad and with one quick striker in Lorenzo Gonzalez. 442 allowed me to play all three in their best positions. I wrote about how/why I built it like I did here.
Result: I only used it a season, but it kept Ceuta up in the Third Division (after being one the favourites to go down). Ceuta finished 6th in Primera Federación Grupo I, and I would have probably kept it for the 2nd season had it not been for losing Gonzalez to FC Basel in the Summer transfer window.
Stats (from Season 1 league campaign only):
xG For 52.5 / Goals scored 54
xG Against 45.7 / Goals conceded 37
Goals per game 1.42
Goals conceded per game 0.97
15 clean sheets (out of 38)
Seasons 2-4 (2023-2026) - 433
The 433 of Season 2.
My next tactic was the 433 formation, because it’s a nice shape for a high press/tempo style of football - something the AD Ceuta Board added in as a 2023 Club Vision. With three forwards leading the line, the tactic I used encouraged quick and incisive passing with a three-man midfield providing a strong foundation for building attacks. One player sat deep as a Defensive Midfielder (on Defend) and two central midfielders capable of initiating attacking moves or running into advanced areas (Advanced Playmaker on Support and Mezzala on Attack). I went all-in on the data approach to rebuild the side tailored to this formation and tactic. I did this by nominating three different in-game statistics to certain roles and then used a season’s worth of data to recruit statistically the best players within the allocated budget. Underpinning it all were the following requirements:
Based: in Spain
Minutes: at least 1,000 minutes
Expiring: 3 months
Salary offered limited to €125,000 per p/a
Result: The 433 not only saw us promoted via the Playoffs, it also kept us up the following season in LaLiga SmartBank. At a time when the club was fragile with players’ minimum fee clauses being reachable for most clubs in Spain, and in that awkward transition phase of having sub-par players…the 433 earned a mid-table LaLiga2 finish in 2025/26.
Stats (from Season 2 league campaign only):
xG For 47.1 / Goals scored 46
xG Against 31.8 / Goals conceded 26
Goals per game 1.21
Goals conceded per game 0.68
21 clean sheets (out of 38)
Season 5 (2027) - 4141/442
The tactics of Season 5.
Tactical flexibility is demonstrated well in the 4141 and 442 formations. The 4141 is defensive solid and its compactness allowed Ceuta to have greater ball retention as we looked to adjust from being the major underdog to being more of a promotion candidate within LaLiga2. By simply pushing one of the midfielders forward into a second striker role, the 4141 transitioned nicely into a 442 formation - similar to that nice 1st season in FM23 - when I felt we needed more firepower upfront.
Result: The dual-running between 4141/442 earned a 7th place LaLiga2 finish, at that point the highest finish in the save to date. But with several outgoings, and a shift to more central creative players, the days of Wingers in Ceuta were over…
Stats (from Season 5 league campaign only):
xG For 52.2 / Goals scored 54
xG Against 54.4 / Goals conceded 52
Goals per game 1.29
Goals conceded per game 1.23
13 clean sheets (out of 42)
Seasons 6-10 (2027-present) - 4222
The 422 in Season 8.
My 4222 formation in Football Manager has been so much fun. With two defensive midfielders sitting in front of the backline, there is a solid defensive foundation to work with. But it is in advanced areas where the tactic creates FM Grasshopper euphoria. The two attacking midfielders function as creative sparks who can unlock defences with their incisive passing and quick movement off the ball (both Attacking Midfielders on Support). The pair of strikers up front form a lethal partnership, constantly posing a threat to the opposing defence with their attacking mentality and strong movement (both are Moving Into Channels). Overall, I have found the 4222 tactic to offer the most fun out of all the tactics that came before it.
The 4222 system underwent a few enhancements during Season 6, as discussed here, when Matt/Throwing Copper looked over the tactic with me.
Result: The 4222 saw us promoted as Champions to LaLiga on Season 7 (the club’s first and only trophy) and it led to a 15th LaLiga finish in Season 8. Let’s now see how it performed in Season 9…
Stats (from Season 8 league campaign only):
xG For 46.1 / Goals scored 60
xG Against 70.9 / Goals conceded 72
Goals per game 1.58
Goals conceded per game 1.89
6 clean sheets (out of 38)
Season 2030/31
I am using the LaLiga TV money that comes in ‘sensibly’. However, I did meet/surpass the €3.2m transfer record on three separate occasions during the 2023/31 transfer window, although each time it was not by much…
Rubén Acuña arrived permanently from Mallorca after his successful two-year loan spell with Ceuta. 26 league goals in Season 7 to get us promoted, and a further 11 goals and 7 assists in La Liga last year solidified my belief that the 22-year-old was good enough in LaLiga. He arrived for €3.2m, the same value of transfer as Wajdi Abidi a year before. With two forwards in the 4222’s starting XI, I required at least one more interchangeable option alongside last year’s top scorer Juan José and Rubén Acuña…so I was delighted when Noel López agreed a €3.8m deal to swap Venezia for Ceuta. With the firepower then sorted for the year, I went big on a Central Defender. The Recruitment Focus was set to dial in on young Spanish CBs 23-years-old or under of any Current Ability, but with a Potential of four stars…and up came A+ rated Liam Llaneza from recently relegated Santander. The Director of Fútbol negotiated a new club record fee of €4.1m, which took Ceuta’s transfer window spending in excess of €10m for the first time in the save.
Here are the three guys mentioned:
Seeing as the general theme of this post is tactical evolution, 2030/31 would see me shift mentality down to ‘Cautious’ in order to soak up a bit more pressure and hit teams on the break a bit more. Despite scoring five fewer goals and leaking a couple more goals compared to last season…we bettered last season’s points tally by 4. The main beneficiary of the tactical change, in my opinion, has been Rubén Acuña with 19 league goals as our Advanced Forward. A sizeable amount of goals have been derived from countering the AI on a higher tempo from balls from deep and via Acuñas’s clever runs.
The 4-1 home win Vs Almería (in which Juan José scored a wondergoal - see below) secured LaLiga for third successive year, and with the party atmosphere continuing into the 2-0 win against Cádiz I could have been forgiven for dreaming of a top half finish! But six defeats in a row to end the season saw Ceuta drop from 12th to 14th. Still, the 10th (and final season) will see the new 15,000 seater ‘Ceuta stadium’ open in LaLiga. Assignment complete ✅
Juan José’s 2030 entry towards the #GIFGoals hashtag 🚀
Below are the team stats for the 4222 of Season 9. Obvious improvements from last season’s stats are evident, but we’ve been terribly let down by an xG Against-Goals Conceded swing of -14. Interestingly, Ceuta bettered their xG Against by 10 goals compared to last season…but for some reason this is the worst negative balance of xG Against/Goals Against we have seen in the save so far. I am not sure why, but forgive me for solely placing the blame on the insane opposition Newgens we are coming up against. They’ve been painfully lethal…
Stats (from Season 9 league campaign only):
xG For 52.1/ Goals scored 55
xG Against 60.8 / Goals conceded 74
Goals per game 1.45
Goals conceded per game 1.94
7 clean sheets (out of 38)
One More Year
This is it now. One more season of the FM23 Ceuta/ Plazas de soberanía save. There is a new stadium to open and some smart investment required to see us stay clear of another relegation fight once again.
Thanks for reading / sharing / caring,
Tony / FM Grasshopper