"Heir to the Empire" - Faceless #FM22

Previously in Faceless, Cuiabá achieved Série A survival.

 
 

Natasha

Cuiabá, Brazil

"If I loved you any less, I would have stayed"

The words came out of the metallic mask in a muffled manner, but Natasha Sibiski instantly deduced who sat in front of her. The voice belonged to Ángel Bastardo, although everybody else in the room only knew him as The Faceless: the protagonist of an increasingly popular urban legend circulating the continent. The rumours spoke of a dead body that washed up on the riverbank of Manaus: a corpse, nameless, faceless, that had floated down the river, shunned by The Shinigami. It was thus that the legend of The Faceless began: Faceless who rose from the dead and walked among the living; Faceless who went on to manage teams along the Atlantic coast, resurrecting many a football club from relative obscurity, before finding notable success in Brazil's Serie A, with Cuiabá. It was around this time that Natasha began to suspect who the masked wanderer was. Seeing him on a televised match made her leave Ruslan Chepiga in Gibraltar and head back immediately to the Americas.

"If I loved you any less, I would have stayed", The Faceless’ words echoed in Natasha’s mind. He continued:

"I was no father to you, Isabella Bastardo. That’s your real name. I left you with your Russian mother, a sister to Ruslan Chepiga. We watched over you in our different ways: Father and Uncle. I am sorry".

Natasha was unravelling her ancestry, along with the rest of the room's occupants, which contained various carers of the masked man. He was sick: her father. Now a dying man, he was nothing like the Ángel Bastardo she once knew.

An uncle too: Ruslan Chepiga. She digested the news of being both a Bastardo and a Chepiga, and it all strangely made sense to her now. The payment for her law degrees which no single working mother could ever afford, the protection she was always given from Hugo Ojeda, and the care provided by some of the most ruthless men in the world.

"Come with me. Come with me back to Ruslan and we will take revenge against Hugo Ojeda", she implored. The emotions were welling inside her, but no sooner did they rise than they were pushed aside in favour of stillness of mind. Was it her Russian coldness or her newfound Argentine fibre? Natasha could not tell…but she held her emotions in check regardless.

The mask facing her shook from side-to-side. "No. Only complete forgiveness from my people can end my suffering. YOU are my people, Isabella. I seek no revenge. Simply forgiveness and a merciful end. Please end the waning magic that is barely keeping me alive".

A male carer in white robes passed a blade to Natasha. His eyes gestured to her as they travelled from the blade’s edge to The Faceless' body, making sure she understood. The blade's hilt featured the plains of the savannah and depicted a bear and a lion chasing several bats and snakes into a jungle. Natasha contemplated the meaning it might have held for its creator, who had carved the intricate design.

Approaching Bastardo, she pulled back the blade before piercing it through his torso in one swift motion. “I’m sorry this happened to you, and I forgive everything”, she said, withdrawing the blade with surprising ease. It was as if no tissue or bones existed, and no sooner had the blade been withdrawn than the room was bathed in white light: a light so bright that Natasha had to turn her head away from Bastardo’s body and shield her eyes with her free hand. One or two seconds passed before the light quickly dimmed, and everything in the room could be seen again. That is, everything except the body, for only a mask and a set of robes remained on the chair that had seated Ángel Bastardo.

Hugo

Barranquilla, Colombia

Hugo Ojeda sat at his desk bemused as the bats took flight in the day, squealing past the high-rise apartment in central Barranquilla. Thousands upon thousands of the nocturnal winged mammals scaled up the building, just centimetres away from the tower’s glass façade, causing several people on the floors above and below to cry out in panic. The bats who had now risen above the Barranquilla skyline veered towards the sun, blocking it out temporarily as the sky turned black. It only lasted one or two seconds, but long enough for Hugo to ponder if something terrifying had happened elsewhere.

His left hand turned to his pills, whilst the right hand quickly reached for his whiskey.

Ángel

River Negro

As the blade entered his body, he was instantly transported back to the River Negro and was looking at the faces of The Shinigami once again. Their eyes burned a bright purple under the night sky. But unlike the first time, The Shinigami reached out for him now, as the Negro's current carried him closer towards their reach. With his bloodline secured through Natasha, the heir to his empire, there was no reason for the Shaman's magic to continue keeping him alive.

The Shinigami had him now, and this was the end.

Notes from the Editor

From Uruguay to Brazil, and all the bits in between, my La Plata series has come to an end. I set out in 2019 to have a creative arc that spanned three editions of Football Manager (FM20-FM22)…and I never would have predicted the World would have changed so much during this three-year-period. But I suppose the one constant has been the ability to release creatively with words, and I thank readers for the odd message or email throughout this period; telling me they have enjoyed the story etc. It’s been really appreciated. I also have to thank Arun and Chris, who have been a constant soundboard of ideas and have offered to sense check some [probably most] of the pieces that I write. Thank you guys, you are amazing.

But CreativeFM from me will be paused. I have not shut all the doors in the story, whilst Hugo Ojeda and Natasha (now Isabella) remain ‘alive’, but Ángel Bastardo is finally put to rest. But boy, did we have fun right? I am delighted I was able to set Hugo Ojeda up to be the heir to the empire in FM20, only for Operation Isabella to really be about the character that arrives a year later in FM21 cycle. Everything has been deliberate, most things foreshadowed and lots of unreliable narration to keep readers on their…thumbs.

I hope, if you have read this far, you have enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it.

Thank you,

Tony / FM Grasshopper

“Original Pirate Material” - Faceless #FM22

Intro

Welcome back, Reader.

The English language is a pirate language. I don’t mean that “Ahoy, Me Hearties!” lark, I’m talking about how the English language was formed over hundreds of years of invasions/occupations, feudal societies, enlightenments, and the creation of a national identity. To give you just one example, take our meat. When animals are reared on farms, they keep their Old English names: cow, pig, and sheep. But when they are cooked into dishes, we use an Anglicised French word: beef (beouf), pork (porc) and mutton (mouton). The English language takes bits from other languages and passes it off as its own.

Why am I telling you this? Well, it’s a bit like my recent FM22 FMing. I’m taking three approaches to recruitment from others, and shamelessly passing it off as my own* (🐄🐖🐑). I am calling it Original Pirate Material.

Disclaimers: I should mention that this blog isn’t going to uncover an either footed 17-year-old Mali Wonderkid from Timbuktu and scream MONEYBALL at you. I have a limited Scouting Package in Brazil (Middle Tier: Série A, B and C), and I am filtering on players based in South America who have played at least 1,000 Minutes in 2024.

*Not really, full credit is below.

Zealand’s Moneyball™ 🐄

“Moneyball. It’s a recruitment concept that’s well known, and which has been adopted by a lot of FMers over the years”, something I said on the blog a few months ago. Putting FM data into spreadsheets, particularly for a lot of FM Bloggers, has been a pastime for…well, decades.

However, it takes a well-known FM YouTuber sometimes to bring it into full public FM consciousness. Zealand Shannon has done exactly that, with a Moneyball YT video now over 150k views at the time of writing. What I like about the video is that he references the inspirations, references what is not quite perfect (yet) and lays out in simple terms how to “Moneyball” your save:

 

Click on the image to be taken to Zealand’s video. CNTRL + P to print this blog post.

 

Zealand’s offering is one I felt more passionate data savvy Bloggers should have done years ago, via a download on a blog (and apologise if they did and I just missed it). Zealand has simply provided a Search Filter (with the data parameters included) and shared a Google Sheet (with formulas) for you to download. Zealand and co. have not invented something new here, but they do deserve credit for opening it up and making the approach easy-to-use (for simpletons like me):

  1. Download Player Search filter and add it into your game. Run a search on whichever parameters you see fit e.g. Position, Age, Attributes etc.

  2. Export said Player Search results, and place into a Google Sheet.

  3. Check Google Sheet for statistical goodness.

I fancied giving it a try, so I used a modified Player Search based on the Half-Back role’s attributes, but I wanted to be agnostic in terms of who came up…so I did not set a Position within the search criteria. It did not bother me if Natural defenders came up in the search results, rather than natural DMs. Versatility would be a good thing and, depending on the game situation, this role could easily slot in at CB whilst I pushed a player up to AM (mimicking the 4-3-1-2 from last season which featured a No.10).

Therefore I set Half-Back in the search and did not expect players to meet 100% of the attributes; rather I set only 10 of the 16 attributes to match with a score of 13 or above. This meant a lot of CBs appeared in the search, but one name jumped out: Víctor Cuesta.

Using Zealand’s Google Sheet, I was quickly able to see that:

  • Cuesta had the highest Interceptions Per 90 for any top league player (2.54 per 90). Something I rate in any DM or CB position.

  • He ranked the 2nd best for Headers Won Per 90 for any top league player (10.63 per 90).

  • He was available for Free.

  • He is Argentine (meaning he’d become the 5th one in the current squad, but who is also a naturalised Brazilian status meaning he does not add to our FGN quota 🥰).

Now it was passed over to the General Manager, could he do a deal without me? Nope: he failed, but a new FM22 feature 🚨 allows me to take on the negotiations and keep the deal alive. I did just that, Víctor Cuesta signs on a one-year deal at $260k per annum.

36-year-old Víctor Cuesta takes a significant pay cut to join us!

FM Stag’s Goalkeeper Calculator™ 🐖

Personally, judging Goalkeepers is always a challenge for me on FM. Maybe it’s because the muscle memory just doesn’t exist, where the eye isn’t sharp enough to focus in the right places on the attributes screen. You see, I hardly sign Goalkeepers. Usually, it’s a case of finding one and then sticking with him for many seasons. When I discovered FM Stag had a Goalkeeper Calculator, I immediately asked to use it. The spreadsheet takes a combination of metrics, weightings + adds/subtracts to give me a GK Rating to work towards.

In this search, I simply wanted a Goalkeeper that had played at least 1,000 minutes in 2024 and was based in South America. The export was large, but because of the GK Rating, I filtered down to a Top 5…

Due to budgetary constraints, it was likely I could only afford the three Brazilians in the search (Megiolaro, Ricardo and Arias). So, it was over to the General Manager to tempt the best rated: Phelipe Megiolaro, who was available from Série C side Ituano on an expiring contract…

It’s a big gamble, putting your trust in the stats like this. But Phelipe Megiolaro has:

  • The best Saves per 90 out of the top 5 targets.

  • A strong Average Rating of 7.24.

  • Played every minute of Ituano’s successful promotion to Série B. He’s in a side that leaks a lot of shots, but he saves them…and they get promoted.

Megiolaro will jump two leagues up to Série A and will play as our Sweeper Keeper…as we look to play a more Counter Attacking style in 2025 during the Série A campaign.

Dan Gear’s General Manager/Director of Football Method™ 🐑

Read more about Dan’s approach here: https://www.footballmanager.com/the-byline/using-your-staff-recruitment-fm22

In this save, my current GM’s hit rate stands at 50%.

  1. Víctor Cuesta - Failed.

  2. Phelipe Megiolaro - Successful.

However, could the GM do one final deal from a recommendation provided by the scouting setup? It was over to the Short Term/Priority Focus screen to bring in another Striker within the Scouting Centre. The parameters: somebody who could play Deep Lying Forward aged 23 or below (to meet the Board’s club vision). Luciano Gondou topped the recommendations with an A (“sign whatever the price’) rating, and the reports indicate he is an adaptable and consistent performer. His contract expires towards the end of the calendar year, so I could have perhaps negotiated a cheap transfer deal. However, I instructed the GM to go for a loan deal because his current low wage means we can get him on a low-risk 8-month deal, to see how he does first.

Fall back to Minas Tirith, he’s only gone and made the deal!

Gondou, our 6th Argentine.

The GM got the deal done. Gondou is hopefully going to get a lot of game time, because he covers both the DLF and Poacher roles in my tactic. He’s decent in the air, can finish with two feet and makes good decisions…well done GM!

Season 2025: State Championships

My blog frequency will slow down a bit once I hit a full Série A campaign. I’m therefore unsure how best to capture a Brazilian season. Blog a whole calendar year, or cut it in half like a bit of undercooked cow? I have not decided yet, however I am here right now to let you know how the 2025 Mato Grosso State Championship went. It’s my first taste of genuine “stat padding” and I bloody loved it…

Cuiabá Esporte Clube: Mato Grosso State Champs 🏆

There was mixed success for the new signings: Víctor Cuesta missed most of the states with an ankle injury, making just 1 start and 6 substitute appearances. However, Phelipe Megiolaro kept 12 clean sheets in the 15 State fixtures. He hardly needed to make a save as we dominated games! Luciano Gondou arrived late in the States but managed to bag 3 goals in four knockout round games. The real hero however was Alan Empereur (who I shared last time out on the blog). The Emperor bagged 12 goals in fifteen matches from Centre-Back, with a mix of back post headers, freekicks and penalty area skirmishes. Maybe next year I’ll to play the kids so that games are more competitive!

Now, my Cuiabá side move into the Série A. The Board’s aim is to “fight bravely against relegation”, which sounds ominous, but let’s hope our new signings complement the existing squad and we do ‘enough’. Enough would be 16th place (out of 20 clubs), anything less would mean The Faceless moves on. Again.

As always, thanks for reading/sharing and caring. Faceless will be back 🎭

Tony / FM Grasshopper

"Cuiabá and The 4-3-1-2 Gold Rush" - Faceless #FM22

Previously in this story, Ángel Bastardo became The Faceless.

Intro

June 2024

 
 

In 2022, Cuiabá Esporte Clube had rejected the man they called The Faceless once before. Back then, they had been relegated from Série A and faced the heartache of returning to Serie B after just two years in Brazil's top league. It turned out, appointing a man with no identity as their 'saviour' for a return to the top was never a viable option.

Now June 2024, the club has finally opened their doors to The Faceless. Continuing to languish in Série B, the club has stagnated to the point where they now sit in Série B's relegation zone with spiralling debts. There is still time however (and games) to consolidate the club in Série B; with the view of promotion back to Série A in 2025 or 2026 years.

Welcome to the gold rush…

Cuiabá’s 2024 so far…

Did you know that Cuiabá is located in the geographic centre of South America? It’s the reason for the obelisk in the club’s logo, just in case you were wondering. Sadly, it seems the modest structure and plaque make a better attraction than the football on display lately. The Mid-West Brazil side has stagnated in recent years and after 12 matches played in Série B the club now face a relegation battle…

 

Série B - 16 June 2024

 

So, what am I walking into in terms of objectives, philosophies and visions?

  1. Expectation to finish Mid-Table in 2024. With 2/3 of the season still to play, this objective is entirely possible. Beyond this, the club has aspirations to win promotion to Série A within two years (by 2026).

  2. Sign players under the age of 23 for the first team. I don’t mind this one, however with the club already in the red I am not looking to sign anybody right now.

  3. Develop players using the club’s youth system. This philosophy suits the fact that there is limited money here at Cuiabá. I think I will be integrating 2-3 academy players each season regardless.

The 4-3-1-2 Gold Rush

Just as a brief update on history: Cuiabá grew in significance due to the 17/18th Century Gold Rush, where gold was discovered along the Cuiabá River. Sadly, once the gold was depleted the city was largely forgotten about until the 1960s, where investment in the roads and infrastructure was brought about by the construction of the country’s new capital called Brasília. Cuiabá Esporte Club took a further 40 years to be formed, where it was founded by footballer Gaúcho (who once briefly played for Boca Juniors)!

The mounting club debts in September 2024 led to cuts in both salary and transfer budgets.

Why do you need to know this? You don’t, but I thought I would name the tactic ‘Gold Rush’…as we try our best to head towards Série A and the ‘gold’ that lies there. I mean, it is a bit of a rush, as we progressed through 2024 we dived further into the red. What was -$900k in June, became -$4m six months later. Who knows what it would be a year later if we continue to pay some of these players Série A salaries (the club has not fully transitioned to life in Série B just yet).

So, how would we try to rectify this and win points? Answer: with a narrow 4-3-1-2…

Gold Rush!

I like this shape because it’s a reminder of some good FM22 memories I had with Western United in Australia (read more here). Whilst this latest tactic has shades of that Calcio inspired system, with some of the player roles I’ve re-used, I’ve started afresh with Team Instructions. It’s another attempt to keep things simple.

I’ve got a stronger presence of creativity on our left hand side…the Complete Wing Back will advance and stretch the play, a left sided Ball Playing Defender, a left sided Central Midfielder instructed to Get Further Forward and Take More Risks and a Deep Lying Forward. It’s geared to feed the Poacher, but I also have an Attacking Mezzala and a No.10 ‘in the hole’ to chip in with goals.

I won’t introduce the whole squad, but below are the top 3 rated players on my arrival. Having both Wing Backs representing two of the top three is promising, and justification for the narrow formation. Both Lozano and Barros have high Physicals for the level we’re in, and are also our squad’s best crossers. Both will hopefully dominate the flanks.

Alan Empereur is not only an epic name, he’s a solid defender with good First Touch and Vision. You may notice that the roles I am playing them in the 4-3-1-2 align with the recommended ones based on attributes, “keep it simple, stupid”:

Overall the tactic feels like it has a nice balance, and I’m enjoying the highlights immensely. How does it fair?

Season 2024

Série B

An opening 5-1 win at home against Brusque and then a two-month unbeaten run quickly led me to believe that Cuiabá would stay up. But it didn’t stop there: nine wins in our final twelve league matches meant we had a strong chance to achieve automatic promotion to Série A with one league match to go…

A bit like in 2023 with Sampaio Corrêa, I’d face Final Day Drama in Brazil. We went into the final match Vs Operário Ferroviário as favourites, and the only home side in the race for promotion (positions 2-4 gaining automatic promotion). Win and it’s certain we’re up, a draw is helpful…providing results go our way. A defeat could prove costly.

Serie B, one game to go…

We Did It™ [with a dirty draw at home!] Fortaleza leap frogged us into 2nd place, but Guarani and Remo both lost away from home. Cuiabá will be a Série A club for 2025!

Copa Verde

Whilst we juggled promotion, the 4-3-1-2 continued to do well in the Copa Verde cup competition. The Final was really at the Semi Final stage, as Série B Champions Goiás gave us the most difficult challenge. The two legged Final itself was relatively easy, a 7-1 aggregate win meaning Cuiabá became 2024 Copa Verde Champions 🏆

2024 Copa Verde Winners.

Stadium Move? 🏟

Things are looking good for Cuiabá! Their new-ish 2014 World Cup ‘Arena Pantanal’ stadium would soon be hosting top league football again…or would it? Well, it wouldn’t be Football Manager without some epic trolling. A day after securing promotion I got a News Item which stated:

I took several minutes to digest the news, I even went to pour myself a Fernet and Coke: our 44,000 seater stadium in ‘very good’ condition would be ditched in favour of renting a 16,000 stadium in a ‘poor’ condition. The move also means a 400km round trip for players and fans to Rondonópolis, I look forward to welcoming la crème de la crème of Brazil to the Engenheiro Lutero Lopes soon. Let’s play ball!

💔

Data Led Recruitment + General Manager

I am now faced with the difficult challenge of keeping a team in a league containing some of the best South American club sides, all on a relatively modest budget of $6.5m salary budget p/a and a transfer kitty of $900k. I am also not sure how long this financial package remains, the club is still in $4m of debt; and now we’re renting a stadium hundreds of kilometres away. Regardless, I am sure whatever salary we settle on it will almost certainly rank within the bottom 4 clubs of Série A for 2025 season.

In addition to financial pressures, the club hierarchy has also added two new club cultures to work towards, which I could not negotiate away: Play defensively solid soccer (low goals and low shots ratios) and Play counter-attacking soccer (exciting, forward thinking attacks). I therefore may need to think about some tactical tweaks to the 4-3-1-2 in order to please the board (and I do have some ideas 😉).

In order to make the most out of the money available, I have decided to be led by the numbers again. This is a method I used with the help of FM Stag earlier on in the FM22 cycle, and I really enjoyed the unpredictably of what the data throws up as to the interesting players to recruit. Only this time recruitment will be a little different:

  1. Firstly, I will be using Zealand Shannon’s ‘Moneyball’ sheets and formulas in order to test out that approach. This will drive our recruitment for all outfield positions.

  2. I will be using FM Stag’s new Goalkeeper Calculator, which he has kindly shared with me. This will be needed after 35-year-old Vice Captain João Carlos decided to pre-emptively agree on a move to Série A’s Ponte Preta via the Bosman ruling mid-way through the season. My aim is to see if the numbers can find a suitable shot stopper for limited outlay.

  3. Lastly, I’ve been lucky enough to recruit a decent General Manager in Geraldo Lantyer. Big G Lantyer has Negotiating 16 and will therefore be tasked with negotiating both player bids and contracts. I will be using my podcast co-host’s approach for player recruitment (read more here). This sees Dan issue short-term focusses via his scouting team, and I will do this in combination with items 1 and 2 above to hopefully find suitable players for 2025 season.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what each of the three processes mean for our recruitment, and whether it’s enough to keep us in Brazil’s top division. A blog will inevitably follow on how this all goes down.

A big thank you for reading/sharing and caring. I’ll be back soon with another Faceless, where the rush for gold continues 🎭

Tony / FM Grasshopper

“Sampaio Corrêa and The Shinigami 4-2-3-1” - Faceless #FM22

 
 

The Shinigami

What happens at the moment of death is unknown, it’s an unmapped road that science is yet to take us down.  Some people believe all the memories ever lived flash before one’s eyes…others believe in a purgatory where good deeds are weighed up against bad ones; whilst others believe death gods such as The Shinigami / 死神 visit you.  These supposed Japanese spirits invite humans towards death in their final moments, guiding them towards darkness.

Ángel Bastardo would never have believed in The Shinigami prior to the events of what happened in the jungle, but now he did.  He had looked into their purple eyes.  First they resembled people he knew, such as Father Martinez and other habitants from the jungle all those years ago.  Then they were people he did not know; men, women and children staring at his lifeless body from the river banks as he floated along the River Negro from Colombia towards Brazil.  In the night, the motionless riverside statues had no faces; only their eyes shining a bright purple onto the moonlit river.  The Shinigami never once took him as they were supposed to.  Instead, he was allowed to float downstream as the river widened and its current slowed.

His face was all but gone now.  The tissue that remained had turned a cloudy milk colour, as had the rest of his body.  “Nobody will know who you are,” Hugo had said to him shortly before his death.  It had been a number of days until he was found on the outskirts of Manaus, where the Negro converged into the Amazon.  He was taken to a local tribe’s Shaman, an expert in healing, medicine and, most importantly, revivals.

There was still enough poison in his system for the Shaman to get creative, and use the deadly tonic on itself in order to kick-start vital organs from within the comatose body.  Secret ancient Amazonian practices, honed over thousands of years, had culminated in the resurrection of Ángel Bastardo.  It was the Shaman’s greatest achievement.

A few weeks after his revival, a metal mask was passed to Bastardo as he lay on his patient bed; inside it was carefully laced fabric in a meshed pattern.  It was a perfect remedy for the fire that still felt like it burned on his face.  When placed over, the wounds instantly became cooler; and henceforth he would continue to wear the mask day and night.

“The injuries are permanent.  Infection, if exposed face. You must wear this” said the Shaman’s translator to the man they now called The Faceless.  Even to himself, he never felt like Ángel Bastardo again…his memory foggy, unable to remember much about the past life he once lived.  He quickly stopped thinking of himself as the dead man from Colombia’s jungle, no longer able to justify to anybody what Ángel Bastardo meant…or stood for.  Like the Amazonians, he would also use the title of The Faceless.

The legend of The Faceless was an increasingly popular tale now told to every child in the Amazonas.  The tale talks of a prophet who floated down the river, rejected by the jungle spirits who would cast him back down to Earth until it had complete forgiveness from its people.  After several months, The Faceless finally managed the courage to leave the outskirts and head towards the city of Manaus.  From there it patiently waited to find meaning and purpose again, before travelling east to the ocean coast in search of acceptance.  Some would laugh at it; but nobody could ignore it.

“Fútbol forgives and forgets” it thought.  Fútbol would provide another chance for meaning and purpose.  The Faceless didn’t know how the tale ended, like in the stories told to the children, but it knew how it would begin…

Sampaio Corrêa Futebol Clube

July 2023

Congratulations, you got past the CreativeFM…well done.  Typically in an FM journeyman save the journey is upwardly mobile, the reputation grows and human managed clubs rise up the leagues.  Success is [generally] a formality.  However, I believe the twisted/unique nature of my story arc this year (i.e. Bastardo getting his face burnt off and chucked in a river) means I can drop down the leagues from the relative high of Major League Soccer to the gutter in an anonymous way.  An intentional parallel with FM20’s La Plata: Mexico, where I built up Hugo Ojeda’s reputation by going to Murciélagos FC and Dorados de Sinaloa after smashing it up with Bastardo’s Peñarol. It’s almost like starting again…the narrative allows me to go to the depths of some country and take on a big challenge for the remainder of FM22.

After simulating around 6 months on from The MLS Save’s finale, I think Northeastern Brazilian side Sampaio Corrêa (based in São Luís, Maranhão) is exactly that kind of challenge.  With nine games to go in the 2023 First Stage Serie C they are in danger of dropping out of Football Manager (see below).  It’s been quite the decline too, from Serie B relegation in 2021; the club has had a terrible time in my save universe.  Their Estádio Castelão can hold up to 40k spectators, but they’d be lucky to host even 10% of that these days.  For the fans that do turn up, they’ve hardly seen top earner (and current No.9) Lucas Gabriel in the yellow/white/green “Bolivianos” jersey, who has missed 11 months in two years through five major injuries.  Top earners missing most of the season is not what Sampaio Corrêa needs right now.  They’re nearing $500k in debt, and have a skeleton coaching, scouting and medical staffing ensemble.  Why am I doing this again?

Lucas Gabriel - star man.

Oh yes, the narrative.  However, I do think this is going to be fun.  Sink or swim*, Sampaio Corrêa is my next FM22 club!

*Deliberate homage paid towards the Sampaio Corrêa’s club name, which was given after the Sampaio Corrêa II seaplane visited São Luís in 1922:

 
 

Why 4-2-3-1 DM?

I think the 4-2-3-1 is a really popular tactic among FMers.  When I asked myself why that might be the case, I reasoned it’s because the formation covers all of the general positions of the pitch.  You’ve got wide men, a No.10, a central striker and a back four.  It’s easy to fit all those hot Newgens into your side, and transition them from youth intake all the way into the first team.  However, it’s not a system I’ve usually gone for in recent FMs; instead I’ve generally favoured two striker systems.  Despite that, it made sense to use it with Sampaio Corrêa for reasons explained below.

I name my tactics. This is the Shinigami 4-2-3-1.

I’ve found that attribute distribution in Brazil, and also on the wider South American continent, means sides often have a number of viable DM/MC options capable of playing the Segundo Volante role.  I was pretty excited to use it again with Sampaio Corrêa, having used it previously to good effect with FC Lorient in FM19.  The role gets forward at a surprising rate, and the DM position can be misleading to those that have not used it.  The attacking version will advance forward, and will often be finishing moves and taking shots in advance of the Attacking Midfielder.  It’s why I have placed an Inverted Wing Back behind him, who will form a double pivot at the base of the midfield when in possession of the ball alongside the supportive defensive midfielder (Note - which sadly at the time of writing does not happen. There has to be fewer than two DMs, even if one of those DMs is a SV on attack 😢).

The wider system, and justification in using a 4-2-3-1, fell into place from there.  For instance, I knew I needed width on the right hand side of the pitch (seeing as the IWB would be drifting infield - if not for the above), so I opted for a supportive Winger.  The Winger role will stay wide and cross, simple really.  In the centre of the pitch, I chose a supportive Attacking Midfielder who will generally stay central and link up with the rest of the attack, especially with the onrushing SV.

To the left, we have an attacking Inside Forward…who alongside the Poacher should be the main source of goals for this Sampaio Corrêa side.  They are my best finishers and movers with/without the ball.  The attack is usually a ‘four or five’, which is pretty nice.  If you can get that amount of players near to the goal, and have them in varied complementary roles; you ought to be scoring.

Too long; didn’t read?  I built the tactic on the two initial desires: (1)  to use a Segundo Volante and (2) to score varied goals.  Everything else, formation included, followed on from those two things.

Team Instructions: Proactive Vs Reactive

Seeing as I joined Sampaio Corrêa in a dark place, I figured I would keep it simple.  I would go with the eleven roles as shown above and go instruction-less, adding instructions as I see fit.  The reasoning for doing this is because I had no friendly matches to test a certain philosophy/identity/playing style.  I basically had nine matches to keep Sampaio Corrêa in Serie C and avoid the anonymity of falling out of the playable out-of-the-box FM leagues.  There was no time to reverse engineer already pre-conceived tactical blueprints that I could have [mistakenly] embedded into my tactic.

However, the one decision I had to make before playing games was deciding which Team Mentality to start games with.  I chose Positive because, despite being bottom of the league, we definitely needed to exert ourselves on the games from the first minute.  It may not be the most sensible approach, but Sampaio Corrêa needed points; so let’s attack!

Moving onto Team Instructions, I first wanted to see how we behaved when In Possession before changing anything else.  Why?  Well, like choosing Positive, I wanted to control how we’d play football before thinking about how I would counter the opposition.  It is easier to be proactive in this moment, as the In Transition and Out Of Possession instructions required a level of reaction on my part (from watching the match highlights).  So, very early on (from the first match Vs Bangu) I added in some instructions that I believe helped us and refined them in subsequent games.  For now, I’ve settled on the below: 

  • Play Out Of Defence - I want to build attacks from our back four and get our two defensive midfielders on the ball (after all I want to make sure the game doesn’t pass them by).

  • Work Ball Into Box - I want us to be patient and create higher xG chances, even if that means we take fewer shots at goal. This should also allow the Segundo Volante to advance into attacking positions.  Again, like with playing out of defence, the game could pass the DM by if we’re too direct and counter attacking…so working it more patiently should see the whole team move up and not rush our attacks.

  • Narrow - I want my attacking trio to be closer together.  On a Positive mentality we will be passing slightly shorter, so I want my players to be closer together.  I’ll still get some width with the supportive Winger and Fullback at opposite sides of the pitch, but our strength in a 4-2-3-1 will be in central areas.

From the second and subsequent games I made several In Transition and Out of Possession tweaks.  These were made after seeing goals/chances against us, remember: these are the reactionary moments of tactic building…

  • Slow Pace Down - this can be seen as a superfluous instruction, seeing as I already have the Play Out Of Defence instruction set.  However, it does not hurt to ask the Goalkeeper to take time on playing out to the backline.  We’re not looking to quickly counter the opponents here, so I’d rather our Goalkeeper took a few seconds longer in making sure the side repositions and gets ready to go again with the ball at our feet.

  • Lower Defensive Line - A few goals were conceded with balls over the top, and a number of chances in favour of the opposition.  I had two choices: I could have (1) opted for playing an offside trap on a higher line OR (2) drop the starting position of our CBs.  I chose the latter, mainly because my CBs do not have the mental attributes to pull off an effective trap.

  • Lower Line Of Engagement - I like to keep our engagement lines in tandem with the defensive line, especially in a 4-2-3-1.  Otherwise, there could be too great a distance between attacking midfielders and the two DMs’ starting positions out of possession.

You may notice that my Sampaio Corrêa does not align to any one of Counter/Re-group/Counter Pressing/Hold Shape team instructions.  I feel we don’t have to pick a side in this regard…I still see my team counter.  I also still see them get into relatively good positions in and out of possession.  “Doing nothing” is always a viable option in any walk of life, and that includes on the FM tactics screen.

2023 Serie C[limax] - 9 games

Five straight wins to kick-start my Sampaio Corrêa tenure is pretty sweet.  Most of the performances were brilliant, particularly the 6-3 away win Vs Santa Cruz which saw the Inside Forward and Poacher role cause a riot, however I felt we got lucky in a couple of games.  A couple of those one nil margin wins could have easily been draws, or worse.  Away at Campinese and Botafogo (PB) we were awful and deserved to lose.

8 games in.

One game to go.

It was quite an interesting final day in the First Stage in Group A of Serie C.  Eight out of the ten clubs were going for the second Promotion Stage (where two groups of four battle it out for Serie B participation), however seven of those sides (incl. us) were also trying their best to avoid relegation!

Despite winning six out of eight games, we entered the home tie Vs Floresta (CE) needing a win to confirm survival.  Lucas Gabriel was now back in the side upfront as the Poacher after recovering from two month injury; but other than that we were pretty settled.  And…

FM Penhopper!

Due to Brasilense’s early lead away at Santa Cruz (which they ended up winning), we spent 30 mins in the relegation zone, and were making a horrible habit of wasting xG throughout…until the second penalty was scored on minute 71.  Nine matches played: 21 points.  But wow, we did get lucky with two penalties on the final day to keep us in the league.  Obviously, good work was done before this tie, 21 points out of a possible 27 is promotion chasing form…but it shows how competitive the teams around us had also been in the final two months of the season.

A few statistical snapshots from the nine games played:

  • 21 goals in nine games is encouraging.  In those name games, a combined xG of 15.27 was earned.  A MAX of 2.70 Vs Floresta (CE) and a MIN Vs Botafogo (PB) if 0.55.

  • Of those 21 goals, our front four accounted for all but two of the goals: Poacher (8 goals), Inside Forward (6 goals), Winger (3 goals) and Attacking Midfielder (2 goals).  Note - the Segundo Volante scored our other 2 goals.

  • We scored three penalties, but no corners or freekicks (we were using default routines).

  • We conceded ten goals, however we did earn three clean sheets which had not happened often at Sampaio Corrêa before my arrival.

Can I glean anything from this?  

  1. Well, recruiting a decent set piece specialist, some big lads and custom routines could see us further our goal scoring numbers.  That’s a must for 2024.

  2. I quite like the distribution between Inside Forward and Poacher in terms of goals, however any manager would like to spread the goals even further across the side.

  3. On two occasions we conceded 3 goals away from home.  It would be nice not to get hammered wouldn't it?  Perhaps I need a more conservative option at times (because I never moved away from Positive mentality in these nine games).

2024 - 9 games

The 4-2-3-1 DM tactic was by no means perfect, however it worked well to get Sampaio Corrêa out of a hole.  I remained to be convinced about certain roles in the tactic like the Attacking Midfielder and Winger, but I decided to stick with it and try to recruit better players on loans or Free Transfers for 2024 year.  You may be reading this and noticing a past tense in use.  Yep, nine 2024 games have been played, and for some reason things did not go quite to plan.  

We began the season with a negative bank balance now in excess of half a million US dollars.  So, an attractive bid of $120k from Atlético Clube Goianiense for star striker Lucas Gabriel simply had to be accepted (at least I could not justify keeping him knowing that IRL that bid would have been accepted).  There was also a preseason presidential election with a change of ownership at Sampaio Corrêa; it did not result in any financial changes or apparent expectations of my Head Coach role in Série C (Avoid a relegation battle).  So, I felt safe.

Until that is, I embarked on my first full season with Sampaio Corrêa:

Can’t get nova not beating my mum.

In my opinion, the results are not that bad.  We opened with a Copa do Nordeste defeat away to Série B side Ferroviário, and then stuttered in the state championships.  Apparently that’s a big drama, as we failed to secure the top two places for the Maranhão State Final.  After a 0-0 Copa do Brasil result away at Nova Mutum (with Sampaio Corrêa only progressing due to a higher league ranking), I was called into the dreaded board meeting.

That’s when I roleplayed like Bastardo, and got dealt a swift lesson in FM brutality. I didn’t want to beg for a chance to get “X points in Y games”, or tell board members to “trust the process”. I simply stated that they likely couldn’t get a better Head Coach. Appears that honesty is not always the best policy in FM:

Sacked in FM22 ✅

My Sampaio Corrêa record over 17 competitive games stands at 10 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats.  I helped them avoid a likely Série C relegation, and cut a quarter of their debt with the sale of our [supposedly] best player in Lucas Gabriel.  Thank you for the memories Sampaio Corrêa, it’s time to leave.

What next?

Sampaio Corrêa had the potential to be a nice fmadventure, and to see it cut short so quickly means I do not feel finished in Brazil.  So, I’ll look to hang about here for a little longer; in order to find my true place in this huge footballing nation.  I’m heading off to the Job Centre once again…

Obrigado por ler,

Tony / FM Grasshopper