"The Gondor 3-5-2" - Faceless #FM22

May 30, 2022

Previously in Faceless, Cuiabá recruited three players ahead of a return to Série A.

Intro

It’s 2025 and Cuiabá are back in the big time of Série A! The Board’s aim is to “fight bravely against relegation”, and with very little money available to recruit players that fight looked like a real possibility. However, I had a couple of ideas to avoid impending doom:

Conduct sensible recruitment by being data driven, something I wrote about last time on the blog.
Play a different brand of football, moving from 4312 to 352 with a DM. Something I will write about today.

Would we pay the price of our frugalities in the transfer market? Or would those signings slot into the First Team, in a new system that could do enough to survive? If any of this interests you, then please read on…

The Gondor 3-5-2

There’s a school of thought that would have recommended playing the same style of football that got us promoted from Série B to Série A. After all, the football was good and Cuiabá steamrolled their way to promotion with the 4312 Gold Rush tactic. But my reason for switching to be more conservative is twofold.

(1) The gulf in class between the top 10 Série A sides and the bottom 10 is clear to see. Cuiabá are ranked 19th in terms of salary per year ($6.11m), with 13th ranked Atlético Goianiense paying double that amount ($12.29m). For added context, rank 1 Flamengo pay $47.36m per year on salary with a further four sides paying over $20m on salary per year.

and

(2) The Board have revised our club visions, and now want us to play more defensive solid soccer in a counter attacking style:

So, I immediately knew that I needed to change the 4312 as it was contrary to what the Board wanted in terms of Club Visions. In the previous 4312 tactic, our GK slowed the pace down…we played it out from the back and the team was passing it shorter. With an AM too, we were top heavy, so our starting shape needed to change to try and meet the defensive solid target. Revised club visions and their contextual guidance provided a nice, and welcome, challenge for me in FM22.

Player Roles

If you wanted to go back and compare Gold Rush with Gondor (naming rights to be explained later), then you would see that the majority of player roles are the same between the two setups. This is an evolution of my previous 4312 tactic, not a diversely different system with a whole new squad. I did not want the tactics to be too dissimilar (in case I needed to revert back to 4312, which I did on three occasions over 2025 against lower league opposition in Copa Brasil). Gone is the AM, who is replaced with a Half-Back - one of my most loved roles in recent Football Manager editions. I used the HB role extensively in FM21 with Junior Club (read here) and Ondrej/FM Rensie wrote a nice piece on it during the FM20 era (read here). This role essentially widens the CBs, and drops in to make a back-three shape. This means we can push the wing backs higher up the field and also give licence to a couple of the two central midfielders to get forward. Obviously, I’ve opted for another cult favourite role in the CM-A - who will make ridiculous surges from deep, and the supportive Mezzala who will move into channels and provide some width. To add a sprinkle of counter attacking intent, we’ve got a Sweeper Keeper and a Ball Playing Defender. This in itself isn’t overly counter attacking, but I’ve changed some Team Instructions to help with that…

Team Instructions

We still press more often. But when the ball is won back, we’re now playing on the counter. We’ll pass into space and we’ve got the Sweeper Keeper distributing quickly. Starting Mentality is Balanced, which I predominantly used throughout the 2025 season, however I would drop down to more cautious mentalities if leading in the last quarter of matches. It’s worth nothing that I hardly ever went ‘up’ the mentalities towards Positive or Attacking…when I did I felt we played awful by making poor decisions on the ball and rushing our chances.

I’ve called this a 3-5-2, but in reality it is not so simple. Sometimes the DLF dropped deeper than the CM-A, sometimes the CWB is a Winger, sometimes there is an overload on the right side of the penalty area between Mez and WB etc etc. The shape is fluid.

Season 2025: Série A

Equipped with the 352, we managed to secure a comfortable 10th placed finish (Copa Sudamericana qualification) in Série A. Some stats from the season:

We were never lower than 14th at any point of the season. A rough patch in June made me think we’d be sucked into a relegation battle, but luckily we grabbed a few wins even in the dark moments in July-October. Seven of our 15 defeats were by one goal, showing that we did relatively well not to get hammered by the big boys…Grêmio aside 🤮
Our 16 wins were split nicely between home and away (8 each), meaning we were never afraid to pick up points away from home.
Luciano Gondou, our General Manager signing from last time out, was the league’s 3rd best scorer with 18 Série A goals. A $5,075 loan signing from the Argentine 2nd division who has been absolutely devastating at times in either of the two striker roles (Deep Lying Forward or Poacher). I’ve named the 352 tactic ‘Gondor’ in his honour, because that’s the nickname I’ve given him in my head. He is amazing.
We outperformed xG (+4), xGA (-4) and xPTS (+4). Credit must go to our Goalkeeper signing using Stag’s calculator. Phelipe Megiolaro came on a free from the Brazilian 3rd Division, jumping up two leagues and finishing in the top right of the GK Save Performance scatter graph. He made a lot of saves and saved most shots.

Sadly, we did not meet the defensive soccer club vision. We were on track to meet this for most of the season, but the Board become ‘disappointed’ after the 7-3 hammering given to us by Grêmio and failures to keep a clean sheet in the final eight games of the season. However, the counter attacking style has been achieved and if I had to choose between the two I would have chosen to meet the style of football…rather than the defensive stats. I’m sure further investment in better defenders would address this (as hinted at earlier, defeats were marginal at times like the six 0-1 defeats).

Have we Moneyball’ed?

Players

Now for a brief statistical review of a few player roles, effectively flipping the Zealand process on its head by looking at our own side’s performance: exporting player search results, (ensuring that Cuiabá are not excluded), and then filtering on my side:

Both Deep Lying Forward and Poacher roles had the highest non penalty xG in the whole league. The aforementioned Luciano Gondou getting 15.95 npxG and Rodrigo Farofa ranking highest in Série A with 16.4 npxG. That’s a brilliant outturn of xG for relegation fodder such as ourselves. Perhaps with even better creators supplying them in the 352, both roles could easily get 20+ npxG in Série A.
The Wing Backs in the 352 tactic are the most common interceptors (CWB - 3.14 per 90, WB - 3.69 per 90) and tacklers of the side (CWB 1.89 per 90, WB - 1.8 per 90) . Perhaps their stats are heightened by being the sole wide players (effectively meaning more duels), so getting competent 1v1 players in these positions would be logical if you’re using this tactic.
My Central Midfielder on Attack has a very high Key Passes per 90 stat of 3.6. He’s basically a No.10 in all but starting position, so get a creative player in this position and watch him unleash sexy football on your foes!
The Half-Back role is naturally getting through some serious passing stats, as it looks to recycle possession and start moves from the base of our midfield. It’s good then that the two players who predominantly played here have Passing % of 96% and finish up the season with the highest completed passes per 90 from Cuiabá players (63 and 51 completed passes per 90 respectively). The Free signing of 36-year-old Víctor Cuesta, who was our first choice Half-Back, looks to have been a shrewd bit of business!

Disclaimer: end of year statistics are slightly inflated with some of these first teamers playing a few games in the State Championships, albeit for the likes of Moneyball signings Cuesta, and Gondou their involvement was minimal in this tournament.

Team

According to my Data Hub analysis, the 352 faced 11 formations over the course of the 2025 season and did ok against the most common variant in Brazil: 4231 wide (played against 62% of time) with +12 CCC (For/Against). Gondor was most devastating against a 442 (played against 13% of the time), where the 352 produced a clear cut chance every 36 minutes. Despite a numerical advantage out wide and in favour of the AI, our central overloads proved to be too effective against 442s as the goal type analysis below shows.

The area where we make most of our assists is in central areas outside of the penalty area (equating for 47% of goals), with 56% of goals coming from through balls. There are LOTS of third-man runs, inherent in a narrow formation with two midfielders linking up with the two strikers. Recently, Chris/FM Old Timer wrote about the concept really well here. One worry however is the left-hand side, because despite playing with a CWB on this flank, only 6 assists were made from here. It’s doubly worrying when you consider that this is the side most exposed by the opposition, as detailed in my next paragraph.

The weakest area for assists locations against my Cuiabá side is sadly the left-hand side which features the CWB. 34% of goals (total of 14) were crosses from the left flank. To improve defensively I could tone down that player to a Wing Back and/or consider switching the BPD to the other side, if see myself exposed in this area. It’s perhaps the one side of the tactic that isn’t quite right at this minute, and something that would need tweaking going into another season. However…I’m just not feeling it.

“Not Feeling It”

I have enjoyed this extension from The MLS Save. Sampaio Corrêa proved to be a real challenge in 2023, and Cuiabá 2024-2025 has allowed me to experience promotion and apply some of the data driven recruitment as a carry-on from what I did with Stag at Inter Miami. But I also know when to stop playing this game, and for the first time in about 7 years I’m finishing up save updating before the English Summer Holidays.

Continuing in Série A with Cuiabá just doesn’t appeal to me, whether it’s the league or FM22 in general, I’d rather park the journey here and seal The Faceless’ fate with a creative conclusion [coming soon]. Once that’s done I will likely take a break and do other bits IRL or within other video games™. I’ve still got a couple of FM22 bits I could consider doing and coming back to write, but they’ll be standalone pieces outside of this wonderful save universe; which I have had the pleasure of sharing with @FMEadster since November last year.

Thanks to everybody who has read these Brazilian updates, and I’m hoping they’ve been a good follow after the post-MLS stuff we did earlier on in the cycle.

Thank you,

FM Grasshopper

“Original Pirate Material” - Faceless #FM22

May 10, 2022

Previously in Faceless, Cuiabá Esporte Clube returned to the top flight of Brazilian football.

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):

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

Víctor Cuesta - Failed.
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!

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

May 6, 2022

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…

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

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).
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.
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…

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.

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 🏆

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:

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.
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.
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

April 29, 2022

Previously in this story, Ángel Bastardo was shot dead and kicked into the Rio Negro.

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?

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.

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…

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?

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.
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.
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:

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:

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

“The Faceless Gunsmith” - La Plata: Vice #FM22

April 25, 2022

Previously on La Plata: Vice, Ángel Bastardo ordered the boats to go bang.

Ángel

As the sedatives wore off and the forest hills became clearer with the helicopter’s descent through the thin fog, Ángel Bastardo knew exactly where he was. The jungle was that what linked Hugo Ojeda and himself, particularly the complex for Venezuelan refugees that had allowed Bastardo to hide undetected in the Colombian rainforest. Just why Hugo wanted to meet Bastardo here, and not at his north coast Barranquilla HQ, was anybody’s guess. But if the rumours were true about Hugo, then madness had truly taken hold of him.

The jungle complex was now in view, a charred carcass of what had once stood tall. Hugo had ordered for it to be burnt to ground, around a decade ago. “An act of idiocy, indecency and an undoubtedly narcissistic move”, Bastardo mused.

“GET OUT”, barked one of the henchmen, as the helicopter landed in what was once the outpost’s central square. A gun pressed against Bastardo’s waist and the weary prisoner disembarked from the cabin, almost losing his balance in the process, as the helicopter’s rotors grinded down to a stand-still.

There, in front of him, stood Hugo Ojeda. He was immaculately dressed in an all-black suit, with the infamous golden pistol, El Silencio, holstered by his side. He looked every part the seasoned Drug Lord and was nothing at all like the young man Bastardo had left on the Montevideo airfield. “Like what I’ve done with the place?”, Hugo boastfully remarked to the weary Argentine.

“If you’re expecting me to beg for forgiveness, Hugo, you’re in for disappointment. Shoot me now and be done with this drama”, Bastardo replied. There was not much left in Bastardo’s arsenal, but his words were intended to wave off his apparent weariness and hope for a quick resolution.

However, if the rumours were true, Hugo had grown to savour every last bit of the murders he committed. It was said that his infamous snake poison pistol would not kill you until it had first drained the life out of you, inch by inch.

“We will come to your death shortly, Don Bastardo. But first, I want to know what your real plans were. You put me in Mexico, and I rebuilt your empire…I’ve become the biggest drug trafficker in all of the Americas. All for you to ignore my letters whilst you sat in your jail cell. When I do get you out of there, you blow my money up on the shores of Miami. A man like you at least owes himself the decency to tell the truth, moments before his death. Why turn your back on your protégé?”

Bastardo realised that Hugo was clearly lost. It’s true, he should never had have been left alone in Sinaloa all those years ago. It had been intended to hide him and was not to empower him.

“There were a lot of bad people in Sinaloa. Putting you there was to keep you hidden, our assets hidden under the radar, from the US authorities, whilst they went for the big Mexican cartels instead. This wasn’t meant for you, this life. You were a child. Now you’re a monster”, muttered Bastardo. He knew that the last line would aggravate his captor and he expected an immediate response, but Hugo stood pensively, his hand cupping his chin, as he stroked his small beard with his fingers.

“I hear things, you know. The bats in this jungle talk to me, and guide me, constantly. They saved me back in Mexico. They talk the loudest to me here in Colombia. I hear them now, and I know what I have to do”.

There were no bats flying around this morning. The jungle was instead eerily silent, something Bastardo had never experienced before. Dark forces were seemingly at work, and with it, the dark skies brought torrential rain: Rain drops as hard as nails that pattered down on the dark earth with abandon.

Hugo had to raise his voice further to make himself be heard over the sound of the sky’s tears hitting the jungle floor. “The bats tell me that you shouldn’t have the privilege of walking the afterlife with a face. Instead, you will walk the Underworld without one. Nobody will know who you are. This is the way to truly rid us of Ángel Bastardo. Gentlemen, bring me the acid”.

One henchman grabbed Bastardo, whilst another moved forward with a vat of fizzing liquid. It was confirmation of Hugo’s delirium, as Bastardo was pinned down to a kneeling position. He was about to lose his face in acid.

“A mad man can’t be negotiated with. I know I’m a threat to you, Hugo. That’s why I did it. That’s why the money went up in flames. Your people would prefer things under my stewardship, but instead they get a mad dog, who’ll get them all killed, one day”.

“Ha, defiant to the end”, Hugo laughed. “I’ll leave you with this, Don Bastardo: ‘Never interrupt an enemy when he’s busy making a mistake’. You once told me this, and Miami was a good mistake to see unfold. Ruslan, Natasha, Herb, Carlos…every one of them now dead. You’re the last of this little rebellion. Now, here comes your suffering”.

Hugo nodded to his associates and the next thing Bastardo felt was the hands of the gloved henchman, as his face was thrust down and forcefully submerged in searing acid. The instant rush of pain was so great that he screamed, pouring out all his energy into the act, before eventually losing consciousness, when he could scream no more.

Hugo

A few minutes passed before Ángel Bastardo’s body became listless. However, a death for Hugo was only confirmed when the black mamba poison hit the target and entered the bloodstream. It would have to be done, but Bastardo’s body would first have to be dragged to the Rio Negro, which sat to the eastern side of the jungle complex. It was a relatively narrow river here, but within a few miles several tributaries would merge, in order to become one of the grand waterways into the Amazon, which then led through to the Brazilian city of Manaus.

Terrible things had been done in this jungle, but this was to be Hugo Ojeda’s final sin. He would soon be free of Bastardo, and there would be no more threats to his cartel’s leadership. But his thoughts soon turned towards Ruslan Chepiga and Natasha Sibiski. Hugo had lied to Bastardo. They were indeed still alive, though untraceable, after the Miami shootout. Their trail had gone cold.

“It is perfect here”, Hugo said to his henchmen, who propped up Bastardo on the shoreline, against a huge boulder that separated the land from the water.

The water was shallow enough to reflect the morning sunlight, now breaking through the brief torrential downpour. The mist generated by the sun’s rays falling on the water’s surface was a sight to behold, as the birds and the buzz of the rainforest returned to its full voice. The ‘Snake of Sinaloa’ slithered closer to the listless body in front of him, drawing El Silencio from its holster. He could see the clouds above rippling in the water, but he couldn’t see his own reflection. In fact, he never saw his reflection anymore; ever since his stained-glass window had grown dark three years ago.

Hugo raised his pistol and took one last look at Ángel Bastardo, before sending him on his way with a one-way ticket to the afterlife. The Argentine’s face had been burnt away, with the flesh still bubbling around the bones of his jaw. Nobody would ever recognise this man again, even if his body washed up downstream.

El Silencio was fired, one last time, and its bullet pierced the torso of the prisoner. The impact was unusually soft for a pistol of its size, but enough to move the limp body away from the boulder and into the water. A kick from one of the henchmen saw the body of Bastardo slump deeper into the water, as the river’s strong current took over and moved it further away from the shoreline. Hugo saw it float away, and as he watched he heard cries that he felt resembled Father Martínez’s, off in the jungle’s depths.

The sins that had taken place in this jungle had made it haunted and Hugo Ojeda vowed never to return here. And neither would Ángel Bastardo.

Notes from the Editor

Friedrich Nietzsche once said something along the following lines: “An artist must portray the dark parts of the human soul as lifelike as the light parts”. I’ve taken the same approach within the ‘La Plata’ series. ‘La Plata: Colombia’ was a year of references to Hugo Ojeda’s descending decline into madness…the climax of ‘La Plata: Vice’ is the confirmation of that. We’ve also brought back the magical elements of Hugo’s story, and I was able to both revisit the jungle and pay homage to Father Martinez’s untimely death, way back in the FM21 prologue.

I also wanted to give closure to the story, in such a way that you could read the ‘La Plata’ series and feel a sense of conclusion; but with an element of anticipation, of “what comes next?”. The magical realism arc is not yet complete (I know, right), and I will return with some CreativeFM and hopefully, an enjoyable continuation via a post-network save. The save now goes offline, a forced divergence away from Chris’ story, who takes Ruslan and Natasha elsewhere.

Thanks for reading,

Tony / FM Grasshopper