"North African Galácticos" - Plazas de Soberanía #FM23

 
 

Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC survived their 1st season in LaLiga 2.

Intro

AD Ceuta FC and I enter our fourth season together in Football Manager 2023. My love for the save is probably quite apparent, I am zooming through the seasons and have enjoyed the various save scenarios I have encountered so far (promotions and relegation battles). As we enter the second consecutive season in LaLiga 2, a rebuild of sorts is needed to consolidate our position in Spain’s second tier.

The Board have tweaked the Club Vision in three of the four FM23 seasons, with this year’s tweak seeing the Board wanting more Possession Football. Luckily for me it’s not too dissimilar to what I have been playing anyway (a 433), but receiving the new vision guides my recruitment somewhat. This is the subject of today’s post…

Rebuild Part II

Seven new signings in one transfer window is quite a lot by my standards, but with stalwart Adri Ceuvas and Arturo Rodriguez retiring and a few others leaving the club after their contracts expire…I was back down to a squad number of just eleven again! The critical positions where I needed immediate cover were in Central Defence, Left Back and in Attack. I also wanted a new Goalkeeper, to replace Leandro who has negotiated a cheaper contract to stay on for one more year as a Back-Up Goalkeeper.

In short, I got a lot of my top choices. The Director of Football missed out on 1-2 to other teams offering more money, but largely Ceuta have made some decent signings within the same transfer budget as last year: €300k. The targets were a mixture of Recruitment Focuses and me running the numbers within FM23 itself, dialling in to the 2024/25 player data to help us with the Possession Football club vision.

Marcelo Djaló (Lugo) – Central Defender - Free

193cm tall Marcelo Djaló appeared in a Recruitment Focus for expiring Centre-Backs, and was head and shoulders above best for Passing and Vision. He is a Real Madrid graduate and I feel he has enough experience to take the Captain’s armband from the departing Ceuvas.

Luis Valcarce (Badajoz) - Full Back - €93k

Another bit of experience in the back-line was to bring in Luis Valcarce. At 32-years-old he is probably at his peak and his 2024/25 numbers reflect that: 91% pass completion + 4.46 progressive passes per 90 and he played every minute of Badajoz’s La Liga 2 campaign. The Director of Football has perhaps overpaid slightly with a €93k transfer fee, but I’m prepared to take the risk on him seeing that he’s been every present for Badajoz.

Andy (Burgos) – Midfielder - Free

Andy has been relegated with Burgos, but the 35-year-old playmaker has an Open Play Key Pass per 90 stat of 0.98. He has an 88% pass completion stat and attractive player traits of Dictates Tempo and Curls Ball which will also help with the Possession Football club vision. Usually a relegated player is a big turn-off for me, but Andy was creating chances in a piss-poor team…I hope I can give him one last dance in the sun.

Omar Faraj (Levante) - Striker - Season long loan

I always hoped that the poster boy from the last post, Kevin Carlos, would be attainable once more on loan. Sadly, Torino were not agreeable to him moving back on loan for another year…so with 7 days remaining of the window I plumped for Levante’s Omar Faraj and offer to pay for 50% of his €156k annual salary. He suits the physical Pressing Forward role in my 433 and can interchange with Ethyan for the central Striker position. Note - this is a departure from my Spanish/North African recruitment, but seeing as Omar has resided in Spain for 4 years and has Real Madrid as his favourite club, I’m classing him as technically Spanish.

"North African Galácticos"

There’s more! Whilst, the previous four signings mentioned above were carefully scrutinised in terms of data/reports…the next three players signed are a bit more romantic. Players that meet the self-imposed North African element of this save…

Luca Zidane (Eibar) - Goalkeeper - €100k (potentially rising to €140k)

The Director of Football (Albert Puigdollers) breaks a transfer record and also raises Ceuta’s top wage by €42k per annum. But it is quite the coup: Luca Zidane! Luca has decided to represent Algeria for International Football and meets the North African recruitment model, but he’s also a great Sweeper Keeper with First Touch 15, Passing 15, Technique 14 and Vision 11. I’m hoping he has as much of a role to play with Possession Football as the other ten outfield players. New Ceuta No.1 and also a new Vice-Captain.

Yassin Fekir (Betis Deportivo) - Attacker - €45k

Another North African Galáctico signing for Ceuta is Yassin Fekir, brother to France International Nabil. Yassin is a versatile player, as he can play on both flanks but also in midfield or upfront. In 2024/25 he has 2.85 dribbles per 90 and 1.85 Open Play Key Passes in the Spanish 4th tier with Real Betis B. It may be that LaLiga 2 is a step too far for him, but at 28-years-old I still think he has some potential to unlock.

Hicham Khaloua (US Touarga) – Attacker - Free

Wide Attacker Hicham Khaloua has played in LaLiga 2 before (Almería in 2018/19) but has since moved back to Morocco in real life, recently spending three seasons with Union Sportive de Touarga. Despite it not being a loaded league in my save, Khaloua has done well there: 30 goals in all 102 league games possible (perhaps his strong Natural Fitness of 15 means he’s a sturdy guy). He also has strong Flair and suits a fluid passing game with strong Technicals…including 15 in Penalty Taking. It’s a gamble, but we also fended off a lot of interest from other Spanish clubs to get him. Like Fekir, he can also play out wide or in the middle upfront…so the extra versatility means I have more attacking variety going into Season 4.

With the three North African arrivals, it takes my overall tally to seven Maghrébin players recruited to Ceuta. Three from Morocco and two from Algeria. I am relatively happy with this, even though we have missed out on a few targets, we have not forced the recruitment by bringing any old Jabbour in. Those seven players have been first team players, with the latest three players perhaps being the most exciting.

I think the next step phase of the save would be to target some of the North African Newgens that have entered the save Universe. Some will not come cheaply, so I need to make sure we are an established regular in LaLiga 2 before I decide to splash the cash on players that do not make an immediate first team impact.

'🎵 “This time for [North] Africa” 🎵

Season 2025/26

July - December 2025

As mentioned previously, I would once again stick with the 433 DM system that has been used for the previous two seasons. In order to meet the club objective for possession football, I decided to lower our tempo when in possession. But I quickly changed that back to a higher tempo as I did not like what I saw with aimless passing and nonchalantly dwelling on the ball in key areas. Consistency is a problem, but five wins in a row saw Ceuta surge up the table before another barren spell of finding the net. This has been my experience of LaLiga 2 in FM23 so far: ‘fits and starts’ of form…

Season 4 in LaLiga2…wild.

Despite my grumblings, AD Ceuta FC are in a really good position. To remedy the barren spell I’ve gone narrow, and have moved the two wider players into the attacking midfielder area behind Omar Faraj’s pressing. Two goals away at Santander saw me deposit a value three points, before three at home Vs Sporting de Gijón. Sandwiched between those victories is the defeat away at Alavés, but even then we held our own for 65 minutes and had lovely moments of play.

Despite the starting formation changing, the Mentality & Team Instructions remain exactly the same; meaning that the players do not require too much adjustment in playing it. Crucially, it also means that I can list our team metrics with a degree of confidence that it should not skew them:

  • Ceuta are 6th in terms of Average Possession (55%)

  • Ceuta are 6th in terms of Pass Completion Ratio (88%).

  • Ceuta are 9th in terms of Opposition Passes Per Defensive Action (5.15).

There are also lots of things we are not that good at too: Cross Completion, Shots Per Game and Tackling to name just three. But on the things we are being judged on, it’s going pretty well and hopefully the recruitment has played a part in that…

Board Feedback December 2025.

I honestly don’t know if we’re in a promotion race for the playoffs, or the start of a downward slide into mid-table…or worse: a relegation battle. But I’m thoroughly enjoying the save and I look forward to updating you on the climax to Season 4 soon.

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper

The Byline Invitational #FM23

 
 

Hi. Ask any competitive FM player at gun point as to what community competition they would wish to win and they would probably agree to say either Latte Quarterly's 'La Copa' or the newly formed 'The Byline Invitational' tournament.

Previously, I had a crack at La Copa in the FM22 cycle but failed miserably (finishing bottom with my Inter Miami side).  But for FM23, I've been fortunate enough to have been invited to The Byline Invitational.

Q&A

What is 'The Byline Invitational'?

The Byline Invitational is a coming together of Sports Interactive’s The Byline writers in January 2023 at Sports Interactive HQ.  Such is the glamour and prestige in winning this Football Manager tournament, some writers have come as far as Buenos Aires, the Canadian tundra, a Dublin bar and even the suburbs of Glasgow.

How does it work?

Managers play Football Manager as a network save using the FM Versus Mode. It's a 14-team league with Europe’s best sides based on UEFA rankings.  It's a league, with each side playing one another once (in a total of 13 games for each side - although we will never play all the games as somebody aka me took too long in the matches, apparently).  3 points for a win, one point for a draw.

What do I want from this tournament?

I would like to do better than Dan Gear. I would also prefer to not be humiliated by Guido Merry’s strikerless tactic.

What would I do if I win it?

I would probably pay thanks to the other writers for forfeiting the tournament to let me win (not at gunpoint, I might add).  Also to the Coffeehouse writers for always supporting me and Dan Gear for allowing me to fulfil my content destiny.

The Draw

The draw takes place in a lively Stratford shopping centre bar, carefully chosen by one of our guides for the weekend so that we do not hear a thing.  Dan Gear seems a bit stressed about whether there is enough food for the weekend, but generally the mood is good.  We draw the teams out from a tupperware I had brought along with me for the evening, containing the best teams according to UEFA rankings…

 
 

What happened?

So, I drew FC Barcelona. But with this being a Versus tournament, there would be no time to pull economic levers and sign anybody. In the most predictable FM Grasshopper fashion, I would bastardise the club and go with a flat 442. It would be anti-Barca too: Counter, Pass Into Space and Waste Time [sometimes] selected to kick-off the matches. Robert Lewandowski as the Advanced Forward and Memphis Depay as the Deep Lying Forward (both on attack), it was relatively boring elsewhere with CM-D, CM-A, Winger and Inverted Winger making it a throwback to the 90s.

I kicked off with a 6-2 win Vs PSG against SI Employee #3, so I was hopeful of winning the tournament…but then I quickly learnt how powerful home advantage was. I failed to win any of my four away games, losing all four. It finished with 12 points (4 wins and 4 defeats), as people wanted to end the tournament after eight matches and head to a bar. My highlight was probably beating Guido’s strikerless Real Madrid system 2-0, after I moved my 422 into a higher block and relied on faster CBs to win the foot race Vs Karim Benzema ✅ The most enjoyable match I played was seeing the quick interchanges of Ihor's/Crusader Tsar’s Ajax, who beat me with a nice 4222 box system.

The leader of the league after eight matches was SI Employee #2’s Liverpool with 19 points (with silver place going to SI Employee #4’s Juventus, a valiant effort with 17 points). #2’s prize is an invite onto the GrassNGear podcast, which they can reject.

Did I beat Dan Gear?

GrassNGear finished on equal points, but sadly MaddFM’s Roma allowed Dan to sneak pass me on goal difference after his 10-2 defeat to Gear’s Red Devils ❌

The Weekend

Overall, it was an amazing weekend. The whole point was to chat about The Byline, which is a growing resource for Football Manager players, and also discuss with SI about the game itself.

It was great to meet so many I had spoken to from far away after all of these years and the squad dynamics were perfect 👏🏻

The new office could easily double up as a museum. There’s a great timeline, charting the game’s history and you get the feeling the people love to work there. Such is the care and attention that has gone into each room. I did not take too many photos, but I sign off with a display case of CM memorabilia, which is bloody amazing.

Thanks for reading,

Tony / FM Grasshopper

"Kevin" - Plazas de Soberanía #FM23

Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC faced a relegation battle.

 
 

Intro

My experience of LaLiga 2 is that it is a two-tier league. An upper tier of ‘LaLiga ready’ clubs capable of obliterating most teams, and then the rest. AD Ceuta FC obviously find themselves at the lowest end of the lower tier. Smallest salary bill, smallest stadium and smallest squad. When I last blogged, I was becoming increasingly worried of a downward slide into the relegation zone and I did not think we had the squad to cope. A single point separated Ceuta from the relegation places.

Fears were amplified when 1st choice Striker, Arturo, went down with knee tendonitis days before the league restarted in January 2025…

You don’t come back from knee tendonitis imo. RIP 😐

Commence emergency recruitment: find a replacement Pressing Forward who could lead us to safety. We need to talk about Kevin…

Kevin

In this short save I signed a few players based on their performance data within the FM23 match engine. I have also used Recruitment Focuses appropriately, signing some top Spanish talent in line with the club parameters. But the 6-month loan signing of Kevin Carlos Omoruyi Benjamin is your typical Blogger nerd signing, based on previous pre-save research. I was always going to be keeping an eye on Kevin during the duration of this FM save…

Why Kevin? Well, Kevin is the only known player [to me at least] of notoriety to be born in Ceuta (with dual citizenship of Spain and Nigeria). So, when I saw that he had become available for loan from Torino of Serie A…there was only one Striker for me. Fortuitously, he also ticks a lot of the boxes that I need to replace the ageing Pressing Forward Arturo Rodríguez who is on the two-month sabbatical with knee tendonitis:

Kevin with Pressing Forward - Attack attributes highlighted.

But previous FM research sadly means Kevin’s arrival is not quite the homecoming I had expected, as he is listed in-game as being born 1,000km away in Huesca which sits close to the Pyrenees Mountains. Oh well, in my mind at least, this is a major coup for the club…a Pressing Forward who wants to be here more ways than one. But how does this signing change our approach? Or should it?

Personally, I feel that any new signing subtlety changes the tactic anyway…but Kevin’s make-up is a lot different than what I had in Arturo. I think I should tweak the role a little to make use of his great pressing attributes: Acceleration 14, Bravery 13, Pace 14, Stamina 14, Strength 15, Teamwork 13 and Work Rate 15. Instead of the Support role, where he would be tasked to Hold Up Ball, I feel the Attack role better suits Kevin because he will be more mobile making use of those attributes previously listed. For our level he is a real workhorse, and given the fact we’re in a relegation battle, we need that fight more than ever.

Pressing Forward - Attack Player Instructions

I have shown the PIs above that Kevin has on the PF-A role. The only further tweak I have made is to see how he fares at marking the left sided central defender. I have done this with the intention to make use of his good pressing attributes to see if he can capitalise on defensive mishaps. Kevin is my first defender. Additionally, this could leave my other main attacker (left sided attacking Inside Forward) with a potential 1v1 against the other right-sided centre-back when facing a two-CB pairing. Note - if facing a back-three system, I would opt for the central CB.

1st choice Ceuta attack at the onset of 2025.

Imagine scoring your first home goal during a match with a capacity crowd against LaLiga leaders: Atlético de Madrid in the Lana Del Rey! Because that is what Kevin did…

Kevin Vs Club Atlético de Madrid in the Lana Del Rey, where we led the game for 8 mins [until conceding three]!

Bang

Kev loves to bang

Head

Kev loves to head

Press

Kev loves to press

Season 2024/25

January - June 2025

Kevin took a couple of games to warm up, but then sparked to life with 10 goals over the next eight matches. Once that honeymoon was over, Kevin’s dry spell covered six games and coincided with a bleak period for the club during March and April. A disgusting nine games without a win (eight defeats ffs) is the worst run in FM that I can remember (including my time at Murciélagos in FM20). In my opinion, the reason for the downturn in form was injury and suspensions (reinforcing the fact that going into this season with an 18-man-squad was a pretty dumb idea). We needed a few more utility players to plug the gaping holes in the squad, so that’s on me 😔

But we did come through it, and I still sigh in relief from looking at the recovery in May with three back-to-back wins. I tweaked the 433 ever-so-slightly by dropping Txus Alba into DM as a Regista and then having a CM-S and CM-A in front of him. I did this because I noticed we continued to dominate possession despite losing so frequently, so having the idle DM-D swapped for something a bit more probing [like a Regista] was the thinking here. The result of the switch is that Alba’s passing increased by around 20% (Passes Completed) and he saw a noticeable surge in Key Passes compared to his previous AP-S role. I’m unsure if it’s a long-term fixture however, as recruitment will dictate as to whether we keep with the 433 DM or go for something different in Season 4.

As for Kevin, he finished with 15 goals in 23 starts (all comps). A Non-Penalty xG per 90 of 0.52 (0.16 more than league average) and a solid 7.73 Headers Won per 90 (2.26 more than league average). He is undoubtedly the reason what kept AD Ceuta FC in LaLiga 2, which makes Torino’s decision to reject my advances to extend his loan into next season ever more concerning. 6 months of Pressing Forward bliss, Ceuta remembers.

Here are the 2025 results and the finalised 2024/25 league table:

If that is not enough, here is a use of the FM23 Manager Timeline™…it confirmed to me the league table is indeed true: we are staying up:

“I understood the assignment”.

Looking ahead to Season 4

A couple of FM Bloggers laughed when I said about challenging for LaLiga within 5 years at the commencement of this save. I wonder if they are getting worried now? Season 4 will see AD Ceuta FC flesh out the squad a bit more and build on the solid foundation of players that will soon be moving from ‘Emerging’ to ‘Peak’ within the FM23 Experience Matrix. So, I am going to spend a lot of time on Season 4 recruitment, which means loads of data in spreadsheets and countless hours in the Scouting Centre. All in the aim of getting this done right, Blogger style, so blog frequency may slow down.

I am excited to begin Rebuilt Part II, I hope you will join me.

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper

"War Chest" - Plazas de Soberanía #FM23

 
 

Previously on Plazas de Soberanía, AD Ceuta FC were promoted to La Liga 2.

Intro

It’s often called a ‘War Chest’ isn’t it? That lump sum of money given to a manager to go out and bullishly spend in the transfer market. AD Ceuta FC were around €1.5m in debt when La Liga 2’s TV revenue trickled south to the Spanish North African semi-exclave in July 2024. €5.7m income would not only wipe the debt clear, but also give the club some ammunition in transfer market. However, as is often the case outside of football, the cost of something expands in order to fit the budget. Or to think of it differently: it’s like how A+ PC games expand in size to fit computers’ ever-increasing storage capacities OR the length of time I give my kids in the morning to get ready for school is immaterial as I will inevitably be screaming at 0830 regardless (!). Back to the FM23 Ceuta context: better players cost more, and better players were needed if AD Ceuta were to settle long-term into our new home of La Liga 2. A transfer kitty of €370k in La Liga 2 is considerably less than it would be in the division below, but I was nevertheless delighted to have it.

This post documents the first 6 months of AD Ceuta FC’s inaugural season in La Liga 2 (and my 3rd with the club in FM23). How did I use the war chest? Is the honeymoon period over in this save? Read on amigo/amiga…

War Chest + Salary Cap

War Chest - As mentioned in the intro, my transfer budget as of July 2024 is €370k. We critically need to recruit three players: a 1st choice centre-back in order to replace the now retired Moisés, a playmaker to take over the reins whenever 34-year-old Adri Cuevas calls it a day and a striker to reduce the match load on 35-year-old Arturo Rodríguez whose powers are now on the wane. In order to meet the club culture, I will give preference towards players under the age of 23.

Salary Cap - readers of last year’s The MLS Save™ may remember how enjoyable I found playing under a salary cap. The good news is that it exists in Spain’s La Liga 2 also: with a €2.3m playing squad salary cap (per annum). Plus all registered players have to earn €77k per annum in wages, meaning that six of my squad players would have to be boosted contractually…costing the club a further €131k in salary per annum. Although there may be a loophole with me registering four of them as B Team players…what a headache we have here.

Although I am under no obligation to do so, I always like to have a self-imposed individual salary cap for a player. It is something I have often done in Football Manager over the years. During the last two seasons, in the Spanish 3rd tier, I set this at around €130/140k per player. Now that we are a level higher, I have set an arbitrary limit of around €200k annual salary per player.

Note - another thing I have to thank The MLS Save™ for is the full adoption of annual salaries. €200k per annum may sound like a hefty wage, but it’s ‘only’ just below a €4k weekly wage…meaning that this is pittance compared to some of our league rivals. Annual is also much easier to work with (and more sensible to use), and I am therefore prepared to die on this hill…so please @ me elsewhere for the impending argument.

Spanish Wonderboys Incoming 🚨

I have got to be happy with the three ‘marquee’ transfers I made. I use marquee loosely, as none are household names in Ceuta just yet…but I am confident they can develop into good players here. They were also names known to me over the process of two years of constant Recruitment Focuses. My muscle memory quickly identified them when I again looked at the RF for players aged 23 or under based in Spain at the end of the 2023/24 season.

Jorge Herrando joins for €100k from Osasuna Promesas. It’s a lot of money for the club to put into a 23-year-old centre-back, but there is a maturity about his game already. I really like his strong Anticipation and I am in love with his aerial strength. At 192cm tall, he’s straight in the match day XI as my left-sided CB to play alongside Robin Lafarge. I’ve put him on a Defensive Positioning individual focus right away to see if we can boost his Marking, Positioning and, more importantly, his Decisions.

Txus Alba joins from the Barcelona’s B Team, for free! As already mentioned, Alba showed up on some previous Recruitment Focuses…however he was also a name that jumped out from the deeper statistical dive I did when rebuilding Ceuta on the onset of Season 2. His loan to Linares during the second half of 2022/23 saw him have a record of 1 in 2 goal involvements (goals + assists) and his name would appear when filtering on Open Play Key Passes Per 90. I had agreed terms for a Free transfer then, only to see Barcelona activate a one-year extension. But in 2024 he is mine! Alba will be end up being the long-term playmaker in my side, and successor to Club Captain: Adri Cuevas. He comes at a cost in wages though, right on the limit of my self-imposed salary cap of €200k per annum. Will a 21-year-old as my highest earner be worth it?

Ethyan - arrives for a club record fee of €115k from Tenerife. His real-life scoring record for Tenerife has seen him be picked up by Atlético Madrid B on loan. The in-game Diego Simeone had taken a fancy to him in 2022/23 FM23 season by subbing him on for 26 first team Atléti matches in La Liga. If he’s good enough for El Cholo, he’s good enough for me. The reason I have gone all out for 22-year-old Ethyan is that he’s a bridge between a 433 and a two-striker system I may end up going for in future seasons (more on this later). For 2024/25, I intend to play Ethyan alongside Arturo Rodríguez as an attacking Inside Forward on the left. In my opinion, he fits this role quite well…and getting a natural striker in this role is my way of trying to get the IF-A to ‘work’ in my tactic. The longer term thinking here is that whenever Arturo does leave Ceuta, I already have a No.9 ready-and-waiting to take centre-stage.

Tactical Consistency: 433

To recap, I used a 442 in Season 1 and a 433 last season (and sometimes 4231). I see myself going back to a two-striker system with Ceuta at some point in this save, but for Season 3 I plan to keep with the 433. Why? Well, the security of a DM may help achieve the new additional club culture added in this year by the board: to play defensively solid football. Admittedly this scares me, being in a higher league and all, but I should not forget that my side had a ridiculous amount of clean sheets last year (23). So, let’s summon the same energy in La Liga 2 and play 433.

As mentioned above, all three new signings can slot right into this shape with no trouble at all. Below is the 433 that I will be using (slight adjustment is that I now use a Ball Playing Defender) and my squad depth screen:

 
 

If you hated yourself enough to count the number of players in that squad depth chart above, you would have noted it being quite short in numbers (total of 18 players). I had hoped to bring in a couple more experienced utility players on loan in the lead up to the season, but I think our small reputation limited our attractiveness. Players either listed for transfer or for loan within LaLiga 2 did not want to come to presumably relegation fodder such as AD Ceuta FC.

Season 2024/25

July - December 2024

With only the 18 core players, AD Ceuta FC walk into LaLiga 2 with a salary bill of €2m - by far the lowest in the league… although I’m unsure how some clubs get round the rules, isn’t there meant to be salary a cap ffs?! Never mind, I would say this makes this season a true underdog story in the making…perhaps on par with Israel FC’s 1-0 away win VS Philistines back in 1000BC if we were to do it. But…can we do it?

Oh fuck, are we in trouble here?

Perhaps it was a stupid decision to use a sizeable chunk of the war chest on just a handful of young players. As you can expect, my Ceuta boys are regularly outclassed on a consistent basis, I even celebrated the 0-0s Vs Badajoz and Tenerife like victories 😂. Those last two months of football in November and December have been especially horrific, just the one goal scored over 630 minutes of football 🤮 Strikers Ethyan and Arturo sit on 4 goals each, who unsurprisingly are also underperforming in their Expected Goals metric (Ethyan -0.78 and Arturo -0.39) with the former converting only 9% of his shots. Ouch. The only glimmer of hope has been a couple of nice Txus Alba goals, which I’ll link below. Unfortunately he has faded somewhat as the season has gone on, in line with the rest of the squad:

Alba Vs Leganes.

Alba Vs Mallorca.

WTF now?

My next step is to head back to the Scouting Centre again to find a/some/any player(s) willing to come and steady the ship here on the North African coast. Two desirable qualities will be: (1) experience and/or (2) ability to score goals. It can’t be that hard, can it?

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring about my journey as I either slide back down to the Spanish third tier OR mount a daring last stand in 2025.

Wish me luck.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

"The Spanish Playoffs" - Plazas de Soberanía #FM23

 
 

Intro

Dear Reader,

Happy soon-to-be New Year to you. The title of today’s post is a massive spoiler in how the 2nd half of my second season with AD Ceuta FC went: we have reached the Spanish Playoffs. Eight teams from two leagues coming together, playing games in neutral venues with some nice little oddities like the ‘higher place’ advantages. AD Ceuta FC’s appearance in the 2023/24 version could simply be a footnote for the history books, or they could take centre stage and upset the odds by reaching LaLiga 2.

Just like Spanish tapas, the 2023/24 Playoffs could also be something I mention in passing as a quick snack. Or it becomes the full meal of a blog post. There is only one way to finding out which one I choose to do. Let’s tuck in…

Season 2023/24

January - June 2024

I have seen a couple of the popular leaders of the FM scene having a hard time with FM23 and slamming it publicly due to defensive decision-making being off. It could be the way I am playing FM23, but I do not feel I am seeing more mistakes than I would do in real-life. In fact, my Ceuta boys love a clean sheet with 0.68 goals conceded per 90 (26 goals against)…we’re officially the best defence in Grupo I. As mentioned last time out, I was adopting a mixture of 4231 / 433 in the second half of the season. A few wobbles in March and April would not prevent us from ending on a strong run with 5 wins on the bounce. Hooray, we’re in the playoffs and bettered on last season’s 6th place.

If I was to look at myself in the mirror (which I often do to be fair), I’d tell myself that the Statistical Rebuild™ has been successful. Most satisfyingly, I’ve managed to circulate Lorenzo González’s 34 goals from Season 1 around my attack. Our supportive Pressing Forward, Arturo Rodríguez, is the main man with 17 goals in the regular campaign. But goals (38 of them) have been spread around the five players regularly occupying the attacking zones of the opposition half:

 

Goals 2023/24 (regular Primera Federación season)

 

Overall, our goal difference is +3 better off from Season 1. We have scored 8 fewer goals this year, but I was always accepting that this may happen seeing as Lorenzo González was a bit of a freak in our league. I would certainly like more goals from my Inside Forward and Mezzala and that’s something I will be trying to address for Season 3. However, eleven fewer goals conceded is what Tony Adams and co. in my backroom staff will be happy with. Here is the final table from Season 2:

 

Top 4 is a trophy, right?

 

The Semi Final Playoff

So, I’m drawn against 3rd place from the adjacent league (Grupo II): Real Sociedad B. I am a bit apprehensive, as a B side can call on much greater resources for a game…but these playoff matches are classed as ‘cup games’ in Football Manager. Shocks can, and will, happen.

My huge semi.

Real Sociedad B holds a ‘higher place’ advantage, having finished in a higher position.  So, if the scores are level after extra time…it’s a win for the Basque club.  AD Ceuta FC must win, and in a way it makes our objective a little easier.  Do I have a variety of routes to goal?  Are there marginal gains I can add in to make the difference?  Are there 1v1 mismatches that could decide the game in our favour?  These are things I must explore in today’s blog post.

Scouting

No scouting or analyst reports…as the Board feels it's too expensive.  So, I wait for the usual Next Opposition report and I give it to my main man: Diego Buitrago (12 in Judging Player Ability and Potential).

This report arrives 5 days before the match and I obviously scrutinise it in-depth.  I am shown a Performance Report, Team Report and an Analyst Report.

  1. Performance Report - From reading this it is clear that Real Sociedad B align with a lot of the averages in Primera Federación Grupo II.  Comparing it with our own general performance, I can see that we’re better passers of the ball…

  2. Team Report - I receive a line-up, which shows the Sociedad B side lining up in a 4231.  The Strengths and Weaknesses are quite enlightening, I’ve plucked a few Sociedad B Strengths which I need to worry about and also a few weaknesses I feel can be targeted (below).

  3. Analyst Report - the data anal report is really lacking.  There’s no fixture data to display (for some reason), and a lot of the information was already in the two items above.  The only extra bit to glean from this report is that Real Sociedad B conceded a large % of goals in the first fifteen minutes (Don’t worry I worked it out: 40% - eight goals conceded in 20 games have come in the first 15 minutes).

Out of all the above, what am I going to do in the huge Semi?  Well, I’ll:

  • Stick with 433 DM Wide.  Sociedad B seems to struggle against it.  We also should be confident of our ball playing ability against them.  I’ll be wary of their top scorer from AMC (Roberto López) but having a DM in the side means I can Man Mark and hopefully take him out of the game.

  • I’ll play the 193cm tall Álvaro Télis to combat the deep crosses.

  • I’ll ask the team to ‘Get Stuck In’, as I feel we can beat Sociedad in the mental and physical battles.  Let’s see if they can cope with it in the first 15 minutes.

  • I’ll ask the team to Trigger Press on the weaker of Sociedad B’s CBs (Josu Rezola)...as the aforementioned Urko González de Zárate does look pretty beasty for our level and would probably cope with it.  This will, more often than not, be carried out by Pressing Forward, Arturo Rodríguez, who matches up very well against Rezola.  So, I’ll throw Hard tackling in for good measure.

Training

At this stage of the season there is little point training to boost attributes or fitness levels.  Instead, we’ll conduct Tactical sessions and anything that can give us a little boost before the big match.  Usually, I would train penalties ahead of a knockout match but given the quirks of the Spanish ‘higher place’ ruling…no game can go to penalties.  Here is what I went with:

The Result

One of the beauties of Football Manager is that you can never quantify exactly how much influence the tweaks you make have on your end result.  I guess the ambiguity is what makes us come back for more…the challenge is knowing some of the game mechanics, but crucially not enough so that we do not ‘hack the game’ and always win.

The tweaks I made hopefully contributed to the 2-0 win Vs Real Sociedad, and in truth we never looked like losing as we controlled a lot of the game (63% ball share).  Arturo Rodríguez scored his 18th goal of the season shortly before half-time, running on to a through ball from my attacking Mezzala, Iker Kortajarena.  I was expecting a second half onslaught from Real Sociedad B…but it never came.  Instead, Adri Cuevas fired in from range in injury time to see Ceuta book their place in the Final.  Two men in their mid-30s firing Ceuta to a 2-0 win, it’s now starting to sound a bit more like an FM Grasshopper save!

Minute 40 - Arturo smashes it home.

Minute 90+3 - Cuevas’ rocket.

The 2023/24 season was not over just yet…

The Final Playoff

My AD Ceuta FC side is one game away from reaching the Spanish second division, but in our way is another B team: Celta B. Worryingly, the Galician side has twice beaten my Ceuta side during this season, so I am aware of the threats they pose. I do not need a scout report to tell me that Iker Losada in the No.10 position supplying striker Lautaro de León is a dream combination in the third division. In my opinion, both are future La Liga players in my save and are thriving this season; especially in Celta B’s Semi Final 3-0 victory against Intercity where de León opened the scoring before a Losada brace. Stopping them is essential if Ceuta are to progress.

Breezy, 19 degrees.

Some positive news though, Ceuta holds the higher place advantage going into the final. So, a draw after either 90 or 120 minutes would be enough to see North African’s best Spanish side promoted.

Scouting

Although Álvaro Télis was the right fit last time round at Centre-Back, I feel I need a stronger defender…both in Mentals and also Marking/Tackling in order to cope with Lautaro De León. So, I call upon the soon-to-be-retiring 34-year-old Moisés. The little comparison graphic that pops up in the Tactic screen when you hover over a player sums it up nicely:

(I hope Moisés can lead us across the Mediterranean Sea and into LaLiga 2)

The scouting report summarises Celta B’s strengths as a fast and agile team. This does not surprise me, seeing that most of their team is aged 19-24 years of age. For this reason, it is their weaknesses that I want to go after:

I have plucked some weaknesses out that clearly show this is a side that can be kicked and mentally subdued. I will continue with the more frequent press and ask the players to get stuck in. I will also instruct the team to tackle harder on the seven players in Celta’s B previous XI who have relatively weak Aggression, Bravery and Strength (more than two attributes below 10).

Training

Not a lot to say on training, other than I thought we’d get the pen and paper out for two sessions on the Monday before we hug one another. On the day before the big match, we’ll practice some set pieces before having a match preview. I like to think this is how Terry Venables approached team training when on the Spanish mainland with Barcelona…

The Result

I’m not a huge lover in too many changes, especially when the performance against Real Sociedad B was so strong. So, other than the Moisés-Télis swap at CB my Ceuta side remains unchanged in the 433. Luckily for myself, the AI seems to be a huge lover in changes. Inexcusably, Iker Losada was called up to Celta’s main squad on either the eve of the match OR the match day itself. Why? No idea. Is it to give the human player a chance? Celta’s main squad has no game scheduled, having finished La Liga exactly a month ago. So, hope springs eternal once more. A 20-year-old Robert Carril filled the place as Celta B’s attacking No.10…Aggression 5, Bravery 4 and Strength 6. He will be murdered.

However, the first wound Celta B would experience would fall on Winger ‘Alfon’ on 14 minutes, my Right Back rightly received a yellow for the assault (and he was instantly told to ease off the tackles). Alfon played through the rest of the game gingerly, but it was yet another route to goal taken away from Celta B as he could only run in straight lines after the incident.

Despite our dominance, Celta B’s only highlight of the 1st half was a huge opportunity from the penalty spot. Ceuta Club Captain Adri Cuevas hacking down a Celta B player on minute 28. Penalty to Celta B…

Minute 29: Leandro saves to keep it 0-0 at HT.

At Half Time, I took a perusal at the match statistics: we were bloody dominant. 16 shots, but only 5 on target. 69% ball share, but zero clear cut chances created. 0-0 is good enough for Ceuta, but way too risky with Lautaro De León still on the pitch. The only team instruction I changed was to ask the players to work the ball into the box. We required only the one goal to take a hold of this tie…

…does this count as working the ball into the box? I’ll take it anyway, Iker Kortajarena makes it 1-0 Ceuta on 53 minutes.

Minute 53: Kortajarena 1-0 Ceuta. “What’s the goalie doing?”

I am led to believe that Kortajarena translates as “Bus” in his native Basque language, and like a bus…his goals arrive in twos. Ironically (is it?) two minutes later than his 1st goal. Ceuta 2-0 Celta B on 55 minutes…

Minute 55: Kortajarena 2-0 Ceuta. “Who wants it more?”

There would be no more goals, as I started to ring the changes and slow the game down from minute 60. The match would finish 2-0, a 23rd clean sheet of the season with De León limited to just the two shots at goal all game. AD Ceuta FC are promoted to LaLiga 2 🍺🍺🍺

We’re Up!

Who knows if this was all down to my tactical tweaks and man-management wizardry…or just the AI being awful in knockout football. I’ll take it. The promotion playoff victory sees the first significant financial boost (+€115k) arrive in the coffers since the sale of Lorenzo González 12 months ago. But we remain debt ridden (-€1.4m balance), meaning it will be another transfer window of frugality as I try my best to now stay up in a superior league.

Can we do it? Feel free to keep following my journey as I progress with this enjoyable save into real-life 2023.

Thanks for reading/sharing & caring,

Tony / FM Grasshopper