FM21: Back from the Brink
Located on an island in the Atlantic, CS Maritimo takes its name from Madeira’s close connection to the sea, exploration, and maritime industries. Portugal became world-renowned for it’s seafaring prowess in the Age of Discovery and Madeira became an important port as Portuguese caravels travelled on their way to Asia, Africa, and South America.
Exploring the world by sea was a dangerous endeavor, but it brought great wealth and fame back to the rapidly growing Madeiran capital of Funchal. Maritimo pays further homage to this history by incorporating a ship’s wheel into the crest. One thing every successful sea captain needs to do is steer their way through storms. And if I may crudely bring this back to Football Manager, we were caught in massive storm to start the 2022–23 season. A storm I wasn’t sure we were going to escape.
The Storm
In the last post, I mentioned how we lost our final five games of the 2021–22 season. It was disappointing to be sure, but we had been overachieving up to that point so I wasn’t overly worried. It felt more like a return to our rightful place in the table rather than a sign of an underlying problem.
Unfortunately, my diagnosis was overly optimistic. Despite keeping roughly the same team that finished with 56 points the previous season (1.56 points per game), we went winless in the first ten games of the next season (2 draws, and 8 losses).
I was at my wits end. A formerly solid defense began leaking goals and our offense could not score enough to keep up. I believe had we not won the Allianz Cup the year before the board would have fired me. I was beginning to plan whether I would continue in this save world with another team, or fire up a brand new game. It was that bad.
The World Cup break arrived just in time (the 2022 World Cup is scheduled for November and December because of its location in Qatar). I used the opportunity to evaluate the team and the tactic and come up with some changes. Here is the tactic we had been using:
This 5–3–2 tactic brought the club its first silverware, but it never worked quite right. I went to it because Maritimo starts the game withthree very good center backs and two good wing backs, but for whatever reason the middle center back of the three never got good ratings. I shrugged it off when things were going well, but as we entered the losing streak it began sticking out. The other issue with this tactic was that the two strikers would become isolated at times. Even setting one as a deep-lying forward and having an attacking central midfielder wouldn’t always fix the problem.
Analyzing the team, I came to the conclusion that the defensive woes were stemming from the decline of our captain, Zainadine Junior. In the introduction post, I mentioned that despite his advanced age, I thought between his natural fitness and mental attributes, we could rely on him for a few years. Unfortunately, I leaned on him a year too long. He had been our most stalwart defender but age eventually caught up with him. It hurt a little bit, but I had to drop him from the starting line up.
The Change-Up
The following is the tactic I used to fix our problems:
We’ve dropped the third center back, but moving the wing backs and ball-winning midfielder back retains defensive solidity. Moving up the center-attacking midfielder to attacking midfielder helps keep the strikers from being isolated. The really fun innovation was the double mezzalas. The description of the role describes a mezzala as a “central winger” and that’s exactly how they function within the narrow diamond. They work great with the attacking wingbacks, providing overloads and support as they drive to the end line.
With the defense forced to drop to cover crosses from the wing backs, the mezzalas get space to fire assists to the strikers and the occasional long-range goal.
Finding the Right Players
Of course, by relying so heavily on the wing backs for width, this tactic absolutely requires good players in that position. As any long-time FM players knows, attacking full backs are some of the hardest players to find, especially on a budget. To highlight the kind of players that found success, I’ll show a pairing of inexpensive wing backs that became stars on the team.
Mayk and Fabinho
Mayk and Fabinho were both brought in to be backups but consistently improving play saw them becomes starters by the end of the save. They’re essentially mirror images of each other on the left and right, respectively. There are obvious holes in their game, but the combination of physical prowess and preferred moves made them perfect for the attacking wing back role. Specifically, their ability and desire to run with the ball made them highly effective. It is this trait that separates wing backs from full backs, and without any other wide players in front of them, it was tactically essential. Best of all, Fabinho ($70k) and Mayk ($250k, potential $675k) were absolute steals on the transfer market.
Vulnerabilities
While this tactic was very successful from the start, it was not without flaws. The main one being how physically demanding it was. Even with a squad built for it, a deep cup run or a spate of injuries could cause the team serious problems by the end of the season. By my final season, I resorted to near complete rotation in the cups so I could focus on the league (in this case the old cliché was true).
As we began piling up the wins, another vulnerability began to emerge. We just weren’t that good at breaking down low blocks. This is a common problems as mid-table rise through the ranks; you can’t expect to get the same counter attack opportunities you once did. The main solution to that was bringing in a higher class of player, but I’ll get into that in the next post of the series.
Still, making a tactical adjustment that actually works is one of the sweetest feelings for an FM player. Maritimo finished the 22/23 season with 57 points, 1 point ahead of the previous year even with the nightmare start. If I’ve learned anything from this experience, it’s to not get too wedded to a single tactic or player. Our first tactic had brought us silverware, but when it stopped working it was time to move on.
In the next post, I’ll go into the final few seasons of save and the wonderkids (spoiler) that took us to new heights. For smaller bits and pieces from the save, follow my twitter account at @FMBowser.
