La Isla Bonita : My Spanish version of Mission Impossible

So, here i am; becoming the first Malaysian manager in Spanish League. In order to make it more challenging or interesting (or caused more suffering), I set my reputation to Sunday League Football player. First, let me show you my personal information and then my progress until now (as of January 2014 - game time).

My personal info. As you can see my reputation is set to local:




When I took over, decided to retain all my coaching staffs even though their attributes looks less than mediocre (crap to be honest) as my limited wage budget unable attract more decent coach. The board set my wage budget around 36k pound sterling per week and 0 pound transfer fee. The worst part is; I don't have any final say in transfer dealing. Meaning that, my Sporting Director, Loren can sell or send my player out on loan without my consent. Boy o boy.
So far, Loren the Ignorant managed to loan out 3 of my players. All of them are my "untouchable" players. Take a look on his performance in Transfer Dealings:




This is my squad:

Goalkeepers:


Due to Segunda Division rule on permitting only 2 keepers, decided to pick Ander Bardaji & Jon Tena. Since Ismail Falcon being brought from Hercules, they gave Ander Bardaji to us. I must say this is a blessing for us as he is Spanish under-19 GK. So naturally, he must be my number 1 for my team. The bad thing is I always lose him on international duty as the league matches clash with international matches. Therefore, Jon Tena deputised in his absence. But I must say, I didnt have confidence in him as he keep fumbling long range shoots from opponents. Coming January, I decided to change him with Enrique Royo; another youth player.

Defenders of Universe:


My Achilles Heel of my squad. As you can see, I dont have backups on the fullbacks/wingbacks position. Alberto Morgada is my utility full back (a left back but I re-train him as RB/WB as well) but Mr Loren the Ignorant loan him out to Segunda Groupo 2 rival, Laudia!! Another point, Malian International Diarra & Peruvian Callen also often being called up by respective national teams. Major headache.

Midfielders:


Pablo Hervais is my creative force. I used him as my advance playmaker. Eizmendi & Oyarzun are wingers by trade but I set them both as my Inside forwards. Muguruza & Sanz are my Insurance policy or Annoying Box to box midfielders as they are hard tacklers & always getting booked. Injury persist at the back, I used Oscar Vega and Barcina as my wing backs

Strikers:


At start of the season, I have Iker Hernandez as my main striker. Like Bardaji, he is under-19 spanish international. I see him as future senior team player. Man City closedly monitored him as Manuel Pellegrini often watched him play. Problem is he keep missing from first eleven due to called up by u19 spanish team and injuries. Coming January, he was promoted to senior team. Ouch!! Luckily for me, I got Kenan Kodro on fire. The Bosnian U21 captain managed to scored 11 goals so far in the league. In his absence (international duty), I got Nanizayamo as my backup Target Man and Mediavilla as my impact striker.

In terms of tactic, I used 4-3-3 with Inside Forwards as my primary formation. I want my team to play possession based football like majority Spanish team used to play. As season goes, I changed my formation to direct 3-4-1-2 or 4-4-2 diamond depends on injuries or suspension especially at the back.

Results so far:





On our day, I think my team can make a breakthrough from other contenders and build a large gap from the rest. But problems with injuries, suspensions and international call-up make it more challenging for us to maintain our good form. The board expectation is to establish as mid-table team but I believe this team can make it into promotion playoff barring another Injury crisis and suspensions.

League Standing so far:

Nice! excited for this man! Dig that skin too

Good start, will be following!

Good luck mate, will be great to follow

Thanks guys!! I try to update this story as much as possible. Been busy with office works and other commitment. Previously only managed play other save games for one 1/2 or three seasons and then lost my "appetite" to continue.
For this Real Sociedad B team save, I plan to play whole 90 minutes per match so that I can analyse what went wrong and tweaked my tactic accordingly so it might take longer time to post my career on this forum. Been trying to impose my own version of "Gegenpressing" but I don't think can achieve that with current set of players I possessed. This will take few seasons and a certain type of players to master this kind of pressing game.

Stay tune for next update as there is one major obstacle that can hamper my chance to bring this B team to Liga Adelante.
OOOO Hell Yeah!!!!!

Forgot to mention that my contract has been renewed for another season. Quite surprised the board offered me new contract early December. I instantly agreed to manage the team for another season.
Coming to the end January, I didn’t add in new players (due to chronic finance-100k in red) and kind of relieved that my Sporting Director didn’t sell or loan out my players to our rivals. Then this happen:




My wizard, Eizmendi has been absorbed into senior squad. He and Oyarzun have been lethal on both flanks with their dribbling and crosses. They made Kenan Kodro our top scorer. No doubt, I feel proud he made it to main squad but at the same time worried if this will give negative impact on our team run. As consolation, they gave us young attacking midfielder, Eneko Capilla. Take a look on his profile. He also can play as fullback. Another useful option as my wingbacks are currently overloaded and desperately need to rest.





Meanwhile, Mr Loren made another exciting signing as Carlos Vela replacement. This guy, Gabriel Barbosa is the next best thing for Santos after Neymar departure to Barcelona. To acquire him on this price is actually a steal for us!! He will join us at the end of this season. With Barbosa on board, finger cross if first team boss Jacobo Arraste decided to give back Iker Hernandez or Eizmendi to us next season. Hehehe!!

Now back to business:


The match against Pena Sport was Eizmendi’s last game for us before being promoted to main squad. And he scored both goals. What a perfect farewell gift. On paper, we can beat Pena comfortably but everything went wrong from the start. We trailed by 2 goals after 20minutes. The weather (heavy rain) made it difficult for us to impose our ball retention game. I decided to change into fast paced attacking and managed to score before halftime through Eizmendi. Halfway through 2nd half I changed the formation into 4-1-2-1-2 to exposed middle area and bring forward my fullback into attacking wingback position. 3 minutes later, my enforcer Alejandro Sanz was awarded straight red card for cynical foul. Pffttt!!!! With nothing to lose, I changed my team strategy to Gung-Ho. Luckily for us; Eizmendi scored few minutes from time.
For the rest of February, my team were struggled to maintain our good run. We got lucky to win against Real Madrid C through goalkeeper blunder and dubious penalty. Injuries to Fuch, Muguruza and Hervais combined with Sanz suspension (banned for another 3 matches by FA) contribute our losses to Real Union and Conquense. Basically we were decimated in central midfield area. I was forced to field Aboubacar Diarra as Anchorman and Oyarzun as AMC or MC. The loss of Eizmendi’s penetration run also took away our usual attacking threat. Oscar Vega did his best but not consistent enough to make his spot permanent. I don’t want to rush Capilla into my team yet as he is still not match fit. Kenan Kodro’s performance also dipped and failed to register his tally during this month. I decided to rest him for few games just to keep him fresh. Jonathan Nanizayamo replaced him as my Target Man.
Our form improved in March once we got our usual central midfielders back but we didn’t dominate in those matches. Alejandro Sanz was sent off again in Sestao River match and FA banned him another 2 matches. Eneko Capilla started to show his worth during this period. His goal and assist in the match against championship league leader Huesca put us back to top of the league. Kenan Kodro is back with a brace in this match but this happen:




Oh man!! Now he will be gone for at least 5 weeks. This is going to be tough as the gap between 1st and 4th place is quite close. Hope Kodro will recover just in time for promotion playoff. He is by far our most potent goal scorer. With this set back, I think it is time to give exposure on youth striker Patxi Mediavilla. He scored a brace on his debut already in November but didn’t appear since.
 
The League as for now:


We are back to the summit after Huesca’s win. With 7 matches to go, we are still in the race for top 4 finish. I would be happy to qualify in top four as there is no automatic promotion spot. But it is better to wrap up our spot as soon as possible so that I can make rotation on my squad to preserve our energy in Playoff.

Meanwhile,



Hmmmmm... interesting. But he won against arch rival, Bilbao in the next game so he is safe for now. Even he is going to be sacked; I don’t think I can successfully replace him due to my lowly reputation (still local).

Our win against Las Palmas Atletico & Sarinena secured our place in playoff and I admit I want to win the league as soon as possible. But “out of sorts” lose against arch rival Bilbao B team and Toledo put us out of the race and Huesca capitalised this to win the league. I decided to rest my key players for the last two remaining games in order to avoid injuries and preserve their energy for playoff.
So, this is our league standing after 38 games:


The Playoff:
Ok, now the hardest obstacle. Teams occupied from 2nd to 4th from each Group will face each other to grab two spots to Liga Adelante. Meanwhile, the group champions will play each other in another playoff. The winner of the “champions” playoff will be promoted to Liga Adelante. The 2 losers in this early round (champions playoff) will play against teams like us in 3rd phase playoff. Confusing? Don’t worry, me too. Hehehe
We got Sporting Gijon B in first round. The battle of B team. I got the feeling this tie is not going to be easy as in the league.

First Round:
First leg:




From start my team were struggled against this Sporting B team. My midfield runner, Alejandro Sanz was sent off in 34thminutes for 2 yellow cards offense. As you can see from the stats, they dominate the possession; the chances; everything (even the fouls!!).We were totally outplayed despite took our lead through spectacular free kick from Alain Oyarzun. Sporting pounced two goals back through Alex Garcia penalties. In 75thminute, I changed my formation into 3-4-1-2 to shored up our defence and minimize one goal deficit to bring back to our home tie. Suddenly, Victor Fuchs equalized from Oyarzun brilliant set piece. I was ecstatic. Can you imagine me jumping and show fist towards my laptop monitor silently (it was 5am). However, the celebration didn’t last long as Sporting scored in 89thminute through Alvaro Bustos solo effort. %&*$#@!!!!
After the match, I changed my team preparation training to focus on attacking movement. My game plan for 2nd leg is to attack in first 10 minutes. I only need one more goal to qualify on away goal rule. So I change my tactic instruction to Gung-ho, high pace and direct game plan for first 10 minutes.

Second leg:



We got our equalizer exactly in first 10 minutes. I change my team mentality to Control after that and got two more goals through fast counter attacks. Next round, we will meet Cadiz.
 
Second Round:
First leg:



I didn’t expect the fact that we won by 3 goals margin. Cadiz dominated the game but their profligacy proved costly as Jonathan Nanizayamo’s brace and Eneko Capilla goal put us in comfortable position.

Second leg:



Cadiz put on a fight but we managed to hold our lead. Again we are not dominant as we were in the league. Maybe my players are tired. I lose Oyarzun through injury and my midfield depths are pretty thin for next tie. I have no choice but to play with tired players.

Third round:
First leg:



In final round, we met Huesca (again) at home. I got Kodro back for this game and he scored the winning goal to give us one goal advantage for 2nd leg. I expect it going to be tough match at Huesca. And I got bad news.......


I don’t have cover on right back position so I put him on painkiller injection for this crucial 2nd leg match.

Second leg:



Eneko Capilla free kick goal put us in driving seat and never in danger of getting caught by Huesca. Red card awarded to Huesca player in first half made it easy for us to control the game and we are promoted to Liga Adelante. Ouh yeahhh!!!!

Well, I achieved my target to bring this team into playoff but never expect to get promoted into Liga Adelante. I thought I might need 2 or 3 seasons to get this team out of Segunda Division so to achieve it in the first season is amazing.
For new season, I need to get more players especially in fullback/wingback position. I only have one fullback on right and left. It can be quite problematic if one of them is injured or suspended.
Next, Liga Adelante..Here we go...

Congrats on your promotion

Nicely done, a promotion with such bad conditions...