[FM23] - Argentinian Fuego - Atlético Platense - The 22 year Disappearance

[Pepito7]

Atletico Platense

The club achieved cult status in 1970's for being the team to always avoid relegation through a series of 'last-day miracles' for almost 30 years.

Miracles eventually ended in 1999 which led to the team dropping a further two divisions. 

Come 2021 the club makes it's top flight return for the first time in 22 years. 

Team is located in Buenos Aires which is a melting pot of football clubs - plenty of rivals. 

 

Honours

 Primera B Metropolitana (3rd Division)  Winners 1976 ,  2005-2006, 2017/18

 

[Pepito7]

Objectives 

 

Supporters letting me know from the start - don't lose against our rivals. 

 

The North Zone Derby 

Our own derby in Buenos Aires will be vs Tigre who are the closest to us. 

 

[Pepito7]

Treasury 

 

The Squad

 

Vast majority of the better players are loaned from other clubs. There is only a handful of players that are actually signed to the club. 

What a challenging save have I got ahead of me to become the best in Buenos Aires, Argentina and South America. 

[Marazola]

1 hour ago, Pepito7 said:

Objectives 

 

Supporters letting me know from the start - don't lose against our rivals. 

 

The North Zone Derby 

Our own derby in Buenos Aires will be vs Tigre who are the closest to us. 

 

Actually I believe River Plate are the closest club in proximity. If I'm correct they are right across the river to them.

[Pepito7]

11 hours ago, Marazola said:

Actually I believe River Plate are the closest club in proximity. If I'm correct they are right across the river to them.

Yeah but ability wise they are light years ahead - Tigre are close enough to consider as rivals. RIver would laugh at us 

[Pepito7]

Argentinian League Cup

Known as the Copa de la Superliga is our first competition that we will compete in before the season get's rolling 

 

[Pepito7]

February / March / April 

Argentinian League Cup 

The rental team has performed much better than expected delivering 3 draws from the start. Team is definitely lacking goals despite a decent amount of Strikers to choose from. 

March we take a loss against much stronger opposition which was to be expected.  River Plate one of our close rivals obviously would steam roll over us but it was a respectable 0-2 loss. 

Banfield is towards the top of the table so beating or getting a draw would be an upset. 

April begins with a loss by conceding in the 80th min despite getting a red card almost right at the start of the game. We shut up shop well yet all it takes is one opportunity.

 

 

 

10 points off 4th let's be honest that was never a realistic goal. However, a push into the later stages of Copa Argentina would do the club a lot of good. It is only 5 rounds to make it to the final and our opponent Godoy Cruz finished last season close to the bottom of the table. 

Can the squids have a miracle run ?

[Pepito7]

The Squids go marching on ! 

 

 

 

We played an even match only being out done in the xG department as usual due to my strikers not being interested in scoring. 

Very happy with the result but we only received $1,500 for the further qualification which is a little underwhelming. 

 

 

 

Beautiful ! A team in the league below us. 

[Pepito7]

xG is a nonsense statistic. 

 

The Squids go marching on !!!!!!

Managed to seal it on penalties again however just look at that xG for Atletico Brown ... 0.55 and they squeeze 2 goals in. Why is it never easy

 

Could get used to this screen shot ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Division 2 Club !!! 

They look like they have suffered a big tumble in recent years.

UP THE SQUIDS !!!

[Pepito7]

The League Fight Begins

 

 

The fight for survival begins in under a month after an exciting Copa Argentina start and a sub par League Cup performance. 

 

However we now get a good idea which players are going to drive us forwards and which are running down their loan agreements and collecting the money. 

 

I have also removed quite a few staff members in an attempt to reduct costs. Mutual terminations usually help to save money in the long term. 

Survival at all costs. 

 

What I do find difficult is how to find players that i can loan that don't require any financial contributions from me. Any suggestions on how to filter for that ? Can't even get young players for free.

[Pepito7]

First Month (June)

 

Very happy with how things have progressed in the first month. 

The team seems to be understanding the tactic very well. 

 

 

Our losses came against Independiente (8th) and San Lorenzo (17th)

Our best match so far was against Sarmiento (Junin) (4th) easily should of won that game if it wasn't for a red card to our star striker. Even with 10 players on the field they couldn't break us down with only one shot on target. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finances 

This isn't pretty at all and I can't think of a solution here - most players are free loans and the players I have contracted are hard to offload. 

Even if I do get rid of the players, the income really isn't sufficient enough to get us out of the red.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Squad

Just a quick glance at the key players in the squad. 

 

Morgantini - Brilliant right back for the team and the highest average rating in the squad over the last 5 games. Playing as a full back but he bombs forward really well. 

Could of had a few more assists if the strikers were more clinical. 

 

 

 

 

Costa - Full backs appear to be a point that excels at the club. Solid defensive work, much better that the two centre backs. 

One of the loan players on high wages which I can't terminate as I fear a replacement that would be sufficient would be very hard to find. 

 

 

Gomez - Rock of the midfield playing as a Ball Winning Midfielder on defend. Whilst watching him on the 2D mode he is like a bull dog covering every area of the pitch. 

For a player on a free loan, absolutely crucial to our hopes of staying up. 

 

 

Guerrero - the man I have a love hate relationship with. The amount of chances he wasted in the League Cup are in the high double digits however he has turned the corner and started the league campaign very well. 

Got a red card in the most recent game which currently has him in my bad books but he will be straight into the first team when back

 

[Pepito7]

Copa Argentina 

7th Round 

 

 

Massively disappointed, another game against a team from the league below and we are out performed in possession. We absolutely dominated the xG once again and they score 2 GOAL WITH XG OF 0.40...

Absolutely fuming . Could off been something very special. 

[Pepito7]

July 

The team has been progressing very nicely and we are starting to pull away from the bottom due to some really good battles. 

 

 

19th is very respectable for a team basically full of players on loan that need gelling together. It seems like at this stage we have gelled very well. 

 

 

 

The board has also noted the performance and we've managed to convince them to search for a senior Affiliate. If successful that will be massive for the clubs longevity. 

 

Here are some notable statistics.

Defence has been very solid - really stepped up a level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transfer out 

Unfortunately due to clubs financial circumstances we have had to let go of a a club servant that has played 160 games for the club. 

Due to earning 3k a week he had to leave the club as it is simply leading to potential financial peril. 

We will be making 1.3 million out of this Loan/Transfer which for a club of our level is a very good fee.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

We are seriously GOOD !

5 wins on the bounce and one of them against top of the League Tucuman 

In 8 games we have conceded a single goal !!!!!

Below I will attach some screen shots of what is happening right now. 

11th place in the League table is the highest point the team has reached thus far this season. 

8 Games with 2 Draws and 6 wins and our last league defeat was 10 games ago.

 

 

 

Our defence is playing light's out at the moment according to the scatter graph above, we are doing a very stellar defensive job and we're almost the only team to perform like this. 

Next game is against River Plate and then we face Tigre so I don't expect the run to continue as realistically those should be two L's

Edited October 27, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

BOCA WHO ?!?! Platense WHAT !?

First and foremost I believe we have managed to secure ourselves survival half way through the season ?

 

 

Our next game was against River Plate which went better than expected. 

They had everything going for them and should of really won the match but we managed to hold on for that precious point.

 

Our first North Zone Derby 

This unfortunately ended in a heart break despite an ever promising start. Tigre went down to 10 men very early due to fiery tackles. 

My initiative towards the 70th minute was to go Positive and put both winger on attack. I also pressed up higher up the field as we had little to none opportunities to score against Tigre.

This resulted in a 95th min goal kick that went over our whole team and Tigre going 1-0 ... very very unfair and surely has made the rivalry that more fierce. 

 

 

 

 

 

Boca who ?

We then followed it up with a shut up shop, butt clenching game against Boca Juniors. They tried to Tika-Taka us and we simply broke their ankles in the process. 

Luckily we had a referee that was a River Plate fan so he allowed all this to happen.

 

 

 

My oh my we are now 7th in the league ... bitterly disappointed to have lost to Tigre but after playing 6 games in 2 weeks I am immensely proud of the boys.  

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

2022 Season Conclusion. 

The main objective of the season was to stay up and avoid a relegation dog fight which we have managed very easily by developing a counter attacking style of play and defending ferociously on our own half of the pitch. 

This tactic started to bare fruit halfway through the season allowing us to beat some really good teams. 

 

 

 

 

 

Last 4 games of the season was a difficult moment for the team as it felt like we lost our steam to keep pushing after a very busy August. I am sad at missing out on cup qualification by 2 points however I don't think we would manage well to play in 3 competitions. 

Certainly don't have a squad to compete in any competition other than the domestic one's. We have a massive task at hand as majority of the loaned players will be leaving. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

2023 Season - the rebuild of Platense

The team will unfortunately have to go through a massive rebuild as majority of the loaned players leave and players with expiring contracts cannot be signed on due to finances. 

The club makes around 100-250k a month in income whereas expenditure has ranged to around 300-500k with 250k usually in wages. 

As a result 2023 will be a youth centred year in order to get the books right. 

These are the players that will remain at Platense due to their contracts running for a longer duration. 

I've been trying my best to offload the highest earners as they are really bad and old players however the top two are retiring in December 2023... full year of paying their wages unless I can get a decent termination deal. 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time to search for loan players and low wage demand players. Our youth development is only adequate therefore we don't have many suitable first team candidates that can help to keep the team up.

Edited October 29, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

2023 Season Platense. 

Argentinian League cup was just a formality really. The team is not at a level to compete for that just yet so we just winged through it just to get to the League start. 

League Cup results in 2 wins 6 draws and 6 losses. 

 

 

2023 League Season 

 

This is what the squad looks like for the 2023 season 

I am absolutely holding some players for ransom here due to not being able to afford higher wages  

Baldasarra for example is one of the top top players yet he earns 500pw. He's been asking for a new contract for ages but but his current deal runs till 2024... suffer it out mate. Although I do love him, great Deep Lying Playmaker. 

Here are some players we brought in for depth on loan.

 

 

 

Now let's see how we got on in the league so far...

 

4 draws - Really 2 should of been wins at least as the teams we played will be surrounding us in the middle of the league table so a bit gutted not to win more there. 

We went 1-0 up against Boca but they managed to outclass us and win the game. A loss was expected 

Telleres is a bottom of the league team so it was a must win 

Tactic remains the same with counter attacking fluid 4-4-2 whilst we are also training Wing Play and Route one tactic this season just in case teams get used to us sitting deep and counter attacking.

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

Middle of the pack 

Being a team in the middle of the pack seems to describe us best so far - not enough quality to compete for international football but good enough to stay up. 

Can't wait for December 2023 as a lot of bad contracts will end which will allow for much more money to play with. 

Take note of River Plate in the league table ...

 

 

 

Results are not inspiring and they're a mixed bag - seems like any consistency is hard to come by. 

With so many players leaving the defence has suffered and it is not quite what it used to be before. 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

River Plate knocking on the door 

So we have been invited to an interview to become the manager for River Plate a day before a game with them - tactics to get me distracted ?

 

Now it has left me very torn - at the end of the day I am being very flirtatious with the Idea of joining an extremely underperforming River Plate who are in a real risk of relegation. 

On the other hand Platense took a gamble on me and they are the one's I should be leading to their first ever league title. 

I attended the interview and then we went on to play against them, it almost felt like I had to win to prove to them that I am good enough. 

We lost 1-2 in the end and I felt distracted as a manager wondering what I could achieve with River and have I achieved the best I could with Platense? Was continental football too much to dream about for a club like Platense? 

 

Well we got our response a few days after the loss ... 

 

 

Javier Mascherano - I mean a very strong candidate to go up against however a very bitter taste has been left in my mouth. I felt disrespected, River came to me ! They asked me to do an interview only to tell me "you weren't the right person to take the club forward"

Was this just a ploy to distract me when playing against them ? 

After a few games the emotions settled and I must say I feel bitter and my desire to achieve greatness with Platense has never been greater. 

The experience with River means that I will NEVER work for another club in Argentina after my story with Platense is written. 

 

So now back to the story ... 

 

 

When it rains it pours 

It has been a dreadful run ! Only achievement is winning the North Zone Derby vs Tigre and the rest is absolutely woeful. 

There is a very clear lack of quality across the board which is the true identity of the team at this point. 

It's a massive shame as we had an outside chance of continental football and making some money 

5 points difference between us and intercontinental football, the remaining matchups are not the hardest. Must win games against Independiente, Sarmiento, Ferro, Estudiantes. 

It's going to be a very difficult finish. Our first choice GK who was severely over paid retired 3 months earlier than anticipated so the quality in goal has dropped. Other than that the squad remains mostly the same. 

 

 

 

 

The Pitbull 

A much needed return of our defensive midfielder Gino from Injury. He has been out for the past 4/5 weeks and was the main reason in our drop in the League Table

Edited November 3, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

2023 Finale / 6 games 

 

 

Could it be possible that Platense make a late run for the Sudamericana ?

Sudamericana - is an annual international club competition which has first premiered in 2002. 

The winner of the Copa Sudamericana becomes eligible to play in the Recopa Sudamericana. They gain entry onto the next edition of the Copa Libertadores, South America's premier club competition, and also contest the J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship.

The reigning champion of the competition is Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle, who defeated Brazilian club São Paulo in the most recent final.

Argentine clubs have accumulated the most victories with nine while containing the largest number of different winning teams, with a total of seven clubs having won the title. The cup has been won by 17 different clubs. Argentine clubs Boca Juniors and Independiente as well as Brazilian club Athletico Paranaense and Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle are the most successful clubs in the cup's history, having won the tournament twice, with Boca Juniors being the only one to achieve it back-to-back, in 2004 and 2005.

 

Estudiantes (LP) 11th 

What a sigh of relief - we went up 3-1 only to concede in the 91st to make it 3-3. A brilliant play down the wing from our back up Striker Gonzalez who squares it to the man of the moment Zeineddin (Zizouuu) to score in the 94th minute !!! What a momentum builder. 

Defensively we are very poor and I've had to have a word with Suso who should be a clear leader in the team who leads the backline much like what he did last year.

 

 

 

 

Ferro 22nd 

We can't keep doing this ! my heart can't take it anymore. We go 1-0 up only to invite another comeback and for Ferro to score two. 

Ferro deployed a clear tactic of controlling possession against us which is inevitable as our whole setup is to defend and counter attack. 

At half time I felt like Jose Mourinho with the amount of possession I gave up to a bottom of the league side. 

Last game Zizou put on a show and this game our other striker loaned from Boca who has been doing incredible things this season managed to bring it back level with 2 goals. Schor then managed to go on a wonderful run from the right wing to the penalty area and blast one in far post. Schor is a attacking winger with our tactic demanding to run at the defence, brilliant tactical understanding there from Schor. 

                         

          

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

Independiente 12th 

Now we finally come to pay for our mistakes and we do so in a very harsh way which prompts questions about the tactic. The level of punishment was severe enough for me to take off key players at half time to avoid injuries or unnecessary cards. Could be very detrimental to our ambitious target. 

It does not get easier next week as we go on to play Colon who are currently 6th and we play at their home ground. A change in tactic will definitely ensue however how drastic this will be is the million dollar question. 

 

 

 

Colon 6th  

The changes implemented to the the tactic were; 

-Both Central Defenders were changed to No Nonsense 

-Both Full backs from Support to No Nonsense 

-Defensive line from low block to standard

-Line of Engagement moved from our own half to a mid block (just over the halfway line)

I think these changes allowed to push the game away from our goal and also solidify the centre and the wide areas of the pitch. I've seen my players lose possession a few too many times so the No Nonsense role is intended to get the ball forwards as soon as possible. 

Results ?

We capitalised on a Goal Keeping error and waited patiently for more openings. In the first half Colon didn't have a single highlight and I am playing on extended highlights. We supressed them really well, almost being heartbroken at the end but the linesman kept a keen eye. 

3 points in the bag and two games to go.. at the bottom I've attached the league table.

 

 

 

3 Points off 11th and 10th and we are due to play Huracan.  7 teams are in with a chance to make it into the qualification spots. We really have to win our last two games.

[Pepito7]

Huracan 8th

Huracan with a win can secure themselves a spot in next years Copa Sudamericana. Huracan are the last opposition that is above us in the league table, they haven't won in 4 out of their 5 last games, their last game was a 4-0 win against Boca. 

Tactically I want to recreate what I did with Colon, play the same exact type of football. I would love to have a report as to that style of football teams play however we don't have the money for that type of staff in the team so tweaks will be very important in the first 10 minutes of the game. 

So the game started fantastically, 2-0 up and we're laughing. We got exactly what we needed and now we just have to see out the game. 

2-1 Coccaro scores his 25th goal of the year after shocking marking from Suso and Pigani our right back when the ball goes over the top of both of them. 

2-2 Gino our defensive bull dog has stuck a leg out in the penalty area when there was no danger. I was about to change the defensive tactics not to commit to tackles. 

2-3 Again shocking marking which I will illustrate below. 

Left Centre back finds himself in no mans land whilst the Right Centre back was closer to the ball in the first image and then further away from the ball in the second .. great support. 

This just highlights the poor defence this year and it has cost us right at the end.

   

 

 

  

 

The defeat unfortunately means the highest position we can finish is just outside the qualification spot.

In 2022 we missed out by 2 points and in 2023 we miss out by 6 and almost a 20 goal swing. 

 

[Pepito7]

2023 Season Conclusion 

 

Mass Departures - turning youth only ?

With the club being close to 3 million in debt loads of contracts have to be offloaded and a restructuring has to occur in terms of the clubs wages and how much top players will be paid. Ideally top players should earn no more that 2,500 pw

To put that into perspective, Arsenal Sarandi have 4 players on 4,000pw and 5 players on 3,000pw which is quite a big investment. 

We will have to depend on our academy, loans and signing players to really smart contracts. 

The following players that are highlighted are all leaving as their demands are too steep. Our bulldog, veteran Gino will also leave as he want's almost 4,000pw to play. 

 

 

One of our star players that was impossible to resign. 

 

 

[Pepito7]

January Transfer Window 

Key focus here was to sign 2/3 key positional players that would make an impact on the team with their quality. 

Managed to Sign a Striker, Central Defender and a Goalkeeper. 

 

 

 

Also managed to safely reduce the wage budget to a point where we would be paying around 50,000 in wages. 

Baldesarra also managed to drop his concerns about getting a new deal which is absolutely incredible as he's almost a 5 star rated player. 

 

 

 

A decent enough Youth Take to provide the very necessary back up. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

 

Copa Argentina and League Cup

Copa Argentina would be the easier competition to win as we start in the 5th round and there is 5 more games after that to win the trophy, much like last year we faced 3 teams from the Division below and ended up losing in the 7th round.  The winner of Copa Argentina qualifies for the Supercopa Argentina against the reigning champions of Primera División.

Boca Juniors is the most successful team with four titles won, the latest in 2019–20.

 

The League cup is a competition with all the teams from the league, split into two divisions. The top 4 from each division go on to qualify and play each other for the trophy. we've managed for the first time to avoid River and Boca in our group. 

League Cup

This is how our group looks like, I don't expect anything from this competition. 

 

Copa Argentina 

 

Now I will really fancy our chances here if we get lucky with our draw. We won our first game comfortably against a team from the second division. 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Pepito7

[Pepito7]

2024 Season 

We have been eliminated from the Copa Argentina after suffering injuries to our starting Centre Back and Star Striker Zizou. 

Nothing out of the ordinary in the League Cup either, I take it as a pre season friendly allowing to study the team before we get rolling in the season. 

 

 

Youth Intake 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Calendar is set 

 

Tactically we remain the same for a 3rd season running, 4-4-2 sitting deep and counter attacking when we can. When we can start brining in higher quality players we can starts changing tactically, we are simply not good enough to dominate games. However, if my both strikers remain fit for the season I will be thrilled to see their stats as I think that is the best forward line we have had so far. However, Zeineddin has been injured twice for a total of 8 weeks over the League Cup which isn't promising.