MS06

I would love that, it would be so useful especially for non league or lower league saves where recruitment is almost completely based around the local area. Amazing! I also love the region, I've been lucky enough to get to both Sevilla and Betis games. I actually had a trip to Malaga booked for the last game of the 2019/20 season but then the pandemic happened. I need to get that trip rebooked at some point!

August 2023: Preseason went rather well for us, the new signings were proving to be inspired as well as youngster Ignacio Belda picking up where he left off at the end of last season. We gave Castilla a really good run for their money in our first outing which was so good to see. Castilla are far better than us on paper so for us to match them for the majority of the game gave me real hope for the season ahead. Marbella was the other team we played who were classed as significantly better than us, in this game the gulf in class was on display as we were comfortably beaten. However, the other preseason games were against teams who are deemed to be on our level which shows that we have improved as we were able to consistently find the back of the net and get the wins. September 2023: Season two at Recre got off to a great start. Our new 4-4-2 possession based formation seems to be really working for us. Match day one saw us pick up a win against Almeria's B team thanks to a goal from our boy Ignacio Belda. A disappointing loss in our second game admittedly but I wasn't too worried as we played pretty well, just failed to stick the ball in the back of the net. Youngster Ricard grabbed two goals on his debut against Recreativo Granada, this was a very good performance against a team that we really struggled to contain last season. We secured a victory against local rivals Xerez thanks to Ricard again. We are really developing in possession, 70% in this game. We didn't create too many chances but by keeping hold of the ball we prevented the opposition from being able to create anything which is always a good thing in my opinion. October 2023: We love a 1-0 don't we! Throughout October we continued to dominate possession and grab a now or two goals to guarantee the points. Youngster Ricard continued to shine as Belda began to stumble into some poor form. Josiel Nunez has also done really well over the last few months, adapting to his new role as an Inverted Winger - he's started making some late runs into the penalty area and grabbing some goals for us now which is what I intend when using him in this role. After nine games we sit atop of the league table, Sevilla Atletico will no doubt be the team to beat this season. I am quietly confident on our chances of promotion this season though. We have a nice blend of youth and experience within the team which could provide the springboard we need. November 2023: November was another decent month for us results wise. Jorge Heredia who was part of last years youth intake, came off the bench to make his debut against Torremolinos and he managed to grab the winner after making a smart run into the area and latch onto a through ball from David Moreno at Right Back. We the drew 1-1 with Sevilla Atletico which cannot be considered a bad result considering the amount of quality they have in their youth system to call upon. The draw against Antequera was pretty nondescript whereas the victory against Xerez was fantastic. We went down to ten men as Left Back Tapia was sent off early on in the second half. We subsequently went 1-0 down and I though the game was gone, in a bid to make one last push for an equaliser, I switched to a strikerless formation with two Shadow Strikers and to Mezzala's on attack which turned out to be a game changing decision. Both Mezzala's Fer Rodriguez and Fran Hernandez grabbed the goals which were almost identical, the Mezzala's made the runs in behind the Xerez defence and latched onto a quick pass over the top from midfield and brought all three points back to Huelva.

April, May & June 2023: The month of April saw youngster Ignacio Belda come into his own and bag five goals in four games. Playing will less of a focus on possession has really paid off these last few weeks as we are very good at launching passes forward which very often catch the opposition off guard. We also managed to keep two clean sheets on the bounce which is something I don't think we've managed to do all season until now. The 4-0 dispatching of Recreativo Granada was a particular high point of the month as we went 1-0 up in the 81st minute, Granada were pushing for an equaliser and we manage to hit them on the break to score three goals in injury time. There is much more resilience and steel in our performances now which is so pleasing to see especially compared to how we were during the mid season slump. Our final two games saw finish the season in 6th, three points off the playoffs. Our poor form in midseason really had cost us. However since we can't really afford to renew many of the players contracts it means that I have the opportunity to rebuild the squad how I would like so it really feels like MY squad which is exciting. This also forces me to look to the youth system and keep a close eye on the development in the Under 19s to see who could be promoted to the first team. I am not renewing any contracts from the B Team and letting the staff go too as a way of trying to cut some costs. The £20 million debt has been reduced to £18 million over the course of the season, at least there is some progress on this front. Post Season Transfers: The first thing to do is actually build a squad - Jesus Godino will be our starting Goalkeeper in the new season. Somewhat lacking in determination and composure the pool of players actually interested in joining us was very limited so I had to compromise on a few things. His main goalkeeping attributes are good and he's physically okay, okay is probably a good word to describe Godino, not great but he's consistent so we'll take it. David Montero is a youngster we poached from Atletico Sanluqueño, physically and mentally he is impressive, technicals we really need to improve, but at 18 we have plenty of time to work on them. He will mostly be a back up Right Back to Ivan Rodriguez this season. Next we have Fran Carmona, arguably our best signing to date - the former Sevilla academy graduate fits the perfect profile for our Central Defenders, excelling in all the right attributes and consistency. Ivan Rodriguez comes in to be our starting Right Back - an area we struggled with last season so I'm hoping to see some attacking output from Ivan give his technical abilities. His fairly ambitious personality should also be useful for mentoring groups and trying to influence the young players in the team. Adrian Pernal was released by Sevilla and we were only too happy to offer him a contract, I plan to use a 4-4-2 formation with one of the Central Midfielder's in a more defensive capacity and I think he will be perfect for that. Fer Rodriguez joins with a host of experience including time spent in Real Betis and Real Madrid academy's. He will no doubt be a very useful player for us in a slightly more attacking capacity than Pernal will be used. Fran Hernandez finally agreed to renew his contract with us, he excelled after a run in the first team at the end of last season, being able to tie him to a new deal is great for us as he's happy to be a squad player and provides a great cover option in midfield. Raul Martinez joins us to be a striker, he won't be setting the world alight but the pool of forwards is even more limited than that of the goalkeepers so beggars can't be choosers and we need to boost the numbers up front. I am hopeful he can strike up a partnership with Ignacio Belda or Ricard who has been promoted from the youth team. I want us to use a 4-4-2 formation which will allow us to dominate possession and stay on the front foot. I found sitting back was when we really made some costly errors last season so this year is about us ensuring that doesn't happen. I want to use Rodriguez's attacking qualities from Right Back so deploying him as a Wing Back on support should give him that bit more attacking freedom and allow us to focus our attacking play down the right hand side. The idea being we can get crosses in from the right from the RB or the Winger which means we have two strikers to aim for and Nuñez acting as an Inverted Winger will also be able to offer some goalscoring capabilities. As an alternate tactic I have created a 4-1-4-1 which is very similar so not to ruin tactical familiarity but it just uses the DLP as a screen for the back for and one of the strikers is replaced with a MEZ on attack to still provide a threat going forward and allow for some creativity but remain sensible in defence.

January, February & March 2023: The new year has brought some dismal form, we are really struggling to create goalscoring opportunities, an injury to Dopi means that our only real attacking outlet has gone. I am having a rethink on formation and tactics. Knowing that the majority of our players will be leaving us, looking ahead to next season (go with me here), I would like to play a possession based 4-4-2, if we can get the recruitment right over the summer I think we can create a really defensively solid team. However, back in the current season it's simply about getting through it at this point. I have taken the opportunity over the last couple of months to promote two players who were in the Under 19s when I arrived at the club - Ignacio Belda and Viktor Kovacs. The latter is a player I am very excited about, we could potentially end up building a team around him in a few years. (screenshots taken from the end of the season because I forgot) I had been thinking of a new formation for a while, as mentioned above I have an idea for next season but needed something that could stem the number of goals we conceded whilst simultaneously increasing the number of goals we scored. I've gone for two DMs both on defend as we need all the help we can get in terms of defensive output. Ortega has excellent passing and vision (15 for both) so utilising him as a Deep Lying Playmaker should allow him to use this and play long passes over the top. We are pressing high up the pitch now and a lot more often in a bid to force errors and get the ball quickly to the forwards. I don't want it to be pretty passing football, I just need them to get the ball away from our defensive line as often as possible and catch our opponents on the counter. That's the plan anyway. Well, for the most part the tactical changes have worked. As you can see, the soon departing Dopi has re-found his shooting boots while Manu Morillo has also been able to grab his first goal for the club. As the stats show we have abandoned our desire for possession and are focusing on the basics - it's a bit kick and run at times but it seems to be working. The 1-2 victory away at local rivals Xerez was particularly pleasing at it was our first outing with this formation (which had been trained for a couple of weeks to increase familiarity). A 2-2 draw at home to top of the league Mar Menor was pretty good too, we look so much more resilient and able to fight back from going 2-0 down early on. The incredibly impressive victory away at Mancha Real is no doubt a high point of a very tumultuous season so far. When Dopi is on form, he is really on form, it's the lack of consistency that makes me think we will be okay without him. March was another decent month by all accounts, Manu Morillo continues to find the back of the net for us. The loss to Yeclano Deportivo was pretty uninspired and we should just be grateful it wasn't more than one! The following two games though we did play well, beating Torremolinos was very nice to see, particularly as we had an absolutely torrid time against them earlier in the season whilst we had to grind out a 3-2 victory against Cartagena B. In the loss to San Roque de Lepe we actually went 2-0 up and I thought we were on course for another victory, safe to say we bottled it. As it's march we had our youth intake, my plan for the youth intakes is to sign them all on one year contracts and assess them throughout the year to see who should be renewed/released. I will post screenshots over the course of next season with updates of how this first intake develops.

October, November & December 2022: October was a mixed bag of a month. Truthfully I'm not entirely happy with our 4-2-3-1 formation but I feel like it's the formation best suited to the players we have. We are very productive going forward however defensively we leave a lot to be desired. Ruben Galvez has not impressed as a goalkeeper which is concerning, he has also told me he intends to leave at the end of the season which is something I am actually quite pleased about as he is on a lot of money for this level and with the club financially crippled at the minute there's no way we could renew his contract (this is something that applies to most of the squad if I am being honest). In terms of beginning the recruitment process, I have started scouting the Under 19s league as I feel this is a good way of us signing talented youngsters from the local academies of big clubs. A player that was recommended was Aitor Fumero - plying his trade at 26 de Febrero, my scouts think he has the potential to go far so we promptly swooped in there and agreed a deal for the grand some of £0. (Yes he is 5 foot 9 but I think we've seen recently that 5 ft 9 CBs are perfectly fine) November saw the wheels well and truly come off, our inability to defend has been becoming more apparent as each game goes by. To make matters worse, we are lacking a cutting edge going forward. Dopi has become our sole source of goals and he is unreliable at best - coincidentally Dopi is another player who will be leaving us at the end of the season as we cannot afford to renew his contract. At this point I think the squad needs a rebuild, we have players who are overpaid for this level and not really good enough or don't want to be here. Roll on the end of the season. December was a better month in terms of results, for the most part we found our ability to put the ball in the back of the net again. The Copa del Rey defeat to Sevilla is hardly surprising given the gulf between the teams but I was pleasantly surprised by our performance, the scoreline doesn't do us justice. I am enjoying that we are having the majority of possession, we just don't seem to know what to do with it yet. Our poor run last month saw us fall down to mid-table which is where we were predicted to be and based on my experience, I can see why. I think mentally I am ready to acknowledge that we aren't good enough for promotion this season, there are too many gaps in the squad for us to be able to push for the playoffs. With our woes in front of goal fresh in my mind, I arranged for Manu Morillo to join us on loan in January from Real Betis, hopefully he can add some much needed firepower up front and take some of the burden off the shoulders of the very injury prone Dopi.

I agree, the training isn't very realistic and is something that I feel has been ignored by SI for quite a while especially as it's an area more and more FM players are getting into.

Thank you, amazing, I hope I can finally bring a La Liga title to Huelva!

Yes, so I'm scouting the teams in our division as they are all from our local area and also the U19s League. When scouting clubs like Betis & Sevilla I am asking scouts to provide reports from the B Team and U19s. The filter was a long process, using a map of Andalusia I created a search filter to only show players from the area. I started with ensuring the big cities were in there and then added the smaller cities and towns. It was a tedious process but at least it's done now.

Tactical Periodisation Within FM For our training sessions within FM, I plan on using the Dave Brailsford endorsed technique of marginal gains. The idea being that if you make enough small changes/tweaks the marginal gains will then become a big gain where you will see tangible improvement. Using data analysis to carefully tweak the tactics being used and also when choosing which players to sign or sell we will hopefully see Recre climb through the leagues. I am quite a bookworm and have been reading a lot recently, two of the books I enjoyed are The European Game by Daniel Fieldsend and The Barcelona Legacy by Jonathan Wilson. Both books mention the ever controversial Jose Mourinho and his chosen method of training, known as Tactical Periodisation. I plan to try and implement this into our training schedules at Huelva to see if it helps us generate the aforementioned marginal gains. What is Tactical Periodisation? It is a training methodology developed by Sports Scientist Vitor Frade about 30-35 years ago, as a football coach myself I was aware of the basis and ideas behind the method but have really delved into it recently to develop my knowledge and understanding. The methodology has since gone on to be used most famously by Mourinho but does have other subscribers such as Brendan Rogers, Nuno Espirito Santo, Andre Villas Boas to name a few. So, the idea is that the Tactical element of the game is the overarching element that is the most important while the other three elements; Physical, Psychological and and Technical should be trained in a way which compliments/reinforces the Tactical aspect. Prior to Frade developing this methodology, all four elements would be trained separately, for example the physical element would require gym sessions with a designated fitness coach, the technical element would be trained in sessions specifically designed to improve a players technical abilities such as first touch, dribbling, crossing. A separate session for tactics would take place, meaning players would get an overview of how the coach wanted them to play but would not have had the training sessions to teach them how to implement this in game. By using the method of Tactical Periodisation the main objective for the training sessions is for a coach to be able to teach/coach his/her players in the ‘Game Model‘ they desire. The Game Model is the key, this is the tactical element, AKA the way the coach wants their team to play. Training uses the other three elements, Psychological, Physical and Technical to teach players how to implement the Game Model, prepare them for in game situations, how to adapt to these situations and how to make decisions based off these situations. The Game Model consists of 3 parts; Four Moments of the Game, Principles of the Game Model and Scales of the Team. I will try to break each part down and give an explanation as I understand it… Four Moments of the Game…this is quite simply the idea that a football match consists of four moments; AttackingMoment: this moment is when the team has possession of the ball and their opponent is holding their defensive shape. The Attacking Moment lasts until the team in possession loses the ball. Transition From Attack to Defence: This moment begins when possession is lost and the team is not in their defensive structure meaning their opponents may launch a counter-attack. This moment ends when the team enters their defensive shape. Defensive Moment: This moment is when the team is in their defensive structure while not in possession of the ball. Transition From Defence to Attack: This moment begins when the team regains possession of the ball and their opponent is not yet in their defensive shape, in this moment the team in possession has the choice to launch a counter-attack, or maintain possession and enter the Attacking Moment. Principles of the Game Model… The principles of the game model are essentially the style of play that the coach wishes to implement. This can be broken down into 3 parts; Main Principles: This is the identity of the team. This principle never changes, for example if a team’s main principle is to keep possession, they will not change this from game to game as loss of their identity would have a negative effect. This is the core of the team so training sessions based around the Main Principles will involve all the players. Sub Principles: For the most part the Sub Principles remain the same, with small amendments during the weekly morphocycle. Here, the team is split into groups/sectors to work on specific movements to implement in the upcoming game. For example, if the upcoming opposition is a high pressing team, training may consist of new variations of the Game Model to accommodate a DM dropping deeper to aid playing out from the back. Sub Sub Principles: This is specific individual training (or very small groups of 2 or 3). The Sub Sub Principles are adaptable and change depending on the opposition. This is the most flexible element of training, this is where the small tweaks are made depending on the variables such as who the opponent is, for example, a Central Defender who will be playing against a Centre Forward who runs in behind and has plenty of pace will have to adopt a different approach than if they were playing against a Centre Forward who likes to play with their back to goal and hold the ball up. Scales of the Team… These are the groups that the squad is broken down into in order to implement the above training methodology. Collective: this is the whole team, the Main Principles are geared towards the Collective. Inter-Sectorial: This involves two areas/lines of the team such as defence and midfield, or midfield to attack. This would involve training the relationship between the two lines which would aid/improve the team in transitions. Sectorial: This involves one line of the team such as defence, focus on the defensive line working as a unit to prepare for in game situations. Group: This is even more specific as it involves certain positions from different lines/areas that play close together such as Central Defenders and Defensive Midfielders or Full Backs and Wingers. Individual: This is specific training for one player to develop the coaches desired behaviour or trait. Weekly Training Sessions... Essentially... The entire training cycle is based around improving a players in-game intelligence to help them make the right decisions. Everything is centred around what happens on the pitch, fitness training is integrated into football based training sessions to boost a players fitness components while also ensuring it is relevant to in game situations. This is why Jose Mourinho’s assistant for 17 years was Rui Faria, a Sports Scientist who has a clear knowledge and understanding of fitness training but also has a UEFA Pro Licence meaning he is an equally adept football coach with great tactical knowledge. As this methodology is about using training to improve a players tactical intelligence to help them make the right decisions in game situations, the most obvious place to start is; what FM attributes make up ‘tactical intelligence’? This is what I have come up with and these are the attributes we will be aiming to improve by our training schedules: Here are my initial thoughts on training schedules, I will be making changes and tweaks over the next few weeks to see what works/what needs to be amended. Depending on the opponent I will make some modifications, for example when we are playing against top of the league team we will likely focus solely on defence and maintaining our defensive shape. Whereas against mid-lower placed teams we can be much more attacking and look to push on, as per the Sub Principles of the game model. The Main Principles being the things that will never change, as in our core sessions that train our specific game model, the Sub Principlesare the specific unit training that takes place, geared towards the upcoming match while the Sub Sub Principles in FM’s case has to be the specific individual training a player is on. In terms of the Scales of the Team, we can see that the ‘Team’ sessions are representative of the Collective, the Inter-Sectoral is covered in the transition sessions while the Sectoral sessions are the specific unit sessions in FM. We also have Individual training so the only thing we are missing is Group sessions which is specific players from different sectors who work close together such as CM/DMs working with CBs.

August & Septemer 2022: On day one, taking a look at the squad I have inherited at Huelva I am reasonably pleased. Obviously the star ratings are all relative to the assistants judging abilities but I do believe we have some quality within this group of players. There are also a few names I recognise - (Juanjo and Iago Diaz) so the squads seems slightly less alien to me. In line with out Andalusian recruitment policy it is worth pointing out the players in the current squad who hail from the region: Ruben Galvez, Angel Bernejo, Juanjo, Bernardo Cruz, Adri Crespo, Manuel Galan, Fran Avila, Victor Morillo, Carlos Palacios. As you can see, a fair few are already in line with the recruitment policy. I've highlighted a few key players below... Ruben Galvez Bernardo Cruz: Iago Diaz Dopi As I mentioned in the intro to this save, Recre are in quite a dire financial situation, constant overspending and general financial mismanagement has left the club in just over £20,000,000 of debt. Rebuilding Huelva will take some time and careful management in the finance department. Since we are languishing in the fourth tier of Spanish football, it's going to be a while before we sell a player for a meaningful amount. We currently have an Under 19s team and a B Team, I am considering cutting the B Team as part of a cost cutting exercise, plus I think it would create a direct pathway to the first team for any youth prospects we develop. Fortunately the expectations of the board this season are achievable, I'd be lying if I said I would be happy with a mid table finish. I'd like to think we have enough quality within the squad to challenge for the title. Maybe I'm dreaming, we will see! The tactic we have been using is a pretty rudimentary 4-2-3-1 as I felt this was the best formation to accommodate the attacking players. I'm sure as we evolve as a team the tactic will change over time into something more exciting. During pre-season I toyed with Inverted Wingers and Inside Forwards cutting in off the wings to form a front three but I found they were often too narrow and we would end up losing possession. The Wing Backs were a difficult one as I initially started with Full Backs on support but again found that the shape was being lost when we attacked, leaving us lacking in defence and open to counter attacks so using Wing Backs on defend seems to provide us with enough width to maintain a stable back line and prevents them from marauding forward. Fortunately for me, the players seem to have taken quite well to this tactic and as you can see above, we enjoyed quite a successful preseason. September 2022: Our league campaign got off to a shaky start as we gave up a 3-0 lead to Xerez who were able to leave with a point. Two losses followed against Sevilla Atletico and San Roque de Lepe, the latter being a team that we should not be losing to at all. I didn't panic and stuck with the tactic and we were able to pick up three wins from the following three games. Dopi found his shooting boots scoring two hat-tricks to aid our cause. Obviously we need to address the lack of clean sheets so some more tactic tweaking will be required and also creating a more compact version and possible a more attacking version of the tactic. Overall we are off to a fairly decent start but improvements can certainly be made.

Thank you!

Thank you, sadly there isn't way to specify the region of Spain in FM. I have created a filter to only show players from Andalusia if I have to venture into the player search. You can assign scouts to scout certain clubs so I can ask one of my scouts to look at youth/reserve players at Sevilla or Granada etc which given the financial situation at Huelva might be our best shot at recruiting half decent players.

Thank you - will be following your save also!

I wouldn't describe myself as a wordsmith but I have been playing Football Manager for more years than I care to remember and would like to document my save(s) this year so here goes... Introduction: This years iteration of the game sees me take over at the oldest club in Spain - Recreativo de Huelva. Founded on 23 December 1889 by two Scots (Alexander Mackay & Robert Russell Ross) who were working at the Rio Tinto mines. The club was created as a way of providing the employees with a form of recreation, they were invited to play their first ever game against Sevilla F.C. During the 1910s Recre won three Andalusian Cups and in 1940 the club gained promotion to the Segunda Division. Eventually, in the 1977-78 season the club was promoted to Spain's top tier, however the success was short lived as relegation beckoned after a single season in La Liga. Finally in 2002, the club was promoted back to the top division, yet again they suffered relegation after just one season. There was a bright spark during this season as Recre reached the final the Copa del Rey where they sadly lost 3-0 to Mallorca. The 2006-07 season saw a return to the top flight once again, this time though, Recre did things differently. They invested in talented young players who would provide the spine of their campaign to remain in the division. In came Florent Sinama Pongolle from Liverpool and a winger from Villarreal by the name of Santi Cazorla. This new approach to recruitment paid dividends as Recreativo recorded their best ever La Liga finish - 8th place in a campaign which saw them thrash Real Madrid 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu. Sinama Pongolle was the club's leading goalscorer with 12 goals to his name. The following season saw Recre narrowly avoid relegation and then in the 2008-09 season the club were relegated back to the Segunda Division. The club embarked on a massive spending spree in a bid to return to the top flight which as you can imagine, resulted in massive debts. This dramatically backfired and Recre were relegated to the third tier. The financial mismanagement almost resulted in extinction of the club. Mounting debts led to the authorities relegating the club to the fifth tier in 2021. A dark day in the history of such an important club in Spanish football. In 2022 the club were promoted back to the fourth division which is where we find them today. Recre play their home games at the 21,670 seater stadium Nuevo Colombino which was opened in 2001 and is situated right on the coast. My Recruitment Policy for FM23: As mentioned previously, Huelva is a city within the autonomous community of Andalusia which can be found in the southern most region of the country. It is from this region and this region alone I will be conducting my player recruitment for this save. Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest autonomous community within Spain. It is also home to a great many football clubs including Sevilla, Real Betis, Cadiz, UD Almeria, Marbella, Granada and Malaga. The idea being that I would mostly like to focus on youth development within the club, however having such a plethora of football clubs in the surrounding area means that there will likely be a decent percentage of players who have been developed by those clubs and released, allowing us to sign them up until we have built the facility to become self sufficient in terms of youth development. A few historical facts about the region: The region of Andalusia is one steeped in history, the region was the major staging point for Carthaginian leader Hannibal to launch war against the Romans. The Carthaginians subsequently lost the war and the region was swept into the Roman Empire as it offered access to the Mediterranean and was seen as gateway to Africa, Andalusia was a very important trading post. It was from the port of Huelva that Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492 on the voyage that led to the discovery of the Americas. This began a trading relationship between the Spain and the Americas which was almost exclusive to the Andalusian region meaning it became the wealthiest area of all of Spain. Huelva was also the port which 'General William Martin' was floated into during Operation Mincemeat - arguably the greatest deception carried out by Allied Forces during World War II. The corpse was in fact a vagrant from the streets of London who the British Secret Service had dressed in Royal Marine uniform and planted evidence to suggest the Allied Forces were going to attack Greece. German spies in Spain were taken in by this and the Nazi War Machine moved their troops from Sicily to Greece to await the invasion. This however was all a ruse to ensure there was minimal resistance when British and American forces did in fact land in Sicily. I won't waffle on any longer as I am keen to get going with this save, a look at the squad will most likely follow and some form of tactical ideas. To anyone who takes the time to read this - thank you!