Manager Notebook: Burgos FC from the Fourth Stooge... to spanish big?

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. D'oh... well done.
- By Ezequiel Valls

We began with the matches in the reversed order that I prefer, that is: we played first at El Plantío and then we'd travel to Villarreal the next week.

Not wanting to risk too much I didn't go more than for a slightly offensive play in the first leg. It seemed to work well, but then one of their midfielders managed to get his defender in the wrong side so he managed to blast a long range at goal. 0-1. Things went to worse in the early minutes of second half as they got a free kick in. Damnit, 0-2. We were having more of the ball and we were creating the best chances, yet they would end always in the hands of the goalkeeper. I went then to try that 3-5-2, though before the changes were put into place with the subs, Israel scored our goal. 1-2.

We needed two goal in their field now. However I didn't want to go so eagerly for goal that we'd slip one. For first time I managed a injury with injections, we needed Trujillo and he was out for long, only he I trust to be the lonely striker. So this time I paid ear to the staff advice and fielded a slightly offensive V shaped 4-5-1. While we conceded the majority of possession it did succeed in giving us all the chances and none to them; but once and again our strikers would hit the goalkeeper and only get it in at minute 89. 1-0. Not enough to get through. A unjust 2-2 loss on away goals, because of the so many more chances we generated, some so very close... ah if there hadn't be so many players in the goal line in those two corners...

But nothing to get down hearted but on the contrary, to look at the next season with confidence. We've done beyond our best expectations and qualified for these playoffs, then showed we were up to it. If we find the players we need to patch the holes of this season, we can be hopeful to reach Liga Adelante next.

These are the targets:

- A left fullback to backup Valverde.

- An aerially powerful centreback so we're not at the mercy of tall teams like Ourense. Also sack Alan Baró.

- A right fullback so we have more freedom to exploit Carlos Ruiz's versatility instead of have him mostly stuck there.

- A striker to pair with Trujillo or at least be a good one to alternate up there with Trujillo and Trillo.

- Could get a left winger as Dorca is the only player of guarantee there. However Trigo has what it takes to play there, even if it's not his position.


As a resume of the season, it has been a complete success beyond my mildly wild dreams. Fourth placed without a proper second striker and with more than half a million euros on the bank!, more than million and half of benefits thanks to the start of season player sells. Without those sells it's as likely we'd have achieved promotion than we'd have gone into administration changes.

If we look at the table of the team's performance this season, we'd say how Baró is a player to be hated, with some pain!. He's fast, he can work in the air and he's the best at tackling. He only missed five tackles... commiting five penalties that were goals. He ruined three matches and was very close to ruin a fourth. It's much better to have anothed centreback that misses more tackles but that doesn't turn those into penalties, so missing them won't mean getting a goal.

On another good news note, this time the board hasn't waited for my contract to expire: he's offered a new one when there was still a year left in my current contract.

Also Switzerland took some time to reject my job app, so they did consider me for a while.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. New preseason
- By Ezequiel Valls

Aurreko is leaving the club in 1st July, going to Orihuela after finishing contract. Into free transfer is also leaving Epitié. He did very well in the last few matches he played, but I don't think he's good to keep for long run and I don't want to take one registration place from other possibly more useful players.

Others leaving are Miguel Ángel for any spot in the fullback, young and inexperienced without looks to improve enough after he made twenty years; Francisco a forward and Daniel left midfielder, both having failed to show any good skill at taking the right decisions. Dead weight to offload, basically.

Coming or come from outside transfer window we have Antonio David, a promising goalie with not so good reflexes yet; Vicente Matesanz, a young right full back who can play also in centre and left back, fast, decent crossing, good tackling, a bit weak marking and good for a youth in making decisions, will be very useful to cover the flanks.

Mosquera, José Joaquín and Badiola to be raised in the U19 team for the future, they look also promising.

* * *

The transfer window has brought us a big upset of out plans: a €200K Ferrol offer for Valverde. Tempting given the amount. I choose to make Valverde make the decision: I accept the offer, and another for 240K I like better, and at the same time I offer him a new contract. He chose Ferrol. D'oh!.

Anyway, before the possible confirmation of the deal comes calling, I do search the market for a replacement and I do manage to find one, who's not as good in my opinion, and I get Ismael Remacha, as fast as him, similar in defending on ground but weaker on the air, worse dribbler. Still he'll be useful. I try to find someone to take the usual precedence over him, but there's nothing acceptable. I need to hire more scouts.

It's not long after when in my searches of the market I spot one player who may be useful: Antequera's Sandy. I do need one as has been made clear in all these past seasons and I've kept complaining, so paying the €120K for him, while a bit overpriced, is something I'm happy to do.

That seems to be the last move when some offers come for Montoya (young left side player), Ángel (young centre and right defender) and Vilajosana (young striker), they're more than one hundred thousands, in several installments, while it's a lot of them I accept them as way to give some slight economical stability. I also decide that I hate Baró for the reasons known and I sell him, €200K take him to Pontevedra. That means I'd do well bringing a centreback, that's how later I bring Castillejo, a just enough to play when everyone else is injured and Cazorla, who for €100K is overprized, but that will do good alternating in the centreback, though honestly, it's barely worth it after being reminded of Serio Pérez being centre back, not right fullback.

Again in Segunda B grupo 1, a glance at the table makes me expect six tough rivals and three hard but manageable opponents, more or less like the previous season. I have expectation of having good chances to improve past year's performance a bit, my bet is in finishing second or third; but to the board I communicate just a top half finish, I don't want them to compromise too much money and considering that the loss of Valverde and the lack of a new centreback of guarantees our team is theorically inferior to the past season.

I decide that I will keep the 4-4-2 formation with chances of changing to 4-3-3, 4-5-1 or 3-5-2 West Germany style depending on games and circumstances. This year, however, Fernando doesn't look to be a regular starting, he's getting old and he seems to be losing more balls than I'd like, so I'll be bringing Trigo to the midfield and Sandy taking his place. Fernando, however, will alow me to have Trigo on the front and not have a bad need fro strikers. I still need, more now without Montoya, a left winger, but nothing is found.

Then, going into the preseason, a superb match against portuguese first division Vitoria Setúbal gives us a 3-1 victory that ignites the hopes for a good campaign. One great and at the same time "meh" moment is brought when we run over our next opposition... being that Villarreal "B", it would mean we're now clearly above teams that qualified for past promotion, but also makes me think how sweet if we had done this match back then.

Not much more good happens during preseason: Marbella beats us 4-1, though we came out with some chances; Valencia call a friendly and run over us 4-0 but luckily we run 4-0 over Palamós next match before season starts, giving the men some good morale for the start of the season.

Also, once the preseason has made me decide the young players that will be registered or just used and those who won't play a game, I offer all of the later to loans hoping first team football will make them better than a year of boring training without games.

Also, Bermejo will be our second goalie, he did very well two seasons ago when Montoya and Aurreko got injured and has showed it again in the preseason. Antonio David isn't bad but I don't see him used and I don't find any registered youth whose place he could take without placing us in a hard position before some injuries.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. This will be the time!
- By Ezequiel Valls

Again we have a great start of season, but this time it looks better to me than the past one. We've fought a couple of the tough opponents and only dropped two points, and deserved to drop none.

The first one was Cultural, who started with defeat but are picking up. At their home the match was even and closely fought, ending with a 1-1, a match that could have gone either way but more likely ours. A just result despite my words in the previous paragraph. The thing that hurted more was their goal came after a clear chance of us that hit the woodwork. That's something very annoying, from being just about going 1-0 up to go 0-1 down. The other tough match was at the leaders Zamora, who used our draw to get ahead. They dominated the firts half putting themselves 2-0 away, but some motivation for the lads and a change to a 4-2-3-1 with two central midfielders and wings gave us the punching edge we looked for and with Trigo and Sandy we came back to a 3-2 win and back to first position.

There was another team we expected to be tough, Ourense, but as soon as I saw their roster I knew they'd not be the same tough team of past season: they've lost all their edge in the air, only one of their old forwards that so dominated in the air are left, and he wouldn't even start the game, so we ended thrashing them for an easy 4-0.

But what makes me so optimistic about this season being the one we should be going up: our players are performing at such levels that I really feel we're at another level, even against Cultural and Zamora I had that impression. Even the young Matesanz is performign like he was a first division player, Campillo did wonderfully in the match he played.

We lost against Logroñés in the King's Cup because we fielded a B team and even so we had the better chances and better possession, it was exhaustion that allowed them to get the goal in the second half of the extra time.

So yeah, we have to get promotion this year, we no longer belong to 2nd B.

I also am going to make a small change to the format of these stories to be more of what I initially thought and more fitting to the title, I hope you readers will enjoy the change better.

((Note: the roster doesn't include unregistered, loaned or injured players unable to be selected))

 

[Jake]

another draw against leonesa. my boys really need to start performing!

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Sandy's the man.
- By Ezequiel Valls

First round almost complete, the season has gone along the expected route, the few losses not taking away from my perception of being above this level.

In the same way that past season the team's performance was heavily influenced by Trujillo, in such a way that when Trujillo was neutralized we began the drop of points, this year the moment Sandy got his performances down, the team had trouble to get the win or even lost. With the difference that Sandy is proving to be a cracker of a player, a real gem I hope we can keep hold for a long time. Even when he's been clouding Trujillo to almost anonimity, as he's barely scored five or six goals thus far, but lately he's brought some really excelent plays and dribbles, like those against Real Oviedo, one ending on a goal, a performance worth of Ronaldo.

Doomed rivals myth is surging this season as once more we've failed to beat allegedly inferior opposition from Madrid's province villages, losing to both Alcorcón and Fuenlabrada.

Some good highlights of the season so far has been the easy 5-1 victory over rivals Palencia and a new victory over arch rivals real Oviedo at their home, with the aforementioned stellar performance by Trujillo.

The bad was the match against Ponferradina, that saw us come back from a 0-1 to a 2-1 only to give it up with two late goals to a 2-3; but was is really worrying is the late tendency to concede very early goals, that have us forced to come back from 0-1 since the Toledo match, a tendency we'll hopefully solve soon. Possibly a problem helped by the late crop of injuries that has kept out of the side Fernando, Remacha, Tasio, Carmona, Dorca, Gaffoor and Matesanz (not all at the same time but more than two).

Not so much worry should be caused by the lately scarcity of goals by Sandy, it's logical he wouldn't keep the more than a goal per match run from the first few matches, though it is the apparently hardship to score, but it's not so much as we're either creating many chances or actually making good use when they're few.

A look at the player stats it can be seen and confirmed how we are performing exceptionally well, with players in many of the departments, and it's also visible how Trujillo may not be scoring much, but he's showing his quality generating thegoals he's not scoring, making all in all another great pairing up there as was previously formed by him and Bauzá.

With the transfer window close to reopen, I have to start to plan on our moves in the market. To start with, some english youth has been brought from the reports by scout Ochoa, a right fullback, a centre back and an attacking midfielder/right winger, the three of them being more or less at the same point: good to enter the first team except... the right beack except he's very poor dribbler and his natural position is wing back, not fullback, the centreback except he barely jumps and the winger that he's not yet developed a good sight for the game. That's not a problem, as by their age two don't need being registered and the other can play in the U19 team. In time they will have a chance this season.

Another move has been unloading Castrillejo for free, another bad purchase that has ended in giving the player for free to save budget, this one being specially bad since it wasn't really needed in the first place.

Up front Trujillo and Sandy make a great couple, with Joan and Trigo there's enough cover, I think, we have plenty for the midfield and central defense as well as the right wing and full back, so our main weakness reside in the left side: Remacha is our only left fullback of guarantee and Dorca our only left midfielder, may they fail we have to either bring to the left side one player from the right (Matesanz for fullback, Israel for midfield) or line up a young player that's not yet reached the desired level (Campillo and Manuel). So we must try to get someone for there, one able to play in both positions if needed; however initial scourges of the market information seems to point the most we can get is someone just enough to start from bench or emergency replacements.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Second round
- By Ezequiel Valls

Some luck strikes when the window will open as Castillejo had already seen his transfer away confirmed when he got sidelined for half a year and also in finding a rather decent left winger by name Vicente Pérez.

Not so much luck to find a good left fullback, which forced me to gamble on the old César Prates, a player with high mental and technical stats but very poor physical condition who can play in a lot of positions, including left fullback, though I don't think I'll play him there.

I decide to keep Pérez in the bench for the first match after his signing, as it's Guijuelo and I don't want to get new players there, and then I don't bring him from the bench when things don't seem like going to turn around. The match ends in a 2-0 defeat away that gets us down to third place at the end of the first round.

I bring them in the next, given the injuries of Tasio and new one of Trigo I decide to risk with Prates as the playmaker in the place of Trigo. He doesn't disappoints, giving a superb assist for Sandy to score in our match against Ourense. They have brought from start their tall and powerful player, which they do find this time in two plays to get over 2-1 despite our overall dominance of the match. Trujillo got a ball on a counter, very good to score but is fouled by a defender, and though they lost him to a red card for profesional fouling, it was too late to capitalize on the number advantage.

Oh, so well timed... Remacha gets injured for almost a month, we lose our left fullback, the only natural and good one. I'm not going to use Prates there, I will put Matesanz there and Ruiz in the right side.

I repeat the eleven against easy Coruxo to lift morale before receiving Cultural, Prates again offers various shows of his quality. Regalón puts the worse note getting a red card on account of a very tough tackle to the knees. I wonder why in set pieces a lot of times my players go where they please, not where I asked them to go. Oh well. As bad is Carmona injured for four weeks, we're having a bad season with the injuries. The 3-1 victory, Montero shamefully dropped the ball to the rival's feet, that keeps us third but puts us only two points from first, now Guijuelo.

Seeing the way the league is going and the superiority that Cultural and Guijuelo are showing over the rest, it seems to me that this season the key will not be so much winning all the non-top sides and hope for they dropping points in their direct confrontations, but to get the points from our direct matches against them and then not dropping more than two matches worth of points against the rest. Fortunately this round we have those matches at home, which will be a plus.

Cultural, the first key match is coming in two matches. We have an easy rival before: Titánico, so will consider giving a rest to the more important players, maybe get Antonio David at the goal to see how he fares.

Not bad, but with the goal for the 1-1 I'm going to sub him for Montero as soon as we make the second goal. Only to regret it as soon after Will Jenkins, another new I bring after Israel injury, scores the third. Prates again showing his great class setting Sergio Pérez's first ever goal with our shirt in a free kick.

Next Cultural comes to visit. I wonder if a 4-2-2-2 could do well against their "weird" 4-5-1, but I think those experiments are best left for later or if the match goes bad.

And so it happens when in the second half they tae their chance to get one goal up. However, the 4-2-2-2 doesn't seem to do much, granted I forgot some changes, and only a penalty at minute 85 allowed for Prates to score the equalizer off the post. We lose the chance to come over Cultural and Guijuelo gets four points away, now.

Hmph, Matesanz and Rose get angry because I didn't registered them. I understand Rose's uncertainty as he's just come, but Matesanz?, he's started every match! He should know his absence from registry is a need to allow room for other good players, duh.

Next we have a likely tough match against Zamora, where I'll keep the people and tacticts that have been working, then a few matches of respite before facing the Madrid province teams. I could use some of the easy matches to try 4-2-2-2 and 4-2-3-1, but since I will aim for the top spot of the group I doubt we'll have the chance to do a lot of experimenting.

Hopefully the two match ban for Regalón will include those he'll miss due to his four week injury, as he's an important player for us, vital in the defense as centreback, despite his lack of agility.

 

[Jamie F]

Looking good for a promotion spot, keep it up

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Second round half
- By Ezequiel Valls.

There's not been much changes with the half of the second round of the league reached. We demolished Titánico as expected, didn't get past a 1-1 against Cultural and continued with a series of good results interrupted by a worked out draw against Gimnástica and Atlético de Madrid B snatching a win at their home by a 1-0 after several chances in a game they completely dominated. my fault as I didn't react to take the needed measures, leaving it to trust the apparent qualities of the few chances we created.

It's not a round clear of bad news, as our best men in midfield got sidelined for the rest of the season. Jacobo Trigo hurt his calf tendons and it's unlikely to be available for the play offs. He's been our main creative force in the midfield, being the top assistant with ten passes of goal. Now the signing of Prates that I considered a gamble turns out to work superbly for us, as he's being a great replacement for Trigo. Fernando might be a good one, but lately he's been losing the ball so much I'm not too keen on using him in the start lineup.

Another blow for us came in another injury, not as long as Trigo's, but important nonetheless, this time Albert Dorca will be a long time out of the side.

In league things go well, with Guijuelo getting in a string of bad results just after I tipped them as winners of the division that has seen them drop to fourth position, Cultural taking on the opportunity to get to the top and Ponferradina using our defeat to Atlético to climb to third position.

Seeing as how league and fixtures stands, Cultural seems to have the easier schedule to the end of the league, having already played every top four team, their goal away makes our particular goal difference run in their favour in case of tie. The rest of us top three still have to face each other in what is left of the season, so the more likely outcome is Cultural running ahead with an eight or so points while Ponferradina, Guijuelo and us fighting for the order in the rest of matches. Fifth and lower qualified teams will have a chance to climb among the top four if one of us has poor results in the matches amongst us, basically, so as long no more than one of those matches is lost we should be clear to compete in a new promotion play off.

As player performances go, it's of note the great work of the striker pair: Sandy 19 goals (second of the league) and 9 assists, Trujillo 9 goals and 10 assists.

 

[Jake]

woop woop woop!cultural leonesa top of the league!!

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. End of regular season. So close
- By Ezequiel Valls

As if they read my papers, our players followed the publication of the last issue with a string of two bad defeats, where they did the opposite to the start of season: they performed like they were in a division too high for them, and as consequence we dropped to fourth place and only two points ahead the fifth, specially in our visit to Palencia, where at least we managed to score for a 3-1 defeat.

And then, like magic had happened, they recovered the start of season level of performances the next match at home, beating Sporting B 3-0, giving us the first win against Fuenlabrada and doing it with a 5-0. A series of high scoring games and over the top performances with goals by people in every position. Among that run a 2-0 victory over then third Ponferradina that easily could have been a 4-0 were not for their inspired goalkeeper.

And so we reached the last two hard matches of the season, at home against Real Oviedo and Guijuelo in first position tied with Cultural, who started to drop points as soon I tipped them as division winners.

But we did it without Prates, Vicente Pérez and Matesanz, injured, and the lack of a real creative midfielder, as I didn't want to put Fernando, given his tendency to lose balls, meant Real Oviedo got the upper hand for a 1-3 result, taking the first place out of our hands.

Guijuelo was to be another tough match, as only Vicente Pérez was back from injury. This time I set Fernando in the starting eleven and things when a little better, scoring soon but at the same time losing hope for the first place, as Cultural scored in their match and first position needed their defeat. Things turned badly as in the first half Guijuelo got a couple counterattacks to get ahead 1-2.

The second half appeared then irrelevant save from the possible morale problem that might arise for the play offs might we lose the match, as Cultural got a three goal difference. Small changes to the 4-4-2 did little, so I did a small further change to a 4-4-1-1 with the young Jenkins as trequartista, change that worked, providing us with the two goals we needed to win the match.

Next we met our first play off rival: Écija, fourth qualified in the fourth group, with a balance of wins and goals that make me feel optimistic, but of which I have yet to have a quiet look at his players. Something that has popped these seasons is that now we have a serious problem against opposition that are strong in the air.

If the team behaves like the start of season or like the match against Ponferradina, we shouldn't have problem to reach Liga Adelante, else it would be a disappointing season.

As for players, I'm happy with most of them. Regalón has showed he's first class in centreback, Sergio Pérez is also performing at a very good level, Remacha is also keeping the performance to the level of Valverde. Prates has been more than outstanding and Trigo has been so good as well as to cause me a problem about whom to put in game. Our mid season signings have, for the first time, all worked well, even the younths I thought were missing a little something, both Jenkins and Rose has performed up to the rest of the team when brought in to the pitch. For first time it's really painful when I have to leave people at home.

Trigo missed his chance to top the assists ranks because of his long injury. Sandy got a lump in the second half of the season and ended eight goals behind top goalscorer, but still his goals + assist total is absolutely astounding, and Trujillo's not much less good.


Let's see if this time we do what we deserve and get to Liga Adelante. And why not, Cultural too, they've had a lot of chances already.

 

[Jake]

i hope Burgos and Leonesa go up

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. I hate play off draws.
- By Ezequiel Valls

Écija was a tougher plate than expected and we came to the second leg at home having suffered a 2-0 defeat in their stadium. Seeing as the team had trouble creating chances and we'd need many goals, the plan was to make a tactic as offensive as possible, without excess as getting a goal would make it impossible, so keeping an eye on the back the flat 4-3-3 was chosen, with Joan joining Sandy and Trujillo upfield and placing two defensive midfielders in the middle, one with aim to join the attack when seen fit. It gave us one of the most vibrating matches and an overall wonderful come back to run all over them by a comfortable 4-0, with two goals for both Sandy and Joan.

We were on to the next round, as Cultural won their leg and achieved promotion. We would then enter the draw for the next leg, and more or less as it was in Tercera, we got Cádiz, the biggest top favourite for ascension of the four groups. Yes, I love the play off draws, we were playing above the league for a good part of the season then we got to fight the one other team that is suppossed to be above the level.

They play with a 5-3-2, two wingbacks, and I decide that for the visit to their stadium I shall line up a 4-5-1, to compensate the third central midfielder, as they got talented players there, and trying to exploit the flanks and overwhelm their wingbacks, without going all too offensive in their home. The plan kind of works, as we create a decent amount of chances, but the final result isn't so good and we come back with a 2-1. At least we get a goal away and a 1-0 victory will serve us. So I make the home game with a more attacking flavour of the same and we do get a goal, only after they score two.

So hells, another year in Second B.

And time to plan for the next season.

In the buy list I'll put:

- A left fullback, I will go with what we've already have for the right: Matesanz first pick, then Regalón, Ruiz or a french we had in the U19 past season. We need a sub for Remacha, I prefer not to have to use Matesanz there, Campillo simply isn't good enough.

- Get rid of Fernando, who's been losing too many balls and not doing good this year and get another creative midfielder, specially if we fail again to find a good third striker as that'll mean Trigo will be moved there. Prates will be playing his last season with us, too, as he's retiring at the end.

- A third good striker to alternate with Sandy and Trujillo so they'll won't take their places for granted.

- A possibility to consider is cashing on Israel and another of the other wingers and get pne or two wingers that are specially gifted to send crosses better than we're having them sent.

As for the goals of the coming season, they'll be to earn promotion, and the best way to do so is winning the group, so I'll tell the board we'll be challenging for title. If we don't go up this season I can as well resign and let someone else try to take the next step for the club.

 

[Death Ball]

I'll update in a couple days, before new season start, but after playing the first friendly...

*CENSORING* *CENSOR* *CONSOREDLY* *CENSORED* *CENSORSHIP*‼‼‼

I just saw I forgot to reset the closing down setting from the Écija second leg for the Cádiz matches and put it back to normal instead of stand off more, which coupled with the fact 3 of the 4 Cádiz goals came from not enough closing down, means I probably should be Liga Adelante if I had remembered I tweaked that setting.

*CENSORING* *CENSOR* *CONSOREDLY* *CENSORED* *CENSORSHIP*‼‼‼

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Preseason
- By Ezequiel Valls

It's been a mixed feelings preseason. The most intense in new signings since second season at Tercera, some signings from past season after window closed have been added to the team, main of whom is the turkish player Johannes Ketterl, young and creative. But there's been many other additions to the squad, something that doesn't quite make me feel too pleased because while they certainly will make our team stronger, they're mostly central midfielders, an area where we had already very well covered.

One of them was brought because of a great offer for Tasio and then having to satisfy Regalón, who complained for the selling of our star player. Then I cashed on Israel, given there was not a seventh registered youngster to take off the squad and Israel was the less good. Not a pleasing sell, almost as painful as Bauza's, he's given a lot to the team, but he seemed the less hurtful sell of them all. Jano, the signing that led to that, at least is able to play up in the striker position, so it fills for the new striker signing I planned, however he's not one to expect much in that position, so would be an emergency solution.

No signing for the left fullback, no signing of a pure striker, though there's been a couple of youths to develop for the future.

Now for the central midfielder I have: Prates, Trigo (who can be striker), Casado, Ruiz, Juanma, Ketterl and Jano. Also, players who mostly play in other positions but can work there are Regalón (centerback), Carmona (winger), Jenkins (winger), Dorca (wide midfielder) and Vicente Pérez (winger).

Also brought Jonatan Neftalí to add some aerial capacity to the defense. And youth José Antonio for the future of left fullback position.

That has made me try the two flavours, "deep" and "shallow" (that is DMCs or MCs), of the 4-2-3-1 formation, which have worked nicely against teams of Adelante or BBVA leagues, getting acceptable results against thems. Draws against Vitoria Setúbal and Málaga, a 2-3 defeat to Numancia and comfortable wins against 2B teams.

There's still some time to buy a new player, which I'd try to make the left fullback or a striker, though I'm unsure about that. I will likely try to find someone who's younger than 23 so I don't have to unregister and sell one of the older players, all of whom I do want in my team. And the leftback is not that bad now with Neftalí. Regalón can work decently in the rigth fullback, as Ruiz does and that makes it possible for Matesanz to go left. Campillo has worked well in the friendlies, so he may be enough in the end.

Now we'll go against Guijuelo in the first Copa del Rey round. A match we should be able to win. The question is: do we really want to put it all in there?. We got a lot of men to rotate in the midfield, but not so many for other positions. I guess I'll try to go as far as it can be done without comprosmising the league performance, where I want to be completelly dominant for the first position. The Cup will also be a good way to even improve the economical performance of past season and to get some youths first team football, so it'll be up to them.

((P.S. - Whoops, so many attachments...))

 

[Death Ball]

((A bit slow, taken with TES: Oblivion and some TV series and then between this and that had little time to play more than just a match per session))

DIARIO DE BURGOS. SPORT EDITION
Half first round report. Women and journalists first!
- By Ramón Tarque

I will state it clearly: this doesn't seem the season that Burgos will go up to Liga Adelante. The team has lost all the feel of superiority of past season and now drags its feet around the stadiums, sweating results at home unless the visitors are weak sides and getting nothing when going away.

One has to wonder if mister Valls was foreseeing this when he announced in his Notebook publications that he'd not continue in the team if it didn't go up. Then I would say he should have resigned right then, if he knew the team would drop performance the way it has.

Maybe the board should have taken action when Regalón denounced the sell of Tasio, a key man in the midfield and a good help in the defense whom absence is being noted by the team, which defense is by far not the same than past season's. We've seen them conceding too many goals, losing matches that should have been comfortably won and being in the brink of losing others.

It took three matches to win the first league match, Valladolid B was about to get back from a 3-3, only the luck that the linier saw the offside in their third goal prevented it. Ferrol, inferior despite what betting companies say, managed to score first in the match, and then again. Valls was lucky of the six goals his team scored of perhaps we'd be now free of his presence in the bench.

His signings have been good, Jano has performed more than we hoped for with his assists, Neftalí has got himself in the scoresheet and done some good jobs. But he's kept Prates, who is way too old and past his useful time, despite whatever he could do past year, and he brought ─ out of the transfer window past season! ─ a turkish player who is not settling in and he just lets him go for a month, like that were to help him adapt to life here. And to that he sold the best defensive midfielder of the team. Good job, mister Valls.

At least this year the team has gone through the King's Cup until meeting an Adelante team, using the younger members of the team in a successful way. And there was some consolation in the way of the Ponferradina draw, after giving up three goals in one of the **** poor defensive displays, and after losing one man to a red card, the team managed to take control of the match and come back to a 3-3 that could have easily been a 4-3 might the chances been taken advantage of. Possible with the brilliance of Jenkins. And where's Jenkins? Anybody in his mind would say starting matches, but no!, he's lucky if Valls places him in the bench.

So far, the team sists third in reach of second simply because the top teams aren't dominating as much as the past year.

Really, should we be waiting to the end of the season to get rid of Valls? Burgos CF deserves to have a manager that will get it up, not one who's already thinking of the chance of staying one more year in this hole, making unjustified discards and changing his mind on the playing style almost every game

((In next updates I'll see if I remember to upload the images to photobucket))

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Midseason
- By Ezequiel Valls

Middisappointingseason. Never has the team given the feeling of playing lower than it deserves, as it didd past season. Could be the income of new players not gelling in, however past seasons saw bigger squad changes without dropping the level of play. I deny that the frequent tactical changes are to blame, as they only began as a way to solve the performance drop.

Specially poor has been Sandy, who's scored not a single goal in ages and his performances are abyssal, in his last game with us we didn't get past a 0-0 draw against a weaker side because our three most clear chances were sent to crossbar, bench seat and NASA satellite by him. It is obvious that he's not worth keeping or even giving any more chances, so we looked the market to find a replacement. None to be happy with were found, but Gonzalo Rico was hired nonetheless, in hope his experience and technical abilities can make up for his subpar phisiqye.

Sandy was sold for 250,000 € to Cultural Leonesa, a real surprise to see him go to a higher division team. Suckers.

Luckily after the initial fan outrage they seem to understand it's not a good signing for our arch rivals.

Our Palencia game was our only pleasing result, with a 3-1 victory at their stadium, a match of dominance I thought to be a tough nut to crack. All the rest, draws and close wins against notably inferior teams we should have used to mop the pitch. Only the last game has seen us perform as we should be doing, in our first complete game using the fluid 4-3-3 using wingers cutting in, managing a solid 5-0 win over Puertollano. Not a game to start looking the future with optimism, given their great inferiority to our team. A hat trick by Jenkins in his first match after his injury... and last before his new injury for several weeks. And two goals for Trigo, who had been on a long goal drought, but mainly because he's been for long time used in positions that aren't as good to have scoring chances.

In the good side, Real Oviedo began to drop points as soon I tipped them as title winners and they're now only five points ahead, tied with Gimnástica, a recoverable point difference that makes winning the group a possibility.

Apart from Rico, a few young fullbacks have been brought into the side, two of them for the left side to cover for the weakness in that side, of which Tiago Manuel may be used from now in the team rotations, though Fernández Rodríguez would be earlier choice.

Another of the good news is the defense finally working, as we've broken the record of matches without conceding, setting it to six, not receiving more than one since our 6-2 win over Ferrol, eleven matches ago.

The poor season compared to past year can be seen easily with two images: our season progression and the lack of Burgos players in the top lists, except the negative of red cards.

Some considerations in dealing with the transfer market this winter must be made to decide the fate of two players: Carlos Ruiz and César Prates, who are not getting many minutes, and not being specially good, or bad. One does fill midfielder and the other fills for the midfield and right fullback side, it could be a good idea to leave Prates unregistered and try to sell Carlos Ruiz, and fill their places with either young blood or new signings; Pablo Casado could return to be a regular, after being left out the first half, maybe Padial too, or Bermejo. Anyway, almost a month to think about it and make a decision.

One the down side of the market, Mike Rose who was progressing to become a regular in the right back part of the pitch has got too impatient and requested to be transfer listed, he's soon to sign for Rangers in a 300,000 € deal.

Economically, though the team has gone through two months of losses, things are very well, making profit for most of the months and the bank account gone beyond the two million euors mark.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Lightweight Championship, last quarter.
- By Ezequiel Valls

Didn't I say it? Don't let that one match blind you?. The second round has seen a very disappointing turn of events, struggling to get victories, letting drop several points and accumulating four consecutive defeats that brought us out of the promotion places, leaving us to battle for the last one with Ferrol and Sporting B.

With Sporting B still to be played and Gimnástica as tough match, our calendar seems to be closely as hard as Ferrol's, though they won't have their tough fixture until the last match, when things may already be decided.

For us, the key will be in defeating Sporting "B" and not doing too bad against Gimnástica.

For that match and the next to come my plan is to turn to the new tactic that allowed us to be close to defeat Ourense, as they should may that last minute long range been prevented, and to maul Ponferradina with a 3-1 with goal by Sánchez Moya, who's starting to have opportuinities, once Juanma and Rico are out for long, making me prefer Trigo in the midfield. The tactic is a 4-4-2 diamond, thin, with an anchor man that will mainly be Casado except when I consider the need to use Regalón as anchorman, he was key to stop the lightning fast N'Gamukol in the last match,.

I can only hope the morale injection that last match was will serve to start to improve the performances of the team, we'll really need that to get in the promotion play offs. There's always room for hope, but it looks like I will have to execute that resignation promise I made at start of season.

In a funny note, I can't really but express my baffling at some press, there's no reason why in the match we got two yellow cards shown and our rivals saw six yellow cards and one direct red, I was the one asked about the many cards we were shown. Appaling.

As for what seems to be the competition among the squad, the champions should be soon decided, with the defeats of Juanma, Rico, Bermejo and Jenkins, Casado seems the favourite to win the lightweights freeform combat competition, after putting down on KO José, Gaffoor, Rico and Remacha.

Seriously, that seems to be the main problem of the season, Juanma was getting to be a key piece for the defensive part of the midfield and he got sidelined until past summer; we lost Ketterl for a while, Gaffoor also spent some matches at the infirmary, Jano was out for three matches and Jenkins hs just returned from his long injury, during which Carmona, our only right wing of quality was also out for more than a couple matches.

Now we don't have a defensive midfield of the characteristics I wish, as Regalón is preferred in the defensive line, so it will be a matter of make do with Casado or bring up a young to the back line. Maybe Fernández Rodríguez, he made a good match against Palencia.

Well, now I should be turning to study the upcoming match against second placed Gimnástica.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. End of regular season
- By Ezequiel Valls

Gimnástica match was a hard fought one with the team giving a good impression, but ultimately failing to get any point. Fernández Rodríguez confirming himself as a good choice for the back four allowing to keep Regalón as anchor man in front of the league, man marking the dangerous man in front if there is one needing so.

The bad news were the victory of Ferrol in their match, giving him a more than one match advantage of four points.

- Not to worry, apart from the match against Sporting B that were trailing behind, all remaining matches are very much within our ability and Ferrol can get more hiccups than we easy.

With the idea that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I have decided that I'll keep this tactic for the rest of the season, as it seems to have provided a solution to our scoring trouble.

And so we won the next two matches previous to the vital Sporting B, including getting the win over Lemona, whom we didn't beat the first round, and during those matches Ferrol went through two draws getting us tied in points but above in goal average. Now we were dependant on ourselves, winning all would give us the pass to play offs.

The big match arrived and we went with a slight more defensive mentality, wishing to hold the opposition back and try to strike back on them to get ahead and, though we had some good chances, it was Sporting through the speed of his striker Moreno who got ahead 2-0 in half time. I talked to the men, giving my trust to the younger and lecturing the older, changing the underperforming Gaffoor, taking Regalón down to the back four and Casado as anchor, now set to man mark Moreno as well as giving the team a more offensive mentality. Taking more control of the ball the oportunities rapdily came, and a brilliant Jano stepped in to get two back in two minutes, hitting Sporting with their former weapon, speed. And provoking the penalty that Trujillo would soon transform for the final 3-2 win that would keep us up in fourth.

Curious how the stats score Jano's received penalty as an assistance.

During the next match, a comfortable victory against another team we should have defeated in first round but didn't, Jano added two more assists to his stats, beating the record for Burgos assist in a year that Bauzá had made before him, setting one more than him with 14 assists.

With Ferrol's draw that match, things looked bright to have a chance to reach the last day with play off ensured, though more to be able to have enough with a draw, but at their home Puertollano wasn't the pushover of the first round and a late penalty by Neftalí, who was introduced to fill Regalón's short injury as Fernández Rodríguez had to be used in left full back due to Remacha's injury, gave them the final 1-1 draw, getting us again tied with Ferrol. Now we would have to get at least the same result as them to get past regular season.

Young Sánchez Moya scored an early goal, one more for the young player that bloomed under the new tactical system, that gave us some tranquility, waiting for a second goal that didn't come despite the several chances. Still, seeing Ferrol was drawing their match seemed enough. Nervous were started to be felt as Ferrol got to score their first goal at minute 61, and more when a second six minutes later meant that if Mirandés got to get one of their chances in our season would be finally ruined. Luckily the team kept their newfound level of good performances and denied such event, despite failing to score the second calming goal. Giving us the pass to play off.

We were to be drawn against a second qualified, as per rules and we got Huesca, a team with more wins but also more losses than us as well as less goals scored and less difference than us. I'm waiting for the report of our scouting staff, but I would expect another fast team with some air strength. As long they use the most frequent defensive kind of tactic we shouldn't experience big trouble with the current tactic and have the chance to fight with them. And besides Juanma, we'll have the full squad fit for the match, so we had our chance to go pass them. First match at home, I'm not sure what I prefer, though.

---------- Post added at 07:05 AM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 05:40 AM ----------

Manager Notebook. Play offs. Bye-bye...
- By Ezequiel Valls

─ Confirming that the Huesca team won't be fielding his best aerial asset is a quite good news, as well as their tendency to play defensively, which means our new tactics should work well. So it will be an attacking set of the tactic with Regalón as anchorman and Fernández Rodríguez at the back, once Remacha is back from his injury.

┼ That was a surprise for me as well as the radioman, we got a comfortable win by 3-1, with another fine match by Jano. A pity of the goal conceded at the start of the second half when we were 3-0, which will make the second leg a bit less calm that it should. It will be a less ofensive tactic that I'll use, merely a matter of building the attack slower.

┼ It was indeed enough, though them getting the first goal brought some tension, Dorca 30 yarder was all that was needed to get the round sentenced. That was a fine game in the match he finally returned to play-

─ Next opponent was like past year, almost. Not one of the top favourites but the leader of their group. We're so not going to get past these. Again starting at home, which I think is better this time, as that means more chances to begin with a good foot and get to their home with better morale. I see little to gain from being defensive, so the best thing to do will be to start with some care to not gift them the ball and then in the fifteenth minute start to press on them with some pace. Again the diamond. Good news are again that Lorca have not aerially strong forwards.

┼ Match didn't start well, getting a goal in the early minutes. Pressing on the attack, however, yielded results as in mid half Trujillo got an equalizer. Joy would last until the second half, when their striker would get a second goal in, forcing us again to get a two goals score advantage in the second leg. But things would improve soon as Sánchez Moya, the youth that is responsible of the goals that allowed us to get in fourth place at the end of regular season, got the ball into their nets. Satisfaction turned into optimist when in the final minutes Jenkins, who returned to play for the team in this match, placed a through ball into the net, giving us a 3-2 victory.

─ For the second leg, I should expect them to be more offensive and bring their fullbacks onto the attack, so perhaps I should change to a winger formation so my full backs have some help. However this diamond has been weoking, so I'll do the same as the second leg against Huesca.

┼ Tragedy strikes in the first half when Lorca put a long shot into our net, getting the pass on away goals. Time to go into a more offensive tactic, I also instruct my men to use Sánchez Moya as our target man, while he keeps playing a poacher type of role and give it for him to run onto the ball. It was easy to predict it would be he, again, receiving an assistance from Montero in the area, who scored the equalizer that would finally allow us to get to the last round where we'd play for the promotion.

─ And once more, our rival is one I don't like: Ponferradina. This season we drew at home 0-0 and lost at theirs 2-1, they have what is most dangerous for our team: tall players strong in the air. The league results were achieved with the old 4-4-2 that was failing, so there's hope to improve the performances, but still they would be favourites to get the promotion, winning both games. Having the first leg at home again, I decide we must go for the match from the first second, no matter what. This time Regalón must be instructed to stick to Alex, their striker that is both tall and fast, good on air and his foot; Sánchez Moya will be asked to be a poacher and sent balls to run onto them as a target man again; he's very fast and we must take advantage of that. On the bad news that make this round much worse is the injury Trigo had in the first leg of the previous round, it was the responsible fact that had us having such a bad time in the second leg. Ketterl can take his creative duties, but there's not really any other who's good to take a more defensive role, so I will be bringing Dorca, who's the closer to be a decent defensive midfielder.

┼ And this time it couldn't be, Sánchez Moya had balls sent to him, but too much to a side for him to be able to get a scoring position, and when he was in front of goal he had too many defenders to get past, being forced to make a too far shot in one time he had almost dribbled the fourth and last defender. Nobody else had any real chance, while Ponferradina enjoyed a good amount that they failed to bag. A 0-0 draw thatdoesn't bode well.

─ For the second leg, the problem now is what to do. Our scouts told me their defenders aren't fast, their pitch is long and I expect them to be more offensive and come further forward. So it seems like the best thing to do is to try use Sánchez Moya's speed again, and since our defense, specially with Fernández Rodríguez is rather fast, we'll be pushing our defense high and play an attacking football. I think that's our only shot.

┼ Things looked well in the first half, we hold them to a 0-0 draw and they seem to be having less chances than in the first leg. Too bad that with less chances this time they did get their goal. 1-0 at 50 minutes. We were having enough chances too, so I bet it on not changing anything, only bringing some fresh legs, Carmona in for Dorca to give a little more punch. And why give up after all his efforst to get us past?. It's a pity to let pass a chance like that to become a legend, isn't it?. A long ball to the middle of the park was picked by Moya to run ahead of the defenders and get it in. 1-1. Jano is brought back to the middle to be a bit more responsible in defense. And with that, the end is reached. 1-1 and we get the promotion on away goals‼

GOODBYE, SEGUNDA B!.

We're now a Liga Adelante Group!.

Now, time to study the transfer market to get up to the new division.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. New Division, major overhaul
- By Ezequiel Valls

Betis, Deportivo, Osasuna, Real Sociedad... Adelante is a division with some classic names, that make it sound like the jump to the new division is rather big. Players are physically strong and there's a high mental quality all around, watching the alphabetically three first teams.

The promotion system, top three getting promotion automatically make this first season the most challenging: making the jump to be at this level is the toughest part, once that is done, earning promotion is a matter of doing a constant good job, there's no play offs in which a bad day or a bad luck in the draws can ruin all the season's work.

We have enough as it seems in the physical, though a couple of poor jumpers may come to bite us on ocasion, but mentally we're sub-par.

There's need to bring reinforcements for all positions, not just the left fullback and striker positions with a slighter need for left midfielders. Good thing is the new increased limit of 25 players to register, and no requirements to have at least six under 23, so there's room to bring new faces and keep those who best performed for us.

Matesanz, Jano, Trujillo, Sánchez Moya, Ketterl, Jenkins are players I want to keep, though Trujillo barely makes it. Regalón and Gaffoor would be kept as they did a good job. Sergio Pérez and Jonatan Neftalí will be the first two to leave the team, as they were barely used past season.

The other good news is we're getting millions for the transfer budget and a good wage budget we're far from spending



With 26 july reached, the transfer activity has been high, but not as productive as I'd wished. We still are low in mental aspects and we still need new faces for the defense, left fullback and could use some for the midfield, specially the left side.

We've brought two young goalkeepers, Ryan Gray and Juan Carlos Sevillano from free transfer, who will be replacing Montero, to be sold in order to help finances.

The front has finally had the reinforcements it needed, though not quite what was wanted, but a definite improvement. José Luis Reyes, who brings height and ability to get into space, from Alcalá for €300K; young Juan Jesús Luque in order to try grow him into a physical missile; Omar Méndez, €10K from Belgrano, to bring his lightning speed and alternate with Sánchez Moya; and then Álvaro Gomes and Adrián Bruna for the midfield, the first bringing the defensive edge that Juanma couldn't get anymore after his injury and the latter bringing brains to be a good alternative to Jano in building the attack.

Due to the registration limits, apart for several players left go on contract expiration Joan and Juanma were sold, Joan to Lumezzane for €40k and Juanma for just €4k and Vicente Pérez waiting on some cotnract talks with other teams.

Market will still be looked for more reinforcements, next players likely in the list of sells to create space would be Trigo, who didn't do so much past season, Albert Dorca, Montero.

On other news, two more scouts have joined the team to find new talent in Spain and Argentina, having other two scouring central Europe (thoguh they should know neither Spain or Portugal are Central Europe) and England. The new division rules have forced the board to expand the stadium and they agreed to improve our training facilities. I've also gone through a total overhaul of the training schedules, making a more organized system by which the players start building physically, then mentally and then a bit of all.

And hopefully, with the trial for defender von Schlebrügge, we can get him to agree playing the season.

Our offer for Cristian Castells, has been accepted, though he's a bit in the limit physically; but it's all for nothing, as he's not interested. Same happens with Hamalainen, a great left fullback, but that was expected considering it too a million and half offer to be able to offer him a contract.


First friendly is an expected hammering of Burgos Promesas, who're in Regional Inferior, and so we do, a comfortable 6-0 victory with not a single shot by them. One negative sign, however, when a free kick, only shot even if not registered by stats, was stopped by Gray but he couldn't keep it in his hands, forcing the defense to concede a corner. Could simply been hard enough to make that an acceptable event.

But the joy comes when veteran Fabrice Abriel accepts to bring his experience and great vision of the game to our team. He may well be the last bit of edge our midfield needed to get up to the new level.

P.S. - Checking on Sandy's season at Cultural Leonesa, it was indeed a poor piece of business... for them, as he only played four disappointing matches. The team went down back to Second B1, which has not been a good news for me, as I wanted to meet them again here.

Also, a big fumble, as I found a great 15 year old gem of a midfielder, Rivero, for whom I had to spend a good part of the 4.7 million transfer budget and he won't be joining us in three years!

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebool. Preseason
- By Ezequiel Valls

The transfer market scouring until the end of the preseason friendlies has not seen much luck, with any worthy player rejecting to move with us. Only the veteran Arnaud Jean accepted our offer. He'll provide with the aerial power we needed back, though he's not speedy.

The preseason has seen us face lesser opposition, teams of 2B or third division mostly, with the only exception of the friendly against Valencia. Not a schedule too useful to decide the status of the team.

The best sign has come in our match against Valencia: With the diamond we held them up for most of the match, we had our good chances and they needed an error from Jenkins to get their goal in a long range shot at 56 minutes, showing us as a team able to hold on to top division teams. Valencia went on to win supercup later.

But then next match 2B4 outfit Badalone held us to a goalless draw. The other bad result was having 3rd Division Marino score the first goal during first half, though it must be said that was due to using the diamond defense against a 4-2-3-1 thin, as soon we changed to a 4-2-3-1 deep and wide we went on to dominate the match and score three goals.

The overall feeling from the preseason is that the team will be up to the new division and hence we can be optimistic about achieving promotion coming time, I would say at least two more seasons in Adelante before we can realistically aim for that. Adrián Bruna doesn't seem that of a good passer, Gomes may be too slow and leave the defense vulnerable against some fast opponents; the diamond should work well enough and a 4-2-3-1 will be a valid alternative.

We'll try to get as far as possible in the king's cup, but keeping our key men to rest for the season, as league is our main objective, we can't afford dropping back to 2B. There's not too much hope in that as our first opponent will be Adelante's Deportivo de La Coruña. Rotten luck, I say.