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

[rrrrrrrrrr]

Good luck this season, it will be hard, but possible.
I think the step from 2ºB to 2º is much bigger than the one from 3º to 2ºB.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Fan mail
- By Ezequiel Valls

Thanks, yep, I think so. From 3ª to 2ªB was mostly a proliferation of fast players, but not all that many fast players, and generally equally "dumb" and technically average, perfectly manageable for a decent 3ª team.

Adelante has not only many fast players, they also seem to have decent jumpers and in my looks a lot of quality in mental and technical aspects, clearly above of even a dominating 2ªB team.

I think this summer is the most active in the market transfer and the one I've done the most changes in the squad. My first season on 2ªB I brought six changes to the starting eleven, this season... another six. GK (Gray), DC (Jean), DMC (Abriel), MC (Gomes), MC (Bruna) and ST (Reyes). And DL (Tiago Manuel) and the other ST (Sánchez Moya) are being now starting that were left at home or bench past season. Though out of the bench there's more novelties this year: back in our promotion to 2ª B all new signings went to be starting, now I have Mendes, Sevillano and Luque, though Luque will be waiting for winter to be registered, if I do, he's a signing for the future, but he'll be in the King's Cup as long we stay there.

Another difference is that second season did only see one signing in preseason market, despite giving away three or four key players, will the next season I'll have to be as active as this season to complete the jump, most likely. I don't think there will be many players next season that were already in the past one. Jenkins, Sánchez Moya, Fernández Rodríguez, Matesanz (who's looking like going to be word class) and maybe one of either Gaffoor or Regalón look with chances to stay. Trigo, Dorca, Carmona, Trujillo and Remacha are most likely to leave the team. Other youths like Casado, Manuel and Quaresma may stay depending on luck finding better talent ─ It is good I've prohibited my players to read this ─.

The first league match has been a great experience, confirming the thoughts of preseason. A first halt where Barakaldo seemed to have the upper hand, though they didn't stopped us from having our chances; but second half, with a few touches to the tactic, wider, more offensive, we took control of possession, until Sánchez Moya set Dorca alone in front of a side of the area from which he could send a long shot to the post and inside, after being brushed by the goalie. The goal was followed by a half hour of dominance on our side, though they had a couple chances, clearest being a close range shot in offside, rightly seen by referee, that was masterfully saved by Gray. As when it happens, I wish the second goal, a long counter attack pass picked by Moya in the way typical to him to be shot from the corner of the area into the side netting, had arrived earlier to have more calm in those last minutes of match.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. At home well
- By Ezequiel Valls

The start of season was to be agains one of the other promoted teams, that was good news as it meant good chances for a good start as it indeed was, with the diamond formation working to dominate Barakaldo to a 2-0 win.

We were up to newly promoted teams, a bit above judging from that match. But the first round of the King's Cup against Adelante outfit Deportivo would be a better test of our level.

King's Cup may be relevant to gather more income, but the league is our obvious top concern, as we need to give it all we have to stand in the division, so want to go farther or not, it's a match to field all the second choices and so I do, turning also a more defensive flavor of the diamond. The result was a success, a match mostly dominated by Deportivo de la Coruña, but with chances for us and neither side able to score in the 90 minutes. Or the extra 30 either, to decide it in a penalty shootout where luck would give the glory to... us!.

Back to he league, the bad results started to come. First the team showed a good promise scoring two against Elche, but allowing them to get three goals, due to defensive errors leaving someone alone for the final header.

It was worse in the next match against Real Sociedad, where they dominated all the match with barely any chance for us, seeing us out with a 2-0.

A new encounter with Deportivo yielded yet another draw, this time a 1-1.

And Sevillano became first choice for the league above Gray.

That was followed by a string of matches we managed to keep close in the scoresheet, but never scoring ourselves, getting several 0-1 defeats broke by a surprise 0-0 draw to Albacete.

Second round of King's Cup matched us against another Adelante team, Tenerife. It started like most matches: total dominance by the opposition, but some touches to the tactic brought the ball to us and a slightly preference over the ball for our side as well, turning us in the dominant side for most of the second half, creating more chances that Tenerifa, getting one crossbar more than them. But unjust luck wanted them to get a counter in the closing minutes to have us out of the Cup with yet another 0-1 defeat. Surely Tenerife deserved the pass more than us, but we deserved to force the extra time and maybe get to the penalties.

Despite the hit, we improved in the next match against Sevilla Atlético, a team we needed to win as that would get us up to the same points as them, above on goal diference and out of the relegation zone. But while we finally managed to score, thanks again to Moya's speed, the defence conceded two goals.

It is obvious that the 4-1-2-1-2 has run its course, and while it can give us the ability to withstand ennough to get some draws and have some chances, it's far from the right tactic as it would require immense amount of luck to scratch enough points to stay up.

Defence may be more or less enough for the level, as nobody has got any big difference, but it won't be enough if our attack can't take advantage of that defence to create enough chances to get the goals we need.

That is why I will be changing the tactic to a deep and thin 4-2-3-1 with the kind of philosophy of Benítez: half to defend and half to attack.

A tactic that proves its worth in the first match it's used, with a home win against Alicante that isn't yet enough to take us out of relegation. It will need some more matches for adjustements and proving itself, but it was a good experience, in which for first time we didn't give domination to the rival and were consistently creating chances thorough the whole match.

And Jean Arnaud, who gives the defence height and aerial prowess but hasn't been used too much yet.

 

[Death Ball]

DIARIO DE BURGOS
Midseason report
- By Ramón Tarque

Reached the half of the season, Burgos FC sits down in the relegation zone, just one point from salvation. In the results side it can be blamed on the team's inability to get points from three of their meetings with teams of the low side of the table, being the three 1-2 defeats, against Pontevedra, Tenerife and Osasuna. The first of them bein gperhaps the most painful, as Burgos achieved a 1-0 advantage for most of the game, which was lost in the moment Arnaud Jean commited a penalty.

In the good side, a surprise 3-1 victory over top table Betis.

But the poor results of the team can be considered as the result of a poor market strategy by their manager. Most of the new faces have been failures in lesser or worse magnitude.

Adrián Bruna hasn't shown the passing ability he was supossed to have, bein ginstead the top source of ball losses, earning his leave for Tropezón. Fabrice Abriel has never been able to show his intelligence and ultimately has gone only to be in five matches before being released on a free. Luque has left the team back into free transfer after Valls recognizing he didn't show any of the improvement he had hoped to see. Omar Méndez is another of the signings that have made a fast trip back to the transfer market, bought by Gimnástica for the next season. Jean Arnaud and the goalkeepers are the only that have done a work up to what was expected, though Jean has been underused, seeing only a few matches, but doing well save for the Pontevedra encounter.

Valls also chose to sell some unused members: Trujillo, Valle, Sergio Pérez and to cash on Albert Dorca. Off the pitch he also has made a change of physio.

Among the new names of the team, Santoro has been registered after he's been angry over being left out of the team for the first half of season, three central defenders have been brought: Miguel Ángel, Álvaro Corral and the young brazilian promise Leo. In the midfield, along Montoro will be a new signing, Borja Aristizábal, and in front Víctor Arribas, who's shown his worth scoring in the two matches he's already played.

Two singings of future are Yohann Schmitt, scheduled to arrive next season and Nicolás Rivera, who for reasons of age or contract, apparently, will not make it to the team until january 2018.

Recently, Valls have been changing his tactics again, from the new 4-2-3-1 deep and thin to three flavours of 3-5-2, depending on the placement of the central midfielder and back to the 4-1-2-1-2, with a striker pair up front seeming the one he will choose, to pair Sánzhez Moya and Arribas.

Whether he will find the needed answers to remain in Adelante is still to be seen. As he said in one of his notebook issues, the jump from 2B to Adelante is much bigger than his team had to make from 3ª to 2ªB. As rumours go, he could be planning a return to a 4-4-2 and is currently in search for a left midfielder.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Excitement!
- By Ezequiel Valls

─2016, 15th February

It has been a tough season as it was expected. The jump of divisions being a gap almost too big to do in once. Defeats follow each other more often than not, the opposition having speed to match, quality to shove us out and height to dominate the games. We never dominate a game and it's heaving the experience of holding the opposition to a draw to ultimately lose the matches in the last minutes. And if we manage to score a goal it's the more often occurance to see how they score more afterwards. And the few times we scrap points, our direct rivals tend to do the same, so we don't get any relief.

Add to all that the failure in the transfer market, in which almost none of the new players have been up to the league standards. Diamond tactics only worked a few times, never achieving the superiority we sought in the center of the field, and often suffering in the wings. The plain 4-4-2 results in giving even more possession. The deep and thin 4-2-3-1 has only worked in a few matches, it improves our attacking efficiency a little but the defence keeps being almost as weak as the flat 4-4-2. While the 4-4-1-1 or a V shaped 4-5-1 dull our forward a good measure. I must find another solution.

I will test Marcinho in the goal. He's the worse reflexes of the three goalies, but is clearly superior when it comes to handling, one on ones and in the air..

Leo will be incorporated to the defense. He's done well coming from the bench and he's really our best man, for the back. And let it be as it may with his unportsmanship.


─2016, 5th March

Marcinho's done well, but has left two goals in that Sevillano would likely have stopped one and the other was a high ball, just the kind he should have gone better. Leo has done well, the goals didn't come from his fails.

Sánchez Moya is failing to score lately, a couple of times he's wasted his advantage in his race with the ball stopping to think and allowing the defenders to catch up, forcing him to a pass and make a play that is doomed to fail. Hoofing the ball upfield behind the opposition's defense for him to run has been our only means to score.

I'll try a new solution: a brazilian box. Two wingbacks, two centerbacks, two defensive midfielders, two attacking midfielders and two strikers. That should give us a better chance at possession than the other tactics.

Bad point is Regalón has to be in to play right wingback because of Matesanz's injury. Santoro blew his chance with a poor match.

P.S. - It's odd. Despite being at the bottom of the table and not being able to get off the relegation positions, the frequent frustrations at end match, this is being a very fun season. I'm enjoying it even more than past seasons in which we dominated the league, that only provided the excitement of competition in the play offs. This is really demanding to give tactics real thought, and I wish even more than ever to stay up, mostly to keep up to a challenging season rather than the cakewalk we'd have if we were to return to 2B. Until promotion, that is. I totally understand Schumacher in his years of greater domination, when he expressed his boredom on such easy wins.

─2016, 2nd April

The first run of the brazilian system was against Albacete at home. We got more of the ball than usual this season and Sánchez Moya scored a goal. However Albacete was superior enough to score back immediately and win.

But the next matches it was a success, getting three surprise results in a row. We visited Alicante and our counter attacking tactic served us to score a win. Sánchez Moya scored first after a brilliant dribble of the last defender to place the ball in his typical shot from nearly the edge of the area, later they scored the drawn goal, but was promptly responded with a dangerous play in their area that ended with a penalty scored by Jenkins. Tied with Pontevedra and two points from Murcia. 19th, still relegation.

Good news continued with Ketterl's recovery from his injury, as well as Matesanz's. Two important players that were missing for a while, Vicente for several months.

After that, Las Palmas came to visit, and though vastly dominating the match, we salvaged a goalless draw. Murcia got four points ahead, still tied with Pontevedra.

And finally, we visited Sevilla Atlético, ninth in the table, two places behind Las Palmas. We were given no chances of doing anything, and indeed they dominated even more, pilling a lot of pressure. Chance after chance after chance, until a in depth pass to Sánchez Moya in slight offside, I think, that the referee failed to see (say it compensates the blatant offside they allowed for the goal that took the victory to Albacete a few matches ago), at the injury time of the first half got us our first goal. The second was again of total dominance by Sevilla Atlético, with only one more shot at goal for us, but our defense held fast, with Leo being again a vital part of our result, getting to almost every ball that entered the area and getting us out of relegation into eighteenth position, three points ahead of Pontevedra and still four behind Murcia.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Season end. Drumroll
- By Ezequiel Valls

─ 3rd May 2016

A set of disappointing results followed the Sevilla Atlético match. Though we held third qualified Levante to a hard fought 0-1, which was satisfactory as a big difference was the more likely defeat for us, that seemed to be about the end of the magic box run. Followed was a heavy 0-4 defeat to archrivals Salamanca, in a match where we seemed a regional side.

When we had to face Rayo, in relegation spot and one of the target matches we had to win, the team couldn't go beyond a 2-2 drawn. Next disaster announced as the next match, the second of the four matches we needed to win, was lost 0-1, against Gimnástica, another relegation side.

So it came as a total surprise when two days ago a superb performance by the lads bagged a 2-0 win over strong side Gimnàstic at home, with Sánchez Moya returning to his customary saving brilliance.

All in all, more than looking for a more working tactic I should starting to ditch that idea and begin to use as the match come. The problem about that is that we ditched our left midfielders and we're now depending on the emergency signed Edu Albácar, old and terribly slow and the young and inexperienced Borja Sierra.

Box, either 2xAMC or 2XMC or one of each, diamond or V shaped 4-5-1 will be the chosen formations to vary from among matches.

─ 20 June 2016

With the importance of the matches, there's not been much time to write down notes.

Made a move for next season, signing fast midfielder Jesús Morales.

After my previous entry, started to apply more variation to the tactics between matches, using the mentioned alternatives with varying degrees of closing down, pass length and flexibility.

It was the box that granted us victory against Murcia, one of the matches we needed to win.

The 4-5-1 only managed to hold Alavés to end losing 0-1, but served to give us the fourth vital match in the schedule, with a 1-0 against relegation battlers Pontevedra.

It was a defensive box with two MCs that gave us a 3-1 shock win against Hércule, though it failed against Tenerife, to whom we lost 1-2. But Gimnástica defeat ensured our continued presence in Adelante!

After that, the season was completed with two draws: a 0-0 against Osasuna at home and a surprise 2-2 against Betis away.

Montoya was our top goalscorer as it was expected, though goals were not many. Jenkins came out as our best assistant... behind Sánchez Moya! and has picked the interest from other clubs as have Ketterl, Tiago and Leo. The latter who turned to be our best man in the half season he played.

Only two new players ensured to join next season. Pity of RRivero who is already looking that he'd be one of our best, but laws force his transfer to wait two more years.

((And finally, this is the change I wanted to do and announce some time back. This coming season I'll try to keep my notepad at hand to annotate thoughts so I don't have to go by memory and can provide some more interesting entries. This is what I intend, I can't promise I'll achieve to make this story better))

 

[Death Ball]

- 9th July 2016

Not very exciting new youth squad members, though there's at least one who might come on to be a first team player come years.

The bunch of five youths ending youth contracts have been released to a free.

At last, Valencia moves to see us as the team to roll his player, sending us one of his young strikers, Marcelinho, who looks like he'd be a contribution to our gamem, providing some of the lacking talent off ball.

Experienced midfielder Orbaiz has accepted the offer we made him. I'm not sure, it's again one experienced old player with fading physical that has not worked in any of the previous seasons. The team is also getting crowded of midfielders.

There was so much wrong past season I think many of the team should be changed, so team reports time, see my assistant advice.

Leo, Fernández Rodríguez, Matesanz, Ketterl, Orbaiz, Sánchez Moya, Jenkins and Tiago Manuel all the ones I want to keep. All the rest may be changed. Casado will likely stay as he's done well enough.

Goalkeepers may stay if the recommendation isn't in our reach to hire.

Ryan Gray, N'Kulou, Regalón, Remacha, Reyes and Arribas and Carmona will be sold, some for free if needed. Though the strikers and Remacha depend upon availability of new players.

- 11th July 2016

Lesson for upcoming seasons: give contracts with good release clauses to the best young promises, Celta snatched the good looking Oliver.

- 17th July

First friendly against Regional Inferior side Extremadura. Lots of new faces to bring into the side, with many of the intended sells done. With Jonathan Estrada (creative AMLC, 33 years, decent pace), Jesús Morales and Yohann Schmit as the three midfielders, Papa Waigo (aging AMRL/ST of quality dribbling and speed) as left winger to cut in and Marcelinho in front to start the game. Lucas Trecarichi and Matute in replacement for midfield, Uri in front to come in the second half (though he endeddoing in fifth minute due to Marcelinho's injury). With Ryan Gray returning in the goal, and the incorporation to the side's play of Borja Sierra (urgent left fullback given the failure to sign one, though Alejandro Bengoechea has been loaned from Valencia), José and Josep in centre back and marco Santoro in the midfield.

The start wasn't good as Marcinho made a very poor rush out with Leo and Fernández Rodríguez erring to let him get it, with the result of the opponent getting to the ball. The following play to that 7th minute goal, however was good, getting most of the possession and creating the chances (though there was still a woodwork hit for Extremadura).

All in all, considering they have still to gel, not a bad match, where some good decisions were seen and some nice plays that were not seen previously at El Plantío, which makes me look hopeful for the season. Pundits were too soon to predict a 22nd place for me. This side has looked like one for mid table and a good point to build an ascension side.

And still more signings to come.

And Álvaro Gomes joins the list of players leaving the club.

- 1st August 2016

The bomb fell to the group. Tiago Manuel and Fernández Rodríguez chose to leave the club to the lure of higher sides offers and then Matesanz demanded to leave and I had to concede it. Had to make an emergency delve into the transfer market at the loss of such talent and replace them with what was available, finding Santiago from Cultural as first change for Matesanz and angering fans paying too much for Gimnástica's Antonio Hernández, €300K for a player not likely to get much football.

On other news, Ryan Gray and Marcinho have been sold and slightly better Castanardo and David de Gea have been brought into the side for the goalie position on recommendation by assistant. I may sell Sevillano, give a number to Marcelinho to avoid him being inellegible and bring a under20 goalie I can play without registration.

- 29th August 2016

Finished the transfer market hiring one Pau Franch who looks like a decent prospect for a creative forward, selling by tens of thousands Arribas who were not going to play, also sold central defender Miguel Ángel and goalie Sevillano, as they weren't registered and wouldn't be able to play, except Copa del Rey, but I'm unsure how much effort I'll allow in it, considering the cut in the amount of young and unregistered players in the first team.

The month of friendlies can be described best as a hopeful bag of mixed feelings.

The systems used have been 4-2-3-1 deep, 4-3-3 (V shaped 4-5-1), 2-4-2-2 (brazilian box), 4-4-2 diamond, 4-4-2 standard and 4-3-3 flat winged (Barça style) with a predominance of the latest one.

4-2-3-1 deep showed to be a great solution against stronger sides, as it allowed is to get 1-0 above Valencia, though ultimately they found a man off mark to shoot the ball in out net for a 1-1, a great result to make us proud, our first "point" against a La Liga team we've ever got, if memory serves well. However, it failed to perform adequately against weaker side, as it costed us a 1-2 defeat to Tercera side Gernika.

The rest of the friendlies have not been quite the best to have an idea where we stand, since they've been against weaker sides, regionals and a couple of Segunda Bs. The scores being downhearting, with the expected dominances 4-0 over the regionals, only a goal received in the first two games more due to low fitness of the team; and inability to go beyond 1-1 against the two 2ªB sides. That would point for a disappointing season, however the play of the team was beautiful and fine, developing a good amount of fine ideas and passes that I had never seem the team do before, so that is a good sign. In the whole, I would be in the hopeful side of expectations. Maybe we'll not do a brilliant season and clear off relegation only a bit better than last season, but I am sure we have the core to build a side to challenge for promotion in coming seasons.

For the first league match, we faced ascended Córdoba, deemed favourites (what?), at their home. We lined a 4-3-3 flat winged that was tweaked to be standard but deep and standing off, with De Gea; miguel Ángel, Bengoetxea, Leo, Santiago; Schmitt, Morales, Estrada; Waigo, Jenkins; Sánzhez Moya. With Xumetra, Matute and Uri coming from the bench.

We created some chances and a few more Córdoba, forcing us to bring the centre MC to a defensive midfield to deal with their 4-3-1-2's AMC. They needed 60' to open the scoresheet with a through ball to their striker Porta, when Xumetra and Matute took Schmitt's place (a box to box to winning ball) and Xumetra took Waigo's (inside fwd to winger). But then the entrance of Uri for Jenkins, turning to the left side of the top forward as inside forward supporting Sánchez mora and Xumetra changing to the right wing gave our side, given less defensive style, the punch they had lacked and allowing Uri to score two goals in minutes 68' and 80'. Now, I know some journalists protested when I advanced lines and made the team more attacking when Córdoba went for a 4-2-4, the decision had consequences, the ones I expected, their defence was out of position and Estrada took a header into the net. A good display of some pretty football by my players once they started to work well, after a first half of shaky passing.

((Note that the transfers in have a streak in the middle of free transfers, they're just a bunch of rubbish looking 16-17 years old to ensure the U-18 team has enough players to simulate games in order to players to improve))

The transfer window in which we've spent the most and second best income from selling.

Will possibly end dropping the central midfielder into a defensive midfielder position

 

[Death Ball]

- 12th September 2016

That last signing was special for me. Though it forced to leave Montoro out of the registered squad and only available for the cup; having Francisco Durán in our side, the player that was with Dexther Bolle's Crewe side when I was a journalist fills me with a sweet odd feeling.

Another nice feeling was seein how two of my players were called up for international matches, Estrada for Colombia and Waigo for Senegal.

He did make his debut in our 2-1 cup victory over Alavés, another comeback, in a side with second choice players and some recent recoveries from injuries. He made a quite decent game, though he tired soon and had to be substituted in the sixtieth minute.

The magnificent second league game would not be a valid show of our real place. Beating the just promoted Ponferradina by a 5-0 with hat-tick by Sánchez Moya is not something to be firing any hope.

So has confirmed our 1-3 defeat to promoted Alocyano, in a match we went up soon, but where we couldn't get the control of possession as it was our intention. The result probably wasn't just, though, as their first goal was a fortuitous free kick conceded in front of the area, the second was a terrible mistake by Castarnado - taking the place of injured De Gea - who dropped the ball in front of a striker. The third was the consequence of our pushing forward too much in search for the draw. During those last moments two nice looking counterattacks were wasted. The formation changes didn't work, I should have gone to the 4-5-1 instead of the weird formations I used and always keeping two man up front.

Now we're ninth, I hope going back to the 4-5-1, V shaped, will give us what we need.

- 14 November 2016

I said we shouldn't be optimistic and time has proven me right. We've lived mostly from draws, rarely getting control of the ball and scrapping each result. Only two victories come our way, 2-1 against Numancia and 1-0 last against Salamanca, this using a 4-2-3-1 deep, getting a series of 1-1's and 0-0's with a 1-5 defeat to Tenerife. The worst result being the home defeat 3-1 to Betis as we went up the score only to have a penalty conceded in the latter minutes and then a sudden appearance of their right winger to head two more balls at goal. Very disappointing. Not so much was the Copa del Rey elimination, though it leaves us without a competition to line up Santoro and the players that will be scarce in league.

Three decisions have been made, though, in chronological order, though not in importance:

1st - That given the concentration of talent we have in the center of the pitch, we should likely be moving to one of the narrower formations, the swap to 4-1-2-1-2 gave us the 1-0 win against Salamanca, we need fullbacks that have the qualities required to join the attack, so we have some width up there to open the defence for the attackers. Santiago, Miguel Ángel, Blanco and Hernández are decent defenders, though Miguel Ángel has conceded quite a good amount of goals from high, they tackle well, know where to be in defense, but they're under par when it comes to dribbling and crossing.

In order to deal with this, I moved to sign a fullback for each side: as consequence of that, Thierno Bah for the right and Mané for the left will join our side come 2nd January, both are veterans, but their physical traits are still good enough. Mané was the second option, though, but Botelho, a young left full back was asking too much. In addition, a 23 years old Paulo Silva has been signed, though he is clearly less satisfying player than Mané, but I wanted to cover my back getting to him before someone else did given Mané didn't look like accepting our offer.

2nd - We have good talent in the center of the midfield, but we lack talent with ability to defend and dribble. The market produced Joey Barton, though he's just average dribbler, he's good defender and passer. As dribbler, we're looking at bringing Marcos Tébar.

3rd - It doesn't matter how much talent we have, as long as we don't solve our problems on the air we are doomed to struggle in the low part of the table and even with such a improved team we won't do much better. It can well be wroth sacrificing some speed to get some height, a reason to look for Tébar in midfield, even if we have it more than full and he doesn't excel jumping, he's tall. In order to this, we're bringing Mehmet Miletic to the defense, a 1,90 m tall player and excellent jumper. And to increase our chances in the front, given that our best jumper, Marcelinho is an average striker we're bringing Palencia, who while not being a brilliant player, at least brings exceptional physical attributes to dominate in the air (1.94m, 17 jumping).

Until the new players join, we're set to keep struggling. We should make a small step forward when in december we can add Joey Barton and Paulo Silva to the registered squad and we'll complete it when in january the rest of the new faces join. Then I hope we'll shoot up the table into middle comfortable positions, it is good that the league is being so compressed, so raising positions can be fast, but it also means being thirteenth now means little, as we're just three points ahead of nineteenth.

 

[Death Ball]

- 7th January 2017

The new men have arrive, a few more than can fit in the 25 registered men limit. Meaning that apart from Marcelinho, who was unregistered to make room for Barton, a number of other players have been unregistered and subsequently sold to save their wages, both because budgets are being stretched, wth the wages already beyond the budget and €800K left of the ~5,000,000€ transfer budget. Again some of the players signed for this season see their way out before finishing it: Hernández, Miguel Ángel, Santiago, Matute, Paulo Silva, Schmitt and Josep are leaving the club.

We were lucky of the long Christmas vacation, as we've not had a match since second week of December. We beat Huesca comfortably despite being only a 1-0 and then a bad tactic selection got us a 4-0 defeat to Alavés.

Now in the preparation for our match against leaders Hércules, a sweet feeling runs over me when for the first time since taking Burgos' job my team says we have the height advantage.

- 8th: Wonderful!. Peckhart scored his first goal and the team played really well, even if at the end we again had little posession and conceded several shots. Though the two goals came from the ground, we've for first won headers in close contest to the rival's defenders. A bad move resulted when seeing Peckhart in the ground, I decided to protect him fron injury by subbing him, which angered him. Not sure it was wrong, given Miletic is out for two weeks and Morales for six.

- 19th February 2017

Peckhart's performance hasn't gone down despite the subbing and he's back from his injury in form. As is the rest of the team. As expected, the new players have added punch to our side, with only two trips since the start of the year. We lost to Las Palmas, who sweat the result and had to work hard even after we lost a man, Barton on a two yellow card at the first half hour, and Ponferradina, whom we couldn't defeat, despite a couple of clear chances.

Even Palencia, who came in for Peckhart during his injury has aided our side with a couple of goals.

The problem now is keeping everyone happy with minutes.

After such fine string of result, though it could've been better defeating Ponferradina, we've shot up to seventh place, thirteen points from both relegation and promotion. We can be fairly confident that we will end in a decent league position.

Should have kept Paulo Silva registered, Mané has picked a new four weeks long injury, which makes him to have played only two matches.

The one thing that is the best and the worse of our displays comes from the generally low possession we have, though not as little as in the first leg of the league: we create very few chances... but then, we put a very good percentage of them in. No more needing fifteen shots for a single goal.

- 27th March 2017

Our run of good results was broken with our visit to Elche, fourth in the league tied with the top three in points, where our goal didn't serve to win as they managed to score 2. It was followed by a defeat to Celta at home. Then Numancia, big favourites needed us to be down to ten men to score their goal, and even so they didn't make it with the win, as Trecarichi scored a penalty in the injury time. Considering the sending off of Casado, I can't complain, but we could have won that match if the chances in the first half had been taken.

Eight points lost and with them any shadow of a real hope to sneak among the top three, where we could be if I had made the proper decissions about our transfer needs in summer. How many points did we lose in the first half that we should have got with our team back then and would have not lost with the current squad?. I think enough that if we weren't one of the top three, we would be a few points behind. As things have gone, and afte the win over Alicante with good displays by the debutants Chavez, Leoni (an unambitious italian youngster) and two goals by Peckhart, returning from injury, we're tenth at fourteen points from the third and sixteen from the nineteenth. Chances for promotion?. Better than 0.000%, but not reasonable. they go through winning the matches left against the teams we have above: Murcia, Betis, Las Palmas and Alavés, which is not something I trust on doing.

 

[Death Ball]

- 14th May 2017

As I thought, any idea of challenge for promotion was nothing more than mathematical chances. And since meting with the first team of the top four, we've gone through a run of scoreless matches, most lost 1-0, to scrape two 1-1 draws when we finally scored.

The main problem, is the inability to keep possession and bring the ball forward to create danger when we're not working with the idea of giving the ball up for ****** and grab wins.

Part can be the injuries, Mané has been more in the infirmary than on the pitch, Barton and Orbaiz also pick many injuries and to top it off, Bah has a slipped disc that is keeping him out until summer, meaning one of the main reasons we started to work, the new fullbacks, are rarely available. And the other, a midfield with decent dribblers, is also not at its full potential.

On other news, Silva and Waigo have requested transfer. Granted for Silva, Waigo has been sold for €30K. For the next season we need to drop strikers, we have too many. Uri will not be renewed, Franch will likely be sold.

One motive of annoyance is how many balls De Gea and Castarnado drop, despite being rated as good handlers.

- End of season

That was a poor end of season, it was like going back to past season. generally struggling to keep possession and even more painstaking lack of ability to create chances, leading to several matches lossing and even having trouble with teams from the depths of the table, getting a 2-2 draw against last qualified Huesca, for once we scored more than once. And dropping positions in the table. We finally got a win over Sevilla At´letico, another relegation side, acomfortable win with two goals, though they scored one in a counter. The last match against strong side Las Palmas was the first in a long time we dominated possession, though we had achieved already making a decent amount of oportunities and shots, but it served nothing and we ended 2-0 down, which coupled with Numancia's victory placed us in just a fourteenth position that I feel unjust.

Still, even with such a poor end of season, the final taste is that with a few more improvements to the squad we will be able to fight for promotion in the next season.

For a start, we brought three young players that won't need to be registered next season and that have some strength to play. A goalkeeper, Coto, to be there if De Gea gets injured, which isn't rare, Marcão, a solid defender withdecent pace, great height, jumping dribbling, first touch and intelligence that is the first with guarantees and ability to play as sweeper and a resilliant if not physically gifted striker.

For the transefer market, we need to offload the excess of strikers, Peckhart and Sánchez Moya being the ones who must stay and then decide on two substitutes, either we keep Franch and Palencia, who've not shined or bring another two, or just one considering the youngster we've brought.

In midfield, we could look for players that are less lacking in their weak points, players can be great passers and organizers but are physically terrible (Orbaiz), or defend decently but can't get past a defender (Ketterl), or just can't defend (Estrada). Everyone could be still used for next season, but I would rather do some changes. We also need a couple of wingers for each side, preferably able to play in the middle.

In defense, we need four central defenders of guarantee. We have Miletic, Marcão and Leo, though Leo has been a bit sloppy and conceding penalties. Bengoetxea fits the role, but I don't have hopes he'd want to stay as our player and return to Valencia. What we need is a couple of wing backs for each side so we can keep up the level of performances when Bah and Mané are out injured. Silva could serve, but Mané is out injured too much for Silva to be considered enough, though Borja Sierra has done decently in the last matches playing in the right side, which is not his position.

. Rotten run, ten games without a win. Six points in twelve games.

 

[Death Ball]

DIARIO DE BURGOS

The Guest Corner: Ezequiel Valls

- By Ramón Torque

He is a former sport journalist. He followed the surprising career of Dexther Bolle until he was called to start a management career for a spanish low league club. And he has mixed both jobs publishing his thoughts and plans along the seasons, some issues published at fixed moments of the season and others in irregular moments. I could say this as a mysterious kind of presentations, but I think it is too obvious we're talking about Ezequiel Valls. Up there in the header is his name.

After the run of results in the second half of past season, expectation among the fans has risen that this year can be the one the team makes the big jump to have a serious chance to challenge for promotion. Does Mr Valls share that perception?

- I think the fans are overoptimistic as usual. I am confident we have done a step forward and the days of looking at the bottom of the table to find our team are gone. We have some new quality in our side and a better planned squad, but we're still one or two steps away from any serious challenge to promote. Realistically we can expect a decent mid table finish, something we were close to achieve past season and an overachieving would mean be around the sixth place. Promotion challenge will have to wait one more season.

- This summer you've by far broke the club's record in the market, spending a total of more than ten million euros on new members of the squad, while the outs have only marginally improved the income by three hundred thousand, for a total of two and half million euros. Don't you think such an effort should grant for a higher ambition than that?.

- That is a little misleading. I may not expect more than a half table finish, but as I said in my notebooks we formed the core of the team that will bring us to La Liga. We have not finished yet, there is a high level of quality to go beyond that we haven't achieved yet, but we are very close, we have already most of what will allow us to aim for promotion, we are just meaning a few improvements

- Please, do tell what they are

- It should be obvious. We have upfront what I think is enough. Sánchez Moya and Peckhart should reach the mutual understanding to become a new efficient pair up as we had with Trujillo and Sandy at one point. Sebastián Gallegos should be the one to get the pair working some wonderful moments. And if they go in a low form, Jonathan Dos Santos and Jorge Brandán will be good enough to step up and make their absences unnoticed. The problem we have in midfield, where we seem to have trouble to keep the ball to control the possession when we need it, the creative force of Bruno comes with a little shortcoming in the departments of dribbling and speed, and Mauricio Fernández doesn't seem yet up to be more than a replacement for injuries.

The other weakness is in our defense. While we've strengthen our fullbacks with the likes of Jamal Alioui and Patricio Cecchetti in the right and Raúl Llorente for the left, I feel we're a little short in defence, considering the goals conceded in the preseason. At least I'm glad we got hold of Javier Sánchez Gómez, who is an improvement at the goalie position.

- But there is concern whether you may be able to complete the signings or the funds have ran dry.

- I understand that concern, the signings have eaten a good chunk of the team's coffers, together with the training and youth facility upgrades and, don't forget, the overhaul of the coaching staff. But we're still in black numbers and keeping expectations should bring us enough income tobring the new faces we'll be needing.

- Shall we then expect a defensive style side?

- As I said, the preseason have shown the fragility of our defense, so I must aim for a formation thathelps us deal with that, hence we will play mostly with several men behind, in a 5-3-2 shape.

Well, time runs like **** and with no more left, we greet off Mr Valls, wishing him luck for the season.

 

[Jake]

Just got back to following this mate. Great stuff.

 

[Danny]

Yikes, not read this in a while. I'll have to really catch cup over the next few day's.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Quarter of season
- By Ezequiel Valls

- 1st October 2017

A start of season as expected, with mixed results, two 2-1 wins against Tenerife and Betis, after a 0-2 defeat to Salamanca at their home and followed by a 0-1 defeat to Racing at home previous to a 1-1 draw with Numancia despite several close chances. The defence doesn't seem as solid as wished, or at least not for whole matches as save for the first match the others it seemed tidy for a good chunk of them. What isn't quite working is the offense, with the front trio still not communicating well, it seems.

Apart from the upcoming arrival of Nicolás Rivera next january, which doesn't seem such a big deal as it would have been had he come three years ago, Alcoyano's goalkeeper Daniel will arrive to improve the position.

At this point, I believe I will keep the formation but I may consider returning to winged systems.

- 8th October 2017

The visit of Real Sociedad, first place with five wins in five matches has left a not bad taste. The possession battle with a new more defensive setting of the tactics was equal, with 48% for us and 52% for them, however we did little and created few chances, of note two counterattacks, one that was tackled in the last moment and the other was missed by Sánchez Moya. Still, we came out with a draw 0-0 and being the first team they fail to defeat or score, which is something considering they had a record of 14-2 in goals in the past five matches.

- 16th October 2017

It would seem the tactic is starting to work. With a mostly second team we caused a shock by defeating favourites Albacete 1-0 with a penalty shot by Estrada. We contested the possession and came in equal terms and, though still created less chances, this time we did have them in a consistent manner thorough the match.

Naturally, the lottery to choose our next rival in the Cup was both one of the strongest possible and the one the press mentioned as one of the highest reputed teams we could meet, La Liga outfit Getafe.

The tactic even proven better in our next league match against sixth placed Lorca, whom we demolished with 2-0 in the first half with 58% of possession, dominating for the first time. Their changes in second half made me change things a bit and we ended conceding some ball, despite which Sánchez Moya scored the 3-0. In the end 3-1 win away that puts us ninth two points away from third.

If things really start to work, I may change my mind from the interview when I discarded promotion chances, still I think that is not realistic.

In the meantime, we bought Achrouf for the next season as well as a veteran centre-back and a young striker for the future.

- 1st November 2017

Resistance to Real Sociedad, which preceded their first defeat of the season to Ral Unión, was followed by comfortable wins, a 3-1 and then two easier than the final 1-0 would suggest to Real Unión and Ontinyent that puts us third.

But today has been the real pick of the days as Getafe visited and our most defensive tactic ever achieved us a 1-1 draw thanks to young striker Couñago at a nifty through ball by Will Jenkins. It's a pity this wasn't away, for then in the second leg we'd have enough with a 0-0 draw, as things are, we need to win with one goal. Scoring two would be a dream.

We made a new signing despite the initial intention of not bringing any new faces and will be bringing Deportivo's Dânuţ Coman, a jump of quality which only concern is his low pace.

- 22nd November 2017

Well, it was the logical result that we'd be sent home by Getafe. However, it was much better than anticipated, with Getafe having to sweat blood to geit their first goal, which arrived in minute 70 of the second half. The twenty minutes left made me wonder if we could have planned a more offensive match from the start, as the changes gave us as many chances we had in the whole round, however at the injury time Getafe took advantage of the advanced defence to score their second goal.

Both legs were enclosing a poor run that saw us lose two league matches in a row, including archrivals Valladolid.

Still got in bid for a new player, Francis N'Ganga, despite the intent of avoiding more expenses, a left wingback as Mané seems to go down in his performance and Llorente has no replacement for his more average than brilliant performance. Though it's yet to be seen if he'll come with us or the other clubs asking him, likely we'll not get him.

Also, I sold Borja Sierra for the 210,000€ that I could get paid, making that position weaker.

- 4th December

N'Ganga rejected. I still have the sights on loan a quality looking youngster for the wingback.

For a start, I've sold Mané and Bah so I don't have to pay for their wages. That gave room to register a couple of decent youths from my own team. I may also give away Mauricio Fernández to bring another youngster.

With those results, we're in a magnificent third position, mostly thanks to the closeness of the league, with only Real Sociedad having a significant margin over the rest of teams.

With Córdoba and Las Palmas being the higher qualified teams left to fight, without forgetting Osasuna and Marbella, one is tempted to think it is possible to finish the first half of the league among the top three teams, which would start to give some credit to those claiming we might already challenge for promotion. I prefer not to get hopes up.

Among the results so far, it must be highlighted the 4-0 thrasing of Alavés at their home when they were third in the table. A match that provided the best rating of a player of mine, Juan Pablo Sánchez Moya was rated 9.6 for a splendid match in which he scored three goals and was close to make a fourth. Luckily his injury was light and only had a match of rest for safety. Also it was one of the days we got the more players named in the team of the week. That match is also, I think, the best team we managed to thrash with such victory.

 

[Death Ball]

((Next update will not come as soon))

Manager Notebook. Half season
- By Ezequiel Valls

- 6th December 2017

And did it, Mauricio Fernández has been sold. A bit down side was that Mané demanded to be paid some of his old contract to move. Since we win money by that I agreed.

And I think this is retarded. I finally registered the youngster José Antonio, a left fullback to have a replacement for Llorente, and the first thing he does is celebrate that. I wouldn't call that retarded, he's complaining he doesn't have minutes.

- 17th December 2017

It's so sweet to see Sánchez Moyás performances, his dribbling is astounding and his running, amazing. I really hope we can go to La Liga and keep him. No less sweet was Brandán performing up to him when he was called to take his place.

Another sweet thing to feel was at the pre-season meeting. We're the tallest team!. From almost always battling teams with aerial dominance we're not only on par in height department but we're above everyone else.

- 20nd December

First of the key matches, Córdoba. A close fought match in which an unusual occurance happened: we got six shots at goal in the same play in twenty seconds. A corner resulted of shots blocked and rebounded to our players who tried to work a new shooting position, but it wouldn't go in. In the end, 0-0 draw with chances for both sides, I'd say the closer for us. We stay third, two points ahead of Racing, four of Córdoba; four behind Las Palmas and five behind Real Sociedad.

- 4th January 2018

The new players arrived, some deemed too expensive, other (Raúl) conflictive. Arrival of Rivera made me consider selling Leo to give room and bring a EU central defender. Then as I offered him for half a million, a €2,1M offer came to Marcão, too good to turn down given our coffers are low and he's unsettled. That meant Leo selling has been cancelled.

And on some nice news, Valverde's going to leave Atlético de Madrid and the press considers me a candidate!.

I probably should have kept Rivera out and both defenders in, to sell Rivera next summer. Bah, I'm an idiot when it comes to transfers.

Anyway Marcão wanted to discuss terms. Good Leo, after asking to be let move to a bigger club, now doesn't want to leave.

- 29 January 2018

Marcão didn't want to accept my offer to stay at the club. Leo is getting the papers to be spanish, but they're not going to arrive in time.

Attempts to load some good centerbacks failed as the players refused to come. Will have to do with Mejía and José Antonio, the centreback. José Antonio the left fullback is going to leave the club next season and I've not yet been able to find a valid back up for Llorente, except for one Manu, who is technically average.

Did find a quality veteran in Ovidiu Herea, who scored a good long shot before getting injured for a few weeks. The worse blow was the 3-4 weeks injury for Sánchez Moya.

Raúl has also had his first match and it has been promising, with good dribbling past opponents and decent speed.

And many of players are attracting interest from strong teams, I've had to reject offers for Miletic, Sánchez Moya and there are many more that are surely asked for next summer, some were reluctant to sign new contracts. It seems obvious if we don't promote this year the next will be a problem of having unhappy players because I reject the offers or a dismantled team that will return to the battle against relegation, because if something's told by the transfer market forays is that we can't replace our quality players. And it would take me long to reassemble another squad like this.

For next season, though, we've ensured the signing of Victor Palsson from Aberdeen, apart from already mentioned Achrouf.

A total of €13M out and €4.3M in, that puts the team back into red numbers, though containing signings next season I'm confident we can return to positive balance in not long.

Stupid Las Palmas put half my starting XI out of commission for almost a month. They should be penalized somehow.

Good news is, the first half of the league has gone by and we sit in third position, tied with Córdoba. Four points from second placed Real Sociedad and five from now leaders Las Palmas.

Seeing the first half matches, there is little room for improving results, Celta's and Salamanca's defeats and draws to Córdoba and Ponferradina seem to be the only that could be remedied. Which, given we're tied with fourth placed doesn't make me optimistic about promotion.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Extended edition
- By Ezequiel Valls

- 18 February 2018

We're three games in the second half of the season, with the first chance to improve the first half's results in our match against Salamanca, to whom we lost 0-2 at their home. And the objective was achieved with a 1-0 win, a tought encounter we scrapped with Cecchetti pouncing on his own rebound after a corner. In good news, the fifth place is already trailing behind and is now eight points away, while Córdoba's defeat to Real Sociedad has placed them three points behind. There's still a lot to fight, but things look mildly promising.

Next match is against Real Sociedad, three points ahead in first position - Las Palmas is tied with us - if we win by two goals or more and Las Palmas doesn't, we can become the leaders. It won't happen, though. Real Sociedad is a strong side and they play a 4-2-3-1 that is a formation we don't do as well, as proved Salamanca.

This month's profits are already around 64K

- Real Sociedad was a loss of one point compared with the first round, losing 1-2. I complained about a poor defense at the start of the season, but at the 28th day, we're the team that has conceded the less goals with 19.

- With Celta we recovered the point, drawing 2-2. And after next match against Ontinyent, Córdoba are again seven points behind and we're tied with Las Palmas with eleven matches to go.

- 15 April 2018

I find I've got a nice consideration. And with a praise we are Herea's favorite team

We face Valladolid, fierce rivals, in one of the few times I enter in mind games I seem to become winner, as my players are mostly motivated to play well and his goalie becomes complacent. The match, however, seems to be tough, they control possession and create all the chances, forcing us to go more defensive than wished. However, Herea came back with one of his long curling shots to open the can in second half. And Sánchez Moya - who else? - sentenced with a counter typical of him. However, Leo and Allioui couldn't finish the match due to injuries, Moya receiving a knock too, though he could finish.

While we await the physios reports, we take heart in Córdoba's 3-1 defeat to Racing, which puts the fourth place in the hands of Alicante, eight points behind. That really gives us hopes to attain promotion already. Real Sociedad is nine points ahead, which puts them out of our reach.

Physio reports could hardly be worse: we lose Leo for 3-4 weeks, a good defender we don't have a good replacement, Casado's poor on air and doesn't perform as defender as good as he does as defensive midfielder, Mejía is slow; and Alioui is off for two month, that is he's lost for the rest of the season, we have Cecchetti as a valid replacement, though. At least Sánchez Moya has nothing and can keep playing.

- José Carlos Puig returns from injury, powerful on air and slow as Mejía... it figures I didn't register him on account of his long injury.

It, of course, figures that Mejía would be injured for three weeks the next match. Casado or a youth?... I choose Ovidiu Herea out of position.

And Durán is next, two weeks out.

Javier Sánchez Gómez sold for 500,000€, to ease the debt (600,000€), since Coman is doing a brilliant job and Sánchez's soon to complain not having first team football.

Leo had to play injured to avoid defeat to Barakaldo, since Casado was as poor as usual, after Herea not working well enough as defender. Luckily we beat them 2-1. Leo is back to shape for the first vital match, against Alicante who are fourth six points behind.

Great setback for next season as Coman has decided to retire at the end of this season. Daniel's doing right, but not as much as Coman.

With Alavés we won first half of league, lost this, three points lost, with Gimnástic we won now we drew, same with Alicante. That means this far in the second half of the league we've lost four points compared with the first.

Alicante get a lucky 90+3 penalty to stay at six points with five matches to go. Peckhart getting two goals was obvious omen that he'd get sidelined for two or three months. I wonder, who has signed a pact with the devil?.

Two points were recovered by winning over Ponferradina next match. We're at a -2 from the target of points to repeat the first half's run. Real Sociedad have ensured the Adelante championship. Alicante is still six points behind and Las Palmas two ahead.

Signed a youngster of 18 years old in order to develop him into a good centerback, but signings will be waiting for next season.

With 0-2 defeat to Albacete we failed to win points and to capitalise on Alicante's and Córdoba's defeat to have promotion ensured next match.

- 10 June 2018

Today, we won at Osasuna's home (3-0) and that puts us, six points ahead with two matches to go, one point away from ensuring promotion. However, it will not be easy as the remaining matches we have against Córdiba, fifth and long time contender for promotion and Las Palmas, who, unless they lose next match are going to be the second placed.

Then again, Las Palmas is Alicante's next rival. Do we want Las Palmas to lose?. But last, Alicante faces Real Sociedad, they don't have either an easy end of season.

Therefore, the question is. Shall we defend the 0-0 against Córdoba and look for the one point we need or we go for glory and try to win in the chance Las Palmas losses and we could defeat them in the last match, trusting Real Sociedad to deny Alicante's last match win, to be runner ups of the league?.

I guess I will do a conservative start and according to how the first half goes I move to a more attacking or more defensive style.

Córdoba uses a 4-4-2 formation, which is one of the in front of which our 3-4-1-2 performs better, and in the first half of the league we created the most chances and dominated the game, though we're playing at their stadium now, which makes me think better of being aggresive, though the staff says they have more trouble with deep lines and slow tempo. I guess I'll go for an intermediate and decide.

Seeing the scout report, it's confirmed the best is to sit deep to lure them in and then go into a fast counter (short field, they have a slow defence) which would be great... if Sánchez Moya wasn't out after getting his fifth yellow card. Point in our favour: televised match, the players work much better with cameras.

Min 8: they strike our woodwork.

Min 20: we counter, Raúl gets the ball and passes for Gallegos, who couldn't get the ball in time. Had Raúl been Moya, he'd have ran past the defense for a one on one he'd 80% have scored.

Min 34: they score in a counter. But Alicante - Las Palmas is still a 0-0.

We go definitely offensive in second half, though without giving out defensive awareness.

Min 46: Dos Santos wastes a though ball that had he one on one.

((Min 63: subbing Morales with a yellow... I realize the tactic screen didn't perform the change of MCr from deep playmaker to advanced. It's been a bug that may have ruined or not more than one match)).

Min 77: Raúl is the one who wastes a through ball now.

Min 86: Estrada sends a ball far to a side. Takes a knock a bit later. Still Alicante is drawing 0-0.

Min 89: Gallegos lays a through ball for Jenkins and he scores the drawing goal!.

Min 94: The match ends. 1-1. We're a La Liga team starting next season!!.

The draw takes away our chance to be second of the league, but who cares when one has just managed to get the team to the top flight?

I certainly didn't see it coming at the start of the season, I just thought we had a team that could do this next season with a few touches.

Next week we drew with Las Palmas, 2-2, first Estrada gave us the lead, which we lost in the second half with two goals, a corner and a cross, before Sánchez Moya tied with one of his run and dribble goals. In their side, the Real Sociedad - Alicante was another cracker, going Real Sociedad 1-0 then down 1-3 and finally 4-3.

In the end, we had the best defense with 30 goals conceded. The second best passer with Bruno's 84% pass completion and one of the best tacklers in Casado's 5.32 tackles/game.

Statistics of the players.

League table at the end of the season.

League progression.

- 1st July 2018

Arrival of new signings means payment and the finances have taken a dive down to two and half million debt.

My contract was renewed one year before expiry.

And I'm now Finland's national manager.

So I guess I'll try to stay in La Liga with the minimum of signings and dealing mainly with loans and free transfers. I guess I have to look into selling what I can, though I may wait for the TV income, which may be enough to push us a good way up.

Obvious sellings would be: Jonathan Estrada (didn't do much, though contributed when in pitch, too old to cash much, though), Jonathan dos Santos (wants to leave and can be worth millions), Daniel Chávez (used little and mostly when he was about to complain, may net millions). If needed be, Casado, Jenkins and Morales could be considered, but I'd like them to stay.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Preseason
- By Ezequiel Valls

- 2nd July 2018

Finland first step: clear the squad and do a search of available players. Will do a small trick and use Burgos news management to look for goalkeepers as the Finland staff doesn't provide more than the three U21 goalies, and one senior. Hard to do anything with them in the goal.

Burgos: Go through the squad looking for players that can net good money I don't plan on using. First: Coto, goalkeeper, offered for 250K€; second: Diego, goalie, 150; Hmm, Manu is valued half a million, contract offered so I can get money for him, yes, I'm evil, so what?; Luis Salido, young right winger, €1.5M; Couñago, 1.2M.

Not much luck but I do manage to earn a few millions. Barriocanal, the president, injected €3.9M. Nice, but I don't want to have him having to do that, so I'll still look to get money and reduce expenses.

Players released, some interesting names, I've bid on Yayá Touré and await reports on the others. Yayá asks just a bit more I'm allowed to offer.

Fielding asks too much, consistent goalkeeper, duh. Arizmendi, right winger/striker, only asks 5K, contract offered. Juan Quero is also offered a contract, asking for less than 3K and being quite interesting as it opens our team shapes. Gallo is strongly recommended, but his low concentration puts me off.

Vermeulen is offered, would be €400K to bring him from Málaga, should be the only buy.

- 9th August

We fail to get the most illustrious names, like Touré or Dani Alves, but manage to reinforce de squad with some good names. Luck is short in terms of filling the full/wing back positions and centerbacks. We sign Vermeulen for the right and Michal Kedlac for the left, nobody for centerback. So I find myself forced to look to the Finland squad, from which I find Veli Lampi to cover both sides and then Paulus Arajuuri to provide aerial power and Mikal Haatala for a real nice bit of speed.

With the sellings we get down to just Daniel as goalie, so I'm forced to spend €2.8M in Mariano Andújar from Catania. The wings and midfield are well served and the only position I've not found enough is the striker position, for which we got the well rounded Azurmendi but as second signing we've had to settle with Nelson Valdez.

As for friendlies, other than Valencia we're only approached by lower division teams, 2B mostly, makes me wonder what's the preseason planning division doing... I do set two more to face Málaga and Getafe, plus a closing with an easy for morale. The first ones are disappointing with only a victory over Villarreal B and then 0-0 at Oviedo and 2-2 at Jaén.

Málaga is used to test our 3-4-1-2 from Adelante and two new formations, a defensive 4-3-3 and a more attacking 4-2-3-1 shallow, with the three of them working as they're supposed to. The first conceding a goal from long range and few close shots, the second denying them clear chances but having trouble creating, the latter allowing them a few approximations on goal but creating several chances among which the goal was the more feeble one.

- 30 August 2018

Friendlies have been a largely disappointing phase, failing to win the lower division teams except the first and last ones, last of which we had to come back from 0-1. Despite that, the three matches against La Liga teams have shed some information. Valencia saw us start with a defensive 4-3-3 that failed miserably as they went up by three goals; a more attacking flavour had us take one back but then concede another for a 1-4. Switch to the 3-4-1-2 from past season turned the match upside down and we were close to come back, but we were one goal short from doing so and ended 3-4.

Getafe saw us use the classic system and a 4-2-3-1. The first seeing the one that created more danger for them, but failed to keep our goal at 0.

The few attempts at some bargains in the transfer market failed, but we got young chilean international goalkeeper José Novoa, whom I'm not allowed to field without registering... Casado is the one to fall from registration, as he's not been performing too well past season. I will see to loan him rather than sell him as he can be valuable in the future. and he goes to Córdoba, with a recalling chance shall I want him back in december.

Last change of importance is removing link with all feeders that don't provide benefit and are too lower for a feeder like Eibar, in 2B that will take our players on loan with chance to be recalled.

Season transfers table1

Transfer table 2. First season with more income than outcome.

Which helped finances


- 2nd September 2018

Debut in La Liga at home against Mallorca. They're fast, but at least not good in the air, so I turn to the 3-4-1-2 making it a defensive tactic, counter, short passing still, I tell my men to drop deeper, keep the ball and move into the flanks to ease pressures. Instead of Sánchez Moya I picked Nelson Valdez to start.

As consequence, they're limited to mostly long shots while we barely create anything. But then, during second half, Bruno gets a curling shot in! I change nothing, save for bringing Herea in for Jenkins for fresh legs. And at min 71 Valdez mades a superb dribble to get the second!!, it was so wonderful moment. There's when I decided to lock the match, taking AMC playmaker Gallegos for a third centreback, the lightning fast Hataala, and Sánchez Moya for Arizmendi to get some speed in possible counters.

With no doubt we'll start losing next and be in mid season down figthing to earn permanency, but a good start is always a good thing.

 

[SwineFluGotYou]

looking good.

 

[Death Ball]

Manager Notebook. Third of season.
- By Ezequiel Valls


- 8th October 2018

As expected, the first win was followed by poor results, however the performances were not of a team to struggle for remaining in the top division, as in every match played we had the chances to come out with a win.

It's today after the sixth match that we won again, a thrilling 4-3 (0-1, 3-1, 3-3, 4-3) at home against Espanyol, with Sánchez Moya picking the best goal of the week award, which became the second best goal of the month..

- 13th October 2018

After a heavy defeat to Norway with a shaming performance, a decently fought match against France followed in which we lost 3-1, but now letting Cyprus come back from a 2-0 to a 2-3 with another pathetic display I've decided one can't do anything from such a team. I find myself appalled at the incompetency of the squad. So, I took my decision: goodbye Finland, I'm not going to take more shame from you.

At least that gives me three players of Burgos squad to replace with new incorporations. Though not necessarily, Hataala and Arajuuri weren't, despite their role in defense, the most ashaming players. Veli Lampi, however, was.

- 13th November

My wish was to fight as long as we could for the Cup, but, of course, we had to be drawn against a La Liga team, Sporting. And to top things off, first match in mid of a match congested week, five matches in fifteen days. Chose to give minutes to youths and those with few minutes, Puig, Ángel, Juan Antonio... We lost 0-2 at home, second goal in the last minute. Given the two weeks rest after the second round it was decided to put all, but their play was vastly superior to us.

So was Las Palmas next league match, they're doing well, but this is their La Liga season after going up, down and returning, so they are kind of prepared, not a surprise. Their striker Minder is certainly most brilliant, vital for their 3-0 win. Then Real Sociedad was our last "easy" match before facing the top teams: Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, then Sporting and on to Barcelona and Valencia.

On transfer news, Arajuuri has been sold for 25,000€ more than he was bought, a turkish striker, Onur Durmus, has been brought for the future and will be loaned, two strikers, Thiago, for being nearly as fast as Moya but jumping better and Eneramo for his experience, to end, Ante Kulusic will reinforce the defense.

Outs would be, beside Arajuuri, Veli Lampi and Mikal Hataala. I'm not sure about the strikers.

─ 28th November 2018

Interesting match, the one against Real Sociedad. My scout told me of their use of a defensive 4-2-2-2 (two anchors and two wide midfielders) so I thought I'd need to give my tactic a bit more offensive punch, so I brought my anchor to midfield and gave more attacking roles. In the match, we found they went for the 4-2-3-1 wide and shallow that we tend to struggle to beat. And we found that, while we didn't managed to get many shots at goal, just three, we dominated possession, which is a first against 4-2-3-1 and kept them to just two shots at goal!, both of which were long shots. So it will become the base to work a way against 4-2-3-1 in upcoming matches.

Regarding the league table, we sit at a reasonably comfortable tenth position, nine points ahead of relegation with a relatively calm evolution

 

[Death Ball]

DIARIO DE BURGOS

The Guest Corner

- By Ramón Torque

Today we're to make a new interview. We have someone who seemed set for great success in the english league until he surprised all with his resignation from Crewe. We still may have the luck of seeing him succeed in football, but not with the team that surprised everyone with their rapid progression to Championship, from where they seemed likely to promote when our guest resigned. He is, as many surely know already, Dexther Bolle.

Q - How it is, Mr Bolle, that you resigned from your post at the helm of Crewe Alexandra?.

A - It is obvious, I was building the team around a well known nucleus formed by Miles Addison and Aron Gunnarson in midfield and Andy Carroll forward, they were the core of my project, and I found the worth of the chairman's respect for my work when in winter he accepted offers to have them away. That was a serious setback for my plans, Crewe had not the economical means to replace them, if we could find any replacement, we would likely be sent various steps back and, maybe, set for a struggle next session. And I'm sure the board would cynically pretend to blame me for the consequences of their decission. I'm not going to accept that.

Q - What's in the future for[...]

[...] Q - Now, I'm sure the readers would like to read your thoughts on the season of Burgos, managed by a journalist that followed your career closely. It is said his success owes to your own career, do you agree with that statement?

A - I wouldn't say that. And you can see a vital difference between our styles if you take a look at his transfers. You can see that through the seasons, he discards many players in the very same season they were signed, and many times with very few minutes played. That tells us there's a fundamental difference. I think I never did that. I think the closer to that was the case of the singaporean Daniel Bennett, I signed it at summer and his performances didn't satisfy me and he left the next summer. But he had minutes, he had several chances to prove his worth and he failed. Many of Valls' discards don't have even 90 minutes of game. He goes taking what he finds and gets a good performance out of his men, but he depends from the funds of his team, if he hadn't taken so many money from the batch of sellings of Bauzá, Israel & company he wouldn't have been able to keep the team's ascension. But the key to my success was a definite plan, I built Crewe with a clear idea of the style of play I wanted and I sought the players that would make it work. Addison, Gunnarson and Andy Carroll weren't just the best players I could find and attract to Crewe, they were the kind of playersI wanted to create the core of my team. Maybe Carroll was more of an accident, as he was a loan needed to flll the hole of players that weren't living up for my requirements, like Manucharyan, or that weren't up for a season in Championship, like Calvin Zola. I don't see a plan in Burgos transfer policy.

Q - So are you skeptic about the ability of the team to progress further?

A - Honestly, I'm surprised he's taken Burgos so high without a transfer plan; but he has brought Burgos up to La Liga. That makes one cautious to deny his chances to keep going up, but I doubt a team can go beyond the low half of La Liga without making definite transfer plans. Mister Valls has to set his mind clear and start to think what kind of football he wants to play and then think what kind of players are needed to make that work, and based on those ideas, he must delve first into his squad, his first and U19 squads and see what he already has and what he lacks, then look in the market the players he doesn't have. How many systems has he used along the seasons?. Assymetric 4-2-3-1, deeo 4-2-3-1, shallow 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-1-2-1-2, 4-2-2-2, now he's in a sort of 4-1-2-1-2 he calls 3-4-1-2...

Q - But they have worked.

A - Yes, but it's not the best way to work. You are about to point he's flexible. It wouldn't be right in this case. Flexibility is good when it's either adapting to the squad of a new team or to work the right way against each opponent. That's not what is at play at Burgos. It's a series of systems that are used until they start to get bad results in row, then they change completely and hope that the new system will work, and sign players according to that new system. And worst of all, the signings don't seem to take into account the chance of a new change, so when the system is a wingless one, there's no wingers signed, so the team will have trouble switching to use wings. It seems that this 3-4-1-2 is settling and has lasted already for almost two seasons, but does that mean he's made up his mind about the style he wants or it's just he's not got to a lump he considers bad enough to change?. He stills discards signings made six months ago that some have not even played!. He is like the Ettore Messina of football.

Q - Why don't you go through his last signings and tell us your opinion?

A - Well, aparently he couldn't discard Thiago before even his arrival ─ he laughs ─ and he's answered with some goals that have allowed the team to stay in the safety zone. You know, I am surprised his team is in safety at this date, and also think it feels unjust that after his good run of the first half, because they had all the tough matches at the end, he's ended the first half only four points ahead of relegation, though it seems that is enough and, as he did past season, setting the aim at taking as many points in the second half should be more than enough to stay up without worries.

» It is hard to have an opinion when there's not a clear project. But the first thing that jumps to sight is the ages, he's already secured five players all below thirty years old; one would hope that he's planning to finally set a number of players to become the core of his team. That and some that I'd say as panic signings. Such is the case of Jorge Ferreti next season and Donato Franco for this season, needed after he sold Andújar and Daniel was taken by paying the minimum release clause. Lucky he got the top class Bruno das Dores.

» We have then the young centreback Carlos Serrano, possibly to be loaned like the other defender, Graziani, apparently he is aiming to build a defense strong in the air rather than speedy. Sergio Marcos looks promising, he can be a good organizer of the team's play, he's a player I see settling for several seasons, far from his short adventures with veterans that he discards with no more than four matches. And that future of one or two starts from the bench before being discarded is the future I would expect for Álvaro. I foresee Achrouf, Herea, Bruno Herrero and maybe even Francisco Durán leaving the team next season along the already confirmed sellings of Peckhart, Gallegos (though we have to concede these were requested by the players, Valls seemed willing to keep them).

» And to finish with the signings, I consider Rubén Rochina ─ see the information table at the bottom ─ to have a good chance to be a good hit next season. I'm curious to see who leaves the team. Veteran Eneramo, though he's used it with good results?, Thiago?, Maybe he fears Sánchez Moya will leave, though he's declared he's optimistic about staying? I don't think he can keep so many strikers happy in the same team, so someone will have to leave. It is obvious Nelson Valdez won't continue in the team, but I wonder who will stay, I think that's not enough, even with the departure of Gallegos and Peckhart. Will he give up Achrouf and Arizmendi, one player that can play as left wing and the other as right wing?.

» To tell the truth, I'm curious about the future of the team, I will follow it with interest.

Q- Now, on to other matters[...]
7-Feb-2019