FM 24 | Real Betis Balompié | Vamos Los Verdiblancos!

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 3 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE

PLAYER STATS

 

 

Edited February 29 by El Payaso

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 4 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 4/38

PLAYER STATS

UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE SCHEDULE

 

 

[Shrewnaldo]

How's Fornals responded to being left out of the squad? Sounds like dynamics are an issue with that, Isco and Fekir... Yet not affecting results 

[El Payaso]

40 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said:

How's Fornals responded to being left out of the squad? Sounds like dynamics are an issue with that, Isco and Fekir... Yet not affecting results 

He actually didn't react in any way and is 'delighted' with his playing time. I am of course planning on giving him the maximum minutes in Conference league and cup games and also looking for a solution to include him in January. Could well be that at least one of the duo mentioned will be sold in January. 

With Isco it is currently like playing with ten men and the team usually starts to perform when we take him out. Tempted to try him as a wide playmaker and see how he will do with Dest down the right. 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 6 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 6/38

PLAYER STATS

 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 7 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 7/38

PLAYER STATS

 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 8 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 8/38

PLAYER STATS

OCTOBER SCHEDULE

 

 

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

[Shrewnaldo]

Sounds like you've fallen victim to an FM-special. How did Simeone want him played? Something ridiculous like BWM v BBM?

[El Payaso]

46 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said:

Sounds like you've fallen victim to an FM-special. How did Simeone want him played? Something ridiculous like BWM v BBM?

I think BWM.  I didn't think that anything could happen with the interaction so I basically told him to f*** off with his request. And the next day were in for a surprise. Same happened with Tenas also but as it is an international loan, PSG are not able to terminate it. 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 9 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 9/38

PLAYER STATS

 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 10 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 10/38

PLAYER STATS

 

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

Edited March 4 by El Payaso

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

MATCH DAY 11 RESULTS

Two managers were given the boot in round 11 as both Quique Sanchez Flores and Girona's Michel were 
sacked. Barcelona still look like the team to beat this season as they keep continuing their magnificent 
goalscoring form. Real Madrid is still in the title race but can take no further slips. 

Behind the duo, Atlético are still without a defeat but their lack of attacking drive has seen them drawing 7
times already. There might even be 6 fairly well-matched teams to fight for the places in Europe. 

LEAGUE TABLE 11/38

NOVEMBER SCHEDULE

A big derby day ahead of us already at the beginning of the month. From the Sevilla game on, I will be adding statistics of our
games to the posts' spoiler area to give you a better idea of how it has been going. This only applies to domestic games
though as I don't rate the Conference League Matches too highly. 

 

 

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

STARTING LINEUPS

MAIN STATISTICS

MATCH DAY 12 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 12/38

PLAYER STATS

CONFERENCE LEAGUE VS HJK

 

 

 

[El Payaso]

 

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Spoiler

STARTING LINEUPS

MAIN STATS

MATCH DAY 13 RESULTS

 

 

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

STARTING LINEUPS

MAIN STATS

MATCH DAY 14 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 14/38

PLAYER STATS

CONFERENCE LEAGUE VS LUZERN

 

 

 

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

LINEUPS

MAIN STATS

MATCH DAY 15 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 15/38

PLAYER STATS

MANAGERIAL CHANGES

 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

STARTING LINEUPS

MAIN STATS

MATCH DAY 16 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 16/38

PLAYER STATS

 

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

STARTING LINEUPS

MAIN STATS

MATCH DAY 17 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 17/38

PLAYER STATS

CONFERENCE LEAGUE VS AEK ATHENS

The draw against AEK sees us qualifying in the knock-out rounds. The last league phase game will be against another Greek side Olympiacos. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by El Payaso

[El Payaso]

[El Payaso]

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Spoiler

STARTING LINEUPS

MAIN STATS

MATCH DAY 18 RESULTS

LEAGUE TABLE 18/38

PLAYER STATS

CONFERENCE LEAGUE VS OLYMPIACOS

CONFERENCE LEAGUE TABLE

 

 

[El Payaso]

PLAYER PERFORMANCES

GOALKEEPERS

***

Tenas has been the clear number one so far this season, and the stats show you quite well why. Rui Silva started the season badly in the Conference League and has since been able to make it up a little bit. Not enough though. 

CENTER-BACKS

***

If you don't take into account the fact that Bartra is still a high-quality passer of the ball, you can see that his best times are past him. The team is still conceding more than 1 goal per game even though we have a fairly defensive approach and I think the lack of pace is one of the main factors here. Only Óscar Mingueza could be considered a modern centre-back with a good pace in him. I like all four though yet Pepe and Bartra will be playing their final seasons with us. Mingueza will work as a backbone of the defense for years to come and he will hopefully be partnered by young Andrés Caro next season.

FULL-BACKS

***

I think Youssuf Sabaly has surprised everyone so far with his performances. His high determination and physical ability show and in terms of scoring goals, he has been more dangerous than Sergiño Dest who on the other hand is the best out of the five going forward. With Fran Garcia and Juan Miranda, it is difficult to find a big difference. The only challenge in them is to try to keep both happy as we are forced to play them 50/50. Aitor Ruibal is a fantastic and versatile player who can play in every position but this season it has been difficult to find any game time for him. As long as he doesn't kick off and complain, we are going to continue using him as a substitute in situations where we defend narrow leads or are looking to bring in fresh legs to win the ball back high up the pitch. A fantastic servant.

MIDFIELDERS

***

I am happy that young Johnny Cardoso has found a lot of game time so far this season. I think he will be a reliable option even as a starter for years to come. A well-rounded central midfielder with the ability to destroy and distribute. Giovani Lo Celso is also a name that you cannot leave unmentioned here as he has quickly become our most important single player. Can play in every role in the midfield and is a fantastic player on both ends of the field. It will be impossible for us to sign him in January but we are looking to make his loan move permanent in the summer.

William Carvalho on the other hand might be a player that we might get rid of in January. His lack of mobility means that he is quite often losing his marker in the midfield and he isn't able to help against counter-attacks either. Would be a highly logical move for him to move to Saudi Arabia. I do love him as a player and have done for a long time but sometimes you need to be able to let go.

Dani Perez's way seemed to be blocked at the start of the season but Barrios' loan termination meant that the 20-year-old was promoted to the first-team. He has been playing well in the Conference League for us and I have utilized all the possible moments to bring him in for the La Liga games too. As you can see, he could be a really good and well-rounded midfielder for us, and as his best role currently is Mezzala, that also fits our tactical side quite nicely. He is also taking the mentoring quite nicely as his personality has changed to be 'fairly professional'.

 

ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS

***

There might be a turnaround with Isco as he has now resolved his issues with the club and started playing better lately. He has been way better as a right midfielder which is practical as Rodri has also performed better as an attacking midfielder.

Fornals is a bit more tricky for us as he is on a huge wage and at the moment, does not want to renew. He has played maximum minutes in the Conference League where he has been one of our standout performers. Hard to say what will happen with him in January. Would love to keep him with lower wages as a squad player and the best possible mentor. 

Ez Abde, Álex Collado, and Rodri have all been good for us. Abde's certain type of selfishness is showing in his dribbling which sees him losing the possession quite a lot. This is often compensated with important assists and goals for us. Collado has been the biggest surprise so far for us. Didn't expect anything from him when he returned from loan but he seems to be the player for us who can pick that unlocking pass behind the opposition's defences. Rodri has been more of a goalscorer so far this season. He has found his favorite position as our number 10. Could be more creative but once again he compensates a lot with his goals.

Sávio has probably been the biggest disappointment for us. But as he is still only 20 years old it might be any minute when he is going to shine and force his way as a starter. At the moment it is really difficult for him to overtake Abde's position but this is going to be an interesting matchup for sure. 

FORWARDS

***

I think Arsenal should thank us for what we are doing with Kai Havertz. He hasn't set the world on fire with us but as he is playing a lot and developing rapidly, he should be able to make his way back to Arsenal's first-team next season. He still lacks something to be a regular goalscorer but can't complain about him for his performances.

Assane Diao is going to be a fantastic player for us as a striker. We have started him in all our Conference League games so far and the boy has been doing well. Nabil Fekir has mentored him since the beginning and this is aiding with his development which has been rapid so far this season. If he stays healthy for the rest of the season, I do not doubt that he will be our starting forward next season.  

Fekir's stats show that he has woken up. I think all this is down to the fact that he ended his long goal drought and also finally got over his unhappiness with the sale of Borja Iglesias as the team has shown to him that we can perform well without the Spaniard. 4 goals in the last 5 games is giving us some encouraging signs. 

Edited March 10 by El Payaso

[Captain_T]

Can you show your Tactic? Would be interesting to see how Havertz is involved in your tactical system. 

Best regards!

[El Payaso]

Start of 2025

Three new signings see us building some squad depth and also preparing for the upcoming departures that will hopefully happen. With these signings, we can afford to get rid of one of our attacking midfielders, Sergiño Dest and Marc Bartra. 

Pablo Torre - The Barcelona prospect joined the club for 10 million euros. After an underwhelming loan spell at Girona last season, the midfielder has had quite a lot of game-time with Barcelona this season. His only goal contribution came against us when he set up the game-winning goal at Benito Villamarín. His player profile reminds me of young Isco and with a spirited personality and plenty of responsibility, he should reach his potential quite nicely with us. My aim is still to strongly build around the number 10 and this gives us the chance to do it in the long run. Very happy with this signing.

Leandro Morgalla - The young German works as a replacement for Sergiño Dest who is currently the last unhappy player in the squad. Would have loved things to work out with the American but what can you do? Morgalla is a model citizen persona who can play in both central defense as well as defensively sound full-back. Even though I like to keep the squad consisting mainly of South American and Spanish players, one German brings us a nice mix there. Still have no idea how good this boy will be for us but he looks like a really good prospect.

Pablo Barrios - Even though the short loan spell didn't work out for us, I wanted to bring the young man here permanently and was quite surprised when Atlético were willing to sell him for such a cheap price. I think this young man will be a player that we can both build around as well as use him in both defensive and supporting roles. With Barrios, Johnny Cardoso, Sergi Altimira, Dani Perez, and hopefully Giovani Lo Celso, we have a solid base in the midfield to build on for the next five seasons. 

Youth Intake

Looks like it might be excellent for us. 

Injuries at the beginning of the month

They are now building up but it's a good thing that we were able to bring in three new signings for the beginning of the year to cover for them. This looks more like it should in football so we are absolutely fine with the situation. 

January schedule

Barakaldo match will be an excellent opportunity for us to give debuts for our new signings. Real Madrid away is something we are not looking forward to but otherwise, we should be fine, especially if we want to aim for top-4 positions this season.

 

Edited March 11 by El Payaso

[El Payaso]

18 hours ago, Captain_T said:

Can you show your Tactic? Would be interesting to see how Havertz is involved in your tactical system. 

Best regards!

The tactics can be found in the previous page. I have recently made some minor adjustments and will write about these in my January update. 

I decided to change my reporting style as it makes no sense for me to use all that time with Canva just writing for myself. Hopefully this new style is both less time consuming for me as well as more interesting for the readers. 

[Captain_T]

Honestly, I think your style and the newspaper articles are very interesting!

I dont't write very often in this forum, but I'm very interested in reading your story. 

I like long storys and I'm in general very intersted in tactical things and the development of the squads over the years.

Best regards!

Edited March 11 by Captain_T

[El Payaso]

7 hours ago, Captain_T said:

Honestly, I think your style and the newspaper articles are very interesting!

I dont't write very often in this forum, but I'm very interested in reading your story. 

I like long storys and I'm in general very intersted in tactical things and the development of the squads over the years.

Best regards!

Good to hear and much appreciated! I feel this career update is sort of a thing where I need also to develop myself. If my content is getting close to zero engagement while others have very active threads, I need to change something to improve things. I like content creation and writing, but I see no point in writing something nobody follows or wants to comment on.  

[warlock]

8 hours ago, Litmanen 10 said:

If my content is getting close to zero engagement while others have very active threads, I need to change something

I enjoyed the media reports, but often found myself struggling to understand the overall picture of league position, team performance, etc. The additional info about those things in recent posts helped, but the fact that they were spoilered meant a bit of additional clicking on each post, which was a bit irritating. I'm sure you can find a happy medium, but I'll be reading regardless.

[El Payaso]

5 hours ago, warlock said:

I enjoyed the media reports, but often found myself struggling to understand the overall picture of league position, team performance, etc. The additional info about those things in recent posts helped, but the fact that they were spoilered meant a bit of additional clicking on each post, which was a bit irritating. I'm sure you can find a happy medium, but I'll be reading regardless.

Thank you for the feedback. Fully understand. And those are basically one of the main reasons why I want to change the reporting style. Bringing even more detail in the previous style would have been even more time consuming and definitely not worth it. 

When the light version of the Mustermann skin will be released, that will allow me to bring back some graphical elements suitable for the team. 

[El Payaso]

JANUARY 2025

TRANSFERS OUT

Isco was happy for us for a week before kicking off again. This was the final straw for me and I first kicked the former Spanish international to the B-team where he was finally picked up on loan by Sturm Graz. He has a 1.9M buy-out option, which we are hoping the loaning club will use. Otherwise no surprises. Sergiño Dest was given a leave of absence due to his unhappiness during which we luckily managed to seal the deal with Tigre. I would have loved for these two to pan out for us but good riddance. 

Transfer fees have somehow gone down significantly in this save and that showed both in completed transfers and the offers we received. I'm not going to sell players like Juan Miranda, Rodri, or even the experienced Sabaly for peanuts. 

Marc Bartra was our next unhappy player and as no one wanted to even loan him, the 33-year-old centre-back was shifted to our B-team who are looking to get promoted to the second level of Spanish football. 

TRANSFERS IN

Igor Zubeldia - When a player of his quality becomes available with this kind of price, signing him is a no-brainer. I wasn't expecting to sign out long-term centre back at this point but that is what we did. I have no idea why Xavi wanted to get rid of him as he has been a decent rotation option for them this season but we take it. 

Juan Musso - The experienced Argentinian international had fallen out of the pecking order at Atalanta and we needed a backup for Arnau Tenas. He is both slightly better and more expensive than Rui Silva but that is fine. It's even possible that Musso can challenge the younger Tenas for the starting place as the difference in terms of quality is not that significant. 

RESULTS

LA LIGA

We could consider this month unlucky. Losing to Real Madrid was much down to the fact that Ez Abde got himself sent off in the 5th minute of the game. The home side didn't create anything significant but they made it 1-0 through Serge Gnabry in the 45th minute which was enough for them. 

Otherwise, we controlled the games but had huge difficulties in converting our chances as well as keeping our defense flawless. The match against Las Palmas was especially frustrating as we made two big defensive errors, came back from 2-0 behind, and then had Assane Diao's second goal disallowed in the 85th minute. 

We were also suffering from a large number of injuries throughout the month which meant that we weren't able to rotate as much as we would have liked. As we are struggling to find a striker who can actually score goals for us, Diao has become our number one up-front. The youngster is developing rapidly and is already considered a La Liga-level player. The same applies to Dani Perez who is going to be a really good player for us in the future. 

The cup run has been smooth for us so far, yet against Sporting our defensive errors blew like a bomb in your face. Whenever we scored, we made a big error to make it even. 4 shots and 3 in total for the visiting side and three goals conceded. That tells you everything. The quarter-final phase will see us travel to Celta Vigo. 

LEAGUE TABLE

***

I'm currently having huge difficulties with all of my custom skins. This suddenly appeared yesterday. Hopefully, I can fix it and make these reports a bit better in future updates. 

 

Edited March 13 by El Payaso

[El Payaso]

FEBRUARY 2025

Results

La Liga

It's about the same story as last month. We controlled all of the games but could only win one of them. Athletic Club, who sacked Ernesto Valverde later on during the month, are becoming a real boogey team for us. Iker Muniain scored two almost identical goals from two chances he had and we were not able to capitalize on the man advantage that we got from the 50th minute when Dani Vivian got himself sent off. The visiting team showed much more passion and probably thereby deserved to win.

Cádiz at home looked like a match where things finally started to click for us but this was followed by yet another disappointing result against 19th-placed Eibar. We controlled the game but lost the lead twice against cheap goals. Kai Havertz, who only seems to be able to score from easy tap-ins, had one of those in the 87th minute but somehow missed, and then Eibar scored the winner in the 92nd minute. 

Copa del Rey

The same story continued against Celta Vigo where we almost even lost the game. We were in total control of the game but once again conceded two goals from clear errors. 

The local rivalry against Sevilla gave us something that we deserved. We didn't give our fierce rivals a sniff and for once used our opportunities with high efficiency. We are now really close to the final where we wiould be facing Real Madrid who beat Granada 5-1 in their first leg.

Conference League

Tirana were no match for us and this draw was effortless. The returning leg saw us recording 41 shots against the opposition with a balanced mentality and 4-4-1-1. Crazy game in terms of going forward and if we had used at least some of our half-chances, we would have probably scored 10-15 goals in the home game. 

We will face French side Lille next and this should be a way more balanced matchup. 

Tactical thoughts

With the January tactical changes, we have become an even more counter-attacking team while earlier we were relying quite heavily on possession. The goals we score at the moment are very pleasing to watch as they come from us winning the ball back close to the halfway line before releasing one of our three more advanced players with a quick pass or a combination of two or three passes.

We also often drop one of the midfielders or even two to the DM position as a half-back and segundo volante if the situation demands that. What are the most pleasing aspects at the moment is how the libero is participating in the build-ups and how well we have gotten the number 10 role to work. When Rodri is playing there, he is both scoring and assisting and when Dani Perez or Pablo Torre is in that position, they work as our main creators.  

The striker role is now mainly just a goalscorer as I felt that we had too many chefs mixing the soup, stew, or whatever.  The main problems here are that Assane Diao still doesn't have the intelligence to time his runs correctly and Havertz on the other hand is really bad with his end product even though he has scored 4 in his last 5. If Diao continues his progress as rapidly as he has so far, he will be really good for us next season. 

Team instructions

I like to keep it simple and only add those that are the main points in the style of play that we are looking for. The team is supposed to hit the opposition hard on the counter, be hard to predict, and solid defensively. So far we have somewhat succeeded in the first two of these areas.

In possession

• Underlap right
• Overlap left
• Standard passing
• Higher tempo

Transition

• Counter-press
• Counter

Out of possession

• Mid Block
• Higher defensive line
• Standard pressing

LEAGUE TABLE

PLAYER STATS

MARCH SCHEDULE

[Captain_T]

Your tactic looks simple (in a positive way), but also very clever. I also prefer a counter attacking style with pressing in the midfield area.

When Havertz is playing as a striker: Is he a AF or DLF?

 

[El Payaso]

14 minutes ago, Captain_T said:

Your tactic looks simple (in a positive way), but also very clever. I also prefer a counter attacking style with pressing in the midfield area.

When Havertz is playing as a striker: Is he a AF or DLF?

 

As I only play with comprehensive highlights, I tend to switch quite a lot between roles depending on how the matches are panning out. Usually, I play him as a CF(S) but if he happens to play for example with Fekir as an attacking midfielder, I tend to start with F9. 

[El Payaso]

MARCH 2025

Conference League

***

We are through to the quarter-finals, just barely. We really should have put this tie to bed in our home fixture where we were in total control of the game and should have scored 2-3 goals more. 

In France, we again started the game as well as possible when Rodri scored from a quick counter-attack. This was followed by a Lille goal from an indirect free-kick and corner kick. Kai Havertz then did this:

The 2-2 goal was again followed by yet another set-piece goal by Lille as they struck their second from an indirect free kick. The hosts continued to be threatening from set-pieces throughout the game and all their dead-ball situations led to at least a dangerous chance. I was hoping that we would not have to go for overtime which happened though.

During the extra time, I was thinking how ironic it would be if we got that throw-in goal to get us through and just seconds later, this happened:

A disgusting goal to score, and normally I would have even considered pressing the x button but as you get punished three times and are destroyed from set pieces yourself, I though: what the heck.

We will be meeting Newcastle in the quarter-finals which is going to be quite an interesting matchup.

Copa del Rey

***

There wasn't much left to play for in the semi-final as we had beaten our rivals 3-0 in the first leg. Decided to play with our best team though as we had 8 days of rest between the second leg and the important La Liga fixture against Valencia. 

Sevilla were a good side in our first rivalry of the season in La Liga but since then something has happened and they were tame once again. It was a happy moment when one of our own Dani Pérez scored the opener for us with a good finish. But once again the victory slipped from us when Sevilla scored from a corner-kick through Tanguy Nianzou in the 91st minute. 

The final will be next month against Real Madrid. 

La Liga

***

A frustrating month definitely, and just for one single reason: set-pieces. Three out of four goals that we conceded were either from corner kicks or indirect free-kicks and this almost took me over the edge. 

The Espanyol game was as smooth as you can get. We had lost against them at home but hardly gave them a sniff in the returning fixture. Alavés on the other hand was the most frustrating one. The value that we had to pay for a single goal was high level and when we had Assane Diao's goal disallowed in the 87th minute through the narrowest offside, you could predict what would happen next. They didn't even need a real chance to score from their only... well, not even a chance. We had 10-15 better chances during the game than where they scored but this is football sometimes.

The matches against Atlético and Valencia were both interesting tactical matchups where we were not really in control of the game but not backfoot either. All the goals that we conceded once again came from set pieces: Atlético scored from a corner and indirect free kick through José Gimenez and César Azpilicueta and Valencia from a shot at the edge of the penalty area after a corner kick. We also got our share as Mingueza's goal was from a corner kick and Sávio's after a throw-in.

I have a feeling that we haven't had a single bit of luck in games for about 3-4 months but against Valencia, we could consider ourselves lucky as the home side should have scored 2-3 against us from the chances that they got. 

If Kai Havertz scored a wonder goal against Lille in Europe, in the league the German is showing his other side as he is constantly missing easy sitters that could have got us so many more points this season. He had 1-2 easy chances against Alavés, Atlético, and Valencia and he missed all of them mainly in the dying minutes. He is a good player but definitely not going to be missing him next season.

Sevilla at home seemed to become one of those where we just can't find the way through. This was highlighted by Pablo Fornals' goal in the 87th minute which was ruled out due to an offside call that didn't look like one. Then, out of nowhere our full-backs struck twice to get us vital three points. 

At the end of the month, we need to think about the set pieces again. Otherwise, we are doing well defensively but cannot afford to give 1-3 goals every game from dead-ball situations. 

League table

The La Liga season has been crazy in terms of managerial movements and soon all of the teams have changed their man in charge at least once. 

Player stats

April schedule

 

Edited March 15 by El Payaso

[Captain_T]

Have you had these problems with defending set pieces already for longer times?

Or did it start suddenly? Did you change any settings?

Keep on the good work. Still a very interesting save! 

[El Payaso]

1 hour ago, Captain_T said:

Have you had these problems with defending set pieces already for longer times?

Or did it start suddenly? Did you change any settings?

Keep on the good work. Still a very interesting save! 

Not really. Based on stats we were actually performing above average in set pieces before this month.

Now there are basically two options: to actually put an effort in planning or delegate the set pieces to the set pieces coach. 

[El Payaso]

APRIL 2025

Conference League

Newcastle are third in the Premier League and a really good team so we weren't expecting much in this draw against them. At Benito Villamarín we were slightly the better team and edged the first leg with Havertz's late goal from close range.

In the returning fixture, we were quite a bit run over in the midfield and that is where we ultimately lost the tie. The decisive goal once again came from a throw-in as Miguel Almiron escaped to score. 

We were able to turn the tide in the second half of the game and my opinion, were good value for something but Assane Diao missed 3 decent chances in the last 15 minutes, it was just not meant to be. 

I was hoping for us to be eliminated earlier but I think the European campaign turned out to be better than we were expecting/hoping. The only real mistake we made was with 'automatic registration' which left both Pablo Barrios and Pablo Torre out of the squad. These two-legged ties would have been a fantastic experience for the young duo who are in our long-term plans.

Copa del Rey

The strategy was to select all our players who enjoy big matches for the starting lineup. Luckily we have a long list of these players, including the more advanced duo Nabil Fekir and Kai Havertz who ultimately won us the final.

For long periods, it looked like we would succumb to errors once again but for once we came lucky in the end. The first Real Madrid goal showed glimpses of how costly it can be to play William Carvalho in these kinds of games. Valverde left the experienced Portuguese standing before breaking into the penalty area and beating Arnau Tenas from a tight angle. The second one was a big error from Juan Miranda who left Rodrygo unmarked and not closed down and the winger was able to play a free through ball for Gnabry to score. 

We got our first one from a lucky deflection after some nice buildup. The latter two were brilliant through-balls from Nabil Fekir who played his best game of the season. I have criticized the club captain and Kai Havertz on many occasions this season but here the duo was faultless and Havertz was once again showing why he is considered a player who enjoys big occasions. 

Nacho's early dismissal was a lucky break for us but actually, Real Madrid played better in terms of attacking after the sending-off. 

La Liga

Against Girona, we had a small glimpse of luck as Álex Collado scored a late winner when the visitors had started to edge the game for the last 30 minutes of the game. Xavi's Real Sociedad on the other hand were one or one and half steps ahead of us all the time and the game was decided by Albert Grønbaek who scored a brace against us. This was once again a good example of Carvalho's frailty when the opposition can run towards you. In terms of statistics the game was totally evenly matched but once again we lacked that killer instinct that the opposition showed inside our penalty area. 

The match against Sporting Gijón on the other hand was a real classic of how things can go wrong:

A real sign of mental weakness that the team has been showing in the last couple of months. There isn't a way to explain this. We probably scored the amount of goals that could be expected and were not throwing away any big chances. Then the opposition just attacks you twice and scores on both occasions. When Barrios scored the second one with his first one for the club, there was no way we were expecting that the visitors could still make it even but then there was that odd throw-in which led to German Pezzela's foul inside the penalty area. 

To look at the brighter side. This was the moment when Nabil Fekir started to wake up again. And the goal that he scored, was one of the best team moves that we have seen from us in the whole season. 

The idea against Barcelona was to try and use overlaps against their 4-2-2-2 box. I think we did alright for the first 45 minutes.

The opener from Lewandowski was yet another throw-in punishment when Diogo Dalot found the experienced Polish striker at the far post with a perfect cross. Pedri's goal on the other hand was a real gift from Arnau Tenas who passed the ball straight to his old team-mate instead of finding Mingueza. Fekir's late goal gave us some hope but the second half was filled with big errors and tactical stupidity when we were thinking that we might just try and attack. Especially Gavi's goal was a shocking one for us as the midfielder ran 40 meters through the middle unchallenged before an easy finish. 

When going forward, we looked good at times and could have scored 1-2 goals more. 

League table

Player stats

May schedule

The match against Villarreal is going to be huge for us. Anything else than three points is going to be unacceptable. And if this happens, I will have to take it fully to my own account. This is going to be a match where the manager needs to show up and win his own 1 against 1 battle. I see this also fully so that the first game of the month is going to define the whole month. A victory will create a fantastic platform to build on but anything else is going to make things extremely difficult. 

What happened to us?

Top-4 was looking very likely just some time ago but that is already gone for us. I would like to raise some individuals into play here. 

These are the players whose recent form has simply been unacceptable. If you remember how for example Rodri performed for us in January: he was one of the best performers in the league and now after a couple of weeks of injury, the midfield dynamo has been a total goner and worst performer of the team. 

The same applies to midfield duo Lo Celso and Carvalho who haven't been able to carry the team at all. And the list goes on. 

This whole list is filled with players who are important to us and have not been able to reach the needed level lately. Is this down to me or individuals? Damn hard to say but probably a mix of both. And are any of these players going to start against Villarreal? Probably not. Basically, all of them have been reminded of their recent form and all of them took it well. Now it is time to react to the feedback with the right mentality. 

 

 

[El Payaso]

MAY 2025

I know I promised to take the fall if we would drop points against Villarreal but on the other hand: can I? We started the game poorly when Álex Collado's mistake led to a through-on-goal chance for Angel Correa which he buried. We found our rhythm and level of performance in the second half and deservedly scored three good goals to take a comfortable lead. Then something strange happened:

This was in the 85th minute and Villarreal also equalized from yet another throw-in build-up that led to a far post cross. I mean, what can you do with these things? Nothing. This team never fails to surprise me with their ability to throw these leads away.

What Musso does first, Arnau Tenas seems to follow and this was his way to give Getafe the lead against us in the 12th minute of the game. This time we fought back but were close to throwing the lead away again against 9-men Getafe as Mason Greenwood had two decent chances to make it 2-2 in the last ten minutes of the game. 

We went back to the basics in our final home game of the season. As Pepe had informed us that he is going to retire at the end of the season, we decided to throw him into the starting lineup once more to give him his farewells. A big mistake led to a Mallorca goal and Pepe's final game lasted for 17 minutes. The game was rather one-sided and we should have won it but this time had to rely on a penalty to get a draw.

The season finale was for some reason played the day before the rest of the league. We looked comfortable against Las Palmas and were deservedly 2-0 up for a long time. There were nervy moments in the end though as Sory Kaba scored his first goal for the club from another cross coming from a throw-in buildup. 

As we had delegated the set pieces to our dedicated coach for the last two months of the season, I think it is time to see him go and try to find someone who can fix these throw-ins for us. 

Final league table

Main statistics

Real Betis' team of the season

Our goal of the season

This goal was scored in a 3-2 victory against Real Sociedad.

***

In the next update I will be going through our first youth intake as well as taking a look for the squad analysis for the next season. 

 

[Captain_T]

I hope you will continue the save. Will be interesting how you set up your team for the nett season.