We signed Alceu for free in 2009 and he was a first team regular and our first choice free kick taker — far too important to let go for cash we didn’t have a pressing need for. Thus, Coritiba’s offer was immediately turned down — even though it matched his valuation.

Undettered, Coritiba immediately came back with an offer of £975,000. At this point I wondered whether this offer might be too good to turn down; I had the very capable Paraná playing his heart out in my reserves and 15 year old prodigy Givaldo in my youth team. I decided to negotiate, asking a rather cheeky £1.4M. That kind of transfer fee could be used for real investment in the club.

Our match with Cidade Azul provided a brief distraction from the transfer saga. As if knowing this could be his last match for the Tigre, Alceu scored in the second minute, with Mateus finishing them off with another goal before half time. Alceu grabbed the plaudits of the press, Cidade’s manager, and man of the match.

The next morning, I was absolutely stunned to see  that Coritiba had come back to me and agreed to my £1.4m valuation, and I duly accepted.

There were no complaints from fans or players at Alceu’s departure, however the board were delighted with the cash injection. I plan on hiring a few more scouts, a new defensive coach, and pestering the board to upgrade our training facilities a the the end of the season.

So farewell Alceu, though your stay with the Tigre was short you served us well.

Alceu’s Criciúma stats

• 2010: Played 17, scored 4, assists 2, man of the match 2, average rating 7.28
• 2009: Played 53, scored 12, assists 8, man of the match 7, average rating 7.07

The final standings were:

Frustratingly, we were unable to beat Santa Cruz this season; we draw at home 0-0 and 1-1 away. Our single league defeat was a shocking 0-2 loss at home to Confiança (SE). Despite these disappointing results — and near disastrous 0-0 draw with Americano on the last day of the season — I can’t complain too much about what the Tigre and I were able to achieve in our first season together.

Our cup run was perhaps a little too short, especially given the raised expectations after we eliminated Flamengo. And, believe me, we’re still bitter after losing to our Santa Catarina rivals Figueirense in the next round. Hopefully next year’s draw will be kinder to us.

Criciúma Players of the Season

The senior player of the season, for me, was our goalkeeper Zé Carlos. The keeper played all 64 matches in our season, recording an astonishing 44 clean sheets. For a player who started his career with the Tigre back in 2003 and has seen them steadily slide down the divisions, this must have felt like redemption or at least validation of his quality. To reflect just how good Zé Carlos is, there are currently eight clubs interested in him — including Real Madrid.

The young player of the season was another life-long Criciúma player, our right wingback Patric. At just 19 years of age he, at times, carried the team. His stats for the season were: played 55, scored 3, assists 18, average rating 7.17. In particular, his performance against Flamengo has him surely cemented as a Tigre favourite. He just keeps getting better.

Our top scorer was Zulu, with 21 goals in 56 appearances. The big target man also had 15 assists for the season. He was rewarded with a new three year contract for his good form and the nod as the supporter’s player of the year. We broke the bank to stop him leaving on a free, so I am expecting a serious goal haul next season.

Criciúma Transfer Summary: The Ins and Outs

Following our victory in the Santa Catarina State Championship, the Criciúma board obviously saw some potential in me and the team and coughed up a whopping £1.1M for transfers. This was timely indeed; following the season-ending injury to on-loan striker Michel, and the grudging departure of the out of contract Jean Mossoró, we were facing a striker crisis. I used the cash injection to finance the wages for a few free transfers.

Players bought: Fábio Baiano (free, no club), Fausto (free, no club), Alceu (free, no club), Ugo Casagrande (free, from Palmeiras).

Players sold: Jean Mossoró (free, to Londrina), Alex Sandro (released), Ricardo (released).

I’ve already spoken about Alceu elsewhere, but I’ve also been delighted with how Fábio Baiano and Fausto (my club captain) have established themselves as first team regulars in midfield. Both are extremely reliable players.

As pleased as I am with the other signings, Ugo Casagrande — whom we nicked off Palmeiras for nothing — comes with a weight of expectation. At just 20 years of age, he has all the physical attributes to be a dominating centre forward. As a bit-part player towards the end of our season, he managed eight goals and eight assists (mostly from the bench). The lad was actually born Ascoli Piceno (Italy), however he has declared himself for Brazil. After rotting in Palmeiras’ reserves and not getting first team football, he’s quickly established his credentials at Criciúma and the Italian clubs are already sniffing around. In fact, I was beginning to think the managers of Modena and Rimini had bought Criciúma season tickets — they were at the Heriberto Hülse every week to see him play. Stalkers!

Looking forward

With the few additions to the squad I made, Criciúma were easily strong enough to win promotion. Even though we scraped it as champions, I think we were always destined to be promoted. If we can hang on to most of our team and sign a couple of extra squad players, then we should be able to hold our own in Série B. In particular, I’ll be shopping for a spare left winback and a striker good enough to challenge Zulu’s place in the team.

Until next time: Save Criciúma, equity immortal (or however Google translates their anthem).

In managing Criciúma (in Football Manager 2009), whom I decided to try and play in a traditional Brazilian style, I have spent some time studying how this formation functions. I’m certainly no expert, and would welcome feedback, but here is my understanding of it.

It’s all about balance

4-2-2-2 is the most balanced tactic in contemporary football, offering a perfect 50/50 balance of attack and defence. There are four defenders and four attackers, whilst the two central midfielders are considered neutral.

The tactis is sometimes described as 4-2-4, which is an oversimplification, conjuring images of an attacking line of four strikers or two strikers and two very advanced wingers. Neither of which are accurate.

4-2-2-2 vs. 4-4-2

4-2-2-2 offers a significant attacking advantage over 4-4-2 because the two strikers are not isolated, constantly demanding breaks from midfield to support them; instead, the two attacking midfield players are present to continually link play between midfield and attack. In a 4-4-2 this disconnect between midfield and attack often leads to a lot of lost posession, unnecessarily difficult final balls, and a lack of flowing build up.

The attacking midfielders in a 4-2-2-2 have a very demanding role, requiring great vision, creativity, off-the-ball positioning, and the ability to open up play with technique and finesse. This is the Kaká or Ronaldinho role.

But there’s no wingers!

The tactic may look narrow, but in fact 4-2-2-2 actually encourages wingplay. When a team playing 4-2-2-2 has posession, the wingbacks orchestrate most of the wide attacks. This role demands great pace, stamina, and crossing; defensively it demands good marking, positioning, and excellent pressing. This is the Cafu role, or more recent examples include Inter’s Maicon and Maxwell, and others like Daniel Alves and Marcelo.

In addition to the wide attacking of the wingbacks, the attacking midfielders will often push out to wide link play and deliver crosses. In fact, the presence of the two attacking midfielders is essential to wingplay: when they tuck in centrally behind their strikers, it can force the opposition’s fullbacks to play more narrowly in order to mark them, thus creating space for attacking wingbacks.

Some strikers are also skilled at pushing out wide to deliver crosses, link play, and create space. For example, when the attacking midfielders push into the box, Robinho and Marquinhos are excellent at drifting out wide to deliver crosses. Even if no cross is possible, they are able to create space in the box by dragging the centre backs out of position.

It’s all about tempo…

An essential aspect to playing 4-2-2-2 effectively is tempo at which the game is played. The build up is slow, slow, quick; looking for that incisive break by drawing opposition players out of position and feeding teammates in behind them. The pace of the build up is particularly important given the flexibility of player’s positioning; time needs to be give for movement. A backwards ball may seem negative, but look closer and you will see that this holding of posession allows players to find space. A high ball pumped forward does not play to the strengths of 4-2-2-2.

More reading

There are variations of 4-2-2-2 and a particularly interesting one is how Palmeiras is playing recently. Check out Renato’s Palmeiras blog for how 4-2-2-2 has been adapted by Luxemburgo into a 4-1-2-1-2. Perhaps less popular is how Dunga has the Brazilian national team playing 4-2-2-2 with a strong defensive bias in midfield.

On top of the nine straight league wins, we’ve only conceeded two goals. One of these goals was particularly annoying, though. It came against a ten man Figueirense (great website, available in English) who were already comprehensively beaten. The goal was a comical defensive cock up between our keeper Zé Carlos and new star signing Alceu. Admittedly, I was playing Alceu as a centre back due to an injury to Felipe Figueiró, but it was woeful stuff. Both Zé Carlos and Alceu got an ear-full after the match, but I was more pissed off about losing Felipe Figueiró to injury. It leaves us with just two first team centre backs.

In other news, I think there’s unlikely to be a repeat of Big Phill’s famous victory with Criciúma in the Copa do Brasil. We drew the mighty Flamengo in the first round. Ugh. Next week we take a one goal deficit to the Maracanã and I’m not hopeful of turning things around. Even if Felipe Figueiró comes through a reserve game in one piece, we’re hopelessly outclassed against the Mengão.

I’m loving managing Criciúma so far and have been doing a little background research on them. Although their website is all in Portugese, I’ve discovered they have a rather good club song — Anthem of Criciúma. You can download an MP3 of it from here. Sing-a-long-tastic, although maybe not as catchy as the Sky Blues Song of my own Coventry City. Here, courtesy of Google, is a translation of the lyrics:

Remembering the heroes of the past
They wrote their names in history
Oh! Tricolor preordained
A present and future glories of

Save the Criciúma
In the National Sports
Save the Criciúma
Equity immortal
At the time of decision
A voice shouted happy
My povão

Criciúma, Criciúma
Our Club of love
Soul, heart and claw.

Will vibrate with
Your flag unfurled
Where is the most dear
The champions – our champion

Great stuff, although I’m curious about the world “povão” which Google failed to translate.

Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brazil

I didn’t know anything about Criciúma until yesterday; I picked them as they were one of the more promising teams in the third division, with a decent squad and above average training facilities. Essentially, given the lack of money in the lower divisions of Brazilian football, Criciúma have a youth academy. The club actually have some rather prestigious history too, having beaten Grêmio in the 1991 Copa do Brasil final. At the time they were coached by the then largely unknown Luiz Felipe Scolari.

As well as having the Brazilian leagues active, I also have England, Spain, and Italy available. My plan — should I not get bored of the game — is to make my name in South America, build up a knowledge of the leagues and players, and then move to Europe to try to build a team in the Brazilian mould. Even if I don’t manage this, I hope to learn more about Brazilian football.

Getting Started

My first order of business when taking charge of a new club in Football Manager is to focus on the coaching staff, in particular the fitness coaches. I’ve been burned by scrimping on this area before, with players never able to reach peak condition for match days. After firing a number — okay, most — of my coaching staff, the Criciúma board would only allow me six coaches in total (despite having had many more than this). This was kind of annoying, but having made them payout a £100,000+ in contract terminations, I wasn’t going to kick up too much of a stink.

After hiring a number of new coaches, my training ratings slightly improved. With one or two more coaches, allowing staff to concentrate on their areas of expertise, things should be much better.

The Players

Next up, Criciúma’s weak midfield desperately needed some new faces. With just three centre backs in the first team, I was after some defensive cover too. The board made no cash available for transfers, so it was time to hunt for players without clubs.

One of the players that I signed on a free was Alceu; a twenty-four year old defensive midfielder who started out at Palmeiras, where he won six youth caps for Brazil. I’m not sure what happened with Alceu’s career, but, after five seasons with the Verdão, he moved to Japan where he played for Kashiwa Reysol and Consadole Sapporo. Quite a step down, even if Palmeiras were not hugely successful during his tenure (2002-2007).

After two seasons in Japan, Alceu returned to Brazil for spells with Clube Náutico Capibaribe and São Carlos. Strangely, as of 2009, Wikipedia has him back at Kashiwa — had they loaned him out? Whatever Alceu’s history, my assistant manager rated him as an excellent signing and the Tigre fans were ecstatic when I got him. I’m hopeful he can prove himself at the Estádio Heriberto Hülse, in particular if he can take free kicks like this one he scored against Paraná.

In addition to Alceu, I signed two other midfielders on a free: Fausto (29), an influential defensive midfielder; and Fábio Baiano (33), a journeyman central midfielder with good creative and attacking qualities who has won bags of trophies with Flamengo and Grêmio.

Next was the small matter of attending a Trial Day arranged by the Brazilian Players’ Association. Here forty-six players without clubs form two teams and play a match in front of managers and scouts. From this rabble I spotted two centre backs who I am now actively pursuing: Leandro Falcão (19) and man-of-the-match Jaílson (22). Jaílson in particular looks a good prospect, having spent time with big boys like Atlético Mineiro and Bahia and never quite making their first teams. If I manage to lower my wage bill, I’ll definitely try to sign him.

The Tactic

I knew before I started the game that I didn’t want Criciúma to play in an English style, even though a direct 4-4-2 probably would have been quite effective in the lower Brazilian leagues. Instead, I wanted to play a typical Brazilian 4-2-2-2: balanced attacking/defending, a slow build up, and a short passing game that keeps the ball on the deck. Criciúma’s lack of traditional wide players made the decision to go with 4-2-2-2 a simple one.

I’m now tweaking this tactic for my squad ready for our first game, a Santa Catarina State Championship group stage match against Concórdia for which we’re massive 1-33 favourites. I’ll let you know how it goes.