Malaga CF – Season 2 – Update 2 (January – June)

Welcome Back. Before we get into January transfer window and remainder of the season, I thought I’d give you a bit of an update on the under 19 squad. If you remember my last blog, I was saying that the under 19’s squad was quite bloated with a squad of 24 players and I wanted to go through and get rid of some of the players that weren’t good enough to ensure that our highly rated youngsters get plenty of game time to aid their development.

I have now got the squad down to 17 players which is a much better number and ensures our highly rated prospects get good game time.

I’ve now trimmed the squad down to players that have good to high potential with one or two players we could probably move on but overall, I’m happy with how the squad looks at the moment.

From that squad of 17 players, 9 of them are now out on loan. I debated whether their development would be best served by staying at the club and playing under 19’s football or going out on loan to play first team football, I went with first team football but let me know if you guys would of done it the other way.

Despite 9 players being out on loan, the team have had a good first half of the season. They are yet to lose a game and sit 7 points behind leaders Seville but we have 3 games in hand over them.

The squad is in a good place and with the addition of some highly rated youth candidates,

I’m hopeful that they can improve as a team and develop really well and that we have some first team players in a few years time.

Now, back to the first team. We’ve had a brilliant first half of the season, some great results and team performances has seen us get to 1st place in the Second Division heading into the winter break.

I have no plans to bring anyone in during the transfer window and there’s a few reasons for that.

1 – with only £652k available (the board gave me some extra to improve our promotion chances), it restricts the caliber of player I can bring in.

2 – the maximum wage I can offer is around £3.5k a week and, like the transfer budget, limits the quality of player I can attract.

3 – I would be bringing players in for the sake of it and that doesn’t make any sort of sense to do.

With no players coming in I won’t be allowing any players to leave, unless there minimum release fees are met. I feel that the aquad we have is good enough to see out the remainder of the season and allow us to achieve our goals.

January & February

The second round of the Spanish Cup was our first game back after the winter break and we faced off against Spanish Federation First Division side Castellon. We played well and came away with a resounding 6-3 win, things got a little nervy as a 4-1 lead for us turned into 4-3 within the space of a few minutes but some key substitutions allowed us to increase our lead as we moved into round three where we would face La Liga side and fierce rivals, Granada.

A 2-0 win over Alcorcon was secured in the 93rd minute when Fiorini grabbed our second. The game should of been secured much earlier as we dominated the play and created chance after chance.

Derby day against Granada in the Spanish Cup Third Round, a packed to capacity La Rosaleda saw their hero’s win the game 2-1 despite Nelson Monte being sent off in the 37th minute for, quite frankly, a disgusting tackle from behind. We rode our luck from time to time but Larrubia scored our winner in the 73rd minute and we can now look forward to a fourth round match against La Liga side Real San Sebastian.

Back to league action and a single goal from Roberto Fernandez earned us a 1-0 win over Coruna to round off a perfect month of wins.

One piece of transfer news to bring you, free agent Anthony Martial joined the club on deadline day.

I think he is a no risk signing for us, he offers versatility and is a good enough back up for Fernandez. He only wanted to be a squad player and asked for wages of just £1.4k a week and with his transfer value at between £6.8-£9 million, we should make a very healthy profit on him if we need to sell him.

February started with a disappointing 1-1 draw with S.Gijon before we faced Real San Sebastian in the Spanish Cup. We held our own against the La Liga side but the quality of finishing was the difference as we went out of the competition following a 2-0 defeat.

Back to league action and a good 2-0 win over Racing Santander, David Larrubia grabbing both goals for us. Larrubia scored again as we beat Las Palmas 3-0 in a match we dominated.

A massive game against Valencia followed, 1st vs 2nd, a defeat is not catastrophic for us but it would close the gap a little, a win and it would cement our position as Champions elect.

Truth be told, we were poor, very poor. Despite possession being fairly even we hardly created anything and manged only 5 shots in the whole game with none on target as we went down 2-0. Valencia are a La Liga side, no doubt about it with the quality of their players and this result and some of our player performances tells me that some of this squad will struggle in La Liga next season, if we get there.

That defeat didn’t seem to effect the players as they put on a great performance against Villareal B and Valladolid as we beat them both 3-0 to round off a decent February for us.

Despite that defeat to Valencia, we hold a 9 point lead at the top of the table.

March & April

March opened with a 2-2 draw against Eibar where their 89th minute equaliser cost us 2 points. Luca Sangalli scored the only goal of the game against Elche as we won 1-0 and we also won 1-0 against Barcelona B thanks to a first goal of the season from promising young centre back Andres Caro.

We got a first look at our new youth players and I’m very happy with the youngsters that are coming through.

A couple of elite talents and a fair few 4* potential players that I hope develop well and can become Malaga first team players in the years to come.

We rounded off March with a 2-1 win over Cartagena with Larrubia scoring our winner in the 79th minute. A really really frustrating defeat to Huesca as we lost 3-2 after throwing away a 2 goal lead at half time. I knew they would come at us in the second half but despite tweaking players roles to be more defensive, the team fell apart. Loose passes that didn’t need to be made, goalkeeper rolling the ball out directly to the opposition, dwelling on the ball for far too long, the list could go on.

We came back with a bang in the 9-1 win over whipping boys Antequera, Fernandez broke the La Liga 2 record for goals scored in a game as hit scored an amazing 7 goals!

Another game where we threw away a 2 goal lead at half time as we drew 2-2 with Mallorca. I don’t know what else to do to protect a lead, I drop the tempo, change player roles etc and the team look like our under 10’s would turn them over. Such a poor second half display. The result however, did confirm our promotion to La Liga.

With promotion secured, it was time to turn our attention to winning the Championship. We did get our budgets set from the board for next season. It’s a little early for that so it will be interesting to see if this changes in the summer.

Valencias 2-2 draw against Tenerife on Friday evening gave us the chance to open up a 7 point lead and the team, for once, didn’t let me down. Goals from Abaida and Villodres secured the 3 points for us as we inch closer to securing the league title.

5 games left and a 7 point lead at the top as we look to wrap up the league title.

May & June

May opened with a damaging 3-2 defeat to Tenerife where, for the second time this season, we threw away a 2 goal lead at half time. We suffered the same issues as last time, loose passes, poor decision making etc, such a frustrating game sometimes.

We almost threw away a 2 goal lead for the second consecutive game against Oviedo, we went 3-1 up in the 53rd minute and that’s when things went south culminating in Oviedo scoring an 87th minute equaliser. It looked like we would drop 2 more points but Abaida popped up in the 97th minute to grab a winner as we came away with a 4-3 win.

What the heck is going on???????? We were 2-0 up against Zaragoza inside 27 minutes and again, we lost a 2 goal advantage to lose 3-2. Whether the team are lacking focus because promotion has been secured, which has resulted in these sloppy displays or complacency sets in because we have a 2 goal lead is anyone’s guess.

Either way, we are dropping points and with 2 games left, Valencia are hot on our trail.

Our penultimate game of the season was a 3-1 win over Eldense with goals from Fernandez, Villodres and youngster Cordero which meant we head into the last game of the season with a 1 point lead over Valencia in the race for the Championship title.

The team put on a great performance as we came away with a 3-0 win and with that, the League 2 title. Fernandez settled any nerves in the 11th minute by opening the scoring and goals from Nelson Monte and Villodres secured our win and return to La Liga.

A rough end to the season saw us throw away 2 goal leads twice to lose games and allow Valencia to close the gap to just a single point going into the final game of the season but a 3-0 win over Leganes saw us win the league title.

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We have a big summer ahead of us, we are in need of wing backs and a new goalkeeper and a back up striker, Martial hasn’t worked out so I’m going to try and move him on if I can.

I’m going to look at our coaching set up for the first team, B team and under 19’s and look to make improvements if I can the right coaches.

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read the blog, if you’re interested in anything else I’ve written then please feel free to have a look here and follow me on X to keep up to date with the latest blog release.

Until Next Time.

FM Academy