Career BG's 1000 goals - Villalibre

[BatiGoal]

Season 13

Time to get the ball rolling again.

So with the goal/minute challenge completed and the 1000 goal challenge still needing 207 goals let's see how things unfolded this season.

Transfers: In - Out

Much needed (young) reinforcements in midfield with Pochettino (role: CM) and Leroy (role: DLP) claiming a starting spot at the start of the season sending the aging Sanson and Sanches to the sub bench. Akinfeev (role: IF) will start the season as sub, and then eventual permanent replacement, for Barbosa who is still awesome at 32yo. Arsenal came in for Ceballos so I decided to let him go. I've got enough cover at the moment.

Despite Asier Villalibre being already 31yo this turned out to be one of the better seasons yet. Let's look at the 5 finals we played.

 

Final 1: Euro. Super Cup

Good start to the season. A penalty will do to ignite Asier's goal-scoring spree.

Final 2: Spanish Super Cup

Another Cup in and another penalty in the same min. 2 in 2. Solid start.

Final 3: Club World Ch'ship

3rd final and a 3rd Cup. Villalibre hit a dry spell but is back on the scoring sheet with an important first goal.

Final 4: Coppa Del Rey

2-0 down, fought back to 2-2 but had to leave this one to mighty Barca. 4 finals, 3 wins.

Final 5: Champions League

A very fortunate win here equalizing in the 5th min of stoppage time to force ET where we scored the winning goal. Receiving a red card with 10min to play until the penalties I decided to keep the formation intact playing with just 1 CB. Very risky so I turned on 'off side trap' in order to avoid being caught out vs 3 forwards. Better to eliminate the 'outnumbered' scenario in front of my goal than bringing a midfield to support CB and allow for attacks which will most likely result in goals.

 

The best news was Asier Villalibre recording more hat-tricks than in any other season. Partly because I tweaked a few things turning one of my underperforming CMs into a DLP with two new faces in midfield. As well as a strong sub for the wing (FL/FR - IF) positions which proved essential for consistent performances from the whole team.

Hat-Trick 1

Malaga down without a single shot on goal. That's impressive.

Hat-Trick 2

A big win as well and Oviedo couldn't produce more than 1 attempt.

Hat-Trick 3

A good hat-trick again but we were outplayed by Betis striker Angresola on the day. I need to score goals for the 1KC so I take the slightly embarrassing loss any day.

Hat-Trick 4

Fantastic win at the San Siro. 5 clear cut chances and 5 goals. Efficient stuff from the lads.

Hat-Trick 5

Beautiful win over rivals Atletico. A very late goal to record his 5th hat-trick this season.

Hat-Trick 6

And another 3 goals to seal a place in the CL final. Will we have a 7th hat-trick?

Hat-Trick 7

No. Close but if it wasn't for that miss. So it's just a brace but very happy with that too. I honestly can't see Asier produce the same amount of goals next season. I hope I'm wrong.

 

Best Result

By no means our best game if you look at the stats and the chances we allowed the opponent but beating close rivals 7-3 is outstanding. Just 1 goal for Asier as he needed to be subbed off due to tiredness.

 

Best Form

Great form during this stage of the season with a couple missed games due to minor injuries, tiredness or suspension but followed with goals, braces, hat-tricks with a delighted manager as a result.

 

La Liga Goals

135 goals. A new record. Not sure I can improve on that.

 

Asier Villalibre Goals

Thrilled with his seasonal tally. 73 goals, just 1 short of his highest (74), is more than I hoped for. This brings us a very big step closer to the 1000. He's got 866 goals for me now with only 134 remaining for this 1KC. We're bang on schedule and if things don't turn sour in the coming seasons I think we'll need another 3 seasons with Asier. He'll be about 34yo by that time which is perfect.

 

Progress

Things are looking smooth so far. I had a quick look at Villalibre's profile and greens in season 14.

cheers!

 

 

 

 

Season 14

preview..

AV Profile

31yo. Shooting, Movement, Decisions still high. Lost pace and strength.

Do you think he's good enough to complete the 1kC?

 

[Scratch]

Great season! He's really flying high. I don't think you need to worry about the lost pace and strength as you haven't got too far to go and you get to pick the team! Doesn't matter if he no longer deserves the place on merit, you'll keep picking him, and he should be able to score enough. Maybe you'll need to tweak things if other players start pinching too many goals, but he'll make it.

[BatiGoal]

Thanks. He's showing signs of an aging player and I will have to be aware of his increased risk to injuries because of that but the team, I and the entire club are on a mission. Patience is a virtue

[Real_Random]

Just caught up mate, the finish line is so close now. KIU and hopefully you complete this challenge

[Ashez]

Great season, the end seems near! 

[BatiGoal]

Thanks @Real_Random @Ashez for the support. 

[PriZe]

Nice season m8! Those stats should be sufficient to finish it off for you  KIU and i'm preparing the champagne already

[BatiGoal]

Thanks @PriZe I'll clean the champagne glasses once we're on 999 and not before

[PriZe]

18 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Thanks @PriZe I'll clean the champagne glasses once we're on 999 and not before

My man, you are approaching this wrong! It's not a celebration yet, it's a rehersal! You have to nail it when you hit that 1000 goals, so practice is required 

[BatiGoal]

9 minutes ago, PriZe said:

My man, you are approaching this wrong! It's not a celebration yet, it's a rehersal! You have to nail it when you hit that 1000 goals, so practice is required 

practice makes perfect. Let's hope we never make it that far then and spend a lifetime practising

[BatiGoal]

Happy New Year Vibers, I'm back with the season 14 update for Villalibre's quest to a magical 1000 goals.

Season 14

Not a great season for his standards but that was to be expected since he's not in his younger years anymore. He's 32 and he's slowly showing a decline in his goals and basically in his overall performances. Not as sharp, not as quick and not as fit but his experience makes up for some of those deteriorating attributes. He is close to the big 1000 so maybe we should cut him some slack. He still needs 134 goals and looking back at his 13 seasons and the team he's playing in right now I think he stands a great chance to getting the job done. Let's find out how he's done for us this season.

In the previous seasons we got plenty of 6-7-8-goal games but this time round only two games that really stood out.

6-3

We had a lot of 5-goal games but didn't come close to the 135 goals in La Liga last season. We scored about 120 this time which is pretty OK and this was our first 6-goal game towards the end of the season.

7-1

Sevilla 7, Asier 1. The story of the season. Last campaign he scored a stunning 6 hat-tricks but this season not one. Plenty of braces and very close to a hat-trick on a couple of ocassions but he's clearly taking it slower. Let's hope not too slow as we probably need another 2 seasons to complete this 1KC.

 

Villalibre's Top-5 Braces

Two penalties. Total domination but the opponent wasn't close to the budget and quality we have so not really a notable achievement. But two valuable goals.

 

Again the much better side and we got it easy playing Cadiz with 10 men in the 2nd half. Early goals gave me hope for a hat-trick but that's all he was willing to give the homefans.

 

Missed a penalty but hit the rebound, and sealed the brace with a late goal. We would later beat Lanus in the Club World Ch'ships final 5-1 with Asier scoring 1 goal.

 

Closest our friend came to a that hat-trick he (and I) so desperately wanted. 2 goals within half an hour looked very promising. Then a golden opportunity but penalty went wide. Just couldn't do better than two handfuls of braces. Maybe in season 15.

 

Not in great form at the start of the year 2030. A good 1-2 away win followed by an embarrassing 1-2 defeat at home. Against Levante. What??!! yes but OK we made up for it in E.T with 3 goals (I told the guys to just go out all attack for Pete's sake) as if we weren't playing offensive style already. But they got the job done and we would end up reaching the SC final and beating R.Madrid 4-2 with a single goal from Asier.

 

Ending With An Injury

Fortunately no major injuries to report this season but lots of minor ones since he turned 30. Being 32 now and turning 33 in Season 15 I gotta be a little careful with him, with his playing time on the pitch and with his training as well. We're close to the finish-line but there's still a few hurdles to take. Gotta stay very focused.

 

Villalibre's Form Mid-Season

Good. A few braces. The Levante loss which we turned into 4-2 win after ET. Also an Atletico loss in the Cup which we also corrected in the 2nd leg. This was a decent run for Asier just before he turned 32.

 

Villalibre's Form Season's End

Ok-ish. Too many draws towards the end. A Man Utd loss but we'd had done enough in the 1st leg to reach the CL final where Asier would only play 9 min before being subbed off with an injury. He was 32yo by this time and had trouble playing so many games in a short period of time. Some planning to do for the coming seasons. Hopefully only two more needed for him to get 1000 goals.

 

Villalibre's Unsung Heroes

Can't score without creators and they deserve some credit too. Pretty equally distributed too as you see. The two forwards playing alongside Asier (Eto'o and Mateos) provided 38 assists and the forwards on the flanks (Robert and Akinfeev) got 35 assists. The subs for all 4 forwards (Clemente and Berardi) scored another 32 assists. Great numbers and Villalibre couldn't have done so well without the help of his 'helpers'. I'm actually very happy to see that no one really stands out in providing assists which means that they come from all over the place. That's a nightmare for every opponent and hard to defend against so formation-wise and tactics-wise it's near perfect

 

Asier Villalibre's Goals

Under the goal a game ratio since a long time. Just couldn't get more out of him after many season scoring 60+ to 70+ goals we gotta do with 56 this campaign after 14 gruelling seasons. I'm very happy with this number as we're now on a lovely 922 goals (931-9 Bilbao goals) which means we only need 78 more to reach 1000. Only 78 to go! It's really close and I can't wait to see him hit that beautiful number. It's actually been a while since I played a 1K goal challenge so I'm very excited to reach that milestone with our Spanish hero. Looking forward to hitting season 15.

 

Progress

cheers!

 

Season 15

(next..)

[Ashez]

Oh this is so in the bag! 

[anfieldsquirrel]

Almost there! Hopefully he pulls a nice 78 goal season out the bag that'd be class! Although I'm doubtful. Half way through season 16 and this will be polished off! 

[Real_Random]

Getting close now. Hopefully you can wrap his up quickly because he might want to retire next year or som thing along those lines. KIU 

[BatiGoal]

5 hours ago, Ashez said:

Oh this is so in the bag! 

Fingers crossed!

5 hours ago, anfieldsquirrel said:

Almost there! Hopefully he pulls a nice 78 goal season out the bag that'd be class! Although I'm doubtful. Half way through season 16 and this will be polished off! 

Can't see the 78 happen but there's something that came up I'm testing at the moment. One never knows! But looks like 2 more seasons if he keeps his legs from breaking.

2 hours ago, Real_Random said:

Getting close now. Hopefully you can wrap his up quickly because he might want to retire next year or som thing along those lines. KIU 

Exactly. Some players do decide to retire quicker than others so I'm still a little wary of that. 

Thanks for the support!

[AeroLAD]

Oooo interesting season! Good luck

[BatiGoal]

1 hour ago, AeroLAD said:

Oooo interesting season! Good luck

Thanks mate!

[PriZe]

Ok... the only important question left for this career.... have you been  preparing the champagne????? Great going m8!

[Scratch]

56 goals seems like a pretty good season given his age and it's looking pretty comfortable now. Great job! You got this, no worries at all! 

[BatiGoal]

5 hours ago, PriZe said:

Ok... the only important question left for this career.... have you been  preparing the champagne????? Great going m8!

A few cold beers along the way for sure.  I'll shoot the cork at the 1000 mark!

2 hours ago, scratch99 said:

56 goals seems like a pretty good season given his age and it's looking pretty comfortable now. Great job! You got this, no worries at all! 

Thanks mate! I hope he doesn't disappoint.

[BatiGoal]

Season 15

Here we go again. Updates are following quick as I can't wait to complete this challenge. Or..will we? Asier Villalibre is getting really really close now to the 1000 but let's keep the cigars in the drawers and champagne glasses in the cupboards until he hits the 3 zeros on the card. Let's get right to it then..

Quick recap..we need 1000 goals, we're at 922, we need 78, there's the math and the recap for you.

 

Transfers

Just 2 additions needed and hey..sometimes you gotta give the fans something to smile about. Both brought in for the AMC spot right behind Villalibre. Their main job will be to create opportunities. Assists is what we need. Santamaria started the season off as the AMC guy with CM as his alternative spot. Draxler on either wing as IF and as cover for Santamaria. The squad is ageing with lots of 30-ish (or near to it) players but that's perfect. And as we're close to completion no major revamp needed anymore.

 

Formation + Tactics

The formation + latest player roles which are leading the way to the big 1000. Hopefully! Of course those ratings aren't a weekly occurance but they're by no means a rarity either. Weakest, most inconsistent, spot is the CF which becomes a T or a DF depending on the occupant, opponent and/or form of the day.

With pre-season, transfers, trainings, friendlies, press chat, goodluck rituals out of the way we land in August...

August

Couldn't have wished for a better start. Like Valencia, Villareal has become one of the team's favorite opponents. We faced them 7!! times this season (La Liga 2x, Spanish Cup 2x, CL 2x, Euro SC 1x) and all won rather easily with fat scores too. They must love us.

September

Decent month. A brace for Asier and two steps closer to the finish-line.

October

Best period was around this time October November where Villalibre scored a fair amount of goals. A brace on the day.

November

His one and only hat-trick of the season. After 6 of these in S13 and none in S14 I'm glad to see Asier x3 on the scoreboard.

December

Close here for hat-trick 2 but a brace it is. We would end up beating Sao Paolo 5-0 in the final.

January

A very late (perhaps trademark by now) goal to seal another brace yet again. Not a performance to write home about versus a division 3 team. Was hoping for more from my strikers.

February

There's Villareal again smashing 7 past their keeper. Outplayed but Villalibre recorded just one.

March

A 7-hitter again this time versus the tiny Ferrol. Just the one again for Asier. He seems to hit it bigger vs bigger teams.

April

Result-wise not a great month. We did record a few wins but this was his best performance hitting a brace for a draw.

May

And back to Villareal. 1st leg a humiliating 0-6 and finishing it off in style at home 5-1. 11-1 aggregate. We would end up beating R.Madrid in the final of the Spanish Cup (4-2).

June

The only disappointment of the season. Won basically everything except the CL this time. I have to say the amount of missed penalty this career is close to 100 I think. Astonishing! These guys have 19 and 20 shooting skill but look at those misses. Both sides did poorly so kinda balances itself out. Credit to Barca. Next season we'll grab this one.

 

Praise + Awards

Nothing more than deserved. Have lost count of the times he's won these awards but still nice to get the respect and credit from his colleagues he deserves. At 33yo that's actually a pretty good achievement.

 

Asier Villalibre's Goals

The expected decline in goals has continued gradually but I've been careful not to "overplay" him on certain ocassions in fear of sidelining him with injuries. He's 33 going for 34yo next season (S16) so we need to take precautions at times. Something I did which helped him tremendously was brining him in 2nd half when the team's performing well and opponents tired. I'd let him rest a game if the team performance was just average or failed to break the opponent's defence but everytime he entered a team in form he'd deliver. This made him quite effective and get to the 51 goals. So in all a great season for our guy and by the looks of it we may need just 1 more. If nothing crazy happens we'll be able to wrap this up in season 16. That's bang on schedule!

Excluding the 9 goals he started with in this career we're currently on 973 / 1000 goals. I'm really excited to see Villalibre complete this challenge. With just 27 goals remaining I feel it's our challenge to lose at the moment. Looking forward to next season!!

 

Progress

cheers!

 

 

Season 16

- The Road To a 1000 Goals -

(coming up..)

[Ashez]

This is so in the bag! Bring it home Bati!! 

[BatiGoal]

27 minutes ago, Ashez said:

This is so in the bag! Bring it home Bati!! 

Thanks mate! I'm optimistic by nature but cautious when it comes to FMM careers. Still lots of "unknowns" to watch out for

[BatiGoal]

Season 16

- The Road To a 1000 Goals -

 

Here's where we stand with the main man who's providing us with all the goals. 973 to be exact. Will he reach the 1000-goal milestone or will suspensions, injuries, retirement put an end to this challenge? Let's have a closer look at the man himself first.

 

Asier Villalibre - Profile

He's 33 turning 34yo a month into the season. So he's basically going to play the large majority of the season as a 34yo with most likely a further decline in a couple of his attributes. I'm glad to see his essential attr. Shooting - Movement - Decisions still very much in the green. Also glad he still got decent pace for an old man. I need that playing him mostly as an Advanced Forward using Poacher as an alternative. So things look pretty good for Asier Villalibre to reach his goal. I'm certainly optimistic.

 

Asier Villalibre - Goals

This is where we stand in numbers at the moment. 973 goals so far and still 27 needed to reach 1000 Goals!!

 

Before we get to the final season, well let's not jump ahead of things as I haven't started Season 16 yet but I feel confident it's going to be the last one I'm going to need, let me say that although it may have looked like I sailed through this challenge it was nothing like that. I'm sure you're aware that scoring 1000 goals is very very tough. The veterans here know that very well and anyone who's attempted this feat knows that too. I've failed plenty of times as well for different reasons. I may not have posted my failings in here but there's been a few. And those were great learning experiences. This one seemed like going onto the "failed Attempt List" too but we managed to steer it onto the right "list".

Each player, each team, each opponent or league and each manager bring different challenges within themselves. For me personally the beginning was very tough since Villalibre presented us with unwelcome and unexpected stamina issues which I managed to overcome with some of the good advice I received in here. His stamina dropped to 'brown' levels so I placed him in a fitness training regime which slightly affected his attacking attributes but was balanced enough to keep his main striker's attr. in the positives. Then there was the formation and tactics issues which we all struggle with at times that weren't consistent enough. These pushed me back to the drawingboard on many occasions in the first 3 seasons. I played 4-5 different formations for home games, away games, and a few alternative ones when things didn't click with the main ones. Until in season 5, after hours of testing, tweaking, experimenting with several combinations of players and roles, I found the winning formula (hopefully) which specifically suits a low-stamina player, like Villalibre, to play (near) full games for an entire season and kept this challenge on track until at this point.

 

So if there are any Vibers still out there who are interested in seeing Asier Villalibre pull off an amazing feat in scoring a magical One Thousand Goals in this career let's all support each other in these careers and drop a few encouraging words that both manager and especially player so very much need. Let me hear you !!!

[Scratch]

I'm doing my first 1K challenge because I read this very thread. And every time I think about giving up because it's going off the rails for whatever reason, it's the inspiration from reading how you overcame your challenges (and careers by others too), and the encouragement from those who post on my thread that keep me going. So Thanks!! To both you and everyone else in this community.

Words for the manager: Well I said most of it above. You're like my Alex Ferguson, who I look to for inspiration and learn a lot from. Only better, because I don't like Alex Ferguson much! You're in the home stretch now, enjoy it, you've earned it. Overcame every obstacle that was put in front of you and are poised to succeed against the odds. Fantastic job!

Words for the player: I've followed your career since you were a kid and I've watched you turn into one of the best players the world has ever seen. Think about that for a minute. You're going down in the history books! I'm really going to miss reading about your exploits when you retire, but I'll come back and read about you from time to time and tell my grand kids about you.

[Real_Random]

Just caught up mate and you're so close now. KIU

[danovic78]

Great going, I really thought his stamina might kill this challenge and but he has been very consistent.

Still cant believe that formation has got you 1,000. Like the old Championship Manager 93 2-4-4 formation...

[AeroLAD]

Wow congrats man!! 

 

It's awesome to see you get this done. I remember when I used to be able to do it back in fmh 13-14 ish. I guess the game has become more complicated now, so kudos to you for being able to complete the challenge!! I guess Ill try to find 'the' tactic now (testing and all that) and hopefully I can try to complete a 1k this year! 

 

Once again, congrats!! It was a pleasure to experience this career  

[BatiGoal]

Thanks a lot for the heart-warming and encouraging words everyone. You guys are like the 12th man on the pitch when opposition is tough, energy levels low and that bit of welcome luck nowhere to be found. You guys are right there in difficult times to pull us through over the finish-line. Awesome lads!

@scratch99 it's amazing how each career on Vibe has something unique to it. There's always something new to be learnt from following others' careers and exactly what you said it works inspiring for everyone involved.

@Real_Random thanks mate. I hope I can give the Vibe community something back.

@danovic78 no 1000 yet but close. We need to defy the odds sometimes to keep things fun and unpredictable, hehe!

@AeroLAD thanks mate but apologies for refusing your cogratulatory words. There's still 27 goals needed to complete this 1KC. Villalibre and I were begging the Vibers here for much needed love before embarking on what's possibly going to be the final chapter of this career. We got plenty and are ready to hit it big for the fans in Season 16.

Thanks everyone!

[veerus]

Could you please repost the tactic you're using when you're done to save the time digging thru the thread? 

Also, do you feel that lopsided formations like you're using (and like you discovered in that old formation thread) are unique to the players you're using or is the engine very forgiving this year in how it handles such an unusual tactic? Does the AI fail to take advantage of you throwing everyone forward?

Good luck.