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Career A Defender's Story: 250+ Goals


BatiGoal
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1 hour ago, BatiGoal said:

Thanks buddy! His attributes are already "very green" after a few months on a modified technical training regime. Few goals tho. Still trying to figure out how best to get goals out of him. Tough tough challenge.

Playing him at FC, yes I can see you hitting the target but at CB it is very tough indeed.

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12 hours ago, danovic78 said:

Playing him at FC, yes I can see you hitting the target but at CB it is very tough indeed.

It is tough, mate, it is. But after trying several formations from Oct - Nov I got a good one in Dec. Really working well at the moment as he's scored 5 goals in total. Not great but it's an improvement and as he's slowly growing into a better BPD I expect more goals.

I'll post the formation in the next update.

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Season 1

My Objective

We need to score lots of goals with Bazoer, our defender, so top priority in the first season is finding a formation that gets him the goals. I have created formations to make midfielders provide hundreds of assists and formations to make forwards score thousands of goals but I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to creating anything to suit a defender. So this was a tough one for me and kept me busy tweaking and experimenting for nearly the entire first season, but I've managed to come up with a very decent formation for Bazoer. More on that later.

My Squad

The Benfica squad is an absolute dream. I was shocked to find such a young and talented group. If you haven't played this team before I highly recommend giving them a try. A good Reserve Team too where you can fish for additional players whether you need a large group of attackers for a very offensive formation or many talented defenders for a more defensive formation as in my case. It didn't take me very long to find a group of 20 top class squad players to test a variety of formations to suit our BPD Bazoer. About 10 talents were sent out on loan while the remaining 20-25 remained in the Reserve Team for further development.

My Transfers

I bought two players. You may ask why after just having said there were loads of talents at the club. Well..I ultimately went for a very defensive formation with 5 defenders (more on that later) and I was short on a good Left Back so I felt I needed to buy one guy to provide cover as the sub I had was just a little too inexperienced and lacking quality. So I bought Hinteregger from Augsburg who took place on the sub bench for necessary CD and DL cover. The other purchase was Danilo (CM) from Braga. He's a monster. The 2 CM starters I had were good but Danilo was in my squad as a loanee when I took the managerial seat, and he just looked to good to have him on as a loan. I actually sent him back to Braga as I thought I had enough quality CMs but I missed the guy so as soon as the Jan. window came along I bought him. He's a worldclass player.

My Formation

The most crucial part of the challenge. The way I try formations and tactics is pretty simple. I go with whatever makes sense and test it out. We can't tell with 100% certainty how these match engines react as these role interpretations are as clear as mud sometimes. On top of that I'm looking for something, anything, that makes Bazoer, our Ball Playing Defender, support the attack as often as he can in order to score 250+ goals. So anything that has even the slightest chance of succeeding I tried. Many formations failed and many combos failed..some of them which surprised me such as..

  • BPD Bazoer behind a Box-To-Box Midfielder - I didn't have great hopes for this one but had to test it out anyway. My reasoning was that he'd perhaps follow the BBM forward diving into the empty space vacated by him coupled with attacking mentality..you know..going forward at every opportunity, but no significant improvement in his performance. So I moved on.
  • BPD Bazoer behind a Ball Winning Midfielder - Ok, I had serious hopes for this one. Similar to the option above but since BWMs chase the ball wherever it goes and pretty much never hold position, coupled with pressing on and off as well as balanced and/or attacking mentality, this failed too. Very disappointing as I'd expect our BPD to run into that "empty" space in front of him but it merely cause an imbalance. Worth a try tho but I was starting to run out of options at this point.
  • BPD Bazoer as a Primary Outlet - This one's a bit of a mystery. I'm not totally sure if this makes a significant difference. He did start to score a few goals but I tried him in the what turned out to be his best formation. So I'm not entirely sure if it's the formation that upped his game or him playing as a PO for the team. Season 2 begs more experimenting so I'll let you guys know. But for now he's doing OK and remains my PO.
  • 5-2-2-1 - after many formations this is the one that seems to be getting the best out of our BPD Bazoer.

5-2-2-1

Formation5221.png

All 2- and 3-striker formations weren't effective enough as all the goals come from them which left nothing for Bazoer. My reasoning was bringing a few guys a few lines down in order to make him a "more important" link in the formation. Having 4 defenders around him simply makes him more valuable to the attacking players in front of him. Coupled with attacking mentality he'd have to support the attack with passes and attempt forward runs diving into a much more spacious midfield and shoot from distance whenever the opportunity arises. This formation works really well for him and the entire team as we manage to be very solid at the back and at the same time be dangerous with our short passing game, which opposed to direct passing, gives Bazoer time to go forward and provide support to the attackers. Direct passing got the ball up "too quick" which made our BPD less important and created fewer chances for him and that's not what we need. He needs to be up there and get a few shots in as well.

 

A few Bazoer Goals

Spoiler

BazoerGls3.png

BazoerGls7.png

BazoerGls6.png

BazoerGls5.png

BazoerGls9.png

BazoerGls4.png

BazoerGls8.png

 

Best Results

BazoerGls1.png

Weak opponent but still a lovely score with our 5-2-2-1 formation. Jimenez x5.

 

BazoerGls2.png

Another weak opponent. Jimenez x7. Is he going for the 1K without my permission? lol

 

Let's have a look at his improved attributes after 1 season with Benfica and a tailor-made training regime.

Before

BazoerAttr.png

After

BazoerAttributes.png

I like it. Good improvements in just 1 year. Shooting, passing, physical attributes. I think he's going to be a worldclass BPD. I'll keep him on this training regime and make sure his defensive as well as his attacking attributes go up to green levels. I'm starting to love this guy!

 

Bazoer Goals

Bazoer13gls.png

Awesome start of the challenge. I was fearing the worst before I started the challenge as I had no formation no tactic and basically very little hope of getting goals out of a defender but I'm delighted to get 13 goals. He was actually the second best scorer in the entire squad after Jimenez's 66 goals.

Jimenez going for 1K?

SquadGoals.png

He's 25 so he won't make it but he's obviously a key player to us and enjoying himself in this 5-2-2-1 formation.

 

The Progress

As I said, I couldn't be happier especially this being our first season and he's already on 13. Squad's perfect. Formation is great. Bazoer improving really well and giving stronger and more consistent performances as the weeks go by. Goal tally is growing. Can't wait for the coming seasons and see this guy score more and be one of the world's best BPDs and one of the highest-scoring defenders the game has ever seen. If season 1 is anything to go by then things look realy bright for the next campaign. Can't wait!

DefGlsChallenge13.png

 

Comments, suggestions, encouragement welcome! Thanks.

Edited by BatiGoal
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3 minutes ago, AndersJ said:

Good luck with the challenge mate - :)!

is the wage in pound? It seems crazy high or what did i miss :)?

Thanks!

Wages are in Euros. It's yearly wages. 10+M is for worldclass players so he's ok on 2.5M.

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What a great season that was mate, I tried a challenge similar but with  a cb at striker position and only managed 26 in my first season so congratulations on that one. With regards to using the ome what are your thoughts to some of the score lines in your first season, some of them games were you managed over 10 goals do you think these sort of scores are possible on the eme engine? Cheers

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24 minutes ago, Mikee1984 said:

What a great season that was mate, I tried a challenge similar but with a cb at striker position and only managed 26 in my first season so congratulations on that one.

Thanks mate!

I'm disappointed we got just 1 penalty during the entire season. The EME gave me close to 10 per season and I've played many seasons on it. So I was expecting penalties to be his main source for goals but quite the opposite. It does mean tho that he scored a fair amount of free kicks and shots from a distance which is very positive.

32 minutes ago, Mikee1984 said:

With regards to using the ome what are your thoughts to some of the score lines in your first season, some of them games were you managed over 10 goals do you think these sort of scores are possible on the eme engine? Cheers

Pretty similar ime actually. Those two big results were vs the ultra weak. I managed 8-9 goals in La Liga vs similar opposition. Ok, 13 goals is crazy. Perhaps slightly easier to score on the OME. The main difference seems getting a single player to score over 5 goals. Never managed that on the EME, which makes OME a great engine for a 1K challenge I think.

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Well every credit for every one of them goals scored mate fair play, with the lack of penalties on ome that's 12 goals from open play with a cb or bpd as we like to call it so that it amazing. On the engine subject do you think eme is broken I'd love to know your honest thoughts?

Cheers

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1 hour ago, Mikee1984 said:

Well every credit for every one of them goals scored mate fair play, with the lack of penalties on ome that's 12 goals from open play with a cb or bpd as we like to call it so that it amazing.

Benfica are a top side in the league and have imo the best squad of all teams, so we play attacking mentality most games which pushes especially the attack-minded players forward a lot, including BPD Bazoer.

1 hour ago, Mikee1984 said:

On the engine subject do you think eme is broken I'd love to know your honest thoughts?

Cheers

Broken? That's too strong a term I think. It's not perfect and it doesn't act out the roles to a detailed degree. But what worries me most is that it's hardly improved since it was introduced. It came out with a bang but to me, as much as I hate to admit, reminds me of one of those worldclass talents labelled "The Next Maradona" that fails to live up to the expectations. There's been nothing worth mentioning between introduction and now which is why I understand some people saying it's broken. 

I play both at the moment for a different experience. Each has its pros and cons so from now on I'll select the engine depending on the challenge I'm facing. We all want something different out of it so to each his own as they say.

As for my challenge, perhaps I should've gone for EME since there's more penalties there but oh well, too late now so I'll make the most of it.

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1 hour ago, Real_Random said:

Great season mate, this career looks very interesting to follow and the maths says it is quite possible. KIU 

It's quite fun actually to explore unknown territory. Especially when the hard work starts to pay off. Thanks mate!

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Great start to a very interesting career dude, after my short break away I've been looking for another challenge to try and I think If it's OK with you I might join you in this

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6 hours ago, Granit Xhaxa said:

Reading your tactic guide you talked about the importance of width but you haven't used Wingbacks or Wingers to provide witdth.

Width

Width.png

Width:

The aim of the players covering these positions is to spread the play and utilise the whole pitch. This allows the central players more room and brings gaps in the opposition's defence.

 

5 hours ago, Ashez said:

Fantastic start that mate! Loved the detail too :)

Thanks! More detail in season 2 ;)

 

4 hours ago, Taff said:

Great start to a very interesting career dude, after my short break away I've been looking for another challenge to try and I think If it's OK with you I might join you in this

No Bazoer tho, he's mine! :P

However, before you decide on doing this one too why don't you have a look in the archives. There's lots of great and forgotten challenges out there which will be much more fun to follow. Some of them are buried away and can't be tagged so I'll see if I have time to repost some of them in the coming weeks.

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Season 2

The Squad

The squad is great. I've promoted two talented Wingers/Inside Forwards from the Reserve Team to the First Team. One will take this opportunity to speed up his development and train with the best. He'll get his chances throughout the season and he'll be starting the games from the sub bench. While the other one goes straight into the starting eleven after proving himself during the friendly games. The squad counts 22 players so I can allow everyone enough time on the pitch.

The Transfers

None. I did try to get Joao Mario from Inter but they didn't want to let him go for under 50M so I gave up. I'm actually glad I did since I can do without him. Altho Mario looked really good and would look great as my Advanced Playmaker this means my talented youngsters get all the chances they need and that worked out much better in the end. The squad is looking very strong at the moment and looking at the average age of the group I won't need (m)any reinforcements until 5-6 season from now.

The Formation

I'm still going with the one that worked really well towards the end of season 1. The 5-2-2-1. It's perfect. No tweaks, no adjustments other than 1-2 different starters. It's a great formation for now so no need to change things on this front.

 

The Football Story

One of my most enjoyable seasons on FMM17. The story of Bazoer trying to score 250+ goals already taught me a few things I would otherwise have never seen or discovered. The whole concept of trying to make defenders shine without "breaking" the team or the balance is quite a challenge yet entertaining when things click. It's also great to be managing such a wondeful talent and see him grow during this career. He has certainly done his manager and his team proud again this season.

The story consist of two parts:

  1. Part I - Bazoer playing as #5
  2. Part II - Bazoer playing as #6

This is actually quite interesting as it's something I never cared about. It's something that I never "needed" to see for my previous challenges so it just went unnoticed. But fact of the matter is that it's absolutely crucial to Bazoer and this challenge. I'm playing the 5-2-2-1 formation with 5 defenders, which means my defenders are numbers 2-5. 2 and 3 being my FBs and 4-5-6 my CBs. Bazoer played as #5 simply because I thought the defence would be more balanced having a BPD right in the middle of the other two CBs. It's not the case though as you'll find out in Part II where he'll continue the rest of the season as #6. For a very good reason!

 

Part I - Bazoer playing as #5

 

A Disallowed Goal

BazoerNoGoal.png

A dubious decision? It was a TERRIBLE decision! No one saw anything except the referee. Bazoer took a magnificent free kick and apparently the linesman decided that someone was standing offside. I can see from here it's not! Terrible decision. Terrible!

 

A Free Kick Goal

BazoerFreeKick.png

A beauty. No one expected him to be able to hit the target but he did. It flew in inches from the Goalkeeper but it was too hard and he had no chance of stopping this one. Zengin still doesn't know what happened. Besiktas clearly no match for us.

 

Bazoer Converts Penalty

BazoerPenalty.png

Rosenborg was already knocked out at this point but with this converted Bazoer penalty it's definitely game over for this Norwegian team. Bazoer missed one a couple weeks ago but this one went in right through the middle.

 

A Free Kick Miss

BazoerMiss.png

Oooh that was close!!! Goalkeeper no chance but it goes inches wide unfortunately. He's getting better at this tho as they're either on target or inches from it. His hours spent on the training ground are paying off. He gets his teammates' approval that it was well-taken free kick and the game continues.

 

A Beautiful Save

BazoerSaved.png

Credit where credit's due. A fantastic free kick once again but an even more fantastic save by the Chelsea Goalkeeper. It looked in and I was cheering from the sidelines but Curtois was well-positioned with safe hands. It remains 1-1.

 

Bazoer Dispossessed

BazoerDispossessed.png

These are exactly the risks Ball Playing Defenders carry with them. They can be a true asset when going forward and supporting the attack but... they risk losing possession. As in this case, Bazoer was trying to play his way out of a dangerous situation by being creative and clever, but got dispossessed by the opponent. Aboubakar knows no mercy and brings Porto the lead. 0-1.

 

Mid Season: Injury Crisis

Almeida - 4 months

4monthsAlmeida.png

Lopez - 9 months

9monthsLopeZ.png

Jonas - 9 months

9monthsJonaS.png

Really unlucky. All happened within a time period of 3 weeks. Tough but we gotta move on. As long as it ain't Bazoer.

 

Part II - Bazoer playing as #6

 

The 3 Central Defenders' Positioning

BazoerCorner0.png

I noticed that BPD Bazoer never ventured forward during corners. This wasn't a corner btw but you see how they're regularly lined up during games. What happens is that #4 and #5 remain at the back to provide defensive cover while #6 goes forward to support the attack at corners. The assigned roles have zero influence which really surprises me. Whether the CDs are Limited Defenders, Ball Playing ones or Central Defenders makes no difference. In this formation they're numbered 4, 5 and 6, and 6 goes forward. This makes a world of difference to me and the challenge. And to Bazoer and his chances to get 250+ goals even more so of course.

 

Bazoer In The Box 1

BazoerCorner2.png

Where he always stayed back in season 1 as #5 you can clearly see the difference this is going to make for his goal-scoring chances. He's actually in a Poacher's position right near the penalty spot.

 

Bazoer In The Box 2

BazoerCorner1.png

Another example. Right there where he needs to be. This wasn't a goal but this finding significantly increases his chance to add a few extra goals to his name at the end of the season. With 14 aerial I'm expecting a couple headers in season 3.

 

Great Bazoer Pass - Missed

BazoerLongShot.png

Gorgeous pass by Bazoer but I believe it was Jimenez who missed a great opportunity to increase our lead. This was one of many many great passes throughout the season tho. Bazoer is playing as our Primary Outlet which may be the reason why.

 

Great Bazoer Pass - Goal!

BazoerGreatPass.png

Bazoer was too far out to attempt a shot on goal so he passed the ball to Guedes who left Ramos no chance with a low hard strike. Great play by Benfica and we show why we're the best team in Portugal and in Europe at the moment. Bazoer is Man of the Match.

 

Bazoer Sees Red

BazoerRed.png

He may be young and lose his head at times but this is not acceptable. We were down a goal vs a very tough team in Bayern and played an hour with 10 men. Still we managed to turn things around and score 2 goals for the win in Germany. That's a major achievement and the reason we ended up as eventual CL winners. Much credit to the entire team. Bazoer, no more of this!!

 

Bazoer Braces

BazoerBrace1.png

BazoerBrace2.png

Playing Bazoer as #6 makes a massive difference. Look at this. Two braces in a week's time, by our Ball Playing Defender. That's unheard of. He's just 21 but already playing the best football in his career. Outstanding!

 

Bazoer Profile

BazoerAttr2018.png

He's becoming stronger, faster, more confident..he's growing into a worldclass player. The only green he had when I bought him was 'technique'. He's got 10 greens now and I'm expecting his 'shooting' attr., that was 11 at the start of his career, to turn into a 15 as well. Great overall improvement on his attributes. 

 

Bazoer Goals

Bazoer25Gls.png

One goal less than in his first season but I'm really hopeful for the future of this career and this challenge. He picked things up once he moved to #6 position mid-season getting a lot more chances in front of goal. This is something we'll build upon in season 3. My aim is scoring 15 goals with Bazoer. I'm confident we can get that number on the board in one of the coming seasons.

 

Progress

DefGlsChallenge25.png

 

Comments, Opinions, Suggestions and Support welcome. Thank you!

Edited by BatiGoal
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Great read dude and a very interesting look at the mechanics as I like you would have thought playing the BPD in the middle of a back three would make him come forward, but the fact that he did it more form the #6 position is very intriguing to me

good work and KIU

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Great work! Doing much better than I thought and it's great you've explained why you made the choices you've made. I love that. Fascinating find about the number 6 getting forward. Wonder if that's the same on EME... I'll keep an eye on this going forward. 

One question: Did you try the IFs as Wingers at all? That would keep them wider (at least on EME) instead of them ducking inside, so it could make more space for Bazoer...

On 2/19/2017 at 11:57, BatiGoal said:

Perhaps slightly easier to score on the OME. The main difference seems getting a single player to score over 5 goals. Never managed that on the EME, which makes OME a great engine for a 1K challenge I think.

Well I know one player who scored 6 on the EME! ;) But interesting point about maybe the OME being the better engine for a 1KC. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm unlikely to choose it over the EME because although it may be easier, it's probably less realistic. I can believe a player getting 5 or 6 occasionally, but not more... Interesting find though.

On 2/19/2017 at 11:57, BatiGoal said:

I'm disappointed we got just 1 penalty during the entire season. The EME gave me close to 10 per season and I've played many seasons on it.

Yeah, about 10 a season on the EME is what I've come to expect as well. 1 a season is not terribly realistic. Were there more in season 2?

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3 hours ago, Taff said:

Great read dude and a very interesting look at the mechanics as I like you would have thought playing the BPD in the middle of a back three would make him come forward, but the fact that he did it more form the #6 position is very intriguing to me

good work and KIU

Thanks Taff! To give you the exact numbers, the #4 went forward twice in the entire season and the #6 all the other times which is the large majority. #5 not once. So this position becomes in fact the worst possible one if you want to get more goals out of your BPD. What makes sense to me, or us, doesn't to the engine we're playing apparently.

 

3 hours ago, scratch99 said:

Great work! Doing much better than I thought and it's great you've explained why you made the choices you've made. I love that. Fascinating find about the number 6 getting forward. Wonder if that's the same on EME... I'll keep an eye on this going forward. 

Thanks Scratch! I'm wondering that too now. Have no clue tbh as I've never paid attention to that for obvious reasons.

 

3 hours ago, scratch99 said:

One question: Did you try the IFs as Wingers at all? That would keep them wider (at least on EME) instead of them ducking inside, so it could make more space for Bazoer...

Well..since the recent findings I'm inclinded to test and experiment with pretty much everything that has the slightest odds of making a positive difference. I did try the Wingers for a few games but will need to do so more for probably the entire season 3 to come to anything more conclusive. If anything significant I'll post in the next update.

 

3 hours ago, scratch99 said:

Yeah, about 10 a season on the EME is what I've come to expect as well. 1 a season is not terribly realistic. Were there more in season 2?

Three. 1 miss and two goals. Maybe because we matured one season and are stronger, played a bit more attacking, gave the opponent a motive to bring us down in the box more often :) hope to get a couple more next season. 5 would be nice.

 

3 hours ago, samhardy said:

Very nice start to a unique and entertaining concept. Keep going!

Thanks Sam! I'll do my best make Bazoer a Legend.

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11 hours ago, Ashez said:

Fascinating mate and another decent total, all going swimmingly so far :)

Thanks biggie!

 

10 hours ago, PriZe said:

Absolutely great stuff @BatiGoal! Love the write up, really a fan of the tactical stuff as well, and great results so far! Hope with the change in his position he will improve goalwise. KIU m8 :D

Thanks mate! More tactical stuff coming up in season 3 ;)

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43 minutes ago, danovic78 said:

Good going so far and an interesting read.

You have to love those easy cup matches for goal scoring challenges! :)

Thanks Dano. Always a joy getting paired with a weak team in the Cup but still getting a defender on that scoreboard is not easy.

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5 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Thanks Dano. Always a joy getting paired with a weak team in the Cup but still getting a defender on that scoreboard is not easy.

Yeah, its tricky with him being stuck at the back. I don't think there is much more you can do, apart from tinker more with set pieces.

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4 hours ago, danovic78 said:

Yeah, its tricky with him being stuck at the back. I don't think there is much more you can do, apart from tinker more with set pieces.

There still may be a way to improve things by looking closely at the role traits of his teammates. For example, Bazoer likes playing one-twos so it makes sense having teammates left/right or a line up who excel at the same.

I think such details could make the difference between 10 and 15 gls/season. Will experiment in season 3 as the challenge continues.

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