Career Jesus, 1000 Goals? - 1K Challenge - BantamHD

[BantamHD]

I will be taking on the 1000 goals challenge with none other than our Saviour, Gabriel Jesus. If the Lord can't complete the challenge, we are all damned...

(I highly doubt that I will get anywhere near 1000 goals, as it is quite a monumental task, but I will give it my best go nonetheless.)

Each season, I will set goal targets in order to reach the ultimate target of 1000 goals. Unless we have a stonking season, Jesus must NEVER fall short of his promises or failure will overcome us.

The first season's target is 55 goals.

[BantamHD]

3 minutes ago, Eogtuc0910 said:

Good luck it's a tough challenge. Interesting you chose the Bundesliga as your league as with the dominance of Bayern strikers don't get many goals.

Also Jesus isn't really an Out and Out striker so it may be tough but good luck.

Also chose the Bundesliga because it only has 34 games, making it slightly more challenging than other leagues!

He's not an out and out striker, but his only real hindrance is his aerial ability, as far as I'm concerned.

[LOLITSLIT]

Good luck man! It won't be easy but I'm confident you'll make it through just fine.

[Jack]

Good choice of player for a 1KC challenge, best of luck!

[Scratch]

Good luck! I'll definitely be following along.

[BantamHD]

Chapter One - Superlative Central

When I first took an extensive look at the Dortmund squad, I noticed that the team was extremely versatile, with the vast majority of players being apt in a number of different positions across the midfield. I decided that, as a result, they were to play the season in a base formation of 2-5-2-1, in order to exploit the huge quality that oozes through the midfield. Playing only two defenders seems extremely attacking, but a mix'n'match combination of Sokratis, Bartra, Ginter and Sven Bender holds up just fine. 

Initially, I, reluctant to risk having virtually no defenders, tried to play a 2-2-3-2-1 (with wingbacks) but that didn't work, so I ultimately went all out attack.

 

The season started very poorly, as we lost to Bayern in the Super Cup, which stung quite a bit as Jesus scored a hat-trick. Unfortunately, Robert Lewandowski counteracted that with a hat-trick of his own. An uninspiring 2-0 win over FC Villingen (in the SIXTH tier of German football) turned out to be the only win in the first five competitive fixtures. We were awful against Hoffenheim, cataclysmic against Darmstadt (we were 3-1 up only to draw 3-3) and were defeated by Juventus in the ECC. Probably couldn't ask for a worse start!

 

The season could only improve from that point, as the board already began questioning my ability to manage a football team. Bottling a winning position to draw against Bayern hurt a little, but all was better with resounding victories to nil against Borussia "A German Team", Hamburg and Celtic. In came another shaky period with score draws against Frankfurt, Spurs and Ingolstadt. Still, unbeaten in eight is good form comparatively to prior.

We waltzed past Jena and FC Koln, but disaster struck with three crucial defeats against Spurs, Wolfsburg and Augsburg. How the hell were we supposed to get out of the group when we literally have only beaten Celtic? The Wolfsburg defeat damaged our title hopes and the loss to Augsburg reopened the board's case for my sacking.

We needed a miracle to salvage the season, but remember, we have Jesus on our side!! By beating Juventus 1-0, we held the better head to head record in the Champions League against them, so our abysmal goal difference would mean little if we beat Celtic and Juve lose to Spurs in their last game! After the win over the Bianconeri, our season was reignited and a winning streak began with wins over Hertha, Freiburg and Schalke to follow it up.

We beat Celtic!! And, to make it feel ever more like we won the lottery, Tottenham defeated Juventus to see us through! Here's an idea, journalist, how about "godly" or "spiritual"?

We then went on an astonishing unbeaten run, spanning all the way to to April and lasting 21 games (we lost to Benfica on the night, but I count it as a victory as we went through on away goals, and the score is green...it's good enough for me ). 

Yet, despite all that triumph, the loss to Wolfsburg defined the remainder of the season. We became inconsistent in the league, winning 4-1 one week and then losing to relative nobodies 0-1 the next.

However, it must be said that we were superb in the cups, advancing past Napoli in the ECC quarters and Borussia "A German Team" in the Pokal. Blaring right in front of us were two real opportunities of silverware: one domestic and one continental. Stuttgart stood in our way in the cup final, and Bayern in the ECC semis. Against Bayern, we had to play an extremely defensive game to prevent Lewandowski and Muller unleashing hell on us, a surprising success, with a slender away win exactly what we wanted. On our own turf, however, it was a different story entirely, with Dortmund going for a gung ho approach, with Andre Schurrle and Marco Reus grabbing the goals (unfortunately they "robbed" Gabriel Jesus of quite a few goals) that would send us into the final. 

I was really nervous that we had gotten so far and risked losing it all in the last two matches. Then I was relieved to see the ultimate bottlers Arsenal had advanced past North London rivals Tottenham in the semi finals. 

We scraped past Stuttgart in the domestic cup final, winning on penalties - Jesus had a lot of practice with those all season...

 

Then came the main event...

 

We won the double in our first season!!! I can't believe it! Still, tournament achievements lie behind the poor league performance this season. We finished in fourth place in a two horse race. Winning the Champions League saved my arse, if you ask me...

 

Our Main Man...

Gabriel Jesus scored 57 goals in the first season, bagging the Bundesliga golden boot but not quite enough for player of the year, which inexplicably went to Robert Lewandowski. Not a bad first tally, if I say so myself. He achieved the target I set at 55 goals, even scoring two more as a bonus. Next season he must be hitting around 70 though.

His stats:

Spoiler

His support:

Spoiler

Probably going to change up the formation, maybe to a 4-2-3-1, given the fact that so many goals were nabbed away from Jesus...

 

Onto the next one I guess!

 

Edited February 21, 2017 by BantamHD

[BattleBravelyRelegation]

He has form for getting big bans. Dangerous choice 

[BantamHD]

4 minutes ago, BattleBravelyRelegation said:

He has form for getting big bans. Dangerous choice 

Yeah I saw that...hope that easter egg doesn't pop up any time soon for me! Would be a travesty

[BantamHD]

Chapter Two - Miracles and Managerial Mistakes...

The second season of our spiritual journey started so well..

.   

We snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a 3-2 win over Bayern Munich in the DFL Supercup. Gabriel Jesus scored the winning goal, and won yet another piece of silverware. We also beat Roma, the winners of the Europa League, 2-1 to clinch the European Super Cup in the next match. Trophies of little meaning, of course, but we need them to fill up the cabinet!

Can't remember if the 4-3 defeat against Leipzig was the first or second league match of the season, but it is safe to say that it hurt. Despite our man Gabriel Jesus scoring a hat-trick, three goals weren't enough to get the three points, with opposing striker Davie Selke having other things to say...

For this season, I decided to continue my endeavour with the 2-5-2-1 formation that I established in 2016-17, as I couldn't conjure up a more viable alternative, especially after offloading a lot of the squad who simply wouldn't get a game. They included Erik Durm, Nuri Sahin, Marcel Schmelzer and, surprisingly, Jacob Bruun Larsen among others. Perhaps most controversial, however, was my offloading of Ousmane Dembele to Schalke, in exchange for Breel Embolo with me paying a fee on top. Dembele, despite my listing of him as one of the supporting cast, has really low teamwork and therefore just took pop shots from wherever when I played him. The same problem was with Emre Mor, but I couldn't find a buyer for him. 

 

Jesus' early season form earned him a bit of recognition...

   

Jesus earned his first World Player of the Year! The first of many, I would hope. His value absolutely SKYROCKETED after that announcement!

Then came the next bit of silverware...BOOM! Best team in the world!

 

Unfortunately, that proved to be the high point of the season. Jesus' form somewhat dropped in the second half as we were knocked out of the Champions League on away goals in the semi-finals against Real Madrid.  They did lose to Tottenham (yes TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR) in the final.

   

We had another poor league campaign, finishing behind Dembele's Schalke. Nonetheless, we did outscore Bayern! (note at this point I was downloading the standard logos pack onto FMM)

Jesus was narrowly beaten by Robert Lewandowski in goals in the Bundesliga, not a good sign.

He was third on the ASSISTS chart, which is extremely bad for someone aiming to score and score and score and no more. Probably a managerial error playing him as an advanced forward rather than a poacher.

Still, the game recognised that he was a major contributor to Dortmund's season and rewarded him with another personal accolade: the Bundesliga Player of the Year! Note that our signing from Monaco, Thomas Lemar, won Young Player of the Year, with Ousmane Dembele second. Probably a huge mistake letting Dembele leave, especially to a rival.

Schalke didn't steal a trophy from us though, as we powered past them 2-1 in the Pokal final, to retain the trophy for another year!

   

 

Jesus, despite all the attention and great performances, was underwhelming on the goalscoring front, scoring only 58 goals, a mere one goal improvement from his 57. On average, you must have at least 59 goals per season to win the challenge by the age of 35. His younger years will soon be behind him and we need to up his scoring fast.

Look at his value though...if only the objective was profiteering. Getting scared that Real Madrid will come in for him as a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo.

He scored a goal for Brazil this season; not that it'll count towards the total. I'm doubtful that I'll be able to get the Brazil job any time soon, as they have a relatively easy World Cup group featuring Qatar, and their manager is in a secure seat at the moment.

I'm ranked second best manager in the world, so if Tite is sacked or retires, I should probably be in pole position for the role! Fingers crossed!

Onto 2018-19 then. Hopefully Gabriel Jesus improves his scoring record soon. He's currently on 115, two seasons in. If he is to last 16 seasons and continues at that rate, that equals 920 goals, eighty below target.

Hope some people are reading this and are enjoying the journey! 

HD.

[BantamHD]

Start of the third season, and the board have been very kind with a huge transfer chest of £132m! Considering the last two seasons have been budgets of around £20m, this could be a breakthrough moment. Youth facilities and training facilities also maxed out!

[Granit Xhaxa]

Unlucky on the assists' front but nice to see him still banging in the goals and he could make up for the lost goals in just a season in his prime.

Good luck tho.

[BantamHD]

Just now, Granit Xhaxa said:

Unlucky on the assists' front but nice to see him still banging in the goals and he could make up for the lost goals in just a season in his prime.

Good luck tho.

Thanks, I'm going to need it!

[Scratch]

You're looking good. 58 is plenty at this stage. Over the next few years, you should see it increase as he matures a bit and becomes more consistent. At least that's what happened in my 1KC. Also, over the next few years, you can keep building the team and get world class players in every position so you dominate most games. Keep going mate!

[BantamHD]

5 minutes ago, scratch99 said:

You're looking good. 58 is plenty at this stage. Over the next few years, you should see it increase as he matures a bit and becomes more consistent. At least that's what happened in my 1KC. Also, over the next few years, you can keep building the team and get world class players in every position so you dominate most games. Keep going mate!

I read your Armstrong 1KC and it was brilliant. Really chuffed for you mate, you deserved it! The 132m from the board will certainly help with bolstering the ranks. 

[BatiGoal]

Doing great mate! It's a marathon so just make sure he keeps banging in the goals every season. 50+ is good. 60+ is great. 70+ is worldclass

 

[BantamHD]

1 hour ago, BatiGoal said:

Doing great mate! It's a marathon so just make sure he keeps banging in the goals every season. 50+ is good. 60+ is great. 70+ is worldclass

 

Well, the aim is to hit around 65 this season. If we do hit that, I think we are in a good position for the remainder of the challenge!

[Westham_Till_I_Die]

Love these challenges, Good luck I'll 100% be reading!

[BantamHD]

Hmmm...I've been given the chance to unlock sugar daddy within the save. If the unlockable is earned through the save, is it eligible for use? @Ashez

 

[Ashez]

5 minutes ago, BantamHD said:

Hmmm...I've been given the chance to unlock sugar daddy within the save. If the unlockable is earned through the save, is it eligible for use? @Ashez

 

Yeah that's fine, you earned it on that save so you're welcome to use it :). 

[BantamHD]

Just now, Ashez said:

Yeah that's fine, you earned it on that save so you're welcome to use it :). 

Thanks. Had a brilliant season; a post is incoming

[BantamHD]

Been a month now without an update! Time flies! Here we go, continuing the Gabriel Jesus story...

Chapter 3 - Breaking Bayern

This season was going to be our first proper opportunity to challenge the dominance of Bayern in the Bundesliga. We have already won the DfB Pokal, the DfL Supercup, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup - the league was the only competition that has evaded us thus far.

The board were well aware of the investment needed to mount a title challenge, and I was finally afforded a giant warchest of a budget, with £135,000,000 at my disposal in transfer fees alone!

Totally unrelated note, but the first important game of the season was not a Dortmund game, but rather the World Cup final. Germany vs Argentina in a rerun of the 2014 final. Argentina ended their trophy drought and took revenge on the Germans, who had obviously won four years earlier! Finally, a winner's medal on the international stage for Lionel Messi!

Brazil went out in the quarter finals, leading to their gaffer being insecure with his job, but he retained it for the rest of the year and, unfortunately for me, will retain it for some time to come...

Spoiler

 

 

For the second year running, we won the Super Cup over Bayern, but this time it felt very different: we dominated from start to finish and the pundits were very surprised at how well we played. Would it be an indication of the season to come? New signing Marco Verratti made his mark, with the main man Gabriel Jesus getting his first goal of the season.

Spoiler

 

 

The first half of the season went by will us undefeated, and the pundits were raving about Gabriel Jesus once again. He was easily the star man for the season, and it was the first time he had actually shown his true potential. He won August's Player of the Month award and was subject to continued appraisal from the press. The best recognition he got, though, was his second consecutive World Player of the Year award, which he won ahead of the one and only Cristiano Ronaldo!

Spoiler

 

 

There were some absolutely monstrous wins throughout the season after that point, including a 7-2 demolition at Koln, a 4-0 annihilation away at Juventus, and a 6-0 victory at some irrelevant 3.Liga team called "Chemnitz". We ended up routing Juve 6-0 on aggregate in the Round of 16, and were installed as shock favourites to win the Champions League for the second time in three seasons!

Spoiler

 

 

It goes without saying what happened next...

 

Spoiler

We won the quadruple! The DfL-Supercup in pre-season, and then a domestic double before a Champions League triumph! Once again, it was Bayern who were defeated in the final! We beat Wolfsburg in the DfB-Pokal final in our third consecutive Pokal win!

The league was won at a canter, with only two defeats the entire season! It is also noticeable that the team in second is not Bayern Munich, but rather our previous rivals for the second spot: Schalke. They are our historical rivals, but it is astonishing to see Bayern down in third place, their lowest finish since 2010-11, where they finished a point worse than now, on 65 points, and behind Bayer Leverkusen. We have done what many would think the impossible, we finally derailed the Bayern dominance!

Spoiler

 

 

Jesus scored and scored and scored - 34 times in the league to be exact! That puts him joint fourth in the most goals in a season record for the Bundesliga. Gerd Muller occupies the top three places, with records of 40, 38, and 36 in the league season being simply jawdropping.

Here are some stats for the Bundesliga season:

Spoiler

Here are some team stats:

Spoiler

Goals:

Assists:

Ratings:

That's right, Jesus miraculously broke the 60 mark for the first time! This season, he had a better goals-to-game ratio than the two seasons prior! Things are looking up for this career.

Spoiler

 

 

Rightfully, he was given the top honour of German Player of the Year, surprisingly ahead of Robert Lewandowski again, despite Bayern's debacle of a season. I wonder where they'd be without the Polish striker...

Spoiler

 

Young Player of the Year went to Riechedly Bazoer, who has quickly established himself as an integral part of my team, anchoring the central midfield.

Spoiler

 

Then, the most important moment in the season...

Yes!! I can't believe I won the Manager of the Year award so early on, given the struggles that have been had over it in other 1KCs.

The supporting cast (there are more, but these were my stand-out performers):

Spoiler

Predrag Rajkovic is my goalkeeper. Only signed him as a result of a scouting mission resulting in his recommendation to sign. Despite his relatively low value, his stats and his conceded record is admirable, especially with a two man defence in front of him.

Speaking of that two-man defence, Kurt Zouma and Matthias Ginter have forged an unbelievable partnership at the back. They only conceded 27 goals in the league, despite having attacking wingers either side of them! Their total value is £152,000,000...absolute insanity.

Marco Verratti was an interesting signing as he came with an unreal reputation and therefore cost me a huge chunk of my budget in £59,000,000. What a worthwhile investment it was, though. Check out his stats, for goodness sake!

James Ward-Prowse surprised me a lot. Originally intended as backup for my very strong midfield, he ended up becoming a pivotal part of it. What a bargain he was at £13.75m - he scored 6 times and assisted 24 times. No further explanation needed.

Mikel Merino is one of those players that you don't expect to develop beyond the fringes of the squad because of his relative obscurity but ends up becoming a world beater. He is only 22 and his development is still continuing...I'm so glad I chose not to let him rot away in the reserves.

Breel Embolo is too good on the wing.

Lastly, the player that will intrigue the most is Laszlo Kleinheisler. I bought him from Werder Bremen as a player with an unknown quantity and that paid off so well. Could he be the redux of Nandor Hidegkuti, playing just behind a conventional striker role? 

 

Anyway, here is Gabriel Jesus himself:

Magnificent.

57 goals in the first season, 58 goals in the second season, 60 goals in the third season. That totals to 175 goals, cumulatively, in the first three seasons.

Next season there will probably be more games, so the goals could come thick and fast. 825 are needed now!

Onto the next season then, hope to see you there!

 

Now then, this could help...

[Granit Xhaxa]

Good going and I can see you going Invincible in a coming season.

[Ashez]

Ticking along nicely  

[BantamHD]

30 minutes ago, Granit Xhaxa said:

Good going and I can see you going Invincible in a coming season.

Thanks, but I doubt that we'll get an invincible season anytime soon: there is still quality at Schalke and Bayern. Also, 2 at the back is sometimes quite unpredictable!

11 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Ticking along nicely  

Indeed!  I hope this keeps up, I might actually complete the challenge at this rate!

[BatiGoal]

You're hitting the right numbers. Keep doing that season after season and soon enough you'll be halfway at which point you won't need a lot of motivation anymore seeing the finishline draw closer and closer.

[Mikee1984]

Just read this through that's 3 great seasons there mate keep up the good work, will be following closely.

[danovic78]

Going along well here and still lots more seasons coming up for Jesus.

[Jack.Holt]

Great start, and slowly creeping up year on year is a good sign. Continue as you are and you've got this!