Career Fiete Arp 1k at Benfica - Complete.

[DavidVilla07]

The Player:
The chosen player is Fiete Arp who begins at Hamburg. He begins the game with promising stats, a glowing scout report and at 17, many years to grow and flourish. I'd also used him previously whilst playing a game with Bayern and he was a very impressive back up player to Timo Werner on that save. A further bonus is that he starts his stats with zero goals listed so an easy count of goals scored for me!

The Club:
I have decided to be Benfica. I always enjoy playing in Portugal, and with Benfica, you begin with a healthy transfer budget, and a strong squad, with plenty of players you can cash in heavily with, increasing the budget considerably. The league is not the strongest so provides plenty of easier games to get Fiete Arp goals in, and once my squad is strong in all areas, i think you can start to take a few liberties with your tactics, and go all out in certain matches, overloading with a two at the back formation to accomdate a line of 4 behind the lone striker in Arp, without being punished too severely at the other end.

The Career:
I've lurked about the forum for some time, taken lots of information on board and always considered the 1k to be the greatest accomplishment a player of my abilities could conquer. I'm a bang average FMM player, I read some of the things guys on here do like 100+ goal season with a player and marvel! I think the most i've ever managed is 60. I mentioned in @Foxy The Teutonic Treble that i was some way into a Fiete Arp 1k, and he encouraged me to post my career. I've been playing this save for ages, probably close on two mionths now, I play and seem to enjoy it, then an injury robs me of the player or his progress seems to halt and my interest cools off, then i pick back up and get into it again. As he grew older into the game,  he statred to pick up niggling injuries, ten days here, ten days there. Aged 31 he annouced his retirement at which point i managed to persuaude him to reconsider and sign a new 5 year deal. Aged 35 and 4 years into the contract, he refused to sign another deal and there was no hint of retirement, At this point i was super close to the holy grail of 1000 goals, and would have an anxious final season of him, whilst he had tailed off in recent seasons to find the final few goals. To my surprise, he had a superb final season, only one injury, surprise surprise a ten day lay off! I used him more sparingly as his fitness was the biggest problem, but he rolled back the years this season and produced some great performances.

I started the career, what seems like an eternity ago, and keenly got screen grabs of everything, but as time passed, and i became laser focused on goals, goals, goals, i completely forgot about snapping details, i'm not sure if that excludes me from the leaderboard, I have lots of screengrabs from over the course of the career which i shall post now. In any case, as an avergae player of the game, and hardly a tactical genius to trouble the guys on this forum, I've just got over the line with the goal tally in what felt like about 98 seasons. Over the course of this thread I'll post the screengrabs i did remeber to get and show the journey of Arp's 1k.

Missed Penalties & Disallowed Goals:
Just an additional note to say that had Fiete Arp converted the numerous penalties he missed and the crazy amount of goals that were disallowed, this might have been a 2k challenge! Is this a bug in the game, or have we discovered a German who can't take penalties?

[DavidVilla07]

Season One:
Some screenshots showing Arp on arrival at Benfica, some of his goalscoring exploits in his debut season and then his end of season stas and attributes.

Edited June 4, 2018 by DavidVilla07

[DavidVilla07]

Season One: Transfers In & Out

Edited June 4, 2018 by DavidVilla07

[DavidVilla07]

Season One: Preferred Formation and Overload Formation
The first formation with the three defenders is the way i play 80% of the time, if i'm chasing a game i will switch to the second formation with two central defenders. I might also switch the formation if i'm comfortable ahead in mayches to try and get Arp more goals. 

Edited June 4, 2018 by DavidVilla07

[DavidVilla07]

Season One: Players
Just a mention for two of my key players this season, Amiri really starts to take shape and Dias is an unsung hero in this squad.

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

Season Two:
A two month injury lay off halts the progress of Fiete Arp but still a respectable haul of 50 goals for the season, only two transfers in, and the return of Andre Horta from a season long loan spell.

 

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

At this point into my career, i become very engrossed in the game and am constantly tinkering with the tactics to try and find the tactic that will bring the crazy numbers i see some of you guys on here hitting. It seems impossible, and well out of my reach, the idea of plodding along at roughly a goal a game, whilst not to be scoffed at, seems like i'm ging to be playing a very long time. well, at that rate, at least a 1000 games, dependant on injuries. Anyway, my screenshots and documentation of the next few seasons becomes non-existant as i try everything to find the tactic that will bring me the numbers, but to no avail. 

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

Season 10
Ten seasons into the game, and after two stronger seasons I've now passed halfway, it still feels like this is going to be a struggle and take forever, and I have nagging doubts over wether i can complete this at all. A few more seasons of peak Arp and then i will still be chasing goals whilst he declines.

The past two seasons have got him recognition as World Player of the Year, at this point, i've assembled a very strong squad, i like to keep a smaller squad of around 22 players as it's easier to rotate the players and keep everyone happy, whilst also providing enough depth and options to play around tactically, switching between 4 at the back, 3 and even 2 defenders.
 

added 0 minutes later

Youth System
At the start of every season i am presented with a selection of youth prospects, all of whom have been really poor offerings, with the exception of one gem i was presented with at the beginning of the 2020/21 season. It was the CR7 regen, whose favoured role is Centre Forward, as good as he might be, I can't kill this career, so with him having dark green on either flank, i spent the first season retraining him in wide positions to accomodate him in the side.

[Titjes]

Wonderfull career so far keep it up

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

At this stage of the game, i start to find it less enjoyable, transfer fees are ridiculous, wages are crazy, and to hold onto your key players, wages are insane, it really loses any sense of reality that there was in the opening seasons of a career. Players start to ask to retrain positions strangely too, Guedes asking to retrain as a full back when he is still a very decent option as a winger.

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

Approaching Season 16 and Arp seems to have passed his peak years, he annouced his retirement at the age of 31, but thnakfully he reconsidered and penned  anew 5 year deal, my heart stopped briefly, having come this far, his premature retirement plans could have ruined everything. The ten day injuries are becoming more frequent, and the goals have slowed down. I need another 164 goals and now i'm starting to really doubt i can achieve this, i'm simply not that great at this game to develop another tactic that can go goal crazy. Time to really dig in.

[DavidVilla07]

Season 16:
Arp shows there is still life left him with some good goal returns in games, he's slowed down though, although his Attributes are still holding up. Now aged 33, slowing down and with three years remaining on his contract, this is going to be very tight.

 

[DavidVilla07]

[DavidVilla07]

Season 18:
The attributes are tumbling, and Arp is now heavily reliant on penalties it seems, but we will take everything we can get at this point, i'm closing in on the 1000 goals, slowly, really slowly but i'm now super close.

 

[gunnersaur]

Well done.. i have thought about doing this but cant get my tactics right

[DavidVilla07]

Season 19:
With attributes dropping, age climbing and me eager to get the 1000, i switched back to an old tactic i used with relative sucess earlier in this career. The 3 at the back, with two full backs and a single central defender. It delivered Arp's best season in years and took us to the 1000 goals. 

He refused to sign a new contract, despite the crazy riches i offered, i tried everything, but with no joy, and he had not mentioned retiring, instead opting to join Bournemouth on a free, for a third of what i offered him, bringing an end to our relationship and to our 1k challenge. In his final appearance for Benfica in this challenge he picked up his very first red card, so take that with you to Bournemouth Fiete!

So after winning 18 out of 19 League Titles and a further 55 Cups, 1025 goals is where me and Fiete Arp end this Career.