Career 7 Formations, 7 Seasons with Newcastle - Complete

[geordiekrispy]

Ok, so for my first ever fmmvibe challenge I decided to try out a relatively simple one, in theory.

Trying out @Cockers2505 7 crazy formations, 7 seasons, 1 club challenge.

Quote

 

 

But me being me I decided to choose Newcastle United rather than a team with you know, a good midfield or defence, or strikers...

Probably not the best idea, but I've definitely had worse...

First up is the Ajax Formation...

This is probably the easiest formation for Newcastle to actually work with as long as there are no major injuries during the season...

 

So the prerequisites...

Manager profile before:

 

Profile after:

 

Formation that I ended the season with:

 

League table:

Depressingly I would've had a positive goal difference, but I got beat 5-3 by Crystal Palace on my second last game.

 

And Transfer History at the end of the season:

 

In all honesty, it was like watching Keegan's entertainers... all out attack with little or no defense.

I'm sure that was my tactics, but trying everything from containing all game, slow/fast tempo, different pressing... it made very little difference, it was usually an all out goal fest of games, either getting smashed 5-1 by Huddersfield to going 5-4 against Man Utd.

There was a golden period for Muto from September to October, where he must have scored easily 15 goals.  He ended up winning the golden boot with 24 goals, but it definitely dried up towards the end of the season.  And I'm not sure if it's Newcastle or a bug, but the amount of goals I conceded within the first 3 or 4 minutes was unbelievable! Plus goals conceded from corners obviously.

 

All in all, a good season with a better team would definitely have done better.

 

Now on to formation number 2, Australia... Hopefully the wing backs help my defence a bit more.

Edited December 5, 2018 by geordiekrispy
Title update

[Ashez]

Entertaining start mate

[Cockers2505]

good start @geordiekrispy some stats there, 14, 12, 12 shows that this wasn't the right formation for Newcastle. You know that you start all over again with a new game but and a different formation, don't continue with this team, end the game and start again but obviously with Newcastle and Australia formation, apologies if I am explaining something you already know.

[Woody]

Ill enjoy anything that includeds the mighty Toon.

Good luck with your next formation, i love Muto on this years game....he scores for fun.

[geordiekrispy]

1 hour ago, Cockers2505 said:

good start @geordiekrispy some stats there, 14, 12, 12 shows that this wasn't the right formation for Newcastle. You know that you start all over again with a new game but and a different formation, don't continue with this team, end the game and start again but obviously with Newcastle and Australia formation, apologies if I am explaining something you already know.

Yeah, just didn't get a chance to start it properly yet, set up the formation and played the first friendly.

Depressingly Lascelles was probably my worst defender. I lost track of the number of times I saw, 'Lascelles will have to take the blame for that..." Was depressing, given he's Newcastle's best defender and captain in real life.

I think I'll be having to use some of the reserves to cover the midfield when I get injuries as players like Richie and Atsu won't train to be central midfielders.

 

[BatiGoal]

Looks a real fun challenge this. The restarting thing makes it interesting as by the 7th time you know the players really well, which should help picking the more consistent ones. 

Let's see if the next one goes better. 

[geordiekrispy]

10 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Looks a real fun challenge this. The restarting thing makes it interesting as by the 7th time you know the players really well, which should help picking the more consistent ones. 

Let's see if the next one goes better. 

Yeah, I've already done a couple of seasons as Newcastle, it's ingrained in me after a 22 years of playing champ/football manager, first save is always Newcastle, until I win the league.

Plus being a Newcastle fan I'm real life, I thought it would be a good idea to use a team of know the best.

Things I've found so far are that Muto is awesome, Aarons is great when he gets back from loan and Ki doesn't respect a new manager, ever.

[BatiGoal]

4 minutes ago, geordiekrispy said:

Things I've found so far are that Muto is awesome,

He is indeed. Using him, among others, for a challenge I'm playing of which I'll post the results once it's completed. 

Looking forward to seeing how Australia's 3-6-1 does for you.

[geordiekrispy]

So, I forgot to put the point in for the first formation/season...

• League Points + 54
• Goals Average (GA) -1 (?)
• 50 Points Bonus for Winning the League
• 20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won
• -10 for being Sacked

Now on to Season 2 - Australian Formation

Here's the tactics I ended up using for most of the season, I tried to go for a more counter attacking tactic too compared to the last formation;

 

My manager page before and after:

 

 

The league table at the end of the season:

 

A fairly respectable 8th place, I was actually fluctuating between 5th and 6th most of the season, but my results fell off towards the end of the season and so I started to get caught up after a storming December where everything clicked, including beating Man City and Chelsea and I won manager of the month.

 

 

 

Transfers for the season:

 

 

Overall:

Was a better season, definitely tighter at the back, but obviously not as good going forward.  Muto again won the golden boot with 20 goals, he got injured for the last month so that may have affected my results as Rondon and Joselu hasn't really played much all season, I think Rondon ended up with 5 goals and Joselu had 2 or 3.

 

So scores:

From season 1: 53pts

Season 2: 66pts

 

Total Points: 119pts

• League Points + 57
• Goals Average (GA) + 9
• 50 Points Bonus for Winning the League
• 20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won
• -10 for being Sacked

Now onto Season 3 - Barcelona, the 4-2-4 should take the pain from midfield and the wingers Newcastle have should be easy enough to retrain to IF's... finger crossed...

[geordiekrispy]

Just a quick update for season 3, half way through the season.

Took a couple of months to click, had been lingering towards the bottom of the league, then Muto started firing and he got player of the month and I lost 6-5 to Man City with him scoring 4 goals.

He's currently on 21 goals in 22 games.

Just need the other forwards to start scoring regularly and shore up that defence to counter act the horrible start of the season, and tonking I've been getting against the top clubs.

 

Edited December 4, 2018 by geordiekrispy
Not sure what happened with the spoiler...

[Cockers2505]

Mate you are doing ok considering, the second season was interesting in you getting a couple of months where it clicked, are you changing your tactics to suite players or sticking to one set throughout the season?

i will be giving it a shot soon, need to think about the team and league first, maybe Celtic could be the team, or even Ajax, mmm

[Villen]

1 hour ago, Cockers2505 said:

Mate you are doing ok considering, the second season was interesting in you getting a couple of months where it clicked, are you changing your tactics to suite players or sticking to one set throughout the season?

i will be giving it a shot soon, need to think about the team and league first, maybe Celtic could be the team, or even Ajax, mmm

Get yourself some challenge I dare you to go Belgian league

[BatiGoal]

Slightly better than the Ajax formation. I did expect that tbh but the difference is only 3pts. Next one's very interesting, can't wait 😉

[Cockers2505]

12 hours ago, Villen said:

Get yourself some challenge I dare you to go Belgian league

Not to pinch @geordiekrispy space, why the Belgian League? and is there a specific team you would recommend if I did?

[geordiekrispy]

17 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

Mate you are doing ok considering, the second season was interesting in you getting a couple of months where it clicked, are you changing your tactics to suite players or sticking to one set throughout the season?

i will be giving it a shot soon, need to think about the team and league first, maybe Celtic could be the team, or even Ajax, mmm

There isn't a great deal of squad rotation happening outside of cup games or injuries/suspensions.

I've been tending to keep the tactics pretty much the same, if I'm losing massively against someone like Man City by half time, I might change to attacking from counter just to try and see if I can score some goals to get my goal difference a bit of help.

The only changes I made were around Feb/March time when I swapped from a BWM to a box to box and that seemed to help, but I also had a couple of suspensions, so it could have been a coincidence and just been a change in player in that position...

I changed both strikers to Poacher and my other striker, other than Muto, started to score a bit more.

And I changed the defence from wing backs to full backs and central defenders (having already changed from ball playing defenders before Christmas) to no-nonsense central defenders, this didn't really make much difference, I may have lost less games, but only due to the strikers scoring, I had a surprising amount of 3-3 games.

 

[Cockers2505]

11 minutes ago, geordiekrispy said:

And I changed the defence from wing backs to full backs and central defenders (having already changed from ball playing defenders before Christmas) to no-nonsense central defenders, this didn't really make much difference, I may have lost less games, but only due to the strikers scoring, I had a surprising amount of 3-3 games.

 

I noticed that the whole FMM 19 allows for more draws regardless of what score, especially last minute goals to create a draw. I hope you are enjoying, I will be giving it an attempt very soon

[geordiekrispy]

Ok Season 3 - Barcelona formation is done!

Not a noticeable difference other than, possibly me getting better at tactics...

So I seem to have not taken a screenshot for the initial manager screen, but I can guarantee you it's the same as the other ones, but here's the final one:

Spoiler

 

The tactics I settled on towards the end of the season were as follows:

 

The league table was roughly the same, a little better goal difference:

 

My success this year was again due to the ever poaching Muto, this year he won almost a clean sweep of end of season awards.  This was due to his amazing goal scoring record:

Spoiler

He did settle down a bit after Christmas, only scoring another 18 goals.

 

And once again the transfers for the year

Spoiler

 

End of Season thoughts:

I think overall my tactics were slightly better, my midfield was definitely getting over worked and overrun most games.  But I seemed to be able to score from corners almost at will.

My defense was worse compared to 3 at the back, which I was surprised by.

The rest of the table below seemed to have a pretty similar goal difference, or worse.  SO it looks like the top 6 were scoring for fun.  I think Tottenham signed de Ligt and Timo Warner went to Arsenal this time.

 

Points:

League Points + 64

Goals Average (GA) +7

50 Points Bonus for Winning the League

20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won

-10 for being Sacked

 

From season 1: 53pts

Season 2: 66pts

Season 3: 71pts

 

Total Points: 190pts

 

 

Now on to Spain and the strikerless 4-3-1-3... I think Perez and Muto will again do wonders.  Hayden and Diame should be able to boss the DM position.  Let's hope I can figure out my defense at the start of the season rather than the end this time!

Edited November 29, 2018 by geordiekrispy

[geordiekrispy]

So... Season 4 ended a little bit quicker than normal...

Got sacked at the end of January, but in honestly, I could see it coming. Newcastle just don't have the players with enough technical ability to play a false nine.

 

I'll do a bit more of a write up later, but it still hurts...

[geordiekrispy]

Season 4 - Barcelona false nine

 

Ok, so as I said in the post above I didn't manage to get a full season with this formation.

 

Honestly, I could see the writing on the wall right off the bat, the formation never really stuck, I think I drew my first 3 games of the season and only ever managed to win 2 consecutive games.

 

I was hovering around the relegation places for most of the season, then mid-December the formation seemed to click I got a couple of wins, draws against the bigger teams or close 0-1 losses.

 

But by the end of Jan the board called their meeting and I was sacked.

 

So let's get the formalities out of the way so I can look forward to a hopefully better season!

Manager pages before and after:

Spoiler

 

Table when I got sacked:

 

Transfers page:

Spoiler

 

The tactics I was attempting to use:

 

Points:

League Points + 26

Goals Difference (GD) - 4

50 Points Bonus for Winning the League

20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won

-10 for being Sacked

Total for Season 4: 12pts

 

From season 1: 53pts

Season 2: 66pts

Season 3: 71pts

Season 4: 12pts

 

Total Points: 212pts

 

So... Season 5 - The Bayern Munich formation.  Apart from the wing back, this appears to be very similar to how Newcastle up currently under Rafa.

So hopefully, the I'll have the players to play the formation, here's hoping for another Muto goal fest!

Edited November 30, 2018 by geordiekrispy

[geordiekrispy]

Season 5 - Bayern Munich

 

Ok, so this challenge is starting to drag a bit now, not sure if it's the recent patch or just the Newcastle players being not good enough for the formations or something else, but I'm really struggling to get positive results, there's a couple throughout the season.  I'll beat Chelsea 1-0 away, then get turned over 4-1 by Bournemouth at home... 

 

Plus for the first season ever Muto was unhappy (for most of the season, he thought he made the wrong choice in joining the club, this was in November, when he'd already scored 20 goals!), ok we were lingering around the bottom half of the table and had just been knocked out of the league cup... but still.

Tried to do the positive player interactions pretty much every time he had a good game and it made very little difference.  The overall morale of the team was low even when we were winning the odd game to climb up the table.

 

Anyway, on to the formation.  It seemed ok defensively, we got hammered a couple of times, which I think is why my GD is so bad for the league, but they all seemed to be 25-30 yard efforts.

 

So manager screens:

Spoiler

Before:

 

After:

 

League table:

Spoiler

 

Formation:

Spoiler

 

Transfers:

Spoiler

 

Once again Muto got an almost clean sweep of awards at the end of the season.

 

Spoiler

 

Points:

League Points + 47

Goals Difference (GD) - 12

50 Points Bonus for Winning the League

20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won

-10 for being Sacked

Total for Season 5: 35pts

 

From season 1: 53pts

Season 2: 66pts

Season 3: 71pts

Season 4: 12pts

Season 5: 35pts

 

Total Points: 237pt

 

Let's just get the next couple of seasons over and done with so I can move on to a new challenge...

Next up: Chile, here's hoping for a better defense with 3 CB's and Muto relishing the Poacher role again, wonder if I can reach 50 goals with Muto...

Edited December 1, 2018 by geordiekrispy

[Cockers2505]

Mate keep going you are doing ok, I think this challenge needs a careful thought on who to manage before you start it, thanks for giving it a crack, look forward to your other efforts, good luck mate

[geordiekrispy]

Season 6 - Chile

 

So this season seemed to go a little better, finally got Newcastle to win some silverware!

There seemed to be a lot of ugly score draws and some hard earned 1-0 wins, but they tended to be against the top of the table teams, then I'd get thrashed 3-0 by the relegation fodder... 

I did notice that the morale of the squad seemed to be low at pretty much all times and I had a few players complaining that they weren't getting games and wanting to be transfer listed, maybe a little bit more squad rotation would've helped...

 

Obviously this formation wasn't going to be the most free scoring due to the relative lack of support for the lone striker/front 3.

But I was a little surprised at how bad the defense was, but if I'd been able to not be thrashed by the likes of Bournemouth at home 3-0, I'd probably have been ok...

 

So usual evidence:

Manager screens:

Spoiler

Before:

 

After:

 

Formation:

Spoiler

 

League Table:

Spoiler

 

Transfers:

Spoiler

 

Aarons was a sensation when he came back off loan, ending up scoring 10 in 4 months.

Again Muto was top scorer for me.  First half of the season he scored freely, second half he got injured mid-march, but he'd already started to struggle.

But yay! Geordies everywhere are happy, Newcastle finally won something other than the Inter Toto or the Championship.

 

Points:

League Points + 61

Goals Difference (GD) + 11

50 Points Bonus for Winning the League

20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won

-10 for being Sacked

Total for Season 6: 92pts

I actually hadn't realised I'd conceded the 3rd least amount of goals in the league... Just well off the rest of the European places in terms of goals scored.

All in all pretty good season, that cup win helped me to my most successful season yet.

 

Season 1: 53pts

Season 2: 66pts

Season 3: 71pts

Season 4: 12pts

Season 5: 35pts

Season 6: 92pts

 

Total Points: 329pt

 

So last season to go and the formation I was dreading at the start of this career... France...

The lack of wingers will probably upset the more gifted players in my squad as they tend to not be able to train to be central midfielders from being wingers.  But 2 defensive mids should provide enough defensive cover for the 2 central mids to be advanced playmakers and the full backs to get up the field and not leave too many holes to be exploited by wide men.

Not sure how it'll work out in this era's formations compared to the 4-4-2 it was probably used against at the time.

Edited December 4, 2018 by geordiekrispy
random screenshots

[Cockers2505]

Eh mate, this is not as bad as you first thought, I guess the TEAM selection does make a massive difference on this challenge as I predicted, maybe Newcastle was not the ideal as they are currently, but I  hope you have enjoyed so far and that this attempt will inspire others to have a go, my next adventure is this, but who and in what country has not been decided yet.

Good luck with Season 7

[geordiekrispy]

17 minutes ago, Cockers2505 said:

Eh mate, this is not as bad as you first thought, I guess the TEAM selection does make a massive difference on this challenge as I predicted, maybe Newcastle was not the ideal as they are currently, but I  hope you have enjoyed so far and that this attempt will inspire others to have a go, my next adventure is this, but who and in what country has not been decided yet.

Good luck with Season 7

Thanks man, yeah it's definitely became a bit of a chore in the middle of season 3 & 4, I think the sacking may have soured my enthusiasm a bit.

 

Like you said team choice is definitely key, I think too much expectation and you'll be screwed, but a good top end of the table club with the right players, or even just willing players to re-train into close positions, would do ok.  From the premier league I think Arsenal would be a good choice, Man Utd, City and Chelsea would probably get annoyed if you weren't winning everything.  Maybe a good German side or someone like Athletic Madrid or Valencia could do the job too.

 

I look forward to reading other people's attempts to see if they hit the same wall I did mid challenge.

 

I have no idea how people to the 1k challenge, but I suppose it's made easier by being able to sign players to help with holes in the squad

[geordiekrispy]

Season 7- France

Ok, so this didn't go well at all...

 

Didn't even get to the Christmas break before this happened:

 

So here's the evidence of how badly it went:

Manager Profile:

(I obviously forgot to get a before picture of the manager profile, but it's always the same as the previous seasons)

 

Formation:

 

Transfers:

 

and League Table:

 

End of Season thoughts:

I started off doing ok, got a couple of good draws, Newcastle's first third of fixtures is actually really tough, hence why they struggled in real life too this season, they have to play all the big teams pretty much one after the other.

I was plagued by injuries and suspensions from the start of the season, so I don't think the team ever really managed to get any momentum up.  Plus trying to retrain reluctant wingers to be central midfielders just doesn't work, so pretty much everyone was unhappy from the start of the season.  Which will obviously affect results.

 

Overall a very mixed part of season, sometimes it seemed like the formation could work at Newcastle, other times it just felt like trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

 

Points:

League Points + 12

Goals Difference (GD) - 9

50 Points Bonus for Winning the League

20 Points Bonus for any Cup's Won

-10 for being Sacked

Total for Season 7: -7pts

 

Season 1: 53pts

Season 2: 66pts

Season 3: 71pts

Season 4: 12pts

Season 5: 35pts

Season 6: 92pts

Season 7: -7pts

 

Final Points Total: 322pt

Final Thoughts for the Challenge:

As @Cockers2505 has said on numerous occasions, you must really think about who you pick for this challenge.

You need to have a team that has enough central mids, a good striker or wingers that can also play upfront, a decent enough defence and not be expected to win the league.

So my parting words of wisdom are:

 

@Cockers2505 can you put my name on the board, and I shall happily prop the rest of the fools people up from the bottom of the leader board who attempt this challenge.

[BatiGoal]

Just read thru the seasons I missed, man, I think one of the things that probably contributed to some of the lower seasonal scores was simply down to the fact that your Newcastle players weren't good enough to play so many different formations. It takes a certain player to have the skills to excel in whatever the managers throws at him and I guess Newcastle doesn't have enough of those. 

But I do like the fact that you didn't go with the obvious tho like PSG or Madrid. So I commend you for that. Still a good score, congrats, and let's see who and if someone comes along who can beat that.

[geordiekrispy]

 

5 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Just read thru the seasons I missed, man, I think one of the things that probably contributed to some of the lower seasonal scores was simply down to the fact that your Newcastle players weren't good enough to play so many different formations. It takes a certain player to have the skills to excel in whatever the managers throws at him and I guess Newcastle doesn't have enough of those. 

But I do like the fact that you didn't go with the obvious tho like PSG or Madrid. So I commend you for that. Still a good score, congrats, and let's see who and if someone comes along who can beat that.

Thanks @BatiGoal, yeah definately made it harder by picking Newcastle!  You're right if you have a higher quality level of player that is more adaptable or even just closer to the position you want them to play it would make it easier.

Like I said the one position I really struggled with is the MC role, yes Newcastle have a couple of decent players, Ki, Shelvey, Hayden & Diame, but they're not amazing.  Shelvey was always low condition by 60mins. Ki never seemed to click for me, he somehow won the golden boot for the Asia cup scoring 7 in 7, but never did it for me.

 

I've noticed that @Tigahz has started the challenge with Man City and in 2 season's has smashed my overall score.

Good luck to him and all that decide to try this challenge.  The better the team the more likely you'll win cups and leagues, getting a better overall score, plus you know a better defensive record is always good

 

Now on to my next challenge, I think I feel Monaco calling, with maybe a sneaky 1k or double trouble side challenge...

[BatiGoal]

Would be great to see one of these formations, or a tweaked version, in your Monaco career. Looking forward to your next one.