Career Smog in Madrid - TT, 1.5k goals, 1k assists COMPLETE

[smoggy90]

Season 6

I was away over Easter so had a bit of an FMM break but back to grinding out these seasons and hopefully closing on our targets.

Transfers

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Didn't spend a penny, and judging by the players you can get on frees there's no need to.

Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

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33 international goals added this season.

I'm missing some screenshots here as the EURO's overlapped the club season and i forgot to screenshot at the end of the year, however you can see our run to the quarters and then Spain knocked us out and went on to win it overall.

Season 6 Summary

As Rob mentioned above it is now the endless grind stage, nothing too exciting to report it's just a case of getting through the seasons and racking up the numbers. I was hoping to get more out of them with regards to minutes on the pitch now they're older but it isn't materialising. Even though they are playing a healthy amount of games that doesn't tell the whole story as they are all brought off early, unless i have another player injured, and often near the end of the season they get subbed at half time. I would like to think these numbers would be higher pre-update.

Current Standings

Slight drop in TT goals but that's no problem. Slight increase in the season totals towards my other targets, happy enough for now.

Thanks for reading. 

 

[Rob]

Another cracking season. Those are going to be some proper good scores there. KIU!

[Ian]

Smashing it here Smoggy.😀

[Kanegan]

Some great going here mate. Really well done.

[FuddledFox]

This might be at the grind stage but at least you are grinding some really good numbers. Kiu mate.

[smoggy90]

Season 7

Two updates today as i have just finished season 8 as well.

Transfers

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Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

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Won the Nations League with a lovely 5-1 win over Germany, reminiscent of 2001, but lost in the final of the Confederations Cup to 2 late Spain goals.

These four added 39 international goals this year.

 

Season 7 Summary

Our best season yet with a record 63 assists for Foden and 351 towards our 5k target which is where we need to be.

Might need to tweak a touch next few seasons to try and get Rashford a few more goals as he's only just past half way to 1K.

Thanks for reading.

[smoggy90]

Season 8

Transfers

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Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

 

Spoiler

44 goals from these four this season, which also includes the 2026 World Cup.

Apart from the 3rd round it was fairly comfortable tournament.

Season 8 Summary

Got just what we needed from Rashford, who is now on 642 goals at the age of 28 so hopefully a few more season like this should see us nearly there.

Tweak to get more out of Rashford resulted in a drop off on the others but overall still great totals. We're now half way to the 16 seasons i anticipated, however if i can squeeze more out of them i will.

Thanks for reading.

[smoggy90]

Apologies about my season 8 update, looks like i messed the spoilers up but the info is all there it just takes some finding!

Season 9

Season 9 now and the aim is the same, focus on Rashford getting to 1k as he turns 29 this season and hope the others contribute plenty of goals and assists along the way.

Transfers

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There is barely any need to spend money when you get this far in as due to the AI's piss poor management you can pick up quality like Gravenberch for nothing.

Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

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All at their peak now and scored 35 international goals between them. Thrashed the Germans in Nations League Semi Final but France were a bit more hard work.

 

Season 9 Summary

Rashford with another big season which was needed, 260 more goals from him required but he does turn 30 this year. Only 37 goals off the TT so that's no issue and over half way towards the 5K now. It will get more interesting in seasons 11/12 onwards as they start to decline.

One concern i do have is this. He's under contract until 2030 so i have a few seasons to try and get him to sign a new one but so far no joy.

Thanks for reading.

[Kanegan]

Great season @smoggy90. Just quarter of a season required for the 1.5K. Sancho not resigning sucks though.

[Rob]

Great season again. I imagine you are rich enough to buy him back.

Foden’s assists total is going to be massive.

[Ian]

Another three cracking seasons.

I had the same with Parrott where he wanted a new challenge and he just wouldn’t sign but eventually just after either his 30th or 31st birthday he decided he no longer wanted a new challenge and signed.

I remember it being a struggle getting the best out of him during those years as he always had poor morale but I didn’t have the balls to let him go and try and re sign him.

[FuddledFox]

Great progress mate. 

Hopefully Sancho will resign in the end but at least he has another couple of seasons before you need to go as another way.

[Nucleus]

Just caught up on this Smoggy, apologies for not following. You seem to be smashing it out the park! Foden’s Assists Numbers are a sight to behold and you should have no problem hitting the 1k with Rashford either. The 5k combined will be difficult but you’ll give it a good bash I’m sure!

[smoggy90]

21 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Great season @smoggy90. Just quarter of a season required for the 1.5K. Sancho not resigning sucks though.

 

13 hours ago, Rob said:

Great season again. I imagine you are rich enough to buy him back.

Foden’s assists total is going to be massive.

 

12 hours ago, 1759 said:

Another three cracking seasons.

I had the same with Parrott where he wanted a new challenge and he just wouldn’t sign but eventually just after either his 30th or 31st birthday he decided he no longer wanted a new challenge and signed.

I remember it being a struggle getting the best out of him during those years as he always had poor morale but I didn’t have the balls to let him go and try and re sign him.

 

12 hours ago, Foxy said:

Great progress mate. 

Hopefully Sancho will resign in the end but at least he has another couple of seasons before you need to go as another way.

 

11 hours ago, Nucleus said:

Just caught up on this Smoggy, apologies for not following. You seem to be smashing it out the park! Foden’s Assists Numbers are a sight to behold and you should have no problem hitting the 1k with Rashford either. The 5k combined will be difficult but you’ll give it a good bash I’m sure!

Thanks all, Foden is probably the star man. I changed him to a treq for a while and his scoring record was too good so i had to change him back to an AP. He's got potential for a strikerless 1k.

I'm hopeful Sancho will sign but if not i will certainly try and sign him straight back. Like you had with Parrott @1759Sancho is having his poorest season this season which i put down to him wanting out so that's a shame.

[Rob]

I trialled Foden in my Strikerless formation when doing some tests a while back and he scored loads. Deffo worth a go if you fancy doing another long career again after! 

[smoggy90]

Season 10

Season 10 got us a bit closer to our targets, with a particularly sensational return from Foden. However there may be a twist to this career which is revealed below. 

Transfers

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Just the main transfers listed, nothing much to report here.

Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

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39 international goals from these guys this season but unfortunately went out of the Euros in the semi final to Spain.

 

Season 10 Summary

The big news this season is 78 assists from Foden! The guy's a machine. Sancho was poor which is maybe down to the fact i won't let him leave, he also had a few niggling injuries and missed a few more games. He still won't sign a new contract.

TT completed and Rashford needs another 174 goals for his 1k.

However here is the twist.

I have a son who is a striker! Granted he doesn't look great (apart from super aggressive!) but i am so tempted to try and get a 1k out of him so my thoughts are this;

• Spend the next two seasons with him as back up to Rashford and see how he develops and hopefully get him a few goals.
• Try and complete the Rashford 1k in those two seasons.
• By the time i start season 13 have young Smog in a position where he has developed enough to attempt a 1k, with hopefully a few goals behind him whilst developing.

This would mean i scrap the 5k attempt because as soon as Rashford hits his 1k i would make Smog my number 1 striker.

What do people think?

[Rob]

I would answer the question, but I am still bowing in amazement at 78 assists!

[Ian]

Incredible again.

One thing I did when Parrott wanted away was praise him as often as I could and that seemed to temporarily increase his morale a bit which definitely helped.

It took a bit of trial and error before I found out what praise got the best response and it’s a bit of a pain to do but did help. I think it was current form and private praise which worked on Parrott.

Edited May 3, 2019 by 1759

[Kanegan]

What a beast Foden is!!! 

Amazing numbers mate and congrats on the TT

[FuddledFox]

Foden 😍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[smoggy90]

Season 11

Season 11 saw a change in setup which really paid dividends and continued our aim toward a Rashford 1k.

Tactics and Game Management

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Thought i would just discuss the tactics briefly in this update as there has been a significant change this season. As i'm sure with all of you who play long careers you start with a base tactic that you know will get you started (in my case it was what i used in my Middlesbrough TT) and as your career goes on you tweak and develop, try different things for a run of 4-5 games and see what clicks. This is all dependent on the make up of your squad and what best fits your players strengths, and once you have some base positions you then buy the players or develop your existing players to suit that system.

I mentioned a good few seasons ago i moved on from my original setup to a 2-4-1-3 which looked something like this. The positives with this are obvious, it scores a lot of goals! However the goals were shared out quite a bit between the front 3 and i wanted to now concentrate on Rashford.

At the start of season 11 i experimented a bit with shifting my WB's and i also moved Sancho and CHO out wide so Rashford was the sole focus of the attack. This is the system i ended up sticking with for the majority of the season and will continue with. You will see the massive improvement in defence (i know that's not the focus of this challenge but still nice to be solid) and the increase in output from Rashford. Obviously the WB's been deeper help this but i also like to think our attacking IF's cut off the opposition FB's or WB's and cut down on their attacking capabilities.

The one role i keep tweaking is Foden's. As a treq he scores too many goals where my aim for him is assists, however the football between him and Rashford is really nice to see and they compliment each other well often with 1-2's around the box and one of them finishing. As an AP he scores less but then the whole team suffers a little.

With my attack option i look for overlap, work into box and run at defence.

Look for overlap - the temptation when you have a TM and quality WB's is to go for early crosses but for me looking for overlap gets the ball to your IF's and allows your WB's to get higher up the pitch to the byeline to then deliver a ball.

Work into box - i have used shoot on sight for a period in this career and it looks like you battered the opposition because you had 30-odd shots but when you see you only had 1 or 2 CCC's then it seems to be a waste of time. Plus what i want from Foden and the IF's when in the final third is to look at getting the ball into the box for Rashford.

Run at defence - slightly contradictory to the work into the box when you consider the reasons i gave for this and when i had the 3 up top centrally i did use through balls. However now the IF's are split the chances they create by running at the defence, be it by winning a free kick via a foul, or getting close to the box to then lay someone in, seem to outweigh the through balls option in this setup for me.

You will see below the results i had with this.

With regards to game management with the new update, i have stated previously that during congested months (January in Spain is a killer) if one of my players has assisted or scored an amount that i am happy with by half time i take them off. Now i am trying to get results from 4 players so one of them always has to play 90 so i try and rotate that player. There are times of course when they have to miss games but you will see this season i managed to get 60 games out of Rashford so he only missed 4 during the season. Now a lot of these he will have come off early as he was they key man i was protecting but i was lucky that often he had a goal or two by half time or by the hour mark.

Once these players hit their peak i also changed their training to low intensity when the games start coming thick and fast around October/November time. I then change it back for the following pre-season. I also have two fitness coaches. I would be interested to see if this works for anyone else. Also having the England job is a massive help as i can manage their game time away from club football as well.

Anyway i hope that is a little insight into this career and how i think about things, i will probably do another round up of tactics at the end.

Transfers

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Again just main ins/outs shown.

Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

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43 international goals and a season best 21 for Rashford which shows the new setup working on the international stage too. Won the Nations League and Confederations Cup.

Graeme Smog

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Little section here on how my son has developed. 

Looking like he could be a very useful player, 8 club goals and 4 international goals playing as understudy to Rashford.

I am still undecided whether to crack on with getting my TT guys to the highest total possible or to get Rashford to 1k then immediately turn my attentions to getting Smog to 1k.

Season 11 Summary

Another stunning season from Foden and Rashford now only 65 goals from his 1k. Sancho and CHO are down on goals and assists but Sancho has signed a new contract finally so hopefully that will produce some better performances. I know previous seasons have produced better numbers but i'm enjoying this new setup and the need to get Rashford to 1k and Foden maximum assists has perhaps limited the contribution from the other two.

So the decision now is whether to carry on the TT and post highest score i possibly can, or whether i get Rashford to 1k and as soon as he does switch him to then try and get Graeme Smog to 1k.

Thanks for reading.

[Kanegan]

Another amazing season mate. Completely spellbound by Foden and the amount of assists he get each season. Just wow. You may well go for assist 1KC with Foden if only intl assist could have been tracked.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Kanegan

[silvavilla]

Love your tactical analysis! It makes me tempted to sign Foden in my save too! xd

[smoggy90]

21 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Another amazing season mate. Completely spellbound by Foden and the amount of assists he get each season. Just wow. You may well go for assist 1KC with Foden if only intl assist could have been tracked.

Thanks mate, Foden is a beast and i'm sure could get a strikerless 1k. I thought about tracking international assists but its just too difficult to verify so left it alone. Not sure he'll reach 1k, depends how long into his 30's he plays.

2 hours ago, silvavilla said:

Love your tactical analysis! It makes me tempted to sign Foden in my save too! xd

Thanks, Foden is well worth the money i would say.

[smoggy90]

Season 12

Season 12 of our English takeover in Madrid - which sees a few challenges completed and a new one start.

Transfers

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Team Performance

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Player Profiles and International

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Graeme Smog

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Developed into a very decent target man.

Season 12 Summary

So Rashford hit his 1k this season and therefore Smog came in to get much needed match experience and pick up some goals himself. Sancho and CHO both had niggling injuries which limited their time on the pitch. Foden had a poorer season for assists this year so hopefully next season i can get him back up to the 70 mark. My main problem with Foden is stopping him scoring so many!

I could crack on with my TT and post a big score but i have decided to bring Smog to the fore and start using a one-striker formation to try and get my son a 1k.

Therefore i will end my TT with a score of 1937 goals.

Smog is 20 now with 45 goals to his name so far so i will need some big numbers, but the temptation to get my son a 1k is too much to resist. I will also try to get Foden as many assists as possible, i think 1k is out of reach but hopefully 800 is realistic.

I will keep Sancho, CHO and Rashford and still use them where necessary and any goals and assists will go towards my 5k challenge but that looks almost impossible now my focus has changed.

Thanks for reading.

[Mr Tree]

Aye, understandable - best of luck, young Smoggy!

[Ian]

Well done on the Rashford 1k and good luck with your son.

[Kanegan]

Well done on the 1K mate. Foden could definitely get 800 so that's something i am looking for. Good luck with your son. I have my son just debut in my Strikerless career but too bad he is a goalie.

[Rob]

Foden ❤️ Great going pal.

[Gunners Rishi]

This is going to be good!

added 0 minutes later

6 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Well done on the 1K mate. Foden could definitely get 800 so that's something i am looking for. Good luck with your son. I have my son just debut in my Strikerless career but too bad he is a goalie.

Wait, kanegan im a goalie...