Career 1759 - The Diego Maradona Napoli Challenge - Final Season

[Ian]

8 hours ago, Zakan said:

Great first few seasons! Good to see the main man improving hopefully the goals start coming in thick and fast!

Thank you, we’ll see what happens.

I’ve finished the season so I’ll update it tomorrow.

[Ian]

Season 3

Evening all,

Welcome to Season 3 of this little challenge that’s so far been like a remake of the classic sit-com ‘On the Buses’.

I’ll kick things off with the in and outs.

Transfers

We were very successful in the first two seasons so just decided to bring in a few new faces to hopefully further improve us going forward.

Incomings:

• Corentin Tolisso - Quality player who can play in midfield and in the number ten position when our main man is not available.
• Inaki Williams - Great addition to the squad and will play in the inside forward position.
• Timo Horn - Decent back up goalkeeper.

I’ll not go through the outgoings as two of them I mentioned had left at the end of last season but they’ve been added onto this years transfers as well for some reason. Also Andrew Robertson hasn’t gone to Chelsea at all so must be a bug.

Spoiler

League

Similar to last season but with slightly more goals scored and just nine conceded.

European Super Cup

We were the better team against Spurs but it still took a late goal to get the job done.

World Club Championship

Total domination here but De Paul couldn’t manage to get himself amongst the goals which was disappointing to say the least.

Italian Super Cup

A solitary goal from the main man helped us overcome Roma to win the Italian Super Cup.

Italian Cup

A rather one sided affair against Inter in the Final but a stoppage time goal from them took some of the gloss off of it.

Champions League

Once I saw we were to play Shakhtar in the Final I was rather confident we would win. 

Win we did with a rather efficient 0-3 victory and De Paul got the third and final goal in the first half.

Fixtures

Decent run throughout with only a few hiccups along the way.

Spoiler

Rodrigo De Paul

Not much change in attributes as expected now that he’s 27.

How did he perform?

I tweaked the system slightly and the team scored a few more goals but De Paul didn’t and actually scored less than last season. He’ll go on a good scoring run then just fall off a cliff and go game after game without scoring. I’m still positive I can get more out of him than this though so I’ll keep trying new things.

How did he do in the league goalscoring chart?

Rather poorly with only 19 goals.

Manager

Challenge

League Champions: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

Champions League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

Italian Cup Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

Italian Super Cup: 2019/20, 2020/21

World Club Championship: 2019/20, 2020/21

Top League Goalscorer: 2019/20

Rodrigo De Paul Goals: 96/115

Conclusion

A great team performance again but De Paul had a bit of a mare. I’m not giving up yet and I’ve got another idea tactically for next season so we’ll see if that will improve his return.

Thanks for reading.

Edited May 6, 2019 by 1759

[Gunners Rishi]

11 minutes ago, 1759 said:

Season 3

 

Evening all,

Welcome to Season 3 of this little challenge that’s so far been like a remake of the classic sit-com ‘On the Buses’.

I’ll kick things off with the in and outs.

Transfers

 

We were very successful in the first two seasons so just decided to bring in a few new faces to hopefully further improve us going forward.

Incomings:

• Corentin Tolisso - Quality player who can play in midfield and in the number ten position when our main man is not available.
• Inaki Williams - Great addition to the squad and will play in the inside forward position.
• Timo Horn - Decent back up goalkeeper.

I’ll not go through the outgoings as two of them I mentioned had left at the end of last season but they’ve been added onto this years transfers as well for some reason. Also Andrew Robertson hasn’t gone to Chelsea at all so must be a bug.

  Hide contents

League

Similar to last season but with slightly more goals scored and just nine conceded.

European Super Cup

We were the better team against Spurs but it still took a late goal to get the job done.

World Club Championship

Total domination here but De Paul couldn’t manage to get himself amongst the goals which was disappointing to say the least.

Italian Super Cup

A solitary goal from the main man helped us overcome Roma to win the Italian Super Cup.

Italian Cup

A rather one sided affair against Inter in the Final but a stoppage time goal from them took some of the gloss off of it.

Champions League

Once I saw we were to play Shakhtar in the Final I was rather confident we would win. 

Win we did with a rather efficient 0-3 victory and De Paul got the third and final goal in the first half.

Fixtures

Decent run throughout with only a few hiccups along the way.

  Hide contents

Rodrigo De Paul

Not much change in attributes as expected now that he’s 27.

How did he perform?

I tweaked the system slightly and the team scored a few more goals but De Paul didn’t and actually scored less than last season. He’ll go on a good scoring run then just fall off a cliff and go game after game without scoring. I’m still positive I can get more out of him than this though so I’ll keep trying new things.

How did he do in the league goalscoring chart?

Rather poorly with only 19 goals.

Manager

Challenge

League Champions: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

Champions League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

Italian Cup Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21

Italian Super Cup: 2019/20, 2020/21

World Club Championship: 2019/20, 2020/21

Top League Goalscorer: 2019/20

Rodrigo De Paul Goals: 96/115

Conclusion

A great team performance again but De Paul had a bit of a mare. I’m not giving up yet and I’ve got another idea tactically for next season so we’ll see if that will improve his return.

Thanks for reading.

Why not train his shooting?

[Ian]

4 minutes ago, Gunners Rishi said:

Why not train his shooting?

I did, it was at 12 when I started but now it’s 14. Not sure it’ll improve much now but he’s still a good player so I won’t give up just yet.

[Gunners Rishi]

9 minutes ago, 1759 said:

I did, it was at 12 when I started but now it’s 14. Not sure it’ll improve much now but he’s still a good player so I won’t give up just yet.

Fair enough, your defending is by a country mile better anything I’ve ever done!

[Ian]

Season 4

Hello Vibe,

I was going to update this later on but the rain has halted my painting so I’m here early.

So far we’ve struggled to get goals out of our modern day Maradona which has been a bit frustrating to say the least.

The first challenge I ever posted on here was the fabled no.10 challenge and I haven’t even managed to match the worst return I got during that career.

Anyway we keep trying.

I’ll kick off this update with the transfers.

Transfers

We just brought in a few decent signings to keep the team ticking along.

Incomings:

• Julian Brandt - A great inside forward who I’ve never used before so thought I’d give him a go.
• Keita Balde - Another decent inside forward brought in for fairly big money.
• Leo Dubois - A new right wing back who will be a rotation option.

Outgoings:

• Claud Adjapong - Didn’t want to let him go but suffered the old ‘interest being declared’ and then him becoming an outcast which seems more common on the latest update.
• Alberto Grassi - He was a fairly decent midfielder but just wasn’t needed anymore.

The rest are just youth and reserve players that I decided to cull from the squad.

Spoiler

League

Another great campaign for the team with only one draw and one defeat. I made a slight tactical tweak which resulted in more goals scored. Just the seven conceded so we keep our record of being proper stingy at the back.

European Super Cup

A fairly close game against Atletico Madrid but we came out on top with De Paul getting the winning goal.

World Club Championship

We hammered Gre in the final with De Paul getting five of the goals.

Italian Super Cup

We dominated Inter but left our shooting boots at home and only won by one solitary goal from Tolisso.

Italian Cup

We faced Inter again in the the Italian cup final and again one goal was enough with Williams this time netting it during the first half.

Champions League

We faced off in the final against Bayern Munich and made light work of it with four second half goals after Mats Hummels saw a red card for them.

Fixtures

Full fixture list for those interested.

Spoiler

Rodrigo De Paul

No change at all in attributes and I’m not expecting much from now on in. I have finally managed to get the board to improve the training facilities so fingers crossed that he might improve a touch with that.

How did he perform?

The team scored a few more goals this season but that didn’t really translate to De Paul although he did do better than last season with 36 goals.

How did he do in the league goalscoring chart?

He topped it with 25 goals so we take that and run.

Manager

Challenge

League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

Champions League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

Italian Cup Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

Italian Super Cup Winners: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

World Club Championship Winners: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

Top League Goalscorer: 2019/20, 2021/22

Rodrigo De Paul Goals: 132/115

Conclusion

I don’t think I’m going to be able to get any big numbers here and next season is the year where the World Cup is played during the season so I’m not expecting to get as much game time from the main man.

I will continue to keep on trying and finish up my seasons for the challenge.

Thanks for reading.

[Mr Tree]

Good effort mate, smashed the league!

[Rob]

Regardless of the goals (which are still excellent), your team performance is nuts!

[Ian]

47 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

Good effort mate, smashed the league!

Thank you, we are pretty dominant now.😀

24 minutes ago, Rob said:

Regardless of the goals (which are still excellent), your team performance is nuts!

Thank you Rob, yeah I can get some great result with a big team but just need to do a bit more testing in terms of goalscoring challenges but I’m still enjoying it none the less.

[FuddledFox]

+91 GD is absolutely brilliant mate and it seems you are getting the team scoring.

Am I right in thinking you are playing strikerless?

[Ian]

4 minutes ago, Foxy said:

+91 GD is absolutely brilliant mate and it seems you are getting the team scoring.

Am I right in thinking you are playing strikerless?

Thanks, yeah I’m strikerless and I think on this I could play him upfront but want to keep him in the ten position out of respect for Maradona. 

I’ve used similar systems to what I used on the fabled no.10 challenge but I think I had a pushed up IF on one side on that and it was pre winter update so guess I can’t totally compare it to that.

[Ian]

Season 5

Afternoon all vibers,

I’m back with an update of my fifth season of this Maradona Napoli Challenge. 

This is the year where the World Cup is held during the season so the games come thick and fast which meant I wasn’t overly confident of improving De Paul’s goal return.

Transfers

I brought a few slightly younger players in to replace a few of our ageing players.

Incomings:

• Davide Calabria - A fantastic right wing back who is accomplished on the left side also.
• Marco Benassi - Nice and tidy midfielder who will be a rotation option.
• Domenico Beradi - A new option out wide.
• Manuel Di Paolo - Decent back up midfielder.

Outgoings:

• Florian Thauvin - Became an outcast after his agent said he fancied a move away from the club. This is happening so much that it’s irritating me now.
• Simone Verdi - Sad to see him go but needed to get someone slightly younger in.
• Elseid Hysaj - Same as Thauvin, he became an outcast so I was forced to get rid.
• Allan - Just needed somebody younger.
• Lorenzo Insigne - Again just wanted to replace him with somebody younger.

The rest are just reserve players who weren’t in my plans.

Spoiler

League

Decent campaign with thee draws and one defeat but only the six goals conceded. We scored 99 goals too so that’s fairly decent for me.

European Super Cup

Thought we were going to lose this against Inter but we got over the line in a penalty shootout.

Italian Super Cup

We played Inter again in the Italian Super Cup and won 3-1 with De Paul getting one of the goals.

Italian Cup

We were much the better side in the Final against Juventus but could only score once which was enough to claim the victory.

Champions League

A rather high scoring game by our standards as we beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 in the Final with the main man getting on the scoresheet.

Fixtures

Decent run of fixtures throughout with just a few hiccups along the way which can’t be helped.

Spoiler

Rodrigo De Paul

No changes in attributes again and I’m hoping he won’t decline at all before I reach the seventh and final season.

How did he perform?

Not as good as last season with just 31 goals. He played in 50 games but that doesn’t tell the whole story as I brought him off early in every game. I’m thinking it may be best to pick and choose which games I play him in and he might perform better that way but I get too greedy and just want to play him as often as possible. Not having the Club World Championship this season hasn’t helped either as last year he got five goals in the final.

How did he do in the league goalscoring chart?

Nope he didn’t top the chart this season. I’m hoping to do better next year and will try a few different things tactically.

Manager

Challenge

League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23

Champions League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23

Italian Cup Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23

Italian Super Cup Winners: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23

World Club Championship: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22

Top League Goalscorer: 2019/20, 2021/22

Rodrigo De Paul Goals: 163/115

Conclusion

Decent season for the team but not the best for the main man. I will try some more experimentation in the final two seasons and see if we can muster a few more goals for De Paul. 

Thanks for reading

[Rob]

Racking up the trophies mate. Always takes a few seasons to get going with Strikerless formations IMO.

[Ian]

1 minute ago, Rob said:

Racking up the trophies mate. Always takes a few seasons to get going with Strikerless formations IMO.

Thank you Rob, you are the main man for the Strikerless.

I’m just going to try a few different things for the last two seasons and see what happens.😀

[Ian]

Season 6

Hello I’m back with another season update. We only have two seasons to go now. 

I’ll kick things off with the transfers.

Transfers

We are a dominant force now so only made a few transfers to keep things fresh.

Incomings:

• Patrik Schick - A quality player who can play out wide or in place of De Paul when he’s not fully fit.
• Nicola Murru - A tide left wing back.
• Stole Dimitrievski - A new back up goalkeeper.

Outgoings:

• Timo Horn - Wanted away so got his wish.

Fedrico Mattiello didn’t go to Bayern so must be a bug. The rest were just reserve team boys not needed for the future. 

Spoiler

League

Another great league campaign and nice to go unbeaten and only concede six like last season. We scored 104 goals as well so no complaints with that either by our own standards.

European Super Cup

We finally lost out on a trophy as Liverpool beat us in the European Super Cup. We had Williams sent off early on but still played ok but couldn’t finish our chances.

World Club Championship

A routine win against New York in the Final with De Paul getting a goal. We would’ve preferred a bigger scoreline here but can’t be helped.

Italian Super Cup

We came out on top in a fairly even game again Juventus.

Italian Cup

We played Inter in the Final and a brace from De Paul won us the Cup.

Champions League

We fought our way through to the Final where PSG awaited. We were just the better side and always looked like we’d get the job done.

Fixtures

Not the best of starts with the European Super Cup defeat to Liverpool and a draw with Inter in the opening League game of the season. The Inter game was similar to the Liverpool one as we had a player sent off early and couldn’t get the win. No problems after that though.

Spoiler

Rodrigo De Paul

No real improvements or decline in attributes.

How did he perform?

He got 34 goals in 49 games which is similar to most seasons. I did tweak my system a bit and he started the season fairly well but me being me did some more tweaks which resulted in a lot of team goals but next to none from the main man. After New Year I tweaked again and he had a great second half of the season so I’ll stick with that system for the final season.

How did he do in the league goalscoring chart?

He topped it with 27 goals and he also topped the assist chart which at least shows he’s been the top player in the league this season.

Manager

Challenge

League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24

Champions League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24

Italian Cup Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24

Italian Super Cup Winners: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24

European Super Cup Winners: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23

World Club Championship Winners: 2019/20, 2020,21, 2021/22, 2023/24

Top League Goalscorer: 2019/20, 2021/22, 2023/24

Rodrigo De Paul Goals: 197/115

Conclusion

Look De Paul isn’t getting the big numbers here but he’s still doing well and I’m hoping that he’ll carry on his great form from after New Year onto next season.

Our aim is to beat his best total so far in our final season.

Thanks for reading.

[Rob]

Again, great team performance. The irony of this is that you’ll have nailed your tactic by the end of this!

[Ian]

6 minutes ago, Rob said:

Again, great team performance. The irony of this is that you’ll have nailed your tactic by the end of this!

Thanks Rob, Yeah you’re probably right there and I think he definitely was much more consistent after New Year but we’ll have to see if he can keep that up for the whole of next season.  

[Ian]

Season 7

Afternoon all,

This is the final season of this challenge attempt. I haven’t managed to get it going at all so this is my last attempt to get a decent season return for De Paul.

Transfers

Most of my squad are between 28-31 years of age but as this is the final season I decided not to do a great deal of business as I’m sure the majority of them have at least one more season in them.

Incomings:

• Jakub Jankto - Big signing brought in to play in midfield.
• Christian Capone - Brought in to replace Brandt who wanted away in January. Nearly didn’t bother with a replacement as Jankto can actually play left wing position and I think I may have had enough midfielders to cover him in that position. Money was there though so played it safe.

Outgoings:

• Julian Brandt - Wanted his move and got it.

Spoiler

League

The league was always guaranteed but we suffered two defeats and two draws. We had a few problems during the season with players kicking off after I disciplined a player for a red card. You’ll see further down on my managers profile that I’m far from the disciplinarian but I do fine them a weeks wages for a red card and a good number of players took exception to this during this campaign. Never mind still a great campaign.

European Super Cup

No problems here as Jankto scored the winning goal late in the second half against Atletico Madrid.

World Club Championship

We scored five goals against New York to win 5-1 but Rodrigo De Paul could only score once from the penalty spot. He appears to have scored for them unless they have a player of the same name. Never noticed at the time.

Italian Super Cup

A routine win against Inter but no goal for De Paul as I’m sure he didn’t play in the game.

Italian Cup

Another one sided final but they scored from their only shot at goal so we had to make do with a 2-1 victory against Juventus.

Champions League

We won 4-1 in the final against PSG with a brace from both Balde and Williams.

Fixtures

Spoiler

Rodrigo De Paul

He is starting to decline now but this is the final season so no big deal.

How did he perform?

He scored 30 in 50 games which is similar to previous seasons.

How did he do in the league goalscoring chart?

He couldn’t top it this year I’m afraid as his paltry 22 goals just weren’t enough.

Manager

The final managers profile. Decent enough attributes for me.

New Stadium

At least we got a new stadium for the stadium challenge @Foxy.

Challenge

League Champions: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25

Champions League Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25

Italian Cup Winners: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25

European Super Cup: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2024/25

World Club Championship: 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2023/24, 2024/25

Rodrigo De Paul Goals: 227/115

Top League Goalscorer: 2019/20, 2021/22, 2023/24

Conclusion

I just couldn’t get it going unfortunately. I went into this not expecting to get a fantastic return but I was confident I would at least manage a couple of seasons where he would get 45-50 goals but it just didn’t transpire.

Thanks to everyone who followed this, it’s appreciated.

[Nucleus]

Not sure why you sound disappointed Ian, this has been an excellent career all round. Straight to the top of the leaderboard too! 😛 Well done mate, very much looking forward to your next venture

[Rob]

21 minutes ago, Nucleus said:

Not sure why you sound disappointed Ian, this has been an excellent career all round. Straight to the top of the leaderboard too! 😛 Well done mate, very much looking forward to your next venture

I’m with Nuke. That was a really good career (and lovely written up). It’s always fun to be take. Out of your comfort zone too and try something a bit different.

[Gunners Rishi]

1 hour ago, Nucleus said:

Not sure why you sound disappointed Ian, this has been an excellent career all round. Straight to the top of the leaderboard too! 😛 Well done mate, very much looking forward to your next venture

Yh, if that was me i would be happy for a 100 goals!

[Ian]

3 hours ago, Nucleus said:

Not sure why you sound disappointed Ian, this has been an excellent career all round. Straight to the top of the leaderboard too! 😛 Well done mate, very much looking forward to your next venture

Thank you mate, I’m okay with it as I tried lots of different things but couldn’t get the goals I would’ve liked but can’t be helped.😀

3 hours ago, Rob said:

I’m with Nuke. That was a really good career (and lovely written up). It’s always fun to be take. Out of your comfort zone too and try something a bit different.

Cheers, Yeah that’s what it’s all about, I did enjoy it and now I’ll have to try something else.😀

2 hours ago, Gunners Rishi said:

Yh, if that was me i would be happy for a 100 goals!

Thank you mate.😀

[FuddledFox]

Loads of trophies, more than enough goals and a new stadium so all and all a very successful career imo.

Wel done mate 👍🏻

[Kanegan]

This was a great career mate. I am especially amazed at the defence you have created. Brilliant and racking up so many trophies. Well done. 

[Ian]

13 hours ago, Foxy said:

Loads of trophies, more than enough goals and a new stadium so all and all a very successful career imo.

Wel done mate 👍🏻

Thank you, it was an enjoyable save.😀

3 hours ago, Kanegan said:

This was a great career mate. I am especially amazed at the defence you have created. Brilliant and racking up so many trophies. Well done. 

Thanks mate, we were rather tight at the back.😀

[Mr Tree]

An imposing entry on the leaderboard - top work 👏