Career Ian Goes to the Movies - The Italian Job

[Dagion]

Jiménez can be ruthless in a one striker system. I used him with Wolves in the recall challenge with Hélder Costa and he was deadly, raking in the assists for Costa. Not sure about a two striker system, but seeing that screenshot he will do fine. 😁

 

[Ian]

16 hours ago, Thepremiermanager said:

8-3! Brilliant. Can't wait to see how your results go. 

KIU

Haha, yes there’s been a fair few goals at times as I’d hoped. Hopefully the two boys will get their share of them. Thank you, I’ll be back later with the next update.

15 hours ago, samhardy said:

Great stuff here @Ian but it’s a terrible shame about the clubs you’re being forced to manage

Thank you Sam, Yes I didn’t think you’d enjoy first one in particular but hopefully there’ll be some better teams to come later on.

13 hours ago, Thepremiermanager said:

Wait until he does Enemy at the Gates! 😂😂😂

Yes, I’ve seen that one haha which I believe will be coming after the Italian job.

13 hours ago, Dagion said:

Jiménez can be ruthless in a one striker system. I used him with Wolves in the recall challenge with Hélder Costa and he was deadly, raking in the assists for Costa. Not sure about a two striker system, but seeing that screenshot he will do fine. 😁

 

He always comes up in my searches yet I’ve never tried him which was why I was keen to go with here. He seems decent as does Vardy but they’re still the weak link in this side so guess we’ll have to see if that hinders them in terms of others pinching goals.

[Ian]

Goal 2 - Mid Season Update

I said I’d go through the transfers so here I am to do just that. I did a lot of business and plenty of part exchange action occurred to help me build the kind of squad I was after to support my duo and system. Quality central midfielders came in in Brozovic, Tolisso, Wijnaldum, Eriksen, Ziyech, Kovacic and Gündogan. Fabinho was brought in to train up at centre back whilst still offering great cover for midfield and Di Maria, Robertson, Son and Bellarabi were my chosen wide players.

 

At the mid season break we’re positioned very well in only drawing one league game and it’s pretty safe to say we’ll be winning the league unless we have an absolutely diabolical second half of the season. We’ve scored well too with 73 goals and our two at the back are doing a decent job of keeping them out but can they continue that into the second half of the season when legs start to tire?

 

The Champions League is important for us as we need to reach the final and we had no trouble in the Group Stage with even PSG not offering much threat. I’m sure things will be trickier here in the later rounds though so we can’t count our chickens just yet.

 

These were some of our better games. You can see there’s goals coming from everywhere but I’m not too concerned as the two boys are getting their share and there’s a decent amount of goals going in so I have no plans to change my system too much.

Spoiler

 

As mentioned the boys are doing well with my Santiago finding the net 19 times and my Gavin 21 which is decent going at this stage so I’m happy.

 

A quick preview of the second half of the season below and you can see our two boys both suffered a little injury just at the beginning of the run in period and then our Champions League hopes were dealt a huge blow as we let in two late goals to draw the first leg of our Quarter Final against Juve so a rather tough second leg away in Turin to come. Go out and the challenge is effectively over, can we do it?

 

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back tomorrow to let you know how it all played out.

[Rob]

73 goals in 18 league games 🤣🤣🤣

[Dagion]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

73 goals in 18 league games 🤣🤣🤣

Insane, I finished mine but I think I came short of first place on the leaderboard by a bit. Guess I will be coming in third haha! Great stuff Ian 🤤

[Woody]

13 hours ago, Rob said:

73 goals in 18 league games 🤣🤣🤣

Crazy stuff! Ian is a machine

[FuddledFox]

Brilliant stuff Ian and your GpG is going to be mental!!!

[Rob]

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

Brilliant stuff Ian and your GpG is going to be mental!!!

He will have broken the challenge before it even began 🤣

[BatiGoal]

Watch those injuries... 

[smoggy90]

Late to this one Ian but really great going and your gpg at Real is superb!

[Ian]

17 hours ago, Rob said:

73 goals in 18 league games 🤣🤣🤣

Yes haha, a good bit of goal action going on, we’ll see if they can maintain that for second half of the season.

16 hours ago, Dagion said:

Insane, I finished mine but I think I came short of first place on the leaderboard by a bit. Guess I will be coming in third haha! Great stuff Ian 🤤

Thank you Dagion, we are scoring well with goals coming from all over at the moment.

4 hours ago, Woody said:

Crazy stuff! Ian is a machine

Yes, I seem to be scoring well with this system at the moment. I won’t be able to use this for the next film though as I’ll be managing Torino with three up top and I don’t think I’ll be able to get away with two at the back with them.

4 hours ago, Foxy said:

Brilliant stuff Ian and your GpG is going to be mental!!!

Thank you Foxy, I’ll post it up for the GpG challenge whatever the score.

2 hours ago, Rob said:

He will have broken the challenge before it even began 🤣

I do hope not as I’m sure it’ll be very beatable.

1 hour ago, BatiGoal said:

Watch those injuries... 

Very true Bati, well said.

13 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Late to this one Ian but really great going and your gpg at Real is superb!

Thanks Smoggy, yes I’m enjoying playing this system at the moment. Plenty of goals. On my next film I’m actually using a striker from Boro so we’ll see how he gets on in Turin.

Thank you all for the comments, much appreciated. I’ll be back later on today with the final update of this movie and then we’ll be moving on to Turin to manage Torino for the Italian Job.

[Dagion]

Torino with two at the back is actually pretty good. Using two wingbacks though at the moment. More like a 2-2-3-3 I guess.

 

[Thepremiermanager]

Looking good so far. 

Just that Champions League game that could be tricky. Hopefully Jiminez is back for the 2nd leg and you can smash them. Looks like it could be a big score. 

[smoggy90]

5 hours ago, Ian said:

Thanks Smoggy, yes I’m enjoying playing this system at the moment. Plenty of goals. On my next film I’m actually using a striker from Boro so we’ll see how he gets on in Turin.

 

Be interested to see who that is mate. In FMM world both Ashley Fletcher and Britt Assombalonga are more than capable. God help you if it’s Rudy Gestede 😂

[Ian]

4 hours ago, Dagion said:

Torino with two at the back is actually pretty good. Using two wingbacks though at the moment. More like a 2-2-3-3 I guess.

 

Sounds like it’s a nice system that. I’m going a different way but still with three up top.

2 hours ago, Thepremiermanager said:

Looking good so far. 

Just that Champions League game that could be tricky. Hopefully Jiminez is back for the 2nd leg and you can smash them. Looks like it could be a big score. 

Yes that’s the important one, we were decent enough in the first leg but just ran out of steam towards the end so hopefully that won’t be the case in the second leg.

31 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Be interested to see who that is mate. In FMM world both Ashley Fletcher and Britt Assombalonga are more than capable. God help you if it’s Rudy Gestede 😂

It is one of the first two and not Gestede I can tell you that much.

[Ian]

Goal 2 - Second Half of Season

Here I am to bring to a close this one season challenge where we’ll see whether our duo can continue their early season form into the second half of the season and help Real Madrid in their quest for glory.

 

League

The league was more or less a forgone conclusion at the midway point and it turned out that way so he’s the final table below. We kept up our good goal scoring in scoring 136 goals and ended up unbeaten with four draws.

 

Super Cup

The Super Cup was also won with our duo picking up a few goals in a couple of high scoring games.

 

The Spanish Cup

We were doing well in the Spanish Cup until the Semi Final where we met Barca who proceeded to hammer us in the first leg at the Camp Nou.

We returned the favour a few weeks later at the Bernabéu to book our place in the Final.

The Final was all going to plan against Valencia until we suffered another late collapse similar to the Juve Champions League game and proceeded to throw away a two goal lead in the final couple of minutes to take the game to extra time. Our boys were totally gassed out at this stage and they dominated us from then on in and got their reward with the winning goal coming in the 103rd minute.

 

Champions League

After drawing the first leg at home to Juventus in the Champions League Quarter Final as previewed earlier we had a lot of work to do in the return leg over in Turin. Our boys turned up there and put in a magnificent performance winning the match fairly comfortably with a nice clean sheet to boot.

We then played and beat PSG in the Semi Final to set up a final against Dortmund in which we dominated throughout and won 3-1 with my Santiago scoring two of the goals to finish off his season in some style.

 

Manager

 

Santiago and Gavin (Raúl Jiménez and Jamie Vardy)

Vardy was our highest scorer with 50 goals in 55 games and Raúl not far behind him with 44 in 54 games so a combined total of 94 goals which I’m happy with as it’s a fairly decent chunk of the 211 goals the team scored as a whole. Hazard was another top performer in scoring 23 and assisting 23 in 47 matches and a lot of those games were as a sub as I started trying other players at AM during the second half of the season to try and push more goals to my duo but in hindsight I kind of wish I hadn’t as it would’ve been nice to see what total goals and assists Eden might’ve got if left as first choice.

 

Score

Jamie Vardy: 50 goals

Raúl Jiménez: 44 goals

League Win: 15 points

Champions League Win: 25 points

Super Cup Win: 10 points

Total: 144 points

 

Thanks for reading and now we move onto the next one which is The Italian Job.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Ian

[Dagion]

Great score! Really looking forward to seeing your approach (and players) at Torino. You can generate good money by selling some of their star players. Found a real bargain up front, but the other two were expensive and one of them isn't doing much..

[Thepremiermanager]

3 hours ago, Ian said:

Goal 2 - Second Half of Season

Here I am to bring to a close this one season challenge where we’ll see whether our duo can continue their early season form into the second half of the season and help Real Madrid in their quest for glory.

 

League

The league was more or less a forgone conclusion at the midway point and it turned out that way so he’s the final table below. We kept up our good goal scoring in scoring 136 goals and ended up unbeaten with four draws.

 

Super Cup

The Super Cup was also won with our duo picking up a few goals in a couple of high scoring games.

 

The Spanish Cup

We were doing well in the Spanish Cup until the Semi Final where we met Barca who proceeded to hammer us in the first leg at the Camp Nou.

We returned the favour a few weeks later at the Bernabéu to book our place in the Final.

The Final was all going to plan against Valencia until we suffered another late collapse similar to the Juve Champions League game and proceeded to throw away a two goal lead in the final couple of minutes to take the game to extra time. Our boys were totally gassed out at this stage and they dominated us from then on in and got their reward with the winning goal coming in the 103rd minute.

 

Champions League

After drawing the first leg at home to Juventus in the Champions League Quarter Final as previewed earlier we had a lot of work to do in the return leg over in Turin. Our boys turned up there and put in a magnificent performance winning the match fairly comfortably with a nice clean sheet to boot.

We then played and beat PSG in the Semi Final to set up a final against Dortmund in which we dominated throughout and won 3-1 with my Santiago scoring two of the goals to finish off his season in some style.

 

Manager

 

Santiago and Gavin (Raúl Jiménez and Jamie Vardy)

Vardy was our highest scorer with 50 goals in 55 games and Raúl not far behind him with 44 in 54 games so a combined total of 94 goals which I’m happy with as it’s a fairly decent chunk of the 211 goals the team scored as a whole. Hazard was another top performer in scoring 23 and assisting 23 in 47 matches and a lot of those games were as a sub as I started trying other players at AM during the second half of the season to try and push more goals to my duo but in hindsight I kind of wish I hadn’t as it would’ve been nice to see what total goals and assists Eden might’ve got if left as first choice.

 

Score

Jamie Vardy: 50 goals

Raúl Jiménez: 44 goals

League Win: 15 points

Champions League Win: 25 points

Super Cup Win: 10 points

Total: 144 points

 

Thanks for reading and now we move onto the next one which is The Italian Job.

Great stuff @Ian A cracking score. 

Going for all those goals really helped and you've now got a score that'll be hard for anyone else to beat. Updating the leaderboard now. 

[Ian]

22 hours ago, Dagion said:

Great score! Really looking forward to seeing your approach (and players) at Torino. You can generate good money by selling some of their star players. Found a real bargain up front, but the other two were expensive and one of them isn't doing much..

Thank you Dagion, I’ve gone a different way again with a flat 3-4-3 so I guess we’ll see how that goes haha. I did a fair bit of business but went fairly cheap for my three minis. Good luck with yours.

19 hours ago, Thepremiermanager said:

Great stuff @Ian A cracking score. 

Going for all those goals really helped and you've now got a score that'll be hard for anyone else to beat. Updating the leaderboard now. 

Thank you TPM, it’s a very goal heavy system with an elite team so I thought I’d go with it here and it paid off. Thoroughly enjoying the challenges so far and I should have an update of the The Italian Job posted either later this evening or tomorrow.

[BatiGoal]

Very good total there. I also only used Vardy once I think, but he's a great goal scorer.

Are you on a leaderboard mission?? 😂 

[Dagion]

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Thank you Dagion, I’ve gone a different way again with a flat 3-4-3 so I guess we’ll see how that goes haha. I did a fair bit of business but went fairly cheap for my three minis. Good luck with yours.

Finished mine with a good score I guess. Not that easy to get them all going, but we managed in the end. Just didn't score enough in general, but we also kept it solid at the back in true Italian style 😀

Look forward to seeing your guys, still not sure what is better with three up front:
IF - P/TM - IF

AF - P - AF

P - TM - P

Or a combination. Didn't really seem to matter that much and I think I tried a new combination every 4/5 games 😁

[Ian]

3 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Very good total there. I also only used Vardy once I think, but he's a great goal scorer.

Are you on a leaderboard mission?? 😂 

Thank you Bati, yes I like him and I think I got him just before the beginning of his decline.

I’m hoping to do a good few more challenges in what’s left of the year so I should at least appear on a few boards.

2 hours ago, Dagion said:

Finished mine with a good score I guess. Not that easy to get them all going, but we managed in the end. Just didn't score enough in general, but we also kept it solid at the back in true Italian style 😀

Look forward to seeing your guys, still not sure what is better with three up front:
IF - P/TM - IF

AF - P - AF

P - TM - P

Or a combination. Didn't really seem to matter that much and I think I tried a new combination every 4/5 games 😁

Yes there’s no massive scoring from me either on the Italian Job as you’ll see when I post.

[Ian]

The Italian Job

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" 

If you don't know that iconic line, you might as well leave now! Michael Caine and this fantastic crime caper will long live in the memory of generations just through those 9 immortal words. But that aside, The Italian Job had much to enjoy. The beautiful setting of Turin, the range of catchy music and, of course, 3 little Mini Coopers. 

Caine and co's daring theft of Italian gold and subsequent automobile escapades over, under and around Turin ensure that you're never far from the edge of your seat. Chuck in some Mafia ties and the literal cliffhanger ending and I think it's fair to say this film is made for a FMM challenge. 

Do, do, do, self preservation society…. Shhh, it's a movie! 

 

The Challenge

 

1 season challenge

Manage one of the Turin teams - Juventus or Torino. 

Sign your 3 Mini Coopers. These must be English strikers, one each from teams playing in red, blue and white. 

Try to take as much goal-d (geddit?) from Italy as you can. 

Gold = £5000 per goal scored by one of your Minis. 

Bonus gold = £50000 for European Cup win (Champions league with Juventus, Europa League with Torino). £25000 if Juventus win Europa League. 

Serie A win with Juventus = £20000, with Torino £35000

£10000 per domestic cup. 

Usual challenge rules apply. 

 

Buona fortuna. 

So you can see above that I had to choose between managing either Juventus or Torino and decided to go with Torino which on the face of it you’d think offers more of a challenge which it does domestically but being in the Europa League rather than the Champions League could be considered an advantage for those all important mini goals so it’s not quite as simple as that I don't think anyway.

Club: Torino

 

Red Mini: Ashley Fletcher

Signed from Middlesbrough for £4.4m and a decent looking player with plenty of high level blue that could easily turn green to make him look so much better.

 

Blue Mini: Ivan Toney

I’ve used Toney before and would’ve preferred to go with a different option but there weren't any other blue options I fancied so thought I’d give Toney a run out in Italy. He was signed from Peterborough and I believe he was a part exchange but it’s showing as a free on the transfer page with no outgoing going to Peterborough so no idea what’s happened there, must be a bug of some sort. Anyway he’s a nice player who usually costs around £2.5m - £4m and the hope was that he’d be my main man through the middle.

 

White Mini: Tom Barkhuizen

Tom regularly shows up in my searches and out of the white mini options available I felt he was the best for what I wanted so he came in from Preston North End.

 

Transfers

I did a reasonable amount of business but not too much as there were a few of the current Torino players I fancied using. Jeff Hendrick came in as an option for the centre of midfield or out on the right whilst other wingers were purchased in Hernâni, Matt Phillips and Marcus Acuña so there should be plenty cover on the flanks. I went for another centre midfielder in Alexandr Yerokhin who seems decent and Scott McKenna came in as an option at centre back which I felt we needed with going three at the back. I loaned in a couple of young strikers as cover for my three minis which meant I could sell off Belotti and Zaza to bring in the cash needed for my signings.

Tactic

I went with the following system which hadn’t been fully tested. It’s the two central midfield roles I’m not sure of which I find the toughest to get right in a midfield two. My first instinct was to try an BBM/AP combo that can be very good with the right players but thought it might be a bit attacking here so opted for the CM instead of the BBM. The idea was to see how it went and then maybe try a few other things later if things weren’t going so great.

 

I’ll be back with an update of how the season went tomorrow but here’s a quick preview below.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Dagion]

Always interesting to see other approaches, especially used players and tactic wise. At some point my midfield was 3 CM's to stop them from nicking goals. Still solid in creating chances though, not sure about BBM vs CM.

In my mind CM's drift more horizontally instead of BBM's who drift vertically if that makes any sense at all. Not even sure that's the way they actually work, it's just stuck in my head that way.

Bremer wasn't that good so I loaned him, Aina developed nicely even as a winger. But I'm more defense minded.

Table looks close, hopefully you can bring it home! Good luck 😉

[BatiGoal]

That exact formation and player roles is one I use very often 👍 this should be good. 

[Rob]

Nice choices Ian.

I do have to ask, though: do you have Scott McKenna locked up in a cupboard at home?

[Kanegan]

That's a cool trio. Toney was massive for you in the English Killer challenge. Hope he delivers the goods here

[Thepremiermanager]

That Roma game looks kinda important! Especially now that I know @Dagion won the league and posted a good score.

Actually, you GS and GA look very similar too. This could be a very close run challenge! 

Good luck

[broodje kip]

That looks like a good start. Good luck for the rest of the season

[smoggy90]

Looks like a great season mate, I’ve got Fletcher banging them in on a personal Boro save although he is the lone striker for me so I’ll be interested to see how he performs in a 3.