Career Late Bloomer Carroll & 5 Season Hero Pavon at LA Galaxy DONE

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, Rob said:

Some cracking advice @Ian gave you about the transfers 😡

Still a decent season. I am finding single striker tactics need a little tweaking this year. 

LoL, I know where he got the advice from in the first place! 😠

Nah, it's been good advice, except for this one case where I got FMM'd... Luckily it was only once and not one of the main players.

My tactic still seems to work this year (2KC complete!) but just not so much in this save. It doesn't work so well against defensive formations and I notice a lot of opposition here are playing 5 at the back (not WBs slightly forward, but true 5 on the back row). But then it could just have been the infighting or just that Carroll isn't putting himself in the right position enough etc.

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Yes, some cracking advice you gave me Rob and I’m forever thankful. The problem here with the board just accepting an offer without your say so is something I was thinking about with this as occasionally you get that especially at slightly lesser clubs if the offer is big. I’ve yet to encounter it since I’ve stared using the technique mind you but I have been at top clubs most of the time.

Carroll is doing well enough I think. I noticed with an ageing Kean last year that once his pace and movement dropped so did the near post corner goals even though his aerial was still decent. He didn’t get one for the whole duration of his last 8 or so seasons but he would still get the odd headed goal from open play mind you. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Carroll in that regard.

31 goals, 35 assists and 0 injuries as I think he’s finally gotten over his injury troubles. Only problem is he’s pretty useless now 😂

Yeah, I've really found that technique so useful. In this case though it wasn't the board accepting it without giving me the choice - it was actually FMM telling me I'd made the decision when I hadn't. Sort of similar to when it rejects offers without asking you and players get upset, just in reverse. I've had it before and seen others complain about it, but it's much rarer than the automatic rejections. 

I'll watch for the near post goals and see what happens. I tend to find that even players with low Aerial score them semi regularly, so maybe it's more about pace and movement? I guess he probably isn't as getting as many of those as I'm used to now I think about it.

You are for sure an optimist if you think he's over the injuries, 🤣

[smoggy90]

That second season got us all carried away mate 😂 but still an awesome job with Carroll at his age. Hopefully one last big season to round things off!

[Scratch]

16 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

That second season got us all carried away mate 😂 but still an awesome job with Carroll at his age. Hopefully one last big season to round things off!

Yeah, it did indeed and made me a little more hopeful than I should have been for season 3. But anyway, live and learn hey?

[Scratch]

I've now finished this and will post it tomorrow, if anyone has any last minute predictions.

[smoggy90]

I’ll go for a further 26 goals in S5 and 34 assists. Also 4 injuries. 

[Scratch]

Update - Season 5

This is it. The Last Dance.

I really enjoyed this save at the start, but the last few seasons have been a bit flat. It's all just league games with a handful of cup games thrown in. The one thing that's kept me going is all your predictions (thanks!).

Anyway, let's look at the last season.

 

Transfers

With this being the last season, there wasn't much business that needed doing. I had a few youngsters come through, so I sold some players who'd slipped down the order, and I brought in a reserve left back mid year when we had a couple of injuries.

Spoiler

 

Results

Once again we won everything domestically and once again we only averaged 2.3 goals per game in the league. Was hoping for more, but continuing to play an aging Carroll didn't help. Anyway, we ended up with 15 league titles and 4 cups.

Spoiler

 

Injuries and Availability

Pavon escaped injury free this season. As for Carroll...

Spoiler

Only two injuries this time around:

But for the first time, there were questions about whether he'd be able to come back from it:

 

Development

Carroll starting to look a bit average, losing a point from most important attributes. That Pace of 5 really hurt this year, as did the Stamina of 8.

 

No change for Pavon:

 

Goals (Carroll)

Carroll scored 25 goals in 38 games:

His ratio slipped significantly this season. He found it much more difficult to score.

 

Assists (Pavon)

Pavon provided 38 assists from 38 games:

His best season, but I'm quite disappointed that he fell so short of the 50 mark I was hoping for. Not as many games as some leagues, but really he needed a better striker to cross to.

 

Results

Season	Goals (Carroll)	Assists (Pavon	Injuries (Carroll)
01	30	36	3
02	66	37	0
03	28	37	4
04	32	33	5
05	25	38	2
Total	181 (101 req)	181 (150 min)	14

Well look at that! They both got 181.

 

Wrapping Up

All things considered, Carroll did a great job. 71 goals before the age of 30. 181 afterwards. Not bad, even if it was in the US. But that one great season left me thinking he could have done even more.

And Pavon... good solid job, probably the best he could have done in the circumstance, but I was really hoping for more.

 

Predictions

	Goals (Carroll) - 25	Assists (Pavon) - 38	Injuries (Carroll) - 2
@Kanegan	34	35	3
@Titjes	30	32	4
@Ian	31	35	0
@LiamTaylor	30	34	4
@smoggy90	26	34	4
Winner	Smoggy90	Kanegan, Ian	Kanegan

Leaderboard:

• @Kanegan - 4 points

• @Rob - 3 points

• @broodje kip - 3 points

• @Ian - 3 points

• @Titjes - 2 points

• @LiamTaylor - 1 point

• @Foxy - 1 point

• @smoggy90 - 1 point

Kanegan wins it! Well done mate. I don't actually have anything for you to win, but still, you have bragging rights mate. 😄

 

[broodje kip]

Well done mate. We finally got to see a revival of Andy Carroll

[Kanegan]

Comeback win for me. 😃

Still a great career mate. Getting 181 goals out of Carroll is fantastic.  Now, go to your Newcastle and saddle the frenchies.

[AdamNufc]

@Scratch Getting Carroll to score anywhere near what you did and play as many games as he did is some achievement mate so well done! Great read and nice to see a Geordie causing carnage in America , now as a reward , take him to Vegas 😂

[Ian]

So he wasn’t quite over his injury troubles and guess he never will be now. It was a tough challenge this was so a job well done from all three of you!

Congratulations and good luck in your Frenchies challenge.

[Scratch]

26 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Well done mate. We finally got to see a revival of Andy Carroll

Thanks mate, if only he could do this in real life!

[Scratch]

28 minutes ago, Kanegan said:

Comeback win for me. 😃

Still a great career mate. Getting 181 goals out of Carroll is fantastic.  Now, go to your Newcastle and saddle the frenchies.

Yeah mate, two late goals to pinch the win! 😄 Massive effort mate. Newcastle career not off to a good start, lost the first game 3-0 (to Arsenal). Could be a rough season.

[Scratch]

28 minutes ago, AdamNufc said:

@Scratch Getting Carroll to score anywhere near what you did and play as many games as he did is some achievement mate so well done! Great read and nice to see a Geordie causing carnage in America , now as a reward , take him to Vegas 😂

They knocked down the Zlatan statue and built a Carroll one instead! Yeah we did a road trip to Vegas before we went our separate ways. Pretty epic, but I hear he's off the wagon and still there...

[AdamNufc]

1 minute ago, Scratch said:

They knocked down the Zlatan statue and built a Carroll one instead! Yeah we did a road trip to Vegas before we went our separate ways. Pretty epic, but I hear he's off the wagon and still there...

If you've ever saw the hangover movie it will be fine he will be on the roof of a hotel wasted 😂

[Scratch]

29 minutes ago, Ian said:

So he wasn’t quite over his injury troubles and guess he never will be now. It was a tough challenge this was so a job well done from all three of you!

Congratulations and good luck in your Frenchies challenge.

Thanks mate. Yeah, injury troubles are just part of the package I'm afraid. I sort of wish I could go back in time and do a 1KC with him, but oh well...

[Scratch]

4 minutes ago, AdamNufc said:

If you've ever saw the hangover movie it will be fine he will be on the roof of a hotel wasted 😂

Yeah good movie. I only stayed for the first morning and cleared out as soon as I could... Wild party, but I had a flight to England waiting... Lost my tiger somewhere though.

[smoggy90]

Superb mate, fantastic amount of goals from Carroll and Pavon did the business too. Great work!

[Scratch]

4 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Superb mate, fantastic amount of goals from Carroll and Pavon did the business too. Great work!

Thanks mate. Certainly a bit harder than my usual saves, but enjoyed it all the more because of that.