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


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1 minute ago, smoggy90 said:

Look forward to this mate!

I’ll say 45 goals, 49 assists and 2 injuries. 

Thanks mate. Just in time with your predictions, about to post it now!

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Update - Season 1

So many questions about this season.

  • Will Andy Carroll score 60+ goals in fairly weak league? Or will he get a damaged spine in preseason training and miss the entire season?

  • Will LA Galaxy have to put up "Missing Striker, Last Seen In The Viper Room" posters around town?

  • And just how much of a wizard is this Pavon character?

Answers await within... Let us begin.

 

Transfers

As I mentioned above, I pretty much sold the whole team. There were only a couple of players that looked good, so I shipped the rest out and brought in players I knew would excel at this level.

Spoiler

la-galaxy-season01-32.thumb.jpg.55e49f7e00123f8872ce3e828a808e38.jpg

la-galaxy-season01-33.thumb.jpg.f7ab3329ccf125cb3250b76e92a558bc.jpg

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la-galaxy-season01-37.thumb.jpg.57aac9d888c3950768d62a65bc4b96fa.jpg

Highlights:

  • Ajer, Almada, Verschaeren, Harper, Stengs, Tymon, McKenna, Branagan, Livakovic, etc. Most will be EPL level within a season or two and all will be great in the US.

  • A few, like Lee O'Conner, Daley, McCrorie are less well known, but have done really well for me this year.

  • And my back up winger for when Pavon needs a rest? Sebastian Villa, who just got 233 assists in 5 seasons for me at PAOK. I wasn't planning to use him, but I couldn't find anyone his equal at the same price point.

There were others that would have come if I'd had the money/space left in the squad, like Eze, Moro, Reiner, Koopmeiners, etc. I found it interesting just how easy it was to sign good players here (tip: the Interested In filter isn't that accurate).

 

Adjusting To The US

There are quite few things to get my head around in the US:

  1. It's a March to November competition, which always seems strange to me.

  2. The league is broken into 3 separate competitions, each of which you can win (and each of which is counted as a League Win on the Manager Profile page):

    • The Eastern and Western Conferences, with twelve teams each, which is used to work out who makes the playoffs for the MLS Cup.

    • The MLS Supporters' Shield, which is a combined table for the Eastern and Western Conferences used to work out the best team overall based on home and away games (a second trophy for the same games).

    • The MLS Cup (not to be confused with the US Cup), which is actually part of the league, being the finals playoff series after the home and away rounds finish.

  3. I have no idea how the North American Champions League works - when it is or what format or how many games. I'm hoping to find out in the next season or two though!

  4. The 'second team' is more disconnected than I'm used to with a 'reserve team'. Want to mentor a player in the second team? You have to promote them to the first team, set up the mentoring and then demote them again.

  5. There is no end of season event like in most leagues. Well there is - you wake up on New Year's Day wondering where you are, only to find the league tables have been reset and youngsters promoted, etc - but you aren't warned. I guess the guy who puts up the Proceed to Next Season button was out partying on New Year's Eve instead.

 

Results

Now that I've explained all that, I can tell you we won it all domestically: The US Cup and all 3 trophies in the league. Yep, 3 league wins in 1 season. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Spoiler

 

la-galaxy-season01-21.thumb.jpg.1655706508740f14d8007aa7b42b43e2.jpg

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la-galaxy-season01-29.thumb.jpg.4cbd89c28ff4c2c614a02236df1895c0.jpg

 

We weren't in the Champions League this time around, so we should be learning all about that next season.

 

Injuries and Availability

Eagle eyed readers will have noticed that Pavon came off injured in both the Western Conference Semi Final and the Western Conference Final (screenshots above), but neither were proper injuries, ie there was no message saying he was out (screenshots below).

Spoiler

 

la-galaxy-season01-27.thumb.jpg.f082c50029ffcf6c9dc786e7aa286d8a.jpg

la-galaxy-season01-28.thumb.jpg.4f8cf94fb7e7d3ed7c126f5e81b0d3b5.jpg

 

I've had that plenty of times before, but not to the same player in consecutive games! A lucky escape.

As for Carroll...

Spoiler

 

la-galaxy-season01-08.thumb.jpg.319ab72dbefe013f7f2beb1556ab8088.jpg

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Fixing Carroll

In various places, the game reports Carroll as Enigmatic, Relaxed, Unprofessional, Past His Prime, Lacking Pace and Very Injury Prone. Just the player you want to spearhead your team!

Spoiler

 

la-galaxy-season01-02.thumb.jpg.f3fb18a49c9748459cd33ffd08b869fd.jpg

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la-galaxy-season01-14.thumb.jpg.7f9e25afc2e3b7727edb6d6366692627.jpg

 

Fortunately, I've improved his Professionalism by fining him anytime he doesn't get a rating more than 6. That's given him 5 "professionalism has improved" messages such as this one:

Spoiler

la-galaxy-season01-11.thumb.jpg.0cc2c99f1594e35884f762ba028ee511.jpg

So far he hasn't complained, but one of my other players did and a new contract sorted that out. I have a Discipline rating of 20 for the first time ever (I'm normally at 2 or something)!

Anyway, as a result, he's no longer Relaxed, Unprofessional, Enigmatic or going out to nightclubs the night before a game. It even says he's Professional now! Can't do much about the Past His Prime or Very Injury Prone issues though.

 

Development

At the end of the season, Carroll looked like this (-1 Pace & Strength due to injury and it won't come back). He also had a "Showing Training Dedication" message in December, but no attribute changes.

la-galaxy-season01-40.thumb.jpg.ff6756eeb7c4c0684a94a6173bce7837.jpg

Meanwhile Pavon has maxed out, but not before some nice upgrades (+4 Crossing, +2 Movement, +1 Pace & Dribbling):

la-galaxy-season01-42.thumb.jpg.13d99ce42439cfd05713f665925023b0.jpg

And I'm not going to count his goals (only 18 this season, so no chance for 5SH), but the backup striker Hornby is looking pretty great for someone who mostly came off the bench and who still has a fair bit of development left:

Spoiler

la-galaxy-season01-44.thumb.jpg.ef24f33d600354d92afca3a18986cff1.jpg

 

Goals (Carroll)

Carroll scored 30 goals in 34 games:

la-galaxy-season01-41.thumb.jpg.d84fd3331f679733ea210b3a9c3426d2.jpg

A decent start, but it's all down hill from here!

 

Assists (Pavon)

Pavon had a good start, providing 36 assists from 41 games:

la-galaxy-season01-43.thumb.jpg.14ac4679e74bed16c8f3bc50572c9904.jpg

Better than Villa did in my recent save (29 from 43 in the first season).

 

Final Result

Season Goals (Carroll) Assists (Pavon Injuries (Carroll)
01 30 36 3
Total 30 (101 req) 36 (150 min) 3

 

The Future

A decent start and injuries not as bad for Carroll as I'd thought. That said, it wasn't the '50 goals and let's knock it over in a couple of seasons' start that I was half hoping for.

I think he'll make the target, but it will likely take 3 or 4 seasons. He will deteriorate, but the team around him will improve and start providing more goals (and we'll play more games once we're in the Champions League).

As for Pavon, he's going to provide a LOT of assists by the time this is done.

 

Predictions

Ahh, this is what you've all been waiting for!

  Goals (Carroll) - 30 Assists (Pavon) - 36 Injuries (Carroll) - 3
@Titjes 35 27 4
@Ian 2 34 1
@Kanegan 37 30 3
@Foxy 64 42 0
@broodje kip 35 20 5
@smoggy90 45 49 2
Winners Titjes, broodje kip Ian Kanegan

Leaderboard:

Lucky Smoggy got in late so that it wasn't only Foxy who didn't score a point! 😄

If you want to make predictions (same categories) for season 2, please leave them below. Thanks!

 

Edited by Scratch
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The 2nd day in a row I have been hugely let down and this is going to take some recovering from ☹️

Considering the injuries nearly a goal a game is a good return from Carroll and Pavon of course doing what he does best.

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3 minutes ago, Foxy said:

The 2nd day in a row I have been hugely let down and this is going to take some recovering from ☹️

Considering the injuries nearly a goal a game is a good return from Carroll and Pavon of course doing what he does best.

Yeah... Thought this was the year. ☹️

Thanks for the faith, though it was sorely misplaced! Carroll was at about 1.2 or 1.3 goals a game for a couple of months, but took a long time to get back into the swing after the second two injuries. The team will step it up this year for sure, so it will be interesting to see which wins (more team goals vs Carroll's decline).

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I was actually thinking of going for around 30 goals and nice to get the assists fairly close. It’s a nice enough start though and he’s still well on course.

Pavon will get 49 assists this season and Carroll 41 goals with 2 injuries. 

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I'd say that was a respectable return if you can get more than that for season 2 your doing well.

Nice job on the trophy haul too.

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Good start Scratch. First season was always going to be the hardest, but the players you have will improve and your squad will end up miles ahead.

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@Scratch 30 goals from Big Andy is some achievement! And only 3 injuries is something of a miracle! 

Taking Ajer to the States was some coup , he's a class act on the game!

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On 14/07/2020 at 23:26, Ian said:

I was actually thinking of going for around 30 goals and nice to get the assists fairly close. It’s a nice enough start though and he’s still well on course.

Pavon will get 49 assists this season and Carroll 41 goals with 2 injuries. 

Haha, you should have gone for 30. Still sore about the 2 prediction to be honest! 😝

Nice to see you taking it seriously this time! 🤣

added 0 minutes later
On 14/07/2020 at 23:33, Kanegan said:

A good return to start with. I would say 37 goals for good in season 2, 40 for Pain and 2 injuries.

Thanks mate! I've noted your predictions. 🙂

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On 15/07/2020 at 01:30, Woody said:

I'd say that was a respectable return if you can get more than that for season 2 your doing well.

Nice job on the trophy haul too.

Thanks mate. I'll have to try to do well next season (actually I just finished it, but can't give anything away until everyone has voted). 

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On 15/07/2020 at 02:22, Rob said:

Good start Scratch. First season was always going to be the hardest, but the players you have will improve and your squad will end up miles ahead.

Thanks Rob, yeah, I find that every single save, because I never have enough money to buy fully formed players (and they don't want to play for the teams I generally manage). I always end up with players who are decent in the first season but really good in the second. And not just talking about 1 player, I'm talking about 20 players! 😄

You should probably make some prediction because you totally understand how it goes and I'm not sure all the others do! 🤣  (no pressure though, just you really get how I manage).

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On 15/07/2020 at 02:33, AdamNufc said:

@Scratch 30 goals from Big Andy is some achievement! And only 3 injuries is something of a miracle! 

Taking Ajer to the States was some coup , he's a class act on the game!

Thanks mate. It went pretty well. Was reasonably happy with that. We'll have to see how he goes in the next season.

Honestly I've been really surprised how easy it's been to attract and keep players in the US. It should be way harder than it is. I started as a Superstar manager, which gives a boost to players wanting to come, but there's no way Ajer would ever move to the US at that age. Or most of the other players I'm signing. 

added 0 minutes later
21 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Great tally there. Less injury from andy too

Thanks mate. Hid didn't do too badly, was half expecting 6 injuries or maybe a big one. Just gotta keep my fingers crossed for next season.

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I've finished Season 2 now and will post it in the next day or so. 

@Titjes, @Foxy@broodje kip, @smoggy90 - no pressure, but thought I'd let you know in case you want to make predictions again (only if you want to and have time etc). FYI, the North American Champions League went broke or something (no games this year), so it's the same amount of games as last time, in case you were going to factor extra games in.

@Ian and @Kanegan - thanks for your predictions. Let me know if you want to change it because no CL games (not sure if you factored the extra games in or not).

Edited by Scratch
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41 minutes ago, samhardy said:

Great start Scratch.

Thanks mate, certainly been interesting playing in the States. I shouldn't like it much, but the seasons are short and not much competition, so you can breeze through the seasons a bit quicker (I'm normally pretty slow, but much quicker this time around).

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Update - Season 2

A decent first season under the belt, but of course we want more. The team should have improved a lot, so I'm hopeful we can deliver. Of course we need Carroll on the pitch, and there's no guarantee of that.

I'll tell you in advance that you will NOT believe what happened! I sure as heck didn't...

 

Adjusting To The US - Part 2

Some random things:

  1. The North American Champions League doesn't seem to take place. I can see the competition, but the draw was supposed to happen at the end of season 1 and the competition supposed to start early in season 2. It never did, at least that I can find any evidence. If it did, we weren't invited.

  2. The games are really spaced out. Sometimes you have midweek games, but there are plenty of weeks where it's only one game a week or even 2 weeks between games (and they aren't all international breaks or anything). I think that's actually good for Carroll, because I can play him every game.

  3. A lot of international breaks are skipped, including major tournaments. We kept right on playing through the Euros (a month or so). I managed to get a team on the pitch most weeks, but sometimes I had to field greyed out players.

  4. I got the trophy thing wrong last time. You don't win one for topping the Western Conference table, you win it for winning the Western Conference Final. So one for that, one for the next game (the MLS Cup against the winner of the Eastern Conference Final) and one for the Supporter's Shield (top of all teams after home and away). Murica.

  5. The 'second team' is annoying. Not only can't you do things like mentor players in the second team, you don't get "teams are interested (or not)" messages when you offer them out. And they don't play any games! That's only been in the game this version, but now I can't live without it. No games means almost no development for the youngsters there.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

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Not much business this time around, for two reasons:

  • I can't attract players that are better than the ones I've got (and it will be hard to change that without the North American Champions League).

  • I normally get some regens in. I don't target specific players anymore, just look for good youngsters transfer listed by top teams. However, because the US starts 6 months early, regens don't appear until after the Season 2 mid-season transfer window. Maybe next year.

The main deal was buying Stark for £18.5 and making room for him by selling Souttar for £50M. I used the change to strengthen some other positions like right back (Passlack and Kenny coming in).

 

Results

Once again we won everything in the league (6 league titles in 2 years!), but we got knocked out in the semi final of the US Cup.

Spoiler

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Must improve.

 

Fixing Andy Carroll

Last season I fined Andy every time he had a poor performance and he went from being our most unprofessional player to be being one of our most professional. He finally had enough this season:

la-galaxy-season02-02.thumb.jpg.e8762ea5cdbf7e1754714ef4c460ca28.jpg

I took that as a sign that it was time to stop and to trust him. He doesn't go to night clubs anymore, he's the first into training and the last to leave. I'll just have to be happy with that.

 

Injuries and Availability

Pavon escaped with only a couple of ghost injuries last season, but he copped it this year, with three injuries: A 10 day injury, then a 3 week injury, then another 3 week injury.

Spoiler

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Check out the screenshot of that match with the last injury. What a game. First Pavon gets injured, then both Ajer and Carroll got sent off and we still won! I'm going to remember Dick's Sporting Goods Park forever.

Speaking of Carroll - if Pavon had 3 injuries, how many did the big man get?

Spoiler

None! Nada. Zero!

The staff still stay he's very injury prone, but I guess all the yoga and taking care of himself is paying off...

Doesn't make sense that he had none, while Pavon had 3, but I guess that's football (or at least FMM).

 

Development

Carroll didn't degrade much this season, down just 1 Pace on last year, much better than I feared (though he'll turn 32 before next season, so expecting this to go south soon):

la-galaxy-season02-34.thumb.jpg.a588b4468fe3e0d6539a1f046ca2a521.jpg

 

Meanwhile Pavon is down 1 Crossing due to injury:

la-galaxy-season02-35.thumb.jpg.4650277e071111f93dd61c0453b1f67e.jpg

 

Goals (Carroll)

Carroll was magnificent this season - everything you imagined he could be during those early years at Newcastle. Checkout his run of form at the end of the season:

la-galaxy-season02-30.jpg.64179fe2ffa12f03f64281cc5285fa31.jpg

He ended up scoring 66 goals in 40 games:

la-galaxy-season02-31.thumb.jpg.e7acab985727fb216ae07384567bcaeb.jpg

He only scored 71 goals in his entire career, how the heck did he score almost that many in a single season?

I was expecting a step up, given the team is so much better than last season (every player has developed a lot). It's a consistent pattern in my careers - for example Chuba Akpom went from 43 in the first season to 84 in the second. But even I wasn't expecting that much, given his age and injury proneness.

 

Assists (Pavon)

Pavon provided 37 assists from 30 games:

la-galaxy-season02-32.thumb.jpg.ee1a8a9d2d9d648727c3e7fb8ef296ca.jpg

A big improvement in the ratio, but only 1 more assist than last season due to the injuries. Expecting him to break 50 next season.

 

Results

Season Goals (Carroll) Assists (Pavon Injuries (Carroll)
01 30 36 3
02 66 37 0
Total 96 (101 req) 73 (150 min) 3

 

The Future

Surely it's all downhill from here for Carroll, but Pavon can only get better. Next season will be fascinating...

 

Predictions

Thanks everyone for playing!

  Goals (Carroll) - 66 Assists (Pavon) - 37 Injuries (Carroll) - 0
@Ian 41 49 2
@Kanegan 37 40 2
@Foxy 27 32 4
@Rob 42 39 1
@broodje kip 30 35 3
@LiamTaylor 29 34 4
Winner Rob, Rob, broodje kip Rob

A special mention for @Foxy, whose Season 1 predictions (64,42,0) were almost spot on for Season 2 (66,37,0) and whose Season 2 predictions (27,32,4) were very close for Season 1 (30,36,3). So near, yet so far. Been one of those weeks I guess. 😭

Leaderboard:

@Rob shoots straight to the top of the leaderboard in his first attempt, and @broodje kip claims second as his own.

If you want to make predictions (same categories) for season 3, please leave them below. Getting trickier now, because Carroll surely can't do that again. But how many less will he get?

 

Edited by Scratch
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25 minutes ago, Scratch said:

special mention for @Foxy, whose Season 1 predictions (64,42,0) were almost spot on for Season 2 (66,37,0) and whose Season 2 predictions (27,32,4) were very close for Season 1 (30,36,3). So near, yet so far. Been one of those weeks I guess. 😭

🤬
Great season though tbf although it’s massively annoying that the NACL doesn’t seem to happen.

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3 minutes ago, Foxy said:

🤬
Great season though tbf although it’s massively annoying that the NACL doesn’t seem to happen.

Yeah, I was hopeful, but not even that hopeful. And I was flabbergasted when I saw how your tips panned out - just unbelievable. Goes to show how important the injury situation is. You had the number of goals spot on for the number of injuries. 

Hopefully he will keep scoring even as he slows down, because a lot of them are from corners and his heading is still strong.

Yeah, the NACL thing is annoying because that's the only chance to break out of the fairly boring US league. And also less games of course. I can't believe the NACL doesn't normally happen, so I'm thinking it might be because I have England loaded (only way to get Carroll) and the European CL is happening. Maybe it can only deal with one CL at a time? Who knows... I'm just making that up...

added 0 minutes later
5 minutes ago, Kanegan said:

Massive season. I am predicting 50,40 and 1

Thanks mate, it was indeed. I'd be super happy with 50 goals and 1 injury for Carroll in the next season, so I hope you're right! 😄

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@Scratch That is some season for Carroll with over double the goals of his previous season! And no injuries that's a surprise! 

I can't believe he's only scored 71 goals in his career for someone whose player over 10 years of football that shows how often he's out injured!!

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59 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Great season. I hope you could attract better players in the future. I’ll drop the prediction later

Thanks mate. I've picked up some good youngsters on sale in the off season. I think one is Adebayor's regen, but no matter who these are, they look good and give us a bit more depth. Then the core team is still developing so we're doing more than well enough for this league. Still can't help wanting better players though! 😄

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