Career Marko Arnautovic - Late Bloomer Challenge

[jthompy23]

Thanks to @Foxy for this challenge. Here is my attempt with Marko Arnautovic for PSG.

£61m it took to bring him to Paris from China. He only had 76 career goals so only 101 needed. Should be fairly routine, but something different for me as I usually don’t have anyone 30+ in my team, let alone sign them!

His stats are fairly decent and with the quality of players around him he should get plenty of chances.

[jthompy23]

Season 1

He began with the following stats.

I was unsure of the targets for the season I needed to do this challenge, but a big first season before his stats decline was what I needed. Unfortunately in the November he got injured on international duty and was pretty much out until after the winter break.

He came back in the second half of the season as we won the league and both cups domestically, including a hat trick in the French Cup Final against our rivals Marseille. No such luck in Europe as we exited the Champions League in the Round of 16 on away goals to RB Leipzig.

He finished the season the 2nd top scorer in the league with 21 behind Memphis Depay and 32 in all competitions.

So all in all, a decent first season with not as many goals as I would have liked for Arnautovic or for the team. We scored less than Lyon and Marseille. A few tweaks to the tactics for next season needed.

32/101 Goals

69 Needed

[FuddledFox]

Considering the injury that was a really good start mate.

[Ian]

A nice start and a good few of the goals grabbed already.

You certainly kept a nice tight defence too.

[jthompy23]

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

Considering the injury that was a really good start mate.

 

46 minutes ago, Ian said:

A nice start and a good few of the goals grabbed already.

You certainly kept a nice tight defence too.

I think sometimes with these sorts of challenges I’m guilty of expecting too much. If he doesn’t score in a game it’s annoying, and if he scores only 1 you feel like he should score 2 etc haha

[jthompy23]

Season 2

So at the start of Season 2 his stats have dropped slightly - dribbling, shooting, decisions, movement and pace. But he is still rated at 3 star and his value has gone up from £37.5m to £46m.

Target for the season is to get him to 30 goals again and if I’m being optimistic then maybe to equal/exceed last seasons total of 32.

The season started well with 2 goals for him in the Super Cup won over Lyon. I signed Haaland from Dortmund and intend to rotate them so I can use Arnautovic as a sub more and not run him into the ground as much like I did in the first season. 

This 4 goal haul against Amiens his standout game of the season and a big chunk added to his total. It was almost an injury free season, just a minor one in May that made him miss the end of the season.

Again domestically it was another great season, we went on to win the league comfortably achieving 10 points more than the previous season and also scoring 33 more goals. He also helped us to another win in the French Cup with a brace against Monaco in the final. But unfortunately away goals was the beating of us again in the Champions League, this time at the quarter final stage to Juventus/Zebre.

He scored 21 goals again in the league this season matching last seasons league total, but this season it was enough to give him the golden boot. 31 goals in all competitions with 1 less than last season

Overall another decent season, he played in more games although less minutes, and some of these were out wide when we had injuries. The more attacking tactic seemed to work in getting the team to score more goals. It’s just a shame he couldn’t play every game and Haaland took a lot of goals off him.

Season 1 - 32

Season 2 - 31

63/101 Goals

38 Needed

[jthompy23]

Season 3

His stats remained largely similar to last season, just his stamina dropping. Still rated at 3 stars and his value now £90m somehow.

My target would be another 30 goal season, although with only 38 need to get to the magic mark of 101 then maybe a good start and a bit of luck with injuries could see me challenge that this season.

Well an injury on international duty again during the summer meant he didn’t miss any games, but injuries aren’t ideal for players at that age and they don’t usually come back the same. Just the one injury during the season though where he was out for a couple of weeks.

So we had another fantastic season domestically winning the title convincingly, we also won the French cup with our man bagging 2 in the final, and we also exited the Champions League on away goals again! This time against Bayern in the quarters.

But after his best goal scoring season so far for the evergreen Marko Arnautovic, he finds himself on 35 goals heading into the final 2 games of the season, with only 3 needed to reach the holy grail of 101. Could he do it before the end of the season?

A favourable home game against Brest followed by a tough trip to Marseille. Well unfortunately *spoiler alert* he couldn’t. 1 goal from those final 2 games gave him 36 for the season. His best return, which came in the least appearances. 20 came in the league which put him 2nd in the golden boot behind Odsonne Edouard

Can’t have too many complaints with how the season went, although it would have been nice to box it off before the season ended. Fingers crossed he doesn’t suddenly retire in the summer!

Season 1 - 32

Season 2 - 31

Season 3 -36

99/101 Goals

2 Needed

[jthompy23]

Season 4

His technical stats dropped heading into this season and his age starting to show a little, fortunately only 2 more goals were needed to hit the target of 101 so the only question would be when would he do it.

Well in the Super Cup, he drew a blank, remaining on 99 goals. Was this going to be the start of a frustrating season? Then in the first league match of the season away at Montpellier this happened

A first half hat trick scoring goals 100, 101 and 102 in style. So there we have it, challenge complete! 

Season 1 - 32

Season 2 - 31

Season 3 - 36

Season 4 - 3*

102/101 Goals

Yet to decide whether I’ll carry on this save, I fancy attempting some different challenges but I may come back to it and see how many Arnautovic can score before retirement.

Overall pleased with it, but I could have set myself a more difficult target with an older player or lesser club which I’d maybe do next time.