Career Scratch Presents - The John Charles TT [Complete]

[Scratch]

14 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

 

Well done Scratch, looking good and some very impressive numbers, I'm sure you will have some luck as well as bad luck, but keep going mate very impressive!!

Thanks mate. Yeah from 0 injuries to 6! But that's football. I think I've maxed out what I can get from these lads now, so it's rinse and repeat for another 8 seasons or so...

[Scratch]

Update - Season 6

Last season was our best yet, but this season had just a hint of possible trouble to come.

We started shipping more goals. A couple of our older players (28-30) had their averages drop. And despite having a lot of big wins, it felt like we had more games where we struggled to convert our chances and had to scramble for a late win. It was still a great season, but I feel like changes will be necessary in season 7.

But... I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what happened in season 6.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Not much to report, at least according to the screenshot: We sold a couple of fringe players who didn't amount to much and brought in another promising youngster.

Not long after taking that screenshot, we sold a number of players: Haaland who was sick of warming the bench, Sterling and Bernardo Silva who both hit 30 and had their ratings drop, and Bailey who'd gone down the 'get injured and never recover my attributes' path.

I'm guessing they'll show up in next season's screenshot, but thought I mention them just in case. We have a bunch of players who've been on loan for a few years and are ready to take over from this lot.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year:

• We won the Euro Super Cup beating BMG 2-1.

• We won the Spanish Super Cup, beating Atletico Madrid 4-1 in the final.

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the final.

• We won the league, scoring 162 goals.

• We won the Champions League, beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the final.

• We LOST the Club World Championship Final, dominating PSG, but ultimately going down 2-0.

 

Injuries

Spoiler

To make up for an injury free season last time around, the FMM gods rained injuries down on the lads:

• Todibo: 1 month, 3 weeks.

• Martinez: 3 weeks, 10 days, a few days.

• Godfrey: 10 days.

Fortunately, most of them were short, so not much to complain about, all things considered.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Todibo down 1 Movement and Decisions as a result of the injuries. Martinez down 1 across a lot of attributes, including Movement and Shooting. Godfrey about the same as last season.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are there totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 34 goals from 51 games

• Martinez scored 37 goals from 51 games

• Godfrey scored 56 goals from 55 games

 

Totals

Season	Todibo	Martinez	Godfrey	TT Total
01	39	17	27	83
02	50	16	43	109
03	38	36	35	109
04	54	39	22	115
05	33	42	47	122
06	34	37	56	127
Total	248	187	230	665/1500

Our biggest season yet, but without the Club World Championship it would have been only 112 goals.

 

Looking Forward

A decent season, but as mentioned above we need to freshen things up a little. There's hardly anyone worth buying, so we'll give some of our youngsters a chance in the first team.

Apart from that, it's full steam ahead - we should pass the halfway mark next season!

 

[Scratch]

This has been a weird season - pretty much the same as last season (flakey at the back so lose the odd game, the lads on about the right pace for 120 goals), but then we've had 3 or 4 massive games like this:

The lads generally only share 3 to 4 goals a game tops, so getting a few where it breaks past that has been fantastic. That hasn't happened except in very rare cases in the past. Fingers crossed for 130 to 140 this season (but we'll have to wait and see).

[Rich]

Only just seeing the last season you had mate, a nice total there! Them games where they get more than 4/5 between them is great, shame it doesn’t happen more often. Looking forward to seeing how that season went 👍

[Scratch]

Thanks mate. I just added up and the lads are at 114 goals with 10 to 13 games to go. So hopefully we're looking at 130 to 140, which is a step up in a non CWC year. I don't think we've had any injuries this year though, so that could be part of the explanation but I feel like there' more to it. 

Actually the main change this year is that I've rested them a little more (ie not playing them unless 100%, whereas last year I pushed through some of that and just subbed them early). In the past I've thought keeping the player fresh helped - maybe it does. But who knows...

Edited September 25, 2020 by Scratch

[Scratch]

Update - Season 7

At this point of the save, one season seems like another. The lads had settled into a fairly consistent routine and I went into the season expecting more of the same. But as mentioned above, by the end of March the lads were on track for their biggest season yet.

Could they bring the season home with a big score? Or were injury and despair just around the corner? Let's see.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

I mentioned most of the outgoing transfers last update (as they happened at the end of last season). As I said then:

We sold a number of players: Haaland who was sick of warming the bench, Sterling and Bernardo Silva who both hit 30 and had their ratings drop, and Bailey who'd gone down the 'get injured and never recover my attributes' path.

And apart from that we sold a couple of fringe players and bought a young striker who will hopefully grow into the backup role that Haaland left empty.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year (not perfect for a change):

• We won the Euro Super Cup, but I missed the screenshot.

• We won the Spanish Super Cup, beating Real Madrid 3-1 in the final.

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Levante 4-1 in the final.

• We won the league, scoring 163 goals (beating our record by 1).

• We LOST the Champions League final, going down to 3-1 to Tottenham (and they had the better of the game).

   

Injuries

Our luck held up! After having a lot of injuries last year, we were injury free this season. The only 'injury' was an in-game one (ie has to come off, but no follow up injury) to Martinez, which knocked his condition down to 43% and meant he missed 2 games.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Todibo keeps getting better - his Shooting is up to 17 now and what a defender too! Martinez and Godfrey are finished development, but Martinez bounced back nicely from his injury last year (took all season to get back to the upgrade point).

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are there totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 47 goals from 54 games

• Martinez scored 43 goals from 51 games

• Godfrey scored 48 goals from 51 games

More even distribution this season, with Martinez taking a turn in the middle position (but he doesn't score as much as the other even when he has the best position). Also, I rested them slightly more often than in other years and I think keeping them fresh helped.

 

Totals

Season	Todibo	Martinez	Godfrey	TT Total
01	39	17	27	83
02	50	16	43	109
03	38	36	35	109
04	54	39	22	115
05	33	42	47	122
06	34	37	56	127
07	47	43	48	138
Total	295	230	278	803/1500

Our biggest season yet by some way and without the Club World Championship to boost the goals. They faded slightly at the end - I was targeting 140 and we fell short of that, but still it was a great season.

 

Looking Forward

We are past halfway now. If we average 120 to 130 per season, we'll need another 6 seasons to complete this. But with Martinez and Godfrey already 28, we'll have to see if we can maintain that sort of total once we get closer to the end. It could end up dragging out.

Anyway, all we can do is come back next year and hope for another one like this season.

 

[Rich]

Great season there mate, Todibo has definitely been having shooting practice with your keepers after training, 17 shooting now is very impressive. Hope you can get even more goals next season, impressive this mate 😁

[Ian]

Another two great seasons and things are looking good. Of course, a couple of them are getting nearer 30 so can’t take anything for granted just yet.

You’re doing a great job though but I am jealous of their shooting increases purely because I couldn’t get Vini’s to go up past 14 which did annoy me.

[Scratch]

On 26/09/2020 at 17:58, RichDave32 said:

Great season there mate, Todibo has definitely been having shooting practice with your keepers after training, 17 shooting now is very impressive. Hope you can get even more goals next season, impressive this mate 😁

Thanks mate. Todibo must be top class in this save. He's still getting a few percent after each good game and he's 27 now and this is at Barca where it it should be easier for players to reach their max - so only someone really good would still be developing. Still have him focused on Shooting too, so maybe there will be another bump (though he's had a few where it never moved). 

[Scratch]

21 hours ago, Ian said:

Another two great seasons and things are looking good. Of course, a couple of them are getting nearer 30 so can’t take anything for granted just yet.

You’re doing a great job though but I am jealous of their shooting increases purely because I couldn’t get Vini’s to go up past 14 which did annoy me.

Thanks mate. Yeah, the downward spiral will start soon, so I need a good couple seasons before that starts to bite too hard!

I've been focusing on their Shooting for some time now. They're all top class so they've had a bunch of updates and most of the time Shooting hasn't moved at all, but every so often it will increase. Pretty happy with them to be honest.

My biggest disappointment was that Aerial has hardly moved at all. I can get the backup strikers to improve, but not this lot. But it's all gravy at this point, I'd have been happy if they'd stopped developing a bit before now (though obviously happier that they've kept going). 

Did Vini get many updates? I have a feeling that even though he's younger than this lot, he is already a bit more developed at the start of the game. Maybe that makes it harder to improve attributes that aren't high. Though that doesn't really make sense as this lot all had poor shooting, so even if they had more development, they had further to improve. I guess it's a bit of a mystery why some players don't develop certain attributes. 🙁

[Scratch]

On 27/09/2020 at 02:35, Ian said:

You’re doing a great job though but I am jealous of their shooting increases purely because I couldn’t get Vini’s to go up past 14 which did annoy me.

LoL about an hour after my previous message Todibo reached the update he's been working towards all season and he got +1 for .... Passing. That's it. Target attribute of Shooting, but that didn't move. Training as a TM, but Aerial didn't move. Just Passing... 

[Ian]

On 27/09/2020 at 15:32, Scratch said:

Did Vini get many updates? I have a feeling that even though he's younger than this lot, he is already a bit more developed at the start of the game. Maybe that makes it harder to improve attributes that aren't high. Though that doesn't really make sense as this lot all had poor shooting, so even if they had more development, they had further to improve. I guess it's a bit of a mystery why some players don't develop certain attributes. 🙁

I’m not sure about how many updates he had but he was very good at the start and close to turning 19 I think so it could be that. I think I might’ve tried to focus on his movement first which might’ve been a bad move but then again, if I started again now and did everything the same I’m sure this time his shooting could easily increase. Just one of this things I’m sure but luckily it didn’t hinder him too much. 

[Scratch]

On 29/09/2020 at 04:03, Ian said:

I’m not sure about how many updates he had but he was very good at the start and close to turning 19 I think so it could be that. I think I might’ve tried to focus on his movement first which might’ve been a bad move but then again, if I started again now and did everything the same I’m sure this time his shooting could easily increase. Just one of this things I’m sure but luckily it didn’t hinder him too much. 

Yeah, some of the better players have less room to move. But as you say, surely it could have gotten better than 14 if things had been done in a different order or the FMM Gods of Chance had smiled on him a little more. Anyway, he got the job done, which is all we can ask of them in the end!

[Scratch]

Update - Season 8

Last season was the one where everything clicked and we posted our highest total (138 goals).

Naturally we went into this season hoping to equal or better that, so the question at hand is whether we could - or whether it was a mediocre season where we struggled to get anywhere near that...

Cue ominous music... All will be revealed shortly.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Two players of note leaving this year:

• Upamecano who hadn't developed as well as I'd hoped.

• Cuisance (not shown) who got upset and had to be traded away as a make weight in a deal for a player I didn't particularly want.

The two players coming in are youngsters. There's no one else to buy at this point, but quite a few players are edging towards 30, so need to bring some youngsters through.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year:

• No Euro Super Cup for us this year. 🙁

• We won the Spanish Super Cup, beating Atletico Madrid 3-2 in the final (their two goals coming in stoppage time).

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Real Madrid 4-0 in the final.

• We won the league, but only scored 133 goals, 30 less than last year (is this a hint as to how our season went?).

• We won the Champions League, beating Tottenham 3-2 in the final.

   

Injuries

Spoiler

Two injuries this season: A two month injury for Godfrey and a few days out for Martinez.

 

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Not much to note.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are there totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 33 goals from 53 games

• Martinez scored 40 goals from 50 games

• Godfrey scored 38 goals from 46 games

Not our best effort.

 

Totals

Season	Todibo	Martinez	Godfrey	TT Total
01	39	17	27	83
02	50	16	43	109
03	38	36	35	109
04	54	39	22	115
05	33	42	47	122
06	34	37	56	127
07	47	43	48	138
08	33	40	38	111
Total	328	270	316	914/1500

I have no explanation for why the total is so much lower than last year as I didn't change anything... Godfrey's injury counts for something, but I'm not sure it explains the overall dip (eg Todibo scored a lot less than last year).

 

Looking Forward

All in all it was a disappointing season - not terrible, but not at the level I was expecting - but all we can do is come back next year and keep pushing forward. So that's what we'll do...

 

[Rich]

Nice season there Scratch, always disappointing when the goals drop unexpectedly, I’m sure they can pick it up next season do you. 
 

Upamecano Is a weird one, I had used him a few months back but he didn’t develop like I wanted, but the last two Dave’s I’ve had he’s turned in to a beast. 
 

Good luck mate, you’ll get that 1500 I’m sure, be an impressive tally with 3 defenders!

[Scratch]

14 minutes ago, RichDave32 said:

Nice season there Scratch, always disappointing when the goals drop unexpectedly, I’m sure they can pick it up next season do you. 
 

Upamecano Is a weird one, I had used him a few months back but he didn’t develop like I wanted, but the last two Dave’s I’ve had he’s turned in to a beast. 
 

Good luck mate, you’ll get that 1500 I’m sure, be an impressive tally with 3 defenders!

Thanks mate. The goals did come back early the next season, but we'll have to see if that lasts the whole season through. I've started playing with the roles and instructions again, which is most likely a bad sign!

Upamecano was actually pretty good in this save, just didn't develop to the level of the players I started with like Varane. Upa had Positioning of 18 and Decisions of 13 and really wanted both of those higher. He was fast though (16), which was good for a few seasons, but Konate is as fast and has better Positioning and Decisions, so is the clear number 1. Then two of the youngsters are getting close to Upa's level and need to play, so time to give up on him given he wasn't improving anymore.

[smoggy90]

Hopefully you’ll bounce back in season 9 mate but still going great. I guess inconsistency is bound to creep in when using 3 defenders up top but your goals total is still fantastic!

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Hopefully you’ll bounce back in season 9 mate but still going great. I guess inconsistency is bound to creep in when using 3 defenders up top but your goals total is still fantastic!

Thanks mate! This season has been better. But we'll see. All in all I have to be pretty happy with the lads!

[Kanegan]

Still getting some great numbers here Scratch despite the injuries. Well done. 

[Scratch]

11 minutes ago, Kanegan said:

Still getting some great numbers here Scratch despite the injuries. Well done. 

Thanks Kane. Yeah the two month injury for Godfrey this season was annoying, but... well I can't complain overall - the injuries haven't been too bad apart from that 4 month injury a few seasons back. The rest have mostly been reasonable. I even had 2 whole seasons injury free (across 3 players, amazing!)

[Scratch]

Update - Season 9

Last season was fairly mediocre for no apparent reason, so we were hoping to get back to our more free scoring ways. The good news is that we did - though once again, it was for no apparent reason.

 

Tactics

Despite the goals coming coming back, I decided to go ahead and tweak the tactic a little anyway, making the following changes:

• Changed TM T TM to TM AF TM: This seemed to result in more goals for the AF, although there were still some games where they get 0 shots on targets. I guess it just depends on the oppositions formation.

• Changed Short Passing to Mixed and Run with Ball to Play Through Balls: I feel like this results in a higher percentage of goals going to the lads (maybe less goals overall), but it's really hard to tell.

It's just so hard to tell if these changes are working or not. Sometimes it looks like they are, sometimes like they're not... I think I will use these for the all of next season so I can see their effect over a whole season.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

No-one coming in this year and three players of note leaving:

• Tierney and de Jong - both 29 and time to leave before it becomes impossible to shift them

• Nubel - a promising youngster who'd been successful on loan. I wanted to keep him, but I forgot to give him a new contract with a higher minimum release fee (compulsory in Spain) after his loan. There was nothing I could do to stop him leaving once the vultures swooped - he wasn't interested in a new contract by then.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year:

• We won the Euro Super Cup, beating Valencia 3-2.

• We won the Spanish Super Cup, beating Real Madrid 3-0 in the final.

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Real Hispalis (I think that's Betis?) 5-0 in the final.

• We won the league, but scoring 143 goals - 10 better than last year, but still 20 fewer than our best.

• We got knocked out of the Champions League at the semi final stage, Tottenham beating us 4-3 over two legs.

   

Injuries

Spoiler

Two injuries this season: A 2 week injury for Godfrey and a 3 week injury for Martinez.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Both Martinez and Godfrey lost a little due to injury and at 30 years of age, they may not get it back again.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are their totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 46 goals from 53 games

• Martinez scored 35 goals from 46 games

• Godfrey scored 58 goals from 50 games

A much better season.

 

Totals

Season	Todibo	Martinez	Godfrey	TT Total
01	39	17	27	83
02	50	16	43	109
03	38	36	35	109
04	54	39	22	115
05	33	42	47	122
06	34	37	56	127
07	47	43	48	138
08	33	40	38	111
09	46	35	58	139
Total	374	305	374	1053/1500

Best season so far (even if only just).

 

Looking Forward

We'll stick with the new tactics and hope for a big season next year. We only need 447 goals, but with two of the lads now 30, I'm not sure how long we have left until the yearly total starts to shrink. Also, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and sell some more of our aging stars.

But for now, let's just enjoy the off season.

 

[Rich]

Great season for the boys Scratch, looks like the change in the tactic could get you to the 1500 faster, hopefully they have another couple of seasons like this at least and you’ll be very close to the target then! Doing really well 👍

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Great season for the boys Scratch, looks like the change in the tactic could get you to the 1500 faster, hopefully they have another couple of seasons like this at least and you’ll be very close to the target then! Doing really well 👍

Thanks mate, the tactic is looking okay at the moment, but Martinez has declined a little (Movement and Shooting down one each to 18 and 13 respectively) and that wasn't from injury. So I'm hoping he holds it together as long as possible...

[Scratch]

Update - Season 10

We went into this season with the aim of trying the tweaked tactic (details last update) for a full season to see it's effect.

The short answer is: It works really well, resulting in slightly more goals, especially to the person in the central AF position. At least that's how it panned out this season, which turned out to be our best ever. The CWC helped a lot, but it would still have been our best season (just) without that.

Anyway, here's how the season went.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

We continued selling players who'd reached 28 or 29, to make room for our youngsters. No one wanted TAA, Pulisic or Konate, so I used them in exchanges for some rookies. Miranda and Benzema went before they too were impossible to sell. And one of our 'failed' youngsters, Ruiz, went for £75M.

We also had a couple of players leave at the end of the season. We let 30 yo Havertz' contract run down and he moved to PSG, then promptly scored a hat-trick against us in the CWC Final. And ter Stegen retired, triggering my son's arrival at the club - but we'll have to see if he has any future with us or not.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year:

• No Euro Super Cup this year.

• We won the Spanish Super Cup, beating Real Hispalis (Betis) 8-0 in the final.

• We got knocked out of the Spanish Cup in the fifth round, going down 4-3 to Racing Santander, despite dominating them.

• We won the league, scoring 158 goals, just short of our best.

• We won the Champions League, beating PSG in the final - we needed a goal 3 minutes into stoppage time to force extra time, but then we ran away with it, finishing with 6 goals to 2.

• We won the Club World Championship, beating PSG 4-3 in the final (despite Havertz scoring that hat-trick) - but more importantly, racked up another 19 goals for the TT.

   

Injuries

Spoiler

Martinez was the only one to get injured this year: a 3 week injury in July that caused him to miss the first couple of games of the season; then a month long injury in the middle of the CWC at the end of the season. The timing wasn't too bad, but at this stage any injury can lead to a permanent reduction in attributes.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Both Martinez and Godfrey lost a little due to injury. Martinez earned some back, as you can see, but that screenshot is from before his CWC injury, which knocked him down again.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are their totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 47 goals from 57 games

• Martinez scored 42 goals from 54 games

• Godfrey scored 71 goals from 54 games

As mentioned our best season ever. They played more games than ever and while the left and right TMs (Todibo and Martinez) maintained their ratios, the central AF (Godfrey) had an incredible ratio.

 

Totals

Season	Todibo	Martinez	Godfrey	TT Total
01	39	17	27	83
02	50	16	43	109
03	38	36	35	109
04	54	39	22	115
05	33	42	47	122
06	34	37	56	127
07	47	43	48	138
08	33	40	38	111
09	46	35	58	139
10	47	42	71	160
Total	421	347	445	1213/1500

 

Looking Forward

This season was just what we needed at this point. Even if the lads attributes drop off a cliff, we should still have enough to make it home. If their decline is gentle, we're probably looking at 3 more seasons. But I guess at this point of the save we need to take it one season at a time...

 

[Rich]

Great season mate, Goodfrey really smashing the goals in and 160 between them is a great score, hard to believe there defenders getting them stats for you, hope they keep it up for you😁

[Kun Aguero]

Wow insane numbers from Godfrey 😮

Maybe this save is the reason why Everton buy him IRL 😂

[Scratch]

20 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Great season mate, Goodfrey really smashing the goals in and 160 between them is a great score, hard to believe there defenders getting them stats for you, hope they keep it up for you😁

Yeah, that was Godfrey's season to shine. Seems to have dropped off a bit in the next season. Be just my luck to finally come up with the tactic to hit some bigger numbers, only for them to be too old for it to be really effective.. 😄

[Scratch]

19 hours ago, Kun Aguero said:

Wow insane numbers from Godfrey 😮

Maybe this save is the reason why Everton buy him IRL 😂

Yeah that was some season alright! But even though the earlier seasons weren't as good, they were enough for Carlo to give me a call. I told him he had to ease Godfrey into the striker role and have patience with him, but that eventually everyone will be like "Dominic Calvert-Who?" and Godfrey will be the one they adore...

[George Traistă]

These are not defenders at all, I need to show these stats to my lads in my TT, they need to step up their game :))

Good job!

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, George Traistă said:

These are not defenders at all, I need to show these stats to my lads in my TT, they need to step up their game :))

Good job!

Thanks mate. Yeah to be fair, even though the game still treats them as defenders, their attributes are not those of defenders. Not exactly the classic striker shape either, but some sort of hybrid equally effective at either end of the pitch...