Career Scratch Presents - The John Charles TT [Complete]

[Aaron Thornton]

Three top drawer Box to Box defenders/strikers😂, the best mix of all, 8 more players like them and you'll be the next Ajax Total Football side

[George Traistă]

12 minutes ago, Scratch said:

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...

I'm sure that on a team of the season graphic the game will always put them on the defender spot 😀

[Scratch]

17 hours ago, Aaron Thornton said:

Three top drawer Box to Box defenders/strikers😂, the best mix of all, 8 more players like them and you'll be the next Ajax Total Football side

Hmm, now I'm wondering about taking 5 defenders and training them as strikers and 5 strikers and training them as defenders and seeing what happens! 😄

[Scratch]

17 hours ago, George Traistă said:

I'm sure that on a team of the season graphic the game will always put them on the defender spot 😀

Yep! Although a couple of times all 3 got into the team of the season and it put two down the back and one up front! But if only two make it, then they are definitely in the defenders position. Both Godfrey and Martinez are described as "Legendary centre-back" even though they have 300 to 400 goals each... 

[Scratch]

Update - Season 11

Last season was massive, thanks to us finally settling on a tactic! However, with the players starting to age, the question was whether we could repeat it. Read on to find out how it went.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Not much to mention this year: Moriba had been a fringe player for years and finally got pushed out; Gregoritsch was a youngster who didn't quite make it (though good enough to fetch £70M!); and Havertz left on a free as mentioned last update.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year (back to winning everything after a couple of off years):

• We won the Euro Super Cup, beating Juve 5-1, with a bonus red card for Martinez.

• We won the Spanish Super Cup, beating Real Madrid 5-2 in the final.

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Malaga 6-0 in the final.

• We won the league, scoring 160 goals.

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

   

Injuries

Spoiler

• Todibo had three injuries: 1 month; 10 days; a few days

• Godfrey had a 3 week injury

• Martinez got off injury free

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

All the lads are losing some attributes due to age and injury, but still look pretty good for now. I guess this is one area where I'm happy they are defenders, as hopefully they will degrade later than strikers would! 🤞

 

Goals

Here are their totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 26 goals from 42 games

• Martinez scored 49 goals from 52 games

• Godfrey scored 49 goals from 50 games

Godfrey started slowly, but finished strongly to have a good season (but significantly less goals than last year's 71). Todibo's season was interrupted by the injuries and it turned out be his worst season ever. Martinez on the other hand stepped up a bit, having his best season ever.

 

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
11	26	49	49	124
Total	447	396	494	1337/1500

A good season, but down on the past few seasons.

 

Looking Forward

The lads are holding it together and while they'll surely degrade over the next couple of years, with only 163 goals to go, I'm hoping we can wrap it up in the next two seasons.

 

[George Traistă]

I see that two of them decided to hang up the boots but you have plenty of time to complete the challenge. I like that the goals overall are evenly distributed between them, only 100 goals difference between the highest scorer and the lowest

[Scratch]

5 minutes ago, George Traistă said:

I see that two of them decided to hang up the boots but you have plenty of time to complete the challenge. I like that the goals overall are evenly distributed between them, only 100 goals difference between the highest scorer and the lowest

Good pick up! Yeah, I gave them all new 5 year contracts this season and the older two decided that would be it. Shouldn't need that of course - I expect to be gone before they are! 

And yeah, they are pretty even. Early on it was clear Martinez was some way behind the other two, but he stepped up and has been providing 40 goals consistently since then, and for most of this year he felt like the number one threat.

[smoggy90]

Awesome season ten mate and you’re ever so close now. What an achievement it will be!

[Scratch]

20 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Awesome season ten mate and you’re ever so close now. What an achievement it will be!

Thanks mate. Just about to post this season and a tactic tweak gave me a boost...

Edited October 10, 2020 by Scratch

[Aaron Thornton]

So we could see the challenge wrapped up today😉 I'm excited, great career with your three all-rounders

[Scratch]

Update - Season 12

Here we are in season 12 and we have only 163 goals to go. Getting close, but we're at the point where the lads are slowing down - or are we?

 

Tactics

First, let's talk tactics. It's been a while since I shared the tactic with you, so here's a reminder:

Originally I was using Short, Run With Ball and Work into the Box. A few seasons back I changed it to Mixed, Through Balls and Work into the Box, while at the same time changing from TM T TM upfront to TM AF TM. That change seemed to unlock some more goals for us.

All the way through that period, we were playing Attacking, Balanced Width and Freedom and Normal Tempo. I thought that was it for me, but at the start of these season I did an experiment: I played 2 games using Defensive, 2 using Control and 2 using Overloading. Any ideas as to which worked out best?

Well, Defensive and Control didn't seem to make much difference, but one of the Overloading games saw a lot more goals:

I thought I'd keep using that for a while longer to see how it went. Long story short - I used it for the whole season and we're scored way more goals than our next best season. Not all of them went to the lads, but they equalled their second biggest season, even though they are supposed to be slowing down. If only we found this tweak 10 seasons ago!

Also I gotta show this game here:

Sometimes we shipped a bunch (although we conceded less than a goal per game in the league), but boy could we score too! 

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Really not much to mention this year. Sold one fringe player, but he's not real, so probably of no interest.

 

Results

Spoiler

Here are our results for this year:

• We won the Euro Super Cup, beating Real Madrid 2-0.

• We got knocked out of the Spanish Super Cup in the semi, losing to Sevilla on penalties after a 4-4 draw.

• We won the Spanish Cup, thumping Getafe 8-2 in the final (6 for the lads!).

• We won the league, scoring 184 goals, 21 more than our best in this save.

• We won the Champions League, beating Manchester United 3-1 in the final.

   

Injuries

Spoiler

A good year for injuries, with Todibo getting a 3 week injury, Godfrey only getting an in-game injury, and Martinez getting off scot free.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

I'm really happy with the shape they're in. They've all lost a little pace and stamina, but they all still look really good, certainly better than other players I've had in the past. I guess defenders really do age more slowly...

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are their totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 36 goals from 48 games

• Martinez scored 51 goals from 53 games

• Godfrey scored 52 goals from 53 games

Just superb fellas.

 

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
11	26	49	49	124
12	36	51	52	139
Total	483	447	546	1476/1500

 

Looking Forward

Barring 3 broken spines, we're certain to wrap this up next season.

I'm in a slightly strange place, where this season was very enjoyable (it had been dragging before that), so there's a slight temptation to play on. That said, there are bunch of other things I want to try, but can't until this is finished (or I will never come back to this). But what I'm most likely to do is pack it in for a while and get my app finished instead (can't work on it while I have a real save going, too much chance of accidently using it).

So, probably I'm about to head into my last season in this save...

 

[Scratch]

12 minutes ago, Aaron Thornton said:

So we could see the challenge wrapped up today😉 I'm excited, great career with your three all-rounders

Thanks mate, but couldn't get it quite wrapped up. So I'll be back again one more time in a few days... 🙂

Edited October 10, 2020 by Scratch

[Aaron Thornton]

What a season and the amount of league goals in particular is huge, 24 goals to go, I envision 3 shock retirements next season 😂😂 great work and barring any disasters you'll have this wrapped up by game 8 of next season, really good stuff and it's been fun to follow

[Scratch]

1 minute ago, Aaron Thornton said:

What a season and the amount of league goals in particular is huge, 24 goals to go, I envision 3 shock retirements next season 😂😂 great work and barring any disasters you'll have this wrapped up by game 8 of next season, really good stuff and it's been fun to follow

LoL, don't bring up shock retirements! Been burnt before. Actually it would just take one of them to do it and I wouldn't be able to finish the TT (I think). Now, I'm not gonna sleep tonight! Nah, I think it should be pretty straightforward... 

[George Traistă]

Well done!! As you said, if you pause this to take on other career you won't come back so think twice if you want to end it or play on until one of the boys retires. 

[Rob]

Nailing it.

[Kanegan]

Fantastic career. You are sure to wrap this up next season. 

[Scratch]

15 hours ago, George Traistă said:

Well done!! As you said, if you pause this to take on other career you won't come back so think twice if you want to end it or play on until one of the boys retires. 

Thanks mate. Yeah, that's right. As soon as I pause, it's totally done! But I think this might be a good last season, before things start getting grim with their arrtributes! 

[Scratch]

9 hours ago, Rob said:

Nailing it.

Thanks mate. It's been an up and down career and I feel like I finally have the optimal tactic for 3 up front, just as the lads reach 33 years of age! 🤣

added 0 minutes later

3 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Fantastic career. You are sure to wrap this up next season. 

Thanks mate, haven't added it up, but I probably have already! Not that I'm too far into the season, but the boys ain't slowing down...

[smoggy90]

Excellent season mate, 184 goals in the league is a massive return and looks like you’ve nailed that tactic. Congrats and look forward to you bringing it home next season. 

[Scratch]

4 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Excellent season mate, 184 goals in the league is a massive return and looks like you’ve nailed that tactic. Congrats and look forward to you bringing it home next season. 

Thanks mate, yeah, I think this is a really good tactic - part of me is happy that step by step I've arrived here, and part of me is peeved that took 12 seasons! 🤣

[Rob]

I reckon a good proportion of your enjoyment from this will be the development of a tactic during it, so I wouldn’t be too peeved. Those careers where anyone uses a ready made tactic and grinds through ain’t half as fun as one where you step in to an unknown world and develop something in it. 

[Scratch]

38 minutes ago, Rob said:

I reckon a good proportion of your enjoyment from this will be the development of a tactic during it, so I wouldn’t be too peeved. Those careers where anyone uses a ready made tactic and grinds through ain’t half as fun as one where you step in to an unknown world and develop something in it. 

Yeah, I'm not too peeved. I quite enjoyed developing and tweaking the tactic. I just would have preferred perfecting it in say season 8, so I had the chance to use it for a couple of seasons while the lads were still in their prime. But it's all just part of the adventure...

[Scratch]

Update - Season 13

With only 24 goals needed to reach the TT target, this will be the last season of the save. The only question is just how far past the 1500 mark we can get. Let's see, shall we?

 

Tactics

I used the same tactic from last season, so won't repeat it, but boy is it effective - I'd love to have seen what these guys could have achieved if I'd been using it a little earlier!

 

Transfers

Spoiler

I knew this was the last year of the save, so no point buying anyone. I sold a couple of fringe players and loaned a few more out, as they were only going to complain about lack of football if I didn't. If I'd been playing on I might have kept some and sold some of the older players like Bellingham, but there didn't seem to be any point in doing that.

 

Results

Spoiler

 

Here are our results for this year:

• We won the Euro Super Cup, beating Dortmund 4-3.

• We lost the final of Spanish Super Cup, going down 3-1 to Getafe, despite having 29 shots to 10!

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Atletico 5-4 in the final.

• We won the league, scoring 185 goals, 1 more than last year and the new best for this save.

• We won the Champions League, beating Zenit 3-1 in the final.

A shame we couldn't win it all in our last season, but still an excellent season.

 

Injuries

Spoiler

Only one injury this year, with Todibo getting a month long injury.

 

Development

They ended the career looking like this:

Fantastic considering their age, but the main concern being the lost physical attributes. Turns out the lack of pace doesn't really matter with this tactic (I guess they are all in the box most of the time), but the lack of stamina did affect both Martinez and Godfrey. By the end, I was having to sub them off at around 55 the minute mark. They also lost a lot of Movement, but it didn't affect them much.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are their totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 49 goals from 50 games

• Martinez scored 34 goals from 52 games

• Godfrey scored 62 goals from 51 games

Outstanding!

 

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
11	26	49	49	124
12	36	51	52	139
13	49	34	62	145
Total	532	481	608	1621/1500

WTF fellas? That's your best non CWC season ever. I thought you were slowing down?

 

Looking Forward

So, there you go... A great season to finish off and time to go out on a high!

Overall it was an interesting save with quite a few ups and downs. I spent half the save frustrated because I felt I should be able to get more out of them - and only worked out how to actually do so in the last couple of seasons when they were no longer in their prime. There was a lot of enjoyment as well. It was nice change to manage a truly big club and be able to buy some of the top stars. I'm really happy to finally have a TT to my name. And although it was frustrating, it was actually good that I had to really work at this rather than just have it all fall into place.

That said, it's time to draw this to a close. There's no challenge left in this anymore, except to see what the biggest number they can get is, and that's not enough to keep me going this time around. There are other things to do!

You probably won't see me with another career write up for a while though. I need to play a cheat career to try to finish off the development of my scouting app. I've been putting it off for months because I've enjoyed playing real careers too much!

Thanks everyone for reading and posting - I really appreciate your support! Till next time... 😄

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by Scratch

[George Traistă]

Well done!! I think your next one, like myself, will be straight to FMM21. 

[Aaron Thornton]

Great ending to a great career, really enjoyed seeing how much you could score with defenders, very impressive stuff Martinez was the main creator, Godfrey a goal machine and Todibo was a mix of both, who was your favourite out of the three? 

[Scratch]

9 minutes ago, George Traistă said:

Well done!! I think your next one, like myself, will be straight to FMM21. 

Thanks mate! We'll have to see when it comes out! 😄 I probably won't do a big one until FMM21, but I might do a small one if it doesn't come out until December. We'll see!

[Scratch]

10 minutes ago, Aaron Thornton said:

Great ending to a great career, really enjoyed seeing how much you could score with defenders, very impressive stuff Martinez was the main creator, Godfrey a goal machine and Todibo was a mix of both, who was your favourite out of the three? 

Thanks mate! To be honest, I forgot they were even defenders when doing the write up. They were good enough to be strikers at a top club, even if they were unusually good on the defensive side! 

I changed around who was in each position a lot, but Martinez was consistently the lowest scorer and the highest assister wherever he played, so I guess that was his natural role in the trio.

Godfrey was on penalties all the way through after the initial test - without that, Todibo probably would have scored more than him. That said, Todibo was a better scorer early in the career and had a few season where he struggled later on. In contrast, it felt like Godfrey really hit his stride later in the career and clearly the best goal scorer even taking pens into account.

Todibo was my early favourite and was the most impressive over the course of the career, when you adjust for penalties and take both goals and assists into account, but ... I'd have to say Godfrey was my overall favourite, just because he was the killer goal scorer when everything came together at the end... 

[Kun Aguero]

Fantastic achievement! Congrats!

[Scratch]

12 minutes ago, Kun Aguero said:

Fantastic achievement! Congrats!

Thanks mate!