Career Scratch Presents - The John Charles TT [Complete]

[Scratch]

On 12/09/2020 at 00:25, Aaron Thornton said:

Brilliant first two seasons mate, with the players and team as a whole improving you won't be too far off hitting 130+ goals a season very soon, KIU mate your smashing it

Thanks mate! I can only dream of that day at the moment, not quite happening for me right now... But I'll stick with it until we finish this one way or another...

[Scratch]

On 12/09/2020 at 00:56, RichDave32 said:

Great season mate, it’s only going to go from strength to strength and especially when you find the right tactic😁

Thanks mate. But there's a typo in what you wrote. Better cross out "when" and replace it with "if"... 🤣

Still struggling to come up with something. I try a tactic and it looks good, then I drop £190M on a player to support that formation and then it stops working... 🤦‍♂️  Rinse and repeat...

Edited September 14, 2020 by Scratch

[Scratch]

On 12/09/2020 at 01:26, Kanegan said:

Great season mate getting over 100 goals.

Thank mate. But in truth La Liga doesn't look too strong and and I've got world class players (real ones, not regens I've grown) so I'm hoping OI can push that number higher - struggling a little at the moment.

added 0 minutes later

On 12/09/2020 at 20:13, smoggy90 said:

Great start to the challenge mate and despite that bad injury there’s definitely progress. I can see a truckload of goals in the seasons to come for these guys. 

Thanks mate. I sure hope so! 

[Scratch]

Update - Season 3

At the end of last season I said the targets for this season were: "we want to bed down a tactic, minimize the number of goals going to other players and push the number of goals up above 120".

I'd love to say 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Or even 1 out of 3 ain't bad. Sadly, I can't...

 

Tactics

I tried so hard to make the asymmetrical tactic I showed last time work. Here it is again (though it's the mirror version and I mostly went with DF TM DF):

Spoiler

I even spent £190M on a player for the RW position. But after a full 6 months with it, I decided I had to abandon it as the lads weren't scoring enough. We'd get 20 to 30 shots on goal, but would only score 3 to 4 and generally less than half of those would go to the strikers. Here's their form after the first 15 games:

Spoiler

I tried going back to some of the tactics I used previously, but they didn't work any better either. I tried going with Defensive and Control for a while, to stop the midfielders scoring so much, but once again, mixed success and nothing reliable. This what I'm using right now, but I won't stick with it:

Spoiler

I'm afraid it's back to the drawing board at this point.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

 

I'm still clearing out useless players from the second team. It's amazing how many mediocre players are at this club. Also, it seems in Spain the game ignores you when you tell it which promoted players to keep - instead you get all of them and have to manually release the ones you don't want.

Of the big names going out: Berge got upset about playing time and would not settle down, so I had to let him leave; while, Wague, Firpo, Arthur and Ruiz made way for better options (mostly brought in last season).

The players coming in were all young hopefuls, except for the £190M man, Sterling. I've never been the biggest fan of him in the game and avoided him for years, but he runs with the ball down the right and hugs the line, so I brought him in for the now abandoned AMR winger role. I had been using KDB there, but despite having good Crossing, he kept wandering over to the box...

 

Results

Spoiler

We won everything this year:

• We won the Euro Super Cup beating Tottenham 3-0.

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

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Getafe 3-0 in the final.

• We won the league, scoring 124 goals (10 down on last season).

• We won the Champions League, beating Dortmund 4-0 in the final.

 

Injuries

Todibo had a month long injury and Godfrey had short injury (removed from training, didn't say how long):

Spoiler

Also, Todibo (once) and Godfrey (twice) had in game injuries (ie no follow up message or injury, just low condition), but I didn't bother screenshotting this time around.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this - a small improvement on last year, Movement looking good, Shooting too low, not very striker shaped:

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are there totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 38 goals from 45 games

• Martinez scored 36 goals from 49 games

• Godfrey scored 35 goals from 45 games

Much more balanced between the players than last season, but less than I was expecting at this stage.

 

Totals

Season	Todibo	Martinez	Godfrey	TT Total
01	39	17	27	83
02	50	16	43	109
03	38	36	35	109
Total	127	69	105	301/1500

 

Looking Forward

So, we didn't bed down a tactic, or get to 120 goals, or minimize the number of goals going to other players.

I can't say that it was a bad season necessarily, but it was a frustrating one. What can I do but come back and try again next season - so I'll see you then...

 

[RichD]

That’s a good season in my eyes mate, especially when you have the centre backs by trade doing the business, still over a 100 goals for them and not far off your 120 target. It’s so hard to create a tactic that works, I’m sure you’ll crack it in time 😁

[Scratch]

4 minutes ago, RichDave32 said:

That’s a good season in my eyes mate, especially when you have the centre backs by trade doing the business, still over a 100 goals for them and not far off your 120 target. It’s so hard to create a tactic that works, I’m sure you’ll crack it in time 😁

Yeah, my brain tells me that when I look at it, but it just didn't feel like that during the season!

It might be partly because I normally start at teams which can't afford KDB, etc, or anyone anywhere near that level, so I almost always go the 'young players and develop them' route, and when you get the whole team levelling up one after another, the second and third seasons normally see a big improvement in goals. Of course this time around I'm not getting that boost.

But also it's the sorts of goals that are going in. There are a lot where there is a ball into the box, it rebounds out and a CM smashes it in from 30 yards. I guess I'm used to seeing my strikers head those in, but it's much rarer here (I guess I need more Aerial, but they aren't developing it much this save). 

And also I'm a bit spoilt because with my DT I came across a tactic that got insane amounts of goals for the stikers (180 between them at some points!), so really hard to come back to earth here. And to not be able to find a solution to these problems (yet). 

Anyway, hopefully I'll improve it a little. 120 is my target for now and if I get that, we'll see where it goes!

[Ian]

I think they’re doing well. Yes, they look good now in some ways but they’re still centre backs and two of them have less than great shooting.

All in all, great stuff and just need to keep going now.

 

[Scratch]

19 hours ago, Ian said:

I think they’re doing well. Yes, they look good now in some ways but they’re still centre backs and two of them have less than great shooting.

All in all, great stuff and just need to keep going now.

 

Thanks mate. You're right of course. But I'm still trying to squeeze more goals out of them!

I've tried about 10 different attacking tactics in the first half of the season and I'm currently on my most attacking one yet:

I tried something like that, except two upfront, in my DT, and it worked okay (not as good as my eventual tactic). With three up front it can be a little hit and miss. We get more goals and a good chunk go to the three lads (they are all subbed in that screenshot), but you can concede a lot and have to swap tactics mid game. We'll see how it goes, I might not stick with it.

[Cockers2505]

On 14/09/2020 at 06:41, Scratch said:

Looking Forward

So, we didn't bed down a tactic, or get to 120 goals, or minimize the number of goals going to other players.

I can't say that it was a bad season necessarily, but it was a frustrating one. What can I do but come back and try again next season - so I'll see you then...

Bad season!!! have you gone stark raving mad!!! there are some that would love these numbers with 3 perfectly good strikers, you are doing it with 3 perfectly good defenders! Really impressed, you make this look to easy, my challenge is can you do it with Stalybridge Celtic (VNN) or Las Palmas in the Spanish second division 🤣 o now that is a challenge...

Edited September 16, 2020 by Cockers2505

[Scratch]

6 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

Bad season!!! have you gone stark raving mad!!! there are some that would love these numbers with 3 perfectly good strikers, you are doing it with 3 perfectly good defenders! Really impressed, you make this look to easy, my challenge is can you do it with Stalybridge Celtic (VNN) or Las Palmas in the Spanish second division 🤣 o now that is a challenge...

Haha, yeah I might have lost it a while ago now...

It's all relative I guess. I would have been over the moon with these numbers a couple of years ago, but I'm coming off the back of a career where I did the DT in 10 seasons and some years the strikers combined for 180+ goals. I somehow thought that I should at least equal that with 3 strikers, but it turns out I'm having a lot more trouble with 3. The DT really took off when I found the the right tactic, which is why I keep searching for one that works better for a TT.

So yeah, I'm doing pretty well here I guess, it just doesn't feel like it. Good to see the game doesn't always just roll over and let you break it! 

I have thought about a lower leagues 1KC, but I think it would be hard to find the right player who'd be available at the start, but have enough quality to do it once you got promoted all the way... Might be more feasible in Wales or Australia or Ireland or something (ie top level of a weak league). 

[Scratch]

Update - Season 4

We go into season 4 aiming to bed down a tactic, minimize the number of goals going to other players and push the number of goals up above 120. I think we made progress towards all of those, but I'm not sure any can be called a success - though I did eventually settle on a primary tactic (for now).

Anyway, let's get on with things...

 

Tactics

In the first half of the season I went through about 10 tactics, each more attacking than the previous, until I eventually settled on this one for the second half of the season:

It seems to consistently get more goals than anything else I've tried, and it feels like a higher percentage go to the strikers (though I don't think the maths backs that up). The only downside is that while I win most games comfortably, every so often I'll ship 3 or 4 goals and have a real fight on my hands.

I'm not sure it's that much better than some of the ones from say season 2, so I'm not 100% sure I'll stick with it, but it's what I'm using for now. Here are some of the other ones I tried this season:

Spoiler

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Going out: KDB lost some attributes due to injury and at 30, they weren't gonna come back, so we cashed in (great player for 3 years though). Silva and Semedo both got upset due to rotation issues and wanted to leave.

Coming in: TAA was the big signing. Never used him before, but he looked class and can fill a number of positions (useful when changing formations every week). Of course signing another defender made Todibo worry about his place in the team... 🤦‍♂️

Spoiler

 

Results

Spoiler

We won everything again this year:

• We won the Euro Super Cup beating Krasnodar 7-2.

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

• We won the Spanish Cup, beating Atletico Madrid 4-2 in the final.

• We won the league, scoring 146 goals (our best so far by 12, fairly happy with that).

• We won the Champions League, beating PSG in the final on penalties.

 

Injuries

Godfrey had two separate month long injuries (despite being very rarely injured):

Spoiler

Todibo and Martinez got through unscathed this time around.

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Martinez had the biggest advance with +3 Shooting and +2 Movement. Todibo had +2 Movement and +1 Shooting. Godfrey had +1 Shooting. Of course Positioning and Tackling also improved for most of them.

I've had very little luck improving their Aerial, but that's in keeping with CDs this year - I've not had much success with them at all. TMs still get pretty a good increase, but it must be related to their 'shape' rather than the position being trained, as all three are training as TMs.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are there totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 54 goals from 54 games

• Martinez scored 39 goals from 49 games

• Godfrey scored 22 goals from 37 games

Not bad, a slight improvement on last year, but still plenty of room for improvement.

 

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
Total	181	108	127	416/1500

 

Looking Forward

We are getting more goals and like I said in the Tactics section "it feels like a higher percentage go to the strikers", but that's not really reflected in the totals. Still we're going in the right direction and even if this is the most we can get each season, we're on the right path and it will only be a matter of time.

 

[Rob]

Excellent season. 

I find it really hard looking at their stats and switching my perspective to analysing them as a striker. It breaks my brain.

[Scratch]

3 minutes ago, Rob said:

Excellent season. 

I find it really hard looking at their stats and switching my perspective to analysing them as a striker. It breaks my brain.

Thanks mate. Haha yeah, they look a bit odd. They are much more striker shaped than they were (especially Movement), but there's no getting away from the fact that they aren't naturally strikers. Actually, they look more like central midfielders than defenders or strikers... A bit of both.

[Aaron Thornton]

Great season there mate, love the wacky tactics your trying out. Like you said the boys started as CD's, they're now BBM's, a few more seasons they might transition to forwards 😂 anyway keep it up mate your smashing it

[Ian]

Brilliant season.

They do look like they’d make great midfielders. In fact, I could just do with a couple of them to replace the ageing Tonali and Bentancur on my save.

[Scratch]

12 hours ago, Aaron Thornton said:

Great season there mate, love the wacky tactics your trying out. Like you said the boys started as CD's, they're now BBM's, a few more seasons they might transition to forwards 😂 anyway keep it up mate your smashing it

LoL, two of them are yellow in central midfield, maybe I should retrain them there.

They are all still getting a few development points after each good game, so they have a little development left, but it must surely be almost over. They are good enough as they are though, so I'm not worried, either way.

6 hours ago, Ian said:

Brilliant season.

They do look like they’d make great midfielders. In fact, I could just do with a couple of them to replace the ageing Tonali and Bentancur on my save.

LoL, hands off mate! 😠 They have long term contracts locked in place. Anyway, these are Barca boys, no way they are going over to that white team... 😄

[smoggy90]

Great season mate, despite the frustration in nailing a tactic in S3 it looks like you’ve got something good going now. 

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Great season mate, despite the frustration in nailing a tactic in S3 it looks like you’ve got something good going now. 

Thank mate. Yeah, doing pretty well, just not as well as that grand old time in Italy! I think that made it harder to accept that I might not be getting 180 between them each season! Back to reality now where 120 is plenty good and anything on top of that will be icing...

[Scratch]

Ooh, update!

Let's see what he got! 

Spoiler

Yay... +1 Tackling! Just what a Target Man needs. Thanks FMM...

 

[Aaron Thornton]

10 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Ooh, update!

Let's see what he got! 

  Hide contents

Yay... +1 Tackling! Just what a Target Man needs. Thanks FMM...

 

That's annoying, he might tackle an error prone goalkeeper or defender more often now 😂 other than that I can't see how it will be useful

[Kanegan]

Great season mate. All three looking like genuine strikers at the moment. 

[Scratch]

On 19/09/2020 at 01:17, Kanegan said:

Great season mate. All three looking like genuine strikers at the moment. 

Thanks mate. Yeah, they are good enough, just have strangely high positioning and tackling! 🤣

[Scratch]

Update - Season 5

I've accepted that the number of goals for our trio will be around 120 per season and won't be reaching the heights of my DT save, which made this season less frustrating than the previous seasons. I am now The Calm One...

 

Tactics

I ended up using the 1 2 1 3 3 tactic I showed you last time for the whole season. I'm happy with our results and the number of goals scored (although too many go to the other players). None of my tweaks have improved much, so I think this will be the tactic for the rest of the save.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

• Bellerin left because our backup youngster had reached the same level as him and needed to play more.

• Lemar was a shadow of his former self after successive injuries and unlikely to ever get back to his best, so we let him leave.

• Varane declined, bringing him down to Upamecano and Konate's level. With only one position to share, these three took turns at being unhappy and I decided Varane should go. No-one would buy him (there were bids I couldn't respond to), so we had to go for a part exchange.

• Coming in was Bailey, partly to give us a better LW option and partly to help us get rid of Varane in exchange.

 

Results

Spoiler

We won everything AGAIN this year (getting tiresome):

• We won the Euro Super Cup beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-1.

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

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

• We won the league, scoring 159 goals (our best so far and a big jump on last year).

• We won the Champions League, beating Schalke 4-1 in the final.

 

Injuries

In what's a first for me during my multiplayer careers (all my careers this year), we got through the entire season without any of the main lads getting injured. There wasn't even one of those in-game injuries that doesn't lead to a full injury.

I'm into the next season now and I can tell you this luck doesn't hold, but what a fantastic season!

 

Development

They ended the season looking like this:

Not much movement now. Godfrey got to 20 Movement (but also got +2 for both Positioning and Tackling). Martinez has finished development now. The other two limping towards an update, but I'm surprised they aren't fully developed now.

 

Goals

Spoiler

Here are there totals from this season:

• Todibo scored 33 goals from 52 games

• Martinez scored 42 goals from 51 games

• Godfrey scored 47 goals from 51 games

For the first time, I swapped their positions around, with Godfrey moving to the central position and Todibo moving to the left position (which doesn't score as much).

 

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
Total	214	150	174	538/1500

We finally made the 120 mark! But only because all 3 made it through the season without getting injured...

 

Looking Forward

I'm thinking that as the players reach their peak (ie very shortly), we may see the 120 mark become the average, even taking injuries into account. I'm hoping I'll wrap it up in 8 seasons, but two of the lads will be 33 by then, so it's more likely going to take 9 seasons.

Anyway, for now, I just gonna play on...

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Scratch

[smoggy90]

Good season mate and the goal tally is creeping up steadily. Still doing wonders considering they’re defenders!

[RichD]

Nice season there mate, really good tally with 3 centre defenders, 1,500 with these would be a massive achievement.

[Scratch]

18 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Good season mate and the goal tally is creeping up steadily. Still doing wonders considering they’re defenders!

Thanks mate! Defenders with Movement of 19 or 20 though, so I'll not be going soft on them!  😄

[Scratch]

18 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Nice season there mate, really good tally with 3 centre defenders, 1,500 with these would be a massive achievement.

Thanks mate! Yeah I'll be happy to get there. I'm wondering about a defender 1KC sometime, but we'll have to see about that. It's not that hard to get them to score though, as long as you pick a player who'll retrain and who is young enough and good enough to have plenty of development left to build up some attacking attributes...

[Ian]

They’re steaming along really. 120+ must surely be enough to appease you and I feel for them and your other players if not 😂

Just need to keep going now and they may even surprise you yet.

[Cockers2505]

 

On 21/09/2020 at 04:55, Scratch said:

I'm into the next season now and I can tell you this luck doesn't hold, but what a fantastic season!

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!!

[Scratch]

19 hours ago, Ian said:

They’re steaming along really. 120+ must surely be enough to appease you and I feel for them and your other players if not 😂

Just need to keep going now and they may even surprise you yet.

Nah, I cracked the whip in training. They can only have a day off for Christmas once they get to 150! 😄

They could score more than that yet, but I've made piece with 120 being about their rate...