Career Rob tries the Messi/Ronaldo Challenge - Season 1

[Rob]

The Messi and Ronaldo One Last Dance Challenge is, if I’m being honest, a challenge I created purely to allow us to all to use two of the best players ever together.

Spoiler

 

Simply put, you sign Ronaldo for Barcelona and play two seasons. Goals and assists for both heroes, along with Manager Profile Goal Difference, over the two seasons summates to your score.

So here is Ronaldo having signed for Barcelona.

Looks weird, doesn’t it?

Most of us only ever tend to manage multiple quality players as a focal point in a challenge when deep within a DT or TT began with wonderkids, so this challenge allows us to basically get instant results. Also, Barcelona have a great transfer budget and a well-valued squad, which gives you a fair bit of scope to shape the squad you want.

I have finished season one, so that will be along shortly, but for now thanks for reading and all comments welcome!

[smoggy90]

Good luck mate, look forward to see how these guys work out for you in tandem!

[Ian]

Good luck.

[Rob]

12 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Good luck mate, look forward to see how these guys work out for you in tandem!

 

11 hours ago, Ian said:

Good luck.

Thanks lads.

I have talked to @Ian in private about this, but I ended up with both central as a pair, but with Messi as AF and Ronaldo as a P, with Ronaldo on the right for reasons that Ian figured out earlier in the year. It’ll be interesting to see how you guys end up using them. They are almost too good... if that makes sense? Usually deep within a DT you’ve solidified their roles and kinda ignore how they change, or at least I do, and it’s odd to get them so early on. 

[Scratch]

Looking forward to this!

Interesting how you're using them. I'd probably go with Ronaldo as a TM actually, which is probably a bit weird, then use Messi as an AF next to him. I still haven't managed to get the P role working for me this year, but I have heard other people saying it's good. Anyway, will be interested to see how it pans out for you here. Good luck!

[Rob]

7 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Looking forward to this!

Interesting how you're using them. I'd probably go with Ronaldo as a TM actually, which is probably a bit weird, then use Messi as an AF next to him. I still haven't managed to get the P role working for me this year, but I have heard other people saying it's good. Anyway, will be interested to see how it pans out for you here. Good luck!

Yeah, I did wonder if he should be a TM but opted for P... which I will probably regret. You going to give this one a whirl if you get a chance?

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Rob said:

Yeah, I did wonder if he should be a TM but opted for P... which I will probably regret. You going to give this one a whirl if you get a chance?

Yeah, I'd love to give it a go. But I'll be in TT-land now for a while and I find side careers tend to kill the other career, so I'll leave it until after that. Mind you it depends whether I get sacked in the TT, maybe I'll get to this one quicker! 😄 

[Woody]

Best of luck my dear fellow. I'm sure you will spank the crap out of this one 😉

[Rob]

24 minutes ago, Woody said:

Best of luck my dear fellow. I'm sure you will spank the crap out of this one 😉

I just want to set a decent score before the Crazy Goal Gang come and destroy me.

[Rob]

Season 1 Results

 

Transfers

We did a LOT of transfers, ingoings and outgoings. I won’t comment on them all, but they are here:

They are mostly the players I like to sign up and as I said previously the sheer quality of the squad has allowed me to free up the funds to generate two good teams, albeit one slightly better than the other.

 

Team Performance

As goals, assists, and goal difference of ALL games count towards this challenge I opted to play my A team in away games and B team in home games until the latter rounds of the Champions Cup, when I switch to playing B in the league and A in the Champions Cup.

After starting out with a monster 4.5 gpg after ten games I thought ‘here we go, I am on to something good here.’

Then reality hit and the season ended with us at 3.47 gpg. Considering that is over 58 games, I am fairly pleased. It also tops my previous score of 3.46. 

The problem with going for your gpg top score is you almost do better throwing the cup games and just playing league games as they are often easier and you can buy a strong team and have them play the the full 90 minutes as there is then time to rest between matches. Contrary to this, the Messi/Ronaldo challenge needs as many games as possible due to the scoring system. The two just don’t compliment one another... at least that’s my view until someone comes along and smashes a massive gpg score.

We did well in terms of trophies:

The Champions Cup final was my favourite:

Overall, from the Manager Profile screen, we scored 201 goals and conceded 59. That gives us 142 team points towards the first season score.

 

Player Performance

We had a couple of niggly injuries, but nothing too bad. Our two heroes are resolute players, or so I thought, as after the end of the season Messi suffered a two month injury.

Ronaldo was the worst performing of the two, scoring 51 and assisting 14.  Messi got 57 goals and 25 assists. 

This gives us 147 player points towards our season one total.

Spoiler

 

Current Score

Season 1 difference: 142
Season 1 Players: 147
Season 1 Total: 289

Season 2 is under progress and shouldn’t be long. As no one else has completed this I’ve no idea if I’m doing well or not, although I’m fairly sure scoring just 108 between the two isn’t the greatest.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Rich]

Great start @Rob over a 100 goals between them is a great! And 142 goal difference is brilliant, looking forward to trying this one. Good luck for next season 👍

[Ian]

I’d say that’s a great start. Good luck for next season.

[Rob]

10 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Great start @Rob over a 100 goals between them is a great! And 142 goal difference is brilliant, looking forward to trying this one. Good luck for next season 👍

Thanks. I’m pleased with the 142. 108 goals in a DT isn’t great, though, with two worldies. Saying that, though, I think I am basing my standards on saves that are about 6/7 seasons deep when everything is a bit easier.

10 hours ago, Ian said:

I’d say that’s a great start. Good luck for next season.

Cheers Ian, and thanks. Second season is decent so far.

[Woody]

Brilliant start Rob, good job that Messi injury was in preseason. Hopefully he wont miss many games.

[Scratch]

Great start mate. Ooh Douglas Costa, that's a nice signing!

Also, I love the commitment of these players, even going so far as to let the opposition draw level, just to take the CL final to extra time, so they can score that extra goal in the 104th minute. That's dedication.

[Rob]

23 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Great start mate. Ooh Douglas Costa, that's a nice signing!

Also, I love the commitment of these players, even going so far as to let the opposition draw level, just to take the CL final to extra time, so they can score that extra goal in the 104th minute. That's dedication.

Haha, thanks. It was a hilarious game and a pretty good example of where a tactic is completely unbalanced and not working as well as it should!

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

Haha, thanks. It was a hilarious game and a pretty good example of where a tactic is completely unbalanced and not working as well as it should!

Yeah, I've had those too, totally know what you mean. They turn into cracking games though! I'd love to get a CL final like that in real life!

[Kanegan]

Brilliant start @Rob.Massive score in the making. 

[Rob]

4 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Brilliant start @Rob.Massive score in the making. 

Cheers 

[smoggy90]

Brilliant start Rob, aside from the main men 200 club goals in the first season is some achievement too!

I have started this challenge this morning, it’s great to have the two in tandem it’s just tweaking to make sure you’re getting the absolute max out of them both. 

[Rob]

7 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Brilliant start Rob, aside from the main men 200 club goals in the first season is some achievement too!

I have started this challenge this morning, it’s great to have the two in tandem it’s just tweaking to make sure you’re getting the absolute max out of them both. 

Thanks Smog. It’s lovely playing with them right at the start... and kinda feels weird.