Career Spanish Armada - Triple Threat Challenge [Complete]

[Scratch]

Oh yeah, that works, I've done that a lot. Accept and cancel and he won't get upset. I think once out of 50 times I got FMM'd and I was just told the transfer had completed without being given the yes / no option, but that was an odd one that never happened again. 

[George Traistă]

13 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Oh yeah, that works, I've done that a lot. Accept and cancel and he won't get upset. I think once out of 50 times I got FMM'd and I was just told the transfer had completed without being given the yes / no option, but that was an odd one that never happened again. 

Oh yes, happened to me also. Another thing that is weird sometimes is when I accept the offer with the transfer to be done at the end of the season and in just few days they want to complete the transfer... 

[George Traistă]

Season 2

After the first game of the season I have remembered that I need to do something about the defense and I took the decision to change the tactic so I got it from scratch. The transfer window has gone until I figure out how the tactic will look and combined with a semi-injury crisis.... the old one was 4-3-3 so I only had 2 MC in the squad and only 4 CD and the new tactic was 3-4-3... as a result, the first half of the season it was a mess. The lack of players pushed me to use Pedri a lot as central midfielder, and Fati and Alvarez few times as ML and MR. As a result this season is not too good.

In the January transfer window we fixed the issue with few loans and two permanent transfers (Verschaeren - MC and Yeray - CD). The loaned players played combined 8 games as in the second part of the season I had just minor injuries. 

P.S. I had to sell two young players... maybe some others will exit the plateaued phase, Arezo was one of them. I didn't want to sell but we had no loan offers for them, Kana was the only one who got a loan.

Dominik Szobosszlai went on loan back to Salzburg to get the training there and it was a magnificient decision as he had a great season and came back with a value of 93M.

 

Spoiler

 

In october one of the scouts came back with a report about... Stefan Bajic, my goalscorer goalkeeper from the Rogerio Ceni Challenge, the price was great and the potential of world class, I had to pull the trigger on the deal.

 

Competitions, we lost the Euro Super Cup against Juve, the Spanish Cup in the third round against Barcelona. In the Champions CUp we came out on forth place in a group with Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Marseille. The season expectations were to qualify for EURO Cup and we finished 5th. 3rd best offense and 12th best defense... a big improvement, and keeping in kind that the first half of the season was kind of ugly... I'm satisfied with it.

All matches

Spoiler

 

Some awards for the players

Spoiler

 

And now, the armada.

Pedri did exist the plateaued phase two weeks after he got his 18th birthday and had a speedy improvement. Alvarez went up one point at stamina so he can play around 60 minutes every match or 80 minutes every other match. Pedri and Fati still got 60 max in every match they went in. There were a lot of matches in the first half of the season where they were tired but still got 10-20 minutes because of the crisis.

 

 

Fati, the same number of goals but 11 apps less and harder conditions and harder games, big improvement

 

Alvarez, I would say is exactly the same, less goals but also less apps, the proportions are there

 

Pedri, is the worst of the lot. I have punished him in the first half of the season and on the second one he had some bad games. And he now thinks he's a hot shot and he wants to leave. Fingers crossed that he will sign a new contract as he entered his last year.

 

Next season we play again in the EURO Cup and it must be easier...

Thanks all for your support and comments!

[George Traistă]

Quick update, Pedri signed a 5 years deal in the first week of December, yuhuu! Now that they have 4-5 years out of contract I know for sure that they will stay at the club until retirement.

[Aaron Thornton]

Nice to hear Pedri has signed on finally, now you can put all your focus back into the team 👍😊

[George Traistă]

Season 3

Because the squad is more than ok, from now on I'm only gonna sign better backups, replace the sold players or one or two players that will go in the first XI... this season only one. Also, few seasons I will promote all the youngsters so the manager from second team won't do it.

Transfers

Spoiler

 

Competitions wise... we lost only one match in the whole season, that should say a lot. We won the Spain Cup and even if the final should have been easy, we struggle with the second league Racing Santander. In the league we won it with few games before the end and we had the best offense and second best defense. In Euro Cup we won the group with Lokomotiv Moscow, Sporting Lisbon and Brondby and in the knockout stages we faced Lokomotiv again, Porto and then we lost in the semis against Chelsea... we had the first leg a bad games and could not reverse the score in the second leg.

All matches

Spoiler

 

Some awards for me and the team

Spoiler

 

And now, the armada.

Alvarez is almost 19 years old and still in the plateaued phase, maybe he will exit on his birthday. The tactic is still evolving but is clearly an improvement, we concede fewer goals and in the attack is more than ok for now, the boys still play around 60 minutes per match, but now they can hold a little more matches... maybe they can stay more but the tactic for now is on counter and the energy/stamina goes quickly. In the next seasons I want to further develop the tactic so will relly on attacking rather than counter.

This season they almost replicated the first season, which was super because the tactic worked only in the offense :))

When I started this challenge my match was like: I need 1500 goals and I recon they can play 20 seasons, so 1500 / 20 = 75 goals a seasons. I'm now close to my goal and I'm sure that next season I will reach it and maintain it or even surpass it.

 

 

No injury this year for the lads!!

 

Fati

Spoiler

 

Alvarez

Spoiler

 

Pedri

Spoiler

 

Thanks all for your support and comments!

See you next season.

Edited October 4, 2020 by George Traistă

[Scratch]

Going well mate, more and more goals are going to come from here on. Hope Alvarez gets some development for you in the near future. The other two look great! 

[George Traistă]

15 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Going well mate, more and more goals are going to come from here on. Hope Alvarez gets some development for you in the near future. The other two look great! 

Thanks. I'm in mid November now and Alvarez had only one week of non plateaued when he got his 19th birthday... And then back on plateaued. I'm waiting his 20th birthday now 🎂😂

[George Traistă]

Update on tactics

I think that a big role in this challenge is the tactic and until now this was one of the two problems that I had so I will try to make adjustments. 

SEASON 1. In the first year the tactic was 4-3-3, attacking, narrow and fast. 

I had straight 4 in the back (FB-NCB-CD-FB), 3 in line in the middle (W-MC-W) and 3 in line in the front (P-TM-P). 

 

SEASON 2. The tactic changed drastically, 3-4-3, counter, narrow and fast. 

3 in line at the back (NCB-CD-NCB), 4 in line at the middle (WM-AP-BBM-WM) and the same as last year in the front (P-TM-P).

 

SEASON 3. Didn't get many changes as I want to stay with this tactic and make it better, so still 3-4-3, counter, narrow and fast. The only change is in the middle where the wide midfielders transformed into wingers so the front 3 get more passes and the AP is now MC as the AP got too many goals that I wanted to be scored by my trio. Defense NCB-CD-NCB, midfield W-MC-BBM-W and forward P-TM-P. 

 

From now on I will include the changes on tactics in the season update. 

 

[George Traistă]

Season 4

First tactics... still 3-4-3 with no changes in the midfield. In the back line the CD turned into Ball playing Defender and on the front Alvarez is now Advance Forward. Defense NCB-BPD-NCB, Midfield W-MC-BBM-W and forward P-TM-AF. Pedri and fati made turn on who is a better TM so I will know next season. In small games (teams 15th-20th and first rounds of Spanish Cup I have used Attacking, Narrow, Fast and in the rest was Counter, Narrow, Fast.

 

Transfers

I did want to up my game in the offense so I pack my defense with Matiaj de Light, 100M plus one player worth of 27M. Bought also 2 players for future, Kofi (ST) and Douglas Dias (NCB). Alexander Isak even if I spent 73M on him is not a first XI, is a striker so a back up for the boys... only that I want to score goals even after 60th minute when the boys are out.

 

Competitions. Spanish Cup: check! La Liga: check! Spain Super Cup: fail! We lost against Real Madrid. Champions Cup: Check!!!! We have our first Champions Cup! In the league we had the best defense and offense so we are definitely on the right track... not ok with tactics... yet!

All matches

Spoiler

 

Some, many, awards for me and the team

Spoiler

 

And now, the armada.

I'm waiting august to see if Alvarez will get unstacked :))

For the first time I'm over my target of 75 goals/season. They still get 60 minutes per match but now they got it in almost all matches, 60 minutes will get me another 60 minutes in the next match. I had to rest them now and then but only few matches. This method will keep injuries away... but not always, Fati got a one month injury.

 

Fati

Spoiler

 

Alvarez

Spoiler

 

Pedri

Spoiler

 

Thanks all for your support and comments!

See you next season.

Edited October 5, 2020 by George Traistă

[Rich]

Great season mate, and a good amount of goals from the boys, hope Alvarez stats improve for you as the other two look really good. Keep it up 😁

[George Traistă]

7 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Great season mate, and a good amount of goals from the boys, hope Alvarez stats improve for you as the other two look really good. Keep it up 😁

Thanks! Today I was on fire and I just finished another season.

[George Traistă]

Season 5

The tactic changed in the defense and now the BPD got up to DM so is no longer 3-4-3, now is 2-1-4-3... attacking, overload when I play with super small teams, balanced, fast. The midfield is the same and on the front line the AF and P switched places and TM si now CF. So, on the back is NCB-NCB, the DM is... DM, in the midfield is W-MC-BBM-W and on the front AF-CF-P.

 

Transfers we spent a grand total of 0, Wilson and Gelin as backup of backup and Arezo is back on the team after we sold him in the second season... I don't know how a player like him got away on free. Liam Kelly I got as a quick fix when Bajic was injuried so is the 3rd choice goalkeeper, backup of the backup.

Spoiler

 

Competition, we won everything except Spain Super Cup... the only trhophy that I could not win until now! The only team that beat us was Atletico Madrid who beat us 3 times, 3 f#*king times.

Euro Super Cup: check! Spain Cup: check! La Liga: check! Champions Cup: check!

All matches

Spoiler

 

Awards... as usual a lot, 12 to be precise

Spoiler

 

 

And now, the armada.

The big news is that Alvarez is out of plateaued phase for good and he made some decent improvements!

92 goals for the boys so way above my 75 goals/season target, still few goals behind the overall target as we had 2 seasons below...

 

Fati

Spoiler

 

Alvarez

Spoiler

 

Pedri

Spoiler

 

Maybe next season the boys can get 100 goals?

Edited October 6, 2020 by George Traistă

[Rich]

Great season there mate, the boys are really starting to produce now and they will only get stronger from here! Nice to see Alvarez improving now as well, hopefully it’s only up from here😁

[George Traistă]

2 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Great season there mate, the boys are really starting to produce now and they will only get stronger from here! Nice to see Alvarez improving now as well, hopefully it’s only up from here😁

Thanks! They need to build up because 1500 goals is very far right now. 

[George Traistă]

Season 6

First, tactics: The tactic changed only in the middle where the wingers are now in the attacking midfielder position so the tactic is now 2-1-2-2-3... attacking, overload when I play with super small teams, balanced, fast.

G | NCB-NCB | DM | MC-BBM | W-W | AF-CF-P

 

Transfers, Vega is a promising AMR and got back on loan to Milan, Demirel is NCB because I plan to sell the CDs I have. Ruben Neves is the rotation for DM, Onana the rotation for GK and Abdou DIallo is a BPD because I plan to introduce BPD next season... and you can see Demirel is on his way out already :))

 

Competitions, we won EVERYTHING! Is kind of normal in this stage of the career because the wonderkids form the begining have now 22-24 years and they are one of the best in the game right now so...

Euro Super Cup: check! Spain Super Cup: check! Spain Cup (forgot to make screenshot): check! La Liga: check! Champions Cup: check! Club World Championship: check!

All matches

Spoiler

 

Awards, way too many now: 16

Spoiler

 

Side note, Pedri and Fati got their first caps for Spain, I don't know what the manager of Spain did until now... 

 

And now, the armada.

They pass the 100 goals/season mark, one I hope they won't go below from now on. The boys got few injuries and lost some matches but luckily the Club World Championships were this season so we got some extra goals. Pedri established himself as the head of the armada!!

 

Fati

Spoiler

 

Alvarez, he was unlucky this season with few injuries but I'm proud of him

Spoiler

 

Pedri, he missed the Club WC final because of a small injury

Spoiler

 

With 474 goals right now the average is 79, better than the minimum I set myself. 26 more goals and 1/3 of the challenge will completed. I would love to keep the 100 goals per season a minimum but is not a must, the tactic is not fully developed so... will see.

 Thanks! See you next season!

 

[Aaron Thornton]

Really impressive so far, the fact that your tweaking and changing as you go to find the best system is in my opinion, the best way to play these challenges. 

Keep it up and you'll find the key to success in no time 😊

[George Traistă]

55 minutes ago, Aaron Thornton said:

Really impressive so far, the fact that your tweaking and changing as you go to find the best system is in my opinion, the best way to play these challenges. 

Keep it up and you'll find the key to success in no time 😊

Thanks! You need to work it out... that's why is called a challenge

I must confess that at over 100 goals/season I'm more that satisfied, personally I see it as success. I don't see it going at 160-200 as other did it.

[George Traistă]

Season 7

Before I start, at the end of the season the World Cup took place and my boys crush it... but that's bad for me as I now need to wait another 2 years, until the Euro, to get a chance to be Spain's manager. Two season ago Spain was runner-up at Euro so they didn't sack the manager and 4 years ago they lost in the QF or World Cup, they did sack Marcelino but hired Sergi Barjuan, I was just another manager at that time with only continental reputation so they didn't hire me.

 

As I was saying, the tactic changed in the lower part, the defense, but not one, both NCB were replaced by BPD so the tactic now looks like this

G | BPD-BPD | DM | MC-BBM | W-W | AF-CF-P

and is attacking, overload when I play with small teams, wide (last year was balanced), fast.

 

Transfers, a lot compared with previous years... Joe Bellingham as rotation for my BBM, Vincius Junior I only got it because I have made player exchange with Demiral and right away he got shipped to Atletico for 101M... bad move for me as he scored in all matches against us and I have kept Alphonso Davies instead who didn't performed too good. He also came in with player exchange from Bayern, we traded Okafor (AML) who was unsettled and wanted to move. All the players you see as Free came in from player exchange, Kulusevski for Vega (wanted to move) and Fabio Silva for Cuenca (CD) who didn't liked that he lost his first team status. Kastrati came in only as a backup of backup.

 

Competition, we won everything, again.

Euro Super Cup: check! Spain Super Cup: check! Spain Cup (forgot to make screenshot): check! La Liga: check! Champions Cup: check! 

 

All matches, like last season, Villareal was the only team to win against us

Spoiler

 

As always, a lot of awards

Spoiler

 

And now, the armada.

They pass the 100 goals/season again, in fact they are on a climb from season two onwards which is great. Fati had a bad year, his worst so far but Alvarez stepped in and made a great season, his best by a big margin.

593/1500, so past 1/3 of the challenge and an season average of 85, 10 goals over my target.

 

Fati, two small injuries 

Spoiler

 

Alvarez, the performance got him his first caps for Spain NT strait to World Cup

Spoiler

 

Pedri, the armada leader

Spoiler

 

Next season we're gonna play in a brand new stadium, Estadi Armada

Thanks all for support and comments. See you next season!

Edited October 7, 2020 by George Traistă

[Scratch]

Great stuff mate, the total is really getting up there now.

21 hours ago, George Traistă said:

I must confess that at over 100 goals/season I'm more that satisfied, personally I see it as success. I don't see it going at 160-200 as other did it.

I did get 160 once (with 19 goals from the CWC), then after that my best was 139,138,127, then 124... So at 119 you're pretty close to my average and your lads are yet to come into their prime, so I reckon you'll be up to 130 or 140 in the next few seasons. 

Glad to see Alvarez finally get into gear, and I'm sure Fati's poor season will just be a blip. Shame about the ITN job not becoming available, but it will sooner or later. Anyway, I'm feeling really positive about this career and looking forward to the next instalment.  

One thing though - please slow down! Otherwise you'll finish before me and I've been going for more than a month already! 🤣

[Rich]

Great season mate, getting well over a hundred now and now there getting to the age where the goals will increase again I’m sure mate! Keep it up and good luck 😁

[George Traistă]

4 hours ago, RichDave32 said:

Great season mate, getting well over a hundred now and now there getting to the age where the goals will increase again I’m sure mate! Keep it up and good luck 😁

Thanks! I'm very happy with 100 every season, what is over that number is a bonus for me. 

 

4 hours ago, Scratch said:

Great stuff mate, the total is really getting up there now.

I did get 160 once (with 19 goals from the CWC), then after that my best was 139,138,127, then 124... So at 119 you're pretty close to my average and your lads are yet to come into their prime, so I reckon you'll be up to 130 or 140 in the next few seasons. 

Glad to see Alvarez finally get into gear, and I'm sure Fati's poor season will just be a blip. Shame about the ITN job not becoming available, but it will sooner or later. Anyway, I'm feeling really positive about this career and looking forward to the next instalment.  

One thing though - please slow down! Otherwise you'll finish before me and I've been going for more than a month already! 🤣

Too late, I just need another 5 matches and I'm over with season 8 😁

[George Traistă]

Season 8

As I'm pretty satisfied with the tactic I only did minor changes, the DM is now a DLP and the mentality is overload on most of the matches, so: overload, wide, fast. Also, because I use overload and my 3 subs per match are used to take the boys out after 60-70 minutes I have changed the BBM to CM, BBM on overload will kill the player on 90 minutes even with 18-20 on stamina and because of that the MC is now back to AP to compensate for the offensive loss from BBM.

G | BPD-BPD | DLP | AP-MC | W-W | AF-CF-P

 

Transfers

Justin Kluivert I got it for rotation on AML but because Roque Junior  came back from loan in good shape he got the role as rotation and Kluivert is the backup... an expensive backup.

 

This is the worst season for the team so far, except the first ones, as we lost in the Spanish Super Cup in the semis against Real on penalties and lost the Spain Cup against Sevilla... they deserve it. We won the other trophies...

Euro Super Cup: check! Spain Super Cup: NO Spain Cup: NO La Liga: check! Champions Cup: check! 

All matches

Spoiler

 

As usual, we got a lot of awards

Spoiler

 

And now, the armada.

Still over 100 goals/season but 10 less than last year and mostly because Alvarez got a normal year, back to around 20 goals/season. The injuries didn't help him...

702/1500, so we're approaching the half of the challenge and so far around 88 goals/seasosn on average, great.

 

Fati

Spoiler

 

Alvarez

Spoiler

 

Pedri

Spoiler

 

In the past two season I got request for new contract every season from Pedri and Fati and this gives me confidence that I won't have problems with them, but I think I'm gonna have with Alvarez, I've been trying to give him a contract for the past two seasons and no luck... he still has two years out of his contract but I don't feel comfortable with the situation.

Thanks all for support and comments. See you next season!

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by George Traistă

[Scratch]

Good season, even though not as much as the one before. Fati and Pedri look class and are showing it on the pitch. Alvarez needs to lift his game though! 😄

Not much you can do about his contract though, just keep going until he wants a new one. Given you are winning the CL and he's playing a lot, sooner or later he will probably ask for a new one or be willing to negotiate. I think it will work out fine.

[George Traistă]

2 hours ago, Scratch said:

Good season, even though not as much as the one before. Fati and Pedri look class and are showing it on the pitch. Alvarez needs to lift his game though! 😄

Not much you can do about his contract though, just keep going until he wants a new one. Given you are winning the CL and he's playing a lot, sooner or later he will probably ask for a new one or be willing to negotiate. I think it will work out fine.

Thanks!

I had two semi injury crisis so the players behind them were sometimes the backups that don't have much quality. But still, over 100 goals which for me is perfect...

About Alvarez, he is doing his bit and even that he doesn't score that much is a real help up front

[Aaron Thornton]

Good season again mate, hitting consistently over 100 goals a season now which is good going, where does Alvarez play? 

[George Traistă]

6 minutes ago, Aaron Thornton said:

Good season again mate, hitting consistently over 100 goals a season now which is good going, where does Alvarez play? 

on the left as AF. I'm now half in the next season and I must say that Pedri no longer plays as CF and Alvarez took off!!

[George Traistă]

I just finished season 9 and the Euro took place, Spain lost in the quarterfinal against France so....

 

Finally, after nine seasons... I will write later today about season nine, until then, these are the boys at the begining of my Spain job, as a refference to international apps and goals for each of them.

 

 

[Rich]

Congrats mate, been a long time to wait for that job! Pedri and Fati look superb, I’ve signed Pedri for Newcastle because of what he’s like on yours 🤣

[smoggy90]

Going really well and congrats on the INT job