Career Scratch Tries The 3 Kings [Attempt 5 Complete]

[Ian]

I’m looking at this one myself and I am having trouble working out how I’m going to approach it. I think based on how you’ve gone, I may well just try the tactic I used on my Kean career with two wingers and an AP behind Jesus and hope for the best.

Does look a bit tricky this and it seems like it’s frustrated you but you’ve got the badge so can’t say fairer than that. Congratulations and good luck with the next one. 

[Chris]

Unlucky with these scratch. Your tactic with the German Princes is almost identical to my tactic for my current 1KC (and last years). Wingers are really struggling to make an impact this update. Gl with your future challenges, and I look forward to reading them! 

[broodje kip]

Unlucky with the injury, it’s a great score still

[smoggy90]

Another great effort Scratch, it's a great challenge and one definitely worth a few cracks at.

[Scratch]

On 31/12/2020 at 00:35, RichD said:

Unlucky with the Conan injury there mate! This is definitely a tough one to go right, it makes me think how the hell did I get what I did 😂

Thanks mate - yeah, it's a tough one alright and I certainly haven't got to grips with it. Whatever you did was spot on for it! 😄

[Scratch]

On 31/12/2020 at 01:21, Aaron Thornton said:

Not bad mate at least you hit the benchmark (Unlike this guy) <Myself

 

I've erased this challenge from my mind for the time being. Good effort though mate

Thanks mate. It's a tough one alright. I'm now erasing it from my mind as well!

[Scratch]

On 31/12/2020 at 01:56, Rob said:

This one is destroying people... and I’m starting to feel a bit bad about it. You’ll wake in the middle of the night soon with an epiphany and it’ll be the tactic of the Gods.

Hopefully.

I don't for a second believe you are starting to feel bad! 😄

I think I'm done with it though, just have to accept that's probably the best I can get with it... Not likely that there will be any tactic of the gods moment here! 🤣

[Scratch]

On 31/12/2020 at 04:28, Ian said:

I’m looking at this one myself and I am having trouble working out how I’m going to approach it. I think based on how you’ve gone, I may well just try the tactic I used on my Kean career with two wingers and an AP behind Jesus and hope for the best.

Does look a bit tricky this and it seems like it’s frustrated you but you’ve got the badge so can’t say fairer than that. Congratulations and good luck with the next one. 

It is a tricky one and I'm genuinely not sure of the best approach for this one. The killer with this is when one of your kings passes it Jesus and you're looking at 2 points if he scores, but he passes it on to another king and he scores instead and you get nothing!

Good luck with your attempt mate. I'm way behind with reading at the moment (not really been on the site over Xmas/New Year) but will look out for the write up!

added 0 minutes later

On 31/12/2020 at 21:20, itzChris92 said:

Unlucky with these scratch. Your tactic with the German Princes is almost identical to my tactic for my current 1KC (and last years). Wingers are really struggling to make an impact this update. Gl with your future challenges, and I look forward to reading them! 

Thanks mate. Yeah, I can make the winger cross but can't make the striker score from them! Well not as much as in the past anyway...

[Scratch]

On 31/12/2020 at 21:22, broodje kip said:

Unlucky with the injury, it’s a great score still

Thanks mate. Could definitely have been worse with the injuries those, quite a few nasty ones to other players. I feel like the update was pretty cruel...

added 0 minutes later

23 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Another great effort Scratch, it's a great challenge and one definitely worth a few cracks at.

Thanks mate - yeah lots of ways to approach it, can't find the right one to get a really good score, but guess happy enough to have the badge.. 🙂

[Scratch]

Better make this official. I'm now going for attempt 5, using Vignato, Lainez and Lukaku at Inter.

I'm going with a whole new approach - instead of trying to carefully get the assists from the 3 Kings to Jesus, I'm just going to try to get as many goals and assists as possible and hope it adds up in my favour. So instead of 2 goals a game with them all going to Jesus and assisted by a King, I'm going to get 5 goals a game and hope enough of them go to my lads to better my score.

As for the tactic itself, I'm using my very own, world famous*, Buck Wild TT Blaster™ tactic:

Yes it's the same tactic I created for my TT last year, with the instructions tweaked slightly. I tried it when I started on FMM21 and it didn't work well at all, but it seems to be working again (at least with Celtic in Scotland), so I'm giving it a go.

I started the season before announcing it, just in case it tanked in Italy, but it's working well enough for this. Mind you it's gonna be a wild ride:

We're definitely going to ship some goals against the stronger teams...

As for the players:

• Vignato was always going to be my first choice for this. The lad got 1.2K assists for me last year. This year he only shows up if Italy is loaded and doesn't appear to be quite as strong, but he's still plenty good for the RW spot, his Crossing develops nicely (unlike with many players), and he levels up fast. He has a couple of strong TMs to aim for, so he's going to assist a lot. Did I mention he's also Very Rarely Injured?
   
• Lukaku - wait, he scores goals rather than assist them, right? In my Celtic save, Pellegri has the right TM spot and has been assisting a lot. Nowhere near as much as he's scored, but still pretty good. When there's that many goals coming in, the TMs will assist. I bought Pellegri in this save too, and was thinking about giving him the King role, but Lukaku is ready to go from day one and better than him in every way (though Pellegri develops quickly). So Lukaku is my second king.
   
• Lainez is basically a mirror version of Vignato on the left. Everything I said about Vignato applies to him as well (although not sure how well his Crossing will develop). He was a late signing because I was trying to get Alphonso Davies or Douglas Costa, but couldn't quite get my finances in order with all the other business going on - so I ended up looking around for someone I could get more cheaply and then I saw Lainez. Sold. But for a while I had no LWs and I was thinking my final King would be either Brozovic in the AMC role (doesn't want to retrain) or Pellegri in the other TM spot (the left TM gets assist too, just not as many as the right).

As for Jesus, he's just going to be Treq it up in the middle of all this chaos, pinching goals when he can. I thought about other roles, but this TM T TM setup really seems to work and the T gets lots of goals too. I'm not even training him in Aerial and he's not going to be on the near post for corners. Lukaku and Pellegri (backed up by Esposito and Carillo) are going to take care of that. I hoping that will lead to (for eg) 10 assists, instead of 4 assists and 4 goals from Jesus.

This time around it's all about blasting the goals in and hoping the numbers add up in our favour (vs a more refined approach). 

Will it work? We'll see... But it's going to be a fun ride either way...

----------------
*soon

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by Scratch

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, hhooo said:

Can't wait to see the results for the Buck Wild Titty Blaster!

Also, just play Brozo in the AM. Who cares about retraining? Players don't make a fuss if you play them out of position!

I need to take a break from my CC save and do these newer badges.

Not sure what you're expecting, but it's for blasting a TT. I have no idea how you could get so mixed up! 😜 

I know many have a lot of success with players out of position, but I always try to retrain them as I figure there must surely be some small penalty. With Brozovic, I would have gone with it, but because this is a cross heavy tactic, the LW position will probably give more assists, so I went with that anyway. 

And yeah, do these badges, they are a lot of fun. Although... You can get addicted to them and end up doing the same one 5 times... 😄

Edited January 5, 2021 by Scratch

[broodje kip]

Impressive choices and tactic. Good luck Scratchy

[Rich]

Looks like a fun tactic there Scratch a few games with a massive amount of goals, I love it! Good luck with the rest of the season!

[Rob]

That tactic name ❤️
I do love the amount of detail and love you are giving this! Best of luck! 

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, broodje kip said:

Impressive choices and tactic. Good luck Scratchy

Thanks mate, we'll see how it turns out. So far I think I'll bet my best, but not make it to the top of the leaderboard (might go close though). Not quite halfway through yet.

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, RichD said:

Looks like a fun tactic there Scratch a few games with a massive amount of goals, I love it! Good luck with the rest of the season!

Yeah, it's not to stable, but the goals do flow. I'd say last years version gave away fewer goals, but was about the same attackwise, so it's something to work with. I'd been getting more and more defensive with each save, but this is way more fun. 😄

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

That tactic name ❤️
I do love the amount of detail and love you are giving this! Best of luck! 

I'm not sure why people seem to focus on the name so much! 😄

Thanks mate. Win, lose or draw, this save is surely action packed and loads of fun! 

[Ian]

A very interesting tactic indeed with the idea of just blasting through with goal power. Looks like it may well work out too.

Good luck. 

[Kanegan]

Now what a name for an action packed tactic. Can't wait to see the results. 

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Ian said:

A very interesting tactic indeed with the idea of just blasting through with goal power. Looks like it may well work out too.

Good luck. 

Thanks mate, got off to a roaring first third of the season, but has slowed a little since. Seems to be pretty common for me this year, I might need to give them a couple of weeks off, but I don't want to waste any games - the age old dilemma...

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Now what a name for an action packed tactic. Can't wait to see the results. 

Thanks mate, certainly a bit different to my previous attempts, should be able to top my best, but as I said to Ian above it's effectiveness is fading a little, so not sure if I'll get near the top of the leaderboard or not. So, yeah, I can't wait to see the results either! 😄 

[Rob]

8 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate, got off to a roaring first third of the season, but has slowed a little since. Seems to be pretty common for me this year, I might need to give them a couple of weeks off, but I don't want to waste any games - the age old dilemma...

I get this a lot. Phenomenal start, then it tails off. Why do you think it is?

[Chris]

59 minutes ago, Rob said:

I get this a lot. Phenomenal start, then it tails off. Why do you think it is?

Glad it isn't just me. For me it seems like everyone starts to play on contain/defensive in an extremely defensive formation as soon as you are winning a lot of games. I even had a few teams playing 7 at the back! 3 CBs and just in front of them 2 wingbacks with 2 DM. My tactics find it very hard to break down teams like this. Usually find I end up relying on set pieces to win a lot of those games. 

[Plimmerz92]

I am actually looking forward to trying this again with my quadsome formation ive just started using with my bruno challenge. Weather itll work or not i dont know as jesus isnt on the same lvl as bruno. But can only try right. 

[Scratch]

11 hours ago, Rob said:

I get this a lot. Phenomenal start, then it tails off. Why do you think it is?

and

10 hours ago, itzChris92 said:

Glad it isn't just me. For me it seems like everyone starts to play on contain/defensive in an extremely defensive formation as soon as you are winning a lot of games. I even had a few teams playing 7 at the back! 3 CBs and just in front of them 2 wingbacks with 2 DM. My tactics find it very hard to break down teams like this. Usually find I end up relying on set pieces to win a lot of those games. 

I'll have to pay more attention to the opponents tactics. They are all using the Defensive instruction now (early Feb), or sometimes Contain, but the formation itself isn't excessively defensive. But I think that's been happening all save. So I'm not sure that's my problem (although I'm not discounting that as I've definitely had it in the past).

The only other thing I can think off is the freshness thing. This is not evidence based (ie no testing or anything), but it's always felt to me like players get off to a great start at the beginning of the season when they are fresh, but after a playing a lot they lose a litte something. Give them 2 or 3 weeks off and they come back fresher and stronger. But yeah, massive leap of faith to give them a couple of weeks off, especially as it's not guaranteed to work. Feels like one of those things that should be tested sometime...

[Scratch]

9 hours ago, Plimmerz92 said:

I am actually looking forward to trying this again with my quadsome formation ive just started using with my bruno challenge. Weather itll work or not i dont know as jesus isnt on the same lvl as bruno. But can only try right. 

Thanks mate. Would be interesting to see you give it a go with that tactic. But yeah, Bruno is Bruno. Still, if you pick the other players well, you might  get a massive score!

[Plimmerz92]

7 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate. Would be interesting to see you give it a go with that tactic. But yeah, Bruno is Bruno. Still, if you pick the other players well, you might  get a massive score!

Going to redo my MNS again first messi neymar IF suarez as T or messi as T not decided yet

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Plimmerz92 said:

Going to redo my MNS again first messi neymar IF suarez as T or messi as T not decided yet

Haha, just like me - so many I want to redo! 😄

Anyway, good luck with that one - so many ways to do it, makes it tough to work out the best approach.

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, hhooo said:

If you're having trouble in those situations, drop your own mentality. When everyone started playing defensive against me in my CC save, I dropped from attacking to counter, and started using run at defense as my only instruction, and we started scoring freely again. Playing through balls against a packed defense isn't going to work often. Playing down the flanks with run at defense can work as well. 

Good tip! I already turn on run at defense when thing aren't going well, not from any sort of plan like you seem to have - more just a desperation move to force things to happen. Sometime I drop back the Mentality too, but with mixed results.

I feel like really I need to better understand what the opponent's tactic is and then understand how to adjust mine to counter theirs, etc. But mostly I jsut keep on playing and take the bad result...

[Scratch]

Okay, let's see how the Buck Wild TT Blaster tactic went...

It was definitely buck wild... All sorts of crazy results, as shown in a previous screenshot above:

Spoiler

But did it blast this challenge? Read on to find out...

Note: the tactic was designed to blast TTs, but in this case it's blasting 3 Kings... Same principle, just a different target...

Anyway, here's a particularly crazy game (that we lost) which I'll share:

Spoiler

I rested the main lads against Liverpool and they hammered us, going 4-0 up by the 40 min mark, with a couple of disallowed goals to boot. Then after my inspired half time speech, the lads fought back (with no change to the tactic). We still lost, but 5-4 looks a lot better than it looked like at half time and it set us up to win the tie on aggregate (which we did).

 

Transfers

Spoiler

We sold a bunch of players for whatever we could get, but kept the main stars like Lukaku, Brozovic, Martinez, etc. I did try to sell de Vrij because he's too slow for 1 at the back, but couldn't get a good price, so kept him and he did pretty well. There were some of the aging stars that I couldn't shift, like Vidal, so I just played them.

Coming in were the usual suspects, although I had to take a chance with some players I hadn't used before, like Gosens, Saka, Pezella, etc to fill the left sided positions which I somehow left to the last minute. I also brought Wilshere in as cover for the LW spot (with a bit of retraining) and he was servicable there. 

 

Results

We did pretty well, wining the league (with 153 goals!) and the Italian Cup, but getting knocked out of the CL by Man Utd at the semi final stage:

 

Injuries

Spoiler

We got off pretty lightly again, with Lukaku having a few injuries (3 weeks, 10 days and an in-game injury). Vignato had two in-game injuries, then a month long injury right near the end of the season (only missed 2 games from that). The others were injury free.

 

Freshness

We got off to a rocket of a start (4 or 5 contributions in most games) and were on track to top the leaderboard. However, as mentioned previously, that fell away after a few months and we started getting 1 to 3 contributions per game. 

At one point in April, we had Liverpool, Juve, then Liverpool, so I told the 4 lads we could manage with out them and sent them to the seaside for 14 days. When they came back we had 6 contributions, then 5, then it went back to 1 to 3.

Does it mean anything? Who knows, but I do feel like freshness is a factor, so may experiment with this further in future.

 

The Lads

Here's how the 4 lads looked at the end (nice development from the wingers, shame about Lukaku's injury ravages):

It's probably worth mentioning that Jesus struggled with language issues throughout and was not particularly motivated by Serie A (he still did pretty well):

Spoiler

 

Score

Let's take a look at the guys history pages:

Spoiler

And the summary screen:

And if we add that up:

• Jesus: 54 goals/points
• Vignato: 39 assists/points
• Lainez: 20 assists/points
• Lukaku: 16 assists/points

Giving us a total of 129 points. @Rob can you please move me up the leader board (it's just you and I swapping places, sorry!)?

I'm fairly happy with that - I finally beat my first attempt and beat it by 17 points which isn't too bad - although I was on track for about 150 at one point, so I just wished I could have keep that pace up.

 

As for the Buck Wild TT Blaster tactic, it's definitely one I'll use more often. There are a LOT of goals in there, but you also ship a lot too and every so often you get hammered. It definitely needs some tall timber upfront though for it to work effectively - so it probably doesn't work for all scenarios.

For the record, this is where the goals went (including the subs, note most penalities went to the T): T:63; RTM:58; LTM:29; AM: 26. And this is where the assists went (most corners to RW): RW:48; LW: 25; RTM:25; LTM:17; RWB:16; AM:13; T:11; CM: 10; LWB:10.

I added all that up  because I had lots of "I should have used the RWB and/or AM" moments, but I was right all along! 😄

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Scratch