Career Ian goes for Badge 05 - Bruno

[Ian]

Hello and welcome to my attempt at the Vibe Badge of Honour No.5. The challenge was created by @RichD and can be found here.

We’re managing Man Utd and going for goals and assists with Bruno Fernandes over one season with assists being worth two points and goals just one.

I looked at the squad and just wasn’t happy with it at all as there just seemed to be loads of not so great players on very hefty salaries. We did loads of work in the market but I’ll go through it all in more detail on the full update.

I just haven’t been happy with two at the back and no one else in front until the central midfield line so far this year as I’m just finding it’s being countered too easily. The main reason for going that way for me was the fact you could really bulk score but I’m just not getting the goals this year. Probably just a few tweaks required but for this I decided to make a very slight change to a system I’ve used previously and just put one of the central midfielders back to the DM position as a DLP. We basically ended up with a nice diamond in midfield with Bruno as hopefully the main man in T position at AM.

 

I’m up to early January and Bruno has done well so far with 28 goals and 21 assists. The system seems to be working very well and results have been better than what I had with Liverpool on the last challenge. We haven’t had as many injuries yet though but I’d say the system feels much more stable so we’ll just have to see how the second half of the season goes. Badge is won already though which is nice.

 

Thank you for reading and I’ll be back with the full season update later.

[Rich]

Fantastic going so far Ian, I’ve also found I can only use two CB’s if I have a defensive midfielder this year, which does make sense to be fair! Hopefully he keeps this form up for the rest of the season 😁

[smoggy90]

Great start Ian, look set for a big total. 
My two at the back worked for this challenge but I played 3 BBM in front which gave me some defensive cover. However I’m using the same tactic in a test with Boro and conceding way too many. I think in some instances dropping a midfielder into the DM position (like yourself) or even back to CD may be the way forward for a more rounded tactic. 

[Ian]

3 hours ago, RichD said:

Fantastic going so far Ian, I’ve also found I can only use two CB’s if I have a defensive midfielder this year, which does make sense to be fair! Hopefully he keeps this form up for the rest of the season 😁

Thanks Richard, I used similar systems last year and they did require top top players and I’d still say the systems work this year but I feel like the barometer has been increased and it needs a slightly higher quality of players to work. On my Liverpool one I found that if VVD was out then we were incredibly leaky. Tweaks needed I think and maybe different player types but for now I’m exploring different things and this one here seems better. We’ve got the results and it just seem more stable with much less crazy games and the bulk scoring is there it would see.

2 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Great start Ian, look set for a big total. 
My two at the back worked for this challenge but I played 3 BBM in front which gave me some defensive cover. However I’m using the same tactic in a test with Boro and conceding way too many. I think in some instances dropping a midfielder into the DM position (like yourself) or even back to CD may be the way forward for a more rounded tactic. 

Thanks Smoggy, I think I need a few tweaks but this here seems very good from what I’m seeing as we’re getting the bulk goals. The T role is just ridiculous in the right system from what I’m seeing, I thought that when I used Messi there in the other badge challenge as even though it’s Messi, it was an ageing Messi who declined badly as the season went on and he was still very good to say the least.

[Rob]

Love the tactic, as always. Interesting you opted for Can as the BBM and Brozovic as the DLP and not the other way around like the game suggests. That’s why you always top score everything. Also, I love that your strikers all seem to have goals and assists in the screenshot, except Cavani who is a greedy so and so! 

[Ian]

5 hours ago, Rob said:

Love the tactic, as always. Interesting you opted for Can as the BBM and Brozovic as the DLP and not the other way around like the game suggests. That’s why you always top score everything. Also, I love that your strikers all seem to have goals and assists in the screenshot, except Cavani who is a greedy so and so! 

Thank you Rob, the tactic seems very good. I like the BBM to have good pace if possible so went with Can there but he did end up playing in the DLP position a good bit. I wasn’t sure whether to cash in on Pogba to help fund the squad rebuild but I kept him in the end and he did well in the AP role.

[Ian]

End of Season Update

I’ll crack straight on with the transfers.

 

Transfers

Absolutely loads of transfers with only the two keepers, Pogba, Bruno and McTominay staying from the original squad apart from a few fringe players who ended up being moved to the reserves. I wanted decent centre backs so Fabinho and Langlet were chosen as our first choice pairing with Paulista and McTominay being backups. Brozovic was my preferred DLP but all of the midfielders were pretty well rounded and even Fabinho could fill in at times if needed so we didn’t actually have a set back up there. Can as preferred BBM and Pogba as AP with Zakaria and Gundogan as backups. I would’ve preferred one more midfielder ideally but couldn’t manage it and luckily we didn’t suffer any horrible injury spells so it worked out well. I knew Milner would be decent for a season on the right and went with Praet as backup who I know of but have never used, he seems good. On the left I went with Gosens as first choice who is totally new to me and seems decent and had Alonso in reserve who is certainly steady. Draxler was the main backup to Bruno until Minimino came in in early January. I had about £30m left over and Praet had been injured a bit so Draxler had been required on the right more than I’d like which took him away from being reserve to Bruno. Also our strikers had suffered injuries so Minimino I felt was a good option as he can play in so many roles. I wanted good all round strikers and went for Calvert-Lewis who I like, Poulsen who looks good on paper but can be a bit hit or miss I find and Meraga I always find plays well so he was a no brainer for that money. I kept Cavani as the fourth choice and he did well enough when required.

Anyway, I felt we’d built a decent team in the end.

Spoiler

 

Team Results

We won all trophies except for the Champions League where Real beat us on penalties in the final. We needed a penalty shootout to get through the League Cup semi against Liverpool but apart from that it was all comfortable in the domestic cups. The League was very comfortable too as we only drew two games and scored a hefty amount of goals.

Spoiler

 

 Bruno

Bruno was very good in the T role in this system and there just wasn’t any stopping him. He had success with both long and short shots, goals from free kicks, assists from corners and plenty of pass it to another player who then strikes it in assists. It just seemed like practically everything went through him one way or another and the only thing he didn’t do was headed goals. I used the T role last year and it was great but it just seems utterly ridiculous this year.

These two were probably my favourite games for Bruno, just couldn’t believe the Barca one and I turned to Susan and said, “This feels like cheating” as it was just ridiculous but she had no idea what I was on about.

 

He only suffered one injury which came at the beginning of an international break so didn’t keep him out and the only games he missed were when I felt he was too tired. I did play him a bit even when tired for a few minutes at the end of games or say the first half but I found him very durable to say the least and he played plenty of games right up until the 75-80 minute mark.

 

He ended up with 75 goals and 47 assists in a truly inspired campaign. I think this is the most I’ve ever had out of a single player in terms of goals and assists. Just ridiculous really and it actually shocked me especially the goals.

Spoiler

 

Manager

Loads of goals and much more than on my Liverpool wise men attempt.

Spoiler

 

Score

Bruno Fernandes: 75 goals and 47 assists

Total: 169

 

Conclusion

It went very well and the tactic seems great so I definitely need to test it somewhere else. I may try it with the Liverpool front three or maybe try the Chelsea wonderkid challenge as I haven’t done that one yet or perhaps have a go at the fabled number ten challenge. We’ll see.

 

Thank you for reading and if you could add my score to the leaderboard @RichD, I’d be grateful.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Ian

[Rich]

Simply brilliant Ian, so good! He is a pleasure to manage isn’t he. You managed to get a load of assists, which Makes me want to try again. Very enjoyable challenge. That’s a monster score and I shall add you to the leaderboard now 👍

[Rob]

Monstrous. And you also turned to your missus and says ‘this feels like cheating’... which she could have taken the wrong way. Well done mate.

[Scratch]

Wow, you really slaughtered this one mate, that score is massive. You definitely need to use that tactic again, that going to work well for a number of challenges. Heck you could probbaly do a 2KC / Assists 1KC using the one player with that!

[broodje kip]

What an impressive score! I’m at a loss of words  

[Ian]

19 hours ago, RichD said:

Simply brilliant Ian, so good! He is a pleasure to manage isn’t he. You managed to get a load of assists, which Makes me want to try again. Very enjoyable challenge. That’s a monster score and I shall add you to the leaderboard now 👍

Thank you Richard, he was fantastic. Definitely would like to go again on this but for now I think I’ll try the same tactic on the Chelsea graduate wonderkids challenge as the players there should suit the tactic.

18 hours ago, Rob said:

Monstrous. And you also turned to your missus and says ‘this feels like cheating’... which she could have taken the wrong way. Well done mate.

Thanks Rob, it went well and the tactic certainly seems strong as I wouldn’t say the squad was any better than what I had on the Liverpool challenge yet the results here were much better. Need to try it somewhere else now to get a better idea but Bruno was just amazing and I was just laughing at times wondering what was going on.

8 hours ago, Scratch said:

Wow, you really slaughtered this one mate, that score is massive. You definitely need to use that tactic again, that going to work well for a number of challenges. Heck you could probbaly do a 2KC / Assists 1KC using the one player with that!

Thank you Scratch, it does seem good so I’m thinking of using it or a slight variation for a longer challenge. I’m going to try your Chelsea wonderkid one next though as the main contributors here seemed to be the T, two DLF’s and AP so should suit the players available for the challenge. We’ll see how it goes. Brozovic was ok again here but his rating is less with being in the DM position. He is a negative in the squad though so not sure if I’ll go for him on longer challenges but shorter ones he seems a decent option.

7 hours ago, hhooo said:

Good lord I'm not sure I even want to try this one anymore 

Thanks, it’s not always about the score. I wasn’t overly happy with my wise men one and knew after about 5 games that I wouldn’t be challenging at the top of the board but wanted to get the badge so continued on. I got it in the end and if I go again on that one I’ll just be looking to beat my previous best.

6 hours ago, broodje kip said:

What an impressive score! I’m at a loss of words  

Thank you Lord Danish.

[Scratch]

4 minutes ago, Ian said:

Brozovic was ok again here but his rating is less with being in the DM position. He is a negative in the squad though so not sure if I’ll go for him on longer challenges but shorter ones he seems a decent option.

Just started Jesus again at Inter and decided to keep Brozovic and try him myself - although I seem to have forgotten to buy LWs and have no money left, so if I can't seel some of the other fringe players, I might have to sacrafice him...

[Ian]

28 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Just started Jesus again at Inter and decided to keep Brozovic and try him myself - although I seem to have forgotten to buy LWs and have no money left, so if I can't seel some of the other fringe players, I might have to sacrafice him...

I kind of like going for him because he’s usually available for a reasonable fee. I’ve looked again on my Bruno save and he is down as having the lowest possible professionalism. I haven’t really looked at that screen much yet but it looks like it should be good especially for giving an idea on the hidden attributes.

[Kanegan]

Monster achievement Ian. I tip my hat off.

[Chris]

What a result! Good effort mate. Tactic is very close to what I'm using as a 1KC atm obv minus the extra man up front. I've yet to try out the T role this year but this thread has shown me enough to (ab)use it once I start collecting these shiny badges! 

[Ian]

4 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Monster achievement Ian. I tip my hat off.

Thanks Kane, I’ve been having trouble with some of the systems I used on last years game, results were not there and even with top teams. Probably just the odd tweak needed here and there but I decided to make a slight positional change here and it seems better based on this. More testing needed though so we’ll see how this tactics performs on the Chelsea wonderkid challenge.

3 hours ago, itzChris92 said:

What a result! Good effort mate. Tactic is very close to what I'm using as a 1KC atm obv minus the extra man up front. I've yet to try out the T role this year but this thread has shown me enough to (ab)use it once I start collecting these shiny badges! 

Thanks Chris, it’s a great role I think, it was on previous games but seems incredibly strong this year from what I’m seeing. I’ll need to test more now though with some other players to get a better idea as to what is going on. Good luck with your badge attempts and your 1kc which I’ll read through shortly. 

[Kanegan]

I enjoyed a lot in the Chelsea challenge, so you will smash it I am sure.