Career The Last Hurrah: Pelle and Valbuena

[Alexotelli]

The Last Hurrah

 

The start:

For this challenge I turned to the Chinese Super League. I need some old(er) fellas for this challenge. In this league I’ll be able to give them a fair amount of goals/assists as well as a lot of money! The subjects are: Pelle and Valbuena. With Pelle already being at the club (with an expiring contract), the most important thing to do is to pick up Valbuena. This was really easy.

Here are Pelles stats after 1 game:

 

And Valbuena's stats:

 

For in- and outgoing transfers: I bought Pieters, Nakamba and Spajic for the extra defensive power. No one left

 

My tactic heavily relies on Valbuena creating and Pelle finishing.

 

Sidenote: I am awfully concerned with Pelles expiring contract. At this point in time he is not willing to sign the extension just yet. I just keep on trying after every game.

Sidenote2: the 2nd biggest concern is the right tactic. The first game went ‘okay’ with Pelle picking up his first goal. I am not exactly the tactic-creating-god. I’ll keep you updated on changes I might make throughout the first season.

 

4 game mark: Things are going almost a little too good. Pelle got 6 goals already. At the same time, Valbuena picked up an 2 week injury. He featured in 3 out of 4 games and picked up 3 assists.

11 game mark: Things aren't going as well as at the start. After 11 games of CSL and 2 cup games Pelle has scored 12 goals in 13 games played. Valbuena is lacking... he is on his 3rd injury of the season. After the 2 week injury at the start, he also missed a game because of a 10-day injury. At this point in time he is out of 1 or 2 games again. He has played 10 games picking up 2 goals. This doens't matter, because he is in need of assists. He has gathered 5 assists in his 10 games played. I have been playing him with his fitness levels down, so I was forced to sub him out. I want to improve the fitness of Valbuena and Pelle so they don't have to miss any games. I have hired 2 fitness coaches therefore. Not unimportant: we are also top of the league with 22 points. 7 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. Also still competing in the Chinese FA Cup. No Asian champions league this year, which makes improving stats next year a little more easy, I hope.

27 game mark: Mixed feelings at the moment. Pelle is still banging them in, which is great. I am also in the cup final and top of the league. Championship isn’t secured yet and the run into the last 3 games of the season is not great. I managed to get only 11 assist out of Valbuena. Also he is injured for a month... I have some luck that the last few games (including the CFA final home and away) are spread out. Best scenario: Valbuena only misses out on 2 games. 

End of the season:

Spoiler

Season finale:

The first season is done. We won the CSL, which grants us a plays in the Asian Champions League. More games, more goals, more assists... I hope. We also won the CFA cup. Against SIPG we won 0-1 away and 1-0 at home. Both goals were scored by Pelle. No assist for Valbuena. 

It is weird. I played Valbuena as an AP at CAM or as an AP at the left. I hoped he would have more assists. As it seems, Valbuena fancies scoring even more. He scored the same amount of goals as he had assists. It isn’t the purpose of this challenge, but he helped secure the championship and the CFA cup, so alright.

The final stats:

Resumé: 29x2= 58. 11x2= 22.

 

I’ll make a new post for the second season. I wish me luck

Season 1 is finished. I'll make a new post for S2!

Edited January 15, 2021 by Alexotelli

[Rich]

Good luck mate😁

[Kun Aguero]

Wow I didn't know Pelle was that old, he used to score a lot against me in China. Best of luck!

[Alexotelli]

22 hours ago, RichD said:

Good luck mate😁

Thanks! Season 1 results are in now. Can't be mad

17 hours ago, Kun Aguero said:

Wow I didn't know Pelle was that old, he used to score a lot against me in China. Best of luck!

I remember him scoring a lot when he was at Feyenoord. Even girls were getting more interested in football and Feyenoord here in Holland. You can probably guess why haha.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Alexotelli

[Alexotelli]

The last last Hurrah of Pelle and Valbuena

I've spoken to the Pelle and Valbuena. I decided that their contracts will be terminated if they bang in more goals and assists. I will also pay them both 10 million of the transferbudget, because it is is too much money and I don't know what to do with it.

 

Time to say goodbye?!

Valbuena's stats show that retiring is not a bad idea:

He just keeps dropping in every stat. I do hope he bangs in 12 assists as soon as possible.

 

Graziano Pelle wants to retire as well. I understand, but for him it isn't as neccesary as it is for Mathieu Valbuena.

 

The 'green' stats are disappearing like snow in the summer. However, I still have a lot of faith that he can go 30+ this year.

 

Transfers

I knew that Chinese clubs were stacked, but when I got handed €134.000.000 to spend, with wages of €500k a week, I was surprised. I had a nice team, good enough at least. I needed more quality players to compete in the CSL, CFA cup and the Asian CL. Here is what happened:

As I was looking for players, I couldn't help but think: who would want to go to China right now? Who is at a point in his career where financial security is more important than ambition to have the best career possible. I changed that thought: who cares? I want good players so I can do this challenge! After this season I'll probably terminate as much contracts as possible, never to be seen again.

I chose to buy Origi... 'a striker?'. Yes, a striker. My tactics for next season are weird, but I put some thought into it. I needed Origi, as he fits a role in the tactic perfectly. Also bought a new GK in Ryan, a centre back with Vogt and a right back: Kaderabek.

I picked up Yotun halfway last season, which I forget to mention. I also picked up Castro. I got him to warm the bench and be a stand-in, but he turned out to be really good actually. So for the beginning of the season he can show it in the starting line-up.

 

The tactics

Before I show the tactics, after seeing the screenshot... Please let me explain and don't call me an idiot haha.

So yeah, it sure looks odd. I am playing 'mixed' passing focus. I tried to get Valbuena on the ball as much as possible, but at this moment I don't really trust him as our playmaker. I kind of 'gave up' on Valbuena getting 20 assists. I think that with some crosses, al the corners and all the freekicks he takes, he should be able to pick up 12 assists.

This tactic is all about getting Pelle to score goals. On the right, Valbuena just has to cross... I don't care what else he does, just cross it in all game. I put Kaderabek as a full-back. He can help Valbuena out if he needs to, but I prefer Valbuena just banging in it front or near the goal and let Pelle take care of it.

On the left I got Yotun, who has an amazing cross, so he can play wingback and do what Valbuena has to do all game, put it in the box! Also on the left, you almost miss it, is Origi. Origi's role is just to press on the defenders all game. I put him on the left, because I'm afraid he'll score to much when I play him next to Pelle (yes, I said it). After he gets the ball from an opposition defender, I want him to give it to Pelle. Or if it is possible, to Valbuena, who gives it to Pelle, who scores

 

 

Last hurrah: season 2

9 game mark: After 9 league games and a whole lot of cup and champions league games, I’m struggling. The tactic was a gamble, and it didn’t really pay off. Pelle is not struggling at all. He had a game where he scored 4 goals within 30 minutes, so that’s going alright. Pelle has 18 goals and 18 games. The assist leader by a big difference is... ORIGI. The pressing forward role is perfect for providing assists, I thought. Origi has 11 assists already in only 18 games. Which is amazing, if he was Valbuena. Valbuena is struggling a lot. He started the season with a long injury, which kept him to only 13 games. Also his role didn’t workout. He is not a winger anymore, too slow I guess. I tried him in the same role as Origi, but that didn’t workout. He can’t defend at all, so I expected it to not workout. I tried him as an AP on CAM, just like last year. Also no contribution. At the moment he has only 2 assists, which is a big problem. Hopefully he starts producing soon, I’ll keep you updated.

 

12 game mark: This one is really short. Valbuena is getting some assists playing as an AP on CAM. Pelle stopped scoring since the 9 game mark and is stuck on 18 goals at the moment. It seems to always be something with this challenge. (Game 13: Pelle played bad and got injured, Valbuena scored 2, assisted nothing xD)

 

23 game mark: The challenge is going very well at the moment. We are top of the CSL with only 1 game lost. We also made it to the CFA cup final. In the Asian Champions league we are already in the semi-final. This al helps to make the challenge easier, more games equals more goals and assists. Pelle is doing extremely well, again. Not spoiling anything, lets just say he will succeed. Valbuena also picked up the pace a little. He is not getting injured anymore, but his stats are looking really bad at the moment. Luckily he is able to get a lot of game time. This has led to 11 assists so far. This means every assist is extra, as there will be no point reduction for this challenge.

 

No more updates! End of season will be highlighted after.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Alexotelli

[Alexotelli]

This is the finale. I've been updating a lot, so you can see that we were on track.

 

Spoiler

Here we go. This season has been amazing, absolute wonders. Throughout the season we only lost 1 match. We played 2 games for the Club World Championship, where we were matched up with PSG. We even drew that game, 0-0. PSG was the only team to go through by goal difference.

 

No goals from Pelle in the CFA cup win. Bad news... no Pelle goals in the last 8 or so games, because of an injury.

 

On last thing before I reveal the finals goal/assist totals. Here are the stats after the last competitive game of season 2:

Both players are getting to the end of their career. The stats suggest not much else. Valbuena still had his leadership and technique. The pace is abysmal, so is the stamina. Also his shooting is not really good. And his passing stats are not that great for an AP.

Pelle is lacking pace. Also his shooting stat has dropped, which didn't show in the final results.

 

The final results

What can I say... Pelle would've gone for 50 goals in 1 season if he didn't got injured. Valbuena was really bad at the start of the 2nd season, but has been inspiring in the second half of the season.

The maths:

No reduction of point to start with. Both players improved in the 2nd season, which is great news.

Pelle had 58 pts (29 goals) in the first season. So if we add the second season, 45x2, that gives him a score of 148 points... absolute madness.

Valbuena had 22 pts. (11 assists) in the first season. With 18x2, 36 pts, to add... a grand total of 58 points. I'm not mad at that.

 

Conclusion: this challenge is really fun. I love the good old players. I might even try this one again. With legends like Ibrahimovic, Huntelaar, Quaresma, Robben, Santi Cazorla, Blaszczykowski and Rooney still in the game, this challenge is really fun!