Career The My Way TT at Newcastle [Season 7]

[Scratch]

19 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Lovely season Scratch. Competition wise, it’s impressive but Esposito wise, quite disappointing. Gutted you haven’t got Barella still.

Thanks mate. Haven't got Barella yet in this save. 😄 And I won't get him in this save now. We're at the point where the players I have are equal to the Barellas of the world. No knock on them, but rather praise for my players. 😄

[Scratch]

19 hours ago, geordiekrispy said:

Impressive season for the toon.

Shame about the just missing out on the league and the fa cup.

It could be the ages of the players, they just need to mature a bit so you can get a full season out of the  without them wilting at the end a bit.

 

Can't wait to see you be all conquering next season. I can feel it.

Yeah, I think you're right - a little bit more seasoning and we'll be winning everything. Although it could be this tactic just isn't the right fit for a really tough league. We'll have to wait to see I guess!

[broodje kip]

1 minute ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate. Haven't got Barella yet in this save. 😄 And I won't get him in this save now. We're at the point where the players I have are equal to the Barellas of the world. No knock on them, but rather praise for my players. 😄

Yeah I understand that. Would love to see you use Barella anytime soon.

[Scratch]

16 hours ago, Rob said:

The most beautiful FA Cup final of all time.

Cough... A$h%le! cough! 😄

Actually I've stuggle a bit against your lads, not sure why. They seem to be a bogie team. I'd rather face Man City or Liverpool to be honest! 

added 0 minutes later

1 minute ago, broodje kip said:

Yeah I understand that. Would love to see you use Barella anytime soon.

You won't need to wait long! 😄

[Scratch]

15 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Great season Scratch.

Thanks mate!

added 0 minutes later

15 hours ago, Ian said:

A shame that you came up short in the league but it doesn’t matter all that much when you’re smashing in that amount of goals. It’ll come though I’m sure and the fans can celebrate the Champions League victory. The trio are having no trouble at all finding the net either.

Keep it up.

Thanks mate!

[Scratch]

14 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Champions of Europe! If I didn't have to go to work in a few hours, I'd raise a beer to that. Brilliant stuff mate. The league will come next season, I can smell it.

Keep it going, dude! 👍

Haha, yeah we can't be too far away from that. You can have a beer then! 😄

[Scratch]

13 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Some big improvements mate and surely that league title isn’t far away. Your chosen players are looking superb too. 

Thanks mate, they have developed really well this time around, the best of any of my FMM21 careers. I really think it must be something to do with the higher level we're playing at...

[hhooo]

29 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate, they have developed really well this time around, the best of any of my FMM21 careers. I really think it must be something to do with the higher level we're playing at...

Getting promoted and playing at a new level of competition always gives big boosts in this year's game, even for players closer to 30. I think that's definitely very important. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by hhooo

[Scratch]

19 minutes ago, hhooo said:

Getting promoted and playing at a new level of competition always gives big boosts in this year's game, even for players closer to 30. I think that's definitely very important. 

Hadn't noticed that, thanks. Though Newcastle didn't exactly get promoted! 😄 But we did play at a new level (Europe) at least for this batch of players, been a while since we were in Europe.

[hhooo]

20 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Hadn't noticed that, thanks. Though Newcastle didn't exactly get promoted! 😄 But we did play at a new level (Europe) at least for this batch of players, been a while since we were in Europe.

I'm comparing getting promoted from the third division to first in NI from last year to this year, and even though all the teams are shit, you still get a large boost. Playing in cl/el qualifiers is also huge for weak leagues. 

[Scratch]

Season 4

It's been a while! After season 3 wrapped up, I went and had two passes at the Borussia Babes challenge.

When that finished I returned to Newcastle, only to find the squad had become strangers to me. It took me a while to go through and work out who was who and what I wanted to do with the squad.

There was also some confusion about the tactic - it had gotten a goodly amount of goals in this save, but wasn't consistently solid enough at this level to deliver maximum success. I'd had similar issues at Dortmund, so I tried to bring over the tweaks I'd made there - more on that later.

Eventually I got back into the swing of thing, as you'll see below...

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Going out:

• Asensio: Brought in on a Bosman last season and did okay as a backup, but didn't really fit our system.

• Carrillo: Thanks for your help, but it's time to go on without you Professor.

• Adarabioyo, Longstaff and Amiri: Decent players, but not really doing enough to justify their places as we continue levelling up the squad.

• Origi and Dumfries: Decent backups, but with youngsters coming through, no longer necessary.

Coming in:

• Camavinga: Hopefully a first team CM for the long term.

• Pellegrini and Godfrey: Levelling up our LWB and CD positions (with Amiri and Origi being used as makeweights).

• Bennacer: Wasn't sure about him as we had good a midfield already, but was on a Bosman.

• Some other promising youngsters.

 

Tactics

As mentioned above, the TT Blaster (with Overload and Close Down Own Half) had been unreliable, so I brought back the tweaks I'd come up with at Dortmund: moving to Balanced and turning on both Run With the Ball (so there is still attacking threat) and Close Down All Over (so they get less time to take advantage of the holes in our formation).

While that worked great at Dortmund and also gave us more stability here, the goal output was significantly down - averaging around 3 goals a game instead of 4.

After much experimentation, I ended up keeping most of that, but going with Attacking instead of Balanced. That seemed to give us the best ... balance ... between a more solid system that allowed us to win more often and one giving us a lot of goals.

An unintended consequence was that the goals went more to the T position than the TMs on either side of him, as you'll see below. I'll probably have to start rotating the players through that position - if I keep using this tactic.

 

Results

The good news, is that we won everything for the first time, including our first EPL win!

Spoiler

 

What a season!! And all pretty easy too. It's a little sad though because this will be the expectation from now and the initial joy of levelling up and winning things for Newcastle has faded a bit.

 

The Lads

The lads look like this at the end of the season:

Spoiler

Both Pellegri and Sargent have reached their max, but Esposito is still inching up.

 

Injuries

Another great season - Esposito had a 10 day injury at the start of the season, Sargent also had a 10 day injury, and Pellegri had an in-game injury that dropped him to 58%, but he only missed a couple of games from that.

Spoiler

 

Goals

Here's the overview (38 in 56 for Pellegri, 75 in 53 for Esposito and 34 in 54 for Sargent):

And the history screens:

Spoiler

As you can see, Esposito in the T role clearly scored a lot more and assisted less, while the two in the TM positions did the opposite, so the tactical tweaks certainly seem to have changed the dynamic.

Anyway, that gives us:

Season	Pellegri	Esposito	Sargent	Total
01	19	25	15	59
02	36	41	28	105
03	40	41	36	117
04	38	75	34	147
Total	133	182	113	428

A massive jump and a very successful season. It seems the altered tactic really hit the spot.

That said, I can't help wondering whether our current team, which is stronger than the season 3 one, may be able to make the original tactic work now. But that's likely a question for next season.

Thanks for reading.

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Scratch

[broodje kip]

Woah Esposito is unbelievable! Must be the reason you struggled on Borussia Babe in the first attempt 😂

[Scratch]

12 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Woah Esposito is unbelievable! Must be the reason you struggled on Borussia Babe in the first attempt 😂

He's alright... 😄

[billy2shots]

147 goals between the front 3 is great going. 

The Geordies love a goal scoring forward and you've given them 3 to be proud of. 

[Rich]

Awesome going as usually Scratch, smashed it out of the park, Esposito justifying his tag as the greatest ever! And my favourite 😍

hopefully things will just go from strength to strength here mate 😁

 

[Hugofernando]

Wow Esposito is a beast!! Great job

[Scratch]

Season 5

Real life is taking a lot of my time these days, so haven't had so much time to play or to keep up with all the careers here (sorry). And I'll have to keep this quickish...

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Got rid of some fringe players who'd been squeezed out of playing time, including ASM, Gabriel, Nyambe, Tymon, Woodman, Bennacer. Got good money, but I can't really spend it, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's notable that I signed Upamecano, but then I got Demiral so didn't really need him any more - so I traded him in a straight swap for Bellingham who I'd been trying to sign for a few years.

We also had a £56M deal lined up for Bruno, but it fell through when he got injured.

 

Tactics

After the big change last season (moving to Attacking, Run With the Ball and Close Down All Over), I went back to the TT Blaster to see how that did now that the team is really world class. The answer: It kicked butt... So I went with that 85% of the time, falling back to the other tactic when that didn't work so well.

 

Results

We lost the Community Shield and the UCL final, both to Man City, who spanked us 8-1 in the former and beat us 2-1 against the run of play in the latter. In the League, we shipped slightly more goals than the previous season, but managed to score 153 goals, so you'd have to say the tactic change paid off.

Spoiler

 

The Lads

The lads look like this at the end of the season:

Spoiler

 

Injuries

After 4 great seasons, we finally had a bad one:

• Sargent had a lot of injuries: 1 month, followed by 2 months, then 1 month again, then a couple of days.

• Pellegri had 2 months out in July, missing the beginning of the season.

• Esposito had a 1 month injury.

Spoiler

 

Goals

Here's the overview (59 in 52 for Pellegri, 66 in 54 for Esposito and 34 in 39 for Sargent):

And the history screens:

Spoiler

That gives us:

Season	Pellegri	Esposito	Sargent	Total
01	19	25	15	59
02	36	41	28	105
03	40	41	36	117
04	38	75	34	147
05	59	66	34	159
Total	192	248	147	587

A nice step forward, especially given Sargent missed almost 4 months! It definitely feels like we are on the right track.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Rich]

A fantastic season there Scratch, really good! I love Demiral, so I’m glad you’ve signed him, he’s awesome. The boys are just class as well 😁

[George Traistă]

Giving the fact that they had almost one season of combined injury this is more than fantastic. I bet they can get to around 200 without injuries. 

As much as I hate to see Esposito used in challenges, I totally understand, 20 on Aerial, shooting and movement... My god! And Pellegri is basically a copycat of Esposito 😂

[billy2shots]

Another quality season. It will be interesting to see the season numbers next year with better injury luck 178 is my guess.

[broodje kip]

Everything is going great Scratch. KIU.

Maybe you should stay with the new tactic and see how it goes

[Dai_]

Even with the injuries, those are amazing numbers. Keep it going, dude.

[Woody]

Smashing it mate. Well done 👍

[DLC]

Brilliant mate, keep it up!

[Scratch]

On 10/03/2021 at 23:39, Rich said:

A fantastic season there Scratch, really good! I love Demiral, so I’m glad you’ve signed him, he’s awesome. The boys are just class as well 😁

Thanks mate - he's doing real well for me. I used him in the Dortmund one, but he was a little inconsistent in the first season or two, and it worked out to be better to go with Varane etc, but he's every bit as good a couple of season in.

[Scratch]

On 10/03/2021 at 23:52, George Traistă said:

Giving the fact that they had almost one season of combined injury this is more than fantastic. I bet they can get to around 200 without injuries. 

As much as I hate to see Esposito used in challenges, I totally understand, 20 on Aerial, shooting and movement... My god! And Pellegri is basically a copycat of Esposito 😂

Yeah, it was the first time I have such bad injury luck in this save, 200? Hmm, maybe, now I'm thinking of that! might be realistic in a few seasons when they are at their peak and the AI has run the opposition into the ground!

Esposito is just class. Not as good as the top players in the game, but when you get him his CA is fairly low, so there is a lot of opportunity for development. Same with Pellegri. Though I've got to say, this is the first time I've got anyone to 20 Aerial this year, so I'm pretty happy with that.

[Scratch]

On 11/03/2021 at 00:10, billy2shots said:

Another quality season. It will be interesting to see the season numbers next year with better injury luck 178 is my guess.

Thanks mate, I'm only just starting it, had to have a few days off 😮

I'd be happy with 178, but don't think we'll get there for a few seasons yet!

added 0 minutes later

On 11/03/2021 at 00:41, broodje kip said:

Everything is going great Scratch. KIU.

Maybe you should stay with the new tactic and see how it goes

Thanks mate. I think I'll just stick to the TT Blaster and see how far I can take it!

[Scratch]

On 11/03/2021 at 04:28, Dai_ said:

Even with the injuries, those are amazing numbers. Keep it going, dude.

Thanks mate, will do! Need to win the UCL again though!

added 0 minutes later

On 11/03/2021 at 05:15, Woody said:

Smashing it mate. Well done 👍

Thanks mate!

added 0 minutes later

On 11/03/2021 at 05:20, DLC said:

Brilliant mate, keep it up!

Thanks mate!

[Scratch]

Season 6

Another season in the can.

One potential hiccup: I updated to the latest version in January and the team felt sluggish, so I thought the tactic mightn't be working. I tried to go back to the pre-Winter version, only to find that I couldn't load the save anymore - so I had to stay on the latest version. As it happens, the sluggishness passed and the lads hit top gear again. We seem slightly more brittle than in the past, but should be good enough.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Really the only deals of note were selling Sanchez (only once, not twice, 🤦‍♂️ FMM) and Godfrey. Both were just outside our top two game day squads and had to make way for some of our developing youngsters.

 

Results

Another good year in the league, although our goal total (147) fell 6 short of our best. We lost to Napoli in the Club World Championship before the season got underway, and got spanked 6-3 by Man Utd in the FA Cup Semi. Apart from that, we won everything, including the UCL Final, beating Chelsea 2-0.

Spoiler

 

The Lads

The lads look like this at the end of the season:

Spoiler

 

Injuries

After the terrible injuries last season (7 months worth), we went injury free, apart from a couple of in game injuries.

 

Assists

I don't normally bother reporting this, but thought I'd throw it in this time:

The lads come next, so I cut it there, so you have to wait until the next section for the goals reveal.

Worth noting that our top 4 are the wingers. Solomon really lifting his game this year to be the clear winner here.

 

Goals

Here's the overview (63 in 54 for Pellegri, 67 in 53 for Esposito and 53 in 53 for Sargent):

And the history screens:

Spoiler

That gives us:

Season	Pellegri	Esposito	Sargent	Total
01	19	25	15	59
02	36	41	28	105
03	40	41	36	117
04	38	75	34	147
05	59	66	34	159
06	63	67	53	183
Total	255	315	200	770

Our best season by some margin, and great to see Sargent step up. All but one game of the Club World Championship was played this season, which will have helped, but it still feels like a significant step forward.

Thanks for reading.

 

[DLC]

Ridiculous numbers once again mate brilliant stuff!