Career Scratch Tries the Borussia Babes [Attempt 2 Complete]

[Scratch]

I have some outstanding business to take care of in the Badges of Honor series, but I'm going to jump right to Badge 8 - The Borussia Babes.

I'm still in the preseason, but I've taken charge of Borussia Dortmund and signed the 5th player, who will earn points for goals and assists along with Haaland, Sancho, Bellingham and Reyna. 

I sort of regret promising @broodje kip that I wouldn't use Esposito, as this challenge would work perfectly with Pellegri as the 5th player in season 1 and then Esposito as the 6th player in season 2. But anyway, I was true to my word and instead I signed a player I've never used before, but have been wanting to try out.

I'll be using my TT Blaster tactic, so we'll have to see how it goes. If I lose too many games I might need to go more conservative, but I figure I should at least try it here in Germany.

Apart from that, I've got nothing much to say at this point - I'm still putting the squad together. It's shaping up okay, but hard to tell if I'll get the balance right, as I'm trying something unusual with a couple of the players. Might be worth mentioning I almost signed Goretzka from Bayern, but couldn't quite afford his wages. I've also signed a young CD I've been wanting to try for a long time. 

Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll be back at some point in the next day or so with more details...

 

Edited February 28 by Scratch

[broodje kip]

Interested to see who they guy is Scratch. Good luck.

[Scratch]

6 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Interested to see who they guy is Scratch. Good luck.

No one will guess. not a player that's mentioned much, if at all, but I'm sure someone's used him and I've missed it.

[Rich]

I’m going for Liam Delap! I don’t know why, but he’s someone I really want to use now 😂

Anyway good luck mate, looking forward to seeing how you get on.

[broodje kip]

4 minutes ago, Rich said:

I’m going for Liam Delap! I don’t know why, but he’s someone I really want to use now 😂

Anyway good luck mate, looking forward to seeing how you get on.

He’s great when I tested him. A very powerful TM and could be the best if not because of work rate.

[Scratch]

33 minutes ago, Rich said:

I’m going for Liam Delap! I don’t know why, but he’s someone I really want to use now 😂

Anyway good luck mate, looking forward to seeing how you get on.

Thanks mate, not him. Same nationality as one of @FuddledFox's favourite strikers (someone you should know well), but not sure that helps much...

[Rob]

A young Serbian...?

I had to adjust budgets to get Leon. 240k or something I think.

I love seeing people’s approach to this challenge and I can’t wait to see what transfers you do. We all have our different ways of playing and it’s kinda fascinating.

Good luck buddy! 

[broodje kip]

23 minutes ago, Rob said:

A young Serbian...?

I had to adjust budgets to get Leon. 240k or something I think.

I love seeing people’s approach to this challenge and I can’t wait to see what transfers you do. We all have our different ways of playing and it’s kinda fascinating.

Good luck buddy! 

That’s Vlahovic I guess?

[Rob]

15 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

That’s Vlahovic I guess?

Yep good shout. Fits the criteria. 

[Scratch]

@broodje kip @Rob - good detective work!

   

Nice starting attributes. "Potential to improve a lot in the future" in the Coach Report. "Could improve immensely in the future" on the Training Screen. Not quite as strong in the air as I'd like, but I called an old friend to help out with that, so he should probably get to 15 just from mentoring, without any updates on his own...

Course I don't know if he can actually score goals, but I'm hopeful. Didn't want to use any of my usual bunch and have been meaning to give him a whirl anyway. 

I almost went with a 19 year old, someone I've used before, but not this year. Then I thought, I'll just buy him next year when he's 20... Though we'll have to wait and see if it's still a striker I need.

[Rich]

3 minutes ago, Scratch said:

@broodje kip @Rob - good detective work!

   

Nice starting attributes. "Potential to improve a lot in the future" in the Coach Report. "Could improve immensely in the future" on the Training Screen. Not quite as strong in the air as I'd like, but I called an old friend to help out with that, so he should probably get to 15 just from mentoring, without any updates on his own...

Course I don't know if he can actually score goals, but I'm hopeful. Didn't want to use any of my usual bunch and have been meaning to give him a whirl anyway. 

I almost went with a 19 year old, someone I've used before, but not this year. Then I thought, I'll just buy him next year when he's 20... Though we'll have to wait and see if it's still a striker I need.

Been tempted to sign him a few times, never got around to it, be interesting to see how he develops under the tutelage of the great Scratch😁 

[Rob]

Lovely choice of player. We are all different so far! 

[geordiekrispy]

Talking about your TT blaster, and Rich's goaltopia formations, I went down a real life tactical rabbit hole today...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_(association_football)#WM

The classical formations especially the first recognised formation in the "pyramid" really reminded me of some of the formations on here.

 

I'm itching to try a W-M to see if it'll still work..

 

[Scratch]

28 minutes ago, Rich said:

Been tempted to sign him a few times, never got around to it, be interesting to see how he develops under the tutelage of the great Scratch😁 

I'm hopeful because of the strong base and the potential, but it's far from a sure thing. I'd rather use Esposito! But I'm sure he'll be decent.

[Scratch]

27 minutes ago, Rob said:

Lovely choice of player. We are all different so far! 

Yeah that does make it interesting and it's part of why I like the wildcard choices. So cool to see the different approaches!

[Scratch]

16 minutes ago, geordiekrispy said:

Talking about your TT blaster, and Rich's goaltopia formations, I went down a real life tactical rabbit hole today...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_(association_football)#WM

The classical formations especially the first recognised formation in the "pyramid" really reminded me of some of the formations on here.

 

I'm itching to try a W-M to see if it'll still work..

 

A few years back I tried the Metodo (the formation above the W-M one) which is what we used when I played hockey. Was a fun experiment, but not that successful. I actually think it might be more successful in this version. Hmm...

[broodje kip]

43 minutes ago, Scratch said:

@broodje kip @Rob - good detective work!

   

Nice starting attributes. "Potential to improve a lot in the future" in the Coach Report. "Could improve immensely in the future" on the Training Screen. Not quite as strong in the air as I'd like, but I called an old friend to help out with that, so he should probably get to 15 just from mentoring, without any updates on his own...

Course I don't know if he can actually score goals, but I'm hopeful. Didn't want to use any of my usual bunch and have been meaning to give him a whirl anyway. 

I almost went with a 19 year old, someone I've used before, but not this year. Then I thought, I'll just buy him next year when he's 20... Though we'll have to wait and see if it's still a striker I need.

Nice one Scratch. He looks like a lovely player. Would score you some nice amounts of goals surely.

[Raven9]

Great player choice. Good luck

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Rob said:

I had to adjust budgets to get Leon. 240k or something I think.

Missed this - I tried, but didn;t have enough cash left to get it high enough.

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, broodje kip said:

Nice one Scratch. He looks like a lovely player. Would score you some nice amounts of goals surely.

and

14 minutes ago, Raven9 said:

Great player choice. Good luck

Yeah, surely can't go too far wrong with him. Mind you, I've just about signed Zirkzee (but I might not go through with it) who would surely be better? Oh well, I better stick to the plan...

[Scratch]

Shout out to @Rich who lost his D and @broodje kip who can finally look at his avatar and see himself there. What a year 2021 is turning out to be!

[Albionic]

Good luck mate, sure you will smash it!

[Ian]

Nice choice of player.

I also nearly signed Goretzka but couldn’t manage the wages. It was later on in the window after I’d made some other signings so it’s stuck in my head that we may have been able to manage the wages if I’d gone for him sooner when we had a fuller budget. I had to settle for Partey instead who isn’t as good but did a decent job for us.

Good luck.

[Scratch]

4 hours ago, Albionic said:

Good luck mate, sure you will smash it!

Thanks mate!

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, Ian said:

Nice choice of player.

I also nearly signed Goretzka but couldn’t manage the wages. It was later on in the window after I’d made some other signings so it’s stuck in my head that we may have been able to manage the wages if I’d gone for him sooner when we had a fuller budget. I had to settle for Partey instead who isn’t as good but did a decent job for us.

Good luck.

Thanks. My squad is probably a little underpowered compared to what I'd usually go for, but I think it's in decent shape.

I really wanted Goretzka, but I'd already bought too many (including Barella) to stretch for the wages. I only have 1 CM position with this tactic, so I'm going with Barella in Team A and I'm sticking with Can in Team B. Barella and Goretzka would have been better, but hopefully Can will be enough. He'd not a bad player after all! 

In general, I've avoided the 28+ crowd and gone for younger players who will level up over the two season. We'll have to see how that plays out. 

[Scratch]

Bayern Who?

[Rich]

3 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Bayern Who?

Lovely! 3 of the main men on the scoresheet as well. Hopefully a sign for things to come. 

[broodje kip]

6 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Bayern Who?

Interesting you bought Lainez. He was one of my favourite for the past 3 editions. Haven’t tried him yet this year. How’s he doing for you?

[Scratch]

8 minutes ago, Rich said:

Lovely! 3 of the main men on the scoresheet as well. Hopefully a sign for things to come. 

Yeah mostly going well. Getting about 4 goals a game:

Of course the challenge will be whether we can carry that over to the Champions league. Might not even make it out of the group at this stage.

I'm doing something slightly unusual with the positions:

Because I need 3 strikers and I only have two, I'm retraining Sancho as a striker.

I'm also retraining Reyna as a striker for flexibility, but my goal is for him to play the attacking midfield role.

Eventually Bellingham will be my right wing, where he's done really well for me in the past, but at the moment I'm mostly bringing him off the bench into the AMC role.

It's a struggle to retrain both Sancho and Reyna as strikers, they complain a lot, but I know it can be done from my defenders TT last year.

[Scratch]

19 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Interesting you bought Lainez. He was one of my favourite for the past 3 editions. Haven’t tried him yet this year. How’s he doing for you?

I've used him 5 or 6 times this year. Takes a while for him to develop, so not that great for a one season challenge, but by the end of the year he'll be pretty good.

Looking like this at the moment: