Career Geordie: The Big Combo (Season 2)

[geordiekrispy]

Right, as I've already let the cat(s) out of the bag as it were for some of my players. I thought it best to let you all know what challenges I'm going for and the players I'm using to try and complete them.

 

This first season I will be attempting the following challenges:

 

1) The Kevin O'Connor Challenge. Take a player and play until he gets 501 appearances for the club. Meanwhile he must get bright yellow on FC, MC, DC, MR/AMR or ML/AML and DR/WBR or DL/WBL. If he won't turn to bright yellow on those positions by the time he gets to 501 appearances, the challenge is failed. 

Spoiler

For this one I thought it best to get a player who's young enough to be here 10ish seasons and adaptable enough to already tick a lot of the positional boxes. So I found this young lad wasting away in Chelsea's reserves

Plus who doesn't love a good defensive midfielder!

2) Club Legend. Get a striker to score as many Newcastle goals as the living legend that is Alan Shearer.

Spoiler

Honestly, I didn't have to think too hard about this. I wanted to use a wonderkid, I know I could have possibly used a slightly older more established English striker, but I really like Delap, he's got enough potential and already has good stats in all the right places.

 

3) Striker Peak Years Challenge. Get a striker in their "prime" (24-29) and get as many goals as possible out of them over 5 seasons.

Spoiler

My Prime Years striker is the Man Utd reject Memphis Depay:

I liked his ability to play out on the left and his preferred position is a Trequarista, so he can drop back a little too.

 

 4) The Late Bloomer. Using a player over 30 years old to score more goals for you as they had done before you signed them, with a minimum of 100 goals.

Spoiler

This was one of the hardest choice as I wanted to get a player who would be able to fulfill a couple of roles in the squad, yes scoring goals, but also assisting and being able to play in multiple positions so they can adapt with the tactics.

Vela is someone I used with great success in my Continental Conquerers Challenge at LAFC as an IF up front in rotation with my main goal scorer, so I thought he should be even better younger!

 

6) The Last Hurrah. Using a 35+ year old to score as many goals as possible over 2 seasons, with the second season having to be as good or better than the first season or suffer a penalty.

Spoiler

After my success with Tardelli in China, I thought I'd see if I can make him do the same thing in the Premier League.

Plus you never know having another Brazilian might help Joelinton.

 

7) Everyone's Goalscorer Challenge. Every outfield player must score 5 or more goals out of a squad of 22 (20 outfield and 2 GK) over the course of the first season.

Spoiler

Here's my overall squad, fingers crossed I kept the right players! (I tried to get rid of Dummett, but he was injured right up to the week before the first game and kept failing medicals).

I'm actually planning on using Joelinton as an IF on the left or as a Pressing Forward in the middle (plus I want to equal his total of Newcastle goals in 1 season).

 

😎 The Goaltopia Challenge. As George has said we'd decided to only select 2 players for this challenge. It's essentially get the players to score as many as possible with a minimum of 100 goals.

Spoiler

I thought it made sense to use my Peak Years and Club Legend strikers as my plan is to make them the focus of most of my tactical changes over the years.

 

9) 5's enough or is it Overkill? I actually think this one of the hardest challenges that we're undertaking alongside Everyone's a goalscorer. Having to use a VERY attacking formation really limits the defensive capabilities of the team, and then having the goals against count against you is tough!

Spoiler

Ok so you already know 4 of my 5 as my Club Legend - Delap, Prime Years - Depay, Late Bloomer - Vega and Last Hurrah - Tardelli, I've also decided to include Callum Wilson as quite frankly my other choices are probably going to be fringe/rotation players of Joelinton, Almiron and Saint-Maximin.

 

Yes I'm starting 9 out of 10 challenges in my first season! Am I insane? Probably. But one of my lines of thought is I'm getting the tough challenges out of the way early so if I can pass them I can concentrate on getting a better score for the other ones and getting everything set up for the wonderkids challenge in a few seasons time.
 

I have a feeling we're going to be like Keegan's Newcastle of the 90s. All out attack and goals, with very little in terms of defense and keeping goals out, we're going to outscore the opposition! Which should be fun until someone figure out how to nullify my attack by playing 5 at the back or something and hitting me on the counter, I also am going to have to work on my defending of set pieces as I feel that's where I'm going to leak a lot of goals.

[George Traistă]

Holly molly @geordiekrispy, you're mad 🤣

I bought a kido for my club legend but I'm not sure I will use it. I didn't post his profile as I may change it. 

Hands down you got better players than me! 

[DLC]

Some nice players there @geordiekrispy, be interesting to see how you come on!

[hhooo]

@geordiekrispy sounds like it's time to bust out the 5-0-5 formation! Forget that middle third of the pitch, who needs it.

[Rich]

Loving the choices and just the pure madness from you both @George Traistă and @geordiekrispy. Good luck both, just good luck mostly to Geordie 😂

Edited March 22, 2021 by Rich

[George Traistă]

1 hour ago, Rich said:

Loving the choices and just the pure madness from you both @George Traistă and @geordiekrispy. Good luck both, just good luck mate to Geordie 😂

I don’t need good luck, I'm too good at this 🤣 Geordie will need it with 9 out of 10 challenges from the start, he must get his head around that!

[George Traistă]

The Kevin O'Connor Challenge Update

Lowen is now light yellow on the required positions: FC, MC, DC, DR and AMR

[Kanegan]

Some great choices from both of you. Benedetto has been used by me every time I attempt the Pensioners 1KC so I will look out for him. 

[geordiekrispy]

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON ANYMORE!

[Rich]

2 minutes ago, geordiekrispy said:

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON ANYMORE!

Love that! Hayden hattrick as well, you’ve broken the game mate 😂

[geordiekrispy]

2 minutes ago, Rich said:

Love that! Hayden hattrick as well, you’ve broken the game mate 😂

I think I know how @Scratch felt during his first season of his TT.

Fingers crossed the rest of my career goes as well as his!

[George Traistă]

6 minutes ago, Rich said:

Love that! Hayden hattrick as well, you’ve broken the game mate 😂

True that! How on earth can you make Joelinton score 🤣🤣🤣

Jokes aside, I don't know how Hayden got that hattrick, ce can barely kick the ball... 

[geordiekrispy]

12 minutes ago, George Traistă said:

True that! How on earth can you make Joelinton score 🤣🤣🤣

Jokes aside, I don't know how Hayden got that hattrick, ce can barely kick the ball... 

I have no idea they were all pretty much from range too!

[DLC]

Is it bad I'm more intrigued Joelinton scored than the Isaac Hayden hat-trick? 🙈🤣

[George Traistă]

1 minute ago, DLC said:

Is it bad I'm more intrigued Joelinton scored than the Isaac Hayden hat-trick? 🙈🤣

No no, I feel you! I was asking the same thing. 

I bet @geordiekrispy kept him because nobody want's to buy him 🤣

 

[DLC]

1 minute ago, George Traistă said:

No no, I feel you! I was asking the same thing. 

I bet @geordiekrispy kept him because nobody want's to buy him 🤣

 

Well it wouldn't be rational thinking to actually want him, unless @geordiekrispy is Steve Bruce in disguise?! 🤔

[George Traistă]

12 minutes ago, DLC said:

Well it wouldn't be rational thinking to actually want him, unless @geordiekrispy is Steve Bruce in disguise?! 🤔

It can't be. We all know that @Richis Steve Bruce, unless... Rich is also Geordie... 

[geordiekrispy]

So Season 1 is in the bag! All I can say is WOW! That was a tough season! Also, I should not have attempted nearly everything at once!

Overall I'd say it was a success, but not a total one...

 

Transfers In:

Spoiler

 

Transfers Out:

Spoiler

 

I'll show my results by challenge, and then anything extra I feel should be included.

1) The Kevin O'Connor Challenge.

So how did our KOC of choice do? Overall not too bad, I didn't want to rush him into playing every game as he's still young and improving.

But as a side note, he didn't like it when I tried to train him as a striker, so that's going to be a challenge for next season, maybe just playing there as he trains it and he'll like it damn it!

Spoiler

	S1	TOTAL	TARGET
Henry Lawrence	41	41	501

 

2) Club Legend.

Delap quite frankly took to the formation and challenge like a trooper! I look forward to future seasons and seeing how good he gets.

Spoiler

 

	Games	Goals	GpG
Liam Delap	35	19	0.54
TARGET	404	207	0.51

 

3) Striker Peak Years Challenge.

Spoiler

 

	Games	Goals	Assists	Total
Memphis Depay	41	28	15	43

 

4) The Late Bloomer.

Spoiler

 

	Games	Goals
Carlos Vela	37	15

 

5) The Last Hurrah.

Spoiler

 

		Goals
Diego Tardelli	Season 1	15

 

6) Everyone's Goalscorer Challenge

Spoiler

So that's a fail 😭 I just couldn't get my defenders to score, I'm not sure what was going on I didn't get many penalties, and I got hardly any corners and when I did get them my defenders just wouldn't score.

 

7) The Goaltopia Challenge

Spoiler

Not too bad a start, I feel it will get better now I don't have to have to many people attempting to score!

 

8.) 5's enough or is it Overkill?

Spoiler

 

Another challenge failed! I'm not surpised as 2x my goals against was a rather large hurdle to get over. I'm happy enough with the goals I've scored and I'm tempted to try again next year (if possible) with some better defenders and goalkeeper.

 

9) Wonderkid FC - Not started

 

10) Manager 1000 Goal Challenge

Spoiler

 

 

Here's the final league table too:

 

Final Thoughts

I'm not exactly sure where I stand in terms of how well I'm doing. Before I wrote it all up I thought it had been a decent season. Now... I'm not so sure...

It'll be interesting to see how @George Traistă has done, and I'll let him do the overal score table (because I'm lazy).

Edited March 25, 2021 by geordiekrispy

[broodje kip]

That’s very unlucky to lose my challenge. The players focused goalscoring challenges are going very well though. KIU

[George Traistă]

Before I do my write up, in about 5 hours or so... I finished 7th in the league so no fancy Champions League for me next season 🤣

Bad luck with the two failed challenges, at least now you can focus on the upfront boys! 

[geordiekrispy]

Just now, George Traistă said:

Before I do my write up, in about 5 hours or so... I finished 7th in the league so no fancy Champions League for me next season 🤣

Bad luck with the two failed challenges, at least now you can focus on the upfront boys! 

Yep, I'm guessing I can't have another try and 5's enough, so I'll be able to get the defence sorted and then still allow my forwards to get a hatfull of goals!

[George Traistă]

Season 1.

After this first season I feel confident, not because it was a good season but because my strategy paid off. 

I only got 4 defenders this season as I knew it will be a mare to make them score. 2 ouf those had already orange on the striker position and 3 stars as free-kick takers. Right from the start everyone that had an alternate position that wasn't bright green, went on retraining for that and my KOC, Lowen, went on retrain for the FC position. Extra, all the defenders and midfielders had the Focus Attribute set on Shooting. 

In every game I had at least one defender acting as a striker no matter what. Even in December when I had a lot of games and my usual injury crisis I had one defender up there and played few matches with one defender only and two DM's. That caused some bad results. 

Spoiler

My seat wasn't red so I could play like that and my strikers bagged the 5 goals all coming from the bench. Starting from January I made changes to the tactics constantly to focus only on the players that needed those 5 goals. Despite his hattrick for @geordiekrispy, Hyden was the last to get his 5 goals for me, that was in 3rd of April. 

Everyone's Goalscorer Challenge: 153 pts

Spoiler

 

With Everyone's Goalscorer Challenge completed I could focus on my 3 main guys:  The Late Bloomer - Benedeto, Striker Peak Years - Piatek and The Last Hurrah - Pelle. 

On 3rd April, Pelle had 5 goals, Benedeto had only 6, and Piatek had 7. Sadly, everyone was already good at shooting so they didn't get too many goals... In fact, Benedeto got stuck at 6 goals.... 

The Last Hurrah: 26pts

Striker Peak Years Challenge: 29pts

The Late Bloomer and Goaltopia, we need to reach a number of goals to get a score so 0pts for now. 

 

Now, my MVP, the new Kevin O'Connor guy. He got himself a big injury and he missed some games. 

But even like that, the moment he was back in training I put him on the bench and got 1-2 minutes per game 🤣🤣🤣

Spoiler

The Kevin O'Connor Challenge: 41pts

The challenges part is over, let's talk just a little about my season. With a lot of bad result due to 3 bing injuries (Bornauw - 2 months, Lowen - 2 months, Angulo - 4 months), the fact that I had to play some weird formations and played with real strikers just 2 months... We got 7th in Premiere League and bagged 2 trophies: FA Cup and Carabo Cup

Spoiler

Funny thing, after I won the FA Cup, the board showed me why Newcastle is known as a Championship club... I only got this when I play in lower leagues 🙃

 

Not many to say about players as everybody played in numerous positions, not because they were good there but because I needed them there. Still, I won second place on Head Coach of the Year and 3 other guys got awards. 

 

Aaaaand that's it for now! I will get back later today with the overall score and will start the new season, I will tell you guys IF I'm gonna take a new challenge in the new season. 

Bye!! 

[Rich]

Well done both, good first seasons there 👏🏻

[geordiekrispy]

Well done @George Traistă nice planning on the everyone's a goal scorer challenge.

I feel like I needed to research my players I bit more, maybe if I'd had better corner takers I'd have scored more 🤷‍♂️

[Kanegan]

Great start from both of you and congrats @George Traistă for completing the everyone's a goal scorer challenge. 

[broodje kip]

Well done George 

[George Traistă]

Thanks @Rich, @geordiekrispy, @Kanegan and @broodje kip.

 

[Albionic]

good work George!

[Chelseaplchamps2022]

Nice job George!

[George Traistă]

 

Round 1 (Season 1) is over and I got the lead... for now! Geordie can make up for the loss of the two challenges because he has and hidden advantage, Delap has already has 19 goals, goals that will add to Goaltopia. Deepay has also an advantage over Piatek that will count on Goaltopia. From these two players alone @geordiekrispy gets back some of his loss. His Late Bloomer looks like is going double the speed of mine and he has slightly more goals overall, goals that can lead to points in The Managers 1000 Goals Challenge.

Not to mention that I will NOT start the Create a Club Legend challenge in season 2 so every goal that Delap is scoring in season two is a plus for Geordie. In fact I will not start any new challenges for now, season 2 is for me something to settle, I will take some time to grow the team a little before I dive in.

All in all, this race is tight and there is no clear favorite... or... what is your favorite, who would you bet for?

 

P.S. Thanks @Albionic and @Chelseaplchamps2022

Edited March 25, 2021 by George Traistă