Career Scratch Tries A Maybe 1KC / Assist 1KC [Season 9]

[geordiekrispy]

Good "building" season. I think the next few you'll start to see a big increase in goals and therefore assists.

[broodje kip]

Sorry I was late. Brilliant choices there and great start. I love to use Scamaca. He’s a real great backup striker. Good luck for the coming seasons and well done so far.

[Rich]

I was actually in the middle of commenting on this yesterday, awesome couple of seasons there and a very comfortable league winning season this time round. Which will no doubt help with funds and attracting better players. He looks very decent as well and 77 goals is great 👍

[Scratch]

6 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Its good that you're excited to get on with this. Its always interesting using "unknown" players. Peaks the excitement even more, I think.

Great work winning the domestic double. That Champions Cup will come quickly too.

The players look good now. Surprising that Villa was such a let down as a mentor and not impacting that much as a sub. I've always found him excellent at both.

Keep it going mate. 

Haha, I am quite excited by this BUT I just started a new save too. Which is unlikely for me. Not quite sure how this will pan out. Probably with me overwriting one of the saves. 🤣

Villa is a player I've used a fair bit, but I happen to know that his PA isn't that high. He can be useful or even pretty good (especially in weaker leagues like Scotland, USA, etc), but it just didn't quite work out this time. He was fine off the bench to be fair, but I'd rather that time go to someone who will be better than him in a year or two...

[Scratch]

6 hours ago, geordiekrispy said:

Good "building" season. I think the next few you'll start to see a big increase in goals and therefore assists.

Thanks mate, yeah, the team is still improving and has a way to go. I've got in the first bunch of wonderkids so they will be A+ in a couple of years. When they are all world class, we'll be drowning in goals over here! 😄

[Scratch]

4 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Sorry I was late. Brilliant choices there and great start. I love to use Scamaca. He’s a real great backup striker. Good luck for the coming seasons and well done so far.

LoL, I love your definition of late. Mate, I've missed entire careers because I had the thread open in a tab and no time to read it. 🙁

It's my first time with Scamacca, but I'm obviously loving it. Glad to see someone actually has used him before! 😄

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Rich said:

I was actually in the middle of commenting on this yesterday, awesome couple of seasons there and a very comfortable league winning season this time round. Which will no doubt help with funds and attracting better players. He looks very decent as well and 77 goals is great 👍

Thanks mate. Yeah, domestically it's all wrapped up from here on in, it's all about how long it will take us to win the UCL. We're still not big enough to attract the better players (had good players turn us down, let alone try talking to top players), but we have wonderkid soup cooking right now...

[Scratch]

Season 3

A quick update this time.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Coming in were some youngsters. Lots of loans out to help them level up. Not sure what the Menino to Arsenal for £49M is about - he's only on loan there (I think they had a buyout fee I removed from the deal). I sold the others because they were on the fringes.

 

Tactics

I stuck with the same tactic as last season, but I switched Scamacca from AF to TM midway through the season. I think it helped, but it's really hard to tell. I did find that using him as either T or CF lead to more shots from the AM and using him as a P lead to less shots overall.

 

Results

A good year domestically, winning everything on offer. Our GPG rate continues to increase. We also won the UCL for the first time, beating Liverpool in the final, though we had to rely on penalties. Full screenshots:

Spoiler

 

The Lads

Update after update, Scamacca's Aerial never budged from the original 16. I'd given up on it ever moving, but he got one of those miraculous +3 updates near the end of the season. Progress is glacial now, so he's almost done. Good enough, though I'd like a little more pace.

Cangiano improved nicely in the key areas and his progress, though slow, is still ticking over, so he's not done yet.

 

Injuries

No real injuries this year, though you may have noticed Cangiano was injured in the Italian Cup final (screenshot above, repeated below). However, there was no permanent injury (he missed a couple of games getting back to 100%).

Spoiler

 

Progress

Here's how they did:

• Scamacca scored 75 goals from 50 games, about the same as last season

• Cangiano provided 56 assists from 51 games, passing the 1 assist per game ratio for the first time

Spoiler

Which gives us:

Season	Scamacca	Cangiano
01	34	17
02	77	42
03	75	56
Total	186	115

 

Comparison To FMM20 Career

At the same point in my career from last year, remembering they were in an easier league (Scotland) and that Unuvar was a lot younger than Scamacca:

• Unuvar had 182 goals

• Vignato had 183 assists

 

Final Thoughts

Another very good season from both lads. Scamacca on track for a lot of goals, while Cangiano is improving nicely, but has a long way to go to 1K assists.

I kind of want to push on with this save, but I might put it on hold had start my Oxford United cheat save. Dilemma!

Thanks for reading.

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by Scratch

[Rob]

Excellent going so far. Well done.

[Rich]

Well done Scratch another great season mate. They are looking great as well. Same happened on my DT With Stewart he got a +3 on aerial out of nowhere after I had given up, it’s a nice feeling 😁

[Dai_]

Plodding along nicely. They're improving too. Keep it up mate.

[Scratch]

20 hours ago, Rob said:

Excellent going so far. Well done.

Thanks mate! Quite fun to be back to a single striker plus winger save,

20 hours ago, Rich said:

Well done Scratch another great season mate. They are looking great as well. Same happened on my DT With Stewart he got a +3 on aerial out of nowhere after I had given up, it’s a nice feeling 😁

Yeah, I'd totally given up and thought he's be stuck there forever. Crazy given he he started with 16! Was a great surprise when he increased. 😄

19 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Plodding along nicely. They're improving too. Keep it up mate.

Thanks mate. It's just going to get better from here... 🙂

[Scratch]

How it started:

 

How it's going:

 

Earlier in the season, everything was golden. 12 successful crosses = 6 assists. 14 shots = 7 goals.

Now, they've ground down to the point where 13 successful crosses = 0 assists and 11 shots = 0 goals.

They still get a 1 or 2 each in many games, but nowhere near like their early season form.  That said, they were so good early on (everything clicked) that they will both blow away their previous best - so I shouldn't complain too much...

 

[Scratch]

Season 4

I was going to pause this for a while and focus on my Oxford DT cheat career (with two players with less than 100 PA), but this is just flowing so smoothly that it's hard to walk away from this one.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Some of the youngsters who've been out on loan in have really stepped up, so I sold some of the initial team to make way. Coming in where a couple of young goalies for the future and a couple of free transfers (Nketiah and Zirkzee as backup strikers).

Zirkzee seems to have been a mistake - he had one update before maxing out and he is nowhere near the level he is on any other save (screenshot of him at his best attached). 🙁

Also worth noting that I'd agreed a Bosman for Wan-bissaka (who I've never used, but always wanted to), but he didn't get a work permit.

 

Results

We're now settling into the "wins everything, every year" part of the save. Not much to say except our 'goals for' number continues to improve. Full screenshots in the spoiler.

Spoiler

 

The Lads

Scamacca has now maxed out, his final update being pretty freaking tame (I really wanted 20 Aerial and Movement) - but he's good enough to cut it in this league alright...

Cangiano is still improving, very slowly now, hoping he can get 20 Crossing.

 

Injuries

Scamacca got through the season okay, but Cangiano had two injuries, once for a month and once for two weeks (missing the last two games of the season):

Spoiler

 

Progress

Here's how they did:

• Scamacca scored 104 goals from 52 games, smashing through the 100 barrier with an improvement of 29 goals on last year

• Cangiano provided 75 assists from 46 games, a massive improvement over last year

Spoiler

Which gives us:

Season	Scamacca	Cangiano
01	34	17
02	77	42
03	75	56
04	104	75
Total	290	190

A great season, although both players had massive drop offs in the final third of the season.

 

Comparison To FMM20 Career

At the same point in my career from last year, remembering they were in an easier league (Scotland) and that Unuvar was a lot younger than Scamacca (and he had ITN goals from season 4 onwards):

• Unuvar had 267 goals

• Vignato had 264 assists

 

Final Thoughts

This was a break through season for both players, and for the team as a whole. We'll be cruising from here on in. If they can avoid the massive drop off in the final third of the season, this will get insane...

Thanks for reading.

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Scratch

[Rich]

Awesome season Scratch, they really stepped it up and they look great. Hopefully he gets crossing your to 20 and he will be perfect. Great going.

[Dai_]

Those numbers after a massive drop off. 😄 that's crazy. Your "updated sniper" must be doing the trick if there's very little tweaking being done to it. 

Keep it up, bud. 👍

[Rob]

Lovely season.

[Scratch]

@Rich @Dai_ @Rob - thanks for your comments lads, can't believe I never answered... Have finished another season now and did pretty well.

Dai, yeah the tactic seems spot on, keeps the best part of the sniper tactic (almost all goals from the S and vast majority of assists from the W), but is a little more attacking and needs less adjusting mid game than either the original sniper (which didn't work well against 442 and very defensive formations) or my TT blaster one (needed to shift to balanced in some games).

It's the most plug and play one I've had in a long while. I this last season I did have a few games were I needed to do something, but often I can just leave it and we'll still win 2-0 with goals and assists to the lads.

[Scratch]

Season 5

This season rolled on very smoothly.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Of the players leaving, two were notable: Agudelo who was first choice CM but wanted away and Farinez who just didn't develop as well as Livakovic. Coming in were a variety of newly minted youngsters with a nice base, who were transfer listed at top clubs. Some will be bombs, but some will be the bomb.

 

Tactics

I'm still using the tactic I showed last time, with a Defensive mentality. The only difference from my original Sniper tactic is that the central midfield AP is pushed forward to the AM position and the left defensive WB is pushed forward and acting as an IWB (and we're not working it into the box).

I was hoping the IWB would give us a little more strength in midfield, given the AP had been pushed forward. I was also hoping that the right defensive WB would be the main outlet moving forward, as he's closer than the IWB. I can't tell for sure if that's happening, but I am getting more passes etc down the right hand side, so I guess it is.

As for the AM - it seems to me as though he gets less goals than he did as a central midfield AP. He often floats out the right - actually he holds hands with the right CM some of the time - which seems to work. They play a lot of triangles between the WB, either the CM or the AM and the W (Cangiano), ending with Cangiano taking the ball forward for a cross. Exhibit A:

The AM doesn't seem to float left when the play goes down the left, he's more where you'd expect an AM to be (in the middle of the AM line). I think the presence of the IWB in midfield stops him floating out left and encourages him to float out right, although I haven't bothered doing any testing to back that up.

I did a calculation this season and the percentage of goals that went to the TM position was 78% (based on the goals scored by any player in the TM position, ignoring own goals as I don't have the number). Meanwhile, the RW position provided 66% of the assists.

As I said in a comment above, this is probably the most plug and play tactic I've had in years. There are still a few games where I need to tweak things mid games, but in most games, even if we don't do well, we'll still win by a couple, with goals and assists to the lads.

 

Results

Another "wins everything" year, though I needed penalties to beat Liverpool in the UCL final. Full screenshots:

Spoiler

 

The Lads

Scamacca hasn't changed at all for a couple of seasons:

Cangiano had a special 23rd birthday update with Crossing, Dribbling and Movement all +1, then another normal update which left him looking like this (and he's still inching forward):

 

Injuries

Almost a perfect season, with the only damage being a 2 week injury for Cangiano, meaning he missed most of the Club World Championship:

Spoiler

 

Progress

Here's how they did:

• Scamacca scored 114 goals from 55 games

• Cangiano provided 91 assists from 55 games

Spoiler

That gives us:

Season	Scamacca	Cangiano
01	34	17
02	77	42
03	75	56
04	104	75
05	114	91
Total	404	281

 

Comparison To FMM20 Career

At the same point in my career from last year, remembering they were in an easier league (Scotland) and that Unuvar was a lot younger than Scamacca (and he had ITN goals from season 4 onwards):

• Unuvar had 369 goals

• Vignato had 336 assists

Not sure what the point of this section is, apart from I'm interested in the comparison.

 

Final Thoughts

Another massive season and if they keep on like this, we'll be done by season 14 or so.

Thanks for reading.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Scratch

[Rob]

Huge season 😮 

[Dai_]

What a great season. Those numbers are fantastic. Keep it going. Plug & play my friend. 😄

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Rob said:

Huge season 😮 

Thanks mate. Last time (Unuvar and Vignato), the most goals I got in a season was 126 (actually 160 with ITN, but none of that nonsense this time around) and the most assists was 99...

So given they aren't in their prime yet (though Scamacca is close), I reckon I might have a shot of beating those. The big one is the 100 assist mark, came so close last time, and I think Cangiano might be better than Vignato. Jury's still out on that though, needs to go through without any injury to break those records.

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Dai_ said:

What a great season. Those numbers are fantastic. Keep it going. Plug & play my friend. 😄

Thanks mate. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with them. Slow start to the save as always, but by this point the squad is genuine world class, so we dominate most games and the tactic directs that domination to the right place...

My only worry with the plug and play part is that there were more games this last season where I had to tweak. Still a minority, but more than before, so maybe the other teams are doing something different? Who knows...

[Dai_]

13 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with them. Slow start to the save as always, but by this point the squad is genuine world class, so we dominate most games and the tactic directs that domination to the right place...

My only worry with the plug and play part is that there were more games this last season where I had to tweak. Still a minority, but more than before, so maybe the other teams are doing something different? Who knows...

I think the opposition do wise up to things this year. I've found plug & play works for so long then you need a change. Either a squad freshen up or a simple tactic change.

[Scratch]

16 hours ago, Dai_ said:

I think the opposition do wise up to things this year. I've found plug & play works for so long then you need a change. Either a squad freshen up or a simple tactic change.

Yeah, I think I've noticed that as well. I'm bringing in some youngsters this year, so hopefully that helps. Mind you, the first 5 games of the season resulted in 0 assists for Cangiani! Got one in game 6 though. Hope he picks up the pace shortly.

[Rob]

100 assists would be incredible if you could!

[Scratch]

3 hours ago, Rob said:

100 assists would be incredible if you could!

I never thought that was possible, but I got so close with Vignato. So fingers crossed I can do it this time. But not this season, only 1 assist from the first 6 games... 😕

[Scratch]

I'll be writing up season 6 sometime soon (have actually started season 7 now), but here's an extra that I won't include in the update proper.

In this save I wanted to try out Matheus Henrique who I've heard good things about. I've used him quite a bit, but only on shorter saves where I couldn't really get a sense for how he'd develop, so I wanted to give him a good long run.

Well, after 5 seasons, I sold him.

He was a good solid CM for me, but nothing special, and not a patch on a couple of the youngsters I have coming through at this part of the save. This is what he looked like:

And this is his performance:

As I said, good solid player, but not a star. Gotta be said he's excellent value at £4.3M though.

Have any of you used him to better effect? Should I try him again in the future sometime?

[broodje kip]

10 minutes ago, Scratch said:

I'll be writing up season 6 sometime soon (have actually started season 7 now), but here's an extra that I won't include in the update proper.

In this save I wanted to try out Matheus Henrique who I've heard good things about. I've used him quite a bit, but only on shorter saves where I couldn't really get a sense for how he'd develop, so I wanted to give him a good long run.

Well, after 5 seasons, I sold him.

He was a good solid CM for me, but nothing special, and not a patch on a couple of the youngsters I have coming through at this part of the save. This is what he looked like:

And this is his performance:

As I said, good solid player, but not a star. Gotta be said he's excellent value at £4.3M though.

Have any of you used him to better effect? Should I try him again in the future sometime?

Never heard of him. Looks very interesting 

[Rich]

15 minutes ago, Scratch said:

I'll be writing up season 6 sometime soon (have actually started season 7 now), but here's an extra that I won't include in the update proper.

In this save I wanted to try out Matheus Henrique who I've heard good things about. I've used him quite a bit, but only on shorter saves where I couldn't really get a sense for how he'd develop, so I wanted to give him a good long run.

Well, after 5 seasons, I sold him.

He was a good solid CM for me, but nothing special, and not a patch on a couple of the youngsters I have coming through at this part of the save. This is what he looked like:

And this is his performance:

As I said, good solid player, but not a star. Gotta be said he's excellent value at £4.3M though.

Have any of you used him to better effect? Should I try him again in the future sometime?

I haven’t got a screenshot anymore but he had 20 tackling and 18 passing on mine and loads of greens. @Rob introduced me to him, he’s a right gem on the game. Can be trained as an Ap or a more defence minded CM. Love him.