Career Scratch Tries The Split 1KC (Actually Completed!)

[Scratch]

I'm 3 seasons into this, so may as well start a career post! I'll keep the write ups minimal for this career, but this first one will cover all 3 seasons so may be a little longer.

I've wanted to do a split 1K (500 goals/500 assists) for some time now, but seeing @Ian do his pushed me over the edge.

 

The Candidates

I looked at a bunch of players I'd been storing as good candidates for this: Fabio Vieira, Daramy, Bellingham, Verschaeren, Vignato, Unuvar, Nygren, Salcedo, Lainez, Gravenberch, Damsgaard, even Billy Gilmour. 

I was primarily looking for someone who'd be able to cross well enough to get assists from corners, but who'd be able to score from the AMC position (playing as a T of course). Some of those were weaker on Crossing than I'd like, but had been good assisters for me in the past, so might have been worth a punt.

 

The Club

But first I had to pick a club, as that would dictate which candidates were realistic.

I looked around for a while. Maybe Ajax? Brugge? Or Anderlect? Inter? Dortmund? Not Celtic again surely? Porto? AEK Athens?

But the more I looked, the more I kept coming back to FC Kobenhavn. It was giving off Celtic like vibe, a strong club in a weaker league, which is ideal for these challenges. It was a league I'd never tried before, which was appealing. And there were some decent players at the club, like Daramy who I often sign as a support player, and Wind who I tried to sign unsuccessfully a couple of times. 

I did my research and found the Danish league was only 32 games, but I figured that might mean a more relaxed schedule and I might be able to keep him on the pitch more and keep him fresh. Turns out they have the whole of January off, which means they still cram games into midweek etc... 

But anyway, my choice was made.

 

The Player

I tried to get Vieira as he'd bubbled to number 1 on my list, but he didn't want to come. Therefore I went with this guy, Diego Lainez:

Probably not the sort of player most people would have chosen. Shooting of 9 looks worrying! But although I've used him a lot as an out and out winger, I once retrained him as a AMC and he did really well. Crucially he always gets a good number of assists for me, which will be important here. And of course, he's really good and always improves a lot. He should do really well in Denmark.

He cost almost all of my budget so I had to settle for cheap players and loans in the first season or two. We'll probably never be able to afford the best players, meaning we'll have to grow our own - but that's the best fun.  

The one piece of buyer's remorse I have is how many games he misses with ITN duty. Mexico's fixtures aren't quite lined up with Denmark, so he'll leave a week before the other players and miss a game or two. Over the course of the first season I think he missed 6 games. I probably also should have chosen a player who could play up front to give me some more flexibility.

Anyway, there are no trade-ins here...

 

The Tactic

I tried something new:

A tactic with no Wingers! What's wrong with me! As much as I love them, I figured we'd be better off without them bypassing Lainez. The WBs will give some width without taking away too many opportunities from Lainez.

I was originally planning to go with two TMs in front of Lainez as I've used that very successfully before, but I didn't have the personnel to pull it off (ie not enough tall men). I therefore made one of them a DLF - I'd used them before (mostly with players off the bench supporting my main crew) with decent success, but also it seems everyone around here loves them, which sealed the deal.

That tactic was reasonably successful for the first couple of years, but I felt like Lainez wasn't quite dominating as much as I'd been hoping, so I experimented in season 3, eventually settling on this:

That's similar to what I used on the KDB challenge last year, only with an extra CD instead of a P in front of Lainez, which would obviously been unproductive. I also moved from Attacking to Overloading. The results seem to be pretty good, although he's not getting as many goals as I'd like - but we definitely started getting more corners and he's ace at turning those into assists.

I tried experimenting with a single TM in front of him, which worked real well for Messi and Suarez in the MSN challenge (with Neymar lost on the wing). but I haven't been able to make it work yet. Perhaps I'll keep experimenting, but it's the one above for now.

 

Transfers

Just going to post them here, not much to comment - a lot of loans in the first two seasons, not needed in season 3 as some of youngsters had levelled up enough; and a lot of young hopefuls on the cheaper side. Key other signing was probably Scamacca who bangs home the corners for him.

Spoiler

 

Results

Going pretty good domestically, but we've also overachieved elsewhere, winning the UCL in seasons 2 and 3 and also winning the Club World Championship. I don't think I've had that much success, that early - definitely not this year - so I'm pretty chuffed. It probably says something about playing 2 central defenders instead of 1...

That only shows the first 22 games of the league, not the extra 10 rounds of the 2nd part, so here is the final standings:

Spoiler

 

Development

Here he is at the end of each season - as you can see, looking pretty good, but I'd like his Shooting to be a little higher:

He is still creeping up, but probably hasn't got much improvement left now.

He's had a normal spread of injuries, one or two each season, between 10 days and 1 month, nothing over that thank goodness. Not going to show the screenshots - too many to look through now.

 

Progress

Giving us:

Season	Goals	Assists
01	25	29
02	37	35
03	39	54
Totals	101	118

Slow-ish start, in keeping with my MO. Assist building very nicely, but the goal ratio went down in season 3 and is a worry.

 

The Future

I'll keep experimenting with tactics and maybe even go back to the original one, as he had a better goal ratio with it. I'll potentially experiment with the other players on the pitch - maybe the other forwards are getting too strong and taking too many chances from him. 

But really, I'm pretty happy. I feel like there are things that can be done to improve the number of goals, but it's harder to make up a 'deficit' in assists and he has that area covered.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

 

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by Scratch

[Rich]

Cracking start to this Scratch, you’ve cracked the tactic by the looks of it already, I like the choice of team and played, very different 😁

[Scratch]

Just now, Rich said:

Cracking start to this Scratch, you’ve cracked the tactic by the looks of it already, I like the choice of team and played, very different 😁

Thanks mate, just gotta get him scoring more. Maybe I need to find a selfish Ahole to mentor him! But it's a nice little save and I think I'll probably go the distance this time...

[smoggy90]

Great player mate and a good start, look forward to seeing how he gets on in the Danish league.

[Ian]

I’m familiar with the player but that’s as far as it goes as I don’t recall ever using him. He looks good though and he’s started very well indeed.

I always think with this challenge that if he ends up with fairly close returns for both goals and assists it makes it difficult to justify making changes. The worry is always there that you could improve one aspect but ruin the other and it gives you a bit of a headache.

Anyway, a very nice start.

[Rob]

Lovely start.

[StuartM]

Those are massive assist numbers! Can't help wondering what Mr Bite would make of this challenge though...

[Scratch]

On 10/09/2021 at 18:15, smoggy90 said:

Great player mate and a good start, look forward to seeing how he gets on in the Danish league.

Thanks mate, yeah Danish league looking easyish, but so far haven't quite cracked it wide open like I've done with Scotland in the past.

On 11/09/2021 at 04:57, Ian said:

I’m familiar with the player but that’s as far as it goes as I don’t recall ever using him. He looks good though and he’s started very well indeed.

I always think with this challenge that if he ends up with fairly close returns for both goals and assists it makes it difficult to justify making changes. The worry is always there that you could improve one aspect but ruin the other and it gives you a bit of a headache.

Anyway, a very nice start.

Thanks. I end up using him a lot as I struggle to buy LWs and he's often a reasonable option and has a lot of improvement, but he's always been the supplementary player, never the main one, so it's good to give him his chance! 

I get what you're saying about balance. In my head, I really wanted someone who I knew could assist, as I assumed goals would be easy enough to pick up - but now I'm wishing I picked someone who could play up front if I wanted him to, as I could switch him without messing up the balance. It'd be great if I could play him in the 'assists' position for 60% of games and switch him to a striker role the other 40%. But anyway, it's early days, no cause for alarm yet.

On 11/09/2021 at 06:27, Rob said:

Lovely start.

Thanks mate! Though now I'm thinking that if I was going to use a Mexican player, I should have gone with Santiago Munoz at Newcastle!  

On 11/09/2021 at 06:41, StuartM said:

Those are massive assist numbers! Can't help wondering what Mr Bite would make of this challenge though...

Thanks mate. I think Mr Bite would be pretty unimpressed with the state of things. Must not forget to take my tablets... 

[broodje kip]

Considering you will probably end this career in 4 seasons, you’d better get the numbers up  

Looking great so far though. Love the player choice too!

[Dai_]

Interesting club choice. Great player choice and a good start. Things will only get better from here too. Keep it up mate.

[Scratch]

On 12/09/2021 at 19:24, broodje kip said:

Considering you will probably end this career in 4 seasons, you’d better get the numbers up  

Looking great so far though. Love the player choice too!

In 4 more seasons? Or after season 4? Just want to know which you're tipping so we can see if you're right or not. Personally I've got season 5 as the give up point! 🤣

[Scratch]

On 13/09/2021 at 01:22, Dai_ said:

Interesting club choice. Great player choice and a good start. Things will only get better from here too. Keep it up mate.

Thanks mate. I'm not convinced I have the tactic right, so I'm trying small tweaks, but not sure any of them are working. But I think he's going to step up the output over the next season or two.

[broodje kip]

8 minutes ago, Scratch said:

In 4 more seasons? Or after season 4? Just want to know which you're tipping so we can see if you're right or not. Personally I've got season 5 as the give up point! 🤣

Personally, I hope 4 more seasons but I won’t be surprised if it ends in season 4  

[Scratch]

7 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Personally, I hope 4 more seasons but I won’t be surprised if it ends in season 4  

Haha, I'll put you down for season 4 and I'll take season 5, then we'll see if anyone else has a prediction...

[Scratch]

Season 4

I'll try to keep this brief, but will have a tactics section at the bottom.

 

Transfers

We've reached the stage where the top players are willing to come and I can afford them, but my existing players are close enough to their level that there's not much point, so I just topped up on young players for the wonderkid factory. 

Spoiler

 

Results

Won it all baby!

Spoiler

 

Development

He's looking pretty good now. The Crossing and Shooting go up to 20 and 15 when he's fully rested, but drop down again often. Seems he might have one more update to come too (slowly creeping up still). I've had some good Lainez's, but none as good as this.

 

Contributions

 

Progress

Season	Goals	Assists
01	25	29
02	37	35
03	39	54
04	49	42
Totals	150	160

A good season, with more goals than before, mostly from playing around with tactics, discussed below. That said, I really want him to be topping 50 in both goals and assists every season, so there's work to be done yet.

 

Tactics

In order to get more goals, I switched up the tactics a bit, using this for the first half of the season:

That definitely got him more goals, but the assists dropped off a fair bit, more than I was expecting.

I could swap the tactics each season (ie have a goal scoring season, followed by an assists creating one), but I wanted more than that, so I tried going gung-ho for a few games:

Worked okay. I really wanted to go to my TT Blaster to see how he did. I'm wishing he could play up front in the 3, as I can get goals and assists out of a central T. But anyway, he can't play up front (and refuses re-training) and I don't have the wingers at the club to play the TT Blaster, so I ended up moving to this after a few games:

That gave him about equal goals and assists and I think will allow him to break the 50/50 barrier, but it is a bit flakey - as in he fairly constantly gets assists, but goal can be hot or cold (4 one game, then 2 games with 0). So that's what I'll try next season, but I may end up tweaking further.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Scratch

[Dai_]

He looks like an absolute weapon now. Never seen him look that good either.

I don't have the patience to sit and tinker during seasons so fair play to you. It's obviously working. If I ever attempted this challenge I would want a good amount of both goals and assists each season instead of a alternating every season.

Keep it going mate. Numbers are good and sure to get a bit better yet too.

[Rich]

He looks great Scratch and you’re doing awesome mate, seeing so many 50-50’s on here has made me want to do one now, not enjoying my strikerless at all 😂

You are like me, non stop tinkering with tactics, it’s so hard not too isn’t it? You’re doing great anyway, so keep doing what you’re doing 😁

[broodje kip]

14 minutes ago, Rich said:

He looks great Scratch and you’re doing awesome mate, seeing so many 50-50’s on here has made me want to do one now, not enjoying my strikerless at all 😂

You are like me, non stop tinkering with tactics, it’s so hard not too isn’t it? You’re doing great anyway, so keep doing what you’re doing 😁

Same with me but I surely can’t do it especially when I have two careers yet to be completed 😂

added 0 minutes later

4 hours ago, Scratch said:

Season 4

I'll try to keep this brief, but will have a tactics section at the bottom.

 

Transfers

We've reached the stage where the top players are willing to come and I can afford them, but my existing players are close enough to their level that there's not much point, so I just topped up on young players for the wonderkid factory. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Results

Won it all baby!

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Development

He's looking pretty good now. The Crossing and Shooting go up to 20 and 15 when he's fully rested, but drop down again often. Seems he might have one more update to come too (slowly creeping up still). I've had some good Lainez's, but none as good as this.

 

Contributions

 

Progress

Season	Goals	Assists
01	25	29
02	37	35
03	39	54
04	49	42
Totals	150	160

A good season, with more goals than before, mostly from playing around with tactics, discussed below. That said, I really want him to be topping 50 in both goals and assists every season, so there's work to be done yet.

 

Tactics

In order to get more goals, I switched up the tactics a bit, using this for the first half of the season:

That definitely got him more goals, but the assists dropped off a fair bit, more than I was expecting.

I could swap the tactics each season (ie have a goal scoring season, followed by an assists creating one), but I wanted more than that, so I tried going gung-ho for a few games:

Worked okay. I really wanted to go to my TT Blaster to see how he did. I'm wishing he could play up front in the 3, as I can get goals and assists out of a central T. But anyway, he can't play up front (and refuses re-training) and I don't have the wingers at the club to play the TT Blaster, so I ended up moving to this after a few games:

That gave him about equal goals and assists and I think will allow him to break the 50/50 barrier, but it is a bit flakey - as in he fairly constantly gets assists, but goal can be hot or cold (4 one game, then 2 games with 0). So that's what I'll try next season, but I may end up tweaking further.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Going nicely and it seems like Lainez is developing very well.

[Rob]

Well done Mister. Great score so far

[Scratch]

10 hours ago, Dai_ said:

He looks like an absolute weapon now. Never seen him look that good either.

I don't have the patience to sit and tinker during seasons so fair play to you. It's obviously working. If I ever attempted this challenge I would want a good amount of both goals and assists each season instead of a alternating every season.

Keep it going mate. Numbers are good and sure to get a bit better yet too.

Thanks mate. I have a pet theory that maybe a player's updates are better if they are scoring more and getting higher ratings, but it's just a feeling, I've never been able to prove it. But whatever reason, he's super powered attribute-wise this time around. Just a shame the numbers don't quite match the attributes (they are very good, but I thought they'd be a little more in Denmark). 

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, Rich said:

He looks great Scratch and you’re doing awesome mate, seeing so many 50-50’s on here has made me want to do one now, not enjoying my strikerless at all 😂

You are like me, non stop tinkering with tactics, it’s so hard not too isn’t it? You’re doing great anyway, so keep doing what you’re doing 😁

Haha, something tells me you've got some time opening up in your FMM schedule for a 50-50 if you want to do one!

It's a unique challenge, at least for me, because I've gotten players to score big before and I've gotten them to assist a lot, but I've never gotten someone to do both at the same time.

Some saves I almost never tinker with the tactics, others.... yeah, I tinker a lot. Right now I'm experimenting with him as an IF as he's still not getting enough goals...

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Same with me but I surely can’t do it especially when I have two careers yet to be completed 😂

added 0 minutes later

Going nicely and it seems like Lainez is developing very well.

Thanks mate. I suspect many of us here are like this:

Edited September 18, 2021 by Scratch

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, Rob said:

Well done Mister. Great score so far

Thanks mate, relatively happy, but still feel like he should be getting a little more in Denmark, might just be me being unrealistic though! 😄

[Dai_]

13 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate. I have a pet theory that maybe a player's updates are better if they are scoring more and getting higher ratings, but it's just a feeling, I've never been able to prove it. But whatever reason, he's super powered attribute-wise this time around. Just a shame the numbers don't quite match the attributes (they are very good, but I thought they'd be a little more in Denmark). 

I completely agree. Performances definitely impact updates. Im certain of that.

His development in a poor league is impressive but maybe you should be getting more because of the quality of league. Its a bit of a strange one.

[Scratch]

1 minute ago, Dai_ said:

I completely agree. Performances definitely impact updates. Im certain of that.

His development in a poor league is impressive but maybe you should be getting more because of the quality of league. Its a bit of a strange one.

Yeah, there's so much I don't know about how it works! But I've always felt that if I have a player like Lainez (or any of the others I've used) as a squad player, then he'll develop alright, but not as good as if he was the main main who has all the focus and all the goals, etc... But maybe that's because I rotate the main men, but don't bother with the squad players... 

[Rob]

5 hours ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate. I suspect many of us here are like this:

This is the best meme ever. Brilliant.

[Scratch]

8 hours ago, Rob said:

This is the best meme ever. Brilliant.

Dunno mate, it makes me want to cry rather than laugh, meme's aren't supposed to be like that surely... 🤣

[Scratch]

Okay, here is a quick, very non-scientific update on some of the tactics I've tried so far in season 5. I tried 3 different tactics for six games each.

 

Same one as last season (ignore the chart in the 2nd screenshot and just look at the 6 games listed):

Goals: 6
Assists: 9
Decent number of goals, and lots of corners leading to lots of assists, but he doesn't get that many shots.

 

Same as the previous tactic, but with Lainez playing as an IF instead of a central T:

Goals: 4
Assists: 11
Started promisingly goal-wise, but dropped right off with the 3 no-score games. That said he got more than as a T, maybe they were just from worse positions? Or could just be form or unluckiness... Also had a lot of corners and a lot of assists.

 

Trying to give him more chances by de-crowding the box:

Goals: 4
Assists: 6
He had the most shots of any of these formations, but couldn't convert them and the team seemed to earn less corners, so this one is definitely consigned to the scrap heap.

 

I'll probably try a few more formation, maybe even the original one from the first few seasons, but at the moment the first one here seems best for goals, which is the thing I need him to focus on right now...

 

[Dai_]

Haha! SO MUCH TINKERING! Makes me anxious just looking at it. 🤣

[Scratch]

On 19/09/2021 at 23:13, Dai_ said:

Haha! SO MUCH TINKERING! Makes me anxious just looking at it. 🤣

You might like to look away now then...