Career Scratch Maybe Tries A 1KC + Split 1KC at Newcastle

[Scratch]

Hi All,

I've been playing this career very slowly in the background and have completed 4 seasons now.

After getting a striker to 150 club goals per season at Celtic and then Beijing, I wondered how it would go in the EPL. And I wanted to have a Newcastle career. And then I wondered if I could sneak in a split 1KC as well. Cue a 1KC + Split 1KC!

I figured I'd do a brief write up of the 4 seasons combined, but have titled this post "Scratch Maybe Tries" because I started it off the record and I'm probably pausing it for now and I don't want it to count as an abandoned career! 😄

 

The Players

I went with Piccoli up front as my TF, playing in front of Reyna as a T in the AM line.

Here are the lads at the beginning:

And here are the lads at the end of season 4:

 

Tactics

Honestly, this is the main reason I need to have a break from this save. 

I started with the same tactic I was using with the 150 Club saves, but switched the supporting AM role into a more attacking T role.

In last year's version I had a lot of success with that combination, with the T scoring a lot of goals (as well as the TF). I thought it could work again here, and it looked good for a couple of seasons, but then one of the updates seemed to affect the tactic, though I'm not sure that was the cause. Maybe it was just the AI got used to my tactic, or maybe it's just the EPL is harder, or who knows.

Anyway, I tried a LOT of different variations on the tactic, tweaking roles and instructions. I had some success, getting more chances to Reyna than he had been getting, but the lad still wasn't scoring many goals.

Halfway through season 4, out of desperation, I switched to the TT Blaster tactic (with Reyna as a P or T in the forward line between two TFs). It didn't improve his goal output, but his numbers held steady and there was only a slight drop for Piccoli - and it was a lot of fun. So I stuck with it for the rest of the season, even though we probably missed a couple of trophies as a result (it still seems to work great, but not so much against the top clubs). 

 

Goals and Assists

Here are the how the lads have done so far:

Piccoli with 298 goals in 4 seasons and probably going to be averaging 100+ in the near future.

Reyna with 132 goals and 174 assists in 4 seasons. You can see how his goal ratio went back after season 2 however. Bear in mind he take free kicks and penalties and I was hoping for 25+ goals per season just from those, so 40 goals in a season is a little disappointing. Maybe he's just not a natural goal scorer and I made a mistake using him?

 

The Future

Piccoli will probably make it to 1K goals by season 10 or 11. If I'd just focused on him I think maybe he'd be close for 150 per season as well.

Reyna should get to 500 around the same time, but it will take him longer to get him to the 500 goals. It's still definitely possible - he'll probably hit 500 goals by season 13 or 14 - but I was hoping for 50 goals a season for him and I can't see that happening any time soon, so it's a little frustrating (though the bigger frustration is finding a tactic that works).

Anyway, I'll likely take a break from this career for a while, but I do feel like I'll come back to it at some point, or I wouldn't have posted it.

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Scratch

[broodje kip]

Good luck I guess? That if you even complete this career 🤣

[Scratch]

26 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Good luck I guess? That if you even complete this career 🤣

Thanks. Yeah it's 70/30 right now that I'll finish it, but as soon as I try something else... well we know how that goes.

[Guest]

It may be a bit hard but you should try in a different tactical way then it may help you

[geordiekrispy]

Piccoli looks like he's going to be a great choice!

Shame Reyna's aerial has dropped by such a large amount. That might the problem, if seems like you're relying on him to pick up the scraps at the end of the box as it were, rather than power forward into goal scoring positions. Have you tried using him as a SS in the AM position? So he's more likely to try and snaffle up those loose balls etc, you'd probably get more assists from Piccoli, as he should lay the ball off more than just going for it himself.

[Scratch]

23 minutes ago, Tanza said:

It may be a bit hard but you should try in a different tactical way then it may help you

Yeah, though I'd have to try something quite different from what I've been doing as the variations on that don't seem to change much.

[Scratch]

24 minutes ago, geordiekrispy said:

Piccoli looks like he's going to be a great choice!

Shame Reyna's aerial has dropped by such a large amount. That might the problem, if seems like you're relying on him to pick up the scraps at the end of the box as it were, rather than power forward into goal scoring positions. Have you tried using him as a SS in the AM position? So he's more likely to try and snaffle up those loose balls etc, you'd probably get more assists from Piccoli, as he should lay the ball off more than just going for it himself.

Yeah, full disclosure, part of the reason I picked Piccoli is I've seen behind the curtain and this lad is very very good in FMM at the moment. And he's the right shape for me. Might be my new Esposito, who was my new Pellegri.

As for Reyna, I did try him as an SS for a while, but with not much difference. Hard to remember now - he might have had more shots, but he didn't score more goals. I feel like he's just not a huge goal scorer. When I swap CDK or Moriba into his role, they score more than he does. But maybe he's just tired and they are fresh?

The T behind a TM combination worked wonders for me in FMM21 - the TM would often come a little deeper and play it into the box for the T to run on to. Maybe it's Piccoli's passing or creativity or something that's to blame? Or maybe it just doesn't work anymore?

As you can see, so many questions, which is why it's a little frustrating right now.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Scratch

[geordiekrispy]

1 minute ago, Scratch said:

Yeah, full disclosure, part of the reason I picked Piccoli is I've seen behind the curtain and this lad is very very good in FMM at the moment. And he's the right shape for me. Might be my new Esposito, who was my new Pellegri.

Shocked! I am shocked!

1 minute ago, Scratch said:

As for Reyna, I did try him as an SS for a while, but with not much difference. Hard to remember now - he might have had more shots, but he didn't score more goals. I feel like he's just not a huge goal scorer. When I swap CDK or Moriba into his role, they score more than he does.

The T behind a TM combination worked wonders for me in FMM21 - the TM would often come a little deeper and play it into the box for the T to run on to. Maybe it's Piccoli's passing or creativity or something that's to blame. Or maybe it just doesn't work anymore.

 

Ah yeah, it sounds like he's just not a goal scorer... 

[Rich]

Nice start mate, both players look fantastic, you’ll surely finish this one, you’re a machine when it comes to finishing careers 😉

What did the league look like in your first 4 seasons?

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Rich said:

Nice start mate, both players look fantastic, you’ll surely finish this one, you’re a machine when it comes to finishing careers 😉

What did the league look like in your first 4 seasons?

Wait. did you just curse this save? 😄

Here are the leagues (was under threat of sack in the first one until the wonderkids developed a bit):

 

Damn, I thought we won the league in Season 3, but apparently not. We won the UCL once. But not stellar team results like I was getting last year or this year in the easier leagues. Still we'd be happy if it happened in real life. 😄

[Mike16]

This is excellent achievement with newcastle.. your a legend... Bravo.. I hope this will work after the recent february update.. gonna try this with leicester in the epl

[Scratch]

1 minute ago, Mike16 said:

This is excellent achievement with newcastle.. your a legend... Bravo.. I hope this will work after the recent february update.. gonna try this with leicester in the epl

Good luck, hope you post it here so we can see how it goes. Like I said elsewhere, it stopped being quite so effective with one of the updates, but still really good - but you need an overpowered squad.