Career Rinse, repeat: The Atletico Madrid Challenge

Lagom · January 13, 2022

Currently very bored with the game, so it’s about time to revive probably my favourite challenge.

The challenge is simple, score 30+ goals in a season, sell, replace, repeat. I like to make it league goals as an extra challenge, to try and stay competitive in more than one competition alongside the league.

Now, this season, Atletico already have a ready made competitor for me to pick up with..

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As good as stolen from Barca, who didn’t know what they had until it was gone, and firing 21 goals last season to secure his new club the Liga crown, his challenge now is to increase that output by ~42% and hit 30 league goals in a season for the first time since 2015/16.

Wish me and him luck..

Rich · January 13, 2022

Good luck mate 😁

Lagom · January 13, 2022

Season 1:

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Somehow I didn’t manage to get a screenshot of his stats before he retired, but as you can see, he absolutely smashed the target of 30 goals.

Rinse, repeat.

I had a ton of options that I wanted to explore, such as

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Cavani, Ibra, Higuain, Diego Costa, Aguero, Falcao

But all retired at the end of the first season, so I’ve plumped for

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A controversial choice, I’m sure, a 35 year old who has never scored 30 goals in a season. But, the stats are there, and I have the confidence that I can get the best out of him. Let’s go season 2

Lagom · January 14, 2022

9 games in

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Maybe should have seen this coming.. let’s hope this is a one off

Lagom · January 14, 2022

So, the season started with a bang..

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then he didn’t score for 5 games, and managed to get injured for 3 weeks, meaning he missed 8 games in total.

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First game back..

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The end of the season:

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Not quite as impressive as Suarez, but still excellent for a £5m 35 year old who missed 8 league games.

Now, we rinse and repeat. Any guesses or suggestions for round 3…?

Edited January 14, 2022 by Lagom

Lagom · January 16, 2022

Season 3

My player of choice:

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Let me tell you, this was a STRUGGLE. He played 37/38 league games this season (more on that in a second), and only managed to hit more than one goal in 6 of those games.

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We continue to more or less dominate domestically, though our goal output has reduced dramatically.

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the penultimate game of the season..

the aftermath..

the relief..

So, challenge completed for a third straight season, but I’ll need to go back to the drawing board if I want to hit the heights of season 1 and 2.

Rinse, repeat

Lagom · January 17, 2022

Season 4:

I've continued the trent of taking a player later on in his career, this time I've plucked this man from Serie A..

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Realistically, there should have been no worries about me hitting the 30 goal target with Immobile, however, within a week of him signing, his stats took a nosedive, with almost every single one losing 1-2 points. Still, he's still been comfortably hitting double figures in Serie A, shouldn't be a problem.

Wishful thinking

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Right in a crowded section of my fixtures, meaning he missed a total of 4 games. I threw him straight back into the team when he was healthy (but not exactly fit) and he exploded right at the beginning and end of the game, he didn't have a single shot outside of these two..

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Again, I really struggled to filter the goals through the striker only, and I ended up with 3 different AMC hitting double figures as well as Immobile. When all was said and done, the only thing that matters though, is whether he hit 30 goals..

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He hit the 30 goals (just) and we won the league again at a canter. One more goal scored than last season, and two fewer conceded, I want both of those stats to keep moving in opposite directions.