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Career Inverted Trouble in Little China (Season 3)


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I brought this upon myself. I included it in the poll options, so of course people voted for it. 

Ostensibly, this is a Double Trouble career. Only I will be doing my scoring with wingbacks (inverted, of course).

We enter this career with no expectations of actually getting 1200 goals between two wingbacks. Let me be up front about that. I'll get as many as I can.

 

Details

We're playing in China, using the iconic orange kit of Shandong Taishan (best training facilities + budget in the league). The tactic I'm using is utterly ridiculous and I don't think it will work unless your team is miles ahead of the competition. 

I began my search for players who fit my criteria:

1 - Affordable within my 1st season budget of 71m

2 - Willing to come to China

3 - At least one player must be retrainable as a winger to improve shooting

4 - At least one that is good at set pieces

5 - At least one that is good at penalties

6 - Dark green in one WB position

7 - No crap personality or work rate issues

I scoured the leagues and came up with a list of 6 players, but it was impossible to fulfill all 7 criteria. 

Honorable Mentions

Spoiler

Calvin Ramsay of Aberdeen (Best set pieces, lowest PA)

Tino Livramento of Southampton (Awful shooting, highest PA)

Tayo Adaramola of Crystal Palace or Wolves, I forgot (Best shooting, worst decisions/movement)

Raul Moro of Lazio (Natural IF, shite work rate)

I will be fielding guesses for the two selected candidates until I have a chance to post the first season. See you all soon!

Edited by hhooo
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Love this. Will have a think about the players. I did have Liveramento down as one you’d pick due to value for money at the start.

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This is a mad idea, but I love the sound of it. 

My two guesses, are Singo & Hickey? Not sure if either one is good at set pieces or penalties, but both young & would go to China I reckon. Can be retrained into wingers too. 

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18 minutes ago, JamesVilla said:

This is a mad idea, but I love the sound of it. 

My two guesses, are Singo & Hickey? Not sure if either one is good at set pieces or penalties, but both young & would go to China I reckon. Can be retrained into wingers too. 

Both were under consideration! Hickey being two footed and Singo good in the air are appealing. Neither can train as an IF and both are miserable on set pieces, though. Singo is also more developed and has less room to shape him.

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The Players

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220528-195945.thumb.jpg.ea600bbb30c434c8a2af839b59b8bd27.jpg

Ruggeri is a natural left wingback who is apparently incapable of training to be a winger, so he will be training as a Libero. I've never seen anyone actually gain offensive stats by training as a Libero, but it's a risk I'll have to take here. Ruggeri has 3 star set pieces, which is okay, and will be taking free kicks.

Screenshot_20220528-200011.thumb.jpg.6896bed6ef121145cdf970ec57dde109.jpg

Johannesson is a natural central midfielder who is dark green at left wing back and across the AM line. He can retrain to IF/SS after becoming light green in WB. 2.5 star set pieces is also okay, and his 1.5 star penalties means he will be my dedicated penalty taker 🙄.

Both players got 1-2 upgrades and then were afflicted with 'needs to mature to improve further.'

No suitable mentors (shooting) have appeared in my searches as of yet.

Season One

Transfers

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220528-200355.thumb.jpg.d3a632d3fbdaf806174a933c8a0d563f.jpgScreenshot_20220528-200400.thumb.jpg.6d175d1c6693356f87ac4a36f67bc8cd.jpg

You don't know nor are any of the outgoings important, so here's who I brought in. Mayo and Henderson are some of the best bargains in the game this year, give them a shot if you haven't.

Results

Spoiler
Spoiler

Screenshot_20220528-200140.thumb.jpg.9112e3899fecbc4a14ec629e75fcd484.jpgScreenshot_20220528-200154.thumb.jpg.d77497225eaeab715c8ed7f4401eaaef.jpgScreenshot_20220528-182650.thumb.jpg.514c95159082c726fc6025173ad45e92.jpg

I told the board I was going to win, so we did. 

The CL final was squeezed between two dead rubber league games on a random Tuesday night, and it resembled yesterday's final in many ways. Every bit as satisfying. 

Sample Result

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220528-101624.thumb.jpg.65dac0ce37e441643e08e85c9be2fe07.jpg

We conceded 15 goals from 46 games this season, largely thanks to our bizarre formation. Many games actually play out like this, where the opposition completely controls possession but can't actually get a shot all game. I've never seen anything quite like the results I get here, but it's the best I can come up with to funnel our wingbacks into scoring positions. 

Goals

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220528-200736.thumb.jpg.31bc59f34003eb92124ae97630401aac.jpg

Nasser and Goiano were our second string wingbacks, and overall 59 of our 92 goals came from players playing in those two wingback positions.

Total: 25 + 19 = 44 goals

Thanks for taking a look! Second season hiccups might be underway, so the tactic might have to shuffle around a bit...

Edited by hhooo
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Man this is a HARD challenge.

Question for you - I guess philosophically you have a few approaches to scoring (see spoiler) - which are you aiming for?

Spoiler
  1. Score from open play - where your IWBs are the furthest forward players. Probably a super defensive looking formation.
  2. Score loads of goals from open play and hope the IWBs get some of them! Probably a super attacking formation. 
  3. Score from corners / crossed free kicks. Probably requires wingers + IWBs with high aerial.
  4. Score direct from free kicks / penalties. Probably play centrally with a normal formation.

 
I’d probably test out these formations myself: a 55000, a 54100 and interestingly a 34300 / 34120 with wingers to stretch the opposition defense. What did you go for?!

Spoiler

23EFC96E-0A37-4037-B95D-A8496B7626EF.thumb.jpeg.05655c458403854e36125693a1343b41.jpeg

8E9FEDB2-9465-43BF-9FBB-8B5B2533A5D1.thumb.jpeg.47934886bfddcf8a60fbc54746047fde.jpeg

C498DCAD-69AE-4BF6-8710-80DF9A2125C3.thumb.jpeg.bf863084c44048239f7ac8893c700d6b.jpeg

 

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26 minutes ago, DanEnglish said:

Man this is a HARD challenge.

Question for you - I guess philosophically you have a few approaches to scoring (see spoiler) - which are you aiming for?

  Reveal hidden contents
  1. Score from open play - where your IWBs are the furthest forward players. Probably a super defensive looking formation.
  2. Score loads of goals from open play and hope the IWBs get some of them! Probably a super attacking formation. 
  3. Score from corners / crossed free kicks. Probably requires wingers + IWBs with high aerial.
  4. Score direct from free kicks / penalties. Probably play centrally with a normal formation.

 
I’d probably test out these formations myself: a 55000, a 54100 and interestingly a 34300 / 34120 with wingers to stretch the opposition defense. What did you go for?!

  Reveal hidden contents

23EFC96E-0A37-4037-B95D-A8496B7626EF.thumb.jpeg.05655c458403854e36125693a1343b41.jpeg

8E9FEDB2-9465-43BF-9FBB-8B5B2533A5D1.thumb.jpeg.47934886bfddcf8a60fbc54746047fde.jpeg

C498DCAD-69AE-4BF6-8710-80DF9A2125C3.thumb.jpeg.bf863084c44048239f7ac8893c700d6b.jpeg

 

Philosophically speaking, I'm currently attempting to get the IWBs as the furthest forward central players in open play, but supplementary goal income from corners, pens, and free kicks is necessary to help them develop. 

In the future, I might try to find a bunch of strikers who play with back to goal and just get the WBs in behind them to shoot, but I'm currently between these two shapes, depending on opposition shape. If there's a DM, you want the central DLP a bit further forward to draw his attention. If there isn't a DM, you pull him back.

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220530-023225__01.thumb.jpg.1c2e89ad4d83e4013833fb9601f583bd.jpgScreenshot_20220530-023237__01.thumb.jpg.bad623164f3070cb9baec83448a6e6c8.jpg

One quirk of this formation is the GK getting several assists per season. Since everyone is so far back, there's a ton of space for a good SK to play someone in from kickoff. DLP, WMs, and WBs will all make those runs occasionally.

 

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Season 2

Transfers

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220601-090342.thumb.jpg.2b9c874bf5a74e822d79150e6d05f853.jpg

Orisic comes in as a mentor for Johannesson, but I'm yet to find anyone suitable to help Ruggeri. I won't be able to mentor him in shooting, so it looks like aggression, dribbling, aerial, or movement are my choices. Not sure which to do.

This tactic basically only requires two different player profiles - combative and creative DLP/BPDs, and lightning fast dribblers with high teamwork to provide cutbacks.

Results 

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220601-083934.thumb.jpg.e74daebf2844e079c5d9467331a49c5d.jpgScreenshot_20220601-083956.thumb.jpg.3436dcf5ceb414ba94e3cd0895d83b10.jpg

 

Screenshot_20220601-090047.thumb.jpg.7b71fdee21599f489bc2c07fe68e6331.jpg

We won the treble again, but with a much more emphatic victory this time. Only 4 league goals conceded and a 6-0 pounding in the CL final.

 

Bonus

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220601-084645.thumb.jpg.80550c93ad16a4d77935410207a9b418.jpg

Tunisia shithoused their way to a world cup win via 4 consecutive extra time victories!

 

👑 Kingbacks

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220601-084318.thumb.jpg.b663567a5412b9b3092a1bb98f89a244.jpgScreenshot_20220601-084309.thumb.jpg.c18e1a31e63225a361a82c383d461828.jpgScreenshot_20220601-083908.thumb.jpg.05abdc1d8d1c467696e3327d66eb12a5.jpg

 

If these attributes look shockingly similar to last year, that's because both Ruggeri and Johannesson got hit with the classic 2-year 'needs to mature' virus. (Does this happen to everyone in this year's game?) Ruggeri got a decent upgrade including +3 shooting one game before the end of the season, and Johannesson will have a birthday at the start of next season. 

Goal wise, we're exactly the same, split slightly differently. 

56 total goals from wingback positions this year. including rotation players

 

Thanks for reading! 

Total: 21+23 = 44 (88)

Edited by hhooo
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Good season again and one with some good signings too. Rovella has turned out great for me in some careers.

One thing I do like is the percentage of goals that the lads get for what isn’t a massive amount of team goals. It’s not like you’ve just decided to smash loads in and hope they get a fair few of them - it’s much more cultured than that. Love it.

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6 hours ago, Rob said:

Good season again and one with some good signings too. Rovella has turned out great for me in some careers.

One thing I do like is the percentage of goals that the lads get for what isn’t a massive amount of team goals. It’s not like you’ve just decided to smash loads in and hope they get a fair few of them - it’s much more cultured than that. Love it.

Rob, that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. 

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What?!

TACTIC is evolving!

Spoiler

959545017_Screenshot_20220602-2113222.thumb.jpg.ce43e7457d38efb89a7154f6f5294b7f.jpg

And we have our first hat-trick!

Season update will probably be another day or two.

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Season 3

Transfers

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220606-004208.thumb.jpg.ff083bd0a9e7e267be5c41e69ecd8600.jpg

First time I'm really able to pull some big names. Dan Burn on a free to mentor aerial was fine business, really happy to bag Romero.

 

Formation

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220606-003917__01.thumb.jpg.9cb2c287d351367cf150545c6f6a333d.jpg

Lucky for us, back three formations are uncommon in China still. We play this only against back 4 shapes. The IWBs actually move in front of the RPs and those 4 players move constantly to open space and create chances. If you only use one RP, they will move centrally and take the lions share of the shots, but using 2 side by side like this keeps them wider. Also look for PPMs 'Tries killer ball' and avoid players who get into opposition area.

 

Results

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220606-004328.thumb.jpg.8bb027ed76775f8a548563817937d319.jpgScreenshot_20220606-004321.thumb.jpg.3b4509f83f3ff7624b69e1d7fd3f0619.jpgScreenshot_20220606-002033.thumb.jpg.9f8aec9686d085f776a98a27f644ac57.jpg

We conceded a few more goals, scored a few more as well. The bad vibes from winning too much finally caught up to us in the cup semifinal. Last league game of the season was hilarious either. Imagine having 71% possession and zero shots!

 

Side Pieces

Spoiler

Screenshot_20220606-003758.thumb.jpg.90ac0a199faceaf62f5481bb87c86327.jpg

Ruggeri is starting to frustrate me. Two years of Needs to Mature, two upgrades (one with shooting, one without) and now he needs a higher standard of play. Feels like the save will be hamstrung by his poor learning ability. I am vaguely considering selling him or loaning him to a big European side and then trying to buy him back the following year... is that completely insane? Or should I by trying to move the whole operation over to Italy?

Screenshot_20220606-003750.thumb.jpg.1a68ee0780381ae903f20c06e2e9ed4b.jpg

Johannesson, however, has been having a season to remember! Don't let that 5 aggression fool you - he tackles CBs in their own box every other game to score. Can actually take a shot now as well. And is still improving!

 

Screenshot_20220606-003724.thumb.jpg.057f0417b1e6e7a2584b5943dd88cb01.jpg

So not bad from Ruggeri overall, but it just feels like his numbers will be hard to move above that 20 per season mark, where Johannesson is developing much more how I had envisioned. 

Total: 18+33 = 51 (139)

Thanks for reading!

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