Career Cook and Bulls - Season 3

[FuddledFox]

Having not played FMM for a year I’m back in the saddle and ready to give her a ride.

I saw the Lewis Cook challenge posted by @Scratch a little while ago and it appealed to me. I haven’t signed Lewis Cook before as far as I can remember and also trying to get a set up to make the best of an AM seemed tantalising.

This challenge can be found here.

 

 

Club Choice

I wanted a lower standard league to give Cookie a chance to shine but also I needed a few quid to be able to afford him. In the end I settled on 🇩🇪 and then for the purposes of the title I went with…

 

 

Season 1

Transfers

The first job was to secure Lewis Cook’s services which I did for £14m along with some extras to sweeten the deal. In terms of other transfers I had no plan go into this as to how I was going to play and so I didn’t do much business in the summer other than another striker/wideman (Adeyemi) and a CB (Jung) as we seemed a bit short there. Konate and Alidou came in during the January window when I had settled on a tactic.

 

 

 

Tactics

As I said above I went into this challenge with no plan how I wanted to play and having not played FMM22 yet no idea what would work the best. In the early games I tried a few tactics with some strikerless being my main idea.

In the end I found that Cookie wasn’t much of a goalscorer and with some decent strikers at the club I might be better off playing them and getting Cook to supply them the ammunition. That led to this tactic which yielded decent results for the team and Cook enjoyed playing this way.

 

 

 

Competitions 

We rode our luck a bit this season as we came out with all three 🏆 we went for. These achievements all count towards Lewis Cooks final score at the end of the challenge.

The League

We took the title by a single goal and on the very last game of the season as we won our final game 1-0 and Bayern drew with Wolfsburg 1-1 to see us leap over them.

 

 

The Cup

It was us v Bayern in the final and it went all the way to extra time and a Adeyemi goal settled the tie in the 105th minute of the match.

 

 

Champions League

Our run to the final saw us play first Barcelona, then Man Utd and Real Madrid in the semis so again we had a favourable draw to get as far as the final avoiding teams like Liverpool and Man City.

We played Dortmund in the final and never looked like losing.

 

 

Cooks Season

When signed Cook looked like this so not great but the coaches felt he could improve. 

 

 

The first job was to get him trained as an attacking midfielder which took much longer than I had hoped as he was finally happy in that position at the mid point of the season. By that stage he had 3 goals and 18 assists which really shows where his skills lie as I just couldn’t get him into positions to score goals.

 

 

He is pretty resilient with just one injury keeping him out for more than 10 days over the season. That was a three week injury in the spring.

 

 

Come the end of the season and we have seen some real improvements in his game and although he isn’t world class he looks a bit more like he is at home playing in the 🇩🇪 league. 

 

 

 

He really had a superb season for me getting 34 assists and his goal scoring improved as well in the 2nd half of the season as he added 6 more goals to the 3 he already had. In seasons 2 and 3 I hope he can improve these totals now I’ve settled on a tactic and if I can improve the squad.

 

 

 

He made the league team of the year which added another achievement to his profile and so he got 4 extra points onto his total for these.

 

 

Team Stats

Spoiler

 

Lewis Cooks Challenge Points

Each goal, assist and achievement is worth 1 point each

• Season Goals - 9
• Season Assists - 34
• Season Achievements - 4
• Total Score so Far - 47pts

Thanks for reading.

[Rob]

Great start Mr Fox, and lovely to see you posting.

[Titjes]

Good start & good luck mate 😉

[Indicus]

nice work mate👍

[Dai_]

Good start! Considering you haven't played the game this year. 👏

[MatiasDFS]

really good start!

[FuddledFox]

5 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Good start! Considering you haven't played the game this year. 👏

Tbh the game doesn’t feel a lot different to last years at least to me. Perhaps a few more shithouse moments from the opposition in terms of late goals from nothing but my methods still seem to work quite well.

 

8 hours ago, Rob said:

Great start Mr Fox, and lovely to see you posting.

 

8 hours ago, Titjes said:

Good start & good luck mate 😉

 

7 hours ago, Indicus said:

nice work mate👍

 

1 hour ago, MatiasDFS said:

really good start!

 

Thanks guys.

[Antonie]

Fantastic job mate 😎

[Scratch]

Fantastic that you are playing (and posting) again Mr Fox! That was a long time off. 

And great start. That's nice number of assists especially. I'm trying to get my head around strikerless (never really done that) and playing him as an SS. Doing alright, after a slow start in the first few months. So it's interesting to see the different approaches people will take with this sort of thing. 

BTW, I think I've found the next player for this series. The only problem is that he's a Sunderland player, so not sure I can go through with it...

[broodje kip]

RB Leipzig instead of Oxford United? 🤨

[FuddledFox]

17 hours ago, Antonie said:

Fantastic job mate 😎

Cheers mate.

10 hours ago, Scratch said:

I'm trying to get my head around strikerless

I started out with strikerless but Cookie did nothing for the first few games so I sacked it off and went with the two up top. His goals have increased since he became a natural AMC though so perhaps I will need to rethink in the 2nd season.

10 hours ago, Scratch said:

BTW, I think I've found the next player for this series. The only problem is that he's a Sunderland player, so not sure I can go through with it...

As Vibes number 1 Sunderland fan I think you should put your barcode allegiances to one side and get it posted.

5 hours ago, broodje kip said:

RB Leipzig instead of Oxford United? 🤨

If they had £14m to spend on a player I would have been there like a shot. 

[Scratch]

11 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

As Vibes number 1 Sunderland fan I think you should put your barcode allegiances to one side and get it posted.

Wait, what!? I was hoping to lure Vibe's true number 1 Sunderland fan out into the public eye with some speculation on who it may be... Maybe even tempt him to have a go when I post it...

[FuddledFox]

1 hour ago, Scratch said:

was hoping to lure Vibe's true number 1 Sunderland fan out into the public eye with some speculation on who it may be

Is the player Vibe’s number 2 Sunderland fan @samhardy drinking buddy Aiden McGeady or perhaps Patrick Roberts?

[Scratch]

9 hours ago, FuddledFox said:

Is the player Vibe’s number 2 Sunderland fan @samhardy drinking buddy Aiden McGeady or perhaps Patrick Roberts?

Has Sam somehow converted you? Or have you two merged into one person? Or is he holding you prisoner or blackmailing you? Use the term "The Manor Ground" in your response to let us know if you need help.

But yes, Patrick Roberts is the one... Fits the criteria for this series: a long way from their full potential and around 24 or 25 years old, so running out of time to get there.

[FuddledFox]

7 hours ago, Scratch said:

Has Sam somehow converted you? Or have you two merged into one person? Or is he holding you prisoner or blackmailing you? Use the term "The Manor Ground" in your response to let us know if you need help.

But yes, Patrick Roberts is the one... Fits the criteria for this series: a long way from their full potential and around 24 or 25 years old, so running out of time to get there.

Did you know the first ever pay per view football match in Britain took place at The Manor Ground between Oxford Utd and Sunderland in 1999?

Seems a perfect player to go with for this. Think he has suffered a few injuries in his career that have held him back so it would be interesting to see if he’s injury prone in the game.

[Scratch]

23 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

Did you know the first ever pay per view football match in Britain took place at The Manor Ground between Oxford Utd and Sunderland in 1999?

Seems a perfect player to go with for this. Think he has suffered a few injuries in his career that have held him back so it would be interesting to see if he’s injury prone in the game.

Message received. Help despatched. 😆

Yeah. I remember him being highly rated in the game but it never really took off for him. I'm not sure about his injury proneness - I did create a list of players with a CA to PA gap to help pick players for this series but haven't looked at anything else for these players. I'm not sure if it would be good or bad for the challenge if one of the players was very injury-prone!

[FuddledFox]

27 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Message received. Help despatched. 😆

Yeah. I remember him being highly rated in the game but it never really took off for him. I'm not sure about his injury proneness - I did create a list of players with a CA to PA gap to help pick players for this series but haven't looked at anything else for these players. I'm not sure if it would be good or bad for the challenge if one of the players was very injury-prone!

Just looked him up and nothing comes up in his coach report or in the medical centre that he’s injury prone so he is probably ok.

[StuartM]

Cracking return from him and a cracking return from you Mr Fox, looking forward to seeing how you approach the future seasons... will you chase more goals from him?

[FuddledFox]

12 hours ago, StuartM said:

Cracking return from him and a cracking return from you Mr Fox, looking forward to seeing how you approach the future seasons... will you chase more goals from him?

Cheers Stu, it would be good to get more goals from him but it’s a case of doing that whilst not reducing his assists as well.

[FuddledFox]

Season 2

It was a case of 2nd season syndrome this year as the team didn’t perform as well as last year when we won the treble.

A reason was I kept too much faith in last seasons squad and didn’t make good enough improvements. A major part of this is that we already have good players especially in midfield and so I concentrated on midfield and defence. Noe of the players I signed really made much of an impact though.

With hindsight I would have perhaps signed one or two real top quality players instead of 4 players that gave more squad depth but didn’t improve the team as a whole.

 

Spoiler

 

Nothing much of note in the transfers out except Adeyemi going to Chelsea.

 

 

 

Another reason we weren’t as good was I tried to get more out of Cookie which led to some experimentation early in the season. We won the two Supercup’s but then missed out on the league to Bayern who also knocked us out the Champions League as well. The German Cup defeat came in the packed schedule due to the mid season World Cup when I played a reserve team.

 

 

Lewis Cook Performance

Cookie has suddenly turned into a goal scorer this season including a couple of hat tricks as we hit some form later in the season trying to catch Bayern…

 

 

His attributes improved a bit more as well and he looks a good all round midfielder now. He certainly isn’t world class by any stretch but he has what he needs to compete at this level.

He has been training as a Treq to get all round attacking midfield coaching and then I have focused on his passing as well.

 

An improvement in goals this season saw a drop in assists unfortunately and whilst it was better numbers overall than last year I would have liked more. The team not playing as well definitely had an impact on this.

 

 

 

He added three more achievements to his list.

 

 

Score so Far

Season 2 Goals: 25

Season 2 Assists: 26

Season 2 Achievements: 3

Season 2 Total: 54pts

Season 1 Total: 47pts

Overall Total so Far: 101 points

 

So one more season left with Cookie to try and get a respectable score for him.

Thanks for reading.

[Dai_]

It's always the dilemma I find myself in. Do I add depth or quality? I usually always end up adding quality just because I can add depth with loans. Usually young but still good enough.

I'm glad he's found his shooting boots. Experimenting is always risky during the challenge itself but seeing as you came into this "blind" you have no other choice but to try and find what suits.

It's an improvement anyway, which is good. Well done. Hopefully season 3 will be better again.

[FuddledFox]

6 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Experimenting is always risky during the challenge itself but seeing as you came into this "blind" you have no other choice but to try and find what suits.

Tbf unless it’s a challenge I have some experience in previously I always go in blind as I never play the game to test anything. I much prefer to just play a challenge and see what happens than spend time doing too much testing, it effects the challenge score but more fun for me.

[Rob]

Ye olde ‘second season squad depth’  riddle. Always does my head in as I’m  of the opinion that better players also take away the focussed players goals and assists too, as they contribute more themselves.

Good season though and hopefully those hat tricks are more regular in season three.

[FuddledFox]

6 hours ago, Rob said:

Ye olde ‘second season squad depth’  riddle. Always does my head in as I’m  of the opinion that better players also take away the focussed players goals and assists too, as they contribute more themselves.

Good season though and hopefully those hat tricks are more regular in season three.

Season 1 we exceeded expectations with a treble especially as I did very little to the squad so perhaps we just fell back a bit this year to the squads level.

Does look like things have switched now with Cookie and goals might be more his route to more points than assists.

[FuddledFox]

Season 3

I had another fiddle with myself tactics for S3 with the end result this ugly but fairly effective asymmetrical thing…

 

which meant I needed some wingbacks as the squad had almost none.

I had raised a fair few £ by selling some players.

 

Then 8 new players joined in the season with 6 of them being WB’s or at least capable of playing there as well as other positions such as Saelemaekers.

 

Everyone I bought is under the spoiler if you want to see attributes.

Spoiler

 

This got the club back on track with results coming fairly easily over the season as we picked up the domestic double. Bayern ended the career by beating us in the CL final though unfortunately.

 

 

 

Even at the age of 27 Cookie is still improving and he really is some boy this lad.

 

 

It was Cook’s best season of the challenge with a record goal and assist total to end the challenge in some style. The highlight for Cook was definitely his double hat trick in the cup 1st round to start the season.

 

He didn’t quite keep at that pace of scoring but finished with 29 goals and 35 assists for the season.

 

 

He either added 2 more achievements or 3 this season. I will need @Scratch to confirm whether a Champions League 2nd plave counts as an achievement or not as it makes his player achievement screen.

 

 

Here is my final manager stats for the end of the challenge. They show I could never quite get my team to score prolifically and consistently as we average 2 goals a game. That was the cause for quite a few draws in the end and what cost us the league title in season 2.

 

 

Score

Season 1 Total: 47pts

Season 2 Total: 54pts

Season 3 Goals: 29

Season 3 Assists: 35

Season 3 Achievements: 5 (or possibly 4)

Season 3 Total: 69pts

 

Challenge Total

Total Goals: 63

Total Assists: 95

Total Achievements: 12

Total Score: 170 points

 

This was a nice challenge to return to FMM with which I enjoyed although I’m sure I could have scored much better when I was in more practice with the game. Thanks to @Scratch for coming up with this challenge.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Dai_]

A very good total. Well done.

[Scratch]

26 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

I will need @Scratch to confirm whether a Champions League 2nd plave counts as an achievement or not as it makes his player achievement screen.

Yeah, it's just anything listed on that page.

[Scratch]

Okay, finished reading it now and very good attempt Mr Fox. Your scores are in line with what I was getting on my first attempt, though I stepped it up on the second attempt - I think it's one of those things that you have to tweak and tweak until you find something that works better. 

Anyway, good job, glad you're back playing, keep it going! I'll post the next one in the next day or so.

[Rob]

Loved this career Mr F. Always enjoy your stuff.