Career Jonah and the Goals - 1k? 2k?

[MikeF]

I need a break from my Welsh save and seeing @Scratch share his wisdom, I thought i'd also do a lone striker goalscoring challenge and share some of my lesser wisdom but in far less detail as i'm quite lazy...

The Club

I sometimes like to choose a bit of a random club and did run a test using AZ in the Eredivisie, but if i'm going for goals there's only one club in Europe you can really use. So like the masses (no pun intended), I went for Celtic. 

 

The Scottish league has some truly terrible defenders for my boy to terrorise and Celtic are a big enough draw to get good players from the off as well as having a decent transfer budget. And with the Scottish league having a pretty good rep, the player will develop at a good rate.

 

For the player, I like them young. I'm always on the hunt for the next Freddy Adu. Yes, they plateau until they grow up but if you can get them firing from the off, I see that as a couple of bonus seasons. I've had my eye on this chap since the Winter update so wanted to give him a spin. In my test he got to 20 aerial whilst still being 16 so i'm hoping he'll be just as good for real now.

He turned 16 3 days before the game starts in Scotland and is already sitting at 15 aerial as he's a whopping 6'5". Pace could be better but shooting, movement, stamina, strength are all good for a youngster. 

I usually sign the striker first, 50% sell on and as low as you can get them but for some reason this time I signed other players first and had to wait for deals to go through to be able to buy him and in the meantime Bayern increased their asking price. He was £21m plus 50% so i'm hoping i've good a good roll with his stats. 4 goals in his first game suggests he might be good for this...

 

Transfers:

For me my tactic is all about the wide players and whipping in those crosses. The long term strategy is always to sniff out those wonderkids, but I wanted some oven-ready chaps too. Kostic had the best crossing in the game (out of who I could sign) so he was in. Rooney will take over when his stats are up. My long term lover, Pavon, jilted me for Wolfsburg so it's the first time i'll be doing one of these challenges without him for almost a decade i'd say. I'm gutted. Abada isn't as good as in previous versions but he'll have to do as my right winger for this year.

I needed some pace in my defence so all Celtic defenders were out (so slow!) and in came Arrey-Mbi and Murilo.

De Gea came in to replace the very average Joe Hart. 

With my tactic i just like tough midfielders who win the ball and get it to my wide players so McGregor stays, and in came Sanchez on a Bosman (I've never seen him before but my scouts found him and loved him).

I'm seeing if i can convert Lorran into a CM as he has such high potential but if not i'll develop him and sell him in a few years.

Billy Jenkins-Davies is Bale regen so i'm hoping he becomes less lazy. 

So a few signings for now, and a few for the future. Of these, Rooney, Billy, Lorran, and Jonah of course, will be the only ones i see staying for long. 

To fund this, i didn't use any tricks, I just flogged anyone I could to the highest bidders. But i have a lot of players that don't have any interest so the loan trick will be used - if we're breaking the game, lets use the broken parts of the game.

 

My tactic.

I always use a variation of this, and it isn't too dissimilar to others I see but this exact version got Adayemi to 152 goals in a season in FMM22 (when the corner tactic worked admittedly) so i've stuck with it.

Doubling up wingers and wing backs means lots of balls coming in from wide. Two at the back as i'm a wuss. And a midfield trio of CM/BWM/CM to be static and annoying. Wide to stretch the pitch and give the WB/W double act some space.

Typically I'll turn off the final third instructions when my team is levelled up as they'll know what to do then, but when they're learning, i want them to just get the ball to the big guy.

I've gone with a poacher here but as discussed elsewhere TM is as good. I find the Poacher drifts to the channels too much so i will make him a TM next season so stay in the middle.

 

How did he get on?

Season 1 saw him end like this:

We didn't quite get to 20 aerial but 19 is good for 16. 69 goals is also very good for a 16 year old. There's plenty of room to improve here. consistency is the main thing with youngsters but that will get better.

I didn't have the money for a big money mentor so this guy has been my go to for a could of years now. £16k (k!) and he's great in the air, professional and consistent. He's a solid mentor for the cost of living crisis.

 

Team:

Wingers did what they're paid to do. WB chipped in with a few too. 

 

Results:

As expected.

Edited April 5, 2024 by MikeF

[Dai_]

Brilliant start!

I love Kostic. He's brilliant!

I feel you could of made some handy money from some of those players you released that could of funded a better striker to mentor with but it doesn't seem to have impacted him negatively, which is good.

Keep it up man. I see only good things ahead as your team around him gets better.

[MikeF]

13 minutes ago, Dai_ said:

Brilliant start!

I love Kostic. He's brilliant!

I feel you could of made some handy money from some of those players you released that could of funded a better striker to mentor with but it doesn't seem to have impacted him negatively, which is good.

Keep it up man. I see only good things ahead as your team around him gets better.

I tried so hard to sell them for anything over the season but couldn’t shift them so threw them out through rage mostly 😂. Probably should have held onto them…

[hoon87]

Active Nations?

[MikeF]

Scotland, England, Germany (so Jonah is available). 

[hoon87]

6 minutes ago, MikeF said:

Scotland, England, Germany (so Jonah is available). 

Can I see the list of all the transfers?

[MikeF]

They’re all up there 👆 

[hoon87]

7 minutes ago, MikeF said:

They’re all up there 👆 

Don't sell Furuhashi?

[MikeF]

Ah the p/ex guys don’t show up in screenshot. Furuhashi was exchanged for Rooney. 

[Scratch]

Kusi-Asare is a great choice in striker, this is going to be big!!

Kostic is a great choice as winger, I use him a fair bit, but not in my current one. I'm a bit of an Iling fan over the last couple of years, though you obviously have to wait for him to level up. As for Abada... I have tried and tried to use him in the past, but even though he's good I could never get his crossing high enough, so I just sell him these days. 

It's also going to be great to be able to compare how we go. Weiper only has 60 from 41 in my save, but it's still April. I guess that means you rested Kusi-Asare a lot more than I rested Weiper - which is sensible! I subscribe to the theory that I should rest him if he's slightly tired, but in practice I get tempted into giving him the first half. I keep telling myself to rest him, but so hard to do if he keeps scoring if I give him the first half... 

You're going to get through your save much quicker I think. I'm trying not to play much because I don't want to get too far ahead of the writing (or I will forget what the screenshots mean or lose interest etc). 

Anyway, this will be GREAT to follow. 🙂

[hoon87]

18 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Kusi-Asare is a great choice in striker, this is going to be big!!

Kostic is a great choice as winger, I use him a fair bit, but not in my current one. I'm a bit of an Iling fan over the last couple of years, though you obviously have to wait for him to level up. As for Abada... I have tried and tried to use him in the past, but even though he's good I could never get his crossing high enough, so I just sell him these days. 

It's also going to be great to be able to compare how we go. Weiper only has 60 from 41 in my save, but it's still April. I guess that means you rested Kusi-Asare a lot more than I rested Weiper - which is sensible! I subscribe to the theory that I should rest him if he's slightly tired, but in practice I get tempted into giving him the first half. I keep telling myself to rest him, but so hard to do if he keeps scoring if I give him the first half... 

You're going to get through your save much quicker I think. I'm trying not to play much because I don't want to get too far ahead of the writing (or I will forget what the screenshots mean or lose interest etc). 

Anyway, this will be GREAT to follow. 🙂

Where should I reinforce in the first season of Celtic?

[MikeF]

6 hours ago, Scratch said:

Kusi-Asare is a great choice in striker, this is going to be big!!

Kostic is a great choice as winger, I use him a fair bit, but not in my current one. I'm a bit of an Iling fan over the last couple of years, though you obviously have to wait for him to level up. As for Abada... I have tried and tried to use him in the past, but even though he's good I could never get his crossing high enough, so I just sell him these days. 

It's also going to be great to be able to compare how we go. Weiper only has 60 from 41 in my save, but it's still April. I guess that means you rested Kusi-Asare a lot more than I rested Weiper - which is sensible! I subscribe to the theory that I should rest him if he's slightly tired, but in practice I get tempted into giving him the first half. I keep telling myself to rest him, but so hard to do if he keeps scoring if I give him the first half... 

You're going to get through your save much quicker I think. I'm trying not to play much because I don't want to get too far ahead of the writing (or I will forget what the screenshots mean or lose interest etc). 

Anyway, this will be GREAT to follow. 🙂

I try not to rest him (but left him out of the CL starting team mostly this season as he’d get more goals from the league). I do set his training to Low however which really helps his recovery. He’ll improve from games and goals so much like Ledley, he doesn’t need to train 😂 

 

I always see Illinois eoth great stats but have never used him. Rooney usually gets high crossing and then it’s Di Maria regen for me usually. 
 

With Abada, you’re right, his crossing isn’t high enough so he will be sold. Pavon (he saw the light and came over in S2) is my first choice winger now anyway until I find someone for the future.

Edited April 7, 2024 by MikeF

[MikeF]

Season 2

Starting off with the boy, he had a blinding season. He picked up the ‘consistent’ trait from Beck which seems to have helped things. 
We ended up with 97 goals from 45 games which is a pretty amazing result for a 17 year old. 
I need his stamina up as he tires quickly and recovery could be faster but now his aerial is 20 we’re training here. 

 

This is also the first time a player has scored 10 goals in a game for me. 

 

As a team, we didn’t concede a single goal in the league for the first 30 matches, dominating as we should do but that’s a pretty solid defence! In fact, De Gea only conceded 5 goals all season which is crazy.

CL: we got to the semis and Milan knocked us out.

Transfers:

My focus this preseason was to improve the squad. 
We needed new first choice wingbacks with better crossing and I couldn’t resist bringing Tierney back home. Lamptey doesn’t have great crossing but with his 20 pace he still manages to get some good balls in, beating defenders easily.

Bamba is always a good signing for me as he’s fast, can get positioning to 20 and is young. He could be better in the air though.

Brazilian chap is Marcelo regen but he needs a few seasons out on loan focussing on crossing first.

Bellingham (Jobe, unfortunately) has the potential to be world class my scout says and I’ve never had him before so he came in the Jan window and has started well. Quite a way off his brother though…

Oh and I got Pavon to join me finally. More on him later…

I managed to raise a good chunk of cash selling players that just don’t fit my system. No one is safe at this stage. 
 

The Team:

Kostic is on corners. Pavon isn’t. Over 70 assists between them. I do love Pavon. 
Rooney is getting to be first choice winger soon hopefully as Kostic is 33 this year and he’s got big shoes to fill. 
 

Midfield needs some work this window and some backup wing backs too but doubt we’ll have the money for all of that. 

[Rav44]

On 08/04/2024 at 23:28, MikeF said:

Season 2

Starting off with the boy, he had a blinding season. He picked up the ‘consistent’ trait from Beck which seems to have helped things. 
We ended up with 97 goals from 45 games which is a pretty amazing result for a 17 year old. 
I need his stamina up as he tires quickly and recovery could be faster but now his aerial is 20 we’re training here. 

 

This is also the first time a player has scored 10 goals in a game for me. 

 

As a team, we didn’t concede a single goal in the league for the first 30 matches, dominating as we should do but that’s a pretty solid defence! In fact, De Gea only conceded 5 goals all season which is crazy.

CL: we got to the semis and Milan knocked us out.

Transfers:

My focus this preseason was to improve the squad. 
We needed new first choice wingbacks with better crossing and I couldn’t resist bringing Tierney back home. Lamptey doesn’t have great crossing but with his 20 pace he still manages to get some good balls in, beating defenders easily.

Bamba is always a good signing for me as he’s fast, can get positioning to 20 and is young. He could be better in the air though.

Brazilian chap is Marcelo regen but he needs a few seasons out on loan focussing on crossing first.

Bellingham (Jobe, unfortunately) has the potential to be world class my scout says and I’ve never had him before so he came in the Jan window and has started well. Quite a way off his brother though…

Oh and I got Pavon to join me finally. More on him later…

I managed to raise a good chunk of cash selling players that just don’t fit my system. No one is safe at this stage. 
 

The Team:

Kostic is on corners. Pavon isn’t. Over 70 assists between them. I do love Pavon. 
Rooney is getting to be first choice winger soon hopefully as Kostic is 33 this year and he’s got big shoes to fill. 
 

Midfield needs some work this window and some backup wing backs too but doubt we’ll have the money for all of that. 

Nice work. Amazing numbers.  What is your corner set up like and do you get many from them?

[hoon87]

Which role is better? TM or P?

[MikeF]

11 hours ago, Rav44 said:

Nice work. Amazing numbers.  What is your corner set up like and do you get many from them?

For this challenge I use the old corner tactic of everyone back, striker to mark keeper and cross ball to penalty spot. I get a few goals but nowhere near the amount you used to with this method. 

added 0 minutes later

8 hours ago, hoon87 said:

Which role is better? TM or P?

I’ve settled on TM. There wasn’t much in it but I found P drifts out to the channels a bit too often whereas TM stays central. 

[MikeF]

Season 3

A slight improvement from the lad in terms of pace and a couple of other key stats but nothing huge. He started off really well but midway through the season we lost 3 of our 4 key wingers to long terms injuries. With Kostic being 33 he never really recovered and his crossing went from 19 to 16 and Pavon dropped off too a little bit.

Still we managed more than 100 goals. I need his stamina to improve as I have to rest him quite a bit and we're going to need more games to get more goals.

 

We had a tough draw in the CL with Bayern in the last 16 losing 3-2 on aggregate which was frustrating (mostly due to needing more squad depth).

 

Transfers:

Hannibal came in on a Bosman and then immediately was part exchanged for Koopmeiners as he doesn't fit in my team but Koops does. His professionalism, determination, morale are all full green so he's great to have in the team and he's a solid player too.

Estevao doesn't fit my system but he's cheap and should be worth a lot more in the future so he's purely a sale prospect. The other players there are possible wonderkids but all a way off the starting team so they'll be farmed out to see how they develop and if there are indeed wonderkids. Cartabia is Di Maria i think but his stats aren't great currently.

 

I sold a couple of fringe players to raise money but I don't have the depth to sell any more really until a juicy bid comes in for someone.

 

The team:

With my mid-season winger collapse, Rooney stepped up to be my number one and delivered, Pavon was still my right winger but scored a few too many and didn't set up as many as I'd expect so this is an area for improvement. Abada is up to 15 crossing and 17 pace but that's not enough for first choice so he may be off.

Tierney is now unhappy as I wont renew his £99k per week contract at his requested £34k per week...

De Gea is 35 but happy to keep playing so I can delay buying a new keeper for another year and focus on a right winger and back up wing backs this Summer.

On a final note, Jonah wants to leave too so i need to manage his happiness to squeeze more goals out of him.

 

Goals: 269

[P.Rahul]

Good going !!!! 

[StuartM]

He looks excellent and that's a great start, 2k could be on!

[DanEnglish]

For anyone following this who wants to try a 1k or similar - that midfield trio which @MikeF is using is perfect for a ‘crossing from wide to a high-aerial ST’ game.

Why? The two CMs will sit a little wider because they are part of a flat midfield three - this puts them closer to the Wingers + WBs, so the CMs will pass the ball to the flanks more often (perfect). If you had only a flat midfield two, then the CMs won’t feed the flanks as much.

Also the CM role is ideal, as CMs will stay in their slightly-wider position (they won’t come into the center like a DLP, RP nor AP) and while a B2B could also work, the B2B runs forward a lot into the AMLC / AMRC positions (so may take more shots), while a CM won’t run forward as much, instead will link play and ‘feed the flanks’ (perfect). If you used any other role, the MCs wouldn’t feed the flanks as much.

Just thought I’d share this tactical insight as @MikeF explained about the scorer / ST’s role, explained the assisters / wide players roles, and I just wanted to explain the pre-assist / CMs’ roles

@MikeF is this how it works for you / is this how you think about it? If you use CMs / flat midfield three for a different reason please share! 🙂 

[P.Rahul]

I scored this amount of goals in 5 seasons 🤣🤣🤣!!!! Although i m playing this game for 2 years I never completed single goal scoring challenge apart from quickest 100 goals !!!! I lost interest after 2 seasons!!! Every time !!! 

[hoon87]

10 hours ago, MikeF said:

Season 3

A slight improvement from the lad in terms of pace and a couple of other key stats but nothing huge. He started off really well but midway through the season we lost 3 of our 4 key wingers to long terms injuries. With Kostic being 33 he never really recovered and his crossing went from 19 to 16 and Pavon dropped off too a little bit.

Still we managed more than 100 goals. I need his stamina to improve as I have to rest him quite a bit and we're going to need more games to get more goals.

 

We had a tough draw in the CL with Bayern in the last 16 losing 3-2 on aggregate which was frustrating (mostly due to needing more squad depth).

 

Transfers:

Hannibal came in on a Bosman and then immediately was part exchanged for Koopmeiners as he doesn't fit in my team but Koops does. His professionalism, determination, morale are all full green so he's great to have in the team and he's a solid player too.

Estevao doesn't fit my system but he's cheap and should be worth a lot more in the future so he's purely a sale prospect. The other players there are possible wonderkids but all a way off the starting team so they'll be farmed out to see how they develop and if there are indeed wonderkids. Cartabia is Di Maria i think but his stats aren't great currently.

 

I sold a couple of fringe players to raise money but I don't have the depth to sell any more really until a juicy bid comes in for someone.

 

The team:

With my mid-season winger collapse, Rooney stepped up to be my number one and delivered, Pavon was still my right winger but scored a few too many and didn't set up as many as I'd expect so this is an area for improvement. Abada is up to 15 crossing and 17 pace but that's not enough for first choice so he may be off.

Tierney is now unhappy as I wont renew his £99k per week contract at his requested £34k per week...

De Gea is 35 but happy to keep playing so I can delay buying a new keeper for another year and focus on a right winger and back up wing backs this Summer.

On a final note, Jonah wants to leave too so i need to manage his happiness to squeeze more goals out of him.

 

Goals: 269

My omorodion is aerial stopped at 19 😂 How can I make it up to 20?

[MikeF]

11 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

For anyone following this who wants to try a 1k or similar - that midfield trio which @MikeF is using is perfect for a ‘crossing from wide to a high-aerial ST’ game.

Why? The two CMs will sit a little wider because they are part of a flat midfield three - this puts them closer to the Wingers + WBs, so the CMs will pass the ball to the flanks more often (perfect). If you had only a flat midfield two, then the CMs won’t feed the flanks as much.

Also the CM role is ideal, as CMs will stay in their slightly-wider position (they won’t come into the center like a DLP, RP nor AP) and while a B2B could also work, the B2B runs forward a lot into the AMLC / AMRC positions (so may take more shots), while a CM won’t run forward as much, instead will link play and ‘feed the flanks’ (perfect). If you used any other role, the MCs wouldn’t feed the flanks as much.

Just thought I’d share this tactical insight as @MikeF explained about the scorer / ST’s role, explained the assisters / wide players roles, and I just wanted to explain the pre-assist / CMs’ roles

@MikeF is this how it works for you / is this how you think about it? If you use CMs / flat midfield three for a different reason please share! 🙂 

100%
Even though the BWM drops a little deeper, the triangle he makes with the CMs keeps the CMs wider so they play balls to wingers/wing backs. This is why I don’t focus passing anywhere as they kind of do it themselves. A dlp could work instead of the bwm but the bwm tends to play a safer pass and recycle possession always offering an option. 
Same reason I use CD and not BPD. CD will play the easy pass to wing back more often than not whereas BPD takes more chances with his passing. 
I just want to get the ball to my wide players for this system. Everyone else is to keep possession and play those passes out wide. 

added 0 minutes later

8 hours ago, hoon87 said:

My omorodion is aerial stopped at 19 😂 How can I make it up to 20?

Mentoring and luck!

[MikeF]

Season 4

His stamina improved so I tried to squeeze more games out of him, taking him off a little earlier in matches so he could play more and we managed an extra 10 games and 11 goals. Average goals per game was down but goals were up and that’s all that counts really. I took him off around 80% and generally he would recover in time for the next match even if only 3 days. Previously it was nearer 75% but he’d start a lot of games at 95% which isn’t sustainable.

I removed my final third instructions as I tend to do when the players have levelled up but I actually saw a drop in goals so turned them back on. 

We had the easiest CL run possible which meant taking it home for the first time.

Rangers lucked out in the cup and beat us but we don’t care about that really.

 

Transfers:

Tierney was world class and one of my better players but I need cash flow at this stage in the game (until I can start selling wonderkids) so when a good offer came in for him, I had to sell. My Marcelo regen still has a way to go but he’s now my first choice LWB.

By Jan, Bellingham wasn’t quite cutting it for me (although was young and still improving) so when I got a decent bid for him he went half way through the season.

This left me with some money to spend. James came in on the right wing as he’s fast and has good crossing. I’m still waiting for one of my youngsters to develop enough to take over (we want 20 crossing!) but no luck yet. Gomez came in as my back up LWB and all the rest are possible wonderkids. Savanier is a worldly 16 year old and goes straight into the first team squad. The rest will go out on loan to develop. I’m struggling to find decent loan clubs for my youngsters so in the meantime it’s the Scottish championship for them.

Team stats:

James was on corners as my best crosser and managed 48 assists. Rooney did well but scored too many. He’s about to upgrade again so may be put on corners if his crossing goes up. Lamptey also did well. His crossing is only 13 but as he’s so fast he still gets a lot of assists.

Me:

 

There is the slight issue of his contract now. It’s up this year and currently he wants £300k per week as he wants a new challenge. I don’t have long to lock him down or this challenge could be over before it’s even begun really!
 

Goals: 383

[P.Rahul]

Very good score!!! 2 goals per game out standing!!!! 

[Dai_]

This is going very well indeed.

Just imagine when you get a winger to 20 crossing... 😱

Keep it up mate. 👏

[MikeF]

33 minutes ago, Dai_ said:

This is going very well indeed.

Just imagine when you get a winger to 20 crossing... 😱

Keep it up mate. 👏

Thanks mate. And yeah, he’s almost there in terms of development, I just need wingers with 20 crossing to get to the next level. Rooney is 19 now so we’re getting there…

[hoon87]

32 minutes ago, MikeF said:

Thanks mate. And yeah, he’s almost there in terms of development, I just need wingers with 20 crossing to get to the next level. Rooney is 19 now so we’re getting there…

Should my striker also play for the national team? If so, why?

[MikeF]

3 hours ago, hoon87 said:

Should my striker also play for the national team? If so, why?

A lot of people use international teams and include those goals too. And it’s allowed in the 1k challenge rules. 
Personally, I don’t like international jobs so I’ll be playing club team only. 

[Rob]

Great work, as always, Mike.