Career 1k Slb Challenge - Take 2!

[canhoto]

I had started a 1k challenge before, but, considering I had done 5 seasons, and not getting any where near the amount of goals needed to complete it, I decided to scrap it and restart. This time around I will try to find a tactic that will give my player more opportunities. Also, because @kts365 started using Ze Gomes, and me not really getting the best of him ( on his 6th season he decided that he was too good to train anymore... ), I have decided on a new player:

 

Rui Pedro

Rui Pedro is another up and coming player from Portugal. He is one year older than Ze Gomes, but I think I can get better results with his attributes and skills. In theory he should have a better aerial ability, as in real life he is 1,82 compared to Gomes at 1,78. Also, he is part of FC Porto's school, so it will be nice to snatch him from our fiercest rival.

The Tactic:

I went with a more conventional tactic this time around, with only one striker upfront: a 4 3 2 1. This way I can focus on getting my striker the opportunities he needs to go up to 1000 goals.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by canhoto
Unfinished

[canhoto]

Posted before finishing so will do the rest now:

The Team:

I will re-try this challenge with Benfica again. The team is quite young, with few areas needed for improvement:

GK:

• Ederson
• Julio Cesar

Ederson is a future international for Brazil and Julio Cesar is a top replacement for the moment, though probably next season we will need someone to compete with Ederson for the n 1 shirt as Cesar is 38 and will retire soon.

Defence:

• Lindelof
• Lisandro Lopez
• Jardel
• Nelson Semedo
• Andre Almeida
• Grimaldo

Mostly a very young defense with it's main general, Jardel with an average of 19 in defensive attributes, at 32 so will need someone to cover for him in the future. I also like to mix a standard defender with a ball playing defender, and though Lindelof overall is a great player, I prefer to have him as a back up as his aerial ability is not the best for a central defender. Lopez is also a great defender but in my opinion he lacks a bit of pace.

Midfield:

• Pizzi
• Andre Horta
• Danilo
• Samaris
• Celis
• Pele
• Fejsa

A good mix of young talents with other players on top of their game. I personaly don't like Fejsa in the game. He is hard to train, and can only play one position so will probably sell off.Even if Celis, Samaris and Pele are all very physical, I think a bit more hardwork in midfield would help balance the team.

Wings:

• Guedes
• Carrillo
• Zivkovic
• Cervi
• Helder Costa
• Rafa Silva
• Salvio
   

The wings are fairly well covered, and with the current talent available I can probably manage to sell one or two players on the wings.

 

Pre Season

Staff:

I like to have a good variation of Coaches covering General, Attacking, Defensive, Goalkeeping and Youth. Benfica have already a good Attacking and Goalkeeping coach, and I usually go for a General badge. So that left me with Youth and Defensive to fill up. These were my choices for both roles:

By the way, did you know that it is more expensive to sack an Assistant Manager than a Coach? If you want to sack him, just demote him first and sack him as a coach. For Benfica it was the difference between 300k for AM and 120k for coach.

In terms of Scouts,I prefer to have a first team scout than a Bargain Hunter, so replaced mine for :

Transfers:

Benfica have a bit too many players for my taste, which works in my favor as I can sell them off.

 

For defence I brought in Ruben Semedo. Real story: Even though he is the heart of Sportings defense, Semedo is an avid Benfica supporter as he spent part of his youth career there. He is perfect to pair up with Jardel ,as he is a Ball Playing Defender with good pace, and can improve a lot in the future.

For Midfield, besides getting Danilo for full time, I also captured Thomas Delaney. He is perfect to add some muscle to my midfield as well as experience.

I also sold a few stars of the team: Fejsa, Salvio, Jonas. I always sell my stars before I capture any other talent, that way I let my team down first by selling one of the first team members, to pick up their morale just after by finding a suitable replacement. Also, Danilo was initially on load to Benfica from Braga, and as Benfica is a more valued team, Braga was asking for 40m euros selling price. I decided to give a try to cancel the load, and try to buy him then. It paid off as his overall value went down, and I could capture him for half their initial selling price.

[Jack]

Best of luck this time around, Rui Pedro is a player that has caught my eye in terms of being able to complete a 1KC.

[BatiGoal]

Hoping your 2nd attempt goes better.

Danilo and Ruben Semedo are top. I have both and they rock in my starting 11. Also, perhaps I haven't mentioned my best #12 Andre Horta enough in my own career but I play him as an Advanced Playmaker and occasional Left Attacking Mid. and he's fantastic. He's definitely one to watch as well.

Goodluck!

Edited March 3, 2017 by BatiGoal

[Scratch]

Great, I'm glad you're having another go, I'll definitely be watching. Hope it rains goals for you this time!

[kts365]

Good luck mate. Hope it goes better for you

[Taff]

Good luck dude I had three 1K attempts last year hopefully this time round you smash it

[canhoto]

Season 1

 

The beginning of season 1 for me usually takes a while to start rolling. Either motivation is down because of a sale of a star player, or players are still adapting to the new tactic, or new players are adapting to the club and manager. Things started of slowly against braga in the Supertaca:

Spoiler

Rui Pedro finally woke up at the final minute of extra time to bang his first goal in and capture the first silverware for the team.

 

His for was a bit on and off in the beginning, but he did manage to score 4 goals against Anderlecht!

Spoiler

 

And then final week of september:

My Back-up Central defender was out for the rest of the season! Fortunately Benfica has a good back up reserve team , and Ruben Dias was called up from the B team to replace him...

 

The best games to get a few goals in for your 1-keyer are always the cup games against a weaker opposition:

Spoiler

 

 

Every time this happens to me: After getting the team rolling with the new Tactic, and starting to get some results, in January teams either seem to predict your tactic, or park the bus in front of the goal so you don't get as many chances, or your team gets overconfident and starts loosing focus. I have to either change tactic or get a new player in to stir things up a bit. This, while in my news i get:

 

Perfect! A great player to replace Jardel next season, while he can also be a sure replacement for the injured Lisandro Lopez this season! And for sweet price! I manage to match Fiorentina with my full transfer budget of 17.75M and, even though he did not believe we could match his demands, a wooping 75k a week convinced him to join us over Fiorentina! Perfect to balance out the team and motivate our defense to get even better!

 

2nd Silverware League cup:

Spoiler

Even though we started loosing the game, Danilo Pereira was kind enough to get sent off and give us the space needed to score! Also Rui Pedro, after 2 fruitless games against his former and favorite club, finally scored!

Besides the Championship, The Taca de Portugal also came home to the aguias.

In The Champions cup things also worked out Nicely:

Spoiler

Another hattrick!!

Managed to beat current champions Real Madrid! Guedes first goal was perfect to be able to control the game and counter against a very attacking team!

So First Season wrapped up to be pretty good with wins on all the competitions! What about the player?

Rui Pedro

He can still improve a lot, but has good endurance and comfortable on the ball. Also, always good to have a player that excels in big matches.

His stats improved a lot from his first season, Noticeably his shooting and dribbling. Also his Physical stats are looking good. And goals?

48 goals in 55 Matches. Comparing with my seasons with Ze Gomes before, he exceeded my expectations. I really hope he can build up his game and get to at least 50 next season!

 

Super Sub

Raul Jimenez excelled in his role as Rui Pedros Sub. Even though he was the better footballer, he was quite happy to let Rui Pedro take on the role of Goal Assassin in front of our team. Even though most of his games were coming off the bench, he score 23 goals, giving us the points needed to capture everything we got. Really good to have this kind of support from the bench.

The Ugly Duckling

Was expecting better things from Pizzi. He is a world class Advanced Playmaker and usually has a lot of assists. This season though he really disappointed me. He Started as the main playmaker and as the assists failed to come in, I had to bring him down the pecking order and replaced him with Andre Horta. I think Pizzi will be leaving next season...

 

Final Standings:

*Apps and goals outside of my management

Edited March 6, 2017 by canhoto
unfinished

[BatiGoal]

Nice upgrade on Pedro's attributes and a fine return on his goals. Going good.

Replacing Pizzi with Horta is a good decision. Horta is a great player in my team/squad and a fantastic provider. He should bring in enough assists for your striker.

Edited March 6, 2017 by BatiGoal

[Scratch]

That's a really nice start and it looks like things are coming together with building the team. Keep going mate, can't wait to see how many he gets next season!

[kts365]

Great going mate. Pizzi ended up being my backup AP from season 2. 

48 goals in season 1 is smashing and I hope your guy keeps it up. I feel a little mini benfica 1k competition here haha. 

[canhoto]

13 hours ago, kts365 said:

Great going mate. Pizzi ended up being my backup AP from season 2. 

48 goals in season 1 is smashing and I hope your guy keeps it up. I feel a little mini benfica 1k competition here haha. 

We can do a competition between us to see how many team goals? Or most league points? That would be fun and get this challenge a bit more exciting

[canhoto]

18 hours ago, scratch99 said:

That's a really nice start and it looks like things are coming together with building the team. Keep going mate, can't wait to see how many he gets next season!

Really hope I manage to get to Armstrongs level with this!! Thanks!

On 3/6/2017 at 14:11, BatiGoal said:

Nice upgrade on Pedro's attributes and a fine return on his goals. Going good.

Replacing Pizzi with Horta is a good decision. Horta is a great player in my team/squad and a fantastic provider. He should bring in enough assists for your striker.

In real life, Pizzi is a killer. And this is the 1st season I have had bad luck with him.. Horta is good, but lacks a bit of stamina working as a AM from center midfield. Did you have issues with his stamina as well? I've been using Cervi now as a back up, and he's been covering Horta well when needed

[BatiGoal]

4 hours ago, canhoto said:

Horta is good, but lacks a bit of stamina working as a AM from center midfield. Did you have issues with his stamina as well?

In his younger days perhaps but he has improved a lot and is peaking right now at 26. His greens are fantastic, I'll post his numbers tonight.

[BatiGoal]

12 hours ago, canhoto said:

Horta is good, but lacks a bit of stamina working as a AM from center midfield. Did you have issues with his stamina as well?

Horta - Before & After

Spoiler

He'll turn out great if he gets enough games. No stamina issues after a few seasons with proper training.

[kts365]

19 hours ago, canhoto said:

We can do a competition between us to see how many team goals? Or most league points? That would be fun and get this challenge a bit more exciting

Can do. Could also do a comparison of championships won etc.

[canhoto]

7 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Horta - Before & After

  Reveal hidden contents

He'll turn out great if he gets enough games. No stamina issues after a few seasons with proper training.

Wow. World Class Player! Those Physical stats are impressive compared to what I have now, really hope he can get as good as in your game! In my Ze Gomes game, I ended up selling him ,so didnt relly get a chance to see him improve that much. Looking forward to the next few seasons then

15 minutes ago, kts365 said:

Can do. Could also do a comparison of championships won etc.

Portuguese League is quite easy, so I think it will be hard to match those. Champions Cup ? Less Red Cards ?

[canhoto]

Season 2

Building up on last seasons team, Benfica needed a bit of depth in the squad. Julio Cesar was getting old ( 38 ), and we could improve a bit in terms of midfield. For this the following players came in:

I'm a big fan of Diawara, as I know he will develop in a future captain of the team. Jesus was a walcome bargain for 13,5M Euros, and with teamwork of 14, he will surely help Rui Pedro out with his goals. Rajkovic is a young and well developed GK perfect to replace Julio Cesar and to give Ederson a run for his money. The others were just a few young players to fill up the ranks on my B team in a effort to keep them competitive and even one day to break into my first team.

Players out:

Pizzi was the obvious choice to get some money. Lisandro Lopez had broken his leg in the 1st season, and didn't really recover, so decided to get some money off of him. Talisca, although a good talent, I preferred to cash him in, as Cervi, Horta and Joao Carvalho would be battling for the AP position. Pele was surplus to my team, and for the right wing, with Jesus coming in, I need to sell another player. I decided on Carrillo as I got a decent offer from Milan for 30 M.

Tactics

I decided to keep the same tactics as season one, with a few minor changes during the season, according to who I was playing against and also the players on the pitch. It worked wonders in the first season with Enough chances for Rui Pedro to score 40+ goals, so It should work again to get up to 50 goals.

 

Start of season:

2nd Season started well, with Both Super Cups coming home:

Rui Pedro scoring goals in both matches as well. He continued his good form wining the World Player of the Year Award in the process! Well done lad!

 

In December, we lost out on our first silverware against our Lisbon rivals:

Even though we dominated the match, we missed out on Penalties, with Rui Pedro missing one...

We managed to capture the League once again with 4 games remaining. Porto battled it out like a champ until the end, but we managed to prevail.

In The European Cup, we weren't so lucky..

We had a 2-1 Advantage from home against PSG, but travelling to Paris:

PSG were really dominant. That's two cups we're out of, and Also 3 less games that we will play next season... Not what we were working for.

We did manage do capture Portuguese Cup in the end:

With a hattrick from our hero. Speaking of hattricks, here are a few he managed to bang:

 

Spoiler

A hattrick of penalties!

Not a hattrick, but 2 missed penalties?! Comon Rui Pedro...

Another one, with a dominating performance against a small Madeira team.

I was fiddling a bit with training when I noticed this:

Why have all his attributes come down? When I checked, I pressed the wrong training schedule for Andre Horta, and had him on GK duties! Andre Horta: Future GK of Benfica!!! Hope this does not affect how he develops...

 

And Rui Pedro? How did he develop?

He didn't improve as much as last season, I'm guessing because of the Jadedness he felt across the season. He did not play as much as the previous season, but he did improve his dribbling and Shooting, as well as his Physical attributes. His Technique dropped one point, but it's also the end of the season, so not too worried about that now.

And his goals?

Goals:

A slight improvement from last season, but as I said, he was tired throughout the season, especially in January and February. He did manage to get more goals in than games, and also to focus his game on scoring instead of providing with only 3 assists.

The team:

The Providers:

Both Wings were amazing at providing the goals Rui Pedro needed. The excelled in their role to provide goals, as well as to get space for Rui up front. Good Job!

Bench Stars:

Jimenez was class once again, coming in from the bench most games and scoring 25 goals! Also Zivkovic deserves a mention as he provided 12 assists.

The Bad:

There weren't any players that were worse than any other. This time around was actually a group of players: My midfield

Not one central midfielder managed to get more than 7.21 Av Rating. Meaning missed passes, missed tackles and not providing enough for the team. This will need to be restructured next season...

Future:

I think in order to improve my game, I have to rethink my tactics. The midfielders are not giving enough to the team, and up front Rui Pedro is working too much to keep the pressure on the opposing defense. Either I have to give up pressing, or possession of the ball in order to intercept it on my end of the field instead of the other teams. That way Rui can just sit down, have a cuppa and wait till his mates hand him the ball so he scores.

 

Current goal table:

*Goals not under my management. Also note that the 9 appearances count friendly games, which do not show up on his screen shot ( he only has 5 games and 3 goals).

[BatiGoal]

Great update. Kinda cool seeing how you manage Benfica as I'm playing the same team but am starting season 9 at the moment.

Hope Horta recovers from his GK training  speaking of GKs Ederson turned into an outstanding GK in my save. Also, I left most of my talents in the Reserve team and they developed tremendously. I only sent out a few on loan if the B team was too large and players wouldn't get enough time on the pitch. Benfica's got top notch facilities for their talents.

Hope you find a better working midfield and tactics for Pedro during pre-season. Going solid but 50+ goals now please 

Edited March 10, 2017 by BatiGoal

[canhoto]

Season 3

Picking up on last seasons issues ( midfield... ) Benfica decided to invest in a midfielder who cold carry the team forward and make an impact. The player in question is obvious , and some players have had mixed results with him, me, being a Benfica fan, I could not miss out on the opportunity of recruiting back one of our best talents in the last decade: Renato Sanches.

Although he has Deep Lying Playmaker as his natural position, his physical attributes are excellent for a really good BBM, which will be the position I will play him as.

Transfers in:

Berta is Buffos Regen, I think. He is perfect to add a bit more competitiveness for the n 1 Shirt. Salva is just a young CM for future cover.

Transfers out:

Had to do a bit more house clean up, with Rafa being our biggest player out. We had his position covered with a few players, and he was asking for some more first team football.

 

Tactics

My tactics followed the simple 4-3-2-1 with 3 CMs and 2 Ws , but I was not getting enough balls into the box for Rui Pedro, and he was not being able to get through most 90 min matches without going bellow 80%. My WBs were not providing enough crosses to the box, so I decided to push them up a spot to a DM WB. In order to give them some space I also had to push the Ws forward, so they became SR and SL.

 

I tried it in a friendly against Sporting:

It actually worked well considering how open we were at the back, One issue remained though, and that was that Rui was still handling the first line of defense against both center backs, even though he had 2 more men upfront. I started out the season with this formation, but a couple of months in I decided to change strategy again. I decided to push my SL and SR into the center. I can now hear everyone  saying: "No! Not three up front! you wont get enough chances for him!!". Well, it actually worked quite well! I also pushed my DM WB back to natural WB position.

I had a bad experience with a 1k with 3 SC up front. But I had also added Ws in my previous tactic, which cause a lack of space upfront. With WB, this is not the case and my Left and Right AFs try to find space on the left and right when The ball is being played through there. Also, in order to get the wide AFs working as I want them to, the one on the left should be left footed and the one on the right should be right footed. This way, they are more tempted to go to the end of the pitch and try to cross, instead of cutting inside and going for goal. A few screenshots:

Spoiler

Semedo (2) has carried the ball forward, and Jesus (9) goes to the right of the edge of the box to pick it up. Rui Pedro (10) and Zivkovic(11) stay in the area waiting for a cross. With Pedro with space to move inside so he can shoot. Zivkovic to get space, has to wait till Rui Pedro moves or has to go outside.

Another case where Jesus goes outside the box and to the right to get the ball. In this one he crosses and Rui Pedro Scored

On line throws, the AF on that side goes to meet the thrower bringing defenders with him creating space in the box.

Grimaldo (3) got into position and crossed, and in this case, the ball goes to Jesus on the second post...

Width is never an issue and there are always lines of passes. Sule(5) can either pass it forward to (8), long pass it to (3) to create a crossing chance, or even switch sides and pass it to (6), which then can pass to (2).

When recovering balls, usually one AF goes to the side line to find space, giving Rui Pedro(10) the space available to receive a long ball to counter.

Rui Pedro will never feel lonely again defending up front! And the Keeper will always think twice in doing a short pass, making recovering the ball easier!

So how did the season go?

Portuguese Supercup came home again smoothly:

First game, another Rui Pedro Hat trick!

League Cup Final, another Victory, but Rui Pedro still refusing to score against his old team!

 

Other interesting games:

Spoiler

Another Rui Pedro Hat Trick.

Rui Pedro scoring 4!

Another Hat Trick against Belenenses. I guess he found his favorite target..

Jimenez scoring 5 taking full advantage on a game I decided to rest Pedro.

Portugues Cup Final, with Pedro scoring another 4!

We reached the European Cup final again this year, and this was a tough one... had to decide it on penalties:

Crazy game! With Barca going up 1-0 with an autogoal, Rui Pedro pegging one back with a penalty. Then on Extra time, we managed to score one, and barca, with their only shot on target tied the game. It had to go down to 13 penalties, with Ederson defending the decisive one! Great way to end the season!

The team

Highlights of the team were my wide players, especially my left side with Zivkovic, and Grimaldo massing up 32 assists between them. Jesus and Semedo were also prolific in delivering balls to Rui Pedro with 26 assists.

 

The Bad

Though these tactical changes did not resolve out midfield problem, and Renato Sanches back to a DPL role, we have found a way of getting our team to work towards Rui Pedro. The midfield works more as a lid from any counter attacks, so lots of fouls, and cards, and also to circulate the ball when we are in possession. The work comes from the wings and that is why they have the best ratings.

Goncalo Guedes did fit as well to his role as  a supporter. Even if he had 10 Assists, it was almost half of what Jesus had and he was more interested in getting goals in than serving them.

 

The Man

Rui Pedro has developed into a World Class player now with 19 Dribbling and 18 Shooting.

Goals

 

56 in 47 appearances! Finally beat the 50+ mark. Next season: 60+!

Totals:

*Goals not under my management.

[canhoto]

Season 4

Season 4 went through without too many major issues. We brought in a back up for Grimaldo on the left side, and a couple of youngsters to fill up the ranks.

Out went a few players that were rotting on the B team:

 

Because of the nature of the formation I was using the previous season ( 4-3-3 with 3 cFs) The outside center forwards, after a season getting used to it, started scoring more than they provided, so I had to alternate between 4-3-3 wide and the original, difference being that both outside forwards were in the FL and FR positions. This actually worked quite well, to give me an alternate formation, and to give Rui Pedro the space needed to score goals when the opposition closed ranks. I also found out that Rui Pedro was quite prolific in scoring Free Kicks. This would sometimes mean that he had to take an indirect free kick from time to time, but added 10 more goals this season to his tally.

 

The Good:

The center of my midfield Cervi:

He provided 17 assists this season and looks amazing. He has also been playing for Argentina.

The Bad:

My Wingers/Support advance forwards. Because they became prolific, It gave me a few headaches on how to use them for Rui Pedros advantage without breaking the teams spirit.

 

The Player

Rui Pedro played really consistently this season, not really getting a lot of hat tricks, but more getting some braces in, and scoring in almost every single game. THis gave him a n excellent avR of 8.44.

In this picture he is injured, but he now has 20 dribbling, 19 shooting, and his pace goes up to 15 as well.

Goals

His consistency really paid off as he got 62 goals in 54 matches!

*Goals not under my management.

Portugal Job

Fernando Santos usually goes out after a couple of seasons, but in this game he's been going strong and not giving up! His job has been Insecure for some time, and I really hope he goes before the next season starts.. Would really like to get those Portugal goals counting for my tally.

 

[BatiGoal]

62 goals is great. Keep banging in 60+ goals and this challenge is over before it even started, kinda KIU!

No comment on the ITN situation lol

[Taff]

Another steady increase there dude KIU he'll be banging 70+ a season before you know it

[kts365]

Great season mate. 60+ it top notch and I've no doubt Pedro can do 70+ soon

[canhoto]

On 3/8/2017 at 02:41, BatiGoal said:

Horta - Before & After

  Reveal hidden contents

He'll turn out great if he gets enough games. No stamina issues after a few seasons with proper training.

Physically he's still dragging behind yours. But otherwise looks great!

On 3/17/2017 at 17:19, BatiGoal said:

62 goals is great. Keep banging in 60+ goals and this challenge is over before it even started, kinda KIU!

No comment on the ITN situation lol

Sorry to disappoint:

Spoiler

I guess Portugal is lucky to have such an old Coach!

On 3/17/2017 at 17:28, Taff said:

Another steady increase there dude KIU he'll be banging 70+ a season before you know it

Thanks mate, really aiming for that 70+ next season... Let's see what I get

On 3/17/2017 at 20:38, kts365 said:

Great season mate. 60+ it top notch and I've no doubt Pedro can do 70+ soon

Let's see who gets to 70+, Rui Pedro or Ze Gomes!

 

Update soon...

[canhoto]

Season 5

As posted above, Fernando Santos finally stepped down from his role as Portuguese Manager to give way for a younger and better Manager... Did we get it...?

Spoiler

Finally! National Goals will count towards our tally!

 

This season, we did not need any real replacements. Our B squad was overflowing with skilled players, so we only needed a few replacments for some of the ageing and unhappy players.

Players out:

Players in:

I'm happy with the depth of the squad and managed to get a few natural leaders to the first team from reserves, which was where we were lacking most.

Spoiler

Our future Captain!

Beginning of season:

First Silverware, Portuguese supercup against a team that is in the 2nd League:

A Rui Pedro hattrick to start off the season on the right foot,

Next, European Supercup:

Another couple of Rui Pedro goals to add one more trophy to his collection.

In December, CWC final:

In January, League cup final against our city rivals, Sporting:

One of the biggest issues with the Portuguese league  is that it gets fairly easy after a couple of seasons. The only hard competition you play is the Champions Cup, or any National Team cups.

We managed to be champions again with Sporting coming second fighting off a brave Vitoria de Guimaraes coming in a 3rd with 1 point less.

Porto? Nowhere to be seen, they only managed 5th place! At least they will battle for the EURO cup, in which we desperately need points to get out League standards up:

Spoiler

Cup Final:

Rui Pedro scoring against his old team to bring the trophy back home. Good lad...

 

Champions Cup:

We managed to get to final after beating off Manchester City, Chelsea and Barcelona, but we were not good enough to get a good result against R. Madrid.

"It ain't over till the fat lady sings". And she sang a horrible song at the 94th minute. No CWC or European super Cup next season...

Some other good games and results:

Spoiler

A Rui Pedro hattrick against an easy team.

Another hattrick that should have been 4 goals. He has missed quite a few from the spot this season.

Rui Pedro bringing his full game against Man City, with One goal to equalize the tie, and another in extra time for the final sentencing

National Team

We were set up in a fairly easy group in the World Cup Qualifying, with Switzerland and Austria as the 2 main competitors. So far so good, as we have won 4 out of 4 matches, with Kosovo and Malta good candidates for Rui Pedro bagging in some goals.

We managed to reach the final stages of the European International League with a semi final against Germany:

 

And then reaching the final against Italy:

Well done lads! Was good to see that Portugal can still win something, even if it is the International League...

 

The Good

This yeas, was a very good year in terms of player developing. Most of the household names are now wordclass players, and the youngsters coming in from the B team are bringing enough competition to take some of the 1st team spots.

I want to highlight out defense this year.

Our main 2 at the back are:

I like a good mix of passing with aerial dominating defenders.  Ruben Semedo and Sule are areally good pair, complementing each other.

My 2 reserves:

 

Lindelof is a really good backup for both Semedos, He works really well as a right back and a central defender, and really consistent on how he plays. Rainho is an up and coming portuguese Defender that has the mentality of a 30 year old. I'm sure he will build up his game and become a future Portuguese player.

 

The Bad

I don't really have anything bad to say about the team.. Everyone was amazing at what they were supposed to do and we missed out of the European Champions for a small error..  Though I will comment on something that has been irritating me a bit with FMM 17:

Brazilian Names!

Spoiler

 

It's ridiculous how they generate these names. I understand that Some people actually have 6 Names, but in a football game, you usually don't treat Ronaldo as Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, or Pele as Edson Arantes do Nascimento. It's really hard to read in the text:

"Higor Inacio Platiny Araujo dos Santos goes forward.."

"Higor Inacio Platiny Araujo dos Santos passes the ball to Luiz Gustavo Sao Pedro Accioly Filho.."

"Luiz Gustavo Sao Pedro Accioly Filho passes the ball back to Higor Inacio Platiny Araujo dos Santos.."

"Higor Inacio Platiny Araujo dos Santos shoots.."

Bahh... They should really get a better naming algorithm, or at least have a "commonly know as " field

 

The Man

New stats:

:

I don't think Rui Pedro will develop much more than he is right now. He is a superb man in the box with 20 Dribbling and 18 shooting.

And goals:

63 in 56 games + 10 in 11 international games! I beat the 70+ mark , but only counting his international goals.. Next season, 80+?

 

[Mikee1984]

Just read through this from start to finish your doing great my friend keep up the good work. Oh and congrats on the Portugal job, In my unofficial 1kc with Andre silva I got the job in my 4 th season. He went on to get 183 international goals under my management  without it I would of failed miserably, these goals could be the difference mate so make the most of it.