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Career One Season Only: Vardy Shooting For 80 Goals (SO CLOSE)


Scratch
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After miserably failing my first One Season Only 80 goals career, I'm going jump right back on that horse and try again! 

This time I'm going to go with a better team (PSG) and better striker (Vardy).
 
vardy-at-the-start.png.96ee3ced195ff314a6a474b7ca7e0828.png
 
The aim is to get him to score 80 goals in the first season of the game. I'm using the EME and I'll be following all of the normal rules of a challenge: No unlockables, no editing, etc.
 
 
Why PSG?
 
As I outlined in the debrief of my last attempt, the only way I think I'll make it to 80 goals is if I surround my striker with world class players and if I have the budget to shape the team to my liking.
 
PSG already has a pretty good team and they have money to burn! Also, I think some of their opponents are fairly weak compared to them, which will hopefully offer some high scoring goals. I've never played in France, so I'm not sure that's true, but I'm going to find out!
 
On a personal level, PSG has always been 'my French team', from long before they were anywhere near as rich as they are now. I'm talking 97/98 when they came 8th and 98/99 when they came 9th. Not that I followed them much. I originally chose them simply because I liked that area of Paris. Pretty superficial I know...
 
 
Why Vardy
 
He's had a rough season in real life, but he's still a very good striker and I think he's nailed on to do better than Mitrovic.
 
Importantly, he's a poacher (which Mitrovich wasn't) and he has good Shooting, Movement, Pace and Decision attributes. In short, he reminds me quite a lot of a striker called Adam Armstrong, who once scored 81 goals in a season for Celtic (in my 1KC career). I'll be using a tactic that was designed for Armstrong and I'm hoping it does well for Vardy too. 
 
At 29 he's no spring chicken and he will probably start degrading in the next year or two, but I think I should be able to get through the challenge without being affected. And unlike a younger player, he should be ready to go right away. No need to mature before drinking. 
 
Also, while I could have chosen Messi or Neymar or someone like that, it just would have been a little too obvious for me. I like underdogs and while Vardy is very good, he's not in the same league as those guys. I expect he'll be a bit of an ugly duckling next to the superstars at PSG, but you all know how that story ends... 
 
 
The Case For Success
 
  • I've learned from the Mitrovic failure.
  • Vardy should fit into my tactic pretty well.
  • He's ready to go, no maturing needed.
  • PSG is a club that should be able to give Vardy the best chance of success, with biggus budget and weakus opposition.
 
 
The Case For Failure
 
  • 80 goals is still a LOT for one season! 
  • Although there is budget, there is only limited time and it may not be enough to shape the team.
  • Just one injury could kill the challenge. Even a 2 week injury will make it unlikely. 
  • I haven't played in France before. I don't even know how many games they have a year, or how many cups they have (they do have cups right?).
 
 
So, what do you think of my chances? Still crazy? Or do I have an outside chance here? 
 
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Just now, Cockers2505 said:

Your main concern @scratch99 is injuries and suspensions, Vardy has a tendency to pick up yellow cards, eventually leading to game time being lost, otherwise, good luck, will follow this to see how you get on.

Good point and thanks for pointing it out. I noticed his aggression is reasonably high but had't thought of that angle. Maybe I'll have to turn down the team Tackling setting down to Cautious...

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You've hit the nail on the head re: injuries and suspensions - one of either could spell the end of this challenge. That 'Teamwork' stat is dangerously high, too - here's to hoping he's as greedy as possible. Good luck! :)

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Cool! Loving these short challenges. Great team and good league too. If you played it well you could get as much as 60-65 games for Vardy.

Looking forward to another 80-goal attempt. I feel good about this one.

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Good luck mate, you definitely like to set the bar very high don't you I'll be following this closely as vardy is one of my favourite players and he's a beast on FMM so this should be doable.

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13 hours ago, Jack.Holt said:

You've hit the nail on the head re: injuries and suspensions - one of either could spell the end of this challenge. That 'Teamwork' stat is dangerously high, too - here's to hoping he's as greedy as possible. Good luck! :)

Thanks. Yeah, it needs everything to be perfect. That's why it's always going to be a long shot.

I'm not *too* worried about the Teamwork stat as Armstrong used to pass instead of shoot (in my 1KC), which is why the tactic is the way it is: isolate the striker and get it into him asap so there's not that many people around for him to pass to! That said Vardy is a fair bit higher on Teamwork so we'll have to see how it goes.

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11 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Cool! Loving these short challenges. Great team and good league too. If you played it well you could get as much as 60-65 games for Vardy.

Looking forward to another 80-goal attempt. I feel good about this one.

Yeah, I'm not quite ready for another long challenge yet. I'm feeling good about this one too, but still gonna be tough! Will be thrilled if we get up to around that many games. 

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11 hours ago, Gonzolito said:

Good luck !

Thanks mate! :)

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11 hours ago, AndersJ said:

Best of luck! Vardy having a Party in Paris :)!

Hope so! Thanks. :)

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10 hours ago, Ashez said:

A VIP season! As in Vardy In Paris ;) 

Good luck

Thanks mate - but too many more jokes like that and I'll have to reconsider my position on Team Ashez! ;) Just joking of course.

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9 hours ago, Mikee1984 said:

Good luck mate, you definitely like to set the bar very high don't you I'll be following this closely as vardy is one of my favourite players and he's a beast on FMM so this should be doable.

Thanks! I've never used him before, but he looks like a great fit here. But as you say, it's a high bar! I don't mind if I fall short, but if I can pull it off it will be great!

 

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1 hour ago, scratch99 said:

Thanks! I've never used him before, but he looks like a great fit here. But as you say, it's a high bar! I don't mind if I fall short, but if I can pull it off it will be great!

 

Well with the squad PSG has at your  disposal you'll definitely give yourself the best chance possible, besides you've already smashed an 80 goal season in your 1kc so I'm saying your going to..........

 

 

 

smash this challenge all day :D

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Vardy looks great! I imagine Leicester won't let him go cheaply though... Two cup competitions in France so that should give you plenty of games. I think it's possible! 

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On 3/17/2017 at 17:35, Mr.Manager said:

Vardy looks great! I imagine Leicester won't let him go cheaply though... Two cup competitions in France so that should give you plenty of games. I think it's possible! 

Not as cheap as I thought, but probably realistic - £33M. I'm much more hopeful than last time, but we'll see!

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On 3/17/2017 at 14:34, Mikee1984 said:

Well with the squad PSG has at your  disposal you'll definitely give yourself the best chance possible, besides you've already smashed an 80 goal season in your 1kc so I'm saying your going to..........

 

 

 

smash this challenge all day :D

Yeah, it's a pretty good squad, certainly enough to win games easily in France, but I'd like to make it stronger - I guess every manager wants that! :)

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On 3/17/2017 at 19:01, Taff said:


Good luck dude, I'm sure Vardy can do much better than Mitrovic and with a team like PSG at his back you'll crush this one

Thanks mate, fingers crosse, but feeling confident. :)

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On 3/19/2017 at 04:45, BantamHD said:

Good luck! I'm sure you'll fare better here than with Mitro!

Thanks mate! Sure hope so. :)

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Update - July & August
 
And so we get the challenge underway! 
 
 
Staff
 
First things first, I started by making a few tweaks to the staff. Vardy won't be developing at his age, but some of his teammates will be!
 
This is the starting staff roster:
vardy-july-august-01.png.b8a6188b39a14da13a68b1d84e1a0ba5.png
 
And here it is after the changes:
vardy-july-august-02.png.27a9b7ca34802e3a61fea3f11656bc53.png
 
Lefebve successfully took his test and upgraded to a Gold coach. We let our Goalkeeping coach (Dehon) go and replaced him with a Youth coach (Stephanopoli) who can work with some of our promising young players. We upgraded our Physios, but unfortunately there were no suitable gold level scouts available.
 
 
Transfers 
 
Next was the bigger job of shaping the team. 
 
PSG start with a pretty good team, but I somehow thought it might be a little better. I never start with a big club, so don't really understand how strong the players are with teams such as PSG, etc. Also, my highwater mark at Celtic during my 1KC was significantly higher than PSG at the start, but I guess that was after 10 or 15 years of continuous building. I think it might also be a balance thing to do with regens (as in I must have had a bunch of them at Celtic, even though I didn't specifically target regens). 
 
Anyway, it was a good team, but one with opportunity for improvement. However, the other thing I underestimated was how far £110M goes! I'm sure I was having to pay more for players than I was when I was at Celtic. Pretty much any player I wanted was 3 times their list value. That meant I had to sell some players, including Cavani:
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That helped fund some incoming players: Coman, Moutinho and Dudu to create chances, Muslera to give us a better option in goal, Vida and Vrsaljko to firm up the defense. And of course our main main Vardy himself. 
vardy-july-august-11.png.0335dc5d48cfad7c03380917fa52ddd3.png
 
Here they are if you're interested:
Spoiler

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I was close on some other good players: Willian, Tah, Laporte, etc, but just didn't have the cash to buy them. No matter, this squad should be good enough to score a lot of goals in France.

And I should mention I'm using Pounds instead of Euros (as you can obviously see) even though I'm not in the UK - that's just because I've played the game so long in pounds! 
 
 
Tactics
 
As mentioned before, I'm using the same tactics I used on my 1KC career with Adam Armstrong at Celtic. It didn't work out as well as I hoped for Mitrovic (previous OSO career), but Vardy looks to be quite similar to Armstrong, so I'm hoping it will work well. 
 
vardy-july-august-08.png.fc3a1986659696f3ead3bb32368f446b.png
 
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The idea is to create lots of space around the striker (no other strikers or central AMs) and then get it into him quickly (Direct). I generally play through the Centre, but sometime go with Mixed. I've had some seasons (in the 1KC) where a winger provided the most assists, but normally they come from one of the central midfielders. If the opposition is sitting behind the ball, I turn counter attacking off, but otherwise I leave it on as a fast striker will score on the break every so often.
 
 
Goals
 
Vardy's start to the season was good - 5 goals in 4 games. 
vardy-july-august-06.png.c4817628d10b091f8f40580a8e78eed3.png
 
He looked sharp, but the team isn't firing on all cylinders yet, so he didn't get as many chances as I was hoping. Enough there for me to be quietly confident that he can do this, but I'll admit I would have been happier if he'd got a hat-trick or two. 
 
 
Trophies
 
We won the Trophee de Champions 2-1 over Lyon. Not our best game or the most prestigious cup, but a trophy is a trophy. Here's how our season is looking:
vardy-july-august-04.png.5c596c4dc830e2def5df2ae6a0ae6a39.png
 
 
The Future
 
We're looking okay so far. Fingers crossed for a flood of goals in September!!
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1 hour ago, Taff said:

Good start dude, just keep the faith and you shall succeed young grasshopper

Thanks mate! I think you might be right! :)

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I reckon this one will go close! Just coming off of an incredible season myself in Ligue 1 (with a poorer side than this) so it gives me massive confidence you can complete this challenge. :)

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Honhonhon, monsieur Scratch. Ce qui ce passe? Très bien, jeune padawan.

 

Great start to the season. You'll have to overcome his settling-in process, but once that's out of the way, he'll get going for sure. When the going gets tough, je commence à parler en francais.

 

d12.jpg

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It sucks when you've got your eyes on certain players but don't have the funds to sign them. You have literally no time for squad building.. really tough this one but decent start.. KIU!

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On 3/20/2017 at 19:42, Jack.Holt said:

I reckon this one will go close! Just coming off of an incredible season myself in Ligue 1 (with a poorer side than this) so it gives me massive confidence you can complete this challenge. :)

Thanks! I just went and read about your adventures - great stuff! I'm pretty confident that Vardy will get fairly close to 80 - if he stays fit. I've finished September, just no time to post about it yet (or to play much), but he's doing alright...

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