|
Welcome Back
OVR: 35
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 17,484
|
Re: How's your FIFA career mode going?
I'm in Year 3 as Bordeaux from Ligue 1. I've been meaning to post in here but I have been playing a lot of CM and Clubs lately. Anyway, just a brief update:
Year 1
Objective - Finish Mid Table
League Position - 4th - Qualified for Europa League
Coupe National - Winner
Coupe de la Ligue - Knocked out in the Round of 16
OVERALL RECORD - 27-9-9
71 G For
42 G Against
Before the season, Bordeaux splashed some cash in real life. They brought in GK Benoit Costil from Rennes on a free. ST Nicolas dePreville from Lille, RW Jonathan Cafu from Ludogorets, Otavio from the Brasileiro, RB Sabaly from PSG, and a few more starters to go along with a good young core of Wingers Malcolm & Kamano and midfielders Valentin Vada & Lukas Lerager. Unfortunately I started off terrible as I couldn't set on a formation or a starting 11. As a result I couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. I had all this speed outside and couldn't unlock it. Finally I settled on a 4-2-3-1 with De Preville leading the line, Matthias Perierra right behind him with Malcolm and Kamano out-wide. In the midfield we rotated Vada, Lerager, and Sankhare. Once we did this we turned the corner and turned a lot of early season dropped points into all 3. Defensively we got really compact dropping back into a 4-5-1 with not too much high pressure applied. We mainly tried to keep everything in front of us and we were able to squeak out a lot of 1-0 games on our way to 4th. We had an outside shot at 3rd but we lost to PSG on the league matchday 36 that killed all of our scenarios.
In the Coupe National we were very good beating Monaco and Lyon along the way and finishing it off with a victory over Marseille in the final. In the Coupe de Ligue we were knocked out early. We were caught up in the middle of two important league matches and some serious injuries (Lerager tore his ACL and was out for the year and Malcolm went down with a knee injury) hit us hard. We rotated and paid the price losing to an average Toulouse side. In the Winter window we splashed all of our cash on Issa Diop, a CB from Toulousse. He walked into the first-team 11 and formed a nice partnership with Jovanavich. Diop is a stud. Tall, strong, good with his feet, and a good reader of the game at an early age. It won't be long until a big club poaches him. We lost Sankhare as a German club activated his release clause. To be honest, I didn't even know he had one. We used that money on Diop and to re-sign some guys whose contracts were expiring in the Summer.
All-in-all, a great year. I'd have to say that our Player of the Year was our Keeper Costil. He kept us in a lot of matches when we couldn't put together any semblance of an attack going forward.
Year 2
This was a big year for us. Domestically we won the ligue behind a deadly trio of Malcolm, De Preville, and Kamano. They each scored 10+ goals with DePreville leading the league with 28 in the League. He was just on fire and a beneficiary of some good service behind with Kamano, Malcolm, Pereirra, and Boschilla (a player we bought from Monaco to compete/rotate with Pereira at CAM). Maybe the best part of the domestic campaign was clinching the league title in the Parc de Princes with a dominating 3-1 win. We benefited domestically from a couple of things:
In Europe we flamed out the Europa League group stage. In 6 matches we scored 5 goals! Out of Europe we prioritized the league.
Depth. In the summer we signed Maxime Lopez from Marseille on a free. He immediately added a new to a midfield that saw Lerager sold. Between Lopez, Vada, and CDM Otavio we had a dynamic midfield. Otavio played the CDM role but could pick a pass when needed. Vada scored 10 goals in all competitions including 8 in the league and Lopez help us on both sides with his high work rates. With Diop, Jovanovich, and the newly acquired Stephone Denswil, we had some good depth. We also picked a project from Barca by the name of Doucoure. Physically he's solid but he gets dragged out of position a lot. We also picked a new LB as our starting LB Poundje was sold. Ferland Mendy from Lyon was bought and immediately provided some pace down the left flank.
My starting XI ended up being:
CF - de Preville
CAM - Perereira/Boschilla
LM/RM - Kamano - Malcolm
CM - Vada - Lopez/Otavio
LB - Mendy
CB - Diop - Jovanovich
RB - Salaby
GK - Costil
Pretty much all of these guys are around 79-84 overall with Malcolm being the standout at 84. To keep the wage bill low we filled the backup slots with youth players with the standout being a Brazilian keeper named Santos who we are grooming into our #1. He's ~ a 75 OVR at 18 and is our Cup keeper. We also picked up Jean-Kevin Augustin from Lepzig as our backup ST. In the start of the season he could not find the net at all. I think he went like 15 appearances without a goal but towards the end he showed his potential and should compete next year for the starting ST.
In the Cups we flamed out of the Coupe de Ligue early with more fixture congestion making us field a weaker side. We did repeat as title holders in the Coupe National beating Lille in the Final. Overall, a great year with 2 trophies, some promising youth prospects and our core locked up contract-wise for the next 3 years. After qualifying for the CL next year we're going to look to upgrade our CAM, add another midfielder for depth, and add a 3rd winger to the equation for quality depth there.
Year 3 (Current Year)
Started off the year with some big decisions, some out of necessity as Juve activated Malcolm's 70mil release clause. This left us devoid of our best player but also made us flush with cash adding to a budget that had about 30 mil in it already. Our first order of business was activating Fekir's release clause of 55mil and getting him to agree to 110k a week. With him on board we offloaded CAM Boschilla to West Ham for 22 mil and sold last year's top goal scorer De Preville to Leicester for 21. I was a little hesitant to sell him because he was a great fit. He was like Vardy in the sense that he was a tireless runner and aggressive but at 29 he was getting ready to decline. With Fekir, he can fill in at CF and start at CAM. Out wide we had been tracking Nice's Saint-Maximin for a while and we were able to get him for 33 mil. So that was 2 glaring gaps filled and with about 15mil left we secured the services of Nitcham from Celtic. Entering his prime, French, and high workrates makes him a good 4th midfielder. Our back 4 remained the same with a youth defender names Le Blanq emerging as our 4th choice there.
Domestically we ran the league and clinched the title with 7 matches to go, again at the Parc de Princes with a 2-1 win. Fekir immediately justified his price tag leading the league in assists (17) to go along with 17 league goals. Augustin really improved and so far leads the league with 23 league goals. Outwide Maximin, who missed 8 weeks, and Kamano both chipped in double-digit league goals and assists. Lopez, Otavio, Nitcham, and Vada all rotated in midfield and provided a little bit of everything. Vada has the best eye for goal. Nitcham is getting used to the bump up in quality while Lopez and Otavio provide more defensive help. Diop has transformed into one of the best defenders in the league and finally got capped by France. Costil is starting to decline but still played well with Santos gaining in confidence every match. We also featured youth players in nearly every match. Since we couldn't loan too many of them out they filled in and contributed. We have a LB (Toussart), a RB/CB (Diaz), LW (Guerin), RW (Faure), and a CAM (Brisset) who should develop into quality starters in a few years.
In Europe we were drawn into the group of death. Barca, Dortmund, and Celtic rounded out the group. Luckily we took 4 points from Barca, 3 from Dortmund and beat Celtic twice to top the group. In the knockout stage we drew Olmpiakos who we put away in the first leg 4-0. In the quarters we beat up on Spurs. After beating them 1-0 at home we went to Wembley and ripped them open 4-1. Now in the semis we drew Man United and have them in a few weeks.
In the Cups we actually won the Coupe de la Ligue beating Monaco 1-0 in the Final. They've been our biggest rival to-date and we played them 3x in the course of 10 days between the league and 2 Cup competitions. In the Coupe National we advanced to the Finals for the 3rd straight year where we'll face St. Entienne.
In the winter window we did pick up a RB/RM Federic Guilbert from Caen. He left IRL the year before so its been a welcome homecoming. He helped to fill in for Maximin when he was out and scored in his first two appearances. We also agreed on Rabiot from PSG who will be joining next year on a free. That will make 5 CMs so if we get the right offer for one of the current guys we might entertain selling or possibly switching to a 3 man midfield in a 3-5-1-1. Lastly, we agreed to sell Costil to Arsenal for 15 mil as he was starting to decline, especially his value which dipped ~25%.
All-in-all we're in position for a quadruple, 5 titles if you consider the French version of the Community Shield which we won over Monaco. Obviously the CL will be the toughest but we're healthy, on good form, and with the league wrapped up we can rest guys.
|
01-29-2018, 08:36 PM
