FM18 - The Achievement Challenge

[bcfc1]

If you have read my chairman game thread then you will know that my laptop is currently in the shop being fixed, along with all my saved games. I have downloaded FM onto another laptop and I am going to start a different kind of challenge to see me through until I get my original laptop back.


As I will be getting my laptop back next weekend, I was looking for a short-term challenge where I could achieve a lot in just one week’s worth of play, but also continue the challenge on my original laptop if I so wished. Therefore, I decided to attempt an achievement challenge.


The challenge itself is pretty simple, Steam has 77 achievements that you can complete in FM18 and my target is to complete as many of these as possible. Through my time in my other careers, I have already achieved 44 of the achievements and have 33 left. I have attempted to break them down below into different sections.

Club (9)

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Achievement	Achieved
Invincible – Go a whole season unbeaten
Iron Curtain – Concede the least over a season
Park the tank – Don’t concede for 10 games
Outstanding defence – Don’t concede for 20 games
Immovable object – Don’t concede for 30 games
Best in Europe – Have a player win the European player award
Trophy Hoarder – Win 20 cup competitions
Best in the business – Manager of the month 10 times
Superb Strike – Goal of the season

Long Term (7)

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Achievement	Achieved
Part of the Furniture – 10 seasons at one club
Club Legend – 20 seasons at one club
Value for Money – 30 seasons
Legend – Manager of the year 5 times
Icon – Manager of the year 10 times
Immortality – Manager of the year 20 times
The Greatest – Greatest manager of all time

International (5)

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Achievement	Achieved
International Superstar – Have a player in the World Cup best XI	Completed
Golden Boot – Have a player be top goal scorer at the World Cup
On top of the world – Win World Cup	Completed
Freedom of the Country – International Continental
Confederations Winner – Win Confederations Cup

Others (12)

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Achievement	Achieved
Video director – Upload a video to youtube
Spread the news – Add a status update
Head to Head – Won a match in a network game
Invitational – Invited friend to a network game
Window Shopping – Visited the in game store
Community Leader – Published an item in steam workshop
Manager on the touchline – Use Photofit for manager profile	Completed
Living the dream – Played against AI team in fantasy draft
Beat your mates – Won a fantasy draft competition
Going places – Build a new stadium
Childhood dream – Offered to manage your favourite team
National Hero – Promotion from bottom to top division

My only target is to try and achieve as many of these as possible. Therefore, it is makes more sense to start a new save to achieve them quicker then I will do so. After looking through some of these, I am surprised to see some of the achievements that I have yet to earn. When I was a student I did careers that went on for over 50 seasons so to not have a single one go over 10 years is disappointing to read.

I have highlighted a few in red as I am unsure on the rule of those achievements. If someone can clarify any of those for me then I would be very grateful.
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[bcfc1]

Achievement #1 - Manager on the touchline

My first achievement has been met. It may not be the hardest one to meet but I have never done it before so it is a change for me.

View attachment 37892

Now the technology is clearly not the greatest as I am not a a 50 year old black man with the thickest head of hair but it is an achievement completed at least.

I have decided to try and take on some of the international challenges first. I haven't got much experience of managing a national team so it will be something different and I should be able to get through the time quite quickly as we won't be playing every weekend.

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[MWPlayz]

I wish you good luck onto getting your computer back!

 

[bcfc1]

September

I think winning the World Cup next season will be very tough but I hope to build a squad to challenge in a few years time for the Euros (2020), Confederations (2021) and the next World Cup (2022). It may mean it takes 5 years to win everything with a national team but as I don't have any league games, it shouldn't take too long to do so.

The Squad

View attachment 37788

I have decided to play a 4123 formation and have selected the following squad to be my first with England. There may be a few surprise names with Carrick, Bertrand and Barkley in the squad but I think they give me a balanced squad. Bertrand was 3rd choice LB but Rose is injured. Barkley has great all round stats to play as a B2B midfielder and influence the play a lot so I am just hoping he gets some game time at Chelsea or moves on very quickly. Carrick was the wierdest choice but he is an incredible deep playmaker and will provide an experienced back up for Henderson in that position. I couldn't find many options for that position with the next choice being Loftus-Cheek or Lewis Cook but I have decided to go with Carrick for now until he retires.

World Cup Qualifiers

We haven't technically qualified for the World Cup yet but we should be able to do so soon as we face Slovakia and Scotland in our two games of September.

England vs Slovakia

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Walker, Stones, Smalling, Shaw, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37787

I wasn't too sure on whether to start Rashford or Lingard on the left wing and I definitely made the right decision with Rashford. He scored 4 of the 5 goals and was just incredible on that wing. The only downside was that he came off with a slight knock which will probably rule him out of the Scotland.

Scotland vs England

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Walker, Stones, Smalling, Shaw, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Lingard, Kane

View attachment 37786

I am really disappointed with this one as we not only failed to win against our biggest rivals but also didn't really deserve to win anyway. I don't remember a single good chance until around the 85th minute which was a chance for Leigh Griffiths to win it for them. It is still early days but we need to be able to break down stubborn teams better than this.

Summary

The win against Slovakia almost guaranteed our qualification for the World Cup but we wouldn't be England if we didn't do it the hard way and the draw against Scotland means that we are just one point ahead of Slovakia with 2 games to go.

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[bcfc1]

October

This month will decide if we make the World Cup or not. We are one point ahead of Slovakia with 2 games to go. Those two games are Malta and Lithuania which we would expect to win but nothing is guaranteed.

England vs Malta

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Walker, Stones, Smalling, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37721

A great win against Malta where we dominated the game and ran riot with goals. Of course, Malta are not the hardest of competition but we can only beat who is in front of us and I pleased to see us do it so well.

Lithuania vs England

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Keane, Smalling, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37715

Another great win here that confirms our place in the World Cup. This result also means that we have played all of our qualifying games and not conceded a single goal. I hope this can continue to happen when we start to play some of the bigger nations. We also broke an England record in this game.

View attachment 37710

Injuries to other players meant I decided to call up Ryan Sessegnon and he scored after just 5 minutes of coming on to become the youngest ever goalscorer for England. I am hoping that Sessegnon will develop into a good left winger and provide a wide option for the left to be something different to Rashford.

View attachment 37709






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[bcfc1]

World Cup Group

The World Cup groups have been drawn and to say we are in a group of death would be a big understatement.

View attachment 37648

In this one group you have 7 World Cup winning medals with the only country not to win the World Cup still able to achieve a semi final place in 2002. Forget winning this World Cup, I am worried about going out at the group stages and losing my job before being able to compete in any other competition.

We start the competition with the Italy game before playing South Korea and then finishing with Argentina. If we go into the Argentina game needing a result then we could be in a lot of trouble. I will be hoping that Italy are not ready for the first game and to catch them out. Before the World Cup though we have a few friendlies to play that should let me see who will be involved with the squad.​

 

[bcfc1]

March

After a large gap of time, we haven't played a game since October, I finally have a couple of friendly games to try and get an idea of the squad to pick for the World Cup.

View attachment 37589

The squad has a lot of different faces in it as I look at who can provide something different to the squad. Joe Gomez has done well with Liverpool so he comes in, as does Adam Lallana for the same reason. I also called up Patrick Roberts who is on loan at Celtic. While it isn't the greatest league, he has done incredibly well there and leads the assist charts and is in the top 3 goal scorers in the league as well.

England vs Denmark

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Maguire, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37588

A nice result here in a stop start game due to a lot of substitutions. The goal from Jorgensen also marks the first goal I have conceded as England manager. Thankfully it did not lead to anything.

England vs Ghana

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Butland, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Bertrand, Winks, Dier, Lallana, Sterling, Sessegnon, Kane

View attachment 37587

Another good result against weaker opposition. I'm hoping to build up some confidence in the squad before the tournament and these kind of results will help. Sessegnon scored once again and has almost certainly confirmed his place on the plane for Russia, as long as he makes sure he is fit for it.

Summary

A solid set of results against two teams who are ranked in the top 20 in the world. We looked in control and I hope to have that look when we begin the World Cup. My next set of games are the friendlies just before the World Cup where the squad will have been decided by then. It is everyone's last chance to impress me with there club football to push for a place in the squad.


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[bcfc1]

World Cup Squad

The World Cup is finally upon us and I have finalised my squad for the competition.

View attachment 37492

Goalkeepers

No real surprise here with Pickford and Butland in the squad. Heaton has great attributes on here so he pushes Hart out of the squad and will provide a good back up option. Pickford will be the first choice for this competition.

Defence

Right back is pretty settled with Walker as first choice and Alexander-Arnold as backup. Left back was a slightly harder choice between Shaw, Rose and Bertrand but in the end I dropped Rose. He didn't have a great season for Spurs while Shaw and Bertrand did for their teams. Stones and Maguire will probably be the starting pair at CB but Gomez has had a very good season for Liverpool and could challenge Maguire for his position. Keane will be nothing more than 4th choice I'm afraid.

Midfield

Henderson, Dier and Alli have been the settled starting 3 and there hasn't been much challenge for them. Winks will provide backup to Henderson and Lallana and Lingard will provide different options in CM. I thought about taking Wilshere to have a player more like Dier but in the end I decided to have different types of midfielders rather than just backups.

Forwards

Sterling, Rashford and Kane will be the starting 3 here and again I have tried to go for different options rather than just backups. Roberts and Sessegnon provide 2 left footed wingers to be different to the two right footed players of Sterling and Rashford. The biggest shock was choosing Callum Wilson as back up striker instead of Jamie Vardy. Vardy did not have a great season with Leicester and was also not very impressive when I played him so I decided to take a big risk and bring Wilson instead who had a great season for Bournemouth.

This is the squad that will have the horrible challenge of trying to qualify from a group that have Argentina and Italy in it. South Korea are no dead fish either and will provide a strong challenge in their game. The hope is that we are able to beat them and they are then able to take points from one of the other two.

Before we get to the World Cup though, we have two friendlies against Czech Republic and Slovakia to get us ready.


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[bcfc1]

World Cup Friendlies

So it is the last chance for me to get an idea about my squad and how it is going to line up for the Italy game

England vs Czech Republic

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Gomez, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37434

A solid warm up game for the majority of the first team. Bertrand has really impressed me and it looks as though he will be the starting left back for the World Cup.

England vs Slovakia

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Butland, Alexander-Arnold, Keane, Maguire, Shaw, Winks, Lingard, Lallana, Roberts, Sessegnon, Wilson

View attachment 37433

This is the first game I have not won as manager and it is a disappointing time to do so. I played a lot of the back up players here to make sure they had match fitness and it cost us as we were slow out of the blocks and were poor at the back. There is a definite gap between the first team and the back ups.

Summary

Both games gave me the chance to build the fitness of all the players and they are ready for the challenge of the group stages. I have not managed in a World Cup since about FM15 so it will be interesting to see how I do in the ultimate competition. My first aim is to try and get out of this group and anything after that will be a bonus.


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[bcfc1]

World Cup Group Stage

England vs Italy

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Gomez, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37328

A pretty boring game to start the competition off. I am pretty pleased with this though and now hope to pick up my points against Korea. The big news was that South Korea got a draw from Argentina so we are in a pretty strong position at the moment.

South Korea vs England

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Gomez, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37327

A great result here where we got the win we so desperately needed. We made a very quick start and that was enough to get the win. In the other game, Italy beat Argentina which means that we go into our last game against Argentina knowing that a draw or even a loss by just one goal would be enough to get us through to the group stages.

England vs Argentina

Pickford, Walker, Stones, Gomez, Bertrand, Henderson, Lingard, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Kane

View attachment 37326

View attachment 37325

This game really kicked off in the last 30 minutes. Rashford made it 1-0 in the 66th minute and the game somehow ended with 7 goals. In the end though Argentina won the game but not by enough and we have still qualified from this group. The goal from Alli in the 91st minute was vital in making sure we still go through as we qualified by having a better goal difference of 2.

Summary

View attachment 37324

The groups have gone pretty well as we have qualified in 2nd place. Italy ran away with the group in the end by beating both Argentina and South Korea and we finished joint on points with Argentina but had a better goal difference. Our reward for qualifying in 2nd place is a draw against Germany which will be a very difficult game.


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[bcfc1]

World Cup - Knockout Stages

Second Round

England vs Germany

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Keane, Maguire, Shaw, Henderson, Winks, Alli, Sterling, Lallana, Kane

View attachment 37286

A great win here against Germany with Sessegnon getting a late winner. I thought we were going to throw it away when they got an 87th minute penalty but Sessegnon has been one of the stand out players for me and delivered here.

View attachment 37285

Some incredible results here. Russia beat Spain and Croatia beat Italy.

Quarter Finals

Brazil vs England

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Gomez, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Sessegnon, Kane

View attachment 37284

Another great result here and another late winner. Sessegnon got the nod in this game over Rashford and delivered with yet another goal. There were 4 minutes of added time but in the 96th minute, Maguire scored from a corner to give us the win. With a semi final against Denmark coming up, I am beginning to believe.

View attachment 37283

Russia provide another shock in there own World Cup by beating Croatia and making it to the Semi's. They will find it tough against France though.

Semi Finals

England vs Denmark

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Walker, Stones, Gomez, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Sessegnon, Kane

View attachment 37282

A much tighter game than I hoped it would be. This is our 3rd knockout game and everyone we have won by a goal in stoppage time. We clearly have the fitness needed for the World Cup and my rotation earlier on has helped us. The only negative was that Kane picked up an injury and is now out of the final. Wilson delivered the winning goal in this game and I hope he can do it in the final.

View attachment 37281

It will be a final that many English fans were hoping for in the actual World Cup just gone. France push Russia aside to make it an Anglo-French final.



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[Brane_Orsou]

and then boom, nothing, #CliffHanger

 

[bcfc1]

and then boom, nothing, #CliffHanger

You always have to leave people wanting more. I have finally played the final though and will upload the result in a moment.

 

[bcfc1]

Achievement #2 - On Top of the World

I have earned my 2nd achievement on this journey and it is a big one.

France vs England

Formation 4-1-2-3 Wide

Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Stones, Maguire, Bertrand, Henderson, Dier, Alli, Sterling, Rashford, Wilson

View attachment 37224

We were second best for a lot of this game but when we got to half time and it was still 0-0, even after they had a penalty, then I thought it was going to be our day. I made a slight change to formation at half time and dropped Dier to be next to Henderson in DM and that did the trick. We were no longer so open at the back and caught them out with counter attacks.

Summary

I didn't think we would have got as far as the final, let alone win it, especially considering we played Germany, Brazil and of course France in the final. A lot of the English players are overrated on the game but it is still an amazing achievement to win the World Cup with this squad. The target now is to qualify for the Euro's and repeat our success there.

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[bcfc1]

Achievement #3 - International Superstar

Another achievement has been earnt as we have not one but 2 players in the World Cup best XI.

View attachment 37221

Kane was very good up top but for me Bertrand is the more deserved player in that team. To think he almost didn't make the squad over Rose now seems far-fetched. He has been amazing in that position and has cemented it as his own. I am slightly disappointed that Sessegnon didn't make the team either as I think he was amazing but Lemar did also have a very good competition.

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[Brane_Orsou]

Congrats on 2 birds with one stone mate!