Okay, finally finished my season as R.Madrid. I can say nothing other than it was a fantastic season, and this tactic really helped me achieve the aims I set out to accomplish at the start of the season.
We won the league quite comfortably in the end. I was using a different tactic for the first 10 league games and it left me about 6 or 7 points off barca and i was trailing massively in terms of GD. Using this tactic we caught up with them sometime after Christmas, we were able to hold our position and slowly but surely (due to the consistency of the tactic) open up a substantial lead. Here is how it ended:
Here are the season stats. Unsurprisingly Ronaldo had an awesome season and consistently scored throughout. Also note benzema and jese' places on the top scorer list.
We also beat Barca in the semi-final of the Spanish cup. However, we unfortunately fell to our rivals Athletico Madrid in the final, even though we were all over them. They came back from 2-0 down to win it...Gutted!
After that loss I made it my goal to make sure I won the champions league to add to the league title which was at this point not mathematically won, but it was looking increasingly likely to be ours. Strolled past AC Milan and Benfica in the last 16 and the quarters and booked a place in the semis. It was only here that i noticed the possibility of a potential Spanish cup final re-run which could occur in the CL final if i beat my next opponent in the semis, Chelsea. Spurred on by this possibility my team pulled out all the stops. (Notice the aggregate scoreline too!)
We sailed through and anticipated a final clash against Athletico. We dominated the game and bombarded them with shots throughout. It took a long time, even extra time, but eventually none other than Ronaldo came up with the goods and a Bale special followed shortly afterwards. Not only was this sweet revenge but also a very satisfying double. Here's how it ended.
Below are my team stats. As you can see Benzema, Jese, Morata, Ronaldo, Bale and Varane were on fire. I was a little disappointed at the lack of goals from di maria, but he provided vital assists throughout the season, so I was happy with his actual performances. Khedira, Illaramendi, and Isco all played well and you can see this from their average ratings. Modric was a metronome in midfield and helped control the centre of the park for us- he was 3rd place in the balon d'or. Xabi Alonso, my captain, and one of my favourite players also had a fantastic season.
Here is an image of Carvajal' attributes just to show you the effect and thus the importance of doing individual training. Only a youngster but is slowly developing into a world class right back. (Exciting prospect in real life too). This is just one example of the development of my squad.
JESE! I've never seen a performance like this from a youngster before. As i said, i originally started the game using a different tactic. This tactic only used 1 striker and so i sent Jese on loan and was confident in rotating my 2 strikers, Benzema and Morata. However, once i moved to this 2 striker formation, it was imperative i had more strikers available to rotate. For a while i managed with just 2 strikers and occasionally played Ronaldo (HATE PLAYING RONALDO AS A STRIKER UNLESS NECESSARY) or Isco upfront. Eventually it dawned on me that I could just call Jese back from loan, and even if he wasn't very good, it meant i could use him as and when i needed to give the better players a rest. I recalled this lad and he arrived back to the club on the 1st of january...now take a look at the screenshot (paying particular attention to the amount of goals he scored and how much his stats developed)
20 league goals in 20 league games for the 21 year old who didn't even play the whole season. Not to mention a further 10 goals in cup competitions in an additional 14 appearances. That's just ridiculous. He will certainly be a player for the future of my team in this save. His performances even earned him a cheeky place in the spanish national team for the world cup, displacing a disgruntled David Villa. Jese and Benzema just worked amazingly well together, and I could make the case that Benzema only really got firing (33 goals in total) when Jese arrived. Morata too was solid, and initially i favoured him of all my strikers , but the performances of the other two just began to out shadow him. Still, Morata' goal tally is a testimony to his ability in light of the decreasing number of appearances he had towards the end of the season. Lewandowski is coming in on a free next season and this will give me a chance to send Morata on loan to get a full season' worth of first team football. So, great season, new contract signed, new player on the way, motivated by the smell of silverware, i'm all ready to go for next season. Hopefully I can topple Barca again, get a few more victories over my rivals Athletico, and finally win the spanish cup i missed out on.
BTW I used Chrissy' way and will be using pressure balance next season.
Thanks for everything Chrissy mate