retired_leslaydon1

Since I haven't seen any challenges for the 360 so far. I thought I'd add one of my own.

Challenge: Conquer Europe in 3 seasons with Athletic Bilbao.

As you may or may not know, Bilbao has a unique transfer policy of only allowing you to sign Basque-born players. Even then it's not that bad with players such as Mendieta and Xabi Alonso, Basque-born. But you only get £700k.. Hmmm

I shall post up reports abot how I'm going in this thread. Good luck!

retired_leslaydon1

OK, I'm halfway ino September and here's my early report.

Team
GK - Aranzubia
DR - Iraola
DL - Casas
DC - Prieto
DC - Murillo
MR - Exposito
ML - Ezquerro
MC - Bordas
MC - Yeste
FC - Etxeberria
FC - Llorente

Team-wise, there isn't much to choose from to strengthen the squad (that will come to Bilbao at this time anyway), so I had to sell in order to buy. After missing out on Mendieta on loan, I sold Pablo Orbtiz for £12m to Valencia and got in Alumnia from Arsenal for £2m as cover for my #1 keeper, Santiago Ezquerro fromn Barca on loan and Bolo from Salamanca for £3.1m.

Formation/Tacticshttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...nfent/Team.jpg (This was taken before the sale of Orbitz and after the loan of Ezquerro)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...nt/Tactics.jpg

(Apologies for the poor quality for the pics, they were the best I could get)

Seeing that Llorente was an excellent header of the ball, I used him as the target man and made him the focus of all the balls in, except I didn't tick the 'Target Man' button. Played with a playmaker and counter attacking ticked too. Yeste had more creative freedom in keeping with the playmaker role and Bordas, the other MC was more defensive.

Results
Started off in the Euro Vase. Team was pretty much picked for me, QF was against Ankaraspor of Turkey. a 2-0 aggregate win saw me through to the Semis against Valencia. Valencia proved that buying Orbitz didn't help as I sent them out of Europe 4-1 on aggregate.
Young Boys were my opponents in the final of the Vase and they went out too, 7-0 on aggregate. So I won the EURO Vase and the team was playing well.

First league game was up against newly-promoted Celta, who were whipped 5-2. Deportivo were the next team to go home with their tails between their legs after a 3-1 defeat.

The first round of the EURO Cup beckoned and Elbassani of Albania were sent packing after a 7-0 battering on aggregate. Llorente seemed to be thriving in the target man role and have hit 10 goals by this point.

Next up were 3 big guns on the league. Sevilla, Barca and Real Madrid. Buoyed by the success of Valencia, I decided to not to change the tactics to a more defensive outlook. Sevilla were spanked 3-1 and both Real and Barca were held to draws, 0-0 and 1-1 respectively.

Malaga were then beaten 2-0 and I finally suffered my first defeat at the hands of Villareal, going down 3-1.

I'm looking at perhaps developing a more defensive version of my tactic, for use after half-time, which is when I concede most of my goals.

More to come later!

retired_leslaydon1

I'm sorry if this isn't clear, It's my first attempt at this sort of thing

retired_gmedina283

It is perfectly clear to me! Very interesting too, look forward to hearing more.