The aim for Season 38 was always to avoid relegation, but for the majority of the campaign it looked like the attempt would end in failure. I often start strongly on a new FIFA, but the opposite was true this time, as like some others I struggled with the way the defending played out. The Division 2 season started OK with a win and a defeat against deareststorm but the 3 points in that opening fixture would be the only ones we picked up for quite a while. Further defeats followed, not unexpectedly if I'm honest, again ItsOnlyJEFF9108 and Sofarukus but the lack of goals scored was a bit worrying. I thought things were improving in the Matchday 4, as I took the lead in both games against Riverman, only for my dodgy defence to let me down and I lost both games despite having an upgrade in goal in Arias.
Things were going better in the first stage of the Eliminator however, at least after an initial 9-3 thrashing by Dx I Jaminator anyway. I won the other 3 games in the group, against Hilly89, Harryn9000, and SoggyCabbages which saw me comfortably though to the next round.
Back in the league, although I was scoring goals now, I was still conceding way too many, and after 6-3 and 5-3 defeats to MarcTheSharc I was floundering in the relegation zone with just 3 points from 10 games. A change up was needed, so I took a chance on the unwanted Cavani from the free agents list, a snip at 3m scudo, and he scored 2 goals on his debut helping me to a win and a draw against x Plunkett. There was still a big gap to close but could the Great Escape be on? Another 4 points. My squad theme of only having South American players had to be sacrificed in the interests of avoiding relegation, so I beefed up my defence with Demiral and Robinson, then went and took 4 points from bottom of the league Diode X.
In he next round of the Eliminator, I repeated my performance from last season, going out in the second stage, losing to Burga boii and S8TY with my only victory coming against SoggyCabbages for a second time, in what was a tough group. My usual swift exit in the League Cup was this time to ShaunC92 to the tune of a 5-1 trouncing.
Now concentrating on the league, I didn't manage to take any points from geordiecrawf so I decided a change of formation was needed, and went from a 41212 to 4231 which would help me to defend and counter attack. Mykolenko and Salisu strengthened the defence further, and Bare was bought to be the second CDM alongside Robertone. Romarinho dropped back to CAM, and the new formation worked wondered as my team went out and beat Joe 5-1, taking 3 points from the matchday where I wasn't expecting to get that much. I had to sacrifice one of my best players Neres, in a player plus cash deal to get Richarlison, but it was well worth it as the Brazilian bagged 4 goals on his debut, helping me take the full 6 points against S8TY, who was having a terrible second half of the season. I finally got out of the bottom 3 after taking 4 points from Hilly89, Now I just had to make sure I didn't slip up.
As other results went my way, a great 5-4 win against paullowes80 with a late winner was enough to guarantee safety with the final fixture still to be played. The season ended with possibly my best performances, a 4-4 draw followed by an 8-3 victory over Jobi Juan, when I had to come from 2-0 in both games. Considering the disastrous start to the season, I was delighted at finishing 10th in the table a good 12 points clear of the bottom three.
Next season will no doubt have the same aim, to avoid relegation, and i suspect it will be even tougher with all the slag players coming into the league on transfer deadline day, as I tend to play better when we are using the lower rated players.