Beam me up, Scotty - Rangers & Scotland CM Story

@JustinCase0110

Regarding your penalty shootout experience, have a look at this:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Career-Mode/Career-Mode-Carabao-Cup-Error/m-p/13172878#M932

It seems you're not the only one.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
The Livingston game - it's always quite satisfying when all the goals are by different players...

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Yes I agree. It does make certain requirements to the format in these writeups though. It can be difficult to find room for so many scorers 😉

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Celtic seem relentless. Lots of wins for Rangers but still 5 points adrift. Wow.

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Yes, there's literally no room to slip. And as long as they keep winning against 'the other 10', the head to head games just keep getting more and more important. Speaking of which, the next derby will be match 17 at Ibrox.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Edged just a bit closer with that old firm win.
As you said, those are going to be crucial, but you're also going to have to win against the other 10 almost all the time, from the look of it.

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Yes I am. But luckily I seem to be able to keep a clean sheet in most games, making a pretty consistent run of wins recently. But if Celtic continues too, we could see a point lost vs St. Mirren or so, end up deciding the title. It certainly keeps the season interesting for me, even though I usually lose interest, when games become too easy with repeated 3-0 wins, for instance.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
That's the problem with Scottish football, and playing as one of the big two. It becomes too easy.
It's the same in most of the other leagues, I think.

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That's true. But at least it's rather realistic. If I'd started with St. Mirren and found myself in the same situation, I would feel it was a bit odd. Rangers and Celtic NEED to be too good for Scotland, if they want to be good enough to compete for glory in Europe.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
@JustinCase0110That's the problem with Scottish football, and playing as one of the big two. It becomes too easy.
It's the same in most of the other leagues, I think.

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I think two is still better than one: there are countries where there is only one real top team, which only on occasion can be rivaled and even if, that's more of an incident than anything structural: Bayern in Germany, PSG in France, Salzburg in Austria, Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, now that Basel has collapsed it's only Young Boys in Switzerland. And what's extra depressing for the latter teams is that they're miles ahead of their national rivals, yet miles away from any realistic chance to get near a European trophy: it's a sort of no man's land, if you will...

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@Danimal5981 wrote:

I think two is still better than one: there are countries where there is only one real top team, which only on occasion can be rivaled and even if, that's more of an incident than anything structural: Bayern in Germany, PSG in France, Salzburg in Austria, Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, now that Basel has collapsed it's only Young Boys in Switzerland. And what's extra depressing for the latter teams is that they're miles ahead of their national rivals, yet miles away from any realistic chance to get near a European trophy: it's a sort of no man's land, if you will...

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This is true. I suppose that was also why I was drawn to Italy for my first save here in FC24. Juventus used to have the same patent on the Scudetto, but at the moment it's kind of open for business. So for someone to come in and do a Napoli, I suppose that's not very unrealistic anymore.

For the same reason, I had actually planned a save in the Eredivisie, taking charge of Feyenoord, much similar to my current Rangers save. But then I saw that both Ibrox and Celtic Park had been added to the game, and I went with Scotland in stead. I'm also not sure how your response would have been, if I'd played with Feyenoord 😉

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@JustinCase0110 wrote:

I'm also not sure how your response would have been, if I'd played with Feyenoord 😉

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Take a guess...

Lewis Cook is a great signing. A free transfer and he is a realistic move for Rangers, I can see him fitting in with the current team. The league is shaping up as expected, beating Celtic might be needed to win the league.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
@JustinCase0110The clean sheets continue. There is such a gulf between the Old Firm and the rest. Doesn't look like much of a challenge for much longer.
Interesting transfers, especially that Lewis Cook was a free transfer.

Good price for Cifuentes.

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I agree with the "challenge" part, except that it's actually quite challenging to keep such a high win percentage, not being allowed to have the occational slip. But yeah, domestic games seem rather unimportant otherwise, and there is a risk for it becoming a drag at some point.

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@MarioJack2018 wrote:

Lewis Cook is a great signing. A free transfer and he is a realistic move for Rangers, I can see him fitting in with the current team. The league is shaping up as expected, beating Celtic might be needed to win the league.

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Thanks mate. Yeah I saw him as a good and realistic option, so I'm glad to see others with the same opinion. Rangers have a lot of these British players, who used to have high potentials, but perhaps haven't quite made it; James Tavernier, Todd Cantwell, Rabbi Matondo. Jack Butland for that matter. And perhaps Tom Lawrence as well? I think Lewis Cook fitted quite well into that narrative...

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
So, Celtic have slipped up slightly. Now it's the battle of goal difference... Who did they drop points to?

Lens is going to be a really tough couple of matches, I think.

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Well, yes, one draw is considered slipping these days... Celtic got their draw at the hands of Kilmarnock.

Lens was tough, yes, have just played the games, and I'm working on the writeup just now.

Both games were very tight, until a red card changed everything. Update coming up shortly.