Chop
Somewhere
Following on from my previous tutorials (found in my signature) surrounding the most popular sporting franchise of all time, I think it's time to step foot into my favorite game mode, career mode. Since FIFA 06 I've been playing career mode and I finally believe that I have cracked the gem on becoming the best team in the game, whether your starting with Accrington Stanley or Real Madrid, these tips and tricks will help you become the most successful manager in the world, well, in FIFA that is.
PICKING YOUR STARTING TEAM
We all understand the hassle of actually choosing the team you wish to play with for X amount of seasons, some may start with smaller clubs with dreams of taking them to the Champions League final or sometimes you get those people who don't want the hassle of taking years of preparation and therefore start with the best teams in the world. There is a perfect balance which is needed for the 'best' starting team, this is:
- a reasonably strong defence
- several young talents
- a GK above the rating of 76
- a good depth of squad (players to back up your starting XI)
- a striker which can score you goals
You may be thinking "How the hell do I use this information to find myself a team?" well, look no further, below is a list of teams which are brilliant with starting off with due to this perfect balance, they're also great fun to play with too!
*This list excludes the most obvious teams which have high potential I.E Chelsea, Real Madrid etc.*
- Everton
- Tottenham
- Lille
- Lyon
- Monaco
- Marsielle
- Bayern Leverkusen
- Wolfsburg
- AC Milan
- Genoa
- Valencia
- Villarreal
- Athletic Bilbao
- RSC Andelecht
- Fulham
- Schalke
NEED MONEY? SACRIFICE OR WIN TROPHIES
The most annoying part of the game in my opinion, you begin your career mode and have a budget of <£5,000,000, you wonder what you can do with this type of money and whether you are able to buy any decent players. To be truthful, £5,000,000 would give you a half decent >74 rated player and if you're in the first season, the 'transfer listed' players list would be filled with poor excuses of footballers so I'd recommend not going there. So, your only option is to either sacrifice your best player or win trophies, both of which are difficult to complete therefore you should choose wisely about the ambitions of your club.
SELLING YOUR BEST PLAYER
Obviously a hard decision whether or not to sell your star man, but if you need the cold hard cash then sacrifices needed to be made, my best advice to get the most money out of this particular player is to wait til January to sell him, this is because you have time to get his form to excellent and therefore more teams will be interested to splash the cash on him. Also, if teams such as Madrid, Chelsea, United. Barcelona, Bayern etc bid for your star man, try and negotiate a higher price for him, teams with big transfer budgets will most likely offer more money and therefore a bonus for you, remember though, don't negotiate a price to £100,000,000 if they're worth £20,000,000 at best, be smart about your business.
WINNING TROPHIES
Probably the best way of earning money, but you need to remember your ambitions with your clubs level, for example it would be almost impossible to win the Premier League with Crystal Palace in the first season, therefore you should set your sights on winning the FA Cup or League Cup. There are different amounts of cash awarded to your club depending on which trophy you win, below is an example of how much a Premier League club could earn if they won all trophies and league in a respective season:
Premier League Title: £21,000,000
*Champions League: £8,000,000 (£12,000,000 for gaining qualification)
*Europa League: £4,000,000 (£2,000,000 for gaining qualification)
FA Cup: £1,500,000 (£200,000-£600,000 for winning each stage)
League Cup: £500,000 (£50,000 - £300,000 for winning each stage)
*= dependent on league position
This goes to show that winning trophies could give you up to £60,000,000 to spend per year, which is a crazy amount, even if you don't spend your money in one particular transfer window, the amount of money you have will be transferred to the next season and the next season after that.
BUILD FOR THE FUTURE
I always see people make the same mistakes, they'd buy a 30 year old striker for £20,000,000 who is only going to decline in rating until he retires as 33-34 years of age, meaning that £20,000,000 was probably wasted on one good season for the player. What I mean by 'building for the future' is making sure you buy young players with the tag 'exciting prospect' 'One for the future' or 'showing great potential'. These particular tags mean different potentials for your young player, below is what the tag means and what potential level they could grow to:
Showing great potential - 80 to 85
An exciting prospect - 86-90
Has potential to be special - 91+
To achieve these potentials, you must field the young player as much as you can in one season, this gives them the opportunity for experience and growth in different areas of their game. Buying young players is so much more rewarding than buying older players too, it allows you to adapt the player into your starting eleven for years and build around them, giving you a sturdy, more moral boosted team.
Below are some of the highest potential/ highest potential growth players on the game:
CB Hardy Cavero – Original Rating (51) Growth (27)
GK Conor Thompson – Original Rating (45) Growth (27)
ST Tyler Harvey – Original Rating (54) Growth (27)
GK Andrew Dawber – Original Rating (47) Growth (27)
RM Jacob Murphy – Original Rating (53) Growth (27)
CF Nathan Curtis – Original Rating (42) Growth (26)
RB Hector Bellerin Moruno – Original Rating (56) Growth (26)
RW Jhoaho Hinestroza – Original Rating (50) Growth (25)
RW Niccolo Belloni – Original Rating (48) Growth (25)
GK Jesse Gonzalez – – Original Rating (56) Growth (25)
CB Ferid Matri – Original Rating (56) Growth (24)
ST Bruno Petkovic – Original Rating (51) Growth (24)
ST Luca Pontigo – Original Rating (55) Growth (24)
CM Duane Holmes – Original Rating (53) Growth (24)
ST Alberto Cerri – Original Rating (53) Growth (24)
CDM Levin Oztunali – Original Rating (66) Growth (24)
ST Andelko Savic – Original Rating (51) Growth (24)
ST Anthony Martial – Original Rating (67) Growth (24)
ST Siebe Schrijvers – Original Rating (63) Growth (24)
GK Conor Thompson – Original Rating (45) Growth (27)
ST Tyler Harvey – Original Rating (54) Growth (27)
GK Andrew Dawber – Original Rating (47) Growth (27)
RM Jacob Murphy – Original Rating (53) Growth (27)
CF Nathan Curtis – Original Rating (42) Growth (26)
RB Hector Bellerin Moruno – Original Rating (56) Growth (26)
RW Jhoaho Hinestroza – Original Rating (50) Growth (25)
RW Niccolo Belloni – Original Rating (48) Growth (25)
GK Jesse Gonzalez – – Original Rating (56) Growth (25)
CB Ferid Matri – Original Rating (56) Growth (24)
ST Bruno Petkovic – Original Rating (51) Growth (24)
ST Luca Pontigo – Original Rating (55) Growth (24)
CM Duane Holmes – Original Rating (53) Growth (24)
ST Alberto Cerri – Original Rating (53) Growth (24)
CDM Levin Oztunali – Original Rating (66) Growth (24)
ST Andelko Savic – Original Rating (51) Growth (24)
ST Anthony Martial – Original Rating (67) Growth (24)
ST Siebe Schrijvers – Original Rating (63) Growth (24)
Simone Scuffet | Udinese | Serie A | Italy | GK | 18 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 71 | Potential – 87.
Aymeric Laporte | Athletic Bilbao | La Liga | France | CB | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 81 | Potential – 88.
Raphaël Varane | Real Madrid | La Liga | France | CB | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 81 | Potential – 88
Paul Pogba | Juventus | Serie A | France | CM | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 83 | Potential – 89.
Youri Tielemans | Anderlecht | Jupiler Pro League | Belgium | CM | 17 Yrs | Ovr Rataing – 73 | Potential 88.
Maximilian Meyer | FC Schalke | Bundesliga | Germany | CAM | 18 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 75 | Potential – 87.
Lazar Marković | Liverpool | Premier League | Serbia | RM | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 78 | Potential – 87.
Adnan Januzaj | Man United | Premier League | Belgium | LM | 19 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 75 | Potential – 87.
Memphis Depay | PSV | Eredivisie | Holland | LW | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 78 | Potential – 88.
Juan Manuel Iturbe | Roma | Serie A | Argentina | RW | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 77 | Potential – 88.
Stephan El Shaarawy | Milan | Serie A | Italy | LW | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 80 | Potential – 87.
Domenico Berardi | Sassuolo | Serie A | Italy | RW | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 74 | Potential – 87
Aymeric Laporte | Athletic Bilbao | La Liga | France | CB | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 81 | Potential – 88.
Raphaël Varane | Real Madrid | La Liga | France | CB | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 81 | Potential – 88
Paul Pogba | Juventus | Serie A | France | CM | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 83 | Potential – 89.
Youri Tielemans | Anderlecht | Jupiler Pro League | Belgium | CM | 17 Yrs | Ovr Rataing – 73 | Potential 88.
Maximilian Meyer | FC Schalke | Bundesliga | Germany | CAM | 18 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 75 | Potential – 87.
Lazar Marković | Liverpool | Premier League | Serbia | RM | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 78 | Potential – 87.
Adnan Januzaj | Man United | Premier League | Belgium | LM | 19 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 75 | Potential – 87.
Memphis Depay | PSV | Eredivisie | Holland | LW | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 78 | Potential – 88.
Juan Manuel Iturbe | Roma | Serie A | Argentina | RW | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 77 | Potential – 88.
Stephan El Shaarawy | Milan | Serie A | Italy | LW | 21 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 80 | Potential – 87.
Domenico Berardi | Sassuolo | Serie A | Italy | RW | 20 Yrs | Ovr Rating – 74 | Potential – 87
PRE CONTRACT PLAYERS
INFORM PLAYERS WILL WIN YOU GAMES
I'm sometimes a sucker for simulating games if I have full faith in my team to win the game, therefore I know how important inform players are to winning these types of games. To know whether who in your starting eleven is inform, there are two ways, the first is go to 'squad report' and on the players report it will tell you at the top of the page what form your player could be, for example they could be 'excellent', 'good', 'content', 'poor'. The other way is to click on 'play game' then before you're about to enter the game, an image of your starting eleven should appear on the left hand side, you should notice that next to the players name the should be arrows pointing in different directions, if the arrow is pointing upwards then the player is inform, if it's facing diagonally then they're playing good football, if it's pointing downwards then they're off form and you should think about whether or not to play them.
YOUTH PLAYERS
One of my favorite aspects of career mode, not only is it fun to see what your scouts can find across the world, you have the ability to bring a young talent through your system and play them in your squad. There are a range of potentials in which your youth players could reach, from 60 overalls all the way to 94, the best way to find youth players with high potentials is picking the right scouts. Once you've clicked on the 'hire scout' tab, you have the opportunity to bring in a scout of your choice, the best scouts which usually have 5 stars in both experience and judgement, however they will set you back around £6-7,000,000 but they are definitely worth it if you have the money. You want to stay away from scouts with only 1-2 stars against their name, they're a waste of money and also will never bring back any future talent.
SQUAD DEPTH
This is not a necessary aspect but still an important way to prevent injured and lethargic first team players which could be saved for big games. Squad depth means the amount of players for each position on the pitch, you would have your crucial/important 1st team players followed by your squad rotation players who're there to A. make up the numbers, B. to use if any of your starting eleven are tired and C. to gain important game time experience to help boost their stats. I would highly recommend having at least 2 players in each position of the pitch, trust me, you'll thank me when you're in the Champions League final and the majority of your players have an orange fitness bar.
THINK LIKE A MANAGER
I enjoy the tactical approach to the game, as some football enthusiasts may know, a team must be formed of the perfect balance of strength, agility, speed and creativity, when buying players you must try and buy players to suit your style of play, not just because they have a good overall. When creating my starting eleven, I would find players with the below attributes to help build the core of my team:
- Speedy wingers/full backs
- Creative midfielders
- Strong/creative defensive midfielders
- Strong defenders
- Tall attackers (depending on whether I play 4-3-3 or not)
Create a team around the way you want to play, not just buy any type of player to dump into your starting eleven, as mentioned I would sometimes play an attacking 4-3-3 formation meaning I would specifically choose fast wingers and a tall target striker whom would have good heading ability.
GLITCHES
- Youth Academy broken by duplicate player - Cannot access Youth Academy because a broken player is in both the YA and the first team. Cannot be resolved by releasing player, have to wait for broken player to leave YA.
- Player signed on pre-contract going to another club - Player is signed on a pre-contract, but goes to another club at the end of his contract, with the other club still paying his wages.
- Players get a new contract automatically at the start of a new season - A player will automatically sign a new contract without any negotiations at the start of a new season.
- Cannot loan out players - a player is not and cannot be loaned out, but their status appears as "Loaned out - full season"
- Teamsheet deleted, cannot switch out injured players
- Future fee in loan deal still available when even when loan is not accepted
- Changing squad from team sheets has no effect when simming matches
- Financial Takeover item from catalogue does not work
- Quick search results in incorrect players - Typing in Ronaldo, for example, returns a 35 year old CM. Advancing to this player's profile results in a completely different player.
- Phantom fixtures recorded but never played
- Editing player causes a loss to previously edited features
- Youth players become very old (56 or 57) when promoted, then retire
- Game freezes when accessing a non-default teamsheet on Xbox 360
- Season targets are the same regardless of when you take over as manager
- Board having unreasonable expectations, or being unhappy when expectations are met/exceeded
- Cannot play international matches in player career mode
- Crash when attempting to start new or load career
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