First days of GW15

So a new GW ushers in Wild Geese FC 2.0. I had a shortlist of players I wanted, but found most of them not available - which I think is a sign that the game does a great job of spreading out the talent at the start of the game. If the first manager could just go in and sign their favourite 16 players then there problems for everyone else.



I made a shortlist of young players who can improve drastically. In my mind I had a team of young starlets; Pichu at the back, Alberto Bueno up front, Buonanette pulling the strings. I looked for Eden Hazard, Kermit Erasmus and the other known 5 star futures. I ended up with 5 from my list plus a few of randoms:



1. Lucas Trecarichi - tricky Argentinian left winger
2. Oguz Sabankay - purely because I mentioned him in the blog last week
3. Pedro Mosquera - a Real Madrid youngster - good technique, dribbling and flair
4. Tacio - former Brazil u17 player - is averaging 80-90 attempted passes a game at the moment
5. Enrico Alfonso - Italian U21 keeper
6. Leo Schwechlen - young Monaco DC
7. Dimitriu Copil - the new Hagi?
8. Damien Le Tallec - French youth international
9. Sabrin Sburlea - Romanian U21

So the team is pretty weak, but my wages are only £30k a day - although I did meet a manager with wages of £20k a day - which makes me sound expensive. I've taken the finance package for starting skills - 10% off transfer fees makes a significant difference at the start of the game.

I made £70k profit on the first day and I didn't sign any trialists -preferring to save my money for purchases. One trick to use on players with trialists is to bid on the trialist just before the 24 hour trial is up. Rather than kick off a 24 hour wage auction - the auction ends when the trial ends. I bid for Asamoah, the Udinese Ghanian striker with 3 minutes to go on his trial. Needless to say nobody else bid and I got him for the minimum £9k a day. So now I only make £60k a day profit. But I do have a striker with 18+ for pace and acceleration, and 16 for dribbling, finishing, heading and off the ball - all vital forward stats.

I am currently swapping between 451 and 433. I started off with my trusty almost all out attack 433 (3 MCs and 3 STs) and got beaten in 8 out of my first 10 games. So I switched to 451 with neutral mentality and now I am on a 5 game unbeaten run, with my midfield dominating possession in most matches. Tacio is getting hold of the ball all the time. With Asamoah I now have the pace up front to stretch and overload a 2 DC formation so I will slowly reintroduce my narrow 433. One more target to sign tomorrow and then I will think about more mundane tasks like getting a reserve keeper and reinforcing the 5 defenders I have in the squad. Current rank is 294 with 1.5 stars.

There's only one Toni Kroos

Comparing notes with a friend last night we came across this strange fact about Toni Kroos, the young Bayern player. Kroos is highly sought after in FML because he is a 5 star prospect with a potential ability of 195+, one of the highest in the game.

Gw15 Toni Kroos has an acquisition fee of £325k and GW14 Toni Kroos has an acquisition fee of £1,000,000. (GW15 is top on the image, GW14 is bottom)

Why is one worth £325,000 and one worth £1,000,000 when their stats are so consistent? The answer surely lies in one has a much higher potential ability than the other - and proof that the same players on different servers are different due to some random element - potentially more pronounced than the differences between FMxx games.

PPM Guide part 2

The last PPM article featured an introduction to PPMs and a shortlist of a few traditional back to goal target men (you can find it here).

Today I am going to look for the kind of player you want in an attacking formation, the kind of player England could do with - an MC who has the "likes to run with the ball through the middle". Being a good dribbler (I used 14+ as a filter for this analysis) and prefering to do it through the middle of the pitch commits defenders. As soon as you begin to commit defenders you midfielders will find it very easy to complete key passes. Key passes create goal chances.

The best players in the world at doing this are Diego, Matais Ferndandez, Daniel Carvalho, Lulinha, Anderson and Sergio Aguero. But you knew that, right? If you are looking for a cheaper option, I'd recommend the following (in no particular order):

(filter= dribbling >13, PPM="run with ball through centre" and position=MC)

1. Willian - ok not much of a hidden gem, but the Brazil U20 and Shaktar player has a great future ahead of him. High technique, creative, quick and an excellent dribbler - my kind of MC.

2. Oguz Sabankay - when will Galatasaray give him his chance? Turkey U20 player who has great technical skills - similar to Willian.

3. Anton Putsilo (really spelt Putsila) - another young player - this time Belarussian - plenty of room for improvement - with good base stats

4. Igor Burzanovic (pictured right), Red Star and Montenegro star. Also likes to try killer balls and knocks balls past opponents. A real handful.

5. Elton - plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. Probably the worst character of any player you are likely to see, but highly technical and very quick.

If you don't like your MCs playing dribbling all the time you could go for the quarterback (surely Beckham's future position for England?) role. Toulalan, Arsenal's Denilson and a young Brazilian called Ananias from Bahia all have the wicked combination of PMMs - attempts killer balls often and attempts long range passes. Don't bother instructing these guys to keep it short and simple. You just might find they prefer make 'hollywood' passes over their striker's shoulder all the time. It should result in high key passes - but their completion rates, and your attempts to play a control-possession may go out the window.