652: Team of the Year Hype; What to Expect

[00:00:00] Hello Footies and welcome along to this Tuesday, we'll call it Tuesday twosome instead of a Tuesday club. My name is Nathan, I shall be here for the next 45 minutes or an hour potentially, we've got quite a lot to get through. As we all know this is now the lead in for Team of the Year. So I'm really happy to say I'm joined as always by the man of the moment, Shaq. Shaq, how are you doing?

[00:00:23] I'm doing fabulous. Thank you very much, Nathan. Thank you for the introduction, very kind and gracious introduction. Really looking forward to kicking the ball around with you today. Perfect. How's your week in foot been? We'll start with that. How's it been? Have you been busy? Have you done everything? Have you done nothing? Like what's been going on? For the first time in history, it feels like I've completed every single objective there is to complete in EAFC. And I've had, I've got, I just had a look earlier. I think I've got 35 objectives yet to redeem.

[00:00:52] So it's just a weird feeling to have that many objectives yet to redeem. And I'm just going to redeem them all on the Friday after 6pm content time just to try and get everything together. But my week in foot, honestly, I've had a horrible weekend playing champs. I didn't really enjoy it. I stopped at six wins. I just couldn't. Honestly, the way I was playing the opponents I was facing, I probably would have ended up at maybe seven wins at the most. And I thought, you know, why am I putting myself through this? I just stopped at six.

[00:01:22] Rivals is okay. I've made the mistake of promoting myself, which is, I think my problem is I'm in a group chat with you and Dan. And the way you guys talk about the higher divisions, it almost seems like it's a breeze for you guys. And I think, oh, I'm okay. I'm fairly all right. I'll be okay. Nah, it's horrible. Div 3 onwards is horrible. It's just like, it's just the sweats after sweats. So that's been, that's been my week in EAFC. How about yours?

[00:01:51] Yeah, I didn't do champs as always. I kind of forgot yesterday because we had the flash rush event, which I thought I'd do well for some extra sword packs. So I focused on that. Much like yourself, I've not quite got 35 because I've been redeeming as we go along. But I think I've got seven of like the higher rated player picks in my season ladder, which I'll be probably opening on Friday as well. I'm not going to open everything on Friday, but we'll get into that.

[00:02:18] I managed to get into Div 2 very early in the sort of rivals run and somehow I've managed to stay sort of mid table. I had a lull, but then I took out my evoed Rashford and actually brought on a true striker, which I was debating. And what a difference just having somebody that's an actual striker, how to change it to a poacher. But like it's mental how, you know, I love Rashford, even though he's probably leaving United in this transfer window.

[00:02:42] So, but I kind of wanted him to do really well, but I have to say having an actual striker in there, like I think it's Gerard Miller, the icon I got from that icon pack. And actually I'm happy with him. So it's been fun. It's fun midway through Div 2. Got nothing left to do just now. So I'm kind of going back to the moments sort of objectives because I hadn't done the world class and legendary ones. So I'm doing that just now just to get, I think it's a jumbo rare player at the end of it.

[00:03:10] So I'm feeling my way through that, shall we say. But the first thing, I think Shaq, you kind of highlighted what you wanted to speak about first of all. And it's this sort of this pre-Team of the Year promo. It's probably the last one before Team of the Year. We're in Team 2 of Numero Foot. What's your current sort of feeling about Numero Foot? Do you think it's been better than we thought? Do you think it's kind of just a stopgap filler? Like, how do you see it?

[00:03:36] I think Numero Foot is probably a little bit of an underrated promo, I think, in a way, because I think everyone's really overlooking some of these cards and expecting them to be pretty bad as opposed to them actually looking at these cards. Some of these cards are actually really good. I think I changed my stance a little bit after last week because I'm starting to look at these cards. I'm used to a couple of cards that I've actually packed. And they are actually good fun cards, even though they're one play style plus.

[00:04:00] But they're still really good cards. And I think some of the cards that are being released that were released yesterday or the day before, they would probably be slightly undervalued because they're not going to be supplied as much. So certainly if people are interested in some of the cards that are in packs right now, as of today, that leave packs at 6 p.m. today, whenever you're listening. So that's 6 p.m. on the Tuesday. Some of the cards are really worth, I think, they're worth trying and keeping in your club because I see them going up.

[00:04:29] Yeah, I mean, I've just done a quick draft game and I had Kyle Walker right back from the number of foot. And oh my word, what a card. Like he is, I think he's one and a half mil just now, but he is wild, like very good. And although, like you say, one play style plus, I don't really see team of the year's drop weight being enough to make these cards, you know, unusable anytime soon. In all honesty, like we know once team of the year's out, the power curve goes up a little bit, but some of these cards, you're right.

[00:04:57] But the funny thing that I've seen, you know, we usually go through most promos going, we need a goalie, we need a goalie. But when you look at this promo, we've got, we've got Alison, you've got Endler, there's Trapp and there's Pickford. I don't think I can remember a promo or even, you know, I know it's two teams. I don't remember having four different goalkeepers. And it's also quite weird to have two from the Premier League, like Pickford and Alison at the same time.

[00:05:21] Oh, I think, unfortunately, the cynic in me, and probably the realist in me as well, knows exactly why we have five goalkeepers. And that's simply because if you play a couple of matches after 6pm on this Friday, you're entitled to, I think, five into 89 plus Winter Wildcard or Numerah Footpack. And I think majority of us, majority of us are going to back at least three of those five goalkeepers. So that's probably what the plan is.

[00:05:50] And I think we all, we all, I thought it was too good to be true. And well, five goalkeepers coming through makes you realize that all those packs are going to be filled with that. But having said that, though, I think the Alison, the addition of Alison and Pickford is probably very handy to have. I think, I can't remember which keeper. There's actually a keeper that's got a long ball pass in this Numerah Foot as well. That's an interesting addition as well. I think we have Edison who's got the long ball plus. Pickford is. Oh, Pickford's got the long ball plus. Yeah, he's.

[00:06:21] Have you used Edison at all with the long ball pass? No, I, I packed that. I think it was Rush potentially, the Thibaut Courtois. So he's been in basically since I've got him. Okay. Yeah. Same. I'm using Courtois as well. I haven't changed, but I'm really curious to see how the long ball pass from a goalkeeper works. I don't think I've used Edison extensively, but it's an interesting playstyle for a goalkeeper. Apart from that, I think, yeah, the overall promo seems to be pretty okay so far. Yeah. It's the usual, though.

[00:06:51] The top card is still silly, silly prices. And the ones that you get, I think we had a guaranteed one for, I can't remember what objective SBC it was. And, you know, naturally I got Luca Bacchio, who's about 11k. He's like, disco. So it's the usual. So, I mean, the drop weights we've seen are quite low. Not that people are opening tons of packs, but does this kind of thing make you think that actually the drop weight from Team of the Year is now going to sort of carry on in this course? Or do you think we'll get a pleasant surprise?

[00:07:21] Look, I would be extremely shocked, not even surprised. I'd be shocked if Team of the Year pack weight is anything better than what it always is. I think, I mean, it really depends on the first couple of days. I think we might see a bit more drop weight initially. But I think as everyone goes into packs, I don't think you're going to see the same drop weights. I think, let's just put it this way.

[00:07:42] Out of all the hosts that we have in Foot and Review, I have a feeling that we might walk away with maybe 50% at best that might end up with a Team of the Year. And we're all going to be heavy grinders and we'll still end up with only 50% of us ending up with at least one Team of the Year. Yeah, I mean, that's one thing for sure. We've got lots of gameplay grinders and we've also got the other hands. You've got the menu grinders like yourself and Dan. So we do have quite a lot of kind of sample size to try and play with.

[00:08:11] And obviously in our wonderful Discord, we've got the dedicated Pack Pools channel. So, you know, I'd love nothing more than on Monday to log in and see everyone's got a top attacker. And then, you know, obviously the full-on week when everything's in packs, it'd be nice to see that popping off. But I'm not sure because when you compare it with the previous years, right through the cycle, the Pack Pools channel, you know, it sounds daft. But we're all celebrating an 86 promo because promos are so rare, really. But no, it sets us up nicely.

[00:08:38] Like you say, it's a clever shout to think about some of these sort of better players because, like we said, Team of the Year drop weight is not going to be high. Okay, people will be going fully liquid just now to see what they can pick up in Team of the Year and to try and get packs. But, you know, once that initial kind of hit happens, you'll be thinking, right, how am I realistically going to improve my team without blowing, either blowing all my coins or having to do too much?

[00:09:01] So some of these, you know, I'm not saying get the ones that are stupid prices, but there's some very sort of low top tier cards that are still going to be very meta and very, very good. The next thing that we've kind of, you know, we've almost been steered into playing a little bit more, Rush. So just before we get into that, I mean, I said, I think sort of maybe the end of the first month or two, friendlies. The life friendly mode seems to have disappeared again. We've only had three or four rounds of that.

[00:09:31] We do seem to be getting steered into Rush. And I know a lot of people either love or hate Rush. It's a bit like Marmite, isn't it? Like you love it, you hate it. But I've always thought it's got a lot of potential, but they need to execute it slightly differently. So, you know, fair play to EA, they have kind of brought in objectives that you kind of need to play X and score X and such like. So, I mean, I don't know what your experience is, Shaq, but I'm definitely seeing a lot less away from keyboard type players.

[00:09:57] But you're also seeing some of these guys that have no idea how to play in that sort of small sided mode, either in it all for themselves or just even positionally. And, you know, I know people go in there to unwind, but sometimes it just, you know, you're banging your head against the wall. So I wanted to get your thoughts on how EA have kind of developed this Rush side of things as we've gone through the cycle and where the current stage is. It's a strange one because it's much better than what it was. I think the initial Rush hype was amazing. Everyone loved it.

[00:10:24] And then people started to think, look at all these AFK players and start to get a little bit weird. And then they've kind of tweaked it just enough to actually interest us to go back in. So don't get me wrong. When I actually play with three other people that know what they're doing, that are working together as a team, it's a really fun mode. I'm just talking about randoms, three randoms that know what they're doing, that actually pick the right objectives, right cards to meet the requirements. And that are in the game that are there to pass to each other, that are not trying to dribble past everyone.

[00:10:53] It's a fun game. When you play as a team, it's a fun game. And sometimes you end up winning 8-9-0. And it's really, it's so much fun. Just passing the ball around, doing some tricks, just passing the ball to each other, finding the through passes. It's great fun. And then you come up against some people, for some reason, shout out to Kevin from the Nothing But A Foot Thing podcast. I just saw him tweet about Bellingham. He said, anyone using Bellingham, that, you know, the special Bellingham card?

[00:11:19] Anyone using that Bellingham card in the rush mode, you know you're going to be in for a rough ride. And that is so true. I have no idea why a lot of people pick him. And all they keep trying is to span those through passes that never go anywhere. He's got 82 shooting, which doesn't achieve anything. And yeah, anyway, overall, I think some games are really bad. Some games are really good fun. And I think if you have a squad up together, it's great. It's a really good fun mode. You can just jump in and play together and enjoy.

[00:11:48] But I think some of the things that are really annoying me is, for example, this week's requirements was from EA. You needed to play with a player with over 85 shooting. You've got to win a game using a player with 85 plus shooting. It's harder than you think because there's no one defending. And in my squad of randoms, I like to be the one that is defending. And it's really hard to find a player that's got 85 plus shooting and also can defend. Yeah, no, absolutely.

[00:12:17] I mean, that was one thing I was wanting to highlight. I quite enjoy these different objectives in a way, the criteria for it. I think it's good that it makes you use different players, but it does really annoy me because, you know, the thing that I've seen a lot is you're getting people that are either following the objective criteria or, to be fair to them, they're using the evils. And I'm not 100% against people eviling because it's a fun way to evils. So, you know, like originally I got really annoyed that it didn't hit any, you know, any of the green boxes. But actually I'm like, no, fair play to them. At least they're trying.

[00:12:47] But it's the ones that pick random players that have no evo and they've got absolutely nothing to do with, you know, the bonus points. So, you know, you could be one box off doing it and you're sitting, just saying like, go and use somebody with flair or somebody, you know, with that trickster. Everyone's got a player like that in the club. And I know everybody wants to win a game, but it's not all about winning it. You know, you get more for completing all the objectives than you do for winning the game.

[00:13:11] So, like, I get so frustrated and usually it's these ones that don't have anything to do with it that actually are either the worst players or the most selfish players. And, you know, I joked about ages ago that I just say nice and thanks all the time. Those sort of D-pad buttons are now completely worn out because, you know, it's all I do because people are just so frustrated. And, you know, I want people to go and have a great time and, you know, use players that they want. Like, I totally get that. But, you know, everyone's got a deep club now.

[00:13:39] You know, I'm sure everyone's kept some of these specials for big SPCs and whatnot. But I just don't understand why people go in there going, ha, I'm not going to help anybody get extra points. I'm not going to really help my team win. I'm just going to be out this for myself. So, it's a little bit of, you know, we talk about the community and a lot of the community is great. But you always get these type of people, you know. It's the ones that pause and then message you to quit if they go 1-0 up. It's those type of people, I bet, that are doing this. So, that is 100% my pet peeve.

[00:14:08] But, you know, we'll go back to it. I would like to see these friendlies come back as well because I really enjoy these friendlies. Even the One Nation ones with my team's crap. Yeah. Like, when they had them out, the rewards were really good. You could use some of these players that you stored. Like, I'm a dragon, not just with my coins, but with my players. I try and only put gold players into SPCs if I can. So, you know, if we've got some of these freebies, then I am keeping them. So, it's quite cool to be able to use them in an actual team setting. And I like to change the formations.

[00:14:35] And, you know, Adam gave us the 4-2-1-3 before it kind of became a big thing. And it was really good fun trying it in, you know, the friendly mode. So, you know, EA have done a lot. But I would love to see them focus a little bit more on that if I'm being brutally honest. Yeah. I really don't know how they can make it better because it's almost like we're expecting EA to fix stupid. And it's really hard for them. They've done everything that they can. And they're giving us the objectives. They're giving us the requirements for us to choose the right place.

[00:15:03] I think maybe if we go to the requirements screen and you see that your whole team's not really looking at the requirements, you pretty much know you're in for a rough ride. Unless people are using Evolutions. As you said, I'm no problem with that. But, yeah, I think I don't know what else we can expect EA to do at this point. I think the reduction of one minute from the games as well has also made a big difference. It's not one or two minutes. It doesn't feel as long. Even though you're stuck, by the time you're frustrated, you only have like a minute and a half, two minutes left of the game.

[00:15:31] So you just might as well stay and get the rewards for it. But overall, I think it can be more enjoyable. But I think that's down to the community more than EA right now. EA's down there, but I feel. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the only thing that it could probably do would take probably a lot of programming would be to have individual people have their own points taken off almost. So if you're one of these guys that isn't using an Evo, isn't using an objective, just get zero points. Be like, haha. But, you know, that's probably me coming across really badly. And I don't think that's going to happen.

[00:16:01] And to be fair, there is sometimes you get a player. I totally get it. If you've got a player and you're just dying to try them out, then maybe you want to. But not that Bellingham. Just no. He should just be better. It should be like an exception. The XXX player except Bellingham. So although Bellingham, in real life, if you turn up for England and win the next World Cup, then anybody can have that Bellingham and use him until the cows come home. But I think they have done a good job. I think that actually, like you say, there's a lot to do.

[00:16:31] We've both said that we've maxed out the objectives just now. But there is a lot to do. And it's only because we kind of dedicate quite a lot of time to it. But if you're only getting an hour a night or something, there's so much to be doing right now. So many good rewards to be getting and stashing away for the next week or two as well. Definitely. Definitely. There's a whole heap of stuff that you can do on the game right now. And it's good. It's also good because I think we're all holding on to our backs, just hoping for some disappointment on Friday. And it's fine.

[00:17:00] And I think we have another two weeks of just trying to pack. And you're just having that feeling of every single pack might be the one. And waiting for two weeks and realizing none of those packs were the one. Absolutely. It doesn't matter what high-rated packs you've got. You just know that there's going to be no flare. And I don't know whether you've picked up, but they've changed the animation sequence as well. So it's even more disappointing because it's now the lowest rated player that comes through the tunnel. It's not the highest rated one like it used to be. I think that came out last week.

[00:17:29] And it's the most frustrating thing. But I think that's a good thing, no? It's for the double war cards. So, for example, if you've packed an 86 and an 89, the 86 comes out and we see everything about the 86 and the 87, whatever, the higher rating. So I think I saw another pack that was being opened where someone packed like a 91 rated card or something. So obviously the other card that was in the double war card had to be better than the 91. And it turned out to be, I think it was R9, if I'm not mistaken. I can't remember. It was a weird pack.

[00:18:00] I can't remember what it was. But yeah, it was pretty good. It was pretty good. But it's that endorphin hit, though, of when you open that pack and the flares go off. I don't know whether they're going to bring back, even if it's a lower rated one, but you still get the blue flares for Team of the Year or something. Because when you open it and you get those flares, it hits differently. So otherwise, if you get, you know, my look is that 87 Bethmead or 88 Bethmead, whatever she is now. She comes out in most packs.

[00:18:24] So, you know, like, although I'd love to see a Team of the Year in there, I'd hate it to be ruined by just a standard gold walkout. And oh, wait, what's this? Yes, it's almost like it'll be a nice shock. But at the same time, like the tunnel walkout with a Team of the Year is just that hits definitely to anything through any promo, in my opinion. I agree. I agree. I'm looking just forward to the it's good. What they've done is they've just made us addicted to even just look at the animation. More than actually packing the Team of the Year on day one.

[00:18:51] I just want to see the animation from one of the YouTube videos somewhere or X feed just to see what the animation looks like. And yeah, it is. Look, we know they spend the most amount of time doing these sorts of things rather than doing anything else. And it's working. Oh, absolutely. But, you know, what you really mean to say is you want to see it from one of us, you know, one of our own feeds. That's it. Shaq, before we go and talk about Team of the Year in depth, I know we did a bit on it last week, but some things have kind of changed and moved on.

[00:19:19] I just wanted to talk slightly about the Pro-Live, the FC Pro-Live event that was on last night. For those that watched it, it was the final one of the season where we could get some decent packs as well. And I think it was a loan car value this time. Was there anything that you picked up in that in terms of advising maybe, you know, of players and formations that the listeners can kind of take away from? I think one of the things that was quite interesting was the fact that there was quite a lot of squad variety.

[00:19:48] And I think there was a lot of cards that you wouldn't really expect there to be in a pro tournament. But I think there was also a requirement for them to have two Winter Wild cards in their squad. So that kind of skews things up a little bit. But I think overall it was, I didn't, how do I put it? I saw the whole one hour that I'm expected to see, but I don't think I consumed the whole one hour, if you know what I mean. So I haven't, I should have seen a little bit more, but I just didn't.

[00:20:14] And it starts at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. my time, so I don't really get to watch the whole of it. But I saw little bits and glimpses of it. And I think one of the things that I picked up was, there was a lot of hype about Andreas Vergang, who actually used the 4-2-1-3 surprise, surprise. That's the most underrated formation of all time. No, it's not. It's the worst formation of all time where you have the whole midfield stuck. And yeah, he used it pretty effectively. I think what I liked from the variety of the formations was the fact that there was a whole variety.

[00:20:44] Everyone had a different style of doing a different thing. It wasn't really everyone just going to 4-2-1-3. People had different combinations of roles that they were using for their wide players. And that was quite interesting. And I think I was doing a little bit of listening as well and understanding. And I think some of the ways that these roles combine within the formation itself is something that we can tinker a lot more.

[00:21:07] I don't think I'm there yet, but I think some of the elite people are finally starting to realize that you don't necessarily have to have the most meta inside forward on your left mid-right mid. You can have a wide midfielder or a winger to do something different and trying to read what the opponent is doing and change your roles based on what your team is doing as opposed to what you want to do. It is interesting. It's a lot of shifting around, a lot of things that you can actually play with.

[00:21:36] And it seems to be working. I think it's something that I want to adapt and get better at. But I think it's really hard. I think I'm at a stage where I'm struggling with the most apt tactics that I think that were working for me like a week ago. I can't do anything in the division I'm in right now. So I'm just not really sure what I should be changing because everything seems alien to me. Yeah, no, I totally get that. I mean, I did the West SBC that came out being a Brentford boy.

[00:22:05] And I've got him playing left mids in a 4-2-3-1 wide. But I've changed him to wide playmaker, so he's on his plus plus. And he's not as dangerous attacking, but he's a great card. But it's quite fun to play with. Changed my advance forward to a poacher. That definitely makes a difference because you've got a lot more threat, especially in that one sort of striker formation. But it's interesting to see. And the one thing I say every time we watch this is just how calm they are and how many times they actually sprint is minimal.

[00:22:34] They recycle the ball a lot more. And even the off-the-ball triggers where they either call players closer or send them longer again. That's immense at that level. And it's something that we could all probably watch and do a lot more of to create these chances. Because even with the 4-2-1-3, like you said, you get stuck in the middle a little bit or it's waiting for that wide through ball. So it's quite interesting to see how these teams adapt. And I think it's something that we said, you know, we always say about, you know, persevering with your formation and learning it. And I think these guys obviously have a lot of game time.

[00:23:04] And they know their player runs. And probably they've trained with these players a lot. So you know what these players are capable of, what their movement is going to be. And, you know, I always get told for tinkering too much. So I've tried not to. And you do. You totally know how to play to your team's strengths. And that's what I like. And, you know, it's changed my mind in travel IQ, FC IQ. Because, yeah, I think it's amazing. You know, if they can bring in, if they can develop that further, I think it's actually been really good for the game.

[00:23:32] Considering we were all a little bit confused and perplexed about it to start. I think it's been probably one of the better points of FC 25. I completely agree. I think we shortchanged it. I mean, I personally shortchanged it. I still do shortchange it because I don't think I have. I probably should. I don't think I have the sandpit to actually try these sorts of things. Because champs is not a place that you can really experiment.

[00:24:01] Neither is rivals. And neither is friendlies, if you know what I mean. So there's no real actual place where you can tinker with like-minded opposition and see what works for you. And squad battles certainly is not. So I think that's where I'm struggling. I really want to try things out. I don't really know where I should be trying things out. Sure, you can say try it in rivals. But it just makes you want to pull your hair out sometimes as you're trying against someone that's just elastic on his way against you.

[00:24:29] And just scoring his weird glory. It's really hard. Yeah, I mean, that's probably the downside to bringing in relegation, especially in the top areas. Because I probably would have been a lot more experimental had you get into Division 2 and you know you're going to stay there for the rest of that season. Whereas I think now the lines are so fine. And I don't know whether it's a mental thing. It probably is. But when Psycho on a losing run, it takes quite a lot to come out of it.

[00:24:57] So once you're winning, you seem to work your way up quite quickly. But if you can't grab that win, even the first win of the day, then it takes a wee while to dig yourself out of that rut. And you don't want to be changing things around left, right and center. Yeah, I think I have to mention this. I will give a shout out to Dan. I think Dan's pretty consistent with his formation usage. And he uses the same formation pretty much the whole time. And his results are extremely consistent. He's consistently at whatever wins he gets in weekend league. He gets there pretty easily.

[00:25:26] He does have his own issues here and there. But he gets to where he has to go to. Whereas I'm starting to get bored of using the same formation. I keep experimenting. I keep tinkering. And as soon as I lose a little bit of confidence, it's really hard for me to build that confidence up again. So I really need to find a way to actually tinker effectively. Maybe don't tinker from Friday onwards. Just whatever I have on Friday is the formation I use all the way until Monday. Yeah. I think we're just going to start calling you Cladio Ranieri again, though.

[00:25:55] I should just call you the tinkerman. That's it. Your new nickname. That's right. Moving on, Shaq. I mean, I think most people listening to this will start, you know, to be getting excited. And, you know, that hype train, as we say, is starting to leave the station. Team of the year is very, very close. We've still not actually had any information about the players that have won the votes. Before we get into that, though, you know, in this podcast, we kind of try to avoid leaks.

[00:26:23] But I think this is, you know, with the build-up to such a major promo, I think this is the exception. I think we should probably talk about it. So, you know, the first one that isn't a leak, we had Garencia. I think Garencia came on Saturday, I think. Jarsinho. Oh, Jarsinho. Sorry, sorry. I'm thinking of Garencia because he just told me a new one in my last game. Jarsinho came, you know, was it two years ago? He was unreal. And I'm sure he's unreal now. But the thing that kind of, this was leaked for a few days. He came out a ridiculous number of squads.

[00:26:52] I think his value was about 1.5, 1.6 mil for the card. I think the SBC came in at 2 mil, I believe, which went up as well because I think Foda kind of picked up a little bit over the weekend too. So, you know, first things first, what do you think about them releasing, you know, Jarsinho, that card at this point? What do you think about the pricing strategy for it too? I think it's, as the SBC, I think it's extremely overpriced.

[00:27:19] I mean, as someone that's used Jarsinho extensively, I don't think he's worth that much on, from that much of a grind on an SBC perspective. He's good in game, he's fun in game, but I don't think he's the one card that's going to give you that extra win or that's going to give you that extra. Because, for example, his skills are great, but his skills are not like the Neymar skills as well. His finishing is fabulous, but if you use him wide, he doesn't really get into too many positions to actually score from. He's kind of strong, but not really very strong.

[00:27:48] So, overall, I think you're understanding the theme, 2.1 million coins to spunk on an SBC that's not going to elevate your game too much. Yeah, I think unless you have like fodder coming out of your ears, it's an SBC that you can probably skip at this point in time. I mean, if you have the coins, just go try the tradeable conversion and see if you like him. But I think it's slightly overpriced. It's extremely overpriced, in my opinion.

[00:28:14] Yeah, I mean, at the moment, it's just under 2,450,000. Sorry, 2,050,000. It's 24 squads as well. I mean, there is that five-match loan in there, which you could do as well if you didn't want to or couldn't afford to buy the card off the market. But I'm with you. I think it's very high. We could see that his price is kind of hovered around just over 1.5 mil anyway.

[00:28:39] So I thought they'll bump it a little bit to maybe 1.75 maybe, because they do like to kind of have the untradable versions that little bit higher. But I thought, you know, half a mil over was excessive. But that kind of leads on to, so for those of you that aren't aware or don't want to know, you'd probably be best sort of bleeping out the next five minutes or so.

[00:28:59] But we have had leaks, which are, you know, the credible sources that we are going to be getting Patrick Vieira SBC and Yapstam SBC as well. And it was the 93 R10 Ronaldinho. So three huge, huge cards come in as SBC form. You know, initial sort of look at this for me is what a spine to your team you could now have through your team of the season, basically.

[00:29:28] But, you know, there's a few things that make me worried. The pricing, obviously, you know, Stam, I think, would probably be about a million. Paddy V, 1.5. And then you've got R10 and who knows what they're going to do for R10 because he's so in demand that they could probably put any price and people will do it. So what's your thoughts when you heard these leaks and then obviously following the Jersey and USBC? I think my initial reaction was, what? I was really, really, really excited with the fact that we're getting these.

[00:29:58] But then when you start to break it down a little bit, and I think out of the three, there's only one that's, for me, is a must do. I think Stam, we're all, I think, arm dying for a really good, solid centre-back that is in the top five centre-backs in the game. I really think Stam is one that I would, and also having the United connection. I mean, why wouldn't you? How could you not do Stam? Like, yeah, Stam is like, yeah, he's everything. So definitely Stam's, without a doubt, that's the one card I will definitely be doing.

[00:30:27] When it comes to Ronaldinho, I would love to do a Ronaldinho. I absolutely adore Ronaldinho, but I think with Ronaldinho, it's just a lot without any actual output. I've always found every Ronaldinho card is a lot of fun to use, especially these 93 versions, even the 94 versions back in the day. Apart from the, you know, the 98, 99 versions, the earlier ones, they're a lot of fun to use, but they can never hit the ball to the back of the net. I always struggle with that.

[00:30:57] So it really has to depend on how they're priced and how my fodder is looking, but Stam's going to get done. Ronaldinho, I'm still a bit iffy on, and Vieira, I always love a Vieira. I always have a Vieira at around this time in my squad, so that's going to be really hard to pass it by, but my midfield is stacked, so I'm not really sure. But also, pricing-wise, this is my opinion. Stam will be priced at about 1.2 million.

[00:31:24] Vieira will be priced approximately at 1.92 million, so roughly around Jarsinho, a little bit cheaper than Jarsinho. And Ronaldinho is going to be priced at 3.5 million with maybe 36 squads or 30 plus squads. And those, I don't think I have it in me to do Ronaldinho. That's just going to take everything from me.

[00:31:47] Yeah, I mean, to put that into perspective, Stam at the moment on the market is 815k, so you think he'll be about 1.5, so double, basically. 1.2. 1.2, sorry. So another 400k onto that, which is excessive. Vieira is just under 1.4. So, you know, if he came in at 1.5, I think that's probably an instant complete for me, in all honesty. I say instant, by the time I grind, it won't be fully instant, but you know what I mean? I'd make my mind up.

[00:32:17] Ronaldinho's at 2.8 mil. So, like you say, yeah, I mean, 3.5 upwards, I'd imagine, going by the current pricing. So, I'm the same as you. I think Paddy and Stam potentially are almost must-dos for me, but I think Ronaldinho, he is fun. But, you know, everyone got that free Ronaldinho. Well, I'll say everyone, you know, a large number of people did. He's never caused me hundreds of issues. Like, you obviously get the one guy that is incredible with his dribbling.

[00:32:47] But, you know, we say it all the time. There's all these cards that come out that people get a bit worried about. If you don't know how to use him, he's not that effective. You know, the trickster plus playstyle is decent. But, you know, I'd much, you see if they gave him a trickster and a finesse, I'd be worried because he'd be able to get himself into certain positions and hit that finesse. Or, you know, something along those lines. Even press proven or something there, he's even more under control.

[00:33:15] But I just think that this card, if you want to pay 3.5 or a million for that card, I think you need your head a little wobble unless you are, you know, a Ronaldinho fan. If you're a Barca or a PSG sort of diehard, whatever. Like, I know the sentimental sort of thoughts come into it. But I think, you know, they may prove us wrong. And, you know, it's 2.8 now. Maybe they'll release him at 2.5, which I don't see. And half of me thinks that EA know that people are sacking packs in the club.

[00:33:44] I think they're overpricing this because it means people have got somewhere to dump their fodder. So that's my initial thought. But I think you're right, Stam's tremendous. And it means I can get one of my City Liverpool centre-backs out of my back line, which would be lovely because whilst they've been very effective, I do feel very wrong and very dirty. You know, every time I play the game, I have to go for a bleach bath after it. But Paddy, you know, Paddy's just, he's always immense. You know, he's so hard to get around.

[00:34:12] So I'm hoping they price him slightly higher so not everybody has him, to be honest, because he is such a good player in this game. So, I mean, that's the leaks of the non-Team of the Year players. But as we said, Team of the Year now. I think they're saying that the warm-up starts on Friday, I believe. I'm not 100% sure if attackers are in packs, but we know with Team of the Year warm-up that usually comes the SBCs

[00:34:38] where you can get, you know, is it 584-plus attackers, midfielders, defenders, whatever, and as well. So first things first, Shaq, are you buzzed? I am, definitely. I think I'm getting a little bit, the hype is kicking in. I think I'm starting to feel like the kid just before Christmas is waiting for Friday, 6 p.m., just to open all these packs that I have and just hope to get something, but get nothing. At least I get some fodder to try and get Stam in. So, yeah, Friday's going to be interesting.

[00:35:08] Are you expecting them to have the attackers out this Friday? Are you thinking that's going to be another week? How do you think this is going to go? Oh, you know what? I think a lot of people have been burned from last year that would really want to open their packs on this Friday itself for the attackers rather than saving it for all the Team of the Year and packs like we did last year. But who's to know EA could just change it around and put defenders in packs and watch the community burn?

[00:35:36] Yeah, I mean, there's usually going to be plenty of things to do. You know, they'll bring out flashbacks. They'll have the honorable mentions as well as we kind of glazed over last year. I've not seen anything, you know, to say who's going to be in it. They've kept it very quiet as far as I know so far about who's actually in the team, which is, you know, that's quite exciting as well because, you know, any Team of the Year card is going to be very good, especially right now. You could literally put any of those cards into your team

[00:36:05] and they were going to be, you know, a standout player regardless of who it is. So I think that's quite exciting that they've kept the lid on it just now. We know they'll start announcing it because they usually do their own sort of promos on it, you know, to try and get people talking even more hyped. So I think it's going to be exciting. I'm only going to open my player picks because I know that I'll be blocked in. You know, we've got rewards on Thursday, so I'll not be able to open anything anyway. So I'll open those player picks and probably the ones from the season ladder,

[00:36:33] but I'm definitely going to wait until they're all in packs for a full opening. Yeah, that's good. That's really good. Is there, if you kind of, so before we, you know, we spoke about the SPCs, but this is why I wanted to bring the SPCs in slightly early before the Team of the Year chat, because how do you think, how are you going to manage your club and how would you recommend for other people to manage their club going in now?

[00:36:59] I think right now it's really good to try and get as many 84s, 83s as possible to try and get every one of these SPCs that are coming through to store those packs into the club. After that's done, I think I will slowly start to get an idea of exactly what SPCs I want to complete over Team of the Year. And for me, personally, day one, I'm just going to start ripping the packs open, get towards the SPC that I want to get to complete, and start working on those SPCs ASAP. And also, as I discussed last week, one of the things that I really want to do this year

[00:37:29] is to try and buy one big card soon. Right now, I'm tracking big man Ronaldo R9, the baby version as such, and the man's not dropping anymore, and I don't have the facilities to actually buy him right now. So I'm trying to chip away at my coins to try and see what I can do. But that's roughly my plan. I think what everyone should be trying to do right now is to try and consolidate their coins together, see what card they would like to try for their teams,

[00:37:58] is because all the, as we discussed last week, all the top tier cards, anything 500k plus, anything even 250k plus is bound to start going up. As soon as people start realizing that there's a lot more coins on the market, people will start buying these cards up. So if you've been eyeing a particular card, it's time to start looking at those cards and buy them for your team. Use them over the next couple of weeks or so, because they will just keep appreciating. And I think at this point in time, just for me, everything but the kitchen sink is just going to go into all upgrade packs.

[00:38:26] Every single card I have in the club that's not in the team is going to go into some sort of SPC. Does that mean you're staying away from the 77 plus pick that came out last night, 78 plus? Are you staying away from that just now, or are you using them to try and bolster your 83s, 84s? I am doing some of them to actually bolster my 83s and 84s, but one of the things that I'm struggling with is I'm running out of non-rare goals because I've not been opening too many of the crappy packs. So I am running out of non-rare goals,

[00:38:54] but I think what I should be doing is I'll open a few of those packs that just are entry-level packs that just give me basic non-rare goals. Sorry, rare goals. I'm sorry. I'm running out of rare goals. And I will try and do something to try and get some more rare goals to try and do some more picks and see. I think I preferred last week's picks as opposed to this week's. Having the fourth pick was tremendous. It was game-changing for me.

[00:39:21] Having three picks again, it's back to 80, 80, and 79, and that's not fun. No, it's not. I mean, remember we've got these daily upgrades as well, so for those of you that don't do them, I'd highly recommend doing your daily bronze, silver, and gold upgrades. If you're smart about it, use your non-important league ones because I dip in and out, but I know Dan's a massive champion for the league SBCs. I think that's going to be quite a fruitful way

[00:39:49] of bolstering your club during team of the year as well because it gives you more packs. So you can either do more of the upgrade packs, which we know they usually bring out certain ones where you see the attacker packs or even league-specific ones as well. But it also lets you do these picks as well. I think you can do up to four gold ones a day, so that gives you quite a few, I think it's 11, so you get 40 non-rare and four rare gold. So although it doesn't give you everything, obviously it gives you something to work towards

[00:40:18] and it helps you with some of these other SBCs, so definitely worth completing them. Like you said, I've actually been opening all my ones that don't have a minimum rating apart from rivals. I think rivals don't give you a minimum rating on those packs when you've got the mega pack and such, but I've been keeping them because you know more chance. So anything that you know that they've got the mixed packs and all that, I've been opening. Just even the standard gold packs I've opened last year, I saved everything and I had like 200 packs and I got one team of the year. But you're actually there for so long,

[00:40:48] you start discarding too many and a lot of those crappy packs, you don't get anything from anyway, really. So keep all the big ones in my opinion, especially even the 82 pluses. I think that's got 82 plus and above, I would hoard if I was anybody listening to this because you want to give yourself that chance, don't you? And I know they'll pop out of random packs, but if you give yourself the best opportunity, but even the one thing I would potentially say, and I don't know whether you'd agree, Shaq,

[00:41:15] but these SBCs that we've talked about, the Stam, the Vieira and the R10 come in, even if you're desperate to complete them, I would still hold until the big pack rep and team of the year so low because everyone's going to be trying to instantly sell things to do the next SBC or whatever. Plus, you know, you usually get the odd good SBC that you don't realize through team of the year. So like I say, last year, we had the flashback Bruno Fernandes

[00:41:44] that was very, very good. And I'm not saying these ones are going to be super expensive. We don't really know who's coming in that, but there's a good chance. And, you know, we spoke on last week's show that this could be the first year without any of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar for a very long time in the actual team of the year, even in the Honourable Mentions. If they don't get in any of these, you know, don't be surprised to see a player like that as an SBC. Yeah, definitely. I think that's a really good shot as well.

[00:42:12] I think if all things were fair, Mbappe could technically miss out on team of the year as well if all things were fair. So one of these guys could definitely get a flashback SBC. And if the flashback SBC is actually halfway decent to team of the year as how the team of the year cards normally would be, oh, that's going to be a crazy SBC. Imagine the scenes if you get like maybe a CR7 SBC that's flashback to team of the year that's still like a 94 or 95 rated card.

[00:42:42] Oh my goodness. I think that's going to break the internet as such at least from that foot community point of view. But that is, yeah, that's acutely possible. Like we could get something like along those lines. But the chances of something like that happening that's a 4, 5, 6, 7 million coin SBC is a bitch. I don't know. I think the way things are going with the year it's really hard to predict. But I would love something like that. That's a really good shot though. Yeah, I mean, I don't think they'll be of that level. But I think a few years ago

[00:43:11] we had the 87 Ronaldo one where he was a right winger, I think, from sort of going back to his time at United. People slept on that card. You know, you look at it and the face stats were a bit rubbish. But when you actually played with it, it was so much fun. And a lot of people kind of got behind it almost after the fact. So these are the sort of things I'm kind of, I'm thinking, you know, we always say with Evos, wait until the last minute with Evos to see what chains come so you can get the better players. In my head, I'm thinking, let's wait until, you know,

[00:43:40] you're right in the crux of team of the year. You know, if you're somebody like us that likes to think about the leaks, leaks will obviously come as you go along. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a couple, like at least one, if not two or three mega SBCs. And it could even be, you know, an 8 and 93 plus icon pick type thing because they do like to do these icon picks in team of the year as well. So there's going to be lots to do. You know, we know what EA are like and they'll try and drive people to the store either to get more fodder or to get a chance

[00:44:10] for these team of the year cards. And it'd be quite interesting to see if they've got a little store pack up their sleeve that, you know, most promos have a guaranteed one. I doubt we'll get a guaranteed team of the year promo, promo pack. However, they may do something to entice you, say, you know, five 89 plus cards, which make you think you're going to get one of these team of the year cards. You're going to get, you're going to get five Allisons in the same pack somehow or something like that. You know, I'd be a bit facetious there, but I do think there's going to be

[00:44:40] a few weird and wonderful things coming along the way. So I, although these players are amazing and you know, if you need them for your team right now, by all means do it. But if it's one of these players like, like Ronaldinho, do you need a Ronaldinho or is it you want him for, you know, nostalgia and for the fun factor? Yes. Great. We'll hold off and see what else comes because there could be a left winger that's, you know, maybe he's not identical, but it could do the same sort of things, but maybe have better play styles, better suited for you, whatever. So I think it's one of those,

[00:45:09] it's one of those sort of periods where wait and see is almost the way to go unless you're opening packs, obviously. Yeah, exactly. I think unlike you, I'm assuming you're opening your packs when all the guards are in, all the team of the years are in packs. Is that right? Yeah. Like I said, apart from the player picks that I've got, I'll open all my player picks when attackers are in because obviously the attackers are probably the ones that will make the biggest impact to your team. Yeah, that's fair enough. So I think from your perspective, if I was you, I would wait to do the SBCs right when I open all the packs,

[00:45:39] that's when I would start considering the SBCs. But I mean, like I said, I'm going to open everything at attackers. I'm going to empty all the stores at attackers and start grinding with all the cards that I pack from there on and to try and do the repeatable SBCs. But I think it's much of a muchness, whatever. Whenever you're opening packs is probably when you should be considering SBCs. Yeah, you're absolutely spot on there with that. It's, I think you're quite right. I think there might be other SBCs that come out. I think just throwing all the coins on or all your cards on Ronaldinho straight away

[00:46:08] is not the best. Just keep an eye out and see what else is coming out. There could be some really interesting cards coming out, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And one to keep in mind is your SBC storage because that will pack up really quickly. So, you know, the approach I'm having is anything under 84 gets fired into some of these upgrade packs that we've got now, whether it's the 85 double, even the player picks, you know, I'll happily fire an 81 rated player into the player picks if I need to just to kind of clear up that space. I think I'm sitting on about 60 just now with 84s and above

[00:46:38] and I'm trying to clear up. Yeah, I'm trying to clear up my transfer list a little bit as well. So, I think on there I've got 87s to 90s that I'm not selling and everything else is sellable because I'm thinking, you know, when you're opening some of these packs and some of them are tradable, you don't want to be bogged down and going, oh no, I can't do anything. That's right. You know, half of me thinks that maybe even wait until the Tuesday to open my packs because that's when the upgrades are out but I also know that I do not have that, you know, that patience and discipline. No, the end is,

[00:47:08] it's impossible. I think last year we had people that had like 1800, 1900 packs that just couldn't get through all their packs before the end of team of the year. They just, they just kept repeating and recycling and they just ran out of time which is a shame really. absolutely. I mean, the SBC storage is definitely something that's been good so you can open more and store more but you're right. Shaq, we should probably look to move on. We've kind of been running for three quarters of an hour now. quickly before we go I just want to hit our regular segments

[00:47:37] so first things first, formation in review. Have you used a new formation? Have you seen one? Is there anything you want to talk about? One of the formations that I've just tinkered with, I just set it up is our new foot coaching 433 second variant and that's, it's really interesting and I was listening to a YouTube video today talking about how the 433 is a really good way to combat the 4213 so I'm really keen

[00:48:07] to try it out so I think I'll have a complete review next week once I've given it a good shot that's made by our own captain El Capitano John foot coaching so I'm really curious to try it out and his formations are very, very, very unique in a way that they really focus on ball retention which is I think one key aspect to try and defeat the 4213 so I'm really curious to actually learn it because if I can retain the ball against the 4213 I think I'm just going to win that game so I'm really looking

[00:48:37] forward to trying that formation out what about yourself? Yeah, to be honest I don't really have anything to bring to the table in this segment even though I've said about it I've been using the same 4231 wide for a number of weeks now like I say I've tweaked it so I've got West as a wide playmaker which is different but he's got the long ball pass plus which is fun and I've changed my striker from advance forward to poacher just to give myself more of a threat so nothing really to write home about it's done me pretty well on midway and div 2 just now

[00:49:07] and somehow managed to be quite comfortable so I'm quite happy with that I am intrigued to see how John's formation turns out usually I use his as a base and then I tweak it because I don't have the patience John's very very good like you say at retaining the ball sometimes I am not so I usually use his as a solid foundation I think this 4-2-3-1 was one of the first ones he did in FC25 but firstly Dan adapted it and then me and Dan are very similar so I adapted Dan's adaptation

[00:49:35] so quite intrigued to see how this works out Shaq before we go the final segment is player in review have you got a player that you've used or that you've just got your eye on that you're desperate to try like who are you looking at this week I actually tried out a well it's not a super expensive card it was Oliganer Solskjaer the Winter Wild Cards hero version and I really enjoyed that card his finesses are beautiful there's something about his body type is not really

[00:50:04] nimble and skinny but not really thick it's just like the perfect body it's almost like a Cantona-esque if that makes any sense in game it seems like a Cantona-esque and his finesses are tremendous left foot, right foot and he's a unique card even in rush I really enjoyed using him in rush because all I needed was people to pass it to me at the edge of the box and just kept scoring finesses over and over again in rush he was been and at 35k it's a bargain it's a complete bargain

[00:50:34] he's got the Poacher Plus Plus as well Nate so that's something for you to look at if you haven't tried him I really enjoyed using Oliganer Solskjaer and in fact I'm just going to buy him after this recording again to try him back again yeah I'm tempted to get him to stick him in the club in case there's an evil that fits him further down the line as well for mine I've mentioned him earlier but I've been using Gerard Muller got him from the player the icon pick he's 275k just now so not super low but you know he's not super high either his pace has got a very strange split

[00:51:03] his acceleration is 92 but sprint speed is 82 I whacked an engine on it and it makesace it a lot more palatable but his shooting is where he comes into his own so on the face of it you look at a striker with 92 shooting you go hmm you know it's okay but it's not amazing attacking position is 96 finishing is 97 shot power 94 volleys 94 it's only brought down by his long shots and his penalties but he's got that finesse plus so he the pit like Solskjaer his finesses are just crazy four star four stars passing lets him down a little bit his long pass

[00:51:33] is 66 which is crap shot passing 82 which means he's fine for the little layoffs dribbling's decent his reactions at 96 which I think is amazing composure is 89 it's just all around a very nice card which one I've never used in any iteration of FIFA so I was up in an hour about him or Rashford Rashford's power shot plus I think although power shot is still very good if you're a striker and you're a single striker you get closed down far too quickly to unleash the power shot which I've kind of only just managed to figure out

[00:52:03] in my own head I think finesse seems to be so OP in a one you know one striker formation 100% I was just going to lead on to that the fact that I don't know why many people are not talking I think power shot aficionados like myself who love power shot from day one are starting to find that it's extremely hard to actually score power shots anyone who's scoring power shots consistently as you were maybe a month and a half ago all power to you because I barely score power shots anymore because I get closed on immediately and it's

[00:52:33] taking that few seconds extra to actually milliseconds to actually initiate that shot so I'm not able to get those same power shots and they're not as consistent as they used to be I think one of the key things that were really working for us was the fact that first time power shots were really working extremely well before that are not working at all I think the number of times that Rashford took the first time power shot and scored a goal is insane left foot right foot doesn't matter and as you said finesse is something that I've overlooked all cycle and I'm

[00:53:03] starting to realize that yeah finesse is where it's at and I'm just worried about getting too comfortable finesses with the new patch incoming but we'll see when we get there yeah I mean I've always advocated for finesse on my wide men especially the inside forwards because you know it's lovely from that but like you say the the nerf or the tuna whatever you want to call it is coming hopefully they don't kill it like they've done with certain other aspects of the game but that remains to be seen before we go just a little plug for our wonderful discord

[00:53:33] it's free to join or you can also you it helps us improve the equipment you know time is as well John puts a lot of time in editing this obviously we we put this together as well so it helps keep this podcast going that's patreon.com foot and review and obviously we offer foot coach as well we are powered by foot coaching so if you don't want to spend you know real money on packs because you know EAZA have a look around even have a chat with the guys you know they can show what we offer

[00:54:03] using the state-of-the-art equipment discord we'll always we'll all be in there you know Shaq you'll obviously be on the other side of the world to me you'll be up all hours of my night and the other way around so it's always good to have there's a lot of friendly faces in there and you know like you say John's just released his new tactics they come in there first before anyone else sees them we've got the pack poll you can speak to the host you can speak to you know there's quite a large community now which is which is thriving so it's really good to get but following that but you know

[00:54:32] anything else from there I just want to say good look to everybody will not be on until probably next Tuesday where I think team of the year will have kicked off in some way shape or form so if you are ripping packs you know all the best to you please don't tag us in your pack polls because I'm going to be horrifically jealous because knowing our pack is not going to be there but yeah Shaq have you got anything else to add before we sail away into the night sky no it's just basically just best of luck to everyone opening packs and storing packs and considering SPC and considering

[00:55:02] what to do or making some changes to the team so let's just say at the end of team of the year all we can hope for is for all of us to have some changes to our squads and that's all we're playing the game for so let's just hope that we get the additions we're looking for yeah might be quite fun to take a picture of before and after like we did during um was it winter wild cards we did thunderstruck we did before and after and thought nothing would change and actually quite a bit has changed so no like I say best of luck to everybody thank you all for

[00:55:32] listening one last last thing to do Shaq drop it we are going to drop it you you