653: TOTY Hype & A Game-Changing Patch: Positivity Takes Over

[00:00:07] Hello, FUTEYs, and welcome back to FUT IN REVIEW. This is episode 653 and I'm your host, John. Joining me tonight are, of course, Chris and Invy completing the Friday theme as we dive into one of the most exciting times, at least for some, of the year in FC 25. Theme of the year has arrived. People are spending big hunting down the best players in the game.

[00:00:35] And just as we're gearing up for the theme of the year hype, EA surprised us with a new patch that's so impactful it feels like we've got an entirely new game on our hands. So, buckle up as we break it down from theme of the year tips to dissecting the patch that's shaking up the new meta. Let's get into it and let's start by saying hello to Invy. Hello Invy, how are you doing my friend? Hello, hello. I'm good, good, good, good. And you? Are you hyped?

[00:01:05] A little bit. Ooh, I got something for you later on then. But first, let's jump into Chris. Chris, how are you doing my friend? I am good, mate. You can see it in your face. I am good. I love this promo. I love this promo. Happy Blue Friday to steal my good friend Adama's saying, I hope everybody has a lot of luck out there because you're gonna need it at these prices.

[00:01:30] Chris, when you say you love it, be truthful. This is the worst promotion ever for you, Aiden. 100 million percent. The worst promo in the whole of FC. What's going on? Let's start with that because I know Invy is positive. I'm very positive this week. Let's start though with your week in food because every single Friday we ask you, how was your week in food giving in a number from one to ten?

[00:01:55] If it's a ten, it was terrific. If it was a one, it was like Black Friday comes or like actually Blue Friday comes every single week for you. So, you might not have heard his voice for a while now because he is working regular man's hour, but it's time for... ...in football ultimately. Daniel saying this. Let's start with some positivity. Let's start with Chris. Chris, what rating did you give your week in football ultimately?

[00:02:24] Oh, nine. Nine. I've enjoyed this week. Really enjoyed this week. Been a lot to do. A lot of stuffed objectives and SBCs and bits and pieces. So, no. Really enjoyed it. Got my rivals rewards. Done the rush. You know, I really enjoy the Evos. If you've got, you know, support a team like me, like Rangers who don't get many players.

[00:02:47] Being able to boost some of those guys has been great. Considering doing the centre back one, I think that's a really good one. So, I may do a Rangers centre back as well. A nine. It's the highest you've ever given since we've implemented this. But there's a catch to that, John. It's a nine pre-patch. Pre-patch even? Oh, we've got to discuss that soon. Yngwie, Yngwie, let's keep this nine for Chris. What about you? How's your week in football?

[00:03:17] Do you mean like the rating? Yeah. I have to give it a nine as well. Oh my gosh, what's happening? What's happening? A new patch helps. Good content. Yeah, I can't really complain. Lots of SBCs and etc. So, yeah. EA have been busy. Which is a good way. You have a whole new game, which we talk about soon.

[00:03:46] But financials are broken now. People say, you've been spending all of a year trying to play a game that wasn't finished yet. I see all this negativity online and you get two nines. We should take a deep dive into that soon. Because I'm giving it a nine as well. And this is also the first time in Fudder review history, I don't need to have a calculator next to me to say the average is actually a nine then.

[00:04:16] Usually with your 3.7s and stuff, I need to be very wary on what the average is. But yeah, it's been a good week. Okay. Seriously, we got surprised by a patch. At least I got surprised by it. And actually, we all knew they were working on stuff. Yeah. Not that they would release it two days prior to team or one day prior actually, I think, to team of the year. And while doing that completely overhauled the game.

[00:04:42] Then, well, I don't want to go into content too much yet, but then we get three players today as well. Yeah. It's good. And instead of not being able to log in at all at 7pm, at least, or at 6pm, I could log in. But we were placing a little queue and then just on consoles, just straight through. Wasn't too bad either. It's struggling, but it's not. We've had way, way, way worse, haven't we?

[00:05:13] Yeah. There's been worse releases than this. So, EA have been a little bit more lucky, I think. And probably did better work pre-start team of the year as well, which is nice to see that people can actually get on and play the game. I haven't heard many actually saying that the gameplay is in the mud, even though people struggle to get on.

[00:05:40] So, usually there's lots of complaining that, oh, everything is going so slow, the players don't move, etc. So, I think it's nice to see that everything is not too bad actually. Yeah. It's been, I've not used the little button, there's a yellow button underneath my thumb, which I've not used all year yet with you guys on this show on Friday.

[00:06:09] Yeah, I've used it. It's time for the hype. Three nines, a good promotion in front of us and a good patch. So, we start with discussing the patch because Chris just said it was a nine pre-patch and everyone this week has been positive, but maybe except Chris. And I have something to say about that. But if you're wondering why we're not going to take a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep dive tonight is because one, we want to focus a little bit more on team of the year, of course, because that starts.

[00:06:35] And two, we need a little more time to have not first feelings, first emotion talks about this, but have a couple of days to actually play with it. So, on Tuesday's show, which will be released publicly on Wednesday, of course, Nathan and Shaq will take a little bit more of a deep dive into the experiences with the patch. But let's start with you, Envy. What do you like about the patch? What don't you like about the patch? Or do you want me to just talk everyone through what has actually changed first? I'll leave it up to you.

[00:07:05] No, I like that the faster player actually feels fast. If you get in front of a normal pace defender with a super fast player, you will actually stay in front. They won't catch up your player quite quickly and then deny you a good goal scoring opportunity.

[00:07:29] So it's a little bit more reflecting on the stats of the actual player with pace. It seems to kind of... Yeah, it's working as I would think it should have been when the game was released. Like Mbappe should blast away from Van Dijk if he got a few meters in front, which is nice, I think. It's much more fun. It feels more fluid when you play.

[00:07:58] And I can actually do my passing style game fine now. I can do fast passing. They don't take a kind of an extra second to get the passes going. So I can do fast triangle, move up the pitch, and play my kind of tiki-taka type of play when I go attacking. I don't have to do some long ball strange over the top thing or glitch anything.

[00:08:26] So just try to play football, which I really, really like. Defending has become a little bit more difficult, but that's okay. That's something I will just concentrate on. And I would rather have fun like this with a little bit more goals in the games because I score more as well. Finishing in the box seems better, which I like. Just something you don't like?

[00:08:55] That's actually, I can't really put my finger on anything that I've noticed. It's okay. It doesn't have to be. I'm just saying. No, I can't say on the top of my head that there's something I've disliked so far. So props to EA to actually listening to feedback and got it quite right as well, it seems.

[00:09:20] I don't know about you, Chris, but with all these warm feelings, it's just so weird. What's going on here? It must be that I've been standing outside in the cold for the last two hours. Maybe I'm warming up now, but this is a good feeling I get from this. I'm almost scared to ask you what you like or don't like about the patch now. John, I have to say for me, the patch makes really no any great odds to me.

[00:09:48] I think the truth of the matter is you actually play the same. I think I put this with a chat about it this afternoon on the Discord and the host channel. And my feelings are very simple. If you don't practice at the game, if you don't get coaching at the game, then you're not going to get any better at the game. You end up doing the same thing over and over again. What I have enjoyed actually about these patches, there's people talking about being a new meta. So if there's a new meta every three months, then actually that's quite a refreshing game. So yeah, there's nothing in me that makes, I think we'll get used to it very quickly.

[00:10:19] Folks will go, this is overpowered, that's overpowered, this is overpowered. Happens every game cycle, happens every patch. As I say, you'll end up probably in the same position you always be in the same division you're going to be in. Don't worry about the patch guys. If you want to get better at the game, practice really hard. And if you really want to get very good at the game, go and find a good coach. I definitely agree on the last thing. Basically, I agree with everything you both are saying.

[00:10:43] I think the changes they made are built from good feedback, which I quite like. I wish they would have communicated earlier. But like I said, I think a month ago, they've written that they're working on certain things, which was like, hey, there's communication. Now it's here. And talking about communications, this deep dive pitch notes they gave from the pitch note and gameplay refresh updates, that page itself, really good explanation of what they changed, why they changed and how you can see the difference in game.

[00:11:12] And actually feels like that as well. So, yeah, hats off to them. I know I've been negative about communications before or changes before, but I quite like this. I do think some people are on, I don't know how you call it, maybe a bliss. Is that the right word for that, Chris? Because... Honeymoon period? Yeah, exactly. Honeymoon period. I think that's the best way to describe it. Because they're like, finally, speed matters again.

[00:11:40] Speed has always mattered, except I think it matters less. So you see people going to high speed players now or very fast players, but it doesn't mean I played Van Dijk yesterday and today. If you're not playing on the 95 defense, high rated line, and you play on, I don't know, 60 something, Virgil van Dijk is still a beast of a defender. And I think that's the difference people could get away with playing 95 and having, so you can't have it all anymore now.

[00:12:09] Which so far, I quite like. I think tackle bags, get rid of it. Sure. That's hard to be good. Most of the things that are there are good. Why I'm saying it's a honeymoon period, because I can already see this 13 campaign and then come back to me in a month or so. We'll be playing with five at the backs very shortly. And I also think counter play will be very good for a long while, at least. And especially when the difference between teams now isn't necessarily based on pace.

[00:12:40] People will catch up on that soon enough. So we might actually see fullbacks coming back into center defenders. Although I think in this game you should notice a difference because the play styles or the roles, I should say. But I can see people going a little bit more that style. And you see a high line scoring goals now. So I think I had seven draws in a row this often or something like that. And none of them were without goals. Let's put it like this.

[00:13:08] At least every match had four goals. So there's something to be. But if people catch up, the players catch up, I do think we'll be like Chris says, in a certain state of meta in a couple of weeks again. And probably people have something to complain about that. What I don't really like is people saying, and after reading the patch, playing too much, saying, for example, Finestial is broken. It's not working anymore. It's that. Because I used Salah and Son still. And both can still score Finest.

[00:13:37] I saved about a dozen of them. Although Salah can't do the really weird curves anymore, which never should have gone in in the first place. But Finestial, still perfectly fine. I think it's, we're getting into a game that's getting more balanced and balanced every single week. And I'm very happy to see that. Can I just add John as well? I mean, I don't know if you caught Monday's pro event. I have to say, shout out to the two commentators. Is it Brandon and Richard? Because they made it very, very exciting.

[00:14:06] It was actually good fun to watch for a change. But there was bags of goals in that, John. I mean, there was absolutely, I mean, Vergang had a 7-7 draw, which was quite interesting. His reaction afterwards, he was quite upset about it. I don't know if I got a bill for punching those chairs a few times. But actually, for me, who's not a great lover of the FC Pro event, the games were pretty exciting. So we had quite an exciting game to start with. And it's interesting. It'll be interesting to see how this game is going to go going forward after the patch.

[00:14:35] Because the goals we're scoring were all different types of goals. Now, I know this is the tip of the spear, the best of the best, the 1% to 1%. But as I say, it was a very exciting tournament, a lot of goals. And if this is what the game is going to be like going forward, then I think we're in for a lot of fun. Yeah, definitely. But let's see if it's not getting into FIFA 17, where you just everyone plays 4-2-3-1, throw a pack and go for counters. That's the only thing I'm a little bit worried about.

[00:15:04] And I think it might actually be very viable. If you have fast scams, it could definitely be a strategy to sit behind. He says six at the back to make sure it's harder to get conceded because it's not that hard to actually score. But hey, you can't have it all. And let's see how this develops. But yeah, hats off. I'm very happy. And let us know in the comments on Spotify, YouTube, you name it as well. All about what your thoughts are about this.

[00:15:33] Talking about comments before we dive into Team of the Year, Yngvi. We had some chats from this Tuesday show. Because Spotify people sometimes have weird usernames, so I can't really mention the username. But they say about rush, it's easy to defend with really fast attacks as most teams don't actually defend at all. For example, Yngvi needs gold.

[00:15:59] He's so fast to neutralize counters, which makes you win this game, especially when the other certain players only want to score goals and make assists. The stats don't matter much. They just try to frustrate their attacks, which is a good remark. And of course, thank you for that as well. And let us know in the comments what you think about the other thing I've asked this week, but I don't know if it's actually relevant anymore.

[00:16:26] Should I go for red or blue stones? Yngvi, what do you think people say the most? Red. Great. Grace, what do you think people say the most? I think we said red, Yngvi. We were very much in the red camp, weren't we? Yep. I said team blue, eh? You said team blue, yeah. It's exactly 50%. So that didn't help much, but thank you for voting. I still haven't done it.

[00:16:55] But then if you add Yngvi and I's votes in, then actually red wins, doesn't it? So well done, Yngvi. Congratulations. Take the win, my friend. That's fair, except we never count on these things. All right. Team of the year has arrived. We have the attackers in packs. Yngvi, tell us all about what do you want me to put on the screen and which do you want to discuss? Or shall we start with the fact that on opening the game when you actually can get in, there's a free 90 rated Sidon card for everyone. We can mention the icons as well.

[00:17:24] And the icons. Because there are icons. And the icons, yes. Team of the year icons in packs, which is nice. I'm not sure how many will be packed. But we have Koeman, we have Thierry Henry, we have Karfu, we have Pushkash and we have Pelé. So congratulations to all of you that packed those cards because they look very good. Koeman actually looks usable as a CDM. I think that would be his best position maybe.

[00:17:56] But yeah, surprisingly good stats. The icons only have two play styles plus IC. Unusual. Unusual. No, they will be usable. Icons always has the special magic, I think. I'm pretty sure you'll be okay with if you should pack a Thierry Henry, for example. Same with Pushkash and Kafu. Pushkash is double four star as well now.

[00:18:23] So of course the prices reflect that. But people should maybe have a look at Koeman if they need a CDM. Yeah, because I think, yeah, well, play styles and everything suits him. Yeah, double four star as well. Holding plus plus, deep playing playmaker plus plus. So as a CDM. So yeah. Good price.

[00:18:52] Nothing to score for that, eh? No. So, well, there's lots there where we have SBCs of course, but there's both men and women attackers now as last year. I don't know if we should do the women first. Yeah, whichever you prefer, mate. Yeah, we can do the women first. We should also discuss the Z-Down card soon. Yeah, we will do that after. We can do the Z-Down first then.

[00:19:21] You seem very eager to discuss it. Well, we don't get many presents from EA. Just sit down first. Yeah, that's a free card, which is really nice. Yeah, the fact we get a free card is something I was like, wait. I did not see that coming at least. That's, I think that's... Or did you see it coming? Because I didn't know that. No, I think it caught everyone by surprise suddenly. And it didn't leak too early either.

[00:19:50] So there were some rumors that there would be a card, but then it's like everybody thought it was just a 90-rated. But actually, if you are a EA club member in the game, you will get an evolution to make him a 94-rated Z-Down. A free evolution as well, right? Yep, free evolution. So then there's also a 94-rated Z. Not the one you're showing on the screen.

[00:20:16] No, no, but that one has dropped 845,000. The base. 62 hours ago. Oh, wow. That's... Oh, I feel sorry for the people that have him tradable and... Minus 57% since release. So we're recording this two hours after it released. So that's how unexpected this was. Yeah. So I'll give EA props for this one because that's a really nice thing.

[00:20:44] Of course, I've heard people complain about... No, don't go there. Don't go there. Come on, complain. Let's go for a minute. Somebody was complaining that the play styles weren't good enough, the play style plus. But it's a free card. You can make it a 94-rated card with two play styles plus. There's nothing to complain about there. I think it's a really nice thing. This card has on-centimate fielder.

[00:21:12] He's got holding plus, but he has box-to-box plus plus. Playmaker plus plus. Half-winger plus plus. Yeah. I just feel the cams. Five-star five-star. I loved there, John. Couldn't it really? The cams with just the plus. I mean, it could have been a couple of plus-pluses in there. Come on. It's a free card. Come on, John. And then Acrobat as his play style plus. I mean, come on. That's... It's a free card that would be one million plus. On that card, I'm discarding that waste of time. Exactly.

[00:21:43] No, but seriously, though. I mean, why... Not only do I get excited by this card, I think it's actually a proper good card, right? Yeah. But giving everyone this card for free. I think the 90-rated one is usable as well. Yeah. So there's nothing wrong with that, actually. And then if you give him the... Evolution. Unfortunately, you can't show that yet, so... Well, I can actually help you with that. Just give me a few seconds.

[00:22:13] He gets, of course, an extra play style plus, which is ping pass plus. And that's a really good play style plus, I think, at least for a cam. Yeah. Probably as a center mid as well. So if you check your messages, boss, you will see how he will look. And that card is... Yeah. Very good. Very good. He has normal finesse. He has normal incisive pass, normal long ball,

[00:22:41] normal technical flare, first touch, and Trivela with 94 composure as well. High 90s in shooting. 92 short pass, 91 long pass, 92 vision. This is without any chemistry cards. All right, Chris. You try to destroy this card. This free 94 rated... Madman. Go on.

[00:23:09] I understand why the base one dropped, I think, when you see those stats. Did you mention it's free? Yeah. I mean, defensive awareness at 81, that's quite poor, isn't it? Let's be honest about it. And then you've got curve as well. So, I mean, he could do better there at 83, that is. I mean... And he's... To be fair in this new meta of extremely quick players as well, I think, you know, you're looking at him thinking he is a little bit slow. So, I'm not sure he makes everybody's team.

[00:23:39] No. No, please guys, please do not turn off. I am only, of course, Jessen. He is an extremely good card. And also, let's be honest, if you're a football lover, you love Zidane the player. He was absolutely amazing. You know, you watch his videos and that iconic white shirt of France City War, just tremendous to watch. You cannot complain. Fair play to EA. We may not get many Team of the Year cards, or none at all probably, but this is a tremendous card to get.

[00:24:08] And I imagine most teams will fit somewhere. For me, I'm just a little bit disappointed that Cam's don't have the plus plus play styles. Roll, sorry. I'd like to have seen that, because that would have made it an exceptional card for me to use. Yeah, but still... He has a Playmaker plus plus for Cam. He has a Shadow Striker plus plus for Cam. Oh, sorry. I thought it was 6CM. Classic 10 plus plus. Sorry, my eyes are that bad, Ingby, that I couldn't make that. I thought the 90 card doesn't show on the 7 plus pluses. Is this a new one, is it?

[00:24:37] This is the 94 rated one, upgraded one, yeah. Yeah. I know for the upgrading, V. Is that like a week's work? Well, could I actually add that to my defense as well, because to be fair to Caden, our good friend Caden, who's hopefully come to Crete with us in 25. Remember, folks, Crete 25 just around the corner. Team of the year finishes and Crete 25 hype starts. You can't go wrong. What an amazing event it's going to be. But Caden, my good friend, says it takes 12 games. You're right, Caden. Eight wins, four levels. Come on, EA. That's far too much.

[00:25:07] It's squad battles. You can do squad battles, and then you'll get nice packs on Sunday as well. All right, girls, go to that. We can say this is a 10 out of 10 player. We get it for free. We can't complain. No. Even, like, there's many people that won't get a team of the year card. But they all, everyone walks away with a 90-rated seed down card. And you can say, yeah, but you're not, listen, everyone gets the card, so it's not even in my advantage. What? It doesn't matter.

[00:25:36] Enjoy a really nice free card. Exactly. It just falls slightly behind zero. Roberto is the best sort of card out there for an SBC or three, because he has not got a Santa hat on. All right. Yngwie, what else do you want to discuss, my friend? I kind of fell off the horse. We got, I can mention the two player SBCs. Sure.

[00:26:01] We got a flashback Kevin De Bruyne, which is 94 rated with incisive pass plus and ping pass plus. Can play cam and center mid. Forstaskier, Feistawikvut looks a very good card. He is, though, 20 challenges to compete. So 1.8 million to do from scratch.

[00:26:30] So most of your father will maybe go there if you want to go to this card. But I'm pretty sure that this card is very good in game. I mean, if you have an untradeable Thunderstruck 93 rated Kevin De Bruyne, you should maybe skip the SBC. But if you don't, then I think, I don't think you can go wrong. It's going to be a great card in game. It's pretty much a team of the year card.

[00:26:56] I think with those stats, it is, as I said, a lot of fodder slash coins. But he will be doing well for your team. I'm pretty sure. Do you know, I find it surprising when you've got that card like the Zedan card, the 94 rated one that's come out, and you've got this Kevin De Bruyne at 1.8 million. You know, I think... Now you want everything for free, Chris. Your dad's not allowed. No, hold on. Let me talk. Let me make my point here, John.

[00:27:25] What I was going to say is the Zedan card is a great card. Let's be honest. I was only jesting there. But Zedan card is a great card. This card, what's the difference between this card and the Zedan card which we're all going to have? Why would someone spend 1.8 million unless you're Belgian, Kevin De Bruyne's mum, or a Man City fan? Sorry, Kevin De Bruyne's mum. Maybe if you want to use two cams, three cams formation.

[00:27:55] So 4-2-2, 4-2-2-2, for example. Even a 4-2, you get De Bruyne and Zedan as centre midfielders, you're still going. I think you'll be fine. So, well, it's at least something you can grind. It's out for a month. So if you have lots of duplicates that you want to use, then you can, of course, just chip on doing this SBC, I think.

[00:28:23] So people complained that there weren't any good SBCs to throw cards in, and now they have. But I'm just wondering, is this maybe where you'll find, you know, this is 1.8 million for this card. How much are we looking for the midfielders when they're released? I mean, this card's not Disney ready. When they come out, they're going to be a fair price, aren't they? You'd imagine.

[00:28:51] 3 million plus, I think. Yeah. Which makes this card look good in perspective anyway. So, right? I mean, when you say 1.8 million, I mean, it's a lot of stuff. But if you have 1.8 million for a team of the year player-like, that isn't too bad. No. But, you know, it just, it feels, it feels expensive, John. That's my personal opinion on this card.

[00:29:22] It feels expensive. Having not really used Kevin De Bruyne, I haven't seen him much in game either. Does he fit? You know, the current meta. Is this card going to get overtaken pretty quickly? I just worry that this price, and I realise you can't bring him in at 500,000 because everyone's going to do them. There has to be some sort of tax on it, but it just feels very pricey for me at this stage of the game. Is there a loan available? You don't think so, right? No, normally on these cards. No.

[00:29:52] I mean, I've never in my life played an SPC where 20, I'm looking at the SPCs as you can see, of 98, 89, 89, 99, 89, 89, I can't. That's all right. I'm like, no, it's all right for me. But that's more of the work than I think their value is in there.

[00:30:14] Because I do think 1.8-ish million for a team of the year level midfielder is actually on par value, if I'm honest. I'm not doing it, but I don't think it's betfaliant. Yeah. I mean, it just feels pricey, John. And I know I think we might feel a wee bit different about it, but for me, just a little bit pricey at this stage of the game. All right.

[00:30:42] Let us know, let us know again in the comments what you think. And for people that are tuning in live, which of course you can tune in live if you're a part of the Discord. You can see the link before we start and just click the link and you're in. Let us know what you think. But like Yngwie says, there's players available now to toss your coins in. And cards. And cards. Yeah. And duplicate storage can be freed up a little bit.

[00:31:09] And if you have lots of cards in your duplicate storage and you need a goalkeeper, you can of course do the team of the year. Iker Casillas costs around 286,000, 87,000 coins from scratch. And he has, he's probably, yeah, he's the first goalkeeper with two placed out plus. He has the footwork plus and far reach plus, which is nice.

[00:31:37] And he also has 89 reactions, which is nice. Very high. Forced a weak foot with 89 kicking. It's, he's got, also got ping pass, long ball, far throw, cross claimer, rush out and deflector. So he has, I think pretty much every goalkeeping play style. Plus. Why is he crying? I think he's happy because he is just one in the lottery.

[00:32:07] Or he's very hungry and eating his T-shirt. I mean, it's almost like John there has devised a goalkeeper. We know he loves the far reach. He loves goalkeepers that can play long ball. It's almost like he's got in touch with EA and says, build me this awesome goalkeeper. The only difference is he hasn't played for Juve. But no, for me, I think it's a card that you would consider. I mean, we know who the goalkeeper is for the team of the year. Martinez.

[00:32:37] Yeah, I'm a Martinez. Don't know the height of the female goalkeeper, Berger, I'm afraid. So I can't tell you that. But I mean, if she isn't six foot, then that's going to be a problem for you. So this card is one of these almost must do's for me. Yeah. And 72 speed as well. So he has a 74 exploration. And he can kick. It's just a perfect goalkeeper. Like I've always said, there's not many keepers that have far reach plus.

[00:33:07] If a keeper has far reach plus, that's a big plus. This goalkeeper can do, you can put him on the line. You can put him on sweeper keeper. He can kick. He's pretty fast. It's great reflexes, great handling. Nothing wrong with this card. Fits in every single team. And 300,000? You said something like that? 280? Just go for it, especially this time of year. You open packs, you can probably just... Did I do the Biffon SPC? I did do the Biffon SPC.

[00:33:36] And I will replace, which it hurts my heart, right? But I will replace Biffon with this Casillas. So that's what Alan's asked that in the chat. He's asked, is Casillas worth doing if you did the Biffon SPC? And John, definitely? Yeah, I think 100%. I mean, like I said, Biffon is my hero. I traveled once to Turin to see if I can get an autograph, which I didn't get, which still was a good trip. But nevertheless, no autograph. That's how much of a hero he is for me.

[00:34:05] But in game, he is not on his level, I think. I take it that's not true of the story you told us, John, that you handed him the pen and he dropped it. He threw it back to me, but it's a different story for different times. And just as well as, HiTrix is on the chat tonight. Is he on the chat tonight to tell us that he has packed team of the year, Hanson? Congratulations. Yeah, congratulations, my friend. That is the Discord pack luck guy, the way, guys.

[00:34:34] So if there is ever a reason to join the Discord. Patreon as well. There you go. That's extra luck as well. So he has picked up on his first rep of the year as well, picked up the Hanson card. He had the choice between that. That's an awesome tool. Yeah, amazing. So well done, my friend. And he says Berger is 5'11". So for me, that's probably a pass. So Casillas will be getting done sometime soon. Yeah, for me as well. I'm not getting hyped by the players' impact,

[00:35:03] but I'm getting hyped by the fact that Kevin Zidane can do this Casillas. You can grind towards Kevin De Bruyne. Yeah. There's a lot of nice stuff going on at the moment. Is there any more nice stuff you want to discuss? FC related. I want to just scope this one though. Well, there's... I think there's some objective players as well. You can unlock if you want.

[00:35:33] Sure. Because Mika Utats said that place for Olympic Lyon is 90 rated. You can unlock by doing objectives, it seems. So... Well, that's a little bit more... He's an honorable mention card. A little bit disappointing with 3 star weak foot. But other than that, the stats look very good actually. And...

[00:36:03] If you had 4 star, then I think it would be a really, really good card. But still, it's a free card by just playing. Should be quite fun in-game I think as well. Has first touch plus normal finesse chip shot power shot. Technical flare and Trivela. So some good attacking play styles as well.

[00:36:29] And as we usually say, he's going to fit an evolution later where you can boost his weak foot. I'm pretty sure. I think he links with a certain left back or left winger which I have really trouble pronouncing his name. Faradona. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. Which I packed by the way during the wild card stinging. Yeah. I think it's a pretty cool card. Yeah. But it's a cool card. And if you can... And yeah, you can say the weak foot is his weak spot.

[00:36:58] Which is fair of course. But with 90 speed generally speaking without boost. 90 composure, great finishing stats. There's really nothing wrong with this card. I would be critical if it was on the market or an SBC. But in a free card, I'm less inclined to do so. Yeah, I think it's a nice card. He should probably be usable in some kind of objectives later as well.

[00:37:25] Yeah, for every time you have to play with Georgia players. Or something from Liga. So, some kind of life friendly. You can try him in rush as well probably. I think he could be a fun card. Pretty cool, eh? Yeah. Anything else? I would like to ask a question if that's okay for Yngwie. Because we've got him on the show. We may as well pick his brains. So, Yngwie, if I was to do...

[00:37:56] And this is a wee bit unfair. I've sprung this on you. The Team of the Year blueprint with the Palmer SBC. He'll be a 94 rated cam. And it will cost me 500,000 coins or 1,000 FIFA points. Yeah. Is that a better option than the midfielder that's coming out? In your opinion. And guys, I've just sprung this on Yngwie as usual. He's not a chance to look. We're testing him. Harry Hula there.

[00:38:26] Norwegian Indiana Jones. We'll buy him some time. Yngwie, normally when Chris jumps on you with these questions, you just say yes, you look at him straight forward and you give him a little grin. And then that's a good one. I don't think you'll be able to afford the Team of the Year card. And I think I have the 86 rated Cole Palmer in form. Mm-hmm.

[00:38:51] And he'll get the finish shot plus rapid plus first touch plus normal technical flare with pass incisive pass. And shadow striker normal plus one. Winger plus plus inside forward plus plus wide playmaker plus plus. Advanced forward plus a striker. I think as a shadow striker, he could be good as a cam, but I think he would be better if you used him wide.

[00:39:22] I still think he would be a good option. That is quite a good SBC, I mean, I know we don't normally talk about the paid ones. Evolution, yeah. 95 composure as well. 94 stamina. So he's going to have double four-star skill moves and weak foot. Can play cam, right mid, right wing and striker.

[00:39:48] And the card looks really nice design wise as well. Mm-hmm. To be honest. It feels like an almost a no brainer this evolution. I know you've got to pay, but for what you're getting, it seems pretty decent. And there'll be a lot of players out there that will not necessarily do Palmer, but you can do if you've done a, you know, a lease or there'll be somebody in your club, you know, actually it's worth having. Asensio as well, if you did the numero foot objective thing.

[00:40:16] And if you have the showdown Pedro card, there's some Skoward Foundation cards as well. The Quintero, Paris. And you have lots of, of cards you can put in this. Probably many have 87 rated evolutions. They've been waiting for ages to be able to, to upgrade with a new one. Yeah, exactly.

[00:40:46] So I don't think you can kind of go wrong with, with this evolution. If you have a player you really like and feeling that, okay, maybe it's a little bit behind now, I wish you could boost him. And then I don't think you can go wrong. I know it's a lot of coins, but I still think if you did that card on the market for Cole Palmer, I think he would cost at least double minimum.

[00:41:15] So, so you can't really go wrong with, if you want to do Cole Palmer, to be honest. I must admit, it's a strange show. There's too much positivity. We need to find something negative. I thought there was something negative. We have an issue. We have a big, big issue. Okay. We've decided on this podcast that weeks ago, that is no point talking about expensive players. We want to highlight some cheap beasts.

[00:41:44] I'm looking at the current female team of the year, the three attackers and the male team of the year, the three attackers. There's no cheap beast here. So we can't talk about it. No, drop it. So, yeah, but. Well, there's one that's zero, but probably not because it's actually zero, but just extinct. Yeah. Lauren James is extinct at 1.7 million. I'm pretty sure within an hour or maybe more.

[00:42:15] Well, not before midnight, at least I think the range will be changed. So she's extinct. A 96 rated Lauren James. I'm pretty sure she'll go for over 2 millions, maybe more. I mean, we can talk about these cars, but they're just brilliant anyways, right? Whenever you get one. Yeah. If you pack one or can afford to buy one, I think if you want to, you can use these cards. Well, after team of the season as well.

[00:42:43] I think they will be quite competitive for a long time. So they look really, really good. Yeah. Just yeah. Crazy prices. Sala 5.7, but five stars came with four star weak foot. Of course, Mbappe is extinct. Vinicius is 12.7 millions. So the men are very expensive.

[00:43:14] The Sophia Smith is 4.7. And Hansen is 7.150. So I really think that Sophia Smith is going to be insane in game now after the patch. I just, if like, if you pack one of these cards, we've spoken about before, but I know it's not everyone watching to listen to every single show, which of course you should do.

[00:43:41] But if you're not, I just want to ask him if you pack someone tonight, do you sell? Do you keep them? I'll keep them because I think they'll, once they're out of packs, then they will go quite high. So yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't sell now unless you're desperate to get some other card that costs around the same price. I don't know.

[00:44:11] So this first owner team of the year is quite special, but I know it can be tempting to sell. I just, I will pack, nor if I pack anything, it's never tradable. So I wouldn't know, but I would hold as well. I think that's a goal, right? Unless you need the money. But if you wait two weeks, could rise even more. Last week, last year we saw it with, I think Haaland.

[00:44:38] Sophia Smith was 1.9 something, almost doubled in price. But she started so high at the moment. I mean, these prices, I think... Can't really double anymore. I think they'll come, they may come down as people start to pack. I mean, this is the ultimate, these three, isn't they? We've always said that, you know, the three men, the three women, you pack one of them, they're going to change your team completely. The midfielders, you know, if you pick a Rodri, yep, that would be great.

[00:45:08] But someone who scores goals for fun is going to be awesome for your team. I just think it's just a little bit pricey at the moment. And I hope it comes down. As someone who has nowhere near that level of coins. As I say, the Evo for the Palma is probably the one that's most appealing at the moment. But then of course, I'll start like Evo and then probably pack them untradeable to the team of the year. Knowing how EA likes to stick it to me on my account. But...

[00:45:36] Tube theory is true about that. If you have the... Inform 87 rated, Osman Dembele. I think he looks super good as well in that evolution. So, I would check what players you have in your club as well. And see what fits your team now. And maybe a little bit for the future as well. How you want to go forward.

[00:46:07] Because there are some cards you can make crazy good. If you did that player, the trailblazer Rafinha SPC, I think that looks insane as well. If you put him through the paces there. So, there's a... Probably the informal Yamal as well looks... Will look quite usable if you put him through the evolution. So, there are a lot of... Yeah, there are.

[00:46:36] Just look what you have in your club first and then... The only thing I'm missing in this whole program so far is a good way of... Keep grinding picks or packs. I think we'll get player picks. Maybe not until Monday. I don't know. So, just on that... We're talking about evolutions and that. The centre back won't come out. Is the second part now out for people who may not?

[00:47:02] Actually, some people struggle to find the first part. Is the second part out yet? I did. It wasn't the easiest, John. It wasn't the easiest to actually find the final two. It would be well. Yngwie said you should get thrown over a final time. Where is this Evo? I can't really find it. But yeah, I found it tonight. Yeah.

[00:47:25] The part two is available if you play the one match objective that is just called Team of the Year, where you get a hunter chem style and a shadow chem style by just winning one match. Then you unlock the second step of that group task called Team of the Year as well. It's called Team of the Year daily play.

[00:47:53] So, that's the second step on the ladder for the... You can only use one card in the Team of the Year evolution that came out. So, remember that so you don't select the wrong one. It's called Team of the Year Evo Star 1. And the card you get there, you can put in Team of the Year Evo Star 2, which is unlockable today by just winning one match. But you can only unlock it once you have played the first one, right?

[00:48:23] Yeah. You have to use the same card in. There's going to be six in total. And now we have two unlocked. But once you put a card there, you need to use that card for all six. So, make it a good selection with the card you go with. And it's a card that you actually plan on using. So, you can't like do it once and then use fodder and think you can go on to the next step if that won't work. You said I should do Troner, so he's going all the way, man.

[00:48:51] Yeah, because they can only have this center back position. If they have more, they won't fit. So, I think that's probably the only almost you can use from Feyenoord in this evolution. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. But I look forward to it. I like the fact that with Stage 1 his base goes up by 35 or something. Yeah, so the agility gets plus 20 in the second one.

[00:49:18] Balance plus 40 reactions plus 25. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, there's lots. Well, it's actually more. It's 40 agility, 40 balance, 50 reactions, 50 composure, 50 ball control, and 50 dribbling.

[00:49:37] But of course, they are capped at 80 agility, 80 balance, 90 reactions, 85 composure, 86 ball control, 82 dribbling. So, but that's really good stats for a center back. Yeah. Or you can also use it as a CDM because you get a CDM position as well. So, we're 50 minutes in. There's still no negativity.

[00:50:09] We need to find something. We need to find something. Yeah, this ain't good, eh? We'll be getting cold, eh? Shills, John. I know you get cold all the time, but me and Nink, you'll be getting the hate messages soon. Yeah. As well. He said, what did John put in the water today? And if you want to complain, just complain on Twitter. I'm not reading that anyway. Okay. So, yeah. I was getting emotional. You see this? It's amazing.

[00:50:38] It's nice to give good credit when the credit is due and he has done a good job now. So, seriously though, I actually am looking forward to playing. I'm looking forward to trying to get us some cards. I'm looking forward to doing... I'm actually, I can't imagine I'm actually saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to Evoing a player. Oh, this needs to be kind of marked as a promo spot or something.

[00:51:06] Yeah, wait one week and we never packed that team of the year player. We'll be back into complain mode and saying that I should get my money back because my right winger Salah has a financial plus and, well, financial plus isn't that good anymore. But of course I'm joking. I think it's so good. But yeah. Great start of the promo, right? To be fair, John, the Evo that you're doing is what this Evo should be about. It should be about people using, you know, different friendly who supports Liverpool.

[00:51:35] They're flying at the moment. There's plenty of good cards coming from there. Slow ball, hey? Well, no talk about that. We've had loads of chat. He's not won anything yet. He's under pressure. Arteta's coming for him. Don't you worry about that. Liverpool are under pressure. I can feel them starting to crumble. But the Evo that you're doing, John, putting your players from your team in the Evo is exactly what this should be about. It should be about, you know, we had it with Grandpa's team last week, you know, full of Nottingham Forest players. I think Billy put one up. I don't know if they're full of Birmingham City.

[00:52:05] I didn't quite catch his team, but Billy's the same as Birmingham City players. Myself with Rangers talking foot with St Johnston. That's what Evo's are all about. And I say fair play to EA for putting them in. Yeah, very much. So I agree. Talking about team of the week or actually community team of the week. That's our last topic of today. I'm going to give the word to Ingrid while I try to make sure it comes up on the screen.

[00:52:31] Because we have a little segment that is called Community Team of the Week. It's so much fun to hear Dan like this. Community Team of the Week on the Discord, which of course is free to join for everyone as long as you're a little bit friendly. There is a forum and an interactive forum where you can post your team. And you can keep posting your team every single week.

[00:53:01] So you can take, well, make, keep track of your progression throughout FC 25. And of course, everyone can see your coin balance, which is also very daunting to see for me as well. Sorry we didn't cut that off, but yeah. I was like, don't put the coin balance in there. Looking at the current one we select, Ingrid selected and he's 4 million in and a great team. And I'm like, I'm at 4,000 coins, but that's a different story.

[00:53:28] And Ingrid picks one of those teams you post in there. You are automatically added to draw. Ingrid picks a team which is either very good, very creative or just plain fun. And Ingrid, who did you pick this week and which team did I put on the screen? That's Gunna Sun's team, which is of course, yeah, just really nice all over.

[00:53:56] But a good mix between SPC players. Decent strikers as well. Objectives players. Well, he had a decent striker here with R95. I don't think you can go wrong with that. And Santa Claus in midfield there with... Washed after the pass. Washed. No, he's not washed. He is really good. I managed to sprint from my own half with him. Washed, I say.

[00:54:25] And scored a goal with him even. So he's not washed. He's brilliant still. And he put... Ingrid, he's still available. Don't bank... He's stopped mentioning it. Sorry, Sanch. It's a great card to do it. And then he's put him in the Champs Red Evolutions as well. Same with Player of the Month, Finley Jr. Of course, I'm pretty sure he's going to be insane now after the patch. He has the Vitinia card. It's really good. The Winter Wild cards.

[00:54:57] Excellent CDM actually. Very good. I don't see him often, but I've tried him. He's really good. He's shabby. He has as well. Center mid. Really good card. Excellent passing, of course. Right mid, he has the Neto card. The finish shot version. Really good card. He wasn't that good before the patch, but after the patch. Whole nother level. He feels so quick and nippy and good with the ball and everything.

[00:55:24] And he really surprised me after the patch. So that's a really cool one. He got the Thunderstruck Kunde right back. Great card. Don't see him too often anymore. You couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It's insanely hard to face that card. You usually get away with a tackle, a long toe to stop you. So I really like that.

[00:55:50] And he has a Juventus center back, Bremner, I think. Yes. The Trailblazer one, 89 rated. He has the objectives, Kunaate, 91 rated. The SPC PSG left back, Nuno Mendes. He's also really good with the... He has Quick Step Plus and Normal Rapid. So he will be really nice now after the patch.

[00:56:18] And of course, best goalkeeper in the world, Allison, in goal. That's a bonus. Thank you. I can hear the acceptance. So is that why you picked it then? No. No, it's just a great team. Is that a clue for people? If you want to win community two weeks, put a Liverpool player in. No, that's not enough. So Chris, last week, I entered a team myself, which every player is from a different promo. It has two Liverpool players in it.

[00:56:48] And two Norwegian players in it. Still no way. You were lucky there. I still didn't win. Norwegians in Liverpool, that's how you get it. You got John and Ruisa, you're laughing. I didn't win it. I still didn't win it. John tried to cheat to get inside the community of the week. But yeah. I mean, I mentioned my good friend Billy there. He did put a team in. I think he may have put it in the wrong channel. So Billy put it in for next week, if you haven't done already. And he actually put Buffon in his team. So yeah, I saw that one.

[00:57:17] So Billy, I might need to change your goalkeeper at a Liverpool player and you'll definitely get in. But no, that's a cracking team, that one. Yeah. Good mix of players. It's a cracking team. I like to see that. But it's real good fun. I mean, Vinny Jr. I played Rush last night and a guy had Vinny Jr. And I mean, the card just looked absolutely insane. It was unbelievable. So that one would be amazing. Yeah. Brilliant.

[00:57:44] We're almost through the show and there's so much to talk about, but let's continue. Tuesday when Nathan and Shaq, of course, record episode 654 already. We also will have some news about events shortly. We might have found a new partner. Something to do with, well, feeding. Something. Something. With food. Let's put it like this.

[00:58:12] Which we'll hopefully be able to talk about more soon as well. And, well, I'm just, I'm eager to dive just into the game, keep playing, find out a new patch and help people talk about that. But before we go, if you are willing to support the show, of course, that goes, does the best. If you go to patreon.com for a food and review, it costs you about a buck to a week to start off with.

[00:58:35] But if you are joining there now, there are some new four, three tactics available for everyone on there as well. So right away, you can, of course, find all the other benefits like getting early access to show the moment we are done editing and much, much more like, hey, getting invites to events or something like that. But we'll talk about that shortly. Tuesday, more in depth with Nathan and, of course, Shaq.

[00:59:02] I don't think I'll be able to join, but if I am slightly able to, I will. And else we'll talk next Friday about my first week with the patch. I'm pretty sure about that. Envy, anything to add in this team of the year special first episode? No, I think it's a really good start where we are now. So hats off to EA. And this is probably a good time to say the recording button has been off all episode. Yeah.

[00:59:33] Never to be heard episode of positivity, isn't it? I saw Chris blink like, no, he's joking. Yeah, my heart skipped a bit there. I had it for a second there. Chris, anything to add from you, my friend? I just want to say, people, look, the hype is real. Team of the year is here. Come join the Discord. You know, get a Discord pack luck. Get Patreon pack luck if you really want those Uber cards. Come in, put your pack pulls in the Discord.

[01:00:02] We'd love to see them. You'll get loads of GG's as well. If you can't join the Discord, I don't know why you can't, but if you can't, send us on our socials if you pack something decent and we'll get you a mention on the show. We'd love to see those guys. Best luck to everybody. Definitely. I'll have a great weekend. Enjoy Team of the Year. Let's see if we can continue this hype next week. But for now, it is time for us to... Drop it! Drop it! Drop it! Drop it!