655: TOTY Honourable Mentions & Shadow Patch!?

[00:00:01] Hello footies and welcome back to FUT IN REVIEW. It's Jon here and I'm joined tonight by the ever reliable Yngwie and a very special host making his much anticipated return. It's Daniel. We are thrilled to have him back on the show and we know you'll be just as excited as we are.

[00:00:26] Now the theme of the year has been completed and tonight we'll dive into how it's transformed our squads and share our first impression of the latest gameplay patch. Did it deliver the improvements we've been waiting for or did we all adapt and what's going on with a certain shadow patch? Well stay tuned as we discuss it all. And before we kick off, this episode is proudly brought to you by XXLnutrition.com.

[00:00:54] A trusted name for professional and recreational athletes like myself from whey protein and creatine to pre-workouts, vitamins and even premium sportswear. XXL Nutrition ensures quality and innovation in every single product. So if you're looking to up your game both on and off the pitch, XXL Nutrition has you covered. So grab your controller, pour yourself a drink and let's get into today's show.

[00:01:20] So let me say by start by saying hi to the one and only, the legend and not even going to start with Yngwie. Hello Dan. Welcome back my friend. Oh, it's great to be back, John. I thought you were going to say, and after Mr. Reliable Yngwie, it's Mr. Unreliable. I was, I honestly had a little bit of doubt. I was like, I can't do this. This wouldn't be nice.

[00:01:42] Unbelievable. No, thank you very much. It's great to be back on the show. I've missed recording on Tuesday, but I've left the Tuesday club in very good hands in Nathan's shack. So I've been enjoying being on the other side of the fence while I tackle some other challenges in my professional life at the moment. It's just taking me away from being able to record in daytimes, but no, it's great to be back. It's, it's great that the game is in such a great place as well. After the patch, we will rubbish the shadow patch stuff later.

[00:02:11] I know, um, team of the year has been great. I've already packed a blue, so I'm extra happy. Sorry, Yngwie. Um, but I will do my best to try and be the positivity if I can on this very show. That's good. Leaves me to play another role today. Uh, Yngwie, how are you doing, my friend? I am good. I am good. Um, well, let's, shall we just start? I wanted to say, let's discuss our week first, because I think it's time for

[00:02:41] It's so weird to hear Dan's voice while actually Dan's on the show, but hey, thanks for making those voiceovers, Dan. This week in Ultimate Team, we give this week a rating from one from being really poor to a 10 for being really good. Um, and also tell us what is your highlight or what was your worst nightmare this week? Um, Daniel said he brought the, he's going to bring the positive in. So let's start with Daniel. Daniel, your week in foot, mate.

[00:03:09] Let's give it a, uh, let's give it a nine. I'm holding up nine fingers here to the camera for those of you listening on the, on a, on the podcast audio feed. It's been great. I think that our biggest fear over team of the year was that pack weight would be as unbelievably miserable as we saw with FC 24 and FIFA 23. And whilst many people, I, I, I know I joke, um, in present company, but our discord has seen, I think more blues than we saw last year already.

[00:03:38] It's certainly very, very difficult to pack one, but I think I've been pleasantly surprised and encouraged by seeing not just in our discord, but around and about the community that, that these cards do seem obtainable. I think the prices reflect that as well. So that was been a massive positive. And again, as I said, a few minutes ago, I think the gameplay patch has just made things so much better.

[00:04:00] It actually makes you want to pick up the controller and play the game rather than just, you know, it got to the stage at times where I was just playing out of habit rather than, you know, real enjoyment. So yeah, I've got to give it a big thumbs up. I think the SBCs they've released have been great. Love been loving using Gareth Bale. I think there's been some good cheap options as well. That Cancelo card cracking value for a right or a left back.

[00:04:23] Honorable mentions today, maybe the one slight meh point because there's not a huge amount of excitement in those players. But as I said, overall, that is very nitpicky. I would, I'd give it a very solid nine. That's, well, that's some start of the show, Envi. You're Regan Fouto. I'll give it an eight. That's, that's been way higher than I expected you to give this to me.

[00:04:50] Because I've been having, I probably had one day that the gameplay felt a little bit off, but I think the servers were quite loaded with the Dmo of The Air stuff. Then other than that, it's been really, really fun. I scored some really cool goals, tried lots of players, done some evolutions. So, so I've had fun. If I had packed a little bit better cards, I'd probably give it a nine again. But I think eight is quite nice to give as well. So, yeah. Brilliant.

[00:05:19] Well, I'm, I'm going to be on a seven though. Sorry, guys. Sorry. That's okay. That makes an average of an eight though. So that's still not bad, but it's not topping last week's nine. I'm giving it a seven because something I sort of feared has come true this week from my experience. I'm not going to even going to talk about team of the year pulls. That's not influencing my rating because I also haven't packed the blue.

[00:05:47] But I'm, I said a week ago, what could happen is that people start adapting, play more drop back, keep holding the ball. And it's something I can see happening more FIFA 17 style because it felt very similar. And that's what I've been experiencing up in Div 1 this week where people just score because scoring isn't that hard. You can't score a goal in a match, right? And then just keep the ball from the rest of the match. Go 4-5-1.

[00:06:13] And basically like you try to get the ball off me, but hey, press is sort of done. Good luck. There's more space to pass the ball into and I can last for the whole match, which is quite frustrating. And I thought it was a fluke, but there's more people and more people doing it. So that's a little bit disappointing because I think it's more, I get the stress of the high press. But I do think it's much more boring if I can't even get the ball off you to play this game. So hopefully that doesn't, that trend doesn't set through.

[00:06:43] But looking at some of the pro matches I've seen this week, 4-4-2 is getting back. And I think that's one of the reasons why it's getting back. You can't really get the ball off someone. So let's hope these were flukes, but that does, did influence at least my Thursday playing experience because it happened a couple of times. And the other thing is many, many, so many messages. And that's the first topic of the show though, about a shadow patch hitting

[00:07:07] and making sure every single change apparently made last week has been undone by EA because now everyone has spent points so they can return it or something. Daniel, what's your thought on that? Because I think everyone knows my thought about this as well. But I think the community is the way, the community is why I put my rating one point down. Okay. I think it's a dramatic horror music. I have no, actually. No, I don't.

[00:07:37] Dun, dun, dun. The shadow patch. I started seeing this around FC Reddit and on Twitter. And it's, look, it's very predictable. We see this at the start of games as well, don't we? At the start of a game cycle. People will love a change. They'll boast that it's the best game mode in the world ever because they're playing against people that haven't figured stuff out yet. And then people slowly start to get their footing.

[00:08:06] They realize they can't get away with playing 79 pace gold Virgil van Dijk anymore. And the anticipate play style is a good defensive one that you need slightly more agile players. You might need to tweak your depth a little bit. And people now start to then run into more experienced players and say, oh my goodness, like I can't do the things I was doing two, three days ago. They must have changed something that, you know, EA have gone backwards.

[00:08:31] People were having, the argument I hear that makes me laugh is EA worried that people are having too much fun. Like, are you actually kidding me? Like, as if any company would be upset that their customer base is enjoying a product. I've seen more buzz around FC because of this patch in the last, what, two weeks than I had done in the previous, well, since the launch of the FC franchise. So, look, I think it's nonsense.

[00:08:58] I understand because I think you mentioned as well, servers are getting overloaded with lots of people grinding the menus and coming back to the game. You're still going to get inconsistent and heavy gameplay at times. I think that's just unavoidable. And you can run into those times. And your own form will affect it as well. We all know what our mind starts playing tricks on us. We go through two or three games where we're losing because we might run into good opponents or we're maybe off our own games.

[00:09:23] We'll immediately start, or most of us anyway, that haven't gone through the excellent processes of foot coaching that is. We'll start blaming everything else. It's, you know, it's shadow patches. It's EA have done this, EA done that. So, look, I absolutely get it. Joel Dorden came out, one of the lead game, what is he, lead game developer? John, what's his official title? Joel?

[00:09:46] I don't know his official title, but I think he's responsible for the gameplay dev team. Yeah. I think it's the gameplay developer team. He's the leader of, I think, yeah. Official big cheese. He's one of the big cheeses. Senor Cheese over in Vancouver outright came out on Twitter saying we haven't done anything. He's the lead live operational producer for EFC. There you go.

[00:10:14] And I don't think EA employees are particularly keen to get themselves sued by outright saying we haven't done anything. And then if it was exposed that things had changed, I don't think you'd be sticking your head above the parapet, so to speak. So, yeah, I think it's just people adapting to the game. Things change. Things change. I can understand why people get frustrated and start blaming other things. But on this occasion, I have to say not guilty to EA. But AMA being feels differently.

[00:10:42] He says there has not been a secret patch or anything of that nature. When changes to the game are made, especially ones that would impact the player experiences directly, these are communicated. And I've seen some commentary on this platform and others around the most recent FC patch having been reverted. I can confirm that did not happen, period. It's probably just the servers being overloaded, I think. And, yeah, struggling to kind of keep up.

[00:11:12] So I had one match. Well, I had one day where the matches were a little bit more heavy. But the day after that, they started getting better again. So I think it's just server-related issues. Maybe location-based matchmaking could play a part as well. You should always turn that on, though. So that should be on. You can... I checked that. I saw a comment. Let's just quickly dive on that for a second.

[00:11:39] So in your matchmaking options, there's two options you can enable or disable. First option is cross-play on or off. Standard default is on. Second option, local matchmaking on or off. So it looks at local servers first before you go up. Default option is on and not off. So default, it is on. If it's now turned off, you have already tuned that once to turn it off. But normally, that is already on. Just saying.

[00:12:08] I see Daniel saying like, uh-oh. No. No. Look, as I said, I just find it... I can understand why it knocks a point off your scores. Because, look, anybody that's listened to the show in the three or four years that I've been hosting knows that I'm not afraid to go in two-footed on EA Sports when I think they're doing things wrong. I think this week has been one of their best since I've been playing the game.

[00:12:35] Now, the reasons behind why they are appeasing the fan base I know has been debated. I know we had a bit of a chat in our little host channel in the Discord, John. Because EA came out with their latest earnings reports highlighting the fact that their targets... They didn't hit the targets they wanted to with FC25. And it is underperforming. So, that has led, obviously, to a lot of conversation around the fact that it has this most recent game patch.

[00:13:04] And, you know, making the pack weight perhaps a bit better than it was in previous years. Giving us these monster evos. Cards like Bale. I mean, John, what do you think? Do you think that this is EA's response? That they realize they had to change their ways to try and get that bottom line up a little bit? Or do you think it's just coincidence that we're suddenly seeing a more friendly side of EA... ...just at a time where they come out and admit that they're not hitting their financial targets?

[00:13:34] So, both, right? Probably they've seen that. It already was a little bit down and they wanted to change it. I also know that the gameplay team is working hard for a long time providing this feedback already. And I think the release of the patch doesn't necessarily have to do with anything with financials or Team of the Year hitting. It was just ready to go. And being that before Team of the Year helps, but even then, Team of the Year would still sell packs... ...even if we're playing on the old game. It always does, right? So, I think it's a coincidence.

[00:14:04] I think it's a happy coincidence. Let's be honest there, right? But yeah, performance of Sudan, I think something Daniel... ...Daniel. Sorry, still getting you on a Tuesday show. Nathan and Shaq will discuss on Tuesday as well, more in-depth. Because early February, the official numbers will be released as well in some ways. But stocks are down hard this day, today at least. But we saw... Yeah.

[00:14:33] My issue is, though... I always say be careful what you're asked for, right? Because in FIFA 17, 18, 19, easy to score goals. Pretty fast game. Defending wasn't really a thing. Holding the ball was easy. You couldn't really get the ball off people. And later they reverted it all the way to the other side where it was really easy to get the ball from someone. Scoring is a little bit harder.

[00:14:59] I think this patch, as my honest experience so far, has gone a little bit too much the other direction. So, yes, it's easy to score. Still on higher levels. Still goals go in that I think was like... Not quite sure that should be a goal, honestly. I do think pressure has been nerfed too much. Because it is really hard to get the ball off. And I do still think true balls, for example, are a little bit too assisted. So, you can't just spam true balls and still get away with it a little bit too often.

[00:15:28] And I'm afraid, because we've asked for these changes, we go into a game. And, I mean, I can adapt to both sides if needed, right? I don't think that's the issue I'm discussing. But I think it's more fun at least getting the ball, if you want. And I'm afraid we're going into that territory soon. So, would you rather have what people are dubbing FC25 version 1 or this FC version 2? I think that's a hard case. I think I can adjust to both sides.

[00:15:57] And like I said, I've worked my way up in this game as well. I don't think that matters too much. So, don't get me wrong. It's not necessarily my preference. But I think it's more fun to at least have the ball. And I think not many people experience the fact that you can now hold the ball and don't give it away easily. And if that starts to happen when players get better or they adjust to playing five at the back, for example, not even being defensive, but just being wider than the other teams, I think you'll experience some meta where...

[00:16:28] I sincerely hope I'm wrong. But we could experience this in meta where you don't get the ball in on higher levels. And I'm afraid that's even more boring. So, I think I prefer version 1. I can also see why people definitely like version 2 better. But I also think we're not there yet. We might need a version 3 that finds a little bit more middle ground. Is that the best political answer I could give you then?

[00:16:59] Yngwie, where are you? I prefer the new version. So, I prefer fun. Being able to actually pass the ball where I want it and play the way I want. So, so be it. If I face someone keeping the ball half the match, it's not going to happen many times for me anyway. So, yeah. Well, if people want to play with that, I can just dashboard and start a new match. It's not the problem. And this is it. Do you think people are going to be that ratty?

[00:17:29] I mean, I can't. You said it and then you were like, oh, yeah, they are. Some people will. But some people are already ratty. Like, I'd really like to think that the vast majority of people will not play such a horrifically defensive style like that. Because otherwise, you get to that point of why are you even playing the game? I know for some people it will all be about results. And look, if it's the difference between whatever it is, 13, 14, 15 wins, maybe.

[00:17:59] But I'd really like to think for the vast majority of people below probably Div 1 Elite anyway, will lean towards attack. Because they won't want to go through the – people aren't – most people in my experience, John, aren't disciplined enough to play that way that you've just described. Because it does take a – I know you can do it, but it still takes a lot of patience and concentration to hold the ball for that long and keep it away from somebody else.

[00:18:25] And I think the general kind of attention span of most people isn't that high. Myself included, I lose patience all the time and I want to get the ball forward. So I like to think that even if that option is there, not too many people are going to cheese it. Maybe the last five minutes, but that's fair enough though, to keep a lead. But still shouldn't be possible or too easy to do even in the last five minutes. That was more of my point.

[00:18:53] There's probably going to be a way to get the press going a little bit better. Somebody is going to find a way to be able to – I tried 95. I tried aggressive. I tried putting the – on Rome. I tried everything. And when we play against each other on the coaching team and we have 4-4-2 versus say the 4-2-1-3, which is regular popular, the 4-2-1-3 just can't touch the ball. There's just no way if – And maybe I'm a little bit too sour about this because it happened a couple of times.

[00:19:22] We tried and we're like, this might be a thing. But if I – let me put it like this. If we're playing for some money or we play for some results, I'd know exactly what to play right now. And I got the formation ready to do that. I'm honestly – it's not fun. But you can easily get 2-3 up and then say, okay, you know what? This game is over. Sounds like a proper weekend league tactic to me. Yeah. Again, it's possible. Maybe you're right.

[00:19:49] Maybe there needs to be a – I don't think a version 3, but a version 2.1 where maybe they start buffing something like the team press again. And the D-pad option or something like that that will force your players much quicker, much closer to the ball carriers and the options. But it massively drains stamina or something like that. So I absolutely see where you're coming from. I just – I don't think that the vast majority of this community will go to those depths.

[00:20:18] Famous last words. I don't think they're going to go to those depths in just regular gameplay, just playing your rivals and your champs games. And look, if people want to be that way, as Yngwie said, just quit. Just quit and move on. You know, it's not worth it for your sanity. No, you're probably right. And like I said, I hope I'm very wrong. Don't get me wrong. I hope I'm very wrong and don't experience too often.

[00:20:45] Just happened to have one of those days where I saw it happening and then I see a trend. And when you talk about people saying there's a shadow patch or something like that, I think this has definitely proved people are adapting already after a week of playing in this style of gameplay. So, but except for the shadow patch negativity, I had a very good week. Don't get me wrong. I just missing a blue. But that didn't affect my rate. Daniel, how does it feel to have a blue in your team?

[00:21:14] I'm walking on clouds, John. I'm walking on clouds. Much like many people in the community, I got caught up in the buzz of, oh my goodness, those 88 plus store pack picks are broken. There's so many team of the years coming out of them. I think it was, I'm going to blame, I'm going to throw Shaq under the bus on the air because Shaq came into my little group chat with me and Nath. I was like, oh, those 88 plus picks are great.

[00:21:41] I went away and did them and got an 88 and a 90. Bought them for coins. My last coins. Got two Hegenbergs and a Foden, I think. Nothing. So I was like, cheers, Shaq. Thank you very much for that. Went back to my usual grind. As everybody knows, I'm a D-gen for the menus. Been grinding 75 plus player picks and just the premium mixed league upgrade over and over again. Went back to it and got Cole Palmer, popped out of a 75 plus player pick.

[00:22:10] Very much dupe theory because I own every other version of his card. I've got both in forms, the player of the month, the winter wildcard and the gold. So for those of you who believe in dupe theory, Palmer popped up. I mean, I'm never going to complain. It's a two and a half million coin card. Yes. Yes. What?

[00:22:28] I was just going to say the only very slight hesitance to, you know, throw my arms up in the air and run around the room is the fact that there is an Evo out that I could have used on that player of the month to get a very similar version of Cole Palmer. But look, I'm never, ever going to complain about a team of the airport. Even if I had ended up with Berger, the goalkeeper, to see those blue flares.

[00:22:50] I mean, last year I didn't, the only blue flares I saw last year was the 0.7% brigade as I lucked into a Lionel Messi, which I still, I know I was very lucky, but I still don't count it because it was a glitch. It didn't feel that pure as with this Cole Palmer pick. It's like, I feel like I've earned it because I've grinded the menu so hard and not just been given it because EA have accidentally ticked the wrong box. So it feels very, very good. I'm going to keep going.

[00:23:20] There was a talk in the Discord yesterday being like, oh, are you going to ease up now? It's like, no, we keep going. The mission continues. My dream, I'm trying to think of who my dream team of the year pull is because I'm mostly going for the Premier League upgrade. So I guess, I mean, Van Dijk, I suppose, is probably, or Saliba, probably the two I want to get out of there. Although we're going to talk about it, I know, soon. That Bunny Shaw card, the 12th man that was released, 12th woman in this case, absolutely fantastic card as well. So I wouldn't mind her walking out.

[00:23:50] We'll give the word to Invy very shortly, Invy. Then you can say what else we got in Teams and what's there to grind in the menus. Before we go there, you have to say I respect grinding the menus more than ever after this week. And I'll tell you a little story about what happened to me. So my kids were watching some Bluey. Someone recommended it to me a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago. And I was like, oh, I like Bluey, but I've seen this episode. You know what?

[00:24:17] That sounds like 25 minutes of pure grind to me. Let's go. So I grabbed my phone and let's go. Went for it. I woke up two hours later with my phone in my hand. I fell asleep. I probably have 10 minutes or so. I can't do this. I'm not built to just do the same thing over and over and over again. I honestly fell asleep. And I was like, I can't even. I didn't even feel myself those off. So last night, I had a lot on my mind. I was like, you know what? I'm going to lay in bed. I'm going to see if I can do these upgrades.

[00:24:47] See if this actually works. I think it worked like a charm because I woke up this morning with the phone in my hand once again. This is actually a... I thought squad battles was a good way for me to fall asleep, but this is even better. I was literally just about to say to you, what would you recommend for those people suffering from insomnia? Squad battles or the menu grind? This. Because with squad battles, you're sitting. This one you can do lying down. So yeah. You should be going on. You should be writing to EA now saying...

[00:25:17] Thank you so much for curing my insomnia. Have one of those infomercials. I was really struggling for sleep until I found the menu grind. All you need is this app and a comfy sofa and you'll be nodding straight off. Could also be the X-Excel Nutrition, of course, I drank. We'll find out later. Yggvi. Yeah. We have completed theme of the year. Everything is in packs and we have the honorable mentions. What did it bring us? What should we do?

[00:25:47] Or more spectacular? What should we stay away from? Well, if you haven't done the Cancelo SPC, I think that's a good value one to do. Okay. Honored. I would do it. Because you're probably going to pack Cristiano Ronaldo, 12th man. So you'll have a nice link there. I wouldn't do the... We got the Foden SPC today.

[00:26:13] Honorable mentions 1.4 almost. Barely, well, mostly plus ones from his previous 92 rated card. So I'd skip that as well. Why? Why? Foden? Yeah, just because of the... Didn't anything else change there? Got some more play styles, I think. Rules. Still not worth like 700,000 over his other card, I think.

[00:26:44] And yeah, we've already had the Team of the Blueprint evolution. We've had the Attacking Avalanche ones for the left mid one. There's been lots of cam evolutions. So you... And of course, the Free Zidane. So kind of covers all the positions that he can play in as well. So I don't...

[00:27:03] I'd rather use a Free Zidane as a cam or a 500,000 coins evolution, Dembele or whatever fun card you found to do before Phil Foden. So... I'm going to have to stand up for... I was going to say for Big Phil there, but he's not that big. Bless him. Phil Foden. All of 5'7", one of the few footballers I can actually say I am taller than. Although I have not won four... Well, what is it?

[00:27:32] Six Premier League medals by the age of 24 either. My bank balance is certainly not as big as Big Phil. I think this is a cracking card, Dembele. I absolutely understand what you mean in terms of going out and buying another one off the market. But considering the FOD of value and the FOD of reserves that most of us have, you're not even going to be spending 1.3 million coins on this. You might have to spend a couple of hundred K to finish it off

[00:27:56] if you've not already dumped most of your club into Bale, Icon Picks, Ronaldinho, De Bruyne. But to me, there is a lot to love about this card, especially if you are someone that's liked using cards a bit like Neymar, Messi in previous years. There's kind of more nimble, smaller players. 94 composure, the 94 reactions, 97 agility and balance. The shooting is absolutely great as well.

[00:28:24] 94 finishing, 95 shot power and 95 attack positioning. The speed is there. The passing is great as well. The only thing that lets the passing down is free kicks, but you're not really going to use him for that. And then, yeah, it's just literally a size issue when it comes to FOD of being that bit smaller. But he's got the inside forward right wing position as well. And we know in the latest patch they've buffed that. Playmaker plus plus at Cam is really nice to have as well.

[00:28:52] Yeah, he's not going to sit and burn people off the way a Venetius might. But his pace is higher than the most cards will get out of the 500k Evo that we just had. The links are fantastic. And yeah, it's just a shame he has got Travella plus as that second play style plus, because Travella's are very, very situational when most people don't know the right situation for them. But I'm going to stand up. I'm going to stand up for little Phil here. I think this is a fantastic card.

[00:29:21] And if I hadn't if I hadn't put Chloe Kelly through the team of the year Evo, I think I'd be completing this card. I get both points. But I have, for example, I used to play with a Monsala. And he still scores a whole lot for me with the financials. I'm like, I'm not going to spend this money or crying this way. But then again, if people put in how many for Bill? 22 SPC something? 23, I think. 23.

[00:29:49] Then 12 for Foden. 12, I think. Isn't too bad. So I guess it's just a matter of what you've got in your team. I don't mind this card if I'm on this. I'm like, yeah, it's a good card. And I think the price is more to do with the fact, like if I look at my own club after this week, it's stacked with 88s and don't even 88 and 89s. If I see one more Harry Kane, by the way, I saw him in Rotterdam this week. Like, perfect match from you. Thank you, mate.

[00:30:21] Then, well, I just can't put in another SPC. But it's like I wouldn't even know where to start. And these SPCs could be cool for it. Although I don't think I'm going to replace Salah with him, if I'm honest. For me, I think I would rather do the 90-rated Vieira. I think he would do a better job in my team than trying to swap any of my other cards for Foden. So, well, it all depends on what team you have, what you need, what you want to do. So, plenty of choices here for everyone, though.

[00:30:52] Yeah, that's nice. There's lots of content, so that's nice, of course. I don't think we actually got a player to unlock, at least not today. I didn't see anything, no. I was just checking. I think maybe tomorrow there's going to be a player objective, which is always fun. So, we also have an SPC with Lataro Martinez from Inter Milan. It's around 300,000 coins.

[00:31:19] If you have the Centurions, I would skip that. He's a very good finisher and a very good hold-up player. So, if you like that type of striker, he would, of course, do a job. But, yeah, I wouldn't use my fodder on that, I think, to be honest. You done? Would Martinez be one of the cards you say, like, let's go for it? No.

[00:31:46] No, I think Martinez is – I would usually perfectly describe it as a fodder dump card. Just, you know, if this card had come out two, three weeks ago, it would massively stand out. But, you know, we've just been discussing Foden, Cancelo, De Bruyne, Vieira, Stam, so many other cards that would get into my team ahead of this one. Not to mention all the players you can create with Evos now. And, yeah, again, they've been doing a good job with the Evos.

[00:32:16] It's another Evo that's come out today as well. So, they're finally letting you evolve those kind of 86, 87 rated cards and drag them up to a similar stats. Two player style pluses is obviously nice. And – Relentless pluses is one of them, though. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I have – some people have used this Martinez card earlier in the game cycle and it has caused me problems. But, again, I think it's a very small audience that this card will appeal to. Agree.

[00:32:45] We've got an icon SPC as well. Camille Abili, a French female player. She can play center mid and Cam. I wish she could play CDM as well because she kind of got the stats for that as well. Then I would 100% sure do that SPC, I think, because stats are quite stacked unless you need someone to jump and hit the ball.

[00:33:14] But everything else is like a female Kante type of player almost with much better passing and shooting. Yeah. It's a crazy cool card. She has incisive plus, tiki-taka plus, normal, finesse, chip shot, dead ball, technical, flare, and acrobatic. So, 4 stars game is 5 star weak foot as well. And she's around the same height as Kante as well. So, she'll be super agile.

[00:33:44] Sava type of SPC this year, maybe. If you remember that from last year. Sava running around in every team. Not in my team. And your opponents intercepting all your passes, almost. I was actually going to say, I think to me, actually, she more reminds me, if you go and sort of compare the stats, the body type is obviously very different. But if you go and look stats side by side, she's actually very similar to what you end up with Zidane. Yeah. In terms of, you know, they've both got 86 pace.

[00:34:14] Zidane's got slightly better shooting. Abelie's got a little bit better passing. Zidane's got the edge on dribbling and defense and physical. So, again, to me, this is just one of those cases of when you've been given a free Zidane, would you really want to go and craft this card? Because like Ingevee said, I think if she had CDM and kind of been sitting one of those sort of bustling Kante types, then you might be more tempted.

[00:34:39] But when this is just a CM or a cam and you've just been given this superb free Zidane card, are you really going to go out and commit a million coins worth of fodder? I would probably say no. Okay. Then this one I will interfere. Get involved. Get involved, coach. So, she's French. Links up with everyone basically these days. But try to find another midfielder. Seriously, though.

[00:35:08] That also have 90 finishing with 92 composure with 90 dribbling, 95 ball control. Those are insane stats on a midfielder, right? With 94 passing or generally speaking everywhere except crossing. But she's never going to cross, right? And she has dead ball. And she has free kick accuracy of 94 with 90 shot power, 91 curve. I think even having...

[00:35:32] Even if you have Zidane, you have her and Zidane running next to each other in a 442 out to CMs. That sounds filthy almost. I think a million for this card with this fodder. Almost makes me considering doing it. I think it's a fantastic card. Again, I think it's what Yngwie was kind of saying earlier, though. It comes down, doesn't it, to your priorities?

[00:35:57] In that, would you want to put a million coins worth of fodder towards a Billy when you have one of those... A very similar type of player with Zidane given to you for free? Or would you rather put that million coins towards a more, you know, a more flair player in terms of Bale or a defensive option like Vieira? I think if you gave me the choice between a Billy and Vieira, I'd probably have Patrick in there. Just because they've given me a very similar card in Zidane for free. That's a fair point.

[00:36:28] But then 4-2-1-3, you can play all three of them. Yeah, if you play any 4-3-3, 4-4-2, etc., 4-2-4, she would be great as a centre mid, of course. So, she'll fit in many types of teams, formations, etc. So, it looks like a cracking good card. Well, maybe we'll get an evolution to get the CDM position, but that's going to destroy the design of the card, I think, unfortunately.

[00:36:58] Yeah, also defending awareness 84. I don't think you really want her as a CDM. No, but it's... Well, she would pretty much do a job, I'm still sure of that. But not as a lone CDM, of course. Fair enough, fair enough. Yep. Let us know, by the way, as always, in the comments, if you are thinking of doing any of the cards that we disagree on. And with this group together tonight, it's going to be a challenge to find one card we will agree on.

[00:37:29] We'll see. We also got some evolutions today. Some small stats boost. Some cosmetics on the team of the year cards. And also, if you have done all the daily objectives, play one match, where you get the hunter and shadow chem cards.

[00:37:49] You'll also get the ninth objectives unlocked to get the next physical evolution for your team of the year. Center back evolution, which looks cool. So remember to check that out so you don't forget.

[00:38:10] You'll boost actually more for acceleration, jumping, strength, sprint speed, stamina, aggression, skill moves. Gets the bruiser normal playstyle as well. So, yeah.

[00:38:56] I guess that's the way they set it up, which is, of course, quite nice. Gives plus five pace up to 86, plus 10 dribbling up to 88, and plus 15 passing up to 87 for the caps. So there are some nice options. If you have the, I think it's succession Palenja for Bayern München. If you put him into that, I think he'll get some nice boosts from that. Just an example.

[00:39:26] So check out what you have in your club. And it's a free evolution as well. So why not? Just while Ingvi's mentioning play styles, John, I wanted to get kind of pick your brains from the foot coaching point of view. Because lots of people have now been saying that it's all about anticipate. It's, you know, anticipate is basically a must-have trait now on your centre-backs. Are you leaning into that school of thinking?

[00:39:56] Or again, are you thinking this is a bit of herd mentality that people are now assuming you have to have that? So, I play two centre defenders. And let me quickly check. I think one of them has aerial plus, but more important, ball playing defender. And the other one has block plus and ball playing defender.

[00:40:22] I prefer roles over these play styles. I think it will help. I'm a manual defender, right? Always have been and always will be. I think I can anticipate enough myself without a play style. So, I really don't think it's needed. I much more prefer a centre defender that can pass, for example. It's just, it makes it, it's like putting a shadow on a defender at the start of the game.

[00:40:53] It makes it probably a little bit easier to get away if you make a wrong choice. But I definitely disagree on the fact that people say it's a mandatory tab. And I don't think, if you look at the pros this week, I've seen plenty not use them either. So, yeah. Herd mentality might be a little bit harsh, but I do think it's, hey, let's, let's, it's like today, everyone sent me a message. Did you know you can turn local matchmaking off or on?

[00:41:21] I was like, yeah, it's on by default. So, if that's off, you turn it off already. So, sure, I knew. And we always say it in the start of the year. But default is off. So, it's a herd mentality yelling today that, like, it's something new, I think. And the same goes for anticipate. It's helpful. It's definitely not required. And I think better off just practicing.

[00:41:42] So, if you had the choice between someone with anticipate playstyle plus and, or someone with a ball playing defender or defender plus plus, you would go for the role plus plus. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. But that's because I like to build up. I like to be in control. And if you have a center defender that can pass, right? And people start, for example, which I see a couple of 4-2-4s, for example, trying to apply pressure.

[00:42:10] You can just pass the ball back to your goalkeeper, pass it back to one of your center defenders, and they can just hoover it to one of your wingers who's wide open. You can't do that if you don't have those stats on the center defenders, I think. So, that's why I much prefer that. I still play the gold Virgil, and people say he's useless. He's not useless. He's not useless, but a lot of people don't know how to deal with that lack of pace and get their positioning right. I think this patch has exposed a lot of people that were relying too much on that AI.

[00:42:38] And also, EA expressly said now that defenders were catching up too quickly. Yeah, but if you don't play the 95 line, there's not much to catch up. It's like Virgil in real life, isn't it, Yngwie? Virgil's not sprinting, catching after the quickest wingers from the halfway line and catching them up. He relies on being in the right position and reading the game. And Konate to sweep up if they've gone past him.

[00:43:07] Because Konate is quite fast in real life. And a goalkeeper that goes out very wide to be in that position after they pass the ball over him. But if you get close to Van Dijk and he gets a leg in, then of course he's going to win the ball. So, yeah. Yeah. It's just I've seen lots on Anticipate Plus. And the other thing for attackers is Quick Step Plus is what everyone seems to now want on their attackers. That one I can sort of understand. I don't think it's necessary.

[00:43:34] But what it does do is, of course, it makes it easy to make those slight movements or to do a step over, for example, and get away from that. And if people have trouble manual defending, by just a simple move, you can now get rid of a lot of space or just walk through their center defenders. And I do think like technical, technical, is that right? Quick Step. Quick Step, sorry.

[00:43:59] Technical or Quick Step either, actually, will help a lot with just creating a little bit of options for yourself. Holding R1, just step in. People just step or step over. Like they cross your line and suddenly you're free. And you haven't done actually anything except just hold R1 drum. And I think for now that works. But also in a couple of weeks, it's just preference again. But for now it could be that extra help. For now, that is Foot Coaching's top tip.

[00:44:29] Yeah. I used to have a tag for that. It's so long since I've not. Oh, wait. Foot Coaching's top tip. There you go. There we go. Avery, anything else content-wise you wish to discuss? We can have a look at the team itself. But are there any cheap piece available? In the new team? Yeah. I think Musial is probably quite usable, I'd say.

[00:44:58] It's very cheap. Yeah. Bad team though. Well, that's a different story. Sorry. If one time in my life I can say things like this, I will. And if people don't know what we're talking about, I'm not going to extra mention it. But still. So I would say that's probably the only one I would think is kind of cheap piece. Is he linkable?

[00:45:22] The other ones are pretty much 400,000 plus, 338 for Nico Williams. But I think his shooting is so bad. He's got so many bad. But that's kind of, he's fast and everything. But I think 80 shooting on a forward, that's not good enough anymore. No. And 83 attacking position, 82 finishing is not ideal with 83 composure.

[00:45:51] So 64 strength as well. I do think it's a perfect representation of his actual play style though. That's true. But it's still over 330,000 coins. So I wouldn't call him a cheap beast. Tony Rudiger is an interesting one. Because I think this was one of the most anticipated cards when these were leaked. And he's already below a million coins. Sorry, which one?

[00:46:21] Anthony Rudiger. Oh, yeah. Rudy Guerrier. Rudiger. You look at the face stats, that card, and fantastic. And two good play style pluses. Maybe not, again, the ones that everybody is fixated on in, you know, anticipate and intercept. But Bruiser Plus and Block Plus are two very good play styles. Do you think, Yngwie, do you think it's just the fact that, again, he's not got anticipate, he's not got intercept that's keeping this card low?

[00:46:49] Because if you look on the face of it, I mean, it's not a million miles away from some of the very best defenders outside of the team of the year anyway. And just for reference, you're calling a 900,000 coin card low. So, okay. Bruiser Plus is really, really, really nice. But he doesn't have intercept, doesn't have anticipate either. And he's got 82 composure.

[00:47:17] Maybe it shouldn't have that much to say, but in my mind, it could be a disaster. So, it's a really good card, but I think that's why he is kind of under a million. If he had a few extra good play styles and a bit higher composure, I think he would be at least a million higher.

[00:47:43] Again, it's just one of those cards where I'm currently running the red canate as partnering the almighty Tyler Binden at the back for my team. So, again, that would be the kind of card that I'd like. Just on basis of what John was just saying, he does have that role plus plus at centre-back as well. And yeah, a million, you know, 900,000 coins isn't cheap.

[00:48:05] But when you look at the fact that he's, you know, still best part of 250,000 coins cheaper than Saliba's Thunderstruck card, for example. And even Saliba's team of the year. I'm not saying it's, you know, better than that card, but I'm going to take Yngwie's role here. If you go and actually compare the two stats-wise, there's not a huge amount of difference. Yet there's 5 million coins between the two.

[00:48:31] So, again, I just think if you're looking, you know, if you've got a couple of million coins and you are looking for that next defensive upgrade, I think you can do a lot worse than going out and picking up this card. And it seems to be dropping as well, even over the course of the show. I think he's dropped another 5K in the last five minutes. Free by the end of the show. Exactly. Exactly. I think it's a really cool card.

[00:48:54] And I think the fact we got so much choice, which of course Evo's help with as well, just enables that some of these cards don't go all the way up, which is cool, right? Yeah. So, yeah, I think nothing wrong with this card, honestly. If I pack him as a blue, I definitely wouldn't mind. But honestly, at this stage, after falling asleep every single time and still doing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of upgrades, I get a lot of sleep this week.

[00:49:26] Even if I just see a blue flare, I'd be happy. It'll arrive, John. And also, I just need to as well mention, I've received a very important message from the scout, Nathan Downs, who wanted me to remind everybody on this show that he has, in fact, packed two Team of the Year's and one Team of the Year icon in Eric Cantona. So, Nathan wanted you to know that.

[00:49:51] If you want Nathan's home address to Rotten Fruit to, text the word Nathan to 1234 Foot in Review. Disclaimer may not be a real number. But we will make sure your messages... Someone in the UK is now getting messages like, what is this? We will make sure your messages are passed on to Nathan Downs. So, if you want to reveal your true feelings towards him...

[00:50:21] Leave it in the Spotify notes. Leave it in the Spotify notes. We'll make sure he gets them. Don't you worry, gang. Don't you worry. We'll frame him for him. We'll frame those notes and send it to him. But he casually, like, he got one. He's like, oh, look at this. Like, I'm happy for you, mate. Congrats. Next day, he's like, eh, he sends me the theme. Do you think this formation is all right? It's set up. And then he has the other place in it without actually saying it. Like, hmm, Nate.

[00:50:53] He's perfected the art of the humble brag. Yeah. This is... Don't worry. I went nuts. I went very critical on his tactics. Good man. Yggvi, you look like a man that has something to share. I do? Yeah. What do I have to share now? I'll help you. Community team of the week.

[00:51:22] See? I remind you, my friend. Yeah. Community team of the week. Every single week, we pick one of the teams you can put in our Discord server. Of course, check out the link below in the notes. It is completely free to join the Discord. And if you are there, there's a little forum on the server, which you can use to keep track of your team throughout the year. Always, when you post a team, Yggvi will look at it. It will, of course, give some proper Yggvi feedback.

[00:51:50] But also, if he likes it, finds it very creative or just plain fun or really good, he might pick you as our community team of the week. And Yggvi, you actually sent me a food bin link this week. And I'm just going to say that loud because it is much higher quality than the little screenshots I normally get sent. So I applaud you for that. And who are we going to applaud for winning the community team of the week?

[00:52:18] That is actually Marios, our Greek god, that has a really nice team this week. Someone's trying to get the honeymoon suite for the Crete meetup. I would say Yggvi would get it, but someone else might have actually booked that all right. Yeah, I'm guessing.

[00:52:41] So, yeah, it's just, well, a lot of cool players that I like. He has Casillas, team of the year, in goal. He has the base, Turam, which is still quite a monster as a right back. Thunderstruck Saliba. He has the 91-rated Konate, of course. This is the trick, Dan. Just put Liverpool players in. Every single week, though.

[00:53:11] And I tried everything to win this community team of the week as well, Daniel. I tried putting in a full Norwegian squad. I tried putting in a squad with 11 different promotion players. I never win. Someone puts in a Liverpool player, they're in. You need to consider opening up your own hotel, John, and making a very generous offer for all listeners to stay there. Then maybe you can, in fact, win the community team. You need to put in the right manager, maybe. I don't know. Or if you're using the cream puff kit. Yeah.

[00:53:41] That tips and balance. Yeah. Then you're going to have a really good chance. And he also has the 89-rated Evolutionized Theo Hernandez. Quite crazy, that card. If you already have it untradeable, I think you should just spend a little bit, 40,000 coins to do the Evolution. It looks crazy.

[00:54:09] Of course, I don't think you can go wrong with the normal goal card either. It's so difficult to face still. He has Vieira as a CDM. And he has Cero Berto with the nice Christmas hat. And the 94 Evolutionized Zidane as center mids. Right winger, that is the, I think, the SPC version of Rafinha.

[00:54:38] That was 86 rated, 600,000 coins SPC. Turned him into the 94 rated Blueprint Team of the Year card. Looks insanely nice to sign the card as well. He has the winter wild card Socrates as a striker. And left wing is the Team of the Air Bale SPC. With a cracking cool Almeida as the manager for chemistry, I guess.

[00:55:09] Even though he doesn't have any players from Argentina. I think he's just there for the haircut, though. Yeah, it's an awesome haircut. I don't think chemistry matters much if he put in six icons. So, and one hero. But I think it's a really cool team. A little bit, some curveballs here and there, which I find cool. So, looks like a fun team to use.

[00:55:39] Yeah. I'm going to disband my whole final team for next week. I'm just going to go full icon, see if that works. Or, what I can do, because we are developing, we're talking about Crete, of course. That event is coming up in May. And, what we're doing currently is to design the new Crete special jersey, which you can get if you come join the event. I might put a little cat on the shirt. Maybe that helps.

[00:56:08] Cat paws or something, yeah. You saw? Yeah, I saw a little bit. I saw a little bit. You're learning the game. One of these days. One of these days. Now, congratulations, Mariels, for winning the Community Team of the Week. And keep sending in those teams, because it is, one, fun to have a look at what people are running. And, of course, there's a lot of people that jump in this game now, actually, and are a little bit lost on how to build or what is good and what isn't. So, you can always ask for advice as well.

[00:56:36] Check out the FC25 Community Team of the Week topic on our Discord server, which, like I said, is free. Daniel, do you have any closing thoughts, my friend? Yeah, the only other thing I did want to bring up, and the one thing that we haven't got in Team of the Year that people have noticed, is there is no sign of the exchanges. It appears as if we are going to be exchangeless, at least for a while.

[00:57:06] A few different content creators who have connections with EA and leakers and things have basically been saying that there has been nothing mentioned at all. There's been no hint of packs in the code. So, and if you remember, exchanges originally came in during Team of the Year last year. It's the first time we had them in the game. So, that's it. And to me, that's a real disappointment, because, again, as a menu grinder, I loved that ability to quickly gain fodder.

[00:57:34] But I guess EA's argument now is that you have your duplicate storage to be able to store those kind of players. And they're offering you provision packs, which are at basic market value now to pick up rares and commons. So, I suppose that is an option to do. But, yeah, I'm just a bit disappointed that they're not coming back. Maybe that is what is stopping my week in FIFA, my week in Ultimate Team, sorry, from being a 10 out of 10.

[00:58:02] So, if they don't come back, RIP exchanges, you will be missed. Yeah. So, remind people what exchanges is. It was where you can put in, I think, 86, 87, 88, 89, a player of one of those ratings into an SPC. And you get a certain amount of cards back, like random rare players, right? Something like that. Yeah, it used to be. What was it? Was it 51 players you got for an 89? I don't know.

[00:58:29] I tried two times and went into my winter hibernation after that. So, it's not something I do. Yeah, it was something like that. It's over 50, I know. Yeah, it's like 51. And I think 17 of them were rares and the rest were common. So, basically, if you wanted to keep grinding through player picks and things like that, you would just go and buy an 89-rated card off the market for 30, 40K, whatever they ended up last year. You'd get those players, you'd keep going, and you'd hope to hit another 89 in your grinding.

[00:58:58] And basically, it allowed you to keep doing the menu grind essentially forever. And, again, EA have just obviously decided that people could probably store up too many 89, 88-rated cards. So, they're probably just worried that, again, people could grind a bit too easy. Which, again, I think is, if that is their argument, I think that's a bit disappointing. But, again, unfortunately, they've not communicated. And look, they might just pop out tomorrow out of absolutely nowhere.

[00:59:26] So, by the time you hear this, this could be a completely redundant segment. But, yeah, all the indications from the people that are in the know is that there's no plan for them at the moment. So, yeah, I just thought that was a bit sad. Yeah, they're in common. Just saying. Yeah. They're not common. Yeah. It's C'est la vie. It's what it is. I'm afraid. But then again, we do get some pretty good players anyway. So, I think, generally speaking, they are doing quite well so far.

[00:59:55] And if you disagree, let us know. And also, if you disagree with the Shadow Packs remark, put it in the Spotify notes. As long as you stay a little bit friendly, at least not insult people, we will keep them on Spotify so you can tell your friends what your reply was as well. That's always a good thing. Talking about good things, of course, check out patreon.com forward slash foot in review to join us for about a buck a week at the minimum. You can join the events. You can get the show early.

[01:00:22] You can get the custom tactics which we released last week included with that in the full video. So, next week, we have another The Art and Food special Patreon exclusive show. It's being recorded on Tuesday. So, if you join the Patreon, that's going to be there as well. And of course, Tuesday, Nathan and Shaq Attack will return for episode 656. But that leaves us with one thing left to do. And that is to say goodnight to you all. Have a great weekend.

[01:00:52] And it is time for us to... Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. And... Drop it.