656: EA's Stock Dropping & Gameplay Changing!?

[00:00:04] Hello Footies and welcome along to your Tuesday Fix of Foot in Review and at the moment all things Team of the Year. We've got plenty to go through today. We have Team of the Year like we said, we've got tinfoil hats on about a potential shadow patch and EA share prices to go into a little bit more detail. So with that, just to begin I'd like to welcome along my regular Tuesday co-host Shaq, how are you doing?

[00:00:32] I am doing fabulous Nate, lovely to be here and kick the ball around. It's just a bit as I was talking to you just before the show started. It's a bit nervy having the boss around here but hey we have to be on our best behaviour right now. Yeah you've dropped that bombshell at its transfer window at the moment so we have brought in a temporary loan, a one match loan if you like. We have the head of foot coaching, the founder of Foot in Review. John how are you doing my friend? It's brilliant to have you on.

[00:00:58] We're all on the edge of our seats trying to behave but if we don't then this is still our Tuesday club so we'll just, you know, we'll do what we like. No thanks for having me on this show mate and please don't ever call me boss again. Oh dear. So to start things off I'd like to just sort of see how everyone's week is going. As we said we're now halfway through Team of the Year. You know it's quite an exciting time for some, it's quite a demoralising depressing time for others. John we'll start with you. How has your week in Foot been?

[00:01:27] It's been quite alright mate. Honestly I packed the Team of the Year. I packed seven now. No I'm kidding. I packed Lucy Bruns which is quite alright. Although fullbacks, I've said this before, aren't deal breakers or game makers if you want them right. So a pretty good addition. I'd rather have a centre defender or a centre midfielder but can't really complain about that.

[00:01:55] And I found a way to get back into sleep with just doing SBCs when trying to doze off so that's been pretty cool. You can hear Dan sticking knives into his voodoo doll right now. That menu grind is his baby so you better watch what you're saying. There's a good job that it's a Tuesday show and not a Friday one with him joining you. No, it is true though. I just can't grind the game like many people do honestly. And that's alright if you know it right. Yeah, absolutely. Each their own.

[00:02:22] Shaq, you are one of those that are a bit more of a menu grinder. How's your week been? It's been horrendous. I've opened 400 million packs so far and have packed zero blues. I'm just down and dusted and dirty right now. I'll just refrain my words and say I'm not very happy with my back luck at this point and dusted. But hey, it is team of the year and not everyone can pack anything. In fact, if you pack five and I pack nothing, that's fine. You've taken two of mine as well, Nate, haven't you?

[00:02:51] I actually haven't done a roundup. Are we wanting to tilt people and see how many we've packed? Go for it. So, obviously for context though, I had 150 good packs saved up. I opened all the rubbishy packs and saved up 150. And I have spent about 3.8 million coins in store. But if we list them off, just to tilt everybody listening. So, we started with Raiden. We got Caravajal. I think we had... Did we have them last week when we talked maybe?

[00:03:19] Since then on my massive opening spree, I've got Lauren James. I've got Mo Salah. I've got the German... Was it Gwen? I think I've had her twice. Yeah. And I've had two Valverde's as well. So, it has been very, very kind to me. I'm not going to lie. Not flexing, you know, as I'm sitting here with my muscles in the air. But in all honesty, they're nice. Like John, I've been dying for a centre-back. You know, that's Saliba or even Virgil would have been delightful. But I think that might be getting a little bit too greedy.

[00:03:49] But my week in foot has actually been pretty good. You know, the players obviously make a difference. Managed to get the rivals' points in well. I'm waiting for the daily play because I haven't played every day. We've had... In the UK and Scotland, especially in Ireland, we've had this storm EO. And so, it's been carnage for work-wise. We've not had a lot of time. So, got to get that nine... I think that comes tomorrow. The nine daily play Evo. So, that's quite exciting. I'm looking forward to doing that on my Hoisin card. That's a bit different to what I'm seeing out there.

[00:04:18] So, it's been quite good fun. You know, obviously, packing a few blues does make you feel a little bit more positive about the game. It does, right? Just a little bit. That's why, for once, you know, I've not got my giant Udi on. I'm smiling. I'm happy. So, you can tell the difference. But, no, as we roll through towards the end of Team of the Year, just... Pat, look aside. What's your experience been shacking Team of the Year? You know, we've had lots of objectives. There's been lots of ways to get packs. We've had some player SBCs.

[00:04:46] We'll not go into detail on all of them because some of them are decent, some of them are not. But what's your general feelings halfway through the full release? So, I'll start off with gameplay and then I'll move on to the content and how I've been going along with the content. So, with the gameplay side of things, I can definitely feel that the servers are slightly overloaded because the gameplay that I'm experiencing right now is not the same as it was maybe last week, just before Team of the Year, even maybe the first couple of days off Team of the Year. I think a lot more people are on the game right now.

[00:05:12] So, it is clogging up with servers in my end where certain things are not as smooth as they were last week. But I'm hoping everything will settle itself down once everyone goes away who doesn't pack blues and just walks away from the game. The server should be back. So, I'm hoping for that. Had a very average week in league. Didn't really enjoy myself as much. Ended up with just eight wins. But just fine. I'm happy with that. That's the gameplay side of things. And I finished my rivals in a breeze. I think the gameplay is good in bits and certain bits it just gets,

[00:05:38] I think especially during the weekend, it got really jammed up and just wasn't free-flowing for me, at least in my region or my server. That's the gameplay part of it. Whereas with content, one of the things I'm experiencing right now is I am constantly running out of cards. I cannot do upgrades anymore. I can't do things anymore. I just don't have anything left in the club. And as I was telling everyone, I just was frustrated for some reason today. And I threw 500,000 coins on provision packs to get provisions to do picks. And I didn't pack anything in those picks.

[00:06:08] So, this is one of those things where it just, at some point, you do run out of cards. And it just, I think without having the exchanges, the grind is not as free-flowing. And I think the worst part is it's really hard to pack a blue in those grinds that we have right now. So, it is what it is. It is what it is. Yeah, it seems like you're kind of a little bit more on that sort of a straight and end of things. But you're right. The exchanges, I think, is huge because I don't know what you guys are like. John, we'll come to you in a second.

[00:06:35] But my SBC storage is now 84 and above. And although it's quite nice if a big SBC hits, we've got, you know, the player of the month for La Liga is in the current voting. So, I could well imagine that Mbappe will win that. So, for those of you that want an Mbappe, you know, that's going to be a very expensive grind. But at the same time, while we've got these, the objective that's come out where you have to put in 10 non-rares and one rare gold to get an 77 times three for the objective.

[00:07:04] It doesn't really help you in that sort of thing. So, transfer list is full. SBC storage is full. You're in a bit of a tricky position. But, John, I know you're not, like you said, you're not the biggest menu grinder. And I know you've had a little bit more time to play over the last few miles. So, how are you finding sort of Team of the Year? We've not had you on for a while. So, how has it been for you since, you know, the phased release of Team of the Years and obviously the full release? Yes. It's all right.

[00:07:30] I actually played the Wicked League this weekend for a third time this year, I think, something like that. How did that go? Well, not too bad, honestly. I ended up with 11 wins, which I don't think was actually good. I could have been a little bit more, maybe. I lost one match, which I was like, in the end, I should have won that. Faced a lot of Team of the Year players. Faced a lot of R9s. Faced a lot of Ronaldinho's. Faced a lot of Mbappé. I faced Team of the Year Mbappé four times, which is pretty nuts, eh?

[00:08:00] Yeah. But then again, I've also noticed that many people call manual defense. So, I scored a lot of goals. My first Wicked League match actually ended up 12 for me to 11 goals from them. Which sort of gave away that... We'll talk about Shadow Pets later, I guess. But there's definitely not been a Shadow Pets because I wouldn't be able to score... I wouldn't be able to score 23 goals in one match. But I think it's pretty fun. I've not played as much as I wanted to.

[00:08:28] Which, well, of course, we had some sponsor applications and stuff like this for the show. So, got to do business first. But I quite like it. As I said, I packed one blue. I got a whole SBC storage with 87 plus players. I packed Harry Kane 13 times now. I can't see Kane anymore. And I said it on Friday shows as a joke that I can't see any Harry Kanes anymore. Then after the show, we opened two packs with the crew still on. And in both packs, there was a Harry Kane as well. So, that's not... I can't see...

[00:08:57] He's just taunting me now. Of course, there are... It's a 90-rated player. So, well, I'm packed for it if I need anything to grind for. But here's my issue with some of the SBCs, though. Look at... Maybe I was like, oh, let's do a Fiera or something like that, right? I think I should be able to do him. But the moment an SBC says there's 20 plus SBCs to go for, I'm like, hmm, I don't need that much sleep. I'll skip this one.

[00:09:27] So, I've not done anything with them yet. And then to make things worse, I think Saturday they released a Harry Kane SBC. I was like, no, I'm good. I'm good. You just need to do... You need to do that Harry Kane SBC just out of tribute to him in all honesty. But, no, that takes us on quite nicely because, like I said, we're not going to go into all the SBCs that's come out. But there's been a few since you chaps recorded on Friday. We've obviously had the regular position ones.

[00:09:53] They're down to one, but there's 85 times three for the position packs. So, instead of being able to repeat them, I think before it was three times 83 times five, they've kind of reversed that. So, that's not too bad. In all honesty, if you want someone to put your stuff, they're coming in about 40k each. So, it's worth a pot. But Harry Kane, as you say, just to touch on him briefly, I've faced him a few times. And if you're not a player that wants to spam, you know, your striker in behind, Harry Kane is an absolute menace. His finishing is ridiculous.

[00:10:22] And he's strong as an ox. I don't know if you guys have actually seen him in game. A lot against Feyenoord, though. Well, yeah, I know. But Feyenoord, you know, you're still living on that. You know, you've got to come down sometime. So, we'll just look at the league table and see what's happening there. Fair enough. But, Shaq, have you come up against this game? Have you had any experience? Because if I didn't have the team that I had, I would be seriously considering him just for that finishing alone. I haven't really come across this Kane yet. But I believe he's a really good... I think his playstyle plus is a perfect combination of things.

[00:10:52] So, no, I haven't really come across him. But I'm dreading it already. And I think, like John, I have come across a lot of Team of the Years in my Champions... For Champs Grind. And I've noticed that people that have one Team of the Year tend to have multiple. So, I've seen a lot with Mbappe. And you think, oh, there's Mbappe. Then you see bloody Salah running on the side. And you think, that has to be a normal Salah, right? And then, no, it's Team of the Year, Salah, that's the first owner as well. So, yeah, some people seem to have a lot of Team of the Years running around in their clubs.

[00:11:22] Yeah. Hiya. I'm trying not to flex this too much. I've had so much abuse from Dan and Shaka over the last few days. It's actually getting... I think so as well, mate. It's borderline bullying, to be honest. I'm tempted just to walk away in tears. But then I just look at my team and then just send them a picture of that. So, it's all fine. The other one, John, I don't know if this is one that will interest you. Lothar Mateus. He's always pretty fun, pretty good as a center mid. He's coming at nearly 2.4 million.

[00:11:52] Have you looked at him? Has he interested you with your ridiculous number of Harry Gaines in your storage? He has 20 challenges as well. That's the only thing. Yeah, that's where I stopped. So, I looked at the card. I was like, oh, that's actually pretty cool. If I wasn't having a 94 rated Zidane, that might have changed things a little bit. And to be honest, I think the... Is it Abili? Yeah. Yes. Doesn't look too bad either. So, I would just put my coins into Abili in this situation.

[00:12:22] I've got a question to ask you. So, don't you think Abili is exactly the same as Zidane in a lot of ways? She's no different? Yeah, we spoke about that on Friday. But I said when you combine those two, they can both play CM and they can both play Chem. And I don't really see an issue with that either. If you had a choice, if coins is not an issue, would you rather choose KDB to partner with Zidane or Abili? KDB, probably. There you go.

[00:12:51] Because it at least gives you a little bit of versatility in that. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking of doing Abili, but I think if I can grind together, I'll get KDB done. Anyway, you go. Sorry, go ahead, Nate. No, it's always good having the bosses insight for that. And the last player that came that we'll briefly talk about is one that really annoys me in FIFA. Pedri came out last month, 312k. But he's one of these cards. He just doesn't excel in anything. He's a fairly solid player.

[00:13:21] But every time I see him, I'm just a bit like, he's very meh. We go back to when we had the original Tuesday Club and we used meh a lot. Pedri is the definition of meh, especially during Team of the Year. You know what annoys me is when we get a brand new SPC or we get something in packs and the first thing you see on social media is good for an Evo. That really annoys me. Why are we doing an SPC that might be good for an Evo in two months' time or three months' time? Who cares?

[00:13:49] Well, to be honest, that kind of takes us on nicely to Hawkins' question. For those of you that aren't aware and lots of you are, we have an amazing Discord server, which we're all into chats all hours of the day. One of the benefits is you can have your questions asked and we can kind of go through them on the show. So Hawkins written in to us and said, Do you think the SPC's release of a team of the year will be viable for a few months towards Tots? I know it seems a long way, but thinking of doing Kane or Stan, maybe both. Not wanting to replace them for a while.

[00:14:16] So I wondered if you think the level of players will be overtaken in the next few promos or will they hold their own? John, from that perspective, what do you think? Do you think these things have got a bit of time to last? Or, you know, my initial sort of reaction is they could be good for an Evo in a few weeks' time. So sorry, Shaq. But John, what's your thoughts on that? So let's start with the first, without the Evo question, right?

[00:14:43] I think there are a couple of SPC's there that are definitely viable for a long while. I think Viera, KDB, Kevin De Bruyne, like Shaq said, maybe even Abili. They don't really need to replace this. And if Kane is your type of striker, what does that card need anymore before team of the season hits? Like it would definitely last, right? Pedri, not so much. Phil Foden, not so much.

[00:15:11] I don't think it's much better than the other cards of him as well. And I think Mateus is just good, but like five-star, five-star would make a difference there. So probably for a while. Problem with Evo's is, and I've said this this week, and I know it's a very unpopular opinion. So you guys can just cut me off. And I'm not hosting, so you can just mute me. I find it extremely confluting. I completely agree with you.

[00:15:40] And in fact, this is what I just wanted to mention. I had a weekend with a couple of mates and my brother who used to be FIFA EA addicts and just stopped from playing a couple of years ago. And this is Dabble. And I was trying to explain to them the Evo system and trying to explain the progression of the team of the year, center back evolution. And they literally just thought, so wait, you guys have to literally find a way, like reading a thesis to understand how you can get your Evo's through to get the best output.

[00:16:09] And is anything mentioned in game? And I said, no, there's nothing mentioned in game. And here's exactly my issue. So two weeks ago, when I released the team of the year evolutions with the center back, right? I was like, you know what? There's a final 78 rated defender. You can make him like 92 rated or something. That could be really cool. And I'll play him. So I did the first two evolutions, which I just went to the club menu, go into evolutions, you click it, you play a couple of matches, click it again.

[00:16:38] Zidane came out, you go to the clubs, you go to the evolutions, you select it, you can do a couple of games, 12 games, whatever. It's 94 rated. I was like, okay, everything I said about evolutions that I don't really like it, that I think it's absolute. It's actually pretty fun when you do it like this and you get already good cards, you can make that card a little bit better. You know what? Two thumbs up, let's go for it. But then this weekend I was like, hey, there should be like six chains on this card, isn't it?

[00:17:03] And if he says like, yeah, but you need to do a tournament, you had to play this, you had to play this, then it unlocks. Then I got a message, are you going to do the icon evolution? I'm like, I'm looking at my club, I don't see an icon evolution. No, no, it's an SPC which unlocks the evolution to do the icon evolution. Like, yeah, okay, now I'm completely lost and actually I don't like this anymore. This could be totally me, but it's...

[00:17:26] So I missed one of the chains in the evolution because I never played those tournaments and I completely missed that. I should also play to unlock it, to start playing it, to unlock another. I completely missed that one. Yeah, it's a lot more complicated than it has to be. Some of them are really cool. Like I will say some of the ones, the lower rated cards are really cool that you can chain certain evos. You need to be quite savvy in terms of checking social media.

[00:17:54] People online come up with really cool ways of doing things. And even like you're saying with the team of the year one, you could literally go one to six. However, I think as if you miss out number four? Three. Number three. You just skip number three. Skip number three unless you're planning on putting the center back into CDM because it gives you the ping pass. But if you go one, two, four, five, six, three, it gives you anticipate plus instead of ping pass plus.

[00:18:21] So as a center back, much more beneficial having that play style plus in my opinion anyway. I know certain people want ballplay and center backs, whatever. But anticipate plus, we've all seen it since the patch. It's quite invaluable. So you're not always aware of it because like you say, EA haven't really told us you can skip one and this is coming, that's coming. And last week, me and Jack walked away from the pod going, we were a little bit too pro EA in that. We were very, very positive.

[00:18:51] But it comes down to one of my personal bugbears where is the communications are pretty poor. And even if they listed all the SBCs that are coming, you know, right from the start, one comes to this, two comes to that, three comes to that. You know, right, I need to log on nine times in two weeks for that. I need to do that. It's just a little bit of help. I didn't do the login. So that was also like, mate, I can't even do the. So I missed the third one because I didn't look at the tournament. And I missed the fourth one because I haven't unlocked it yet, apparently, because I logged in eight times so far.

[00:19:21] Yeah, but you can still get that. You've still got time. I'm the same. Sure. But it should be a lot more straightforward because let's be honest, we do have casual people. We like to say we're casual, but we're not really casual, you know, gamers or whatever. But there are a lot of actual casual players, you know, that would benefit from this Evo. So if they can definitely a casual Evo player. Yeah, absolutely. And a casual mini grinder there, John. Exactly. So I was like, I'm totally not sure what I'm doing with Evo.

[00:19:50] So for me, it's like, I feel I won't be able to max out this player. And if it even was maxed out, I would probably done it in the wrong order. I mean, one to six doesn't sound like a wrong word to me, but apparently it is. So I think that's it. But coming back on James's question about the SPCs, right? If you are in doubt, if the SPC is currently not good enough for your team, then don't do it. That's my goal. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're right. Because we know what they're like.

[00:20:16] They want to try and drive engagement, playtime and, you know, all else. They want to drive store packs and finances, which is another thing we'll drive on to. But if it's not good enough now, even with an Evo, they'll probably still release an SPC or, you know, a promo team at the time that this Evo is current. And that's at least on that level. So unless you've got that personal attachment to these players, you know, I did Paddy because I had, you know, like I said, 150 packs and needed somewhere to put them. And, you know, he was a player that I really wanted to do anyway.

[00:20:45] So I was waiting for the full release. But that, in my opinion, that's one that could last for a long time anyway and probably will fit an Evo towards the end of the cycle. So, Shaq, I don't know what your thoughts are, but a lot of these players are either good enough now or good enough for an Evo, which, like you say, isn't beneficial. The only thing that I would say is Stam is just tremendous. Yeah. Look, I think most of the cards that we have on SPCs right now on offer are really good. And they will be pretty good at least till maybe March. You can push come to shove.

[00:21:15] You can push it along till maybe team of the season as well. But they're really good cards. I can't, I think the ones like Pedri, anything under 500k that we have right now as an SPC, that's a hit and miss. It's completely your choice. You'd rather spend that coins on, you know, doing an evolution. But anything above 500k, I think it will last in your team for a while. Say the Stam, Vieira, Matthaus, Kevin De Bruyne, they will stay in your team for a while. But you still do have to be selective, though.

[00:21:43] You really have to be selective on what you do because you can't really cut yourself really thin because I think there's some cards that you probably should try and focus towards. Like I think the Bale is a card that you probably should try and focus towards. Maybe at a stretch, a card like Stamp fits that perfect combination of price, value, blah, blah, blah. He's only a million coins. It's not really expensive. And he's like a top tier centre-back that might last all the way to the team of the season as well. So just got to be a little careful on where you actually divert your funds and your fodder towards.

[00:22:12] But if any of these cards actually pull at the heartstrings, I think it's not worth a shot to try and get them in your club. Yeah, absolutely. So that kind of sums up team of the year to date. Obviously, John, you and the team will be back on Friday when you'll probably round up kind of the last few days with any further content, SBCs, whatever that we've got. It's EA, so there's a good chance they'll try and push something fairly big for the last few days, you'd imagine.

[00:22:40] As we said at the start of the show, though, I want to put on our tinfoil hat. So we've had a couple of things, especially if you're on social media and certain large content creators have kind of started this train. Shadow patch. The game obviously had a massive patch, massive. They said it was the biggest refresh, etc. Everyone was loving the game. You guys talked about it briefly, I think, on Friday. The game does feel different. But is it a patch? Shaq, we'll start with you. Is it a patch? Is it servers?

[00:23:10] Or, as Dan's kind of alluded to a few times, is it that people have now had time to play the game? They've adjusted. You know, the teams have kind of slightly adjusted. The formations have adjusted. Is it as simple as saying there's been a patch? Or is it the state of the players and the teams? I think there's a common... It's not a shadow patch, but I think it's a combination of the two things you've mentioned where the servers have been extremely heavy over the past weekend. And on top of that as well, I think a lot of people have figured out that you can't really play on a 70 or 95 depth anymore.

[00:23:39] You have to keep your players a little bit behind. You can't really just go use your AI for defending everything. You have to try and do manual defending. So I think a lot of people are using those techniques. Having said that, though, I think there's some of the things that I've seen. I've noticed myself is... I think last week I was blitzing through using Vinny. I was blitzing through certain defenders and even the fullbacks. They were not able to... Once you're through, you're through. Whereas this week I've been caught up from the same sort of angles. I've been getting caught up from behind. So I don't necessarily know where that's coming from.

[00:24:09] It could be that people have actually improved their defensive stance. Maybe they were just auto-AI defending last week and now they've figured out that they just can't rely on the AI. They probably have to manually pull their fullback behind to catch me or use a center back to catch. I don't necessarily know. So there's certain things that are a little ad hoc. But overall, I think it's a combination of both those things that we've mentioned. There's no shadow patch. I don't think so. It's not in EA's best interest. Yeah, exactly. I mean, John, what's your view on it?

[00:24:38] I know you've kind of got a slightly different kind of viewpoint from Shaq and I in terms of your insider knowledge and your sort of game and sort of background and such. And obviously, we play the game all the time. I know your sort of game time is a little bit more sparse. So originally when you played the first patch, well, I say the first patch, the big patch, did you notice a massive difference then? Yeah, definitely. I think manual defending is required almost now, right? You need to select the defenders, which we always played like this.

[00:25:08] So for us, it was a little bit less of a change. But we definitely saw players that didn't do that. I think scoring in the box was way easier. And that's still the case. I don't believe in the shadow patch because, like I said on Friday shows and we just did a special Patreon exclusive show about that same topic. I don't see why they would turn the game back. Like they get a lot of praise. Then they say, like, let's turn this back or something. I don't. If people say, hey, we like this show, we won't change as much as people would say we don't like the show.

[00:25:38] So I want to see why they would change that. Biggest difference I've seen gameplay-wise is last week I did not see that many people in my division actually switching to fullbacks or using partial team press. This week I have seen that. So runs are triggered easily and far more consistently. And I've seen players switch to the right defenders easier. And I saw a big change in which tactics people use.

[00:26:01] So I don't see the 4-3-3 as much anymore or attacking fullbacks, which automatically means if you do that and you learn a lower line than you did before, the gap of catching up is already way lower than before. So I do think there's definitely an adjustment going on in the world of FC. And I think combine that with probably a little bit heavier load, which I've not noticed too much, but could be my area, of course. It's just what you lead to this.

[00:26:27] And I would almost plug the Art of Food show where I did a rant about the fact that FC or football games in general, sports games in general, use a lot more physics. And FC is one of the most advanced physical games in there. Although sometimes it doesn't seem that way, but I would recommend people play either eFootball or the other one, which are UofL, for example, which are far more basic.

[00:26:53] And you'll notice the difference in physics in these games. And I think EA, the FC games are so far ahead of the physics game that there's so much being calculated at the same time. If you add load on that, like I gave the example, if you go call of duty, you want to test a gun. You just stand in front of a wall, you shoot the ball and it's consistent every single time.

[00:27:16] In FC, there's not a single moment in this game where you put a player in exactly the same place, use exactly the same player, use exactly the same position at the same stance to do the same action. Because I do think if you would do that, I have no idea how we would be able to do that. But if you would do that, you will see that it's actually pretty consistent. But in a game where there's miniatures calculations being made.

[00:27:42] So I take a shot, it looks at my composure, looks at my shooting stats, look at the distance defenders and taking to consider their composure, their defending stats. And if, or then hit a button as well, you add a little bit of latency over that and a bit of lag compensation to make sure the game actually plays. It's never that consistent in any situation if you were playing offline. And I think that's just inherent to a football game.

[00:28:11] And I brought the example of a final last week, Nate, where, well, they shoot 30 times, they don't score. Final shots four times, score three times. It's total bullshit, right? It should not happen, but sometimes it just does happen. And I think that's also the beauty of football. If you go back to the basics like EOVL does, for example, and it's not actually, I'm not criticizing the game, but it's just more basic.

[00:28:37] There are areas where I know if I take the shot here, not taking all the other things in FIFA, but if I take shots from this angle, this type of shot, I will just score. Because there's nothing else meddling with this. And that's actually really boring. You would say consistency is good, but I'm scoring constantly the same goals. Constantly. That's just my way of scoring. It just works. Can't really be defended. There's no skill gap. I think that's something you will be tuning out far more likely than the way we're playing now.

[00:29:05] That makes a little bit of sense. Yeah, absolutely. And in previous iterations of the game, we've complained about certain things being too consistent. You know, finesses or power shots or cutback goals or near post goals. So, you know, the variety and the unpredictability is what makes this game, in my opinion, really interesting. You also touched on a point there, John, that from my own experience in gameplay, I've noticed a lot. But when the patch first happened, people were using, well, it seems like they were either using wingback or attacking wingback on the fullbacks. Yep.

[00:29:34] So, whilst that meant that they had a lot of width and, you know, sometimes they were overloading you in your defensive areas, as soon as you got the transition, you're already five yards ahead of their fullback or whatever. So, if you've got a 90-plus placed winger, there's a very high chance that they are through and people can't catch them. And they're on 95 depth. And they're on 95 depth, exactly. Whereas nowadays, I'm seeing people kind of, what looks like around the 60, give or take, sort of 10 points either side, seeing that, and they're clearly using fullbacks because they are a lot more defensive minded.

[00:30:04] And then it's all about, you know, manly triggering the run. So, I think people are getting used to the game. To be honest, I'm not saying they have shadow of patched it, but it almost would have made sense for a slight tweak when you look at the players that they've brought in through Team of the Year. And even that Team of the Year, Ivo, where you had the winger sort of one where they give you 90-plus pace. You know, the Team of the Year wingers, you've got Lauren James, who's on about 96 pace. Wrighton's on 90-odd pace. Salah's 96 pace. Zimbappé will be 3 million pace.

[00:30:31] It almost would have made sense to sort of change that because if you had even one of those wingers, you almost could have just run straight through pretty much every time. So, not saying that they have because I do think it's people just finding the game. But at the same time, it almost would have made slight sense just to rein it in that little bit more, just to balance the game a little bit more. Because if you either had ridiculous amount of coins or unbelievable pack look like some people have, ha-ha, then it would kind of make, you know, it would make not an easy game.

[00:31:01] But a bit like you're saying with UFL, it would make it a lot more sort of consistent in terms of if you get the ball to your winger, even a little bit of space, they tear through and they score. So, again, I'm not saying that that's what they've done, but you could almost see that could be a thought process. But I think it's just tactics. You see in all these, everyone seems to be wanting to play a bit more 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 and 4-5-1. So, we're not having 4-2-1-3. We're not having 4-3-3 as much, although I am still rocking a 4-3-3,

[00:31:31] which I'm loving just because it's fun. It's not the best formation, but it's fun and it fits the players we've got. So, that is that tinfoil hat almost addressed. And, you know, Envy in the questions asked if we think it feels different now as well. So, we've kind of addressed that with players catching up as well. So, that sort of rounds up nicely. And the next thing, obviously, we mentioned that we want to go on to. Shaq, you've done quite a bit of reading up on this, I believe.

[00:31:59] But EA share prices have dropped, which has coincided with the major patch. And, you know, some people's point of view, higher drop rate on team of the years. Other people's point of view, no drop rate on team of the years. So, just wanted to pick your brains on that. Firstly, like, do you feel, was it 20% drop, I think it said, wasn't it, in shares? I think it was more significant than that. I think it was, well, it actually was 16%, I think, if I'm not mistaken.

[00:32:28] But it was a huge, I think it was a couple of billion dollars that was wiped out. I was still wiped out right now, I think. Just out of context. So, before the information came out, the EA's share prices were trading at about $142 USD per share. And right now, they're trading at $117. So, that's a significant jump, well, significant crash, if I would like to say that. So, essentially, John and I have gone backwards and forwards.

[00:32:55] And the synopsis was that EA had provided, had expected, had explained to the investors that there would be a lot more sales of not just EA FC, but there was another game like Dragon's Watch, if I'm not mistaken, John. Is that right? Yeah. Dragon Age. Yeah. So, there was two games that they overestimated what the sales would be. And those sales were not as good as they expected.

[00:33:19] And I think one of the things with EA FC, we've all kind of noticed that it is not as high as we've, we're not seeing as many users on the game as much as we used to in previous years. Having said that, though, I think John rightly mentions the fact that it is lower than what they expected, but it's still higher than last year. And that could fairly be the point as well. And we'll understand that when we get the final figures. I think when EA has to do the final NDPF figures, we'll understand what their revenue was for this year.

[00:33:48] I think the last discussion we had from EA, the revenue was still really, really high for at the end of the fourth quarter in 2024 was still fairly high. So, I'm not, I don't think they're worried about from a revenue point of view. I think the user point of view, I think they overestimated how many sales they would have from the game point of view. And I don't think they've had as many sales as they've hoped for.

[00:34:11] And obviously, I think John mentions that they've always consistently shot, for example, if they had 50 sales this year, they predicted 100 sales next year or 70 sales next year. And it just kept on ramping it up and up and up. And it's always been able, they've always been able to match up to whatever they projected. But this year, they probably just couldn't. For whatever reason, they haven't sold as many as they thought they would. Sweet. No, thank you for that, Shaq. I mean, John, from the gameplay then side of things, you know, like we said about the blues in packs or not in packs and the patch.

[00:34:40] What's your opinion? Obviously, us sitting here aren't going to know exactly what's going on. Is it coincidental that they put out that major patch when they, because obviously they'll have reviewed the accounts before releasing it. Is it a coincidence then that this patch has kind of boosted gameplay to a lot of people's opinions? Or is it, you know, is it quite sort of calculative that they thought it's not doing as well as they wanted it to? So we need to do something faster now. Well, it's never going to be fast anyways.

[00:35:11] This sounds harsh, but I think it was November when they already said we're working on these issues. We're opening up communications and we'll let you know once we've fixed it. And they have already brought out some smaller patches, right? And the things they change, like tacklebacks, true balls, overtop, true balls, first touch things, they already said we are working on this.

[00:35:33] The release of it, I don't think, like, if they had a week to say, okay, let's do a week to, for example, put it out there. Then if they have the option, they'll put it on the end of the year. But I don't necessarily think they waited until the end of the year. Let's put it like this. Or they're like, hey, numbers are down. We have to push it right now. So I think that's a little bit of a coincidence. Of course, not bad timing. But to be quite honest, Nate, I do think that theme of the year will bring in players nevertheless.

[00:36:02] Christmas brings in players nevertheless. And it will bring players back that are playing, if that makes sense. Or that stop playing. But I don't necessarily think a new patch will bring in new players, if that makes sense. Yeah. It could just be coincidental. Like you say, the patch could be well-timed to get the hype when they're starting the team of the year grind. And like you say, it'll get people in. I mean, the other thing to talk about in that is obviously the objectives that they're sort of releasing at the moment.

[00:36:31] They're a lot more like it used to be win or play five matches or whatever. Now it's like win 10, play 15 matches and friendlies and stuff. So I think that's quite calculated that they're obviously looking at engagement time and thinking we need to try and boost this. And we've mentioned that on the show before. Unfortunately, we can't pass back to Shaq. He seems to have technical issues, which is a common theme in our Tuesday Club. We should probably just call Tuesday Club the technical issues or something like that.

[00:36:58] But I think that it could be, you know, the blues, you are seeing lots and lots of blues. I know people don't have them. We were saying in our side chat with Shaq and Dan, actually, it seems to be people that have got one blue have three or four blues. And people... I haven't. Yeah, but you don't menu grind as much. That's fair. That does seem to be a... Although I've run out of golds now. I get what you're saying, but I don't think it's that black or white. That makes sense. No, I mean...

[00:37:26] You don't post your losses. Exactly. People can spend $10,000, whatever, and don't get anything, but they don't post it because they feel bad about spending $10,000. People can spend 100 euros or dollars and they're like, oh, I packed two. Let's have a pack two from this pack. Check me out. And we don't see the net. It's like you go on Instagram, you see the post if you don't see the net. So it's hard to say. We never get the real numbers.

[00:37:52] And I think the patch definitely improved on the general consensus about the game. But now we're two weeks later and people are already dropping off again. Yeah, absolutely. And to be fair, when people are getting used to it, we are noticing that kind of drop off in terms of people complaining. The game's not this. The game's doing that. So I think you're right.

[00:38:18] I don't think it's totally calculated in terms of chairs that plummeted. We need to do something. But I do think there is a degree of the patch. People are complaining so much about the gameplay. They obviously identified issues. The patch needed to come. And I think they kind of just thought, right, release date, team of the year. It'll drive up engagement, sort of no end. So I think that's probably more. Shaq, I'm hoping you've kind of got the gist of that since you've rejoined us now.

[00:38:46] But we're just kind of finalizing our thoughts on, obviously, the SharePoint. But I do think that he may have frozen again. So, John, we'll just move on now because I know that Shaq doesn't actually have a formation in review. But we have the sound bite from Dan for our wonderful topic. Definitely. Although, of course, it should have prepared us a little bit better than for this. It's what you want to call the formation in review, right? Formation focus.

[00:39:17] There we go. So we've got our lovely voice and tones from Wemby, who we do sometimes miss on this pod. But obviously, sometimes it's quite nice that we can just moan about him when he's not here, too. But, John, now that you're playing a wee bit more, what formation have you got for us to review today? That's a good question, which I have not prepared, honestly. But that's quite all right. I've been going back to the 4-2-3-1 wide setup, mate.

[00:39:47] And honestly, it's a formation where you can keep the ball. It's a little bit stable on defense. Pretty safe going forward, I think, as well. It's a little bit less gung-ho. But pretty, like, it's the formation I used to get the 11 wins this weekend. And 11 isn't, like, end up, but especially considering I was a little bit rusty. I don't necessarily think that was too bad. 4-2-3-1. I did put everything back on balance just to keep everything in shape.

[00:40:17] So, I think that sort of helped. But I think the 4-2-3-1 wide still works pretty good. You've got the speed of your wingers. You've got two CDMs that are able to pass and go around. I've got new fullback, which, well, bronze, like I said, I'm just putting on bomb forward because he's fast enough to catch up. That's a big plus now. And I quite like that. I do see some potentials in, dare I say, a 3 or 5-back in the near future. Yeah, I've definitely seen a lot more 5-backs.

[00:40:47] From my own point of view, I'm using 4-3-3 second variation, which is the one with the CDM and 2-CMs. Basically moved to that because the players that I had available, I needed to try and cram them all in. So, I'm really enjoying it. It's definitely not the most meta formation. And there's certain games where people who know how to explain certain mechanics can cut through you. But at the same time, I've got one. I've obviously got a hold in CDM. I've got one centermed on box-to-box and one on Playmaker Roman as well.

[00:41:16] So, it kind of makes you've got plenty of options to build up. Both wingers on inside forward because both of my wingers have five-star weak foot and they have finesse plus. So, I absolutely love to do that. I've got full-backs as well just to be a little bit more secure because my manual defending isn't as good as the top-tier players as well. So, that's a really fun formation to use. It's a counter and a balance line. I think I'm on 59 depth. I like 59 at the moment.

[00:41:41] That seems to be a bit of a sweet spot for me where my centre-backs aren't the fastest, but they can still kind of recover mainly. So, that's not so bad. So, I'd highly recommend just playing around. I was 4-2-1-3 for a while. But I think the gap when you've got two CDMs, the one centre-mid and then the rest of them are... Oh, sorry. One... Two CDMs, one cam. And then your wingers and your attacker. I think that's too big a gap to play how I like to play. I'm not saying it's a terrible formation, but I wasn't getting the best from it.

[00:42:08] John, before we wrap up, I think Shaq seems to have sailed away into the sunset already. Just want to ask if you have a player in review. I could say Lucy Bronze now. Just coming quickly back on Shaq and or the 4-3-3-2. The 4-3-3 second variant, there is a video on it on Patreon. So, if you're a member of Patreon, you can actually check it out there as well. You can use that same formation I think you're using? Or maybe you're tuned? No, I've tuned it slightly.

[00:42:36] I think I've tweaked certain positions because I think since the patch, I was getting cut open a little bit easier than I'd like to because I'm not as good as retaining the ball in certain areas of the pitch. So, I've tweaked it. So, I use yours as a very good base and then just kind of change it to my own play style profile if you like. Shaq is back with us. So, I don't think he's got one, but is there any formations that you want to highlight even if you don't go into depth? I think the one formation that I really want to talk about is a 4-4-2.

[00:43:06] I've just started to dabble back in it again. It's my favorite go-to formation. I've really enjoyed it. So, after the show, I just want to put it back on and go back to a 4-4-2 with like a 52 depth and just go for some fun. Perfect. Fun is obviously the key. That's what we try and drive. Again, before we wrap up, it's our usual segment as we just touched on. John, player in review. Player in review.

[00:43:37] I didn't prepare it, but I was ready for it. Player in review. I always want to come back on the 94 Radial Zidane. I think you guys mentioned it last week, but that's just an awesome player. If you haven't done him yet, haven't unlocked him, it's still free. If you just play the game, I think before February 14th, something like that. Valentine's Day, it's still yours. Go get him. If you can't upgrade, still the other one is still fine. I think that's good.

[00:44:02] The player in review, which I just so absolutely love this card, is still the player with a Monsala or any Salah card for that. Inside forward, on a step inside, people said the financial is nerfed. I don't think it's actually nerfed. You can still drop inside. He has played 62 games for me now and he's scored 111 goals. Just cutting inside and taking a shot.

[00:44:27] I think Salah and even, of course, the blue ones is even better, but any Salah card still works just fine for me. Yeah, I was going to use him as my player in review, but you've kind of stolen him from me, John. Obviously, it was the blue one, but I can echo that. I'm playing him as my striker just as a way to fit certain players in. Played 23 games in Div 2 and he scored 25 goals. I don't know how many assists, but it's a number of assists. So, not bad at that level.

[00:44:55] One thing, though, for his team of the season, team of the season, team of the year, sorry. This is a debated one, right? So, he's got three playstyle pluses. So, Finesse and Rapid, we know, are very OP. But he's got Trickster Plus. I am loving my striker having Trickster Plus. Just because the fake shot animation still draws people away. It still manages to bypass them. I think it's kind of looked down on because it's not one of the top, top ones.

[00:45:21] But if you can utilize that, I don't know what you guys think, but Trickster Plus in a 1v1 situation is still hella fun. Yes, I don't know if Shaq wants to comment on that, but I'm still looking like a little bit of black on the inside. But I quite agree. I think Trickster Plus never hurts. We had a question on the Art of Food show about, was it Wrighton, I think? Yeah. Also has it, right winger?

[00:45:53] Yeah, Lauren James has it on the right wing. Exactly, yeah. And I think just absolutely wonderful to have. And especially when you have a five-star skill move. Perfect. I think there's a lot of things you can do with it. I think Archum said just doing the fake shot when they have Trickster Plus is even faster.

[00:46:17] I personally am a big fan of using the Elastico still, especially when Trickster Plus is just so freaking fast and enables you to take a shot in. Yeah. So just go with it. It's super smooth. The Trickster Plus is a different animation for the fake shot than a normal fake shot as well. It kind of wiggles away slightly wide, which is really hard to defend, especially at the moment when people are still learning manual defending and not stepping in.

[00:46:45] My player in review, now that you've stolen mine, I'll go with Valverde, Honorable Mentions. He was one of those that I was looking at from the Honorable Mentions list. Absolutely dying to get him. I was super stoked. I have to say he's solid, but he's not as outrageously good as his other versions were at the time they were released. He's got relentless and he's got power shots. So it's always nice to have a power shot on your box-to-box centre med that you can just unleash one for any time.

[00:47:14] He's very good, but I think because when you've got Zidane in your team, who seems a lot smoother, he kind of gets gobbled up a little bit more. He's not quite as noticeable. Vieira, as well as your CDM, he obviously does the dirty work of the defending. So Valverde, I even might have liked him to have the incisive pass or even a long ball. I love those sort of long ball pass and plus as well. It opens up the game a little bit more, especially when you're playing with out-and-out wingers.

[00:47:41] So he's solid, but if I were somebody looking at this to spend, I think it's 1.3 million just now, I absolutely wouldn't be telling anybody to go and spend 1.3 million on this card when there's so many cards that are sort of around the same level, but for either evoked or cheap or free or whatever. I think because he's traditionally a good card, he's got that sort of residual value, but I don't think he's necessarily a 1.3 million coin player. Yeah, exactly.

[00:48:11] I wouldn't recommend him buying any players currently, though. No. I mean, that was one thing I was wanting to finish off with Shaq, but obviously he's come back and he's gone away. He's a bit like a jack-in-the-box just now. So the market, we've seen a massive drop in market and prices. I think this is because people seem to be giving up the hope of packing things and they're just going to the store to buy them. And then obviously a lot of these come with higher rated cards.

[00:48:35] So I think the market's dropping because people are starting to hit the store a little bit more than previously. But we'll have a full look at the market next week when Shaq's on, hopefully issue three, and we can see what remains of the carnage of the team of the year, pack opening and such like. Before we head off, John, I just want to ask if there's anything else that you want to highlight or you want to add to today's show and for the next few days.

[00:49:01] Something I've been saying for a long, long time, I think, and I'll keep saying it, but please, please, please, please don't compare yourself to anyone else. It doesn't matter if it's on the packs you open or the results you make or anything like that. Comparing yourself to someone else will always make someone of them miserable, I think.

[00:49:29] Like, I had trouble even sharing my team of the year. Paul, you apparently don't have trouble doing that and just rubbing it into people. But it's like, it's just pure luck, right? It's just someone wins the lottery and someone doesn't. And do you necessarily have to compare yourself to it? I think it just makes people unhappy. Just don't, feel free to share. Of course, be happy for someone else, but please stop comparing yourself, your results, your whatever to someone else.

[00:49:58] I think that's never a good thing and it just makes people miserable. You're self-miserable. Yeah, absolutely. Like we joke, I try not to. I flex a lot to Shaq and Dan because I know it really tilts them. But it's all good natured. But pack luck is just that, is luck. So some people have it. And to be honest, we see a lot of people complaining about, you know, not getting a blue. But for the last 90% of the game, they've had solid pulls. They've had good pulls, you know, and it will come back around.

[00:50:25] So you might not get something now, but, you know, next week you might get top tier Mbappe or Vinny or whoever they release in the next promo. I've not seen any real leaks for that, but it will come around to everybody. Shaq, just as you've rejoined us, as we're wrapping up, have you got anything else to add to today's show? I just want to add that if anyone hasn't packed a blue and are really disappointed. Number one, we had access to do a team of the year evolution that gives us three playstyle pluses on a card. So that's team of the year card that you have in your club, number one. Number two, have a look around.

[00:50:55] None of the team of the years are actually three amazing playstyles. Name one that's got three amazing playstyles, not a single one. So you're not missing out. These cards, they look amazing right now. They look amazing. And for example, every single week there's an R9 in packs. Every single week there's an R9 in packs. We don't pack an R9 every week and we don't complain. And all of a sudden, there's like 15 R9s in packs. It doesn't mean we are still suddenly, randomly going to pack an R9. It doesn't happen like that.

[00:51:24] So I think some of the people packing stuff, great. They've just opened that volume of packs and they've just had luck on their side. It is what it is. It's frustrating, but it's not the end of the world. If I walk away from team of the year without packing a blue, sure, I will give Nate some hard time with banter. But that's the end of it. It is what it is. Yeah, absolutely. So with that being said, just before we go, I just want to say to everybody there, good luck if you are still grinding. Hopefully we can see some more blues. It's been quite nice in our Discord. We seem to have had quite a few blues this year.

[00:51:53] I think last year it was like a barren desert where nothing was really coming in at this time. So it is really nice here. And we've seen some very, very good pulls. We've had Rodri's. We've had Saliba's. We've had Salah's. You know, we have had some good ones. CR7s. Not just the goalkeepers. CR7s, exactly. So they are out there. Not saying go waste everything to chase them. But at the same time, there's always hope. John, you and the crew, I think we'll be back again on Friday night. I'm not quite sure who will be joining you this week.

[00:52:21] But I'm sure you've got plenty to talk about. We've got a new, is it Future Stars type promo I think is coming next? I can't remember the exact name of it, but it's the same sort of idea as Future Stars. Grassroot Blaze, isn't it? So there's two things. There's two things. There's one, Future Stars, which could be a completely separate promo. But there's also a Grassroots promo, which I'm really excited about. If it is exactly how the leakers have been talking about it, it's going to be the launch of the Babu, the Gevinio, the Doombia, and of those kind of cards from the past.

[00:52:50] And I'm looking forward to that. I really am. Yeah, that could bring some even more fun back into the game. So from us here, good luck. Thank you for tuning in. One thing left to do, Shaq? Drop it. John? Drop it. We are going to drop it.