660: Return of The King (soon)

[00:00:00] Good morning footies and welcome along to your regular Tuesday Club episode 660 of FUT IN REVIEW powered by Foot Coaching. My name is Nathan, I'm hosting along today with my fantastic co-host as usual on the Tuesday, it's the main man Shaq Attack. Shaq, how are we doing? I'm doing fabulous, thank you Nate and great to be here and great to kick the ball around with you. I think we have a lot of fun these days without having, oh no, we actually do miss Wimby so yeah, as much as I like.

[00:00:29] But yeah, we do miss him. So yeah, looking forward to the next 45 minutes or so. Ideal, yeah. We always have to do our regular shout out to our normal Tuesday Club compatriot who is obviously still away with his secondment with his work so hoping that's going really well. Shaq, before we jump into all things FUT, just wanted to do a bit of a shout out.

[00:00:50] You kept things very quiet but I believe there was a massive milestone for yourself last week so congratulations, many happy returns and how were the celebrations? Oh, it was great. Thank you very much. It was actually really good. I had a really good time and I celebrated my first foray into my fourth decade on this planet so make that what you will. I was here when FIFA 94 was here and I will be here when FIFA 2094 is here as well, I hope so.

[00:01:20] Oh no, glad you survived it. Glad you're back with us still. You're not having too many, you know, too long a hangover or too many repercussions from those massive Australian party and antics. So it's good to have you back on. We'll kick things off, we'll get the ball rolling as per se. How's your week in FUT been? My week in FUT has been pretty reasonable I think. I'm finding it really hard to get into the game as much as I was during Team of the Year.

[00:01:50] But the week's been pretty okay and as I said I had celebrations on the weekend coupled that with the PlayStation Network being down for a huge chunk of the weekend. And there's certain things I'll get into about the game as well at this point in time but it was okay. It was okay. It was not the best week I would say. And what about you? Yeah, it's been quite a productive week actually. Last week was my first foray into champs this entire time. I think I ended on, I think it was maybe seven. I didn't do so well last week.

[00:02:20] This week actually has been pretty productive. I whacked out the rivals wins in about a day which was handy. It always takes the pressure off. I thought I wasn't going to do weekend league or champs or whatever we call it now. But I kind of had my arm violently twisted by yourself and Dan in our group chat. So yesterday I thought I'm just going to batter out just to try and replenish my, it wasn't even my fodder. It was the SBC storage had kind of gone a bit low with all those 85 doubles and such. So I thought I'm just going to go on for fodder. So I ventured into champs.

[00:02:49] I actually managed to go 11-4 which was pretty good. I started off 7-2 which I was really happy with and then I had a wee bit of a lull. I lost three games completely outplayed and, you know, hats off to them. And then I had one loss though and I'm sure people can relate where it was 0-0 to the 87th minute. The guy scores, to be fair, it was a well-worked goal but we both had chances. It was a very even game. But then I did get a bit tilted I must say because he messaged me after saying too easy.

[00:03:16] And I'm sitting there going, that is like the epitome of a balanced game, you know. Like no one was dominating. Everyone had chances. Everyone had, you know, messes and bad tackles, whatever. But that tilted me and I shouldn't get tilted. But all in all, it's been a fairly decent in terms of playing. And it leads us on to the sort of, you know, Future Stars team too with the icons that come. But I've been opening everything which is unlike me because there's not a great deal at the moment. You know, there's not a lot of hype about this promo.

[00:03:45] Like Future Stars is usually quite mega. It's usually on the calendars, something people look out with. I don't know if it's a bit like yourself, Shaq, about, you know, having a bit of fatigue from team of the year. But I don't have that sort of major sort of hype around this and that, you know, I really should be opening everything. I'm now starting to think, let's look ahead and start saving. Yeah, I think it's one of those things where it's time. It's really hard to know what to save for as well.

[00:04:12] So it's really, it is one of those things where I think post team of the year, every single year, it's been exactly the same where people just struggle for content and just to keep that same energy levels. I think Future Stars is actually a really good promo. I think the cards that are being provided are pretty good. I think it's just something, I think people are just burnt out. That's it. And you can't really fix that. Yeah, exactly.

[00:04:37] For those of you that listened to the pod on Friday, I actually think John and Artyom did a really good job in kind of, they discussed some of the players, but the main points from that that I took away is, there's a lot of decent cards here that because they're not, you know, 95, 96 rated, super juiced, or they're not coming in at hundreds or millions of thousands of coins type thing, they are overlooked. There's a lot of actual decent cards in this promo. So I'm not going to, you know, mention it too much again,

[00:05:05] but because the state of some of our teams, it feels like there's not a lot to add to your teams at the moment. There's maybe one position that you think I could do with that player. Like for me, it's, you know, I'd really like that Rio Ferdinand character, say, but he's probably going to be one of those that are, you know, the unicorn in the mess sort of thing that you'll never be able to get. But what's your thought on, we'll touch on you. Obviously our views are slightly different to John and Arts, which is why we do two sessions. What's your thoughts on team two? You know, the players that they've got in the pack weight as well.

[00:05:36] I think, to be perfectly honest, I think team one was slightly better with the top tier cards, but I think the icons in team two are a little bit more bank for your bucket, in my opinion, at least. I mean, cards like Rio Ferdinand really are interesting too. And even cards like Alan Shearer are really interesting cards. I think some of the icon cards are really good, but I think last week we had like Yamal and you had all these, the big, big, big stars that everyone wants to get in their packs.

[00:06:04] Whereas this week we have, oh yeah, we have Amad Diallo, who's equally a big star in my opinion. But also I think the headliner this week is not as hyped as I think last week's headliner, which I think Bakola is a really good card. But I think, because I think we all used Bakola last year, so it doesn't feel very special because all of us ended up having that really hydrated Bakola at some point in time. So yeah, I think the icons are pretty good, but the rest of the team is good, but nothing that, you know,

[00:06:32] you just want to just grind every single pack that you have to try and get back one of those cards. Yeah. I mean, I think we've touched on it in the last couple of weeks, but I think the Bakola card is kind of hampered because we have had that team of the year winger Evo as well. So the way that it comes out to me is that every time there's a winger option going, and to be fair, I did Brian Emboimo, who I don't even think he's on my bench anymore. But I just think they've given us, I know, fair enough, it was 500K and not everyone either could afford to do it or did do it.

[00:07:01] But it just feels a little bit like any right winger for the next, probably two months, I'll be sitting going, maybe not because, you know, it's not one that you want. And Wembe, part of the perks of being in our Discord, you get access to the shows with your life. Wembe's just gone, Brian, no Buemo. I mean, and Buemo is up there with Ahmad for Ballon d'Or this year, let alone, you know, player of the year. So take that back, Daniel. So take that back.

[00:07:27] We have also, there's been one card that I hadn't actually brushed over. Dan had packed him. And actually, when you look into him, he's got every defensive stat. And I think there's an Evo that fits him as well. But we're talking of Kusinov. He's just moved to Man City. He's 55K just now. But his play styles are phenomenal. With the Evo, he does look quite tasty. Is this the sort of thing that you look at when you look at these teams? Kind of, would he fit an Evo? What play styles will he play above his stats?

[00:07:56] Or do you just kind of look and go, he's 88 rated. I've already got 91s, 92s in the squad. Like, it's just a no-go. I think one of the things that I'm, I think I'm being a little bit overloaded with Evolutions. And I think I'm spending a lot of time doing Evos for the cards not to even make my bench. And it started to become like we are just getting this FOMO to try and get the best possible Evo. And barely using them for a week or so. Even like you mentioned, Mbuemo. I did Usman Dembele.

[00:08:25] And yeah, he's good. But I just feel weird using, it just, I really can't explain it. It just didn't feel, I didn't feel anything. It just didn't feel anything. I thought, yeah, he's great in game. But I'd rather use someone else. Yeah, he's just not even on my bench anymore. And there's a lot of evolutions that I've done. So, Khrushanov, I actually backed him today. And I didn't even, I know Dan's mentioned his Evo. And I haven't considered doing his Evo.

[00:08:52] But look, if you really are into changing teams and you constantly try to keep up with the curve and try to keep changing your, tinkering your squads. Absolutely. He's a no-brainer. He's a really good card, actually. Yeah, exactly. And there has obviously been a mini-release since the guys recorded on Friday. I've packed one of them twice. Who, I can't believe how cheap. I think she's coming in at 18K. Just the face stats. I haven't even dived into it.

[00:09:18] But Jean-Francois, my pronunciation is probably absolutely horrific. Jean-Stote? No, Jean-Francois. She's a CDM from France. Plays for Chelsea. 88 rated. 85 pace. 83 passing. 84 dribbling. 88 defense. With anticipate. Plus. 4 star. 4 star. This is the sort of thing that, you know, it kind of reminds me of what John and Art was saying on Friday. That card could be a very, very solid.

[00:09:47] Obviously, it's not Vieira level or whoever like that. But for 18K, that card looks very, very good if you're either on a starter team or, you know, you're running a French team or you're just wanting to do, you know, a link for the WSL. So, cards like this, even though it's in the mini release, I think, you know, you could do a lot worse than looking at some of these cheaper players. I'll just humor me with this one. I'll read out some stats and just tell me what this price of this card is, all right? Pace, 87. Shooting, 81.

[00:10:16] Passing, 85. Dribbling, 88. Defensive, 86. Physical, 85. And he's got a Tiki Taka Plus PlayStyle Plus. CM, CDM. What's his price on the market? See, in last iterations, you'd be thinking that's, you know, 100K plus. And this, you're probably talking about 18K, 20K because the market seems to have totally dived. But, you know, FC24 or FIFA23, these cards, you know, he's all Hullet Gang already. Correct.

[00:10:45] I know, obviously, we've had Team of the Year, but that's, you know, that's an anomaly for most. Like, that card should be really high. But according to State of the Game, I'd imagine he's under 20K. Exactly. And just to add as well, he's got Brazilian, he's from Brazil. Andres Santos goes for 12,750. It's ridiculous. It is rental. And I mean, you're the market expert here. Is that just to do with, you know, the power curve? Is that to do with supply? Is it to do with Evos?

[00:11:14] What's your sort of, your thinking for this? I think there's a lot. There's a lot of options available. I think we all have gazillions of options on top of that. I think with the Evo player pick as well, which we'll talk about, I think there's a lot of people that have chosen the midfielder option there. So obviously, you can only play three midfielders at a time. And these kind of midfielders are a dime a dozen as well because there's so many. There's so many previous ones as well.

[00:11:37] One of the things I'm noticing as well is the fact that some of these cards, whenever they actually do fit a really hyped up evolution, they seem to be spiking a lot. Like, for example, the Johnny Reindeers, when I think at during, I can't remember when it was, but he was literally at this card. He was at 31, which is his base price. He was at 31K. And he just kept going up and up and up. And now he's again fitting an evolution. And he's 69K. So if you find a card that is close to this card, that's got like this card is a really good one with Andre Santos.

[00:12:07] I'll just pick one up, throw it in your club and just wait for it to be required for Mega Evo. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the other one that kind of comes to mind on that is the, if you look at Emmanuel Petit, we've had that Evo out sort of, I think it was this week. So he was kind of going just before the Evo came out. He was about 150K, 156K. He went up to his maximum price, which I think still like 160.

[00:12:35] He's been extinct now since the 8th of February. So he's been extinct for three days. The Evo does look decent. And like I've got an, and I'm considering doing him just because, you know, he looks like a rock. I think it's a left back Evo that you can do, but it gives him a massive pace boost. I think it's, yeah, the attacker's instinct was gets up to 92 pace boost. Decent shooting, very good dribbling, good pass in. You know, his defense is still 85 and his physicality is 87. But we all know that Petit in this game is a bit of a man mountain.

[00:13:05] He's a bit like Vieira that way, where he'll play above his stats. So it's taken an interesting twist on the market. The other player that I just wanted to highlight while we're talking about the current team and icons, we have had an SBC and he has quite often been a bit of a fan favorite. Talking about Fernando Torres, who's coming in at 630K. What do you think about this card? Is he one that, you know, you think he would fit your team?

[00:13:29] And do you think he's one, you know, John sometimes does the, you know, don't do, could do, should do. How would you rate that in those sort of three? If you're a Liverpool fan and have fond memories of Torres, yeah, surely just go ahead and get this card done. But also if you actually, I think when you get cards like this that are probably really good, that seem to be really good, that are priced at about 600, 500K, it's a really, I think it's a hit and miss

[00:13:56] because you never know how good they will be in game and they're never as good as you expect them to be. If this same card was slightly more juiced and put it 1.2, 1.3 million, I can guarantee you he would be incredible in game. So try the loan out. From what I've heard, I've seen a lot of reviews online. I think he's got finesse, which is amazing. But I think overall as for what you're paying for, unless you have a connection with Torres, I think this is the one that you could probably skip. That's not a must do in my opinion.

[00:14:24] Yeah, I mean, to be fair, just looking at him now when you go into his stats, I think his shooting is very, very good. It's brought down slightly by his long shots, but his composure is down at 88. So if you're looking at Fernando Torres' icon, if his composure was up in sort of the mid-90s, you'd be thinking that card is probably a must do with his, you know, the Rapids is a nice one to have. His finesse plus is lovely. Five-star weak foot's always good. He's got a bit more sort of physicality to him. So you know that he'll at least compete for headers, which I quite like having that option.

[00:14:53] So I think that it's almost a very good card. But I think right now it's more of a could do, like you were saying. But it does show like EA, to be fair to them, have that thankless task of how do we follow up team of the year and keep engagement going? I think we've said it in the past. They have obviously started to do this. Sorry, I'll interrupt myself. Dan's just putting he's an auto shooter, but he's got limited passing for Torres. But yeah, EA have this kind of bit of how to drive engagement up.

[00:15:22] Obviously, a lot of their objectives, again, are driving you to play X amount, score X amount and rush. They've brought out this really strange, I think it's pick your 11 objective where you just have to play, I think it's about 14 games or something. And you get sort of up to, I think it's 80 to 85 rated player picks, which I'm not quite sure what the purpose of that is, unless it's just to try and restock your 84s for any more sort of menu grind coming.

[00:15:49] Moving on from Future Stars then, EVOs. We've touched on it already today. How do you feel now? Obviously, last week it was the very start. We were trying to get an understanding of how this EVO that was released with Future Stars worked. Have you changed your opinion? Because you were quite high on it to begin with. How do you feel about that? How do you see it going? And who did you pick and why? Okay, I think just going back to EVOs again, just a funny thing I saw online about Torres.

[00:16:16] Because Torres is a 90 rated overall player. I saw something online that said, ah, just do him for a future EVO. And that sort of really makes me chuckle because I understand that he's 90 rated. He might fit an EVO, maybe a team of the season. But it's really, let's not be spending 600k on an SPC that we won't potentially be using till the end of the season. Anyway, going back to the evolution. So I think this is one of the reasons why I'm kind of lucky where I live. Because when I wake up, there's already enough information for me to actually get my head around what I have to do.

[00:16:47] And I didn't really connect with any other players. So I chose a midfielder, which I was happy with. But one of the things I think I've heard a lot of people struggle with. I think there's two things that people struggle with. Number one is the choice because you were given very little information as to what the progression would be. And people just had to choose it to, because it's the player pick. You can't really ignore it. You have to open it. You have to choose it if you want to open other packs, blah, blah, blah. That's point number one. Point number two, the other thing that really confused a lot of people was at the same time,

[00:17:13] we also got other evolutions in EVOs. That was a four-star week for it. Or there was like the CDM++ that I think there was one for roll CDM++. I think a lot of people fell in the trap of trying to upgrade the EVO, future stars EVOs, with those particular options. And it wasn't clearly mentioned. Technically, those EVOs shouldn't fit.

[00:17:38] Like, you shouldn't be able to use one of your future stars EVOs and make them into, use them, use the wrong evolution on them so that they are unusable in the future stars evolution. So the lack of information from EA and the lack of communication on that part. I mean, I know you're relying on people to be really clued into exactly what's happening and be across all this information because I tried to explain this to my brother and one of my close mates play FUT regularly.

[00:18:07] And, well, irregularly. They're actual real casuals. And just for them, they got the player pick and they had no clue what anything was and they just didn't bother because it was too complicated for them and they just don't want to spend time figuring it out and trying to do this and do that. So I think there's a small gap where they want to cater for the hardcores, I guess. But also they want to cater to the casuals. And I don't think the balance is there quite yet.

[00:18:36] So, anyway, I went with the Italian CM, Peseli. And this is how he rocks right now after my final stat boost. He will be a 90 pace, 85 shooting, 94 passing. 89 dribbling, 86 defense and 90 physical with a five-star weak foot. And I've chosen to have both the Tiki Taka Plus as well as the through ball. What's it called?

[00:19:06] The incisive pass. Incisive pass. So he's going to be my box-to-box kind of player that does a lot of the passing, that runs the engine of my team. And I'm pretty happy with my choice. And I'm really looking forward to him because in good gameplay, he's incredible. In rush, he's incredible. So I'm looking forward to that. Who did you pick? So I went for Lewis Hall. I didn't really have any affection to any of the players kind of going out. I'm currently doing a version of an EVO'd Ferland Mendy who is very good.

[00:19:36] I mean, he's Mendy. I can't remember which EVO it did, but he has the set piece plus on it. So he's probably one of my top scorers because his left foot in swinging from corners catches people out. And his free kicks are wild. But he's a little bit more replaceable now I'm doing the Kobi Mainu. I think it's the Curl It In EVO. So his 88 goes up with the free kick one as well. So I'm quite happy with that. So I've done Lewis Hall.

[00:20:02] So we'll come into information and review, but I have changed my formation back to 4-2-3-1 wide. But my fullbacks aren't really, especially on my left side because I've got Carver Howell on the right, my fullbacks are kind of fullbacks, they're more defensive. So I've done the five-star weak foot, and I think I've put anticipate plus and intercept plus on him. So he very much will be a stay-back one and kind of helps stop the counterattacks and the three balls and the cutbacks.

[00:20:28] So I've kind of done it for that, just for the way that I play, you know, the current state of the game, in my opinion, and obviously my current setup as well. So we've got options there. I still really like the concept. Going back to what you said about the lack of information and stuff, I think one thing that EA did try and do is the relevant EVOs are all in that tab, aren't they? So there's a future star tab under the EVOs sort of column. So I think they have tried in their way to kind of address people putting the wrong EVOs on.

[00:20:57] So I do think that they could probably have put something out and say, you know, we recommend only putting this EVO on these players. But at the same time, I think, you know, as a quality manager myself, I try not to spoon feed everybody because people still have to make their own decisions. So I think there's a balance. I do think they have tried to do it. I think people sometimes get excited, and we all know that chaining EVOs together sometimes makes super cards that either potentially haven't been considered by EA or just make things a lot more meta. So I totally get that.

[00:21:24] But I do think by having the standalone tab, it makes it a little bit more obvious to some that, you know, these are the ones for this future star EVO type player. That's the way I would look at it anyway. Because, again, I wouldn't want to spoon feed everybody because I think, you know, a lot of this game you do kind of have to do your due diligence, which is easy for other people to say than myself. Oh, crikey. But no, I like this. I would love to see, maybe not all the time because I think the novelty would wear off,

[00:21:52] but I would love to see more of these ones because, you know, ultimate teams are about creating your own, you know, fantasy team, your ultimate team. If you could have your ultimate players in there and, again, open up to, you know, like we said last time, open up to wider selection of players from, you know, smaller clubs or different clubs or, you know, even if, you know, you had some of these lovely Liverpool fans who are, you know, picking themselves off the floor after a wonderful result at the weekend that I was definitely celebrating, you know, they might want to try and, you know, give themselves a little bit more hope or, you know,

[00:22:22] they could give all their players a long ball pass. Because I heard Danny Slott was telling how bad it was to play Man United and Plymouth with long balls. And I think Plymouth had 28% long balls and Liverpool played 33%. So terrible. So they might want to put these long ball passes on their players. But if Ingerby hears this, I'm sure I'll probably throw him off the rails. But it's a risk I'm willing to take on this because being a United fan, we don't get many wins in football anyway, let alone when other teams play. So, no, I joke, I joke.

[00:22:51] But I do think it's a very good concept and I would love to see it rolled out wider to more players. And like I say, not every week, but, you know, once a month or so on, you can maybe get, you know, this time we're going to do a centre-back future start, or not future, centre-back either where you create your perfect centre-back and do it like that. Because I think that's a really, really cool, fun concept. And I think it'll keep people a lot more engaged throughout if you've kind of got your own kind of affiliation with certain players.

[00:23:19] I think a lot of people complained about how can you make a 20-year-old like an icon design and things like that. My argument to that is if you didn't get an icon chemistry, none of us would be interested in getting these cards done, especially the choice that I made was purely that eventually he'll be an icon, sort of, he'll have icon chemistry. He can be played regardless of what my other squad, the rest of the squad is looking like. And that's the reason I went and did him.

[00:23:46] And if not, I probably would be, just probably, I'd be a little bit more confused as to who my pick would be based on chemistry. I would choose a Premier League player. Yeah. So you've got it, you've got it, they've got it half right, I think. There's a little bit more with information. And I think even some of the upgrades was not really spoon-fed, but they just were really delayed in certain ways where, for example,

[00:24:11] we should have got it all together so that we could see what the end result would be and then take it from there. Absolutely agree. But with much of FC and what EA try and do, when they try and bring in new things and new concepts, there's always teeth and issues. So if they bring this back next year, firstly, I think we'd have a better idea of what to expect. And secondly, I think they may learn from that as well, especially if they get the right sort of feedback and the right channels.

[00:24:42] Going on from Future Stars and Evos, we know what the next promo is. We've spoken about it in the past because we thought that Future Stars might have been, you know, one team and this comes. Grassroot great. The team has been leaked. I'll not tell you the players in it, but what we can say is it really tugs on those ultimate team players' heartstrings. There's a lot of players in there, you know, from yesterday. And there's actually a lot of quite fun players. And you don't have to have played FC or FIFA,

[00:25:10] you know, previous iterations for a lot of the cards that seem to be coming out. There's a lot of ones that are, you know, you call them ballers or whatever from the past that, you know, you've seen them rip up pitches, even one season one does and such. But what's your initial feeling, obviously, of the new promo going? Is it affecting how you're approaching the last half week of Future Stars? And what do you really think about kind of the selection pool potential and how you have kind of come to this new promo?

[00:25:37] I think one of the things that I'm really concerned about was, I think a couple of weeks ago, even last week, I mentioned that I was very excited about the leaks of having players like Ibarbo and Dumbia and Jovino coming into the squad. I don't really think that's happening. I could be wrong, but I haven't really seen anything. It all is leading down to the, apart from Maradona, everything else, all the other players and packs will be cards that are already available in game. So, yeah, that's the part I'm a little bit disappointed about.

[00:26:07] Now, one of the things I just want to scale back and explain as well, because if on 14th of February, they just drop these cards and we had no idea, I think the community would have completely lost their mind with excitement. But just that we have so much information with us already, I think a lot of this, whatever EA serve up to us on Friday, will still be a disappointment. That's the sad part. I think that's where we're at in this day and age, where I think our expectations are always so high. So I'm trying to go in with an open mind.

[00:26:35] I'm just trying to hope that the pack weight is probably, is good enough where you can get to try these cards or they're cheap enough that, yeah, we can try it. I would love to try a few cards, especially some of the yesteryear grades, just to try them out, just give them a run. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to that aspect of it. But if the pack weight is really low and these cards are all millions and millions of coins, I'll probably be a little bit disappointed, I think. Yeah, no, I totally get that. I mean, we all know that EA have been pushing that Maradona is coming back. So we'll go on to him in a minute.

[00:27:06] The grassroots grades, like if a lot of the teams, sorry, I called them leaks, but there's a lot of predictions. I think there's only a couple of kind of confirmed leaks, if you like. I'd love to see them bring in, you know, the players that we've always used. So El Shirawi, I've seen someone suggest there could be a Renato Sanchez in it. These type of things would be really cool because they were grassroots grades. These were kids that burst onto the scene, you know. We laugh about our love of Ahmad. I know he's in this promo, so he won't be in the grassroots grades.

[00:27:35] But that type of player, they've got a really good sort of opportunity to bring in heroes because a lot of these heroes kind of burst onto the scene, you know. Even some of the icons, you look at Michael Owen. Michael Owen, when he was, what, 16, 17, started tearing things up massively. That would be a really good opportunity for him. Whereas you've got some of the other icons that kind of did all right when they're younger, but they obviously aged like a fine wine. They got better in time. So the way they execute this is going to be really interesting.

[00:28:04] Like, regardless of the price of them, I think how, like, what players they select is going to be fascinating. Like, we all know it's grassroots grades. Is this going to be, you know, almost like future stars, but like a yesteryear future stars, if you like. So ones that started young and then developed. Or is it just going to be a random mismatch of players that actually don't have any significance behind them and they've just put, you know, a token gesture pack seller that you always have. I think it's going to be really interesting. And obviously we're going to have a few evos.

[00:28:33] It's going to be interesting to see how they do those evos. If it's grassroots grades, I would love to see it being an older player. So you've got to select a player over the age of 33 or something like that. And then you can boost his speed, boost his, you know, stamina, say. I think things like that would be a really cool concept because it makes a player that, you know, you probably might not, you either might not want now or because he's not usable or a decent player, but actually he's knackered by an hour because he's, you know, his physicality is not great anymore.

[00:29:00] You know, he's not in the game anymore, but like Zlatan Ibrahimovic of, you know, two years ago would have been because his pace was nerfed, his stamina wasn't great. Obviously his strength was huge, but that type of thing would be so, so much fun to kind of bring back and kind of reinvigorate in my opinion. So like I said, we already know that Maradona is coming. How do you feel about the fact that, you know, EA have kind of leaked it themselves. They're obviously putting quite a lot into pushing the fact that Maradona's coming back to foot.

[00:29:29] You know, he was in the game probably until, was it until his death and they took him away because I think there was a debate, was there a debate about his rights? Something like that. Yes. So, I mean, he's always been a really highly priced card that has almost failed to deliver. What's your thought about, you know, him coming back and how are they going to kind of work it? I think Maradona is an interesting one because he was never good in game for many a year. He was never good in game, but I think there was one year just, I don't know if it was the hype of,

[00:29:59] I don't know what exactly it was. There was one version of Maradona. I think it was a prime icon moments Maradona and Nick Runderford Market was in love with that card and really hyped that card up. And soon after the card was removed from the game and never got back. So I think people's expectations of Maradona are that the way it left with the way he left the game. So everyone's expecting this amazing 50 million coin card coming into the game.

[00:30:25] And it's going to be really interesting because the game has changed. So if he has a technical plus with a finesse as two play styles, he's going to be a crazy fun card with the five star scales as well. And you give him a four star weak foot. Why not? Just give him a five star weak foot as well. He will be a fun, fun, fun card. I think in this current iteration, a card like that, like a Messi that's stronger, that can still dribble,

[00:30:53] that has an amazing shot that can finesse, that can maybe even have a power shot basic as well. It'll be a lot of fun. But again, it really depends on how they actually animated him in game, whether it's the same animations from what we had the last time he was in game or whether they've updated some of the things. I think we'll find out. We will find out. But he will start at 15 million, no less. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, I think the current state of the game, I think, lends itself to Maradona. I think, you know, his agility, his dribbling,

[00:31:22] and if they give him the right play styles, like you say, I think this card could probably be up there with the best cards on the game. You know, we all know that Mbappe is cracked because he's got that pace, that strength, that physicality. But I think Maradona as a striker, even as a cam, if they give him sort of that cam position, I think this card could potentially be like an absolute worldie, like a game changer. But my next sort of question to pose to you, Shaq, we've seen in the past, they've hyped certain icons,

[00:31:50] like say David Beckham, gave everybody a free David Beckham that was all right. It was actually better than people gave it credit for, but obviously it didn't last very long. We've seen players come in, they've given everyone that free 90-rated Zidane with the Evo. Do you see Maradona coming in and just being straight on the market? Do you see it being a grindable objective with an Evo? Do you see it being an SBC? Because let's not forget, SBC-wise at the moment, in the menu, we don't really have a massive juice card to grind.

[00:32:18] There's still the remnants of Team of the Year, like I get that. I think we've still got De Bruyne and such like, but there's not really that 4 or 5 million coin card, apart from Mbappe, which EA don't really have the power. You know, they've put him in game, obviously, but they didn't have a lot of say in that, you know, he was voted in as Player of the Month. So do you think this is going to be straight onto the market? Or do you think they're going to throw a curveball in there? I think it has to be straight on the market. I don't think there'll be an SBC. I think we're being very generous here with them, with us expecting,

[00:32:49] we're expecting EA to be extremely generous for them to give up this card as a free card. I think it's going to be in the store. But again, going back to the SBC question, I understand where you're coming from. But if you look at Mbappe, for example, he started off at 4.2, 4.3 million. And now he's actually started at 3.5 million, I think. 3.5 to 3.8 million as an SBC. And now his SBC is 5.2 million. So Forda has really gone through the roof. It's really hard to grind Forda out because not many packs are being opened.

[00:33:18] So if Maradona comes out of the 4 million SBC, there's going to be absolutely no way for us to grind to that Maradona, which will be a little bit more frustrating than just being able to buy from the market, to be honest. I get that. I mean, because I'm obviously market banned, I would love this to be an SBC that I could kind of grind. But obviously the market's gone up. We've not had these repeatable 82 times, was it 82 times 13 or something like that. We've not had really many 83 times since. They've dried up.

[00:33:47] They've even stopped bringing out the 85 doubles. So part of me, I'm probably most definitely wrong. Part of me thinks something is coming. Just the way that they are starting to limit a little bit the way that we're generating, not even high-rated Forda, but higher-rated Forda. Everything seems to be drying up. I think there's probably an 85% chance he'll be dropped on the market.

[00:34:14] But I do think there's a little suspicion of a Maradona or a grassroots great top-level icon that could potentially see you through to Team of the Year coming soon because Forda is that scarce. The market's gone that high. We haven't really... To be fair, we haven't really had many icons that are elite level that you have to grind for. You know, we spoke about the likes of Paddy Vieira coming. He was... What is he? About 2 million? 1.7 million. 1.6, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, very good card. You know, I've done him. He's still on my team.

[00:34:43] But it's not like a hard, heavy grind. It was more of a, you know, he's out there and we'll do him during Team of the Year. So, I just think... I've got that suspicion that they're a way to drop something into the menu that we're all going to have to work either gameplay, coins, or FC points-wise. I think there's something coming. And Maradona might well be it. I don't know how you feel about that now. We've kind of, you know, had that extra little bet. But I think there's something brewing. Well, let's see.

[00:35:11] At 6 p.m. today, if you get an 8220 in the SBC section, I think you're onto something there. If you don't get any of those kind of SBCs today, even if you get like a... I think 8220 is the bare minimum that we need. An unlimited 8220. Because there's anything else, it's going to be really hard to grind at Maradona.

[00:35:31] And I think EA has actually leaked it on console as well, which tends to be a store release, in my opinion. But again, happy to be proved wrong. Absolutely happy to be proved wrong. Yeah, that's what makes... I wouldn't love the grind. Yeah, I think that would be amazing. And, you know, when we're doing objectives, they do give you fairly decent further back from the objectives, to be fair. It's more just the menu grind that seems to be a bit more limited.

[00:36:02] It's going to be interesting. This is one of the things I do quite like about the lack of, you know, total leaks. Because quite a lot of time, you get so-and-so coming via SBC, so-and-so coming through objectives, whatever. This is, you know, EA have kind of beaten us to it. Maradona's coming. We don't know how. I think they've said it'll come out on Friday on the 14th. Yeah, like I say, it might not be Maradona, but I do feel like we're having some big grind going. Just before we kind of get onto the state of the game, because I know there's a few grinks, you've got Shaq.

[00:36:31] Like, why has EA dried up these fodder, you know, fodder menu grinds or just the menu grind in general? Have you got any sort of idea why they may have done that? I know there's not a lot in packs, so it would almost make more sense to have these grinds out now to get people engaged in the menus. You know, if people pack something, it's not really a game changer, whereas they brought out certain repeatable SBCs and Team of the Year, whereas you could do that to your heart's content. And actually, that would, you know, that would almost take you away from the grind, the store, whatever.

[00:37:01] So what sort of logic is there, do you think, for this? It is a bit strange. That's a really good question, because I think we had the 83 times 14 last week, which is fine, which is good. And then that was taken away from us, and we got the 85 doubles in the store. I mean, sort of SBC, and that's fine. We had that for three days, and then they were taken away from us. And with nothing, I was expecting something to be released today, and we got 80-plus player pick. That was the only thing that was available for us to grind today.

[00:37:29] I'm hoping at 6 p.m. we get something, something that we can grind towards, because it's weird that we haven't got anything to grind towards. And there's a lot of – my club's completely dry. I've done Mbappe, as I said last week, and I've got nothing in my club. I can't even attempt to do an 86-rated squad for the Icon SVC, so let alone the 89-rated. So I'm stuck waiting for Foda, and I'm waiting for EA to drop something my way. But let's have a look.

[00:37:57] I think I have a feeling today, 6 p.m., something's going to drop, for sure. Let's hope you're right there. Let's hope you're right. So just moving on to the state of the game and where it's heading, we've obviously spoken in the past about potential – well, not potential, but some streamers saying there's been a soft patch. EA kind of shut that down a little bit with the latest patch release. We're different. So I'm going to set this one back, because my gameplay's actually been pretty solid.

[00:38:24] It's PC, as we know, so not having many issues. But I know this has been sort of a bone of contention for yourself, Shaq, and I know Dan has issues with it too. But how do you feel, firstly, the gameplay is just now? I think, from my perspective, one of the things that I've noticed as well – okay, since Thursday. I'll break it down. Since Thursday, I played till, I think, early Saturday.

[00:38:46] And between Thursday and early Saturday, my win rate was approximately about 15% to 20%, and I played quite a lot. And you think, yep, rivals is hard on Thursday. I completely get it. I barely even qualified for champs. In fact, I didn't qualify the first attempt. I've never not qualified for champs. I didn't qualify for champs. I had to go back and redo it and got through just about scraped through. I just didn't understand what I was doing wrong.

[00:39:13] And believe it or not, the PSN outage happened, and I didn't play for a while. Came back in. The network was back. I played the next thing on Sunday. Played nine games. Won nine games in rivals and champs. Easy breezy. Playing exactly the same as I did the previous day, but at least my players were moving. Everything's happening. And go back to Monday. Back to how it was on the Saturday and the previous days before.

[00:39:42] There is something with the servers where, as I'm finding, some of the gameplay, my players just don't move well enough. The tackling. One of the things that really irked me is the tackling where you get those really awkward animations that are happening where you can just feel, I've got the ball, the defender's trying to take the ball away from me, and we're just playing this weird mishmash of things where none of us are going to actually come away with the ball, but the ball's going to bounce everywhere. The opposition takes a shot.

[00:40:11] It hits my keeper and literally just bounces back to the next available player. All those random things kept happening over and over and over again. I just didn't understand what was going on. I was conceding like three goals in less than 10 minutes because my players were moving that one extra second later. So by the time I got there, the ball was already in the back of the net or the guys already moved away from me. And playing against PC players, it's a lot more clear when I play PC players because they're always one step ahead.

[00:40:40] They can just move zippy on those days. So I just think a lot of people online have said the same thing on X as well. I think most of the people that I've heard of tend to be outside of Europe. I don't know if it's affecting many people in Europe, but it seems to be an America and Australia wide issue where we are struggling. We are trying to understand and come to grips with it because I think my biggest frustration is the fact that pre-team of the year, if this were to happen, I'd be like, yep, that's just the way the game is this year.

[00:41:10] But then just before team of the year, when we got the new patch, the game was so brilliant that I've got a taste of that lovely gameplay. And I'm trying to chase that gameplay over and over again and just not been able to. And that's frustrating me a lot more, I think. Yeah, no, I totally get that. And obviously, we know you very well here, Shaq. And we know that, you know, that's sincere. My one hesitation for that is when you look online and even, you know, some of my friends that play, I sometimes get it's gameplay, it's gameplay.

[00:41:40] And, you know, when you watch some of the gameplay or when they send you clips, it's not gameplay. A lot of it is users as well, you know. So it's getting that fine balance. I think, you know, probably because you are over Australia away, it will be a lot different because there's probably a higher concentration of the servers over in Europe. So I totally get that as well. So it'll be interesting to see if, you know, the servers kind of quieting down a little bit. You know, we've had this kind of low team of the year. Wonder whether EA may put a little bit more work in it.

[00:42:10] They'll obviously need to do something in the next couple of months anyway because they'll want to try and have people having this incredible experience. And then they then go on to purchase FC26 as well. So it will be quite interesting to see where it's headed because, like you say, you're not alone with it. There's been lots of people, you know, voicing displeasure over this. So it's going to be fascinating to see if it's something that is there or what the logic behind it. You know, there could very well be a reason or it could just be whatever.

[00:42:35] I mean, we've heard the game in terms of where it's headed and we've heard a lot of rumors that they may stop PC players being able to join cross play. I'm not 100% sold on this rumor. Personally, I wouldn't like it because obviously I'm a PC player. But, you know, people have introduced cross play. The markets are still separate, which is fine. But they've obviously given Xbox and PS users the ability to turn off cross play.

[00:43:01] I don't see them then removing PC completely because you may alienate a large portion of it. If there's only a finite number of PC players because the majority are consoles, let's be honest. The majority will be console players. So I think that will alienate almost a complete side of the player base now that they've already brought this in. I don't know what your feeling on that is, but I just I don't see them completely switching it off. I think I completely agree with you. Like it's my choice to keep cross play on. It's my choice to come up against PC players.

[00:43:30] And the reason I do that is because I don't want I just want to open up. Like you said, I'm in Australia and sometimes that the number of players, sometimes it just you just don't find enough players and I connect to someone in Singapore, blah, blah, blah. But if I open up cross play, the chances of me finding someone locally may be slightly higher. That's why I leave cross play on. And yeah, if I have the choice to turn cross play off, if I really wanted to, I could turn it off. So I am with you there.

[00:43:57] I think it should be left up to the individual player to keep cross play on. And so that way PC players have an option to play against non PC players as well. And it opens up the number of players that you can play against as well. So yeah, exactly. And from my own personal experience on PC, I don't know if this is the same for everybody, but I think when there are other PC players available, I seem to be connecting to the majority of PC players. I very rarely get a true cross play where I play against a console player going by the icon that comes at the end of the game.

[00:44:25] So there may be something in that where, you know, they keep it going, but they obviously if you've got two PC players, they're more likely to connect than say a PS and a PC player. I don't know if that's a real thing or if that's just, you know, my location wise, but that's kind of my current experience. Anyway, Shaq, time is fast rolling on. We haven't discussed this yet, but I do think that we probably need to go for our Tuesday regular feature. If I can get it to play.

[00:44:54] Player in review. Excuse me. Obviously we have dropped that on you. Do you have a player in review for us today, Shaq? I think just humor me on this one because I deezed it in the last week's episode and this player is still in my team. If you have 2.5 million, I'm just, I'm really sorry that the price of this card, but this particular Neymar card that I've been using, I've been using the striker version of Neymar with the Finesse Plus and the First Touch Plus.

[00:45:22] He's just incredibly out of this world. I think for the price, he's probably the best bang for buck player you can get at that price range. I know it's pretty steep. I'm not saying if you have that coin lying around or if you just are able to inch up that level of coinage over the next couple of weeks, he will drop as well. I think he's definitely worth a try. He's definitely worth a try. Again, this is coming from someone who always enjoys Neymar, but I've never had a Neymar card with Finesse Plus.

[00:45:49] And this is a 5 star, 5 star Finesse Plus Neymar who is just a dream to play with. He's actually a lot of fun. Even in bad gameplay, he's a lot of fun. So yeah, that's my player interview. I'm really sorry about the price tag, but I really had to complete the full circle after last week's teaser. No, I totally forgot about last week's teaser because I went after it. I was like, who is this guy? Who is this guy? So I'm glad you brought that one up. Because I don't want to kind of flex about the team and I've not been able to buy new players,

[00:46:19] I am going to discuss one that I don't think we've spoken about on the pod at all yet. Mine is my midfield enforcer that comes on towards the end of the game to try and see out. It is the winter wildcard. I think it's winter wildcard. Declan Rice. CDM, when he came out, I was really intrigued. He's got the two playstyle pluses of intercept. Is it intercept and block? Yeah, intercept and block. He comes on just to solidify if I'm sort of trying to see out a game.

[00:46:46] To begin with, I had him as a bit of a box-to-box or a deep-lying playmaker. But to be honest, his role plus plus is holding and that's exactly where he should be used. Once I got used to that, he is incredible. His pace is a little bit slower. He's only sort of low 80s in his pace, but he's always in the right place. He's a bit of a bully. The only thing I wish is that they gave him set play, at least silver, because when you watch him for Arsenal, he whips those corners in with absolute aggression and vengeance.

[00:47:16] But in terms of just having a midfield solidifier, this one, he's coming at 235k. So he's not super cheap, but he's also not ridiculously expensive. Well worth it. But like I say, especially if you're needing somebody to come in and show up your midfield. And because I'm playing with the two CDMs, he's a very good option just to see a game out. Before we finish off, again, I keep losing this formation and review jingle.

[00:47:43] So instead, we're going to go with formation focus. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Wemby, for that delightful input. Shaq, what formation are you using? Have you toyed out? You said you were trying to, was it a three back you tried to play with last time? I did. I did. I started off with three back after the last podcast. I think I had a bit of success for the first maybe three, four games. And then I just started getting torn into shreds and I just couldn't stop it.

[00:48:13] So I just moved across to my tried and trusted 442. And I've stuck to the 442. I've shifted between the 442 and the 4213, which I know, I know, I know it sucks, but it's so effective in game. But the 442, I've really enjoyed the 442. And if you have any sort of CMs available in your squad, you can have RMs and LMs. I think a 442 is amazing. It's really good fun to use.

[00:48:39] It's very, I've always found the patterns of 442 very consistent, especially when I'm having a bad time. I just shift to 442. It just seems to kickstart my game again. So yeah, 442. I've been using 442 just to get back into the game. And yeah, I've been enjoying it a little bit. Outstanding. I love an old-fashioned 442, you know, the glory days of United. My one, I'm going back to the 4231 second variation. So that's the one with the left mid, right mid.

[00:49:07] I had tried to do various 433s, which were solid, but not spectacular. The 4213 that everyone seems to be using, I couldn't seem to work as much. It's a bit like the old 4321. It was okay. I could get some results, but it just wasn't flowing. Went to 4231, beasted rivals. Did fairly okay in champs this week. Having one as a holding player, and I think, well, going by the app, I think the app kind of screws what you actually do.

[00:49:36] Because it tells me I've got Henry as a poacher, and I don't, I've got him as advanced forward. But having one holding and one Roman deep-lying playmaker is, just seems to be a dream. Having a shadow striker as you can, fantastic. Bit of a shout-out to Wrighton, because I wrote her off a few weeks ago saying that she wasn't all that. Having her as a left mid rather than a left wing and kind of having that width with her, she's actually been tremendous. She's a really good option to have. Salah starts wide now, and I'm fortunate because Udan, he seems to get knackered after 70 minutes.

[00:50:04] Lauren James comes on as a cam, and she is hilarious when defenders are a bit tired. I don't think she has a role plus how I try and play her, but she's that wriggly and that fun with the trickster as well. Having a finesse from the edge that actually, I lost one game in rivals because I was too busy trying to beat people with her because I was just ending myself laughing like proper tears because I was just taking a mech and then I got tackled. So really good formation. If you're one and one, it's actually still really good fun, but I call it a bit basic because it is.

[00:50:31] A lot of people use 4-2-3-1, but you've got that security of your two CDMs. Both fullbacks run fullback, but I trigger a carry for how? Well, inside forwards and the wide guys and the advanced, you know, Henri, because he's got that physicality a little bit. He's not a Howland physicality, but he's a bit taller than when I had Salah through, so he's a bit more of a focal point. So really good formation. If you're struggling with the game, I'd highly recommend kind of going back to that. It's almost like going back to basics, like you said, 4-4-2, but you've kind of got that spine of your teams a lot more solid than just a normal 4-4-2.

[00:50:59] I think it's a really, really good one. And, you know, it's been one of those that we've toyed with throughout the whole cycle, and it's definitely one of the more effective ones, in my opinion. I'm going to try it out. So I'll send you the code. If anybody wants any advice or any help with it, give us a shout either on Twitter, on, you know, I think Spotify, you can add comments, or join our wonderful Discord, which I always forget to plug. But we do have an incredible Discord with lots of lovely people in there talking all things foot and wider stuff as well.

[00:51:29] So check us out. And obviously the Patreon is patreon.com slash foot and review. I think it's about three pounds a month potentially, but it really helps us keep this podcast going. You know, the new equipment, these wonderful headsets and everything to try and drive us forward and keep us going. We're at episode 660 now, so obviously we've got a lot more to go. So any help is appreciated. Shaq, before we sail off into the wonderful, well, I was going to say sunset, but yet again in Scotland, I say this every week,

[00:51:58] but it's great, it's minging, it's been hammering down with rain. But do we have anything else that you'd like to add to today or for the rest of the week? I'm just looking forward to us catching up next week and talking about how awesome this new promo was. So I'm looking forward to that, looking forward to next week. Yeah, absolutely. And one thing I've kind of found is try and keep things basic in the game. I know people like to experiment, but if you're getting tilted by not playing as well, definitely, like I said, that move to 4-2-3-1 has been massive for me.

[00:52:27] So everybody, I hope you've enjoyed the pod. I hope you have a very, very good week. We'll, hopefully, we'll be here on Tuesday as far as I know that we're both going to be back on Tuesday. John and the crew will be back at the regular time on Friday. So keep your ears peeled for that. Obviously, we've got the new promo going. I'm hoping that I'm right and Shaq's wrong and we get an incredible Maradona SPC to grind. But actually, you know, just enjoy it.

[00:52:54] Hopefully, we don't have too high expectations because it's easier to build yourself up and come crashing down with the EA thud. But there's only one thing left to do for us, Shaq. Drop it. We are going to drop it. Drop it. FUT. FUT. F-F-F-F-U-T. F-U-T-T.

[00:53:24] Give you FUT.