665: Let's Go To Training Camp

[00:00:01] Hello Footies and welcome back to FUT IN REVIEW, your ultimate FC25 podcast where we break down everything about the game. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Noxport and AnalysisPro, the experts in video analysis, but more about them later. Today we are heading into a digital training camp in FC25 where we actually send players away and they get better.

[00:00:29] I wish that would work in real life, but crazier things have happened in the world lately. My name is Jon and I'll be your host tonight and joining me is the Norwegian King of the North, the legendary walking foot database being in high demand on the fans list to meet him in person in Crete in May. It's none other than Ringve. Hallo, hallo. And although the Tuesday Club can't have him anymore,

[00:00:55] the Friday recording theme is always a bit extra special when he's around. It is the voice of FUT with a new nickname. It's Daniel Wimbush. Hello there. Jon, Yngwie, great to be back with you both. Yeah, you've met my release clause and I'm now part of the Friday Club. But on a strictly per appearance basis, you know, he can't afford me full time. But I was going to say, if Yngwie is King of the North in Norway,

[00:01:21] do we have to get someone on from like Greenland or Antarctica to replace him as King of the North? Is that the target now? Do I increasingly find someone further and further north? That would be the target, but I'm afraid to head into Greenland territory lately. Yeah, it would be called USA land soon, won't it? Yeah, let's not go into that today, shall we? We can go King of the South though and get Mario's from Crete on. Maybe that helps. Do it. Do it.

[00:01:51] Hey guys, every single Friday, we start the week with, of course, a topic which normally Dan actually introduced, which is weird if Dan's actually on the show, but I'm still going to do it. It is time, of course, for our... This week in Football Ultimate Team, where we rate our week in foot from 1 to 10. 1 being abysmal, 10 being fantastic. So, Yngwie, let's start with you. How has your week in foot been?

[00:02:21] What is the rating and what has been your highlight or your nightmare? I can say the nightmare has been the beeps in the cup. I still have nightmares about that. Swaps. Was very straining on the eyes. So, my week, I think 6 maybe because of the evolutions.

[00:02:51] 6 isn't too bad. No, I'm feeling kind today. Oh. For now. I can already say Daniel's highlight is his new camera that seems to be out focusing, I think, on your nose, unfortunately. It's desperately searching for a more attractive face to show, as it does as I talk. So, I will get this sorted for the next show.

[00:03:17] You know, I'm nothing if not an unprofessional joke of a podcast host, as we frequently used to joke in my former pod life on the Tala's end. But yeah, other than upgrading my webcam setup or downgrading, depending on how you look at it. Quality is amazing. The quality is amazing. It's just consistently also focusing. But I'll figure that out. No, my week in foot has been... It's actually been one of...

[00:03:40] Annoyingly, I'm coming back to this show on a bit of a down note because a few weeks ago, I thought I had, you know, not completed the game. But I thought I had got to a point where I was going to be as good as I was going to be. I was getting 10, 11 wins in weekend league, fine. Riding high in Division 2 in rivals. Getting through friendly cups and stuff with quite ease. And then I don't know whatever happened, but this weekend I just ran into demons after demon after demon. I'd only got eight wins in weekend league.

[00:04:09] My second week of the fantasy league, I only went six and six after starting nine and three. And it's driven me to that point that I'm sure most people listening will be familiar with, where you suddenly start questioning everything and everyone. Suddenly all of your players are trash. Your formation is trash. The servers are trash. Everything is trash. Whereas actually, it's just life, isn't it?

[00:04:34] Sometimes you'll just run into a set of good opponents and you just have to take a deep breath, walk away and say, you know, it happens. So I'm going to give my week in foot a six like Yngwie. But generally, if you ask me for my month in foot, I would say a seven. Although I have to say this whole foot fantasy promo has felt like a side quest. I don't think anybody's actually taken a step forward with their teams in the last couple of weeks.

[00:05:01] We've all just been busying ourselves, going off and doing something on the side, killing balls. Everyone got a free Maradona to upgrade as well. I don't think it's a step sideways for that one. Yeah, but that was in grassroots greats. Oh, that is actually fair. Yeah. So foot fantasy, yeah, it's felt a very, yeah, a side quest. Everybody just, you know, slowly stocking clubs and trying to get a certain right fullback. Yes, yes, quite. I'm sure we'll come on to that.

[00:05:29] I can also say one thing before I forget that kind of saved the week, I guess. Level 40. I'm probably one of the few that took Firmino and I don't regret it because it's so fun to use. So he kind of light brightened up the week in foot for me at least. Yeah, I think, I don't think many people did it, but I saw, well, you actually playing him, of course. And there's people that really enjoyed this promo as well.

[00:05:58] But I have to be honest, I think the grassroots grades on that, except for the name was pretty amazing. For non-native English speakers, it's really hard to consistently write. Right. But this week has been weird. Like, it's also kids holiday, school holiday this week. So that makes me a little bit less able to actually play. And I don't care too much for the players.

[00:06:27] Maybe that's just like, and if you're not grinding the Michael on card, I've said last week that I don't really need another right fullback. And I think it's too much pressure to play this mode in friendly as well for it. So I've not even tried. I'm going to be completely dead honest with that. I've not even tried one friendly match in that. Just don't care. Then there isn't too much in this promo for me.

[00:06:55] So I would give it like probably a six, but it's been just a regular weekend foot for me. Is that too weird, Dan? I don't think it's too weird at all. I think we're kind of entering that weird period of the game where, you know, the hype and stuff from Team of the Year has died off. A lot of people that might have been new to the game around Christmas might have moved on.

[00:07:20] And also just most of us have been playing for, you know, what the game came out in October. So, you know, we're nearly seven months into the game cycle now. So I think it's quite natural for people just to be not fully focused on this, especially because everybody now knows that you've got foot birthdays probably four weeks away and then Team of the Season and Footy Silly Season starts.

[00:07:44] So it's so weird to think that we're already closer to FC 26 than we are to the launch of this game. Yeah. I have to add one point to my weekend foot though. I just realized we've been working very hard and it feels weird saying that myself, but we've been working very hard at the new Creed event jersey, which we released this week. And I'm very proud of that.

[00:08:10] I'll tag some photos on socials and stuff, but that was released this weekend. After shutting up about that for like six weeks prior to this, I couldn't talk about it. It was really fun to actually be able to release that. So one point extra, nothing EA did, but a community helps as well, right? I've got one question and I'm going to ask this for Yngwie first though.

[00:08:37] Adam asks us in the podcast question, which of course you can do if you are in the Discord, but can also just tag us on socials or set a email to footandreview at gmail.com. Adam asks, do you lads have an alternative format they could have done for the cup form? My goal, it seems pretty random as a form for each player is a mess due to people quitting, etc.

[00:09:03] I would prefer, of course, if we're going to have strange requirements with ratings, etc., then no cap at all. If not, if EA insists on the cap, I would prefer if it was possible to use our main teams at least. So that would help at least for me.

[00:09:26] Of course, no caps would be the best, but maybe it would be better to just put my concord in like a season reward for 30 wins in foot jumps for the whole season. That would have been probably my ideal solution if I could choose though. Daniel, any suggestions from yourself? No, I honestly can't.

[00:09:53] I would just stick to what Yngwie and just, yeah, go at your own pace. Yeah. You know what I really, truly miss in this game? Cups, like proper cups. Cups, like the old qualified cups. You have to win four to qualify for Wicked League, for example. I don't say qualify four times to get actually in Wicked League, but win the cup four times in, I don't know, four weeks to get my concord. Yeah, something like that would be fun as well, at least.

[00:10:22] If you want to try 500 times, go ahead. If you can win it four times, GT is on you. And that's what Nathan and Shaq said on the Tuesday Club. They were just saying, look, lots of people don't have, you know, they might not have time to get through 12 games in four days. And then other times they have time to get through 15 games in a day. Why are you locking it away? And as Shaq was saying on Tuesday, if you're going to do something like this, don't put them behind, you know, friendlies.

[00:10:52] Do it in a really competitive mode. Like we saw in Champs last year with, was it Sub-Sly? Oh no, McAllister. He was one of them. And there was a Nabil Fakir red cards, weren't they? Because Champs is supposed to be the pinnacle of competition. Friendlies is supposed to be what it says on the tin, isn't it? It's supposed to be friendly. You shouldn't be having to try and win 30 games out of 36 in a friendly mode.

[00:11:16] And that's before we even get into the absolute cluster that is the matchmaking system, the skill based matchmaking, which is cheating, letting others play for you. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And the requirements, lots of people have a main team and some have some higher rated card for Fodder, for SBCs.

[00:11:40] But not a lot of people have good usable cards left to use in that mode. So they would have to kind of maybe buy some cards, lose lots of coins, use players they're not used to. And yeah, it's, yeah, I think it's a really bad move by EA to do it like that. Because not everybody can do collect all the object, lower rated objective cards from the

[00:12:08] beginning that might help, but changing around teams every two, three days and try new players. It's hard enough getting something going with your main team and now like changing it every second day. It's crazy. And I think one thing that always stuck with me from foot in review from years and years ago that John always made the point of is, especially when we had icon swaps, John used

[00:12:35] to talk about the fact if you go through and play your icon swaps and you're playing all these different teams, you're playing rushing it and your golden goaling and stuff like that. It really then messes you up when you go back into your division rivals or your foot champs. And I found that as well after playing, you know, bloody find the player in the bib game and then try to then go into div two rivals. And it was just, again, I was just all over the place.

[00:13:01] So, and you know, I was venting my feelings of displeasure within the discord. And John made the great point. He just said, look, you're not going to get stressed if you don't play the mode, which I absolutely agree with. But at the same time, I am an Evo fiend and I needed the Evo. So I had to go and play the mode. So I think this is what we're all talking about. It's kind of like, it's kind of forcing people into playing different modes. Of course, no one's got, you know, no one's got a gun to your head forcing you to play it.

[00:13:31] But that feeling, that FOMO feeling, EA are very, very good at doing that. Yeah. Although I do want to, I don't want to be negative about this too much because I feel it's actually cool that EA are experimenting with these things and handing rewards for performing. I don't think the execution could be a little bit better at definitely, right? And I do agree with all the arguments there.

[00:13:59] But I also appreciate the fact that they're not pushing anything to SBCs or only into pack sales and the limiting of the teams, make sure everyone is having a decent shot at it as well. So I kind of appreciate that thought behind that, honestly. And I don't know, many people agree with me looking at the socials this week. But hey, if you started the game in December, you have not, your opposition don't have the

[00:14:28] gold squads against you either, right? This, in this mode, like they build it and you have a shot at my goal. Is it too limited? Is it maybe too strict? Is the actual achievement of getting him too much? Probably. Probably. But then again, maybe the Urdegaard card was in reach. And isn't there a problem? I don't think so. But that's like I said, I didn't even play it because I was like, don't care about Urdegaard

[00:14:57] because you've got, of course, Zidane. I don't care about my con because I've got a team of the year fullback. You know what? Probably not worth the effort. So, yeah. And I'd agree with this. And this is why I said, again, put it behind something like champs where, you know, I'm parroting Shaq here and please go and listen to the Tuesday Club. I'm not part of it anymore, but Nathan Shaq are doing a great job. They paid me to say that, by the way. I would never praise Nathan voluntarily. The point they were making is, yeah, chuck it in champs where, you know,

[00:15:27] you have to be at a consistently good level and you kind of know the level that you're at. Whereas in the friendlies, like we've just talked about, people are gaming the system. You know, we've got one member of our Discord. I'm not going to, you know, name and shame because, you know, do what you got to do. But he was talking about having rubber banding and other friendly modes to get their ELO down to have easier matchmaking in the cup. And other people doing silly things like paying, like we mentioned, paying people to play their games. I want to hit all that paying for that games once more.

[00:15:57] I mean, someone sent me a message. This is what you guys should do. It's 60 pounds for getting Michael. Yeah. 60 pounds for at least 30 games makes zero sense from a business perspective. Just putting it out there. Don't want to sound arrogant, but that's like I pound a game in the end or something. I don't know, one pound 50. I'm probably spending my time on something more fun at the same time.

[00:16:24] Just, I don't even get why you would play it for money for that amount. It's 30 wins, right? That's at least 30 games. That's not like a minimal effort if you put in an hour. So, yeah. People do what they need to do, but I think that was a bit much as well. So, yeah. And like people say in Jets, was Michael actually worth stressing about? Probably not. I don't think so.

[00:16:52] But yeah, it's when you can game the system to get that kind of a player, it just sits bad. And as I said, it takes, I think having such an extreme win requirement takes what would have been a fun mode to try out different players and different combinations. Rather than Yngwie sort of said, which is, you know, this race. And look at some of the prices of these meta 86 players, which shows you how desperate people are to get any tiny competitive advantage.

[00:17:19] And then it stops becoming a friendly and becomes, you know, basically the, you know, your midweek weekend league, which I am not. I don't object to such a mode. But again, just put it somewhere else and make matchmaking make sense. Don't cross that matchmaking with other friendlies.

[00:17:39] Did you see the guys, the price on Adiemi, the 84 rated, is like 494,000 coins now because of these cups and league thing. So it was down to 200, I think, on the 17th. And now it's like almost 500,000 coins for an 84 rated card. It's crazy. I mean, that is kind of cool, honestly. Although I've now quickly gone to search if I have one in the club.

[00:18:09] We can also go the other route because I talked about EA experimenting and I quite appreciate that. And then we have to win a lot of games to get a better player. But Yngwie, you can also get a player without actually playing games. What's that all about? What did they introduce today? They introduced the training camp evolutions. Which is a new concept. If there's a player you want to do an evolution, there's certain evolutions that fit the training camp.

[00:18:35] You just put in the player, activate the evolution and it kind of sends the player away for a training camp. And after a set amount of time, that card will be finished. You just pushed the evolution slash training camp and you can just claim it. It will be upgraded without even having to play any matches. Which can be good if you're going away on holiday and there's a player you want to do an evolution. And there is one available for the training camp.

[00:19:05] Then you just put the player there and let it kind of cook nicely. And be ready when you're done from your holiday. Which is nice. If it's possible to set up chains there, that would be awesome in the future. But we'll see. There's just been some play styles possible now, I think. And a few rolls. So I think this is kind of an experiment as well.

[00:19:32] But it would be nice if you could maybe 10,000 coins to put. If you're going away on holiday, you could at least do the evolution there while you're away. From a free one, for example. So at least you would get before it ran out. And would have the player ready when you come home. So things like that would be cool. Daniel, first thoughts on this concept? I mean, look, it's something new. I always appreciate EA trying things.

[00:20:00] This reminds me of going and playing Pokemon games back in the day. I was about to hatch a Pokemon. Exactly. You go hatch a Pokemon. You go hatch an Evo. Leave it at the foot daycare center. And have it come out a brand new player. I think the execution of these particular Evos are a little bit poor. Because, you know, it's give a left winger inside forward plus plus. Most top end cards now have that.

[00:20:30] It's also max 88 you can put in. Exactly. And the other ones give you a couple of shooting traits. Again, it's nice. And I suppose you would argue that most of the cards you'd be using these Evos on are probably low rated ones that are not in your team at the moment anyway. These very much feel like part of a chain. And we've had lots of good Evos like the Jamie one and all sorts where you can really boost those lower rated players up.

[00:20:57] So, you know, having something that locks them away. I mean, look, I, you know, I'll ask the question back to you two. Would you rather just lock a player away for three days or go through some of these bizarre, well, insane requirements of playing 20 games in squad battles, rivals or rush to get your 74 rated card up to a 78? I know which one I think I'd rather do. Well, it's a family man. That's not too hard, right? That's weekend league. Put them in. I put them in jail from Friday.

[00:21:26] I get them out of jail on Monday being involved. That sounds pretty solid to me though. Yeah. The long ones would be nice to just put it in there. But if, of course, if it's the best player you have in your club, then being without that player in online modes for like three days. That would be actually far more interesting. Just no limit on these players, but gets insightful plus plus, for example, on a winger.

[00:21:53] Put any card in there and then you're like, okay, should I sacrifice my, I don't know, a player son, for example, for it? Be without him for four days. But when he's back, oh, that could be cool. I think that idea is actually far more interesting than limiting the player you can put in. They should give some special evolutions that didn't have any cap on ratings to like plus four all over or something,

[00:22:23] even though they had 90 something pace. People pay a certain amount of coins to do that and just let them cook in the background for the training camp. That would be worth being without that card if it really, really boosted everything afterwards. Yeah, I quite like that. For example, you have a, I don't know, I got a left back that I've been enjoying all year,

[00:22:50] but she's getting a little bit slow for the current meta. Put that left back in for a week and you get a better version back. But I'm without a left back for a week, so I have to make some compromises. I think honestly, or hey, put Zidane in, make it a 95 after a week with something else. Like, well, it hurts my team for this week. That could actually be, it's not actually, the weird thing is it's nothing to do with a proper training camp

[00:23:18] because we're not playing in that training when you're on training camp. But I don't dislike that idea. I think the two examples we currently have is just a little bit like, eh, fun, but who cares? Yeah, it needs to be better than those. Yeah, I mean, for little boosts like this, I would much rather they, and look, this is going to take far too much time and coding, which EA are not going to do, but I would much rather it was a literal training camp. You know, you could put it into moments or the skill. Friendlies.

[00:23:47] Or skill games and just go away and it's like, you know, to get chip shot, go away and score 20 goals. Or there's a mini game where you have to score five chip goals within 10 minutes. Do you know what I mean? Just something like that I think would be cool. And, you know, and they had modes like moments, which they basically just let wither or die within. It's good for free packs at the start of the year. Yeah.

[00:24:15] But, you know, they promised us this as, you know, features you used to see in games of the past, you know, where it would be like, oh, recreate Liverpool's epic comeback against Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. You've got, you know, 30 minutes to score two more goals. And they never did any of that. It was just kind of like, eh, too much. But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. But yeah, overall, it's fine. We'll see how it develops. Yeah.

[00:24:42] You can find the evolution just in my club under training camp, that it says, right? Yeah. And you have to, you have to, interestingly, you have to put players in it through the companion app. Yeah. You can't find it on the console. It's on the console. Oh, it is? Yeah. It's on console, but you can't put players into it on the console. An alert pops up saying, use a companion, which again is just, you're sitting here thinking, how much of profit did you make last year?

[00:25:13] Yeah. That's unnecessary. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I, again, we got three players. We got an upgraded, we got an icon that got upgraded in Maradona. We got a new mode, which can give a player over some sort of a new idea to get a new player in. And we get this, the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to shed some positivity in this,

[00:25:38] but the last couple of weeks, EA is definitely experimenting with things to add and try and change things around. And although the execution isn't always perfect, and I do appreciate this. Right? Yeah. Yeah. They're trying to do different things, fix things and make changes that people want. So let's hope it continues. Yeah. Definitely.

[00:26:05] What also continued is the promotion. We have team two, and it's such a good promotion. Actually, we've got the name Fancy, of course. Food Fancy. I could call it that, but I'm not. Food Fancy team two. Invi, do you want to discuss content? And 30 minutes in the show. We've got an objectives player. Numi Feller, playing for Real Madrid. Female player.

[00:26:35] 88-rated striker. Looks solid. Just play matches, I guess. Squad battles mostly. I don't think the card is going to make many squads now, but evolution potential is there, I think. Yeah, but you can say that with every card. Yeah. Well, we got two SBCs, player SBCs.

[00:27:03] One which is a little bit annoying. And we got Randall Kouroumrani, the Juventus legend. A little bit expensive. Juventus legend. 91-rated striker. Yes, yes. Very much so. Yeah. With quick step plus and first touch plus. Nice play styles. Finesse, normal. Power shot, technical. Flare. Trevella. Ariel. Looks like a good card as well. I personally don't think it's worth over 850,000 coins.

[00:27:33] Four stars, give us five star weak foot. It's probably quite good, but I think you can do better with that much, I think. Coin-wise, at least. Can you, though? Well, the thing with the color Moani card is, and this is a trick that EA have loved to play over the last couple of years, is a couple of the Evos that have come out in the last few days, you've been able to create monster color Moani cards anyway.

[00:28:00] The only, you know, to a fairly equivalent level to this, not the five star weak foot. And then, of course, they, you know, put a promo card in packs as well. I think this is a very good card. I think, you know, if you're someone that is just literally, you know, I hate playing against you. If you are someone that sits deep and spams through balls, this card is going to do absolutely great for you because they're just going to, they're going to burn off most defenders.

[00:28:30] This finishing is pretty much where it needs to be. So, yeah, I really like this card. And again, we just, how plentiful fodder is at the moment. We've, you know, in the old days, when you talked about an 800k SBC, it really was going to cost because you had to buy so many of your fodder cards. Whereas now they're just, they're handing them out left, right and center. The amount of, I've been fascinated to find out the amount of Martin Odegaard's I've had in my club this year. I don't want to talk about Kane anymore, but.

[00:29:00] Yeah, and Hegerberg. Exactly. So, and I've, I've been so, I've been at a point with my club where I've just been doing the icon gambles simply out of boredom. And usually it'll be like, oh my goodness, I've gutted my club of fodder. I've got nothing to show for it, but a base Fernando Torres. But actually I put it, you know, for a one reward cycle later, everything is back in there. So yeah. And especially with this being a live card as well, I really, it's a card that I am actually

[00:29:29] considering, especially because of that five-star weak foot. But the form of Juventus, John. No, I don't like, no, don't. Yeah. I mean. Okay. Then, okay. We talk about the next. I don't think they score many goals. I think that's going to be an issue. But that's one thing. No, I mean, I agree, but on its own, right? Yeah. This card's fast. It's easy to link. I think the stats are all in the right places.

[00:29:57] This card having a five-star skill move would break it. So I think it's just on par with everything. 44 aggression is maybe a little bit low. Who cares about it? But remember the card we had this time last year, Timo Werner, and how many people were like, oh, Timo Werner. And that card, he was a demon. He was an absolute, and it was very similar to this card. And just for that basis alone and the FOMO factor, I will probably just end up getting this card done. Yeah.

[00:30:25] Because of my lack of playtime, I don't know if I can get him done. But I'm this close to saying if on the could, should, or don't do it, it's almost a should do, I think, actually. Compared to what else is out there at the moment, I think so. Maybe give it two or three more days. Even if he upgrades, he's broken. If he doesn't upgrade, still a very good card for the value, I think. Yeah.

[00:30:53] And if he doesn't get any upgrades, he'll be, you know, we're talking probably Evo in, you know, six weeks or so. And yeah, he's just a meta player in game. Yeah. He's the Mbappe you can't afford. Or you can afford, I should say. Right? Yngwie will argue that they shouldn't be using Mbappe in the first place. So... I don't mind these people using Mbappe as long as it's not the team of the other one.

[00:31:20] The other one misses the target a bit, but the team of the other one looks very clinical. I've seen many shots go in. Daniel. First start from Stryker. Yay or nay? Well, it's funny because I asked this very question to you in the Discord this week, John, which of course people can join the Discord absolutely free. The link is posted in the description for all these shows. Great conversations happen all the time. Because yes, we had the Evo that was a part of the...

[00:31:49] Was it part of the league, Yngwie? Or was it... No, it was part of the second fantasy cup, wasn't it? Which one? The choose-a-playstyle-plus Evo. Yeah, that was the second cup. The Bibbs Cup. The Swaps Cup. The most visually annoying cup in foot history. So, and I had Kelvin A. Abatiaman. I dare anybody to try and spell it without looking it up. Reading Stryker.

[00:32:19] And I needed a second-playstyle-plus for him. So I was debating whether to put him in the finesse Evo or to give him first touch plus. And so I said, John, what would you rather have? And John, you said... I said first touch, yeah. Yeah. And I think I agree. Because if you are playing balls into particularly a big striker like Kelvin is, I think he's six foot three.

[00:32:40] To be able to sort of have that control and then to help be able to turn, especially in comboed up with press proven, is very, very good. And, John, is it right that it will help that if you're playing a through ball through as well, it will help them control the ball in those scenarios as well, even without their back to goal? Yeah. And I think it's the stickiness on the feet, basically. That's the best way to summarize it, right? And I hate when the first touch sucks.

[00:33:09] And I think especially when you have a big striker who doesn't have the speed. Like you said, your example was a striker that's not super fast, but big. You just want him to hold the ball. Yeah, 89 pace. Which still isn't slow, honestly. But I compare it with Socrates, which is my team, which might get replaced by Colin Moani now.

[00:33:33] But with Socrates, and I think if you look at his play styles, he doesn't have the first touch. And what happens with him is he sometimes just, the ball bounces off his feet. Well, he's a big, strong guy, which should be able to hold the ball. But if he has the ball, you can't really get him off him. But if you give him the ball, it might bounce off his feet.

[00:33:55] And I think if he would have that first touch, I wouldn't even consider dropping him off my team because he's still a lead on in front of goal. And that's why if you look at Colin Moani, who also has it, I think that's just a big extra bonus. I can kind of vouch for the first touch plus working really well because I have the level 40 Firmino. Oh, really? Then you should mention that. He has the first touch plus.

[00:34:25] And I pinged some really hard passes into his feet and he controls them with ease, turns around, can shoot straight away or can pass. He can dribble in tight situations because the ball is glued to his feet and always a good touch to do something nice with the ball afterwards. So this has been a really kind of a little bit of a relevation for me because I didn't know it was that effective, at least not the playstyle plus version. So I really like it. It's been a while since I used this, but...

[00:34:54] Foot coaching's top tip. Get first touch plus on your player, on your strikers. And he's also, of course, got the other playstyle plus that is, I think, probably top three in the game at the moment. The quick step plus makes such a difference for attacking players to get away and even fullbacks as well. So, yeah, having the combination of those two is great. I think the only thing you might otherwise say, though, is, yeah, maybe not...

[00:35:20] Only eight playstyles, if you include two playstyle pluses, is a little bit low. So he will need that upgrade of giving him two regular playstyles. What they'll give him, I'm not sure. But hopefully it would be something like press proven and rapid would be my preference. Yeah, that would make him really good. I agree. I know the next play, if you want to talk about, is Ferdinand Rightwinger, perhaps? Yes. It's like we've been doing several other shows together already.

[00:35:50] Yeah, it's Rafinha. And he got an iterated SPC. It costs around 600,000 coins, which is okay. But the problem, at least which annoys me, is that not long ago he had a Trailblazer SPC.

[00:36:15] That costs pretty much 500,000 coins-ish. And why do we need another Rafinha SPC now, already? Yeah, the former SPC expired in November, though. I do agree with your point. Like, when I saw this card tonight on the website, I was like, wait, what? What? Did I miss? This is the old one.

[00:36:44] Because it's also red. It's pretty similar looking as well, right? At least to my old eyes. Yeah, I think it's honest. There are so many. This is a world tour one. I know it's Brazil, which is the nation themed for this season, which is fine. But there's so many Brazilian players that EA could have chosen that wasn't Rafinha, that already had an SPC.

[00:37:15] Don't, Yngwie, because if they don't choose Rafinha, you know who else they'll choose? The other man who gets 8 million promo cards. Vinicius? I was going to say his great friend Rodrigo. Yeah, but he's in the promo team. Exactly. If you don't get Rafinha, you get Rodrigo. I'm sure they've both got personal service contracts at this point. At least there's no Militao in there. He's coming, don't you worry. He'll be here soon.

[00:37:39] They could have given it to Anthony with giving him a two-star weak foot instead of one-star weak foot. It would have been better than this, for me at least. It's like, come on, be a little bit creative. There's so many copy-paste players now, so we're kind of reaching the point where they're coming back into packs, which we have 10 as well. I agree with Daniel, though. He probably hasn't. Yeah, I need to get five special cards a year. Could be, yeah.

[00:38:09] But then it's like, yeah, not for me. It's a good card, but after we had the blueprint team of the year evolution, I don't think he will get into my team at least. I think Dembele will still be better than him, so also another waste. But it's not a bad card, right?

[00:38:31] If you put it in perspective, right winger, good value, five-star weak foot, good rolls, good playstyle, sticky-tucker, ropa, you name it. If you don't have, if you haven't done any of his cards before and you have a lacking spot on the right wing, and if you didn't do the maradona right wing like I did, this isn't a bad card to do, right? It's a good do SBC. Easy to link, et cetera. Yeah. It is, but still. But pretty honest.

[00:39:02] You can get cheaper options as well. Yeah. But again, that goes back to what I said earlier, Wengeby, isn't it? The fact that it's an SBC player and you're literally being handed fodder pretty much for even walking near to your console these days, playing the game. You'll just magically find an 84 by 5 in your storage. Means that most people will probably get this done for, even if you had nothing in your club, as said, a couple of reward cycles, you can probably do this one for free.

[00:39:31] So on that basis alone, yeah, if you have got a bit of a, you know, a hole down the right hand side, it is for you. I mean, what is it? The top challenge is a couple of 88 squads, a couple of 87s, and going down from there, 86, 85, 84. So yeah, only two 88 squads. It's not going to take people very long to do this, I don't think. Especially because we're all getting that lovely, if you've been playing the game,

[00:39:56] I can't wait to open the four times 90 plus pack we're getting and see which four goalkeepers they managed to give me this time. Has there been four goalkeepers rated over 90? Yeah, let's see. Oh, there are. Don't you worry, you've got Endler, Pickford. I got Pickford twice last week. I listened, I forgot, yeah, there's enough. And Romero, don't you remember, in Numero Foot, just right at the end, they just seemed to chuck a load of goalkeepers in.

[00:40:25] And so don't worry, they're coming for us. Everybody else will be getting nice exotic cards and I'll just have many goalkeepers. It's 90 plus, isn't it? Yes. I thought it was like, for some strange reason, I thought it was 92 plus. So I was like, oh, this could be really good. It has to be really good. And it's like 90, I said, maybe not. So we'll see. Want to take a peek into the team though? Go on then. Yes, we can.

[00:40:52] Man, there are some big shock. A few familiar faces. Mathis Tell, Rodrigo, Rashford, Alphonso Davies. And we have Miss Walsh as well. Fermin is also well-known. Pavard has not been seen this year and that card looks really good.

[00:41:18] And Darwin Nunes, for example, to mention a few. But you know, if Yngwie gets critical about Liverpool players being too often in the team, you know it's serious. Yeah. It's not performance-based for Darwin and I'm not sure he will get, unfortunately, many upgrades either. Well, the team should hopefully get a few, but he's not been very clinical, which kind of, I would say EA quite got right his composure on this card.

[00:41:48] I'm sorry, Darwin. I really like you as a player and person, but 83 composure could almost be a little bit too kind as well because he's not been hitting the goal that much. And his Centurion's card had 82, so he got a plus one composure, but on a plus four rated card. So I don't think EA was... Well, they're not unrealistic at least.

[00:42:14] All the other stats look really nice besides the composure, of course. But 90 finishing is a little bit generous as well, I think. But the card looks nice. He has some good play styles. I don't think he's worth 700,000 coins with those stats. And I think it's quite crazy the prices of some of the other ones. You know which ones are meta in game when you look at the prices.

[00:42:42] But there are some, I think, fun cards at least that will be affordable. Yeah, but before we go into the cards that are affordable, Yngwie, we have to go into a little ad break talking about affordable. Look how I put that one in today. Yngwie, seriously though, and everyone listening, of course, if you want to take your gameplay to the next level,

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[00:44:09] And, well, if you really want to see how Nunes performs in real life, they also have full analysis on that as well. Talk about a cheap beast, Invi, which you want to discuss. The one that I saw that could be a cheap beast is Kika Nazareth, actually. Yes. She is actually playing for Barcelona as well. So she links if you do the Rafinha SPC as well.

[00:44:38] She's from Portugal. She's a cam, can play center mid and striker. She has the incisive pass and technical as playstyle plus 4-star skimmer, 4-star weak foot. But she has really good stats. It's a little bit confusing that she has 90 jumping, 90 stamina, 85 strength, 80 aggression, 90 heading accuracy, 90 standing tackle, 84 sliding tackle.

[00:45:08] And she is 5 foot 7. But she has 95 short pass, 94 long pass, 90 vision. Also, 87 attack position, 92 finishing, which is really nice. 87 agility and balance, 91 dribbling. And, of course, already could be put in evolutions. She also has chip shot, ping pass, long ball, tiki taka, flare, relentless, and triavella.

[00:45:37] So I think she could be a really, really good cam. Will get upgraded as well, probably. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, with the way Barcelona are played, almost nailed on for an upgrade. I mean, kiss of death here as well. She hasn't been booked all season, which suggests she stands a good chance of getting that upgrade as well. The 10 club goals in four matches are almost nailed on. So you could be looking... Two wins as well. Yeah, that's absolutely nailed on. The goal or assist in four matches, that might be a little.

[00:46:06] She's only scored twice all season. I can't see assists from my good friends at Sokkaway. So I don't know how well she's been providing goals, but she doesn't score that many. And Barcelona are going to win that domestic league as well. So that upgrade will tick and she'll have another playstyle plus. So she'll be up to three playstyle pluses by... You'll have to wait a while, sort of six weeks or so.

[00:46:33] But again, you're looking at this card being three playstyle pluses and what, 91, 92 rated with a 99 face stat and a five-star week for all skill moves. I agree with Ingrid. I think for 32,000 coins at the moment, it's absolutely no-brainer. Just if you have that, just buy one, stash it in the club. Because at some stage, you know, she will be a 91, 92 rated card and you'll be able to flog it even as fodder. Yeah.

[00:47:00] I just bought three just because I put my money where your mouths are. John's trading channel straight up there. Hey, you never know, right? I do agree, though, that this is a pretty fun... You buy for upgrade, not necessary because currently she's one of the top players around. I think this shows how many players there are available for a really good amount of money, right? Yeah.

[00:47:31] So I also... He's more expensive, but I think that Pavard card could be really good in-game as well. So he has some very good stats. I know it's like 540,000 coins, but I know it's not a cheap beast. But for those stats, that price, he can play center back and I'm pretty sure he'll do well at right back as well. And French, easy to link. So Serie A, I think that could...

[00:48:01] He looks like a player that could go into many teams at the moment as well. It feels a bit expensive for me. What do you think, Dan? Yeah, a little bit expensive. But again, I think you have to view these cards through the lens of what could they look like. And I think Pavard's got some of those upgrades baked into that cost and obviously the linkability that comes with it. It's a really nice card.

[00:48:28] But yeah, whether it's 530, I don't know. So the cheap beast... He should drop. Yeah. You would hope so with champs rewards. And if not, if you look at the way team won prices just fell. And also I think, again, the rumor mill has it that we're due a center back evolution as well. So that could always tank the price. Yeah. So we'll see on that one.

[00:48:54] My cheap beast would actually be Kira Walsh, formerly of Barcelona women, who's now transferred to Chelsea. And again, Chelsea, one of the real powerhouses in women's domestic football here in the UK, in England. So again, a card that is very likely to get a whole slate of upgrades. And Chelsea, pretty much you would think are going to win the WSL as well this season.

[00:49:21] So again, you're suddenly looking at a card that could have a five-star weak foot or skill moves, be sort of 94, 95 rated with three play style pluses. And that'd be pretty much, what was it, nine golem gang? What do they call it when they're all 90s? The only thing that she won't have is the shooting. Yes, she's five foot five. But if you're looking again for someone to buzz around, you know, swipe the ball and then lay off a pass.

[00:49:49] Now her stats are already as a 92 pretty cracked. So again, 330k as she stands right now, I imagine she will probably dip down a little bit more. But again, I think if you're looking for a kind of a mid-range gamble and a very usable card, there's lots of Chelsea links, lots of English links as well. I'd pick out this card.

[00:50:11] The only thing that slightly holds it back for me is it doesn't have holding plus plus and deep line playmaker is only a plus in CDM. Like Yngwie should say, she'd get ready for an evil. Yeah, she'll fit an evil later. Yeah, it looks like a really good. I was also going to mention this card as a really good one. Crazy good stats already.

[00:50:36] Going back to Nunes though, Yngwie, I know it's quite fun to make fun of Darwin Nunes at the moment. Bless him. Well, not fun. It's easy to make fun of Darwin Nunes at the moment. And I take your point with the composure. If you look apart from that composure, with the form that Liverpool are in, again, this could be a really top strike if he gets that five-star weak foot. And then you're suddenly looking at a couple of upgrades and you're looking at a 96 pace. The shooting goes up to 93, 94.

[00:51:04] That composure goes up to high 80s. Are you not a bit more excited by that card? You know, for what is 680s, not too much at the moment. I'm not sure it's going to be without no yellow or red cards though. He's got six yellow cards already this season. If he stays on the bench and barely comes on, he might be able to sneak through. He could sneak in an assist or a goal. He could sneak in a yellow card from the bench as well, by the way. Yeah, that's...

[00:51:33] Well, he has had some really nice assists to Salah. So, as a super sub, he could easily just pop in and give an assist and then... Getting him hyped. Then all I can see is his smile turning off. If he gets it... All seven of them. Pop you at the price. If Dalvin Nunes gets a 99 rated stat on the dribbling, his composure suddenly is lower 98, 99. That could be... I'm sure they put his defending up by 99.

[00:52:03] Oh, this 99 aggression, surely. Yeah. But here comes the real question though. I think this is how you compare it. Do you put in 800, 700 something thousand for Colomani or do you put it in Nunes? I would put it in Nunes because I know how good the 87 rated card was when it was released. Crazy good. I could still do an evolution on him and use him now, I think.

[00:52:32] But the composure could make him a little bit like a non-inform Mbappe missing a few sitters. Always. Always. Always coming in. But he's... You know with that, again, the edge that Nunes has over Mwani is A, he's probably more likely to get team-based upgrades. Sorry, John. Guys, I'm wearing black and white. Come on. But also, it's that physicality. He's got...

[00:53:00] So he's going to have that jam factor with 88 aggression and 89 strength as well. He was just bulldozing through with the Centurion's card. Exactly. And he also got Rapid Plus and Normal Quick Step with Relentless and Press Proven First Touch, Tiki Taka, Power Shot, Chip Shot. Guys, I know we get sponsored today by an organization that works together with Liverpool, but it's not this. We're not getting paid for recommending Nunes. I'm just saying, though. I'm just kidding.

[00:53:29] For 650k, I think that's... He'll drop. Yeah, he'll probably drop, and that is, I think, a very well-posed card. The fact he costs less than Jamie Carragher's defender card at the moment. Let's just talk about all the Liverpool players. Let's talk about the Reading players in the promo. Yeah, and all the final players. Yeah, that section is finished. Haven't even got any former Reading players to talk about. Where are the Dutch players, by the way? Of course, we have one on the bench, which I've never heard about.

[00:53:58] But I mean, levels being 17k. I'm pretty sure Gravenberg is due a new promo card soon. Yeah, a Liverpool contract. Yeah, true. Yeah, because he had the FC Pro Live one, so he should be due one soon. There's also a few heroes that looks really good, of course, as well. That was released today. Yes, Dietmar. Yeah, he looks really good. I'm a big fan of Jari. He was a great player.

[00:54:27] Sadly, too many injuries. Started the wrong club, unfortunately. But hey, still, respect. Did you know he had one type of shoe he always played on? Yeah. And because that shoe was not made anymore, he bought about a thousand of them or something. Yeah, that's all crazy. I feel a lot better about Jari Littmann now. He's no longer haunting me in icon packs. It's the same with Nakata as well. Suddenly, I feel much better about them when they're not mugging me off from my base icon and prime icon packs.

[00:54:56] Did you see the Sheriff got a promo card as well? He did. I am very fond of the Sheriff, Robbie Keane. Yeah, that looks like a really good card as well. I'm glad that's on the SBC this year, though. Which club have they tied Keane to? Has he been tied to Spurs? He has a white kit, at least. Yeah, he is. I look at the Fuji G's at Spurs, which is slightly concerning in terms of upgrades. Yeah.

[00:55:26] Yeah, this is nice, guys. No Liverpool players are tuning in at mass. But all Juventus players dropped off by now, and so did all the Spurs fans. And Reading fans and Firenots fans. No, we're definitely keeping people on board tonight. Well done. Littmann is linked to Barcelona, so he should get some upgrades as well. So that's also a good one, I think.

[00:55:53] Yeah, I think many of these cards are just pretty cool. And I like them. I like the hero coming back and actually looking and feeling like upgrade. To be fair, I'd probably get another Howard card this week, which I've had enough of as well. He's a very good goalkeeper, is Tim Howard. So is Kassilio. Is he, though? He lets me down. What I was going to say about Tim Howard, though, is that long throw plus trait is really, really good.

[00:56:24] It's very, very underrated. If you're someone that likes to start quick counts and stuff from corners and things like that, it's, again, even if you've just got the base trait, I quickly noticed it when I went back into the cup and had someone, I think I'd burnt Leno, and his throws basically, it's like some sort of like a moon throw compared to the absolute arrows you get out of someone like Howard. But if goalkeepers have 77 jumping, I'm always a little bit scared. Yeah, but he's Tim Howard.

[00:56:53] He's a little bit special. So, again, look, please talk him down because I would like him to be as cheap as possible. He's cheap already. He's 120 something. I know, 190 currently. Yeah, 120 I'd feel a lot better with. Yeah. Well, it'll be there at the end of the week. Just going back to, I know I'm jumping around a bit, but I think the one card that you talk about cheap beasts that is really, really cheap is Matthias Tell. And I know, again, we're bashing Spurs.

[00:57:22] But is that, do you think that's, Ingvi, do you think that's just because it's Spurs or is there something on the card that you don't like? Talk about an 18-9 rate striker from Spurs, of course. Does he need to? Let's look at the card itself, Ingvi. He already had a promo card that was quite decent in-game. We're talking about spending, you know, 800k on Fodor on Kylo Mawani or 700,000 coins on Nunes.

[00:57:50] And you compare this card to those two. And yeah, again, the composure is maybe a little bit lower at 85. But other than that... It's some very good stats on that card. I think Dallas might actually... But he has rapid, but he doesn't have quick step, but that's not a must. He's got first touch as well. Yeah. So, he got Finesse Plus, which is really nice at the moment.

[00:58:20] Yeah, thanks for this. I'm so glad I just put in three... I put in three SBCs already for Kylo Mawani and now I'm sort of thinking about... Yeah, but 80 reactions. I'm not a fan of that though. That's maybe a little bit of a no for me. 80 reactions. They will take some extra touches in the box when they shoot. They don't first touch? Yeah, but still, they are slower to...

[00:58:47] But you can put them into the evolution, which boosts the dribbling. If you haven't used it, he will get 90 reactions and 90 composure, which is nice. Yes, he will also be green. Yes, that's a nice... That's not a problem. Anyway, I apologize. I've derailed our hero chat. No, I think it's fine. I think actually Tell is a good value for money.

[00:59:14] And I think facing that card could be awkwardly annoying. That makes sense. Also, cha-cha-cha. Mario Gomez looks really good. And I guess the price reflects that as well? It could be, yeah, if I was as fast as getting it on screen. But it's a 90-g rated strike and now 1.9 million. Yeah.

[00:59:41] I don't think we have to spend too much time talking about a 1.9 million player. It probably could. But there's the guy on social media, isn't it, that basically uses Gomez all year long. Yeah, I remember. I'm sure he will be absolutely loving life tonight and then desperately trying to cobble together 1.9 million coins to buy him. Yeah. Yeah, he's good. Just put it. He's good. He's 2 million. He's good. I think, generally speaking, this promo brings in some cool players.

[01:00:10] But I so much like looking at the players, like you said, like Tell, for example, Pavard. Those affordable players that R were doing. Although I was very hyped by Kolomwani and the more this podcast went on, the more I'm like, maybe I shouldn't have put in three. He should be fine. 89, 88. He'll be great. He'll be great. Yeah.

[01:00:36] I don't think you'll have any huge regrets after doing that. I think. Not huge. Just minor regrets. Cheers for that. You can't pack him at least. So that's a good thing. That is true. That's a huge bonus, I guess. I just wish he had a different kit where I don't like this kit. But that's a different story. Talk to a different story. Next Tuesday, we have episode 666.

[01:01:04] There should be some special spicy content in there, but I just can't find it. Daniel, have any clues about what we should do for episode 666? The podcast of the beast. Oh, that's a good one. Send in your cheap beast for next episode. Tag us at socials, of course, at Food and Review everywhere. Put in your cheap beast or your big beast or bad, big, bad beast, whatever in the Discord chat.

[01:01:31] Just tag one of the hosts and we'll use it for next Tuesday where we'll just make sure that Nathan and Shaq will talk about the podcast of the beast. Can't trust Nathan to do anything. Sorry? My slander of Nathan will just continue. The guy takes constant pops of me on the Tuesday Club. I'm listening, Nathan. I'm hearing what you're saying on this. Yeah. I have to admit, though, he's getting pretty good at hosting, Daniel. Yeah, I know. I know. He learned from the worst. From the best?

[01:02:01] You actually wanted to say best. Thank you so much for being here. He's learned from all my mistakes. He's taken me forward. No, mate. I can only very much appreciate you being back on the Friday and making time next to your amazing busy schedule. Yes, it's nice. I've got an evening where my wife has gone out. So, yeah, put the kids to bed. And so it's nice to be able to hop on with you two.

[01:02:28] Let's talk about foot before I subject myself to Weekend League, at which point I'll be talking to you two again as you two, you know, try and convince me not to uninstall the game and just calm down a bit. Typical Friday. The circle of foot. It's what binds us all. That is episode 999, the circle of foot. Sponsored by the Lion King. Exactly.

[01:02:55] Again, check out foodcoaching.com, foodandreview.com, of course, for all things foot. We'll put out the social, we'll put out the tag, the New Jersey, of course, on the website as well. Sending you questions. As always, I hope everyone has a terrific weekend. First match with Roman van Persie at the helm at Feyenoord tomorrow, so definitely worth checking that out. I'm already nervous. Probably can only end in disappointment, as they say, just as his striker card in foot.

[01:03:25] But we'll see that next time. See you guys after the weekend. Everyone have a great time. It's just one thing left for us to do. And that is to... Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you.