666: The Beast & Devils of FUT

[00:00:00] Hello footies and welcome along to your Tuesday Club Edition of FUT IN REVIEW powered by Foot Coaching. This is a very special episode in some ways, some people may believe this, some people don't. Episode 666, the number of the beast or the number of the devil. So we'll touch on that very shortly. But as always, before we get into the content in today's discussions, I'd like to welcome along my good friend and fantastic co-host, Shaq Attack. Shaq, how are we my man?

[00:00:29] I'm doing well, thank you very much. Looking forward to kicking the ball around with you, but also just want to warn everyone that if things go pear-shaped, it's only because I have a Cyclone Category 2 coming my way anytime now. So the show must go on. Yeah, absolutely. I know you've been very busy preparing for that. So fingers crossed from all of us that, you know, it doesn't quite hit quite as hard as it could do and everyone's safe and well and your house remains untree damaged. So fingers crossed there, my friend.

[00:01:00] How has your previous week been? You know, obviously it was last Tuesday we recorded. How's the end of that sort of weekly cycle and then this one started for you? It's felt like a very interesting week in the sense that I didn't do champs this week, but I did a lot of friendly games, a lot of friendly league games, which I don't even know. I can't even remember how many wins I've gotten so far and I just feel like that's such a blur. But the cup games, actually, it's weird.

[00:01:28] Apart from the change of the kits in the swaps mode, I quite enjoyed the cups because I think I was just getting to... It's one of those things where getting to the maximum reward wasn't hard and it was fun along the way. So I did really enjoy the cups mode. I must say, I did really enjoy the no rules mode. You could just slide and I was thinking of you the whole time while I was playing the game. This must be like heaven for you. This is meant for people like you. I really enjoyed that.

[00:01:56] I think the cups mode was really... I enjoyed the cups mode. I just... The one thing is I just felt like there's so much gameplay content in one promo that just kind of was a bit exhausting. But yeah, it was fun, no less. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we'll just start with that cup mode. And the kit one, I think I managed to do quite easily. But I think I put into our group chat very quickly, this is brutal. Not the gameplay, but like you say, the bib.

[00:02:24] It always took me a wee minute to figure out which bib was mine and who I'm going to. And then trying to force it to them so you could get the double goals people would kind of rage quit was a nightmare. But I love the no rules. I've just done it this morning. It took me about an hour and a half to complete it. But I loved it because obviously the teams are a bit of a mismatch because you kind of have to shovel in certain requirements. So I had that Marcus Turam up front. I think he was the player of the month months ago. Just kept sending him on runs forward and just kept kicking the hell out of everybody.

[00:02:53] And my favorite one is the professional foul where you just tug people back before running through it. And it's amazing because, you know, I was watching the wrestling at the weekend, watching the elimination chamber. And the amount of times I saw clothesline people in this game, I was loving it. And then he'd just send a really sweaty, over-the-top ball to Turam who's basically standing on the keeper and score. I was in my element. I kind of wanted to keep playing that even after the objectives were done. So it was fantastic. Rivals has gone pretty well.

[00:03:22] I'm quite comfortably in Division I now. I got there too early at the start of the reset after Thursday. Went on a really good run and got up there. And I thought, oh, no, I've still got to get all these points and stay there. But it's actually been fairly comfortable. It's not been overly sweaty. So I'm not quite sure what's happening. I don't know whether it's because we're at the end of the season and people have kind of moved on or whatever. But that's been quite enjoyable, too. So it's good. I totally get what you mean, though. There's so much to do. I obviously don't play weekends.

[00:03:51] And I was in the office yesterday, so I didn't play yesterday. So I come back today. And it's almost overwhelming with the amount to do or you can do anyway. I'm away this weekend. Sorry, this week. Unfortunately, it's my granddad's funeral tomorrow in England. So I'm leaving tonight to go down from Scotland to England. So I'll be away until Friday. So I've got basically today to jam in everything else that we need to do. So it's a little bit of like how much do we go? So even with the league, my con's out of my reach because I had a terrible start.

[00:04:21] So I think I'm just going to play and just try and get some packs because I think that's as best as I can hope for just now. So I think that's kind of it. But to be fair, there's not been lots to talk about. We've obviously got all these objectives and we've had a few SBCs. So before we kind of go into the main thing, we've had a couple of icons released since the guys recorded. We've had the Liga F Player of the Month and we've had a brand. But just to start, because this was one I thought our good friend Wemby would be all over. But then I remembered we had like the Academy Evo.

[00:04:51] But Cashly Cole, love him or hate him, in the game, he's always very good, I think. He's quite underappreciated in the game. What did you think about his fantasy cards, Jack? Because on the basis of it, I think it looks really good. 600k, not wildly priced. But what's your thoughts on that? It's one of those things where I think if he was slightly cheaper, he would probably have a lot more interest. Because at the end of the day, you can spend 300, 400k. I'm just talking logic here, being pragmatic.

[00:05:19] You can spend 300, 400k or whatever it is and get a Theo in. And he's going to be better than any other left back in the game, which kind of sucks in a way. So if you have an Ashley Cole that's, say, slightly the same, maybe around the same price as Theo or slightly cheaper, that'll give you more of an incentive to try him out. And Ashley Cole cards are much better than what the stats usually say. I remember I was using the team of the year, Ashley Cole last year. Loved that card. And I think Wemby was a massive fan of the Centurions, I think.

[00:05:47] I think the Centurions had thunderstruck Ashley Cole, who was really a mainstay in his team. So I think slightly cheaper would have gone a long way. It would have been in a lot more teams. But again, I don't get the disparity because we have other cards that have come out that are reasonably priced. So, for example, the Robin Van Persie that I think we can segue onto. Robin Van Persie has come out brilliant play styles. He's got Finesse Plus. He's got First Touch Plus. Really decent looking card in game.

[00:06:14] Not fully meta meta, but he's probably the best version of Robin Van Persie we've had this cycle. And he seems a really good card. And he's only 180k, 170k. Yeah, so that's a good card. The pricing for these are a bit strange. But to be fair, if you take Theo out of it, I think Ashley's actually a fairly decent option. I think if you do him, you've got that sort of affiliation either to him as tight. Well, I don't think many Arsenal fans will be doing him after how he left.

[00:06:43] But to Chelsea or, you know, in English or even just like as a Premier League great, he's probably up there with the best Premier League left backs that we've probably ever had. You know, from a buyer's side, we've got Patrice Evra, who's not in the game, who I'm hoping will get a hero card at least soon. You're struggling to name many better than those two, really. Liverpool fans will say Andy Robertson, but they're completely wrong there because the boy can't even defend. And he's just got the passion trait. So I think that's all right.

[00:07:11] To be fair, even 600k, I would be more intended to do him than Theo, just because Theo's like overly meta. He's a bit like Kevin Mendy, who I admittedly ran for a while, but I would stay away almost just because I don't want to be like, you know, you don't want to follow the crowd in a way. So I think it's nice. You're right. Even if they had it as 500k, you know, just that half mil mark would be nice. 600, but I don't think 600's wild or massively overpriced.

[00:07:41] From that to a very cheap SBC for an icon, I'm sure John will have an affiliation to him, but Dennis Bergkamp, who, you know, he's somebody that I never really feel his skill and his aura transfers into FIFA or FC. He's coming at about 175k, so not badly priced by any means. But what do you think about Bergkamp? I must apologize, because the previous time when I was conversing about Robin Van Persie,

[00:08:10] I met Dennis Bergkamp. Oh, you meant Dennis Bergkamp. There you go. Yeah. So when you said Dennis Bergkamp, I was like, oh, of course it was Dennis Bergkamp, not Robin Van Persie. You can see how you can get those two confused. I think, yeah, I've just been thinking about Robin Van Persie a lot for the past couple of days because of the state of the club that we follow. But anyway, it's what it is. Bring him back even currently. Currently, he'd probably still do a better job than what we've got going on just now. Probably he'll do it. Anyway, that's besides the point. But yeah, I was talking about Dennis Bergkamp.

[00:08:39] And I think I'm really keen to try out the Dennis Bergkamp card because I don't think we've ever been able to have a Dennis Bergkamp that can recreate the magic that he did on the pitch. So looking forward to it, especially with the price. It looks like a steal. Is it one that you're going to end up doing then? It will be. Fantastic. Like we said, we had the Liga F Player of the Month yesterday, which was Monday. And coincidentally, she's called Monday. So an 88-rated striker.

[00:09:07] Would look all right, apart from the three-star, four-stars. A bit of a letdown, I think. Absolutely rapid. I think she'd still do a job. Obviously, coming in at 45k. So you're not expecting her to pull up trees. But it could be a very good, cheap option. And then brand as well, the left winger, German, just under 70k. Shaq, have you had time to look at this? Because actually, it doesn't look a bad option. No, decent option. And I think we're kind of spoiled for choice right now.

[00:09:37] We have a lot of cheap SBCs that you can definitely just jump in and hope for an Evo at some point in time. We even use them here and there in some of the competitions that we have. But none of the SBCs that we're getting are really like must-do SBCs. It's just up and down with what fits your team. And also, I think just having the constant glut of casino SBCs has confused the situation a little bit. Like, would you rather do a player that you may or may not use?

[00:10:03] Or just throw the same amount of fodder or a little bit more in an Icon SBC or Hero SBC and YOLO it? That's what's happening right now. I just keep thinking of doing an SBC. Like, I started off thinking of doing Dennis Bergkamp. Did two Icons instead. I mean, to be fair, we always say you've got to be in it to win it. So I've done a couple of Icon ones and I do all the campaign packs that come out. And there's only really two players that I want from those campaign ones,

[00:10:31] which I know are the ones that aren't going to pop out. But again, you've got to be in it to win it. Before we kind of get on to the content and that, but like we said, this is episode number 666. So that got John primarily thinking. He opened it up to a Discord who've put in a few, but you're beasts and devils. So we've got a few for previous editions. So Mario says the FIFA 23 Vanya. I think that's Milinkovic Samich,

[00:10:59] the goalkeeper that turned into a CM monster who is tremendous. EngV, our good friend and Friday session regular. Welt 9, W9. Again, I thought that was amazing with that crossing meta. But sticking a little bit with FC 25 for the current game. Home is put in, and you know, this is a big shout. Endrick, the team of the year Evo. He goes, this guy's my beast. Spiritual successor to Pez 6's Adriano. So strong, the link to shop power.

[00:11:29] Shaq, how do you feel when you see this Endrick? Because it does give me a little bit of goosebumps when I come up against them, I'm not going to lie. There are a couple of those cards. We discussed them last week. Those team of the year Evo cards, some of them are just so good. Like the Endrick one, just kind of, every time I see an Endrick, I think in this League and Cup, I've been coming across a 19-year-old Endrick. I don't know what combination they've done, but a 19-year-old Endrick, and he's so hard to defend. He's so hard to defend.

[00:11:58] He's got a bit of everything. So these Endrick cards, the Rodrigo cards, and the Rafinha cards, the Evo. Oh, those three are just annoying, annoying, annoying to deal with. Osman Dembele, no problem at all dealing with that one. I did that one. But the other ones, oh, they're just so good. So Endrick's a good one, a really good one. Yeah, absolutely. So going on that, have you got, well, we'll start with a beast. Have you got an FC 25 beast for us?

[00:12:28] I think one of the beasts that I currently am cooking up is a Neymar. It's weird. It's a gold Neymar Evo. I know I've spoken about Neymar before, but I'm just trying to create my own version of a Neymar, and I have managed to create like a pretty cool one, just using the gold one, and I've got Tiki Taka Plus on him, and he is just cooking it. And I also put the Shadow Striker thing on him as well. So he's got the Shadow Striker Plus Plus, and he's got the Tiki Taka Plus.

[00:12:57] Sorry, he's got the Tiki Taka Plus Plus, and he's just incredible in game. I'm just really enjoying using a, and I think people just see him as a regular Evo Neymar, and they just underestimate what he can do, and he's just incredible in game. So good in game. So I'm really trying to, this is going to be my marquee card that I'm going to slowly and surely, and he's only 89 rated, so I'm going to just gently evolve him in such a way that he doesn't get a massive rating boost, but his stats get upgraded. So that's what I'm hoping.

[00:13:25] I'm going to be very picky on what I put on him. That's really cool. You've probably got the slight advantage that Neymar now isn't like he was three or four years ago in terms of the game. So people probably would underestimate anyway. So you've kind of got that element of surprise almost. I'm going to be a lot more boring. Mine's not an Evo. Mine is pure pateluk, and it's Thierry Henry, who is my favorite card I've used the whole game. He gets you out of situations. He's slightly bigger,

[00:13:55] so he can play as that. I play 4-2-3-1 wide, and he can play that lone striker role really well. Just does everything. His passing's very good, so you can knock it around. His finishing's next level. Pace is obviously tremendous, and his play styles are excellent. So that is by far my favorite beast. We've got a few others that I'm quite enjoying just now, but we've had obviously Team of the Year, Salah up front, who just isn't, he's very good, but he's definitely better as a winger. You know, Lauren James,

[00:14:24] Eric Cantona, these type of players, but Henry by far is the best player that I think I've used even going through when I play draft and stuff. I think this is probably one of the, if you've got an unlimited budget, he's one that I'd be saying you need to shoehorn in your team somehow if you can. On the other side, Devils. I'd like to kick this one off because there's one card that just frustrates the life out of me. Every time I come up against this card, like, well, I'll say every time, anytime a player knows how to use this card, it ends me. Like,

[00:14:54] I can't get an error. I can't stop her. Like, unless we play that no rules game where you can literally just two foot them and just like batter them off the park. But, Mia Hamm, I don't know where I was when they were giving out free Mia Hams, but a lot of players seem to have Mia Hamm. She is unreal. Like, the way that she moves, the power shot, that little bit of pace, like, she just seems unreal. And, I can't put my finger on it because when you look at her, like, she does look very good. But, she doesn't look like an R9 or Mbappe or whatever.

[00:15:24] But, R9 at the moment isn't cooking me like Mia Hamm does. So, I'm not sure what it is, but, she is by far my number 666 number of the devil because I just, I can't stand her anymore. Like, I really just get angry. Yeah, I completely agree that Mia Hamm, especially the winter wildcard one, I think the regular Mia Hamm, when I was coming across against her in the start of the game, she, weirdly enough, I didn't feel like, oh, this is not as special as I thought because she was 7 million coins. But then the winter wildcard one, I don't know what sauce

[00:15:53] they put on her. She is just incredibly good. So good in game. It's so hard to, it's so hard to stop her. She's so nippy. She can score with both feet and she hits them really hard and she's fast and she's like a better version of Sophia Wilson, which is weird because Sophia Wilson is so good at herself. So yeah, Mia Hamm's incredible in game. It's also very weird that you actually remember to call her Sophia Wilson because in my head, she's still Sophia Smith. So fair play to you because I would have tripped over my own feet there. But Shaq,

[00:16:23] have you got a devil then? Who is your kryptonite when you come to face a certain card? Well, I've just mentioned the two kryptonites, Rodrigo and Rafinha, this team of the Evos, they just cook. Every single time I've come up against them, I don't think I've barely won against anyone using those two cards. Literally, I'm just trying, they give me nightmares. As soon as I see them in the starting lineup, it just feels like, oh, this is going to be a hard slog because they are so good in game, especially if they have a dynamic as well. Oh, cooking me.

[00:16:52] It's all about the dynamic. It used to be the hair treat, now it's just the dynamic. That's right. But moving on Shaq, and some listeners will probably get tilted by this, but this is a bit of a subject that's been grating on me for a little while. So I wanted to take a wee moment just to discuss it. Obviously, we all want very good pack weight and we have been complaining fairly frequently that the pack weight isn't great. We go back a few weeks to team of the year and okay, I got good pack weight

[00:17:22] and I know that, you know, the likes of Engviel probably want to switch off now, but it is what it is. I got, obviously, Salah, James, Wrighton, Henri, Cantona, Carver, like good players. I now am on the other end of the fence where I actually think having good pack weight at the strongest promo is almost ruins my enjoyment for the following weeks and maybe even months. I look at the players coming out now, I'm not that interested.

[00:17:51] Obviously, there's some cards that you'd like to have, but none of them come close to some of the players that you get through team of the year. Same with Evos and I know Evos is a separate subject we're going to discuss, but that kind of led me to think, not just team of the year, people who have, you know, whatever methods and ways of getting almost unlimited coins, like, is it wrong? Well, not is it wrong? Is it against the game's kind of nature and the feel of it? If you have

[00:18:21] too good a squad too early or if you have, obviously, team of the year is the best promo probably until team of the season. If you are unbelievably lucky, like, does that then affect the game going forward? Like, what's your views on that? I do agree with you. I definitely agree with you because, yeah, I completely understand where you're coming from because one of the biggest things that we play this game for is the fact that we're constantly evolving, making our own squads, doing this, tinkering with our squads,

[00:18:51] trying to build, what's the incentive for someone like you to try and do an Evo for a Kobe Mino SPC or some sort of Evo or even an SBC like that that could potentially be interesting. You're just going to do it and not use it because your team is better than where it needs to be. Anywhere, wherever the cards, whatever card you're trying to do will never be as good as what you have in your team. So, it just disintensifies. Doesn't really look lucrative for you to do it. But then, you have content coming through every single day. Just look at it

[00:19:21] and you think, yeah, whatever. And it's, after a certain point, and the biggest problem is, after a certain point, even the team that you're playing day in, day out starts to get stale and boring even though it's really good. But it's the same team that you've been using for a month and a half, two months almost now. And you start to think, I just want to go somewhere from here but there is no next level. And this is the particular reason why I've got a ton of coins sitting in my account and I started going down the route of just trying really,

[00:19:50] really expensive cards. And then, at one point, I just felt like if I just keep trying these good cards, nothing's going to feel good enough. So there's certain times like the honorary card, I can just go buy the honorary card but I just, I'm stopping myself from buying the honorary card because I want to experience different things. I tried Neymar and that, the paid version of Neymar, loved it but just felt weird. And then I went back and I've done this Evo Neymar who's like barely 27k, 30k, whatever it is. And he gives me so much joy because it's just

[00:20:20] a Neymar that I've scratched up myself and I can keep on Evo-ing him gently and making him better. And that's where I feel like Evos are meant, they're meant to be used that way. So yeah, having the top 18 that you have, it's probably, I'll try and bring the smallest violin I have known to man to play a tune for you while I say this. I know it can have an impact on your enjoyment of the game which is a weird thing to say but that's literally why the backwits usually very low in every single promo.

[00:20:50] Yeah, absolutely. And for those listening, this isn't designed to be a flex of good pack weight or good team because I have a joke but I try to stay humble. I'm not overly fussed about saying what players but it is something, it's part of the FOMO that you log on, you do your objectives to try and get packs to get cards but realistically there's not a lot in there. If you've already got certain positions I'm still needing a centre back, I'm probably still needing a deep line

[00:21:20] playmaker but at the same time you're hoping for two positions out of, well you've got 11 on your pitch. It has absolutely stopped me thinking I need to grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, which is probably good because I'll be taking a break in about four weeks for a few months so don't get me wrong and it's been very fortuitous that we're in a position to be annoyed by this and I know certain people will be listening to this going like, no, having the best cards is going to make the best game but it does make the game stale and because

[00:21:50] these cards are so good though, when you go to try to swap them out for other players, it takes a long time to get used to them because these team of the year cards move differently so then you've kind of almost got to readapt your build up play, your play style almost. Again, I'm not wanting sympathy but it absolutely brought to my attention the fact that actually having a solid team is probably more enjoyable, especially if you're like myself that doesn't really get like, I only do champs to dip in and out of rivals you can

[00:22:18] grind anyway but so I'm not sitting there going like I need to have the best team and I need to get, you know, I need to go 15-0 in champs and I need to do this, do that, like it's more just about enjoyment but it's definitely hampered and then it's kind of like the likes of Dan that's going to set up a second account, I'm thinking if I had a little bit more time that would absolutely be what I'd be doing now because this game just kind of feels a bit dull almost because like we're going to say the Evos, I've got certain issues with Evos which we're going to raise, the cards coming out there's so many cheap beasts that

[00:22:48] would be really cool to try but do they replace, you know, cards that have potentially come out in previous promos? unlikely so it did get me thinking and then it's always good to bounce off and you know if people listening want to feed back into this either through the Spotify comments or even through our wonderful Discord that we've got which is free for everyone to check us out on foot and review on the Discord like I'd be interested to hear other people's sort of sides of this because it's prevalent. I think when I first started I was lucky and I had I think that was

[00:23:16] when Mbappe, Neymar, I can't remember who was on their wing but that I think it was about FIFA 20 where these ones were like the golden child if you like you know you had to have these had that and they didn't come out my team for months and you sit there go and even then I was a bit like oh that's a bit dull I'd rather go for something else so yeah it'd be interesting to hear people's views but that that's certainly an issue that I'm I'm experiencing and like I say maybe it's good timing but it's it does make you think have did EA you know I know the team of the A-PAC wait for a lot of people was pretty good was that

[00:23:46] intentional did they drop the bomb and how are they still grasping people to play and you know to entice them in for more I think one of the things that EA has significantly changed the landscape of this game was I don't know if you remember this is just you remember summer heat summer heat promo where we had Ferland Mendy and the Usman Dembele and the Rubelli that was the first time where they actually had a summer promo that really was one notch above team of the season and that that really made people just sit up and

[00:24:16] think oh hang on because prior to that what what used to happen every year people would try and aspire to get the team of the year cards try their best and at the end of the game cycle you'll have the best of the best team that's what you're going for you'll have the Hulet Vieira you'll have like Neymar the team of the season the team of the year Neymar the best versions of each each card like Mbappe Neymar Marcelo Kante you have Cristiano you have all this is this is what you aim for you aim for this and you just make the best squad at the end of the year and that's your you tie your

[00:24:44] your cycle with a bow and that's the team that you use till the end of the cycle and start again and then when summer heat came through suddenly all of a sudden you had these brand new cards I was just making all the team of the year team of the season cards redundant so then it just as soon as you get to a certain level there's another level to go to so towards this the time of silly season it kind of makes sense to go like you know helpful leather with whatever but if you get the cards that you've got in January which is like less than six months less than half the game cycle where you've already achieved where

[00:25:14] you probably should be in maybe April or May you're bound to feel a little bit confused about what the next steps would be yeah absolutely it's going to be interesting to see what you do with the game cycle because I'm sure I'm not the only one you know in that position and like I say by all means no flex it's more that sort of discussion about kind of how EA are then going to engage people more because I'm sure if people kind of feel like I do some people may you know sit back a little bit or miss out a few promos and go

[00:25:44] actually that's not really worth the grain so that that that in my head is quite fascinating you know people's mindsets for that but moving on from that Shaq I know you're quite keen to discuss you know we could actually make this a regular Tuesday feature at the moment but Evos take it away so I think a couple of years ago one of the just before we had Evos we had do you remember the time where we had those cards that were given to us way I think there was a Renato Sanchez there was a Varane if I'm not mistaken that you could

[00:26:12] actually upgrade by the tradable version you use a tradable version for about 30 or 40 games I can't remember how many other games and then you could sell that version and then that was your unique version that you have that you can use for the rest of the game cycle and that kind of felt like oh when they said Evos evolutions are coming next year I think people like me just assume that we will have like an academy where you just start off with a you know a 70 rated or 80 rated card and slowly you build these cards up and gently and suddenly you might get an Evo that can fit your

[00:26:42] evolution that the card that you evolved and you can slowly build on it and right now in our clubs we all have a whole heap of Evos that literally can't get upgraded yet if we have the base version of those cards we can probably get a better version than we have built up right now which in my head defeats the whole point of evolutions in in some way in some shape or form because it you don't really have a connection with the cards that you've actually worked towards

[00:27:11] like for example you look at your your Marcus Rashford or the one that you've done in your club that you have I think we did a download together we did a copy menu together we just stopped evolving them because there's there's there's a 500,000 evolutions that come through that start from the scratch again so you do a whole Evo chain and that copy menu becomes a way better copy menu then you can build through your Evo that you've spent a whole heap of time and effort and trying to make through into the best version of your card and

[00:27:40] I'm trying to beat the system by choosing a particular card like I said with Neymar and I'm only going to choose Evos that don't increase its overall rating but again I'm not that's not going to I will be a little bit annoyed when I miss out on a particular Evo but that's the only thing I have left to do so I'm just not really sure what EA's take on this is I think from their point of view from a business point of view it's probably a good thing because you just want people to restart again and do it again and spend the

[00:28:09] 30,000 coins I spend the 50,000 coins I give them a few extra FP here and there just keep doing it over and over again but it's it starts to lose its shine a little bit yeah absolutely I mean do you think that the chaining Evos you know to begin with we thought oh it's amazing you can get these super chains and that do you think that's actually almost tying their hands a little bit I mean you look at the ones now you can make a 74 rated cards really good and all of a sudden you stick them in one evil when you go from sort

[00:28:37] of 74 75 up to 90 rate straight away like do you think do you think they've thought it through do you think this is do you like you say jink this is a way of them getting extra FP or sorry FC points or coins or do you think this is just you know they weren't really designed to be changed and people have just worked out really quickly and thought actually this is the way to do it like how did we get here I you know what every time I sit down and think about EA and think when they release these evolutions and think do they actually has

[00:29:06] someone sat down and looked at all the combinations that could be done because it's it's almost like you need like a data model to actually do this complex calculations for you for every single player and consider every single evolution that's been done so far that's it's a very common I don't think anyone is sitting there there's no Nathan down sitting there doing QA on this sort of stuff I don't believe so I'm really curious I'm really curious how they actually pump it out because there's certain times where you have a card that just goes

[00:29:35] through these chains like you said goes from 70 70 whatever rated to a 90 rated and then you sit there and think surely they didn't want this to happen and then my biggest worry is there will be a time where you'll have some card that are so that'll probably go to like really high rated because someone somewhere down the line has some card sitting in their club that's got some Evo chain that's just waiting to be that's waiting to be discovered and yeah hell of a freeze I think it was last year's one when they started to do these Evos I'm sure

[00:30:05] people had 99 rated center backs from you know a couple months in there was that random chain all of a sudden gave you a 99 rated card so people had them pretty early on considering where the curve was at I mean my I get you I think it does take away that personal touch and even if you know like I've done about 40 different Rashford's and I've probably done almost the same amount of Kobe Minus and you know Rashford's moved on you know I still like Rashford I think he could still be elite in terms of real

[00:30:35] football his cards could be good they all even with the Evos they're always missing something but I still quite like having that connection to my terrible club right now but it just seems like you don't have that personal touch and even if you go back in and re you hit the nail on the head if you re-Evo the same player it just doesn't do it for me like the very first you know few weeks where we got our you know we all we packed a gold Kobe menu and we were both absolutely buzzing right got Kobe face stats are all right for the start of the game

[00:31:04] Evos are coming we're going to make this guy a beast three weeks later oh I need to go and buy Kobe now for 2k or whatever we was at that time because that one's much better and then you're just a bit like time you kind of get around to it and you know I I evo'd he had a special card out I think that was 88 rated and I've evo'd him up to 90 don't use him like I use them for about three games and like I just don't have that connection at all so I think you're you're completely right and you know the other thing that's really bugging me we've had another evo last night which is for sort of right mid we're getting

[00:31:34] so many of the similar positions where's the goalkeeper evos you said that off you know before we came on there's been no goalkeeper evos apart from the team of the year center backs like you had ones that can put maybe a play style on but you've not really had you know a proper center back evo deep line playmaker for say like you know we had Zidane and Maradona really quickly so we've had two fairly similar cams um even an out and out striker we've not had a proper out and out striker we've had evos for wide men to turn them into

[00:32:03] strikers or whatnot but like in my head evos you should almost be able to pick positions and then just put these stats on them I don't know if that's feasible I don't know if you know yourself Shaq or even anyone else would agree but if they say there's an evo I would like them to say right so you can get x player to get 87 pace you pick that player x player to get you know two of four silver play sales and one play sale plus you can even if they dictate which play sales you can you

[00:32:32] can then pick a player in whatever position that's you know sentimental to you or one that you like and obviously it'll bring out more meta players but I just think there's so many different ways that this game could be done that then feels because you like you've got the likes of John John talking foot who hosts sometimes on a on a Friday and you've got Dan that support you know St. Johnson Redden whoever that would make those players so much more fun is if you could literally just take an evo and take the stats of this evo's given

[00:33:02] you and give it to any player and even for the likes of myself I'm waiting on you know I need to two positions I want to improve I could then look at my squad and go I'm gonna you know fix this onto that that player that can play in the position that I want and suddenly I've got a team that's really fun and I can connect that a little bit more with exactly exactly that that's exactly what we're looking for I think one of the key things that EA needs to do hopefully is exactly as you said or make it more customizable that we can choose what we want to do and don't don't give massive

[00:33:31] upgrades I think one of the biggest things that really annoys me is that you get this this particular evolution that you stick on your player and that takes it from like an 88 or 87 rated or 90 rated but the actual in-game stats are barely even touched that really annoys me like it's not it's not doing anything I'd rather fix the in-games and screw the overall let the overall be exactly the same that's what I want I want to be able to actually make the card feel better not just look not just have a higher rating yeah and then they hamstring

[00:34:01] yourselves by doing that don't you because you put up to 90 rated and at the moment we're kind of getting evils up to 89 and under so then you've kind of done what you thought was right and then all of a sudden you can't move them on so I I think you're right I think even incremental ones so right from the start like you say you get a bronze silver even a you know a low rare low gold card add slowly so it almost upticks with the with the cycle and the you know if the promos kind of got you know suddenly brought in two play styles like we had a

[00:34:30] few months ago cool I can now put that with two play styles right the average promo center back has 83 rated pace cool so I can now add 83 rated to my 76 rated or you know big slab of dairy mcgriah can at least have better pace rather than just having one off evils that give everyone a complete jump and then suddenly can't do anything for another four months because technically this is ahead of the cycle for what EA wants so yeah or the only way that they can

[00:34:59] circumvent this whole thing that they have right now is for example we've started off with the copy for example we start off with the gold copy you and me have upgraded him he's an 84 rated copy that's basically good and then another copy comes through that can make it even better the copy that we've done can be upgraded to that exact same copy as a new evolution but by playing half the games or even 10% of the games or 20% of the games something along those lines it just recognizes that oh hang on this Evo that you're trying to do is a car that can you've already upgraded that can fit in the new Evo so you

[00:35:29] don't have to play the full suite of games because you've already done the hard work of upgrading him before so you still get that and that connection still exists and that you know you can still upgrade your existing car I think this whole concept went stale for me as soon as you told me you got to quick sell this card and then go back and do it I did it and that's when everything just unraveled itself I was like oh this is just weird I'm just quick selling and buying another card off the market and just it's weird yeah absolutely and you know that you can do it with loan players where you can merge your loan so

[00:35:58] why can't you merge cards together you know correct again this code in and I appreciate there's lots behind it so don't get me wrong like it's probably not the best way to do it but I just think that there's ways that could make it a little bit more unique and a little bit more fun and then it you know the even if the stats are similar teams are going to be a bit more diverse because you're going to have your favorite players your favorite clubs or or whatever I think it would make it a little bit more interesting to see how it goes but we

[00:36:27] say this a lot about evos don't we like there's so many ways that we us sitting here think that we can improve it but it'd be interesting to see if there's a if there's any feedback from from them if there's any way they listen to you know people like ourselves that you know we're not calling out for wholesale changes and saying we know everything but it'd be really cool to see if you know they listen to what the community want and again feedback to us as you know this type of ego is this what people want to have is that what

[00:36:56] they want to see or do people think no actually that's just gonna be daft because you'll end up with you know all cards that are 91 rated with the exact same stats and it'll just everyone's game will feel the same so like i say like i'm quite interested to see how people kind of take this on but again i know that you know this is we're a very small sample size till we hear back from everybody true very true going on from that shack i'm just trying to look through at the moment because i haven't really used anyone different but we are looking for our

[00:37:27] player in review thank you thank you wimby shack do you have well to be fair because i know that teams haven't changed so much lately do you have a new player in review or is there somebody that you've used a little bit more that you want to kind of delve into oh i think i have a new player in review and this is this is a review that someone like mystics meg or old bugger from olden times would really love it's matthai stelle i

[00:37:57] packed this guy a couple of times weirdly enough and put him in the squad because i i liked i don't know if you remember there was an objective card that came out a couple of months ago he played for buy and then right midfielder he was when power shot plus was a big thing he was insane in game back then and so i was kind of looking forward to trying this card so i packed him exactly what i was looking for put him in my squad and he's just so much fun he's got like a really good play style he's got

[00:38:27] again the first touch plus and he's got finesse plus left midfielder doesn't have the inside forward plus plus but he does have a plus on the inside forward which is good enough for me he's got four star four star if he gets to a five star five star with a little bit better passing ah he's gonna be a dream card he's just for me he's just missing the five star skills or even a trickster put any of those things on and i think this guy will be a match made in heaven for me he's so much fun i like i like that that he's made me

[00:38:57] appreciate first touch uh play style plus because as soon as you give him the ball it just sticks to him he just glides along with the ball and that's something that i think is really under appreciated yeah no that's a very good one i've seen you raving about him um so that that you know united went for him we pulled out of him because they wanted a ridiculous signing fee so you know i'm still going to stay away can't buy anyway but my one is one i think i'm not sure if either of us have done an actual player in review on him but

[00:39:26] he's still i believe obtainable uh the cam version of diego maradona so my reason for bringing him up is because we've both kind of sat on the fence a little bit we thought he'd be good we weren't sure having used him now for 80 what have i used him for i think it's about 87 play 87 games i've used him now um he has been played 83 games 47 goals 61 assists plays as a cam as a shadow striker and i have to say i've changed my

[00:39:55] tone on him i am a big fan so his stats aren't really stand out ish but it's two play style pluses are what what absolutely makes it finesse plus as a shadow striker gets it to really nice positions although he's only four star weak foot his weak foot's actually not bad get on that left peg it's sweet as anything but that incisive pass for some reason now i am loving incisive pass i've got bambito as my left back uh who has it which is really good at feeding even through the lines uh to the winger or even to the to the cam but the

[00:40:24] amount of opportunities he creates just from like a wee three ball without being a ratty three ball just a a nice little one around the side unreal if you guys are you know if you're still an option for people and they're wondering should i should i not i you know stat wise he's not as good as zidane but he's his feel in game as a cam as a creative you know like want to take on a bit the the goal scoring of the assistant burden i think this this is actually a very very top tier card and you know fair play to ea

[00:40:54] making them accessible for everybody and obviously they've put that higher prices at 500k for the evo or i don't know a thousand uh points or whatever so not everyone's going to do them and i get that and i know there's other chains for it but that precise evo with on the cam for me is absolutely top draw so i i apologize diego armando maradona for any slander i gave you in past you have very comfortably got me into dev one and yeah i'm i'm very happy to say that i was very wrong when i said i wasn't sure about him

[00:41:25] that's incredibly good that that's that's very heartening to know that you know i can go back to my maradona at any point in time in fact i was setting up my team to go back to maradona but then i just evoed neymar and i just thought let me just try him and he was exactly what i wanted so i just have stuck to him but i will go back to maradona at some point to try him out again just to try i will put a warning out that he's one of these players that you do kind of need to use for a few games to learn how he moves and what he does well because to begin with i think i was trying to

[00:41:55] dribble a little bit too more because in my head he could just dribble past anyone but it's his dribbling's very good but he's not somebody that you're going to run 60 yards with and take on 42 players and then turn back and beat them again so once you get used to him very very good i think i suffer i suffer fools with people that have five star skill moves that i expect them to do a lot more things like a neymar would i'm not expecting neymar to do neymar doesn't do magical things but he just glides along with the ball that i'm probably just programmed i have muscle memory to

[00:42:23] know what he does and how he can do and i keep trying the same things with other five star skillers and never comes out the same way so maybe that's why i've underplayed him a little bit but i'll go back to him at some point absolutely no that's great um shaq again another one because mine certainly hasn't changed in weeks i think you've been tying around but we are going to formation focus all right so with my formation i must give you some credit for this because you're the one

[00:42:53] that first tweaked um foot coaching john's four two uh three ones four two three one second variant so the rm lm version you tweaked it a little bit and gave it to me and i played along with it it was good but then it just didn't suit exactly what i was doing and i tweaked it a little bit and i just thought to myself because i was very hell-bent up on having um two c one cdm that is literally holding and the other cdm is like you know this deep line playmaker that's doing all this magical passing and he'll be the fulcrum of the team who

[00:43:23] will do all the magic like you know that's what i had in my head and i just went back to basics i thought you know what i'm using three camps uh three well three attacking players that are really good and i've got mbappe up top let them do the attacking let's just solidify the midfield and let's just chug in um two cdms i can just be like holding but something along those lines where i think my second cdm is doing deep line playmaker but on defend and i just chucked that in so i put uh evo to show many i had a special version of show many

[00:43:53] that i evo who's got bruiser plus and intercept plus now him and kante in the midfield just to mop up everything and i've got these four attacking players are just free that can do whatever they want and it is just clicking i'm absolutely loving the game because i'm just soaking up the pressure with all my six kind of defenders and i've got theo on the left i've got kafu on the right so they're just literally shutting up shop as much as they can and once they release and it's not pace i'm not using pace i'm not

[00:44:22] using pace to get through i'm just bamboozling my my the opposition's defenders with just a little bit of trickery a little bit of movement and then either a tell finish from the left or a bail finish from the right or mbappe from the middle or name off in the middle it's just been fun it's been really good fun absolutely i mean i i am a big advocate again i never used that formation until this iteration i was always the three cam one but i've kind of done much to self much like yourself um i have um i've still got one on

[00:44:51] holding and one on deep line playmaker but instead i did have xavi alonso who was very good but there was just something a little bit lacking out of possession for him um so i've got cante and sysido so sysido's my deep line playmaker because his his passing although he doesn't have plus traits on his passing his passing is still in the 90s um and he's very effective but but the way they cover the ground is just tremendous so i've kind of gone that route um i think i still have him on support i think i can't remember off the top of my head but it's much

[00:45:21] the same idea that when i'm out of possession i've got these two little like fuzzy bees just buzzing around and mopping things up and sticking a foot in and making it a lot harder to get through so i i love that formation um anybody listening if they want uh john's uh foot coaching's tactic join uh patreon patreon. uh support slash foot and review join our discord which is free for everybody and just hit us up because you know the good thing we always say it well how one person plays isn't how you're

[00:45:51] going to necessarily play so much like you've done shack we've kind of john's had his basis although john's very very patient you know you watch john and you can tell that he's got that professional mind in him where he's he doesn't lose possession he doesn't shoot really unless it's you know a 90 percentile plus chance i like to spam a little bit more shots to get either the rebounds or the um the finesses which is which is fine um but it's all about tweaking it to how how you know the game suits you so i'm i'm very proud of that formation i'm not going

[00:46:20] to lie i think that the little tweaks for average joe um you're not that you're average obviously shack but you know what i mean for yeah people that aren't that sort of professional like pro level minded i think you know i like to do i always pray to even any attacks i've released through you know our discord and that i'm i try and do it for the the majority of the users or somebody that only holds on the ball because i don't really enjoy just playing pass pass pass pass i like it to be a little you know not quite just hold down the sprint but i like it to be that kind of in between where you can

[00:46:49] hold position the options but then you can also just go helpful either too so anybody interested hit us up um shack is there anything else that you would like to raise before we uh i was going to say set off into a sunset but i think it's probably blowing into this wind and and hurricane that you've got and everything else going i just oh considering i have a cyclone coming i have a confession to make which i might as well make in on on the show um so off late i've just changed my kit uh it's about five days from now and every time i

[00:47:19] use it it brings me back the nostalgic vibes of of using this kit for year on year before i met anyone in foot and review but i still feel bad so please absolve me from the issue and just grandpa mac yourself speak my child speak my child i'm just hoping for i'm just hoping that you guys are okay with it so the kit i'm using right now in game which i'm loving and it's probably it's just brought back a lot of fun memories

[00:47:49] it's a glass region kit that's my concern but it's not blue oh are you a hoop are you have you turned into the hoop i have no connection with the team i love the kit to be fair i'm i've changed mine too um but people in either scotland or england are going to hate me because my home kit is england and my weekend is scotland so um yeah i i do feel your pain obviously i had to have a

[00:48:17] connection um home kits england not particularly because i like it more but when when we come to football i'm english because i think i've got a hell of a lot better chance of england winning something and scotland winning something because you know scotland do pretty well but they're also not near the same level as you know competing so that's why i still want a little bit of connection but i feel you like that there is a little bit in your mind isn't there where you're like oh and then i see a liverpool kit against like i have to stop playing against that's why i now set my second get

[00:48:46] because liverpool ones tilted me either i just want to back them off the patch or i just wouldn't want to lose them so it just did bad bad things to me um and to be fair you know we've got some wonderful uh glaswegian team supporters in our discord but sometimes you play a certain team from glasgow and i'm not going to say which one but for some reason they're there no i'm not even saying them i'm just going to say there's a certain people that have one of the glasgow clubs crest and kets that for some reason they just tilt me like the way they

[00:49:16] play usually tells me i'd probably say seven out of ten times i'm just like i don't like this person with this badge so again i'll i'll leave that to the imagination but it tells me the way that they they conduct themselves in the game just saying mine is green and white that's all i'm saying that's all i'm talking there oh i will be sending your address out to grandpapa mac and and to adam in the discord and i'm sure that's soon enough yep for adam who is one of our probably top top players that we've got in the discord he is

[00:49:46] now going to be getting a voodoo doll of shack attack and he's going to be stabbing it i'm sure you know what my biggest concern for the past five days has been what if i pack someone and then i just put it on the discord without thinking and then suddenly so i'm just putting it out there i'm really enjoying myself i've got no affiliation it just looks nice i just like the way it looks that's it that's it as as simple as that uh yeah but he's also changed his name to boys with the bh oys for the celtic thing so yeah he's he's also got his flag is

[00:50:14] everything is what are they green and white flags and everything and yeah he's now he's actually turned into a diehard uh celtic fan but with that being said shack before we get ourselves into a bit of bother with our discord and any listeners um just a quick one stay safe shack you know we'll all be you know thinking of you and hoping everything's all right um i'm sure you know i'll be catching up with you on the on the on the whatsapps but make sure that you and the fam are all

[00:50:41] good um anyone listening i'm sure john is well john is back on friday not 100% sure who's in i think ingvey's made his return so ingvey will probably be in with a shout and um possibly one other uh co-host so that'll be something to tune into um before we do go shack have a wonderful week and one thing left to do drop it we are going to drop it drop it you

[00:51:10] you you you you