668: All You Can Eat in FUT Birthday

[00:00:01] Hello Footies and welcome back to FUT IN REVIEW episode 61068. My name is Jon and in the first, no first time in forever actually, we only do in one show this week. It is Friday night. And if you're wondering why we missed episode 668 on a Tuesday, that is because Jack was fighting Cyclones.

[00:00:30] Nathan was fighting his personal life. I was fighting my dentist. So yeah, there pretty much wasn't anyone around to do a proper recording, but we're back and I am not alone on this second week of FUT birthday. I am celebrating, of course, with my dear friend from Norway, the co-founder of FUT IN REVIEW. It's non-altern, the mid-legend Norwegian Indiana Jones. And if I have any more nicknames, we don't have any time left tonight. It is non-altern than Ingvi. Hello, Ingvi. Hello, hello, hello, Jon. How are you?

[00:01:00] Cool. Better. Good to hear. Yeah, like if I would record on Tuesday, you would see one big jaw. Now it's just a good jawline. Anyways, we're talking about good jawlines. He is joining us tonight as well. It is the other legend, the voice of FUT, it's why you call him. It's non-altern, Daniel Wimbush. Hey, Dan. Jon, Ingvi. Hello. Good to be back on the show.

[00:01:27] Hey. It's good to have you, my friend. It's been a while. How are you doing? I'm good, thank you. I've downgraded from my last appearance on this show. My newfound webcam was sent straight back after autofocus mayhem. But other than that, I've been through the ups and downs of FC life, went on a ridiculous downswing, and they've now gone back on an upswing. So what kind of mood I'll be in for today's show, I'm not fully sure, but loads and loads to get into. So I'm looking forward to it.

[00:01:56] Yeah, let's start with that downswing, though. What happened there and what made you jump back? I don't know. I was going through a really nice phase of getting 10-11 wins in weekend league, sitting nicely in Division 2, Division 1 on rivals. And then all of a sudden, for the next couple of weekend leagues, I was getting eight wins. I was struggling in rivals. I don't know what happened. The only thing I can suggest is that I put a couple of Evo players into my team.

[00:02:25] And Evo players do tend to have fake stats. And whether that just led to me second-guessing, shooting and defending and stuff like that, I don't know. Or it could have just been an honestly bad run where, you know, we've all been in those weekend leagues where actually you just get bad matchmaking. You just run into some really good opponents and those, you know, those 50-50s don't go your way. And unfortunately, this game has a really bad habit of getting into your brain, getting into your psyche and making you second-guess everything.

[00:02:53] Which is why you need the fantastic services of someone like Foot Coaching to be able to sit you down and actually look through your footage and go, well, here's actually what's happening. Here's what you're doing well. Here's what we can work on to get better. And me being the stubborn person I am does not take up the option that John frequently throws at me saying, let me have a look at your games. Let me have a look at your games. So that's on me.

[00:03:21] But I have written about the upswing and I think it's, I'm basically putting it down to Cristiano Ronaldo because that card is just broken. And suddenly shooting is not an issue now. I just, I shoot, it goes in, I don't have any problems and I'm back. So I got nine wins last week and I'm hoping to try and crack 10, but enough of me because there's bundles from Foot Birthday number two. So we should, we should get going into that.

[00:03:46] Yeah. 37 plus players. But before we talk Foot Birthday, there's been also a major upheaval this week in the world of foot. We got a new patch or pitch notes, I should say. I don't even know if it was a new patch actually. And normally when it's March, we get, well, like you said, Foot Birthday, a couple of new players, some new fun cards. Pretty cool as we see. They not only went all out with content, but Yngwie then went all out on gameplay as well. What happened?

[00:04:17] Well, I don't know if it was all out, but we got a new playstyle and playstyle plus. No driven. So I guess people have maybe fond or not so fond memories from a previous version of the game where those were really overpowered. So we'll see how that pans out when we get our hands on the new cards with those playstyle pluses, which I haven't done yet.

[00:04:45] So I don't know how they work. Daniel, your favorite of them putting new playstyles in the game halfway through? It's almost like we've had this discussion before we went on air, John. It's like you know what I'm going to say. Look, my initial reaction, I posted this on our Discord, which you can join absolutely free. The link is in every episode. And remember, if you want to go the extra mile, patreon.com forward slash foot in review. Follow us on socials as well at foot in review. When do I get my £10 for saying that, John?

[00:05:15] Is that in my account now? Yeah, I trust that you would say that. So it's already transferred before the show. But yes, so I posted in the Discord. I wasn't such a fan of them adding in a playstyle midway through the game just because we've been building Evos. More for people like me that have been building our Evos out throughout the year. We've committed to them being to a certain level. And now suddenly they're adding another tool set in there.

[00:05:44] It just sat a little bit badly with it. Of course, all the other cards as well that we've been packing and things as well. So it's almost like I'm never a fan when EA basically draws a big line in the sand and cuts off a whole group of other players. Now look, maybe there's going to be Evolutions coming in the next few days. I would presume there will be, in which case it kind of mitigates a lot of it. But I kind of just wish maybe they just waited to add this into FC26.

[00:06:14] But I don't feel super strongly. I'm not uninstalling the game or sending angry emails to Vancouver. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah. Look, if someone starts scoring a hell of a load of low drivens against me in the next few days with Jovino, with Barbo and Dumbia, maybe I'll change my tact on that. But no, I didn't love it. I just prefer them to do things a bit more cleanly and bring it in maybe at the start of the next game.

[00:06:43] Yngwie, your thoughts on them adding new play styles so far in the game? Well, I'm a little bit indifferent, I guess. I haven't noticed anything in the games I've played after the patch. But I really think that we'll know it now since this team kind of have quite a lot of players getting their play style. We'll see how it's working, if it's broken or overpowered or whatever.

[00:07:13] So I'm not against it, but I'm a little bit skeptical of how it's going to work because I've seen some strange stuff in gameplay this week. So we'll see. I'm a fan. I just normally they abandon the game on gameplay whilst during this phase of the year. Them having so many changes lately and applying a new play style.

[00:07:40] I've also seen very much for a lot of negative people saying they wanted to get this in the game at the start. They should have got it into the start. But I just like them keep developing this game. They could have waited for FC26, right, for this as well. And it would probably be good marketing thing. So them providing it in the game, I think it's just cool. It's good. I don't see any bad intent in there.

[00:08:10] I'm hopeful. I'm positive that they're looking at feedback. And all the page notes kept saying, we've heard your feedback. We didn't change anything else in this game. Yeah, I can only applaud this, honestly. And getting that in at the start of a new season is also perfect timing and not wait for the, like not halfway through the other season. So it's also well timed, I think, as well. Well, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on whether you're an investor, their share price has gone back up, John.

[00:08:38] So the cynic in me says that our days of getting crowd-pleasing content will probably be short-lived because I think the share price is now back up to pretty much where it was. They're from Canada, right? Yeah. Yeah, might change later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, all jokes aside, I very much agree. I do like the fact they are consistently still working on this game into March. And look, whilst I prefer, I said I prefer that kind of clean slate,

[00:09:07] it is good if they can kind of get the kinks out of the way and kind of measure how this playstyle is going to work before we get into the start of the next cycle. So again, especially because they seem to have done away with open demos and things like that now. So yeah, look. It's better than testing it on 99 rated players. Exactly, exactly. Oh, good. Oh, good. The other things that I mentioned into the patch was, of course, some new icons and heroes.

[00:09:35] And yes, we'll talk about this here shortly, or I don't know if we should, but that's more of my preference. There has been updates in clubs, new facilities as well, new double coin events. If you're not only in food, I think there's some big changes actually. And if you're in seasons or regular teams, they added the classical 11, where you can play with a, well, a literally cold squad, I think, which is fun. But they should ban that for tournaments, I think, already.

[00:10:05] But maybe. And I think they have deleted the fact you can see goalkeepers running around at your pre-max. Oh, no, they don't. But I've seen it every match today, so. I got a message saying that. Kik Casillas is mingling with the fans before every match I play, so he just loves the fans at least. Well, I saw Kutuwa mingling with the fans yesterday as well, but it was a different kind of mingling. No, English has got really good club merchandise sales.

[00:10:34] So he's getting loads of people buying full goalkeeper kits. Yeah. Exactly. That could be, of course. Maybe there's a sale on the goalkeeper kit. I will say as well, just, you know, I know we don't really play the mode very much, but I do love the full Classic 11. It brings me back to the original FIFA International Soccer, where that was the best team you could pick, even though it was full of fake players like H van Schmeiter. Demon. H van Schmeiter, yeah.

[00:11:04] He was a demon in that original FIFA International Soccer. Demon. Bring him back. Forget Jovino, Barbo and Dumbia. Give me H van Schmeiter and Jay Tayano from the original FIFA, please. Yes. The only thing I want to say about Classic 11, it is not allowed to play that on the tournament we all were having in Creed, though. There's no way we'll be allowing that. Yngwie. Yeah.

[00:11:31] We have had 37-something players last week, a lot of SBCs and so much content. I can't even catch up with it. Is Food Birthday week two much different or is it far less content than before? It's similar. Yeah. Yeah. We got an objective player. Espino, that's a left back playing for Rayo Vallecano in La Liga.

[00:12:02] It's just solid card from playing matches, squad battles, rivals, champs, whatever. With two players from La Liga and you need to score some goals and assists, but it's not much. So for a free 88-32 card, it's nice. He will fit Evolutions, I'm pretty sure. Everything will fit in Evolutions. Yeah, most of which is cool. I don't think it'll go into any first 11s at the moment, but 82 Composite is not ideal.

[00:12:34] It's not bad. It's not bad for a free card. We got some SBCs. We got a huge upgrade on a very cup popular player that we all, I think, that played in those cups. Trying to get Mike on and the other stuff. We faced an 84-rated Adeyemi, the place for Dortmund.

[00:13:00] He now got an SBC and suddenly the rating jumped up to 93, which I think is really strange that it jumped from 84 to 93 for some reason. It's not performance-based. Card looks... He has the new playstyle, LoL Turban+, but it's 586,000 coins to do the SBC. Left winger. 99 pace. Left mid, right mid, striker.

[00:13:29] He also has Quickstep+, normal finesse, rapid flare, acrobatic and aerial. He has knighted composure, that's nice. He has 88 attacking position and finishing, so maybe not the ideal striker, but it's going to be a fun card. Pretty good left winger, though. Very fast, at least. Well, he's not only fast.

[00:13:56] He's got 90 composure and 88 finishing on the left wing card that is extremely fast. And 5-star, 5-star. If he told me this card came out three weeks ago, I'd say that'd be nuts. But the winger++, he has Inside Forward Plus on left wing, so it all depends on your playstyle. I know the Inside Forward++ is really popular, but this card doesn't have it. So I think it's too much for this card. Almost 600,000 coins.

[00:14:26] Daniel? What do you think? It's all right. I mean, it just kind of fits into that mid-gap between don't bother and, oh, that's a really nice meta card. I think it's just, again, if you are running a Bundesliga team, if you've got an affinity for him, the thing about this card, and I was, again, talking off-air about one of the cards in the promo team, EA are just having this really weird phase of not giving players that many playstyles.

[00:14:56] They just seem to be really dialing back on the number of, if you want to call them, silver playstyles this card has. And that's what concerns me about this card, you know, considering he's only got five of them, and one of them is Flare, which is amongst the most pointless going. Yeah, I mean... His hair's got Flare, though. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, hair trait. So, I mean, it's good.

[00:15:18] I think the analogy I used for this promo, and this card fits very nicely into it, I said to John that this whole promo reminds me of one of those all-you-can-eat restaurants, you know, that have a bit of everything. It's like, oh, there's pizza over there, and there's Chinese food over there, there's an Indian buffet over there, there's a steak counter, there's sushi. You know, it's great, and immediately when you go in, you're, like, really excited because there's bits of everything.

[00:15:42] And then when you eat it, it's like, oh, it's, you know, it's nice, but I probably would have had better sushi if I'd gone to a dedicated sushi restaurant. I would have had better pizza if I'd have gone to a dedicated pizza restaurant. And a lot of these cards kind of fit into that category, where they're nice, and they're going to do a job. But I compare this card to Bale that came out a couple of months ago, and I'm still rather taking Bale.

[00:16:10] And numerous other cards you've been able to Evo, I'm probably still taking over Eddie Amy. So, look, it's a nice price point. And with the fodder you've got basically thrown at you everywhere, it's not exactly going to take too much to do it. But I find it very hard to get excited about a card like that. But then, credit to EA, because they have thrown the really big boys at us as well, in terms of, you know, there is a Cristiano Ronaldo SBC to be getting on with. We'll come on and talk to it in a minute.

[00:16:38] There's a Yaya Torre SBC out there. So, look, if I was starting a new-ish account, I said that maybe that is a card I'd be more excited about. But for now, as someone that did have the power to go out and do Bale and was able to get cards like Team of the Year, Lauren James, doesn't do a lot for me.

[00:16:58] But I can also let me also mention, if you look in just a short trip into the main team as well, there's another Bundesliga left midfielder, left winger. Antonio Nusa, he's 88 rated. His in-game stats are total stats are 496. Adiemi is 500. Total in-game stats on Nusa is 2,383.

[00:17:27] And on Adiemi, it's 2,380. And Nusa, he is 17,000 coins at the moment. I'll actually put him on screen because I do think that's a good comparison, though. So, normally, the difference between these cards is the 5 to 5 star or not. But, of course, he has 5 stars. 5 stars, yeah. And he's got finesse and relentless.

[00:17:50] He doesn't have the new PlayStyle Plus, but I've done an evolution of that, the normal Silver Nusa. And he's up to 90 now. He is very, very, very good in-game. It might be a little bit Norwegian bias, you know.

[00:18:12] Maybe, but if you look at the stats and the prices, I don't think Adiemi should be like almost 600,000 coins more expensive. And the other comparison I've got is Daniel Marlin. Again, if you go and look at that Foot Fantasy card, yes, that's only 5 star, 4 star. But, you know, I talk about the Silver PlayStyles, and that's got 8 compared to, you know, 4 from, or 5, sorry, from Adiemi.

[00:18:42] And also, Marlin's got 2 PlayStyle Pluses as opposed to 1 as well. So, I'd much rather go and get that Marlin card. True. True. Although, 5 star, 5 star, I think, beats 5 star, 4 star every day of the week. It's a big dip. Maybe if you cultured people that can actually pull off skill moves, but for us industrial, terrible, bog-standard players that struggle to move our right stick anywhere.

[00:19:08] Well, don't get off your high horse there, mate, because you're not even visiting all-you-can-eat restaurants anymore. You're just going to the fancy sushi places. Yeah, absolutely. With my Gareth Bale card. Me and Gareth going to the fancy sushi restaurant. Playing golf afterwards. Watching Adiemi eating in the food court. I can actually see that happening. It's going to be a weird episode. Gareth, I am available, by the way.

[00:19:37] For golf? Or a sushi? I think, to be fair, I'm not the biggest sushi fan. So, I'll go to a nice Italian with Gareth. I can drive him in the golf buggy, because I cannot hit a golf ball to save my life. How British of you. How British of you. No sushi for me. No sushi for me. It's not beige enough for me. I do have to agree, though. Okay, we'll put Adiemi in the... Actually, don't do it. Get Corey, I think.

[00:20:07] Yeah, I would skip. As Dan said, we got the Yaya Tori SPC. For 2.5 million coins. He's definitely in at the expensive sushi restaurant, is Yaya. Yeah, he is. He owns a restaurant. It's a Michelin one, I guess. I think it's a very good card. But I think it's very expensive.

[00:20:38] He's got 6 silver and 2 plus playstyles. So, I think that's a little bit... Could there be more? I think, for that price. With one of them being Flair as well, again. Yeah. Also, yeah. So, that's a little bit... There are some good ones. I like the Bruiser if you're going to play MCDM, but that's the only defensive playstyle he has.

[00:21:05] With defensive awareness 85 and interception 85. So, I don't know if... He's probably going to be good, but for that price, it's a little bit... He's probably better further off the pitch with ping pass plus normal finesse, incisive pass, power shot, Trivela. So, but I still... The card is lacking the premium stats and playstyles for me, at least, for that price.

[00:21:35] For 2.5 million, that's too much for me. I would rather use the Marchisio card. I mean, this card is probably a monster, right? But I do think having a card 92.3 rated CDM with 85 defensive awareness, 85 interceptions, it feels a little bit meh, maybe? Does that make sense there? For that price, yeah. It's too much.

[00:22:04] If it was 1.5, then it's not too bad. Yeah, but still, I got like the contact card, the petite card that came out two weeks ago, or last week? I don't know, last week, I think. Yeah. Petite card last week, yeah. I feel like better defense midfielders. But again, I think what's disappointing about the cards in here, you talk about the play styles and things like that. It's like, he's not...

[00:22:27] It's not that big of a boost on the 90 rated card that is going to cost you 420k at the moment. And I know it's cliche and we've already joked about it, but 90s are coming into Evo range pretty soon, I would imagine within the next three or four weeks. And if you picked up that 90 rated Winter Wildcard Yaya Toure card, I imagine you will be able to get him to a similar level, if not bigger and better than the 93 rated.

[00:22:55] So that would be my kind of advice. If you are on the fence about this one, I would... And you've got maybe, say, a million coins and you're not doing a lot with it. Go out and invest in that 90 rated card and just sit on it for a couple of weeks. Because as I said, when an Evo comes out, that will skyrocket. And an Evo as well will give him more than... Again, the 90 rated Winter Wildcard has got five... The same five play style silvers. So that would be my advice.

[00:23:25] But yeah, I agree with both of you. It's disappointing and underwhelming. But I guess EA don't... If Evo was much better than this, it's almost like you're done for the game, aren't you? You know, if he had... Because if he had to anticipate and intercept, especially in those defensive play styles, you'd be like, well, that's it. That's my CDM done. He did went out with Aldo and Aldo last week, which makes you forward position being done.

[00:23:52] Yeah, but Ronaldo, whilst I love him, I think he's brilliant, he is still missing a couple of little things that the pace isn't absolutely top notch. And as we get into team of the season and stuff like that, that's when the cracks will start to show. And I'm not talking massive cracks, I'm talking small cracks. But this Torre card, with the face stats and everything on it, I said if it had much more better... If I'd anticipate and intercept,

[00:24:22] it would almost be too good. So I kind of slightly see where EA are coming from, but that doesn't mean to say that, I think, do it. As I said, go buy the 90 and wait. Fair enough. Fair enough, I think. And if you disagree with us, that's perfectly fine. Just don't drop it in any of our comments, of course, on the show, or follow us on our socials. I think we're on... X, Instagram, Blue Sky, just at Food and Review everywhere.

[00:24:52] So just let us know and we'll take those points into the next show. Even better. And I'll try to read them out if I don't forget. But if you just sent a lot, I will definitely get notified about that. Leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's totally free and it helps us a lot and it's just fun to read. John also accepts carrier pigeons as well and owls. I'm not in a position to go to those fancy restaurants you go.

[00:25:21] I'll take everything, actually. Talk about that, though. I got a little intermission going on, Daniel. I know Yngwie really wants to talk about the themes, but I really want to talk about a certain event that's upcoming. And it's the last time I'm going to mention it on this show before the actual event actually starts. So in May, we are going to quit. Everyone knows that by now, right? And if you're Patreon, you can join us. We won't pay for your flights, but we'll pay for your stay. And you can bring your partner. That's perfectly fine.

[00:25:52] And of course, we'll pay for your breakfast. And there's lots of things we're going to do there, including some tournaments. But every single year we go there, we introduce a special edition, limited edition jersey. A food and review jersey, of course. And I've got the new jersey in my hands here, so I'm going to review it live, sort of live on stream. But Daniel, since it's also an audio, I can't really review it and not say anything. So you've got to say, describe what you've seen about this shirt. Well, I'll show it

[00:26:21] and then secretly try to wear it during the dressings show, shall we? Oh, okay. Yeah, go for it. I'm going to look forward to this, though. Of course, made possible by a friend from Manatee, should tell you that. But here you go. I'll dive a little back so you can do your thing. John is holding up an exquisite football shirt representing the foot and review. Tripped Crete, designed by 17 artisans.

[00:26:49] It's got a lovely blue stripe down the middle. Largely white. It's got black sleeves, adorned with patches, representing foot and review. Fitting for the catwalks of Milan, Paris, London. High class fashion here from the gaffer. He places the shirt upon himself, returns his headphones and returns to the microphone. And immediately I am blinded by the beauty

[00:27:18] and splendor of the shirt. With the logo on the sleeve, eh? Majestic. And with that, I hand it back to the chief. This has been your fashion report for fashion in review. Well done, Daniel. We didn't actually practice this. In all seriousness, though, if you join the event, there will be a list on the Discord, which of course is free to join. And if you're joining, we'll put your name on there and we'll get you the details

[00:27:48] for the shirt, how you can get it and put your name on it because that I haven't actually showed, but there's also a name on it. But it's really weird to show my back selling on the podcast. I'm not going to do that, Daniel. Besides, you're going to make fun of what's on the back. So if you call me... Definitely don't show your backside on a podcast, John. Don't show your backside on a podcast. This is not that kind of podcast. We'll definitely have to put the adult content banner on that. No, that's not what I do for money, though. Only fans forward slash foot in review.

[00:28:19] Who knows? Maybe they sponsor us. Yngwie, content-wise, though. Yeah. How do you want to go into the teams? Well, teams, I don't know. The icons and heroes, they got a few extra players. It's not a team per se, I guess. There's the team too, which is the main team. Yeah, but it's a team for how many players are there? 30? 20-something?

[00:28:49] There's a lot. We can talk about the heroes first. Maybe? Sure, they're not on a separate tab for me, so I'll just freestyle it while you say something, I think. Yeah, we got four packs that we know of, plus the three, which the fearsome trio is also in packs as well. the Roma legends, Ibarbo,

[00:29:21] Gervinho, and Dumbia. So they're in packs as well, 93 rated, and yeah, at least they're expensive for now. I hope they stay that because me too. Been there, done that. Yeah, I don't want to face those three in one match at the same time, I think. We also got a Riccardo Carvalho. we got his 91 rated, 92 rated Sydney Gugu.

[00:29:50] We got a 92 rated Smolarek, legend in the Eredivisie, but his card is based on Bundesliga, I see. Yes. And a Snyder, Wesley Snyder card as well. And I like the look of that Smolarek card, to be honest. I think most of them look great, but Snyder and Smolarek really stand out for me. I'll toss Smolarek

[00:30:20] on screen, but 450,000 coins. It's an absolute bargain. He is an absolute menace, and that was when he had a three-star weak foot. Now he's a 5'5". Yeah. And he has the new playstyle. It doesn't show on the screen because it looks like he has one playstyle plus, but he has two. And the second one is the low-driven plus, the new playstyle plus. So that Smolarek card looks like a proper menace.

[00:30:51] Some really nice stats. Could, of course, have had a few more playstyles. He doesn't have finesse. That's the only thing lacking, I think, from that card. He has first touch, power shot, trickster, quickstep, and trivela. So they're good, but I kind of wish he had the finesse, but I think he was more known for the power shot, so fair enough. Press proven plus as well. 92 composure. It's been lightmer facing his other,

[00:31:21] just the base card, so I can imagine that this one is going to be a handful for most defenders. 90 strength as well and aggression. Yeah, nothing wrong with this card. Last week we spoke about Von Basta getting a card. It was around 350,000 when we spoke, Invi? Yeah. And Daniel says, I'm surprised you didn't get Von Basta yet. I'm like, yeah, but I don't have 350,000 coins laying around. I'm just broke.

[00:32:04] I with amazing speed, amazing shooting stats, amazing play styles, and an composure. Team of the year has to be insanely good and insanely cheap because I don't know how it would compete. Yeah, that's probably the difference though. But yeah, it's a great card. I think he'll be good for quite a

[00:32:40] incisive pass plus and ticky tuck up plus and seven more silver play styles I think. All of these heroes are good. I mean, Sydney Govu for 550k again, five star, five star, great pace, great shooting. Yeah, I don't love the fact that second play style plus is trickster, but again, fantastic card. Neem Ricardo Cavalio at 146k. I know perhaps League of Portugal's not going to do too much for your chemistry, but again, a fantastic card, 94

[00:33:10] defending. But he will boost the chemistry for Ronaldo. Yeah, absolutely. Even though they're not similar, but it's going to help, of course. And if you have Cancelo as well, then you're onto a good start. Yeah, and he's got anticipate plus and base intercept block jockey and slide tackle. So he's great and he can pass out from the back as well. He's got incisive pass there as well. So again, a very underrated card. I think that Ricciardo Cavalio, I think people

[00:33:39] will just be looking at the 85 pace and thinking, okay, well, he's a little bit off the pace, especially with 83 acceleration. But if you are someone that plays a bit of a deeper line and you haven't given in to the 95 depth meta, then I there are one card that I would love to have. Beckham Bauer. Oh, wait, he's not tied.

[00:34:09] No, he's not. I don't think Beckham Bauer is released yet, is he? No, next week. Right, Daniel? Yeah, next Friday. Next Friday. The Dildar Grish card looks fantastic, but of course that's 4.6 million, so and Pichon, super cheap, both of them. Lineker is 163,000 coins,

[00:34:39] and he has the low driven plus, so if you want to test that play style out, I think Gary Lineker is a very cheap way to go, if you want to trickster, which is not that necessary, but of course relentless, double five star,

[00:35:09] 95 attacking position, 96 finishing, 90 shot power, he got 90 composure as well, 95 reactions, which is excellent to have for a striker, he has poacher plus plus, false nine plus plus, advanced forward plus plus, and target forward plus, so I think that's kind of very good value for a striker.

[00:35:40] Yeah, yeah, it's like the same with Van Baste, like these cards are insane, I still think this is one of the best promo we've had, maybe ever, put it out there. All of these cards, whether it's Lineker, like you say, whether it's Lineker, whether it's Van Basten, and going back to Marlon and stuff, all of them are very, very good. All of these cards are 8.59 out of 10 cards. The problem comes with how many 10 out of 10 cards people already have, and as I say,

[00:36:10] if you're comparing Lineker to Cristiano Ronaldo, whatever it is, whether it's body type, the weird mix that goes on with play styles, whatever goes into the soup, Ronaldo is just better, and whereas Lineker will bury 8 out of 10 chances, Ronaldo is going to bury 9 out of 10 chances, and those are the very razor-thin margins, and people are looking for that extra tiny little, any percent they can get, and that is why Cristiano Ronaldo is going to cost you 2.5 million coins worth of

[00:36:40] fodder, and Gary Lineker is, you know, a couple of, and Van Basta are a couple of 100k each because people are desperately, it's so easy now to get a player of that quality, of Lineker's quality, and then everybody is then searching for the next step up, and that is why EA continues to rake in millions and millions and millions in pack sales because as Yngwie was saying with Dalgleish, the only way you're going to get Dalgleish, who is that next step

[00:37:10] up from Lineker, is more than likely through a store pack, and that's it, but as you've said regularly, John, the difference between someone that scores 8 out of 10 chances and 9 out of 10 chances, is that really going to make a huge difference to your weekend league or your rivals? Probably not. Maybe it's that extra win, but it's like, as my other game, I play a lot of Diablo

[00:37:39] where you get the up and once you're in the highest difficulty, all the way up, you start to look into very marginal stat differences, but you have to be playing like 200 hours a season to get there, and then it's like, oh, I got 0.75% more damage on this stat, etc., and like, look at me, I'm so happy. I, for one, will be always just below that level, and Diablo and in FIFA, I think, right?

[00:38:09] I'm not performing for those, big tournament wins, and then the next best thing which everyone could get, and, or still that one elite player I've got in my team, is actually plenty for me not to actually miss, feel FOMO for those top tier cards, and I think this is the first proper year where if you don't spend any money on the game, there's plenty to get in your team, but really good players that were

[00:38:39] never affordable before. Yeah, and look, if you're someone that plays this game on a more casual basis, if you are, and I mean this with absolute zero disrespect, if you're someone that is regularly in Division 4, Division 5, plays the occasional weekend league, pops into cups and things like that, again, someone like this Gary Lineker card is going to be fantastic and will do everything, basically everything you need from him. It's only when, as John says, you get into those upper divisions, 2-1 elite,

[00:39:09] and you're looking to get past that 10-win barrier where you really need, yeah, that one chance that Ronaldo will score that Lineker won't might just be the difference maker, but yeah, otherwise, it's great, there are such fun. The gap has shrunk a lot down now, even from when I first started playing in FIFA 20. There was that big, big gap between the very best cards and then the next tier down that you could afford. Both of you two who played this game longer than I do

[00:39:38] will know that at this time of the year, going back to FIFA 18-17 before, people were still using gold cards at this stage of the game. And look how far we've come now where we're sitting there talking about a five-star, five-star Gary Lineker not perhaps being the very best in the game. Last year around this time we were all running Wout Weghorst. Yeah, W9. So yeah, I mean,

[00:40:08] that's a big difference, right? Or maybe it was actually the year before, but there were times where a five-star, four-star was the card to have in your team in April. So yeah, flashback slot on font memories. No, not really, but still, that was, that's where I love the card. That was awesome. So yeah. But like, look at me, like I could probably, normally I'd be very meta with my game,

[00:40:38] with my team, Daniel, for example, right? Now I'm using Robert from Persie, Icon, I'm using from Boss to Icon, using Pirlo, Zidane. These are all terrific cards, but maybe not meta or end game, or how do you want to call them? But I so enjoy using those cards and I can still just, I can play along with the league now as well still, and maybe won't win a tournament or something like that, but it won't matter that much. And that's the reason why I've got Tyler

[00:41:08] Binden in my team, why Lewis Wing is in my team, and why Kelvin Elie Betterman is fighting out with Cristiano Ronaldo for time in my line-up, because I think, again, we can all get caught up in trying to find that extra 1% and maybe ignoring the fun players and the new season. We've got so much to talk about, we can't even get into that, but EA continuing the nostalgia, not just this Roma trio that's been out tonight that we keep mentioning. Look at the players throughout

[00:41:38] the season ladder, you've got the likes of Kim Pembe, Renato Sanchez, Kessi's got a card, hasn't he, as well? So, sometimes, yeah, sometimes I would encourage people to sacrifice that 1% to go and use different players, players they enjoy, like that smaller card, whether it's Van Basten and like you're doing, John, and I know Yngwie does with some Liverpool Evos as well. you don't always have to be chasing unless you are literally playing just for wins, which is again,

[00:42:07] fair enough, but otherwise, yeah, maybe take a little step back and say, okay, you know, this card might not be as great, but there's a personal attachment and I love seeing their little card pop up when it scores a goal. So, true. Anything else you want to highlight content-wise Yngwie or do you want to let Daniel talk about the season? Well, maybe we should talk about the team as well, quickly. Sure. We've got a lot of players,

[00:42:37] some big gaps in price, again, from the highest, I think, is Mr. Van Tijk. There are some strange kind of cards that could have been insane, like, DiMarco. I think that's one of the first cards with all 90 rated plus on all stats, but the play styles for a left back slash

[00:43:07] left mid is not a left back. If you look at the play styles, it's more like a left mid, but it's kind of there's it's very good, but I still feel there's something missing on that card, I don't know why. There shouldn't be, but something tells me it's not going to play to the stats for some reason. It looks good. Yeah, after this week, I'm definitely

[00:43:36] not playing an inter player anymore. Yngwie, you've buried the lead here. There's a five-star five-star Norwegian in this promo team. Why are we not talking about them? I've talked about them. did. Noosa. Yeah, I compared him to Adeyemi. Oh, yes. Yeah. I said that this card looks just as good. Yeah, you did. I just thought he used to bring him back up again. He's a hidden game, I would say. Yeah. Or slept on or whatever. He's really good in game.

[00:44:06] If he plays like my evolution, then he's going to be very fun to use. I hope so, because when we were talking about him, I actually bought him to replace someone left winger. Well, if you're looking for an impact winger, go get Cascarino for 45k. She had some amazing cards last year. Now, this card, 97 pace with quick step plus and whipped cross. If you are a heathen like I am, and like getting down the wing

[00:44:36] and whipping the ball into the box to the big man or big woman, this is the player you want to get. You know, as I said, 98 acceleration, 97 sprint speed with quick step plus and technical silver as well. I love this card as a little cheeky impact sub for less than 50k. She could be the impact sub for Chloe Kelly, I guess. Yes. Yeah, she has the short and normal body type and probably

[00:45:06] going to be crazy dribbling using that card. So you can do skill moves and run circles around Theo Hernandez. That's probably going to be much. So it looks like a really fun card. Well, it's a good segue there, Daniel, because we also have something called a super sub. Yeah, they've announced this. I mean, we get to see how it's going to be implemented. They mentioned this in the pitch notes for the new season, talking about this is going to be the super sub. And I'll

[00:45:35] tell you what they've said. I'll scroll up. They said, we look forward to introducing super sub player items in the near future. I don't know when that's going to be. These players will have full chemistry when they're subbed into matches during the second half and beyond. Additionally, following the same activation conditions, roll familiarity at the roll plus level will be increased to roll plus plus. Just keep in mind that these player items need to be subbed in their primary or alternative positions in order for their chemistry

[00:46:05] and roll familiarity effects to be active. So whether this is going to be a different type promo player, I have a feeling it might just be an evolution or a shell type you can put on certain players. That's my hope. But it's nice. It's great because there are certain players with hard to link chemistry and things like that where you wish you could bring them on and get that full chem that you haven't been able to do so. So yeah, I'm a big fan of this and it's

[00:46:35] nice as well they put that condition in that has to be in the second half to stop people basically as they're just subbing them on in the first five minutes. Yeah, that's a good thing. So did they say if it was only one player or if it would be all one, I think. I don't know that they didn't they didn't specify because if you can use five five super subs second half that would be I might as said my guess is that it's going to be I have a feeling it will be a

[00:47:05] small set of players and then maybe an evolution. So I don't think it'll be an evolution that you can do loads of times maybe once or twice and you know you have to pick your super sub of your team to put in. So yeah, I don't see it being something you can do to fill your bench with super subs. But yeah, it's a cool concept. I'm just thinking about we can sub five times or we can sub five players in but we need a bigger bench next to FC though.

[00:47:35] Without and without Willie wanting to take over hosting because you know, old habits die hard John. But I know we've touched on a lot but we probably should talk about Ababa Jovino and Dumbia as well before we move on. We should talk about it. Do we mention them quickly? People are hyped. There is a people, you know, they are playing, well, the whole what's the

[00:48:05] title of this season, Yngwie? The season title is Memory Lane. Exactly. And this is what these three cards, even the card design they've given them is a FIFA 15 inspired design with the yellow. Yeah. Yeah. A trio of heroes you can get. You can, there's an evolution path for you to take them down and I think they're paid evolutions though, aren't they, Yngwie? If you want to get them to

[00:48:34] the maximum level, I think there is coins to be spent. Similar to Maradona, effectively, isn't it? Yeah, each, but that's, I didn't think it was this bad, but each is 150,000 coins. I thought it was 50,000 coins each, but that would be okay, but 150,000 coins each and you have to

[00:49:04] play, let me see. If you play one game, oh. 88 games, it's not too bad, but still it's. Sorry, 88 games? 8 games per player. Too bad. But it's 150,000 coins though and yeah, they're probably be annoying if you spend that and then you pack one of the ones in packs. That could be a little bit frustrating. That's the only thing.

[00:49:34] I like it's a cool concept, but you can kind of customize them as well because you can give them playstyle pluses that you unlock as well in a player pick. So I think it's powershot, whips, pass, technical plus, press, proven plus, tiki-taka. I think those are the options. And it's a bit like

[00:50:04] the academy player, isn't it? I think you have to apply, do the objective first before you put these players into the evolution because I believe that kind of locks out this additional playstyle plus. I might be slightly wrong on that, but I was watching a couple of streams and people see me suggest that. So yeah, do the objectives for those unlockable playstyle pluses before you go and do the evolution after that. The cards, of course,

[00:50:32] are usable every 90 rated, but I don't know how long they're going to last. They're going to be annoying to face them, but the stats are not top, but of course for nostalgia it should be really fun. I'll give my neutral opinion about this, okay? I'm just not a Roma fan. People

[00:51:02] wonder why we're talking. But it's quite cool they put it like this, but I want to see more of them for more years. I want to see that Slaton card coming back. And Food Birthday is just two weeks, right? Yeah. And it's the same with the 16 thing. I want to make it the running thing then. It might be a little bit much, but we get, I don't know, six weeks of team of the season coming up.

[00:51:33] I'd rather have four weeks of footburst and more of these combinations for more versatility. Then I'd say, you know what? This is fun. This one is not for me simply because of the team. I won't play them, but it's cool. But hey, remember the year when we played, I don't know, this player up front, everyone did that. That could be fun to have them back with that card design as well. Yeah, I think EA will obviously be monitoring how many people buy these evolutions, how many FIFA points are spent on them.

[00:52:03] They're all massively downvoted. It must be said, I think it's about 75% downvotes on each of the three paid EVOs. As Yngwie said, 150,000 coins. It's quite a lot. And the players you get at the end of it, while they're good, again, you look at the players like Marlon and Adi Yemi and cards like that. Yeah, and, you know, teasing Yngwie a minute ago about Noosa, you know,

[00:52:33] that Noosa card looks... Well, he looks as good as a lot of these 150k EVOs. I mean, there is not a lot of difference between him and Jovino. No. So, it's cool for, of course, for nostalgia. So... I think that's it. It's a cool future. You could get them in, but you have to be a big

[00:53:03] fan to get all three of them, I think, in the team, and especially replacing the current players we have in most of our teams. I think then it would be more fun if you have some rotating players. They have got as well, it's worth saying as well, they have got super juiced players in packs for you to get, which, and those cards look... That's what Ingvi said. Yeah, amazing. What if you pack someone after you did all the evokes? That's a

[00:53:33] little bit of a weird feeling. I don't, I think it's alright. Let's put it like, I think it's a nice feel. It's probably a deal with Roma, right? Because they're back in the game. None of them have got Roma as a club though, to be fair. They're all, they're heroes, so they're just Serie A. Yeah, but the SVCs are called Roma and they announced it as a Roma trio. Please don't go sign for eFootball. Stay with us, please, Roma, is the message, I think. That's what they're not doing. Yeah,

[00:54:03] probably. Ingvi, do you want to discuss a certain play of the month before we tap out? Salah 1? Salah 2? No, I'm just kidding. Second play of the month, I think card is... nice. I like that he finally got the four-star weak foot, but I still think the price is double of what it should have been, in my opinion. So, I will

[00:54:33] not be doing that, I think. Daniel? No. No. Again, you've got a great player like Chloe Kelly out there for 60k that is, I think, better than this card. I think if you are a finesse merchant, again, I don't say that. I do say that slightly resentfully. Everyone's free to play their own way, but I hate people curling in constant

[00:55:03] finesses against me, mostly because I'm bitter because I never seem to be able to pull off finesse shots. But look, if you are someone that likes cutting in and whipping in a finesse shot, Salah is a fantastic card, we know he does that really well, and that weak foot boost is nice. But it goes back to the thing I've been saying throughout this show, there are so many really good cards. It doesn't massively stand out to me, even above some of his other promo on the promo cards you can go out and buy for a fraction of the price. Yeah, and four star, four star versus all the five

[00:55:33] stars, five stars out there now. That says enough, right? I do have to admit that the previous play of the month court from Salah has been in my team until team of the year. Actually, until Maradona came out. I replaced Salah with Maradona, the right winger, but I love that card. I don't think you can go wrong with it. But yeah, like we said,

[00:56:02] it's way too expensive for the current season. At least they've given them a good boost. And the player of the month Jurassic that they released this week as well, EA do seem to be actually dragging these players up to at least be kind of usable. Whereas in the past, sometimes they have just given these player of the month cards a bare minimum upgrade. They could have quite easily released a 4-3 Salah again. So it is nice that they are giving them a little bit more attention and making them viable. So I will give them credit for that one.

[00:56:32] I totally agree. Is there anything you want to discuss about this season start, No, not really. As I said, I love the nostalgia. I think that Renato versus Kimpembe pick is going to be a tricky one when we come down to it. The 5'5 foot birthday alaweiron that awaits you if you manage to get to the end of the season looks very, very good. I don't think it will ever be quite as fearsome as that World

[00:57:02] Cup hero from two or three years ago, which still gives me nightmares. I still remember Chris packing him live on this. Oh, yeah. Oh, rubbish. I was like, you sure, mate? I'm looking at this, but this looks pretty good. No, no, I don't. Two weeks later, everyone was like, that's the court you should get. Broke more controllers than anything else in FIFA history. I think that caught. Can I complain a little bit? Sure, go ahead. Why would we end on a positive matter?

[00:57:33] We got a showdown this week with Newcastle versus Liverpool in the Cup Final, Carabao Cup Final. And as a Liverpool player, they selected Cody Gakpo that had an SBC not that long ago and with a huge plus one upgrade. I cannot understand why EA can't choose someone else from the team. Liverpool have more than 11 players. They could have taken a bronze player that would have been better than giving Gakpo

[00:58:02] another card. It's the same with the level five season. Abdul Hamid that plays for Roma, he also had a winter wildcard promo card just recently. why does he have to be a world tour car now with a plus one as well? Couldn't they have selected a different Saudi player? Don't worry Yngwie, you can still use that Subaslai road to the final cut. Oh no, he's not getting any more upgrades.

[00:58:32] He will fit an evolution. He will fit an evolution. So when Yngwie said can I complain a little, you were like, okay, bring it home, mate. I got this ready. How hard it is to have a cup final showdown SBC. So painful. I can't imagine the stress. Come on, they could select someone else. I know, I tease. I do know what you mean. It is a bit weird when there is, yeah, you got 18, 21,

[00:59:02] 22 players. He was SBC and he was quite expensive when I did it as well. So now there's another one, 250,000 coins. I don't think anyone would be doing it. If it was Darwin Nunes, though, no one would be doing it at the moment. Or Curtis Jones. The fantasy card dropped quite a lot in price for some reason. I saw that on the night of the defeat to PSG. I saw that the card dropped and people are so petty. It's funny. I love that kind of pettiness

[00:59:31] in FC. Yeah, it's not boring. I'm not going to do this one. No, I'll stop with the insults Daniel gave. Look, Reading beat Wrexham this week, so take that Deadpool. Take that Ryan Reynolds. Ryan can come and defend himself on the show if he won't next week. He's welcome. I'm sure he'll be waving to me from the Wrexham promotion

[01:00:00] parade bus while Reading still sit in League one next season. I'll enjoy this rare moment of glee for my football club. That'll do. Yeah, so what we'll do is we'll make this a clip. We'll put it on socials. We'll tag Ryan Reynolds. Let's see if we can get him on the show, shall we? And if you want him on the show and listening to the show right now, just make sure you share that clip. Maybe that helps. You're more than welcome, I'll send Daniel's address.

[01:00:32] Imagine just like Brian Reynolds in a Deadpool outfit. The ring doorbell footage would be great. Anyway, I think we've officially jumped the shark, as they would say. We did. I could say we're doing weekly, but I'm just going to edit this podcast. off to bed for me. Guys, thank you so much. If all things work out, we have two shows again next week, so don't worry. Thank you all for the messages and your appreciation this week. Remember,

[01:01:03] just to share this podcast and help us out and show your appreciation. We appreciate you. Don't be mean like Dan does tonight. Just one thing left for us to do. And that is to drop it. Drop it. Drop it. And you and you and you T. T. T. T.