669: Expectations vs Reality

[00:00:00] Good morning footies and welcome along to your Tuesday Club edition of FUT IN REVIEW powered by Foot Coaching. Firstly, our apologies for missing last Tuesday. I unfortunately had work commitments and Shaq was trying not to lose his hair in this hurricane that he had. So thankfully he joins us today. We have a lot to talk about. We've had quite a few Tuesdays where there's not been an awful lot happening, but my words, there's lots to get into.

[00:00:26] So before we do that, we've got obviously about the power curve. Another patch. Week two is now in full flight of Foot Birthday. But before we get to all that, I just want to introduce my main man, the other half of the Tuesday Club. We're not a trio anymore because Dan has left us high and dry. Although I do hear he has time for games while we're recording, so he's on the bad books. But Shaq, how are we doing today? I'm doing fabulous. Thank you, Ned. That was a great introduction. And yeah, sorry for missing last week's show.

[00:00:55] It was just a situation where you had to actually go into work and pretend like you're working. And I had a cyclone my way. So it is what it is. We're back here. We're back. We can't miss any more fun. So yeah, we're here for the show. That's it. Hopefully back with a bang. We don't know whether this could be our potential last Tuesday Club. Stevie's due to have her baby in a couple weeks time, but at the moment anything could happen. So we'll celebrate this like it's the last one.

[00:01:21] And next Tuesday could potentially be a bonus for us. I'm not sure about the listeners, but bonus for us potentially next week. But Shaq, how's your week been in the last? Well, your fortnight been, let's say we'll get a good catch up. So how's your last two weeks in foot then? Oh, look, it's been, it's been fairly good. It's been mixed. I think I did a champs run two weekends ago and it was really simple. Got to my usual wins pretty, pretty easily. And finally finished CR7 over this weekend. And yeah, really enjoying.

[00:01:49] I know I'm a bit late, but I was trying to do it the right way and trying to grind it through fodder. It took forever. So it did. It finally arrived and I'm loving the card. I'm actually loving the card. He is so good. I mean, I jumped on that bandwagon. I completed him. I think it was an instant complete for me out of fodder and my, uh, my club storage. Don't regret it at all. So for those of you that are setting the fence, you know, take your backside off that fence and, uh, and complete it. And talking about backsides, we've got Dan in the chat.

[00:02:17] Uh, I listened to Friday show and, uh, there was a couple of references to, to John, uh, John, our founders backside and also, uh, CR7's crack. He was talking about, um, cracks appearing and stuff. So I wasn't quite sure whether that was another backside reference or not. So, uh, I think he got his days mixed up, you know, Fridays are usually a sensible show and Tuesday's a little bit more, more chill. So, uh, we'll try and keep it, keep it a bit more like how it is. But, um, yeah, the week of foot's been, been pretty good. Actually, the, the top polls have been,

[00:02:47] kind of, kind of, evaded us. I think both of us haven't had insane pulls. We've had a few decent ones. The gameplay patch, I don't think has changed too much apart from this, uh, the, the low driven shot, which we'll talk about shortly. Um, have you noticed a big difference in the, in the previous patch before the one we'll, we'll go on to for the new one?

[00:03:04] Uh, not, not, not a whole lot of differences to be honest. It just, it's, uh, I think it's supposed to fix, uh, one of the things that the latest matches fixed was something that I was really keen for because when you try to list a card on the market, it changes to 99 coins. And that was the biggest thing that I had bugbear with the rest of it. Yeah. I haven't really noticed too much of a change, to be honest.

[00:03:25] Ideal. I mean, I, I haven't noticed that being market banned. Obviously I can't list anyone or anybody. Um, but while we're on that, we'll start about the, the patch that was released yesterday, Shaq. I mean, we'll not go into every sort of part of the patch. Um, you've obviously touched on the minimax prices.

[00:03:41] Couldn't be adjusted. Um, but it, it looks like EA have actually watched my gameplay. Dan kind of pointed this out. Um, but it was talking about how players kind of always professionally foul, continuously professionally foul. Like I thought they meant the cards, but, but that's something I'm hellish for. I don't know if you've noticed that in your game at all, but. I haven't really noticed that too much. I think I've done it. Uh, I've had it happen to me more often than before, but I didn't really think there was something.

[00:04:11] There was an issue. I just thought people were just getting carried away after the no rules mode. So I just thought it was just a lingering, uh, from that mode. That's it. Uh, yeah, no, I have to say, I think it's an issue with the game because there's no way that I foul everybody all the time as Dan and John, uh, the co-op with me, uh, they can testify to that. Um, another one that sounds quite good, um, which I did definitely notice in some instances, a ground pass was less accurate, uh, than intended in situations where the passer and receiver were not under pressure.

[00:04:41] By defenders. That's a win in my eyes. Cause you've got all these ridiculous, uh, really ridiculous stats and play styles. And sometimes there's no reason for the ball to go away, uh, for where you're aiming. So is that something that you've encountered? Or is that kind of just a bit of nothing? Yeah, I, I, I, I didn't really notice there being an issue. I don't, but having said, I did notice a couple of times when you actually, when I made some passes, the players would skip over the pass.

[00:05:06] I don't necessarily know if that's was the issue that they're trying to correct. It was part of the big issue, but I did find sometimes the passing was a bit weird, but I just thought it was down to, uh, gameplay being heavy or incorrect during weekend league. But, uh, I was glad that they had thought something was wrong because my passes were, I didn't really have an issue with it. So hopefully they get crisper from now on in.

[00:05:27] Absolutely. So they're, they're kind of the major ones as well. And, uh, sometimes the ball carry a slowdown on intentionally when turning, uh, turning during a dribble once while sprinting. So again, I haven't noticed that too much. I just always put it down to my own poor skills. So it'll be interesting to see how the game feels. I've, I only played a few games yesterday after the patch was released. So it's hard to kind of get that sample size, isn't it? When you're only playing for a few hours. Yeah, exactly.

[00:05:52] Um, just while we're live again, Dan in the chat has just asked, what's your thoughts on the streets? Won't forget Evo trio. Yeah. Barely seen them in any, any team. So, um, what, what do you think? Cause I know the guys touched on them and they quite liked, uh, on Friday, they were saying they quite liked the, the sort of flashbacks to previous years. Is this something that you can get on board with? And is it something you like the execution of?

[00:06:15] Look, let me, uh, I'll try and gather my thoughts here because this particular thing, uh, I want to be more positive towards EA because it was a really good idea in theory, but the execution again, I just don't think it was executed well enough because just before we got the Roma trio, we had the foot birthday, um, evolution that, you know, you could use for a whole lot of players.

[00:06:39] And straight after that, we had, uh, three players that came out in which you've got to play a lot of games to get them through firstly. And secondly, it's 150,000 coins for each of those players to upgrade them. And I've, I've done the same thing for Osman Dembele who hardly gets into my squad at team of the air. I did the whole thing for Maradona who barely gets into the squad.

[00:07:02] And as, as, although I have the nostalgia from back then, I still haven't started this evolution simply because they have three other cards in packs. They have the souped up version in packs. It's not just like a one-off, there's three of them. And the chances of me packing them are minimal, but I just don't want to go ahead and do this evolution and then pack one of these cards later on. So I'm just holding off for now. And to be perfectly honest with you, I, the, the luster is kind of lost.

[00:07:31] It was a big thing, but I think we're getting too much and yes, I can do them, but I don't think I will be using them as much as they should be used. And that's the part that I draw. I don't know if it's an EA fault or if it's just the sheer amount of content that we've received recently in the past maybe week or so that is making me hold off on completing this evolution. But yeah, I'm, I'm not really fully convinced with the execution. Your thoughts?

[00:07:59] Yeah, I'm, I'm with you. Um, I don't think there might've been the year I started playing, but it wasn't like such a big thing back when they were kind of, you know, the, you must haves in your team. So obviously the game's changed so much since then that, you know, I'm waiting for a few reviews before I commit. I don't think I'll do any of them because my team's really stacked in those positions anyway, but because it's such a different game, a half of me sort of thinks they're not going to be as, you know, ridiculously OP as you hear from them back in the day.

[00:08:25] So it's a lot of coins, you know, 450 K is a lot to invest in these three players when, you know, I think the guys on Friday again touched on it then. They're saying there's really, really cheap cards at the moment. They're very good alternatives. And, you know, I don't have any Serie A players in my squad, let alone in my first team. So to try and change up a little bit for that, I think may not really be worth it. And I know, you know, you're talking 150 K for, I think is it Dunbar that's the central one.

[00:08:53] But, you know, I've just got to put two and a half million worth of players into CR7. He's not going anywhere anytime soon, let's be honest. So anyone that's committed to these type of players, you're not going to want to replace. So for me, I'm doing some of the objectives. I've got, I've got the, you know, the play the three with them all together to get some of the play styles. And there's some really nice packs in that objective. So that's what I'm more focusing on. I'll play the three of them in squad battles when I can, or in a few friendlies, like I did early in the cup.

[00:09:22] But it's not like a must do for me. It'll be interesting to see if anybody has used them, though. If anyone's evoked them already, how they actually feel, because, you know, they could be hidden gems, not so hidden hidden gems, but they could be fantastic. But just on the face of it, I don't think they're going to be, you know, they're not going to take you to that next level.

[00:09:41] I did come across, weirdly enough, just yesterday, I played a guy that had the first owner, Ibabo, Dumbia, Javinia, all three, the top versions, first owner. Along with that, he also had a Maradona, the first owner. This is the 95-year Maradona. So I don't really know what back luck he had.

[00:10:02] And all four of them together and the front four, he was a good player in game, but they didn't seem to be too difficult to deal with. And this is the top version. It's not even the evolution version. And he was a good player as well. So that just didn't leave me with too much confidence in trying to complete the evolution. But I think nostalgia will get the better of me at some point. I just haven't been able to engage with the content as much as I normally would this week. I've just been busy with work and other commitments.

[00:10:31] But I think the nostalgia will be strong on this one. I probably will complete them before they expire. And yeah, I think just because I was so excited when they were first leaked, but it's been such a long, drawn-out thing. And we've had so many other bits and bobs since then. And I just spent 300k on Evoing the foot birthday evolution thing. And I've spent another 50, 60k on another Evo. I think I've spent close to, I think, 700 to 800k in just Evoing cards that I don't even use anymore in the past month.

[00:11:01] Yeah. I mean, the Evo grind is wild. And that's something we're going to come on to shortly. Just moving on from that, Shaq. One thing I've been quite keen on is to discuss the power curve. Obviously, the power curve is wild just now. We've spoken before about Team of the Years being a bit more accessible than in previous years. These foot birthdays, two weeks of foot birthdays with everyone five-star, five-star,

[00:11:28] the majority of them have very nice play styles with them. It's not like we've had random cards with random play styles. Like, is it too much too soon? Are we hitting what we're in now, March? We've still got six months. We've still got half a year to go. And I know they'll find ways to bring out better cards and better versions. But I'm finding this is making me disconnect from the game a little bit. And the player grinds, we were talking before we came on about SBCs.

[00:11:57] These players that have come out all look really good. Even Yaya, who's very overpriced, in my opinion, he's going to be a monster in game. You've got Adeyemi. We've got, is it Rodman that came out as well? These all look cracking cards on their own. But put them into the wider base of the Power Pool. I'm just a bit like, is that, you know, at the next level? Have we already hit the roof now? Like, how do you feel about it? And how do you see it going?

[00:12:24] I think, just to be fair to EA, I think it's a situation where they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't. Because I can't believe we're sitting here and complaining about getting too much content. But that's the sad reality that we're living in right now. Because there's stuff coming from everywhere. And with regards to the Power Curve, it's a weird situation. Because if you look at some of the cards that we're seeing at Foot Birthday, I'll give you, we spoke about this the last time we caught up with the Bonmati.

[00:12:51] All these cards in Foot Birthday that have a Team of the Year that's available as well. The Team of the Year have three playstyle pluses, but that doesn't necessarily make them better because these current cards are 5-star, 5-star, which is kind of unique in their own way. And yes, I understand that they're different and unique. But I think I'm starting to struggle with trying to find the optimum solution here. Like, for example, if someone's using a Team of the Year by Bonmati,

[00:13:18] should they be upgrading to Foot Birthday Bonmati? Is that what EA is expecting? And with regards to the Power Curve, I don't necessarily know what exactly is going on. Because if you look at the evolutions, I know you probably would have noticed this evolution. It was Brian Hill with a 99 pace, 99 shooting evolution. I mean, is that really, is that the fakest 99-er hit card we've seen? Or does he really play to the stats? I don't necessarily know.

[00:13:45] So there is a, I do agree with you, the Power Curve is slightly skewed. But how they fix it, that I'm not really sure of. Because once Team of the Season starts, we will have weeks and weeks and weeks of three playstyle pluses just flooding the market. So yeah, I don't necessarily know where EA is going with this. And yeah, I do feel for them because they are trying. They are putting stuff out there. And yeah, I think it's just coming all at once.

[00:14:12] It just feels like it's just been a constant scattergun of cards from everywhere. Yeah. I wonder whether they kind of saw the Team of the Year sort of drop rate and thought, we've got to do something to match that. Otherwise, people that were really lucky or spent a lot of money will have teams that are so far above everyone else. So they're kind of allowing everyone else to catch up in a way. One thing that I do really like is they are trying to Evo lower rated cards.

[00:14:39] We're finding more sort of bronze and silver Evos, getting them up to really good standards. So again, it does come back to that. Are they fake stats? Are they real stats? But I do like the fact they are now kind of trying to tailor two more people. We say it all the time, the likes of Dan and John Kirkham that support lesser known clubs or players without the big player pool and high rated stats. It makes these players a lot more enjoyable and they can get the ones with their own affiliation and a lot easier.

[00:15:09] So I think that's a win. I don't know whether it's executed tremendously well in terms of the amount of other players around them or similar players. But I think that's them trying to address the small club, big club kind of divide. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. But again, I think Evolutions as a whole, even that I'm finding we're not getting basic Evolutions anymore. Everything is a paid Evolution.

[00:15:35] And even the basic Evolutions don't really give you a whole variety of players that you could use. You could probably use some low rated cards, I think, from time to time. But majority of the decent Evolutions are paid Evolutions as well. I feel the balance is a bit askew. And I don't think people are actually able to enjoy their teams or enjoy the cards that they have in their club. Really good cards. I'm not talking about basic clubs. I'm talking about really good cards that are sitting in their club that just haven't had a run out.

[00:16:04] Like, look at people's benches. Look at the people's teams that we're facing these days. They just seem to be top, top, top tier. Yeah, absolutely. They always seem to have, you know, some people coming off the bench that are almost as good as the people they're replacing. So it's good that there's so many fun cards to use. But at the same time, it is a little bit like, oh, if you're grinding super hard, then what's the reward in it really? Especially when the pack pulls so low.

[00:16:32] Something that you're an expert on, Shaq, the market. Yeah. So it's been highlighted a few times in the Discord and on socials. You've seen that the market's pretty low for some very, very good players. What's causing that? What's the reason for that? And is this a good thing? Or is this kind of, do you wish it was back to the old days where you had to trade your backside off to kind of be able to get these players and everything else? I've spoken about this before.

[00:16:58] Personally, I prefer the old days where the elite few who grinded their backsides off would have access to the top tier cards. And it just feels like it gave you an advantage. But, I mean, let's put that aside. That's just a selfish version of a selfish perspective. But essentially, it's a great thing that we have access to all these cards.

[00:17:21] There's a whole variety of evolutions that actually, Evo cards that are on par with team of the year cards even for birthdays for sure are really, really good with five stars, five stars. So there's a whole variety of cards that we can actually just put into your squad. They're not very expensive. Which means all the cards that actually hold value are dropping in value because there is no need to actually spend coins on stuff from the transfer market when you can just get an Evo card.

[00:17:49] Like we mentioned, the Evo, Brian Hill, 99 rated, 99 rated, 99 based, 99 shooting. Those cards are definitely going to have some, have a dent in the market. And leading up to the next month or so, we'll have another couple of promos coming through and then it'll be team of the season soon. And the cards that we have right now in existence will be almost obsolete by then. So the market's only going to go one way. And I don't really have an issue with that to be perfectly honest with you.

[00:18:15] It's probably, it's good we all get to experience a lot more cards, but I just feel like there's a lot of cards to try. And I want to try as many cards as possible, but I don't think I'll be able to try even 20% of the cards being released. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, maybe, maybe it's EA's way of potentially listening to some of the feedback about FOMO and the, you know, the pressures that you get to play every second you have and grind every second you have.

[00:18:40] Because, you know, I'm still very much in the head that meta players are going to be meta players and you need to have them. But I think it does take the pressure off. You can change that mindset. It definitely shows you that, you know, you can make very, very good teams without having to have your Mbappe's, even your CR7s, who is obviously elite level. But there's plenty of other alternatives that are very, very good.

[00:19:02] You know, even like the Theo Hernandez or the Mendy card at left back say, there's so many good cards now and for not a lot of price. I think if you can adjust your mindset from the last maybe four years, five years, whatever, I think it's actually a good thing. And I think people will start doing that. I think obviously your likes of Mbappe's that's built differently. They'll always be the ones that people want to have.

[00:19:27] But I think it's not going to be a case of I must have X, Y and Z because we've got these ones that do pretty much the same job. But, you know, instead of being 2 million coins, you're 150K type thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look at the DeMarco card that's out this week. 90 rated plus in every single face card stat. And he's less than 200K. It's just bonkers if you think about it. Yeah. And five star, five star as well. That's the big one as well.

[00:19:56] When you've got these stats with five star, five star. I think, again, the guys on Friday spoke about that. But how often would we be begging EA, give us a five star weak foot on this player or give us five star, five star. And I remember like Neymar, you know, three, four years ago definitely moved differently. At the same time, one of his big pulls was that he was five star, five star. Whereas now we're getting them very, very regular, especially during this promo.

[00:20:19] But there's obviously other cards as well that have been five star, five star or five star, four star or whatever, which is still a good sort of complement of each other. So, yeah, it's weird that the market's so low. And I think Evos, like you said, Evos is a massive thing. I think the drop rates on, because these cards are all very good. I don't think there's really many bad cards and promos these days. There's obviously better ones than others. But I think that's also another one because we're seeing a decent drop rate at the moment of low to mid tier cards.

[00:20:48] Whereas, you know, the top ones maybe aren't falling as well. But maybe that's why the prices are down as well, because there are, you know, like we said, these alternatives that are coming out fairly frequently. That's right. That's right. Some of the big cards, like I haven't really seen many people packing the big, big, big cards from these promos. I mean, that's pretty stock standard. But I don't think people are actually chasing those big cards anymore.

[00:21:13] People are just trying to get open all these SBCs for fodder, basically, and just trying to complete the SBCs that we have available to us, like the CR7, the Yaya 2. They're not cheap to complete. And you need a lot of fodder, which is, I think I'm finding fodder hard to come by as well. Yeah. Well, that's, you know, we've got that on our list as well about the grains for that. Yeah. The fodder is definitely an interesting sort of situation.

[00:21:40] One thing that has definitely come out as new since we last spoke, this new playstyle plus the low-driven shot. So I know the three that were on, John Ingram and Dan, were very torn. I think Dan was definitely against having a new playstyle midway through the game. John liked it, and Ingram said he kind of didn't feel one way or another about it. What's your thoughts, like before we actually talk about the playstyle itself, what's your thought on them bringing out a new playstyle plus mid-season?

[00:22:13] It's a strange one, because I'm all for them bringing out a new playstyle plus to keep things different and keep it changing, which is great. I have no issue with that. But my concern is that we will start using this particular playstyle plus, and then suddenly they start to realize, oh, this is very overpowered, and they nerf it. And then that's my concern. I really don't want them to introduce brand new playing mechanics right now, and then suddenly nerf those playing mechanics into nothing.

[00:22:40] And that's my biggest concern, because right now the low-driven shot is a really good playstyle plus, and it's very effective inside the box. I know you were speaking about this before we started recording. Some of the shots that you can pull off with that playstyle plus are brilliant. And I really, I think I can go out on a limb. If you're using precision shooting, I think low-driven shots are well above finesse shots. The playstyle plus is well above the finesse shot playstyle plus.

[00:23:09] It's a hot take, but that's a thing I'm really starting to feel that those are very overpowered. Your thoughts? Yeah, I think you're almost right in my opinion. You're sort of 75% on the way there in my opinion. For context, I've managed to pack Missaila, so I play him as a cam, as a playmaker in the 4-2-1-3. I had Maradona there, who has obviously incisive pass, and finesse plus for the playstyle.

[00:23:36] I was a bit hesitant to take Maradona out, but I thought I'll give Missaila a go. And I think if you've got a player with low-driven, and you get him towards maybe the edge of the D or just inside the box, low-driven shot by far beats finesse because the keepers just don't seem to move. I've seen a lot of people kind of say that Casillas is the answer to it. I haven't actually come up against Casillas since using it that often, but there's not many keepers.

[00:24:02] If you hit that right, if you green time it, it's almost a goal pretty much every time, unless you're hitting it straight at the keeper or defender. I still think finesse has its place. I love finesse for my wingers that can cut in. I think finesse from 25 yards out is still broken. I think it's still really, really good. So ideally, I could put this low-driven on, say, CR7, and you get the mixture of both.

[00:24:29] But I know that would make that player almost undefendable because he's just that good. But I think this is so OP just now. I did that cup. I think you have to win 10 games in the cup. And I did that in about 45 minutes. And it wasn't even players with low-driven plus. It was just... I don't even think they had the play styles. It was literally just tap and shoot. And if you aim to the corners, even without having a basic one, it's still so overpowered. And it's always been quite good in certain scenarios.

[00:24:59] But I just think that this new play style has obviously tweaked the mechanics slightly. So if you do that even with a standard player, it's a lot harder than just trying to shoot across the keeper. So I think you're right. I think it is a better play style, but in the right position and the right scenario. Correct. I think outside the box, there's... Unfortunately, another thing, I don't see a simple way to score from outside the box apart from finesse shots.

[00:25:25] And I think I just realized that last week when we had the cup, when you could just go from outside the box and get two goals instead of one. I just realized there was no way I could do it. I tried. I tried everything. I tried PowerShot. I tried Travella. I'm not really good at Travella, so maybe that's why I failed. But the only thing that consistently got me goals from outside the box was finesse. Nothing else. Nothing else works as consistently. And it's a bit sad that we have to use that particular mechanic from outside the box. Outside the box, I give it to you. Finesse is amazing.

[00:25:52] But inside the box, anywhere inside the box, finesse is useless, in my opinion. The load-driven, if you have that play style plus, is just OP. It's so good. And that reminds you of the start of the game where everyone had to have PowerShot Plus. Yes. Every PowerShot Plus was a goal. People with finesses were like, meh. It's all about PowerShot. So it's wild to see that you don't see people using it.

[00:26:19] I don't really use it anymore. There's the odd time that I'll do it. But out of the striking ones, it's down there almost with ChipShot now. ChipShot is a bit of a useless one, in my opinion. So just as slightly above that in the tier list, per se, is the driven shot. But it's not as good as it used to be. I think it's easier to read. People react to it now as well. So the load-driven and finesse are definitely the must-haves.

[00:26:45] And if you play a 4-2-1-3 or even a 4-2-3-1, I think if you get your central players with load-driven, if you get finesses from wide, I think that's a really good balance. And I think you'll cause people a lot of issues with that. I completely, completely agree. I think as soon as they nerfed the PowerShots, the first-time PowerShots, that was probably the end of PowerShots. And it's just never been as good as... I think I really missed those PowerShot days because it was really unique and fun. I just enjoyed myself.

[00:27:16] Yeah, it's like in real football when the ball hits the back of the net and you kind of get that noise when it sort of chinks the back of the net almost. It's a bit like that you get a different feeling from it. But there's also something quite nice about hitting a finesse shot and watching the keeper kind of wave at it as it goes into the back of the net. I do quite enjoy that, especially being a keeper myself. Shaq, moving on then to probably the meaty part of the section. And let's talk about the grind. We've spoken about there's lots of objectives, there's lots of SPCs,

[00:27:44] there's quite a few sort of ways on the menu to grind. Is it a fun grind or is it a false grind? You've said that you're finding further hard to come by, but we're getting so many 86 times 2, 85 times 3, all these sort of potentially high-rated rewards or packs. Are you enjoying it? What's your approach to the grind just now? I'm never going to say no to these kind of upgrade packs. Never going to say no. But I just feel like the return on investment.

[00:28:12] So, for example, the whole of last week when we had the 8310s and 8314s, I think my dupe storage was loaded with 83-rated cards more than anything else. I was just getting 83 after 83 after 83 with nothing to do with the 83s. This week, they amended it by having the 85 plus times 3, which requires about 22 83s to put in there, which is good. It's gotten rid of my dupe storage, but now I'm stuck where I have barely an 83, which is fine.

[00:28:42] But the 8310s are not giving me anything apart from 83s to put back into the 853. So, overall, at the end of the day, my net result is probably maybe, maybe, maybe 985 pluses that I might end up with. And out of those 985 pluses, I don't necessarily... Yes, I can probably complete one segment of a squad on a day-to-day basis, which I've probably, if I start Yaya, I can do one squad a day, maybe one of the 87 or 86-rated squads a day. But that's pretty much it. It's not like the 91s.

[00:29:12] I haven't seen a 91 in a long time. I haven't seen a 90-rated squad in a long time. Probably seen Kevin De Bruyne once a week at the most. I haven't seen a Rodri. I haven't seen any of these cards popping out of my packs. I haven't seen many of the specials, none of the foot birthdays. Even if it's a foot birthday, it's the Bournemouth lad, Semayun? Or what's his name? Semanyu. Semanyu. That's the only lad that keeps popping out of my pack. So, I don't know.

[00:29:40] I wish I could, maybe my backlog's not that good. But yeah, I'm not getting what I'm looking for. I would have definitely started the voyage to Yaya Ture if I was confident about the back weight being slightly higher for fodder. But yeah, I'm not going to start that one. I mean, you've had a good point there. They've taken away the 83-14s, kept the 83-10s.

[00:30:06] And are we asking too much by saying maybe they should have kept both of them and brought the 85s? Or is that us kind of being a bit too greedy? Oh, that would be fabulous. Actually, I think the 85 times 3 finishes today. I would be really, really looking forward to them repeating the 85-3 as well as doing the 83-14. That would make it fun. That would really make it fun. That would. But yeah, half me just thinks that's just kind of getting an easy way to get fodder.

[00:30:34] And they've priced Yaya at 2.5 and CR7 at 2.5 for a reason. So I wonder whether they're trying to stop everybody completing them. But I would like that. I think that would be a good way to kind of grind the app. There's obviously, they brought the 80 times, 81 plus. One of three picks came out last night as well. I've done it three times and had three Bruno Fernandeses, which is very strange. I appreciate it. So I'll take that. 87 for the, so I'll take that. But it's weird.

[00:31:02] I have to say that the pinks have been flying for me quite a lot. I've had lots of them. Nothing major. Like I said, I had Masala. Just before we came on, I completed, I can't remember what objective I did, and I got Zaha. So he's another one for the United past and present. Although I can't get him into my own team because he doesn't link by anyone. But, you know, it's fine. It's fine. My biggest issue is that they've brought out players, really, apart from Ronaldo, that I've got no interest in. They don't take my team to the next level. There's, you know, we've said it in the past.

[00:31:33] I'd love them to bring exchanges back. That would make that grind kind of, you know, constant. I'd love to have something, because my SBC storage is now full of 85 pluses. I've done two icon picks just to free up some space in my SBC storage, which, you know, it's probably not the best use of them. And, you know, I probably should have done exact players, but I thought, well, if you're going to try and get one of the big boys, you may as well go for the biggest of the lot. So Dan in the chat, sorry, I was reading the chat at the same time.

[00:32:02] My manly multitasking skills are terrible. Dan's just asked on the subject of exchanges, has the removal of exchanges made player picks more pointless? What do you think on that? Spot on. Spot on. I mean, just remember last year when it was a complete grind, where we put everything into exchanges, and then you use all those things to player picks. As soon as you get it at 85, 86, 87, whatever card, you put it back in the exchange. Just keep doing it over and over again. I think that just kept you going, and you could just portion away some of the cards

[00:32:32] to actually jump into an SBC or keep doing the grind. It kind of kept you going, whereas right now, if I went down the player pick route, I know within about maybe three hours, I'd be completely out of goals, completely out of goals. And then I have to go to the provisions packs and open those provision packs. And I think a couple of weeks ago, I spent close to 100K just from the store packs and for provisions, just for rare golds and gold cards, because I couldn't be us buying them off the store, I mean, off the market.

[00:33:00] I think, yeah, it's all there, but it's just there's no way to cycle the whole thing through. So you still have to go back to the store to actually replenish your score. Your club. So, yeah, I just think we need exchanges. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm going to do a few player picks, mainly because my club is dry of 83 and 84s just now. So it's not even like I'm open. I'm expecting to find nice pink cards or top rated. I just need to sort of boost them, because I don't seem to have as like,

[00:33:30] I'm having to use a sort of combination of players for these 83 times tens and such. So hopefully they'll find something to kind of meet us in the middle, at least, and make it a little bit more of an exciting grind in that terms. But, you know, part of the game for me is the menu grind. And I like that. And I just kind of wish I was a market band, so I could do a little bit more for the sort of leagues and stuff. But also, you know, that continuous grind, especially, you know, coming up soon, my personal point of view, if I'm going to be up in the night doing late night feeds,

[00:34:00] it was always good before to have something, you know, just to continue to keep you going while you're trying to stay awake at three in the morning type things. But in terms of the objectives, how are you finding, you know, the quantity and the quality of the objectives we're needing? And, you know, the cup yesterday that got released, it's for an 89 rated foot birthday player. I think it's from Aberdeen. So Scottish Premier League fans will be happy. Player looks fine, but it's not really going to get into many squads, I wouldn't have thought, unless you use an SPL side.

[00:34:29] Would you, do you like that, that they kind of now putting players into the cup modes? Or would you rather be back to, you know, you complete the cup and you get, I don't know, 87 times two or 86 times three? Oh, I would prefer an 86 times three any day of the week. But, but, but having said that, having some unique players that mean something to someone is, is okay with me. It's fine with me, but I would rather, personally, I would rather have the,

[00:34:53] the photo packs and try my luck and either get an effort birthday card or get something that's better than 89 rated. Yeah, no, I'm fully with you on that. I mean, unless it's like an insane player that really kind of comes into us. Um, I had to rather go fodder. And even through the season rewards that we get, I always go fodder unless, you know, my clubs that stacked, you know, if you're SBC, I'll start again, SBC storage is full. Um, and you know,

[00:35:22] I don't really need the fodder because there's nothing to put it into. I'll maybe take my, take my arm at the, uh, the casinos, but fodder is always the way for me. Like you want to get the big, the big boys that are out just now. So why not go for the fodder in my opinion? Exactly. And having said that, I mean, we've been, we've been bashing here, but one of the things that they've really cleverly done, which is actually a good thing is with the icon picks, they've actually reduced the squad rating requirement for the icon picks, which is a huge, huge hooray. I'm really, I'm very pleased with that. Yeah.

[00:35:52] Have you done many Shaq? Have you, have you done many? Have you got any decent pulls or is it just a nice option to have? Uh, like I said, I've been grinding CR seven. And right now, as soon as this week started, I did a grind ready Emmy. I have Suarez to left to go. And once, once Suarez is complete, I think I will just dump everything into the icon SBC. It's just one of those things. I just keep thinking and telling myself, don't waste your fodder on icon SBCs. Try and do a player like a Yaya, but there's such a big grind. This, especially after my,

[00:36:22] my life feels like I've just, my EFC life just feels like a constant grind because first it was Mbappe, got Mbappe done. And there's some sort of evil Maradona, blah, blah, blah, get all these evos done. And this CR seven, you're grinding towards CR seven. It's like, it's just constantly grinding towards cards that I barely use. So I'm stuck within, uh, I probably should, should try and do an icon SBCs to see if I can back up on iron or something. Yeah, I've done two. I got, um, went a wild card sour yesterday. So a few months ago, I'd love that.

[00:36:52] The 92 version sentiment. Yeah. But it doesn't have, there's two versions is one with the long wall pass and there's one with incisive. The one with the incisive is really good. I have absolutely no idea because I got her and I just threw a straight into the club. Um, because unfortunately I'm using a Liverpool player. I'm using Trent and I'm using, uh, canty just now, um, it is the one with long ball pass and press proven. Yep. She's good. She's good, but not as good as the other one, but she's definitely still good. Yeah.

[00:37:22] She's decent. And then today I got Carla Silverto 92 center backs. So I was quite pleased with that one. Um, I've been playing around to my center backs. Um, so he's currently in there. He's finally taken out my team of the year, evolution hoisin. So I've got him next to David Alaba just now, which is quite fun to have. So they're quite worth doing. Like you say, it's not a lot of coins. I think there was a 300 K or something like that. If that, so it's not a lot, uh, Carlos Alberto sitting at 1.1 mil.

[00:37:49] So I'm very happy to have made a profit if you like in that time. Um, before we kind of wrap up Shaq, we have the return of our usual Tuesday club segments. So just to start with, we will go on to Dan's lovely voice. If I can find the right button, which I can never do. They are in review. Formation focus. Ha! Surprised you there. Um,

[00:38:19] Shaq, what formation are you running just now? I am still stuck with a 4-2-3-1 that I've perfected and I'm loving it. I'm absolutely loving the 4-2-3-1. I just switch it up with a 4-2-1-3 at the end of the game and move CR7 to the left wing. And Mbappe comes in as a striker. Yeah, that's all I'm doing. I'm really basic, basic female dog at this point in time. I was waiting for you to say it and try and bleep you out. Excuse me. No, I'm a fan of that formation.

[00:38:48] I think I shared one with you before, which I tweaked, uh, which came for Dan, which I think came originally for John. And we've all had different versions of it. So it's a good one. I would be running that now, but I've had to go to the dark side and onto 4-2-1-3, not out of choice, but out of, uh, the players that I've got. I've tried with sort of 4-4-2, uh, both variations, but I just couldn't find a way to get Henry and, uh, CR7 into the same team, uh, and still play effectively. So I've had to do that with Henry wide. Um,

[00:39:17] it's working very well, actually. I do, I do enjoy it and I see why people like it. I just feel really bad for joining, joining the sheep and being part of the herd. Um, but you know, there's not really much to say about it because everyone plays it. So everyone knows it inside out. So, um, again, it's just the play styles and the roles are the major things and trying to find, you know, I've not been able to have, I really liked Saisido. I've had to drop him for Kante because of chemistry. I think Saisido is actually much better than Kante. Um, I hate to say it because I love Kante as a player,

[00:39:46] loved him in the premier league with that smile and him just buzzing around. But Saisido is superior in terms of, you know, FC 25 for sure. Um, just then before we go, goes on to the segment you thought we were going to talk about. player in review. Shaq, is there any player that's caught your attention? this, well, we'll say this week because there's been so many players kind of coming out that we can't, uh, you know,

[00:40:15] we can't get to because it's the amount of the quantity we've had, but is there anyone that's kind of taken your eye that you've used or you, you really like him for all my whinging about backlog. I just completely forgot. They're actually back. Big soul Campbell in one of the store packs this week. We spent 120 K, I think on a store pack with coins and, uh, it was a player pick actually. And big soul popped up and, uh, yeah, he is phenomenal in game. Really, really good. The only issue with him is he's got the sliding, uh, play style,

[00:40:44] sliding play style plus, which is not really the best use of a play style plus, but the rest of it. He's a big beast in, in defense. He's strong. He's fast. He's got almost 90 pace. I think so. He's fast. He's strong. He's aggressive. He's got all the play, all the right stats in the right places. He's a big bruiser. And I'm really enjoying using him. And, uh, I think he's, um, he's definitely, he he's a lot of fun to use. So a big soul, big shout out to him, not use a soul Campbell card this year, but I know Dan's always a big,

[00:41:12] been a big fan of soul loving soul Campbell this year. Not going to lie. I'm quite jealous of slide tackle plus, because that would just make my game between that and professional fouls. Like people would either hate to play against me, or I just have like four players left on the pitch and have to forfeit. Um, I was going to do Masaila as we've just spoken about, but I think we've kind of already touched on him in terms of his, uh, low driven shot. So I'm going to join you in the defenders club today, Shaq. I, um, want to talk about David Alaba, um,

[00:41:41] the footbirth they won playing him at center back. You know, he's got 90 pace. Oh, I've just completely messed up my screens. 90 pace, 80 shooting, 93 passing, 90 defending, 85 physicality. This guy is a monster. You see, if you put an anchor on him, he is crazy, crazy good. strength up at 92, uh, his defensive, you know, stand tackles, 97 slide tackles, 96 intercept plus. The only thing is, is, is two pluses. He's got intercept and pinged past plus.

[00:42:09] So some people might turn their nose up at a defender with ping plus. I love that. I, you see in terms of starting, you starting your attacks from the defense. I think that's tremendous. He's got jockey block, anticipate slide and bruiser as silvers. So it's not like they're completely lacking. And I think this is a really good card for 140 K. You gotta agree. A lot of our cards have been really good in game from the start of this year, even every year. They're already, they're really good. So yeah, five star, five star Alaba with ping pass. Yeah. That seems like a really solid card to me.

[00:42:39] Yeah. Highly recommend. Again, he's not top tier in terms of price, but plays very well. If you can help me defend, then he's got to be, he's got to have something to him. So I'm quite interested to see what he's going to be like. Couple next to Carlos Alberto. Otherwise, Hoisin might be back in, but I did try the Inigo Martinez card, who I was really impressed with as well. I've never used a Martinez card in any of the versions of FIFA in terms of your main team, but that's also a very, very good card. So a wee cheap piece there to shout out to. Shaq,

[00:43:09] before we go off into the sunset, is there anything else you'd like to highlight? No, I think we've, we've, we've rambled on about the whole particular fortnight in, in, uh, EFC. And hopefully, hopefully, hopefully we can come back to a re-energized Tuesday club show next Tuesday. Hopefully. There's just one thing that I've just realized that we have skipped over. So just to revisit quickly, we've had the FC, uh, pro live SBCs out. yeah.

[00:43:38] coming in at 175 K. So basically for those of you that aren't aware, you complete, I think it's three segments of an SBC. Um, and you can choose two of the following four, uh, Joe Gomez, Timo Werner, Makati, and Kyrie Matoma. Um, these are linked. I think their life cards are linked to the FC pro that's using them. Um, so the better they do, the better you card upgrade. So they're all, they're all 89 rated cards just now, left mids, right, right wing striker and center back. Shaq, how do you feel about this?

[00:44:07] Is there anyone standing out? Are you going to do it? Are you going to skip it? I have very little information about this particular, uh, um, release. The only thing that is, I'm considering is Werner because of food fantasy winner from last year. And I think all the people that skip the SBC are regretting it even now. I'm just worried about this one going on to be a really souped up card, but yeah, I could be wrong. Your thoughts, have you been used? Have you been, have you looked into it? I've kind of looked into it.

[00:44:37] So Texas for city and Manu, um, is Liverpool. So although the teams that I don't really like, they've got good chances of getting a few, I think you have to finish in the top four for any, for an upgrade. So I think these are two very good players. Gomez, to be fair, he's always a FIFA sort of legend. Gomez's card looks very, very good already. So if he upgrades, you know, sprint, his pace splits a bit strange, 82 acceleration, 90 sprint speed, but defensively he's already, you know, very, very good.

[00:45:07] And he's got all the defensive play styles and they can play, uh, left back, right back or center back. So me with my squad building head, I'm tempted to do it and do Gomez because you can almost go to back three, if you want, or back five, potentially you can shift out. Um, I like the versatility. It's the same with Alaba. He can go to left back as well. So I am fairly tempted for 174 K. I don't think it's terrible value. Um, and then the other one would probably be McAtee acres, Texas, usually pretty good in these competitions,

[00:45:35] but McAtee can do right wing, right mid center, mid and cam. So again, a little bit more versatility as well. So I'm looking at it from that point of view, uh, originally I thought Verna would be outstanding, but I just can't get past his on pitch performances right now where he's, you know, people laugh about Anthony and all that for United, but actually Verna's, Verna's worse than them all. So, um, yeah, I think I might do them. I'm probably going to be in our group chat saying, guys, tell me to do it. Don't tell me to do it,

[00:46:04] but I've got a feeling I'm going to do it and go for Gomez and McAtee. Yeah, that's not a bad choice. I think Gomez looks like a really solid card, especially considering he's got the full back plus plus on right back. He's got decent play style. He's got the slide tackle plus, uh, the block plus he's got a ping jockey intercept soft, uh, anticipate silver bruiser silver, press proven as well. It's a decent card. Shame. He's a Liverpool player, but yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it won't be for much longer. You can maybe get a,

[00:46:33] get a move to a better team. You know what a team that maybe see season Europe a bit longer. Or, or it doesn't bottle the final. And, you know, they kind of need to show up to this, uh, caramel final. No, no. That one's out there just for angry. So I'm hoping that hopefully he'll, uh, he'll dig me in the discord, but, uh, just after that shack, you know, you can, everyone can join us in the discord. Um, we're on social, so you'll be able to find us there. Uh, if you want to go that extra mile,

[00:47:02] and join up to the page on, uh, patreon slash foot and review. Um, that's, you know, that's fantastic. Every little bit supports very, very welcome. It helps us put the podcast out usually twice a week. last week, obviously it was a, it was a bit of an anomaly. Hopefully next week, the two of us shall be back for our final Tuesday club, probably for nine months, uh, potentially. So we'll have a wee hiatus, but we'll, we'll obviously still keep in, in the discord and in the chats. Um,

[00:47:31] one thing left to do today, Shaq. Drop it. We are going to drop it. Drop it. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. T. In the view. F. U. T.