671: Farewell Tuesday Club!?

[00:00:00] Hello footies and welcome along to your Tuesday dose of FUT IN REVIEW powered by FUT COACHING. Unfortunately the sad news is this is going to be the last Tuesday Club for the next wee while. Unfortunately due to my other commitments and everyone else's we may be having to take a hiatus. Hopefully Dan and Shaq will return in the summer but we do usually go down to one show a week in the next month or so anyway.

[00:00:28] So maybe those of you that have been with us for a wee while won't notice much difference. I am delighted as always on a Tuesday to be joined by an absolute hero, a legend of the Tuesday Club. This is Shaq Shaq, how are we doing? I am doing well. I think that's a lie. I'm actually struggling. I've been under the weather but got to do the last podcast together. So let's see. Hopefully we can do another one, squeeze another

[00:00:55] one next week but if not this could be a loss or a... It could be. It could be. What an absolute trooper. I know you've not been feeling well so I appreciate you jumping on and committing to this. How's your week been? How has the last seven days of FUT been? Oh it's been pretty good actually. I've enjoyed myself. I've really started to enjoy my team. I've started to enjoy the players and they've just started to tinker around with a couple of evolutions and just been trying different players and yeah enjoying...

[00:01:24] Well, I'm enjoying to the most part I guess. What about you? Yeah, it's been good. Rivals has been fun. I've tweaked my formation which we'll come on to in our usual segment so I'm on a different formation for once. We've had that massive SPC drop on Friday which I completed I think was it Sunday maybe we completed without playing the game so being market banned it was a bit of a challenge so I had to use 300k worth

[00:01:48] of coins but it seems worth it so yeah quite excited to to get into this over the next half hour 45 minutes or so. But yeah no that's good so Dream Chasers. What is your feeling on this SPC? This promo sorry? I don't think any of these cards are in packs because I certainly haven't backed any Dream Chasers. I'll lie, I'll lie. After my Champs rewards I obviously got two Dream Chasers. I can't even

[00:02:15] remember which two I packed but they weren't really that great so there you go. Yeah, I've had a couple but they've been thrown into hoot so I think I've got Biggest Studder or something like that. I've had it three times but that's the only one I've seen. But the main thing just now Shaq, Evos. We talk about it weekly. I mean there's been a few release but this is a straight partner I think it's called. Yep. This Evo is crazy. Talk us through

[00:02:44] that. I think one of the things I really want to call back to last week when you said the power curve was going a little bit crazy and literally I think you were slightly ahead of the curve with your conversation about the power curve because straight after that we had three playstyle pluses icon that's just dropped everywhere. I think it's really funny that we've got three playstyle plus icons but we had three playstyle plus normal cards and two playstyle plus icons during Team of the Year.

[00:03:09] So it's a bit of a flip and then straight after that we had a three playstyle plus evolution with the... I think the evolution is probably really good in the sense that you are getting quite a lot bang for your buck considering the cards you're able to put into the evolution. But otherwise, I don't know, I'm starting to wonder whether if you spend coins whether it's actually worth spending

[00:03:35] 500,000 coins on this evolution right now considering Tots is literally less than a month away and then there'll be three playstyle pluses all over the shop. So that's the part that... So I wouldn't really be keen on doing any random card through this evolution but if you have a particular R9 lurking around in the club or you have... even a Suarez, I think Suarez or Torres, those kind of cards seem to be really good fun over the next month.

[00:04:01] So it's... I think more than the evolution, I think it's the cards that fit into the evolution that has intrigued the community and every single one is talking about this evolution simply because of the cards that fit into the evolution. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, have you got your eye on a certain one? I know you're toying with spending a lot, a lot of coins to make somebody untradeable.

[00:04:21] But is there anyone that you're leaning towards? I keep... It's not a flex by any means, I just feel like I will kick myself if I have an opportunity to actually buy an R9 from the market and Evo or him. That'll be kind of cool. But also, having said that, like I said, DOTS is like a month away. There'll be a dime a dozen cards that will be equal or better.

[00:04:44] And I think R9 is set to come as Dream Chasers, a card as well, which might be... Obviously, it'll be much more expensive but within a month's time, that'll be very cheap as well. So, I mean, cheap in comparison. Could be the same price as what I would be paying right now to buy the R9 off the market and Evo or him. So, I don't know. But I have my eyes set on Cruyff and Kovie is, Nate. Suarez is the other one that I am considering.

[00:05:11] Call yourself a Mad United fan. I'm so disappointed. Hey, hey, hey. As I said last week, the only time with Suarez that I don't remember is his time at Liverpool. Every other time, Ajax, amazing. Barcelona, incredible. Yeah, to be fair. At Liverpool, he was very good, but he was at Liverpool. But no, this Evo, for those of you who don't know, it gives a massive pace boost. It gives you a finesse plus, I think, as well.

[00:05:37] I think if you link it right, it can give you the low-driven shot plus. Correct. It boosts, so it boosts the shooting. There's a slight boost on the pass end, dribbling boost. It's a very good attacker. I think it's mainly for strikers, but it gives him the left-wing role as well, or position. I'm doing Cruyff. I've started Cruyff, but I've linked him with the birthday finale because it makes him a 95.

[00:06:06] Sorry, it makes him a 94, but it gives him Tiki Taka, the rocket, and finesse plus. Perfect. Perfect, but I'm going to use him as a cam. I think he'll be a very good cam. I'm like you. I would use a card that you want to use that's a bit different. I put a lot of coins into Cruyff, or a lot of players into Cruyff, so I want to make the most of using him because he's kind of so far off the curve just now as it is.

[00:06:32] So this is an amazing Evo, I think, to try and boost these cards that you've maybe used and can't use anymore. It brings them back to life, and you'll be very, very meta, I think. Anyway, especially a Cruyff, 5-star, 5-star. He's always got a bit of special juice as well. Yeah, I literally play every year. I play for two cards. That's Neymar and Cruyff, and right now, as I've mentioned every week, I've been Evoing this Neymar that just got Evoed again, and he's just incredible in game.

[00:07:01] And literally, if I Evo Cruyff, he'll have to take Neymar's spot. So that's the part I'm a little hesitant about, but otherwise, yeah, I'm really, really, really, really happy. So I'm using this Neymar that I absolutely love, and I think Cruyff will be kind of an upgrade on Neymar, but I really don't want to replace Neymar. So I'm just going to take my time and see if I pack anything in the next couple of days or so. I will go ahead and use that player, but otherwise, I think it'll be either Cruyff. I think it'll be Cruyff. I mean, I just said Suarez and Jest. It'll be Cruyff in the end.

[00:07:29] I also get a review from you. Yeah, absolutely. Like I say, I've just started that. I've kind of combined it with the rush objectives just now. So that could be quite interesting, but Corey, for that extra bit of pace, I think could be really nice. You touched on it a little bit there. The good thing about this Evo is there's so many good cards that fit it. I mean, if you just look at the eligible players just now, I'm not going to go into them all, obviously, but there's some really good names. You've got the 90 Ronaldo, as you said, the Tevez who are packed.

[00:07:57] That would be amazing. There's Clivert makes them a lot more usable just in terms of icons. Socrates, the Fernando Torres is getting a lot of hype just now as well. Yeah. He's good. Even the 90 Del Piero, Samuel Lato, there's so many good cards here. And we have been begging EA to give you less restricted Evo so that you can use some of these fun cards. We finally hit that. Is this a coincidence? Have they listened to us?

[00:08:22] Or is it just because these are kind of mainly base cards at the lower end of promo cards early doors? Is it just because that's where the power curve is? It is a really interesting argument because if you notice, the icons that we're receiving in packs are not really new icons. It's the same icons recycled with multiple versions. But Evo's like this give you an opportunity to Evo a random icon from somewhere, even a base icon,

[00:08:50] for example, Samuel Lato or things like that. So you can Evo a lot of icons. So I think EA is doing one of two things. One is they're kind of allowing us to be a little bit more in control of what we want to do and letting things be a little bit more free. But on the other hand, EA is getting us used to spending a whole heap of coins or FC points on evolutions. And that's the part that I'm starting to get a little bit.

[00:09:17] I've already spent a whole heap on evolutions this year. I've done Osman Dembele that I've famously spoken about. Hardly ever use him. I did a Raphael Liao. Spent 300k. Didn't like him. Just threw him out. Yeah, it was boring. I spent 300k. I'm starting to spend a lot of coins on cards that I don't necessarily use. So I'm starting to be a little bit dubious with these evolutions. Yeah, absolutely. It's an interesting one.

[00:09:44] And we've had the chat over the last few weeks about are these real or are they fake stats? If these are real, it's tremendous. I mean, EA have kind of hit a bomb, haven't they? I know we joke about Suarez. But Suarez on face stats is pretty much identical to CR7, although they're obviously different body types. But they are so similar. CR7 was about, was he 3 mil or so? Give a take. Whereas you've got Suarez that's 125, 150k. So different set. But obviously Suarez fits this Evo.

[00:10:12] So he could be mental. And same with CR7. You can Evo CR7 to almost better than the SBC, which a lot of people have done. So that's a bit mental. I mean, take a step back from just Evos at face value. We've talked in the past about store packs. You know, getting the big pulls, getting the big flares. Like, it's obviously, we're so far into this game now, the cycle.

[00:10:39] Next year, it's almost saying to me, the play is to hold your coins for Evos. If you start feeling like the stats are their actual stats and not these potential fake stats. Like, the play for me is Evos. You know, leave them as long as you can. Chain them. At least you know you're getting certain players that you want that fit your play style. Get them to, you know, some of them are well above the power curve in certain respects if you can get the right chains.

[00:11:05] Like, I've never been one for buying players off the market anyway, apart from SBCs. But for me, this just screams Evos are how the game's kind of going now. Like, they'll try and, you know, give you these shiny cards. And they'll always have an Mbappe, a Messi, a Raffaella, or someone in packs to try and tempt you. But if you get a base card or even like an older version promo, don't throw them into SBCs. Even with Hullet, I threw a few in that, you know, because my gameplay's going to, my game time's going right downhill soon.

[00:11:33] But I still try and keep certain cards from promos or that have EVO'd or, you know, certain ones that you can't get even if they're objective players. Because these EVOs are going to be so vital, I think, to getting top tier ones, especially with the right chains. Yeah, I completely agree with that. I think I have a controversial opinion as well.

[00:11:53] It could be a reality in a couple of years where I think where EA is going to take us is eventually you'll have evolutions that you can buy off the page as you're spending coins or FC points. But then, you know, the top 10 or top 20 cards that you can evolve will be part of the package. So, for example, if I go into this evolution, I can go ahead and spend a thousand points for the evolution or I can spend 6,000 FC points on getting R9 and the evolution as an example.

[00:12:23] And that's something that I don't see. We've spoken about this numerous times where we will have like we will have players you can buy off the market. Sorry, you can buy players straight off with FC points. It doesn't seem right just buying players off the FC, spending FC points and buying players, but using them through the Evo channel kind of makes it sort of palatable.

[00:12:45] So I really start, I think if not FC26, but FC27 will start to be able to buy cards directly from the evolution space and you will be spending. And look, if I, between you and me, if majority of the people that are spending 4 or 5 million on buying Ana and Evoing him, if they could spend 4,000 or 5,000 FIFA FC points to try and buy him straight and get him evolved, I think a lot of people are going to do that. And that's a huge revenue source for EA. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:13:14] I mean, there'd be swings and roundabouts to that, you know, there'll be people who are fortunate enough to be able to afford that. But would it mean that, you know, everyone, well, not everyone, but, you know, if you get to say dev 3, dev 2 and higher, everyone may have an R9 or everyone may have an Mbappe, which, you know, they're more common this year than ever, but still lots of people don't have them. But I wouldn't be against that. I think that's their way around because obviously we've heard in the past the challenges to these sort of loot boxes and the gambling side of things. That could be the way of addressing it.

[00:13:43] And to be honest, I'd be for that because if people are diehard and committed, then they go for it. Do you know what I mean? Like I'd rather people spend money on something they know they're going to get than packs, which, you know, I'm just a way to come on to that, the pack weight of decided things. But, you know, it's definitely a lot better to try and get something that, you know, you go sorry to get something that you want rather than a pot shop. Even these guaranteed ones, I've seen lots of people do these guaranteed, you know, 91 pluses or 90 pluses. And it's always the minimum rate.

[00:14:12] And it's always the ones that aren't particularly, you know, meta, aren't popular. They're just kind of almost pack fillers so they can say we're giving you this 90 plus one and you're getting a 90 rated terrible card. So, I mean, going back to, you know, pack weight and stuff. We've seen a few SBCs. So, obviously, the guys on Friday spoke about the big one, who me and Dan have done and we're just waiting for slow coach Shaq to catch up.

[00:14:38] They have released one that I'm tempted to, but I've got absolutely no reason to is Solskjaer because all he's obviously a knighted legend. We've had Ben White, who actually looks a fairly good card. He's only 100k. So, that's not a bad one. A 91 rated right back that can play centre back. Anticipating slide tackle. Looks very serviceable. Sergio Roberto, who looks very meh, right back, then got centre mid.

[00:15:03] And he's one of those sort of the adage, I think, do him for a future Evo if he fits your squad. And Bayer as well, who's very fast. But, again, he's got the low driven shot. But I don't know. I think compared to sort of Suarez and some of the others you got, I'd be staying clear. But the big thing for me, so Hullet is obviously, what, 5 million coins worth of cards? A lot of packs. A lot of squads. And they've actually got some decent packs back. Packweight is horrific.

[00:15:32] Is packweight horrific? Because they know a lot of people are going to be grinding, especially Hullet, but some of these other SBCs. We've got some fairly good packs and objectives as well. And there's lots of objectives to be doing just now. There's the cup. There's a couple of players and the objectives. We've just got new rush objectives. Is this calculated by you? Are they deliberately lowering the packweight? Because there's some decent cards in packs. Obviously, the likes of Lucio and Lisa Azur. Even that McAuley, who's not expensive. It's 270K. But he looks very good as a CDM.

[00:16:03] But because there's so much to do, so much to grind. And obviously, they've got the repeatable grind at the moment where you use the silver players to get the packs back. You can put them into packs. So menu grind is very good and very sort of plentiful just now. It's not fruitful. Absolutely. Absolutely. Is this calculated? Are you doing this on purpose so you don't get either the high-rated photos or you have to go to the store to get that last squad of the whole lot done?

[00:16:28] Or they've got the store pack at the moment where I think it's 11, is it 90 pluses from different promos? What's your thoughts on that? What are you kind of... How have they come to this conclusion that this is the way to go? Before I go on a rant about packweight, let me just also mention the fact that you mentioned Bayer and I think there's even Katrina Makaria, who's really cheap to get done in the sense that they're the same price as 92 rated fodders. But then they can be done with 84, 85 squads. And it's really good if you're doing the hulet grind.

[00:16:58] It's really good to get these cards into your club so you can put them into hulet. That's number one. Now going back to this. I think one of the things that's really bugging me, I think we had this with, I think, the grassroots grind as well when you had those grassroots grinds back where we churned in a lot and a lot of those SPCs, 25 days, 25 SPCs a day, and literally get back nothing. Like literally, you just get basic non-rare goals and rare goals. It just keeps churning over and over again. Then even the player picks today, really, really bad. Like the backweight is dire.

[00:17:29] Open champs rewards, rivals rewards. I haven't seen a Dreamcatcher apart from a guaranteed Dreamcatcher's pack. I don't think I've seen a Dreamcatcher. And even if you do see one, it's the base bare minimum one. And I think one of the things that Dan and I were mentioning when you were talking about in a group chat is when was the last time you actually saw a Rodri come out of your pack or a Bonmati? Gold. I'm talking about the gold come out of the pack. There seems to be a cap on even fodder. It all stops at 88 rated. Barely maybe Odegaard and Hegerberg at 89.

[00:17:59] And that's pretty much it. It doesn't go past that. It's all literally calculated because people like me, I can't finish the 91 rated squads. And I'm constantly tempted to go to the store and open that 91 plus pack to try and just get some fodder. It's like convincing myself that if I just throw a coin, roll the dice, probably get an R9 that I'm hoping for. Worst case scenario, I have fodder for Hullet. So it's a really clever strategy.

[00:18:23] And I think there's even a provision pack now in the store that Dan, Wimby, showed to me, which I opened for 200,000 coins. I can't remember what the contents of that provision pack was. 200,000 coins for a bunch of fodder cards. It's just that there's so many fodder cards in the store. But any of your other packs don't seem to have anything off weight, which is weird. That's the second half premium rare gold provisions pack.

[00:18:53] So you get 11 rare gold players between 87 and 90 all tradable. Oh, sorry, all untradable. So you can do that for the, you know, you do that with the hope of if you've got the 91s done, getting the fodder for the 89s and the 90s. And, you know, towards the end of that grind, especially for Hullet, like you are throwing things in and you're having to think, you know, two, three, four times. Do I really want to sacrifice this card?

[00:19:16] I mean, I put one of my United past and presence in and I'm kicking myself, but I put Ella Toon in because I can't even buy her back, obviously. But I was like, I wanted to keep her, but I also wanted Hullet done quickly. So you do have that. So I think you're right. I think it's calculated. I think it's very clever. I don't think it's necessarily right because it would be so nice. You know, I opened all those packs. I have to say I got two Hallands on the way, a couple of Hegelbergs, and the rest were sort of 84 tops.

[00:19:44] So it didn't really help me that much. But it would be nice. You do think that you're putting in this hefty grind. It's almost like EA Owas, some sort of, you know, carrot that you're chasing this carrot. They may, they've got to let you have a bite of this carrot so you can, you can keep going. And, you know, it does get a little bit demoralizing when you're thinking, I'm doing this Hullet. And he's going to be very good. I mean, he probably will last you the whole cycle if you want him to. Obviously, he'll fit an Evo, probably after footies.

[00:20:11] I don't think any Evo is going to touch him until sort of footies or whatever promo they'll bring after the footies. So I just think that there's got to be something there to kind of reward you for putting that grind. And, you know, you're putting players that you've got sentimental sort of value with. People are putting hard-earned coins, hard-earned cash into this. So it would be so nice to say, like from EA to say, here you go.

[00:20:35] We're not giving you, you know, a Lucio, but here's a, I don't know, here's a Prince, here's a Beckenbauer, here's a Makalelius. You know, someone that's, you know, not the absolute top, but also well done for this grind. I just think that there's got to be something going back as well. And I say that as somebody that's already done it. So although I want to come back, I'm obviously not taking the Huff too much and not done it. But it just feels a bit, I don't know, a bit cold almost from EA. Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:03] I would just be happy with fodder. I really would be happy with fodder at this point in time. And I think even the grind that we have right now, the Dream Chasers, Dream Catchers, sorry, I don't know what the actual grind is. But you do the silver cards, you get the silver pack, and then you put those silvers into the Dream Chasers grind and then get absolutely nothing. And then the gold, 11 gold players back, that gives you nothing. And then the player picks gives you nothing.

[00:21:29] I think last year we had exchanges that really corrupted our minds as to how we can grind these SPCs. And we just assume that we have that grind still in the back of our palms. But we don't necessarily have that because I've spent a whole day yesterday and, well, yesterday and bits of today trying to grind. I don't think I've made a dent in any squad. Like two days of grinding, not a dent in one squad. That's weird. That is a bit weird. It is.

[00:21:54] I mean, for those of you that are listening to this and they're still looking, I'd highly recommend if you've got lower end fodder doing the campaign packs, even doing the hero packs, because if you get some of the higher rated ones, because obviously that's in that gap between you can't really add to the, add to the whole squad. So if you've got the 84s, 85s, put them into these packs. At least if you get, you know, especially the campaign ones, if you get a 92, 93, that boosts your overall rating so far. It does make it a lot easier. And I have to say, I wasted, well, I say wasted, I used a lot of fodder on these, these packs.

[00:22:24] So I try and get higher rated ones. And, you know, you could easily buy them off the market, but, you know, you don't want to spend coins. If you're getting 84s back, you'd be as well using them somewhere. And we do get these 84 times fives, which again, I did all, was it four of them we get last night? I think 86 was my highest rated. Yeah. But even those ones are pretty dire. And I say this now, knowing that fine will they come back tonight and I will absolutely do it again. And I'll be really annoyed again. Like, you know, 10 minutes after opening that, all I got was 86s.

[00:22:54] But talking about, so the menu grind, I mean, we have asked for the menu grind. How do you feel about the current state of this, like the menu grind? If the pack weight was a little bit better, I mean, we can't control that. But obviously we've been asking for things to do. But are you happy with what they've chucked at us in terms of the ability to chase these kind of cards? Yeah. I think they're trying, but it's become like a full-time job to try and complete that on a daily basis.

[00:23:21] 25 SPCs a day and 11 gold players packs a day. And my clubs dry off silvers, my clubs dry off bronzes. I have a lot of non-rare golds, but I've got nowhere to put them apart from gold upgrades. So it's just, I think you can keep grinding with no success. I've been, like I said, I've been trying to grind and I really haven't had any success in getting any, gathering any momentum from these packs.

[00:23:49] So the easiest thing is to go to the store. Whereas I think we need to have something. I think, I think hopefully, hopefully, hopefully we get like a 83-14 or 85, 85-10. Oh, that would be great. 85-10 would be amazing right now. Yeah, it would be. But unfortunately, I do not see that coming at all. I think EA will be looking saying that's going to make Hullet a lot quicker to do for a lot of people.

[00:24:15] So I'd love to see the 83-14 come back, I think, to pad out the squad a little bit more. I would love that. I think 84 times five, when you're only getting 84, 85, 86s back, you can't even really complete the next one with your dupes because you're struggling. Whereas at least the 83 times 14, it's almost like a continuous cycle. You'll get the odds bit of fodder that you put in your SBC storage. You know, 83s, 84s go straight back into that. And, you know, you're laughing.

[00:24:40] So it's an interesting one because I don't want to be too critical because they are giving us ways to grind and things to do. But at the same time, pack weight being so low, it's almost a bit like, what is the point? And, you know, I did all the cup yesterday. I finished rivals. I think I did about five stages of the, you know, when you play with the three, Dumbaya, Giovino, and the other one as well. They give you really good packs back. I did all that in the cup.

[00:25:08] I just used those three as my front three, which is a really good way to do the play. I think it's play up to 25 games or something. Got nothing back from that. So, yeah, just loosen those strings a little bit, EA, please. Give us a little bit more to play with. Make it a little bit more fun. But, no, that's, I do think they are trying to give us something without giving us anything at the same time. It's a bit like, I don't know if you heard Roy Keane talk about Bruno Fernandes' fake press.

[00:25:34] He says he does a lot of movement without actually doing anything in the press. And, you know, that just reminds me a little bit like this. EA are doing lots and lots to give us things without actually giving us anything at all. That is true. That's a really apt statement of where we are right now. There's a lot of things to do, but the end result is nothing. Exactly, exactly. Shaq, going back to last week, we followed up the previous Friday Club talking about this new low-driven shot play style.

[00:26:05] Now we've had an extra week, because obviously it was only in a few days before we recorded. It's almost been, well, a week and a half, nearly two weeks since it was released. What are your thoughts on it? And have EA got this right? I love it. I absolutely love it. I think one of the things where credit is due, they've actually refreshed the gameplay a little bit because of the low-driven. And I think a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, we had the Shadow Striker++.

[00:26:31] It's kind of given you something extra to play with, some more tools in your watch as such to try and use on the pitch. And the low-driven shots are a lot of fun. It's just about figuring out the angles that you can do it with and having the people on the wing that can do it. And it's a lot of fun. It's very accurate. It gives you a bit of a buzz when it goes in. It's like when we were hitting those power shots at the start of the year or when we did finesse shots last year. That thrill that you get, I'm getting that with low-driven shots.

[00:26:59] And I think some of the players like Rodman or Adeyemi, for example, those two I have in my club, their low-drivers are so much fun with them. So much fun. What about you? I love it. I do love it. Like I said, I've only got Musello with it. But I'm quite happy having that mix of low-driven and finesse. I think I wouldn't count solely on low-driven because when people start to figure it out a little bit more, they'll make it a lot harder. So I still like my finesses from outside the box as well.

[00:27:28] I just think that it's like we spoke last week. I still think that low-driven inside the box and finesse from outside seems to be the play for me. But I have been noticing on socials, on a few streamers and in our own group chat as well. I mean, Dan's had a torred time, I think, against low-driven. And he's out there throwing tables and, you know, kicking kittens down the roads and everything saying, they need to nerf it. It's too strong. So, I mean, people are trying to use it.

[00:27:58] Shaq, do you think it's overpowered? Do you think it's too strong? Or do you think it's just that it's just really fun and people are kind of getting the most of it? I think it's overpowered in the sense that when you get the angle right and you get the positioning right, it works really well. But it doesn't work sometimes as well because you've got to get that just a tap. And it's really hard to just tap where you normally are used to, like, scoring with at least 40% to 50% of your power bar. So, it is a bit of a getting used to thing. Also, the angles have to be perfect.

[00:28:28] And one of the things I've been noticing over the past maybe three days, Casillas seems to be saving a lot more low-driven. I'm starting to notice that. And every time someone's got Casillas on, it's a bit harder to get those low-driven in. So, yin and yang, it seems to be working at this point in time for me. Yeah. I mean, I can't remember who it was, but there was a few people on X that put out before his SBC expired, this is the goalkeeper you need to counter low-driven shots.

[00:28:57] Do this SBC now. So, I'm guessing a few people, you know, took heed of that. I did Casillas because I think it was the last year or two years ago, Casillas was unreal for me in-game anyway. Also, having an icon link as your goalkeeper, I've always been big on because keepers are much of a muchness unless you have, you know, potentially best Courtois or Van de Saar, sometimes Schmeichel as well. But I like having that icon link as a goalkeeper. So, Casillas has done well for me pretty much throughout.

[00:29:25] He did have, you know, two or three-day periods where he decided to fall over the ball and let things through his armpit. But apart from that, I think that was a, you know, that's up there for me with FC25 sort of best value SBC so far. I agree. Completely agree. I think Casillas is worth every coin. And it's been a while. I've done it at Team of the Year, still using him. And, yeah, pretty happy. He does some funny things, but I think every goalkeeper does funny things. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:29:54] It's just the way that they seem to be coded in the game. It's not even just this year, to be fair. So, full circle, going back around. We've spoken, obviously, about this promo. There's some very nice cards, but there's not, you know, there's not a dearth of unreal and must-haves. The prices of them reflect that. They're still very low. Considering the pack weight is low, you'd think the prices would be higher, but they're not incredibly high on most of them. We've spoken about EVOs. So, PowerCurve, where do you see it going?

[00:30:23] I mean, obviously, this is going to be our last, probably the last time you were on an FC25. Do you see, you know, we're now getting 94, 95 rated SBCs. Oh, not SBCs, sorry, EVOs. There's only, you know, up to 99, which usually comes at the very end of the cycle. Are we going to, you know, are we going to get the final three-figure rating? Are they just going to kind of cap it and bring in more play styles or more roles? Like, how do you see this now developing over the next, probably two months until footies?

[00:30:54] I am really curious what they do with Team of the Season because it has to be three play styles at a minimum. But I think by then, three play styles will feel very ordinary because we already had three play styles during Team of the Year. And then we had three play styles right now. So, Team of the Season could even be four? I don't know. I think they've really, I don't know how they could keep exponentially improving the PowerCurve

[00:31:20] because it's not going organically high. It's just shooting higher and then just waffling along and then shooting higher and waffling along rather than a linear growth, like just slowly going up. It's just, it's a weird way that they've handled the PowerCurve. I think you really spoke to it last week. And straight after that, we had a couple of SBCs that were three play style pluses, Icons with three play style pluses, EVOs with three play style pluses. So, where to from here? I really don't know. I wouldn't want to be EA right now

[00:31:49] because, you know, at some point in time, it just feels like they won't be able to excite us anymore. It's just, how much more can you make? How much more exciting can you make it? Yeah, I mean, that was kind of my thought because maybe not in this year's cycle, but if they keep going the way that they're going, in FC 27, by the time we get to Christmas, each player is going to have about five or six play style pluses before. And for me, the excitement is getting the players with the right blend for your style,

[00:32:18] the right play styles in certain areas. But if, you know, you're seeing it with EVOs to a certain degree that we're getting lots of players, because they're capped, stats are almost becoming a little bit pointless or a bit meaningless. And it's all about, you know, the roles, the body frame, the height, you know, all this type of thing where, you know, I just worry that we're going to start getting into the position where everyone's got very, very samey players. You know, we're already seeing the 4-2-1-3 being probably 90% of the formation used,

[00:32:47] which is why I've decided to turn off it. We're seeing a lot of the same cards being put through EVOs. You know, to be fair to them, this latest one, you are seeing so many cool options for it. I've not really played Rivals since they've launched this EVO, so I don't really know in terms of who's doing what with it. But I do worry that we're going to end up almost kind of backing ourselves into a corner. I say ourselves as the wider, you know, FC collective, but we'll be in a bit of a corner where it's just going to feel really stale and samey. And maybe that's a good thing because there will be a skill gap then

[00:33:17] because if we've all got the same, you know, lots of people use the same formations, we've got the same players with the same builds, then it is down to purely who's a better player. But I quite like having, you know, the different players and coming up against different things and trying to test yourself in that way as well. But I don't know, how do you feel about that? Yeah, it's a funny one because I think losing to a meta squad, you can always complain and say, ah, yeah, this guy is a credit card FC.

[00:33:46] But losing to a random evolution squad makes you feel really crappy sometimes because you just know the opposition is having a great time EVOing this random team and having a great, it's working out. So I really don't know how, I think the squad variety is really high. Like every now and then, for example, right now you're seeing, I'm seeing a lot of Robbie Keens. It's not the regular Robbie Keen. It's not the special Robbie Keen.

[00:34:15] It's a weird EVO version of Robbie Keen who's incredible in game. I'm seeing a lot of Dean Natales. Not again, an EVO version of Dean Natale. It's all these EVOs, which are kind of cool. It is kind of cool. It's cards that I don't necessarily think of. Like we haven't spoken about Robbie Keen, but I've come across him multiple times this past week in Champs and he was really good. No, that's good. Let's hope that people keep going that way. And, you know, I'm hellish at trying to follow the meta in a way, but then try to do my own wee stamp on it as well. But, you know, you look through my squad

[00:34:45] and I do have, you know, I've got Henri in CR7 up top. You know, I've got a hole in there. You know, my defense, I've got Mendy at left back because I can't seem to find anyone better than him really just now. And I've got Casillas in goal. So I do kind of follow the crowd, but then, you know, I've got Trent Alexander and I'll play in it right center back. I've got Musiala who isn't really, I've not really come up against him at all, I don't think, apart from in rush. So it's hard. And you do keep thinking, I need to try and be different. But I just,

[00:35:15] my worry is that we're all going to end up going the same way. So that may come down to evils. If they, you know, we've said that they've done a better job this time in opening up. We've asked for that early on to give you a bit more creative license and use sort of a wider pool. So maybe they'll go that way. Who knows? Shaq, just to carry on our normal Tuesday tradition, I want to firstly start with, hold on if I can get the right button.

[00:35:44] Formation focus. I am going to jump the gun first, seeing as I know that I've, I've actually changed up for once. We've, I've had weeks and weeks of talking about 421, 4213 and 4321. I have gone back to my FIFA 23, 24 days. Shaq, I am now playing a 4222. I quite like it. I've done it out of necessity to accommodate players more than anything else. I wanted to have Henri and CR7 as strikers.

[00:36:14] I had Henri as a winger. And I just didn't think that he, he kind of, you know, benefited from that as much. So I, I'm loving it. I am absolutely loving it. I've not got, I've got the best two CDMs are both on deep lighting playmakers. I think one's Roman, one's build up, I think a one's build up and one's defend. I've got, I've got one cam on playmaker and one on set shadow striker. Defensive,

[00:36:39] unfortunately they're all the full back and defense because we've got the 4213 meta. And I've kind of just got to pin them in hoping that, you know, I can't, I won't get counted, but I love this formation. You know, it seems to be coping with the 4213 fairly well. Not every time, but the triangles are back. The passing options are plentiful. It'll be interesting to see once I put Hullet in, into my CDM, if he makes that big difference, I'll play him next to Trent.

[00:37:05] I played Maradona as the shadow striker because he's got finesse plus and that incisive pass, which I love. However, when Kroif gets completed, I'll be firing Kroif in, but I don't see 4222 that much anymore. So I'm guessing it's not the end thing, but it's really fun to go back to. I've seen a couple of people mentioned 4222 right now. I think a lot of people are using Hullet in that position as well, in the cam position as a shadow striker. And that is quite effective because you can defend from the front with, with his body size. And Hullet's shots are incredible.

[00:37:34] I use the loan and his shooting is insane. Close to the box or inside the box. It's insane. But he's a big frame. So he's not agile enough for the way you probably want to play. But yeah, I think a lot of people are using the 4222 right now. And a lot of people are talking about the 4222. So it's a really, it's refreshing to try something different to 4213, because I think every, out of the 15 games of Reading Champs, maybe 14 were 4213. Yeah. I just find it everywhere. And I would,

[00:38:03] I would happily play Hullet further up. I think if I played a 4231, he would probably be my central cam, because I do like to still get crosses in and, you know, you can't really beat him in the air. But I just think that, you know, he's got good defensive stats ability. And if you get him on, I might move him. I don't know what rolls, if you can get him on box to box from CDM, but I might try and get him more of an attacking kind of nuisance as well. But what are you using just now, Shaq? Are you, are you with the sheep? Are you with the herd?

[00:38:33] Sorry. Or are you something a bit different? I'm still using the 4231 that I'm, that I've crafted from John to you to my own tweak, which I'm loving. It works really well, but I have been, when I go ahead in games, I just go for Hullet for Leather, or when I go behind in games, like I really need to catch up, I go, I started using a 4212, with both the fullbacks on attacking wingbacks. I have Theo and Kafu, and it's, it's a lot of fun. It is very, it's very,

[00:39:03] you just pretty much put everything, you just put defense on the back burner and just go attack. And it really overwhelms your position. And it's kind of fun as well, because they suddenly don't expect that to hit, hit them. And it has been working. It has been really working. It just throws them off, especially at the start of the second half. I'll just switch it up in 41212. And it's a really effective formation, even for a half, or if you want to, don't know if it would, if I would start with it, because it is pretty, it is really attacking, but I really want to tweak it in such a way that I can start using it from the start.

[00:39:33] A little bit more cautious than what it is right now, but there is some depth to it. There is definitely some, some depth to it. I love that. I love the fact that you're, you're thinking outside the box and, you know, you're wanting to find your own formations and ways of doing it. I think that's brilliant. And that's what this game's about. I think, you know, I like to see what kind of, you always know that 4213 is going to be good because everyone's using that, but then you're thinking, how do I make this my own? And then that's why I did with the 4231 originally. But then I just feel bad because, you know,

[00:40:01] Henry can't play left med. You don't really want to drop Henry. You don't want to drop Ronaldo. Like it's almost like I've got these players. I've got to shoehorn them in a little bit. And, you know, it's probably to my detriment that I'm not doing the formation that suits me as much, but at the same time, it's almost a bit like, well, you know, especially with limit gameplay game time. I want to kind of make the most of these fun players. Finally, before we wrap up our emotional, potential last Tuesday Club Shaq, we have one more usual thing,

[00:40:30] and we'll throw back to our good pal Dan, who's abandoned us for however many months. player in review. Shaq, do you have a player today that you want to talk about? I really have a good player. And I shout out to Dan as well. And the player that I have is, you'd be proud of me for this one. It's Paul Scholes. It's one of the evolutions of Paul Scholes. The 99 passing one, the winter wildcard one with that. Oh,

[00:40:59] he's so good. He's my sub. When Neymar gets tired, he just, I just bring him on. And his passing is, as from a cam position, because he's got the cam as well as part of that evolution. His passing is so sublime. Like once you get used to the angles and you realize he can't make a mistake, as long as your body is in the right shape, he, you can't make a mistake with his passing. And some of the passes he picks out, like it just, I think I don't really care if I score a goal or not. I just am excited with the fact that I'm getting those passes through.

[00:41:29] And I'm really, I think I used it for almost maybe 80% of my champs games as a sub. And I really, I think I was looking forward to Neymar getting tired so I can bring him on to try it. And he was a lot of fun. So if that, I think that Evo is still out there. If you have a Scholes lying around, just Evo him. He is incredible in that cam position. And shout out to Dan for that. Cause he suggested it. Oh no, we don't give him any ploders in this last one. Come on. We can't be too nice to him. No, that's a great shout. Obviously a man after my own heart with the, with a Scholesy, Scholesy one.

[00:42:00] My one's a Premier League player. However, it's not a United player. It's Ledley King who I wish his knees were better and he could have played for us. But his, his foot birthday one, I've thrown in more for links than anything. And I think I put Alaba who I was using last time. I threw him into the hole. So I thought I'm going to give him a, give Ledley King a run out. The guy is an absolute monster, by the way. Like, I don't know whether it's his builds, his frame or something. He's, he's lengthy, stocky and tall,

[00:42:30] six foot two, obviously five, five, but he's like a brick wall. You just can't get past him. He's, he's so good. Um, his passing, you know, 75. So it was not tremendous. So you can't really build out too much from the back with them. However, he's just, you know, if you just want a pure defender, he is so much fun. So, uh, he's, he's now under a hundred K he's drops and he's dropped a wee bit. So I, I, I'd recommend him if you're looking for a fairly cheap center back, um, obviously with the hero links, he is tremendous.

[00:42:58] I am going to go to the dark side. I think I've got, um, got the defender evil, which expires in a week or something. So I've got base company. So I think I might throw base company into that here, that, um, that evil. Cause I think he looks like he could be excellent too. Um, I did have the version up, but again, he went into Hullet. So I get the base evil because company in the game is usually very good as well. So I think that might be well worth it for me. Um, before we completely wrap up Shaq,

[00:43:28] is there anything else you want to add? No, I think that's pretty much it. And yeah, looking forward to, um, your updates in a couple of weeks time. Thank you. Yeah. I'll, I'll be sure to share them around, um, our wonderful discord as well. We've, we've not plugged that at all. So for those of you out there, we do have a free discord, um, come and find us in there. We talk all things foot. We've got a funny section. We've got a normal football section. Uh, we, I mean, we talk just normal everyday stuff as well. So come and find us in there. If you'd like to support the pods,

[00:43:58] um, patreon.com forward slash foot and review, every little bit's appreciated to keep this show running. Um, yeah, hopefully, uh, we'll be able to, you know, add in a few ad hoc ones as and when time allows Shaq. Um, but for those of you listening, keep your eyes peeled to the socials and, and John, uh, may record to give a bit more of an update when we've kind of figured things out a little bit more. But as I say, I think the plan at the moment is to go down to one show a day. Um, but,

[00:44:26] but John will be one show a week. Sorry. Yeah. One a day was what we used to do. And that was, that was wild. That was absolutely manic. So sorry. One show a week. Um, obviously we've got, um, a host and crew. So if something major drops, there will be people jumping on as and when to discuss. Um, although, you know, fortunately, unfortunately, however, we're on to look at it. EA have got a lot better with their mistakes. They're not dropping an awful lot, a lot of clangers just now. So we'll just need to wait and see. But if we don't catch anybody, you know, have a nice summer,

[00:44:55] have a nice Christmas for me. Um, uh, but no, I'll hopefully keep you guys updated. It'd be a lovely to catch up with everyone in the, in the discord. So, uh, enjoy the game. Do not get as frustrated as we always seem to do, uh, because we like a good rant, don't we? Uh, we do. But Shaq, it's been an absolute pleasure as always. One thing left to do. Drop it. We are going to drop it. Drop it. F-U-T

[00:45:26] F-U-T F-U-T F-U-T T T bajo husband and man um and