#736: This Is What TEAM OF THE SEASON Is About..

[00:00:09] Welcome back to episode 736 of Foot in Review, the podcast that has officially lasted longer than a Harry Kane title challenge. I'm your host, John, and today we are heading to Germany for the Bundesliga Team of the Season. Joining me to dissect the power creep and the inevitable disappointment of Red Picks are my two co-hosts.

[00:00:34] First, the man who thinks tactical depth is just another way of saying he's parking the bus with five at the back. It's no longer than Neil. Neil, welcome back. Good evening. I've been devoted back to rank. Probably deserved, I'll never know. But it's nice to be on the show. Thank you for having me. That's good. We'll talk about that soon though. Don't worry about it.

[00:00:57] Neil, I saw you trying to learn German this morning, but I'm pretty sure Ich Drauge Eikon Gullet isn't going to help you at the local bakery though. How's the pack luck treating you, mate? Good. I don't know what to say this week. It's been exceptional. I have packed... Let me think. Who have I packed this week? Who's the Man City winger? He's packed some in your place.

[00:01:23] I've packed some menu yesterday from a store pack because I got paid yesterday, so it's payday. So that's my store pack. But from the dregs of the 83-14, out popped Declan Rice from that as well. So two really good pulls. So excellent. Can't complain in that sense.

[00:01:49] Well done. Well done. But joining us as well, alongside him, a man who has scouted more hidden gems than the actual Bundesliga. I wanted to say he had still managed to lose it to a 12-year-old using Gold Werner, but I won't say that. Welcome back, Graham. Thanks for having me back on, but I don't know where you got that one from. No, I didn't say it. I just said I put it into the script. I didn't actually. Oh, I did. Sorry, mate. How have you been? Yeah, pretty good. What about yourself?

[00:02:18] I'm pretty good, mate. I've heard that you prepared a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation on why a 93-rated wingback from Augsburg is actually the best value in the game. Maybe. Maybe I'm not. Last question. Are the laser hosen on or are we keeping it professional tonight? Keeping it professional. I think that's actually a pretty good idea.

[00:02:42] Okay, guys. All the nonsense is out of the table. We're back. The week in foot. And actually, we prepared something about this. Because he's back. He's back. The man, the myth, the legend. This week in Football Ultimate Team. There you go. A little bit of Daniel in the mix there. I actually forgot we made this snippet a while ago. So, well, it's in the show now. Guys, just putting it out there. Premier League is usually the biggest week of Team of the Season.

[00:03:12] It's where the red pick happened to be the most important ones. And it's also accidentally hitting straight with our spring holiday break here. So, I have been going to cinemas, steam parks, water parks, playing football. But I have actually been unable to actually pick up control during the weekend league. So, no red picks for me. Graeme, please make up for it and say you've had the best red picks ever.

[00:03:41] Maybe not the best, but I had good ones. I got Miedema and... Sorry, how do you pronounce her name again? Kas? Kasperij. Kasperij. So, the two Dutch females from Man City. And Kasperij, she's probably the best right back. She looks fantastic. But Miedema, I didn't think she looked too good to start with. But once I played her, she's really, really, really good. Yeah, I told you that Kasperij last week when we were on the show looked really good.

[00:04:11] Would be like one of those outside of cards for me. Yeah, she is fantastic. She rarely ever gets beat for pace, strength, anything. She's so solid. Brilliant, brilliant. And Neil, we talked about your regular picks, but we didn't talk about your red picks, did we? I didn't get any. So, I rushed, I speed rushed my champs this Monday, mainly because of weather was good and I wanted to get outside.

[00:04:39] That doesn't sound like a true professional podcast of talking about in a game, mate. You should be inside even if it's 30 degrees. No, no. It's too nice. So, I wanted out, but I thought I'd try and experiment. Because I had different players that I wanted to try in different positions and stuff. So, I wanted to change formation. Because I really struggled to play, not so much a different way, but I struggled to play against, everyone plays the 4-5-1 or the 4-4-1-1.

[00:05:08] And the 4-3-2-1 that I played just isn't cut for playing against that. So, I managed to get seven wins, but to be perfectly honest, I really struggled to get these seven wins as well. I think I was lucky in a couple of games. I found it really tough. I wouldn't say it was much sweatier than any other week, because it was just the same old, same old. But I struggled. Seven wins for me, I didn't back anything from it.

[00:05:37] And to be honest, I kind of came off the game pissed off. Excuse my French. I kind of left it with that. It's no fun. I'll ask Graeme first, how his Wicked League went? Because I might have some, well, foot coaching analysis on your performances there. Graeme, how has your weekend been for the training? You had two excellent red picks, but performance-wise and sweatiness-wise.

[00:06:07] Nine wins again. Again, a couple games where the other guys were just far better than me, so there's no grumbles there. But a few games, I just don't know how I managed to lose them. Just silly, stupid wee mistakes and dodgy connections, despite being on anything and running on fantastic broadband. But nine wins again, so I can't grumble. Sweatiness-wise, just as bad as it's always been.

[00:06:37] I found it more, it's been playing against the 4-4-1-1. I struggled a lot a bit more, but other than that, it was just as normal. Yeah. Some experiences from the team of the season weekend leaks, so to speak, over the past couple of years when we do with trainees.

[00:06:57] Neil, what you're saying is something we see very often coming back during this period, where people don't feel like playing because of nice weather or mini holiday period, stuff like that. But they force themselves into doing some champs, and then champs always not going their way. Like, never. And I don't necessarily think it's that way because of a neutral perspective.

[00:07:21] But I do feel that if you start off with not feeling it or really not actually wanted to go for it, or going in there only for the rewards, for example. Not saying you did that, by the way. Don't get me wrong there. I think you already lost your top 10, 20% of performances before you even start your first match. Does that make sense to you? So I, how do I put it? I never take it seriously, champs.

[00:07:48] I play in my couch, sit back in my couch, and I don't sit up my light and stuff like that. I try and play for fun. I think it's more of a habit than anything else for champs. Doesn't help. For me, it's usually a week or two after the clock's changed here. Over the winter and stuff, I'll play the game. It's great. When the weather starts to change, I don't lose interest. I just feel my time's better spent outdoors doing stuff.

[00:08:21] There was a few formation changes concerning champs. That's never a good idea, is it? Especially when it's one that you're not used to playing. So I tried out the 4-3-2-1 only because I packed. So after the pod... Next year, I'm going to make a list, mate. With all your packs. Or we just do it like on the thumbnail. We do like an image there or something. With the play you packed this week. So I packed Teka TK.

[00:08:52] And I packed Cherki. So I really wanted to try them both. I didn't really want to play Cherki. I wanted to play him as a calm. I didn't want to play him as a right mid. Just for the way he dribbles and his play styles and stuff. So I played him calm. And I also had McRoy. And I wanted to try Ekki TK out. So I went to the 4-3-2-1. Because I have got some good sentiments as well. The formation itself is fine.

[00:09:22] It's just... Tell me if I'm wrong or not. But the vast majority of the people that are going on playing this game in champs are 4-4-1-1. Or 4-5-1. And they're not interested in... It's not an attacking game. It's a sit-back, wait-for-mistated counter game. And every game is the same. And when you're playing a 4-3-2-1... You can't defend against that.

[00:09:50] You're just getting eaten up on the counter constantly. Are you experiencing the same, McRoy? Most of the games are day-two formations you come up against. Generally, yeah, most people sit back and wait for a counter. But I try and strategically play smart so that my risks are minimised out wide. Rather than try to risk anything that will seem to be completely countered.

[00:10:20] Like I said, there was a few guys that were just obviously far better than me. Probably 15-0, 14-0 sort of type of players that I came up against. No matter what I could do, they just... They knew exactly what I was going to do probably before I knew what I was going to do. But in most games, like I said... Generally, I think I could have maybe got 11-12 wins. Just day-three, two-three games. Silly wee mistakes that... When trying to break that defence, I was countered on. But...

[00:10:50] As long as... It's more of a mistake than anything else for me. I try to just... Like I said, if I try and minimise my risks out wide, rather than through the middle. Because I find if you do do it through the middle, it's game over. So... But... Yeah. I do... The thing is, I do so much like this topic, Neil. That... I'm going to change the show notes around for this one, if you don't mind too much. Do as you please, mate. Absolutely.

[00:11:21] Normally we start with content. But this is so far... This is... This is a topic so dear to my heart and also like close to my job. Right? That I do think we have to like take a... Take a moment to take a deep dive into it. Yeah. If you don't mind me saying so, my thoughts quickly are... You're forced to play a certain way in this game. That's how I feel in the game. Yeah. I think there's two things going on here. There is... Now, let me rephrase that.

[00:11:49] There are a couple of things going on here. I think the first thing is definitely mentality. And not necessarily like your mentality, but your mental state when you start a weekly like this. Right? I think many people go in this champs weekends during the season to get red picks. So, they'll just Google what's the best tactics or what's the most used tactics and use that. So, it's usually more common this time of year that people use the same tactics.

[00:12:18] And I do... I think very much agree that 4-5-1 is probably one of the most currently used tactics. Right? So, there's that. The second thing is I think there's a lot of people rushing their games. So, I don't think champs is a good representative of your skill level currently. Because, like you said as well, Neil, people just jump in to get a chance at those red picks. Get some packs in. But actually, the weather's too good to sit in there and being hunched over and go full focus mode on playing champs.

[00:12:47] So, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. And third, I definitely disagree with the fact that you are forced to play a certain way in this game. And I think this year is actually a really good example of where many tactics are viable. But you have to know what you're doing, if that makes sense. I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing. But let's say you play a 4-5-1 and they're playing high pressure. That's what usually happens. No, but they play high pressure in this game.

[00:13:17] Well, I think this is the period to start playing high pressure. Let's put it like this. Because the game, the cards, the players you're playing now, the cards you can get, they are often 99 stamina. Very fast, very strong, good shooting. They got three play styles. And if you play a counter setup to the most commonly played formation, I think meta is actually, meta means most effective tactics available, right?

[00:13:44] I think meta is actually a poor war choice this year. Because I think currently the 4-5-1 is the most played formation, but not necessarily the most effective way to play. Because if you play 4-5-1 and you play, for example, a 4-1-2-1-2 narrow with the players we currently have, or a 3-5-2, and you focus on like what Graham said, for example, not losing the ball in midfield, there is a very high percentage if you just keep your call.

[00:14:14] You can easily beat the better players, because where do they get the goals from? If you don't give the ball to them. And I've seen this a couple of times this year as well, where I said, let's try a 4-3-3, for example. I've been playing a 4-1-2-1-2 narrow this week, which seems very weak defensively, but I don't need much defenders because they're not pushing. Right? So let me control this ball, and you know half spaces, you have a tactical thingy,

[00:14:43] but if you have like a back line in the midfield, the space between those is what we call half spaces. Right? A 4-1-2-1-2 is basically ideal, because you have a Cam who's in the half space, and you have like a CDM who's in the half space. You're not winning the midfield battle, but you can play through the midfield to just push completely through it. And I think what you will see in the next couple of weeks is people playing the 4-2-1-3, for example, or the 4-1-2-1-2 narrow,

[00:15:12] or the 4-3-2-1, more narrow formations, which the new players will allow for. And in three weeks from now, we'll see, oh, the best tactics available are currently the narrow formations. And I think if you just start that now, I've played it. I've played 4-1-2 on 2-0 for quite a while. I enjoyed it. It was a good formation. Yeah, I think now it's the time to go against it again. Yeah, probably. So... Could be a choice.

[00:15:43] As for the... Could be a choice. I'm very convinced. No, I've played it. I've played it quite a lot, that formation. In fact, I've had good luck with it, because if I put in that formation, it allows me to play Vieira again, who's hands down the best CDM on the game for ball winning and physicality and stuff like that. And he can do a lot more stuff. So he's great to play at a CDM position. It's a good... It is a very good formation.

[00:16:13] I've played it loads of times. I wouldn't go back to a 4-3-2-1 because the two camps just go drift out wide and then you've just got nothing in that half space as you're talking about. And it's a struggle to get a ball into your striker and then your striker gets the ball and then there's nobody there supporting them. It's just a bit of a difficult formation. It's just... It's my mistake. It's something to try, but that's how you learn, isn't it? Well, I don't necessarily think it's a mistake.

[00:16:42] Don't get me wrong at all. I think it's... Like I said, people use the same formation because that's the easiest way to get started and probably the most used, so easiest to play and easiest to get your points with so you know what your opponent is playing. I do think you put yourself a little bit on your back foot by playing, although you really might not feel like playing. That just never helps, right? Especially when everyone else is on that sweat mode. Yeah, that's up to them.

[00:17:12] I mean, I'm not one for sweating. It's a computer game for me. It's not anything else. No, but you did rush your games this week and you get frustrated by it, which normally... Yeah, you're probably right. But that quickly... That frustration gets drowned away in my sun lounger quite quickly. Which it should be. Graham, I see you nodding there, mate. Do you got anything on these maybe controversial opinions? Not really. I started the year playing 4-4-2

[00:17:40] and then I've really just been trying to stick with my 4-1-2-1-2 narrow and generally that's the formation. Nicholas, 9-9, the pro, I've been using his 4-4-1-1 as a last option. So I've been completely, like you said, the 4-1-2-1-2 narrow does have some defensive frailities, especially if they come out wide and they send their fullbacks up with their wide midfielders.

[00:18:09] They're very caught out with the 2-1-1. But the 4-2-1-3, I was using that as my backup formation and I really found that really good. Like you said, with the half spaces, you do give up really the central of the puck, but with the half spaces with the two CDMs and the cam, it really just gives you, if you can knock a, lobbed through ball or a pinged pass through that gap, you really are setting yourself up

[00:18:39] for outnumbering them on a quick transition. Yeah, I do think some, a lot of people just do play the same game, the same formations because setting them out of pros, when you go and look at the tournaments like today, there was the Serie A, the vast majority was a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-5-1. So everybody will try to draw to that because that's, we had, what was that a couple of years ago, Tex with the 4-2-3-1 narrow and everybody was running that

[00:19:08] because Tex was running it. So I always find that whatever the best in the world do, the community generally follows. But I would say, like you just try and find your own niche, your own groove, find something that works for yourself that in general, you'll get more enjoyment out of the game. I agree with that. Enjoyment is key. I mean, how many times do you take a kickoff and you'll see an R9

[00:19:37] or one of these top strikers and the first thing they do is start sprinting back towards their CDM position and start jockeying? How many times does that, I mean, how can you enjoy playing that way? I don't know. He carries out. I don't do it. Like, I agree there with you. Like, enjoyment is key. It's necessary. I mean, I honestly, and this might be my most controversial thing today

[00:20:06] and we're not even halfway through. I honestly think this game is pretty balanced. I honestly think so. If you play a 4-5-1, I got ways to counter it. If you play in narrow formation, I can probably play around it. I can make a 3 at the backward. I can make a 5 at the backward. In the end, when you play on pro level and it's all about margin, that's where you can, like, feel a difference or you'll be weird

[00:20:35] not using the 4-5-1 or the 4-4-1-1, right? But as long as you're not on that level, there's no reason to go out, and this sounds weird from content creator, to go out to get the most meta tactics. And that's what you see if you look at tactics Archer makes, for example, or tactics I make and we put on the Patreon page. Those tactics aren't this will get you 15-0 in Wicked League. They might if you are enjoying yourself

[00:21:04] and you just know how to play it, but it will get you the same 10 wins while enjoying and doing something else. I think that's key. Like, I honestly like tinkering in this game, using a formation, trying something out, using different players. It's why I like seeing the team of the season because I think it's very much able to do so. And it wasn't that long ago. Like, if you look at FC 22, 23, where you had one formation and if you didn't use 4-3-2-1, you would be done.

[00:21:34] There's no way to play around it. So for all the things they've done not so good this year, I don't even want to say the word one, I think the balance in the last two games and this year especially, they got it right on. I think you're right there. I mean, the last two, was it FIFA 23 was a 4-3-2-1, 24 was a 4-2-1-3, I think. Is that right? And last year was the, there was a formation last year as well, wasn't there? Yeah, but also last year was very much,

[00:22:04] I mean, in the end, they three at the back won the World Cup, right? So there was ways around it. Was it last year it was the five-back that was the king until they nerfed it? Is that right? They actually had to nerf the five-back at one point. Was that last year's game or was that 24? They just backed it. Yeah. They just backed it for the tournaments. But 4-2-1-3 was pretty much solid last year. Yeah, that was a king That was a king formation in 24, wasn't it? Yeah,

[00:22:34] but if you look at like 17 to FC 22, it was 4-2-3-1. For feature one? That's the one you use to CDMs. Like, you know how Liverpool plays 4-2-3-1 and then go to overlap and you have, you send a run, play a front run. Made it easier that actually you could start the game with 4-2-3, switch to 4-2-3, 4-2-3-1 and use your strikers and your wingers as scams, for example. So, I think this, the way they've done it so far is pretty good and I don't think

[00:23:05] there's one meta tactic currently and I think if you focus on having fun, like you said, Neil, or using the fun players. Yeah, don't get me wrong, I mean, when the weather's rotting and I'm, let's say, trying as such, I mean, as I say every week, more often than not, this year I've had eight wins, I've had nine wins three or four, two or three times, three times I think I've had nine, but every other week I have eight wins regardless of the weather so it was one run away

[00:23:34] from getting what I always get and for me, if I got eight wins or then I got a choice of one red pick, to be honest, I'd probably be happy with that. My Serie A red pick, I got that Jacobo Ramon and I play him, I'm really happy with that. So it'd be nice if I could, if I could have squeezed out A1 to get to my usual standard but it just wasn't the B. And in the end, I use half a final team currently and I'm not playing worse than a final team in real life so I think that's still spot. Yeah.

[00:24:04] Grave is like, should I say something about Rangers and should I just, oh, he's holding off, he's holding off. Let's say it the better. Let's say it the better. Talk about let's say it the better, let us know in the comments you guys have been, and guys and girls have been tremendous spamming your Spotify comments with all your questions, remarks, reviews. Some of the reviews are so smartly written that a non-native English speaker like myself don't understand it but thank you still for putting it all in there.

[00:24:35] So let us know in the comments on Spotify comments. If you agree, is there one formation that's actually the formation to use or are there more options to do so? Is meta a real thing this year or is it just a mindset and try to enjoy yourself? Drop it below. Guys, that brings us into halftime entertainment. Normally, Neil provides me with the top five to discuss so we always run the top five.

[00:25:04] I have a list here in front of me. I got two lists actually so I can pick whichever we think should be the one doing it. I am giving you a name. You're going to rank it from one being the best to five being the worst. Once you put something on the spot, you can't change that and you each take turns. In the end, we get a top five for something and it's either really good like usually happens when Graham and myself do it or really poor when Chris does something there.

[00:25:33] So all the honors to you guys today. Also, Neil, just wanted to put out there. Your hosting debut was terrific and that wasn't the thing why I'm hosting today. You said I'd rather have you hosting today. I actually offered you to do this as well. I'm quite happy to be back in my usual spot. However, I might return. We'll see. You will return because of course a little bit of housekeeping. The Creed event is starting at the end

[00:26:03] of next week. That means our usually recording night is a Friday night and the moment we are recording now is the moment where I will land on the beautiful island of Crete next week. So yeah, well, I won't be able to host anything while I'm there. I'm either busy making content which of course you can check on patreon.com for the review or I'd be busy or unable to make content because of other reasons concerning some liquors that might get poured there.

[00:26:33] So Neil has already offered to take care of the show while I am away. Also, Graham is away. John is also with me and of course Chris. So we got half the podcast team on location. So that's going to be fun as well. Back to the basics, back to the topic. I have a top five. I had something Bundesliga related. I had something with German food related. But I'm not

[00:27:02] going to go there because you're not known to have good knowledge about food so far from my experiences. So what we're doing is we're playing a tournament on Creed with real teams. So we're playing a tournament with the season teams like the proper non-food teams in the game. So what I did is I picked five star teams and I want you guys to rank them.

[00:27:32] And of course this list might be controversial but in two weeks when the tournaments have been played we can actually see which team came out on top as well and see how good the list actually was. And there might be some bias with you guys. So I'm going to start with Neil. Neil, I'm going to ask you where are you going to place Barcelona? Of course five stars features a much stronger improved squad compared to previous versions of the game and Jamal

[00:28:02] actually having a good card. Plays a standard 4-3-3 looks really fast and very often picked in the season modes. So they'll be one of the better or best teams in the game to play so I've got a I'm going to place number two as high as that. Well done. Well done. Ah, Graeme, then I've got a neat one for you my friend.

[00:28:32] I'm asking you where are you going to put Arsenal this year? Top contender actually with a very high rated team balanced squad. The attack is really powerful but for a seasoned team this year's defense looks really strong as well. They're not number one. Can't say they're five either so there could be a three or four.

[00:29:02] I think who would be there. I'll go three. Arsenal on three. So you've got Barcelona on two and Arsenal on number three. Neil, back to you my friend. Manchester City of course remains elite for building play with Haaland providing unmatched finishing and of course a terrific midfield. They don't have that great defense in the game

[00:29:31] do they? I don't think they're the worst so I'll go for. Oh Manchester City on four. Graham, it's time to ask you about Paris Saint-Germain. Extremely boosted after winning the Champions League. top tier speed, top tier skill, not a weak position in the team. Where are you going to put them?

[00:30:02] Number one. ESG on number one. Then of course, Neil, the Leif unit number five pick, you can't really pick anymore, my friend. But it does. I think I know who it's going to be. We'll see. Icon's 11, you're going to put them on five. Yeah, okay. No, I wanted to say Real Madrid. Yeah, five. Probably should be two or three,

[00:30:32] shouldn't it? Five. The honourable mentions I had in this list was of course Bayern, Munich and Liverpool. Liverpool, because it's based on last year, luckily, so Liverpool actually looks really good. If you can choose between the list is as follows, PSG on one, Barcelona two, Arsenal three, Manchester City four and Real Madrid on five. But if you can choose, if you would play the tournament, Neil, which of course, unfortunately you aren't, which team would you pick? I'd probably start with Barcelona.

[00:31:02] They've got the midfield and Yemal to do the dribbling, haven't they? They've got Lewandowski score. 4-2-3 though, might be a little bit weak against heavy midfields. I'm hoping that our fellow, I'd be hoping that our fellow patrons play in a spirited way, unlike the rest of the community do. Alright, right. Graeme, who are you going to choose next week? Playing the tournaments? You're playing Rangers basically, of course.

[00:31:32] Normally we have to play with our actual clubs, but out of that lot. Probably say Arsenal. Even though I put PSG first, just for this year balance of playing in a competition, I'd rather Arsenal, their formation is just a little bit more balanced. It does, I've played it a little bit this week. Arsenal is actually one that I put on the list. I had

[00:32:01] Bayern Munich on it first, but I was like the corners. No, you can't score from corners. That's probably fair enough. I would just recommend everyone to Real Madrid, if I'm quite honest, because there's no stopping them but playing Vinicius on top there. Especially when you compare it, you're basically playing gold cards, right? Real Madrid

[00:32:32] on 4-4-2-0. You've got the best goalkeeper of the game, basically in your goal in this game. You've got Mbappé on top. I think it's a very stable formation, so they usually start in a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2, depending on the update. So I think Real Madrid on 5-0, although you couldn't really choose, I think it's way too low for Becky. Yeah, agreed. Heinz

[00:33:02] is brilliant. And also, of course, I could have said it on first, but I got to make it count. Where's the fun in that? Exactly, exactly. So I got it fun though, we'll put the list on, and it's time to talk Bundesliga team of season and more. Graeme, can I give you the word, my friend? We've got Bundesliga team of season, we've got the rest of the world team of season, the Saudi Pro League and I think the Frauen Bundesliga? You're not wearing lederhose, but can

[00:33:32] you guide us through it? Yeah, so where do you want to start? What league? Well, let's start with, I think, the big league here is Bundesliga. So we've got pretty much a Bayern heavy team, which surprised me a little bit. But, obviously, the big star is Harry Kane, the striker with four play styles. We've got Alise, we've got Palovic, we've got Diaz, Vipamecano, Kemmich, and

[00:34:01] Lillise. They're sort of your big massive stars. Then, obviously, we've got our supporting acts, so like from Bayern, we've got Ryerson, Schottelbach, Kobo, probably the young star of the Bundesliga, Visevic of Hamburg. Yeah, that's pretty much your big cards, I'd say. I think those cards are looking terrific. I mean, Harry Kane, wow,

[00:34:31] just terrific season, of course, but what a card that is. Any cards you want to highlight as being a cheap beast, as a scout that you are? So, cheap beast wise, I'd say Vyskovic, he's 246k, obviously, it's not cheap, cheap, but given the level of the team, he's sort of the top end of cheap.

[00:35:02] He's obviously lengthy, so again, that's meta. He's got Bruiser, he's got Jog, he's got Anticipate, he's got Intercept, Fortress, so he's covered all the defensive play styles, he's got Quickstep, and he's got Precision Herder, which is really good. Long ball, gold, it's good for a centre-back, especially if you do face in, that's trying to bring in that high pressure game at the moment. A good long ball, you can trip it over the press,

[00:35:32] and you can be away again. So he would be my cheapest. Also 97 jumping, 96 strength, and 96 aggression on him. 92 reactions, 90 composure as well. If you walk into him, you break something. Yeah. Looks good. Neil, any stand-up players you want to highlight from the Bundesliga team of the season team? Honestly, some of the cards have got some, last week I thought they

[00:36:02] got the play styles on a lot of these cards bang on. And the same, probably with Serie A this week. There seems to be a few kind of random play styles that have been added to a few of the cards. Tristof Boongartner's got press proven plus something you don't really see. Alex Garcia, he's got good play styles. He's got long ball plus from centre mid. Stiller looks good, but Ryerson for me looks really good. He's 400k

[00:36:31] currently. He looks good to me. Perfect fullback if you're going to use whip pass plus if you're willing enough to put your fullback up the pitch. It's quite a cool play style. Quick step plus and bruiser plus. Bruiser plus is still broken in the game and I frankly think they don't know how to fix it. That's why it's still what it is. He's got every other good play styles and he's got technical. He's one that I would fancy packing. One that

[00:37:01] I'm surprised at the price at is Upaminkano being French buying Munich and he got that tall build, hasn't he? He's only 440k. His play styles are all jockey blocking intercept, everything you're looking for. I thought he'd be more expensive compared to say, like a Jonathan Tarr who's costing upwards of more, I can't find him at the moment. 1.3 something. Schlotter Beck is in that scene.

[00:37:32] He's 1.4 million, same ballpark. So to get a million coins cheaper can't be a bad shout there. No, I agree. I think cheap is where you want to look at these teams. If you pack one of the big ones that's fun, don't spend your coins on it. I said it before, I keep saying it, but looking at Baumgartner for example, about 65,000. He's not only 93 rated, CM, Stryker, Orcam,

[00:38:02] the very first star, four star, four star, only if he had five star weak foot, that would be great. But still, look at that card with extremely good pace. Passing is basically maxed out on him. He's got all the passing play styles and he's got all the finishing play styles you need as well. I think that's one heck of a card, maybe five star, I wouldn't blame him as a striker because of his four star weak foot, but that's some midfielder though, you got there for 60k. And I

[00:38:32] think if you look at team of the seasons, teams like this, hey, there's a cheap card there, Baumgartner, the Garcia card, the left back, right, from Red Bull. Looks insanely good, 70k. And I think that's the fun of team of the season. There's plenty of cards to take a deep dive in

[00:39:01] and I like the fact that I got two goalkeepers as well by the way on this one. Neil, do you want to talk to the rest of the world? And explain to people where John Mata is playing now? I don't do you ask Homer that one. I could tell you based on his knowledge. I mean, from what I can see, there's a few, I mean, I don't know, I know the Saudi League has been added, is that separate from the rest of the world? So the

[00:39:30] rest of the world, well, I can't really explain it any other way than how it's painted in the tin. So it's the rest of the world, isn't it? Libertadores, there's a couple of Libertadores cards, there's Argentinian League cards, Korean League, Australian League, so that's where one matter is currently playing, I thought it retired 10 years ago.

[00:40:02] Well, it's sort of similar to retirement. Yeah, but look for a standout card, to be honest, there isn't one that I can see, I'm just looking, there's a couple of, I'd imagine these are the cars you'll be packing all week. There's one card there that Graeme is eyeing. Juan Marta looks fantastic, don't go wrong, I mean, where is he? He's expensive though, from what I remember when I 2.2 million, 5 star, 5 star,

[00:40:31] left footed. So it's the Cristiano Ronaldo syndrome, isn't it? You've basically got a Juan Marta card and 10 others. What I can see, I mean, there's Muslera, the goalkeeper, he's pretty cool, but he's not anything massive to shout about. I feel you're selling some cards short too. I might be selling some cards short, to be if there's any you'd recommend there. I mean, there's not many

[00:41:01] on this that I could say yeah, they're really good cards. I'll name some and I'll let Graham take his pick on my picks. Okay? Okay. I think Kim Jong-Sup looks really good, left winger. He is 22,000. I guess this is also, by the way, Graham, this is the rest of the world syndrome, right? People don't look at these cards obviously. So usually you see them drop up, but that's a five-star weak foot, four-star skill move, left winger, superbly fast.

[00:41:32] His play styles look really good. Yes, he's Korean, Korean league. He's, yeah, there's that. But hey, combine that with Lee Dong-Keong, the cam, who can also play striker, center midfielder. He's actually 340,000 coins currently. I don't think we're the only ones seeing that card being good. Five-star, five-star. I don't think he has any stats on base, shooting, passing, or dribbling under the 92.

[00:42:01] I think long passing at 90, maybe volleys at 87, the only two that's under it. Yeah, and then there's unboosted cards. I think that's honestly looks a nutty card. Di Maria looks a cool card and I notice he's an SPC. He's an SPC, I was on my list in a bit, yeah. But I think those are definitely cards that can stand out. But even Allerop, 440 currently,

[00:42:32] nobody ever knows this guy. But Edwards looks really strong, 95 defencing, big, strong, 6'2". Graham, did I miss anyone here? Did I say anything weird recommending these cards? No, so we had talked about it like you said, 5-star, 5-star. He's got low driving, he's got incisive and pinged as gold. He's also got finesse, game change, event of

[00:43:01] tiki and technical and rapid. So in press proven, I think he's top 10, maybe top five, cam, in game. Obviously being the rest of the world, Korean, he's sort of looked down on, but like you said, he's fantastic. I think El Rapp's the pick of the bunch still for me. I think he's easily top five centre-backs. He's got the best play styles as gold, bruiser, anticipate and intercept. He's got jockey, he's got block, he's got side tackle, aerial fortress, silver, he's also got quick step at silver,

[00:43:31] which is great on the centre-back and then ping pass and long ball. So like I said, when you do get these people that are starting to choose to use the more high pressure style game, either ping a ball over the press or ping it through the press is really, really great. And then yeah, his passing is not that great. He's got 94, shot passing, 87, long pass, the rest of it, the vision crossing, curve for free kick acts that brings it down, shooting, you really don't want centre-back shooting anyway.

[00:44:02] But his acceleration, he's pretty good, 94 sprint speed, he's lengthy, dribbling, pretty decent, but he's got 92 reactions, 92 composure, so he's going to be good on the ball. His defensive stats are really good and so is his physicality. I think he's top five centre-back. And obviously being in the South Korean league and being Jordanian, I think he might be overlooked, but I think he's a fantastic card. These cards get an extra boost anyways, right? You do, yep.

[00:44:31] Yeah, so combined with an icon in your team, you're pretty much set anyways. Yeah, and if you've got a Korean, you've done the Hung Min Sun as well last week. That's an extra added bonus. Look at the Korean players though, it sets up your wingers and your camp like instantly here, or not even too much. And really cool team, really cool. What might be the best team of the season, team so far is perhaps Neil, the Saudi squad?

[00:45:01] Some crackers from what I can see. We've obviously, for me, the pick of the bunch in there talking about centre-backs is Ibanez, Roger Ibanez. I mean, he's been, even his gold card, his evoed, people are still using that. That's a fantastic card and it's a great price as well. He's got all the top play styles that you want. He's got quick step plus, bruiser plus, jockey plus, he's got all the base, he's got all the base defending play styles.

[00:45:31] And he's always super, super fast. He looks fantastic. That's one for me, from the Saudi League. I mean, there's a lot of cards in there. Yael Felix, he's worth what, 7 million coins? Guy just looks unbelievable. Cristiano Ronaldo, there's nearly any point really talking about him or mentioning him. he's going to be one of the top players in the game. Simakin

[00:46:01] looks good as well. We're playing centre, probably playing it, I don't know. He's got aerial forces plus, he's got intercepts and anticipate. They're the kind of pickouts for me on that team. Centre backs I'm in for. Yeah, it makes sense, but this is a really good team. Of course, with Felix and Ronaldo, you've got two big hitters there, but everyone else is like max 300k grand. Yeah, Quineos is

[00:46:31] a little over, he's just close to 500,000, but the rest of them, yeah. Ruben Eves is 319, so yeah, pretty much all under 300k. I packed Kulabali, I packed him in a pack earlier on, had a quick look at him. Yeah, so that's, if you look at it, Gart is like 50k, and how do you link him? Intercept plus Aerial Fortress plus plus He's strong,

[00:47:01] he's big, I mean, that's strength 97, strength 94 jumping as well. Prices, I would actually implore everyone to look at these teams and look at like cars under 150,000 and just look at stat-wise these cars right. And that's why I just love team of the season. There are so many really cool cars in this team. Aldo

[00:47:30] Dalsari, I always keep whichering the name, sorry, Graham, five star, five star, 130,000, super fast, great play stats. What's wrong with this car? Nothing, I was waiting for you to come to me for my pick, and I was going to say, I went to Garl Felix, he would be my pick. Fantastic left mids, more suited to being a winger than inside forwards, which I think might put people off, but there's

[00:48:00] not really much wrong with him at all. Being controlled rather than a lengthy winger is probably another meta negative, but if you're just looking to play for fun and just enjoy the game, there's nothing wrong with him at all. He's got first touch, which is really good because a lot of players will get pinged past now. He's got finesse, which is the best finishing, technical, so he's good for dribbling, rapid, tiki-taka, there's nothing

[00:48:30] really wrong with him at all. The only thing I don't like about this team in the season, the team itself, is that there's only one Saudi player, and there's definitely more that deserves a spot in here, but I guess the guys that they picked to sell packs, that makes sense, probably in that way though. Great, we have one SPC that you wanted to mention, but Neil already mentioned him, can you take us to Anja Di Maria? Yeah, so we've got Di Maria,

[00:49:00] obviously he's no longer playing in Europe, he's back in Argentina with his boyhood club Rosario, so he's right mid, right wing, cam and striker, he's 5 star, 4 star, so good for Skillers with the trickster silver, I actually think he's top 5, top 10 right wingers in the game now, considering some of the that's been released, obviously he's got finesse, like I said, he's the best finishing type, technical, which is great for dribbling, especially if somebody is playing

[00:49:30] so deep fighting for your counter, decisive pass is gold, so cut through the defenses, then he's got low driving, ping, he's getting effective, he's got rapid, quick step, trickster, then you go and look at his stats, obviously he's let down by his defender and his physicality, but you really need a right winger to be a defender, so his pace-wise is brilliant, attacking-wise it's all very balanced, yeah it's not high 90s but

[00:50:00] it's mid 90s, same with his split passing, he's got great curve, great vision, great free kick accuracy which can be really handy to know, but then his dribbling is just brilliant, he's got great dribbling, great composure, great reaction, great ball control, and he's only what 210,000 so I think pound for pound he's probably one of the better right events in the game. Neil, worth the coins?

[00:50:30] I loved his SBC quite near the start of the game, I've still got that card, I've got that evoed up to an 89 with two play styles, it was a brilliant card to start with, I'll probably do it, yeah, it's definitely worth the coins, I'd say, plus the fact that you get the two chem, you don't have to worry about the chem link with him, and he's one of the old school players, he's really cool, he's definitely the one I'll be doing, yeah, could we mention the other one, is it Leonard Carroll, is that his

[00:51:00] name? What a lazy SBC, I think, genuinely, I've got a comparison up, two weeks ago I'd done Marco Royce, right, what's the difference between the two cards, they're both German, they both play calm, they've both got the same stats, why would you do this Carroll one if you've done Royce, or vice versa, I don't get it, why can't they release, there must have been any other Bundesliga player that they could have done an SBC on and they've just went and done a cardboard cutout of Marco Royce but changed the name,

[00:51:30] that's actually annoyed me this week. because he's the golden boy, he's the big guy of Bundesliga German football and Bayern. Why bring Royce out then, two weeks prior, what's the point? It's the same player, it's the same player with a different name, same stats, same positions, same bloody height, three centimetres difference in height or something, it's really annoying, it's annoyed me this week because that wiped my club out, nine squads to do that, Marco

[00:52:00] Royce, SBC, and I'm sitting looking at this card thinking, it's a really cool card, I've already got him, what's the point? Not everybody wants a Marco Royce or an MLS player, some people maybe don't like Marco Royce for club reasons, so with that, Carl, like I said, he's the new golden boy of German football, so if you are a Bayern fan or a Bundesliga or a German fan, you're probably more hyped by Carl than you are by a Royce, it's playing

[00:52:30] to a different audience, same card, same card. I think it's well spotted, but that's why I don't think, well I feel SBC has to stand out before Ethereum, and two weeks ago Royce stood out, that means this one doesn't get done by many people, but they could have changed something though. Talking about changing something, we don't have much time to go into

[00:52:59] the Frauen Bundesliga team, into too much depth, but there's one extremely cool card which I want to highlight, I don't know if you guys followed it already, it's Fudala, and if you look at the cards, it's extinct four star, four star currently, finesse shield rapid quick stat, all the stat, 96 rated striker, all the like insane stats, you can also play in CM or cam, so she's super versatile, but here's the fun

[00:53:29] thing about that card which I don't think everyone noticed yet, she's five foot one, 155 centimeters, a mini pina, a mini pina, well, I'm afraid that if you look at these stats with 97 attacking position, 97 finishing, 98 shot power, 98 long shots, poor penalty short passing, extremely good, but also

[00:53:58] 95 balance, 96 reaction, 98 ball control, 94 dribbling, composure, 88, I don't care too much, I think this is a super fun card and I, when I, the team came out, I was like, ah, maybe I should look for her, but knowing she's already extinct, I think many people have found out, I think the price range is updated at 2.5 million currently, so, I'm not alone in seeing this one,

[00:54:28] but I just wanted to give her a spot in the, well, spotlight actually, and of course, standby looks terrific, Tanikawa looks really cool to use, and if you're looking for a nice right midfielder that can also play left midfield, like, take a look at Baum for 15,000 coins, super versatile, super fast, but it's nice to have someone that can play left and right in the same position, so I would definitely highlight that, but guys, unfortunately,

[00:54:58] that's the disadvantage of trying to put four teams into every single week, and only spending half of the show talking about content, that's all there is for us to discuss content quite, but we do have time for a little bit of extra time, so, extra time, Neil, we are going to create, but you're not, so what are you going to do? Working, going on my normal life, I'm afraid,

[00:55:29] I'll try my best to hold the fort here, hopefully somebody will be willing to join me, I'll make a couple of connections this week and see what happens, but, and the weather's turning, as good old Scottish weather is, we've had a chunk of our summer already, so there's a chance to be back on foot, there's a gauntlet, there's actually something we're going to bring out, there's probably too much to do in the game at the moment, you have to prioritise what you want to do, so,

[00:55:58] the gauntlet's out, I'll probably do that, and to be honest, I'll probably constitute squad battles, there's a cracking evil out tonight, for the right wing position, 90 plus, and you can get really good play styles from it, so I'm debating who I want to put through that, already been evil, so that'll be where my priorities, that'll be where my priorities can align this

[00:56:28] week, and if I can pack any cards in the way, then great, I would love to pack that centre-back, he's so good, I forgot his name already, I've just discussed him, the Brazilian one, yeah, who, sorry? Roger Ebenes? Yes, I'd love to pack that card, that's the card I'm looking for this week, he big. Oh, knowing your backlog, you'll pack him, because I distinctively remember you doing a show where you complained about pack luck and not being able to change your team for four weeks in a row,

[00:56:58] and after that you've packed them, but pay, you name it, every team. Somebody must be listening to me, yeah, but I'll obviously be wishing you guys all the best in Crete, and hopefully you get the good weather on all break you deserve. Cheers, man, although it is still work because we'll make a lot of content, aren't we going to do that, Graham? Yeah, fortunately, there's no rest and relaxation, so there will be There is, there is. It'll be, yeah, it'll be fun.

[00:57:29] A couple tournaments, some lovely dinner with great people and hopefully get a good content sorted while we're out there. yeah. So talking about the content we'll be doing out there, there is going to be a lot of let's say drinking games, which are going to be filmed as well, but that's going to be fun. We'll do a daily vlog, like I promised, like a daily video what we'll be doing.

[00:57:58] We do some podcasts on locations, we'll see if we can broadcast tournaments or at least let everyone know the results when they are played or what's about to be played. Maybe we can actually do a little live stream and do some commentary on it while we're at it. We'll see how far we can get with the internet there. But what I wanted to say is that if you go to patreon.com slash foot and review, you can of course see all the content coming up. You can get the podcast free and you can support us. It's about a buck a week and it does help us

[00:58:28] tremendously. But also you can also become a free member. What does a free membership give you? Well, currently not so much, but what it will do is that we will put out during the event week, we will put the content we make on the Patreon page available for everyone to join. So even if you're a free member on the Patreon page, you are able to see the behind the scenes content and the daily vlogs just to see also what you could be doing if you was a fan,

[00:58:58] like if you were joining. But also I think it is too big of an event to keep locked behind the paywall for everyone. So you can join us as a free member at patreon.com and still see what we're doing that week. Schedules there, schedules on the Discord, I'm looking forward to joining again. And I'll be the first, Graham, so I'll make sure everything's safe before you guys arrive. Yeah, make sure there's no snakes in the pool this time. No snakes in the pool. I'm definitely not going into

[00:59:27] the pool, so there might be a snake in the pool, we'll talk about that later. Guys, thank you so much. Neil, thank you for keeping my hosting seat warm while I'm away. It does fine. You should be fine. It might mean we have a little bit of a different schedule, but we'll keep everyone posted throughout socials and of course on the Discord channel as well. Thank you so much. It leaves us just with one thing left to do, and that is to drop

[00:59:58] it. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.