re: FIFA 16 Official Thread

Got games with no issues tonight. Just won the division 4 title but it was actually a little shaky. I'm 38-5-5 with 7 division titles into division 3 but it took me all 10 games to win division 4 and 2 losses and 2 ties are from this season alone. I'm pretty psyched because I feel like I'm pretty damn good but I'm finally at the fun part where games are gonna be close and the little things will matter. Excited to see how I match up.

i just had my first stalemate in div 4.

today just wasn't my day against the pressers. i had some motherfrickers launching long shots, too

I can't stand international management in regular FIFA games. Too many teams aren't licensed, and the concept of managing two teams at one time doesn't do it for me.

The old World Cup games were fun, though.

Alright, it's about that time for another manager mode update with my Road to CL Glory with Notts County.

Season 4
Recap:
My first in the Premier League was one of feast and famine as I lead the league in goals (had the uncanny ability to draw red cards and just pour it on. I once got Liverpool down to 8 men ) but gave up far too many against top competition. Finished 8th in the league with 52 points. After being predicted to finish 20th, I'm pretty pleased with it. Chelsea won the league, with Arsenal, Man City, and United rounding out the top 4. Sadly, Watford (pred 16), Swansea City (pred 15), and West Ham (pred 17) were relegated. Leeds United, Bournemouth, and were promoted to the Premier League.

I had my best showing in Euro League. I made it all the way to the final against Spurs, where I lost 2-1. Lost in Semis of FA Cup to Manchester United.

Winter Transfer Window:
Bought:
Romelu Lukaku - Everton - Free Transfer - 70k
Andrew Robertson - Hull City - Free Transfer - 40k
Breel Donald Embolo - PSG - 16 million - 60k
Tin Jedvaj - Bayer 04 - 8 million - 55k
Munir - FC Barca - 8 million - 60k
Ruben Neves - Real Madrid - 6.8 million - 50k
Alphonse Areola - PSG - Free Transfer - 48k
Dominic Iorfa - Wolves - 3.5 million - 29k
Rico Henry - FC Ingolstadt - 750k - 6k

Sold:
Divock Origi (83) - Ajax - 40 million (top deal of the window!)
Adam Campbell (71) - Charlton Athletic - 1.4 million
Will Hayhurst (65) - Millwall - 375k
Russel Teibert (72) - Blackburn Rovers - 1.1 million
Jon Taylor (69) - Milwall - 825k
Youth LW (77) - Manchester City - 17.5 million
Haydn Hollis (70) - Middlesborough - 725k

As I mentioned earlier, I threw up crazy counter offers for Origi and my youth player and they stuck. I then went on a crazy spending spree. I also have encounted the strangest bug I've ever seen. I signed N'Golo Kante to a free transfer, but it would never stick. I just keep throwing money at him to sign on contract expiry. He'd accept, the news would show up in my feed, but his player icon never changed. I skip ahead to season, I can see him in my contracts/sell players window, but he's not in my squad (his player page shows for Hoffenheim). So, I'm currently paying 50k/week to a phantom player. Cancelling his contract will cost me 2.3m (!), so I listed him for loan in hopes someone else can pick up the tab.

Season 5:
Summer Transfer Window:
Bought:
Ryan Gauld - Brentford - 15 million - 47k
Hachim Mastour - AC Milan - 7.8 million - 55k
Martin Odegaard - Real Madrid - 2.5 million - 20k
Ben Swanson - Pescara - 3.5 million - 15k
John Brooks - Hertha Berlin - 22 million - 92k

Sold:
Dillon Serna (71) - Middlesbrough - 1.4 million
Olivier Boscagli (69) - Birmingham City - 700k
Emerson Hyndman (80) - SL Benefica - 27 million
Matt Miazga (76) - Leeds United - 7 million
Bobby Wood (69) - Middlesbrough- 850k

So, this was the first transfer window that made some hard (somewhat regrettable) decisions. Selling Hyndman wasn't something that I really wanted to do, but I had some big problems with crucial 1st team players. There was no way I was going to make everyone happy. I elected to sell the person who I could get the most value from out of a generally equal standing. Selling Miazga to Leeds was kinda sad, but he missed 5 months last year due to a broken tailbone, so he didn't have a chance to develop at all. Used the opportunity on the final day of the window to find a upgrade. It was between Brooks and Lucas Hernandez. Brooks won out due to higher rating and homerism.

Outside of Gauld and Brooks, the rest of my purchases were purely for depth. My team is finally good enough to where I can convince players to take a lesser role.

Anyways, here's the FUT-style squad: LINK

Will post image when I fix Embolo's card not being in there.

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Were you just buying youth prodigies or something?

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At this point, they're all like 24 or something.

Getting those type of players are pretty much my only chance as they're usually not major starters so I can get them for cheap or with a good role. Looking back, I don't know why I bought Odegaard, guy won't play. Towards the end of the window, I start throwing out low ball offers to see if I can players at a good value. That's how I got both Odegaard and Swanson.

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Freaking American clearing house

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Bobby Wood forced his way out, and I couldn't get Serna to agree to a lesser role in the team. Selling him was pretty much the only option.

Brought in two Americans though.

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You love pace. Holy shite

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I'm a winger dependent team. I don't put "Pacey" as an attribute for my scouting though (otherwise, I wouldn't have purchased Swanson, Mastour, or Odegaard). For my fullbacks, I wanted to find a tall RB and Robertson was the best affordable option at LB.

There's a few other players that get time that I couldn't list out in the FUT format. Alexandr Zuev and Isaiah Brown both have meh pace (70s) and both are in the rotation.

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What the heck was Ryan Gauld doing at Brentford?

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This was a big surprise for me. I saw him there a few months into the season and had a WTF moment. They apparently had enough money to buy him for like $16 million. They didn't get promoted from the Championship, so they likely needed the money.

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can you play fifa16, like you do on fm2016, and just do the management side, and let cpu play the game out???

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Yes. You can go to the calendar and simulate to any date you'd like. It'll stop you whenever a player puts up a serious concern, injury, etc.

You may have to do some roster management, but you can do a career mode without playing a single game.

Is the national team manager mode more involved than it was about 3 years ago? Basically all you could do back then was select a line up. Can you interact with the players at all?

I just started a manager mode with Plymouth Argyle the other day. Curious if I should give the national team a look.

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I got him on a two year loan with a 12 million pound buy option

Speaking of which I had that with McNair and Pozo. I try and exercise the option the players turn me down. Saying they want to compete for a place at their old clubs.

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Yeah, I didn't find a lot of success with that. Usually got turned down on 3/4 of my loan to buy options. That's why I stopped doing it as much.

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Is the national team manager mode more involved than it was about 3 years ago? Basically all you could do back then was select a line up. Can you interact with the players at all?

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Nah. You can't really interact with them. They do have a few more tournaments, it feels like though.