Top of the EFL Championship heading into January with a 9 point lead over second place, I fully expect to win the title this season, barring a complete disaster we will be returning to the Premier League.
It’s all or nothing because I have put all my eggs into one basket with the expectation of Premier League football, and finances, next season.
If my last promotion season was anything to go by I should get around the £50 million mark in transfer funds for winning promotion, maybe a bit more as Champions, and I will need it.
Last time round we just wasn’t good enough to compete with the big teams in the top flight, not enough strength in-depth, and it showed, finishing bottom, I’m desperate this time to avoid relegation and build season upon season and turn Forest into a permanent Premier League fixture, in order to do that I will need more, and better players, which leads me on to some big news.
I have a very thread-bare squad right now, with the starting 11, 6 subs and 2 reserves.
A few players left on loan, a couple returned to their parent clubs after finishing their loans, but I’m confident I have enough within the squad to see out this season and finish as Champions, but as I mentioned earlier, to compete in the Premier League next year we need good quality, m first team ready players, and I have managed to secure the services of three very capable players to help me compete with the top teams.
The January transfer window has just opened, this is prime time for scouring players who are within the last 6 months of their contracts, if you can secure a pre-contract agreement then you can pick up some massive bargains as there are no transfer fees to pay, you just negotiate With the player, so you can afford to offer them lucrative deals, and I feel with the players I have secured above they will definitely add quality to my squad for next season.
All three are superb players, who’d not renew contracts with their clubs so were all picked up on a free, Torres was signed from Porto on a 3 year deal for a £1.2mil signing on fee and £35k wages, Balbuena from West Ham for a 500k signing on fee and £65k wages, and finally the infamous but superb Luis Suarez from Barcelona for a £2.5 million signing on fee and £100k wages, only on a one year deal but if its enough firepower to keep us in the Premier League then it will be money well spent.
If I’d had signed those players from the clubs, then I would have had to pay £140 million upwards easily, so pre-contract deals are a great way to sign quality for much less cost, obviously this calibre of player only agree to join on the promise of playing in the top league, I would not have been able to sign them as a mid-table Championship club, of course there is a risk that I still may not be promoted, but its unlikely, all or nothing.
I continue to have superb session after superb session on FIFA 19, still as immersed and engrossed in my ever-evolving career mode story as I was on day one, player individuality is there in buckets, matches have a realistic feel, and pace to them with teams playing differently depending on the situation, and coupled with the excellent presentation and match-day atmosphere, every game feels important.
I’m also into the 4th round of the FA Cup after beating Coventry City 2-0 at home, so the league title and a good cup run would surely see me meet board objectives.
A short video clip to finish, firstly showing an amusing moment in a match, loving the attention to detail, then a few goals scored in recent league matches, including a nice goal from Albrighton in the Snow.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – dare I say it, that’s a very ML-like signing in Suarez, which is no bad thing. Nice to hear that that kind of thing is possible in the prim-and-proper Career Mode. Adds excitement and pizzazz. How often in ML (and it seems in CM) do we pull off a big signing and look forward to his arrival and then getting to play with him? It’s one of the big attractions of these modes.
You’ve really nailed the dribbling by the looks of that short clip. Of course I can well appreciate the dribbling runs are select moments from longer stretches of gameplay, rather than common features 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
NG – The free signings are a complex routine as you cant scout for these specifically, you have to set up a scouting network to identify players within a year of their contract, then wait until january, until they are within the final 6 months, thus allowing you to make a pre-contract offer to join in the summer.
I tracked these 3 players, and Suarez was not offered a new contract at Barcelona, they actually signed Dybala for £68 million so Suarez, aged 34 now, was let go, and I snapped him up on a free, Leipzig, WIllem II and Club Bruges all came in for him too, but he obviously preferred a sting back in England and chose us.
They key to ball possession when dribbling in FIFA is to lay off the sprint, ju7st DO NOT use it anywhere other than the wings and when there is open grass in front of you, or you will have it taken off you.
just normal LS dribbling, sharp angled turns, and use of the L1 (Close control) button to turn tightly, then a well placed stab of the sprint button to burst away is the most proficient way to dribble I’ve found.
LikeLike
Paul – That is an exciting signing. You better make sure you go up now with those hefty wages to pay.
I assume the Operation Sports sliders have done the trick then. No more fiddling with settings?
LikeLike
Shed – Indeed, all or nothing, if I somehow fail to win promotion, its pretty much financial ruin for the club.
OS sliders are superb, haven’t touched them once or even thought about them since implementing them.
LikeLike
Paul – going back to the prenvious post which links in nicely with this my purchase of Dier came about after I sold a youth player for 20 Million. He had risen to 82 OVR but he didn’t meet the red lines similar to NG as he has shown little to impress me. Dier however has been a critical player as he plays in front of the back four and helps me control the midfield. Sadly he went down badly in the last game and is our for the next 8 weeks. Other than that I look for out of contract bargains like you. As for sliders I haven’t touched them since I used the OS sliders at the time, which have since been updated. I was happy with them and as they say if it ain’t broke…..
LikeLike
Forgot to say Dier is 29 now.
LikeLike
Good stuff Darryl, I currently play with two CMF/s in front of the back four, Anguissa as a DMF and Decouré who has a bit more attacking freedom, definitely helps.
Yes the original OS sliders are great so I haven’t touched them, happy with how the game plays.
LikeLike
Is this week’s Easter Egg that 55 – 44 does not equal 9? Good job you don’t have a job that involves numbers Paul 😉
LikeLike
Chris99 – Good spot. Indeed the league table shows an 11pt gap, but since that was taken I have played another match which I drew, Watford won, therefore the gap now is 9pts, which was still in my head when i posted this.
LikeLike
A keeper was a big one for me. The difference between low to mid 70’s Nyland at Villa and the 80 Nick Pope who cost 13 Million is unreal. I think if you’d started with Villa with their ridiculous squad depth it would have been a different story. Hardest task I have is clearing out the deadwood.
LikeLike
Paul — the great thing about landing an ageing ‘name’ player in a football game is that it acts as a magnet pulling you forward on its own. A real dash of spice to the dish.
LikeLike
PRS – I had Forest’s default keeper, Pantimilion, rated 71 in goal, and he was decent, but signed Joe Hart, who is rated 79, and the saves he pulls off are insane, he’s kept me in a fair few games.
LikeLike
NG – Suarez is intended purely as a firepower resource to help keep me up in the Premier League, he’ll be 35 at the end of his first season, so will either retire, or I’ll be looking to move him on and free up the wages to help sign a younger, capable forward.
Hence the one year deal.
But yes, always nice to have a ‘name’ playing for you, a focal point of the team.
LikeLike
Paul – you don’t seem all that excited about Suarez? With FIFA19’s new handling and individuality, surely the arrival of Suarez is the most significant and inspiring event of your story so far? You a Liverpool fan too. But getting Suarez – a major coup, and a major thing to do in your CM – seems to be more a shrug of the shoulders and a ‘meh’. Is the story not grabbing you?
LikeLike
NG – Not sure why you get that Impression. Suarez is a big coup, and am genuinely excited about having a proper world class player joining, it will feel different to play with him, and actually yelled “YES!” when the negotiation with him went through and he agreed to join.
I guess I’m just mindful that he has signed on a one year deal, he’s 34, and we are paying him £110k a week. I fully expect to only have him for one season, and as such, will be used to grab the goals and help us stay up, much like how such a deal would play out in real life.
He’s not going to be for the future, and wont bag 20+ goals a season every season to help us towards titles, he’s been signed purely as an ‘avoid relegation’ helper for next season in the Prem.
LikeLike
Paul – real-world logic dictates that’s all he’ll be, but footy gaming is about fantasy and imagination, surely, especially the modes we like to play. That sober, workaday approach doesn’t work for me. I’d be dreaming of Suarez dominating the pitch and the headlines as he always did for those magical few seasons he spent in England. I know CM has to be its own beast and there’s no forcing it to be more like ML (when the point is that it’s not ML), but surely this aspect of a footy game management mode has to be common across both. Forza Suarez!
LikeLike
Just being a realist NG. I could have dreams and hopes of Suarez topping the scoring charts, not only helping us avoid relegation but dragging us single handedly into european qualification places, then playing on beyond his one year deal and scoring the winner in a european cup final, but 99% chance that wont ever happen.
He’ll either leave after his one year deal, or he will retire, on the off chance that he may be open to a further year extension then we will see how it plays out.
ML is a different beast, its so bare bones and hollow that its essential you have to make up your own little fantasy world and side-story lines in order to give it some longevity, but as FIFA’s CM is so realistic, and the substance and presentation is there, you don’t really need, or have time, to do that as there’s ample to keep you busy between matches.
LikeLike
Pre-contracts are a vital part of getting a team into the Premier League. In previous years they’ve made up for the fact that I think you get too little money for promotion and cup runs.
I’m looking forward to the “Has Suarez bitten off too much?” local newspaper headlines.
LikeLike
Chris99 – You stole it, I was planning a newspaper post with that exact title!!!! ;-0
LikeLike
Sorry Paul. I’ve got a few others but I’ll keep shtum.
LikeLike
Keep hold of ’em mate, I may need your creative inspiration at a later date 😉
LikeLike
Paul – I can’t reccomend updating the OS sliders to the latest set. Although I was happy with the game the lack of fouls was still something I hoped would be addressed. I had read some very positive comments about these sliders and gave them a go. The values don’t change much but they add much more physicality to the midfield battles and as a result more fouls. My count previous had come down to about 1/2 fouls per match. Since the update this has risen to about 5/6 on average. In one game last night the CPU had six bookings. Also the tackles figure has gone up to double figures. This was part of the problem as the CPU didn’t tackle but as you have said when they do the fouls get called. It really is worth trying. Just need to improve on my defending as I am still poor defensively.
LikeLike
I meant can’t reccomend enough.
LikeLike
Thanks Darryl, sounds promising.
I will leave it until the end of the season, so as not to affect the purity of the play so far, and change them ready for the premier league season (if i am promoted).
LikeLike
Darryl – What were the slider changes between what you had and the latest?
LikeLike
Chris99 – Changes detailed below:
FIFA 19 OS Sliders – Set V4B1
Difficulty: Pro, World Class, Legendary, Ultimate
Time: 10-15 minute halves
Speed: Slow
Controls: Any
►Sprint Speed: 40/45
– Kudos to Balla here for determining a good value that creates a sense of the CPU not giving up on chasing, and also just enough of a low value that ensures the user is more “solid”, which should then result in the CPU’s momentum to cause more physicality.
►Acceleration: 50/50
– No changes here.
►Shot Error: 55/55
– No changes. Shot error here to help with more contextual shooting animations and still maintain separation between elite and mediocre players.
►Pass Error: 55/55
– No changes. Goal to just slightly to improve the ball physics. On 55 the ball does not dip as quickly in the air like it does on 58.
►Shot Speed: 51/51
– No changes. Shot error is higher. Seeing some great animations for saves, but also the deflections are no longer “cushioned” deflections off hard shots – the ball is truly alive when deflected.
►Pass Speed: 52/52
– No change. As mentioned above regarding Pass Error. This value has to be raised a bit to compensate for the pass error. As it stands, the passing in the game does not have any risk/reward to it, especially as pass error is increased. The thought of underpowering a pass should not be a concern, rather a pass that is inaccurate due to the pressure of pace would be more believable. Any real match we watch, the pressure to perform is a product of the ball bouncing and attempting to control it. If the pass speed remained at 50, with a pass error of 58, there is not difficulty in controlling a “soft” ball versus one that is alive. This is why the pass speed of 52 is recommended. If you really have issues with it, feel free to adjust, but also lower pass error to compensate.
►Injury Frequency: 70/70
– Thanks to Aaron and jrn suggestion on this one. Good balance of walk-offs and injuries needing to be subbed out right away.
►Injury Severity: 30/30
– No change. Thanks to Aaron and jrn suggestion on this one. Good balance of walk-offs and injuries needing to be subbed out right away. Some longer injuries as well.
►GK Ability: 55/55
– No change. The big thing with keepers in this game is that they flail on shot attempts, especially headers. Need the keeper to stay firm and prepare for shots, versus instantly reacting and letting the goal in.
►Marking: 50/50
– No change. Normalized value because higher marking of any kind was starting to hurt defensive assignments. Dropped down to 50 and it is much better, closer to a zonal look, and will help bring in the midfield.
►Run Frequency: 1/1
– No change. Round and round we go, huh? Previously value was 50, and now we’ve dropped all the way down to 1. The reason for 1 is the same reason it always ends up being 1, which is too many runs off the ball = hectic. The players will still get up the pitch, and they will still honor the CTT chosen, but it will be more subtle than just letting a CAM have the ball, and 6-7 runs are made in full sprints off the ball.
⦿ The Height, Length and Width (HLW) values are significant this year with the CTT’s. We are still treading quite carefully here on veering too far away from default unless absolutely necessary.
►Height: 55/55
– Significantly improved the resistance in the midfield. Finally this is the patch we’ve been waiting for to allow a modification in height to create this effect. Lowering length was the initial thought, but turned out to cause more harm than good. With the slightly higher height, it pushes all the lines forward to meet – and result in better shape throughout.
►Length: 50/50
– No change, these are notes from previous set. In hopes to get better shape, we had this previously under 50. While it looked great at 45, the problem was the theme of each match was User Defensive 3rd vs CPU’s Defensive 3rd, all that midfield by the center circle became ignored. The reason is for every possession, the other team would drop back, no matter what CTT was used. You can see this by simply testing goal kicks for the CPU. The GK will not kick the ball past the halfway line, because they are preparing for a pass that does not require to reach the other side of the pitch. This is why the comments about frustrating tiki-taka and the lack of variety from CPU would dominate the thread. It’s true, because we limited the CPU, and User, on what was possible. Extending the length was one thing, but is another reason marking was used to “control” the length as well, so it is not constantly end to end. There is so much variety here, and another nod to EA for getting CTTs a priority this year.
►Width: 49/49
– Able to adjust this to a good under 50 value so the middle of the pitch isn’t 1-3 passes forward each time. Clogs the center a lot more, which means more passes to the side to break down teams. Good variety per CTT’s as well.
►FB Positioning: 45/45
– Able to adjust this value with the height increase. The value of 0 FB was good pre-patch, but it also resulted in a very rigid defensive line, and a reluctant movement by the FB to overlap unless instructed, or to get into the defensive third to cover. Hot topic this year remains them going for a walk about the pitch, but it’s better than it was for sure. There is still that odd occasion though.
►FT Control: 55/55
– A bit of a rabbit hole, but this looks to be the final resting place for the FT debacle. There are those that tried the 40 FT, and let me remind you that is a value not intended to address the first touch at all, but more so the behavior of 50/50 getting stuck in to tackles, etc. With that said, the idea behind 55 is pretty straight forward. Slows the game down just slightly, and creates a bit more random play, relative to the pass speed value.
LikeLike
Paul – I am very similar in how I operate as I only made the change after the conclusion to season. Take PES and the difficulty layers as I only change at the end of a season as it is easy to fall seinto the trap of being lulled into a false sense of security early in the season as scripting, moral and fatigue all come into play during the course of a full season so changes overide this important part of a campaign.
LikeLike
Been lurking without posting but I have to agree with NG when I saw Suarez signing for forest. I know we have had some bloody hell moments over the years – Klinsmann to Spurs was one I never forget – but really it’s only likely in a game surely, and very master league as the Coventry lad said. I don’t think I’ve ever had an established team/player difference as wide as that in FIFA but of course the loan signings used to show up as extravagant in the extreme – emre can at Hartlepool was a classic.
LikeLike
Your blog broke me, and I finally capitulated. Plus: Fifa 19 is on a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) sale on the Nintendo e-shop – 40% off in NA. Thank you, regional arbitrage!
So now I need to decide on which Serie B team I will be choosing (although it still feels like cheating on my beloved Milan). Pescara currently the frontrunners.
Your journey sounds fascinating. I do wish you success in the Prem!
LikeLike
Turf – The way I see it, Suarez is in the final years of his career, retirement beckons, Barcelona did not renew his contract and he had other offers from Leipzig, Fenerbache and us.
He obviously went for the big pay packet for a final year back in the english top flight, not so unrealistic.
LikeLike
JANPAMPOEN – Good luck!! the Switch version of FIFA 19 is vastly different from the PS4 version, a lot of features missing so hope you don’ feel shortchanged.
LikeLike
FIFAFX, I had Fifa 18, so I know what I am in for. But at nearly half off, I could not resist!
What finally broke me off Fifa 18 last time was the rubber antics in online play. Horseshit goals and the likes.
LikeLike