Well, this is a turn up for the books, as shown above, we are in Europe, the previous season finished With us in 6th place, and there was no mention at all of Europa League qualification, no in-game confirmation, but, as you can see, one of the top 5 must have won the FA Cup and thus, enabled us qualification into the Europa League.
I will take it, the addition of European football is most welcome, with its new presentation, and new commentary team, plus the new varied teams to play, it certainly keeps things fresh and lively.
Our virgin foray into Europe has started well, we lost the opening game away to Molde FC, with a last minute headed goal, in a game which we dominated, but then won our following 3 matches, only one more win required to cement our place in the next round.
The addition of European football means that fixtures are coming thick and fast, with us still being in both domestic cups, squad rotation is a must, couple that with injuries and it’s an interesting and challenging season ahead.
My main goal for this season was to tighten up the defence, last season we scored the most goals but conceded a lot too, so a defensive signing was a priority, I managed to scout then sign a big strong African CB named Gagnon, who has really helped tighten up the defence alongside stalwart Denswil, the difference he has made is akin to Van Dijk at Liverpool.
I also signed a backup DMF called Frodë, a strong tall figure, and a CAM in Jao Mario, to give me the option of resting Foden for pushing him out wide if I need some pace and guile out there.
Several youth team promotes continue to be embedded into the squad too, with Diaz starting at LMF, Pastore at RB and Gavilan at RMF.
I was also alerted by my chief scout to a wonderkid he had found.
Saavedra was his name, with a 64 OGR rating at 16 yrs old and a potential of 94, I have setup a focused training plan for him, with a view to loan him out for a year once he hits 70 OVR to get further development and match time.
Below is a goal from new DMF Frodë on his debut to grab a win against West Ham
That solitary loss was a 2-1 defeat to Man City who are top, but our GF and GD are much better this season, title challenging form right there, be interesting to see how the Dec-Feb wobble plays out, but its obviously important to be in the mix still when that time comes round.
Lastly, a mini compilation showing in running order:
- Our European Adventure starts
- Foden starting & finishing a great move to grab all 3 points against Anderlect
- Adama sealing the win Vs West Ham with a great deflected strike, I liked the ball physics here.
- Youth promotee Gavilan showing composure and a delicious outside-foot finish to take all 3 points at Anfield
- Dennis carrying on where he left off last season showing a great turn of pace and strength to score
FIFAFX.com 
Best post ever! 🙂
I’ve often thought about doing a post like this… maybe not as extreme as this, but in the same area. A one-liner maybe.
I’m guessing you did a late-night edit that accidentally wiped the whole thing and you clicked save+publish and went to bed with a feeling of relief. Hopefully you’ve got versioning!
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Swell something very untoward has happened here as I can assure you it was a 600+ word post with videos and images, same as I always do it, no idea why its gone blank.
Wouldn’t know where to look for versioning
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I saw the tags and realised it wasn’t a joke. Log in and Edit the post and look for ‘Revisions’ or similar – there should be a stored set of versions of the post as you were working on it. You should be able to restore to the final version, or one very close to it.
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Just looked. Under history there is an entry for 11pm last night. I loaded it but it too is blank.
All gone. All I can think of is that I switched to the new modern WP editor that uses ‘blocks’ and I didn’t like it so switched back. The settings must have become Corrupt somehow.
I’m currently rewriting the entire post.
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Should be back up now
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Paul – you did very well to rewrite that so quick, or did you find the older version? WP terminology is ‘revisions’ and it’s on the right of the web interface near the Schedule button. I also meddled with the blocks editor when it first appeared and reverted to the old one, and didn’t notice any issues with posts vanishing. Bear in mind though that I’m on an installed version of WP on my own webhost.
As for the surprise Europa – take it and be glad of it! I’ve found it a very pleasant excursion in my own game across the aisle, to have that break from the league grind and see some different teams.
Funny that your first match was vs Molde FC, the non-babyfaced assassin’s club he left in limbo.
And I love FIFA’s corners. I also vastly prefer the sound of Derek Rae to Martin Tyler. The former has echoes of the late beloved Tony Gubba.
That is a great run with Dennis at the end there. That last little moment where he’s almost levered off the ball by a crafty defender, but sticks out a leg to poke it in anyway – looks grand.
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NG. I think web based WP is a little different. Mine was under post history but as I said. It didn’t load anything. Never had an issue before so can only assume it was due to the new editor switching back and forth.
I probably missed a few bits out but was in a rush as as had an apt to get out too.
I liked the Dennis goal
Purely for that fact, that it was non generic and looked realistic.
Loving Europe, a nice departure to spice things up.
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Paul – Did your scout turn that kid up out of the blue, or did you use a Scout Future Star option?
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Was potential always in FIFA? Don’t recall ever hearing about or finding ‘a wonderkid’. Pes forums sometimes mention them too but for me they aren’t a ‘thing’ in stick n button games, it’s football/championship manager that is their rightful place, where the stats matter and you can’t directly nix their shooting, etc.
Weird about the lack of notification at the end of the season. By contrast in my french master league with four games to go I was 9 points off the second promotion spot and my players sank to the ground as if we’d lost the match and been knocked out of a cup. Like Darryl’s premature win it made no sense whatsoever.
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Chris99 – I received an in-game prompt that my chief scout was able to scout for world class potential players, or ‘wonderkids’ and did I want to instruct him to do so.?
I believe it was a prompt for the ‘scout future star’ option yes.
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Turf – potential has certainly been in the last few FIFA’s.
The more you scout a player, the more his potential is refined.
The only thing I can think of, which I’m pretty sure is the reason I received no notification of European qualification, was that the FA Cup final is te week after the final league fixture, as I finished 6th, I wasn’t at that point, in a european qualifying position, but then a week later, Man Utd who finished 3rd, won the FA Cup, hence their Europa place dropped down to me in 6th.
I’m pretty certain this is the reason, as when the new season started, I saw that ‘Forest kick off in Europe’ news bulletin.
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Paul – But you didn’t use your XP to buy that option?
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Yes Chris99 I did, the prompt informed me i could do it, then i clicked it and it took me to a screen where i could trade in something like 3000GP of my hundreds and hundreds of thousands of accumulated XP to receive that option.
I assume its GP accumulated over FIFA 16,17,18 and 19, as I never ever buy anything except balls, Im a ball whore *snigger* so have about 60 of them available to use in games.
It’s in no way a cheat though, as he’s not a ready-made player by any standard, only 64 OVR, and will still need developing, training then given match time in order to flourish into anything near his potential.
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Last fifa I played I did exactly the same. I counted it as accumulated experience rather than one of those fm ‘get a sugar daddy’ over the top game changers. Speaking of which I’m currently averaging about ten mins play on fm per day. Colchester look half decent but I haven’t played a match yet so not sure where I need to strengthen. Not that I have any money.
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Thats going to be one long slog Turf, 10 mins on FM doesn’t get you anywhere.
When I started FM18 I installed the game in my hotel room in Manchester and played it all the way home to Milton Keynes on the train, and still hadn’t played a game.
Just so much to do.
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Well done on Europa League Paul, a surprise to be sure but a welcome one. A agree with not-Greg about the commentary of Derek Rae. I also agree about the corners, at first I preferred the PES method but now much prefer FIFA. It appears your team has reached trophy challenging standard so I would assume you’ll be aiming for at least one this season.
I’m now into Season 4, I managed to sneak into the play-offs with a winning run of 8 games at the end of Season 3 but went out to a much better Leeds United. I have started to pay some larger transfer fees now, one of the objectives was to flash the cash on a forward which I duly did with a fella from Marseille. He’s current top scorer with 4 goals from 8 games but I expect more from him in the future. I also signed a Man City failed youth team player who was cheap to buy but went to the top of the wage structure. I’m not convinced and may get rid but I’m hoping he’ll develop a bit. Is checking online for player potential cheating?
I put the difficulty up to Legendary too, I’m enjoying the Championship and would be quite happy challenging for promotion each season from now on. Currently 5th 8 games in.
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Thanks Cook, enjoying the variation the Europa League is giving me.
Im currently 3rd, in the KO stages of the Europa League, in the 4th round of the FA Cup and in the Quarter finals of the Carabao cup, so I’d be extremely disappointed not to win one of those 4.
The Premier League will be tricky, still maybe one or two seasons short of that I think, Liverpool and City are on another level.
I wouldn’t say looking at player potential is cheating, its just querying the database, nothing wrong with identifying players, you still have to train and develop them in the hope they’ll reach anything near their listed potential.
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The only way looking in the database does give you an advantage is if you use it to short cut the scouting process, as you know the minimum stats the player will have, and a vague idea of where he might be on his growth curve.
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Chris99 – useful if you need to make an emergency signing but don’t have time left in the transfer window to have the player scouted, as you say, you’ll get an idea of his minimum stats at least.
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I did look and now I’m disappointed so won’t be doing it again. Only 79 potential but let’s see whether he can earn his crust before flogging him on.
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Cook, the potential is a guide, it is possible for players to grow past their listed potential.
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Uncle Turf – when I’m in an FM period I settle into a routine of always playing at least 1 match per day, and that takes no more than 15 mins usually. I blow right past most of the fluff, i.e. always send the Ass Man to press conferences etc. I’ve tried the stripped-down CM-style way of doing FM and it’s a bit too stripped down. I like the option of whether or not to pay attention to press conferences and the like. I’m not in an FM period right now but I will get back to it, 1-match-per-day as the basic unit of consumption is the perfect balance IMO.
Paul – I don’t regard cashing in reward points in any game as a cheat either – they’re an accumulated reward for time invested and you’re entitled to the minor quality of life upgrades they bring. Balls being the best of course.
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I’ve set it to classic but don’t like a few of the things it strips out. However, I’d rather deal with that than the over the top number of fiddly options. Didn’t even manage a minute today as I was freezing my nads off at Gateshead stadium watching a turf machine demonstration. Living the dream…
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I’d love to play FM properly, but there just is not any time in the day to allow it.
I get 1-2 hours of gaming time, 3 times a week, and maybe the odd sesh in between, that’s currently all taken up by FIFA.
I still haven’t progressed in RDR2, I have Detroit in its plastic wrapper still, Uncharted Lost Legacy still in its wrapper, and the Res Evil 2 remake to get on to.
I also want to revisit Heavy Rain and LA Noire, just no time for FM at all.
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