Apologies for the late post today, I was away all weekend, then had engineers in today installing new Gigabit Broadband at home, so couldn’t get online to piece together the post before now.
As you can see though, brand new 1GB per sec broadband connection, super speeds!
On to all things FIFA, it has been a mixed bag cup wise, first up was another Carabao cup final against Spurs, after winning it last year it would have been great to defend the trophy but it wasn’t to be.
Due to fixture congestion, we had to field a severely depleted team, with a few fringe players, and was never even at the races.
Spurs coasted into a 3-0 lead before we pulled a consolation goal back late on, finally losing 3-1, disappointing but the stamina depletion just left us unable to compete on the day, strength in depth is the lesson to be learned here.
Due to playing tired players you always run the risk of injury, and the dreaded curse hit us hard in this match, losing our Captain and defender, Denswill, to a big injury, I now have a left back filling in for him at CB position, times are tough.
On to another cup, the Europa League, and things were looking shaky in our last 16 match against OG Nice, in the first leg away from home, they went 1-0 up against the run of play, and it was a tense match, with us peppering their goal non stop but failing to find the net, until late on and the arrival of Dennis, who slipped home a tidy finish to level the score and grab a critical away goal.
The clip below shows the equaliser in the first leg, followed by the 2-0 win back at home to clinch the tie.
In other news, the board thanked me for improving the coffers via shirt sales, and my manager trust level currently sits at 77%, I should be good for another season with a Europa League and Premier league push, oh, and we are also in the FA Cup quarters.
League form has been fairly consistent as of late, still hanging in at the top of the table, currently 3rd, 2 points behind leaders Chelsea who have a game in hand, it will go down to the wire but nice to still be involved at this stage after falling away so emphatically late on, pre-fuckery window in the last few seasons.
FIFAFX.com 
Chelsea just a few points ahead in your career too eh? Hmmm the parallels continue.
I’m still chugging along on old broadband with 16MB down and 1MB up! It actually does the job for most things I need to do, but I’d love to be able to store huge files online etc, which just isn’t practicable with a low upload speed. I check the Openreach website every week for my road.
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Chelsea just a few points ahead in your career too eh? Hmmm the parallels continue.
I’m still chugging along on old broadband with 16MB down and 1MB up! It actually does the job for most things I need to do, but I’d love to be able to store huge files online etc, which just isn’t practicable with a low upload speed. I check the Openreach website every week for my road.
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NG – find it ridiculous that you have been waiting so long for a decent fibre optic option.
Previously I had 70MB down and 15MB up, which, along with your 16MB speed, would suffice for most things, streaming Netflix etc only takes around a suggested 6mb p/s but the faster the better.
Plus I’m having to run a lengthy HDMI cable in the new cinema room from the front of the room from the AV receiver, around the walls through trunking to the back of the room, and up behind the sofa to the projector, HDMI over longer distances can reduce the power flow from the source (AV Receiver) and actually blow it, so am going for an HDMi over ethernet option, which will prevent this, so with 4k quality data travelling back and forth for live streaming movies etc, its best to have the most solid, fast network connection possible.
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Nice going there to win the EL there Paul! Game is holding up in terms of difficulty no? How many seasons you reckon are left for you?
I’m encountering lots of injuries and suspensions as well. It’s very good, requires thinking and no excuse why it’s absent from pes. I’m still top of the table after 38 games, hardly conceding any and starting to get the hang of scoring. There about 3 teams right in my tail though so curious to see if I’m going to make it with swansea.
Overall play holds up well though I’ve encountered more dodgy scripting as the season went along. One or two horrible pes like matches (by that I mean pes19 at its worst) but nothing too serious. I get annoyed when the cpu does its boring little “keep-ball” routine where they go into cyborg laser passing overdrive and I can look but not touch. It’s completely non-threatening as a goal hardly ever comes out of it but I’m seemingly just not allowed to play when that happens. That is my main bugbear at the moment.
Other than its a sufficiently good footy game at the moment I’d say. Lots to keep you entertained other than the matches themselves which is good for longevity.
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#1 – That was a EL last 16 match so on to the quarters now, the difficulty really ramps up in the latter stages of cup comps.
I went out at this stage last year so will be determined to make it through to the semi’s Juventus are up next though, tough match!
Im still on Wold Class with the OS sliders, difficulty is holding up for sure, I may be doing well in the cups each season, but the league is still a tough one to crack, I’m now in the hunt for ECL places rather than a title, as if I draw or lose, the top 3 are winning, no blatant rubber banding as such here, so with 8 games left I’m about 9 points off top, I won’t claw that back I don’t think, every match is a challenge.
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Woah blatant misread by me there Paul, my bad. Juve is bound to be tough, wonder who’s running around there now in your career mode. They’re bound to be good players in any event.
I have seen what you mean with rubber banding – it’s far less overt, there’s a hint of it there but not much else. Same for inmatch scripting.
I’ve gone up with Swansea through the play offs after being top for a long time (last few games I suddenly started leaking goals… Scripty? A bit) and decided to switch clubs just for the hell of it. Am not yet attached to the squad really apart from a few players, so figured why not. Moved over to Leicester who roughly have the same if not worse team strength (they have made some weird decisions before I came such as selling vardy) and slightly more financial options but nothing major. Looking to take them back to being champions once again. Not seeing a whole lot of team variety just yet apart from a few teams (Norwich and Nottingham played markedly different from the otherwise very straightforward), but that should be better in the premier league.
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#1 – I will post a screen of the Juve squad just for reference, this is season 8 so there may still be 1 or 2 familiar names.
AH you jumped ship, I always forget to look at the job offers pre-season, as thats the only time they appear, would be good for EA to implement manager sackings throughout the season and clubs approaching you to manage them.
I find team play styles are varied enough to make each game feel different, at the end of the day every team has the same objective, get the ball up the field and score, some teams do it slowly, some do it more direct, some do it through the middle, some out wide but the overall play style is always going to be one of those few options so wont vary wildly between teams.
What FIFA DOES do well within those styles, is highlight key players and player skills more realistically, ie Hazard dribbles at you and snaps shots off quickly, Pogba is a beast in midfield and sets up assists, Salah jinks and weaves and draws fouls, Vardy looks for balls over the top to run on to and can finish from anywhere etc.
This makes matches feel different as you have to adapt tactics and concentration to deal with certain players in certain situations.
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Right you are Paul. I must say the premier league really is a step up in that regard (player individuality). Just played city and sane and de bruyne were instantly recognizable. Tricks all over the place and crisp passing as you would expect. Still won though, 1-0. Kept them down to 3 shots none of which were on goal but they were threatening throughout nonetheless. Promising!
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