The above league table shows the final finishing position at the end of season 8.
I needed to beat Huddersfield in the last match and hope Liverpool lost to clinch the final UCL place, I lost 2-0, and Liverpool drew, so ended up in 6th place.
Disappointing, but Huddersfield were another of those fuckery matches where they played beyond their means and nothing went my way, still we finished the season as FA Cup winners, League cup finalists, Europa league quarter finalists, and qualified for the Europa league again via the FA Cup win, so not all bad.
A mini squad rebuild was deemed necessary, the four players that I had signed pre-contract deals for back in January, all joined up with the squad, Neres (RM) from Chelsea, Oblak (GK) from Athletico Madrid, Skriniar (CB) from Inter and Racic (CDM) from Barcelona, I also signed another player pre-season in Diop (CAM) from Monaco, as a different choice from Foden who became injury prone last season.
Here is my current starting 11.
We also had a few lucrative offers come in for several first choice players, the pick being a £66 million offer for Dennis, all offers were politely declined
I declined to participate in the pre-season tournaments, which could backfire as it’s a good place to test new signings and build team cohesion, but I just wanted to get on with things, so the first proper game of the season was the Community shield final vs League winners, Man Utd:
So another trophy in the bag, we have done the FA Cup & Community shield double 2 years running, we are firmly becoming a cup team, but good to start the season with a morale boosting win, a trophy and keeping a clean sheet against last seasons top scorers and league winners.
Elsewhere in the game world, Athletico Madrid seem to be the team to beat currently, winning the Champions League and UEFA Super Cup
Our first Premier league game was away to Everton, was happy to run out 1-0 winners after Kluivert converted a soft penalty, second game was home to Southampton, who went 1-0 up, before we levelled, then we went 2-1 up, before they equalised in the 80th min, cue Dennis, he seems to have started the season in usual goalscoring form, to muscle his way on to a through ball in the 90th min, shrug the defender off and manage to slide the winner underneath the advancing keeper, felt good to grab the late winner and keep the winning start to the season going.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – that’s a great season you’ve just had as the list of accomplishments shows, and continuing the theme of our careers mirroring, you’ve had a winning start to the season… watch out for the fuckery coming your way as soon as the game senses you’re riding high.
Dennis’ finish in the Charity Shield (it’ll always be called that for me) is just about as narrow as it could be. Is he really your cherished ace in the pack as he seems to be? And if he ever gets injured by an elbow or penalised for elbowing, your post title should be ‘Dennis elbow’.
Things are very slow in the footy gaming community as we head full-speed for April. I noticed last night that there’s a PES2020 discussion thread opened up on EvoWeb, and I bet there are similar FIFA20 noises happening elsewhere. Which always strikes me as a shame, and uncalled-for as the games have only been out for 7 months (only just over half their supposed lifetime). By this time of the year discussion sometimes contains the insinuation that the games have been out forever, but it is not so. I’m enjoying my ML’s twilight season(s) about as much as any of them.
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NG – It was a decent season, I was in contention for a cup treble, and with 5 trophies in the last 2 seasons and a regular top 6 finish, I feel I have achieved my aim at the start of this CM to establish Forest back as one of the rtop english teams, so much so that I found myself looking at the job offers just before the end of last season, and Liverpool came up, it took all my will power to stay where I was but I concluded that I couldn’t really justify a move to a big club until I had proved my worth by winning a league title.
I’m fully expecting the imposed tricky period to come at me at some point, but the team this season, with the new signings just feels more capable of being a little more consistent, looking forward to seeing how the season pans out, this could be my penultimate season,my aim for this year to to fully concentrate on the league and Europa cup, I will ‘throw’ the FA Cup and Carabao cup matches, I’ve had my fill of them and the fixture congestion is just too draining, and hopefully get to experience the UCL next season as a final farewell to FIFA 19.
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Last two posts have been excellent Paul, an exciting end to season 8 and I don’t blame you for concentrating on the league this season. Your team is elite level now so hopefully time for a title challenge. If I was you I’d be tempted by one of the big teams once the Forest story is concluded.
I’m half way through my own season 8 and appear to be good enough for top 10 now. Hopefully I’ll qualify for Europa League to sample the new licences in game.
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That’s a heck of a team you’ve got there Paul. Do you think the pre-contracts tip the balance too much in the user’s favour, as four top players on frees is quite a lot, or do you view it as a realistic game mechanic?
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Thanks Cook, the team has slowly come together over the last 8 seasons, I definitely have an accomplished set of players, its just consistency and avoiding the many bouts of fuckery that the game throws at you over the course of a season.
Its virtually impossible to compete on all 4 fronts, so something had to give, I’ve had a good time in the domestic cups the last few seasons so this season is all about the Europa League and Premier league.
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Chris99 – One area that needs a revamp in FIFA is the transfers, they are pretty good on the whole, but as long as you have the money it is too easy to sign just about anyone.
Oblak (93) and Skriniar (92) are both elite level players at the top of their game, I don’t know whey they were both allowed to enter the last 6 months of their contracts without either being offered a renewal by their club, or a transfer elsewhere.
I was able to scout players in the last 6 months of their contracts then approach the players directly, and agreeing to their role being a prominent one and salaries of around £160k each, was a no brainer, as long as I accepted that, I was guaranteed to sign them.
£160k per week, over a 3 year deal still only equates to £25 mil for the player, a player rated 93 or around that would easily commend upwards of £90 mil if I had to pay a transfer fee.
The player should have had numerous offers from other clubs and taken their status, and other things into account when choosing who to sign for, but they don’t, if you have the cash, they are yours.
So in answer to your question, Yes, I think free contracts are too heavily tilted in the players favour, and too easy to attain.
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A more than decent season Paul. Silverware is accumulating at least and you’ve got some very high rated players now. I would definitely be focussing on the league as well at this stage.
I’m still finding defending quite easy and scoring embarrassingly hard. No team poses a threat really until the script engine kicks in which luckily is not very often in this years FIFA. Just beat Chelsea 1-0 and could hold Hazard and Benzema at bay with ease. Hazard was fast and Azpilicueta managed a few runs down the wings but nothing special. 2 shots to my 16. I’m slightly disappointed by that as I’m not a great player by any means.
Currently top of the table with Leicester, 13 played 28 points. 10 goals for, 2 against. It’s a weird one for me this years FIFA although an enjoyable experience. Going into the december period soon so let’s see if the scripting stick is going to hit me over the head.
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#1 – That lack of AI threat is weird, are you on world class? and using the OS sliders?
Because thats the same settings I use and am in no way guaranteed to shut out any team, I concede 2 or 3 goal on a semi-semi-regular basis.
What defending method are you using? Tactical or legacy ?
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Paul – yes that is what strikes me as weird also as I am indeed on OS sliders, world class. Using legacy defending so that does make it a bit easier i would imagine. Can’t get the hang of tactical for the life of me. Not using a very defensive approach of formation either so that can’t be it.
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#1 – In my experience, the best thing about FIFA is the number of ways to modify difficulty to suit your needs. Sliders are one way but I found changing some assisted settings to semi-assisted made the biggest difference. I only use semi-assist passing and manual through balls but it results in numerous turnovers which gives the CPU the opportunity to keep the ball more often and therefore more chances/goals against.
I just played a game against a terrible West Brom where a couple of lazy passes from my CB resulted in 2 goals against. Frustrating, but if I had walloped the ball to the CF instead if trying to Pep my way out of defence I would’ve won.
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#1 – I use legacy defending too, tactical is ‘broken’ IMO.
Tactical defending only allows you to jockey and contain and defend the space, it removes the ability to aggressively pressure and tackle, so I stick with Legacy.
Cook – I’ve been penalised many times for not playing the ball to safety and trying to be too clever with it in my own half. For me, the COM is quite ruthless and this varies depending on the how good the opposition team is.
Todays Post will be up later tonight as a re-org of all the equipment means it was all disconnected to be moved across to the cinema room.
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‘Anyone for dennis’ would be mine…
Those trophies don’t half make a difference. I doubt I’ll ever see one in the Irish league, it’s agricultural football at best. Still I don’t really see the need to upgrade come September as I’ll still be plodding on.
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Or “Oblak Betty”?
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Oh, chapeau (as I believe they say in trendier circles)
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I finished the season strongly and ended up 3rd overall. Some very generous table scripting meant Spurs won the title on 71 points (i finished on 68). I’ve just started Season 9 and have a CL group of Barcelona, RB Salzberg and Lokomotive Moscow so confident of progressing.
I haven’t scored any memorable goals in ages but quite liked the pirouette header in the clip below. One of 4 goals in a 4-0 away win at a declining Man City.
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Cook – 3rd Place finish is very decent and a great place to push on from, that header was nicely taken too.
All those headline pun suggestions are very good, may steal a few of them when the time comes.
Once again apologise for lack of a new post, but all my gear is currently disconnected, whilst the cinema room is being finished off, pending a move into there, so haven’t been able to even play let alone compile material for the post. Will attempt to get something up tonight.
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Paul – it would be great to see your first return post with FIFA19 footage from the Wall of All (you should definitely call it that).
And don’t worry too much about missing posts. The trick is not to let one or two become three or four, which easily becomes several. You’ve discovered I think just how tricky it is to maintain a twice-weekly posting schedule on a blog that uses screenshots and video clips. It’s not at all straightforward. It’s part of my life and has been for years but it’s still tricky at times.
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NG – just inconvenient that the ps4 and router etc is all disconnected, so havent been able to play let alone record footage. The room build hit a snag when the drill broke so picking a new one up tonight. But it pushed me back a few days.
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The December script is real folks! It has hit me – somewhat – as well. As soon as I hit top of the table and December started my players turned into bumbling idiots. Not so much boosting of the cpu, pes style, but rather nerfing of my own players. Both equally suck and are poor examples of a way too overt “guiding hand behind the curtain”. This really needs to go back to a more subtle form of scripting as it was before.
Anyway, it’s not that bad and I can cope for now. Still winning most, still top and still in both cups. Sometimes, team strength shines through so well. Beat Charlton 4-0 in the carabao cup easily, everything worked and scored some great goals. Had to face arsenal in the fa cup afterwards and that was noticeably harder. I really had to try different routes to goal and up my defensive game to just scrape a meager 1-1. That’s one thing fifa gets right. (not always imo though).
Still a solid experience so far.
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#1 – It definitely is real, I suffered at the hands of the December script for many seasons, as you will recall.
Do you find its more of a case that your players abilities seem nerfed in the final third?
I found that my players were more often than not suddenly unable to complete a 5 yard pass when attacking, and that shots would be saved or go wide more than normal.
It took a good 4 or 5 seasons to get over that December mockery, saying that it will probably hit me again this season (season 9) now that I’ve jinxed it.
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I’ve suffered from the script too and I think it’s just as blunt as PES. Along with table scripting, the script leads to the game heavily influencing the outcome. It’s always been this way though, right?
I’m having a great time with the game at the moment. A couple of players have grown into the high 80s overall and their quality shines through. Top of the table and the Champions League group going into November so looking for an unexpected double but expect the script to come soon so who knows. I’m in Season 9 and no plans to give up, hopefully a few more seasons to come.
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Going well Cook – New post up at 10am today, Im also in season 9 and mirroring your CM somewhat.
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Paul – oh yes I definitely recall your woes with the script. I would definitely say it’s more pronounced in the final third though it’s very noticeable in midfield as well.
I’m quite allergic to this type of scripting normally but I find it less infuriating than how pes handles it… So far. Many 0-0 draws as the cpu just can’t score against me. 20 games in and 2 conceded and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Both were scriptfuckery type goals as well.
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Don’t want to pollute the new post but one of my rants but the scripting is ramping up. I absolutely despise this in football games . Vardy turning into a moron in front of goal just to allow the cpu catching up to me. Watford striker turning into messi, score one, then cpu plays their annoying keep ball routine with 100 percent passing accuracy. Reducing me to a spectator as in the other game. I’ve had enough of this. If I see it ramping up again I’m out. Not wasting my time with this kind of overt “storytelling”…It’s not even a game anymore, it’s an interactive slideshow!
Disappointed that fifa is turning into this for me after 1.5 quite solid, good-fun seasons.
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