After Emmanuel Dennis’ departure, or actual impending departure, as he doesn’t leave until the end of the season, but I have chosen not to include him in the squad, we need players devoted to the cause who see their future here, not elsewhere, we needed to do some business, Rhian Brewster was that business, and he gets it done, in good style.
Pacy, agile and a deadly finisher, he has slotted in to the team seamlessly, filling the void left by Dennis, when you are challenging for trophies, you need a prolific goalscorer, a player who will reliably get you 20+ goals every season, Brewster is showing early signs of being that type of player.
Still only 24 years old, and at 84 rating OVR, he’s 5 years younger than Dennis, and only 5 OVR points lower, the coaches have put in place a consistent training regime for him, which will hopefully help him develop to an even better player over the next few seasons.
Below is a mini-compilation of Brewster in recent action:
Regrettably there will not be a 3rd consecutive FA Cup win, after going out in the quarter finals on penalties to Everton.
The tie came 2 days after a gruelling Europa league match which I will come to, so I had no option but to rest several first team regulars, and we did well, going 1-0 up early on, only for Everton to level in the 88th minute.
Extra time was a case of 20 exhausted players taking part in a scrappy tired looking midfield melee which ended a stalemate, so penalties it was.
Now, I have a concern over FIFA’s penalties, I’m sure theres a bug in that the COM GK will save 90% of your penalties, no matter what, because he always does, no matter what power I use or where I place the ball, he dives the right way, I’ve tried leaving the aiming line central until the last minute, then changing direction, and just aiming straight to the corner, and keeping it there, but the COM GK save ratio is unrealistically high, and so the Everton keeper saved 4 of my 5 penalties and we was out.
I mentioned a gruelling Europa Cup match above, and it was, the single most tense and nail-biting footy video game match I’ve ever played.
The scenario, Europa League, Last 16 stage, away to Man City after they beat me 1-0 at home in the first leg.
We needed a 1-0 win just to take it into extra time, City are a formidable side to play against with all the quick pass and move and deadly finishing traits of real life used in their play style, you really have to focus for the full 90 mins to get anything from them.
We played City 3 times in succession, the home leg of the EL, then played them in the Premier League, then again in the EL away leg, they beat me in the previous 2 matches, so heading in to this away tie at the Emirates needing a win was a tough ask.
In an extremely tense and tight affair, we eventually took the lead after some nice build up play and getting in behind their stalwart defence, with a tidy finish
We then had to focus, and defend for the other hour of the match, and we did, 0-1 it stayed and extra time came. Player tiredness was now almost at rigamortis stage and there were mistakes being made all over the pitch, I consciously focused on just keeping the ball, tracking runners and not trying anything risky, I really didn’t want penalties due to the low % chance of scoring them, but I fancied my chances better than risking open play during extra time and conceding a late goal.
I had used all 3 subs during normal time, and had 1 more allowed under the new rule, so brought on Adama on the right wing, and his pace immediately showed.
Some careful midfield keep ball before launching a cutting slide rule pass down the right channel, and then using the R stick first touch to push the ball ahead into open grass, the tired defender wasn’t catching me now, 2-0, we did it!
City would now have to score twice in 2 game minutes to win the tie. They didn’t, and on to the Europa League Quarter finals we go, easy ride from here on in right?
Wrong.
A 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield in the league, sandwiched between a draw and several wins have kept us in the title race, but with just 4 games left to play we have to keep winning and hope Liverpool drop points.
Lastly, a few goals scored in the recent run-in.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – another quality substantive post, you’re getting the rhythm back I think.
Re. CPU penalties I can sympathise in a different way. On the ‘other side’ of the aisle, for most of the year so far 8 out of 10 AI-taken penalties would be placed to my keeper’s right. So of course I always saved 8 out of 10 AI penalties. Until they tweaked it around February to make it truly random, resulting in the CL penalty shootout that you saw.
Admiral Adama to the bridge! God I’d be all over that if a player called Adama was mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzmhr07rz-U
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NG – Penalties never used to be like that in FIFA, I’m sure EA must have changed it in a patch, as literally the COM keeper will save 4 out of 5 penalties, well taken, well placed pens at that.
I have never seen a single episode of BSG in my life, so was oblivious to the Adama Pun, however after you calling me out on the Brewsters millions reference last time, this title of course borrows a famous quote from the film.
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Penalties is a clear opportunity for scripted high jinks and behind the scenes pokery as it’s not as blatant as seeing a straight as a die thunderbolt slip past the post yet again. However, I’ve never known it that high, so much so that I’ve pretty much hit every penalty for the last decade straight down the middle (so for pes that’s about 4 times in normal time then!)
Saw earlier comment Paul. No worries, no urgency, just glad of advice and suspect what I’ve signed up to might need upgrading or be too restrictive.
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Turf – If I am not mistaken, you are hosting your own WP installation on a server?
Where you installed the WP directories and theme etc, and bought webspace to accommodate it all on? Or bought a package of a reseller that does it all for you ?
My Wp is just done through the worpress.com website, no server, no installation, all done in-line on the web.
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Uncle Turf – everyone who does it started that terrible habit of middle penalties on PES2011, because nobody knew how to take them. It was in the manual. Remember manuals…
Paul – Brewster’s Millions is one of those comedy films that’s a great idea at its heart, and is funny for the first twenty minutes, but then becomes a mostly grim slog for the remainder of the time. (Fill in your own FIFA/PES joke here.)
Have you tested the penalties on the training ground? Take 20 in a row and if there are more than 7 or so saved, there are shenanigans. I was thinking about shenanigans in footy gaming today, when I remembered that slide-tackles in FIFA used to be almost impossible to make correctly (and rightly so) *except for when your slide-tackle would concede a throw-in to the AI*. So slide tackles in general would be maybe 5% likely to succeed in general – but there was a zone next to both touchlines where a slide-tackle was 90% likely to succeed, because the ball would just go out of play. Does FIFA still do that?
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NG – I will try that, and I cant comment on the Slide tackles as I never knew of the method you just mentioned, I know that i sometimes use slide tackles, and it requires good timing otherwise you’re late and commit the foul and get a card, or you can take the ball.
What I do know is unlike in PES, where the COM’s slide tackles are laser guided and they take the ball every single time in one flowing movement, FIFA’s ST’s have randomness about them, possibly due to using the OS sliders which introduces more randomness during physical battles and tweaks the first touch and ball control abilities, so they don’t always take the ball cleanly, it can bobble out into open play, deflect off somewhere, go out of touch etc.
I’ll keep an eye out next time i attempt one.
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Paul – the com ALWAYS saves my pens as well. Same in pes, like you I miss 4 out of 5 pretty consistently.
Also – I’ve really gotten the hang of scoring I think, finally. 4 games played and two have ended in 3-0,two in 4-0. Rashford is turning into a beast and has scored 5. Don’t know if it’s the script or no but something is definetly going my way. I’m banging them in left right and centre, good times.
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Make that 7 for rashford and 5 for depay. Just decimated Everton, beat them 6-0. Yup… Definitely getting the hang of it methinks. Wondering when the script will jump in to stop me.
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what level is that #1, World Class? Pretty good effort if so. The hopeless team I support, Ipswich, have just been relegated and I am strangely excited by the thought of playing in the lower leagues with them on FIFA20, especially with a new OLED TV and gaming room. Not a patch on Paul’s new set-up of course!
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Abbeyhill – I had to double check but yes it’s on world class! I’m by no means a “good player” but suddenly I’m bagging goals all over the place. I did get better players but the junp up in OVR is not that high – vardy and iheanacho were around 80 OVR, Rashford and Depay are 85 and 87 respectively. Of course these are very good players, so maybe it’s that. Its just they don’t feel that much better on the pitch, just a bit stronger and faster.
In any case I was already defending with ease with an ok defense (high 70s OPR) and now that attacking is going my way… Anyway here I am. Struggling for goals end of last season, to dominating my opponents from pillar to post.
One of the wins was against ManU, 3-0. The goals are mostly spectacular as well and quite varied. Good times and looking forward to the CL. Suddenly Dark Souls 3 is getting less playing time (stuck on an insanely difficult boss) and my footy gaming career has been rejuvenated.
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#1 – Just wait, you will hit a brick wall where you are struggling to scrap out 1-0 wins.
FIFA’s script is quite crude, once you start winning games on the bounce and banging goals in, it will kick in and drag you back, has done it to me every single season, and the better team you amass, the more brutal the script is.
As such, I started on World Class level and haven’t had to move up at all in 10 seasons, in 10 seasons of PES I’d have motored through the difficulty levels in a ML career, but on FIFA, I’m still yet to even win the league, or a euro cup on WC.
Thursdays update should be pretty close to the last couple of weeks of the season, its all very tight up there.
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Abbeyhill – New FIFA, new gaming setup, happy times!
What size screen you going for?
I have a 55″ Samsung QLED in the living room and the clarity and vividness of the colours is amazing.
Watched the feature length conclusion of Line of Duty in the cinema room last night, really makes such a difference.
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Paul – right you are and sure enough I jinxed it all. Next match was a turgid affair against stoke in which I was way better on the pitch but suddenly my players couldn’t pass or shoot worth shit and I was lucky to come away with the 1-0 win.
You’re absolutely right regarding the crudeness of the script. I think the match-related scripting in pes can be more outrageous but the macro-script in fifa this year really is something else.
Still, I’m curious if I can “break” the script or get so good that it doesn’t matter. As it is, seems I was lucky to win the league last year.
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#1 – Stoke have been my bogey team in FIFA 19 this year, they seem to Yo-Yo between divisions, and always dick me over during one ofd these xmas period fuckery windows.
I hate them, the sight of them and their shit Purple kit !!!
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Yes 55” too Paul, can’t wait. Contrast ratio and colour intensity on these TVs are amazing. Do you think there is much to be gained from upgrading to a PS4 Pro now, or just waiting for the next generation?
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Abbeyhill – ABsolutely PS4 Pro.
Think NG will agree with me, if you have a 4k Tv with HDR then you NEED the PS4Pro to make use of it, the level of detail you will see is very noticeable, HDR takes it to another level.
Besides next-next gen, PS5 etc wont surface until late 2020 at the earliest. You can pick up some good deals on PS4Pro’s nowadays.
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abbeyhill – I certainly do agree, the PS4 Pro has been fantastic for me, a new level of console convenience. The only downside is that the 1TB drive inside is still a spinny HDD rather than a reassuring SSD, so there’s a speed and reliability factor there. You can still switch it out yourself of course.
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PS5 will come with 2 SSD’s
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