Ahhh, the sun sets at dusk over a rampant Selhurst Park during a Europa League group match, those were more peaceful, worry-free times, having secured qualification from the group as winners, the knock out stage awaits, but for now, the Europa league is parked, with our job being done until we await the draw for the last 16.
Meanwhile, we are at the busy end of season 6, having just entered the final week of the January transfer window, and some emergency dealings had to be done, more on that in a minute.
It’s been quite some time since a footy video game made us really pay attention to squad building, development, and management, in ‘another game’ it was just pick same squad, play match, rinse and repeat, but here in FIFA 20+ (that’s what i’ll refer to the PC modded FIFA 20 with FIFER realism mod as from now on) that is exactly what we have to do, and I’m having a tough old time of it right now.
I have five first team players out with significant injuries, the list above doesn’t show the whole picture, as well as those listed above, Brewster, my star CF was also side lined for 8 weeks with a cruciate ligament injury, and also Beltran, my first choice CDM signed from Barcelona in the summer was also out for a 7 week groin injury, and with games coming thick and fast, the squad was down to the bare bones.
I have my entire forward line missing, so I moved Nicolas Pepé from RM into the CF position, to accompany Ferreira, who also then got injured, so the Jan transfer window couldn’t come soon enough.
January is not a good time to sign players, most clubs won’t let the big players leave, and those that are available have to be tempted away with over-inflated offers, I had the dilemma of signing a big name quality player for tens of millions, then having a surplus of players and a hefty wage bill once they was all fit again, or sign a stop-gap player to tide me over, I opted for the latter.
After a 2 week scouting mission, we signed Joel Asoro from Derby County, 78 Rated, pretty decent for a Championship player, great strength and Speed, and good heading stats, he will at least give us a recognised CF to play with until the injuries subside.
The same issue with left wing, Youth promote come first team player Lewis Kelly, is our only recognised LM, with Rodrygo out injured, as a result I have had to draft in some fledgling youth players to fill the bench, its a very thin squad at present, and it will be difficult to maintain a title push, Europa League tilt and domestic cup run without our full strength squad available.
Here’s the league table after 24 games, nearing the end of January, it’s all very tight up there, one defeat and we could drop right out of the running.
A recent 3-0 demolition of Man City saw us leapfrog them into 4th, with league leaders Liverpool up next, then Arsenal In the Carabao cup final, whom we will face after beating Spurs 2-0 on agg in the semi final.
This is our first domestic cup final, aside from the UCL final last season, in every season we have always failed to get across that semi-final line, so this is an opportunity to add another trophy to the cabinet, Arsenal play some quick fire, high octane football though so a tactical decision to be considered in order to stop their build up play.
Next weeks post will conclude season 6, with extended highlights of the Carabao Cup final, and seeing the Europa League to whatever conclusion it may come to, and of course, the premier League title charge, but for now, I leave you with a short video containing a few goals from recent key matches, the goals in order of play are:
- Rodrygo Debut goal on opening day
- Adama Traore seals Europa League qualification with a goal
- A well taken Volley goal
- The 1st goal of 2 in a 2-0 agg win vs Spurs in the Carabao Cup Semi
- Pepé scoring his first in a 3-0 win over City
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – you’re still doing very well on World Class, I am discovering that just like in real life, a club really does need the quality players in depth to compete – but I’m loving the challenge of trying to get by with what I have. You’re two seasons ahead of me numerically. We started with similar clubs and finances and it’ll be interesting to see if I’m at the Champs League/Top-6 level in two seasons’ time.
I upgraded to gigabit internet this week (not actually hit the magic 1000MB download speed yet on tests; 880MB or so is the highest it’s got so far, but it’s only Day 2). I watched your vid in glorious 2K without a stutter on an FHD screen, game looks fantastic, can really see and appreciate your 2020 PC specs there. And that camera! I will be renewing efforts to get the mod working.
Good luck in the Carabao – a much more important trophy in virtual football than real football, because of how pleasing it is to get silverware, the old Benitez principle of putting trophies in the cabinet.
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NG – My Move up to World Class was around season 4, so again in-line with your own experience, with the right signings in 2 seasons time you should be competing on all fronts.
I saw your Gigabit comment the other day and meant to respond, welcome to the world of super high fast internet, you’ll wonder how you ever coped without it.
Is it through Vodafone? i believe theyre the only ones offering Gigaafast in conjunction with CityFibre, thats who I’m with anyway.
On the day it was installed I hit 960MB down and 940MB up, but I usually get anywhere between 600-800Mb usually, which is way more than adequate.
It took about 30 secs to upload my UHD YT Hollywood mvie of around 12GBvideo last night, and iterally minutes, 2 or 3, to download a 1080p FHD, you’ll love it.
Email me and I’ll send over the uodated ver of the mod for that Camera and Turf, you’ll need to update the FIFA game to the latest, title uodate 17 though.
I’m gonna put everything into the Carabao final, its eluded me for the last 3 seasons, getting to the semi final each time, I’m determined to bag it this year.
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Paul – it is with Vodafone, they finished installing the cable locally just at the start of lockdown. I have been happily testing like mad but finding that relatively few places serve the required speed. When I upgraded to 150 and then 300 in the past nearly every source was happy to max out the connection, but relatively few servers will serve up 1 gb. Nice to be able to watch 4k without a stutter and watch the pre-load bar shoot ahead. The technical line test confirms 1000/1000 up/down so I suppose this is all about future-proofing and in 5 years’ time it’ll be standard. If anything the upload speed is more valuable than the download.
I#m very interested in that Broadcast mod now! A few sessions on Default cam were nice – it does open up the play more becaouse f the wider view, spotting runs etc – but I’ll have the immersion back again now. Cheers and no rush as it’ll be the weekend before I get back on it.
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NG – Good stuff. Of course your download speed is limited by whatever server you are downloading from, I regularly use a website to download tv shows, movies etc, on my old 60MB p/s BT connection, If i downloaded a movie say in 5 parts, part 1 would be 3.5mb p/s, and the other parts would gradually reduce, such as 2mb,1.2mb,800k, 400k etc, then after switching to Vodafone gigabit, every file would max out at 3.5mb p/s, but they’ve recently upgradd their servers and I now get around 60mb p/s for every file running concurrently, downloaded a 48GB 4k Bluray the other day and it took 6 mins.
The Broadcast cam mod/pitch textures is very nice, more gentle panning and sweeping, but the FK and penalty cameras are too far out for my liking, but still useable.
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Paul – good luck in the Carabao Cup Final, come and join the club!!
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Cheers Lloyd – will need it!
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Paul – Have you just been really unlucky with injuries, or is this a side effect of the mods you are using?
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Chris99 – I’ve had a few injuries each season, maybe one long term one per season, but this season has been a mare, 5 players out at once, and just last night, my LB VInagre went down under a challenge and picked up a 3 week injury.
It’s made squad rotation and management much harder but as a result more enjoyable.
palace in reality don’t have a big in-depth squad, so losing several key players, having to shoe-in youth and frienge players whilst going for the league, cup and europa league has added another layer of difficulty, which is a nice challenge.
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Chris – I’m an ps4, vanilla, no sliders and last season I lost RB Wilson for 7 months, Bergwin for 2 months and Savic for 3 months all at the start of the season.
I finished 9th in Season 8. Carabao Cup winners and FA Cup semi finals. Beat Rapid Vienna 4-0 on Agg in Europa League qualifying round and have Bronby up next for a spot in the group stages.
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Lloyd – 7 months is harsh, Brewster was a 2 month injury and we missed his goals massively.
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Paul – he was my back up LB/RB. Missed him and also stalled his development. Hope to have a big session tonight. Got an empty house. Good 4/5 hours to play. Boom!!
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Lloyd – That is harsh for vanilla. Normally you only get numerous long term injuries if you sim matches.
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I’ve had a few 4 month injuries on vanilla (FIFA19), including this season Dammerer, my highly promising Austrian left winger. Not the fastest player but a sumptuous left foot, can curl some beautiful crosses in. As you say Lloyd it’s the sacrificed development that hurts most when they could be adding 4-5 OVR per season. Was so pleased when he scored the winner against Seville on his second game back
One thing that’s struck me is that there are never any arguments or heated debates on FIFAFX compared to the chronicles, partly cause Paul is always super-polite on his own blog. Quite tempted to devise a rabidly anti-FIFA alter-ego and stir things up….
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Abbeyhill – thats usually because not many people comment here, and as its a FIFA named blog, the people who do comment are those playing the game, not blinkered people wanting to make false accusations about games theyve never played.
Go for it though, could be amusing, Im more than happy to speak my mind outright and put people in their place here just as much as anywhere else 😉
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Can’t wait to see Hibbeyall appear next week.
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hahaha Chris99!!! and if SirhC66 turns up i’ll know something is up.
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Or Rewd llitrah😊 fifa through the letterbox today, will try tonight but updates and my slow Internet may mean sometime in the week before I play properly.
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Don’t worry Paul, it’s a long time since I’ve been able to do a handstand.
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Werd – you still running off copper wire tied to weasels tails up there???
Chris99 – if i tried one nowadays the resulting blood rush to the head, and 16.5 stone of bodymass being forced down upon me would probably cause an aneurism!
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Your injury situation is severe there Paul, you’re right though, this mixes it up. I’m currently battling through a busy fixture list with a weak squad outside the first 11.
I had an interesting past season, 2nd year in the Championship, comfortably top midway and also in the Carabao Cup final via 2 x penalty victories in the 3rd round & quarter finals. The final was Liverpool so I decided to play for pens which I managed after nicking a first half goal from a corner, cue an unexpected cup win. This of course means I’m in the Europa League whilst also having to deal with the first season in the Premier League challenge, rather predictably I’m in a bit of trouble. I have to pretty much play 2 different teams to keep stamina high and rather than mix the players up I’ve gone for A and B teams. I have a couple of players with good stamina and they make a huge difference, playing >80% of matches but otherwise it’s full rotation. An injury list like yours and I’m in trouble.
Do you keep with the same 11 as much as possible or do you use rotation? I always aim to avoid players running out of stamina but is this the best approach..
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Cook – Thats a great achievement!! Congrats on the cup win!!!
Stamina is a huge thing in FIFA, especially with the FIFER mod, playing a season with the premier league, europa cup or UCL, both domestic cups…. impossible using the same team, i have 2 teamsheets setup, main starting 11, and B team, i use the B team for early round carabao Cup and ‘easier’ FA Cup matches, and if Im guaranteed qualification in say my Europa league group then I’ll rest the main players where possible, can have its banana skins though, like this season, i fielded a younger side in the FA Cup 3rd round away at Southend Utd and lost 2-0.
Chirivella, CM, is my first choice attackig Midfielder but his stamina is shocking, he always needs subbing off after 60 mins, couple that in with the 5 first team injuries I had and its been a difficult season, as tomorrows post will show.
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I’ve got A & B ‘partnerships’ e.g. in central midfield and RB-RM and try to rotate them to keep the team always at a decent level and stamina, while playing a full A team in crucial games and B in easy or meaningless ones. Only problem is lack of reserve CBs having ‘not-gregged’ a couple of negotiations, all we have is Fernandes 67 OVR or playing a full back/midfielder out of position. So poor Jackson and Eriksson play literally every match, getting subbed off early if we’re a couple of goals up. One injury there and Exeter City are screwed
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