Finished my first season with Southampton and I'm now doing what I like best of Career Mode, finding promising and/or suitable players for my team doing proper research. I finished first (yes, first) in the EPL, won both the cups too. I now switched to Legendary. The team I finished with:
Butland (72)
Clyne (78) - Kirchhof (78) - Yoshida (74) - Shaw (66)
Ward-Prowse (72) - Zuculini (74)
Redmond (73) - Ramirez (83) - Lallana (81)
Mayuka (78)
Notable substitutes:
Scheiderlin (76)
Cork (76)
Rodriguez (77)
De Ridder (70)
Fox (70)
Mayuka ended as topscorer, 39 goals in all competitions, followed by Ramirez with 38. Redmond was my top assister, 18 assists for him, followed by 15 from Lallana. Mayuka's speed (acc & sprint 94), balance (87) and finishing (84) make him a good goal threat. His only missings are technical skills and some height to score, but makes up for it with all his other qualities. Ramirez is just too awesome, way too awesome. Ball control 93, dribbling 90, acceleration 83, sprinting 87, impossible to knock off the ball, finishing 84, shot power 84, distant shots 87. How's that for a Southampton player? Clyne is pretty damn good too. Obviously his best traits are his acceleration and speed. Good stamina too, so he can keep supporting the attack and get back in time to help defending. Nevertheless was Kirchhof my best defender all season long. Made excellent progress, from 73 to 78 (same as Clyne btw) and has turned to a real leader, if that's even possible in FIFA. Big, strong, good heading skills and good tackling. Lovely.
So now I'm in my second season. And this is where the fun kicks in when I'm able to sign promising and/or suitable players for my team. Especially because I've now qualified for the Champions' League, which means more matches and less resting time. So far I've signed three players. Izagguire, a decent, cheap and experienced left back from Celtic with an overall of 74. Forrest, a speedy tricky player with decent stamina and plenty of potential from Barcelona (starts at Celtic) for a pretty cheap price because he was way down the pecking order. He can compete for the two wide positions with Lallana, Redmond and De Ridder. He has an overall of 78, btw. I've also signed Nathan Ake from Chelsea. Not your traditional central defender. He isn't tall, 180 cm, he's pretty rapid with an acceleration of 84 and his attacking workrate is high, so you can suddenly find him up on the pitch next to your striker. He's kind of another project (or prospect, put it the way you want it) and so far he's done fairly well. Overall of 68, so he'll need some time to come good.
The only thing I now need is another striker. Mayuka's good and all that, but he hasn't got the greatest stamina, so he'll have to miss some matches to get back to full fitness. I figured I needed something different from Mayuka. This way I'd also be able to properly change matches with one or more substitutions. Mayuika's not the best dribbler and he's not very tall either. I don't work with crosses, but I also already have a great dribbler in my team with Ramirez. In the end I figured out I still wanted a dribbler, so I don't lose too much quality if I have to substitute or can't play both of Mayuka and Ramirez. Does this make any sense? Well, anyway, so far my targets are Duricic from Heerenveen (21 years old, 78 overall, pretty rapid and excellent dribbling skills, lacks proper finishing, but has good vision and passing, so in this case I'll be able to bring him in at CAM and push Ramirez into the striking role if necesarry), Suárez from Anderlecht (25 years old, 78 overall, pretty lethal striker with good technical skills), Zárate (26 years old, 78 overall, quick and tricky striker, but "only" 75 finishing) and Griezmann, who just popped in my head. I know he has 78 overall aswell (coincidence, much?), 21 years old and he's a damn good dribbler and he's a lefty. I like lefties. Don't think he's that good of a finisher, though.
I think my preference goes to Duricic. He has something special about him and I think it's fun to have some variety in your team. Don't think I'll like Suárez and Zárate seems a bit unrealistic, although I finished first in the EPL. I've used Griezmann before in FIFA12 and I just loved using him, so it's kind of a tie between Duricic and Griezmann for now.
Perhaps someone has another idea of striker for me? Preferably a striker with good ball control, dribbling and finishing.
and if it freezes again then ill trade it in.
But his strength is a pain, got clattered and is out for 2 months now.
