FIFA 14 | Good teams for career mode – Yeovil Town


Introduction: How do these articles work?

Each Sunday I examine a different team in detail and look at why they’re a good team for FIFA 14’s career mode. The teams are broken down into the following categories:

  • Tier 1: Teams in tough divisions that can push on to challenge for silverware
  • Tier 2: Teams that will have to fight for survival in a challenging division
  • Tier 3: Teams that start in a lower division but can hope to get promoted and work their way up higher leagues
  • Tier 4: Teams that start right at the bottom of the pile, with few funds or high potential players

Today we’ve got the first article on a Tier 2 team: Yeovil Town in the Football League Championship. Thanks to Karim for the suggestion.

Yeovil Town

Yeovil Town (Tier 2)

Contents

  1. Why choose Yeovil Town?
  2. Lineups
    1. Strongest starting lineup
    2. Highest potential lineup
  3. Recommended purchases
    1. Loans
  4. Future considerations
    1. Wage increases
    2. Get a new left back
    3. Get a new centre back

Starting transfer budget: £500,000
Starting wage budget: £4,000
Default formation: 4-4-2
Board expectations: Avoid relegation, reach cup round of 32
Key player: Adam Morgan
Best young prospect: Adam Morgan

Why choose Yeovil Town?

Where to start? Tier 2 teams represent those fighting for survival in a tough division, and on that front Yeovil lead by example. They have the smallest transfer budget in the league, a puny wage budget, a poor starting lineup compared to other Championship teams, and very few players with decent potential. Added to that they have a very small squad – only one left midfielder, only three centre backs (one of whom is only on loan for the season) and only three central midfielders. Injuries and even match fatigue will have a big impact, and there’s barely enough money to solve the problems.

What this does mean is that you’ll have no shortage of excitement if you do a career with Yeovil. Staying in the division is the number one task but it’s extremely difficult given their starting quality and budget. But if you fancy yourself a transfer market wizard or relegation escape artist and love a good challenge, this is the team for you. And despite their lack of funds, I managed to bring in five quality players, so it’s not impossible – although I was only left with £18 by the time I was finished!

The team’s key player is Adam Morgan. Goals are going to be absolutely vital if you want to have a chance of staying up, and Morgan is going to be the main threat going forward. He’s pacey and does best with the ball at his feet, and his potential of 78 should see him grow well throughout the season as long as he keeps playing well. Though Yeovil have a good number of forwards, Morgan is the best and youngest, so I’d recommend you keep hold of him to take advantage of the goals he’ll provide.

That said, if you feel you need some extra money you can sell him. You’ll make around £1m for him, which gives a massive boost to the club’s finances. If you do decide to do this and need some ideas for who to replace him with, check out my articles on cheap target men and goalscorers. In this article I won’t be selling him, as I’m sure there will be some people who will keep him and will want to know who else they can afford.

Strongest starting lineup

This is the team’s best starting lineup at the start of a career (OVRs are in brackets)

Yeovil Town's best ineup based on starting OVR

Suggested formation and starting lineup

The team’s lack of depth means there’s not much choice but to stick with the 4-4-2 formation, and this is how their highest potential players fit in (potentials are in brackets)

Yeovil Town's best ineup based on potential

As you can see, only three players have potential higher than 70, and one of those players (Duffy) is on loan for the season. As well as that, the starting OVRs of several of the team’s players are not very high. Let’s see how we can fix that in the transfer market.

Recommended purchases

Key signings required: CB, CM, LM

Although Yeovil have several problem areas, these three areas are perhaps most in need of attention. They have very little squad depth, with only three CBs, three CMs and one LM. With a miniscule budget of £500,000 and £4,000 in wages, this is going to require some planning, and I’ll be looking for players who can fulfill more than one role to ensure I get real value for money.

While it’ll be difficult to get good players, it’s not impossible if you know where to look. The first place is the free agents – you can sign players and only have to pay their wages, no transfer fee. Loans are also your friend, and certain leagues contain good players with low wages (in the £750 – £1,500 area). While it is tempting to get super-high potential players like Luke Shaw on loan or loan-to-buy deals, their wages are often too high and Yeovil’s problems too numerous. You could realistically only really afford one or two of them, but Yeovil have so many problem areas that you need at least three new players or more.

This is the way I went about addressing these concerns, but you may do it a different way, so if you have any other suggested signings be sure to say so in the comments. I first went to the Finances button on the Transfers tab and changed the transfer ratio to 29:71. This left me with £205,320 in transfer funds and £9,666 in wages. I then got the following players:

Cedric Djeugoue

Cedric Djeugoue
Position: CB
OVR: 63
Potential: 68
Age: 20
Cost: £0 (free agent)
Wages: £3,000

With the exception of Shane Duffy, Yeovil’s defence is rather poor. The worry is that once he’s gone at the end of the season, you’re left with two centre backs in the entire squad, neither of them particularly brilliant. The team therefore needs a new CB signed on a permanent basis.

Djeugoue is a good way to rectify that and can slot straight into the starting lineup. He’s strong, but also has excellent pace, so can cover at full back if you need him to. He’s also a threat in the air, and could provide vital goals in your bid to stay in the division. Moreover, his 79 stamina also means he’ll rarely need a rest, ensuring you can keep him in the starting 11. His potential is 68, but seeing as that’s only five points above his starting OVR and he’s only 20, I’d expect him to grow well and exceed it.

Seeing as he’s a free agent you don’t need to pay any transfer fee, just his wages, ensuring you can save money to be used on other players.


Pedro Azogue

Pedro Azogue
Position: CM
OVR: 63
Potential: 68
Age: 18
Cost: £0 (free agent)
Wages: £1,500

As with the centre back position, Yeovil only have three centre midfielders in their squad. If any get injured or tired you may find yourself in a spot of bother. Once again, the place to look is the free agents pool.

Pedro Azogue will probably be a name known to many career mode players for his ability to boost lower league teams for free. He’s still young and EA bafflingly think he’ll only grow five points, but with plenty of games and good performances he’ll easily exceed that. Like Djeugoue he’s got good pace and stamina, and excels at passing and tackling. With a bit of growth he can become the vital anchor in your midfield and go some way to shutting out the opposition.

The second free agent in this article, his wages are a very affordable £1,500.


Samu Castillejo

Samu Castillejo
Position: LM
OVR: 62
Potential: 74
Age: 18
Cost: £200,000
Wages: £3,500

The third problem area for Yeovil is left midfield, as they only have one when you start a career. That’s Sam Foley, and at 61 OVR and 26 years old he’s hardly got any more growth in him. Not only do you need to find a second LM to rotate him with, but you need to find a player with good potential for minimal cost.

As I discovered, finding a left midfielder that meets these criteria is hard. However, I found a good one in Samu Castillejo at Málaga CF. With 74 potential he should grow fast, and his 70 ball control and 67 dribbling should develop nicely. His 84 sprint speed will be his main asset, though, and will enable him to breeze past opposition defenders and get into crossing positions. Just be careful with his stamina – it’s quite low and he’ll need to be rested fairly often, but with his good potential it should improve fairly quickly.

Málaga want £300,000 for him but I only had to pay £200,000 (hence changing the budget ratio). His starting wages were 2,250 but I had to lay it on thick to convince him to join, bumping his wages up to £3,500, giving him a five year contract and making him an important first team player. But seeing as his OVR is already better than Foley’s that shouldn’t be a problem, as you’ll be playing him as much as possible anyway.

Loans

Now, we’ve bought three players but does that mean we’re finished? Definitely not – we still have a bit of money left over and Yeovil still have some problems that need fixing, so let’s see what we can get.

We’ve only got about £26,000 in transfer funds left, and that can’t really get us much. So go back to the budget ratio adjustment screen and move the slider all the way to the left so that it reads 0:100. That should give you £0 in transfer funds and £1,768 in wages – with that we can easily get two very good players in on loan if you know where to look.

As I said earlier, some leagues pay very low wages even if the players have good OVRs. I’ve generally found this is true for leagues in countries like Argentina, Australia, Chile and Colombia, as well as lower leagues throughout Europe.

So here are the two players I brought in on loan with this remaining cash:

Guillermo Ortiz

Guillermo Ortiz
Position: CB
OVR: 68
Potential: 79
Age: 20
Cost: £0 (season long loan)
Wages: £1,000

Guillermo Ortiz plays for Newell’s in Argentina. I wanted to bring in another centre back because although we’ve brought Yeovil’s total up to four, Webster (62 OVR) and Jones (56 OVR) aren’t really good enough for the Championship, don’t grow much and don’t have many standout stats (aside from Webster’s 84 strength). If either Djeugoue or Duffy get injured, we have to fall back on one of these two.

That’s where Ortiz comes in. Like Djeugoue, he has a great mix of pace and strength, and could be used at full back if required. And like Djeugoue, he’s good in the air, so will contribute important goals at set pieces. His tackling is in the 70s so he should be an excellent stopper, and with his potential of 79 he will grow very well while on loan. In fact, he’ll be the best player on your team but ironically will have the cheapest wages. For a player of his quality, £1,000 a week is a ridiculously low amount to pay.


Aaron Mooy

Aaron Mooy
Position: CM
OVR: 65
Potential: 77
Age: 22
Cost: £0 (season long loan)
Wages: £750

I next went to Wanderers in Australia for the final player, and that was Aaron Mooy. While I brought in Azogue to shore up the defensive side of Yeovil’s central midfield, Mooy is here to improve the team’s attacks. He’s got a superb range of skills at his disposal – he can dribble, pass, finish, shoot from distance, cross and more. He’s got good speed and with 79 stamina is going to be able to play game after game, a vital ability given the boost he can bring to the team. With 76 free kick accuracy he is also deadly from set pieces, something Yeovil normally lacks.

At just £750, his wages are the cheapest in the team and amazing considering what he can do.


Well that’s it in terms of transfers. Once those last two loans are all signed off, I was left with £0 in transfer fees and £18 in wages. Yes, £18. Just enough to get a round or two at the pub to celebrate.

Considering the team started with £500,000 in transfer funds and £4,000 in wages, getting 5 excellent players seems like pretty good going. If that doesn’t define bargain hunting then I don’t know what does!

You may feel you’d rather save a little bit of money rather than spending almost all of it on players. And it can be useful to have some spare in case players demand a wage rise (see the next section). But it does go to show that even the most restrictive budget doesn’t necessarily stop you from bringing in good players who can really improve the team.

Future considerations – wage increases

Despite all that, there are still areas of the team that could be improved and problems that could be addressed.

Liam Davis

Liam Davis could be sold for some extra cash

The problem with signing so many players is that there’s not much left in the way of wages, so if any players demand a wage increase you may not be able to afford it.

One way to solve this is, of course, to refrain from bringing in some of the above players. The problem is that you’ll then still have the problems in the team that those players addressed.

Alternatively, you could sell some people. Players like Joey Jones, Nathan Ralph, Kieffer Moore and Liam Davis aren’t good enough and will free up a bit of money that can be funnelled into the wage budget in case players demand higher wages.

The other way you could sort out this problem is by going on a good cup run, as this can bring in a good amount of cash depending on how far you get. Of course, there’s no guarantee you’ll progress far and get lots of cash, but it’s something to consider.

Future considerations – left back

Yeovil may have three left backs, but with starting OVRs of 58, 57 and 54 they really need to be improved. They don’t grow much, either: Nathan Ralph (OVR 54, potential 60) and Liam Davis (OVR 57, potential 58) are not going to get much better, while Jamie McAllister is rated 58 but is 35, so will be declining rapidly and retires at the end of the year anyway.

I’d recommend selling one or two of those three players and either 1) bringing in a free agent, or 2) signing a player in January whose contract is about to expire. The great thing about the second option is that, like free agents, you don’t pay any transfer fee, only their wages. Furthermore, they join your team at the end of the season, having had a full year of growth at the other team. This is useful when signing older players – they barely grow on your team, but if they have decent potential they can often grow quite well at AI teams.

To sign a player this way they need to be 23 or older in January and only have one year left on their contract. When you go to sign them there will be an offer to “sign on contract expiry”.

I think there are three main players to consider for this position:

  • José Gabriel Ramírez
  • Gordan Bunoza
  • ?shak Do?an
Gordan Bunoza

Gordan Bunoza has some incredible stats

José Gabriel Ramírez plays for Arsenal in Argentina. His OVR is 65 and potential 72, and he’s 22. His pace is decent but his strength and stamina are both very good, as is his tackling. Best of all, his wages are £750.

Gordan Bunoza plays for Wis?a Kraków in Poland. His OVR is 64 and potential 72, and he’s 25. His wages are a bit higher at £4,000, so he’s one to go for if you’ve managed to sell a few players or had a good cup run. But with his 85 sprint speed and 92 strength he’s going to bulldoze through the opposition. 78 stamina, 76 stand tackle and a height of 6’5″ round off this amazing player.

Finally, ?shak Do?an is a free agent with OVR 66 and potential 66, and he’s 22. For some reason EA don’t reckon he’ll grow at all, despite being 22. I say that’s rubbish. Like José Ramírez he’s strong and has good stamina, and is even better at tackling. His wages are £3,000.

Future considerations – centre back

Valmir Lucas

Valmir Lucas is an excellent free signing

Centre back is another problem, as one of the players will be leaving at the end of the year (two if you brought in Ortiz), leaving three very average players. Again, you could get a player or two in January as their contracts are expiring – this way they only come to your team after the loaned players have gone, meaning you won’t be overloading yourself. Here are a couple of ideas:

Valmir Lucas of Goiás in Brazil. He’s got OVR 68, potential 74 and is 24. His wages are a measly £750 but he’s got good strength and excellent tackling.

Franco Lazzaroni, another good CB from Newell’s in Argentina. He’s got OVR 69, potential 73 and is 25. His 80 strength, 81 jumping and 74 heading will make him a threat in the air, and he’s got excellent pace and good tackling. As with all players who you sign on contract expiring, all these stats will have improved as well when he arrives.


So there you have it. Hopefully this in-depth guide to Yeovil Town has given you a few ideas for your own career. If it has, be sure to tell us how you got on in the comments.

I’d also like to hear if you have any thoughts about the format of the article itself. Did you find it useful? Conversely, do you think it was missing something that you’d have liked me to include?

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