FIFA 14 | So You Want A… Left midfielder


Tonight we’re going to round off the articles on wide players by having a look at left midfielders and wingers. Here are a few players I’ve chosen as standing out from the crowd:

  • Jean-Paul Boëtius
  • Balde Diao Keita
  • Bernat

Jean-Paul Boëtius is my first choice, and he actually reminds me a lot of Zakaria Bakkali in the right midfielders article. He’s got great pace and balance, four star skills and superb dribbling, so put him to good use and you’ll be turning defences inside out with ease. In fact, combine him with Bakkali and you’ve pretty much got the attacking dream team. Try a bid of around £3.5m to £4m and he could be yours.

Up next is a player who brings together pace, power and technical skill – Balde Diao Keita. He’s fast but also has 70 strength, and bear in mind he’s only 18, so in a few years he’s going to be not only lightning quick but rock solid as well. Balance is another of his strong points, and he’ll be very difficult to knock off the ball, allowing you a better chance of holding onto possession and fashioning a chance for your team. He can also finish, so he’ll be able to put his strength and pace to good use and finish off the attacks he starts.

Bernat is up next. I’ve chosen him because, like Marco Davide Faraoni on the right midfielders page, he’s extremely flexible. He’s already got 80 dribbling and 85 balance, so is on the brink of getting the dribbler speciality, but he’s fast and has a very decent cross on him. He’ll be creating chances thanks to this, but his defensive stats mean he’ll be stopping them at the other end of the pitch, and can happily be played at left back if needed. He’s even got very good stamina, so if wing backs are your thing then he can do the job both physically and technically. You can get him for less than £2m – not bad for what is effectively two players in one.

Finally, if you love using skill moves, go for either Gary Mackay-Steven or Wellington Silva, as they both have five star skills and excellent pace and dribbling. Wellington Silva is on loan at first and Mackay-Steven is fairly pricey, but they are certainly worth considering if you are a fan of tricks.

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The articles in this series should give you some ideas if you’re looking for a new signing in a key area. There is one article for each position on the pitch to make it easy for you to quickly find players to bolster your squad.

All of the players given here have a minimum potential of 80, so you know you’re getting quality. The maximum OVR for each player is 73, both to keep transfer prices down and to avoid presenting you with too many options and thus making it too difficult to choose the player you need.

The ‘Avai?’ column is short for ‘available?’ and refers both to whether or not you can buy the specified player at the start of the first season and how long their current contract is. Let’s take Y/2 as an example – Y means that yes, you can buy him at the start of a new career, and the number means he has two years left on his contract. Similarly, N/3 would mean that no, you can’t buy the player straight away, and he has three years left on his contract. These ‘no’ players are often available for transfer if you wait until the January transfer window, however. For some players this column is blank – this means that they are out on loan at the start and are therefore unavailable for purchase until the second season.

Initial player costs may seem very low this year. The figure in the player cost column refers to the price you are given if you scout the player. But I’ve also added a new column this time round – ‘They want’. This refers to the price the other team want for the player if you enquire about him. Often there is a large difference between the player cost obtained through scouting and that obtained through an enquiry. This leaves a lot of room for negotiation, so don’t be put off if a price in the ‘They want’ column is high, as you can usually get the player for much less. Try bidding lower than what you think will be accepted – you may be surprised at their response. If the ‘They want’ column is blank it’s because the team refused to give a price, either because the player has just joined them or because they are loaning him in.

And as a final note, in FIFA 14 EA update player OVRs and potentials every week. Mose of the time these are very minor changes, and most players won’t be affected at all unless they have had a very noteworthy week. Furthermore, some players occasionally disappear if they have been put in the reserve squad that week. So just bear in mind that these figures should be read as a guide only and not a definitive account of player costs, potentials, etc, for the entire season.[/expand]

Read the list in full below:

[table id=94 /]

And don’t forget to check out the other articles in this series by going to the ‘So You Want A…’ button in the top menu!