Key points:
- Searching ‘Any’ will bring back players of all types and also makes your scout’s experience rating irrelevant
- Some player types, such as ‘Winger’ and ‘Playmaker’, can produce mispositioned players with unusual stats
- ‘Physically strong’ players can become extremely well-rounded after a bit of development
- If you want a striker, don’t search for ‘Attacker’ types – as strange as that sounds
Welcome to the FIFA 15 scouting guide!
Your essential guide to the scouting system in FIFA 15
This year I’ve decided to split the guide up into separate parts. This means that instead of having to wait until I’ve finished everything before a big all-in-one guide comes out, you’ll be getting content much more quickly. Just head over to the FIFA 15 scouting guide hub page to find the other parts as they are released.
Today I’m going to look in-depth at the player types that you can scout in FIFA 15. Understanding what each player type does and what sort of players you’ll get back is important to getting more out of scouting in FIFA 15.
NOTE: All the players I show in this article have had the May update. In FIFA 15, players in your youth academy only grow once a year – on 1st May. Some players can have extremely large OVR jumps (10 or 12 points, for example), so if you have a player with high potential but a low OVR range, keep him in the academy until 1st May and he should greatly improve. I will explain this in more detail in a later article.
Contents of player types
Player type: Any
The first player type to search for is rather straightforward in that it is essentially left blank. Telling your scout to look for ‘Any’ will mean that there are no restrictions on what he looks for. You will potentially get players of all player types on your scouting reports, so choose this option if you just want good players and aren’t bothered about their position or type.
As I said in part 1 of the FIFA 15 scouting guide, searching for ‘Any’ also means your scout’s experience rating is irrelevant. A scout’s experience determines how good he is at finding the player type you specify, so if you search for ‘Any’ then high experience is not needed.
Player type: Technically gifted
Searching for ‘Technically gifted’ is a great option if you’re looking for players who can dribble and pass their way around the opposition. Most of the time you will find central midfielders with this type, but you can also find strikers and wide players.
This player type will bring back players with very impressive ball control, dribbling and passing stats, and they are often decent at long shots as well. However, despite the name ‘Technically gifted’, players of this type will not excel in every technical area. For instance, their defensive stats are often poor, so don’t use this option if you want to find defensive midfielders.
As another warning, technically gifted wide players often lack decent speed. Because they are ‘Technically gifted’, unsurprisingly the game has given them excellent technical stats at the expensive of their physical attributes. When that happens, you end up with players who can dribble but are extremely slow, making it difficult to beat defenders until they start growing and get better speed.
Technically gifted players often excel at dribbling, passing and other attacking stats
Player type: Winger
If you are looking for wide players, then telling your scout to find ‘Wingers’ is a much better option than ‘Technically gifted’. Wingers usually have good technical stats with an emphasis on dribbling and crossing, but less emphasis on passing than ‘Technically gifted’ players. However, their pace is usually much better, making them a much more viable option if you want to beat defenders.
However, there is one thing to note about the ‘Winger’ type, and that is that you can find ‘Winger’ full backs who have some rather odd stats, to say the least.
These players are usually mispositioned wide midfielders with incredible pace, crossing, dribbling, passing and other attacking stats. However, their defending stats are usually woeful, meaning their OVR is surprisingly low given some of their amazing stats.
The good news is that these ‘Winger’ full backs develop into brilliant players because the game recognises that they are full backs and thus helps their defensive stats grow. You then end up with fast full backs who excel at both attacking and defending, making them very versatile.
‘Winger’ type full backs can be mispositioned wide players, but have some fantastic stats
Player type: Physically strong
You can find ‘Physically strong’ players pretty much in any position, although the most common are centre backs, central midfielders and strikers. One thing you may notice is that while they have excellent physical stats, their technical stats are often evenly split between attack and defense (so their finishing may be as good as their marking, regardless of their position). This is because FIFA 15 only has one player template for ‘Physically strong’ players, rather than a template for strong attackers and a separate one for strong defenders.
So while it may seem that a ‘Physically strong’ play isn’t as good as they could be because they don’t specialise in any one area, what this means is that they can develop into fantastic all-round players who are both physically and technically accomplished in a number of areas. This is especially so if you find a ‘Physically strong’ central midfielder with high potential, who will develop into a great box-to-box player.
‘Physically strong’ strikers, meanwhile, are usually tall, strong and very good in the air. They are very useful if you like crossing into the box or want an attacker who can hold the ball up and lay it off to teammates. Just bear in mind that they are not usually very fast, so try searching for ‘Technically gifted’ players if you want a striker who can dribble past defenders.
This physically strong central midfielder is well-balanced and will make a great box-to-box player
Player type: Playmaker
The ‘Playmaker’ type used to be the worst player type to search for in previous FIFA games because you would get players with incredible mental attributes (often in the 80s or 90s) but mediocre technical stats. Their mental stats would skew their OVR so they would appear to be half decent, when in fact they were next to useless because of their underwhelming technical attributes.
However, EA seem to have fixed this now. You can now find ‘Playmaker’ types who – gasp – actually look like playmakers. They have high vision, good ball control and excellent passing, so this is the type of player you should search for if you want someone who can dictate the play in the middle of the pitch.
As a warning, you can find ‘Playmaker’ types whose position is right or left midfield. These are players to avoid if possible, because like ‘Technically gifted’ wide players, their physical stats have been neglected at the expense of their technical attributes. However, ‘Playmaker’ wide players are worse because even their dribbling is not particularly good. They are good at passing, but that’s not your first priority when looking for a wide midfielder. So try to avoid ‘Playmaker’ wide players if you can.
EA have fixed ‘Playmaker’ types in FIFA 15 so that they are now a much more viable option
Player type: Goalkeeper
The next player type is very straightforward. You’re not going to find any mispositioned goalkeepers in the way that you can with the ‘Winger’ type (thank goodness), so finding a good ‘Goalkeeper’ type is much less risky.
There does seem to be at least one noticeable change with goalies this year in that they no longer seem to have multiple positions. In FIFA 14 you could scout goalkeepers whose listed positions where things like GK/CB/ST. After extensive testing, every goalkeeper I found only had GK listed as a position. However, you can still find keepers with more than one star in skill moves – nothing wrong with that though!
Goalkeepers are fairly straightforward. This one will make an excellent keeper
Player type: Attacker
Attackers have been notoriously hard to find in previous FIFA games and, sadly, FIFA 15 is no different. I sent three top scouts to look for ‘Attacker’ types in some of the best countries in the game, and they didn’t find a single high potential striker. Attacking midfielders, central midfielders and wide players were all found, but no strikers. It’s a problem that’s been around for a while and still hasn’t been fixed.
You will occasionally find ‘Attacker’ midfielders who are actually strikers in the wrong position, in which case you can just play them up front and they should be effective. However, very often the midfielders you find can resemble ‘Technically gifted’ players – good dribbling, good ball control and good long shots.
So, what do you do if you want to find strikers? As I mentioned before, your best two options are ‘Technically gifted’ and ‘Physically strong’. ‘Technically gifted’ strikers are great if you want a striker who has decent pace, can dribble and can pass. They are often just as good at creating chances as they are at taking them. ‘Physically strong’ strikers, meanwhile, are your best bet for converting crosses and holding the ball up in the ‘target man’ role.
The lesson is, ironically, don’t search for ‘Attacker’ types if you want a striker.
‘Attacker’ type strikers are very hard to find. This midfielder was the closest I could come
Player type: Defensive minded
The final player type that you can search for is ‘Defensive minded’. This will mostly bring back centre backs and defensive minded, although other positions (notably full backs) can also be found.
These players, as the name suggests, specialise in defensive attributes. Very often you will find their defensive stats such as tackling and marking are way, way higher than their OVR would suggest. Stats like strength and passing are sacrificed to boost their defensive stats, but you may find that this makes them play better than you were expecting if you want a ball-winner.
For example, in the picture below you can see my CDM has 80 stand tackle and 77 interceptions despite being only 67 OVR. This will enable him to compete with much better players when it comes to winning the ball back, and he should be comfortable at centre back as well as defensive midfield.
As with some of the other player types, ‘Defensive minded’ comes with a warning. You can sometimes find ‘Defensive minded’ full backs, but these are definitely to be avoided because they are essentially centre backs in the wrong position. Although they excel at tackling, they will be slow and have poor crossing, meaning they’re not that useful at full backs. Good full backs are hard to find in FIFA 15, and although ‘Winger’ full backs start out with poor defensive attributes, once they’ve developed a bit they should be a better option than ‘Defensive minded’ full backs.
‘Defensive minded’ players often have fantastic tackling and other defensive stats
Thanks for reading part two of the FIFA 15 scouting guide. If you have any thoughts on this or the YouTube video, make sure you let me know in the comments below.
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