Gaming Matters: FIFA17 Ultimate Team pt1

Before I tackle playing online with FIFA Ultimate Team I like to build up a decent squad using the offline leagues. I had a decent enough squad from the starter packs in began with including Oscar as my star player and as I have done for the past two FIFAs I decided to focus on making a Premier League squad. Last year I was lucky enough to get a Team of the Week Zlatan Ibrahimovic which sold for around 800,000 coins and allowed me to but a full Chelsea side and a Premier League squad with the best players on offer. I think I had every top Premier League player apart from Sergio Aguero. That kind of luck only comes once in a blue moon however and most of my players this year will be bought with coins earned with winning matches and leagues.

Season One – Division 10 – League Two

I took the option to start with the league where the opposition was League Two teams starting with an Amateur level game against Cheltenham Town. I used a 442 formation with a diamond midfield as I didn't have any decent wide players yet. Three players started the game but never feature again for the side; the left back Wendell and Craig Gardner and Darron Gibson in central midfield. The three substitutes used were also sold to fund other players after this match; Carlos Bacca, William Carvalho and Daniel Amartey. I think I was still trying out too many different things with the gameplay as despite being on Amateur level I only won 2-1 which is quite embarrassing. After that I picked up wins over Grimsby Town and Crewe Alexandra on Semi-Pro level to gain promotion and Barnet on Pro level to win the division. After the Cheltenham game I went for a 4132 formation and brought in wide players with pace.

The squad that won the title was: GK – Wayne Hennessey (75, Crystal Palace, Wales)

RB – Cedric Soares (78, Southampton, Portugal), Antonio Barragan (75, Middlesbrough, Spain)

LB – Nacho Monreal (81, Arsenal, Spain), Aaron Cresswell (76, West Ham, England)

CB – Gabriel (79, Arsenal, Brazil), Jonny Evans (79, West Brom, N. Ireland), Christian Kabasele (76, Watford, Belgium), Michael Keane (75, Burnley, England)

CDM – James McCarthy (81, Everton, Ireland), Emre Can (80, Liverpool, Germany), Eric Dier (78, Tottenham, England)

CAM – Oscar (83, Chelsea, Brazil), Bojan (82, Stoke, Spain), Jason Puncheon (76, Crystal Palace, England)

RM – Andros Townsend (78, Crystal Palace, England), Michail Antonio (76, West Ham, England)

LM – Jefferson Montero (79, Swansea, Ecuador), Heung Min Son (78, Tottenham, South Korea), Victor Moses (77, Chelsea, Nigeria)

ST – Harry Kane (84, Tottenham, England), Shane Long (77, Southampton, Ireland), Danny Ings (77, Liverpool, England), Enner Valencia (76, Everton, Ecuador)

Matches: Cheltenham Town – H – Amateur – 2:1 – Long, Puncheon

Grimsby Town – A – Semi-Pro – 5:2 – Valencia 2, Kane, Bojan, McCarthy

Crewe Alexandra – H – Semi-Pro – 5:1 – Long 3, Kane, Son

Barnet – A – Pro – 3:2 – Long, Kane, Cresswell

VIDEO : Long's goal against Barnet

Season Two – Division 9 – Saudi Professional League

I only needed a couple of upgrades for this season and stuck with the majority of the same squad from the first season. Victor Valdes came into the #1 jersey to replace Hennessey and Mamadou Sakho replaced Keane at centre back but the rest remained. This time it took five wins against three Semi-Pro sides and two Pro sides to achieve the title win and Oscar started four of those games as the catalyst to work around. I was very impressed with Long in the first season and although he was not as prolific here he still played better than a 77 rating. I've also never used Kane before in a career mode (or not for long if I have) and think I only had him briefly in FUT last season. He's not my usual type of striker as I prefer the quick and nimble guys but he has been very potent and a joy to play with. I had some loan players in my deck but kept them away from the team for now as it seemed a waste to use them if I could later use them online. Not only did I have Eden Hazard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan but also Jack Butland, Angelo Ogbonna and Gerard Deulofeu. I realised that some would be used in the offline part of my progress as by the time I get to the online part I would hope that my team has developed enough for them to be of no use. I'd like a squad of mid-80s players by the time I go online. I won all five games in this division without conceding a goal and don't expect I'll face as easy a ride as this in future divisions without going for the World Tour option. By the time I get to the higher divisions though even that series will be pretty tough.

The squad that won the title was: GK – Victor Valdes (82, Middlesbrough, Spain)

RB – Cedric Soares (78, Southampton, Portugal), Antonio Barragan (75, Middlesbrough, Spain)

LB – Nacho Monreal (81, Arsenal, Spain), Aaron Cresswell (76, West Ham, England)

CB – Mamdou Sakho (82, Liverpool, France), Gabriel (79, Arsenal, Brazil), Jonny Evans (79, West Brom, N. Ireland), Christian Kabasele (76, Watford, Belgium)

CDM – James McCarthy (81, Everton, Ireland), Emre Can (80, Liverpool, Germany), Eric Dier (78, Tottenham, England)

CAM – Oscar (83, Chelsea, Brazil), Bojan (82, Stoke, Spain), Jason Puncheon (76, Crystal Palace, England)

RM – Andros Townsend (78, Crystal Palace, England), Michail Antonio (76, West Ham, England)

LM – Jefferson Montero (79, Swansea, Ecuador), Heung Min Son (78, Tottenham, South Korea), Victor Moses (77, Chelsea, Nigeria)

ST – Harry Kane (84, Tottenham, England), Shane Long (77, Southampton, Ireland), Danny Ings (77, Liverpool, England), Enner Valencia (76, Everton, Ecuador)

Matches:

Al Qadisiyah – H – Semi-Pro – 1:0 - Valencia

Al Faisaly – A – Semi-Pro – 4:0 – Kane, Valencia, Ings, Oscar Al Raed – H – Pro – 3:0 – Long 2, Kane Al Taawoun – A – Semi-Pro – 2:0 – Townsend, Cresswell

Al Khaleej – H – Pro – 4:0 – Kane 2, Montero, McCarthy

VIDEO: Oscar's goal against Al Faisaly

VIDEO: Kane's goal against Al Raed

VIDEO: Long's second goal against Al Raed

VIDEO: Cresswell's goal against Al Taawoun

Season Three – Division 8 – Scottish Premier

I decided to try a new formation with three at the back to flood the midfield and win the ball back sooner. This meant leaving the full backs out of the squad and increasing the number of centre backs on rotation from four to six. I've kept the main full backs in case I later need to revert to a conventional back four. I kept Gabriel and Sakho and brought in West Ham's Winston Reid and Angelo Ogbonna, the latter being one of the players I have as a loan card. Although Kabasele and Evans also played in one of the games together (with Gabriel) I later replaced them with Jose Fonte and Phil Jagielka. There are higher rated centre backs for the same price as these guys but I like my defenders to have pace, especially playing three at the back pushed forward like I was. The new formation also meant increased the CDM quota from three to four so Yohan Cabaye came in and part way through the season I replaced Dier with Morgan Schneiderlin. The new formation is 3232 with a RM, CAM & LM midfield in front of two CDMs and three CBs. Jesus Navas replaced Antonio on the right and Pedro came in for Moses (although I will keep the Nigerian for when I eventually have enough players to make a Chelsea squad). Up front I replaced Ings with Jermain Defoe as the Liverpool striker hadn't impressed me in any of his games. I also brought in Adam Lallana as another option for CAM instead of Puncheon and Simone Zaza as another striker. It took six games to get the 18 points needed to secure the third consecutive title with four victories on Semi-Pro and two on Pro level. The biggest test was against Celtic in the fifth match (which sealed promotion) and as the match came to an end we we drawing 1-1 when Schneiderlin came off the bench to score in injury time. I then hammered Hamilton 4-0 in the next match for to win the league. In the earlier game against Dundee when I won 6-0 I scored one of my best goals with Bojan with a flick with his back to goal after great dribbling from Navas and that's one of the goal videos below.

The squad that won the title was: GK – Victor Valdes (82, Middlesbrough, Spain)

CB – Jose Fonte (83, Southampton, Portugal), Mamdou Sakho (82, Liverpool, France), Phil Jagielka (82, Everton, England), Winston Reid (81, West Ham, New Zealand), Angelo Ognonna (80, West Ham, Italy), Gabriel (79, Arsenal, Brazil), Jonny Evans (79, West Brom, N. Ireland), Christian Kabasele (76, Watford, Belgium)

CDM – Morgan Schneiderlin (82, Man United, France), James McCarthy (81, Everton, Ireland), Yohan Cabaye (81, Crystal Palace, France), Emre Can (80, Liverpool, Germany), Eric Dier (78, Tottenham, England)

CAM – Oscar (83, Chelsea, Brazil), Bojan (82, Stoke, Spain), Adam Lallana (82, Liverpool, England)

RM – Jesus Navas (80, Man City, Spain), Andros Townsend (78, Crystal Palace, England)

LM – Pedro (83, Chelsea, Spain), Jefferson Montero (79, Swansea, Ecuador), Heung Min Son (78, Tottenham, South Korea), Victor Moses (77, Chelsea, Nigeria)

ST – Harry Kane (84, Tottenham, England), Jermain Defoe (80, Sunderland, England), Simone Zaza (80, West Ham, Italy), Shane Long (77, Southampton, Ireland), Enner Valencia (76, Everton, Ecuador)

Matches:

Partick Thistle – A - Semi-Pro – 5:0 – Kane 2, Long, Defoe, Sakho Dundee – H - Semi-Pro – 6:0 – Bojan 2, Valencia, Navas, Gabriel, own goal Aberdeen – A – Pro – 1:0 - Long Motherwell – H - Semi-Pro – 4:1 – Kane 2, Valencia, Son Celtic – A – Pro – 2:1 – Kane, Schneiderlin

Hamilton Academical – H – Semi-Pro – 4:0 – Lallana 2, Zaza, Montero

VIDEO: Sakho's goal against Partick

VIDEO: Navas' goal against Dundee

VIDEO: Valencia's goal against Dundee

VIDEO: Bojan's goal against Dundee

VIDEO: Kane's first goal against Motherwell

VIDEO: Schneiderlin's goal against Celtic

VIDEO: Lallana's first goal against Hamilton

STATISTICS

TEAM Played – 15 (1x Amateur, 9x Sem-Pro, 5x Pro)

Won – 15

Scored – 51 (2x Amateur, 36x Semi-Pro, 13x Pro)

Conceded – 8 (1x Amateur, 4x Semi-Pro, 3x Pro)

PLAYERS (Played/Scored) Victor Valdes – 11/0

Harry Kane – 10/12

Shane Long – 10/9

Bojan – 10/3

Andros Townsend – 10/1

James McCarthy – 9/2

Enner Valencia – 8/4

Jefferson Montero – 8/2

Oscar – 8/1

Michail Antonio – 8/0

Heung Min Son – 7/2

Mamadou Sakho – 7/1

Gabriel – 7/1

James Puncheon – 6/1

Eric Dier – 6/0

Victor Moses – 6/0

Jonny Evans – 6/0

Danny Ings – 5/1

Emre Can – 5/0

Cedric Soares – 5/0

Aaron Cresswell – 4/2

Jesus Navas – 4/1

Jermain Defoe – 4/1

Christian Kabasele – 4/0

Antonio Barragan – 4/0

Nacho Monreal – 4/0

Wayne Hennesey – 4/0

Adam Lallana – 3/2

Angelo Ogbonna – 3/0

Winston Reid – 3/0

Yohan Cabaye – 3/0

Michael Keane – 3/0

Morgan Schneiderlin – 2/1

Simone Zaza – 2/1

Phil Jagielka – 2/0

Jose Fonte – 2/0

Pedro – 1/0

Carlos Bacca – 1/0

Craig Gardner – 1/0

Darron Gibson – 1/0

William Carvalho – 1/0

Daniel Amartey – 1/0

Wendell – 1/0