Help a new guy to soccer pick a team for career.

[Farmer joe]

This is my first soccer game since back in the NES days when I was a youngster lol. I've been fed up with Madden (my favorite sport) and NBA games, always heard FIFA titles are doing very well.

I am completely new to FIFA, I did some practice mode, and completely suck and have no idea what I'm doing with the controller most of the times, but I got a little better in a couple days.
I want to start a career, but don't know which team to pick. I don't want any of the powerhouses or favorites, I think using a weak team would be just fine for me. It'll be realistic since I suck a thte game and the team sucks in general.

I downloaded a creation centre team for Honduras. I just started up a career with them and they have 25 million dollars in transfer funds. Is this normal since they have to youth squad, scouts, great player, or did the creator of this roster just put too much into transfer funds? I don't want to keep playing with the team if they have a huge advantage in money for the type of team they are.
I put them in the npower2 league, since I read most people like to use that league because of all the cups and teams. If this team I d/l'd is overpowered in the Transfer funds category, please tell me another team I should be looking at to use, I'd really appreciate it.

Also, I have no idea how I should be using my transfer funds! lol. I know I can't get an exact answer for this, but maybe some advice as to how much I should spend on players and scouts on a weaker team with not a huge budget. I don't want to just buy good players or take young players from the CPU if they undervalue them.
Also, I just hired a few scouts, but what is a good amount of time to send them out on trips? I see the options are 3,6, and 9, and the further they go, obviously the more expensive. Just have no clue what I'm doing here, and scouting seems like it would be probably my favorite part of this game.

Any other tips to a complete newbie to this series, and to most things soccer, would really help. Glad to be a part of this now, this game is like nothing I've played before!

EDIT:
Also, maybe its just in the beginning of a career since I'm just fooling around until I get a better answer on the seemingly huge transfer budget, but what am I supposed to be doing with all this free time in the schedule? Probably seems like a stupid question, but I want to know if I could be taking advantage of using this time for more.

[eyeamg0dly]

http://www.operationsports.com/strat...soccer-gaming/
http://www.operationsports.com/strat...aming-part-ii/
http://www.operationsports.com/strat...ming-part-iii/

read up on these first

[Farmer joe]

Thanks for the links. Will get on reading those now

[eyeamg0dly]

i know those links don't answer your biggest questions, but it is a start.

how many star rating is your honduras team? playing with a lower team might not always be the best thing for new players to the game. they revamped first touch this year. with lesser skilled teams/player it can be challenging.

imo i would tryout virtual pro / be a pro mode. play with the whole team though instead of just your pro player. this will basically become career mode stripped down quite a bit. it will help you get you used to formations and players roles in the formations and how they work in general.

i think once you are exposed to formations and how you want to play the game, then it is time to think about building a team in career mode.

[Farmer joe]

Good links, picked up useful information on Part 2 of those articles. I just looked up and learned the positions yesterday, or at least most of them and what those players are usually responsible for depending on the type of scheme the team runs (Yes, I know scheme is probably the wrong word haha.)

As far as my "creation centre" Honduras team, is that 25+ mil dollars in funds a lot considering they have no scouts or youth league? Really want to know because I'll look for a new team if it is.

Thanks again eyeamg0dly, good reads you provided

[RagingTrav]

Take over a League 2 side that doesn't have high expectations for the first season. That way you should be able to play around with it in the first season and not risk getting the sack.

And stick to a wage structure when signing players

[eyeamg0dly]

that kind of budget is overkill in all the lower leagues. even if you could spend it all, it is very difficult to get players to actually sign with your team. as you get into better leagues it becomes easier to sign players, at least easier compared to npower 2. even then it can still be difficult.

best thing to do is to hire maxed out scouts. they cost 9mil euros, not sure how it translate between other currencies in the game. scouts reset every week. so if you don't see a maxed out scout, wait a week and check again.

we have a scouting / youth academy thread going here, however information is kind of everywhere and I don't think there are any guides posted here for it. however this http://www.fifascoutingtips.com/?p=584 link is more or less sums everything up.

[Farmer joe]

Thanks again guys! I just deleted that career save file and am starting a new one with a npower2 or another European league team.

I saw a link to that scouting tips link yesterday, but am scared to read it because it might ruin my scouting experience.. Just seems like "cheese" from the title, but I'm not sure, since I've not read it at all yet.

I'm guessing manual passing and shooting is probably frowned upon for a new player? lol. Its what I've been doing. The passing isn't too bad, at least the basic passing. Shooting is rough though. I like the challenge though, sounds from what I've read in other threads that semi or auto shooting and passing make it too easy