How's Your FIFA Career Mode Going?

[NightmareBooster]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Team: Rangers
League: Football League 2
Difficulty: Legendary/Orion's Sliders
Objective: Gain Automatic Promotion, Round of 32

I went ahead and started a 2nd CM with Rangers in League 2 like I planned. It's strange being in League 2 and having money though. I resisted the urge to throw down and go from a 1.5* team to a 3* team in the first transfer window mainly because I plan on setting up my youth academy with 5*/5* scouts. That being said I did bring in a few players and plan on bringing in a few more.

IN
ST Neal Maupay - OGC Nice, 1.1M
CM Gary Gardner - Aston Villa, 1.0M
LM Jordan Obita - Reading, 400K
CB Jamaal Lascelles - Nottingham Forest, Can't remember

I sent two reserves out on loan but I can't remember who they are nor do I care since they're not in my future plans. My lineup is:

GK: Cameron Bell, 64
RB: Richard Foster, 60
RCB: Bilel Mohsni, 63
LCB: Jamaal Lascelles, 64
LB: Lee Wallace, 66
RM: David Templeton, 67
RCM: Arnold Peralta, 63
LCM: Gary Gardner, 70
LM: Jordan Obita, 65
RS: Neal Maupay, 64
LS: Andrew Little, 63

I have two games left in November and my team is far and away the most oppressive force in the league. After 16 games we're 14-1-1 with 43 points, 10 points clear of Portsmouth, and 49 GF to 13 GA. I have accel set to 47/46 and while I don't think it's making a big difference in my success I'll make it 47/47 and just deal with the movement nerfing bull**** the game engine does on Legendary. While my team is strong I don't know if they're that strong, even for League 2. However, the average OVR for my starters is 64 compared to 60 of Portsmouth who have 3 points over 3rd place. Once I do I'll sim some draws and losses until things are even, maybe even put myself a few points behind, and work back up from there.

My goal with the transfers I made were to build a team that could score with more than just the strikers. Neal Maupay's finishing starts at 60 but his positioning is 77 and Andrew Little (whose turned out to be a lower league monster) has 58 positioning but 69 finishing. The two of them are responsible for 29 goals. In addition to the 15 goals Little has, he also has 12 assists since Neal is always in such good position. The remainder of my goals are distributed between my mids. Gardner, while slow, has good finishing but great shot power and long shots at 82 each. Obita and David Templeton, my LM and RM, are both pacey and thanks to copious use of the Body Feint, I'm constantly cutting in from the wing to shoot resulting in 10 goals between them.

The plan for January is to bring in a keeper, Jonathan Tah, and Anthony Martial. With that I should be able to lock up the league the season and won't have to buy new anyone next season, which will allow me to dump all of my money into my youth academy. Next update come Jan.


ADDENDUM:
In light of an awesome idea that has recently come to my attention, this CM is getting retired. Hey zkbenson, where were you a week ago?

[Portmexjr96]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

I have had an amusing as hell time in League 2 just because of how wacky and shoddy the squads are. There is some interesting parity too. I'm using Hartlepool, and they are a pretty good side by League 2 standards (in the game), and so they scrap well with most peers, but then I just crush the likes of York City and Wimbledon every match I play them. If not for my joke of a midfield, and imbecilic finishing I could probably net 6 or 7 goals against them on legendary all manual. Generally though, the matches are ugly, and the great flourishes of football are few and far between. Get ball, kick ball down field, run after it, etc...

You definitely end up with a pretty ragged squad quickly too. I was begging for the January transfer window so I could patch some leaks with loans. With two league games a week, and sometimes a cup game, the strain on already shallow squads is rough. I often had to start exhausted players for less than a half just because I needed to limit the exposure of a 44 ovr LB to the play on the pitch, or run a 47ovr striker around uselessly for most of the match, and sub in the gassed first choice guy late in hopes of stealing a win. The little details and minimizing strategies really seem to matter.

I just milked whatever I could out of my better players—30 minutes, 25, whatever. Just to try and pounce on teams early, substitute the garbage in, and go into a shell for sixty minutes. Or, try to hold it at 0-0 and sub in the decent players late and try for a late flurry. Nothing mattered against Southampton in the FA Cup though. My team looked like mere children in losing 4-0.

I had a hell of a time with injuries too. Some guys in League 2 are just made of glass, and then the strain of them going down puts more strain on the healthy guys. October and November I had a constant stream of guys going out with knocks, and then come December I was decimated by non-contact injuries from running guys down to the bone.

I did make it to January in third place though, and brought in some really young kids from BPL clubs. They have no idea what is in store for their poor, youthful, bodies.

Wow seems like a good and bad idea! Haha but I think I'll be up for the challenge! I will make my final decision this weekend! 😁

[Willy Wonka]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Arsenal Career Mode Update, Season 1

Just had a game from hell. Insigne got injured for 4 weeks, and Koscielny, my most important defender at the moment also gets injured for 3 months. I was 1-0 up against Liverpool and I gave away a penalty in the 80th minute, Sturridge went down the middle with a chip and hit the bar. I then gave away a second penalty in the 90th minute with Djourou, who came on for Koscielny. The bad thing was he was already booked, so when I gave away the penalty he got red carded, but Szczesny managed to save it so it ended 1-0. I haven't been updating this career mode so I'll give a lengthy-ish update now.

Barclays Premier League

I am currently sitting in 2nd place with 24 points, 2 points behind Spurs who are on 26. In 3rd is Man United with 23, then in 4th is Liverpool with 22. And surprisingly Southampton are in 5th with 19 points. Chelsea sit in 6th and Man City in 8th with 18 and 16 points.

Summer Transfer Window

I had a very busy transfer window adding to the abundance of talent already at my disposal and I made some quite shocking deals in terms of who joined and who left.

Transfers In:

Insigne - Napoli = £5m + Rosicky
Benteke - Aston Villa = £18m
Benzema - Real Madrid = £15m + Giroud
Cabaye - Newcastle United = £4.5m + Arteta
Long - West Brom = £500k + Bendtner
Alaba - Bayern Munich = £12m + Monreal

Transfers Out:

Diaby - Borussia M'gladbach = £3.7m
Mertesacker - Spurs = £11m
+ some youth players

Transfer Targets

When I reach January I plan on doing a straight swap for Kevin De Bruyne, sending Santi Cazorla to Chelsea, almost got the deal done in the summer but KDB didn't accept his contract fast enough. Next season I plan on bringing in Courtois from Chelsea and hoping to send Szczesny the other way as part of the deal. If I can't manage to bring in Icardi from Inter in January then he will have to wait till next season, but Shane Long will probably feature in the deal if they'll take him. Fellaini or Witsel are also amongst my targets as I've noticed a lack of physicality and height in my midfield. And my final Target is Lukaku, hopefully I'll be able to bring him in next season as well.

I'll update again at the end of January hopefully with good news! Thanks for reading, any suggestions on who I should look at signing are welcome.

[ROL Jamas]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Hello Gentlemen,

So I haven't been around for a while on the OS Forums but I have gotten really into this year's CM, GTM notwithstanding. This may be a bit lengthy but figured I would tell the story of the CM I just started with Everton and using 36 created players spread out over 4 teams.

To keep interest in playing the dynasty long term, I started by demoting Everton and Liverpool to Football League One. I dumped all of their players rated 65+ onto Wolverhampton and Bradford City and sent them up to the BPL with Stevenage handling some of the overflow players and Liverpool keeping Gerrard (Seemed wrong to move him). I also gave Leighton Baines to ManU in the interest of full disclosure.

I create 3 starting 11's from 3 different countries using three different formations and put them into place. I also create 3 players for my own team as building blocks. ALL of the 36 players are 18-19 yrs old and 65 OVR with 82-92 Potential, evenly distributed. For Preston and Shrewsbury, I sent all of their 65+ players (Not many) to Swindon. Then I added 11 each players to Liverpool (4-4-2 Diamond Wide), Preston (3-1-4-2) and Shrewsbury (4-3-1-2) and inserted them into their lineups, changing their base formations to match up with their roster. All of the players are hail from 3 countries which makes the World Cup 2018 and 2022 more exciting and surprising (I tried a similar idea to this in '13).

My goal in this career is to build using a few young players and mainly the youth academy. For the purposes of buying scouts, I kept Heitinga, Pinnear, Barkley, Gueye and Jelavic from Everton to sell so I could buy 3 players and hire 3 scouts. All 5 were sold before the 1st Competitive Match and roughly $32,000,000 was spent on scouts Acquired by the end of September

Everton
Season 1 - Completed Yesterday

Created Players:
CAM - Benson (65)
ST - Mulliner (65)
CB - Maurer (65)

Transfer In:
CB - Kurt Zouma - Saint-Etienne
RW - Zakaria Bakkali - PSV
LB - Luke Shaw - Southampton
LM - Josh Murphy - Norwich
RM - Jacob Murphy - Norwich
GK - Stefanos Kapino - Panathinaikos
CB - Nathan Ake (Loan) - Chelsea
RB - Constantin Nica (Loan) - Atalanta

Transfer Out
CAM- Ross Barkley - Stoke
CB - John Heitinga - Fulham
LM - Gueye - West Brom
ST - Jelavic - Fulham
LM - Steven Pienaar - Chelsea
CB - Matthew Bates
ST - Courtney Duffus
CM - Francisco Jr.
CM - Lundstram
Deulofeu - Loan Expiration

Scouts Purchased
Anthony Sidwell - England - 4*/5*
Phil Collis - England - 5*/5*
Barry Powell - England - 5*/5*

Football League 1
Position 1st - 111 points 36-8-2 100 GS 26 GA +74 GD
Liverpool finished 2nd, Preston won the Playoff, Both Promoted with me.

Capital One Cup - Lost Round of 16 - Chelsea

FA Cup - Lost Round of 32 (Replay) - Bradford City

J-Paint Trophy - Won Cup

Everton
Start of Second Season - FL Championship - 0 games played
League Objective - Fight For Promotion
Domestic Cup Objective - Round of 32

Transfer Budget $15,000,000
Wage Budget $70,000

Transfer In
LW - Centurion - Racing Club
ST - Anthony Martial - Monaco

Transfer Out
ST - Chris Long
ST - Connor McAlheny
CB - Shane Duffy

Roster: 4-2-1-3 (Wide) - Custom

GK: Kapino (71)
RB/CB/CB/LB: Darby (67)/Maurer (71)/Zouma(76)/Shaw(75)
RM/LM: Murphy (58)/Murphy (64)
CAM: Benson (70)
RW/ST/LW: Bakkali (77)/Martial (74)/Centurion (74)

Projected Most Used Subs:
ST - Mulliner (70)
ST - Nahki Wells (68)
LB - Luke Garbutt (67)
CB - Matthew Pennington (61)
RM - Matthew Kennedy (63)
LM - Luke Freeman (66)
CAM - Daniel Perez (Youth Promotion) - (65) - 80-85 Potential

Not much depth after these guys for good squad rotation, may consider some of the non-90 potential youths for depth over the course of the season, although I would like to keep as many as I can in the youth squad until the 5/1 youth progression.

Anyways this is long and drawn out but I hope it is somewhat interesting. I am simulating the 1st and 2nd season to get the youth academy up and running and still have 13 seasons worth of games to play, so I should have an update tonight about season 2 and then I will start playing every game next season which will take much more time of course.

I had never thought of this before! Taking a PL team, bumping them down to the lower level, and selling off their good players would really spice up the CM for me. Usually I take a team that's already terrible, and spend the time building the club up. While rewarding, it would pale in comparison of taking my beloved Liverpool from the bottom, building them to my liking, and still having the Liverpool crest to play with. I like it!

[NightmareBooster]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

I had never thought of this before! Taking a PL team, bumping them down to the lower level, and selling off their good players would really spice up the CM for me. Usually I take a team that's already terrible, and spend the time building the club up. While rewarding, it would pale in comparison of taking my beloved Liverpool from the bottom, building them to my liking, and still having the Liverpool crest to play with. I like it!

It is a great idea! So much so that I think I'm going to have to do the same. I'm a Gunners fan but I never do CMs in the BPL because it's too easy. Having that beastly budget would make a lot easier than it should but considering what I'm doing now with Rangers, I might as well go this route. Thanks zkbenson, you just threw a week's worth of playtime out the window .


@zkbenson
How do you account for the massive deficit in transfer budgets? It stands to reason that within a few seasons, with the promoted teams selling players along with retirement they would be steadily depleting themselves without the funds to replenish their ranks.

[zkbenson]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

It's possible to see players potential in-game? I can only found the player potential in Youth Squad .

If you go into your squad report once the player is signed, there will likely be one of 3 Notes on high potential players:

Showing Great Potential = Potential 80-85
An Exciting Prospect = Potential 85-90
Has Potential to be Special = Potential 90+

Keep in mind these notes only apply to players that are 60+ OVR and less than the age of 22.

Credit: Information taken from: Fifascoutingtips.com

[zkbenson]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

It is a great idea! So much so that I think I'm going to have to do the same. I'm a Gunners fan but I never do CMs in the BPL because it's too easy. Having that beastly budget would make a lot easier than it should but considering what I'm doing now with Rangers, I might as well go this route. Thanks zkbenson, you just threw a week's worth of playtime out the window .


@zkbenson
How do you account for the massive deficit in transfer budgets? It stands to reason that within a few seasons, with the promoted teams selling players along with retirement they would be steadily depleting themselves without the funds to replenish their ranks.

Great question, and honestly there are two parts to the answer, the first is a little bit of luck, and the second is the teams of the young created players.

As I mentioned for Liverpool, Preston, and Shrewsbury each team was given 11 created players 65 OVR Potential between 82-92 with each team receiving 6 82 POT 3 87 POT and 2 92 POT. Based on my experience Preston and Shrewsbury will sell 1 or both of their 92 Potential players within the first 4 years for over $ 50 million to either Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG, or Monaco. They then reload accordingly and become really solid BPL teams with depth. Although right now Shrewsbury is stuck with me (Everton) in the FL Championship for year 3.

In terms of the two teams that basically were gifted a bunch of good players and double promotion, Wolverhampton and Bradford. I had never really thought of how they would overcome the transfer $ Discrepancy. For now, Wolverhampton finished 2014-2015, 6th in the BPL with 69 points, and Bradford finished 11th on 45 points. I know also that I have seen Wolverhampton be active in the transfer market as well, so perhaps for the second season and beyond the CPU adjusts their transfer $ to BPL standards? Not sure, and it is a great question but so far so good for the BPL new boys.

Finally, one thing that I did not account for is players that Liverpool had loaned out for 2013-14 that were not on the roster when I did the overhaul. When Borini, Reina, Andre Wisdom, etc. came back for 2014-2015, Liverpool ran over the FL Championship putting up 110 points and is back in the BPL.

Also, I know I am crazy but I really enjoy having the 36 created players in the game that I know who they are. They are fun to follow and also, when you get into 2022 and these guys are all 27 years old, the BPL, the CL, and the World Cup are littered with players I know versus my old CM's where 8 years later a ton of players were CPU generated and many of my favorite players were retired. This at least adds some interest to some otherwise boring games which can be enough to keep playing as you trudge through the twilight years of your CM. Just my two cents.

[indiblue]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Update on Nottingham Forest, season 3

So I managed to sneak in a few games today despite loads to do. Beat City 2-0 and Sunderland 2-1 to stay undefeated in the first half of the season. Began the second round of fixtures with an 1-1 away draw against City. Hosted Swansea and went down in the first half, and Oscar equalised in the 68th minute. Mutch then smashed two in at 81' and 83' before Traore got his now-customary goal in the 90th.

Traore is now joint-top of the goalscoring charts with 11, along with Burak Yilmaz (Newcastle) and Edinson Cavani (Chelsea), but outnumbers them in assists with seven to their four and six. I've had bids for him from Juventus and PSG, but I'm not selling.

I really want someone to bid for Oscar, so I can use that cash to boost my playing squad. The board is reluctant to give me more than a few million pounds, so if Oscar doesn't get sold now, I only have enough to make one excellent pre-contract signing. And wouldn't you know, Messi's up for grabs if I can scrounge together 375,000 in wages!

Can I also have your thoughts on this formation:

LW ST RW

LM CM RM

LB LCB RCB RCM

GK

The RM/LM would play semi-wide, but they'd defend as well so that the RW/LW can stay further up the pitch as counter-attack outlets. Thoughts?

[NightmareBooster]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Great question, and honestly there are two parts to the answer, the first is a little bit of luck, and the second is the teams of the young created players.

As I mentioned for Liverpool, Preston, and Shrewsbury each team was given 11 created players 65 OVR Potential between 82-92 with each team receiving 6 82 POT 3 87 POT and 2 92 POT. Based on my experience Preston and Shrewsbury will sell 1 or both of their 92 Potential players within the first 4 years for over $ 50 million to either Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG, or Monaco. They then reload accordingly and become really solid BPL teams with depth. Although right now Shrewsbury is stuck with me (Everton) in the FL Championship for year 3.

In terms of the two teams that basically were gifted a bunch of good players and double promotion, Wolverhampton and Bradford. I had never really thought of how they would overcome the transfer $ Discrepancy. For now, Wolverhampton finished 2014-2015, 6th in the BPL with 69 points, and Bradford finished 11th on 45 points. I know also that I have seen Wolverhampton be active in the transfer market as well, so perhaps for the second season and beyond the CPU adjusts their transfer $ to BPL standards? Not sure, and it is a great question but so far so good for the BPL new boys.

Finally, one thing that I did not account for is players that Liverpool had loaned out for 2013-14 that were not on the roster when I did the overhaul. When Borini, Reina, Andre Wisdom, etc. came back for 2014-2015, Liverpool ran over the FL Championship putting up 110 points and is back in the BPL.

Also, I know I am crazy but I really enjoy having the 36 created players in the game that I know who they are. They are fun to follow and also, when you get into 2022 and these guys are all 27 years old, the BPL, the CL, and the World Cup are littered with players I know versus my old CM's where 8 years later a ton of players were CPU generated and many of my favorite players were retired. This at least adds some interest to some otherwise boring games which can be enough to keep playing as you trudge through the twilight years of your CM. Just my two cents.

Well if the CPU is too dumb to manage themselves then that sucks for them!

I think I'll do the same thing I did with my Rangers CM where I swapped them for York, but I'll then swap Rangers for Arsenal. From there I'll just do a 1-to-1 swap of the rosters with the exception of Afobe, Akprom, and Eisfeld. Rangers have a 28 man roster compared to Arsenal's 33 so that'll put us at just about even. With the players they'll have they should be able to do alright with a $8M budget.

This should be fun. I was kind of missing my Pompey CM as they're a team I can identify with. Using Arsenal and having kits that I like that'll actually have names on them (that's right, Rangers kits have no names) should be a gas.

[Willy Wonka]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Arsenal Career Update, Season 1

Not looking to make any new signings in the January window now but I did manage to sign the key player I wanted this window in a swap deal for Santi Cazorla so that's good. Currently sitting top of the league 4 points ahead of Liverpool. Not much else to say so I'll give another quick update at the end of the season.

[zkbenson]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Everton
Third Season - FL Championship - September 3

League Objective - Automatic Promotion
Currently 2nd on 13 points, behind Crystal Palace on GD, 3 pts clear of 3rd

Domestic Cup Objective - Round of 16
Capital One Cup - Through Round 2, Defeated Rochdale and Bristol City
FA Cup - January

TB: 13,000,000
WB: 70,000

Season 3 is underway. Quick update. Kapinos my #1 goalie went down with an ACL after I had acquired Oxley as a backup. Thankfully Bogdan was put up by Bolton so I got him on the cheap and will sell him either in January or next year depending on Kapinos return

Transfer In:
GK - Bogdan - Bolton - $2,750,000
GK - Oxley - Hull - $140,000

Transfer Out:
Loaned last season youth call ups: Madiera, Fuentes, and Barrios
Loaned the Murphy twins.

Maurer and Kapinos wanted new deals and cost me about 70,000 weekly so that money is gone, signed two GK's, moved money around. Currently at $5,700,000 TB and $60,000 WB.

[Patryk1123pl]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Hi lads,
I have started a career with Hartlepool in league 2 and im struggling to score goals. I play on world class, make lots of oportunities however I cant make any use of them with my players
I have a decent striker 65 rated but he doesnt score as much as expected.
Its January transfer window and I have to sign somebody to rescue me from 14th place. I have only a small budget of €400,000 and wage of €4000.
I was thinking about buying Miyachi from Arsenal as he has only 6 months left of his contract but the wages are to damn high. Do you know any players except defenders that are good and cheap? Waiting for a quick reply!
Cya

[Lonestar210]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Just had a crushing loss to strong but struggling Lanus on match day 6. Conceding in the 90th.... 4th time in 6 games I have conceded past the 87th minute. smh I sit tenth, make or break time now .

I try in vain to kick clear the ball as far as I can when I have the lead from the 80th minute on; The only time I've conceded late in a match is when I already had a two goal lead.

[RonMexico1992]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

I try in vain to kick clear the ball as far as I can when I have the lead from the 80th minute on; The only time I've conceded late in a match is when I already had a two goal lead.

if i have a lead going into the 2nd half I do that the entire 2nd half pretty much lol... but the goal came from a foul right out side the right side of penalty box, easy free kick in for a header. cant stop that

[RonMexico1992]

Re: How's Your FIFA 14 Career Mode Going?

Hi lads,
I have started a career with Hartlepool in league 2 and im struggling to score goals. I play on world class, make lots of oportunities however I cant make any use of them with my players
I have a decent striker 65 rated but he doesnt score as much as expected.
Its January transfer window and I have to sign somebody to rescue me from 14th place. I have only a small budget of €400,000 and wage of €4000.
I was thinking about buying Miyachi from Arsenal as he has only 6 months left of his contract but the wages are to damn high. Do you know any players except defenders that are good and cheap? Waiting for a quick reply!
Cya

just ran into same problem