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]

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

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]

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

Thanks for the links. Will get on reading those now

[eyeamg0dly]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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

[farrociousuk]

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

I don't see the appeal of putting a team from another country with loads of money into the English leagues, very unrealistic. Also if you want a realistic scouting system only use a 1 star scout. Even the top teams man u/barca only have a few quality players that come through their youth system, a lot of young players they buy come from foreign clubs. (in the case of man u).

I would start in league one with a team like Bournemouth or Coventry.

[eyeamg0dly]

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

I don't see the appeal of putting a team from another country with loads of money into the English leagues, very unrealistic. Also if you want a realistic scouting system only use a 1 star scout. Even the top teams man u/barca only have a few quality players that come through their youth system, a lot of young players they buy come from foreign clubs. (in the case of man u).

I would start in league one with a team like Bournemouth or Coventry.

barca is the worst example for your point. they might have the best youth development irl. you arent wrong though, just very few teams can produce talent like the game is capable of putting out.

for me though, i always scout for the international team i am managing. i just took the usa job and hopefully after i am done recruiting, we will have a world cup title in 2018. ill just sell my unused american players off to be developed by other clubs.

[Farmer joe]

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

Thanks a lot guys. I did just restart with a Serie B Italy team, Grossetto. Seemed weak enough as I wanted, with decent enough funds to do a couple "realistic" moves.
I'm still sticking with manual passing/shooting. Passing isn't to bad, but then again, all I'm doing is basic passes. Shooting is rough, but I'm blaming it on the weak players on my team lol.

Any objections to using Grossetto as my first CM team?

[moblipeg]

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

First of all, I'd like to say welcome to fifa. A buddy of mine helped me with this same issue a few years back. I had bought fifa 10, and the last soccer game I owned was fifa 95 for genesis, haha. I bought fifa 13 this year and I believe its one of the best sports games I've ever owned. A few tips for a beginner:

1. Start with a lower level league team, such as a npower2 or Serie B team.
2. I would also suggest picking a team with decent starting funds comparable to the rest of the league you have chosen.
3. Pick a formation based on your personnel. Until you get the hang of things you might want to just stick with the default formation for your team.
4. The fall transfer window (free agency/trade period is a good way of looking at it) is pretty long, so play a few games to learn your team and figure out where you may need to improve
5. Scouting is a new managers best friend. Go hire a scout immediately. You'll probably start with one that isn't very good, so send him to his home country so his judgement will be a little better. First time I would suggest choosing 'any' for 3 months and just watch the youth players as they come in. You'll get an email notification as he finds players. If you see any you like, sign them to your team. They are cheap, so it doesn't hurt your teams budget too much to bring them in.
6. It may be a little frustrating at first, but remember to just stick with it and I promise you, you won't be able to put it down.

[Farmer joe]

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

Thanks for the tips, moblipeg. I picked a Grosseto from Serie B. Played 3 friendly games already, first one I had to 'rage quit' lol. I was playing on Pro and the CPU was up 3-0. So I lowered the difficulty to semi-pro and that last 2 friendly games I have lost 1-0.
My defense was ok, but I can't score at all. I guess I'm going to have to set my passing and shooting setting to Semi, Manual is just not the way to go for a complete noob to the series. The easy quick passes up and down the field aren't to bad, but I can't get any crosses in at all, I'm always way off.

[Farmer joe]

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

So I did lower the difficulty down to semi-pro and changed all passing and shooting to semi. I was held scoreless through preseason, and the first game of the season. Finally made my first goal ever in a game in the first season game, but lost that game 2-1 after the CPU made a late run. Next two games I played a little better and won 3-2 and then 3-0 (Had 2 goals in two goals in 2 minutes, it was lucky.) 4th game ended in a tie, I had opportunities all game long, but never made it, but the CPU had like 1 shot attempt all game. I have been playing some good Defense, its always what I focus on in any game, but that game felt weak.
I think I may have to raise it back up to to Pro difficulty so the CPU actually tries more, although I know all teams and players in this league are pretty weak. What do you all think? maybe keep playing games for now and see if it stays that way?

I do need some help when it comes to transfers. I just passed the first transfer period, but I could never get anyone, even crappy players lol. I guess I'll keep trying to win and maybe scout a few decent players, maybe then I won't need transfers, at least not for now on this team.

[eyeamg0dly]

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

So I did lower the difficulty down to semi-pro and changed all passing and shooting to semi. I was held scoreless through preseason, and the first game of the season. Finally made my first goal ever in a game in the first season game, but lost that game 2-1 after the CPU made a late run. Next two games I played a little better and won 3-2 and then 3-0 (Had 2 goals in two goals in 2 minutes, it was lucky.) 4th game ended in a tie, I had opportunities all game long, but never made it, but the CPU had like 1 shot attempt all game. I have been playing some good Defense, its always what I focus on in any game, but that game felt weak.
I think I may have to raise it back up to to Pro difficulty so the CPU actually tries more, although I know all teams and players in this league are pretty weak. What do you all think? maybe keep playing games for now and see if it stays that way?

I do need some help when it comes to transfers. I just passed the first transfer period, but I could never get anyone, even crappy players lol. I guess I'll keep trying to win and maybe scout a few decent players, maybe then I won't need transfers, at least not for now on this team.

yeah like i was saying before, even if you have alot of money, it is hard to get players to sign. what you can do though is purchase players on loan for the season. you just pay their weekly wages, you lose them at the end of the season unless you do a loan/purchase deal with their club beforehand, but once again you still have to get them to sign even if their parent club agrees to the transfer fee.

even if you couldnt get someone to sign for you, always keep track of them on your shortlist. keep at them each transfer period and eventually they will sign as long as you have the money.