🏆 FC27 Starts With These Tips and Strategies | FUT IN REVIEW #742

[00:00:01] Welcome to Season 9 of FUT IN REVIEW. Today we are breaking down the full FC27 launch roadmap, the key web app day 1 strategies and how to build a killer starter squad without spending a single FIFA Point Plus. A massive announcement about our brand new Patreon perks. Lock in, hit that subscribe button and let's jump into it.

[00:00:37] Welcome back, FUT IN REVIEW. My name is John and I am so happy to be back. The World Cup Series has definitely drained me but I am fully recharged, except if you actually see me physically walk in then you might think otherwise. But I am so ready for FC 27 and luckily I don't have to do this alone. I am joined by Mr Merchandise himself. He's got a new role and he's also got

[00:01:04] a new shirt. It's none other than podcasting legend, John Kirkham. Welcome back, John. John, thanks very much for having me. So excited to discuss FC 27. I've always said, I'll say it again, the start of the game is the best time of the game. Yeah, I think that's definitely what we're discussing. But we don't have to discuss it between the two

[00:01:27] John's today. Because if you have checked out your mailbox, you might have seen a beautiful newsletter drop straight into that box. And you might see that every single week if you subscribe. Because he is our new ghostwriter. He is sitting there with a big smile and a new haircut. It's none other than Neil. Neil, welcome back my friend. Neil Gawadirn Thank you. Thanks for having me on. It's an honor to be on as part of the team for the

[00:01:54] start of the game. It's just really good. So I'm really excited. First pod with Mr. Kirkham as well. And so can't be happier for a Friday. John That's definitely true. Talk about Fridays. We are doing the shows we recorded on a Friday. That means if you're Patreon, you can join every single recording live. And you get it on a Friday as well. And if you're on the Patreon, well, this is in your Spotify, Apple podcast or YouTube list

[00:02:20] on Sunday morning. So when you get the newspaper in for the weekend, just chill before the matches start. I was wondering guys, I am very much hyped, but I also am very tired. So I'm going to give to you guys the most of the talking today. I was wondering who here is hyped for FC 27. Mike. I said that in the intro, the start of the game is always the best time of the game. It's dead exciting.

[00:02:49] Figuring it all out, gameplay, formations, players. It's just really, really good time of the game. And there's always hype. We've seen it. We've been following EA. Yeah, I'm just really looking forward. Can't wait to travel to New Zealand. Neil, you look very hyped as well, to be fair. Like, it is like I'm seeing in New Zealand. You were a little bit worn out just before the World Cup started with the game, I think. Or am I incorrect there?

[00:03:16] No, yeah, a bit. I think I've not played 26 recently. I've just been doing 89 SBCs and I've got all the players now. Yes, I'm always the same as John. I think the start of the game, I love doing foundation SBCs. I've seen if you can pack a gem, if you're lucky enough to pack something big in the first week, the first couple of weeks and trading specifically, try to work out your own formations without

[00:03:43] trying to get the internet meta. We'll see how much of the promises are kept. But beta in early reviews suggest that the AI defending very much is on its knees and you need to manual defend. So for me, it's going to be a really good fun game if it sticks. Any one of you guys played beta?

[00:04:07] I have not. John? No, I had it, but I had a lot of stuff going on in family and things, so I never got around to it. And when I was ready, it was sort of, I'll just wait. I'm the same. I had the code, I got a code sent to me, but I was just, I was still enjoying 26. As much as I hate the end game of 26, I still like to use the 99 players and give them a go and see what they're like. So I was happy enough

[00:04:33] to finish my game and play that. Plus there was 27 rewards on 26, which I was keen to get completed. So I never touched the beta. I'll just wait till Thursday and just hit it like a Christmas type thing, as you say. You say Thursday. Isn't the release on Friday? Released day is in fact Friday. However, I can explain or yourself can explain the ways that you

[00:04:58] can go on the game early as early as one o'clock or 12 o'clock maybe on the Thursday. Do you wish me to explain? Okay. So Xbox and PC players can, I'm assuming PC players, definitely 100% Xbox players can change, basically go in and change their system settings to New Zealand time and the game will download and play at New Zealand time,

[00:05:25] which will be 12 hours previously. So you can jump in that plane without having to leave your couch and you'll get the game nice and early. PlayStation 5, however, doesn't have that platform available. So the only way to get on early is if you're a subscriber to EA Play. Now there is ways around it where you can subscribe to EA Play and virtually cancel your subscription in the first couple of days. So you

[00:05:51] only have to pay the £5 or £5.99, whatever it is. And you will get 10 hours early access on Thursday, starting at 1pm. And there's only 11 hours left of that day. So you're essentially getting a full day on Thursday to log on. Play and you can do everything. You can play, you can play online, you can go into the market, you can trade, you can go into the market as early as Wednesday, I believe.

[00:06:18] Yeah. Right? So officially Wednesday, September 16th when the web app arrives. And that is... The web app has closed down already. The web app's now closed for 26. The phone app still works for 26, but the phone app releases on the Thursday as well. So web app logs start 6pm Wednesday. You can... There's not much you can do, isn't there? You'll get your intro pack.

[00:06:45] You'll get a couple... Well, you used to get tradable cards. The last two years you've been given non-tradables to start with, if I remember rightly. So essentially you can get a few bronze cards to trade and try and trade all that at the very start. I'm not quite sure it's in the same level as it used to be for getting your starter team in order in that sense. I remember distinctively being on holiday in Italy, I think. Sitting next to the pool while the web app arrived at the end of the day.

[00:07:16] Logging in on my phone, not on the companion app, but just go to a proper website. Oh, it stuck. Refresh. It stuck. Refresh. Log in. Open one pack. Get three points back. Like players try to sell one for 100, 200 coins. Spend all night on my phone. Wow in Italy. I'm so silly back then. And then close off the night with something like 9000 coins if I'm lucky. If you're lucky enough to buy... If you're lucky enough to even buy your preview pack

[00:07:44] on the first day, you're doing really, really well. I've never been able to manage to do it. No. Is it something you're looking forward to or I have just... Yes, very much. Yeah? Let me rephrase to my own opinion here. I'm not going to bother with the web app at all. Don't be fair. Fair enough. I do most of my work on it, so... I will a bit. I won't go mad because like you said, it's not as productive or as good as it has been

[00:08:11] three, four, five years ago. But I'll certainly do it. I'll create my club. I'll get my badge. I'll get my bits and pieces or maybe pick up some bronze cards like you said. Maybe try and push out one of the SBCs. It's the excitement, John. You can't do much, but you can do something. And then like you said, that's the Wednesday. And then Thursday on my special plane, off we go and we'll see where it takes us.

[00:08:37] Yeah. I can tell you where it takes you. Playing the game early doors where there isn't a meta, there isn't lengthy wingers and all this kind of stuff. And it's golden. It's really good. That's the best way to do it. So I'm excited 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So talk about the four first, let's say 12 hours. Let's say you Thursday afternoon, you get to New Zealand or you get EA play and you go nuts. What are you guys doing the first 12 hours?

[00:09:06] If you get it this early, everyone who's getting it this early would have bought a pre-order. So there'll be 2000 points available. Yeah. And I'm, I think in my writing saying that the premium pass, the first five premium passes are free. I use free as I say as I put the fingers up, because it's not free. You've paid for it already. So you don't have to pay for a premium pass. You've

[00:09:34] got 2000 points. Now last year, and the first day in the Thursday, if you could just buy gold packs, and then they explicitly released 100K packs on the Friday, a week before the game out. Well, they do the same again this year, because they did get a lot of flack with that, the power curve chat. Will they do the game? Or what they do is what John is naming and saying that money,

[00:10:01] money, money, money, if there's going to be 100K packs, they'll be sold on the first day. So I would probably keep the points until the Friday at 6pm personally, to see what special packs come out. Otherwise, you can do the old gold methods and buy the gold packs. Or you can be extremely old fashioned and try bronze pack method and turn coins that way. But it's a slow, slow, slow, slow bummer to do that. Sean, what's your approach? Sean O'Connor

[00:10:28] On actual console, when I'm logged in, I will probably play some squad battles to get a feel for the game. There'll be objectives to play games, to score goals, things like that. I always start with that. Rivals, I'll maybe give it three, four, five days to settle down. I'm not going in there. Like we've talked about, people that are going to be playing on the Thursday slash Friday have bought the ultimate edition.

[00:10:52] They're obviously keen to play. Most of those people are good players. I'm an average player, right? Average plus possibly. I'm not jumping into rivals to get beat five, two and six, three at the start. I'll give myself, let's build my squad. Let's do some SBCs. Let's just get a feel for the game in some squad battles, knock off some objectives. I think to add to that as well, squad battles probably more, in the early stages of the game,

[00:11:20] squad battles have been more important for two reasons. One, there's live events for squad battles this year coming into the game. So you'll get rewards and stuff if they're released early enough. And squad battle rewards are the first rewards released, because they'll be coming out on Sunday. Whereas rivals rewards wouldn't be out till Thursday. So your best bet's to hit into squad battles. Try and get a good rank in your squad battles first week. And try and get, I don't know if it's packs or if it's going to be tokens. I'm not sure how they're approaching it this year.

[00:11:49] Yeah, early. They've not confirmed, have they? No, tokens is definitely there, they said in SG27, but I've not quite confirmed. Whether it's tokens early doors or whether it's going to be packs. I mean, I personally prefer packs early. The more players you can get into your club at the start of the game, frankly, the better. Other SBCs you can do and complete. There's always going to be beneficial for you. For some, aren't they? Yeah, that's true.

[00:12:16] For some, yes. Every player's worth a value, an SBC value, and you can throw a total mix now. So again, got to learn all that, which again, handy on the Thursday or the Wednesday of the web app. So it just gives you time to play around with it. And no common players this year. There's no common players. If everyone's just bra and silver or gold, there's no commons in theirs anymore.

[00:12:42] That's good, because I couldn't even see the difference this year between common and rare golds on the app. A few hundred coins, I think that was it. Yeah, but the goals didn't even shine on the app. So especially at the start, I was like, I don't know if this is where we're going at it. But John's right. Squad battles is probably the best thing to tackle way away. It is good to go online for a couple of games just to see what you're up against. Yeah, yeah. Putting my efforts into squad battles will definitely be my keys.

[00:13:10] I know there are certain people out there, sorry Nils, I know there are certain people out there that will never have played a squad battle in their life. They're literally all about the online experience. Yeah, they're losing out. But there's a big majority of players will do both. And there is a massive majority will be doing squad battles at the start. I suddenly feel like that was a dig at me, John. It wasn't actually. The streamer I watch the most, I'll call him out, is Huge Guerrilla. And that's literally because he streams late at night.

[00:13:40] That's when I tend to do most of my FC. So I've usually got Guerrilla in the background. And I don't think he's ever done a squad battle in his life. He just doesn't touch that mode. Understandably, he's a pro or now, you know, he's still officially a pro, but I think this could be his last year he was saying. But yeah, there will be other people that it's like it's online or nothing. You are one of those as well, John. Well, it was a miracle.

[00:14:06] It took you 11 minutes into a new season to start talking about squad battles again. What's next? Evolutions? Yes, they've been nerfed, I believe. So we'll come to that topic separately. It should be as well. Yeah. Shall I give a very unpopular opinion then? The first thing I do when the game hits, and I always keep forgetting how it's named. So please, please correct me here. Is it called Milestones? Moments. Moments.

[00:14:36] Moments, thank you. Moments. Because Moments does two things. Moments does give you some really decent packs at the start of the game. Just by doing what you're taught. Just get every, if it's a two-star objective, get two-star. You should be done with it easily. You'll be fine. Right? Second thing is, it's actually really, and I've said this before, where it's actually a really good way of relearning the game. Not that I'm like, I need to relearn the game.

[00:15:04] But, for example, free kicks are changed. There's definitely moments with free kicks. Why not go in there, see how it's done, practice a couple, get some stars from it, get some packs in it. Just start the game, play two hours of those moments game. You get some good packs to get going, and you're sort of in the groove again. 100%. I mean, especially at the start of the game, you really should be playing any mode that gives you packs,

[00:15:32] any way you can get rewards or packs, any fodder out of your club. You should be doing it, yeah. Absolutely. And then my second unpopular opinion, I do agree with the fact you've got to play squad battles first. I actually do. Because, like Neil said, those rewards come on Sunday. You are able, it's 15 games? It's been so long since I've played squad battles, I don't remember, but it's not the whole amount of games anymore, right? You need to play for it?

[00:16:01] You can play as many as little as you like. It's capped at 15. Yeah. 16 plus if you include the free, because it's about team of the week, at least on Wednesday. So basically you get 16 matches to play from Thursday afternoon or Friday till Sunday morning. Absolutely, yeah. Correct. It is doable. But it will be, I think you'll find the majority of the players, it'll be a high bar to get into Elite 2 or 1, for instance.

[00:16:30] You'll have to play them at a decent level as well. Yeah, but one is fine. I was going to say, gold is fine. You'll still get coins or players into your club. And that's what it's about in those early days, isn't it? Who can you get in? How can they go into an SPC? Can you sell them? It's all that fun time. Yeah. It's the start of the game where they say coins are key, because coins really aren't key at any other point of the game, are they really? So any more, whether they'll be key at the start of the game or not, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the market

[00:16:59] from the start of the year this year, because they're doing their utmost and best to try and get rid of it. If people are new to this podcast, or relatively new, you can get like an 84 rated player that's going for 50, 60, 70, 80,000 coins in the first week. Get a Vandaven last year at a million. Yeah, exactly. So right at this end of the game, 80,000 coins will get you, outside of the 99s, will get you just about anybody you want. That's the difference in coins

[00:17:29] between the start of the game and the end of the game. There's a bit in the middle. So absolutely, I just think it's a great time. Is it a good time to sell them though, if you get them? Because I used to remind people that if you pack something good in week one, it's probably best to wait until weekend league starts on week two. Your best bet is to, weekend league won't start for three or four weeks. Champs, third or fourth week,

[00:17:58] you won't get champs. You've got a few weeks in, John. But I think there's a balance, sorry Neil, I was going to say there's a balancing act on that, John, right? Because if you've got, I'm saying a mega, say you've got an icon, tradable icon, a Pele, Maradona, take your pick. There's not that many people have the coins to buy them. Buy them. Yeah. So there's a balancing act between when you do that. But yeah, like I think I sold my marmouche for 60,000 coins, third or fourth day in,

[00:18:27] because for people that's achievable level of coins. So I would say that, don't be thinking I've got an icon that's worth a million coins, put them in the market, because actually that icon could be worth three million coins a week later. But something like my marmouche will probably go maximum 100. So when you think you're happy with the coins, that's the trade that Neil explained by that. No, no, I'm smiling away because, as you can see, John loves a name drop from how my pack lock.

[00:18:58] FIFA 24 was, FC 24 was my, the greatest, luckiest pack lock of my life. So... it can't be, it can't be more lucky than last year, man. Well, no, listen to this. Friday, the game came out. This was an untradable player. Okay. I'll get that. This is what I'm going to tell. FC 24. I was in my kitchen in the Saturday morning. I played the game on a Friday. Got up the Saturday morning to finish off a couple of the foundation SBCs.

[00:19:27] I got a prime election player pack, which was three golds, three silvers or something like that. And opened it in the phone. Boom. Icon started thing. And we're going, what the hell is that? No idea. Boom. Mia Hamm came out. 93 rated Mia Hamm. Just into the game. She was around 9 million coins for about three or four months of the game. Untradable, right? So,

[00:19:57] I had to play her. I played her, right? And the difference between playing one of these icons at any point in the game was just night and day. She won me so many games, got me so many wins and so many goals. I think they're worth keeping if you can pack something. I mean, any icon probably, but I just so happened to pack the second best icon in the game probably. It was just complete stroke of luck day one.

[00:20:27] And it just made such a difference to my club. And that's what continues now, doesn't it? I do okay. I do okay. I do okay. You just won the lottery, mate. Oh, shouldn't have been telling people that. In all seriousness, no, I do think that you are correct, but I think something crucial here is that a good striker will make a massive difference at the start of the game. So, I used it. I, okay, we'll talk about hypermethods later,

[00:20:55] but I used to buy a icon striker every single FC version in the first week. So, like, the first thing I'm trying to get a buy is to buy an icon strike. One, because there aren't priced that high and yet. And two, because the difference is sometimes so incredibly huge. And icons do seem a little bit more stronger this year. this year they're stronger because they're all being made higher rated. I think majority of them were with five star weak foot as well, which is massively key. Finally, right?

[00:21:25] I mean, you usually get the Mark von Bost or Robin von Persie at the first week. I think icons, icons should be iconic status in the game. They should be the best players in the game. They should also be the hardest players to pack in the game. And they should always be the most expensive. The way it used to be, that's how it should be. Wasn't a Varan icon as well this year? Varan was... Oh, don't go, don't go down that road, John, don't poke the bar. Varan was the best SBC, was it last year? Was it the year before?

[00:21:54] Last year when he had the end of an era card? I think it was the year before. That, that S, he was an 87 rated card and it was such a, I love Varan cards. He's not that icon though, so I'm not going to go with that one. Really? Why not? Why is it not? Nah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to go there. Maybe, maybe it's a generational thing. And there has to be a generational thing here, right? But when you talk about the names here, Van Persie, Van Basten, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo,

[00:22:25] Hulet, Hulet, take your pick, right? The names that roll off the tongue, because of my age, certainly, watched them all on the telly. Yeah. And so on and so forth. You start talking about Varan, it's like, right, well, I know he played for, I think it was Real Madrid, but I don't watch Spanish telly. Then did he go to, where did he go after that? Was it Man United? I don't know. Doesn't, doesn't roll off the tongue to me. Yes, he played for France. Maybe not. I'm sure he's trophy cabinet with Voh off the tongue to you, have you seen it? Well, it's probably bigger than mine, to be fair.

[00:22:56] Yes, and that, so there will be, I think, a generational thing where younger people will be like, like you just said, but Varan won all these trophies, and he did this, and he did that, and he was, you know, 500 team of the years, and 3,000 team of the seasons, or whatever it was. I think, I think that's the point, though. I think the point is that, like, Varan, since we're talking about Varan, Varan is a, an EA, he is an EA icon. He's been an EA, top card for years. for Team Vardy. So is Jamie Vardy correct?

[00:23:26] Yeah, alright. That's why they were bringing back, yeah, they should be heroes. I think heroes should have a better status in the game as well. Yeah, heroes. Yeah, it's the difference. Hazard's an icon this year, isn't he? I was just putting your like, because I've seen that some comments. Hazard's an icon this year as well, isn't he? Has he been promoted? I think so. I agree with you, but why not have a, I think I said this to a previous pod, where icons should be cut off, kind of, 2000, but then somebody said, what about R9?

[00:23:55] But then you could argue R9 was pre-2000 as well. Icons probably should be a cut-off point, maybe 2000, let's say 2006, given it a 20 year gap, and make the rest heroes, make heroes worthwhile again, because when was the last time you really had a worthwhile hero in the game? Apart from Janola, that's a nice time. First year when they came out. Oh yeah. They were very good. But I agree, I agree. I do want to ask you guys one thing though, we now know what you should do in the first couple of days, do milestones,

[00:24:25] I forget it again, sorry. Moments. Moments. Do, make sure you play squad pedals, get your rewards in, look at your players, maybe get a good striker, but I'm wondering, what is the one thing people shouldn't be doing? Neil's laughing, so like, you can get this one, Neil, it's yours. What's the one thing people shouldn't be doing? You've puzzled me, spend FIFA points, is that what you're going to say? I don't know. I don't know. What they shouldn't be doing? Yeah, what do you think,

[00:24:55] what do you think is people's biggest mistake when they start playing this game? I think the big, I think the earliest, you get your 2000 points, you just go and buy premium gold packs, well, it's probably the worst thing you can do, unless you're really, really lucky, but, I think people automatically go straight to the internet and go, what is the meta formation? Yeah, probably, but there's no way there'll be one out there yet. By saying that, you'll get people that, yeah, there will be. Well, already you based on the meta. Crossing meta, isn't there? Crossing meta already. Well, I don't, you see what, you shouldn't do it.

[00:25:24] What I would say is, every, be your own, be your own man, or woman, um, slog on and do what you want to do. It's a computer game. Um, have fun with it. Enjoy playing it. Exactly. Have fun with it. Play it. Explore it. Do what you want to do. Um, to say, don't do what not to do, then I'm not really sure. Go on then, John, tell us, what are we not meant to do? I do think that the, biggest thing you should do is get,

[00:25:54] find your own style in this game. I think, for example, from what I've played, passing and triggering more dynamic runs could be really good. Could be really fitting for some people's styles. That means what you shouldn't be doing is just copy every single tactic and say, this is the best play. What John says, best thing to do. Absolutely. Because it all sort of molds you into this husk that plays a certain way, because someone says you should play that certain way. Based on two weeks of better play,

[00:26:24] which already is different from the game you're currently playing. And you might just burn out of the game in the first month because it's not working for you. It's not getting any results you maybe even deserve for your level. So I would honestly say, start with your own setup. If you, like we will be putting out formations, sorry, let me be honest there. But we'll also be putting in this year when you're on the Patreon,

[00:26:53] like this formation works for players that play this style. Like if we don't want to cross, if you play Tiki Taka, then this is the formation for you. If that doesn't fit your style, next month we'll get a new one in, right? We're not going to say this is the formation to play. This is the thing to do. Definitely at the start of the game, there's going to be overpowered stuff because it still needs tuning. And I will mention probably week one what that is, but find your own niche in this game.

[00:27:22] Else you'll be burned out really soon. And from what I've played, I'm actually really optimistic about things they already made. And I'm really optimistic about what I'm playing. So please don't ruin that for yourself. Can I just jump in there, John, and say that that is very true because I have also, on the old internet, give me a meta formation. And you see what people are playing on Twitch or YouTube or whatever, TikTok, whatever they're doing now.

[00:27:53] And you look at stuff on the internet and you go, right, okay. So it's two years ago, it was four, two, three, whatever it was. Yep. That's right. So plug it in, stick it in, see what everybody's doing. Did not click with me. And you're thinking it must be me because everybody's playing this. Every team you play, is playing it. Everybody's playing it. Everybody's telling you to play it. And you're sitting there going, I can't buy a win for a lot of money. Yeah, it's nothing's working.

[00:28:23] And you know what? It's not the formation for me, but you can get sucked into that hole of, I need to buy another player for that formation, or I need to do something for that formation. And actually, as John just said, it's not the formation that suits you. Especially this year. If they're going to be, if the buzzwords nerfing AI defending, then you're going to get a lot of buzz parkers, because they'll be, frankly, shit scared to attack, and come out of the box. Because that's what's going to happen, I think.

[00:28:52] You'll be playing against a lot of 4-5-1s to start with. I think you'll probably find the 5-back will come back, in some sort of way, shape or form. Because people get in defence, and until they get their way of EA, going back to the norm, which hopefully won't happen, I think that's the kind of, the kind of things that are going to be put out there. Who wants to be playing that in a computer game? You know? Probably right there. Can we agree on that we're all going to New Zealand? Or getting a EA play set? Oh, yes.

[00:29:21] I've got an EA play set. My friends are going. Yeah. Yes. It is important, John, that if you go travel to New Zealand, you do that securely, though. Which brings us to our new sponsor this season. Yes, we have a really, really good sponsor, but not only a good sponsor, but also a very good deal for everyone listening to us. We are partnering with NordVPN, the number one VPN in the world. So whether you're traveling, logging into public Wi-Fi,

[00:29:51] looking to secure the absolute lowest ping, but we can leak, a solid VPN is essential. NordVPN keeps you connected and encrypted and lets you bypass regional restrictions effortlessly. It was brilliant, by the way, on my holiday to watch Dutch TV. Well, being in France. But right now, Food & Review listeners get a massive, you got to sit straight for this one because you got to hold it, 75% discount. Yep.

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[00:30:49] a really cool VPN. I think a month is like, I don't know, with 75% $3, two pounds, something like that. So, I mean, don't let things get ruined for you. And it makes it easy if you go to New Zealand as well. So, there's that. I want to have a quick think because guys, this year, I'm going to try to do things a little bit different.

[00:31:17] I've never been against buying FIFA points. I'm going to be honest there. But, in this day and age where people are struggling, where there are too many people struggling to get their groceries in, I've decided I'm not going to spend any FIFA points this year. And to be fair, I am very, very hesitant on that decision. Nervous. I am

[00:31:48] not looking forward to it, but I'm also kind of curious if he can make it happen. So, I'm going to spend only the points I get from the pre-orders. I mean, no point in not spending them. But I'm going to spend any points and I am dreading the first couple of weeks. I'm also going to see if I'm going to focus on getting a 100 chemistry style team ASAP. Meaning, I will focus on most likely the La Liga and the Premier League to get a team

[00:32:17] cobbled up and keep that team together for a whole long while. But I've been breaking my brain going on websites and seeing what we can do and is this price you don't know what's going to happen anyways, you don't know what you're going to pack. I got to make sure where it used to be like, oh, let's buy some pack. Let's try a player. Let's burn it to the ground. I have to be very careful this year. Do you guys have any game plan in mind or anything going to change this year?

[00:32:49] Yeah, I'll go jump in first then. Yeah, I've got, so going to have two teams. One will be my St. Johnston past and present. That will be a real slog because I think every St. Johnston player is a silver and there are, sorry, every player is a bronze and there are a couple of silvers from the past players that are scattered around a couple of other clubs. So that will be a back burner, slow build, use evolutions

[00:33:19] which again have been nerfed a little bit so that will be a sort of squad battle-y type chill day and then my main team will be just as it is and again we're getting a free icon, we're getting a free it's not a hero commitment. Is it a Hall of Fame player? That's the one Hall of Fame player. So my team will be based around who do I, and like you just said John, who do you get on your welcome packs, who do you get on your first couple

[00:33:49] of SBC packs and then I will just build a relatively team from that and I'm just going to go from there. I never have a strategy is the honest truth, I've never had a past and present. You just get so much back luck it doesn't matter. In a way yeah, I just play with what a pack and I try to make it work. Yeah, I've failed to have Mbappe any time after November so I hope to pack him this year. 23, 24,

[00:34:19] 25, 26, I've had Mbappe from November ish, sometimes early. I'd love to have him again. I've never strategised, I tend to just play without a pack. I don't like buying players either, I like first-order teams. Early doors, you've got to buy players, haven't you? I don't,

[00:34:49] Serie A looks a good place to go for starter teams, there's a lot of decent players from what I've seen, Saudi League looks good. Bundesliga is always a solid one. Bundesliga looks good as well. The players tend to get overtaken quite quickly but the very, very first couple of weeks, Bundesliga is always a great start but like you, I will base it off Pat Klerk and then I will build my team around rather than going off to buy somebody. Met a rack time would probably, I mean, if you look

[00:35:19] at it, I mean, Max Sens, Lacroix and Mickey Van Deven, if you come across them as the two centre-backs in your first couple of games, just quit the game before you started, you're going to be playing against somebody who's already metered the game out, that's the kind of meta things people will look for, I think Premier League in that sense, fast-paced centre-backs, fast-paced full-backs, people will look for that. Strikers, fast-paced strikers. Yes, fast-paced strikers, Marmouche was one last year,

[00:35:50] Pina was the one this year. Mouche isn't even worth 60k now anymore in real life. The good thing with Pina this year is that she will be one of two things, she'll be too expensive or she'll be unpackable because she's an 89 rated. And low driven, who's got low driven, Jude Belling was at low driven but nobody's going to be at her full-time. Loic Remy from the Hall of Famers has got low driven plus and I do

[00:36:19] believe 95% of people will pick him as a striker. I don't know if I will, I quite fancy DeSantos, he looks quite cool but I'll end up looking at it and picking Loic Remy I'd imagine because he's fast and got low driven plus. I would love to do, figure out loud, I'd love to do a past and present team but I just don't know who I would do it based on. We're going to give you a team, you go from there.

[00:36:49] Who would be? Do different, do you know what we do? We could do a episode one for the new season mate, so what we do is we'll reach out to all listeners and watchers now, right? And we say if you're on Spotify, just drop it in the comments if you're on YouTube, drop it in the comment and let us know what past and present team, Neil, should be starting according to you. I'll do it as well, so long as it's not Rangers or Celtic. Not Celtic, no, not Rangers

[00:37:19] either. It has to be on the mainland of Europe. I'd like to do a past and present team of some sort would be quite cool. And if somebody... I would say when you were younger, right? Because you're so younger. When you were younger, he's not calling you old, by the way. Oh, I must decide. Yeah, I was going to say, but who did you like? Who did you watch? Because John doesn't like it, but when I was younger, table telly, this one for the really old people, table telly, it did exist, right? I can't watch television. It wasn't as bad as that, but it was

[00:37:49] PSV because Ronaldo was PSV, so you always saw that. And then there was that time of the Galazzo, and it was all about Italian football, so you watched DC Milan, Inter Milan, Sampdoria won the league. You know what I mean? There'll be a thing if you really went into it. Yeah, a team that I've always, I think, based on stuff, I always had a great admiration for Juventus, and the biggest reason

[00:38:18] for that was because they had the greatest team in the league by a mile and they still felt they needed to cheat, and I admired them for that. So I've always had a softball for Juventus, I've always had PSV, PSG, before they were a cool team. There's a lot of teams out there I've liked, but listeners can decide and I'll honour that. I also have a main team, of course. Yeah, exactly.

[00:38:49] It's a cool idea. You know what we'll do? We'll run a poll on Spotify asking for the league, and on the next week's show, we'll ask for the team in that league. Okay. So long as it's not like a Como or Pia Chains or something like that. I mean, it's got to be a team that can actually... Como is actually a fantastic team, unfortunately, because it's the next final opponent. How many past players have they got? It needs to be somebody that I can actually build a team out of. You can aspire to build that team, yeah.

[00:39:19] It's going to be... We'll make it work. We'll make it work. Okay, I'm on vote for that. I think that's a cool challenge though. I'd love to do that, but I always start, like, I'll do a final team or do a Juventus team and then three months later I'm like... Yeah, it's all right. It's okay. The moment evolution has played with those players in champions and rivals and live mode. There's loads of ways to do it, John. and I should be better,

[00:39:49] but I'm changing my habits one step at a time, John. I'm not spending any points this year. I will spend points this year. I've already discussed with a couple of crew members how we want to do it so we can sort of compare where we are in the game. A figure's been put out. I won't disclose the figure, but I'm comfortable to spend a certain amount of points a month to see how much further advantage or not I get over other people.

[00:40:20] Yeah, looking forward to having that discussion. I am really hyped for a new season, guys. Just a couple of days, and when you're listening to this, it's Sunday most people, so it's four more days after that one, so this hopefully gets you a little bit into the right mood. Also, not only do I think this game is going to be, I mean, I'm really hyped for it, let's not jinx it yet, but we also make a lot of changes to the podcast,

[00:40:50] haven't we? We have, we have indeed. changed the theme around, so if you look at, oh, Neil's here on a Friday, for example, and let's just keep it really short. I do think if you are a Patreon subscriber, you get more word for your book than you've ever gotten before. There's three tiers, just plain and simple. The first one gets you already a bonus show and that bonus show we did

[00:41:19] every two weeks or every month, you get now a bonus show every single Tuesday. That means if you're a Patreon subscriber, two shows a week, no exceptions, just go at it, right? Also, that show might not be entirely PG rated, just putting it out there, so that might also be worth discussing because it's on the public feeds. We also have a lot of interactivity and changes to the Discord. discussions, coaches, you name it, it's all there.

[00:41:49] Plus, John, new merchandise. Yes, absolutely. Go to footandview.com slash merch, you can have a look around. I'm wearing one of the new branded tops, Neil's wearing one of the older branded tops. So am I. Yep, water bottles, hoodies, varsity jackets, notebooks, pens, mugs, wall art, have a look, you know, small cut for the team that we invested back into the podcast. It's really cool. It's a cool start as well. Yeah.

[00:42:20] Yes. And we have a new predicted leak. If you are a Patreon subscriber, free members are allowed there as well, by the way, but they don't get a bonus question. What will happen is you can get a, we'll send out a list and questionnaire every single week directly on your Patreon mailbox or your Patreon message box. There are some questions there about match predictions, real life football in the weekend, about weekly performances or about which team Neil will pick for his

[00:42:50] road to glory or whatever. You predict that, you get a password in a separate mail to make sure we know for sure that you have access to it and we'll give prices. So every single food season, we will look at who's number one, two, and three. They'll get prices like coaching or something of the merchandise and even invites to the podcast itself. So definitely worth looking into the Patreon benefits I think. Definitely. Can I just say as well,

[00:43:21] the Discord, it's not just FIFA chat. There's some good people in the Discord and they'll listen to you and then do next to the chat about anything, anything football related, life related. It's worth joining. Definitely. Thank you so much for saying that. Talking about Patreons though, I want to give a shout out to our tier three boardroom elite Patreon members who are Graham and Caden and they support us

[00:43:50] at their highest tier and their support directly help us double down on content this season including those brand new midweek bonus episodes to check out patreon.com slash food in reviews. Guys, it's been a wonderful first episode. I am actually going away with more energy than I started this podcast with. I still don't think I can walk that well so we'll see how that goes when I start. Thank you so much for being there. See you again

[00:44:20] next week. Of course, if you like the show, give us a five-star review or just like, subscribe, double the message on Spotify. We read everything and we will come back to if you have any questions and of course at TikTok or at put in review on the score or something podcast and of course at put in review on Instagram where you might see daily updates from this show. Guys, thank you so much. One of my

[00:44:49] last thing to do and that is to drop it. F-U-T Drop it. Drop it. F-U-T F-U-T F-U-T F-U-T F-U-T F-U-T you