FIFA 16 is less than a month old and already I have spent a considerable amount of time playing it!
So, for The 72, I have decided to play and write about a Career Mode that I will be doing on the game so that you can see the progress of the team, who I sign, where we finish in the league and so on.
Obviously I will be playing as a Football League team and to make it a little bit more of a challenge, I decided to choose a League 1 side and try to take them up to the Championship and potentially up to the Premier League!
After taking a look at each team, I decided that I would take the reigns at Sheffield United. The Blades have been stuck in League 1 for a few seasons now and everyone involved at the club is desperate to get back to the Championship. I can’t do this in real-life (that’s Nigel Adkins job!) but I can certainly attempt it on FIFA!
I’ll be playing every game and just so you know it won’t be easy along the way, I’ll be playing on World-Class, which can be extremely tricky. Half-length and everything is the usual stuff.
So, without further ado, let’s get the career mode underway!
NOTE: Click on the screenshots I have included if you want to view them – they look small but if you click on them, it gives you a bigger, clear version.
First off, I entered a pre-season tournament for the chance to add a cool £2.5m to my transfer budget. It may mean I have to play more games but it is certainly worth it if I can go all the way and secure some more money!
I was given the lofty expectations for the coming season off my board – they expect me to reach the round of 32 in the FA Cup and they think I should be able to go all the way and League 1! It won’t be easy but I’ll give it my best shot!
So, the team.
This is the team that I have decided to go with. Here is the first eleven, subs and reserves. (obviously before any transfers take place).
The only changes I made from the default line-up I was given was to change Sammon for Done up-front and also to put McEveley in for Collins in defence and I also like Che Adams, so have decided to put him on the left.
I stuck with the 4-4-2 formation that I automatically started with, as I feel it is a decent fit for this side. However, with the rather large amounts of LM and RM’s and also with a few CAM’s, there will certainly be some squad rotation and potentially a change of tactics at some point.
Onto transfers now.
First off, it’s not a transfer but Campbell-Ryce has claimed he will be retiring when the season comes to an end. In addition, Higdon and Calvert-Lewis have also been sent out on season-long loans. We also have Edgar and Sammon.
The only player I have placed on the transfer list is Collins. United already have a large amount of centre-backs and with Collins the oldest of the bunch – and not one of the best either on the game – I decided to list him. I’ll be focusing on youth in this team, which means not many players will be bought or kept who are 31 or older. I’ll keep one or two for the experience they have but not many.
It didn’t take too long for a team to snap him up either, with Shrewsbury placing a bid of £150,000 for the defender, which I accepted.
I also listed two youngsters – Reed and Kennedy – for year-long loans. The former is now at Portsmouth on loan for a year and the latter has joined Exeter for a year.
So, who have I signed so far? I saw Patrick Roberts (previously of Fulham) was listed for loan by Man City and moved quickly to secure a loan deal for the youngster. I now have him for one-year.
I also noticed we were a bit short on left-backs, having just one proven one at the club. I had a search round and decided to go for Jake Bidwell from Brentford. He’s a pretty good player, he was available and I managed to bring him to Bramall Lane for £700,000.
Finally, I got a surprise bid from Port Vale for Matt Done. They offered me just £250,000 and I immediately rejected it – if they want to test whether or not I’ll sell him, they’re going to have to offer a bit more than that!
Now it’s time for the pre-season tournament!
I was placed in the group shown below:
On paper, the group didn’t seem too hard to get out of. However, when actually playing the games, I was proved wrong!
Despite the games being just friendlies, I decided not to use any reserves players and to test out the side I have selected as my starting team for the season (the one I showed in a picture previously in this article).
In the first game I came up against Aarhus GF. We went 1-0 down quite early on and despite battling back, we went into half-time still on the losing side. However, after the break, we came to life and we immediately scored an equaliser, Che Adams bursting into the box and finding the bottom corner.
We went on to have the ball cleared off the line from a Done effort and a close-range header from Sharp forced the Aarhus keeper into making a superb save. In the end, we didn’t manage to get that winning goal and the game ended as a draw.
In the second game, we came up against Stromgod. The only change I decided to make was to bring on Bidwell for Harris at LB. After going 1-0 up within 10 minutes, Billy Sharp with a header, I was confident we would hold on and get the three points. How wrong I was.
They bagged an equaliser right on the brink of half-time and then went ahead with 70 minutes gone. We spent the rest of the game desperately trying to equalise but it wasn’t to be. We lost and it meant we needed a win in this last game to go through to the semis.
Our final game was against Royal Mouscron. I decided that after a draw and a loss, we needed to switch things up. I started with Sammon over Done, Harris back on instead of Bidwell, Woolford on for Adams and Flynn on for Coutts.
It was a game that was so-close yet so-far for us. We hit the crossbar and post not once, not twice but THREE times. We had a goal ruled out for offside. Even they went close at several times throughout the game. But, despite all the opportunities to score, the game ended 0-0 and we were dumped out of the pre-season tournament.
It would have been nice to get the extra funds but, in the end, it was only a pre-season tournament. The league is the main priority and a run in the FA Cup or Capital One Cup would also be nice.
I’m not worried about our chances despite these early signs. I’ll be bringing in some more players and perhaps sending a few out on loan and permanently and hopefully, we can reach the goal we have been set and win the league!
That’s it for the first part of the Career Mode. In the next article, we’ll have started the new League 1 season and played some of the opening games. Our opening game pits us against newly-relegated Blackpool. Can we get off to a good start? Who else will we bring in and sell? All will be revealed in the next article!
Want to suggest some signings or sales for me? Want to make some predictions for how we will do in our opening games? Want to slate me for how bad the pre-season tournament was? Leave a comment below or speak to us on our social media pages!
