Heartland

As kick off approaches, I've been seriously pondering switching the alice band from Valbuena (-11) to Messi all day.

"Go big, or go home" has always been my Nigel motto in these tournie comps, as we'll all end up with similar teams at the end with no chance of making up ground.

The deed is now done.

May a Sky Fairy shine his/her benevolence on my call.

...Vertigo;

1 Ger JohhnyRev7 213
2 Gbr Mav787 176
2 Gbr limurev 176
4 Ger V_of_C 173

(as @ 22:06)...

Any Neymar captainers wanna high five?

32 points are not bad at all

i seem to have found my level and settled comfortably into 12th place...nevermind, 3/4 of the way down the table is better than the england team managed.

get outta my way, lee, i'm coming up right behind ya. kinda.
you're in 11th now!

I'm currently 10th, but I have a couple of Greeks in action at the moment.

Pista wrote:I'm currently 10th, but I have a couple of Greeks in action at the moment.

you lucky

Yeah they did rather well didn't they?

& none of that "numbered limited edition of 50 pieces" stuff either.

Just went up to 83 points , that was a game to remember last night, yep, they deserved the victory, a great game!

Looks like I can get shot of Suarez then

Indeed.

Transfer market should open after the last games tonight. Dunno exactly when McFIFA will do it, but I'll post here as soon as it happens.

anyone want to enlighten me as to how the next round works?

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:anyone want to enlighten me as to how the next round works?

Would also welcome a layman's guide to the next stage. Managed to move up 120,000 places in the overall game in round three, despite some teams resting high scoring players having already qualified ...

Patience young grasshoppers.

Does not the fallen cherry blossom,
mask the smell of the tiger?
Or is the tiger really there?

If man can carry water,
can water carry man?
Or is it a river?

These are the questions you must ask yourselves in preparation for the next round.

Patience.

Transfers are open and all day today until tomorrow about that hour....

Go now prepare your teams for the next round

I rocketed from 10th to 9th in the table

Transfers all done for this round.

Ok, as mentioned, transfer window is open. What does that mean to the unenlightened?

It means you now have unlimited transfers to revamp your squad. A chance to kick out the under performers, dead wood, and those already on a plane back home. You can also now choose a maximum of 5 players from any one country.

The transfer page shows how many points each player has scored so far and those who have already been eliminated to assist your selections.

Most of us struggled to build a squad of 23 from 100m first time around, so applying the logic that the better (i.e., more expensive) teams have progressed, makes it even harder this time. But cheap squad fillers can still be found from the likes of ALG, CRC and GRE, particularly in defence.

But do you really need 23 players who might play? If you've got a decent squad of 15-16 who you know should start? You can't play them all. It's all about paring down the squad and getting maximum bang for your buck.

For example; I've 3 x IRN players who've gone home but I'll keep them in my squad. Why? Because they only cost a combined total of 3.5m and it's easier for me to pick a squad of 20 from 96.5m. But ultimately, I'll be looking at 15-16 and cheap squad fillers as mentioned.

Tip: You can mess about on the transfer page as much as you like but be very careful before you remove a cheap eliminated player. Once you remove him you won't be able to get him back. In my 3 x IRN example, it would probably cost me another 3m to replace them. That's another 3m spent on players I won't start and 3m I could have spent elsewhere to strengthen the squad.

The next round fixtures:

28Jun BRA v. CHI
28Jun COL v. URU
29Jun NED v. MEX
29Jun CRC v. GRE
30Jun FRA v. NGA
30Jun GER v. ALG
01Jul ARG v. SWI
01Jul BEL v. USA

If anyone's still awake after reading this, have fun and good luck!

Just a quicky (ooer)

Is changing the formation going to reap any benefits in terms of points at all?

Correction to my previous post above:

Whilst playing around on the transfer page, it appears that you can still purchase players who have been eliminated. So I'm going down the route of picking a strong 15-16 man squad and filling the rest with non-playing 1m guys. Makes the budget much more friendly.

Pista wrote:Is changing the formation going to reap any benefits in terms of points at all?

Yes, it can. They've ironed out the glitch so ideally you should be starting with your first players up (whoever they are and in whatever formation) to try and maximise points potential.

Then it's stick or twist and changing formation as appropriate.

BUT, it needs to be done in a precise order. I need to dash now but will post a crib sheet later.

Ta muchly

Well I've done some transfers. No idea what I'm doing, I reckoned on going for the players that looked best value-for-money from their existing points. Maybe slightly foolish but hey. I have a little more strength-in-depth going on too...

Neymar - Benzema - Messi

i couldn't imagine that i can have them all in my team!!!
yeap fillers is very good idea indeed

Thanks as ever @JohnnyRev for explaining it all to us mere mortals. You truly are a Nigel among Nigels.