FIFA 11 Career Mode Thread PS3/360

Thanks, Kamui. Sometimes FIFA can look alright when played in a sensible way.

Slightly related to the subject of Board leniency, I've just discovered that the expectations for the first season are not hard coded. It is based on the overall rating of the team. I've just been in edit mode correcting some of the Villa players stats, and transferred out players who have departed recently (Friedel etc), and now if I start a new Career Mode they only ask for a top half finish rather than top four (because the overall rating of the team is lower).
 
I had a follow up message to one of those manager review thingys last night (I'm in my 3rd season with Inter), and was told that my job was safe for now. I should think so seeing as I'm currently 1pt at the top of Serie A...

I'm kind of enjoying the current season at the moment. Here's why:
Season 1 - I didn't add many faces to the squad, just cover for Sneijder (Ganso), & Mexes to bolster the defence. Won the Coppa Italia, but narrowly missed out on the league by 2pts.

Season 2 - Went all out and pretty much blew the transfer budget to overhaul the squad. Brought in a new backup GK, a commanding CB (Subotic), 2 DMs (one was De Rossi), 2 wingers (M.Marin & A.Sanchez), & 2 young CFs (Neymar & Lukaku). Proved to be worth it as I won the lot (League, Coppa & CL).

Season 3 (so far) - Decided to downsize the squad. Part of that was to bring in funds to make some more changes, but hasn't quite worked out...
Tried to ship out some older players to make room for younger players (that and had seen a couple of transfer listed players I was keen on). I didn't quite make the changes I wanted, so ended up with the squad being a bit lighter in defence at the close of the transfer window.

Ironically, with a smaller squad I've suffered more injuries, with 6 long term injuries happening in 6 consecutive games. Kind of glad I didn't sell as many players as I'd hoped now!

The league is a lot tighter as well at the moment. Previously it had been Inter & Juventus being the only contenders, but I'm currently 1/3 of the way through the season and there's 4-5 teams all within a couple of pts off the top.

My only gripe (at the moment) is having several players on the transfer list for 2 seasons, and not one flicker of interest. A couple are young players who aren't expensive, and 2 are high end strikers. OK, one is D.Milito and he has a fairly big price tag, but surely someone could do with a world class finisher? Especially seeing as Madrid just paid £30m+
for Arshavin, & Munich paid silly money for Bendtner...
 
Speaking of injuries... just had De Rossi pick up a 110 day injury in training. Never had one that bad before, so quite impressed!
 
(Ganso), (Neymar & Lukaku).
Click to expand...

How do you find those players? I'm pretty unimpressed by Ganso. Bought him to replace Gerrard as an AM behind behind Carrol and Suarez, but he just seems to weak to keep possesion. Ended up bringing the now 32 y.o. Gerrard back in after half a season and the team is doing a lot better again. Am now rotating Gerrard with Aquilani and rotating Ganso with Meireles as a slightly deeper AM.

Neymar was dissapointing at first, to weak. But after a while I started to use close control dribbling and he's quite amazing at that. His finishing is excellent aswell. Lukaku is just a man mountain, poor finish generally but very strong and able to receive the ball and turn a defender on strength alone.
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
How do you find those players? I'm pretty unimpressed by Ganso.
Click to expand...

Ganso has been OK. I initially bought him so I could rotate with Sneijder as the AM in Inter's default 4-2-3-1, but have found - for me anyway - that he's better deployed in a holding midfield role, alongside Cambiasso or De Rossi.
It might be because I opt to pass the ball a lot & mix up play instead of just charging forward, so having a playmaker in the middle of the pitch is probably better for me than 2 'proper' DMs.
I've recently aquired Honda and he's much much better. Wicked good on free kicks as well which helps! Highly recommend him if you're looking for someone to fill in at AM...

As for Neymar & Lukaku, the jury is still out!
If I'm using a 4-2-3-1 then one of them will make the subs bench, as Eto'o & Milito are better in a lone striker role.
Neymar's pace & finishing probably gives him the edge, whereas Lukaku seems a bit clumsy at times.
 
Exactly the same as me then :D, Ganso is good for keeping possesion and passing it about but doesn't have the edge to get past a man, Neymar just isn't strong enough as the lone striker for me, and Lukaku doesn't have the skill to retain possesion. I play a 3-1-3-1-2 formation;
1st choice:
--------------Reina------------
---Wilson---Skrtel---Agger---
------------Lucas-------------
Hazard-Meireles--------Young
---------------Gerrard--------
------Carrol-------Suarez-----

2nd Choice
-----------Reina-------------- (never need to sub him, and he's my only keeper in the squad!)
-----Kelly---Ayala---Jones---
-------------Shelvey----------
Johnson-Ganso----------Mata
---------------Aquilani--------
---Lukaku---------Neymar---

I bought Young and Hazard after the Jan rumours (in real life) and bought Jones last week! I guess I'll be selling Young and Jones again, already have Mata and I'll be getting Henderson.
 
After my latest winter transfer window I shipped out Lukaku, & brought in Hazard (didn't quite have enough to go after Valencia) as I needed an extra winger. I also brought in a couple of loan defenders as I was a bit short on cover...

My current team is (4-2-3-1):

-------------Julio Cesar--------------
Maicon -- Kompany -- Subotic -- Santon
---------De Rossi -- Cambiasso / M'Bia--------
-M.Marin /Hazard -- Sneijder -- Honda / my VP
------------Eto'o / Milito------------

and backup (can also work in a mix of 4-4-2s)

Fahrmann
Rafael -- Mexes -- M'Bia -- Nagatomo / Zambrotta (loanee)
-------Thiago Motta -- Ganso-------
--Obinna -- my VP / Coutinho -- Lanzafame--
--------------Neymar---------------
 
A new CM update;

I'm in to the CL finals for the second year running! I have to admit it was a huge achievement, the semi-final was against Real Madrid (v Liverpool) and the match was terrible. The fixture congestion didn't help, with 7 matches being played in 2 weeks! Even my reserve players were getting tired and teh 3rd choice had to step up. Got pretty good results in the league, 3 draws and 2 wins enabling me to maintain 1st place.

So on to the CL semi's, 1st leg went terrible, Real were pressuring like madmen and my team just couldn't get a grip on the game. Conceded in the 30th minute and was hanging on, losing possesion in midfield and trying to stop them scoring another. They went close with a shot hitting the bar. 2nd half was the same, and in the 75th minute Wilson was sent off as last man, although Skrtel woul d have gotten back to cover. Instead of changing formation and settling for the 1-0 loss I continued to try and play....and that cost me, conceding to a counter in the 80th minute.

So on the to return, and a change of formation. Gone was the attacking 3-1-3-1-2 formation and a more conservative 3-4-1-2 introduced. In the previous game, with the 3rd string team it had worked great. Away to Chelsea (sitting 3rd in the league) I decided to settle for a draw from the off. The game was pretty comfortable with the full midfield keeping possesion neatly and calmly. In the 60th min. Neymay and Lukaku combined on the edge of the area to set up Neymar to score the winner. So with the same tactics, but far better player I decided to try that vs Real. However the 2nd leg in the Bernabeu couldn't have started any worse, 3min. in and Kaka scores a header to put the aggegrate score to 3-0. But 10min. in Liverpool start keeping possesion (with Real thinking the tie is done and dusted) and start to slowly get a foothold and try to get something from the match. In the 30th min. Gerrard manages to squeeze past his defender on the edge of the area and with a diagonal low shot manages to get a goal back to put the match at 1-1 and the tie at 1-3. Second half, in the 70th min. Liverpool score again to set up a frantic final 20min. Neymar comes on and the extra fitness shows, he turns a defender on the edge of the area and hits a low cross which Gerrard manages to get on the end of and scores the 3rd in the 85th min! 3-1 and a comeback of Instanbul proportions is completed. Liverpool manages to see out the final few minutes, nearly breaking away for a 4th.

So now the final will be against Chelsea, who beat City in the other all English semi.

Liverpool now have 4 league games and two cup finals (FA vs City & CL vs Chelsea) to become treble winners!

I'm now in my 4th season, first two were trophyless and last season I managed to win the League Cup and was CL runner-up.
 
Last edited:
Well finished the season....and ended up being Treble winners!

Went on a good run in the league, winning 3 and drawing 1 (only conceding one goal in the process). It kept me 2 points ahead of 2nd and 3rd placed City and Chelsea to win the league, Suarez scored a hattrick to finish the season in style.

FA Cup was a tough match, again I used the more defensive formation and tried to crowd out all of City's attack. Didn't really work as they created quite a fair few chances, also hitting the post. However in the 30th minute Suarez scored what would be the winner. Team managed to hang on for the 2nd half to snatch the Trophy.

After the dramatic CL ties (Anfield vs Barca 1-1, Camp Nou 0-1 / Anfield vs Inter 0-0, San Siro 0-1 / Anfield vs Real 0-2, Bernabeu 1-3) the final against Chelsea was very comfortable. Again I opted for the more defensive formation and it worked great. Chelsea's only chances came from setpieces, while Gerrard, Suarez and Carroll were working between the lines to good effect. In the 9th minute the breakthrough came, a neatly worked passing move ended up with Carroll hitting a low, 1st time shot from the edge of the area. It beat Cech but rebounded of the post, Suarez was quickest to the ball and managed to squeeze the ball in past a diving Cech. Most of the match had the same flow, Liverpool keeping possesion and trying to work a quick attack from deep. In the 75th minute the Cup was sealed with another good counter with Carroll this time scoring the goal. Neymar had another 2 good chances, having come on for Carroll, to make it a more empthatic win. However both of his efforts went just past the post.

Ended up pocketing about 65mil for those 3 trophies! Now have a transferkitty of 150mil! Although I'll only be getting rid of the wrongly signed players (Young, Jones) and replacing them with the signed or rumoured to be (Henderson, Adam, etc).

Had two offers for a new job, ...Utd again! And a relegation outfit in Serie A (Reginna). So will stick with Pool and try to retain the (CL) league.
 
Well done - don't forget, if you need a playmaker have a look at Honda ;)

Just dispatched Chelsea in the CL Quarter Finals on penalties (beat them 1-0 at the Bridge, then lost the home leg 1-0 to a dodgy Lampard penalty...), now the Semi is a repeat of the previous seasons' final against Man City. That was a fantastic 4-3 win for me, so could be interesting this time around with 2 legs to play...
Also managed to spectacularly crash out of the Coppa Italia to 19th placed Brescia, but I don't think the board realised!
 
Went on a transfer splurge buying:
- Henderson (5mil),
- Adam (7mil),
- Piatti (25 y.o. LW to replace Young) 12mil,
- Subotic (25 y.o. CB) 20mil, (to replace Jones)
- Hummel (24 y.o. CB) 20mil, (extra back-up)
- Oxelade-Chamberlain 1mil,

Sold
- Jones 8mil,

To sell
- A Young,
- Torres............

The Arsenal board accepted my 22mil bid for Clichy, but he decided to stay due to loyalty. His loyalty meant he lost the UEFA Super Cup to me, muhahahaha.

Started the season well, winning the Charity Shield by again beating City. This time my more defensive formation didn't work and they scored in the 55th minute. I changed tactics to the more attacking formation and equalised in the 70th minute. Needed to sub some players and replaced Gerrard with Henderson. He only popped up with the winner in the 85th minute!

1st league match was against Chelsea, the defensive formation worked well, Chelsea offered little, but the match only ended up a 1-0 win for me. Then I had to play my bogey team; Bolton. Very close, very physical, a rocket fron Santa Cruz in the 75th minute gave them a 1-0 win. Next up was the UEFA Super Cup against Arsenal. Tight match, with both sides going close, however it took till the 85th minute for Suarez to make the breakthrough and give Liverpool their 5th trophy of the 2013 calender year!

It's just a shame that there is no way to actually see it in my Career menu, with the overview not even registering half of my trophies......and the per season view only registering final appearances instead of wins! F*&kin EA! W$%kers! They've even managed to add bugs be removing stuff!
 
Finished my 3rd season with Inter.

Was looking forward to another run-in with City after the previous CL game against them, though a bit nervous as Kompany was suspended, so missed out against his old team. A couple of my wingers were also out with injury.
It was an entertaining high tempo game, but the 1st leg ended 1-1. City scored early, and after struggling to create much I managed to grab a late equaliser.

2nd leg: Had a full squad to choose from for the home leg, so was able to play my normal pass & move game. Eto'o left Lescott for dust (see, FIFA can be realistic!) and I was 1-0 up after 10mins. Had a lot of possession again, but didn't really do anything with it, and soon found myself 2-1 down at half time(3-2 on agg, so needed at least 2). Changed formation, going from 2 DMs & a striker, to 1 DM & 2 strikers - Neymar on for Ganso.
It paid off, as Neymar scored almost instantly, and Eto'o got a 2nd straight after the restart. City pushed on, so went into counter mode. A late Honda free kick made it 4-2, killing off any chance of a comeback.

Drew United in the Final, but as they'd made some dodgy signings (seriously, Carlton f**king Cole?), they weren't too difficult to beat.

Just managed to wrap up the league on the last day of the season too, with AC Milan 2 points behind. Far too many silly draws nearly ruined it!

So, after winning the league & CL for a second successive season, it was on to the transfer window. Strengthening the defence was the priority this time, and after winning 2 major trophies, money was available.
Brought in:
LWB: Coentrao - £17m
CB: David Luiz - £14m
CM: E.Banega - £20m
RW: L.Valencia - £25m
GK: Muslera - £7m (as J.Cesar has dropped quite a few attribute points)

I'm still struggling to sell players as well, which is annoying. Man City have just bought Huntelaar for £18m (they also have Kenwyne Jones!), when they could have had D.Milito for the same amount. I've just let 2 players run their contracts out, when 'a year' ago they would have been worth a combined £30m...
 
What's you manager rating? And did you get any good offers from other clubs? I think I'm at 149 points (4*) but didn't get any decent offers after the treble season.

Amusing to see your Utd having such poor players, In my career they have added Aguero (who is a pain in the arse!) and a solid DM. Can't remember who, Diarra maybe...However they aren't troubling the league anymore (top 6). It's City and Chelsea who are the main forces after 3,4 seasons.

For some reason I'm really having trouble getting running this season, not sure what it is, but the finishing has been pretty poor and the general attacking play hasn't been up to the standard of last season. 1-0's and 0-0's are the order of the day. I think Gerrard is finally winding down and becoming less threatening. Last season I bought Ganso to replace him, but after half a season I reverted back to Gerrard and the team picked up again. So far this season he hasn't been as strong, and I think the replacements/signings haven't offered as much when coming on. Also the corners have been pretty poor so far, usually I can get a goal or atleast a decent header, but a lot of the balls have been missing the target, with an annoying auto player switch coming in a lot and de-selecting my player at the wrong moment.

Oh well, will just have to ride the poor form out and try and keep within touching distance of the top (am now 4th, 5 points behind after 8 games). Oddly my CL is going a lot better than previous seasons, 3 games played in the groupstages with the following wins; 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0. Benfica, Gent and someone else...
 
Last edited:
I've just won the Italian version of the Community Shield, which has maxed out a 5* rating - 199 points I think.

Despite that, I didn't really get any juicy offers for new jobs. AC Milan & Juventus came in, both with a £20m budget & silly wage cap (about £1.5m) to revamp aging squads. There was also a second division Spanish side, so opted to stay with Inter.
Winning back to back league & CL titles you'd expect a host of interest from the likes of Madrid, Chelsea, City (yick!) & several other European 'giants' who haven't won anything for a while. But as it's FIFA we should be happy enough that they remembered to add in job offers at all!

Haven't checked the current CL group draws yet, but will have a look and see who the top teams are for comparison (and see who they've signed!)
 
I miss the option to just quit and transfer to a new team. They should have combined the options, as now you are "stuck" because none of the offers are anywhere near what you are achieving.
 
Had a look at the 'big teams' in my CM last night, and some of the signings were, um, interesting to say the least! Here's a select few:

Man Utd:
Glen Johnson (Liverpool)
C.Cole (West Ham)
K.Doyle (Wolves)

Chelsea:
J.Lescott (City)
M.Richards (City)
(both bought since I took Luiz from them)

Liverpool:
G.Pandev (Inter)
Andy Johnson (Fulham)
Y.Kaboul (Tottenham)
L.Ridgewell (Birmingham)

Man City:
KJ Huntelaar (Schalke)
K.Jones (Stoke)

Tottenham:
Kevin Phillips (Birmingham)
W.Pandiani (Spain, flopped at West Ham IRL)
J.Altidore (Villarreal)
D.Agger (Liverpool)

Bayern Munich:
M.Essien (Chelsea)
N.Bendtner (Arsenal)

AC Milan:
C.N'Zogbia (Wigan)
J.Mathijsen (Ajax?)
T.Ujfalusi (Atletico Madrid)

Real Madrid:
A.Arshavin (Arsenal)
E.Lavezzi (Napoli)

Barcelona:
D.Berbatov (United)
M.Demichelis (Munich)

Most interesting one was Arsenal:
O.Ustari (GK)
A.Manninger (former Arsenal GK IRL)
R.Recber (GK)
M.Upson (West Ham, former Arsenal IRL)
R.De Laet (Man Utd)
E.Garay (Real Madrid)
J.Craddock (36yo Wolves defender)
+ 3 other unknown CBs. Apart from selling Clichy (Juve), Kosielny (Genoa), Bendtner & Arshavin they added all of these, and no replacement strikers.

Would be interesting to compare with anyone else's CM, to see if there's much difference...
 
In my one Berbatov has been put up for sale from Utd. Essien moved abroad quite early in the career (s1 or 2) . Utd had signed Jagielka but have now put him up for sale. I think the twins are both abroad aswell. Not sure about Arsenal, they seem to have the same players as irl to me. Chelsea have signed Gervinho and Banega and put Alex and Ramirez up for sale this summer. City are very similar to real life, however I'm sure I've seen Lescott sold. Upson has moved to a bigger club as well. WIll try and have a check when I play again. These are off the top of my head.
 
Just got my first corrupted squad :( Know how I did it as it shows my right back as orange and during the last match I edited the formation in the match to change his position from RWB to RB in the 6th custom formation, so now if I view the squad in team edit from the main career mode menu the right back is shown as a number and the xbox completely freezes up.

Seems I can continue playing through my career just it's now annoying as I have to choose my complete 18 every time as when it says "your team is incomplete" you just choose auto and then go to "play match" and before the match kicks off pick your team, hoping that perhaps at the end of the season it might manage to fix itself, shame we're still in October!
 
Placebo said:
Just got my first corrupted squad :( Know how I did it as it shows my right back as orange and during the last match I edited the formation in the match to change his position from RWB to RB in the 6th custom formation, so now if I view the squad in team edit from the main career mode menu the right back is shown as a number and the xbox completely freezes up.

Seems I can continue playing through my career just it's now annoying as I have to choose my complete 18 every time as when it says "your team is incomplete" you just choose auto and then go to "play match" and before the match kicks off pick your team, hoping that perhaps at the end of the season it might manage to fix itself, shame we're still in October!
Click to expand...

Earlier in this thread I had figured out a way to avoid corrupted squads via formation bugs... here it is:
http://forums.evo-web.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2167254#post2167254
 
Yup I know, but I often make changes in all "areas" and never get any corruption in previous career modes or this one which was 5 seasons in :(
 
Placebo said:
Yup I know, but I often make changes in all "areas" and never get any corruption in previous career modes or this one which was 5 seasons in :(
Click to expand...

I used to get corruption all the time, although I would really move players all over the place. It sucks.
 
Fortunately I can keep my career mode going which is great news as I couldn't imagine starting again from scratch, just have to let the AI auto pick my team and then correct it myself before kicking off, love to know which talentless muppet programmed the AI for the team selection, often it puts a CB up front, sub goalie in midfield etc. etc. ridiculous! One good thing that came out of this squad bug though, Andy Carroll who was out injured for 81 days became un-injured as a result of it! :)
 
Macheda back from long-term injury. Last 10 games or so has been on a purple patch. To be fair he's barely had to do anything but tap it in, but his positioning and timing seems unusually good. Has an Inzaghi/Fabiano blend to it. Never bought him to play that way but that's what he's quickly becoming.

YouTube - Macheda


simple stuff but much tougher than it looks against legendary CPU
 
Last edited:
My career is going well, I am around about 2/3 through season 2 as Liverpool (I re-started mine as the previous Liverpool CM I did has Torres still in it and I couldn't find a buyer for him!). Loaned out a lot of the youngsters in my team for both seasons, most notably Flanaghan, Robinson, Spearing (only this season) and Ayala. Loving El Zhar on the right flank and I think he may be ready to step up to the big time as I may well sell Maxi Rodriguez as his OVR is falling.

Sold;
-Kyrgiakos
-Degen
-Hansen
-Gulasci
-Poulsen

Brought;
-Banega (Good CM, although he sits on the bench a lot now as Aquilani has returned)
-Taiwo (LB was an obvious area of weakness)
-Sorrentino (Wanted a new reserve GK, but I am regretting the purchase as he has been poor everytime he has played)
-Higuain (Carroll was just too slow)
-Farfan (Right wing needed some boosting and El Zhar wasn't quite there at the time)

Managerial Record;

2010/11:

Barclays Premier League: Champions
F.A Cup: Winners
League Cup: Winners

2011/12:

Barclays Premier League: Currently 1st
F.A Cup: Eliminated (Semi-Finals, vs Manchester United)
League Cup: Eliminated (Round 3, vs Manchester City)
F.A Community Shield: Winners
Champions Cup: Currently in Quarter-Finals vs Real Madrid.

You could say that season 1 was better in terms of the amount of trophies I won, however if I clinch the Premier League/Champions Cup double then I would say season 2 would have been the better. For season 3 I aim to stay at Liverpool (I'll stay there until i'm fired) and sell the aging players like Cole and Maxi and bring in some younger replacements.
 
Rounding off FIFA11 with a short video. I was playing in French Ligue 2 with ESTAC Troyes, and it made me wish that I'd spent more time with the lower rated teams because the pace and balance of the game seems better than with the top flight teams.

Even though you'd expect Personality+ to be less prevalent with the lesser-known teams, in some way I think the lower attributes allowed the characters to come out a little more. One in particular was a left footed central midfielder called Mounir Obbadi, who ran the show... our second highest scorer, main source of assists, and the fulcrum of most of the attacking play. Seemed like he was always seeking the ball, and his movement off it was a level above most of his teammates; as well as being the most likely to imagine that killer pass.

YouTube - FIFA11 - Obbadi
 
Nice stuff Nerf.

I did spend quite a lot of time playing with either teams like Leeds and so similarly weak players and even players from League 3 etc. And the difference wasn't always there... but will be doing same again in FIFA12 playing with ALL kinds of teams. :)

Are you on xbox or ps3 amigo? and do you not ever play BAP mode? I would think a guy like you would enjoy that mode. Maybe taking someone like Barry Bannan and try to get him to become a Villa superstar.
 
PLF said:
Are you on xbox or ps3 amigo? and do you not ever play BAP mode? I would think a guy like you would enjoy that mode. Maybe taking someone like Barry Bannan and try to get him to become a Villa superstar.
Click to expand...
I'm on Xbox 360. I played quite a lot of BAP in 09, but hardly any at all in 11. Might give it another go in 12, we'll see. Could be fun as the wee Scottish magician :P
 
Give it a try dude. I know I will and I often play that mode with friends (One of us being Xavi let's say, the other Messi) and it's a LOT of fun!

And since you're on x360 we'll definitely face each other online. :)
 
As others have confirmed handballs especially in the box are much improved, have had them turned onto full now or a while and only just had the first handball penalty, fortunately so for me in the 94th minuter at MK Dons who were winning 1-0, got me a last gasp point! Pissed myself when I went back to the menu as there was a news item from the week before, MK Dons manager complaining that the winning goal they conceded in their last match was clearly handball in his opinion!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom