the_bully_wee

Going 11-1 so far this weekend with these lads. Top boys, the lot of them (even if there are at least 4 massive frauds in there)! Quite like that you can craft semi-useable teams out of all these objective players. Koundé is by far the best of these ones, followed by Gravenberch. The other two are somewhat disappointing, I must say.

I've done it, but haven't really had much of a chance to use the card yet. The lack of skill moves kind of kills an attacking player when you're up against meta whores, but from a couple of sub appearances he is very responsive and seems to be quite sticky. He looks really good with a marksman (or even a basic), but I've now got a right side of the freeze cards of Ansaldi and Martinez so can't fit him in. Gravenberch, who you also get in that group, is also really pretty good (despite some limitations), so if you can work that pair into your team (adding Dumfries at RB is the best option, but the prices of his useable special cards reflect that) I would recommend going for it!

Kieran, since you've tried to obtain it much more respectfully and less-creepily than hounding some poor random bloke who isn't me on Facebook, PM me and I'd be delighted to give you it. The same goes for anyone else who doesn't first accost poor maccanee!

It's fine, once a few business deals are tied up in Brazil I'm sure we will embark on a wild spending spree in January

You can come back and apologise to me for this sass when your beloved M&M get chased next season!

The simple fact is that this is our ceiling until something pretty drastic happens, there's no getting around that. The same problems persist in that we cannot organically grow the club without any assets or real means of income generation, and we seem to perpetually end up with bizarre decisions being made at board level. An accountant-by-trade as chairman overseeing us racking up a £170k debt to get promotion from the 4th (fourth) tier, knowing fine well that only a plum draw would end up clearing it (and we can only thank god that we drew Celtic, because where on earth would we be now if we hadn't?). Genuinely perplexing stuff, and I'm pretty sure that Danny will have been made aware of the general situation around the club and its spending on a continuous basis. DL will be picking up a pretty hefty wage from us at this point I'd imagine and, while he is in most respects completely worth it, he's ultimately making a good living from the club and isn't doing us any favours by being here.

Didn't say you weren't, m8. I think this harbingering talk of us definitely going down is really quite hasty, but we'll definitely be in a fight at the wrong end and I can see us in 9th, unless Palmer comes back and shows himself to be a good player. No surprises that it's the lack of a midfield that is our Achilles heel though, many of us saw this sort of thing coming in pre-season.

Nah, no stipulations on the friendly mode other than that every player in your squad (XI and bench) has to be from the same league. The Icon Swaps objectives are earned by getting wins in the mode with at least 5 first-owned players in the XI, but you don't need first-owned cards to play the mode. I imagine there'll be a fair few VLs who hang about in the mode with fully-bought teams to sabotage other folk. Overpowered cheap players are always my jam in FIFA, and there are plenty of them I've been using for this. Annoyingly there's generally a bit of a dearth of strikers who are extremely cheap and can still be effective, but there are plenty of CMs and defenders who belie their ratings. Milot Rashica is an exception to the former point though, he was wonderful to use.

Falkirk are absolutely pish, quite annoying that Cuddihy gifted Telfer a shooty-in there.

I've got two of the online tokens already, and am well on my way to the third. Doing Icon Swaps in Rivals was the worst grind imaginable last year (pretty much led to me chucking UT for 4 months after I eventually got Essien), but it's much more tolerable this time. Other than rage quits by opponents while drawing, I've won every game and as a result managed to race through them. It's always fun being able to use different teams, and coming up against different players - it's remarkable how bad some folk are at the game when they don't have their meta teams or 5-star skillers to lean on. Only needing 5 first-owned players per squad obviously makes it more accessible, but my only gripe is that it's a wee bit annoying coming up against folk who are fielding pretty much their usual team against you complete with Neymar + Mbappe/Rashford + Gomez etc. My entire XI for the Bundesliga category was first-owned and I had a brilliant time playing with it. Despite my complaints about Neymar, I have to come forward and announce that I packed him - tradeable - earlier this week, in what was my best-ever FIFA pack pull. He's not been quite as good as I was thinking/hoping he would be from having used him in a few drafts, but when everyone you're playing has a skill rating of 2200 it's hard for players to stick out. That's breathed a bit of new life into the game for me, and I'm back doing objectives (despite the awful Icon offerings this time out). Would thoroughly recommend that everyone here grinds for Deulofeu; a tremendous supersub.

Hard luck to Montrose, who on performance alone really should've inverted that scoreline. Big result for us though and some moments of class from the usual suspect(s) told; our financial situation/recruitment is made all the more galling by the fact we're a Grant/McStay midfield pairing from a right good side. Hopefully we'll take some confidence from that.

Two of them marking the one man there while a boy is totally free outside the box. Clown car.

That midfield is just unspeakably bad. Always going to be a tough shift against the lads Montrose are playing in there, but they won't control a single game all season and it makes us so vulnerable at either end of the park. Just chuck Bain and Syvertsen on and play a 5-0-5, IMO.

A real tragedy that Cunningham and Goodwillie are knocking around in this side.

Amateur terms, a good figure to have in the dressing room. Should not be anywhere near the starting XI.

There is a quite marked difference between debating the team and lambasting an individual player without then providing alternatives which have at least some logical foundation. I think Steve Clarke is more qualified than anyone to decide who is the second best striker, on form, overall ability and suitability for the system. At the moment, that player is McBurnie and maybe his (and my) opinion will change if the likes of Brophy improve massively or show themselves as able to perform the role Clarke wants them to. The reason we've done so well in our recent games is purely consistency; changing the role the number nine plays by bringing in someone who plays on the shoulder (at Scottish Premiership level, no less) compromises that. It's quite interesting that *checks notes* BingMcCrosby and others of P&B don't think McBurnie is bringing others into play and holding the ball up well, and yet Clarke does. Funny, that. It's almost like we should trust the guy's judgement, based on how all of his decisions have worked out so far. Is this McBurnie who hasn't played well in the PL the same one who was ninth-placed Sheffield's most effective attacking player last season, and the second-most aerially potent striker in the PL? The grass is always greener for Scotland fans; except, it isn't actually. McBurnie is currently our second best, and that's pretty much that. That doesn't mean he's brilliant - far from it. Bring on the next contender!

That's a pretty big whiff there, so fair play. You do realise that Dykes is primarily in the team to bring others into play, and that - despite offering less on the whole - it's been the same with McBurnie? He doesn't directly occupy central defenders as well, or work as hard out of possession, but the principle remains very much the same. You basically made my point yourself with the word "alternative" - he isn't a full replacement, and at no point have I claimed that he is. He merely brings us the closest skill-set to Dykes. Looks like you're the one who's all over the place, Dunning! On the second point, I think it's quite obvious that a guy who has turned in plenty of good performances in the EPL and outstanding ones in the Championship - and is among the youngest serious options we have in the position - is a better option than the likes of Shankland and Brophy, and furthermore Griffiths who isn't in any way fit. That's just on the base level, even before you consider intricacies like their attributes and general style of play. As I've gone to great lengths to try and make clear, I'm not even a fan of McBurnie and I would be thrilled if any of the aforementioned trio (or anyone else) was a better option for us; it would mean that our squad had become stronger. As it is, McBurnie is our second-best striker. Not only is that my view, but one that Steve Clarke shares too!

1. Bullied by defenders is quite the statement. You do realise that players can act as a focal point by dropping deep to receive the ball (as McBurnie does more than adequately) rather than just chase lost causes and launch himself into centre backs to contest headers, which seem to be the bases for everyone thinking Lyndon Dykes is the second coming. The latter is clearly our best option - by some distance - but McBurnie is equally clearly our second best for that position, should Dykes be unavailable. That is the sole basis of my argument, and a view which, mercifully, Steve Clarke shares. 2. Leigh is not only carrying timber, but his last appearance clocking in at longer than 45 mins came in March. In any case, we need more of a linkup player and as I said, that's not his game. He is the type to play on the shoulder. I think we can safely say that Shankland isn't - presently - a better option than McBurnie. He's struggling to find his full form in the Premiership, and is plainly a penalty box striker. Clarke clearly wants as much consistency as possible with our formation and system, so he's not going to put in a penalty box striker for Dykes if he can avoid it. McBurnie offers the closest skill-set to Dykes, without the sheer workrate or ability to contest duels. McBurnie is clearly, on current form, a sizeable downgrade on Dykes for us, but the fact remains that every other alternative would weaken us just as much, if not more. Defence of him doesn't mean I'm a McBurnie fan (I'm really not, and I am in full agreement that he hasn't shown up well for Scotland), but people have to accept the reality of the situation which is that we are very weak and lacking in any depth when it comes to out-and-out strikers. If Dykes was out for any length of time then we'd be in very a tough spot, regardless of who was to start in his place. We can't just magic up a better striker - hopefully he or someone else can step up and stake a claim - so we shouldn't be heaping masses of pressure on someone who the manager and the other players are clearly desperate to help find form in a Scotland jersey.

Would they f**k. Have you actually watched that chance back?

Yeah, that'll be the guy. I believe he is also the one who isn't particularly strong, aerially effective or quick across the ground though.

If you can't even prove yourself as a stand-out player at Scottish Premiership level, then you're unlikely to get much of a chance to do so at international level. In the appearances Shankland has had for Scotland, it's confirmed what we already know; he is a lethal penalty box striker, but has very limited physical attributes which will stop him from making a mark further up the ladder.

Is his selection of Shankland, Brophy etc (objectively worse football players, who have shown that international football is beyond their capabilities) also a massive black mark against him? The debate here has never been that McBurnie is very good, nor have I ever said that he should be our first choice. It's that he is nowhere near as bad as is being made out, and the criticism of him is way over the top.

Players international-tournament-qualifying manager, Stephen Clarke, would play ahead of McBurnie: Lyndon Dykes

I'm probably seeing the same as international-tournament-qualifying manager Steve Clarke is seeing; that Oli McBurnie is, for the moment, Scotland's second-best option as a number nine. Not a bad minority to be in, tbf.

Please direct me to the post where I've said McBurnie is better than Dykes, or should be playing ahead of him. Might be rocket science trying to find that!