the_bully_wee

Dear God, this has been an utterly pitiful showing

End to end stuff here!

Good effort from that piece of litter there, just wide of the post.

That was absolutely woeful, but my fury is tempered by the fact that I'm currently watching this from under the duvet rather than having taken two trains to get slapped around the dish by the weather. We surely can't do a worse job of holding onto the ball second half, but worried about specifically Scott Brown slapping one in from about 200 yards out.

I noticed last week that the Weekend League gameplay was really poor. I was playing Rivals for a bit and starting to enjoy games, which is what made me feel like playing Champs, and there was a very noticeable drop-off in responsiveness which was much less fun to play with. After a good start while folk were still figuring out the meta (players), this has kind of settled into the same pattern as the last FIFA, but with more variance in finishing and better manual defending - and 4-4-2/4-2-2-2/4-2-3-1 being the only reliable formations when you are in the upper divisions. The vast majority of folk still try to bore the tits off you by keeping the ball for hours at the cusp of your final third, waiting for you to charge someone miles out of the defensive line or for a genius run from one of their strikers. Cannae be much fun in playing that way. I liked Weekend League most at its inception when there were specific entry requirements: that kept it fresh, stimulated the market without excessive promos and stopped you from seeing and using the exact same teams and players week in, week out. The way it is now, which obviously isn't going to change as it makes it more accessible, makes the cycle a hell of a slog and has me feeling (to an even greater extent) like the grind is utterly pointless. The past two years I have totally chucked UT by November then swanned back in around May time and almost immediately been able to build a competitive team and mix with the folk with 6 months of a grind on me. The binning of silver/bronze tournaments and leagues back in the day was criminal too: most of the fun I have had on this has come from trying to cobble together an on-chem, cheap team of silvers for the IF objectives every week. But even at that, there is then absolutely no use for these guys other than to get the next one. The whole mode is just set up as such an egregious money-grab, and it is quite sad to observe. I must sound like a war vet harking on about "the good old days", but I reckon I longingly speak about FIFA 13 at least twice a week. The sweet spot of the mode being popularised and not formatted specifically to line EA's pockets.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, it really is snake or be snaked. The boy had Neymar and Mbappe, so I think my need for the win probably outweighed his. I did ask him how many wins he was on and he wasn't up for saying, so I assumed he was on his last (I was just starting off).

@When Reallity Kicks In oh come on m8, by all means follow me around red-dotting my posts everywhere else on P&B, but the FIFA thread is where I come to kick back, wind down and chill with my homies! No bueno!

Just snaked a boy an absolute belter in the Mukiele playlist. He messaged me asking if I would be up for some mutual back-scratching, to which I agreed, saying that I would let him win if he let me score as many goals as I please. Did all the tougher ones (assists with defenders/crosses/BL player goals) and gave him enough goals to get within one, before starting to play again and hold on for the win. Semi-apologetically sent him this afterwards, with no reply. Dicing with my karma ahead of tomorrow's rewards.

I saw earlier that the price of Renato Sanches' IF has gone through the roof, he was at 150k despite having been 59k when I bought him the other week. Some player, mind. Cannot recommend him or the narrow diamond formation highly enough.

I'm sweating profusely, but I have just secured an almighty *Elite 3* finish in this week's Champs. Quite how every man and his dug has Mbappe at this stage of the game, I'm unsure, but I managed surpass my target of Gold 1. Had to win my last 2 to get to Elite 2 and failed to do so, but the only extra reward for getting there is 30k coins. I look forward to letting you all know which variant of (f**k all)1/2 I get in my rewards in three days' time.

Come on guys, we can't legislate for heavy rainfall in the west of Scotland. Let's all lay off poor Dumbarton!

And even worse listening!

William Haughey frantically googling the cost of Ladbrokes League Two points this evening, no doubt.

I'm really enjoying our midfield set-up at the moment. That position and role is where we'll get the most out of Cuddihy, and he put in a fine performance again today. Looking forward to seeing what Henderson can add when he's back available; we have fantastic energy all over the place now, and some real competition for places too. A word for Shiels too who, although not directly tested much today, had a right steady game.

We will have to raise our game for the Dumbarton game next week - some very poor finishing there. We really have to be making it easier for ourselves against the sides at the bottom end of the league - Thistle could've sucker-punched us there.

Fair play to 'Partick Thistle', they look as though they may have enough about them to stay in League One this season!

You'd have to hope that you guys aren't done in terms of your recruitment, but the biggest problem for you is in the midfield where you're really light on legs but already stocked fairly well with numbers. Injuries look to have ruined Wardrop, confidence-wise at the very least, so I can see Hamilton back there soon enough. If there's a manager in the league who would get a tune out of that squad then it's Duffy, but on this evidence you lot look set for a bit of a struggle.

Yep, have to agree that the commentator's doing a very good job and *trying* to remain as impartial as possible. Has a good handle on the Dumbarton squad as well, which is good. We are looking good here, but Dumbarton have absolutely no answers to our mobility in the middle of the park. Sterner tests are ahead no doubt, but all of the new recruits look pretty good.

That is incredible vision from Jack. Looks a really tidy player.

Looks to me more like a 4-1-4-1 with Cuddihy sitting and Cunningham and Jack both ahead of him in the middle.

Can see the value getting even better. Dumbarton are not good!

Ray Grant was a fraud anyway IMO.

No pressure, then! I think it's a fairly safe bet, you can never know for sure but I've just picked up his gold card and it is mental, so I can see this guy being very popular. I highly doubt you'll lose coins, put it that way. Would recommend taking one of the ones with a hunter on for a spin until it comes to selling time! As an aside, Renato Sanches is crazy good in this too. His gold was extremely solid so I treated myself to his IF earlier, which is just wonderful. His passing isn't the best, but he is an absolute powerhouse.

Away from trading malark, I'm enjoying this so far. But then, I've enjoyed other FIFAs which have been absolutely ruined by patches so I'm not getting too excited. It's pretty arcadey-feeling and is showing a complete reliance on pace, but all of the best football games in the past have been exactly those things (IMO). Defending has taken a massive step in the right direction - if you give up a chance, there's a good chance it'll be a goal, but it's actually tough to defend and you actually feel rewarded for doing it well in this so far.