FIFA 14 | So You Want An… Attacking midfielder

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In the final part on central midfielders, here’s a look at attacking midfielders. There are two types of CAM – the quick, agile player with fantastic dribbling, and the playmaker who acts as the conduit for your attacks, possessing great vision and passing skills. I’ve picked out a few players from this list, with both categories represented. Let’s have a look at who I recommend:

• Ángel Correa/Elber
• Patjim Kasami
• Farès Bahlouli

Ángel Correa has become a highly sought-after player with FIFA gamers this year, it’s not hard to see why. He’s got pace to burn, but also has 90 stamina, so he’ll be terrifying defences right up until the final whistle. Like all CAMs who fall into my first category, he can dribble and has great ball control, but he can back this up with excellent finishing, long shots and passing. In my opinion he is simply the best player on this list. The only problem is his price tag – even though the eye-watering £8.5m can be cut down to around £6m, that’s still a lot of money, which is why I’ve added Elber as an alternative. He doesn’t quite have the passing or stamina of Correa, but he actually has better dribbling and is just as quick. The best part is that I managed to get him for £1.5m, so putting in a similar bid could land you a fantastic bargain alternative if you can’t afford Correa.

Second on the list is Patjim Kasami, and he falls into the second category of CAM – the playmaker. His 81 ball control and 80 short passing mean he’s going to be able to take control of the ball very quickly and use this advantage to set up opportunities for your strikers. He’s rock solid, so you don’t need to worry about him being shrugged off the ball before he can put his passing skills to use. He’s also got a powerful shot, so he’ll even be able to score a few goals himself.

My third choice is Farès Bahlouli, and although you can’t get him straight away, it’s absolutely worth waiting because he has so much going for him. Don’t be fooled by his rating of 63 – I’m actually totally bemused as to why it’s so low. Here are some of his stats: 78 dribbling, 73 ball control, 78 strength, 75 shot power, 76 acceleration, 81 sprint speed, 77 agility and 73 balance. Quite how that results in an OVR of 63 is beyond me, but you don’t want to miss out on getting such a talented player for such a small amount of money. Try bidding for him in January and you could grab yourself a real bargain.

Just a quick note on a couple of other players. If you love using skills then Vitinho is your man, as he’s the only player on this list with five star skill moves. And if you’re strapped for cash then try bidding on Leandrinho or Pedro Castro – despite listed costs of £725,000 and £575,000, you’ll notice that Santos only want £600,000 and £425,000 for them (and I managed to get that down to £400,000 and £250,000 respectively). The reason is that Santos have so many central midfielders that they feel they won’t miss him. This is something to really bear in mind for all Brazilian clubs, as a lot of them play with a very narrow formation utilising a lot of CDMs and CAMs. Because of this, they generally have a glut of central midfielders, allowing you to get players for way below their asking price (hence why I could also get Elber for so little). So if you’re interested in a player at a Brazilian team, don’t be afraid to significantly lower your bid.

[expand title=”What are these articles all about?” tag=”center” trigclass=”noarrow”]

The articles in this series should give you some ideas if you’re looking for a new signing in a key area. There is one article for each position on the pitch to make it easy for you to quickly find players to bolster your squad.

All of the players given here have a minimum potential of 80, so you know you’re getting quality. The maximum OVR for each player is 73, both to keep transfer prices down and to avoid presenting you with too many options and thus making it too difficult to choose the player you need.

The ‘Avai?’ column is short for ‘available?’ and refers both to whether or not you can buy the specified player at the start of the first season and how long their current contract is. Let’s take Y/2 as an example – Y means that yes, you can buy him at the start of a new career, and the number means he has two years left on his contract. Similarly, N/3 would mean that no, you can’t buy the player straight away, and he has three years left on his contract. These ‘no’ players are often available for transfer if you wait until the January transfer window, however. For some players this column is blank – this means that they are out on loan at the start and are therefore unavailable for purchase until the second season.

Initial player costs may seem very low this year. The figure in the player cost column refers to the price you are given if you scout the player. But I’ve also added a new column this time round – ‘They want’. This refers to the price the other team want for the player if you enquire about him. Often there is a large difference between the player cost obtained through scouting and that obtained through an enquiry. This leaves a lot of room for negotiation, so don’t be put off if a price in the ‘They want’ column is high, as you can usually get the player for much less. Try bidding lower than what you think will be accepted – you may be surprised at their response. If the ‘They want’ column is blank it’s because the team refused to give a price, either because the player has just joined them or because they are loaning him in.

And as a final note, in FIFA 14 EA update player OVRs and potentials every week. Mose of the time these are very minor changes, and most players won’t be affected at all unless they have had a very noteworthy week. Furthermore, some players occasionally disappear if they have been put in the reserve squad that week. So just bear in mind that these figures should be read as a guide only and not a definitive account of player costs, potentials, etc, for the entire season.[/expand]

Here’s the list in full: