FIFA 14 | Lower League Gems – Central midfielders

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Welcome to the Lower League Gems for FIFA 14! If you want promising players for an absolute bargain, you’re in the right place.

If you’re not sure what these articles are all about, click the bold link below. Otherwise, let’s get straight in to the recommendations.

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These articles aim to highlight young, high potential players that are priced at £1m or less. Most articles will showcase players with a minimum potential of 78. However, in some cases I lowered the minimum potential to 77 to ensure there were a good number of players for you to choose from.

The ‘Cost’ column refers to the price your scout will bring back after he’s looked at the player. The ‘They want’ column refers to the price you will be quoted by the team if you enquire about their player. These enquiry prices are negotiable, so don’t be afraid to bid below what they want.

Sometimes teams will refuse to quote a price for their player because he has only just joined them. In these cases, I have not given a price in the ‘They want’ column. Where this is the case, I have included a player if their scouted price is £500,000 or less, as this usually equates to a price of around £1m being quoted by the player’s team.

The ‘Avai?’ column is short for ‘Available?’ and refers to whether the player is available to buy in the first transfer window. The first letter indicates this (Y for yes, they are available and N for no, they are not), whilst the number refers to the length of their contract. The ones to watch out for here are those with Y/1 or Y/0 next to their names. This means the player’s contract is about to expire, so you should be able to get them for a discount price.

Finally, because EA release update squads every week, this could mean that some of the players listed in the article below are slightly different on your game. Furthermore, players sometimes exceed their potential, while it has been noted that occasionally players don’t grow as hoped. Therefore these stats are a guide only.

Here’s who I’ve picked out for the central midfielders article:

• George Green
• Milos Antic
• Hernán Villalba
• Tarsi

First on the list is a name I’m sure many readers and FIFA players will have heard before: George Green. Don’t be fooled by the lowly 58 OVR, this guy has class. He’s actually largely average in most stats – long passing and strength being notable exceptions – until you see his short passing, rated an incredible 81. Stick this player behind a couple of strikers and he’s going to be provided assists and creating chances all season long. He’s got fantastic potential as well, so that 81 short passing is just going to rise and rise. Try a bid of around £300,000 and this hidden gem could be yours.

Milos Antic is my second choice, and what makes him stand out is that he’s so beautifully well balanced. He’s strong, he can pass, jump, tackle, dribble – you name it, he can do it. On my career I left him on an AI team and he grew 10 points in a single year, and even then they still only wanted £700,000 for him! Antic is a fantastic utility player, the guy you need if you want that complete midfield package, and his potential means he’s going to become world class in a few years time.

If you want the all-round class of Antic but don’t want to wait a season for him to mature, perhaps you should opt for Hernán Villalba of Newell’s in Argentina. Strangely, although the price your scout will tell you he’s worth is £1.2m, his club only want £975,000. With a bit of bartering you can get this down to around £700,000, which is peanuts for a player with some of these stats: 84 stamina, 77 interceptions, 75 stand tackling, 76 slide tackling, 74 strength, 75 acceleration, 73 short passing and 71 long passing. He’s got that rare combination of speed, strength and technical ability, and is the midfield dynamo to go for if you need a powerful solution right now.

Finally, we’re going to look at Tarsi from Real Zaragoza in Spain’s Liga Adelante. He’s the Xavi selection, with superb vision and all round passing for his OVR. He starts of with 75 vision, which, besides being amazing for a 63 rated player, means in a few years he’ll almost certainly gain the Complete Midfielder speciality. His short passing and long passing start at 70 and 67 respectively, and his ball control of 72 means he can get the ball down quickly and then accurately pass it on to a teammate. He’s the one you want if you want a midfield pivot around which to build a team for the future.

Now that we’ve finished the recommendations, let’s have a look at the list in full: