FIFA 14 | Lower League Gems – Target men

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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.

These are the right midfielders I recommend:

• Anthony Martial
• Felipe Nicolás Avenatti
• Sébastian Haller
• Jerry Mbakogu

Well, I’m sure many people will recognise my first recommendation: Anthony Martial. This guy has become something of a legend in FIFA circles, and not just because of his fantastic growth and potential. Martial combines the best of the goalscorer and target man worlds: pace, but also strength. Finishing, dribbling and heading all in equal balance. Decent height, but not so tall as to slow him down. He’s basically the complete striker rolled into one awesome package. Although you can’t get him at first, I advise you to move for him in January; but season two he’s grown to about 72 OVR and, while he’s amazing, Monaco will want around £5-6m for him. Take your opportunity as soon as you can to land this amazing player.

Felipe Nicolás Avenatti is my second recommendation, and he’s the player to get if you’re looking for pure power. Starting off with 80 strength, 71 jumping and 71 heading accuracy, this is the player to get if you like to use crosses to score goals. He’ll be dominant in the air thanks to his height of 6’5″ (meaning he only needs to get to heading 75 to become an aerial threat), and when the ball is passed in to him he can use his size and strength to hold the ball up and bring other teammates into play. For a target man in the truest sense of the word, this is your guy.

Third up is Sébastian Haller. He’s probably one of the more well rounded target men in this article, with a fearsome combination of speed, strength, heading ability and finishing. Don’t worry about his 78 potential, I’d expect that with his young age he’ll grow way beyond that. Even if he doesn’t his combination of talents means he’ll be such a threat on the pitch that he’ll feel like a much higher rated player, and if he’s grabbing you the goals – which he will – then that’s all that matters.

My last main recommendation has become something of a cult figure nowadays – Jerry Mbakogu. It wouldn’t really feel right if I left this guy out (so I couldn’t, despite him being £75,000 over the limit), and it’s easy to see why: 89 acceleration, 92 sprint speed, 81 strength, 81 agility and 92 jumping mean that his physical stats give him a brilliant advantage in-game. Although his technical stats aren’t as high (understandably!), his ball control, dribbling and finishing indicate that this will be a player to be reckoned with in the future. Use his height, strength and jumping as a focal point for your crosses, and his speed as an arrowhead in your ground attacks. He’s going to be a threat however the ball comes to him, just make sure you get him in your team as soon as you can.

And I’ll give a final mention to Tyler Harvey, who provides a real option for any team struggling for cash. A bid of £200,000 should do it, landing you a player with a brilliant future potential and some already impressive stats.

Now here’s the target men list in full: