The aim of this series, as last year, is to provide a shortlist of players that meet this requirement. All players have at least potential 80, and all will have an OVR of 73 or lower. The original intention of this (in the FIFA 12 series) was to keep costs down, but looking at this list I’m not sure that’s a problem any more! Still, I’ll stick to 73 or lower for the sake of avoiding overwhelming you with options.
A new addition this year is that player contracts have a huge impact. The fewer years left on the contract, the more likely you are to get a good deal. So if a player only has 1 year left on his contract you can get him for much less than his asking price. As such, I’ve added a column that says how many years are left on each player’s contract, and whether you can get him in the first transfer window. That’s the “Avai?” column (short for “available?”). To save space I’ve formatted it like this: Y/3 would mean yes, you can buy this player in the first window, and he has 3 years left on his contract. If it says something like “N/5? that means he has a 5 year contract and you can’t get him at first (the “N” is because he’s just joined the club), but you may be able to get them in the next window. The ones to look out for are Y/1 or Y/0, as some players only have months left on their contracts. Players who are on loan will have a “-” in this column because information on their contracts is not available.
Finally, if you see that a team is low on this position when you go to buy a player, don’t be put off. On FIFA 12 this meant, essentially, that you’d never be able to buy this player, as his team would never buy backups and thus would always refuse to sell him. In FIFA 13, however, it just means that you have to pay a little extra to get him.
Rounding off the defenders is this article on left backs. Plenty of free agents here, but the free agent system doesn’t quite work like it did in FIFA 12 (when you could get them completely for free). This year, any player over about 70 OVR and who doesn’t have a club (whether or not they’re in the national squad) gets assigned to a random team at the start of every career mode. I think they’re assigned based on their potential as well, not their OVR (for example, Eugenio Mena, a LB in this list with potential 81 and OVR 68) is on Bayern Munchen on my test career). The bad news is that you can’t get them for free any more. The good news is that, seeing as they seem to be put on amazing teams if they have high potential, they are often low down the pecking order and thus put up for sale, meaning you can get a good bargain for them.
Anyway, here are my recommendations:
- Georgiy Schennikov
- Luke Shaw
- Aurélio Saco-Vértiz
We’re going to take advantage of the contract feature again here and I’m going to recommend Georgiy Schennikov. He’s only got 1 year left on his contract so CSKA Moskva are willing to sell him for between £2m and £2.6m. His OVR is already good and he goes all the way up to 85 (and higher if you play him well enough), so that really is a fantastic bargain. He’s not their first choice LB either so this is a great chance to swoop in and take him off their hands.
Southampton seem to have done well for full backs, what with Nathaniel Clyne (potential 84) on the right backs article. Here’s another one, this time a left back – Luke Shaw. We’ll forgive his unfortunate mug shot because he becomes so good. Most of his physical stats are about the same so the chances are he’ll become one of those mythical players who are quick, strong, have good stamina, good agility, etc. He’s also equally happy going forward or defending, and for £275,000 you can’t possibly go wrong.
Aurélio Saco-Vértiz is my final recommendation. He’s a free agent so will be randomly assigned to a team, so you’ll have to search for his name (don’t forget the accent on the e, or just search for “Saco”). Due to his high potential he’ll probably be put on a very good team (he’s at FC Barcelona on my test career), so they’ll promptly put him up for sale. Great chance to grab a real bargain. Because of his age and the amount he’ll have to grow, he should grow very quickly at first, so he could be a real steal for you.
As in FIFA 12, make sure you keep checking these players, as their prices and OVR may fluctuate radically after over time. If you’ve had any experience of this (especially if a player’s price drops), please post it in the comments.
Here’s the list in full:
| Pos | Name | OVR | Pot | Age | Cost (£) | Wages (£) | Club | Avai? | Foot | Weak foot | Skills | Traits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LB | Jetro Willems | 71 | 85 | 18 | 2,200,000 | 3,000 | PSV | Y/4 | Left | 4 | 3 | Giant throw-in | |
| LB | Ibrahima Mbaye | 71 | 85 | 17 | 2,200,000 | 6,000 | Inter | Y/5 | Right | 3 | 2 | ||
| LB | Georgiy Schennikov | 73 | 85 | 21 | 3,400,000 | 10,000 | CSKA Moskva | Y/1 | Left | 3 | 2 | ||
| LB | Luke Shaw | 58 | 83 | 16 | 275,000 | 2,250 | Southampton | Y/2 | Left | 3 | 2 | ||
| LB | Martin Olsson | 73 | 83 | 24 | 2,700,000 | 10,000 | Blackburn Rovers | Y/3 | Left | 2 | 3 | ||
| LB | Raphaël Guerreiro | 58 | 82 | 18 | 275,000 | 750 | SM Caen | N/3 | Left | 3 | 2 | ||
| LB | Grimaldo | 64 | 82 | 16 | 975,000 | 1,000 | FC Barcelona B | Y/4 | Left | 2 | 2 | ||
| LB | Aurélio Saco-Vértiz | 67 | 82 | 23 | 1,000,000 | 3,000 | Y/4 | Left | 2 | 2 | Long throw-in | Free agent | |
| LB | Lorenzo Melgarejo | 69 | 82 | 21 | 1,400,000 | 5,000 | SL Benfica | Y/4 | Left | 3 | 3 | ||
| LB | Jack Robinson | 63 | 81 | 18 | 600,000 | 2,250 | Liverpool | Y/1 | Left | 3 | 2 | Early crosser | |
| LB | Fernando Evangelista | 64 | 81 | 20 | 1,000,000 | 2,000 | Boca Juniors | N/5 | Left | 3 | 3 | ||
| LB | Eugenio Mena | 68 | 81 | 23 | 1,300,000 | 4,000 | Y/4 | Left | 3 | 3 | Free agent | ||
| LB | Hasan Ali Kaldırım | 71 | 81 | 22 | 2,000,000 | 6,000 | Y/5 | Left | 3 | 3 | Free agent | ||
| LB | Bruno Cortez | 73 | 81 | 25 | 2,400,000 | 10,000 | São Paulo | Y/4 | Left | 2 | 2 | ||
| LB | Loris Benito | 57 | 80 | 20 | 275,000 | 1,250 | FC Zürich | Y/4 | Left | 3 | 2 | Early crosser | |
| LB | Nicolai Boilesen | 69 | 80 | 20 | 1,300,000 | 4,000 | Ajax | Y/4 | Left | 3 | 2 | Injury prone | |
| LB | Aaron Cresswell | 68 | 80 | 22 | 1,300,000 | 4,000 | Ipswich Town | Y/3 | Left | 3 | 2 | Long throw-in, power free-kick, long shot taker | |
| LB | Faouzi Ghoulam | 71 | 80 | 21 | 2,000,000 | 6,000 | Saint-Etienne | Y/4 | Left | 3 | 2 | Early crosser, giant throw-in | |
| LB | Luca Antonelli | 73 | 80 | 25 | 2,400,000 | 10,000 | Genoa | Y/2 | Left | 3 | 2 | ||
| LB | Lee Wallace | 73 | 80 | 24 | 2,400,000 | 10,000 | Rangers | Y/4 | Left | 3 | 2 |