Introduction: How do these articles work?

Each Sunday I examine a different team in detail and look at why they’re a good team for FIFA 16’s career mode. The teams are broken down into the following categories:

• Tier 1: Teams in tough divisions that can push on to challenge for silverware
• Tier 2: Teams that will have to fight for survival in a challenging division
• Tier 3: Teams that start in a lower division but can hope to get promoted and work their way up higher leagues
• Tier 4: Teams that start right at the bottom of the pile, with few funds or high potential players

Terni (Tier 4)

Tier 4 sides start at the lowest rung of the football table. They’re great if you want a long-running career mode where you rise through the leagues.

Contents

1. Why choose Terni?
2. Lineups
   1. Strongest starting lineup
   2. Highest potential lineup
3. Recommended purchases
4. Suggested sales
5. Future considerations
   1. Get a new central midfielder

Starting transfer budget: £725,000
Starting wage budget: £6,000
Default formation: 4-3-3
Board expectations: Fight for promotion, cup round of 32
Key player: Alejandro González
Best young prospect: Felipe Nicolás Avenatti

Why choose Terni?

Serie B is a great division to start in, but it’s hard to choose a good, long-term team, as so many sides in this division are absolutely stuffed with loaned in players. Terni, however, are not affected by this problem. Instead, they are an excellent lower league side – a very small budget makes buying players a real challenge, but they have a few talented players who can really carry them on to great things.

The main problem, of course, is that budget. £725,000 won’t get you far, but the board expects that – they want you to ‘fight for promotion’; you don’t have to get promoted, but they expect you to come close. They also have a low amount of high potential players, with just nine set to make it to 70 OVR or higher. No budget and few promising players? It’ll be a struggle to improve them, but a fun task to attempt.

The team’s key player is Alejandro González. He’s strong, great in the air and has decent pace for a centre back, so can compete with even the toughest strikers, and his tackling stats mean he won’t be beaten too often. You’ll need him to keep those vital clean sheets, but he’s only loaned in for the season, so make sure you get as much use out of him as you can.

Terni’s most promising young player is Felipe Nicolás Avenatti. He’s only 22 but already is a real beast – 92 strength, 80 jumping, 74 heading and a height of 6’5″ will enable him to dominate pretty much every defence in the league. He’s amazing now, so imagine how good he’ll be once he gets near his 76 potential! An excellent player to have in the squad.

Strongest starting lineup

Changing the formation very slightly to 4-2-3-1, here is Terni’s strongest starting lineup, with OVRs in brackets:

Highest potential lineup

Changing the formation once again to 4-4-2, here is Terni’s highest potential lineup, with potentials in brackets:

Recommended purchases

Key signings required: RB, LB, CM, ST.

One thing to note about the best potential lineup above: Massimiliano Busellato (left midfield) is listed as a CDM in game, but his OVR actually goes up four points to 66 if he plays at left or right midfield. That means his effective potential also goes up four points to 73. So there’s not a desperate need to replace him, even though his potential looks low on the image above.

Now before you actually buy anyone, change Terni’s budget ratio to 62:38; this will give you £642,940 in transfer funds and £7,578 in wages. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to buy some players.

Aitor Buñuel
Club: CA Osasuna
Position: RB
OVR: 62
Potential: 77
Age: 17
Cost: £340,000
Wages: £1,850

Terni have a problem in defence: way too many centre backs, and not enough full backs. In fact, there’s only one right back in the entire squad in Damiano Zanon. He’s OK, but he’s also 31 so definitely is not a long-term solution. I’ve put Martin Valjent at RB in the image above, even though he’s a centre back, simply because he’s all right there (but definitely isn’t a natural). You’ll need at least one new right back going forward.

I suggest you buy Aitor Buñuel of CA Osasuna in Spain. He’s got very good pace and great stamina too, so you won’t need to worry about him being too tired to go on runs or track back. His technical stats need a bit of work, but they can be trained, and his 77 potential means he’ll rapidly improve. He’s a great buy for the future, and it won’t be long before he becomes your first choice right back.

CA Osasuna want £550,000 for him, but that can be brought down to around £340,000. His wages are £1,850.

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Konstantinos Tsimikas
Club: Olympiakos CFP
Position: LB
OVR: 63
Potential: 75
Age: 19
Cost: £300,000
Wages: £2,500

The situation at left back is even more dire than it is at right back. The one left back in the team, Alessio Lo Porto, is rated 53 and has 65 potential, so isn’t a viable option. Left midfielder Luigi Vitale can play well at left back, but he’s already reached his potential of 67 so isn’t going to improve in the future. Once again, we need a new full back.

My recommendation is Konstantinos Tsimikas of Olympiakos CFP. He’s fast and has great balance and agility, so won’t have any trouble beating opposition players one-on-one. His crossing and passing is also good, so he’ll be able to provide his teammates with scoring opportunities as well. With 75 potential he will develop into an excellent player in a couple of years, and will be able to take over the number one spot pretty much straight away.

Olympiakos CFP want you to pay £550,000 for him, but you only have to pay around half that; I got him for £300,000. His wages are £2,500 and he wants the ‘squad rotation player’ squad role.

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Cheick Diarra
Club: Paris FC
Position: ST
OVR: 67
Potential: 73
Age: 23
Cost: £0 (contract expiry)
Wages: £3,200

Because Cedric Diomandè Gondo is only loaned in and Fabio Ceravolo is much better on the wing, Felipe Nicolás Avenatti is really the only first team quality striker in the squad. You can make do in the first season with Ceravolo pushing forward and Gondo developing, but after that you’ll need another striker to partner Avenatti.

I recommend you buy Cheick Diarra of Paris FC. Where Avenatti is strong and good in the air, Diarra is fast and better at dribbling. He makes a good counterpoint to Avenatti – get Avenatti to win the aerial battles and knock the ball down to Diarra, who can then run in behind the defence. Diarra is also fairly strong himself for a short guy and has a powerful shot, so shouldn’t have any trouble turning defenders and scoring from distance.

Another great reason to buy him is that he can be bought for free, seeing as his contract is expiring. Just find him in the January transfer window and press ‘approach to sign on contract expiry’. If he agrees to your contract offer, he’ll join you for free at the start of the second season. His wages are £3,200.

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Those transfers will leave you with £2,940 in transfer funds and a mere £28 in wages. Obviously that’s not enough to buy anyone else or hire any scouts, so we’ll need to sell some players first. Let’s see who we can get rid of.

Suggested sales

In goal, Eddi Gava hasn’t got much potential so can be sold for around £100,000.

Fabiano Santacroce can fetch around £350,000, which is a good amount for a term like Terni, while Leonardo Sernicola’s 68 potential means you can sell him; he’ll get you about £80,000.

In midfield, Jens Janse, Paolo Grossi and Enrico Zampa can all be shipped out, for around £180,000, £200,000 and £180,000 respectively.

Finally, Marko Dugandži? only has 67 potential so could be sold. That will net you about £140,000.

If you sell all of those players, you should make about £1.23m. Considering Terni start with £725,000, that’s pretty good going.

Future considerations: get a new central midfielder

Terni’s central midfield looks fairly solid, but unfortunately Franco Signorelli is only loaned in for the season and has no ready, long-term replacement. That means you’re going to need to start thinking about getting in a new player after he’s gone back to his parent club.

My suggestion is Lehlogonolo Masalesa of Orlando Pirates. He’s a very similar type of player to Signorelli in that he’s a great deep-lying playmaker, but he’s actually better in some ways too. His dribbling, crossing and tackling stats are all better, making him much more flexible than Signorelli. In fact, Masalesa can play at right back or attacking midfield if you need him to, making him a very valuable player to the team. His 73 potential is a little higher than Signorelli’s, too.

Like Diarra, you can get Masalesa for free. Just wait until the January transfer window and press ‘approach to sign on contract expiry’, and he’ll join you at the start of the second season. His wages are £7,000.

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That’s it for this week’s article on good teams for career mode. It’ll be tough to meet the board’s expectations with Terni, but get Avenatti scoring, keep González solid at the back and bring in a few choice signings and you’ve got a real chance of fighting for promotion – or maybe even better.

I’d like to hear if you have any thoughts about the format of the article itself. Did you find it useful? Conversely, do you think it was missing something that you’d have liked me to include?

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