FIFA 14 | So You Want A… Goalscorer

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In the final two parts of the So You Want A series, we’re going to be examining strikers in the form of goalscorers and target men. First of all, goalscorers. These players may be quick, they may have an excellent touch and dribbling skills, but what unifies them all is that they are unerring finishers. They may not have the strength and aerial presence of target men, but if your game style is to play with the ball at your feet rather than rely on crosses on hold up play, then these are the players you want to be looking at to back the goals.

Here are my recommendations:

• Luciano Vietto
• Victor Andrade
• Yassine Benzia
• Imoh Ezekiel

Lucian Vietto is my first choice, and although he appears expensive, if you want a complete goalscorer then this is your man. Here are some of his stats already at age 19: 84 acceleration, 79 dribbling, 75 ball control, 74 finishing, 79 shot power, 77 long shots, 80 stamina, 78 jumping, 73 short passing and 71 long passing. He’s even good at penalties and free kicks and has four star skill moves. Now imagine how good he’ll be after a couple of years worth of development. A bid of around £6m should do it for this talented striker.

Victor Andrade is up next. He is ideally placed just behind a main striker or working in conjunction with a target man. He’s got blistering pace and 80 dribbling, which is astonishing for a player rated 67. This is going to be an absolute nightmare for opposition defenders, and with only a small amount of growth he’ll even get the dribbler speciality. He’s only got a year on his contract as well, and I managed to get him for a minute £800,000, well worth it considering what you get for your money.

A familiar name makes up my third choice – Yassine Benzia. He’s been a regular choice of mine for a couple of years now and it’s easy to see why. He’s not quite as fast as Andrade but he has superb dribbling and positioning, so he’ll appear in the right place at the right time and will have the ability to wriggle his way past defenders. But his best stats are his 80 rated short passing and curve, so he’s going to be providing deadly passes to his team mates and creating chances all day. Like Andrade, you’ll get the most out of him by placing him either just behind the main striker (where his passing will come to good use), or played alongside a target man, where Benzia can use his pace and positioning to get into good positions and be set up by his partner. An offer £1m was enough for me to bring him to my squad.

Finally, Imoh Ezekiel should be your choice if you play style involves quick break aways and counter attacks. With 94 acceleration and 90 sprint speed he is the fastest player on the list, but his great stamina means he’s going to be able to keep running at this pace for almost the entire game, making him perfect for exploiting the tired legs of the opposition. He’s got 89 balance and 87 agility so he’ll be running rings around defenders, and his excellent finishing will see him finish off the chances that his pace creates. He’s even got 92 jumping, so he has the potential to develop into a brilliant all-round striker as long as his heading keeps improving (and at 68 it’s not awful relative to his OVR). He’s fairly expensive, but a bid of around £5.5m should do it.

[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 full list: