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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 15’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

Pescara (Tier 3)

Promotion into Serie A? No problem. But survival in the big league? That won’t be so straightforward for the likes of Pescara.

Contents

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

Starting transfer budget: £3,400,000
Starting wage budget: £15,000
Default formation: 4-4-2
Board expectations: Win the league title, reach cup round of 32
Key player: Cristian Pasquato
Best young prospect: Gianluca Caprari

Why choose Pescara?

Though they are one of the better teams in Serie B, there are plenty of teams better than them, making winning the league title a fun challenge that will require some work to achieve. There are some excellent, high potential players on the team, too, but still plenty of areas for improvement to keep you on your toes. They’re a team that manage to strike the balance between difficulty and enjoyment.

The problem is that you can’t lounge around in Serie B for a year or two developing your players, as the board don’t just want you to get promotion – they want you to win the league. So if you want to keep your job, you’ll be thrown into Serie A whether you’re ready or not. That means you’ve got to choose wisely in the transfer market, do well on your scouting trips and quickly improve the side.

Pescara’s key player is Cristian Pasquato. His 89 acceleration, 87 balance and 74 dribbling will make him a nightmare for defences, while he also has a decent long shot on him; I’d put him at attacking midfield and have Caprari and Politano on the wings. Pasquato will also be your dead ball specialist, so can contribute with plenty of goals from free kicks and penalties. The bad news is he’s only on loan for the season, so you’ll need to think about finding a replacement fairly soon.

The clubs best young prospect is Gianluca Caprari. Like Pasquato, Caprari is also pacey with 84 acceleration and 82 sprint speed. He’s adept on either flank thanks to his four star weak foot, and his 86 balance and great dribbling should see him beat defenders time and again. He starts at 68 OVR with 78 potential, so don’t be surprised if he grows well into the 80s.

Strongest starting lineup

Even though their default formation is 4-4-2, I feel you can get their best players on the pitch by using a 3-5-2 formation. So here’s their strongest starting lineup, with OVRs in brackets:

Highest potential lineup

Sticking with the 3-5-2, here’s Pescara’s highest potential lineup, with potentials in brackets:

Recommended purchases

Key signings required: GK, CB (x2), ST (x2).

One of the most glaring deficiencies in Pescara’s squad is up front. Strangely, however, they have an excellent striker – Jonathas – out on loan. With 75 OVR and 78 potential, he’ll be your best player by far.

We’ll be recalling him, but there’s a little loan trick you should know about first.

When you recall a player, you pay a recall fee and their wages are deducted from your wage budget. However, if you change your budget ratio so that you have nothing left in wages, then you only have to pay the recall fee – no wages are deducted because you have none in your wage budget.

This can save you some vital cash. In Jonathas’s case, £30,000 in wages, which is a huge amount for a club like Pescara.

So, the very first thing you need to do is alter your budget ratio to 100:0, leaving £0 in your wage budget and a whopping £4,180,000 in transfer funds. Next, go to the Sell Players screen and recall Jonathas at a cost of £360,000. You wouldn’t be able to get a striker of his calibre for anywhere near that amount, so recalling him gets you a brilliant striker and can save you money if you remember to adjust your budget.

Now, change your budget ratio again, this time to 60:40. That’ll leave you with £2,292,000 in transfer funds and £29,384 in wages. Once that’s done, let’s see who we can buy.

Marco Capuano
Club: Cagliari
Position: CB
OVR: 71
Potential: 77
Age: 22
Cost: £680,000
Wages: £18,000

A major weak spot for Pescara is their defence. Two of their three most promising centre backs – Bartosz Salamon and Michele Fornasier – are only in on loan for the season. ‘Promising’ is also being fairly generous, given how Fornasier only has 72 potential. In my opinion, you’ll need to bring in two good centre backs to fortify the back line. They should develop nicely and be ready for Serie A in your second season.

My first buy would be Marco Capuano of Cagliari. Strong and good in the air, he’s just as proficient at the technical side of defending as he is at the physical side. He’s also certainly not slow for a centre back, which is an excellent attribute to have when playing with three at the back. His 77 potential should also see him grow into an excellent defender who is well suited to the demands of Serie A.

Cagliari wanted £950,000 for him, which itself is a great price. However, I managed to knock that down even further to £680,000. Funnily enough he used to play for Pescara last season, and now that he’s joined a bigger club he’ll need a little bit of convincing to join. Wages of £18,000 (up from £15,000) and a five year contract should be enough to convince him to join.

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Luca Antei
Club: Sassuolo
Position: CB
OVR: 69
Potential: 75
Age: 22
Cost: £700,000
Wages: £7,000

Keeping the signings in Italy, we have Luca Antei from Sassuolo. Though not quite as strong as Capuano, Antei has bags of potential and some excellent technical stats. With 73 marking, 73 stand tackle, 71 slide tackle and 73 interceptions, he will feel better than his rating suggests and will form a solid partnership alongside Capuano.

Because he’s not getting much of a look in at Sassuolo, they only want £950,000 for him, which you can get down to around £700,000. Like Capuano, he plays for a Serie A team so requires a little sweet talking to get him to join. Promise him a five year contract and a ‘crucial first team player’ squad role and he’ll be convinced; the squad role shouldn’t be a problem given how he and Capuano will be your best defenders by far. Another nice boost is that his wages are much cheaper than Capuano’s at just £7,000.

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Carlos Fierro
Club: Guadalajara
Position: ST
OVR: 66
Potential: 76
Age: 19
Cost: £550,000
Wages: £4,000

Recalling Jonathas from loan provides you with one decent striker, but if he was to get injured or tired then you’d be in a bit of a bind, as Pescara really don’t have a decent alternative. And while Jonathas is a fantastic target man, if you want to play with a different type of striker then you’ll have to look elsewhere.

My suggestion is Carlos Fierro of Guadalajara in Mexico. He complements Jonathas perfectly; Jonathas can use his strength to hold the ball up, then play the pacey Fierro in behind defences. Fierro’s pace is his main threat, and with 87 acceleration, 91 sprint speed and 79 stamina, he’ll run all game. Because his crossing and dribbling are also good, you can play him on the wing if you want to use Jonathas as a lone striker. For his price, Fierro offers brilliant flexibility.

Speaking of price, Guadalajara only ask for £725,000 for him thanks to his one year contract, and I was able to knock that down to £550,000. It gets even better – with wages of just £4,000, he is a real steal.

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That’ll leave you with a measly £2,000 in transfer funds and £384 in wages – we really squeezed as much as we could out of Pescara’s budget!

Fortunately, there are plenty of players you can sell in order to make some money – great news if you want to buy more players or hire some scouts. Let’s have a look at who you can sell next.

Suggested sales

My choice of formation for Pescara is 3-5-2, which means you won’t have much need of full backs. With that in mind, you can sell on Francesco Zampano for around £140,000 – though he is slightly better than Stipe Vrdolijak, they have the same potential and Zampano is worth more. In any case, you’ll still have Fabrizio Grillo at left back if you want to change formations.

At 34, Marco Sansovini is going to quickly start losing OVR points – and value. Sell him now and you can get around £300,000 for him. If you really want some extra cash, you could sell Federico Melchiorri for around £1,000,000. I’d be careful though, as he’ll be your second best striker after Jonathas. Fierro should grow quickly, but it may be a good idea to keep Melchiorri around, just in case. If you decide to keep him, selling Stefano Pettinari could net you around £250,000.

Finally, Flavio Lazzari could be sold on in order to bring in around £450,000. You may not want to, however, just to ensure you have enough central midfielders should an injury crisis strike. Selling him won’t make you desperately low on numbers, but you may feel you want to have a few extra players in central midfield just in case.

Future considerations – get a new goalkeeper

Vincenzo Fiorillo is Pescara’s best goalkeeper, but unfortunately he’s only loaned in for the season. Once he’s gone, you’ll have to rely on Simone Aresti, who won’t get much better than 65 OVR, or the young Luca Savelloni, who isn’t ready yet. Unless, that is, you bring in a new goalkeeper for when Fiorillo departs.

I suggest you get a player for free in January, as that means he’ll arrive in time for when Fiorillo leaves. That means there’s no need to worry about two good keepers competing for one first team place.

Keeping the strong Italian flavour running through my transfer choices, I recommend Samir Ujkani of Serie A team Palermo (OK, so he’s not Italian, but his club is!). He starts out at 70 OVR and has 75 potential, so should be into the early-mid 70s by the time he arrives. As I’ve mentioned in other articles, goalkeepers can grow later into their careers than outfield players in FIFA 15, so there’s a decent chance he could grow past his potential – he’ll certainly be close to his potential when he arrives, increasing the likelihood of further growth.

As he’s not Palermo’s first choice keeper, he should be willing to join Pescara. He’s a solid keeper who will provide the protection you’ll need in Serie A, and with £15,000 wages he’s very affordable.

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That just about wraps up this week’s article on good teams for career mode. Pescara have a great budget and a fantastic attack, so you should be able to conquer Serie B at the first time of asking. Surviving in Serie A will be a different matter, though, and you’ll have your work cut out, but hopefully this article has given you some ideas of how you can make it in the big time and establish Pescara as a solid top tier side.

I’d also 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?

And don’t forget to connect with me on social media. I’ve just launched the FIFA Scouting Tips YouTube channel, and you can follow me on Facebook or Twitter for all the latest updates.