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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

Portsmouth (Tier 4)

If you want to start at the bottom and build a team for the future, there are few better options than Portsmouth. They’re such a great choice, in fact, I decided to do a YouTube career mode series on them – check out the first episode below, or click here to see the full series.

Contents

1. Why choose Portsmouth?
2. Lineups
   1. Strongest starting lineup
   2. Highest potential lineup
3. Recommended purchases
4. Suggested sales
5. Future considerations
   1. Renew contracts

Starting transfer budget: £550,000
Starting wage budget: £9,000
Default formation: 5-3-2
Board expectations: Win the league, reach cup round of 32
Key player: Andy Barcham
Best young prospect: Jed Wallace

Why choose Portsmouth?

The beauty of choosing a team from League 2 is that it’s tailor-made for a challenging career. Whereas in every other country, getting into the top division requires one promotion (maximum), here you need three promotions to eventually make your way into the Premier League. Each division is a real step up from the one before it, so you could spend several seasons in one division before being able to move up. That means you’ve got a lengthy career on your hands – but one that feels like a real journey.

Portsmouth are the ideal team to pick from League 2. They’ve got one of the highest transfer budgets in the league and certainly the best wage budget, allowing you plenty of opportunity to improve the squad. While they have a few decent players, there are a lot more teams in the league with more high potential players, so you can’t just idly sit around waiting for your players to develop into world beaters – you need to make some good purchases. And hey, bringing them back to glory after their past successes makes for a great story!

Andy Barcham is their key player. He’s incredibly quick (88 acceleration and 92 sprint speed), which at this level is going to be absolutely devastating. He’s got good stamina too, so will be able to cause damage game after game, and will be a vital player as you seek to win the league (the objective set by the board).

Portsmouth’s highest potential young player is Jed Wallace, with 74 potential. With Barcham on one wing and Wallace on the other, you’ll have one of the best attacks in the league. Like Barcham, Wallace is fast and has great stamina, and also has a very useful four star weak foot. Unfortunately Wallace is the only player on the team with potential 70 or higher (except Josh Passley, but he’s only in on loan), so you’ll need to bring in more talent to help you survive after promotion.

Strongest starting lineup

Here’s Portsmouth’s strongest starting lineup, with OVRs in brackets:

Highest potential lineup

Now here’s Portsmouth’s highest potential lineup, with potentials in brackets:

Recommended purchases

Key signings required: GK, CB, CM, ST.

First up, adjust your budget ratio to 26:74; this will give you £264,680 in transfer funds and £14,486 in wages. Now, let’s see who that can get us.

André Moreira
Club: Moreirense FC
Position: GK
OVR: 64
Potential: 80
Age: 18
Cost: £0 (loan)
Wages: £1,500

Goalkeeper is something of a stagnant position at Portsmouth, with two 28 year old keepers who won’t grow beyond 62 OVR. We need some change – a player who will be good enough to hold down a first team place and then grow well over the coming seasons.

It’s difficult to get a cheap goalkeeper who matches that description, so I recommend you loan in a player first and then get a free keeper in January. My choice of loanee is André Moreira of Moreirense FC in Portugal. What’s great about him is he’s a very well-rounded keeper, equally adept at making quick reflex saves as he is at keeping hold of the ball. He’s a safe pair of hands and will provide an instant boost for the season.

Just loan him in for one year; his wages are very affordable at £1,500.

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Manuel Riemann
Club: SV Sandhausen
Position: GK
OVR: 69
Potential: 73
Age: 25
Cost: £0
Wages: £1,000

When January comes around, make a move for Manuel Riemann of SV Sandhausen in the Germany second division. His contract is expiring so you don’t have to pay a transfer fee, and he’ll join you at the start of the second season. That makes him an ideal replacement for André Moreira once he departs.

Like Moreira, Riemann’s main strength lies in the fact that he is very well-balanced. He should arrive with his OVR in the early 70s, easily making him one of your best players. For someone who is free and is only on £1,000 wages, that’s incredible. Oh, and don’t forget that when you sign a player, their potential may sometimes change, so he might grow beyond 73 – now that would be an amazing bargain!

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Almamy Touré
Club: AS Monaco
Position: CB
OVR: 61
Potential: 75
Age: 18
Cost: £0
Wages: £2,200

Speaking of free players, how about Almamy Touré? Fire off an enquiry to AS Monaco about him and they’ll say they will accept an offer in the region of £0. So go ahead and submit that offer, and they’ll accept it – amazing!

Unusually for a centre back, Touré has decent pace, enough to give him a bit more of a chance if he comes up against a particularly fast striker. It also means he can cover at full back if needed, which is great – Portsmouth aren’t exactly full to bursting with amazing right and left backs!

Although his wages start at £1,750, I had to boost them up to £2,200 to convince him to join. He also wanted a five year contract and an ‘Important first team player’ squad role, but given how useful he’ll be, that shouldn’t be a problem.

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Josh Vela
Club: Bolton
Position: CM
OVR: 65
Potential: 75
Age: 20
Cost: £140,000
Wages: £4,000

If you want to achieve promotion and then survive in League 1, you’ll need a creative central midfielder who can create opportunities for your forwards on a regular basis. Hollands and Dunne don’t provide that and will barely grow anyway, so some fresh blood is really needed.

My choice is Josh Vela of Bolton. His key stats are his passing and vision, so he will fulfill that role excellently. He’s also got good dribbling and ball control, so can be useful going forward and creating chances for himself.

Best of all, for some reason Bolton only want £220,000 for him. I was able to get that down to a measly £140,000, and his wages are £4,000.

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Samed Yesil
Club: Liverpool
Position: ST
OVR: 63
Potential: 77
Age: 20
Cost: £120,000
Wages: £5,000

One of the most desperate areas in need of improvement at Portsmouth is up front. Though they’re not lacking in numbers, they are full of low OVR, low potential strikers who aren’t going to guarantee you many goals a season. Winning the league requires someone who can change that.

I’d recommend you go for Samed Yesil of Liverpool. He will be an absolute goal machine in League 2, where his pace, 72 finishing and 71 dribbling will devastate opposition defences. He’s also got 77 potential, so will get better and better as you move your way up the leagues.

He’s another strange one in terms of price – for some reason Liverpool only want £160,000 for him. I was able to knock that down to £120,000, which is an incredible bargain price. His wages are £5,000 and he wants the ‘Crucial 1st team player’ squad role – no problem given his talent.

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Once those transfers are done, you should have £4,680 left in transfer funds and £786 in wages. That could leave your team looking a bit like this:

There’s not much left in the budget, however, so you’ll need to sell some players if you want to scout or buy some replacements. Let’s see who you can get rid of.

Suggested sales

Because you’ll be loaning in André Moreira and then bringing in Manuel Riemann next season, you can sell one of Portsmouth’s goalkeepers. I’d recommend Paul Jones; he’s not going to get any better, and Moreira and then Riemann will be holding down the starting spots for the foreseeable future, so you won’t miss Jones. Moreover, selling him can net you around £250,000, whereas Portsmouth’s other goalkeeper (Michael Poke) will only fetch around £100,000.

Portsmouth also have a fair amount of centre backs who won’t be needed once Almamay Touré arrives, so I’d recommend selling Joe Devera. He’s not going to get any better and will bring in around £100,000.

Finally, as I alluded to earlier, Portsmouth are overflowing with strikers who can be offloaded. I suggest selling Patrick Agyemang and Tom Craddock, who will bring in about £130,000 and £140,000 respectively.

If you sell all of those players you can make around £500,000 – a massive boost to Portsmouth’s finances.

Future considerations – renew contracts

When you start the first season, Portsmouth have 26 players in their squad, 14 of whom will see their contracts expire at the end of the season. That’s a lot of players who could potentially leave, and so urgent attention is required. You don’t want to forget to renew a key player’s contract and see him leave for free at the end of the season, after all.

There’s also a risk that a key player will turn down your contract offer and demand to leave. However, it’s better to run that risk than forget to offer a new contract in the first place, because that way he’s guaranteed to leave. So ensure you make it a priority to offer new contracts to as many players as you want to avoid leaving for nothing.

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That’s it for this week’s article on good teams for career mode. Portsmouth are the perfect team for a road-to-glory career mode, enabling you to take them from the depths of League 2 to the heights of the Premier League. If you want to see how I did it, mak sure you check out my Pompey Youth Stars series on YouTube, and the video below.

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.