Road to the Knockouts, the Power Curve and Stopping the Near-Post Low Driven

Transcript

Alex: Welcome to Half-Space, the show that makes you better at FC. I'm Macca, with Javi and Kev.

Charlie: Before the welcome's even cooled down. The bet. Say the numbers.

Alex: Kev, there's a running order.

Charlie: There's always a running order. Say the numbers.

Sam: I'll say them. Fifteen Finals games each. Macca's four-two-one-three, my four-four-two. Macca went eleven and four.

Alex: And Javi went eleven and four.

Charlie: Eleven and four. Both of you. Fifteen games each, two completely different shapes, and you finish on the same number.

Alex: Which means the fashion held, thank you very much.

Sam: Which means the basics held. A draw against the pros' shape is not a defeat for a four-four-two.

Charlie: You're both claiming it. Look at you. Two grown men claiming a draw.

Alex: I'm not claiming it, I'm describing it. Last week I took my medicine. This week there's no medicine.

Sam: And there's no trophy. So we go again.

Alex: We go again. Same shapes, next Champions weekend. And Kev, I've got a bone to pick with you about your weekend, but that's your Desk.

Charlie: One and five. I'll tell you at my Desk. Don't spoil it.

Alex: Tonight on Half-Space: a new promo, the cards that change with real football, and a fight about whether EA's actually slowing the power curve. Kev's got opinions.

Charlie: I've got feelings. Macca's got the count.

Alex: Then Javi's Coach's Tip, a keep and a try. Then What's Working, and that's Kev's question from last time, answered properly: how do you stop the near-post low driven.

Sam: Three things, and only the last one is the keeper.

Charlie: Why's the keeper last? He's the one letting it in.

Sam: You'll see. Patience.

Alex: Then the Picks, three cheap ones and last week's three after a week in our clubs. Worth Your Time with three menu calls, and Kev's Desk: the homework, the bet, and what he's bringing next.

Charlie: Before any of it, can we talk about the elastic band round Macca's wrist?

Alex: Physio's orders. I do a wrist routine before every session. Little stretches with the band.

Charlie: You told us you don't do it.

Alex: I pretend I don't do it. I do it. Every time. Six years of competitive and your wrists keep the receipts.

Sam: Six years of receipts, and the high line still gets you. My first rule with a new student is "show me your last three losses, not your best win". So, Macca?

Alex: Three losses, same high line. You'll get the clips.

Charlie: Send them to me too. I watch Javi's drills on my phone on the train anyway, forty minutes into the council every morning. People think I'm watching the cricket.

Sam: And there I was thinking nobody watched them.

Alex: Last time, Kev promised he'd bring us the near-post low driven. He did. Let's earn it. This Week in FC, the game and only the game. Three things ate the week: a new promo, Team of the Week, and the power curve row. Then Bug Watch. Kev, you've been looking at the packs.

Charlie: I've been looking at the packs, yes. Road to the Knockouts. It went into packs at five on Saturday morning our time. And the whole thing's sold on one idea: the cards go up when the real team does well. Which, to me, sounds like a bet with extra steps.

Sam: My lot are already asking me about these, so go slowly, Macca. I want to answer them properly.

Alex: Then let me brief it, because I lived through four of these as a pro and I still get it wrong. The cards follow real European results, the women's competition included. EA's own post says the upgrades are driven by the club's goals, wins and finishing position, all the way to the last game of the league phase. The headline cards: the French number nine at PSG and Bellingham, both ninety-one, then Pedri and a long list after that.

Sam: Hasegawa. Your Hasegawa.

Alex: My normal one, yes. Holding midfield next to Rodri, every game. She's in there, and yes, I looked at her for a long time. And then I looked at her club in the Women's Champions League. Three points. So the card I'd want most is the one least likely to go up. That's the whole promo in one sentence.

Sam: That's the trap. You love the player, so you believe in the club.

Alex: I'm a City fan. Believing in clubs is all I've got.

Charlie: So what actually gets a card its boost? Because I've seen three different answers.

Alex: That's the honest bit. EA put the path out as pictures, not text. The path everyone's working from is leaked: three wins in the league phase gets a PlayStyle, scoring in three gets attribute boosts, and finishing in the top eight gets plus one overall. EA hasn't published that in words. And the next men's European games aren't until the end of November, so a men's upgrade is unlikely before then. The women's cards play this week and next.

Charlie: So if I buy one today, I'm buying a promise.

Alex: You're buying a club's league position. City are in the top eight, so my winger's card is on course. My holding midfielder's club has three points, so hers is hoping. Every RTTK card is one or the other.

Charlie: So it's the stock market, but with Bellingham.

Sam: Mira, it's worse than the stock market for your game, Kev, because it tempts you to buy for a number and not for a job. My students ask me every year: "should I get the card that might go up". I ask them back: what does he do in your team on Saturday? If the answer is "nothing my player doesn't already do", it's a lottery ticket.

Charlie: I like that. What does he do on Saturday.

Sam: For your game: buy the job, not the leak. Look at the table first, and don't expect a men's upgrade for three weeks.

Alex: And one football line, because it's my club: City's Belgian winger is in Team 1 and in my City side, the fun one, and City won three-two at Leipzig. Thursday morning, our time.

Charlie: You watched it before work.

Alex: I watched it with my cereal, shouting at the telly, on my own. We were the better side for an hour and then we made it hard for ourselves. But three points is three points, and my RTTK winger's club stays in the top eight.

Sam: You defended the club before you'd thought about the defending.

Alex: Every time. Short version: check the club's table before you buy one, and don't expect a men's upgrade before late November. Next, Team of the Week. Team of the Week 8 went in at five on Thursday morning our time. Trinity Rodman leads it at eighty-eight on the left. An eighty-six keeper, and Fermín at eighty-six in central midfield.

Sam: My Fermín. The normal one, on my bench behind Pedri. Nice to see the real one get the card. He's the kind of player I show my students: he arrives in the box late, when the defenders have already picked their men.

Charlie: And there's an SBC for it, isn't there. An upgrade.

Alex: The eighty-one plus TOTW one to eight upgrade. Weeks one to eight. About eighteen thousand seven hundred coins, and you only get one go. We'll do the verdict in Worth Your Time.

Charlie: Eighteen thousand. That's more than a quarter of a Kev.

Alex: One go, eighteen thousand seven hundred, and three of us with three different clubs. That one's a proper argument, so it waits for Worth Your Time. Short version: Rodman's the card, the upgrade's a maybe. Kev, you've been itching since the welcome. The power curve.

Charlie: Finally. I've been waiting all week for this one. Back in August EA told us this was the slow year: a smaller gap between your normal cards and the promo ones, so your cards last. And then I open the market and the top end looks busier than ever. So which is it?

Sam: I don't follow promos, Kev, you know that. I coach the people who own the cards. What's the count?

Alex: I went through Friday's count twice, so I'll brief it, because I used to argue about this in hotel lobbies. EA's August deep dive promised the gap between a normal card and a player's final campaign card would be meaningfully smaller than last year: PlayStyle Plus capped at three a card instead of five, and about five fewer weeks with a campaign squad. Now the count. Forty-eight days in, FC 27 has a hundred and fifteen promo cards rated eighty-six or more. FC 26 had a hundred and thirty-four. Fourteen percent fewer.

Charlie: Fewer. Fine. Now say the other bit.

Alex: The other bit: at the top, it's the opposite. Ninety-plus promo cards: eighteen this year, eleven last year. The highest card is a ninety-two in both.

Sam: So fewer cards in the middle, and more at the top.

Alex: That's it. And the people calling it a horror start are pointing at the top.

Sam: For my students, that's good news, and I'd say EA's kept its word. Fourteen percent fewer in the middle is exactly where most players live. A team you can learn for three months is a team you get better with.

Alex: And I've played through the fast years, so I'll take any of it.

Charlie: For my club, it's marketing, and here's why. My club's sixty-five thousand. Eighty-fives, eighty-threes. The middle. And yes, the middle's slower. But the people I lose to aren't in the middle. They've got the ninety-plus cards, and there are more of those than last year. So the gap between me and them is getting bigger, not smaller. That's not a slow curve from where I sit. That's a slow curve for the brochure.

Alex: And I'm the opposite, Kev, because I've seen the fast years. When every week's promo makes last week's team rubbish, the player with the most coins wins. Fewer promo cards means your number ten is still a good card in November. That's a game where the better player wins, and that's the only thing I want from it.

Charlie: My Musiala is a good card. It's the bloke with three ninety-plus cards I'm worried about.

Alex: And the bloke with three ninety-plus cards still has to beat your shape. I lost to an eighty-five team three times last month. Cards don't defend the near post.

Sam: Mira, I said EA kept its word, and on the middle I still do. I judge EA by one thing: can people learn the game. If the team changes every month, the people I coach never learn their own team. Fewer promos in the middle, I like that. But Kev's number moves me. Ninety-plus up from eleven to eighteen, that's not slower. That's slower where it doesn't matter and faster where it does. And last year it broke after Black Friday: the ninety-pluses went from eleven to thirty-two inside a month.

Alex: So you've switched.

Sam: I've moved. I'll judge it after Black Friday. That's the real test, and it hasn't happened yet.

Charlie: That's all I'm saying. Don't tell me it's slow until you've seen November.

Alex: Fair. I still think EA kept its word. Kev thinks it's the brochure. Javi's waiting for Black Friday.

Sam: For your game, today: don't rebuild for a curve that hasn't moved yet. The players I've coached who kept one team for three months beat the ones who chased every promo, every season I've coached.

Alex: Slower in the middle, faster at the top, and Black Friday decides who's right. Bug Watch, one line each. Players are reporting server errors in the RTTK live event.

Charlie: And EA's mid-November update, the one with the switching fixes, isn't out yet.

Alex: So: check the club's table before an RTTK card, the upgrade only with cards you weren't selling, and the curve's slower in the middle, faster at the top, until Black Friday. And from cards to coaching. Javi's been drawing on his napkin since the hook. Coach's Tip, Javi, the floor's yours.

Sam: Thank you. Two today, like always: one to keep, one to try. The keep is the fake shot. We did it in the third episode, and Kev did it live and walked round a defender.

Charlie: With Musiala. I remember. And then I lost three.

Sam: And all three, the defender came from the side. That's the lesson. The fake shot works when the defender is square in front of you. He sees you shape to shoot, he goes to block, and you go round the block. If he comes from the side, he isn't set to block the shot, and the fake only works on a man who's set to block it.

Alex: Buttons, Javi.

Sam: Shoot, then pass, while you hold the left stick where you want to go. B then A on Xbox, Circle then Cross on PlayStation. One star move. Everybody has it.

Charlie: B then A on Xbox. Circle then Cross on PlayStation. Left stick the way I'm going.

Sam: And why this year: the classic fake is often enough in FC 27. You don't need a five-star move to beat a man. You need him to believe the shot, and the fake changes your angle while he's believing it.

Alex: And that's what I saw. When I was playing, the classic fake was the move you saw most in the whole bracket. Not the fancy ones. The fake. Because nobody can stop themselves reacting to a shot.

Charlie: Does it matter at my level, though? Or is it one of those things that only works against people who are good enough to react?

Sam: It matters at every level. It's the first skill move for everyone, from Division Six to Two, and it needs no stars. Two mistakes I see every week. One: faking with nobody close. There's nothing to sell, so you just lose a second. Two: faking in your own half. If it goes wrong there, it's a counter, and you're watching it.

Charlie: So only near their box, and only with someone in front of me.

Sam: Exactly. The drill: one game. Use the fake only when a defender is square in front of you inside twenty-five yards. Count fakes that beat the man, and fakes that lost the ball. Target: two to one.

Charlie: Let me do it. Squad Battles, World Class. Musiala on the edge, their centre-back square in front of me.

Sam: Square. Good. Now.

Charlie: B then A on Xbox, Circle then Cross on PlayStation, left stick right. He's gone to block. I'm round him. Shot... Low. Keeper's got it.

Sam: The fake was perfect. The shot was the keeper's. Again.

Charlie: Gordon now, on the left. Defender coming from my side this time.

Sam: From the side. What do you do?

Charlie: Don't fake. Pass. Inside to Musiala.

Sam: That's the keep. Knowing when not to.

Charlie: And again. Endrick, edge of the box, one defender square, nobody else near. B then A on Xbox, Circle then Cross on PlayStation. He bites. Endrick's through. Low driven, near post.

Alex: Of course it's the near post.

Charlie: In. One-nil. I'm counting that one twice.

Sam: You count it once. Two good, zero bad. That's your target already.

Alex: So the keep: fake only when he's square, never when he's coming from the side, two good ones for every bad one.

Sam: And the try. Free kicks. Not a new trick: one strike, learned properly.

Charlie: I just hit them and hope.

Sam: That's the problem, and you're not alone. So here's the one: about twenty-two yards out, slightly right of centre, curled into the top corner over the wall. First the taker: your best free-kick accuracy and curve, in Squad, Team Management, Assignments.

Charlie: Musiala.

Sam: Then look where the keeper is, and move the aim on the goal to the top corner over the wall with the left stick. Then the marker on the ball: on the right of the ball and it curls left, on the left and it curls right, and low on the ball adds lift.

Charlie: And then I just shoot?

Sam: Hold B on Xbox, Circle on PlayStation, and let go at the power you've chosen. And that's where nearly everyone goes wrong.

Alex: Same power from everywhere. The power that scores from twenty-five clears the bar from eighteen.

Sam: Why it's worth it in FC 27: the free-kick power bar fills quicker than it does in open play, so the power that feels right from a normal shot is too much here. From twenty to twenty-eight yards, curled, it's about half the bar. Inside twenty, about a third, and never past two fifths.

Charlie: So the power is the whole thing.

Sam: The power is the first thing. Learn it for your taker from one spot, then move the ball, one change at a time.

Charlie: Go on then. Free Kick Practice. Twenty-two yards, right of centre, Musiala. Aim top left, marker on the right of the ball. Holding shoot... three quarters. Over the bar. Way over.

Sam: That's the shot-power habit. From twenty-two, curled, it's about half.

Charlie: Again. Half... it's dipping... top corner. The keeper didn't move.

Alex: Write the number down before you forget it.

Sam: The drill: ten minutes of Free Kick Practice before your first game. One spot, twenty-two yards, slightly right of centre, one taker, the same strike. Ten free kicks, and count the ones on target. Target: six from ten. Then take that exact strike at your first real free kick of the night.

Charlie: Six from ten. That's a lot of Musiala.

Alex: In my team it's Bellingham on the free kicks, and I learned his power from two spots in the first week. That's the point: one strike, one taker, the power written down. So: keep the fake shot only when he's square, and try one free kick, learned properly, until it's six from ten. Right. The long one. Kev asked us last time how you stop the near-post low driven, and Javi said he already had the napkin. What's Working, Javi, three things, take it away.

Sam: Three things that are working against it right now, in the order I trust them. First, the coaching basic: protect the goal, not the ball, and shut the near-post lane. Second, the thing Macca did for six years: jockey, don't lunge in the box. Third, the one doing the rounds online, so a hypothesis until Kev tests it: the keeper. Basics first, the keeper last.

Charlie: Go on then. Why's the keeper last?

Sam: Because by the time it's the keeper's problem, you've already made two mistakes. I keep a notebook of every goal the people I coach concede. Most of them are the same five goals. This is one of the five, and it's stopped before the shot. One. When an attacker has the ball near your box, your job is not to win the ball. Your job is to stop the goal. Stand on the line between him and your goal, and show him wide, towards the byline.

Charlie: Show him wide. So let him go.

Sam: Let him go where he can't hurt you. The near-post low driven works when the shooter has the angle, inside the box, and the keeper is still moving across. If your defender stands on that line, he doesn't have the angle. He has the byline. One of the biggest mistakes: pulling a centre-back out of the line to get to the ball first. Buttons: hold LT on Xbox, L2 on PlayStation, to jockey, and use the left stick to stay on that line. Only when he's going nowhere and you're close enough to make clean contact, B on Xbox, Circle on PlayStation, to tackle.

Charlie: Hold LT on Xbox, L2 on PlayStation. Stay on the line. Tackle last.

Sam: In my own team: my French right-back. When a winger cuts in, he doesn't go to the ball, he goes to the line between the ball and the near post. And Cubarsí covers behind. The winger ends up at the byline crossing into nobody.

Alex: My left centre-back does it for me. She's the best I've got at it, and she never chases.

Charlie: And in mine, the new left centre-back chases everything. Like a dog at the beach.

Sam: Which is why the drill is for you, once the keep and the try are done. One game for all of What's Working, and one number for the whole game. Step one: every time an attacker has the ball within thirty yards of your goal, say "angle" out loud, and get on the line before you think about the tackle. The number: near-post shots you concede from inside the box. Target: two or fewer.

Charlie: Let me try. Squad Battles. Their winger's coming at my right-back.

Sam: Where's the line?

Charlie: Between him and the near post. Holding LT on Xbox, L2 on PlayStation. He's going outside. He's at the byline. Cross. Kim Min Jae heads it out.

Sam: That's it. He never had the angle.

Charlie: Again, the other side. Their striker drops off, turns, runs at my centre-back. I'm saying "angle". I'm on the line... and I've left the middle open. He passes inside and it's a shot from twelve yards.

Sam: Good. That's the other half. The line is between him and the goal, not him and the post. You protected the post and gave him the middle. Same line, one step inside.

Charlie: One step inside. Got it.

Alex: So, one: shut the near-post lane by standing between him and the goal, and the shot never comes.

Sam: Two. You're on the line, now don't throw it away. In the box, the attacker wants you to dive in. You dive, he turns, and now he has the angle you just gave him.

Charlie: That's me. That's literally me. Kim Min Jae, every week.

Sam: I know. I watched three of your losses, remember. Hold LT on Xbox, L2 on PlayStation. If he's quick, LT and RT together on Xbox, L2 and R2 on PlayStation, to keep up, but only to recover ground. Walk backwards with him. You're not trying to win it yet. You're trying to be in front of him when he gets it wrong.

Alex: Worst tackle of my career was in a box. Quarter-final, last minute, I got bored of waiting and pressed tackle. Penalty. Timing is everything with a tackle, and I learned it the expensive way.

Sam: The reason it works in this game: the near-post low driven needs the angle, and every lunge hands him the angle. The jockey keeps you in front of him one-on-one, and in front is where you want to be when he gets it wrong.

Charlie: So it's patience, because the angle's the whole shot.

Sam: Exactly. Same game, step two: every time someone dribbles at your defender, hold the jockey and walk backwards until he takes a heavy touch or turns away. Same number at the end: near-post shots from inside the box, two or fewer.

Charlie: Their striker in my box, my centre-back on him. Holding LT on Xbox, L2 on PlayStation. Holding. Holding. He's waiting for me.

Sam: Let him wait.

Charlie: He shoots anyway. From a bad angle. My keeper's got it.

Sam: That's a shot you wanted him to take.

Alex: And in my team it's Upamecano, who'd dive in to win a header in a car park. I sit him on the jockey and I let Rodri come back.

Sam: And this is where the two things meet. The jockey keeps him in front of you; the line decides where in front. Jockey on the wrong line and you're walking him to the near post.

Alex: So, two: in the box, jockey and wait, on the line between him and the goal, because every lunge hands him the angle.

Charlie: And the keeper. Because the near-post low driven is still the goal I concede most in my twenty minutes, lane or no lane.

Alex: I read the October notes, Kev. "Investigating the accuracy of some shot types." That's the only thing I know EA's said about it.

Sam: There's more, Macca, and it's older. At launch, end of September, EA said low driven shots, especially to the near post, can be stronger than other options. Their words. And they also said they were pretty happy with the balance between shooting and goalkeeping. The October line you read sits next to where the keeper stands. And it's not in the November update.

Alex: So they admitted it, they're looking at it, and nothing changes this month.

Charlie: They admitted it and they've parked it. That's my whole point. It's my best finish, and that's the problem: I've scored it from places where I'd done nothing to earn the angle. I said it about ninety-five depth and I'll say it here: I'll learn the counter, and it should still be toned down.

Alex: And my point is, every one I've conceded, I can point at the defender who stepped out of the line. It's a finish. If you let him into the lane with the angle, you lost that before the shot. I'm not blaming EA for a shot I let him take.

Charlie: You were a pro, Macca. You had all day to learn where to stand. I've got twenty minutes a night and a centre-back with no pace. I get the line wrong once, and it's a goal from a shot EA itself called stronger than other options.

Alex: And that part I'll give you. At your level one wrong step costs more, and EA did say stronger than other options. But tone the finish down and you punish the striker who earned the angle too. Fix the lunge first.

Charlie: Fine. Fix my lunge. Then tone it down anyway.

Sam: Mira, I'm with Macca on the lane, and I said so ten minutes ago. But Kev's right that EA said "stronger than other options". So here's the third thing, the one I'm testing on my own keeper, once you've done one and two: your keeper. There's a goalkeeper PlayStyle called Footwork, and it's built for low shots. Whether it's the answer to this one is the hypothesis. Look at your keeper's PlayStyles screen. If he has it, he's the keeper to test.

Charlie: And if he doesn't?

Sam: Then the other thing is the rush. Don't rush the keeper early. Hold Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation, to bring him out, but early gives the shooter the room. Rush briefly, then let go, so you don't give him the room.

Charlie: Let me try that. Their striker's through on the left, my keeper at his post. Holding Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation, for a second, and letting go.

Sam: Good, he's stopped.

Charlie: The striker hesitates, shoots near post, my keeper's there. Off his legs. Corner.

Alex: Off his legs. That's exactly the save you want.

Sam: One save is one save. The hypothesis held once. So, same game, step three: every time their striker's through on goal, hold Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation, for one second and let go. Still the one number: near-post shots from inside the box, two or fewer, and if the keeper's stopping more of them, that's your hypothesis holding. It's not proven until it holds for a month, and the lane and the jockey come first.

Alex: I'll check Joan García's screen for you, Javi.

Sam: You'll check your own. Mine's checked.

Charlie: I'll check my keeper. He's the bench keeper I evolved, the one who took the starting spot. If he's got Footwork, he's my near-post keeper. If not, I'm doing one and two and I'm still saying it should go.

Alex: So you learn the counter, and you still think it's too strong.

Charlie: Both. Same as last time.

Sam: For your game: it's in the game this month. The lane first, the jockey second, the keeper third. In any other order, you're asking the keeper to fix your defending.

Alex: So, What's Working: shut the near-post lane, jockey instead of lunging in the box, and only then look at your keeper's PlayStyles, Footwork if he has it, and don't rush early. The Picks. The bit where we find the players nobody's talking about. The rules: a third of the price of the meta card it replaces or less, twenty-five thousand at most, and nobody picks his own starter. One line first: prices fell this week. The cheapest eighty to eighty-nine golds dropped about nineteen percent on console between Monday and Sunday. Our prices are from early Thursday morning, our time, so check before you buy.

Charlie: Good. My budget likes a crash.

Alex: First, last week's three, after a week in our clubs. Javi, Kim Little.

Sam: She went in next to Patri Guijarro in my four-four-two. Under the press she is everything I said: she takes it with a man on her back and plays the next pass. Two games against a high press and we lost the ball once in our own third. The bad part: she's not quick getting back. A counter through the middle and she's watching it. A holder for teams that keep the ball. Not for teams that chase.

Alex: Did she take your holding midfielder's place?

Sam: No. Patri stays. Kim Little comes on at sixty minutes when they start pressing because they're losing. That's her job in my team: the last half-hour against a desperate press. For a cheap card, that's a very good job.

Charlie: So she's a substitute with a plan.

Sam: Every substitute should come with a plan. Most people bring on whoever is fresh. I bring on whoever the game needs. Kev, your Oosterwolde, the quick Dutch centre-back.

Charlie: He did the job. Three balls over the top, three times he turned and caught them. One problem: a big striker beat him in the air from a goal kick, and they scored. He's a chaser. Next to Kim Min Jae, he's great. On his own against a target man, he's not.

Alex: And mine, Quiñones. Two goals in my Rivals warm-ups, both behind a high line, both from the lofted through ball. And then his first touch on a ball into feet went out for a throw. He's a runner, not a hold-up man. Good pick, past me. Now the new three. Javi first.

Sam: Nmecha. Eighty-five, central midfield, about three thousand coins on Thursday's prices. He stands in for PSG's young Portuguese midfielder, at about thirteen thousand.

Alex: Three thousand against thirteen. Inside the rule.

Sam: The job: one metre ninety-four, eighty-eight physical, eighty-two defending. He's the man who stands in the lane in front of your back four, the one we just talked about. When a winger cuts in, he's already there. For a four-four-two or a four-two-three-one double pivot, Division Eight to Four.

Charlie: So he's the bloke standing in front of the near post before the near post is a problem.

Sam: Exactly that.

Alex: Kev, your pick. And remember the rules.

Charlie: I know the rules. I don't do the numbers, I do the job. My pick is Taylor Flint. Eighty-four, holding midfield, about thirteen hundred coins.

Sam: Ninety-one physical, and Intercept Plus. She stands in for Declan Rice, about twelve thousand.

Charlie: Twelve thousand. That's a fifth of a Kev. Flint is a fiftieth.

Alex: A rounding error on a Kev. And not one of your starters: that's Anderson and Nico González.

Charlie: The job: she sits, she reads the pass, and she doesn't get bullied. I get countered. Every week. Somebody has to stand still. For any two-holder shape, Division Ten to Five, if you're the one getting countered.

Alex: And mine. The meta reality check, once: the top strikers cost fifty thousand for Haaland and a hundred and thirty-nine for Pajor. You don't need either.

Sam: Pajor is in my team. I'm just saying.

Alex: I know, Javi. Your starter, not mine. So: Osimhen. Eighty-five, about three thousand coins on Thursday's prices. Stands in for Haaland at about fifty-one thousand. The job: eighty-nine pace with eighty-six physical and one metre eighty-six. He runs in behind like Quiñones, and when the ball goes into his feet, he holds it. Quiñones couldn't. For one-striker shapes from Division Seven up.

Charlie: And if you want even cheaper?

Alex: There's a ninety-pace striker at about fourteen hundred, quicker than Osimhen, but he can't hold it, and holding it is the job.

Sam: And nobody bent a rule.

Alex: Clean sheet again. So: one to stand in the lane, one to stand still, one to run and hold, all three together for under eight thousand. Worth Your Time, the menus. Four calls this week, everyone gives a verdict from his own club. First, Matchday Marksman, the free Evolution for a right-sided player rated eighty or lower with eighty-eight pace or less. Plus six overall up to eighty-three, and the new PlayStyles only land if he's got fewer than three already. Start it before five on Tuesday morning the seventeenth, our time. Javi.

Sam: Do the Marksman. I've already started it. Aitor Ruibal, in my Spanish side. Seventy-seven, right midfield, no PlayStyles at all. Two levels in, Squad Battles, and with no PlayStyles he gets all three, Gamechanger included. He finishes an eighty-three.

Charlie: Marksman, do. Savinho's my eighty right winger, and if he's under three PlayStyles he gets the new ones. Free. That's my favourite price.

Alex: Marksman, only if. Only for my City side. My main team's wingers are eighty-nines and nineties. But the fun one has a spot for it. Second, the RTTK Group Stage objectives. Any five of seven pays two eighty-five-plus packs, and five locks the other two, so do the one you want before your fifth. One of them is a bicycle kick with a French player in your eleven. Do them this week. The objectives, do, for me. Madrid's number nine is French and he's in my eleven. The bicycle kick's the only hard part.

Charlie: How do you even do a bicycle kick? I've never done one on purpose.

Alex: Back to goal, the ball dropping at head height, then LT and B on Xbox, L2 and Circle on PlayStation, holding the first and pressing the second. EA doesn't list the input anywhere, so it's trial and error.

Sam: Then try it in Squad Battles first, where a miss costs nothing. Do the objectives. My right-back is French and starts every game for me. Free packs for games I play anyway.

Charlie: The objectives only if you hit them by accident. I've got twenty minutes and no French player.

Sam: Then skip that one, Kev. It's any five of seven.

Charlie: Mine at right-back is Portuguese. I checked. That's how far I've gone.

Alex: Third, the eighty-one plus TOTW one to eight upgrade. About eighteen thousand seven hundred, one go only.

Charlie: Skip the upgrade. That's more than a quarter of my whole club.

Sam: The upgrade, only if. I'd feed it the spare eighty-ones I keep for Squad Battles, and only those. If it costs me a card I'd play, no.

Alex: The upgrade, do, for me. I've got a pile of untradeable eighty-fours from my Finals rewards. It costs me nothing I'd sell.

Charlie: Must be nice.

Alex: It's very nice. Fourth, Strings of Fate. Free, for a central or holding midfielder rated eighty-one or lower, and he comes out an eighty-two with better passing. Do, for me: that's my bench holding midfielder in my City side, and free is free, so he goes in tonight.

Charlie: Strings of Fate, do. My starting holding midfielder's an eighty-one. Free, and he comes out an eighty-two who passes better. Cheapest upgrade I'll get all month.

Sam: Strings of Fate, only if. Nobody in the middle of my main team is that low. My second side has an eighty-one in central midfield, so yes there, but after the Marksman.

Alex: So: Marksman's free if you've got the right winger, five RTTK objectives this week, the upgrade only with cards you weren't selling, and Strings of Fate for any midfielder it fits. And now, the part where Kev holds us to account. Kev, you look like a man with a spreadsheet. Your Desk.

Charlie: Right, so. Kev's Desk: the homework, the bet, a call from Javi that's come due, and my question for next time. Homework first, honest, like always. The keep: say the shot type out loud before every shot, one game. Three or more types and thirty percent. I used four types. Nine shots, three goals. Thirty-three percent. Passed.

Sam: Four types. Which one surprised you?

Charlie: The chip. I said "chip" out loud and Jess came in to ask what I was ordering.

Alex: Jess, undefeated.

Charlie: The try: four lofted through balls over a high line, the runner gets to two of four first. I got one. Two went out for goal kicks. Too much power. One was fine and Kundananji was offside.

Sam: One from four is a start, not a fail. Two overhit is the power, not the idea.

Charlie: Not yet. That's what goes in the book.

Alex: And Rivals.

Charlie: One and five. Six games. Won the second. Lost four on the bounce after that, all after nine at night. I kept queueing because I wanted to finish on a win. Didn't.

Sam: You told us the run, not just the score. That's the part I can coach.

Charlie: Which brings me to this. I did the maths on what a Champions run pays. Fifteen games. Ten wins gets you thirty-five thousand coins and a hundred and thirty-five tokens. Six gets you five thousand. Below seven, I'm better off in Rivals and the objectives.

Alex: That's the bone I had to pick, Kev: at one and five, Champions isn't your weekend.

Charlie: Not this weekend. I'll do the objectives and Rivals and keep my twenty minutes. If I get to Champions, I'll play it for fun, not for the coins.

Sam: Good. I made a student skip Champions for a month once. He hated me for three weeks, then came back better.

Alex: And the bet goes in the book, Kev.

Charlie: The bet. Macca eleven and four, Javi eleven and four, fifteen Finals games each. A draw. Nobody wins. They go again next Champions weekend.

Sam: And my call. I said Pina's SBC would get cheaper than one point two two million before it closed on the third.

Charlie: Did it?

Sam: I looked. The snapshots ran from about one point one five to one point three six million, depending on the day and the platform. So there's no clean answer. I won't claim it, and I won't hide it. Not proven.

Alex: Not proven. A coach's verdict.

Sam: An honest one. I'd rather say "not proven" than pretend.

Charlie: And I'll tell you one good thing, because it's not all one and five. The one I won, I got it right once. One attack, I didn't chase. I'd seen one of Javi's drills on the train, so I stood still for once. Next attack I chased again and they scored. So it's half a habit. But I sat there after the first one and went: that's a goal I didn't concede.

Sam: Hold on to that one. A goal you didn't concede is invisible. Only you know it happened.

Alex: I clapped. Just now, on my own, like the Leipzig game.

Charlie: Jess didn't clap it. I told her and she said "that's nice" without looking up. And my question for next time. When do I stop? Four losses on the bounce. I need to know when to put the controller down.

Sam: Good question. That one I can answer with a clock, not a napkin.

Alex: Passed, not yet, a draw, not proven, and a question for next time. That's a Desk.

Charlie: That's the Desk. Macca, take us home.

Alex: Thanks, Kev. The one thing to do this week comes in two halves, a keep and a try, and they go in the same night. Keep this: the fake shot only when the defender's square in front of you, one game, two good ones for every bad one. Try this: one free kick, learned properly. Ten minutes of Free Kick Practice before your first game, twenty-two yards, slightly right of centre, one taker, and six on target from ten. On the record: Nmecha, Taylor Flint and Osimhen get re-rated next time. The bet goes again, my four-two-one-three against Javi's four-four-two. And Kev brings us when to stop. Before we go: Half-Space exists because of Dan. He's a time-poor dad who loves FC but never has the hours to get properly good, and he was tired of the hype. He wanted something more reliable: the fundamentals and the game's own logic, a little and often, so he could actually improve. So he built his own podcast studio with AI. Everything you've just heard is generated: the research, the script and our three voices. Macca, Javi and Kev are characters. Every source we used is in the show notes, so you can check our working. I'm Macca, it's eleven and four apiece, and the rematch is on. That was Half-Space. Fake only when he's square.