In this week’s Backpage, football journalist and FIFA fan Darren Cross reveals 12 things you might not know about Ultimate Team.

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed by the headline above, this week’s Backpage again focuses on Ultimate Team, this time looking at a bunch of things you may not know that could prove to be very handy.

Of course, many of you more experienced players will already know some of this, but I’m hoping there will be a couple of nuggets you didn’t know about as well as tons of useful information for those brand new to the game mode. Something for everyone, then.

Let’s get started…

Managers... nationality and formation is key.

It’s more important to make sure that you get a gaffer who has the same nationality and preferred formation as the majority of your squad, as it’s these that give you the Chemistry bonuses. You get 10 Chemistry points for using your manager’s formation, then an additional point for every player who shares his nationality. The maximum Chemistry bonus a manager can give you is 20.

Having two managers is a good idea... ...as long as they give you different bonuses.

When you renew a player’s contract you’ll get an extra game or two out of it if you have a manager that gives contract bonuses. For this reason, it’s worth having one gaffer to select when sorting contracts, and one to select for games to give you a morale boost through team-talks.

It's all about team chemistry... ...but hopefully you know that already?

Just in case you don’t know – and I do still find myself taking on opponents with terrible Chemistry scores – Chemistry is vital in FUT 12. It boosts your players’ attributes so significantly that a bronze team with 100 Chemistry wouldn’t have too much trouble beating an all-gold team with very little. Always consider the nationality, league, club, preferred position and formation of players before you buy them, as these all contribute to your overall Chemistry score.

You can view individual chemistry stats... ...so you can see where your weak links are.

When you’re looking at your team in the Squad screen, flick the right stick to the right until you can see each of your players’ Chemistry stat. The max rating is 9, so anyone with less than 9 could be costing you Chemistry points. Experiment with different line-ups to get the highest score you can before you head into a match.

Fitness and morale are vital.... ...so don’t be tempted to ignore them.

Using the right stick in the same way as above, you can check on your players’ fitness and morale levels. Players with low fitness and morale will perform significantly worse than fitter, happier players. Keep an eye on this for all of your players and fix any struggling players with the relevant fitness or morale card, which you can buy in trading.

Less popular players are cheaper... ...keep this in mind when building a team.

Putting together a squad of big-name players from the most popular leagues can be fun, but it’s also extremely expensive. It’s much cheaper and quicker to assemble a team made up of players from smaller leagues or less popular nations because fewer FUT players are bidding for them. Always think about what kind of team you want to build to achieve max Chemistry before you start trading.

You can build mulitple Ultimate Team squads... ...and use two different ones in the same tournament.

Press Y or Triangle on the Squad screen to go to the Squad Selector page. From here you can create a completely new squad, or squads if you have enough coins to fill the positions. This is great for trying out different teams and formations and you can even switch between them before each round of the cup tournaments. Is your first team squad all running low on contracts? No problem, use your reserves.

Players with popular formations cost more... ...but there’s a way around it.

Any player with 4-1-2-1-2 as his preferred formation is likely to cost you more than the same player with a less popular formation, like 3-5-2, because lots of FUT managers use 4-1-2-1-2 and will search for players who suit it. Either build a team with a less desirable formation, or look for bargains in the formation card search. If you cycle through enough screens you’ll find the formation you want at a decent price, then you can sign any player you like and make them fit your formation by applying the card.

Do your research before you trade anything... ...if you want to make coins quickly.

Before you buy or sell any card, take a minute to flick through trading to see the average price it’s up for. If you spot a player for sale at less than the average, buy him quickly then get him back on the trade pile at the new price. Similarly, never sell any card without checking what you could get for it on the market first, as many seemingly worthless cards can be worth thousands. Which brings me on to...

Top silver and bronze players are worth loads... ...if you know what to look for.

There are still many FUT 12 players who’ll quick sell an unwanted bronze or silver card because they’re building a gold team, potentially losing them thousands. Because it’s possible to compete in competitions that are exclusively for bronze, silver and gold teams, the very best players in all three categories are traded for big money. For example, Cameron Jerome is one of the best English silver players and I’ve seen him on sale for as much as 50,000 coins. That’s quite a profit to miss out on if you’ve gone for a quick sell.

You can sell 5* skill players for big money... ...but you’ll need to know how to find them.

There are loads of people who’ll pay a lot of coins to sign players who can do 4* and 5* skill moves, but it isn’t easy to find out if you’ve got one of these players in your squad. The only way you can check is in the in-game pause menu. If you do have one, go and see what he’s going for on the market.

It pays not to quit... ...so don’t be tempted.

Not that you would of course. You’ll gradually build up your DNF multiplier by sticking with games even when you’re getting a thrashing. It doesn’t take too long to build up a good multiplier and start bagging those extra coins.

I hope you found that interesting and picked up a couple of things you didn’t already know.