The Backpage | FIFA 12 – THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
dmcdonagh
2011-12-08
In this week’s Backpage, FIFA fan and football journalist Darren Cross picks out the players capable of shocking your online opposition and earning you vital points…
Remember Felipe Caicedo?
Manchester City paid around £5 million to sign the striker from Basel way back in 2008 if my memory serves me correctly, and he’s currently playing for Lokomotiv Moscow in the Russian Premier League after loan spells at Sporting, Malaga and Levante.
The reason I ask is because he’s almost singlehandedly fired my Ecuador team into Division 2 of Head To Head Seasons at the first time of asking. Not because he’s got outstanding attributes or anything like that, but because he’s left footed – something that almost everyone I’ve faced had either forgotten or didn’t know about in the first place.
Honestly, I lost count of the amount of times my opposition assumed he’d be right-footed and then showed him on to his left, a gift that I gratefully accepted all the way to promotion.
Caicedo really was a secret weapon for me because the players I faced didn’t know which foot was his dominant one until it was too late and then, when the penny dropped, they often seemed to find that defending against a left footer required a bit more thought than usual.
So this got me thinking… how many other under-the-radar lefties could I find and use to my advantage?
Hmmmmmm.
Then while poking around in the game and searching for more I also realised that it’s not just relatively unknown left footers that could catch people out online… I’d probably be able to surprise players with some of the world’s best strikers too, if their Weak Foot stat was high enough as that would enable me to fake a shot with their dominant foot before cutting in to have a pop on their supposed weak side.
Hmmmmmm.
So that’s what we’re looking at this week; lethal lefties that your opposition may not know about, and quality strikers with five star Weak Foot ratings.
The idea of course is that the element of surprise here will grab you some vital wins and help get you promoted.
It’s only fair to start with Felipe Caicedo, seeing as he inspired this week’s Backpage. I recommend using him alongside Christian Benitez for Ecuador – who I tipped in last week’s blog as one of the best 3.5 star teams – but if you don’t like Internationals then try out his club Lokomotiv Moscow. They’re also 3.5 stars and you can partner him with the electric Maicon.
>Here’s another blast from the past… Obafemi Martins. He’s the somersaulting speedster who played for Newcastle for two or three seasons in the mid 00s, but you’ll find him knocking about in Rubin Kazan’s ressies now. As well as having a great left foot and stats in the 90s for Speed and Agility, Martins also has a five star Weak Foot. Hello goals.
Lukas Podolski is good one too. He’s got 86 for both Finishing and Long Shots, so you can unleash the Cologne striker’s left foot from almost anywhere. He’s a bit more high profile than Caicedo and Martins, but because he’s so good from range you can take shots on very early and that’s really why I’ve included him here.
Valeri Bojinov was a bit of a name once upon a time, but he sneaks in under the radar these days. He also used to play for Man. City but is now at Sporting in Portugal, who are a 4.5 star club that are well worth a look.
Everton’s Louis Saha has got a rocket of a left foot too. Okay, okay, I know he’s probably quite well known to most FIFA players, but he’s also got a five star Weak Foot and he can catch a lot of people out by going on his right, so he deserves to complete my top five lethal lefties.
There are tons more excellent left-footed strikers out there, so if you spot any then why not tell the rest of the community by posting them on Twitter using the #lethallefties hashtag. Just remember that we’re concentrating on smaller-name players who will catch people out, so the likes of RVP and Rossi etc need not apply.
As for top strikers who can shoot with either foot, they don’t come much better than Barcelona’s David Villa who also has a huge 93 for Finishing. Having said that, Man. City’s Sergio Aguero isn’t far behind and neither is Inter’s Diego Forlan. Staying in Italy don’t miss legendary Juventus striker Alessandro del Piero or Lazio’s Hernanes.
Over in Portugal, Porto’s Hulk only has a three star Weak Foot but he is a lefty and you can partner him with the right-footed Varela, who has a five star Weak Foot along with five star skills.
Okay, there’s plenty to think about there. Hopefully you’ll get the same amount of joy with these players as I have with Caicedo and Ecuador.
Remember, if you spot any good lesser-known lefties then tell us about them on Twitter.
As always, thanks for reading and I’ll hopefully see you next week.
Darren
twitter: @Darren_Cross
