The Backpage | FIFA 13 Transfers Shortlist
dmcdonagh
2012-11-12
In this week’s Backpage, football journalist and FIFA fan Darren Cross picks out the players that should be on your shortlist in Career Mode…
Looking for a top attacking full-back to sign for your Career Mode team? How about a ball-winning midfielder, or maybe a powerhouse striker?
If so then this week's Backpage could be for you.
I'm the kind of manager that's always thinking about what sort of player my team needs next, so I tend to spend a lot of time digging around in the transfer screen, looking for the best options. Sometimes I'll be after a very specific kind of player; an expert crosser or lethal finisher for example, so I'll obviously run the search with a minimum value for the desired attribute. The results are then displayed, by default, in order of the players' Overall Rating, so I'll then go through each profile to find the ones with the highest value for the attribute I've selected.
The good news is that you won't have to do that, because here I've picked out the top five players for many of the most desirable attributes in the game.
There are also times when I want to set a minimum value for two attributes – like Dribbling and Crossing – so that I can find a certain type of player, in this case a winger that can beat his marker and whip a cracking cross in. You'll find players like this below, too.
So think of this week's Backpage as a kind of ready-made shortlist that will flag up the players with the best attributes and save you a big chunk of time. Oh and don't forget to have a look at the 20 players I recommend signing as soon as you can, which you can find here http://www.ea.com/uk/news/ea-sports-fifa-13-players-you-must-sign and here http://www.ea.com/uk/news/ea-sports-fifa-13-more-players-you-must-sign.
Right, let's get started...
| SHOT STOPPER | ||||
| Of all the GK attributes in FIFA 13, the two that are most important when it comes to stopping shots are GK Reflexes and GK Diving. At just over £5 million, Diego Alves looks well worth checking out. | ||||
| Name | Club | GKR | GKD | Value |
| Iker Casillas | Real Madrid | 92 | 91 | £10m |
| Diego Alves | Valencia | 90 | 91 | £5.5m |
| Manuel Neuer | Bayern | 89 | 90 | £5.5m |
| Hugo Lloris | Tottenham | 90 | 89 |
£18.5m |
| Igor Akinfeev | CSKA Moscow | 89 | 88 |
£10m |
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SAFE HANDS |
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If you’re after a keeper that isn’t likely to fumble or drop the ball after getting his hands on it, you’ll want to check out Thibaut Courtois. Again, Diego Lopez features too. |
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| Name | Club | GKH | Value |
| Thibaut Courtois | Atletico Madrid | 89 | £10.5m |
| Hugo Lloris | Tottenham | 84 | £18.5m |
| Diego Lopez | Valencia | 84 | £5.5m |
| Iker Casillas | Real Madrid | 83 | £10m |
| Gianluigi Buffon | Juventus | 83 | £3.1m |
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FAST CENTRE-BACK |
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It’s always nice to have speed in the middle of your defence, and these guys are the quickest centre-backs in the game. The two fastest will cost you just over one million quid combined. |
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| Name | Club | ACC | SS | Value |
| Marvell Wynne | Colorado Rapids | 93 | 97 | £275k |
| Michael Almeback | Club Brugge | 82 | 84 | £825k |
| Cheikhou Kouyate | Anderlecht | 80 | 85 | £3.4m |
| Thiago Silva | PSG | 81 | 82 | £15m |
| Yun Young Sun | Seongnam Llhwa | 83 | 80 | £450k |
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POWERFUL CENTRE-BACK |
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If you prefer your defenders to be big and strong rather than fast then this is the shortlist for you. Just keep in mind that power usually comes at the expense of mobility. |
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| Name | Club | STR | Value |
| Felipe Baloy | Santos Laguna | 95 | £725k |
| Alexandr Orekhov | Rubin Kazan | 95 | £1m |
| Dickson Choto | L. Warszawa | 95 | £150k |
| Daniel Van Buyten | Bayern | 94 | £950k |
| Oguchi Onyewu | Malaga | 94 | £2.1m |
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SOLID CENTRE-BACK |
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For this one I searched for central defenders with the highest combined totals for Standing Tackle and Slide Tackle. You might be surprised to see Barça’s makeshift centre-back Mascherano takes top spot… |
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| Name | Club | SLI | STA | Value |
| Javier Mascherano | Barcelona | 89 | 93 | £13m |
| Thiago Silva | PSG | 89 | 92 | £15m |
| Pepe | Real Madrid | 93 | 88 | £9.5m |
| Nemanja Vidic | Man. United | 86 | 93 | £12m |
| Gerard Pique | Barcelona | 87 | 90 | £18m |
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DOMINANT CENTRE-BACK |
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Losing too many goals from headers in the box? These five defenders with the highest Heading and Jumping stats should sort that out. |
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| Name | Club | HEA | JUM | Value |
| Nemanja Vidic | Man. United | 92 | 90 | £12m |
| Sergio Ramos | Real Madrid | 89 | 93 | £15m |
| Inigo Lopez | Granada CF | 91 | 89 | £950k |
| Thomas Vermaelen | Arsenal | 83 | 95 | £10m |
| Romain Genevois | OGC Nice | 84 | 91 | £800k |
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ATTACKING FULL-BACK |
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I only ever sign full-backs who have got the Acceleration to beat a marker and the Crossing ability to find a team-mate in the box. Here are the top five… |
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| Name | Pos | Club | ACC | CRO | Value |
| Jordi Alba | LB | Barcelona | 91 | 84 | £7.5m |
| Yuto Nagatomo | LB | Inter | 89 | 82 | £5m |
| Dani Alves | RB | Barcelona | 87 | 83 | £8m |
| Lukasz Piszczek | RB | Dortmund | 85 | 85 | £7.5m |
| Dennis Diekmeier | RB | Hamburg | 90 | 80 | £2.5m |
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BALL-WINNING MIDFIELDER |
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For this one I ran a search for the CMs with the highest combined ratings for Interceptions and Standing Tackle, seeing as I don’t very often slide with midfielders. |
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| Name | Club | INT | STA | Value |
| Jeremy Toulalan | Malaga | 88 | 89 | £7m |
| Sami Khedira | Real Madrid | 88 | 87 | £7.5m |
| Daniele de Rossi | Roma | 88 | 86 | £13.5m |
| Sven Bender | Dortmund | 88 | 86 | £7m |
| Arturo Vidal | Juventus | 86 | 86 | £13m |
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EXPERT CROSSER |
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If you’ve got strikers that can head the ball – more on that in a minute – then you need quality delivery. For this one Position, Acceleration and Sprint Speed didn’t come into it, I just wanted to find the players with the best Crossing stat. |
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| Name | Pos | Club | CRO | Value |
| Angel Di Maria | RM | Real Madrid | 91 | £17.5m |
| Joaquin | RM | Malaga | 89 | £5m |
| Jeremy Mathieu | LB | Valencia | 89 | £2.8m |
| Balazs Dzsudzsak | LM | Dinamo Moscow | 88 | £8m |
| Ryan Giggs | CAM | Man. United | 88 | £1.1m |
| BARGAIN DRIBBLER | ||||
| If you run a search for the very best dribblers in the game then you’ll notice they all cost loads, so this shortlist is for those gaffers looking for a specialist dribbler that won’t break the bank. All of the players here cost £5 million or less… | ||||
| Name | Pos | Club | DRI | Value |
| Pablo Barrientos | CF | Catania | 90 | £3.5m |
| Joaquin | RM | Malaga | 89 | £5m |
| Mauro Zarate | CF | Lazio | 89 | £4.4m |
| Jonathan Pitriopa | LW | Rennes | 88 | £3.9m |
| Felipe | CM | V. R de Janeiro | 88 | £775k |
| LONG-RANGE THREAT | |||||
| Players that can score from long range can be a real weapon when you’re struggling to unlock a defence, and the five below have the highest combined stats for Long Shots and Shot Power. | |||||
| Name | Pos | Club | LON | SHP | Value |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | LW | Real Madrid | 92 | 94 | £53.5m |
| Steven Gerrard | CAM | Liverpool | 88 | 94 | £9m |
| Hulk | RW | Zenit | 88 | 92 | £18m |
| Lukas Podolski | CF | Arsenal | 88 | 91 | £11m |
| Alberto Costa | CM | Valencia | 89 | 91 | £9m |
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PLAYMAKER |
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| The three most relevant stats here are Vision, Long Pass and Short Pass, and the players below have the best combined totals | ||||||
| Name | Pos | Club | V | LP | SP | Value |
| Xavi | CM | Barcelona | 97 | 93 | 97 | £14.5m |
| Andrea Pirlo | CM | Juventus | 96 | 96 | 94 | £8m |
| Andres Iniesta | LW | Barcelona | 93 | 89 | 95 | £31.5m |
| Cesc Fabregas | CM | Barcelona | 93 | 92 | 92 | £21m |
| Luka Modric | CAM | Real Madrid | 91 | 88 | 90 | £23m |
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FREE-KICK SPECIALIST |
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A simple one – the five best free-kick takers in the game… |
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| Name | Pos | Club | FKA | Value |
| Sejad Salihovic | CAM | Hoffenheim | 91 | £4.6m |
| Marcos Assuncao | CM | P. Sao Paulo | 91 | £575k |
| Juninho | CAM | V. R de Janeiro | 90 | £1.2m |
| Juan Arango | LM | Bor. M’gladbach | 90 | £2.6m |
| Santi Cazorla | CAM | Arsenal | 89 | £15.5m |
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EXPLOSIVE STRIKER |
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If your striker has bags of Acceleration then he’s going to find it easier to get away from defenders. Note that all of the players here are STs, I haven’t included CFs as I don’t see them as playing on the shoulder of the last man like STs do. |
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| Name | Club | ACC | Value |
| Darren Mattocks | Whitecaps | 95 | £900k |
| Ahmed Musa | CSKA Moscow | 94 | £2.5m |
| Imoh Ezekiel | Standard Liege | 94 | £1.5m |
| Sergio Aguero | Man. City | 93 | £24m |
| Emmanuel Emenike | Spartak Moscow | 93 | £9m |
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POWERHOUSE STRIKER |
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No-one is going to push these STs off the ball… |
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| Name | Club | STR | Value |
| Adebayo Akinfenwa | Northampton | 96 | £170k |
| Steve Fletcher | Bournemouth | 95 | £8k |
| Emmanuel Emenike | CSKA Moscow | 94 | £9m |
| Lacina Traore | Anzhi | 94 | £10m |
| Zlatan Ibrahimovic | PSG | 93 | £18m |
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FINISHER |
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Looking for the best Finishers in the game? Then I hope you brought your wallet, because they don’t come cheap. |
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| Name | Pos | Club | FIN | Value |
| Lionel Messi | CF | Barcelona | 94 | £73m |
| Falcao | ST | Atletico Madrid | 92 | £28m |
| Robin van Persie | ST | Man. United | 91 | £20.5m |
| Zlatan Ibrahimovic | ST | PSG | 90 | £18m |
| Wayne Rooney | CF | Man. United | 90 | £22.5m |
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AERIAL THREAT |
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Finally, these are the STs that are going to convert those perfect crosses… |
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| Name | Club | HAC | Value |
| Falcao | Atletico Madrid | 95 | £28m |
| Fernando Llorente | Athletic Bilbao | 93 | £10.5m |
| Miroslav Klose | Lazio | 91 | £4.8m |
| Mario Mandzukic | Bayern | 91 | £11m |
| Aduriz | Athletic Bilbao | 91 | £2.5m |
I hope you found that useful and it saved you some time. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you here for more on the Backpage next week, when we’ll be looking at some FIFA 13 Ultimate Team tips.
Darren
@Darren_Cross
