By now, I should be on a mini vacation as well as prepping for season 8, but that’s simply not the case due to Soccermanager surprising us with some new additions to the world class (94+) bracket! In today’s episode, we have a player who I am a huge admirer of, and is one of the most versatile players within his respective position. We’ll be discussing how to get the best out of ’94’ rated Real Madrid and Uraguay energizer bunny, Federico Valverde.
PLAYER BIO
I don’t normally mention a player’s price tag whenever I discuss their bio, but Fede is one of those players who is worth every penny whether you purchase him for $48M or $75M
SM23 ATTRIBUTES
Fede is the epitome of “what you see is what you get”, with his key attributes indicating that he is the driving force of a team due to his exceptional engine and world class ability to ghost past players with ease, utilizing his explosiveness and agility.
BEST ROLES
I personally believe that Fede is the best ‘Box to Box’ Midfielder in the entire game, and when he plays in a midfield 3, he has the potential to become truly unstoppable…Although he thrives within a midfield 3, Fede will be able to play within a double pivot type formation and never look out of place…When you have the engine of a Fede within your team, he is bound to be able to operate outwide, and we’ve seen this exclusively at Real Madrid, where Carlo Ancelotti tended to place him on the right in crunch games in order to beef up the midfield even more. But make no mistake, he is not a natural wide player, more like a player who has great attributes that will allow him to do a job for his team Since he is more than comfortable playing out wide off the right, he will be a very compotent player within a back 3 or 5 formation
HOW TO BEST USE HIM:
All in all, nothing quite beats Fede playing within a midfield 3
Although I mentioned that Fede is one of the more versatile players within the current game, it is important to note that there are some roles that won’t be a good fit for his style. Don’t get me wrong, he can indeed play in these positions in one off games, but it shouldn’t be a mainstay since his best Attributes (which are truly worldclass) will not be utilized in the following roles:
WHO ARE THE BEST TEAMMATES:
So, guess what? When it comes to getting the best out of Fede, you will come to learn that he is one of the rarest unicorns in terms of him only needing one specific player next to him when playing as your M(C), and that is a ‘Playmaker’ who will take the creative burden off of Fede so that he can play his natural game When it comes to playing within a midfield 2, I advise that you consider playing him next to a ‘D.L.P’ who will orchestrate from deeper positions and allow Fede to showcase that world class engine of his When Fede plays outwide, it’s very important to remember that, although he can play there, it’s not his perffered position, so it is important that he has the right players around him in order to not expose certain aspects of his playing style as your ‘Wide Midfielder’…You will need to have a lot of creative type players around him who will do their thing on the ball and not call for Fede to have to be the creative spark within the team. The beauty about doing this is the fact that when you play him in this set up, he will often be left open in space since creativity isn’t his main thing, but due to his effectiveness, he will be able to play those decisive passes or take that decisive shot because let’s not forget that he is a world class player, after all As a ‘Wingback’, or a Wide Midfielder’ within a back 3 or 5, you can expect traditional things from Fede such as providing width, overlapping, pressing hard, getting balls into the box, and making off the ball movement. He will still require more creative players around him, as well as a ‘Target Man’ style of player that he can play off of
IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY
Fede is one of the rare gems that can play out of position if you are in an injury or suspension crisis. If you have good memory, you’ll remember that Fede had the capability of playing as a DM(R) which means he has experience of playing as a ‘Wingback’ in a back 4 (which is how his ability to play out wide came about). So, despite him having the red next to his name when playing as your D(R), once you have the right players around him, you can expect to see 6’s and even 7’s out of 10. Just don’t play him here habitually, lol.
I absolutely adore Fede as a player and cannot wait to see him in action next season (in real life and within Soccermanager 😉).
There is another player who has been upgraded to world class status, and, if potential is anything to consider, he might be in the discussion for the next G.O.A.T.
The Soccermanager Experience 