Every FIFA 16 Ultimate Team player wants to hit the holy grail. There are only a few players in Ultimate Team that can legitimately change your whole team. The chances of saving up over one million coins to buy yourself a superstar are slim, and the chances of finding them in a pack are even slimmer. But what if you want to be an Ultimate Team god without Messi or Ronaldo?
As important as it is to have a stout defence and a terrifying strike partnership, your midfielders will affect the game more than anyone else on the pitch. Whether it’s protecting the back line, supporting the forwards, winning the ball or scoring goals themselves, the players in the middle of the pitch are crucial to every phase of the match and a top-quality midfield will win you plenty of matches throughout the season. You see, Ultimate Team isn’t just about having the best players, and you can build a solid team via the auction house, without having to go through the coin flip of a rare gold pack only to receive one of our troll players.
In fact, if money is no object and you’re after someone to bolster your front line for the next decade, Neymar should be your first port of call. Along with Paul Pogba and James Rodríguez, Neymar’s 93 potential is the joint-highest in the game and even at his 88 overall starting point, he’s still a monster. His 80 overall shooting will grow in time, but his 90 pace and 91 dribbling alongside five-star skill moves and five-star weak foot rating makes him indispensable as a striker or a wide-attacker.
If there’s one thing football pundits across the world keep drumming into our heads, it’s this – defending is an art form. EA has bought into that in recent years as well, by revamping FIFA’s defending mechanics to make it far more interesting than just hammering on the tackle button. And though he’s rated slightly below the Frenchman in FIFA 16 Career Mode, he’s still an excellent signing for your defence. Marquinhos isn’t the strongest of centre backs, but he makes up for that as an excellent technical, ball-carrying defender.
His tackling and interceptions are both excellent even at the very beginning of your career, and his passing is good enough to set off counterattacks, too. Sign him up, give him some time in the first team and he’ll grow from an 81 to an 87 overall. Not too shabby. Granted, there hasn’t been a lot of that ‘art’ on display across the world's top leagues over the last couple of years, but there are some masterful defenders out there in FIFA 16 Career Mode, just waiting to come and solve your defensive problems.
We’ve already suggested some FIFA 16 Career mode high-potential wonderkids in another piece, but if you’re looking for a quality midfield signing that can fit straight into your first-XI, we’ve got the goods right here. Every position on the football pitch is important. We’ve already made the argument for having a dominant midfield over all else in our best midfielders round-up and sure – your midfield can control an entire game for you. But having all the possession isn’t going to get you anywhere if you don’t have someone to score you some goals.
