A PLAYERS VIEW ON BEING A CLUB PRO.

For myself FIFA clubs is the ultimate interpretation of the beautiful game in virtual form. Just as much enjoyment, frustration and ecstasy can be found in a nights session as can be from taken 90 minutes of a real match.

I’ve been lucky enough to experience clubs in the top division on two separate occasions, firstly as a player for Barcabona FC and more recently as a co-manager and player with my current club Jooblo FC (www.jooblo.com).

With EA introducing their Personality+ feature into FIFA 11, creating and developing your pro takes a little bit more thought and effort than in previous editions of the series.

It’s easy enough to invest some time into maxing out the stats for your player by unlocking some of the 400 accomplishments available, but as I’ve found out the real secret to your success on the field lies in the selection of your players – playing style and traits.

It might seem straight forward to just select the style that has the highest stats for your preferred position or the one that just seems to make sense, but after playing I realised it needs a little bit more fine tuning than that.

As a defensive midfielder I found that I could select the playing style of ball winner. It seemed to suit me perfectly high tackling stats, good heading ability, and all round decent passing stats, with the added height of 6ft1 I was all set to be a dominate Vierra like force in the center of the park. Put into practice though it just didn’t fit. This was down to how I play when I’m on the pitch. I anticipate players runs and often rely on speed to intercept a ball or catch a man, I turn players quickly to find space to release a pass and my ball control and dribbling were just too sluggish on this style. The solution? Lowering my height to 5ft10 and changing the style to playmaker, yet still maintaining my discipline as a CDM to counter act the reduced tackling stats gave me the abilities I preferred on the pitch.

When starting out on your FIFA 11 pro career think back to the kind of player your were in FIFA 10. Were you a pacey winger that relied more on an accurate cross than a short pass? then maybe there’s a better option available to you and don’t forget the all important traits that also impact your player. Experiment and don’t be afraid to change your style and physique, it’s about what suits you when your out on the field and what you can make the most positive impact with.

Thanks for reading and good luck on the pitch.