October 2017

Today's blog post seeks to outline my methods of finding 'fibra' within the Youth Intakes of South America during the Autumn of 2017.  As you may be aware, fibra is a precious commodity that I have defined in FM17 as high scores in: Aggression, Determination, Teamwork & Workrate.  Players who will run themselves into the ground during matches, embracing the never-say-die attitude of Estudiantes de La Plata (EdlP) and anti-fútbol in general.  Let's begin...

2017 Regen Dates in South America

Like the other Continents in FM17, South American countries very rarely have the same Youth Intake date as each other.  Colombia for example have their intake 8 months before the majority of other South American countries.  The country I am managing in for FM17, Argentina, is also early (July).  Below are the dates for 2017, for more information on future dates and other Continents, I recommend checking out Passion4FootballManager's site here.

• Argentina - 31 July 2017
• Bolivia - 24 September 2017
• Brazil - 11 September 2017
• Chile - 19 September 2017
• Colombia - 06 January 2017
• Ecuador - 24 September 2017
• Paraguay - 24 September 2017
• Peru - 14 September 2017
• Uruguay - 20 July 2017
• Venezuela - 24 September 2017

To clarify - a Youth Intake Day is the annual date where clubs will receive generated players into your u18 teams.  The make-up of these youngsters is dependent on a lot of things including (but not limited to): Affiliate Clubs, Coaching Staff employed by the Club and a Club's Youth Recruitment rating.  There's also an element of luck and no Youth Intake will ever be the same.  It's the joy of FM for me, the unpredictability of how the future plays out.  A nation might get lucky and have 2-3 special talents that can affect the Global Game...like with South Africa in my FM16 Grasshoppers save...who went on to win the 2022 World Cup!

Now that my save has progressed as far as October 2017, every South American club has had a Youth Intake and their 'stock' can be reviewed (and possibly poached).  I will now go on to outlining the various approaches I use: (1) Player Search (2) Club by Club search and (3) Youth Intake View.  Please note - there is no right or wrong way to approach this...it's mainly on how you want to find them and how much time you have.

Disclaimer: 'Time' is the reason why I have opted for turning attribute masking 'off' in my saves, I have a full time job and young family.  Therefore my three methods below are for the more streamlined player....please don't hate on me...

(1) Player Search

This is perhaps the easiest and time saving option.  It's mainly dependent on having the most appropriate Search Filters that make sense to you.  But be aware that not all players will show up on this screen if your Nation knowledge is not 100%.  To discover what nations you have 100% knowledge about visit the Scouting/Knowledge tab:

So if I am happy with 67% knowledge of South America as a search pool, I can search Youngsters (up to 17 years old) on the Fibra framework: at least '10' in each of Aggression, Determination, Teamwork & Work Rate...

I can systemically drill down and review talents.  I can also tweak the search further and solely search on the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, where I have 100% knowledge.

But there's often the niggling feeling that I could miss out on a potential talent from the hideaways within the Andes.  I therefore move on to a more laborious task of the 'Club by Club' search.

(2) Club by Club search

So with fibra in mind, this is what I do:

1. Go to a Nation's page.
2. Click on one of the major clubs.
3. Navigate to their U18s/u20s.
4. Sort by one of the fibra attributes.
5. Use the up and down arrows to jump between youth teams in different clubs.  Until a diamond in the rough grabs my attention.

It's a nice little technique, where I get to see the other clubs around South America.  But it runs the risk of me missing out on a decent Regen...because like technique (1), I am solely looking at the Mental attributes within the fibra model.  So this brings me on to my 3rd and final method...which is quite a tiring process (but also rewarding)...

(3) Youth Intake View

Probably the most time intensive method I use is to scroll through the Youth Intake by a chosen month.  To see ALL of the Youth Intakes in a nation click on 'World' and then 'Transfers'.  The default view will probably be set to 'All Transfers'.  Change this to 'Youth Intake'.

Below is an example of me checking out Colombia, which have their intake in January 2017.

You can see that my cursor is hovering on the 'i' to bring the pop-up screen showing everything I need...Technical/Mental/Physical attributes AND Personality.  If the player perhaps doesn't quite have the fibra but the Personality to develop it...I scout them to know more.

I do this for a time...but after viewing a few hundred players, I eventually get tired and seek to play a match (or two)!

Fibra targets

So the above searches have yielded a few talents, and I'll show four of them today.  I will seek to sign them in the Summer of 2018 (as I don't want to waste my 2 transfer slots in Argentina's Restrictive Winter Transfer Window).  They are:

Osvaldo di Santo - Boca Juniors (Fibra: 53)

Probably the hardest one to sign will be Osvaldo di Santo who is already valued at £300k and who plays for Boca Juniors.  He looks like a special player, Osvaldo has 53 fibra and some nice Technical attributes like Dribbling, Finishing and Technique.  I also like a Brave player, which contemplates the fibra model too.

Daniel García Mancini - Club Atlético Huracán (Fibra: 58)

Daniel García Mancini offers an abundance of fibra for someone at such a young age.  With his Passing being so strong, he is probably suited to the middle of the pitch...although I am worried about his Bravery and Positioning.  He might have to be a luxury AMC player...which currently does not fit into my system.  I will keep a close eye on his development.

Emiliano Soto - Club Atlético Chacarita Juniors (Fibra: 46)

Anybody who knows me in real life knows that I LOVE two-footed players.  Being two-footed makes a player better in real life AND in Football Manager (although not without some problems in FM as I discussed last year here).  Emiliano Soto looks a real talent from the Argentine Second Division.  Combine his two footedness with the already strong Finishing and Technique and we might have a special player.  Definitely one to watch, which many could overlook.

William - Grêmio (Fibra: 59)

Brazilian Centre Backs often get an unfair treatment in the modern game.  Normally assumed to have good ball retention skills without people actually ever seeing them play.  I often hear the same shit in the Emirates when a few overly harsh fans moan at Gabriel Paulista's rigidness at dribbling or playing the limited CB role alongside Laurent Koscielny.  William looks a bit like this, with poor Composure and Vision. he will never be a Ball Playing Defender  But what he does have is fibra and I am quite keen to have him join 'Team Bastardo'.

Meet: Jorge Rodríguez

Estudiantes de La Plata (Fibra: 64)

But the real fibra whore is a player that is already residing in La Plata.  Meet: Jorge Rodríguez the gem from the 2017 Estudiantes Youth Intake.  He already has the fibra to make it into the EdlP team, but I've got a few years to polish his game.  I'd quite like to see him develop into a boss Ball Winning Midfielder, somebody who can aggressively run that midfield and distribute the ball quickly and effectively with this lovely PPM of 'Tries Long Range Passes'.  Expect to hear a lot more about Jorge from me in the future!

Fibra of The Future

This has been me outlining a few fibra targets for the future, I could probably have shown you another 20 odd youngsters that are fitting of the fibra model.  The future certainly looks 'bastardy' in my save...and I cannot wait to see it unfold.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read.

FMG