Goal caught up with Hashtag United's Alex 'Shawrey' Shaw after he competed in the February FUT Champions Cup in Atlanta to find out more about the amazing UItimate Team squad he uses in FIFA 19.
Shawrey's 20 million coin squad consists of: Champions League Thibaut Courtois, inform Joao Cancelo, baby Icon Rio Ferdinand, Team of the Year (TOTY) Raphael Varane, TOTY Marcelo, baby Icon Patrick Vieira, TOTY Modric, inform Neymar, TOTY Kylian Mbappe, TOTY Lionel Messi and regular Cristiano Ronaldo. A team so good, he didn't have to make many changes once he loaded up the unlocked account at the esports tournament.
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Read down below to find out the idea around his team, what cards (both expensive and cheap) that he recommends as well his general advice for the game.
Who was the first player you put in your team and decided to build around?
Cristiano Ronaldo, he's been in my team since the start of FIFA 19. Ronaldo every year in FIFA is the best player because of his physicality, his height, and his shooting is just ridiculous.
Is CR7 the MVP of your squad then or is it someone else? There has been a lot of talk of TOTY Mbappe recently.
TOTY Mbappe is the best player in the game by an absolute mile but Ronaldo is important for the headers because headers are really important in the game now. In the end, though, Mbappe is the most fun player I've ever used and definitely the best on the game, he's just amazing.
Despite his crazy stats, TOTY Modric doesn't appear in too many squads - perhaps because of his price. What is he like in-game?
I wasn't going to use him but then I bought him at home just before I went to the event and I absolutely loved him. Even though the event didn't go that well for me, Modric is still one of the best centre-mids I've used in FIFA. He's the most broken card in FIFA 19, so if you can afford him just buy him. I think he's the first ever player in FIFA to have 90 or above in every stat on the card face, so you'd hope he's unbelievable and he is. There is nothing bad about him, the only thing you could take away is his height but he can defend, attack, he can do everything - you could genuinely play him anywhere on the pitch.
Are there any players in FIFA 19 that you've used but have been disappointed with? Who wasn't as good as you hoped?
I used Future Star Vinicius Junior, 92-rated, and on the card-face he looks amazing but in-game he played awfully for me. It said he has 95 dribbling but no-chance did it feel like that. He's slow and clunky on the ball and felt so bad compared to Neymar who is actually cheaper! I sold Vinicius Junior and bought Neymar back straight away.
And when you went to the FUT Champions Cup in Atlanta, did you change a lot of your team?
Not too much, just sort of upgraded my Icons to the Primes and obviously I changed Ronaldo and Neymar for their TOTY versions. Then I used TOTY Ramos at right-back and brought in Prime Icon Paolo Maldini as another centre-back - I'd say he and TOTY Varane are the best in that position. In the warm-ups it went really well but it just didn't quite work out once we started. I finished top eight in Bucharest back in January which was a really good experience and better than I expected. So, when I went to Atlanta, I went in with high expectations, so getting grouped was pretty gutting. But coming to the United States was amazing and it was class that F2Tekkz won as we're good mates with him.
How would you describe your own play-style and what sort of advice would you give to our readers who want to play like you?
I love skill moves, getting down the wings and trying to create a chance from there. I'm quite an aggressive defender which worked really well in Bucharest because I had some of the least goals conceded at a tournament ever. And sometimes in a competitive game, I quite like to slowly build up and set the tone for the match. If you want to get better at using skill-moves, you can't just spam them at random times. You have to work out what works in different situations, that's how you become good at FIFA. With skills, especially, having the reactions to know what skill move to pull out in different situations is really important. Learn how and when to execute them and you'll be good to go.
Final question, and another tip for our readers, who is a cheap card you've used or heard of that you would recommend?
Defensively, players like Geoffrey Kondogbia and Fabinho are both really good and overpowered. And, for forwards, Memphis Depay has a really good basic card and there are a lot of options in the Premier League like Sadio Mane and Leroy Sane who aren't that expensive now. Any players with good pace, dribbling and solid shooting are fairly cheap and fit into the meta of the game.
Hashtag Shawrey was speaking following his participation at February’s ELEAGUE FIFA 19 FUT Champions Cup held in Atlanta. To catch action from the next tournament follow @EAFIFAesports on Twitter.