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If you look at Jarvis' stats he starts out with Finishing at the kind of level that not many strikers get to. That's why he's Jarvis. Give him a run of games and you, too, will see... And the variety of goals too.

:) it was just a case of believing in him

and as for Hervey.... On a more serious note, I think I might have a duff Rice. He seems very underpowered, particularly in this league. Early days but something to watch

Clearly Jarvis will never amount to anything....

good to see you back Turf, and keeping faith with us north of the border

St Mirren play in a very attravtive kit don't they. And that is one of those misses where you think "If that had gone in, I would never have been unhappy about anything again." And - Hervey??? Always one of the ones I ship out early, as fast as possible. I often wonder what Rices and Jarvises and Castledines might be lurking among the majority of Defaults who never make it past transfer window 1 or 2. Was Coutinho injured?

unique celebration

Haha

The must-win game that early is a true rarity, don't remember having one that early - but I never play in the variety of leagues that you do and I would bet the RNG is different for each one. This just made me think, with no eFootball Master League on the horizon at all, maybe playing a full Master League career in every available league of PES 2021 on FUMA and Superstar (or Legend?) is what I should do with the rest of my life. I've played in La Liga and the Campeanato in Brazil (still a live save that one) but nowhere else.

glad you managed to persuade Pongracic to rejoin the project for the umpteenth time! Castledine-Arcas-Jarvis goals will forever have that classic PES 2021 air

It's a nice kit, and has early Newcastle associations for me (before they adopted national colours and the like). Jarvis has never been a player for me, I just don't rate the fella. But needs must and everyone gets a clean slate in this career. I've got very limited budget so I intend to make the most of the default midfield/strikers and bring in keeper/defence.

This is going to be a slow burn career. I've been doing research interviews and stats for the last X years in my job and got asked to review a paper that used ethnography. Made me realise I'd got out of practice with this method and I wanted something to work on. In the absence of any funding for something 'real' I thought my experience as a new manager in PES would be ideal. So I'm treating this as an immersive project. Every game, every time period between games, I'm writing down my thoughts, reflecting on my decisions and documenting my struggles. I chose St Mirren because of the more realistic feeling for me, and not needing to get my head round the league or rules first. It does mean I can't rattle off multiple games in a night though, each one has to count, each has meaning. This first one was unbelievably dull but I was very pleased to not lose. At some point I'll write it all up and stick it somewhere.

Always been a fan of the St Mirren kit ever since Coventry played them in the short-lived Anglo-Scottish Cup in 1988. And that's a fine Jarvis finish. He's not just a Mick Quinn.

@abbeyhil Much as it pains me to admit, the fly by night manager is going to restart. There's something about being in another calendar that doesn't translate very well in the PES journey when you move continents. Missed regen window, weird youth team, starting mid season with no objectives. And also that inclusion of old Lobato in the default team who I sold for £20+m gave me too much leeway in season 1. New beginnings, in Europe.

youth team infrastructure needs a bit of investment although I do worry if this fly-by-night manager will see it as a priority

You've really got your eye in with the midrange finesse curlers. A beloved type of goal for me, and no, they never stop feeling satisfying. I wondered what you were doing with Plastun there. I thought, he's a wrong 'un. Then the scooped aerial through-ball went in and I thought, that's a good 'un. Nice to see the old faces in Brandt and Grandal (the American continent's Arcas). Not suprised not to see Bassano. I still pick him in my Brazilian ML and still try the 30-yarders with the same regularity but after 4-5 seasons none have gone in. Matutes (Jarvis) isn't quite the same either.

Alt-Rice (Bassano) has been 'meh' for me too across ~4 seasons in South America (an ML I'm itching to get back to now that my FUMA phase is waning). There is only one Rice. Alt-Castledine, though, Ulloa, is just as effective as the Euro version, and yes, he is dynamite on the right of any setup, cutting inside and unleashing havoc. I saw your own FUMA thoughts on the other vid and you seem to have got the gist, but the downside of FUMA is that it punishes every slight error you might make. The real FUMA heads play long match times to offset the long periods when they're without the ball. I see the appeal, and feel it, but I've got unfinished business with PES 2021 on standard settings, crazy to say.

It’s going to take a while to not think B. Ulloa is J. Rice. Thanks to the old man Lobato money I had a big lump to spend on recruits. Unfortunately opting for something a bit different is difficult when there are clear bargains in the free agent pile and yards of also rans. In came friends of the programme Brandt, Tevez, Civelli, Pogracic as I went for a minimal 18 man squad with some genuine quality. Possibly my best decision though was moving to a 3-4-3, a formation I’ve never played, and moving Ulloa (the Castledine of the Americas) to SS on the right - the latter inspired by NG’s Castledine cut inside discussion. He’s been a revelation. My Rice really. While my actual Rice (Bassano) has been meh.

B. Ulloa is the Rice of ML default LATAM?

South American ML? You know who they all are of course (South American Rice never quite hit the heights but South American Castledine was a carbon copy). It's a tough and niggly game there. Still have mine on pause while I get through my FUMA phase.

I've spent the last week or so messing around with EAFC Ultimate Team and is truly awful, even offline. So back to PES but now I think is the time to end this particular career. This Rice shot sums it up - I came close but I wasn't really in danger of winning the big prizes and my talisman was starting to go downhill. I was losing 3-0 to Spurs having lost 1-0 to some nobody team in the CL. High possession, many shots, to no avail, when it decides you're not the one it needs a better player than me to overcome it. And it's Man Utd anyway. So the Newcastle-Nancy-Man U journey is over. I won precisely nothing. I'm torn between starting World Class same again but behave differently, or going manual on a - don't say it Abbeyhill - lower setting. Not sure right now, the 20 shots to stay at nil is a problem, don't know if manual will overcome this? There might be a few false starts along the way.

I find camera a very crucial point of my gameplay. Even the angle or the height can give me a different perspective of the depth of field. As for the radar, i use it since ISS on SNES and FIFA 99, so I've practically never played without radar. But i know people that do not like radar or name plates, some even play without powergauges. I assume it's what you are used to.

End of season 2028. A few notes on this though - firstly, no-one would ever play Rice wide on the left, I don't even have a formation with a left. He's the engine room not some wafty winger. Secondly, the rest of the team is laughable. Man City won the league by miles. Wolves were second (they are considered one of the top clubs in my world), I was 3rd. That team should be packed with Man City players. Even if it isn't I only conceded 24 goals. Thirdly, I got the dreaded message that Rice had dropped by a point to 74 ovr. He is on his way down (surprisingly so is Haaland - both are 28). I have got regen Toni Kroos and this might be the season I have to split game time. And the Euros were awful - ridiculously fast, ping pongy nerf football - I lost all 3 group matches to the odd goal.

Surprisingly I've taken the added slog of being England manager and played all the matches - I think there's a Euros at the end of this what was supposed to be a one match stand in job. The reason being it is a useful sandbox in the absence of club friendlies. One thing I've found very hard in the club season (I'm 3rd but Man City and dozens of points ahead) is breaking down the AI edge of the box wall. Additionally, my passes sometimes go nowhere near the intended place as nerf kicks in. I've knocked the England camera out to the much wider view - same height and angles - and it's showing me a lot more of the player runs that I will need now that simply being a much better team isn't enough. I doubt I'd have seen this Bellingham run at club level (and does anyone use radar??). I'm going to switch permanently.

And as a footnote, I've never seen that 'Bellingham arms/shush' celebration from Rice or any other player either. I never press any buttons after a goal though. Same thing happens to me on FIFA 24 (that's its name to me) where I'll score and I'll watch the player running across the pitch doing nothing, and then belatedly press a button at random to get them to do something or other.

hah! I saw and enjoyed the Riceness of the missed one earlier, but it's as if the PES gods owed you one and paid up. This was a few yards closer it looked like but the same end of the pitch, the same direction and style of shot. I was going to say on the other one but will say here: 99% of my Rice shots are like the one that went wide (or they get blocked, or go over, or are saved, etc.). 1% of them are like this one. But they're SO satisfying.

I included this Rice miss because it really surprised me. Not much was happening around the box so I decided to have a punt with the nation's favourite long ranger. Power was about my usual for him, he gives himself a bit of pace to work with through the forward touch but it's not a fast run onto effort, and I just shot - no finesse, etc. He has scored some daisy cutters for me but this is low, powerful and very very fast - I've never seen anything like it. After the game I got a bid for him - £8million. Derisory for the man who keeps pulling rabbits out of hats despite seeming to be stuck at 75 overall.

roll on the VAR feature! Out of the irony, it's amazing what KONAMI achieved in the latest PES installments. Most clear Penalties are ignored or denied, while the majority of fouls the ref awards me inside the penaly area, are usually some late collision detection, or some bad collision detection

dear me, not sure how Bale's legs went flying in that direction, a travesty. You know there's a way of quick-selecting a set piece taker without going into the formation screen??

I got asked, as you often do by season 2 regardless of any success. Intended to do a one match Peter Taylor effort then discovered you can’t, you have to take it for the season. That’s annoying as I don’t want to do it but here we are. No idea if there is a tournament ahead.

Wow! I do worry that the overhead kick police will be arriving soon though.....

A classic...overhead....kick. All the more impressive given that we are running on Spring time so lost an hour of vital club practice because of the naturally shorter day. I like the way Haaland boots the ball at the defender after scoring. Amazingly, after the match I was told he had declined one point that month and his best days were likely behind him. He's 27!!

The derby day trauma made me fear the worst but like a benevolent old uncle PES gave me some absolute dream match ups for my next few games - space just suddenly opened up, pretty much every shot I tried from outside the box had a better than usual chance of going in, there's even a straight from kick off goal. The only thing I changed was dropping Fernandes, which dropped my team spirit by 10 points, so it really has felt like another shift of the narrative. Approaching the transfer window and I feel like I pretty much can't sign anyone - I have a fortune but every player responds that they don't feel they'd get enough playing time. It's the problem with taking on the big club job, but then again I do have regen Messi up front as he was lying around the free agent pile!

with all due respect this sounds like the paranoid ramblings of a manager under a lot of pressure

Those hardcoded rival matches and some knock out matches are usually very irritating. Handicap to human player, questionable referees, final whistles in +1 minute over the the added time when CPU needs to score, or or ending the match in 90'49'' instead of 91' when you are counter attacking for one last chance. The no-fouls and PKs i would say seems normal by now, since they are been neglected even in ordinary matches.

Lovely hit - is that the Diego from the Youth setup?

awful control, scruffy pass then suddenly a sublime finish!

don't think I've seen a dive called in my hundreds of hours playing. A few penalties but pretty much all of them saved - keeper suspiciously always goes the right way.....

Great! I acquired Tarantini in my Lecce ML, very good signing

what a moment that would have been - last minute Rice 30 yarder in the derby! Certainly never seen him at 75 OVR. Interesting those captaincy boosts, wasn't fully aware of that

disappointed that the press room at Old Trafford isn't much of an upgrade

That one is a great example of the feature working as intended. You know you can try it too as well? R1+R2+R3+L1+L2+L3. You have to be very opportune with it. I remember trying it when it was introduced... I'm going to guess it was around PES2010-ish. If this is the first you're hearing about the feature it's because unless you execute the command at the right time and place, you always get the treatment the ref dishes out there. A random Google just now turns up some claims of successfully winning penalties, so who knows. I get penalties at the rate of about 1 every 5 seasons. I've missed my last few.

It does look like a wrong decision - "if the on-field ref had given it, it wouldn't have been overturned", as we hear all the time now - but I'm amazed it's a first for you. I see opposition players booked for penalty area simulation quite regularly in my Master League worlds and always have done. At least 2-3 times a season on average. This is a bit like when I saw your players do a run-behind-the-goal celebration and it was the first time I'd ever seen it, never seen that in mine.

Never had a dive called in all the games I've played, and then two in consecutive matches. I've only had one penalty in 7 seasons as well.

The Man U squad I inherited was good, but big, old and very expensive. De Gea, Maguire, Bailly, Fernandes, Martial, VD Beek, Rashford plus too many similar strikers the wrong side of 27. Think of Man U's transfers from around 2018-20 plus other square pegs. I didn't want to destroy the team spirit but it was a time bomb. But I didn't get a lot of offers for them so had to offer trades. Problem with this is that potential signings decided they were unsure of their place in the squad. I got knocked back by so many that I had to go for regens and players from 'other' who seem more likely to sign (I remain unconvinced by the scouting option). There were a few nice surprises and some misses.

You're doing finesse curlers with Rice. And my crossing Jarvis/heading Castledine was weird?! He nearly made it too. My current Rice has developed to 72OVR already (season 3), I think that's the highest he ever got in my longest career to date.

looking at Rice's stats for wrong foot and curve I suggest that this goal was impossible. Presume he'll be coming with you to Old Trafford?

was that a shot from Rice??

Left foot Rice😮 Magnifique

Sweet hit! I guess the classic PES sprint double clamp is called a 'high press' these days.....