Donadel. I first mentioned him in Season’s End; and Under Pressure. Almost as an afterthought, I mentioned him again in 4-3-3 ftw!
Who is Donadel? He’s the player who’s turned my season around, is who.
It started when Duffy got himself sent off in a game against Besiktas. This is going back a good bit, now. At least 10 games, maybe more.
I was 0-1 down. I took off Schwarz and moved things around up front. I noticed for the first time that Donadel - a CMF - could play at DMF as well. There was nobody else to fill in (Suzuki was blue-arrowed for that game), so on came Donadel.
His impact on the game was electrifying. I got a goal back within minutes. He had nothing to do with it directly, but he had broken up a couple of CPU moves in a manner that seemed more… decisive, somehow, than any other DMF I’ve played with so far on PES2008.
I’m used to playing with 10 men by now. In fact I even play a little better with 10 men. It’s the same in PES2008 as it is in real life. The 10 men tighten up, concentrate more, take more care with their passing. The single human player of PES2008 does the same thing.
It suddenly seemed to me that Donadel was a giant. He was everywhere on both sides of the pitch. Tracking back to help out both SBs. Sitting in front of the CBs, blocking shots and making tackles. Going forward and linking up with the AMFs. The only thing it seemed he couldn’t do was unleash rockets at goal a la Mathieu and other notable DMFs. But that’s something I’m happy to live without, when he plays like this as a DMF.
Ever since, he’s been my first-choice DMF. When he plays, and when Shaw and Shimizu play too, I don’t think I can be beaten. The three of them completely dominate the midfield every time. In the one or two games that I lost recently, I lost hard - and Donadel didn’t play.
In the game, he’s 26 now. In real life, today in 2007, he’s still 24 and playing for Fiorentina.
Looking at the real Marco Donadel’s mugshot, his game face seems to be a fairly good likeness. Not great, but good enough. They’ve captured the essence of his face, I think - the slightly hangdog, almost droopy look:
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Forza Donadel! Forza Coventry City!
Indeed…. Playing a 4-3-3 it’s absolutely vital that your DMF is actually pretty good. I’ve said it before but if I had my time again I’d never have started with a 4-3-3 using the Default players.
[...] him out at the end of the season. It makes me feel sad after all he has done for me so far. His arrival in season 2009 was the match that lit the blue touchpaper that ignited the run that swept me to promotion from [...]