Current First XI and Squad
How careless of me. Here I have been playing PES2008* for a couple of weeks now, and I still haven’t done a proper job of updating my First XI and Full Squad lists. Here’s the First XI:
Despite my lowly position and my continuing failure to get to grips with the game, I think this is a pretty good First XI.
There are a couple of niggling worries. Yamada is playing so out of position at the moment, but I want to play Camacho on the right. And Yamada is a little short of having the quality needed to take the place of one of my strikers up front. Couto and Maldini in the centre of defence are both Youth players and not very strong. I concede loads of goals and it’s all their fault (not mine…). But I want to develop them and I haven’t got any great CBs on the bench anyway.
(Whoops. I’ve just noticed that I’ve missed a player off the squad list: a very capable CB/DMF called Donk (really). I got him in the first negotiations in season 2007, and he’s been pretty solid. He’s only on the bench now because I’ve got Maldini and Couto and I want to develop them. I haven’t got time now to update the squad list, but I’ve got negotiations coming up in the next day or so. A couple of players will leave and others will be coming in, so I’ll update the list then.)
One peculiar thing I have noticed about PES2008: the CPU is very keen to initiate trade-in deals of its own.
I’ve never known the CPU in any PES to do that before, or if it did, it was a very rare occasion and the players it offered to you were absolutely terrible. Not so this time around. Of my current squad, I got Batlles, Sergio Garcia, Sibon, and Komol—all of them pretty good players—from trade-ins offered by the CPU for the likes of Castolo, Stein, and the rest of them.
*It’s no longer ‘last-gen PES2008′. It’s just PES2008. From now on I’ll only draw the distinction when specifically comparing it to the so-called next-gen PES2008 .
Well! Looks like I’ve got some reading to do. Glad to see that you’ve kicked the next-gen mess to the curb and come to the PS2 side.
I’m still enjoying the game tremendously, and I’m sure your love affiar will be rekindled. Maybe next-year they’ll get things sorted.
Hi (not) greg, i noticed that you have got park jyun hi, i have just bought him on my master league (next-gen PES2008 on PC). I bought him because he had a lot of stars and i thought he might develop well, how good has he been for you?
Park Jyun Hi takes a while to develop, but he’s a pretty good CF. His ability stars go a long way to help him score frequently. Definitely a keeper.
ck – I noticed your PESfan Aylesbury Vale thread had stopped. Get it back! As for me, my move to PES2008 was a long time in coming. I really, really hope PES2009 on the next-gen consoles is worthy. You know what I’d settle for? A version of the ‘last-gen’ games, albeit with next-gen graphics.
I’m blown away by the gameplay of PES2008 on PSP/PS2. The PC/PS3/360 version has its merits, but ultimately fails IMO due to general low difficulty and the capability of easily scoring the kinds of goals that PES fans used to castigate FIFA for. The cruellest thing about next-gen PES2008 is that it would be a perfect game to play online against other people—but the net code is irrevocably broken! Doh….
Ben & Mirandinha – Park Jyun Hi is quite poor at the moment but is showing promise, just like Couto and Maldini and Camacho etc. I’m already picking so many youngsters in my First XI that I’ve decided to go with experience up front for now. This is going to change. I’ve reached the point where I have no chance of making it into a promotion spot this season. I might as well spend the rest of the season on developing all my young players. Looking a few seasons down the line, I should have loads of great players in their early 20s who I’ve developed myself. That’s the theory anyway…