https://preview.redd.it/bmbo02zzz3p21.jpg?width=1002&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9db1b564ab4d01b14ba88bb35053ed8d40842e87

I'm so mad about what Flo did to Makélélé still...

I know he is not as famous as Scholes, nor successful, but in my eyes he is the best Defensive Midfielder of recent memory.

He did not play a glamorous role, and only scored 18 goals over his almost 20 year career. But he was one of those players you do not notice until they aren't there. He was a rock, that disrupted offense extremely effectively and whose ball distribution was solid and consistent.

There's a goal.com article on him here: http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2011/05/30/2508670/the-claude-makelele-role-a-fond-farewell-to-the-former-defensive-

On a subreddit I'm a member of, a guy compared the current PSG squad to the Real Madrid squad of the first Galacticos era. In my humble opinion, there is no comparison whatsoever. It seems to me closer to the Barsa of Ronaldinho, Etoo and Messi than to Madrid. I even still think that Barsa is better than this PSG. How do you see it? I leave you the squads of both teams.

Real Madrid first Galacticos: Portugal Luís Figo – signed in 2000 for €60 million from Barcelona. France Zinedine Zidane – signed in 2001 for €73.5 million from Juventus. Brazil Ronaldo – signed in 2002 for €45 million from Inter. England David Beckham – signed in 2003 for €37.5 million from Manchester United. England Michael Owen – signed in 2004 for €9 million from Liverpool. Brazil Robinho – signed in 2005 for €24 million from Santos. Spain Sergio Ramos – signed in 2005 for €27 million from Sevilla. Spain Fernando Hierro – signed pre-Pérez in 1989 for €1 million from Valladolid. Spain Raúl – graduated from youth system in 1994. Spain Guti – graduated from youth system in 1995. Brazil Roberto Carlos – signed pre-Pérez in 1996 for €3.5 million from Inter. Spain Fernando Morientes – signed pre-Pérez in 1997 for €6.6 million from Zaragoza. Spain Iván Helguera – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for €4.5 million from Espanyol. Spain Míchel Salgado – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for €11 million from Celta. England Steve McManaman – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for free-transfer from Liverpool. Spain Iker Casillas – graduated from youth system in 1999. France Claude Makélélé – signed in 2000 for €14 million from Celta.

PSG now:

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK Costa Rica CRC Keylor Navas 2 DF Morocco MAR Achraf Hakimi 3 DF France FRA Presnel Kimpembe (vice-captain)[172] 4 DF Spain ESP Sergio Ramos 5 DF Brazil BRA Marquinhos (captain)[172] 6 MF Italy ITA Marco Verratti 7 FW France FRA Kylian Mbappé 8 MF Argentina ARG Leandro Paredes 9 FW Argentina ARG Mauro Icardi 10 FW Brazil BRA Neymar 11 MF Argentina ARG Ángel Di María 12 MF Brazil BRA Rafinha 14 DF Spain ESP Juan Bernat 15 MF Portugal POR Danilo Pereira 16 GK Spain ESP Sergio Rico 17 DF France FRA Colin Dagba 18 MF Netherlands NED Georginio Wijnaldum 20 DF France FRA Layvin Kurzawa

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF Spain ESP Ander Herrera 22 DF Senegal SEN Abdou Diallo 23 MF Germany GER Julian Draxler 24 DF Germany GER Thilo Kehrer 25 DF Portugal POR Nuno Mendes (on loan from Sporting CP) 27 MF Senegal SEN Idrissa Gueye 28 MF France FRA Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe

Hello!

With the 2021 Euro starting in a few hours, and France being billed as a favourite to win it all, I wanted to take a minute to evoke the memory of another French team that went into a major competion with the status of favourite, only to face a disaster unseen in the country since the 1940 Battle of France.

I don't mean to jinx anything, just to recall the story of a team slated to achieve incredible things, which ended up in utter disgrace. I want to tell the story of the 2002 World Cup French team.

The first thing you have to know about the 2002 French team is that it was STACKED. This was, in my opinion, the most stacked French team ever fielded (on paper at least). Yes, even more stacked than either of World Cup-winning French squads, and more than this year' French squad. Let's review the team comp (which usually played in 4-4-2):

ATTACK:

• Thierry Henry, coming off an astonishing season with Arsenal (won the the PL and the FA Cup). A fast-paced striker, he was the Premier League Golden Boot with 24 goals, and a top 5 forward in the world with a string of dominating performances.

• David Trezeguet, capocannoniere of the Serie A (with 24 goals too), which he won with Juve. He formed a great duet with Henry, as they both came out of AS Monaco and had played many matches together for both club and country.

• And if these two weren't enough, the first man of the substitutes list was Djibril Cissé... the top scorer of the French Ligue 1. Yes, France was fielding the top scorers of 3 majors European championships!

MIDFIELD:

• Zinedine Zidane needs no introduction, of course. At the time, he was the arguably the best offensive midfielder of his generation, and the most expensive player ever. Just prior to the WC, he had won the Champions League with Real Madrid, scoring this gem in the final.

• Sylvain Wiltord, another starter in the super successful Arsenal team of the early 2000's. A versatile player who could successfully start in any offensive position.

• Claude Makélélé. If you don't know about him, just picture an angry N'Golo Kanté. The man was a beast, the ultimate workhorse. He was so precious as a player that his departure from Real Madrid a year later pretty much doomed the Zidanes y Pavones experiment. And he then went on to become a legend at Chelsea. Easily top 5 in the world at his position at the time.

• Patrick Vieira. Another c

This is a list of our current Champions League winners and what each of them were doing when Chelsea last won the Champions League back in 2012.

First of all here's the playing squad:

• Andreas Christensen - Chelsea academy, joined 3 months before
• Antonio Rüdiger - VfB Stuttgart (Bundesliga), just made 1st senior appearance
• Ben Chilwell - Leicester City academy
• Billy Gilmour - Rangers academy, still in primary school
• Callum Hudson-Odoi - Chelsea academy
• César Azpilicueta - Olympique Marseille (Ligue 1), reached CL quarter-final
• Christian Pulisic - PA Classics, team of the US Soccer Development Academy league
• Édouard Mendy - AS Cherbourg, just made 1st senior apperances in French 3rd division
• Emerson Pamieri - Santos (Brazil), made 1 senior appearance in state league
• Faustino Anjorin - Chelsea academy, still in primary school
• Hakim Ziyech - SC Heerenveen academy
• Jorginho - Hellas Verona (Serie B)
• Kai Havertz - Bayer Leverkusen academy
• Kepa Arrizabalaga - Basconia, 3rd team of Bilbao
• Kurt Zouma - AS Saint-Étienne (Ligue 1), just played 1st senior season
• Marcos Alonso - Bolton Wanderers, just relegated from the Premier League
• Mason Mount - Chelsea academy
• Mateo Kovačić - Dinamo Zagreb, touted as one of the best young CL players
• N'Golo Kanté - US Boulogne, just made 1st senior appearance for relegated Ligue 2 team
• Olivier Giroud - Montpellier HSC, just won the Ligue 1 title and league's top scorer
• Reece James - Chelsea academy
• Tammy Abraham - Chelsea academy
• Thiago Silva - AC Milan, would join PSG 2 weeks later
• Timo Werner - VfB Stuttgart academy
• Willy Caballero - Málaga CF (La Liga)

And now here's some of the non-playing staff:

• Thomas Tuchel - Managing Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga
• Arno Michels - Assisting Tuchel at Mainz 05
• Petr Čech - Won the Champions League, voted Fans' MOTM for the final
• Paulo Ferreira - Won the Champions League
• Henrique Hilário - Playing for Chelsea, but didn't receive CL medal
• Claude Makélélé - Assistant to Carlo Ancelotti at PSG
• Carlo Cudicini - Playing for Tottenham Hotspur
• Tore André Flo - Playing for Sogndal IL in Norway

Hey all, I created a thread back in Icon Swaps 1(https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/ktcx07/icon_swaps_icon_pack_guide_including_base_icon/) and was messaged a couple of times over the weekend about creating a new thread for Icon Swaps 2 pack percentages, so here it is!

This time, the choices are a lot less controversial (no player pick!), but there are still interesting options.

Again, the way these percentages are calculated are using the market prices from FUTBIN as a proxy for rarity. This is not perfect and do not reflect perfectly the percentages of these packs, but you can use them as a guide and rough sense for how likely to pack a player.

ADDENDUM

I calculated the expected value in coins of the 81+, 82+, and 83+ packs.

81+: 65K
82+: 102K
83+: 217k

1: Prime Pack (10% > 600k, expected value: 403.5k)

For the prime pack, it's 12 tokens. This is probably a popular option to get along with the 83x25 pack.

We also had an SBC out recently for a prime pack, and the pack cost ~600k, so in evaluating this pack, we calculate the probability of getting a player > 600k. Turns out there's not that many players > 600k (~37 players), and it's heavily top loaded. Thus, the probability turns out to be 10%.

2: 91+ Pack (15% > 600k, expected value: 483k)

Another popular choice will be the 91+ pack. It gets rid of a lot of crappy icons (looking at you Litmanen...), but also cuts out someone like Essien. There's still a lot of bad primes > 91, with the likes of Ruud, Laudrup, Giggs, Kluivert, ... Going with the same methodology of finding primes > 600k, the probability you pack someone > 600k is 15%.

3: Prime or Moments Pack (27% > 600k, 15.45% > 800k, expected value: 550k)Moments: 38%, Prime: 62%

The big boy. Moments are really pricy right now, and many moments are going for over 600k, like Lineker. And a lot of moments are usable, even if they're not the best ones (Nakata, Pep, Kluivert).

Going with the same methodology as above, we calculate 24.48% chance of getting a prime or moments icon > 600k. Almost 10% more than the 91+ pack. Splitting this into prime or moments, the prime is hovering 7% and the moments is at 17%.

This pack costs more tokens though, so ideally we want something more than just 600k, and if this pack came out in the market, it might be

Do your worst!

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

Pilot on me!!

They’re on standbi

LIVE SCORE: ENGLAND XI 0-0 WORLD XI

Date: 06/09/2020 19:30(ish) BST

Competition: Soccer Aid

Venue: Old Trafford

Please do not post links to streams in the comments

England XI squad:

Celebrities

• Olly Murs (captain)
• Joe Wicks
• Joel Dommett
• Marvin Humes
• Danny Jones
• Mark Wright
• Lee Mack
• Tom Davis
• James Bay
• John Bishop
• Alfie Allen
• Yung Filly
• Chunkz
• Paddy McGuinness

Legends

• David James
• Wes Brown
• Ashley Cole
• Katie Chapman
• Joe Cole
• Gareth Barry
• Kelly Smith
• Andy Cole
• Emile Heskey

World XI squad:

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

I won't be doing that today!

You take away their little brooms

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

There hasn't been a post all year!

On a subreddit I'm a member of, a guy compared the current PSG squad to the Real Madrid squad of the first Galacticos era. In my humble opinion, there is no comparison whatsoever. It seems to me closer to the Barsa of Ronaldinho, Etoo and Messi than to Madrid. I even still think that Barsa is better than this PSG. How do you see it? I leave you the squads of both teams.

Real Madrid first Galacticos: Portugal Luís Figo – signed in 2000 for €60 million from Barcelona. France Zinedine Zidane – signed in 2001 for €73.5 million from Juventus. Brazil Ronaldo – signed in 2002 for €45 million from Inter. England David Beckham – signed in 2003 for €37.5 million from Manchester United. England Michael Owen – signed in 2004 for €9 million from Liverpool. Brazil Robinho – signed in 2005 for €24 million from Santos. Spain Sergio Ramos – signed in 2005 for €27 million from Sevilla. Spain Fernando Hierro – signed pre-Pérez in 1989 for €1 million from Valladolid. Spain Raúl – graduated from youth system in 1994. Spain Guti – graduated from youth system in 1995. Brazil Roberto Carlos – signed pre-Pérez in 1996 for €3.5 million from Inter. Spain Fernando Morientes – signed pre-Pérez in 1997 for €6.6 million from Zaragoza. Spain Iván Helguera – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for €4.5 million from Espanyol. Spain Míchel Salgado – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for €11 million from Celta. England Steve McManaman – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for free-transfer from Liverpool. Spain Iker Casillas – graduated from youth system in 1999. France Claude Makélélé – signed in 2000 for €14 million from Celta. Plus other minor role players

PSG now:

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK Costa Rica CRC Keylor Navas 2 DF Morocco MAR Achraf Hakimi 3 DF France FRA Presnel Kimpembe (vice-captain)[172] 4 DF Spain ESP Sergio Ramos 5 DF Brazil BRA Marquinhos (captain)[172] 6 MF Italy ITA Marco Verratti 7 FW France FRA Kylian Mbappé 8 MF Argentina ARG Leandro Paredes 9 FW Argentina ARG Mauro Icardi 10 FW Brazil BRA Neymar 11 MF Argentina ARG Ángel Di María 12 MF Brazil BRA Rafinha 14 DF Spain ESP Juan Bernat 15 MF Portugal POR Danilo Pereira 16 GK Spain ESP Sergio Rico 17 DF France FRA Colin Dagba 18 MF Netherlands NED Georginio Wijnaldum 20 DF France FRA Layvin Kurzawa

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF Spain ESP Ander Herrera 22 DF Senegal SEN Abdou Diallo 23 MF Germany GER Julian Draxler 24 DF Germany GER Thilo Kehrer 25 DF Portugal POR Nuno Mendes (on loan from Sporting CP) 27 MF Senegal SEN Idrissa Gueye 28 MF France F

This is a list of our current Champions League winners and what each of them were doing when Chelsea last won the Champions League back in 2012.

First of all here's our playing squad:

• Andreas Christensen - Chelsea academy, joined 3 months before
• Antonio Rüdiger - VfB Stuttgart (Bundesliga), just made 1st senior appearance
• Ben Chilwell - Leicester City academy
• Billy Gilmour - Rangers academy, still in primary school
• Callum Hudson-Odoi - Chelsea academy
• César Azpilicueta - Olympique Marseille (Ligue 1), reached CL quarter-final
• Christian Pulisic - PA Classics, team of the US Soccer Development Academy league
• Édouard Mendy - AS Cherbourg, just made 1st senior appearances in French 3rd division
• Emerson Pamieri - Santos (Brazil), made 1 senior appearance in state league
• Faustino Anjorin - Chelsea academy, still in primary school
• Hakim Ziyech - SC Heerenveen academy
• Jorginho - Hellas Verona (Serie B)
• Kai Havertz - Bayer Leverkusen academy
• Kepa Arrizabalaga - Basconia, 3rd team of Bilbao
• Kurt Zouma - AS Saint-Étienne (Ligue 1), just played 1st senior season
• Marcos Alonso - Bolton Wanderers, just relegated from the Premier League
• Mason Mount - Chelsea academy
• Mateo Kovačić - Dinamo Zagreb, touted as one of the best young CL players
• N'Golo Kanté - US Boulogne, just made 1st senior appearance for relegated Ligue 2 team
• Olivier Giroud - Montpellier HSC, just won the Ligue 1 title and league's top scorer
• Reece James - Chelsea academy
• Tammy Abraham - Chelsea academy
• Thiago Silva - AC Milan, would join PSG 2 weeks later
• Timo Werner - VfB Stuttgart academy
• Willy Caballero - Málaga CF (La Liga)

And now here's some of our non-playing staff:

• Thomas Tuchel - Managing Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga
• Arno Michels - Assisting Tuchel at Mainz 05
• Petr Čech - Won the Champions League, voted Fans' MOTM for the final
• Paulo Ferreira - Won the Champions League
• Henrique Hilário - Playing for Chelsea, but didn't receive CL medal
• Claude Makélélé - Assistant to Carlo Ancelotti at PSG
• Carlo Cudicini - Playing for Tottenham Hotspur
• Tore André Flo - Playing for Sogndal IL in Norway

KTBFFH!

I've got all my tokens and after seeing a ton of base icon player picks, I went out to try to figure out what was the best swaps combination available that would give me the best chance at a "usable" or "desirable" player. I was also inspired by this post here to calculate percentages.

I used the market price of the icons (USING www.futbin.com) as an estimate for their "rarity", so this is all only an estimate. EA definitely have the weight different as there's some kind of price correlation to "meta" which they probably don't fully take into account, but it's a good enough approximation and will tell you generally how likely it is to pack a certain player from a certain pack.

At the bottom of the post, I'm posting an APPENDIX for what I think is a desirable / usable Icon player in each category.

RESULTS

1. Base Icon Pack
   Desirable: 5.76% Chance
   Usable: 16% Chance
2. Base or Mid Icon Pack
   Desirable: 5.88% Chance
   Usable: 18.07% Chance
3. Mid Icon Pack
   Desirable: 6.03% Chance
   Usable: 20.01% Chance
4. Mid or Prime Pack
   Desirable: 6.1% Chance
   Usable: 27.65% Chance
5. 89+ Pack
   Desirable: 8.3% Chance
   Usable: 21.34% Chance
6. Base Icon Player Pick
   Desirable: 17.29% Chance
   Usable: 49.31% Chance (Without Goalies), 63% Chance (With Goalies)
7. Picking the Base Icon Pack + Base or Mid Icon Pack:
   Desirable: 11.3% Chance
   Usable: 31.17% Chance

As you can see: if you think just from empirical evidence that the player pick is cracked, you're right! It certainly looks *very* cracked, and seems much better than picking any of the packs if you want a usable player, or a desirable player.

If you pick two icon packs (Base Icon + Base or Mid), you have a better chance of getting a desirable or usable player, but still not nearly as good of a chance as the base icon player pick. One thing to note is that as you spend more tokens, the chance you get better players increases! But the increases are all minimal, except the icon player pick.

So if you're just looking to get the BEST possible outcome, go with the player pick!

The percentages change wildly based on the definition of "desirable" and "usable", because if you are OK stomaching keepers (they'll go in my team) then each keeper is the most likely to be packed (in the player pick they're around 5% likely). It's possibl