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FIFA 21: How to get FUT 21's best Right Midfield players for your team
Can't find a good option for the right side of your team? We got you.
FIFA 21 Ultimate Team has a problem, and we're not talking about the way your buddy who only plays for three weeks a year packed Neymar and Mbappe and you have a transfer list full of 82-rated Spanish goalkeepers. The problem is that there are a dearth of really good, reasonably priced players to play on the right wing. Pick any other position, run a search on Futbin or Futhead and you're spoiled for choice. But over on the right side, you either need to be a FUT coins millionaire or have very good pack luck.
Fortunately, there are ways around this issue. If you're struggling to fill that problem position in your team, read on for some of our go-to solutions.
Option 1: Using players off-chem
Salah may be great, but he's not as valuable as Mane
© EA
Chemistry is the glue that binds a team together in FUT 21, and we've all been conditioned to believe that our squads need 100 overall chemistry and each player on 10 chemistry (or "full chem" in community parlance). But the truth is that some players are absolutely fine to play on slightly less than full chemistry. The key to understanding which is to break down how chemistry impacts a player's stats.
Let's use Sadio Mane as an example. Mane is around 120,000 coins on PlayStation and 90,000 on Xbox at the time of writing. His default position is LW, meaning he can be moved between LF, LW, and LM with Position Modifiers. If you play him away from his natural positions, on the right side of your team, the most chemistry he can reach is 7.
The first thing to understand is that reducing chemistry has no impact on his card's basic stats. He still gets 95 acceleration and 93 sprint speed, still has 85 overall shooting and 90 dribbling, whether he is on 1 chem or 10 chem.
Instead, the difference is felt when you apply a Chemistry Style. This can be problematic for players who rely on the Hunter chemistry style to max out their pace, because a sub-90 pace card (e.g. 85 acceleration and 85 sprint speed) drops from 95/95 with 10-chem Hunter to 91/91 with a 7-chem Hunter. At this stage in the game cycle, that kind of pace puts him significantly behind the competitive curve.
But Mane doesn't rely on a Hunter because he has that explosive natural pace. If you did put a Hunter on him at RW, RM or RF, he would still have 99/99 pace attributes on 7 chemistry. Even with a Hawk, he would have 98/96 pace, which is plenty competitive. In other words, Mane on 7 chem is absolutely fine on the right flank.
For further validation, let's compare Mane to his real-life team-mate Mohamed Salah, who naturally plays on the right side. Salah's card stats are extremely similar to Mane's. Full-chem Salah is fractionally better than 7-chem Mane in some categories, but not in others. And Mane has 4* skills and a 4* weak foot, whereas Salah has 4* skills and a 3* weak foot. Yet Salah costs 50k more. If anything, we prefer Mane on 7 chem for this position. (Sorry Mo.)
Another thing to consider here is the way you feel about certain players when they come off the bench. Cards like Mane and Salah always feel very fast, but this is despite the fact that substitutes only have just over 6 chem. The reason they feel so fast is that opposing players are usually tired by the time you introduce subs, and Mane and Salah have strong base pace, which is unaffected by reduced player chemistry.
All of which is to say that sometimes appearances can be deceptive, and actually a 7-chem left-midfield player used over on the right side of your team is not necessarily a bad thing. Give it a whirl! You might surprise yourself. Here are some meta-friendly possibilities to suit your budget:
- Budget: <50,000 FUT coins
- Marcus Rashford - The king of EPL options. Cheap as chips, super fast with a Hunter on 7-chem, 5* skills/4* weak foot, and his card is ludicrously OP.
- TOTW Moussa Diaby - If you're looking for a Bundesliga option, Diaby's new in-form is pretty cheap and has 99 base acceleration and 93 sprint speed. His shooting is a bit sus, but throw a Hawk on him and he's serviceable.
- Allan Saint-Maximin - For under 4,000 coins, this card is absurd.
- Budget: 50-100k FUT coins
- TOTW Jonathan Bamba - Anyone who did his Ligue 1 Player of the Month SBC should use that (amazing) card, but his in-form is a lot of fun.
- Budget: 150-500k FUT coins
- Sadio Mane - We gave him a shoutout above, but we always get on well with Mane's base card in our EPL squads. There's something about him.
- TOTW Yannick Carrasco - Maybe the best La Liga option, 4*/4*, and Belgian nationality gives him some nice links for hybrids.
- TOTW Allan Saint-Maximin - His 80-rated gold card is good anyway, but this turbo-charged version is a horrible sight on an opposing team.
- Budget: Over 500k FUT coins
- TOTW Raheem Sterling - The 3* weak foot is slightly offputting, but it matters less this year than it did in FUT 20. Otherwise this card is fantastic across the board.
- Future Stars Dominik Szoboszlai - One of the newest cards in the game, this RB Leipzig left-midfielder is brilliant wherever you play him. 4*/4* too.
- Future Stars Steven Bergwijn - You're paying a premium because of his Premier League links, but this is a fun card.
Option 2: Switching formation in-game
Organising around a different formation may help
© EA
This option is how we generally solve the right-mid problem in our teams. Essentially what you do is put together a squad using a formation that doesn't have any RM/RW/RF cards, then take advantage of FUT 21's "Custom Tactics" options to manipulate player positions in-game to force them into a RM-friendly formation.
First, you need a formation that has no right-sided cards. 4-2-2-2 and 4-2-3-1 both do away with right-sided cards in favour of multiple CAMs, which is perfect. Then simply identify some strikers or midfielder cards that you would be happy to use on the wing, position them in your starting XI and use Position Modifiers to give everyone full chemistry. Here's an example from our actual (slightly disgusting) Weekend League team:
A prime example of what can work, if you think ahead
© EA
We start with a 4-2-3-1 to get everybody into the team, meaning that Moments Dybala is technically playing at CDM and Eto'o, Cristiano Ronaldo and Future Stars Curtis Jones are all up at CAM. Then we dive into the Custom Tactics page.
Here you have the option to specify up to four other formations that you want to switch between in-game. They are called Ultra Defensive, Defensive, Balanced (the default), Attacking and Ultra Attacking, but you can set them up however you like. Navigate to Defensive, then the Formation tab, then simply choose the formation you really want and use the "Switch Players" button to reposition your team.
For our Weekend League warriors, we switch to a 4-4-2, like so:
You always want to make sure your team is flexible
© EA
Then when we load into a match, we simply press left on the d-pad to change from "Balanced" to "Defensive" and our team reorganises itself according to the Custom Tactic. Et voila, we now have Samuel Eto'o as a right-winger, which is a pretty horrible thing to do to our opponents, let us tell you.
As you can imagine, the possibilities are pretty endless when you move away from the reliance on right-sided cards and can simply use strikers and midfielders. In order to choose, we recommend thinking about what you personally value on the right flank. Is it simply pace and passing? Do you like players who cut inside and unleash finesse shots? Do you want your man to dribble beautifully through the defence? Whichever it is, prioritise those stats, and remember, you will be on full chem, so Chem Styles are your friends.
Option 3: SBC crafting
SBC Crafting can be a good way to shore up your card collection
© EA
This third option is rather more situational, because it entirely depends on which Player Squad-Building Challenges are live in the game at a given time. We'd be remiss not to mention it, though, because some of the best right-sided players in FUT 21 have come out as SBCs, and as we've just discussed above, a good striker or midfielder can also play that role, and there are plenty of SBC players who fit that bill.
We have covered the intricacies of SBC crafting in another guide already, but the super condensed version is that you want to wait for EA to release time-limited repeatable SBCs that guarantee you mid-and-above rated players. Then you want to open a ton of bronze packs and grind the contents into silver and gold upgrades to get the cards you need for the repeatable SBCs. It is very time-consuming, but it can be quite cost-effective.
The 'crafting' part of it comes when you use those high-rated fodder cards that pop out of the repeatable SBCs to complete SBC players who happen to be available. At the time of writing, Moments Moussa Dembele is a nice option -- he would make a very capable right-winger with an in-game formation change -- and that Flashback Cristiano Ronaldo is also very tempting.
Any player can be valuable thanks to SBCs
© EA Sports
Here's a slightly more detailed SBC crafting breakdown:
- Bronze Packs: Open a lot of the 400-coin bronze packs. Keep the players. Sell any Dutch or Brazilian managers (they go for max BIN). Discard consumables.
- Silver Upgrades and League SBCs: If you can, use any major league bronze cards for their League SBCs. Otherwise keep hold of them so you can do them later, or just sell them. Everyone else (all those Japanese and Korean players, Irish league players, lower league players, etc etc), dump them into Silver Upgrade SBCs.
- Gold Upgrades and League SBCs: Same principle. Major league silvers, use them if possible or keep them. Everyone else, rinse into the upgrade SBC.
- Gold Upgrades and repeatable upgrade SBCs: Depending on which repeatable SBCs are available, you may need common golds, rare golds or a mixture. Rinse everything that isn't usable in a league SBC through gold upgrades and the available repeatable upgrade SBCs.
- Craft to glory: If you do this enough, you should end up with some decent high-rated fodder cards at the very least. These can be used to complete time-limited player SBCs like the abovementioned Flashback CR7.
Given that EA sometimes reposts popular SBCs, we would recommend keeping an eye out for Flashback Romain Alessandrini, Flashback Arjen Robben, and TOTGS Lucas Moura, all of whom were fantastic native right-midfield SBC players when they came out.
Option 4: Money money money!
Will you be Robben a few hearts with this card?
© EA
Of course, some players have fantastic pack luck or are fortunate enough to be able to invest a lot of FIFA Points into FUT. If you're in that category, you can always just go out and buy one of the expensive native right-wing options that are out there. We've tried a whole bunch of them, so here are a few quick recommendations:
- TOTY Lionel Messi - At 5m coins on PlayStation, this is the most expensive way to fill the position. But if you can afford this card, it is unquestionably the best.
- Icon Garrincha - Any of the Brazilian Icon's cards will do the trick, but his Mid Icon version is hovering at 1.6m and is just about to go out of packs, so we wouldn't be surprised if it held its value as well as being a superb option.
- Icon George Best - Another underrated option is the Northern Ireland and Man United legend. At 1.4m for his Prime or Mid (note the differing work-rates), he would polish off any competitive team.
- Future Stars Bukayo Saka - The hot new thing in FUT is this 90-rated Arsenal star of the future. His current price north of 2m coins seems wild to us, but if you can get him then you are unlikely to be disappointed.
- Headliners Hirving Lozano - Lozano is a popular super-sub, but his Headliners is a worthy starter, with base 99 pace meaning you can use a Deadeye or more likely a Finisher Chem Style to make him an absolute beast.
- TOTW Mohamed Salah - It's tempting to recommend the live Champions League card but with Liverpool currently struggling for form, his price may fluctuate wildly in the next few weeks. The second TOTW version has pretty much the same stats and is a good bit cheaper. The 3* weak foot is a potential issue, but he has the Outside Foot Shot trait, which helps.
- Future Stars Kulusevski - Another recent addition, this pacey Juventus attacker gets a strong link to Cristiano Ronaldo, which goes some way to explaining his popularity. Expect to see him in the Weekend League on the regular.
