FIFA 19: Cardiff Career Mode Guide, Tactics, Formations & Tips


Few gave Cardiff any hope of staying up in the Premier League this season, with the Bluebirds perhaps having the least amount of on-field quality in the top flight. Under Neil Warnock they have battled incredibly hard, showing that quality will only get you so far, but when the chips are down, you need grit, heart and determination.

The rub of the green has not gone their way this season, not to mention the horrifying events surrounding record signing Emiliano Sala, but even with three games to go, they have the chance to beat the odds and stay up.

Just like in real life, it will be no easy task keeping the Bluebirds above the drop in FIFA 19’s Career Mode. RealSport gives you everything you need as you set up with the Welsh club in the game.

Team Rating

Cardiff receive a three and a half star rating on FIFA 19, made up by a 73 attack, 74 midfield and 72 defence. Things won’t be easy, but there is enough to keep the side up this season. 

Formation

click to enlarge
+ 6

Cardiff’s default formation is a 4-2-3-1 wide, and for balance, it is the best system to use. Alternatives include a 4-3-3 or a simple 4-4-2. 

Nathan Etheridge (77 GK diving) is a big presence in goal, with the back four made up by Ashley Richards, Sean Morrison, the experienced Souleymane Bamba (83 aggression) and Greg Cunningham. 

Joe Ralls and Harry Arter are in defensive midfield, with Josh Murphy and Junior Hoilett supplying the width. Victor Camarasa (78 short passing) provides the quality in attacking midfield as the versatile Callum Paterson starts in attack. 

On the bench, go for Alex Smithies, Bruno Ecuele Manga, Joe Bennett, Aron Gunnarsson, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Oumar Niasse and Bobby Reid. 

Tactics and instructions

When you have the ball, you need to be looking to get the ball out wide and use the pace of wide men Josh Murphy (86 sprint speed) and Junior Hoilett (88 acceleration). When they have the ball, you can stretch defence or look to pick out Callum Paterson (93 jumping) in the box.

Victor Camarasa (77 ball control) provides the spark, and when the wide men get the defence back peddling, the Spaniard can cause an impact. He can then get on the ball to have a shot at goal, or play in other attackers. 

Customising your instructions can help your big players have a greater impact, and the first thing you should do is to set both wide midfielders’ support runs to ‘get in behind’. This will ensure Hoilett and Murphy to run beyond the defence. 

click to enlarge
+ 6

You can then move on to Victor Camarasa and change his positioning freedom to ‘free roam’, making him hard to pick up for the opposition. Not only that, it may be worth altering his support on crosses to ‘get into box for cross’ to increase Cardiff’s goal threat. 

click to enlarge
+ 6

Training

Not many players have a high potential at Cardiff, which means you will want to be using Callum Paterson, Josh Murphy and Victor Camarasa in the vast majority of your training sessions. These three will improve quicker than the rest of the players in your squad. 

The Transfer Market

Starting transfer budget: £29 million

Starting wage budget: £82,000 a week

Who should go

Cardiff still have a lot of players who are Championship standard or below, so you can certainly afford to sell them to top up that transfer budget. First team players Danny Ward, Lee Peltier and Stuart O’Keefe can all be shipped on, and they will collect you a combined fee of £1.6 million, freeing up £44,000 a week in your wage budget. 

The rest that can go are the younger players, whose futures aren’t promising enough to make it to the first team. Selling Cameron Coxe, James Waite, Lloyd Humphries and Tyron Duffus will give you £250,000 and save £12,000 a week in wages.

Who to sign

New transfer budget: £31 million

New wage budget: £138,000 a week

Starting right back

With a healthy budget for a side battling relegation, you should be able to bring in a number of new signings to strengthen the squad. Right back is the clear weak link in the side, and with some of the Premier League’s finest players left wingers (think Eden Hazard, Sadio Mane and Leroy Sane), you will need to bolster that right side of the defence. 

click to enlarge
+ 6

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Timmy Chandler looks to be a great fit and looks to be a bargain at £8.5 million. For wages starting at £29,000 a week you have a 28-year-old in his prime that can play on both sides of the defence and in midfield. A 77 overall for the American contains stats of 83 aggression, 82 strength and 79 sprint speed.

Alternative options

Player
Age
Club
Country
OVR
POT
Cost
Wage
Denzel Dumfries
22
PSV
Holland
76
81
£10m
£11k
Daniel Brosinski
29
Mainz
Germany
76
76
£8m
£22k
Noussair Mazraoui
20
Ajax
Morocco
75
82
£11m
£10k
Renzo Saravia
25
Racing
Argentina
75
80
£9m
£15k
Milton Casco
30
River Plate
Argentina
76
76
£6m
£18k

Reliable striker

Callum Paterson is one of the finest players at Cardiff, but he isn’t really a striker with a finishing stat of just 70. The Scottish international plays at right back for his country, so you may wish to use as a utility player over the course of the season. 

click to enlarge
+ 6

Bringing in someone you can count on to score goals is crucial, and you should look at the Brazilian Luiz Adriano. He 31-year-old Brazilian is now at Spartak Moscow, and with an overall rating of 78, he will be your main man over the campaign. The forward has stats of 83 jumping, 82 positioning and 80 finishing, exactly the kind of stats you need at the bottom of the table. You can pick him up for around £13 million with wages starting at just £880 a week. 

Alternative options

Player
Age
Club
Country
OVR
POT
Cost
Wage
Santiago Garcia
27
Godoy Cruz
Uruguay
78
78
£12m
£17k
Nils Petersen
29
Freiburg
Germany
78
78
£14m
£27k
Graziano Pelle
32
Shandong Luneng
Italy
78
78
£13m
£21k
Paulinho
25
Braga
Portugal
77
79
£16m
£14k
Niclas Fullkrug
25
Hannover
Germany
77
78
£14m
£31k

Contracts

A whole host of players have contracts expiring at Cardiff this season, but you are likely to only extend two of them. Bruno Ecuele Manga is one of just three recognised first team centre backs at the club, so you will certainly need him beyond the end of the season. Aron Gunnarsson will be on the bench week-in, week-out this term, and if you have any injuries in central midfield, he will be the man to come in. 

It’s less clear for Ashley Richards, but if you sign new right back, you may not need him anymore. Either sell him before the season is out, or just release him at the end of the campaign. 

Brian Murphy, Cameron Coxe, Stuart O’Keefe, James Waite and Tyrone Duffus are all short on quality, so you can afford to let them go at the end of the season. 

Managerial objectives

click to enlarge
+ 6

No objective at Cardiff is above a medium priority, meaning you shouldn’t get too down if you fail an objective or two. Your financial goal is the most important, for which you will need to keep player salary growth under 10%. 

For brand exposure, you must sell out half of your home games this season. Winning regularly and scoring plenty will get the crowds coming in. 

Youth development involves you having to sign one defender to your youth academy. Not only that, you must sign one youth player to your first team and play them in five matches. The dream here would be to sign a centre back to the academy, train them for the first half of the campaign, and bring them into the first team fold in the second half of the season. 

Lastly, and surprisingly, domestic success has a very low priority. Here you need to avoid relegation from the Premier League and reach the last 32 of the FA Cup. 

Beat the drop

As you can see, you are short on quality as you embark on Cardiff’s Premier League journey. That said, you do have a surprising amount of cash, and it is plenty to see the Bluebirds away from the drop zone. The second season will be equally as challenging with your loan players leaving you, but if you stay up in your first two campaigns, you can think about climbing the table or targeting a cup competition. Just far can you take ‘little old Cardiff’ on FIFA 19?

Full Cardiff player ratings

Player
Age
Pos
Country
OVR
POT
Value
Wage
Goalkeepers
Nathan Etheridge
28
GK
Philippines
75
77
£5m
£29k
Alex Smithies
28
GK
England
73
74
£3m
£24k
Brian Murphy
25
GK
Rep. Ireland
64
64
£100k
£4k
Defenders
Souleymane Bamba
33
CB
Ivory Coast
76
76
£3m
£35k
Sean Morrison
27
CB
England
74
75
£5m
£31k
Bruno Ecuele Manga
29
CB RB
Gabon
74
74
£4m
£33k
Greg Cunningham
27
LB
Rep. Ireland
73
73
£3m
£29k
Joe Bennett
28
LB LWB
England
72
72
£2m
£26k
Ashley Richards
27
RB LB RWB
Wales
69
69
£800k
£16k
Lee Peltier
31
RB RWB LB
England
68
68
£500k
£14k
Matthew Connolly
30
RB CB
England
66
66
£400k
£10k
Cameron Coxe
19
RB
Wales
54
69
£100k
£2k
Midfielders
Victor Camarasa
24
CM RM CAM
Spain
76
80
On Loan
£17k
Joe Ralls
24
CM CDM
Englan
74
77
£6m
£30k
Junior Hoilett
28
LM LW RM
Canada
74
74
£5m
£36k
Harry Arter
28
CM CDM
Rep. Ireland
74
74
On Loan
£45k
Aron Gunnarsson
29
CDM CM
Iceland
73
73
£3m
£30k
Josh Murphy
23
LM ST RM
England
72
77
£4m
£24k
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing
26
RM RW
England
72
72
£3m
£28k
Loic Damour
27
CDM CM CAM
France
69
69
£800k
£16k
Leandro Bacuna
26
CDM CM RB
Curacao
68
69
£800k
£14k
Kadeem Harris
25
LM RM
England
67
70
£800k
£12k
Stuart O’Keefe
27
CM CDM
England
65
65
£500k
£10k
Aaron Bolger
18
CM CDM
Rep. Ireland
59
79
On Loan
£1k
Tyrone Duffus
21
CM
England
55
63
£100k
£4k
James Waite
19
CM CAM
Wales
53
69
£100k
£2k
Lloyd Humphries
20
CM
Wales
51
62
£50k
£4k
Attackers
Callum Patterson
23
ST CM RWB
Scotland
74
78
£7m
£33k
Bobby Reid
25
ST CF
England
73
75
£4m
£33k
Oumar Niasse
28
ST
Senegal
73
73
On Loan
£61k
Kenneth Zohore
24
ST
Denmark
71
74
£3m
£23k
Danny Ward
27
ST
England
69
69
£1m
£20k
Rhys Healey
23
ST LW
England
63
70
£500k
£7k

For more articles like this, take a look at our FIFA page.