FIFA 20: Liverpool Career Mode Guide - line-up, tactics, transfers, budgets, contracts, who to sign & more

The 2018/19 season saw Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool team win the champions League and narrowly miss out on the Premier League title, finishing second with a huge 97 points.

This season, the Merseyside team are currently unbeaten and steaming ahead at the top of the table as they go after their first Premier League trophy in 30 years.

Do you have what it takes to replicate Liverpool's superb start to the season and claim the ultimate English prize? RealSport is here to help you out as you start your game on FIFA 20.

Team Rating

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool have a five-star rating, with a decent 84 defence and 83 midfield, led by a superb 86 rated attack.

Formation

Liverpool’s default formation on FIFA 20 is a 4-3-3 False 9. This formation is your best option as it utilises the best qualities from the front three, but if you’d rather play with a conventional striker, 4-3-3 Attack or 4-3-3 Holding also work.

The currently injured, world class goalkeeper Alisson (90 GK positioning) starts, with young talent Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, man-mountain Virgil van Dijk (92 strength) and Andrew Robertson in the back four. 

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Club captain Jordan Henderson is joined in the midfield by Fabinho and Georginio Wijnaldum, whilst star man Mohamed Salah (90 finishing), Roberto Firmino (88 ball control) and Sadio Mane (89 dribbling) make up a deadly front three.

A well balanced bench would consist of Adrian, Joe Gomez, Ki-jana Hoever, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xherdan Shaqiri and Divock Origi.

Tactics and instructions

For your offensive tactics, you should use balanced; the quality of Liverpool’s team means you are best to retain your formation and play your system, as every man has the attributes to carry out his role.

Defensively, you should go for press after possession loss; Liverpool’s team is packed with pace, so a high press will allow you to suffocate opposition possession, helping you keep territory and win back the ball.

If your game needs an injection of energy, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (84 dribbling) and Divock Origi (85 sprint speed) make good attacking impact subs, whilst Nabi Keita (88 ball control) is your best bet when seeing out a win.

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When it comes to your attack, Liverpool’s default team instructions are pretty much bang on. Both Mane and Salah’s support runs are set to ‘get in behind’ allowing them to terrorise defences, whilst Firmino’s attacking runs are set to ‘mixed attack’, so he can drop back and service the advanced wingers, or get in the box to score goals of his own.

The only aspect you may wish to change is Mane’s chance creation; whilst Salah is instructed to ‘cut inside’, Mane is set to ‘balanced width’. To truly emulate Liverpool’s gameplay, you can tell Mane to ‘cut inside’ as well, allowing both wingers to thrive off Firmino's deliveries from the false nine position.

After the introduction of manual defending in FIFA 20, some players are finding it more difficult to protect their net. Due to this, it’s wise to set Fabinho’s attacking support to ‘stay back while attacking’. This ensures that he will remain in front of the back four to help with any defending. This is vital when playing as Liverpool as the both wing backs love getting up the pitch.

The final team instruction is a matter of preference. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s and Andrew Robertson’s attacking runs are set to ‘join the attack’. This is exactly how Liverpool play and means you can utilise their brilliant crossing stats (Robertson 89 crossing and Alexander-Arnold 88 crossing).

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However this tactic leaves you quite vulnerable on the break. If you prefer a more conservative approach, you can change your wing backs’ attacking runs to ‘balanced attack’.

Training

Even though Liverpool have an incredible starting line-up, you need to plan for the future. Liverpool own several high growth players with fantastic potential. These players are indicated by the green symbol in the training section of Career Mode and should be your priority.

Our recommendation is to focus on the development of Joe Gomez (POT 88), Nabi Keita (POT 87), Trent Alexander-Arnold (POT 89), Ki-Jana Hoever (POT 85) and Divock Origi (POT 83).

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The Transfer Market

Starting transfer budget: £94 million

Starting wage budget: £254,000 a week

Who should go

Long-time servants Dejan Lovren (£11.3m), Nathaniel Clyne (£8.1m) and Adam Lallana (£9.9m) have all served Liverpool well, but are past their prime and no longer meet the increasing standards at Liverpool. You’ll be allocated additional transfer funds of £23.5 million from their sales and free up a huge £230,000 a week in wage bills.

Youngsters Andy Lonergan, Yesser Larouci, Isaac Christie-Davies and Pedro Chirivella may yet make something of themselves in football, but EA predicts they are nothing special, giving them low potentials. The sale of the four players will earn you a combined £1.5 million, with a total of £34,000 a week in wages.

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Loans

A few of the younger talents need to stay at the club for injury cover and squad rotation as Liverpool compete across four competitions. Young centre back, Sepp van den Berg can be loaned out, along with midfielders Curtis Jones and Herbie Kane, and striker Paul Glatzel.

Our recommendation is that you hold on to Ki-Jana Hoever, giving him game time and training him yourself to help him reach his 85 potential as fast as possible.

Who to Sign

New transfer budget: £119 million

New wage budget: £518,000 a week

Exceptional Centre Back

Joel Matip is a very good centre back with a potential rating of 84. However, to push on to win both the Premier League and Champions league in a single season, Liverpool need to start looking at signing the exceptional and unfortunately Matip doesn’t fit the bill. Of course, he will still make a strong squad player.

Inter Milan’s 24-year-old centre half, Milan Skriniar, is the perfect acquisition. He is already well-seasoned with 114 Serie A appearances and 23 caps for his country. He was a regular starter in Inter’s back three last season, and, despite finishing fourth, Inter only conceded 33 goals all season; the second lowest goals conceded in the league behind Juventus.

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The Slovakian will cost you a substantial £78 million, with wages of £120,000 a week. But with an overall rating of 86 and an incredible potential rating of 90, he's well worth it.

Alternate Options:

• Niklas Sule – Bayern Munich, Age 23, OVR 85, POT 90, Cost: £65 million, Wage: £120,000 a week
• Clement Lenglet – Barcelona, Age 24, OVR 85, POT 89, Cost: £60 million, Wage: £154,000 a week
• Jose Giminez – Atletico Madrid, Age 24, OVR 85, POT 89, Cost: £60 million, Wage: £100,000 a week
• Jonathan Tah – Leverkusen, Age 23, OVR 83, POT 88, Cost: £48 million, Wage: £80,0000 a week
• Manuel Akanji – Borussia Dortmund, Age 23, OVR 83, POT 88, Cost: £48 million, Wage: £80,000 a week

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Experienced Right Back

With Hoever lacking first team experience and Clyne on his way out, you’ll need to bring in an experienced right back who can cover for Alexander-Arnold if he is not available. This defender must possess the quality that Clyne was lacking, yet be satisfied with a rotation squad role for a couple of years.

Borussia Dortmund’s Lukasz Piszczek is a smart choice as the experienced defender is happy to sign on a two year deal with a squad rotation role; just enough time to bring Hoever up to speed. Piszczek has 82 rated defensive awareness, 83 standing tackle and 82 crossing. In addition, his 79 sprint speed isn’t bad for a 34 year old. At just £6 million, with wages of £65,000 a week, this acquisition is ideal, as you’ll only need him for two years.

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Alternative options:

• Alessandro Florenzi – Roma, Age 28, OVR 81, POT 81, Cost: £16 million, Wage: £50,000 a week
• Andre Almeida – Benfica, Age 28, OVR 81, POT 81, Cost: £16 million, Wage: £30,000 a week
• Sime Vrsaljko – Atletico Madrid, Age 27, OVR 80, POT 80, Cost: £14 million, Wage: £50,000 a week
• Lars Bender – Leverkusen, Age 30, OVR 80, POT 80, Cost: £12 million, Wage: £60,000 a week
• Daniel Wass – Valencia, Age 30, OVR 80, POT 80, Cost: £12 million, Wage: £45,000 a week.

Contracts

There are a few important contracts to tie up at Liverpool. Both Matip’s and Henderson’s contracts expire in 2020, so it’s worth getting them signed up to new contracts quickly.

Other 2020 contract expiries include James Milner, Herbie Kane and Adam Lewis. You can let these three go as neither of the youngsters have great potential and Milner will be reaching his mid 30s.

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Managerial objectives

The managerial objectives at Liverpool are very tough, and you’ll need to have an exceptional first season if you want to achieve all of them.

Domestic success is of critical importance and won’t be easy, with the board expecting you to win both the Premier League and FA Cup. This is a tough ask considering cup games are prone to upsets and you’ll have three other competitions to compete in.

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Continental success is a critical priority, with the board asking you to reach the Champions League final and then win the cup within three seasons. Combined with the domestic objectives, it looks like you’ll have your work cut out if you want to satisfy all the objectives.

Brand Exposure is a critical priority, with an objective of earning £180 million through shirt sales within the season. So long as your front three are firing, combined with a few new arrivals, you should achieve this objective with ease.

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Financial is a medium priority and you’ll have to increase the club worth by 15% across two seasons. Make wise investments, maintain a steady profit and win some silverware, and this objective will cause you no trouble.

Finally, Youth Development is of low priority. The first objective is to sign at least two players younger than 20, with potential greater than the average overall rating of players in the same position.

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Secondly, you must sign one youth player to the senior team in the same season they were scouted and give them five appearances in the season. Both objectives are easy enough ensuring you set up your youth system early on.

Return to Premier League Glory

In your first season, go all out for the Premier League trophy. Go as far as you can in the FA Cup, but becoming Premier League Champions is what the board are really hoping for. In addition, a strong Champions League run should be prioritised over the domestic cups; with Liverpool’s current squad strength and a near £100 million transfer budget you should be looking at reaching the final.

In your second season, you will have a tough job, as you look to lift both the Premier League and Champions League trophies. If you sign well and add even more depth to the squad you could forge an unforgettable legacy at the Merseyside club.

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Full Liverpool Player Ratings

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