Crystal Palace have been going steady in the Premier League for a good few years now, and with Patrick Viera taking over a cleanout of older players has happened.
There is still lots of work to do, but the team already has a few promising youngsters, and once you have invested in some more, a few seasons down the line could be very exciting.
There is a project here if you want to take it on in FIFA 22 Career Mode.
Team Rating
Crystal Palace have a four-star rating on FIFA 22.
That is due to their team rating of: 77 ATK, 76 MID, and 74 DEF.
Starting Lineup and Formation
Crystal Palace start off as a 4-3-3 Holding, and we will keep this, but make a slight tweak, changing the LCM to a CAM, as it suits Eberechi Eze better.
The star man of the side, Wilfried Zaha, occupies his usual position on the left-wing.
We've taken out Christian Benteke, to play new signing Odsounne Edouard through the middle, who is better than Benteke at pretty much everything.
On the right-wing we've also dropped Jordan Ayew to the bench, to bring in youngster Michael Olise.
The midfield three has one of each; Eze as a CAM, Conor Gallagher as a CM, and Luka Milivojevic as a CDM.
At left-back, we have promising youngster Tyrick Mitchell, and at right-back, we have brought in Nathaniel Clyne - who offers more legs than Joel Ward.
Another promising player, Marc Guehi, has a new CB partner, Cheikhou Kouyate, who has the best defensive stats in the team, but usually plays CDM.
In goal, we have the safe hands of Guaita.
A noteworthy addition on the bench is Jeffrey Schlupp, who can offer pace anywhere along the left flank, as well as being able to play at CM.
Tactics and Instructions
We're also going to keep the tactics as they are, giving a very balanced game, with Fast Build Up and Forward Runs to be direct when attacking.
Keep Zaha on Stay Forward and Cut Inside, so he is always ready to spring past defenders when there is a turnover in play and can get closer to the goal.
This will also allow Eze to make wide runs when needed from CAM.
Edouard has had Target Man taken off him, and changed to Balanced, as he is capable at all aspects of forward play.
Olise is also switched so everything is on Balanced, as he can then attack the wing or cut inside, depending on the situation.
Leave the midfielders as they are, with Gallagher set to Get Forward and Milivojevic Stay Back While Attacking.
Both full-backs are on Overlap, but only Mitchell is tasked with getting forward as he has the legs to cope with being up and down the wing.
Development Plans
There are quite a few promising young players in the team, so focus on training up Guehi, Olise, Eze, Edouard and Mitchell, who can all become 80+ OVR.
Gallagher is another player with great potential, but he is on loan from Chelsea, so unless you can make his move permanent he's not worth worrying about.
Changing player positioning is also an option you have, so you could switch Kouyate to a CB, although it isn't necessary.
You could also look at making either Olise or Eze a RW, depending on if you like playing with an inverted winger or not.
Transfer Market
Starting transfer budget: £27 million
Starting wage budget: £245,000 a week
Who should go
With no European football to play you can be quite ruthless with selling players, as the schedule shouldn't get too congested.
Look to get rid of Jack Butland, Remi Matthews, Reece Hannam, James Tomkins, Martin Kelly, Jaroslaw Jach, Jake O'Brien, Ward, James McArthur, Scott Banks, Nya Kirby and Robert Street.
None of these players will be first-team material, so you may as well free up some funds.
If you are wanting to get more funds, you could also consider selling Joachim Anderson, Jairo Riedewald and Will Hughes.
Loans
If you manage to sell all those players you may not want to send any out on loan.
If you do, Nathan Ferguson and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi both have a potential of 77 OVR and could become useful squad players.
Who to Sign
The most important position to recruit in is getting a first-team quality right-back, who is also promising.
Our top pick is Devyne Rensch, who has a potential of 85 OVR and is available for very little.
Right-back options
Player | Age | Club | Cost | Wage | OVR | POT |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Devyne Rensch | 18 | Ajax | £6m | £3k | 73 | 85 |
Sergino Dest | 20 | Barcelona | £13m | £58k | 76 | 85 |
Jeremie Frimpong | 20 | Bayer Leverkusen | £10m | £23k | 75 | 84 |
Tariq Lamptey | 20 | Brighton | £7.7m | £25k | 74 | 84 |
Lutsharel Geertruida | 20 | Fetenoord | £13 | £7k | 76 | 84 |
Another place to look at is CM, with a replacement needed for Gallagher when his loan ends, and new recruits for an ageing midfield.
Centre-midfield options
Player | Age | Club | Cost | Wage | OVR | POT |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gavi | 16 | Barcelona | £3.4m | £7k | 70 | 86 |
Curtis Jones | 20 | Liverpool | £11m | £49k | 75 | 86 |
Hamed Traore | 21 | Sassuolo | £6.5m | £15k | 73 | 86 |
Ilaix Moriba | 18 | RB Leipzig | £6m | £15k | 73 | 85 |
Ivan Ilic | 20 | Hellas Verona | £6.5m | £14k | 73 | 85 |
Look to bring in a few young faces throughout the team, then in a few seasons they will be maturing and reaching their potential at the same time, and you could have a very exciting squad on your hands.
Board Expectations
It's nice and easy goals from the board, with the highest priority being the medium Financial expectation.
It is a long term goal, where within 3 seasons you must increase your club worth by 50%. You can achieve this through player sales and competition prize money rewards.
From there you have three low priority expectations, Youth Development, Brand Exposure and Domestic Success.
Youth Development leans into the gameplan of developing young players and is split into Short Term and Long Term targets.
Short Term you are tasked to sign at least 2 players younger than 20 with a potential greater than the average overall rating of players currently in the same position.
The Long Term goal needs to be hit within 2 seasons, where you will need to sign 1 player from the youth academy to the senior squad and play them in 5 games - easy enough as this can be substitute appearances.
Brand Exposure asks you to sign 1 veteran player, and we may ignore this as it goes against the project.
Domestic Success asks you to secure a mid-table finish in the Premier League, and also get to the FA Cup round of 16 stage.
You are not in any European competitions, so Continental Success is not to be worried about, thus being a very low priority.