I had a discussion with a mate at work about this and thought I'd get the opinion of the caf too. Basically, assuming you were a manager of a big club who obviously had expectations to win major trophies, if you had the option of either a squad of very intelligent (from a footballing perspective) players who weren't as talented, or a squad of extremely talented flair players who were lacking in that regard, which would you choose and why?
Which squad would be the safer option? Which would be more reliable over a league format, would the flair players fare batter in cup competitions due to it being a one-off?
I personally think that for a league format I'd go for intelligence, consistency is key when it comes to leagues, whilst you may not get brilliant performances from the intelligent players, you'll get consistent good performances, whereas with the talented players you could get a 10 one week and a 4 the next.
For cup competitions I'd have to go with talent, they're one off games against other top teams, individual ability is regularly the difference in those games.
Which squad would be the safer option? Which would be more reliable over a league format, would the flair players fare batter in cup competitions due to it being a one-off?
I personally think that for a league format I'd go for intelligence, consistency is key when it comes to leagues, whilst you may not get brilliant performances from the intelligent players, you'll get consistent good performances, whereas with the talented players you could get a 10 one week and a 4 the next.
For cup competitions I'd have to go with talent, they're one off games against other top teams, individual ability is regularly the difference in those games.