Looking for a top attacking full-back to sign for your Career Mode team?

How about a ball-

winning midfielder, or maybe a powerhouse striker?

If so then this week's Backpage could be for you.

I'm the kind of manager that's always thinking about what sort of player my team needs
next, so I tend to spend a lot of time digging around in the transfer screen, looking for the
best options. Sometimes I'll be after a very specific kind of player; an expert crosser or lethal
finisher for example, so I'll obviously run the search with a minimum value for the desired
attribute. The results are then displayed, by default, in order of the players' Overall Rating,
so I'll then go through each profile to find the ones with the highest value for the attribute
I've selected.

The good news is that you won't have to do that, because here I've picked out the top five
players for many of the most desirable attributes in the game.

There are also times when I want to set a minimum value for two attributes – like Dribbling
and Crossing – so that I can find a certain type of player, in this case a winger that can beat
his marker and whip a cracking cross in. You'll find players like this below, too.

So think of this week's Backpage as a kind of ready-made shortlist that will flag up the
players with the best attributes and save you a big chunk of time. Oh and don't forget to
have a look at the 20 players I recommend signing as soon as you can, which you can find
here http://www.ea.com/uk/news/ea-sports-fifa-13-players-you-must-sign and here
http://www.ea.com/uk/news/ea-sports-fifa-13-more-players-you-must-sign.

Right, let's get started...

SHOT STOPPER
Of all the GK attributes in FIFA 13, the two that are most important when it comes to stopping
shots are GK Reflexes and GK Diving. At just over £5 million, Diego Alves looks well worth
checking out.
Name Club GKR GKD Value
Iker Casillas Real Madrid 92 91 £10m
Diego Alves Valencia 90 91 £5.5m
Manuel Neuer Bayern 89 90 £5.5m

Hugo Lloris Tottenham 90 89 £18.5m

Igor Akinfeev CSKA Moscow 89 88 £10m

SAFE HANDS

If you’re after a keeper that isn’t likely to fumble or drop the ball after getting his hands on it,
you’ll want to check out Thibaut Courtois. Again, Diego Lopez features too.

Name Club GKH Value

Thibaut Courtois Atletico Madrid 89 £10.5m
Hugo Lloris Tottenham 84 £18.5m
Diego Lopez Valencia 84 £5.5m
Iker Casillas Real Madrid 83 £10m
Gianluigi Buffon Juventus 83 £3.1m

FAST CENTRE-BACK

It’s always nice to have speed in the middle of your defence, and these guys are the quickest
centre-backs in the game. The two fastest will cost you just over one million quid combined.

Name Club ACC SS Value

Marvell Wynne Colorado Rapids 93 97 £275k
Michael Almeback Club Brugge 82 84 £825k
Cheikhou Kouyate Anderlecht 80 85 £3.4m
Thiago Silva PSG 81 82 £15m
Yun Young Sun Seongnam Llhwa 83 80 £450k

POWERFUL CENTRE-BACK

If you prefer your defenders to be big and strong rather than fast then this is the shortlist for
you. Just keep in mind that power usually comes at the expense of mobility.

Name Club STR Value

Felipe Baloy Santos Laguna 95 £725k
Alexandr Orekhov Rubin Kazan 95 £1m
Dickson Choto L. Warszawa 95 £150k
Daniel Van Buyten Bayern 94 £950k
Oguchi Onyewu Malaga 94 £2.1m

SOLID CENTRE-BACK

For this one I searched for central defenders with the highest combined totals for Standing
Tackle and Slide Tackle. You might be surprised to see Barça’s makeshift centre-back
Mascherano takes top spot…

Name Club SLI STA Value

Javier Mascherano Barcelona 89 93 £13m
Thiago Silva PSG 89 92 £15m
Pepe Real Madrid 93 88 £9.5m
Nemanja Vidic Man. United 86 93 £12m
Gerard Pique Barcelona 87 90 £18m

DOMINANT CENTRE-BACK

Losing too many goals from headers in the box? These five defenders with the highest Heading
and Jumping stats should sort that out.

Name Club HEA JUM Value

Nemanja Vidic Man. United 92 90 £12m
Sergio Ramos Real Madrid 89 93 £15m
Inigo Lopez Granada CF 91 89 £950k
Thomas Vermaelen Arsenal 83 95 £10m
Romain Genevois OGC Nice 84 91 £800k
ATTACKING FULL-BACK

I only ever sign full-backs who have got the Acceleration to beat a marker and the Crossing
ability to find a team-mate in the box. Here are the top five…

Name Pos Club ACC CRO Value

Jordi Alba LB Barcelona 91 84 £7.5m
Yuto Nagatomo LB Inter 89 82 £5m
Dani Alves RB Barcelona 87 83 £8m
Lukasz Piszczek RB Dortmund 85 85 £7.5m
Dennis Diekmeier RB Hamburg 90 80 £2.5m

BALL-WINNING MIDFIELDER

For this one I ran a search for the CMs with the highest combined ratings for Interceptions and
Standing Tackle, seeing as I don’t very often slide with midfielders.

Name Club INT STA Value

Jeremy Toulalan Malaga 88 89 £7m
Sami Khedira Real Madrid 88 87 £7.5m
Daniele de Rossi Roma 88 86 £13.5m
Sven Bender Dortmund 88 86 £7m
Arturo Vidal Juventus 86 86 £13m

EXPERT CROSSER

If you’ve got strikers that can head the ball – more on that in a minute – then you need quality
delivery. For this one Position, Acceleration and Sprint Speed didn’t come into it, I just wanted
to find the players with the best Crossing stat.

Name Pos Club CRO Value

Angel Di Maria RM Real Madrid 91 £17.5m
Joaquin RM Malaga 89 £5m
Jeremy Mathieu LB Valencia 89 £2.8m
Balazs Dzsudzsak LM Dinamo Moscow 88 £8m
Ryan Giggs CAM Man. United 88 £1.1m

BARGAIN DRIBBLER
If you run a search for the very best dribblers in the game then you’ll notice they all cost loads,
so this shortlist is for those gaffers looking for a specialist dribbler that won’t break the bank.
All of the players here cost £5 million or less…
Name Pos Club DRI Value
Pablo Barrientos CF Catania 90 £3.5m
Joaquin RM Malaga 89 £5m
Mauro Zarate CF Lazio 89 £4.4m
Jonathan Pitriopa LW Rennes 88 £3.9m
Felipe CM V. R de Janeiro 88 £775k

LONG-RANGE THREAT
Players that can score from long range can be a real weapon when you’re struggling to unlock a
defence, and the five below have the highest combined stats for Long Shots and Shot Power.
Name Pos Club LON SHP Value
Cristiano Ronaldo LW Real Madrid 92 94 £53.5m
Steven Gerrard CAM Liverpool 88 94 £9m
Hulk RW Zenit 88 92 £18m
Lukas Podolski CF Arsenal 88 91 £11m
Alberto Costa CM Valencia 89 91 £9m

PLAYMAKER

The three most relevant stats here are Vision, Long Pass and Short Pass, and the players below
have the best combined totals
Name Pos Club V LP SP Value
Xavi CM Barcelona 97 93 97 £14.5m
Andrea Pirlo CM Juventus 96 96 94 £8m
Andres Iniesta LW Barcelona 93 89 95 £31.5m
Cesc Fabregas CM Barcelona 93 92 92 £21m
Luka Modric CAM Real Madrid 91 88 90 £23m

FREE-KICK SPECIALIST

A simple one – the five best free-kick takers in the game…

Name Pos Club FKA Value

Sejad Salihovic CAM Hoffenheim 91 £4.6m
Marcos Assuncao CM P. Sao Paulo 91 £575k
Juninho CAM V. R de Janeiro 90 £1.2m
Juan Arango LM Bor. M’gladbach 90 £2.6m
Santi Cazorla CAM Arsenal 89 £15.5m

EXPLOSIVE STRIKER

If your striker has bags of Acceleration then he’s going to find it easier to get away from
defenders. Note that all of the players here are STs, I haven’t included CFs as I don’t see them as
playing on the shoulder of the last man like STs do.

Name Club ACC Value

Darren Mattocks Whitecaps 95 £900k
Ahmed Musa CSKA Moscow 94 £2.5m
Imoh Ezekiel Standard Liege 94 £1.5m
Sergio Aguero Man. City 93 £24m
Emmanuel Emenike Spartak Moscow 93 £9m

POWERHOUSE STRIKER
No-one is going to push these STs off the ball…

Name Club STR Value

Adebayo Akinfenwa Northampton 96 £170k
Steve Fletcher Bournemouth 95 £8k
Emmanuel Emenike CSKA Moscow 94 £9m
Lacina Traore Anzhi 94 £10m
Zlatan Ibrahimovic PSG 93 £18m

FINISHER

Looking for the best Finishers in the game? Then I hope you brought your wallet, because they
don’t come cheap.

Name Pos Club FIN Value

Lionel Messi CF Barcelona 94 £73m
Falcao ST Atletico Madrid 92 £28m
Robin van Persie ST Man. United 91 £20.5m
Zlatan Ibrahimovic ST PSG 90 £18m
Wayne Rooney CF Man. United 90 £22.5m

AERIAL THREAT

Finally, these are the STs that are going to convert those perfect crosses…

Name Club HAC Value

Falcao Atletico Madrid 95 £28m
Fernando Llorente Athletic Bilbao 93 £10.5m
Miroslav Klose Lazio 91 £4.8m
Mario Mandzukic Bayern 91 £11m
Aduriz Athletic Bilbao 91 £2.5m