Tips to Go 38-0-0

A perfect season needs a near-perfect draft. These tips come from how the game actually works — the reroll economy, the position rules, the strength maths — not generic football wisdom. Rules first: read how to play if you haven't.

The big ideas

• Your two rerolls are the whole strategy. You get two for the entire draft, and they can change the club or the season. Spend them late, not early: a mediocre spin on pick two still has nine chances to balance out, but a mediocre spin on pick ten is your team.
• Scarcity beats rating. Wide attackers and playmakers show up in almost every squad; elite goalkeepers and true centre-backs don't. When a great defender appears, take him even if a flashier name sits next to him — the striker slot will fill itself.
• Never plan to play someone out of position. Positions must match, and once a player is placed he never comes off. The draft punishes wishful thinking more than bad luck.
• Weak links sink seasons. The simulation runs on team strength against 38 opponents. One 65-rated slot in an otherwise elite XI drags every single matchday — a balanced 84 average beats a team of stars carrying a passenger.
• Defence is the tiebreaker, literally. The leaderboard ranks perfect seasons, then wins, then points, then goals conceded. Two identical records are separated by the back line you drafted.

A simple drafting checklist

1. Pick a formation you can actually fill — the six shapes need very different position mixes.
2. Lock the goalkeeper and centre-backs as early as good ones appear.
3. Hold both rerolls until the last four picks if you can.
4. On the final picks, reroll for a club whose era you know is stacked — the wheel favours the big clubs, so Juventus, Milan and Inter seasons come around often.
5. In Squad of 16, draft the best sixteen players offered and decide the shape at the end — the guaranteed minimum per line means you can chase quality without counting slots. The five bench players still add strength at reduced weight, so no pick is wasted.

Difficulty, honestly

Easy through Nightmare changes how strong your 38 opponents are and how clinically they convert. There is no shame maths here: each difficulty has its own leaderboard, so a 38-0-0 on Normal competes only against Normal runs. Learn the draft on Normal, then move up — on Nightmare even a stacked XI drops points, which is why the runs that survive it top the game's hardest board.

Playing blind

In hidden ratings mode the numbers are gone and the squad list is shuffled, so none of the visual shortcuts work. The tip that matters: think in eras, not names. Knowing that a mid-2000s Milan squad is deep everywhere beats recognising one famous striker in a weak year.

Daily challenge tactics

The daily hands everyone the identical spins under rules picked by the date — you can't choose an easier setup, which is the point. You can replay it all day for practice, but only the first finished season counts. So do the opposite of your solo habit: play a throwaway run in solo mode first to warm up your reads, then commit your one daily attempt when you're sharp.