Z is for Zepiqueno Redmond by @fmimmortal
Well, we’ve reached Z, another tricky letter to associate with the features of this game. So, unless we’re allowed to address “Zet pieces” and how we’d all love them to be enhanced for FM24, we’re instead going to hone in on a player whose name begins with ‘Z’ for this one.
But there is more to it than that. Because the player we’re about to introduce is, in @fmimmortal‘s very humble opinion, a game-breaker in the FM23 meta.
Let me tell you about Zepiqueno Redmond.
A player that came through the academy at Feyenoord and in season 3 was a very potent breakthrough prospect, scoring the winner against Juventus in the Champions League. Zep’ averaged 16.1 goal contributions across the 6 years that I used him at Feyenoord and scored an impressive 7.37 average rating in that time, too.
He was instrumental in our achieving a record-breaking season, where we registered the most points in a single Eredivisie season, finishing the season unbeaten and reaching 52 games as an unbeaten streak in that league. Redmond lifted the domestic treble with us in 2031/32 and was our first choice LWF for years.
So what sets him apart?
Well that’s where the “game-breaking” comes in.
We were playing a 4-1-2-3 DM Wide Control Possession tactic. Redmond was an Inverted Winger who tended to sit narrower, and he had all the makings of an excellent winger: great dribbling, decent finishing, flair, acceleration, and pace. But he complemented this with an enormous jumping reach, and coming in at over 6’3—he was a monster.
I say “was” because unfortunately, after one of the spring-time patches, Redmond’s been downgraded to 6’1; he was 16 at the time of the game’s release, so I guess there was a chance he’d still have grown!
Why was this game breaking?
Well, it simply meant we created so many more chances from overlaps/crossing, that we would usually see the highlight become a simple turnover or easy goalkeeper catch.
How many times do your wing backs or other wide players hit a ball into the box, miss the target striker and you’re left sighing as your winger on the opposite flank puts a tame header straight into the arms of the opposition keeper? If you’re playing with 3 up top, it probably happens at least once a game.
Well, Zepiqueno Redmond turned that chance into a goal more often than not, completely overindexing in headed goals from a WF position, and it was a huge difference-maker as I saw my Feyenoord Rotterdam become the most reputable team in the Netherlands by 2029/30, leapfrogging PSV and Ajax.
So the advice here is to “invest in enormous wing forwards. At FMImmortal we’re exploring this avenue, and we’ve just purchased Sidi Sane as part of our Valencia save, which you can follow on our Twitch or Twitter accounts @fmimmortal and we’ll even be publishing a video exploring this hypothesis in more detail on our YouTube channel under the same tag.
Now our scouts might think he’s nothing more than a “useful signing for the future”, but Sane is 191 cm tall with a jumping reach of 14, and I have much higher hopes for him.
For previous A-Z entries, please visit: The A-Z of Football Manager.
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