FC 24 Team of The Season Fede Valverde Player Review

March on the Team of the Season and going into this week's LaLiga lineup I was full of optimism… Optimism that it simply could not go any worse than it did last weekend.  The series of events that followed my review last weekend can only be described as catastrophic… Disconnects, outshooting opponents but losing, broken mechanics… You name it and I experienced it.

So it was back to the drawing board with my squad and of course it would have to largely center around the focus of our review this weekend, the master of the thunderblast himself, Fede Valverde (worth saying it is a travesty that he does not have PowerShot Plus).  Now this one has a bit higher of price tag than normal, but after the masterclass of Zaïre-Emery last weekend I was interested to see if the increased price tag would lead to increased performance on the pitch, as it would have to be some performance to top the class of the PSG midfielder last weekend. 

Last weekend I dove into my midfield tactics a little bit and it is worth noting that Valverde holds the ability to occupy any three of the options… But for this weekend I wanted to offer Valverde as close to the box to box roll as I have to really get the benefit of his multiple assets and PlayStyles that set him up for success on either end of the pitch.  In the theme of setting up for success the ENGINE Chemistry Style was applied to help the ebb and flow of the Uruguayan throughout the weekend.

Federico Valverde proved to be the patrolling force and attacking finesse of the midfield all weekend long in the following squad:

Overall 

Rating: 9/10

I guess the answer to my “is Valverde almost a million coins better than Zaïre-Emery” question is a simple no.  Valverde certainly has attributes and qualities that separate him from the PSG man and there are times when those additions played a part in me winning difficult matches, but overall I would say Zaïre-Emery just about edges the quality level in a straight up comparison, let alone taking into consideration the price difference.

Main Statistics – Dribbling

Dribbling Rating: 9/10

Pace Rating: 10/10

Skills: ★★★★

PlayStyles: Relentless Plus, Rapid Plus,  

From a Pace perspective Valverde turned out to be one of the fastest players I have used and when you consider his size and positioning it is an incredible asset.  The RAPID PlayStyle Plus is a game changer and brought the 99 SPRINT SPEED into a blistering category.  The 97 ACCELERATION could have benefitted from the QUICK STEP as well, but I wouldn’t say Valverde was hindered by any slow starts and quick got into top gear.

The remainder of the Dribbling was not quite as close to perfection as the 4 STAR SKILLS immediately took Valverde into a lower category of players on the ball.  However, the hope was that the ENGINE Chemistry Style would boost those key categories and have Valverde dancing on the ball.  The result was not bad by any means but certainly the 89 AGILITY & 89 BALANCE along with the 182 cm | 6’0 frame meant a less responsive product compared to some of the more recent reviews.  

Value/Coins

Value/Coins: 3/5

Some of these LaLiga TOTS cards have reached meteoric price tags and at that point you would expect the cards to overperform expectations and be essentially flawless.  Valverde is an unbelievable card as you will read in the Good vs Bad section, but the biggest issue comes from the fact that so are many of the 1.5 million coin cards.  Valverde is not in the game-breaking-must-have category for me and therefore the price is simply too steep, even with a significant drop in price the value won’t be there in the end.

Good vs. Bad 

Good vs Bad Rating: 5/5

Truthfully there isn’t a full on complaint to be made about any of Valverde’s statistics… Just some small areas where improvements would make this card invincible.

+ In keeping with the comparison trend the one area Zaïre-Emery could never compete with Valverde is defensively.  The mixture of the TRASH PANDA (ANTICIPATE) Plus and BLOCK PlayStyles on top of some near perfect and in the case of the 99 STANDING TACKLE, perfect statistics, this card is a ball winning machine and give the Pace was constantly turning my opponents attacks into counter opportunities.

+ The Passing was equally as impressive and the trend of high statistics and supporting PlayStyles played out again.  96 VISION, 97 SHORT PASSING & 98 LONG PASSING with a mixture of INCISIVE PASS & LONG BALL PASS was literally everything needed to move the ball around some crowded midfields this weekend.

+ Given the 5 STAR WEAK FOOT, POWER SHOT & TRIVELA options I was expecting a perfect Shooting rating from Valverde as well…  However, the lack of the FINESSE SHOT PlayStyle felt like a big omission while the 88 FINISHING didn’t exactly bring a consistent finish, especially on the left hand side.  Still worth noting that everything else worked fantastic as the 99 SHOT POWER aided Valverde in some finishes across the review. 

Closing Words

Simply a hard pass on this one.  The one temptation is certainly the fact that we all likely have Lucas Vazquez sitting in our squads and the links worked out great… But that is about where the feeling of temptation ends.  The price tag is killing this card for value and sets up a situation where you are choosing Valverde over potentially 2-3 options to improve your squad.  The card is undeniably a quality option and the goal contributions were especially welcome in a very difficult stretch of matches… But given the real lack of difference I am going with the cheaper Zaïre-Emery style option unless the Real Madrid man falls to a more reasonable price tag.

Hoping you are well.  Cheers for reading