FC 24 Team of The Season Warren Zaire-Emery Player Review

Roll on the top five league TOTS rotation and with the Ligue 1 installment we come to the end of an era… This week (and maybe the “Best of” TOTS) marks the last chance to get trolled with the French PSG Striker combination as there is no doubt Marie Katoto will be frequenting our packs this weekend.  In fairness that looks to be a decent card, but not the subject of our review this weekend.

The Nainggolan Gang (all 90+ Base Stats) is well and truly back with this TOTS as Goretzka, Stanway, Thuram and the focus of this review Warren Zaïre-Emery have officially joined the list.  Worth noting that Vitinha just about makes it in, but as my grade school teacher used to say, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

In the version of the 4-3-2-1 that I currently play all three CM players have a different job.  With Zaïre-Emery I wasn’t exactly sure which would be best and so I started by eliminating the deeper lying CDM-esque option based on the fact I felt his Shooting abilities would be grossly underused.  The next CM has more defensive duties (often covering the wing) but will find themselves around the edge of the box more often than not in attacking situations.  The last is way more attacking and given the wide array of attacking weapons it was always going to be where I played Zaïre-Emery.  

The last choice was the Chemistry Styles and this one took some weighing of the pros and cons.  The ANCHOR certainly fills out the card better and offers more ingame statistics… The Pace boost, albeit it small, of the SHADOW was an option but the exact same Defense boost as the ANCHOR was a massive con… While the ridiculous Shooting statistics after the HUNTER application was also tempting.  In the end the ANCHOR won out and there was really no temptation to switch as Zaïre-Emery bossed the midfield all weekend long in the following squad:

Overall 

Rating: 9.5/10

This card is absolutely wild I must say… There is really nothing you would want for outside of being able to hand select the PlayStyle Plus options.  For me the lack of any ANTICIPATE, let alone the Plus, was one of the major omissions and could certainly have given an already overpowered card the infinity stones.  Maybe it is for the best in the end… As you can see with the ratings, this card was a monster and one that I felt miserable about selling after the review was complete.

Main Statistics – Shooting

Shooting Rating: 9/10

Weak Foot: ★★★★

PlayStyles: Finesse Shot 

Once in a while the “Main Statistics” are not necessarily the best statistics and in the case of Zaïre-Emery it was the Shooting that could have tipped the scales to a perfect 10/10 overall rating… In the end falling just short of what I would call perfection.  It was of course the 4 STAR WEAK FOOT that ultimately fell short and a couple of head scratching misses on the left foot led to a slightly decreased rating.

Perhaps the HUNTER Chemistry Style would have eliminated the left foot woes, but I would not want to give up the well-rounded Defensive statistics that came with the ANCHOR selection.  It is worth noting that outside of a few errant left footed efforts, Zaïre-Emery was well among the goals this weekend and finished on 5 goals in 5 matches speaking to the overall Shooting quality with this card.  

Despite only having the FINESSE SHOT PlayStyle there was still a lot to like in the 90 FINISHING, 99 SHOT POWER & 90 LONG SHOTS… Even more impressive was the 99 JUMPING & 84 HEADING ACCURACY which contributed to a couple of quality headers in only 5 matches of testing.

Value/Coins

Value/Coins: 4.5/5

I mentioned the small selection of Nainggolan Gang players currently available in the game and that certainly warrants an increased value… But when the likes of Goretzka is currently sitting at 1.6 million it is hard to justify the overall price tag.  Worth noting that by the end of next week Zaïre-Emery will likely fall closer to this number and would be a better value buy at that point.

Good vs. Bad 

Good vs Bad Rating: 5/5

It has to be said that there is literally nothing “bad” about this card, just varying levels of good.

+ The ANCHOR Chemistry Style takes Zaïre-Emery’s Pace to 96 ACCELERATION & 98 SPRINT SPEED and despite the lack of any helping AcceleRATE or PlayStyles he was still both quick and rapid running through the midfield.   

+ Piggybacking off of the Pace was the Dribbling and might be the area where Zaïre-Emery might just warrant his hefty price tag.  The FIRST TOUCH & TECHNICAL Plus PlayStyles are a devastating combination and only amplify the 92 AGILITY, 93 BALANCE, & 95 DRIBBLING… Meanwhile the FIRST TOUCH Plus, PRESS PROVEN PlayStyle and 93 BALL CONTROL all magnetize the ball to Zaïre-Emery’s feet and were a left stick dribbling dream combination.  All of this and still haven’t mentioned the 5 STAR SKILLS… This card really has it all in this department.

+ 91 STAMINA, RELENTLESS, 96 STRENGTH & the already mentioned 99 JUMPING… Zaïre-Emery feels like an olympian took up football and was a handful for my opponents throughout the weekend.  All of these attributes contribute to the fantastic defending that you would expect from a card with perfect 99 statistics in every meaningful defensive category (do we even count HEADING ACCURACY?) and overall my midfield felt more secure than ever this weekend

Closing Words

While selling Zaïre-Emery was a painful one as I know that my midfield will immediately be less dynamic… In the end I plan to pick him up again when he falls closer to Goretzka in price.  While the 5 STAR WEAK FOOT on the German is more enticing to my style… Zaïre-Emery is clear in pace & movement and much more suited to how I want my midfielders moving in the 4-3-2-1.  In the end I would say just wait on purchasing this card, but once he drops, Zaïre-Emery is 100% a must try.    

Hoping you are well.  Cheers for reading