Player Review
86 - IF
At the beginning, i'd like to say sorry for by bad english as it isn't my first language.
I've been playing Fernandinho as a CM on the left side in 41212-2 and 4321 with Kante in the middle and Rui Costa on the right side. As i normally play out of not really agressive defense his main job is to support Kante defensive wise and push forward when my attacking game is more focused on possesion, while letting Rui do a more offensive job on the other side.
Defensive wise he is brillant, he does all i am asking for. His pace and strength isnt great but for me (playing anchor) its just enough for him to keep up with faster CAM, CMs or RBs and not getting pushed around by stronger players, except maybe for Lukaku. In fact, due to his defensive stats he wins the ball most of the time. In fact i dont see him making many positionining mistakes which course stupid goals, which i see with kante from time to time. Which stands out the most for me is his ability to break up passes and quickly turn them into dangerous counter attacks.
I prefer him over kante defensive-wise, because of his postioning and his length, while pace doesnt seem to be that much of an issue.
Offense wise, he isnt as much of a factor. He doesnt have the strength, pace or dribbling to do good dribblings into dangerous territory, but just enough to manage possesion attacks outside of the box. His long shots are pretty decent, but with the likes of Rui Costa, Shevchenko, Son SIF, and Alessandrini IF, i prefer not shooting with him, especially because he has to shoot with his left foot most of the time. He does make some great runs into the box from time to time to go into 1on1 situations but again fails to convert some because of his poor finishing and his left foot.
For the next move i'm thinking about changing him to CDM and playing Mooy SIF as CM to have a more dangerous attack and a bit of an more aggresive playstyle and i am not that happy with kante.
Fernandinho does provide some great links playing in the PL and as a Brazilian it helped me get Alex Sandro in my team, who in my opinion is the best LB in the game.
- just enough pace and strength to do a good defensive job
- great defensive stats
- good positioning
- good work rates
- accurate passing
- better optoíons offensively on cm
- a bit more strenght and pace would help his offensive prodution
- not cheap, but the best cdm for the job in the pl