Player Review

As the game is developing and more good cards come to the game, this weeks TOTW (5) brought us the first Gabriel Jesus IF. I was really hyped because I have used his non-IF before and considered him to be amazing. So I made a bit on him and got him for 368k which was 12k less than the Buy-Now at that point. Of course this was expensive, but I think his stats speak for themselves. Now here comes the review:

Pace:

Jesus has 89 Pace but feels even faster in game. I think this is because of his agility and balance stats which are in the high 90s (95, 94). He easily outpaces any player with his speed. I have used Hawk on him to make him even a bit faster and boost his strength as this is one of his weaker stats. With Hawk he has 95 Pace and 77 PHY (72 strength). That makes him even better in 1vs1s. Through balls are one of the best options to get him into scoring options, but he is also able to go all by himself and run past the defenders.

Shooting:

His shooting stats are obviously better than the ones on his non-IF and you really notice that in game. He is clinical inside the box and finishes every chance he gets. With Hawk giving him 97 positioning and 92 finishing it is only logical that he scores many goals. He sometimes saved my ass in games the opponent was having a better play by simply scoring 2 goals out of 0 chances. He moves into the right spots and has a really impressive finishing ability. In contradiction, his longshots seem to be not that special. I mean, they are not bad but not amazing either. 76 long shots combined with 81 shot power is absolutely okay and will make him score longshots now an then. However, his finishing ability is one of the big advantages of this card and beyond doubt one of the best in the game.

Passing:

His passing is really really good especially considering that he is a striker. With 81 vision and 81 short passes you can easily play him in CAM as well. He even makes it to pass nice through balls to the wingers. I absolutely love to play with strikers that have high passing stats and Jesus is just perfect for that. His passing is accurate and I think that his high vision is a big pro as well.

Dribbling:

Now we come to his supreme stat. His Dribbling is by far the best I have seen so far. The only exception is R9, who I had as a loan object from the Icon Edition and further used his 90 and 94 card in drafts. But besides R9 there is no player in the middle that can keep up with Jesus. It is actually quite similar to R9. 89 Dribbling combined with his 4* skills make him a magician. If you compare him to any other striker, there are very few options that have such high dribbling stats. Aguero, who has 89 Dribbling as well, costs even more and is not that agile as Jesus is. 95 agility and 94 balance are simply amazing. I really cannot find any words to describe how godlike his dribbling is. He is so fast and agile that it is hard for the defender to know what he is going to do next. You can easily react to the defensive tactics of the opponent and change the direction to get past the defenders. Probably Jesus is one of the best players for 1vs1 situations.

Defending:

Well, what can I say about defending. The only mentionable aspect would be that he has High/High workrates. Most people consider that to be a bad thing. But in Jesus' case it really isn't. He puts pressure on the defense the whole game and won't get tired due to his 90 stamina. If you are defending on a high level on the pitch, you can make this an advantage. In terms of heading, the only thing I can say is that in the most cases he will not win the header. That is simply because he is only 175 cm high and every CB is bigger and stronger than him. However, if you manage to get him into a position with no CB near to him, he is able to score headers. With 80 jumping and 76 heading accuracy, his heading stats aren't as bad as you might suspect. You could also try to cross in a way that he can shoot a volley or a scissor kick, at least I scored a scissor kick once with him and completely lost it.

Physicality:

With only 67 strength he is one of the weakest high class strikers in the game. This is why I used hawk on him and boosted this stat to 72 and I think that was a good decision. He isn't that weak as you might expect. He is able to hold his ground and is fast enough to escape out of tight areas thanks to his pace and agility. I was really positively surprised how his strength stat did not have such a bad impact on him than I thought. Especially as I used Bakambu IF before, who is way stronger. Again, this is a big advantage of his non-IF, which is even weaker. The biggest pro is also his 90 stamina. He can run 90 minutes + extra time and will not get tired at all. Especially late in the game, this is a game changer. His pace and shooting is dangerous at the beginning of the game and gets even more dangerous at the end, when the most players tend to get more and more tired. But Jesus won't. He will run after every ball and score late winners or equalizers, which is a big pro in FUT champs. You can rely on him as he will score sooner or later.

Conclusively, I strongly recommend you to buy this card. Not only because of his obvious pace+shooting ability. No, because he is a top-class striker who has overall very nicely balanced stats. He scores at least 1 goal per game (even in the WL), is a dribbling god, has a really amazing passing (can be used in CAM), and won't get tired thanks to his amazing 90 stamina. I will definitely keep him for a time now, as he is an absolute game changer.

If you have the coins, spend them on him. He is absolutely worth it and really amazing.