Player Review
88 - Icon
This was the card that I had been looking forward to trying out as my first icon. And as soon as I was able to afford him, this was the first icon on my team.
Simply put, he didn't live up to my expectation. His stats indicate he's a very well-rounded CM who can contribute both to your offense and defense significantly.
Over 20 games I used him, he was just alright. He'd obviously still outperform any non-icon card pretty easily, but the gap between 88 Veron and 84 Dembele/82 Witzel definitely was NOT worth 650,000 coins!!! His passing was very accurate and reliable, but it was not noticeably better than IF Talisca's passing, definitely not 650k better. His shooting was good too when I occasionally took long shots with him. But he rarely positioned himself offensively for me to actively take shots with him. His medium defense work rate & somewhat decent defense stats made him almost invisible in my defense. After selling him, I've tried 88 Matthaus & 88 Keane, and both of them performed better than 88 Veron by wide margins.
- Passing - despite my complaint above, you will find it difficult to find another card who can pass as consistently accurate as 88 Veron.
- Pace - He felt faster than his 74 pace stat. This is perhaps due to his acceleration stat being higher than other CMs in comparison.
- Long-shot - His offensive positioning wasn't the best. But when he did take shots, they were pretty impressive.
- WF - His 4 star week foot contributed to his accurate passing and allowed me to use either as LCM or RCM.
- M/M work rate - I'd prefer H/M for this card. There were simply too many games in which he wasn't as offensively visible or active as you'd expect him to be.
- Stamina - When I used him as a CM, he gassed out too easily towards the end of games. Having said that, this was less noticeable when I was him at CAM. His 84 stamina should suffice at this point, but this definitely doesn't make him an icon you'd want to keep till the end of FIFA19.
- Defense - You can pretty much expect no defensive contribution from him at CM unless you actively control him to be involved. Even then, his standing tackler didn't feel great at all.
- Heading - He will not jump for you. When he does, he won't get the ball, even with his 6'1" frame.