Player Review

How much can one guy offer to a team? Well actually, it's a lot. Jesse Lingard's PTG card is the gift that keeps on giving, and given the meteoric rise in form of the squad I can see it only getting better. I'll give you the low down on this character. I initially picked up Lingard to be one of my wide attacking mids in a 4-2-3-1 formation. I usually like to play my forwards out of their natural positions because i feel they're better suited elsewhere. For example up until recently I was using leroy sane as my striker, Mkhitarian as a winger and Zaha as a winger as well. This combo worked well and was extra useful for the utility I was afforded, my forwards can be moved around as I see fit in game and can really hurt opposition.

Enter Jesse Lingard. My forward line had experienced a massive shake up with the advent of flashback Pedro and then recently FUTMAS Rashford. I needed a winger with great technical ability and importantly a lot of stamina to help push in to the higher divisions. Running a premier league team I felt the pool of players that were affordable and effective were limited, it was going to be hard to get a decent improvement in player quality. I intially picked up Lingard in his base form for 80k, a solid investment I felt as Man Utd were a great chance to progress to the knockouts given their pool.

Initally my impressions of Lingard weren't that great, he NEEDS a hunter or catalyst to be highly competitive, I opted with hunter to give my shooting a boost. I stuck with Lingard for a while to get used to him and then a few weeks later, BOOM, upgrade time for the boys as United progress in the Champions league. Moving up to an 86 rated gave a significant boost to his card and I believe he is an elite winger behind only the likes of the super heavies like Hazard, Salah but easily on par with recent informs like Felipe Anderson and Mahrez.

With that in mind here's a breakdown on his abilities IMO:

Pace: 95 (with hunter). Very useful, 98 acceleration is the key stat here, being able to get quickly to 92 speed. You will get caught in extended foot races with pacey defenders but over the first 20 - 30 yards you're safe as houses. 9/10

Dribbling: 88. With 90 for both agility and balance he feels very nimble and responsive, very important for when you want to try and take on a player. 86 for all other stats except composure which is a cool 88, so reassuring to know he wont bottle chances often. I can feel the difference between him and a player with high 90s for ball control and dribbling but i never felt it was holding me back. He glides calmly over the pitch and it wasn't often I couldn't wiggle my way out of trouble. 4 star skills is the essential for attackers and you have that in the arsenal as well. 8/10

Shooting: 90 (with hunter). Very surprising in a good way, provided you keep in on that right peg. My Lingard plays on the left to allow him to cut in and affect play that way. His finesse is superb (but everyone's is when you green time that business). And his high shot power is very useful. Particularly since this card has long and short range shots in his locker, you're opponent will be worried about you going from distance or faking and driving in to the box, this utility makes him unpredictable(ish) and frankly its his second best feature. The 97 attack positioning is also a key stat that means that he's going to find space like its no one's business and make really industrious runs. 9/10

Defending: 60. Looks average and feels average. You will find he does come back to nick the odd ball thanks to his High/High work-rates. Aggression useful for pinching the ball as well. Not awful, but more or less irrelevant. 5/10

Passing: 82. Fine, basically his passing is just fine. He has great vision which lets you get passes off quickly after collecting the ball and 84 short passing will do the job most of the time. It does mean that you cant pull off risky passes often that you might need to get that final link up on goal, so play a high percentage passing game like the classic one-two with your playmakers and you'll be fine. The reason I play him on the left is also down to his average crossing. 79 is not ideal and whilst it will help occasionally in a pinch I would be more inclined to either work the ball to the by line or cut in to shoot. 7/10

Physical: 74. Don't be fooled my friends because this hides his best single stat on this card. Otherwise poor strength and jumping are overshadowed by his 94 stamina. With wingers you need high stamina, especially if they start from deeper in the field to burst forward. A big reason he can be so effective for me is as a LAM he sits in the space between the midfield and defensive line where he is able to collect the ball and move towards the defence rather than sitting on the defensive line like an out and out winger would. He needs to cover more ground over the course of the match and this stamina means he does it all game long. As previously mentioned, higher than average aggression at 79 means that he will hold off the softer full backs and thats a massive positive. 8/10

Summary: What you get for your money is a card that can essentially do everything well. A jack of all trades. The guy will run all game for you and is going to be the guy who sneaks past the back line in the 88th and slots a finesse for you. And for that he's worth every coin. Better yet, if you need to switch things up let him drive up the middle as a CAM and cause havoc with his passing and shooting range. I can certainly see merit in throwing a catalyst on him for a CAM role and that would probably be the best bet for you in this situation.

And the best part of this whole review. Given the current form of United there is a great chance they can beat PSG and an upgrade to an 87 rated card is going to make his seriously threatening. I can definitely see him getting boosts to his weaker areas to make him the perfect attacker.