Player Review

I have always been a huge fan of Belotti's cards in the past, so I bought this one right when it came out, because even without using it I knew it would be great, and I was correct. He's just a great striker and will regularly get or set up goals in a variety of ways. To get the most out of him, I use a hawk on him, so he gets his pace up to a solid enough 86, elite shooting stats, while increasing his already great physical. I have only played him with a strike partner (Mertens at ST and Dybala at CAM) who can be the real pace and take long shots, but I think he could certainly play alone up top as long as you can get the ball into him easily.

Pace: With a hawk, he has 86 pace, which is more than serviceable, particularly if you are playing with someone quick next to him like I do. While It may be tempting to put a hunter on him, I feel like by doing this you are not maximizing his potential with the positioning and physical boosts a hawk brings.

Shooting: The five star weak foot is pretty evident, because regardless of what foot you shoot with, he will more likely than not get the ball on target. He seems to get a bit more power with his strong foot, as might be expected, but the shot power is still intense regardless of what foot he is using. He is a great poacher (hence the specialty), getting into great positions close to goal to score easy passes and rebounds. Finishing is great, but just shy of elite. Because I also play with Mertens and Dybala, I find that they tend to finish better, yet Belotti has more goals that either of them have, but that may be because Belotti tends to score more easy goals from close range and headers.

Passing: Definitely not ideal, but certainly tolerable. Perhaps I am somewhat critical because he plays with great passers in my team, but its certainly not one of his best qualities. I wouldn't expect him to create a of goals on his own, except if you're cutting the ball back across goal, but he does play decent give and gos with Dybala at CAM, enabling Dybala to get into great positions to either score or assist to someone else.

Dribbling: Feels relatively good on the ball for someone with such high physical stats, but if you consider he's only 5'11" you would probably expect a bit better on the ball work than big strikers like Mandzukic, but either way it's not a major detractor. I hoped his ball control would be better (like Mandzukic), so occasionally a ball will bounce off his feet if you pass it in hard, but overall it's not that bad. I would generally say if you get the ball into him, try to shift it out to someone else relatively quickly so Belotti can move into a dangerous position where he can shoot. Although his reactions are a modest 78, he is almost always the first player to get to rebounds from saves or the post, leading to a lot of easy goals.

Defending: Not normally a fan of high defensive work rates on strikers, but it is somewhat useful at times. because he is strong he can push weaker midfielders off the ball to win it back up field to start a quick counter. 88 heading seems like it should probably be even higher. Headers go on target 95% of the time, and those other times it hits the bar. Major threat on corners at both ends of the field. My only critique on corners would be that when on defense, he seemingly never marks the opponents best headers (although he's my best header) and/or will not mark anyone at all, so I normally control him myself and stay on the front post to prevent the near post goals. He's got the power header trait as well so he gets a lot of force behind the ball; the shots are hard and the clearances on defensive corners go very far up field or out of bounds. I also play all my goalkicks up to him because he will win the ball around 85% of the time, that way you don't have to play out of the back back, and you can get the ball up the field quickly. In my formation, (5-2-1-2) the CMs often make runs onto these goalkick headers, getting past Belotti and are then able to get the ball into either Mertens or Dybala who get behind defenders and get shots off 1 on 1 with the keeper.

Physical: The boost from the Hawk card moves his physical to another level, putting him up there with the best. 94 Jumping and 94 aggression assures he gets to a bunch of balls in the air even though he's only 5'11". 91 strength is more than adequate, particularly on a player who has 86 pace. 84 stamina is plenty for him, even with the high/high work rates, but I tell him to stay forward regardless.

Overall, he is one of the better all around strikers you can find, at a quite cheap price. For comparison he is somewhat similar to a few other strikers I have used so far: 87 Mandzukic (much better pace, but not quite as good in the air but nobody beats Mario), 87 Benzema (both are great headers, with Belotti with the jumping/aggression edge, and Benzema the height, Benzema is much better on the ball, but Belotti is a much better pure striker when it comes to finishing), 86 Gerard Moreno (Similar pace and shooting Moreno is better on the ball, but Belotti is much better physically), 84 Batshuayi (probably the most simlar in terms of pace, shooting, passing, physical but Batshuayi is a slightly better dribbler and Belotti is slightly better physically. For 30,000 (price at time of writing) he has little risk if you try him because you will almost certainly get your money back, but for me, he is money well spent.