Player Review

When I unlocked him through the Guaranteed Community TOTS SBC, I had mixed feelings (was hoping for a Can, Ibra, Ter Stegen etc). I already had an all Icon CB tandem of Primer Blanc and Primer Cannavaro and wasn't looking to improve there.

I decided to play a few Rivals matches with him before a potential relegation to SBC fodder for my post TOTS Icon bender. And I'm glad I did. What started as an experiment of putting him in for Blanc (even though it puts Savic at RB off chem) is looking like a permanent addition to my starting line-up. I've previously played a few matches with his Carniball card and wasn't overly impressed with the card, but this card is a different animal altogether.

I played the first match without adding a chem style (I like to get a feel for a player before I skew his performance to suit my needs), and immediately noticed how strong he was at standing tackles and defensive positioning. Although his unboosted pace isn't fantastic, it's still suitable for a CB who doesn't get out of position often and will win balls off a player if he gets close even if he has no business playing the ball. He routinely dispossessed attackers of the ball cleanly and outmuscled his opponent on contested balls. He took the man of the match honor in a strong squad even with my offensive players score multiples.

After match one, I applied a Shadow to help boost his pace and defending he went full beast mode. The extra pace helped him track runs a little more when my fullbacks got out of position and he's like a ball magnet for standing tackles (if he gets close, he usually wins the ball). Another amazing stat is that 15 matches in, he has only taken one yellow card (chasing back to cover to a turnover and he had to foul to prevent a goal) with a close to 7 tackles per match. He wins ball so cleanly that I will even use him for standing tackles in the box (which we all know if the recipe for conceding penalties).

On the ball, he passed well with my style of building up a little possession before going on the attack (I usually don't play to the meta of drop back and counter), but you may notice his vision a bit if you're somebody that is hyper counter attacking against a team pressing after possession loss if you're trying to pass through traffic in a clogged up midfield. I haven't actively tried forcing the ball his way on corners to give the best rating on his finishing, but the few corners that went his way missed the net (I'll chalk them up to timing and angle since he didn't have the best line on goal). Suffice to say that he won't be replacing CR7 or Milinkovic-Savic as my primary target for corners on that end of the pitch.

Overall, he's a beast! His tackling is incredible and he always seems to find himself between the attacker and the net (if you're good with your player switching and don't run your defenders out of position). Being a Prem player, he offers links to a variety of meta players and hard links to the TOTKS Lloris (that seems to be one of the keepers of choice the last few weekend leagues) and the UCL Live Aurier. He's a great card to play and will offer great value as the major league TOTS release and drop the price on the Community team cards.