Reviews

Short answer: Yes. For more information please purchase 300 Fifa point to continue the rewi- mhm, sorry, my inner EA came out for a moment.

Anyway, if you are looking for an icon, only do that after you have a team around him. Be it any other icon imo. I'm only an average player, only reaching gold3 in WL but at least reaching that every time I participate so before going for an icon first I built up my team. If you have an icon but an average team around it, you won't get the full benefit of it, as you can't feed him the good passes, or even if you score 3 and concede 5 it's not making any difference, so if you don't have at least 1 decent player for every position (like 1 good cb, 1 good cm 1 good winger at least, etc.) do not buy him or any other icon.

As we all know and see, EA f.ckd up. Big. With the daylight robbery that called icon SBCs all the icon prices shot trough the roof. Thanks EA, good move, lets spend 650+ to buy a baby icon, great! I play on xbox and this middle Raul card if you see the baby icon prices, doesn't seem that much, I got him brand new for 935k. This cost me 90% of my built up coins so it was a difficult decision but one I do not regret. IMO you don't even need to consider his baby card as it is not that much cheaper than the middle one, 1-2 week and you can farm the difference in coins. And its prime... man, thats 2mill+... thats too much for most of the players.

So it was a risky investment but came out great, I play 3atb formation, namely 3-4-1-2 with him and POTM Hazard up top, POTM Reus as a cam, IF Wijnaldum and UCL Callejon as wingers, UEL Alonso and UEL Milinkovic as midfielders and 87 Van dijk, 85 Skrinair and 81 Hysaj as the 3 CBs, 88 Handanovic in goal. (this is the starting lineup if someone interested https://www.futbin.com//19/squad/2398188 )

For tactics I use balanced/fast build up, 4 bar in width 3 bar in depth in both defense and attack, and the only instructions are for the wingers to come back in defense and the CMs to cover middle. (the formation acts lice 5atb in defense and when attacking I usually have 4-5 attackers when the wing sides join up.) Everything else is on balance, I only tell the 2 ST and 1 CAM to stay forward, thats all.

I like playing short passes and trying to build up the play that way, doing one two passes between my cam and strikers and with Raul's physical presence and good short passing its really easy to do so. Before him I did not have a player that was good in the air so I never used crosses, with Raul I can now not just play in ground passes I can cross, because of his speciality of areal threat, he can out jump most of the defenders and head the ball into the net. Note that he won't beat the likes of Van Dijk in the air because of his height, but to be honest, others? Usually piece of cake for him.

If heading is not your cup of tea, do not worry... his volleys are another strong specialties of this card... as his finishing and positioning. He plays like a top-top tier icon. As he should be with these kind of stats, especially if you put Sniper or Marksman chem on him! (I still can't choose which I will use, for no I have marksman on him for that sweet jumping boost).

His long shots are really good, but sometimes lacks proper power but still, no problems there. Finesse shots are also OP as f.ck with him... which is mental as he has 71 curve, but has the finesse shot trait, lol... every finesse I took went in, even from 22-25 meters out.

He is left footed and has 4 star week foot, but you need to watch out for that. I found that when the gameplay felt sluggish his weakfoot was not as good as 4 star, more like 3 star. So do not be surprised if he sometimes misses shots with is WF.

His dribbling is really good with 4 star skills at your disposal and the ball sticks to his feet. I never tried Messi or CR7, but I can compare him to POTM Hazard and Reus and his ball control and dribbling feels close to Hazard's. Not as agile to be honest and not as quick in turning as him, but still, way, way above anyone with similar physique! Usually those kind of type of striker who have good strength and good heading turn like a 18wheeler but not him, great advantage!

Now his pace. 86. Nothing to write home about to be honest, and anyway, the defenders catch up to my POTM Hazard... so this year I do not even bother with pace. Irrelevant. Its good, you can counter attack if you know how to dribble and thats it. He is quick off and on the ball, thats enough for me.

For the only negative I can think about is his aggression. Too low. He has good strength but his aggression is really lets him down in 50-50 battles. Other than this I could not find any negative about this card, but believe me I tried, as the devil inside me always whispered, you just spent 900+ on ONE PLAYER, sell him and do untradeable cards and sbc- sssh, shut up EA, get out of my head. At least I can sell him if I want to try out others and get back 800-900k.

I was afraid buying him, splashing all my coins into one player, but I wanted to step it up. Yes, you could buy gold cards with this much of coins but man... having an icon with a good team around him really helps you out. A lot. When other see him on the pitch, they focus on him so I just can pass to my Hazard or Reus and score that way. This is why I stressed you need a good team before you go for an icon. Your opponents will try to lock down your icon, not letting him shoot/head/dribble etc so if this happens you need to play your other players and Raul can and will assist them scoring. It was my best decision to try him out and now I can set my sights on my next project... getting an icon defender. Maybe when January or February comes I could grind it up, one thing is sure, Raul will help me a lot getting those sweet wins and coins and I hope if you buy him he will be as good for you as he is for me!

Raúl González Blanco is not just an icon he is a LEGEND and in game he plays like one. This card is brilliant. His speed, dribble, passing and shooting are amazing. He can score from every single angle. Perfect headers, strong feet and unbelievable balance/agility. I recommend this card if you need a good striker or a CAM with excellent shooting skills, dribbling and passing. Pick him up if you can give him the number 7 and he will serve you like no other in the field.

I have tried a few (icon) strikers this year which I will reference here for comparison.

My two teams (one from the Bundesliga and the other from La Liga) in a 4231 need a striker who can play solely on top without getting bullied away from the ball too much and who can also deliver same short range passes in the important areas up front.

Since Middle Raul is the 4th icon striker I test, I was a bit worried if he can deliver enough for his price tag. Baby Crespo, Middle Crespo and Baby Van Basten are the other icons I can compare him too.

I must say that of all these strikers, Raul is the most complete. He integrates very well in my offensive play (not as the Crespos, they sometimes disappear. At least against defensively good players), makes good runs and can also run through defensive lines despite his moderate strength and aggression stats. His passing is way above the other three and that's what I like most about him. He is not as dangerous as Baby Crespo when it comes to shooting, not the same tank as middle Crespo or van Basten...but the better integration into my team due to his good passing and runs make him a lot more valuable.

van Basten was a joke when it came to fast dribbling and turning around. The Crespos were better, but too sloppy for fast acceleration and direction changes. Raul is just about right. He may not be comparable to Del Piero, Götze, IF Ben Yedder or Elite Icons, but for his price (I payed 1.1 mil on PS4), he is good enough!

His shooting is better than I expected. When you time it right, its a goal in most cases. van Basten was not able to permanently deliver well in that field.

The Crespos were better, but did not get so many opportunities since they are not as agile as Raul.

From all the strikers I played this year, Raul is the overall best. You may have cheaper ones, but they will all let you down in some situation.

(I am a Div 3 Rivals player and usually finish Gold 1 in Weekend League)

I tried this card after using: Stoichkov (87), Hernandez (87), and zola (85) and he was absolutely insane.

On his own he got me at least 10 wins this weekend league and helped me achieve elite for the first time.

Next week i'll test him out with CR7 upfront and hopefully ,he will be even better.

Have fun using this BEAST.

As a Madridista since 1999 I had been longing to use this card, actually my main motivation behind playing Ultimate Team. So last night I had to sell half my squad when I realized I could finally afford him. Played him for a couple WL games and another 10 Rivals games in division 4. He is my favourite player of all time, along with Figo so believe me when I tell you that I really wanted him to live up to my expectations. I teamed him up with Guedes 87 and Asensio/Robben/Dembele by his side. So why the mixed emotions? I might just be shit at the game but I usually dominate the number of chances/possession, but I suck at defending because the players I don't control always run out of position and when I try to swap players I have to swap 3/4 times by the times the opponent has already scored. While everyone else are gods at just magnetically running with their CB from 20m away and tackling whoever happens to have the ball at the moment he presses circle. Whatever I do I can't get away from this bullshit OP tackling this year. Now, reasons for review: