Reviews

99 - TOTY

5.0

Simply The G.O.A.T

By staticthreat0, 09-02-2019

The little Messiah is my favourite player and in my opinion, the greatest to ever grace the football pitch with his presence. I make it my goal every FIFA to buy the best Messi I can afford and score goals that only the little magician scores in real life as a way of showing appreciation to his talents. Safe to say then I'd been saving up for this card ever since the launch of FIFA 19 and let me tell you.. he does not disappoint.

CHEM STYLE: Hawk

RECORD:

Games Played - 200

Goals Scored - 235

Assists - 101

(All played in Division 3 and Weekend League respectively)

First thing is first - This guy is a luxury item and he WILL NOT change your losses into wins on his own. Your priority should be building a solid foundation of a squad instead of investing in one marquee player. 5 million for this guy is no joke and an amazing squad can be built for that money. I myself have 80% of my coins in Messi, with a largely untradeable squad around him (check squad link - switches to 4231 in game). Messi plays as the central CAM behind Flashback Ibrahimovic who i sub on at the start of each game in place of Rui Costa.

Now that we have the formalities are out of the way, let's get down to business shall we?

PACE - This guy is absolutely rapid. Hands down the fastest player I've used this year. Will literally blitz by defenders and leave them in the dust. The game mechanics often favour a defenders recovery this year but with 99 acceleration, defenders simply don't have the time to recover once Messi is past them. 10/10

SHOOTING - Absolutely magisterial. 99 Attack Positioning, 99 Finishing and 99 Long Shots. His weak foot feels like a 5* one and finesses still seem to fly in from outside the box into the top bins. Not much else to say here, absolutely lives upto his stats. 10/10

PASSING - Probably the best passer I've used this year. However, he will still be prone to making under-powered passes during slow and sluggish gameplay (as is the case with every player on this game) but will still pierce through deadly through balls to your attackers. His passing is pin point and is ALWAYS at the start and centre of my counter attacks. 9/10.

DRIBBLING - The ball sticks to his feet. (It's Messi, c'mon). 10/10.

DEFENDING - Normally I would say this is non applicable but due to the way the mechanics work this year, this guy as a central CAM can honestly do it all. He tracks back loads and makes some important interceptions for me during opponents counter attacks. Just don't expect to make any clean tackles with him. 7/10.

PHYSICAL - Now this one is a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst his stamina increase to 99 is nothing short of incredible and makes the few million coin difference between this card and his IF worth it, but his strength is also upped to a solid 82. But if i'm totally honest, his strength feels between 70-75 due to his small frame and the fact that body types make a huge difference in game. Don't expect a whole lot from this category, but it's Messi.. you expected it anyway! Jumping is 94 though and I feel it's important to add that he won me a lot of headers which surprised me a lot. 8/10.

Pace. Pace. More pace.
Finesse Shots feel like pre-patch.
99 Stamina
Pinpoint Passing Accuracy
Dribbling feels like a dream, stops on a dime.
Attack Positioning
He's the GOAT.

M/M work rates stop him from making runs in behind as a central CAM.
Still feels relatively weak.
Price is extortionate.

Formation: 4231

Position: CAM

Games: 200

GPG: 1.18

APG: 0.51

5.0

Overall

5.0

Value

5.0

Stamina

Pace (10/10)

Shooting (10/10)

Passing (10/10)

Dribbling (10/10)

Defending (8/10)

Physicality (10/10)

4.0

As good as it looks - but worth the cost?

By JustTobz, 14-01-2019

I was fortunate enough to pack Messi TOTY untradeable, and he has undoubtedly been the game changer you would expect looking at his stats. In short, this card has been the difference between winning and losing games, scoring goals or finding passes which other players would not have been able to do.

If you're looking at buying a card like this, you probably have used a version of Messi before either in Fifa 19 or previous years. This card not only amplifies his strengths (Dribbling, Passing, Finishing) but also completely fixes the stamina issues present on his base card. He's also a lot harder to muscle off the ball now thanks to a +23 boost to his strength, which is certainly noticeable. His finesse shots are as lethal as you'd expect, and his positioning is superb. For some reason his heading accuracy was also boosted from 70 to 98, and this has come in handy already on a few occasions.

Some of Messi's drawbacks remain however. He's still only 5'7", and his physical presence is pretty non-existant as a result. He is also 4*/4*, and at >5m coins you have to question whether these compromises are acceptable.

As of right now, he's the third most expensive player in the game, and this is something you've got to take into account when reviewing a player like this. I've had a ton of fun playing with him, and undoubtedly he will be a fixture in my team for the remainder of Fifa 19. But if I had 5m coins and needed to buy a CAM/ST, would I pick TOTY Messi? That's debatable.

Lethal Finesse Shots
Stamina
Dribbling
Passing
Positioning

4*/4*
Height
Strength

Formation: 41212-2

Position: ST

Games: 11

GPG: 1.55

APG: 0.45