Player Review
91 - Icon
Zidane is one of very, very few people who would force my 94 De Bruyne out of the central CAM spot in a 4-2-3-1. Alongside previously mentioned 94 KDB & 87 Del Piero in the other CAM spots, Zizou rules the midfield in every sense. A 6'1" figure whose 84 strength and 5 star weak foot & skill moves turn a sublime box-to-box midfielder into a 90 minute ball winning (and passing) machine. As soon as I changed my chemistry formation to accomodate this card, I applied an Engine chemistry style to it, to give that 84 pace just that little boost it needs. After all, I have pace elsewhere on the field. You'll notice I've given this card 4.5 stars out of 5 for value for money, I tried to be impartial and think of the 2.3M coins he costs, but the reality is that I packed him out of a Base Icon SBC pack, using predominantly untradeables and spending 50K on the cards I didn't have. That being said, I think giving him 5 stars would be misleading considering I am in the aforementioned negligible, blessed minority. Just for the record, I think 2.3 million for this card is probably spot on with its in-game value.
Where to start... dribbling, passing, 5 star weak foot, 5 star skill moves, height, shooting, reasonable (and easily treatable) pace, strength is good, 85 interceptions, 88 stamina. His long shots in particular feel very Cristiano-esque, by that I mean most long shoots look and feel like knuckle balls off the boot. Of course my Engine chemistry style doesn't boost Zizou's shooting, but it doesn't need boosting at all for me. His unbelievably smooth passing finds Drogba making the best runs in behind the defence. This card really adds size and power to my CAM trio.
These are pretty tame, the obviously one straight away (at least for me) was 65 aggression. 59 defensive awareness also meant not playing him at CDM, even though I haven't tried it to know it doesn't 100% work. 75 jumping can be boosted easily if you're adamant enough to use him what I assume would be more defensively, but 67 slide tackle is far too low. I guess what I'm saying is don't use him at CDM, because...
1) That would be an enormous waste, keeping in mind how eye watering he is in attack.
2) You'd be making statistical compromises like the 59 defensive awareness & 65 aggression I mentioned earlier.
Despite how wasteful it'd be to play him at CDM, he does make some very strong tackles while roaming midfield in search of his next assist or Marseille turn. End of the day, defensively he's good but not great.