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Player Review
94 - TOTS
So, first I'd like to say that the star ratings are completely disregarded here as I do not find them an acceptable way to gauge a player's value. To those who simply looked at the lackluster star rating, felt dis-encouraged by it, and promptly left--I'm sorry. Also, this will not be short, as I have not nailed brevity well. If you feel like you should not invest a ton of time in reading a Futbin review, I completely understand.
Imagine you’re winning 2-0 in the 70th minute in a game of Weekend League. Now, this game is still in the balance, as we all know, and your opponent is no slouch. If you lose focus, this game can spring alive once again—and it doesn’t help that he’s just subbed on his 84 Ryan Kent and his Red Adama Traore. At the same time, your opponent is pushing forwards and maybe even has thrown on team press in order to salvage the game. It’s sort of working, so you pause and sub on a few players.
One of those players is 94 Josef Martinez, your new closer. Just a few minutes later, he’s given room to run and bursts through the back line, forcing Eder Militao onto the ground and fashioning a one-on-one opportunity with Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. Martinez ball rolls smoothly around him, and finishes both the chance and the game.
In these exact situations, Martinez is a holy savior. The kind of player who ends close games in style. Over 10 games with him being subbed on in the 65th minute, he scored 8 goals in Div Rivals div. 1. This is the catch, though, over those 10 games, the only games he didn’t score in were games where the score was either equal or I was losing. This is because the opponent would drop back far more and Martinez’s greatest attribute, his combination of strength and speed, could not be exploited fully. I also played an additional 5 games with Martinez in the starting lineup, and I was not surprised to see that he only scored 3 goals—each one of those goals coming after one of his teammates had already opened the game up with a goal for themselves.
This is the issue of the Martinez card—one that I believe is only viable as a super-sub in high-level FUT Champions play. Without the requisite passing or weak foot rating to be a fox in the box, he will be somewhat muted in games that are more equal than not.
Now, this is a conclusion, so read the pros and cons first if you would. For the 400k price tag, you might very justifiably think “I need someone who is more than a super-sub,” and if you’re at the point in the game where you’re looking at super-sub options and your budget is 400k, you’re probably doing pretty good for yourself, and already have a slew of options that you know better anyway. And, on top of that, Martinez does not appear to be a super-sub on the Kent variety where he can swing 2 or 3 goals and win you a game. However, I have every confidence that Martinez is one of the game’s greatest closers. One of the only players who can appropriately leverage his strength in the right body type to be meta for this year. His long touches forward are nearly unbeatable, and he has every ability to stop on a dime and finish, along with being impervious to the dreaded heavy touch right into the goalkeeper which seems to afflict so many of FIFA’s greatest strikers. At the same time, he has a touch of toxicity that is almost undeniable in this card. His default pat-down celebration (which I triggered several times while trying to skip my celebration on accident, promptly feeling like a douchebag), his ability to pop up in the perfect spot for an awful rebound, and his general ability to bully even the greatest defenders in the game when they’re on 60% stamina, this all makes Martinez a super-sub that will be hated completely. Thankfully, due to his price tag and the seeming rarity of his Red/Guaranteed drop rate, we probably won’t have to experience the reality in which everyone has a Martinez quite like the one where everybody has a Kent. However, this card is uniquely suited to his closing pedigree and seeing him be subbed on may be enough for players to switch off the team press and play deeper in their own half, even when they’re losing. Not only can Martinez be one of FIFA’s best closers, he can also be one of its best deterrents as well.
Pace – Rapid, but mostly because he’s playing against very tired players. Eder Militao, 94 Maldini, 95 Thiago Silva, Wan-Bissaka, 96 Sergio Ramos and 97 Varane—these are all players who I personally recorded as having been shoved to the ground by Martinez. I specialized, with him, in a long touch belted up the field. For most players, the center back will force his body into the dribbling lane and the chance will be over. Unfortunately for my opponents, Martinez would not be denied and that center back was either being beaten for strength or would fall over. On 17 attempts where I tried this exact technique, 6 ended in my opponent’s center back being knocked over and 9 ended in Martinez simply outpacing some of FIFA’s finest. I’ve had opportunities where instead of going out wide to two center backs narrowly spaced in the midfield, Martinez simply went through the two, to the surprise of my opponent.
Shooting – What would be the point of pace if he couldn’t finish? The man is, surprisingly, better at crafting chances himself than he is finishing off chances given to him by teammates. I find that he only seriously got open on rebounds or when he burst through the defensive line by himself. If this sounds disappointing, I will say again that Martinez should only be used in situations where you understand that you can do this to your opponent. Martinez is the greatest fulfiller of this role that I’ve used so far. Surprisingly, his outside foot shot trait was not used once for any of his goals, mostly because the vast majority of goals I scored with him were achieved by rounding the keeper. Again, I don’t feel like Martinez is ideally suited to finding space for himself inside the box when the defense is settled. I scored a few nice goals off of dragbacks from his shot, but the pure terror of a Ben Yedder or Eusebio is not present. As a result, I also had no problems with his weak foot, simply because all of his chances didn’t require it.
Dribbling – Tight and responsive. 95 dribbling is a fair summation of this card. You won’t feel like Neymar or Messi with the ball glued to your feet in close-control situations, but ideally you will not force Martinez to close control a lot in game. His dragbacks feel good but don’t feel nearly as threatening as some top-tier players and lacking either 5 star skill moves or 5 star weak foot means that against settled defenses he may have issues. I mean it when I say that, if you’re losing or drawing a game, then a different super sub may be better suited to the situation.
Passing – Unfortunately, I found Martinez’s passing to be somewhat slow, and his ability to assist in build up play is somewhat hampered by the fact that he’s constantly trying to be an attacking spearhead. He is only O.K. at recycling play, and I found that sometimes his passes were improperly weighted even when they were quite simple. It’s important to note (though not a be-all-end-all summation of his passing ability) that he did not get an assist while I played with him.
Celebration – This is more of a soapbox soliloquy, so skip if you don’t care. Martinez’s default celebration is the pat down, point. I’m sure you know it because of how much it pisses you off. I try to skip all my celebrations but sometimes the default is played by accident. As a result, Martinez goes off a does that stupid celebration, forcing me to text the player after the game, apologizing. I think this is a strong negative, though clearly it doesn’t ruin the card. If you read this now thinking “Oh I like that” then please don’t be toxic to people. This game all affects our mental health severely and I will say that, for myself, no-one is ever justified in being toxic even if it’s in retribution. We need to all be better to each other in this game. I find that even toxic people generally think they are justified in what they’re doing—it’s not like they just like to cause destruction. Those people need to be better too but you don’t need to go about aggravating the situation, it is never a moral good to intentionally go out and harm or frustrate someone. Skip your replays.
