Reviews

In the last few days i read and watched reviews about TOTS Richarlison and i am now writing (for the first time ever) my review since i feel like that for once my opinion will make things a lot easier. The problem i have with other reviews is that they are either saying that my boy Richarlison is a fraud or they are stating he is the best player ever. Alright, let's get into this.

Since the release of his Shapeshifter card i thought he looked good but i was a bit scared by the price. One day i played with him in draft and well, i instantly loved the card and that made me buy him for my team. After loving the SS, the only thing i could have done was picking up this new TOTS Version.I played 28 games with him(all fut champions and i finished 20-8), he scored 33 and assisted 15. Played him at striker in a 4-2-3-1 and i slapped an engine to boost his lack of balance. Let's get into details:

PACE

He comes in at 92 acceleration and 97 sprint speed. Is he fast? Yes. But is he that fast? NO.

If you are the type of player that spams triangles all game then stay away from him. He can get past defenders but that's mainly because of his strength.

SHOOTING

Prime R9 shooting. There really isn't much to say His shooting ability is phenomenal, he really has that 5 star weak foot and the 99 shot power feels like 100.

Despite the 80 long shots i scored 3/4 goals from outside of the box and one of them was totally off balance and with his left foot.

PASSING

Don't really know what to say, it's really good but you are not buying him for his passing ability. This guy is a finisher.

DRIBBLING

This is probably the part that scares you the most and i get that. He's tall and tall players don't fit the meta at 100%. Even with engine (every dribbling stats above 90!!) he doesn't feel nowhere near Ben Yedder/Neymar/Saint Maximin/Eusebio. You can probably compare him to Son.

DEFENDING

We don't care about this BUT his aggression is gonna provide you 1/2 goals per weekend league.

PHYSICALITY

Great. This guy feels big and his strength "makes up" for the pace. He doesn't outrun defenders but he gets past them thanks to his Physical. Stamina wise he is insane (he can last 120 minutes).

Instructions: Get in behind, Stay forward.

Conclusions

Is he worth the price? Yes (payed 1.64kk) but i have to say that he is not the best value for money.

Should you try him out? Depends (if you are looking for a pure finisher go for it otherwise look for someone else).

ST or CAM? imo ST, I'd rather have someone more agile at CAM.

Pair him up with a small fast player (Yedder, Neymar...)

Any better option? He is better than OTW/POTM Ben Yedder and FB Lacazette but i don' think he is worth 1 million more. He is worth 4/500k more than his Shapeshifter.

And that's it guys, hope you all find this useful.

First of I got him in my Prem Guaranteed Tots pack (which was surprising because i always get Kainz's and Gaitans's from guaranteed packs, when i saw Brazilian i thought no not again not Alison but when ST showed i was so glad. I was trying him out in prem icon swaps. I kept on basic to see what needed improved and i was quite annoyed he felt a bit clunky with his 80 or so balance and he's tall so he doesn't feel agile (btw i was also trying out a moments klose that i packed that day who's awful and can't shoot to save his life.). So i sold klose and played Richy with 2nd Potm Werner my current striker. And i put an engine on Richy. I couldn't believe the difference he felt really agile but not ben yedder or kent agile. If your through on goal with him just press b or O it will go in no matter what. His passing is so good for a striker. His 5 star wf is insane with his shot, and 4star skills still means he can do a fair amount of skills. he lasts the 120 minutes if you need him to go that long with 91 stam. His physicality means he can outstrengthen most cb's. Med/High work rates are good but put stay forward on him because he usually finds himself in a false 9 position when defending. He has great link being Brazilian and from the prem. I've used prime moments RR9 in 2 drafts and Richarlison is just as good if not better. In my 10 games i've played with him I've scored 24 goals and got 18 assists. P.S must use at striker to use full finishing ability

So, as I decided to swap my TOTY De Bruyne (absolute club legend of mine) who's been playing as a CAM only to replace him with the even better TOTSSF De Bruyne for the CDM position, I had to find an alternative for the CAM position fitting into my squad. I chose Richarlison for about 1,6m coins he's got that 5* weak foot and at least 4* skill moves. I prefer the 5* skills for OP skills such as the running scoop turn but I guess you can't have it all.

Why would I get him for the CAM instead for the striker position? Well, I already got FUT birthday Mbappe in my squad and there's no way I will ever sell him. (Okay, maybe when I get Prime Icon Ronaldo in a 1-player pack or something.)

Before we go into detail I can already tell you he's got the job done just fine and helped me get my 3rd elite 3 rank in FUT champions last weekend. He scored plenty of goals and also got himself some assists. So I got no real reason to criticize him but maybe you might be interested in my opinion. Perhaps it can even help you planning the next transfers for your squad.

I chose to add a an engine chemistry style on him to boost his pace, his agility and also his (long) passing so he would be able to make the decisive turns in the box and also play the deadly through balls onto Mbappe and my fast wingers.

By the way: My formation is - who woulda guessed it? - the 4-2-3-1 narrow formation.

Let's get going!

Pace

Well, you probably already saw he's got very nice speed stats on his card. With the engine chemstyle his acceleration and pace are nearly or in fact maxed which you will notice as soon as you press that sprint button and get into running. When he is on his way towards the goal he is barely stopped and thanks to his 88 strength he will be able to protect the ball with the shielding ability even against those tank defenders such as VVD, Ramos, David Luiz etc.

However, I also noticed a huge difference to FUTbday Mbappe who's got only 2 acceleration points more than Richarlison (on paper!). Those two are just a different level even though this does not make Richarlison slow by any means and he will still outpace 95% of his opponents.

Shooting

I doubt I need to say a lot about his shooting. His strikes are absolut rockets which make me wonder how the goal net manages to hold. If you are able to get just a 80% right angle towards the goal you will be able to score. I prefer power shots in most situation but make no mistake: You will also hit those finesse shots even though he lacks the finesse shot trait.

There is one big thing you need to be aware of: Make sure you release the shooting button in time. If you overload he will hit the post or the crossbar a lot which might intimidate your opponent and especially his goalkeeper but could cost you the 120th minute extra time winner.

What I liked as well as his positioning as I often invade the opponents box with my wingers, aim towards the goal line and try to pass it back to the penalty spot - if necessary using the double tap pass and volley afterwards. Scored many importants goals with this shit, not proud of it but what can you do...

Passing

Although his passing is already great and possibly enough for an above overage CAM the engine chemstyle might add the points that make the difference between the through or low driven pass that gets intercepted by the defender and the one that becomes an assist for the goal. Plus, there are certain moments when you even wanna use that long chip pass behind the defender (particularily when you are desperate to score against a much better opponent in FUT champions but at least have a joke like Mbappe as a striker), and that is hardly possible with only 74 long passing.

To be fair, he did just fine in 85% of the situations. But of course he is no De Bruyne who seems to be utterly unable to produce a miss pass. Then again, I never expected him to be so I couldn't blame him to fail ocasionally.

Dribbling

Again, the engine chemstyle will do wonders and make a decent dribbler morph into a real artist. Especially the key stats as agility and balance will be boosted to a top level, in fact all the stats are over 90. That's why I assumed he would feel like some kind of Mbappe or R9 - and I was wrong as can be.

Somewhere deep inside you can still feel his normal card in him. Those little cheeky turns you can do with the likes of Butra, Ben Yedder or - I gladly repeat myself - Mbappe? Richarlison will not do them, period. His general movement (also the scoop turns) and his shooting also takes longer than with those players mentioned above. You definitely need to take this into consideration. This is probably the reason why he costs around 1,5m coins and not 3m+ coins and you might be able to afford him.

Probably this all sounds really bad so I have a big plus. If you find just the right angle for the fake shot or the running fake shot during full sprint your opponent can already prepare to fetch the ball out of the net (or he gets a corner because Richarlison just hammered the ball on the crossbar from where it resulted into a corner in your own box).

Physicality

He stats don't lie. He's got all a player needs to be an excellent central striker and that is most likely what 80% of the FIFA players will have him play as. Nothing wrong with that. Nevertheless, having a physically strong CAM absolutely makes sense, having been making this experience with De Bruyne for many months. And yes, he will be a nightmare for most defenders, bodying them off with ease and putting that aggressiveness into 1-on-1 battles.

I mentioned the fake shots above. Even when you wouldn't find the right angle, his strength will help him glitch through defenders ocasionally which is quite unfair but probably not your concern when he scores another banger.

Summary

With TOTSSF Richarlison you will get a easily linkable non-meta (or let's say: only half-meta) player for your squad that provides you with a great value for money. He is a player who can make the difference when you struggle without any doubt but I can imagine he would rely on teammates just as good or better than him. Never tried him with a low budget team so can't say for sure. He's really fun to play unless you have bad eyes and you will never see one of your shots actually fly towards the goal (good thing there is a goal celebration so you will realize what you just did to your opponent).

But to be honest: He has his minimum flaws with agility/balance and will definitely replaced by TOTSF Ben Yedder as soon he will see light of the day. If I can afford Obi Wan Ben Yedder, this is, of course. With the engine you can play him as a CAM for sure but please don't forget to add the engine chemstyle on him if you don't want him to turn and move like a rhino. His passing is solid, his shots even without finesse and outside foot traits make Brazil a nuclear power and

From the launch of the Prem TOTS, he was target #1 - Brazillian Links - 4*SM 5*WF and a mix of Pace, Dribbling and shooting, I had to have him in the club. I run a first owner club, which made the goal challenging but was hoping for a little pack luck.

I’m typically a consistent Silver 1 player (with the occasional Gold 3 when I don't get DC losses). I'd grinded to Gold 3 the week before for the extra player pick only to get foiled by that other Prem Brazillian dud in my champs rewards. I was starting to lose hope until I finally nabbed him in the last 4 Rare Prem Upgrade I was going to do before the SBC closed (wish I could clip it, but did it on mobile). The hype was real.

I started off playing my first 7-8 matches with a Marksman on him and him alternating between a CAM in a 4-2-3-1 behind Lewandowski and as a right ST in a 4-4-2, but after a rough start to the WL (I was 2-6 at the time), I hit him with an Engine and switched him with Lewandowski to play striker and the magic started to happen. He carried the team on to finish Gold 2 for the first time.

Overall:

Even if he was tradable, I'd still keep him for my end game squad. He fits the meta with strong dribbling, 5* weak foot and good shooting. He quickly took over as the guy I'd want on the ball late in a tight game and the guy to really give me the confidence to bite down and try for a comeback even if I was down a few goals. He's dangerous anywhere in the opponents half when he has the ball. He's a fun player to use and really made me excited play the Sweat Fest that is TOTSSF Weekend League.