Player Review
84 - Ligue 1 POTM SBC
This card was the perfect opportunity to link my untradeable Mane to my Ligue 1 squad. His stats look very good already, but DAMN, he feels even more overpowered in-game than his stats suggest. I play him next to Mane in a 41212 (narrow), and Niane scores more goals than Mane - 31 goals and 13 assists in 16 rivals games are way more than I expected from him. I am now going to enlist his pros and cons:
- Pace: 92 Pace on his card is extremely good already. I decided to play him with a hunter which brings both acceleration and sprint speed up to 99, and it shows. Play a troughball to this guy and no defender is going to catch up to him.
- Shooting: 82 finishing seems a bit low, but it goes up to 92 with a hunter. He´s banging goals in for fun.. With this guy, there´s no need to try fancy finesses or low driven shots, just get him in a good position and press circle. He does have 3* WF, but honestly, his finishing and shot power (99 with a hunter!) makes up for it. You should still preferably shoot with his right foot, but honestly, get him into a good position and he´ll score almost every chance from inside the box. Due to his shot power, even rather central shots tend to go in due to the high velocity of the ball.
- Physicality: His height and physicality makes him a good target man to hold possesion up front. Lauch goal kicks at him and you´ll keep possession almost every time. In my opinion, he´s best next to a fast, agile secondary striker like Mane.
- Heading: With crosses and heading being useful again in FIFA 21, this card becomes even more powerful. With 6'2", 91 jumping and 96 heading, he´s an absolute aerial threat after corners and also from open play. His headers are extremely powerful and find the target very, very often.
- Dribbling: 87 agility is the key stat here. If needed, he can get past defenders not only with pace, but also with the body feint or ball roll. It´s not his biggest strength, but it´s enough for a target man like him whose main tasks is supposed to finalize your attacks.
- Passing: He´s not a playmaker, but especially his short passing is good enough for a striker such as him.
- 3* Skills: 4* Skills would be a dream, but as mentioned above, use ballroll or the body feint. I´ve also found heel-to-heel to be pretty effective with him.
- 76 stamina: in the final 15 minutes or so, his stamina bar is very low. He still manages to score goals though. I´ve never felt the need to sub him off though, and if he doesn´t fit your team and you play him as a super sub, you won´t have this problem as well.