Player Review

First off, I just wanna make it clear that this review isn't exaggerated, or me trying to hype this player up because I have any particular bias towards Hugo, I am neither Mexican nor a fan of Madrid (at all), I only ended up buying him because I was bored of seeing the same old teams, and worked my way through some Icons that looked interesting, and while most were good, this guy stood out so easily amongst them, and I have no plans to sell him anytime soon.

I'm not the greatest of Fifa players, I play weekend league as often as I can, but don't really go above Gold 3 most weeks, since I just like to play in a way that I like football to be played, and not how the 'meta' forces people to. If like me, you just want to have some fun on this game, this guy will absolutely grant you that. I've been relatively lucky in the occasional pack, and had the good fortune of using a few top players, the most expensive being IF Messi a while back, but against Messi, CR7, 90 Stoichkov, Neymar, Mbappe, 92 Bergkamp, 87 Dalglish, 85 Zola, 90 Crespo and more, Sanchez is King (for me)

I often use the Engine chem style, as most goals for me seem to come in situations where no big player should ever really miss if you chose the right shot type, so the boost to agility, balance, pace, and passing is much more useful. These stats below are his card stats after the chem style is applied and how I thought they translated in game.

Pace:

Card stat: 97 Feels like: 97

We all know how overpowered some particular CB's are on this game (I'm looking at you Varane and Gomez), and there is situations in games where yes, the pacier defenders will still catch you, but out of all the cards I've used so far, Sanchez has been caught the least. His acceleration off the mark is faultless. You can whip the ball into him with pace, from any angle, and he'll take it in his stride and burst into space, or make a split-second touch and burst any direction you like, and as long as you make the right directional choices, he wont let you down. I play a high-press 4-4-2, and he occupies my right channel. Any though ball that is played into that gap he is getting too, and once he has it, it's a goal. It takes a a whole lotta momentum from EA to have any defender catching him.

Shooting:

Card stat: 93 Feels like: 95

Sanchez has a card that is ranked amongst the best in pace, dribbling and shooting, and to make the most of all three stats, you wanna be getting in behind, and so most of the time you'll be finishing your chances inside the box after you've left your opponents defence in the dust. For this reason, I can't say I've tried many longshots with him, just the occasional long range Finesse shot, and most often than not, they will heavily challenge the keeper at a minimum, or find the top corner. He is lacking the finesse shot trait however, which is a shame, but he still gets such a high amount of curve on them still, so don't be afraid to try them out. The main reason his shooting felt like 95 was that within 25 yards, he hardly ever misses. Shot type is important, you can have 99 shooting and if you choose the wrong type, it can make all the difference, but Sanchez has such incredible finishing that he can bail you out even if you do slip up. He has such fluid animations that allow him to pick out the exact right spot in the goal, even if you weren't aiming for it. My favourite finish is him smashing the ball across goal from the left into the top of the side netting, it's unsaveable.

I personally feel like weak foot doesn't matter anywhere near as much as Fifa 20 this year, since RB Inaki Williams, Flashback Robben and co score on their 2* weaker sides annoyingly well. You don't have to worry about his 4* weak foot, if you're inside the box, you can pretend he has 5* and you'd never question it being true. Clinical in every sense.

Dribbling:

Card Stat: 96 Feels like: 98

He plays alongside Neymar (who has a dribbling boost from finisher) every single game, and if I feel like going on a dribbling run, I'll use Hugo, that pretty much sums it up. Yes, he's missing 4* skills, which to a lot of you will be a big con, but I've never been a skiller, and as long as you have a skiller like Neymar with him, you can use them for skills instead. When you have Sanchez, use him as if you're watching Messi irl, just weave in and out of players, switch between walking and sprinting to use his burst of speed, twist and turn at any angle and you'll have so much fun doing it. There is so many times that I've been counter attacking and find myself with Hugo against 5 defenders surrounding him, but even in that position, I know the odds are in my favour if I get my dribbling right, because the ball sticks to his feet like glue. The flair trait also plays a big part. There is moments where you wanna get through two defenders trying to sandwich you, and there's no gap to thread the ball, but just go for the non-existent gap anyway because he'll chip the ball up and dink it over their outstretched legs and either make it through or win a foul.

Passing:

Card Stat: 87 Feels like: 88

Hugo has really hidden passing abilities, as his lowest base passing stat is 84 when you take out his poor long passing (which you'll never need to use). With an engine on him, he becomes a 91 CAM, and although I don't recommend using him there because it's a waste of his talents, he definitely could. I believe that in any formation, having a striker that can pass is so useful, it can be the difference between attacks being wasted or not. You can be so comfortable with this card's passing abilities, his quick 1-2's, his little dinks over the defence, his threaded through balls out wide, they are all great. I've never once made a pass with him and thought "that wasn't good enough".

A key stat in the passing section is his very good FK accuracy, and along with his power free kick trait, he's a massive threat from set pieces. One thing I did notice was that he gets a lot of curve on his freekicks, and so make sure to always aim a little further out than you'd think you should, and whip it back towards the goal.

Defending:

Card Stat: 44 Feels like: 60+

Like almost every review will say, defending should not be what you're focusing on with any striker, but it does have it's occasional uses. Sanchez just has such insane speed and reactions that if your opponent has any sort of slip-ups at the back, he will pounce on them, poke the ball away and be out of sight in seconds. If I was playing against Hugo, I'd definitely keep my passing around the back to a minimum, I know the danger Hugo possesses.

Physical:

Card Stat: 75 Feels like: 80

It's pretty obvious that Hugo isn't the sorta guy you look for if you wanna use a striker than can shield the ball and be a hold-up player, his base stats are decent, but nothing crazy. I didn't expect much of his physical abilities, and planned to use him exactly as I use Neymar by avoiding battles and always turning away from defenders. In-game though, he surprised me. Even without boosting his strength or aggression, he quite often managed to shrug a few defenders off, especially full backs. I wouldn't recommend getting carried away and thinking he can battle anybody shoulder to shoulder, but if you're through on goal, and happen to get caught, a quick spam of LT or L2 will in most cases give you a bit more room to get a shot or pass off.

I'll use this section to talk about his heading ability, which is also quite surprising. There is quite a few smaller strikers who have high jumping and heading yet never stand a chance of winning one in game, but Hugo thankfully offers a bit more than that. I've scored quite a few headed goals directly from corners, and if you put a cross on his head, he will almost always get it on target. The power header trait is very useful, it means even the softest, floated cross can still be powered into the corner if he has some room to do it.

Value for Money:

I'm usually the kind of player that prefers to spread my coins across all positions, rather than spend over half of them on one player, but I took a risk on Hugo, and don't have a single regret. I bought him for 1,080,000 on Xbox a while back, which at the time was in a similar price range to CR7, IF Messi, Mbappe etc. He's better than those 3, and not only that, those 3 will lose value in market crashes far quicker than Hugo will. There is always pages and pages of CR7's and Mbappes, all trying to undercut each other and lowering his price. but you'll rarely ever see more than about 5 Hugo's on the market, and so his cheapest listing usually get's bought before he has the chance to decrease in price.any further. He's currently around 1.2m on Xbox now, and if you have those coins, I absolutely recommend him.

Also, if you're here looking at this review because you want a link to the new Dos Santos and are wondering if this partnership is worth it then yes, yes they are.