Player Review
91 - TOTY Honourable Ment
I run a Serie A squad all year so far and therefore tested his base gold (not for long tho) and also did his TOTGS SBC. Even though his shooting was always pretty good, the obvious fact that Ciro was never anything near "meta" was noticable in certain areas like dribbling or pace. And as Engine was always the no brainer chem style for him, his shooting stats were not maxed out either and I never had the feeling, that he has something unique about him in terms of any capability.
BUT THOSE TIMES ARE OVER NOW: We now have a card with DELICIOUS, god-like base shooting stats and Ciro's letdown stats like dribbling are now well-developed enough to be made fully competitive with engine. He now can become complete and deadly with that chem style for SURE and you will feel it ingame.
He is no Mbappé or Freeze Mané, don't get me wrong. But that doesn't mean he is less usable!!! He just needs to be used a bit differently. I HIGHLY recommed using him in a 2-striker-1-cam-formation, next to a bit more agile and smaller striker (something like Mertens) in front of a CAM that can pass really well. Then he will shine with his brilliant positioning by either making deep runs at the right time or just releasing him self from man mark in the box to receive the ball to bang it in instantly. And if you manage to shoot with him (which will be the case very often if you know how to use him), then pure JOY will bless you. His shots are so satisfying that it literally brings back the fun to this "Game". 3 words: go. for. him.
- SHOOTING: finally able to also bang in those finesse shots with that 89 curve thanks to Engine
- SHOOTING: his cross corner strikes and near post outsite foot shots can't be witnessed with human eyes as they just fly into the goal with hyperspace speed
- DRIBBLING and PHYSICS combined are good enough, even at this stage of the game, to hold and pass the ball or execute those little touches in the box to find the right spot to shoot
- god-tier attacking AI
- with engine, paired up with another ST, his PASSING is 90% of the time reliable enough to execute perfect build up play with him
- PACE: TBH, even when reaching full sprint speed, he doesn't feel really close to the 94 sprint speed that he's got due to Engine. Rather something like high 80s.
- definitely not the best choice for single striker formations, especially when you rely on through balls and getting in behind as pure running and speed are not this card's unique selling point
- STAMINA could be higher, but then again we all have some super subs by now and subbing him off is only really necessary when the match goes beyond 90 mins