Player Review

Before we begin, yes he has the hair. His appearance in game is the same as his prime card, so as soon as you play the ball to Nedved your opponent doesn't see just a generic opposition player, they see THIS GUY and feel a sense of apprehension before he's even done anything. 5* psychological intimidation.

It's worth mentioning here that everything I'm going to talk about in the positives of this card is amplified by his 5* weak foot, which means that whichever direction you are facing with him, you have a greater choice of directions to go, players to pick out, tricks and shimmies to pull off, and coupled with his outside foot shot trait, any clear sight on goal means that he's going to be able to get a shot off one way or another.

So the first thing you notice as soon as he picks up the ball is how fluid and natural his dribbling is. Despite his stocky and powerful build he can change direction almost instantly and he has a low centre of gravity. The best way I can describe it is that it just feels like he instinctively knows what you want him to do and his dribbling movements are beautifully knitted together with plenty of weight and momentum in every touch. There is a rhythm and a flow to his game which means that if you can gel with that, you wouldn't want him to feel any different, or even any faster.

At this point it's worth thinking about where you want to use him, in order to choose a chemistry style. If he's going to be running into space then you'll want Hunter or Catalyst to give him as much pace as possible. Even with pace boosted to 98 he doesn't quite feel like lightning, but he is capable. If he's going to be in the box, use Hunter, or for out wide use Catalyst. If you play a high line and want him facing up to a packed defence then Basic and Engine are both better options for that.

His distribution is fantastic whether it's crossing, flicks or through balls and he is always capable of finding an opponent. His driven crosses in particular are absolutely lethal, but he also has a lot of intelligence in the way he tries to execute whatever passes and through balls you want him to do in the middle, and it feels like he has a lot of awareness of the opponent's positioning. His own positioning is also excellent, and he doesn't run and hide behind opponents like Figo does sometimes. He'll either start a run and follow through with it or try and make himself available, and rarely gets caught offside (unlike Cristiano Ronaldo)

Onto the shooting, and whether you boost it or not, it's still pretty spectacular. His finesses aren't the best though so you're better just putting your foot through it, and if you flick it up in the air or sent it to him at chest or waist height his volleys are something else. I have him to stay on the edge of the box for crosses because when they deflect back out he can absolutely wallop them first time and keep them low. One thing to mention is that he's not like Lewandowski who can get loads of power and accuracy on the turn when facing away from goal. He cant make ridiculous goals out of nothing, so the way to score with Nedved is to face goal, make space either side and then go for a rocket to the top corner.

That's all the positives, so it's time to balance that with the downsides of this card.

The biggest downside by far is that he is utterly useless in the air. He's just not built for jumping regardless of his stats, and probably wouldn't even win a header against Gimli the dwarf. 72 jumping feels more like 22 in reality. The only way you can usually hope to win these kind of duels is to use his physicality to push the opponent out of heading range, but it's unlikely to work against more physical opponents. If you find your opponent exploiting this weakness too much you might want to switch him to another position on the pitch.

Secondly, even with a shadow his defending is not good enough to be used at CM or CDM. He can tackle very effectively if you get the angle and the timing absolutely perfect but it's not nearly as easy to do as it is with someone like Scholes who has similar defensive stats but can actually play really well further back. If you want to use him in this position you would be better to pair him alongside a Kante / Gattuso and then boost his passing / dribbling instead.

So that's what you're getting, a highly versatile and aggressive player with a huge array of attacking talents which will strike fear into your opponents when they see him in your line-up. He always wants to win and will keep fighting when others give up.

Highly recommended!