Player Review

Having had the most incredible luck in my reds this year despite not particularly deserving it, I was lucky enough to get Modric and Benzema in my reds from the LaLiga TOTS weekend league. 

In game I played a 4-1-2-1-2(2) with Benzema next to Cantona up front and De Bruyne at CAM. 

This review is based off playing FUT Champs Qualifiers and games in Division 1. 

Pace

When it comes to a players face card stats I am quite slow to actually believe them and instead base my expectations on their other cards, since I find that to be a more accurate baseline than expecting a normally slow clunky player to actually be fast and agile. This was not the case with Benzema however, this card is absolutely quick on the ball, plenty fast enough to get on the end of lobbed through balls and break away from defenders. He does not have 99 pace, I did find cards such as TOTS Alphonso Davies were catching up to him, however he is undoubtedly very fast and has the other qualities needed to win 50/50s against fast defenders.

Shooting

This is the less surprising stat, he indisputably plays like a card that has 99 in all shooting stats except long shots (Although I did not feel that this impacted him much). His finishing inside the box is flawless and he can easily beat the endgame keepers in scenarios where other cards would probably not be able to.

His long shots are some of the most reliable I’ve used this year, edge of the box he can consistently put it in the net or force a save leading to a corner. Further out he is of course less reliable but I did manage to score some unexpected one time shots while using timed finishing and he frequently it on target from those positions.

His finesse shots left something to be desired, having used inform Messi for a large percentage of the game I had expected Benzema’s finesses to be even better however I was not massively impressed with them, his regular shooting more than makes up for it but it is worth noting.

His heading is very good, alongside PIM Cantona a corner situation created a dangerous scenario for my opponents, bringing a player short whenever they brought their keeper out led to multiple goals for Benzema as his positioning is absolutely perfect and he will find space so long as you can open the defence enough to pass to him.

Chip shots, he has some of the best I’ve ever used, multiple times I chipped when the keeper was slightly off his line and my opponent could do nothing as it sailed over the keepers head into the net far post.

Passing

I played him striker and was definitely playing in a biased fashion as I wanted to test his shooting whenever I could, however I found his passing to be more than adequate, I personally would not play him at CAM as I do not think he would preform to his fullest there but he could likely do it without too much trouble.

Dribbling

Again I expected this card to be somewhat clunky despite his stats, and he definitely does not ‘feel’ like Messi or Neymar in game but his ball control coupled with his strength led to a different type of dribbling that I don’t really have much experience using. He is extremely jammy, I scored multiple kick off goals by just running with him because he is so difficult to tackle. He has one of the most broken roulette and step over animations I have ever used and reacts to lose balls and 50/50 situations almost automatically, making him a very smooth player to use. It definitely took some getting used to, and his left stick dribbling is very good but not incredible, but he can definitely do the job and he does it very very well. He does not have problems with balance or agility like a lot of tall players do.

Defending

No real comment on this other than he is one of the players that really wants the ball, if there is a loose ball near him he will accelerate much faster than normal towards it and win it 70% of the time.

Strength

He is a very sturdy player, even against the likes of TOTY/TOTS Ruben Dias, FB Varane, TOTS Eder Militao and PIM Maldini he could consistently win 50/50s and push past defenders coming from the side. His strength gives him a very similar brand of jaminess to his Flashback card, so you can expect this card to win the ball straight from a defenders feet and push past them. 

His stamina while good at 92, I did find myself fairly surprised at how low he was after 90 minutes, often reaching low 70s at that time. He can definitely play 120 minutes and go to penalties if required, and I have yet to see him get injured, but it is worth noting that you can expect him to be low on stamina after 90 minutes if you are using him as a lone striker with a high press tactic.