Reviews

What a year first off. Don't think there was one person not routing Benzema for the Ballon d'Or and as a result, received the most recognised individual reward in football.

Was lucky to pack this guy which was also my first ever TOTY so cheers ea. Thought people would want an insight to how he is for a 2mil card (currently) as I found previous TOTY cards like Lewandowski were disappointing.

Ran him at ST in a 4321 with stay central and a catalyst chem style which ill explain later why I've used this. Used him in my champs games where I got 17-3 where he scored 18 and assisted 14. Took him for a run in a couple of rivals where I'm floating around 600 points where he played 5, scored 3 and assisted 4.

At this point in FIFA, I'd say he is the best ST I've used. For comparison I've used WC Eusebio, Prime Cantona, TOTT Messi and IF Mbappe.

Whether this changes when better midfielders and defenders drop I'm not sure, however a couple games landed against Lucio (best cb imo) and he was leaking goals like no ones business.

Originally, I did use engine for the pace/agility/balance boost and thought his play making was good but could be better. When I tried catalyst for the pace/passing, his play making was even better and he felt quicker. There was no change in how his agility/balance/dribbling felt in game so I've stuck with it. As the old saying goes, don't change what's not broken.

The other part I like is how easy it is to link him. He's in a good league, from the best team with arguably the best nation in the game. Comparing him to other players I've used who have close coin value, I think 2mil is way too cheap for how good his is.

Anyway, pros:

A bit of background info, I'm an elite div player hover between 700/800 skill rating at the moment. I compete in tournaments hence the pro level squad I use. I was extremely lucky to pack him the day attackers were released, I had mid R9 at the time so thought I would just fit in TOTY Benzema and try him out and this is my review.

Firstly I was blown away by his attacking AI, the runs he makes are absolutely perfect and on point with R9, his link up play is unmatched and he was definitely better than R9 in this aspect. Even with wing play he will always make the perfect run to receive a cross which he will usually finish with a header or a volley.

His shooting animations are simply the best in the game, he will finish every chance in the box left foot or right. Even the half chances!

His dribbling is obviously not going to be on par with the likes of TOTY Messi or your Peles but this card can definitely hold his own in that regard, numerous times in and around the box he was able to use his strength combined with the agile dribbling to create a half chance and green time a shot across goal to score. Only con with dribbling would be the lack of 5* skill moves but even without this he is still a monster because a simple step over to get ahead of the defender will make his strength kick in and you will have beaten the defender.

Passing, now I use him with engine (mainly for dribbling boost) but his passing is absolutely immaculate for a striker, literally unmatched, this is one of the main reasons why I think he will be mainstay for my team there is no better striker in game to link up play, time and time again he will play the perfect driven through pass to Jairzinho or Mbappe and make the run in the box to be in the perfect spot to receive the pass across goal for a tap in.

Physicals and defending, now obviously with him being a striker I don't exactly expect him to defend like Lucio but he really does hold his own and bullies defender when pressing them, I've scored a shocking amount of goals with him when pressing the opponent's CB to just bully them off the ball for a free goal. Physically he can genuinely go head to head with the toughest of the toughest and still come out on top.

Jammy animations, everyone reading this will know that there are certain players in this game that just have that 'jam factor' Mbappe and R9 being the most well known, you would tackle the ball from them yet they would still somehow run through you and keep the ball. THIS CARD HAS THAT JAM FACTOR!

He is definitely the best striker in the game with R9, I have tried all the top tier icons too with Benzema and R9 just being head and shoulders above the rest.

If you are a player who's attacking gameplay relies mostly on left stick dribbling and agile dribbling then this card most definitely won't be for you.

At the time of writing this he is 2.9m coins, and compared to all the strikers around that price and below, he is ahead of them all for sure.

Now i was lucky enough to pack this guy on my birthday from a store pack (thank you EA). Now am i lucky or was this just a birthday miracle?? Benzema slotted right up front in my team and got full chemistry straight away linking to my PTG vini and winter wildcard toni kroos.

I have played him left striker in a 4-2-2-2 with mid jairzinho as the right striker. Before benzema i had showdown origi and giroud previously and i found that benzema was much better than either of these tall strikers.(giroud was class but origi was horrible) I found having him paired with a quick player like jairzinho allowed him to play to his best abilitys.

Well, I packed TOTY Benzema from one of those 80+ upgrades you can complete 100 times... a few hours after the release. Am I lucky? very lucky. I didn't expect to pack anything from those upgrades, but did want to get something from the 50 different packs I've saved for TOTY defenders, because I thought there was no chance for me to pack any attacker TOTY. I even skipped the animation an didn't see Benzema walking out lol. Obviously I've had to change my team to fit Benzy in, and thankfully I've had Rulebreaker Alaba and WC hero Morientes so this part wasn't a headache as usually.

I tried Benzema in a few Rivals games before heading into WL, and he was damn good pretty much as I expected. A lil bit of general info for you to know what's my player level in FIFA - I'm a Div 1/ Elite Div player, 11-13 wins in WL. Far from the best but also far from the worst. My favourite formation is 3-5-2 as it gives me the opportunity to have enough players in both attack and defense. You can check my team in the link I left here, but in-game it looked slightly different - CB: Maldini, VVD, Fabinho. CDM: Alaba, Yaya Toure. LM&RM: Antony, Trippier. CAM: Stoichkov. ST: Morientes and the main man Benzema. Benzema's instructions were False 9, Stay Central and basic defense support (Most of the time, in rare cases when I had to go all in he just was on forward runs and stay forward instructions). Morientes was making forward runs and playing as a target man, while stoichkov joined the attack from behind and playing as second striker. That was my gameplan throughout all the 20 WL games.

Now, I've collected a bit more detailed stats rather than just the general 'Goals + Assists'. Let me present you Karim's detailed stats from the 20 games played in his debut WL:

: Average Per Match

Rating - 8.09

Goals - 1.5

Assists - 0.8

Shots - 3.6

Shots on Target - 89%

Passes - 14

Pass Accuracy - 85%

Dribbles - 15

Dribble Success - 75%

Offsides - 0.05 (He was often in deeper areas on the pitch)

Possessions Won - 0.6

Possessions Lost - 5.3

Minutes Played - 65 (Often opponents quitted too early)

In the middle of the WL, I was on a 8-6 record, and It all looked like another week where I start well (6 straight wins) and end up with 11 wins. However this wasn’t the case. Benzema led my team to a very strong finish, winning the last 6 games. It was the first time I managed to complete 14 wins, after numerous failures in the past months it felt really really good.

Now, It’s time to talk about Benzema in general. He’s an end game striker, who’s got perfect shooting and passing. His vision and passing skills really impressed me. He completes those tricky passes which often you mean to do but most other players end up passing to a completely different player or in a completely different way and those attempts never reach the target. Benzema has this playmaker trait for a reason, he’s running the entire attack when needed while still being a top tier finisher. What isn't perfect and honestly feels lower than the stats say are his Pace and Physicality. He doesn’t run like a 99 paced player, more like a 94-95, he often gets caught by those meta CB as Maldini VVD and Lucio and they often body him without him being a challenge for them, although the stats say he’s got 95 strength. Anyway, he’s still better at those components than most other players in the game, especially if you use him the right way. What really makes him that deadly forward and puts him in the same category as R9 and Mbappe, it’s his reactions and positioning on the pitch. He’s always first on the ball no matter what, and always comes to the right areas when I’m looking to make a pass or cross.

To summarize my long review, I’ve got to say he’s definitely worth the price (2M at the moment, will drop to 1.5M in the following weeks probably). Considering that he’s the cheapest forward out of the TOP Meta tier, I highly recommend trying him out if you’ve got the budget. Benzema is an allrounder in the attack and definitely a big game changer. I’m really happy to have him on my team!