FC 24 Flashback De Bruyne Player Review - COP or FLOP?

Ladies and Gentlemen…. EAFC 24 Is finally here! If you have copped yourself the Ultimate Edition of the game of course. But today marks the official first day that we all manage to hop onto the game and begin a brand new journey in EA Sports FC.

Kicking things off we have the “Nike Mad Ready” promo. A promo of which doesn’t give any boosted items but some cards that come with a fresh Nike themed card that you can use to complete various objectives throughout the promo. Alongside this Promo we of course have the very first SBC of the year and it, surprisingly, is none other than Kevin De Bruyne! KDB has been given a flashback item on Day 1. Let that sink in a little. Because it is incredibly likely you are going to be seeing this card in a lot of teams.

You can check out the card here!

My first take on this card is that it’s great he’s received this item, due to his current injury, meaning he won’t be getting any performance-based cards for some time. This kind of card being released on day one doesn’t quite sit right with me, purely because I love the start of the year when we all actually enjoy some gold cards. But this card looks incredible at face value.

The cost of this Flashback KDB card is coming in at roughly 115k coins (Take that with a pinch of salt though because prices are jumping all over the place as packs are getting opened). For me that’s a hefty price to be spending day 1, especially when you consider that you can buy the normal card for around 85k and be able to sell whenever you want to free some coins up.

Here are the following segments to unlock the SBC:

#1 - Manchester City
# of Players from Manchester City - Min. 1
Squad Rating - 86
Pack Return - Prime Electrum Players Pack

#2 - Premier League
# of Players from England - Min. 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Small Rare Gold Players Pack

Now, I am testing out so many different players to see who plays well. For this review, I have dropped KDB in the center of a Premier League team (shamelessly featuring a few loans). But KDB, Rice and Adams rocking the midfield. Pushing the ball up to Gabriel Jesus, Tresor and McManaman. As I said before, this is my favourite part of the game cycle. These cards hold up in teams pretty well.

I started with a 433(3) but switched to 433(4) purely because I wanted KDB in the CAM position but Rice cannot play CM. So first thing to note is yes, I said I played him in CAM. First instinct on this card is probably to push him into being more defensive due to the Pace and Defensive upgrades. But due to him having the Incisive pass playstyle, I really recommend him playing CAM or as a floating CM. 

My reasoning behind this is that gameplay to me feels considerably slow compared to what we have just been used to. What benefited me really well was being able to get fast passes off with KDB to the attackers and get quick easy goals. The Chemstyle of choice for me was a Hunter Chemstyle as I just wanted to focus on getting his Pace and Shooting up. Alternatively, you can go with either a Shadow or an Anchor to get some focus into Physicals.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Passing is a very clear and obvious one for me. The Playstyle+ felt so OP when it came to smashing through balls up the pitch.
+ Shooting was brilliant on this card. KDB has an absolute rocket of a shot due to his 88 shot power. He was especially very good as pinging in finesse shots from the edge of the box too.
+ Positioning is something that was also really impressive on this card. When fighting a counter-attack he really pushed back and joined the defence, often recovering the ball. When pushing up towards goal he was always available to switch the ball between players and keep in space to try to pickup a goal.
/ Dribbling was okay, ball control was really good however his Agility and Balance could let him down at times.
- Strength of course for me was a negative due to not focusing on boosting that stat. In tight situations, I did find him muscled off pretty easily.  If this is a big issue for you, I’d recommend reverting to the Anchor Chemstyle.

Kevin De Bruyne - Cop or Flop?

The community seems incredibly torn on this SBC as it is near 50/50 in voting. This is due to the price tag that comes along with this card. For me, to drop this many coins into an untradeable item on day 1 is really tough. Right now everyone should be working to get their coin balances up to be able to build their teams.

That being said this is a really great card and as mentioned before, it’s quite likely we may not see a KDB special card for a few months. So if you’re a Man City fan this may be something you would want to complete. He’ll certainly get a lot of use but right now, this is just far too much to drop this early.

I would personally suggest resisting pulling the trigger on this SBC due to the price alone.

Verdict = FLOP