FC 24 91 Ultimate Birthday Claude Makelele Player Review - Cop or Flop

Another big day of content on EAFC 24 as a whopping 16, that’s right. 16 new items drop into the game this evening! Some St. Patricks Day themed players in objectives, a not so mini release with a few new icons and Ultimate Birthday items including an incredible Varane card. Then in the SBC section we have yet another Ultimate Birthday Icon in Claude Makelele.

You can check out the card here!

A massive upgrade on this Makelele card from his Centurions item. A huge +20 to his shooting, not that you’d really need it but it’s nice to have. A switch up on the playstyles with two playstyle+s in the Bruiser and Quick Step playstyles. Then finally he has gone from a 3*/3* to a 4*/5* in the Skill Moves and Weak foot. You just love to see it. 

Claude drops bang in the middle of an absolutely iconic midfield alongside Zidane and Beckham. It’s worth noting that for the first few games I played Makelele in the CM role but playing him as a deep CDM is absolutely the play here because as soon as I switched him to his default position, that’s when he began to shine.

The Chemstyle of choice here is quite clear and obvious in that it just needs to be the Shadow Chem. He needs a good boost to his pace whilst absolutely going all in on getting those defensive stats up because this man will be completely in defence with the low/high work rates.

Here are the following segments to unlock the Ultimate Birthday Icon Makelele SBC:

#1 - Born Legend
Rare: Exactly 11
Player Level: Exactly Bronze

Pack Return - Small Silver Players Pack

#2 - Rising Star
Rare: Exactly 11
Player Level: Exactly Silver

Pack Return - Three Common Gold Players Pack

#3 - On a Loan
Squad Rating - 82
Loan Version of this card is the reward here

#4 - Chelsea

Number of TOTW Players: Min 1

# of players from Chelsea: Min 1
Squad Rating - 85
Pack Return - Jumbo Premium Gold Pack

#5 - France

Number of TOTW Players: Min 1

# of players from France: Min 1
Squad Rating - 86
Pack Return - Small Prime Gold Players Pack

#6 - Top Notch
Number of TOTW Players: Min 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Prime Electrum Players Pack

#7 - 88-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 88
Pack Return - Rare Electrum Players Pack

#8 - 88-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 88
Pack Return - Rare Electrum Players Pack

#9 - 89-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 89
Pack Return - Mega Pack

Though there is marginally fewer segments from Friday’s Socrates SBC, this SBC still comes in at roughly 1 million coins to complete, or at least the fodder equivalent of that. It’s worth noting of course that the Centurions item is currently 130k so a massive price difference here but is that price difference justified by the mass amounts of upgrades this card has received? There’s only one way to find out.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Physicality as a whole is massive on this card, he played incredibly aggressive to win back the ball and he rarely failed due to that high strength. His stamina did not letup throughout the game as he would run full steam for the entire 90-minutes.

+ Interceptions was also something I noticed quite frequently as he was constantly putting an immediate stop to many through balls and passing plays.

+ Positioning was good once you accept that this guy will be playing mostly alongside the defence, but he does not let anything through to the defence.

/ Passing for me was quite inconsistent. His short passing can’t be faulted but everything else to do with passing just felt average for me. I would recommend making that quick short pass as soon as he gets the ball

- Shooting as expected is nothing to shout about. This isn’t a huge issue because he rarely gets involved with the attack so isn’t often in the position to take a shot. But from corners i’d often find the ball land to him and his finishing just will not get the job done.

Makelele - Cop or Flop?

Now, I will say that personally, I am not a huge fan of this card. It’s not a bad card at all! It’s just not something that fits my playstyle. He is an all out defensive midfielder and I prefer my midfield to be very well rounded with the ability to do it all. That being said, I can see the appeal to this card because defensively he was incredible. For 1 million coins I don’t think this is terrible value.

I would say don’t go dropping your coin balance on this one but absolutely target this SBC with your fodder and use the 2 months we have to complete this to slowly get it done. 

Verdict = COP