REVIEW - Left Love

Back again with another look at the World Cup Mode and once again the pack pulls showed me the way.  After my success with my midfield trio of Sanches, Matthäus, and Thiago I was definitely looking for some upgrades up front.  Having spent 50k already I decided I would go for round two with packs and put 50k more coins into my squad.  Second pack, board, Argentina flag, RW, Di M… MESSI!  In complete shock I figured I might as well spend the rest of my 50k and the very next pack; board, French flag, CF, Griezmann!  Complete madness for sure, and I definitely had the striker upgrades I was looking for.  Time to play some games.

It was obvious that I wanted to review Messi and Griezmann but who would be the third?  The answer was already sitting stone cold staring at me in my squad, Thomas Lemar: seriously would it have hurt him to have cracked a smile for his photo?  Maybe before the picture they had just told him he would only have a 2 STAR WEAK FOOT.  In any case experienced FUT Managers and Football fans will have realized that the connection between these three is that they are all left footed, and so spawned my second review Left Love; showing some appreciation for the men with kick stands for right legs.  The squad was poised for another run at the World Cup and lined up like this:

As I said before this team was amazing for me and I can’t get over how lucky the mixture of players I pulled were.  I was not exaggerating that a monster was born with this squad; and that monster was in my midfield.  In Greek Mythology there is a creature called a Chimera: A lion like creature, with the head of a goat emerging from the back, and a king cobra for a tail.  The fact that this creature is sometimes considered female is even more scary (don’t tell my wife I said this).

Messi - The Magician

RATING: 4.7/5

As I continue to experiment with the 4-1-4-1 formation the one thing I was missing was a top quality striker.  In Messi, that void has been filled and then some.  The world has run out of superlatives to describe this guy and in FUT there is no exception.  I am normally a FUT player who spreads around the goals (and I do not score that many) and an excellent player in my squad averages a goal per game.  With Messi I am currently sitting on 20 goals in 15 games, which is fantastic.  A large majority of these goals come from the picture perfect runs Messi makes in behind defenders mixed with his top notch finishing.  The 4 STAR WEAK FOOT is a huge bonus and I think I could be utilizing this trait more in the future as defenders often heavily protect against Messi’s left.  The only notable negative to Messi is his size, especially if you enjoy crossing as I have had zero luck with headers thus far.  In closing, I do not think there are many FUT Managers that would not be playing Messi if they have managed to pack him.  However, in speaking from experience you are in for a real treat if you do.

Griezman: Take the L

RATING 4/5

Griezmann: The man who is single handedly going to be the cause of numerous rage quits and rants as FUT Managers lose their minds over the newly added Take the L celebration in FIFA 19.  For the sake of sanity let’s hope that it is left out.  Speaking of left; this guy is insane when he opens up onto his left foot.  Some players just have the perfect combination of stats for the far corner curling shots and Griezmann is definitely one of them.  I wouldn’t call him a top quality ST though and I found his movement to be lacking.  I have mentioned before that some players appear taller than their card suggests and Griezmann is another case.  He plays “bigger” then his 5’7 measurements show and in this case I think it is actually a detriment to his performance in game.  His movements feel slower and clunky like a bigger player, yet his strength is lacking like a smaller player; not ideal for a ST.  However, out on the wing he has been an excellent addition to my squad.  He chips in with the odd goal and even more assists, while his 82 STAMINA keeps him going up and down the pitch until about the 70^th minute.  While I am far from sold at this point in time; the possibility of an upgrade to this card makes me very excited to watch and pray when France hit the pitch on June 16^th.

Lemar – Left Out on the Left Wing

RATING 3.8/5

It wasn’t until I sat down to write this review that I realized Lemar does not have 90+ pace.  While 86 ACCELERATION and 84 SPRINT SPEED are not Toni Kroos slow.  In game this guy feels like he is absolutely flying.  Perhaps it is the tweak in gameplay on the World Cup mode or maybe it is his 88 DRIBBLING? Regardless, I can say without hesitation that he matches the pace of everyone in my squad and can blow away defenders when he is on the ball.  But then it comes to finishing and you start to run into some issues, especially due to his 2 STAR WEAK FOOT as previously mentioned.  As the ball gets played across and you notice the opportunity to cut inside you start wondering if it is worth it and his 78 FINISHING is not helping anything.  On Lemar’s left foot I did not notice any issues with finding the far corner, but due to his wide starting position I did not get many of these opportunities.  So why do I continue to play him when I have other LM options?  It is easy; speed kills.  Using Lemar’s pace you can effortlessly get into dangerous positions and his quality passing stats allow you to find the right options in the final third.  I cannot overstate how blistering this card feels and it will take a change in formation or a seriously good pull to push this guy out of my starting eleven.
Cheers for reading.

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