FC 26 87 Thunderstruck Pacho Player Review - Cop or Flop

Thunderstruck is well and truly here but to our delight it has started 4 hours early with much more content still yet to come. We have seen an incredible amount of players flooded into packs with both Best of Campaign and TOTW available, as well as the Thunderstruck team. Some of these cards look incredible!

Of course in typical Thunderstruck fashion, we get some incredible SBCs and today seems to be continuing with that theme. A Willian Pacho Thunderstruck SBC has just become available and we are excited to get our hands on this card. His gold has been an absolute staple in squads for the first few months, so I can only assume this card will be even better.

But also, the added bonus for Thunderstruck items are that they are upgradeable based on the teams real life performance. Tracking from 28 November, Thunderstruck Items will upgrade based on the following domestic performances of their current or former club:

• Wins or draws 2 matches in the next 5 Domestic League matches (1 Base PlayStyle)
• Wins or draws 3 matches in the next 5 Domestic League matches (All Roles++ in all positions)
• Scores 10 goals in the next 5 Domestic League matches (Plus 1 PS+ (Max 1) or base PlayStyle)

In EA fashion for this year though the power curve still remains relatively slow. This Pacho has had a overall boost of a +1 with 1s & 2s across his base stats. His playstyle plus remains the same but he has also been given the Acrobatic and Pinged Pass playstyles. 

For the Chemstyle on this card, the shadow seems the definitive choice. It’ll nudge up the pace but more importantly, juice that defending. 

Here are the following segments to unlock the Thunderstruck Pacho SBC:

Ligue 1

# of players from Ligue 1: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

Top Form

Team of the Week Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 86

# of players in squad: 11

86-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 86

# of players in squad: 11

86-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 86

# of players in squad: 11

87-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 87

# of players in squad: 11

So 5 segments in total are required to complete this SBC. Let’s be honest, you couldn’t expect much less and with a price tag of 230k currently to complete. I don’t hate the value behind this. Especially with how much easier fodder is to attain right now. 

How did he perform in-game?

+ Physically, this man is an absolute brick wall. He’s constantly blocking shots and putting a swift stop from any opposing runs. His strength feels unmatched and with the bruiser plus, he’s forcing players off the ball with ease.

+ Defensively, he’s solid too. His awareness impressed a lot. He was constantly moving into space early to put a stop to through balls and passes outside of the box. He was constantly intercepting and creating a real challenge for attackers when it came to breaking through the defensive wall. 

+ His pace for a defender is perfect too, which plays nicely into his defensive positioning as he’s able to swiftly rotate into space. But also plays very well when dealing with a counter attack as he’s always the first to get back or chase an attacker.

/ His dribbling isn’t much to brag about but an honourable mention has to go to his composure/reactions. As when he does have the ball he handles it well under pressure and rarely gets caught from a pressing attacker.

Pacho - Cop or Flop?

I’ll cut straight to the chase, this is an excellent centre back. Likely even one of the best in the game currently. This is a must pickup but I would reiterate this isn’t a “quick” pickup. There is a lot of content dropping with plenty of opportunity to build up some fodder. There is plenty of time on the SBC too so there simply is no rush. He is 100% worth the pick up but I would suggest to bide your time with it so that you don’t rule yourself out of some of the other content.

But as a whole, this is an elite-tier CB and definitely worth picking up. Especially as he is almost guaranteed those upgrades.

Verdict = COP