IF SALAH

FIFA 18 often felt like the Mohamed Salah Show.  Every other week his OTW skyrocketed as the Egyptian set the Premier League a light.  The question was not “will he win player of the month,” it was whether or not you would need an inform Salah for the SBC.  Well, it has taken until TOTW 10 but the wait is finally over.  All it took was the need for a fantastic Black Friday TOTW, but I will take it.

The sale of CL Live Griezmann freed up a lot of coins for this weekend and the dipping price of Salah during Black Friday, and further still with the TOTW Tradeable packs left me a lot of coins to work with.  Testing out Salah was seriously overshadowed by the purchase of 89 ICON GERRARD (my next review) for the weekend.  However,  I always had an eye on the blur of hair “running down the wing”; and I am not sure if I enjoyed his updated in game face/hair, or his updated weak foot more.  Mo was the Egyptian King in the following squad:

Pace

To start off I immediately went for the HAWK chemistry style for the enhancements to shooting and physical, but of course you get a bit of pace with your order.  I still don’t think he is M’bappe fast, but he is right behind him with the likes of Depay.  As you can imagine with 99 ACCELERATION you are of the races in a hurry and the 96 SPRINT SPEED keeps you one step ahead of most defenders.  More than the pace it is the runs that Salah is constantly making to beat the back line that make him such a threat.  If you have the players to get him the ball he will cause a lot of damage to your opposition.  

Pace Rating: 9.5/10

Shooting & Physical

With the HAWK chemistry style affecting both of these categories it seems like a good fit to look at them together.  I always like when a player can cut in off of the wing and cause issues and Salah was definitely a handful this weekend.  The fact that everyone is protecting against his left leaves huge gaps down the wing and an added bonus with this card.  But when he is afforded the room to shoot, you know it is finding the far corner.  97 FINISHING & 85 CURVE are helping here and timed finesse shots are just about a lock.  88 SHOT POWER actually seems low considering how hard he hammers the ball in game.  I actually found myself having to take a bit off of my long shots after a few crossbars were dismantled early in the weekend.  Furthermore, the hidden strength in this card is vital to Salah’s success in front of goal.  In my video there is even a moment where Salah brushes IF Matip aside in the box and hammers the ball into the top bin.  I found him deceivingly strong and the only physical downside was 86 STAMINA, which doesn’t seem low, but for a winger was just not enough for the full 90 minutes. 

Shooting Rating: 9.5/10
Physical Rating: 8.7/10

Passing & Defending

Status quo for Salah here.  The one comment I will make about his passing was how impressed I was with his right footed crossing.  As previously mentioned as you come in off of the left most defenders are over protecting the finesse and leave the wing to be exploited.  Salah was surprisingly accurate when crossing despite his 3 STAR WEAK FOOT.  I realize that I did not speak about Salah’s weak foot in the shooting comments and that was more so because he refuses to use his weak foot anyway.  Even when the ball is on the complete opposite side of his body, Salah will use the outside of his left foot.  In the end his weak foot was a non-issue for me and his right footed crosses were pin point and resulted in numerous goals during the weekend.  

Passing Rating: 7.8/10
Defending Rating: N/A 

Dribbling

As you can imagine Salah is a smooth operator on the ball and can unlock the most defensive teams with his cut backs, turns, and close control on the ball.  I would have went for a higher rating but I did find his touches while dribbling at pace were a bit loose.  I realize that this equates to speed, but at the same time when your opponent is tracking you down relentlessly with his CDM and you are trying to create distance but also react before defenders get involved, it can be tricky.

Dribbling Rating: 9.4/10

Final Score

Final Rating: 8.9/10

Having just reviewed CL Live Griezmann a week ago this rating was incredibly easy.  Salah is fantastic and definitely a top tier player for the next few months of FUT, but there will be better options for sure. CL Griezmann (9.1/10) is one of those better options in my opinion and so Salah sits just below the Frenchman in the pecking order.  But then you consider bang for your buck and I actually think Salah tips Griezmann here and if I was to recommend one of the two it would 100% be Salah.  While Griezmann hovers around 900k – 1 million coins, Salah has been dragged down by the Black Friday SBC’s to a modest 375k as of this writing.  Beyond the obvious chemistry benefits of a French player, and the centralized position, I would go with Mo for sure.  Salah is also starting to find his stride in the Premier League and could be a good shout for player of the month in December/January increasing the value of this inform greatly.  I would imagine that as Black Friday ends and the true value of this card is realized the price will start to rise again, so if you want to give Mo a run out, now would be the time.  Cheers for reading.  

Game Stats:

Game Highlights: