TIF Felipe Anderson

I must admit that when Felipe Anderson signed for West Ham I thought it was a mistake.  He seemed like the type of player that would come into the Premier League, struggle with the physicality and demands of the competition, and would slowly fade away.  However, after one inform I reviewed his OTW card and going back and reading it over I realize that I was both right and wrong.  I predicted that he would manage one more inform, but I was nowhere near predicting the fantastic season that this lad has put together so far.  I sold Anderson’s OTW card shortly after my review and he has been making me pay for that choice ever since.  Another fantastic performance against Southampton earned the Brazilian an 87 rated TIF in TOTW 16.
I have continued to employ the 4-2-2-2 formation in my Weekend League endeavours and so the squad you see if how I would enter into the match with full chemistry.  After kickoff Felipe took his spot alongside Cavani as a Left ST with mixed effects.  In choosing a chemistry style I knew that I wanted to add some shooting boosts to Anderson and decided that DEADEYE would be the ideal direction to go.  The +15 Finishing and Positioning that DEADEYE provides was exactly what I was looking for, and the +3 boosts to Shot Power and Long Shots are just visually appealing.  With TOTY around the corner I went into the Weekend League with more motivation then every with Felipe as the Brazilian flair in the following squad:

Pace

With 97 ACCELERATION Felipe Andersen fits perfectly into the META of quick players in FUT.  He is lightning off the mark and can cause a lot of issues with his first step.  Even better, 92 SPRINT SPEED means that he is difficult to catch and can create a gap between chasing midfielders and defenders, giving you that vital second or two to pick the right pass or find the openings for a shot at goal.  I played the first half of every match with Mbappé at right CAM and the connection of Mbappé’s pace down the wing and Anderson on the far side was golden.

Pace Rating: 9.6/10

Shooting & Passing

Prior to using RTTF Ben Yedder I would have been over the moon with a 27 goal return from a ST in a weekend.  But now I know what I am missing and Felipe Anderson reminded me of that more often then he should have.  It is almost like his pace is a detriment in this case… Felipe makes a run, gets through on goal, 1v1 vs. the keeper, and it is saved.  Whereas if there were five defenders between him and goal and he finessed it far post, he would score.  Don’t get me wrong; 4 STAR WEAK FOOT, 96 FINISHING, 99 SHOT POWER, & 99 LONG SHOTS is as good as it sounds, but I just felt like something was missing at times (again this is Ben Yedder’s fault).  From a passing perspective the addition of DEADEYE seemed to make a marginal difference and I was happy with the balls Anderson was able to pick out and execute.  A decent assist return to go along with his goals again just demonstrates how effective this card can be.

Shooting Rating: 9.0/10
Passing Rating: 7.8/10

Dribbling 

I was extremely tempted to place a SNIPER card on Anderson for this category alone.  In my mind SNIPER is still one of the most effective cards because of the dribbling responsiveness it adds to players.  Dribbling is such a huge part of this FIFA and placing my boosts here always feels like I am making a good choice.  Of course I did not go in this direction and Anderson was still very effective with his 4 STAR SKILLS, 92 AGILITY, & 91 BALANCE.  However, it just felt like a little something was missing at times and that in turn effected my rating.

Dribbling Rating: 9/10

Defending & Physical

No defensive information to report, I will say that Anderson’s pace is a big factor in closing down opponents when you need to press to get the ball from the front.  From a physical perspective 81 STAMINA was not a big factor as a ST but I could see him needing a sub in just about any other position.  Even in extra time Felipe would be fading away and could be frustrating at times.  Moving onto his 60 STRENGTH & 43 JUMPING (yes 43!) you would think this is the section that sinks Anderson. While it definitely isn’t a selling point, Anderson’s physicality it is not the damning category that you might expect.  Player architype plays a big part here and if you watch the video with this review and didn’t know that Felipe Anderson is 5’9 I think you would be surprised.  He appears bigger than his card would suggest and his normal body type (as opposed to lean) allows him some added strength on the ball in confrontations.  Again, not the best… but I have used worse.

Defending Rating: N/A
Physical Rating: 7/10

Final Rating

Final Score: 8.8/10

As I was coming up with this rating I started to think about other players I have reviewed and how I would compare Felipe Anderson to them.  Immediately Gabriel Jesus stood out in my mind.  Definitely not the same player by any stretch of the imagination so I am not saying that.  But in my mind they both sit in a category of players that are extremely effective, value for money, Top Tier … but not at the God Tier level.  Truth be told even RTTF Ben Yedder who I enjoyed so thoroughly is at the top of the Top Tier players, but just not that next level that ICONS, CR7, and now TOTY players will be at.  In closing, for the FUT Manager who has a lot of coins but not the millions that are required for God Tier players, Anderson checks all of the boxes and is an effective addition to any squad.  Cheers for reading.

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