FUT Birthday Pogba

Day 632 of lockdown: After reviewing the TOTW and considering the FUT Birthday promo would continue until April 13th we decided to base our review on what you wanted this week.  If you follow @FUTBIN or myself @IVIaeday on Twitter there was a poll looking for feedback on this week’s review, with the eventual winner being the Manchester United talisman FUT Birthday Paul Pogba.  I might have guessed this would be the case given this FUT favorite was sitting on only a base card until now.  Truth be told I was excited to get started with this one, lately many have pointed out my reliance on Gini Wijnaldum might be holding me back and that he is in need of an upgrade.  With that in mind, I played Pogba in the “Gini role” of my 4-4-2, unleashing him to play box to box with the hopes of bossing the midfield all weekend.  I applied a SHADOW chemistry style for the much needed pace boost and was ready to start the grind once again.  Pogba was the locomotive with flair in the following squad:
 

Overall

Rating: 8.9/10
Pace Rating: 8.5/10
Dribbling Rating: 8.5/10
Shooting Rating: 8.5/10
Passing Rating: 9.5/10
Physical Rating: 9.5/10
Defending Rating: 8.5/10

If you joined me this past weekend you probably ran into at least one if not all of the following players in each match: Dan James, Ryan Kent, and/or Adama Traore.  The Meta is heavily engrained in FIFA 20 and leads to players like 94 Lewandowski at a price tag of only 400k.  Unfortunately, FUT Birthday Pogba falls outside of these requirements and therefore didn’t live up to my lofty expectations.  89 ACCELERATION and 97 SPRINT SPEED should have been plenty in the midfield but fell well short of anticipation.  At a dead sprint, Pogba is quite fast and no one is catching him, however, his touches are incredibly spread out and meant that I was seldom able to unleash his speed on my opponents.  Even more annoying is how long it takes for his engine to hit top gear and this not only affects his pace but makes dribbling a huge challenge.  Time and time again I would use the left stick dribbling (which is quite nice for a big player) to create space, only to have my opponent taking possession from Pogba by the time he took his next touch.  

Linkability 

Linkability Rating: 4/5

Back to back to back French players again speaks to the wide array of options you can work with to get a player like Pogba into your squad.  FUT Birthday Rashford and FFS Greenwood also provide some incredible firepower to link with this card if you decide to give him a try.

End Game Strength

End Game Strength Rating: 3.5/5

Unless something drastic changes with the mechanics of this game in the next month, I would be shocked to see anyone using this card after TOTS drops.  Granted, there are not many cards that can survive the onslaught of high-end Meta cards at discount prices, but you do see some make a dramatic comeback through the storm.  I can’t see any possible outcome where this comeback happens to this card, there are simply too many deficiencies already.

Value/Coins & Good vs. Bad 

Value/Coins Rating: 3/5
Good vs Bad Rating: 4/5

Almost 2.3 million for this card is insane given the experience I had this weekend.  The pace and dribbling are just the beginning as the shooting with Pogba is not great either.  81 FINISHING is a big part of this, but I figured with a 5 STAR WEAK FOOT, 97 SHOT POWER & 89 LONG SHOTS that I would still be banging them home all weekend.  The result instead was a mixed bag of unbelievable finishes and shocking efforts towards goal.  In the end, playing alongside a card like TOTY de Jong for a slightly lower total of 2 million coins really drove home how overpriced Pogba is for what you get.

If you can’t tell, my overwhelming opinion of this card all weekend was not great and this continued to escalate all weekend, especially as my competition improved.  I went from not being sure about the card to starting to get the hang of him, back to speculation of his worth, on to disappointment that I was sold a lie, and ending with complete frustration and praying for the moment where I could sell and move on. However, I would be lying and doing this review a disservice if I didn’t mention that this card does have some excellent qualities mixed in.  The passing on this card is insane and while they didn’t result in direct assists, the through balls and over the top pinpoint passes that Pogba pulls off led to numerous goals in the end. Additionally, Pobga is incredibly strong on the ball and when holding off opponents.  Unfortunately, 93 STRENGTH was not enough to lift this card to supremacy over other options.

Closing Words

For me, the hunt continues to replace Gini Wijnaldum in my squad.  Honestly, the only categories Pogba eclipsed the Liverpool man was in his passing, strength, and pre-set celebrations … in which he has three… all of which seem to make opponents angry.  In the end, Pogba did chip in this weekend with 15 goals and 5 assists, which would be a fine return from midfield.  However, about three games in I found myself getting overrun in the center of the park and started playing Pogba in the second ST roll after the 60min of every match.  These moments at ST definitely create a false sense of achievement for Pogba in goal and assist totals, but I will say that as a Target Man ST he has some potential… just not 2.3 million worth. Cheers for reading. 
 

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