FIFA 23 Out Of Position Player Pick Barkley 86 (catchy) SBC - Cop or Flop?

I remember when I lost my mind and called Alaba a flop two weeks ago, however after 3 weeks, a pattern is emerging. Saturday is PP day. And also EA release a Player Pick SBC. After two, in my opinion, fairly obvious choices with Alaba and Becker, EA are back with a real tough choice between two versions of one time Everton starlet, Ross Barkley.

Check out the cards! - RoST Barkley 86 | RWss Barkley 86

A huge +10 on his base card whilst retaining 4 star skill moves, 5 star weak foot, makes both of these cards absolutely bonkers options. With High/Low work rates on both players too, it seems the only thing really missing is Outside of the Foot Shot trait. The two cards are split as Central Based, RoST, and wide based, RWss. Despite the Independent predicting in 2013 that Barkley would be England’s captain at this World Cup he’s found himself shipped off to France. So that’s Nice.

 

 

OOP PP Barkley SBC Requirements

Here are the following SBC Requirements you’ll need to complete for the OOP PP Barkley SBC:

#1 - Top Form

IF Players - Min 1

Squad Rating - Min 83

Reward - Small Electrum Players Pack

#2 - England

English Players - Min 1 

Squad Rating - Min 84

Reward - Mixed Players Pack

#3 - Ligue 1

Ligue 1 Players - Min 1 

Squad Rating - Min 85

Reward - Prime Mixed Players Pack

 

Total Cost from scratch ~ 100K

Average Return From Packs ~ 12-13k

There was something so pleasant about the days we used to be able to hate on EA for literally everything they did. And I hate that I keep doing this, but I feel like EA have once again smashed the pricing of this SBC. Not too high rated that you won’t have half the cards you need already, the IF requirement means 99.9% of the player base can knock 10k off the from scratch price as you will have a discard IF lying around. EA seem to have really found their Goldilocks Zone for SBC pricing this year.

At 100k these cards are around the 20th most expensive Ligue 1 card. Which I suppose is unsurprising with MNM and 4 solid Heroes around but it makes them 50k less expensive than Ben Yedder’s TOTW, 5k cheaper than Payet’s Rulebreakers and a quarter of the price of Sidney Govou, who is arguably a worse player in comparison.

With the English nation link allowing for much easier hybrids and 0% interest on your overdraft, this Barkley card is absolutely smashing value.

 

 

OOP PP Barkley SBC Analysis

Even my emotions have an echo in so much space between these two cards. Apart from dribbling, not a single stat is the same on both cards, meaning we really need to do two separate card analyses (definitely didn’t google “plural of analysis”). I hope I’m getting double bubble from Futbin HQ for this one…

So we’ll start with RoST Barkley because he’s lengthy, and we all know, length is all that matters. 86 base pace is the gateway to a superb looking card when viewed on face stats. 85 dribbling, 88 shooting, 84 passing and 81 physical just makes this card an all round beast.

When you really dig into the in-game stats, there are a couple of areas of concern however. 71 agility, 75 balance and 80 reactions is cripplingly bad for a striker, especially on old gen, and especially if you don’t just bang through balls over the top. Also, with just 67 jumping and 71 heading accuracy, the strength and height of Barkley become a little less enticing when targeting him from crosses or goal kicks.

However, his shooting is outstanding. 80 volleys and penalties allow for his 88 shooting to be properly distributed among the 4 most important shooting stats, giving him 88 positioning, 86 finishing, 93 shot power and 90 long shots. His passing is superb for a striker, 88 short passing and 87 long passing make him the perfect attacking pivot. And despite the top half of his dribbling stats being woeful, the bottom half are incredible. 88 ball control and dribbling with 90 composure mean that whilst he won’t be the most manoeuvrable, he will be able to move with the ball and execute a pass or shot with little hindrance from players around him.

Because we’re all dirty little pace wh*res, Hunter is by far and away the most popular chem style for striker Barkley, hilariously, despite already being lengthy, architect is second. For me, Deadeye or Hawk seem to be the best options for central based Barkley. The winger Barkley for me is like Suella Braverman, a walking contradiction (proper BBC Radio 4 joke). His face card stats bely a plethora of misplaced in game stats that make it very difficult to work out what he is. 90 pace, 84 shooting, 85 passing, 86 dribbling and 79 physical suggest that this should be an incredible winger. But a closer inspection throws up more questions than answers.

His 90 pace is split evenly and so there’s no complaints there. His 84 shooting is really just 90 long shots and very little else. Only 80 finishing and 84 positioning mean that EA seem to really be pushing for this card to stay out of the box more often than not.

With that in mind, we move onto his passing, which is brilliant…for a central based player. Only 76 crossing and 77 curve mean he can’t really be a winger. But 85 vision, 89 short and 88 long passing is magnificent, on a par with some of the most used midfielders in the game. When we then look at dribbling he’s got a solid boost in the top 3 stats from his striker card with 80 agility, 76 balance and 83 reactions however the obvious caveat is that he loses lengthy. He also goes from a cold blooded assassin with 90 composure, to Marcus Rashford, blasting every opportunity he gets as hard as he can with 84 composure.

And whilst a lot of these contradictions can be fixed with a chemistry style, namely finisher giving him godly shooting stats, and artist giving him sound stats for a winger, it makes him a really odd player to judge. His base stats suggest CAM is his best position. Which for a player who can literally only be changed to every wing spot on the pitch is just weird to me.

 

Who To Choose?

“Who do you think you are?” I often ask myself when dictating which of two players you should choose. Usually though, the correct choice seems very clear to me and I’m incredibly opinionated so I tell myself to shut up and tell you who to take anyway. However I’m unfortunately going to have to praise EA again here. This is a really tough choice. After two fairly easy decisions for me on the previous 2 player pick SBC’s, this one is a real dilemma.

Winger Barkley has both more face stats and in game stats, but it’s super close. And when you consider in game stats are only 8 different and winger Barkley has 10 more in game stats in defending, it becomes even tighter there.

For me, without thinking about where he fits into a team, the Striker Barkley is the more enticing of the 2. Not only is he lengthy, he also just has a conviction in what he is. Without going all long haired hippy on you, he just like knows himself maaaaaaan. However winger Barkley is arguably a little more mouldable to fill any spot along a front line. And is also a little easier to fit into teams for chemistry. So this one I’m going to leave to you. I think both will serve you just fine.

 

 

 

How Do They Compare?

Bless your soul if you’re trying to compare these 2 to other players, they are an incredibly unique blend of physicality coupled with technical ability. When compared to the players around them, both cards compare very favourably in Ligue 1. Hero Papin is 20k more expensive and, despite giving the extra League chemistry, is just plainly a worse card that both Barkley’s. Both have better physicals, dribbling, passing and pace. When you add in that the Barkley Brothers are 4/5 compared to Papin’s 3/4 it really isn’t close.

Rulebreakers Payet is around the same price and whilst stats wise he can match up fairly well against the Barkleys, 4/4 H/M is worse than 4/5 H/L. IF Ben Yedder is somehow 150k, having got him red, I can say with some certainty, he isn’t worth half that. Even when you move up to Govou, I still think the Barkley’s can compete with someone 300k more expensive.

Moving outside of Ligue 1, it’s a little more competitive. With the pre Black Friday market crash coming a whole 3 weeks early this year, Gold Haaland is only 107k now. And whilst I do believe his utility is slowly waning among the more skilled players, he is still a gamechanger for those of us striving for 6, 9 or 11 wins in champs. Morientes is 124k and whilst he can’t compete passing wise, as an out and out striker, he is maybe a more obvious tradeable option than both Barkleys.

Links wise, Barkley is quite a fun player. Whilst Nice don’t currently have any superb cards, Schmeichel is a handy enough keeper, Pepe’s IF could do a job and when we inevitably get a Laborde, Delort or, god help us, a Khephren Thuram special card, the Nice link will be there.

Outside of Nice, the French league offers nice links, with both expensive and mid budget options all over the pitch, it shouldn’t be too hard to get one or two chem segments from Ligue 1. But where Barkley stands out is his English links. And no, this is not some brexit means brexit diatribe. But a very usable English player not from the Premier League is a god send for team building. Linking up with Walker, Kane, OOP James, RTTK Foden, OTW Sterling, RB Phillips, Tomori etc. just allows for far more creativity when working Barkley into your team thanSuriname’s finest, Sheraldo Becker, for example.

 

Out of Position Barkley SBC - Cop or Flop?

You really think you’re in control of where a review is going then you see the upvotes/downvotes on the SBC. Ross Barkley has clearly done something horrific that I don’t know about, like lick raw chicken or kick a cat, because it’s the only explanation I have for him being only 22% upvoted.

However, I think I’ve found the reason why. And I’ll be honest, this might be the harshest Futbin comment I’ve read that made me laugh out loud.

 

 

It’s ok Ross “face only a mother could love” Barkley. Take solace in your chateau.

So Cop or Flop, that is the name of the game. I’ll be honest, I’m really torn on this one. Had this been a week or two ago, it would have definitely been Cop, but with the market moving the way it is, and still no way to grind fodder, it’s bordering on flop territory now.

Both of these cards are really solid players. And I don’t think it’s priced terribly at all. With 4/5 and high/low work rates, with a solid body type and cracking stats, I think this is a fun card that will be easy to link into teams.

I think I’m going to say Cop this Barkley, does that make me crazy? Possibly.

Rating 6.5/10

 

COP

 

N.B. If you’re down here and are thinking “the start to some of those paragraphs was weird”, go back, take the first part of each sentence at the beginning of each section and put them together. Crazy huh.

 

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