FIFA 23 Player Moments Cuadrado SBC - Cop or Flop?

Well, what do we make of the World Cup promo so far? The hype train was in full flow on that first Friday but, rather like a bitter ex’s review of myself, it came in strong but was over rather quickly and just left everybody a bit disappointed. Here’s hoping Black Friday can really kick start the content and maybe, just maybe, give us League SBC’s.

Anyway, we have been given a boatload of player SBC’s, chief among which is Cuadrado’s Moments! Got to love EA giving a World Cup Moments card to a player from a country that didn’t even qualify…

Check out the card! - Cuadrado 87

The wing back, who really emphasises the “wing” part of that moniker, has been given a +4 with some belting stat upgrades. He also starts as a RM which means his position map is more Right than Fox News. I can’t help but feel sad that James Rodriguez is not in the game cause his Moments would have been delightful.

Moments Cuadrado SBC Requirements

Here are the following SBC Requirements you’ll need to complete for the Player Moments Cuadrado SBC:

#1 - Colombia

Columbia Players - Min 1 

Squad Rating - Min 83

Reward - Small Electrum Players Pack + 3 x 80+ World Cup Players

#1 - Top Form

IF Players - Min 1 

Squad Rating - Min 84

Reward - Small Gold Players Pack

#1 - 85 Rated Squad

Squad Rating - Min 85

Reward - Small Prime Gold Players Pack

#1 - 86 Rated Squad

IF Players - Min 1 

Squad Rating - Min 86

Reward - Rare Mixed Players Pack

Total Cost from scratch ~ 200K

Estimated Return From Packs ~ 17k

Okay, so I have to talk about it. The Keane Cop Or Flop. Whenever I mention an expensive SBC might be a flop, I’m ready to be shouted at by people who don’t want to believe they’ve wasted their coins. Having used Keane now for over 50 games, I stick by my review. A spectacular card that, with Swaps fodder packs, is a cop, but from scratch is absolutely a flop. Moving forward, we will be adding clips of the player being reviewed but personally I complete every SBC I review. 

Moving on to this SBC. It’s quite expensive. It’s the fourth most expensive non-hero card in Serie A after both Ribery’s and IF Tomori (although with “Best of TOTW” tonight, potentially Tomori will drop further).  It’s also the third most expensive non-icon that can play right back in the whole game, with only PTG Walker and PTG Araujo more costly at the time of writing.

However, it’s fair to say, this is a cracking card. It fills a massive hole in Serie A teams with only the SBC Rulebreaker Dodo and World Cup Star Bereszynski being anywhere close to the power curve at Right Back. Cuadrado is also one of those rare creatures, a wing back with 5 star skills.Like a prime Marcio Azavedo, this offers an element to his game that few others can match. However, the usefulness of 5 star skilling your way out of your box is a different question.

For me, I think this is slightly overpriced. Not massively, and with the amount of fodder you can get from Swaps you can probably wipe out a lot of that cost, but just enough to make it not value for coins.

The FUTBIN Community has spoken, and currently the votes are saying 39% Upvotes vs 61% Downvotes

Let us know how you voted in the comments below!

Flashback Cuadrado SBC Analysis

It’s tough to really analyse this card. Do you analyse as a Winger or as a Full Back? Honestly that depends on both where you play him but also how you play him. If you like your full backs on “stay back while attacking”, I’m going to dive ahead and let you know this probably isn’t the one for you.

As a winger, this is a cracking card. Rapid base pace with lightning dribbling leaves you the ability to boost his technical stats that are arguably in need of some help. A deadeye is fantastic if you are a more intricate player, 99 short passing, 99 shot power and a big +8 to his lacklustre 74 vision. However I really like Maestro as a winger (this is the chemstyle I have on him), it gives him outrageous long shots, boosts both passing stats and gives a nice boost to his reactions.

As a full back, you have to give him some help in his strength and defending stats. Whilst 84 base stand tackle is absolutely passable, 80 defensive awareness and just 77 interceptions is very, very noticeable. I regularly found him out of position and not picking up balls I would expect my defenders to get. To remedy this, I really like Backbone. With him being further back, the +8 in long passing is needed and the +8 in interceptions makes a massive difference.

How Does He Compare?

Once again, this is like trying to compare apples and Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, he seems similar but is very different. The two obvious comparisons are Dodo and OOP Chiesa.

Compared to Dodo as a right back, Cuadrado actually fairs surprisingly well considering the face card stat differences. JuAn (not a typo, just how EA typed it on his card stats…) is obviously much quicker, the extra 8 acceleration is huge. Dodo has a bizarre 89 attacking positioning but gets thoroughly bodied in both shooting and dribbling. However it’s physically that the surprise comes. Despite Dodo having 3 extra physical, it’s a much closer fought thing in the in games. Just the +1 jumping and stamina with 1 less aggression. Whilst Dodo does have 6 more strength, he also makes Messi look tall. Cuadrado does lose out badly defensively however, and Dodo was only 60k. Again here, we see the issue with comparing players who can only play one position with an all rounder.

Against Chiesa as a winger, it’s a very similar story. Arguably 5/3 can be seen as comparable to 4/4 when it comes to attacking players, especially wingers. Pace is very similar between the two, Chiesa absolutely demolishes Cuadrado when it comes to shooting however. 8 more finishing and 6 more positioning is sizable. However this is the only place Chiesa wins for me, Cuadrado is a better passer, a much superior dribbler and physically wins both Jumping and Aggression battles handsomely. Again Chiesa was much cheaper at around 110k (and is one of my favourite players this year) but Cuadrado is the better winger.

Cuadrado has some great links too. Juventus have a multitude of brilliant players, from the aforementioned Chiesa SBC, to Bonucci’s Rulebreakers, to Paredes’ Season Milestone card, it really is no hardship to get the club link for this card. Columbia also have some cracking cards to link to, chief among which is Cordoba who also gives a league chemistry diamond too. Both Davinson Sanchez’s Rulebreaker card and the Falcao Flashback SBC offer useful links for hybrids too!

Cuadrado Moments SBC - Cop or Flop?

With EA’s current refusal to give us any sustainable way of attaining fodder, most player SBC’s are being brutally downvoted at the moment. The last 4 player SBC’s are under 20% upvotes. So for this Cuadrado to be sat at 39% is not the end of the world.

Most comments on this card are about the Hero Pack, however I did find one comment that piqued my interest…

Firstly, stop spending too much time on “those” websites. But secondly, my mate Josh’s mum was absolute fire…

So, Cop or Flop?

Really tough card to judge because there is very little like it in the game. If you play with attacking wing backs this has to be a cop. But I don’t think I’ve played against a single player whose wing backs got further than the halfway line in weeks. As a winger there are far better options for much cheaper in almost every league other than Serie A.

I loved using this card, but for me, he is about 50-75k overpriced. And whilst we have no League SBC grind, that’s not a gap that’s easily bridged. When a World Cup Hero party bag is only 150k, this is not the Juan.

SBC Rating: 6/10

FLOP

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