FIFA 23 FUT BALLERS MADUEKE PLAYER REVIEW - COP OR FLOP?

As Ronan Keating famously sang, Life Is A Rollercoaster, and boy are EA taking us on a rollercoaster this week. 

Yesterday we got Jack Grealish. Both incredible for fodder and decent in game. The day before we had Oxlade-Chamberlain, not great for fodder but a unique asset in game. Today, we’ve definitely still maintained the fodder part from Grealish but the player himself, Noni Madueke, is just plain weird.

Check out the card! - Noni Madueke

Madueke FUT Ballers SBC Requirements

#1 - Noni Madueke
England Player - Min 1
Min 84 Rated Player - Min 1
Squad Rating - 82

Total Cost from scratch ~ 22.3K

This is the cheapest FUT Baller SBC so far. With 82’s hovering around minimum price, this can be mostly completed with cards lying around in your club. However there is certainly a reason for that. We have so many elite attackers in the game now, an 87 winger isn’t even going to make the needle flicker. 

It also highlights another oddity about this promo. Why has it solely focused on more attack minded players (Ederson aside)? Surely a more well rounded selection of these players would have led to a better promo for the new users who are putting these cards into their squads? 

Madueke FUT Baller SBC In Game Analysis

I’ll be honest, my expectations were not high. I was expecting a bog standard, fodder level winger. In many ways that is what I got. But he was better than I expected…

He feels good in game. As with all of the FUT Ballers his dribbling was definitely the best part of his game. Although I will say, not nearly as good as a few others. Whereas the dribbling on Kulusevski made him genuinely nippy as a rangy winger, this dribbling kind of just makes Madueke feel like a lean body type, fast winger should. That isn’t a knock per say but more of an acknowledgement that 90 dribbling on a winger is kind of standard. 

However, coupled with 94 pace made him feel super quick in game. He absolutely bombed down the wing and really gave slightly slower wing backs a really torrid time. 

One of the biggest plus sides to this card was the High/Low work rates. It was genuinely noticeable on the wing and I felt him be super active in attack. I will say though, 78 attacking positioning meant he often strayed and then stayed offside and sometimes would run to an odd position. 

His physicality was lacking however, super lightweight on the ball, he would tend to lose possession from any kind of impact.

This is a weird one, it might be an anomaly but he did play incredibly well in Champs Qualifiers. I wonder if that’s just where the average card is at now, but he did perform really well without doing anything noticeably different to other wingers. 

I suppose the main issue is that I don’t really know exactly who this card is for. It’s not good enough for elite teams and it gets lost among the crowd in average teams. He is a solid solid player, but much like Grealish yesterday he isn’t “special”.
 

How Does He Compare?

Currently the fodder value of an 84 and a 87 rated player is 27k. This is nowhere near the best SBC so far in terms of value for fodder. It’s only slightly cheaper. However you will be able to use far more “free” cards from your club in this SBC, bringing the cost down from low 20’s to mid teens. 

The first thing to highlight is that there is very little special about this card. Even the dribbling that has been so lauded in the previous FUT Ballers is only at 90 here. The second thing is that it is entering an incredibly crowded area for cards in the premier league. There are 25 higher rated cards that can play RW in the prem including the objective Anthony Gordon, 23k Hero Joe Cole and even Kulusevski from earlier in this very promo. 

However the wildest thing about this card is the comparison to his 84 version that comes from the SBC itself. The 87 has less stamina. And this is a real problem because it leaves his stamina at 77. For a winger, this is absolutely criminal. 

There are almost too many players to compare this Madueke to. In fairness, a lot of them are more expensive. But for example, OTW Antony. He could easily get an IF that boost him to 88 but for the 33k you spend, you get the spice of 5 star skill moves, 2 extra pace. Whilst the rest of the stats are close or Madueke wins, it’s not a walk over.   

I do think the best player to compare to is another Chelsea player in PTG Pulisic. Coming in at just 28k he is fodder value. He has explosive accelerate which has just been buffed in the patch and has 4/4 to match Madueke. 

Stats wise, pace favours the englishman slightly, but shooting is an absolute slapping by the American. 13 extra positioning and 4 extra shot power with more finishing is just a domination. Passing is arguably the American’s too. 8 more vision, 6 more crossing and 2 more short passing, it’s only curve and long passing that make it respectable. 

Then we come to the real problem. Madueke’s dribbling just isn’t special like the other FUT Ballers. Pulisic has 3 more agility, 4 more balance and 4 more dribbling. Whilst he does have 6 less reactions and 4 less composure, it’s pretty much a dead heat. This has been the draw of this promo and Madueke just fails to live up to it. 

FUT Ballers Madueke - Cop or Flop?

This SBC has 79% upvotes. It really isn’t a shock. This is still decent for fodder value and it’s incredibly easy to grind to. 

I know EA are saving the 5 star skill move and weak foot upgrades for FUT Birthday but this promo is seriously lacking in this department. And when you use the nomenclature they have done, you really do have to live up to the name. As ClashBozo88 says…

This is the definition of a mid card. The SBC also only just represents value for fodder as well, and when you take into account the 4 assists needed to get the upgraded version, it’s barely break even. It’s for this reason I would suggest that you don’t get the upgraded version until all the Objectives are open and try to knock them off in one go. 

This is still an overall cop, but for me it’s the worst FUT Baller so far. 

I really wanted to be excited by the cards in this promo, but there’s been too few belters and too many Meh-duekes.

Cop

SBC Rating: 7/10