FIFA 23 Team of the Season Milinkovic-Savic Player Review - COP OR FLOP?

It’s that time of year when Milinkovic-Savic is given his annual high-rated card that goes highly underused and for one reason… That Pace. I think it needs to be said right off the bat because if you look away from his pace, the card looks absolutely incredible. But it’s just so hard not to be put off of a card with a low 80s pace stat, knowing it’s coming up against cards in the low 90s. 

That being said... Let’s talk about Sergej. Amongst the penultimate Team of the Season squad, we have been given this Savic SBC. In general, the SBC is not being well received with it currently sitting at a 78% downvote.

The reason, as I've clearly stated is that 83 pace. Which is truly a shame because the card holds some really incredible stats elsewhere. 

You can check out the card here!

Here are the following SBC Requirements you’ll need to complete:

#1 - Serie A 
# of players from Serie A - Min. 1
Squad Rating - 83
Pack Return - Small Electrum Players Pack

#2 - Top Form
IF or TOTS Players - Min. 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Rare Mixed Players Pack

In general, I think the SBC is priced ok, but if this card was on the market I also don’t think he breaks 100k. Take for instance, TOTS Tonali. Very similar style of card however he has the Pace and is currently priced at 86k. But as previous SBCs would show, this could have been a heck of a lot more expensive.

For this video, I decided to run a Serie A side (with the addition of the typical PSG kings) as typically this year I have steered clear and there are a lot of incredible cards within this league that are incredible value. So SMS ran up the midfield alongside Lobotka, Sanches and Di Maria. 

How did he perform in-game?

- I think it’s fair to get this out of the way but Pace was a huge downfall on this card. In terms of useability, I feel this card needed at least a +5 at minimum just to give it the edge over many of the other options in the game
+ Dribbling on this card was fantastic, he held onto the ball nicely and made some great movement around the midfield because of this. I think this definitely helped take away from the fact that he wasn’t going to be outrunning many players
+ Strength also played in nicely alongside his Dribbling as often he was able to muscle off the opposition and keep hold of the ball.
+ Shooting for me actually felt relatively decent, especially on someone I only really expected to play as a box-to-box midfielder. But get him into a goal-scoring position, with the 5* weak foot he can score some cracking goals.
+ Passing also couldn’t go unrecognized as often he was threading that needle through the opposition and creating some silky smooth goalscoring opportunities.

How does he compare to others?

Don’t get me wrong, this card at times felt really good. But I have to keep coming back to Pace here and though I may sound like a broken record, it was such a crucial part to this cards downfall. He could be great positionally at times but that came to a quick end when he couldn’t rely on speed to keep him a good distance from the opposition. The problem here is that there are better options out there for less. I mentioned Tonali earlier. Similar types of cards but Tonali comes out cheaper, better for links and actually has Pace. So for me, it’s a no-brainer to opt for the Italian. I really wanted this card to be good to help shape some Serie A squads, but for me, he just isn’t it.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic - Cop or Flop?

It’s really safe to say, this card is a flop. The price isn’t awful in comparison to what we have had, but for what we’re paying there are also a lot of great options you could go with instead and generally, I don’t think we’ll be seeing TOTS 21 Savic in many people’s squads.

Verdict: FLOP