FIFA 23 Shapeshifters Martinez Player Review - COP or Flop?

It’s starting to feel like i’ve been playing with a full team of defenders. Because throughout this promo i’ve played with countless defenders in attack and boy has it been a welcomed change. It’s great to break away from the usual riff-raff that gets released and detach myself from the meta.

Today we’ve seen a few defenders shapeshifted in all aspects of the field. A long-awaited Kyle Walker finally getting a GK card in Fifa. Camavinga getting a LB card, which I will add, feels more of a chance to move a card to a position of which they have been actually playing. Then there is none other than Lisandro Martinez now playing as a right-winger.

Now I’ve mentioned before about Prem Tax being a real issue, but this time around it seems this SBC is more on the cheaper side? 
Coming in at roughly 180,000 coins it’s easy to see why this has been quite heavily upvoted. But I have to admit, seeing a Premier League SBC coming cheap leaves me wondering… What’s wrong with this card?

You can check out the card here!

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

#1 - Premier League 
# of players from Premier League - Min. 1
IF or TOTS Players - Min. 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Premium Electrum Players Pack

#2 - Top Form
IF or TOTS Players - Min. 1
Squad Rating - 88
Pack Return - Premium Mixed Players Pack

Really nicely priced is this SBC, not an amazing pack return but I guess we can’t complain because typically for this kind of SBC we would probably expect to pay maybe double.

Now this one was a tough one because typically I like to hybrid up but oddly didn’t find too many players lying around my club from Manchester United or Argentine Prem players. So for this video, I went with a premier league team with the addition of a few icons and an extra player just for the Links…
Featuring Martinez in the attack is one of the other more recent Shapeshifter cards in Trent Alexander-Arnold. One overpriced and the other fairly priced?
I opted with the Hawk Chemstlye on this card to give that extra boost to his shooting as well as some additional boosts in Pace and Physical. This seemed to be the popular choice amongst the community too.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Interceptions was actually pretty good considering he only has 78 interceptions. But he recovered the ball a lot for me
/ Shooting was a little inconsistent, could score on both feet but it seemed the accuracy wasn't there a lot of the time. More of a supporting player than a finisher.
/ Pace was okay, he could make a good run but he would feel quite stocky on the ball.
- Strength felt a bit fraudulent on this card as often he was forced to the ground by the opposition when under pressure.

Martinez - Cop or Flop?

I’ve gotta say for this one I feel like I may be going against the grain… I didn’t have a lot of fun with this card when playing and quickly wanted to swap him out for one of my usual wingers. We can’t deny the price as it is really good value. But one thing I felt when playing with this card is actually he would suit being more of a wingback rather than a winger. Because when defending any attacks from my opponent he actually performed well to win the ball back and apply aggression when needed but then often in attack, that’s where his downfall came.

I tried to take a look around at what’s been released recently too as I always try to make comparisons and though these are different positions, I came up against the ST Cech card very often, a card that is actually cheaper and feels like would contribute towards the attack a hell of a lot more. So in my opinion, if you are looking for a fresh new attacker, maybe try that Cech card out instead because for me, this card felt more of a defender/ midfielder than it did an attacker.

Verdict = FLOP