FIFA 23 FUTTIES Diogo Jota Player Review - COP or FLOP?

Week 3 of Futties has been slowly come to an end and it feels a little bit like a slow burning end of the week.. I feel the hype of that Ronaldinho SBC has probably massively overshadowed Week 3 of this promotion because since then things have really died down and the focus has mainly been on how can we fill our clubs back up to recoup completing that SBC.

But we look towards the Seasonal Objectives today as we have finally been granted enough XP to unlock the Level 30 reward of this Season. The choice in the rewards are between an 84+ x30 Players Pack and the choice of a 96-rated Futties Diogo Jota. Of which we are here to discuss today. Should you take the player or the pack?

You can check out the card here!

For those asking “How can you have enough XP”. Well if you are an EA play member you of course have been granted an XP boost at the start of the season. This means as of today it is possible to get at least Level 30 in the Season Progress as this morning EA released the next wave of Weekly Objectives, of which are simply unlocked by scoring goals and playing in any mode until the necessary unlocks are complete.

I really have beat this topic to death with a stick but I think it can’t be said enough… Give these cards the Premium Chemistry! I really had to juggle things around and use players I didn’t particularly want to use in order to get full chem with this Jota card. I say this because there are so many fun cards out there at the moment such as Futties Tammy, St Juste, Podolski and of course Ronaldinho, that I can’t all squeeze into a squad because one of the new cards can’t get chemistry with these other Premium Cards due to not being in their relevant League or Nation. 

At current to date, there are only two cards within the Premier League that are a Premium Futties Item and they are Futties Son and Futties Konate (Of which most have not been able to unlock yet). This means that some of these incredible futties items in the premier league are forcing me to fill my squad with more prem players than I would like to be using.

But the squad found Jota paired up with fellow Liverpool teammate Shapeshifters Trent Alexander-Arnold with that luxurious Icon Cover Star Ronaldinho providing immaculate service to the striking duo. The chemstyle of choice here is quite clear in my opinion and it is the Hawk Chemstyle. It just nicely finishes off the Pace and Shooting as well as giving a Physical boost to that much needed Strength stat.

It’s worth noting here that Jota can also play in the CF and LW position. I mention this because throughout the games I decided to switch things up mid-game and have him play a bit more in those positions to get a feel of where he would play best. Personally I believe he is better being a Left Winger as he does a really good job of getting the ball upfield but occasionally struggled when trying to challenge the CBs. So for me he felt better suited on the wing.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Dribbling is the standout feature on this card. Jota was incredible at handling the ball and maneuvering around the opposition.
+ Passing was also something that impressed me a lot on this card. I wasn’t expecting to notice this a lot but he setup so many goals for his teammates by making some slick and quick passes.
/ Pace of course was decent being at 96 pace but he didn’t feel so quick in-game. I feel this is slightly due to most players at this point being pretty rapid so it was tough to differentiate just how quick he was due to being surrounded by fast players.
/ Shooting for me was nothing special. He can hit the ball and find the back of the net. But to note, he wasn’t great on his left foot despite having that 5* WF as there were a few occasional errors when shooting on his left.
- Strength is the main thing that stands out here. Sure 81 strength is okay but at this point of the game, it falls behind the rest. Often enough he was easily shoved off the ball and it killed some attacks. 

Diogo Jota - Cop or Flop?

So should you be choosing this card over the pack option? I’ve gotta be honest here, when I first saw this choice I really thought I would sit and sway more towards choosing the player. But I believe the pack is the clear option here for a few reasons. Firstly, there are a fair few SBCs out at the moment that this pack could easily help you with completing. Ronaldinho as an example (I swear I will stop mentioning him soon). But aside from that there are the likes of TOTW Packs, TOTS Packs and Player Picks that you could easily craft that could also be sold and bring some coins back into your club if need be.
Secondly after playing with this Jota card and with the lack of premium chemistry. I can say this card really didn’t feel like anything special. Unless he is going to slot directly into your squad with no other changes needed… He sadly goes unused and more likely ends up in an SBC as 96 rated fodder. Of which if that’s the case you probably were better off trying your luck with the pack. As at the least you may get a fair few 90-92 rated cards that would be much more valuable than one 96 rated card.

Sadly for me, this card just wasn’t going to make it onto my bench, let alone the starting 11. Let’s be honest here, most of us have that Shapeshifters Cech still sat in the club that is massively clear of this Jota card. So I recommend opting for the pack over the card here!

Verdict = FLOP