Flashback Spinazzola - Spend or Swerve

POSITIVES & NEGATIVES

Positives

• He is extremely quick, with his 97 Acceleration and his 94 Sprint Speed you can definitely feel that pace. I think his body type might slow him down a little compared to the lean, smaller players with that high pace

• Despite only having 83 Defending he is very solid defensively, this is down to his height, body type and defending attributes

• He has High and Average body type and is 6’1” which isn’t ideal for great dribbling, but I found his dribbling to be pretty good

• There are lots of ‘meta’ players that you can link him too, the new Flashback Smalling, Maldini and even Di Natale to name a few

• As he has the alternative positions of LWB and LM it really helps when building squads

• 4* Skill Moves is really nice to have for an attacking fullback

Negatives

• 4* Weak Foot is usually a positive, but if you want to play him in his base position as a LB he really needs to have a 5* Weak Foot

• He has really poor shooting, so if you plan to use him in a slightly more attacking role you will notice his low shooting

• The SBC is coming in about 190K which some will consider expensive which I understand, so for that I will mention it as a negative

PLAYER COMPARISONS – IS HE BETTER THAN? (Serie A Fullbacks – To play LB/RB)

Inform Di Lorenzo – 63K

• Di Lorenzo and Spinazzola are quite similar cards, the main difference being one is a LB and one is RB but both are right footed. Spinazzola has the 4* SM & 4* WF and slight better offensive attributes but overall there isn’t too much between them

• Who would I choose, and why?

  • Spinazzola would be my choice due to his 4* SM and 4* WF and his slightly better offensive attributes

Moments Cuadrado – 278K

• Spinazzola is much better defensively, whereas Cuadrado is more suited to a RM/RW role due to his dribbling attributes and his 5* SM

• Who would I choose, and why?

  • Spinazzola would be my choice as he is more suited to the fullback role

Inform Theo Hernandez – 159K

• Spinazzola and Theo are very similar cards, they have similar pace and defensive attributes which makes it hard to choose between the two. Spinazzola offers more offensively but Theo has that extra Physical which suits more of a stay back fullback.

• Who would I choose, and why?

  • From a personal preference I would take Theo for LB and Spinazzola for RB as I prefer my fullbacks to have their strong foot on the side they play, but overall I would say that Spinazzola’s card is a better card than Theo’s.

Centurions Biraghi – 30K

• If Biraghi had 90+ Pace and better work rates, I actually think you would see him a lot, but sadly his pace really hurts the card. When you deep dive Biraghi’s card its actually really good, and better than Spinazzola in a lot of areas

• Who would I choose, and why?

  • Solely due to the Pace I would take Spinazzola as Biraghi’s pace is just too low for a fullback for me

RATINGS

VERDICT

Originally when I first looked at this card I thought it was overpriced, but after using the card for a good amount of games and also looking at the price of alternative options from within Serie A I can see why he is at this price point, personally I think he is still a little bit expensive but not much.

Its important to note that I played him on the right hand side of the pitch and not the left as I like my players to play on the side of their strong foot.

He performed superb for me, he was defensively very solid and offensively created a lot of chances too, I couldn’t ask for much more from my fullback. Having 95 was also definitely a huge bonus.

If you are looking for a versatile fullback, especially from the Serie A then I would say this is a good choice, there are definitely some small flaws with the card but overall I was really happy with how he performed.

As I said,

SPEND OR SWERVE