Top 5: Players we can't wait to try on FIFA 16
Welcome to the very first “Top 5” on FUTWIZ for the upcoming installment of FIFA, FIFA 16. In these articles myself and the other guys at FUTWIZ will select a category and then decide upon our top 5 favourite players, formation, stadiums, kits and even more! Let’s kick this off with the Top 5 Players we can’t wait to use in FIFA 16!
RWB: Bruno Peres (Torino – Serie A – Brazil)
Key Statistics:
– 91 Acceleration
– 83 Agility
– 93 Sprint Speed
– 79 Crossing
– 81 Long Shots
– 87 Shot Power
There’s nothing us FUT fans enjoy more than a pacey fullback that can find the net from distance and Bruno Peres can do just that. He shot to stardom after scoring that fantastic solo goal in the Derby di Torino against Juventus late last year and hasn’t looked back since; if anything his face attributes mirror his lung busting goal that he scored against the eventual Serie A champions and Champions League finalists. He picked up the ball a good 80 yards from the opposition goal, just outside his own penalty box and went on a surging run, leaving the likes of Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal for dead. As he entered opposition territory you thought, what is he going to do? Pass? No. He kept his head down and marauded into the Juventus box before unleashing an unstoppable strike past goalkeeper Marco Storari – a goal any of the legendary Brazilian full-backs would have been proud of. Hence his fantastic face pace, shooting and dribbling attributes and if he plays as well in game as his face stats suggest, Bruno’s going to be my go-to Serie A right back.
CB: Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus – Serie A – Italy)
Key Statistics:
– 87 Interceptions
– 89 Jumping
– 89 Strength
– 91 Marking
– 91 Sliding Tackle
– 91 Standing Tackle
We’re staying in Turin and yes, I know it’s dangerous to judge a player off of face stats, but to me Giorgio Chiellini looks like the best central defender on FIFA 16, bar none. Sure, he doesn’t have the ball playing ability that his rivals such as Thiago Silva and Jerome Boateng possess, but shouldn’t the primary role of a centre-back to defend? And having analysed the stats of the top 10-15 defenders on FIFA 16, Chiellini came out on top.
Off the ball, he has the pace that the vast majority of FUT players seem to require whilst physically being a brute. He’s at the taller end of the top 5 or 6 FIFA 16 centre-backs, beaten only by Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels, but physically he can match the Germans. Defensively and aerially he’s better on paper too, with higher stats in aggression, interceptions, jumping, marking and standing tackle and believe me, they matter. Serie A may not possess as many of the higher rated players as the Barclays Premier League, the Bundesliga and La Liga, but it’s going to be my go-to league upon release day and Chiellini will (hopefully) be at the heart of it all.
RM: Douglas Costa (Bayern Munich – Bundesliga – Brazil)
Key Statistics:
– 94 Acceleration
– 88 Agility
– 87 Balance
– 87 Sprint Speed
– 86 Ball Control
– 86 Dribbling
– 5* skill moves
One of the most in-form players in the world this chap, hence the inclusion of a couple of special items in the image above as lets face it, they’re inevitable. I spent the vast majority of the past few months playing online seasons on head-to-head as FUT this year never really clicked for me, and there’s one team I fell in love with: Shakhtar Donetsk. They had it all, pace, power, passing, dribbling and, err, more pace? And the man that made it all tick was Douglas Costa. This flying left-footed right-winger was a joy to use and I was a little disappointed when I heard he’d moved to giants Bayern Munich, simply for FIFA reason of course, and then it hit me.
One of the reasons I didn’t ever really use him on FUT was because you could only really link him to Shakhtar players or Brazilians, which are pretty much the same thing. So it was boring and I didn’t like it. However, moving to the Bundesliga of course opens up a whole host of new options. New chemistry links and a position change to go with it. No more Alex Texeira, who is another one to watch on FIFA 16, by the way. Hello to the likes of Arturo Vidal, Thiago, Mario Gotze, Shinji Kagawa, etc., etc. – I could go on and on. But I won’t. You’ll get bored, just like you’ll get bored of Douglas Costa beating your legless left full-back time and time again.
CAM: Hakan Calhanoglu (Bayer Leverkusen – Bundesliga – Turkey)
Key Statistics:
– 93 Curve
– 95 Free Kick Accuracy
– 89 Long Shots
– 87 Shot Power
– 5* Weak Foot
– 4* Skill Moves
Do you chaps want to know something that’s always puzzled me? When the average FUT player creates a squad that they claim to be the best thing since sliced bread, why do they never include a set piece taker? Because all that happens is they win a free-kick in a prime location and the end result is the kind of thing you’d expect to see a bloke called Neil execute on a Sunday morning down the park. Sure, your squad may contain special items of many colours and may contain players from 6 different leagues and 10 different ethnic minorities, but the bottom line is you’re not going to score a free kick. Ever. And where you’re 2-1 down in the 88th minute having being hacked down whilst clean through on goal, that’s a problem.
This is why my fourth player on my list of five is Hakan Calhanoglu. Back when the legendary Juninho Pernambucano was on FIFA, he possessed a whopping 93 free kick accuracy. Calhanoglu though, has 95, and coupled with his extraordinary curve and shot power attributes is going to be a scary combination. This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on what is as well, a genuinely usable low-rated gold player; his shooting statistics on a player with 5* weak foot and 4* skill moves (that isn’t Santi Cazorla) are going to be special. So, when I’m through on goal against your goalkeeper in the 4th match of a FUT Draft tournament, take me out, I insist. Because honestly I’ve got more chance of scoring from the resulting free kick, and I will say thank you very much as I step up with Hakan and duly place the ball just out of your goalkeepers reach in the top corner.
ST: Islam Slimani (Sporting CP – Primeira Liga – Algeria)
Key Statistics:
– 84 Aggression
– 86 Attacking Position
– 87 Jumping
– 85 Strength
– 76 Finishing
– 90 Heading Accuracy
I know what you’re thinking. Sam, why on earth have you picked a relatively slow striker with average shooting, passing and dribbling from a slightly lesser league and a more obscure nation as your final player? Well, hear me out… and by that, I mean look at the key statistics above because combined with a bit of common sense and decent knowledge of FIFA, you’ll know why I’ve picked him.
Islam Slimani is 6’2 and to put that into perspective for you, that’s an inch taller than the aforementioned Chiellini. Combine that height with his initial jumping, his aggression and his strength in the air and you’re onto a winning combination. And once he’s won the header, he’s one of only 15 strikers on FIFA 16 with over 90 heading accuracy; six of the 15 are elite legend players and Slimani is the 2nd quickest of the mere mortals, behind none other than aerial specialist Mario Mandzukic. Sure, you’d like his finishing to be a little higher but that 76 finishing is better than the likes of Ozil, Di Maria and Oscar and we all know how many goals they’ll score in the lifespan of FIFA 16.
You might then argue that Slimani is tricky to fit into a reasonable FUT squad, but to that I say rubbish. Are Andre Carrillo, Sofiane Feghouli and Yacine Brahimi not good enough to link him with? Exactly. This man is going to be a handful and you’d be daft not to try him on release day for a rock bottom price; perfect for a starter squad.
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These Top 5’s are going to be something myself and my new colleague MichoB93 – check out his first article on Jurgen Klopp here – are going to be doing in the future so if you do have any suggestions, feel free to tweet them @ me or use the comment section below.
