We analyze the latest ratings.
FIFA 23 is not out yet, but almost all the main ratings are already known. EA Sports surprised fifers: it made five players top leaders at once, and there were noticeably fewer questions about the characteristics of football players — criticism is more subjective than ever. We’ve gone through the 13 most controversial positions this year, from CriRo to young Serie A players.
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Robert Lewandowski (92 to 91)
Lewandowski had one of the best seasons of his life. He scored 35 goals in the Bundesliga and 13 in the Champions League. Only the sensational relegation of Bayern prevented Robert from competing for the Golden Ball. EA appreciated his performances and left the rating 92 in the current FIFA 22 patch.
Something went wrong in the new part. Pico Lewandowski was downgraded and equalized with four other players — for example, the title Kylian Mbappe. It seems that in an alternative universe, Lewandowski could easily share the leadership in the rankings paired with the future owner of the ZM Karim Benzema. There would definitely be fewer questions.
Cristiano Ronaldo (from 91 to 90)
We have been waiting for EA’s reaction to the aging of the main players of the era with great apprehension. Unfortunately, they were confirmed. Canadians responded competently to Leo’s disastrous season and cut off two points for him at once, but flunked the Cristiano Ronaldo assessment test. EA abruptly forgot how they lowered ratings for older players by default.
Fans of the Portuguese will say that he had a good season. Ronaldo became the second Manchester United player after David De Gea to score 18 goals in the Premier League. But the context matters. Manchester United failed and took 6th place, and the Portuguese scored goals in the position of a clean forward. In the scorer race, Ronaldo lost hopelessly to Son and Salah, he was almost caught up with another Liverpool winger, Sadio Mane. None of them beat Cristiano in FIFA 23.
The start of this season proved EA Sports’ blunder. The Portuguese planned to leave the club and missed the pre-season, but was not needed by top clubs. A striking situation has arisen: a player with a rating of 90 does not qualify for Manchester United and only gets playing time in Europa League matches. Does anyone believe Ronaldo is in the top 10 players in the world? A ranking of 87 and a place in the top 30 better reflect the current capabilities of the 37-year-old Portuguese.
Ciro Immobile (from 87 to 86)
Immobile’s failure at Borussia D was imprinted in the memory of the fans, but after moving to Lazio, Ciro was transformed. He was the top scorer of the Italian championship several times, and in the last Serie A draw he scored 27 goals. We have no idea why EA didn’t keep his previous rating. Maybe you have them?
Thiago Alcantara (86, unchanged)
Many did not understand the transition of Thiago to Liverpool. The first season in the Premier League confirmed the fears of the fans: the Spaniard lacked physicality, and subtle passing play rarely aggravated matches. But already in the second year, Alcantara became the leader of the Reds’ midfield. Four finals and getting into the symbolic PFA team is a direct proof of the Spaniard’s progress.
It is not clear why his rating was not raised to at least 87. Thiago is one of the main passers in the world and is clearly not inferior to Frankie de Jong or Marco Verratti.
Kevin Trapp (from 82 to 86)
Kevin Trapp had a good season. The Eintracht goalkeeper took the penalty shootout in the Europa League final and was later named Kicker’s third player of the season. In the championship, Kevin performed slightly above average and took only 11th place with the club, but EA still ranked Trapp above Gulaci and Sommer. An emotional decision that is unlikely to be left after a season.
Bruno Fernandes (from 88 to 86)
Man United have had a terrible season. Bruno Fernandes was not like himself, often overexposed the ball, and his performance dropped significantly. It seems that downgrading is a logical decision, but there is one important detail. After record seasons under Solskjaer, Fernandes was put on par with KDB, but due to EA’s slowness, the Portuguese’s rating rose to just 88 points.
16 goals in the Premier League is still a cool result for an attacking midfielder, so the fallback of Fernandes to the level of Sporting looks strange. Bruno deserved to be downgraded from 90 to 88, but due to a distortion in the ratings mechanism, he fell back to the status of a second-class star.
Memphis Depay (85, unchanged)
Memphis Depay has had a very uneven season. He scored in the crisis Barcelona, but after the arrival of Xavi and Aubameyang, he quickly faded into the background. A rich transfer campaign in the summer of 2022 crossed out the Dutchman’s future at the club. Depay is Xavi’s sixth attacking option, but in FIFA 23 he has inexplicably overtaken everyone except Leva.
Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (from 84 to 85)
Carrasco successfully returned from China. He became a key winger for Atlético, grew in value, but did not show any extraordinary results. If Filip Kostic’s promotion after four solid seasons at Eintracht was in order, Carrasco got it rather in spite of Simeone’s defensive football. Do you agree that the Belgian is cooler than Sane and Diaz?
Niklas Süle (from 82 to 85)
Niklas Süle often played at the base of Bayern, but because of the salary he unexpectedly chose Borussia D. The bosses of the Munich club rightly let the defender go: over 5 years at Bayern, the German’s progress slowed down, and his price on Transfermarkt fell by almost 2 times. EA reacted to the situation and … drastically improved the Süle card. Everything is logical!
Jack Grealish (84, unchanged)
In 2021, Manchester City bought the leader of Aston Villa for 117 million euros. Grealish failed: he made 3+3 in the Premier League, and his total number of effective actions barely reached 10 points. Guardiola considers Jack a great guy, but there are still many questions for the Englishman about the game. Grealish started the new season as a rotation player.
Federico Valverde (from 83 to 84)
Fede Valverde has broken into Real Madrid’s base. He played on a par with the star pair of Kroos and Modric, and in the Champions League final he went to the position of the right winger. Ancelotti sees the makings of a scorer in the universal Uruguayan: “What surprised me the most was that he scored so little. I told him I would break my coaching license if he didn’t score at least ten goals in a season.»
EA Sports totally underestimated the player. Valverde remained an ordinary talent, and in FIFA 23 he was easily caught up by Sandro Tonali and Jude Bellingham.
Alessandro Bastoni (from 80 to 84) and Fikayo Tomori (from 79 to 84)
Bastogne and Tomori have had strong seasons. They deserve a rating increase, but such a sharp jump in indicators raises questions. With a wave of a magic wand, the young center-defenses of Inter and Milan became stronger than the best CB of Serie A Bremer, the experienced Kimpembe and Rüdiger from FIFA 22.
EA often got it wrong when it deviated from the conservative «step by step» formula. Last year we drew attention to Donnarumma’s inflated rating — and it was indeed rolled back when the Italian made only 17 league appearances. This season, young talents from Serie A could become victims of footsim.
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