The most controversial stats of a football manager.
Football Manager 2023 has been released. The new part of the football manager again has a minimum of changes, but it gave updated player ratings, which many gamers consider reliable. We’ve gone through the FM 23 database and rounded up ten of the weirdest stat balances. Some stats are even worse than in FIFA!
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Lionel Messi (PSG)
Lionel Messi is the best player of our time, so his perfect technical performance did not raise any questions even after a bad season. Attention was drawn to his physical data: the 35-year-old Argentine accelerates and sprints 15 points out of 20 and was faster than Khvichi Kvaratskhelia (15/14 points), who is now on fire at Napoli. Even FIFA noticed the difference between the explosive and remote speed of the aged Leo, so they greatly reduced the second indicator. It seems like Sports Interactive is stuck in the past for a few years.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Man United)
Cristiano Ronaldo also has problems with balancing. FIFA left the Portuguese with a high rating because the foot sim came out earlier and relied on the previous season, but this decision by EA still caused a lot of controversy. FM makes an actual adjustment. Look at the fantastic characteristics of Khvicha, they were definitely not given for performances in Rubin.
But Ronaldo remained at FM 23 as a record scorer. His completion, heading (19 each) and a number of key psychological characteristics did not suffer. Ronaldo hits like Lewandowski, and Holland still has a whole point before him! 18 points of leadership also look like a mockery of reality: in life, the partners were waiting for the summer sale of the Portuguese, and in October they supported ten Haga, who briefly removed KriRo from the base.
Bruno Fernandes (Man United)
Bruno Fernandes is one of the best attacking midfielders of our time. In general, FM managed to balance him: he gave a good pass, technique and pumped a variety of shots. Only one indicator is surprising — the Portuguese has only 11 dribbling points. Sports Interactive believes that Bruno is bad at beating opponents on the run. This position is similar to the logic of EA — in her footsime, the Portuguese was given only 79 points of dribbling. But if in FIFA Fernandes received an average, then in FM his stroke matches the skills of some central defenders. Bruno is unlikely to feint worse than Niklas Süle, Jerry Mina (12 each) and Tyrone Mings (13) and deserved 13-14 dribbling points.
Harry Maguire (Man United)
After a large number of individual errors, Eric ten Hag put Harry Maguire on the bench. The future of the Englishman in big football is doubtful: he is good at positional play in a low block, but he never learned how to play modern football. In FM 23, Maguire received powerful defensive skills — all 15-17 points. The game considers him noticeably better than teammate Lisandro Martinez, although in reality everything is different.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Man United)
The characteristics of the Manchester United players in FM 23 are a big mystery. We had complaints about the inflated stats of Anthony Martial, but the delusional assessment of Aaron Wan-Bissaka overshadowed them. The English defender was famous for his tackles back at Crystal Palace, and coaches have always noted his defensive skills, but 20 (!) selection points defy any logic. Peak Wan-Bissaka barely deserved 15-16 points, and now his skill rating looks like a mockery of top defenders.
Sadio Mane (Bayern)
FM developers didn’t understand Sadio Mane’s move to Bayern. They considered that the second player of the year according to France Football aged dramatically after the transfer, and his speed skills fell to 15 points. We don’t know what success Mane will achieve at the new club, but we believe that 17 points would be much fairer. Maybe the developers support Liverpool?
Eden Hazard (Real Madrid)
Eden Hazard has not played at the top level for several years, but many wingers will envy his performance in FM 23. The manager’s developers have kept the Belgian’s excellent technical skills and passes, and his physical data has sagged insufficiently. The new stats don’t reflect the fall of Eden at all.
Rodrigo Goes (Real Madrid)
At the beginning of this season, Rodrigo finally made it to the basis of Real Madrid. In FM, most of the characteristics of the talented Brazilian were assessed correctly, but the 17 points of the attack completion rate are embarrassing. Rodrigo has a great shot, but he needs to score in packs to justify a skill that is equivalent to the eminent Karim Benzema.
Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid)
A few parts back, EA drastically upped Marcos Llorente’s pace. The players laughed at the belated decision of the developer, but supported him — there are a lot of videos on YouTube with incredible accelerations of the Spaniard. In FM 23, Llorente is slightly faster than a walker (13/14) and not very suitable for flanking positions. Sports Interactive did a good job of scoring other fast midfielders Federico Valverde (17/17) and Jude Bellingham (15/15), so the Spaniard’s strange assessment is surprising.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had a great career. The Swede made a late peak, and last season he started the champion Milan, however, his high performance in FM 23 is inexplicable. Usually Sports Interactive slightly reduces technical characteristics with age, but it seems to have forgotten that Ibra is already 40 years old and has not shown outstanding football achievements for a long time.
The attacking and psychological indicators of the Swede are cooler than those of the younger Ronaldo, but the funny thing is that they are better than the 31-year-old Ibrahimovic of the PSG era from FM 14. In the position of a drawn forward, almost all of his stats are colored green — at least now send to » Real Madrid instead of Benzema. But is 40-year-old Zlatan really that good?
