Most Over-Powered players in FIFA 14

EA’s announcement of the launch of FIFA 15 on 23 September 2014 in North America, September 25 in Europe and September 26 in the United Kingdom brought about an end to the era of FIFA 14. According to critics worldwide, the biggest draw for the FIFA series over it’s nearest competitor, Konami’s PES, is its Ultimate Team mode: where you trade, buy, sell, and earn cards which serve as players with which you can play a match. Ratings are constantly changing based on the player’s real-life performance, and by playing games, you earn coins, which you can then use to buy packs to get more cards or buy your preferred card from the in-game market.What attracted gamers so much is the real-life influences this had: it was like playing manager mode, except against gamers worldwide and with players whose in-game form depended on their real life form.

#1 Introduction

With that in mind, let us look at the list of the ten most overpowered (henceforth, abbreviated as OP) players in the FIFA 14 Ultimate Team. Before starting off, we need to understand what the term “OP” actually means.

In its most basic sense, OP means that the player from that card performs much better than the rating and other stats on his card suggests. So, a Mandzukic card with its 88 heading would not be considered OP, because that card behaves exactly like that: winning every header (almost) and scoring tons of goals from crosses.

Most OP players aren’t costly, and easily available from the market. They’ll generally be available at a discounted price or about 2-3k, which gamers can get after play 4-5 matches in FUT.

That being said, let us now look at the list of the 10 most OP players in the game:

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#2 Christian Benteke

Christian Benteke

Looking at that card initially, Benteke looks like an okayish player, with a decent pace and heading ability. It is on close observation that is revealed why gamers worldwide love (and love to hate) to play with this card.

He has 90 Finishing with 88 Shot Power, which are hidden subtly behind that 77 shooting. Also, he has 84 Jumping and 93 Strength, which makes up for his only 79 Heading Accuracy. Why this card is so deadly, is because of his height: he is 6’4”, and as a result will generally tower over most defenders. If he isn’t taller than a defender somehow, he will just bully him out of the ball and win the header.

And if that isn’t enough OP for you, he also has the Power Header trait, which means that he can hit the ball with his head like a bullet.It is easily understandable why he is considered an OP striker!

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#3 Vctor Ibarbo

Victor Ibarbo

Whenever you see your opponent’s squad come up on your screen, and you see this guy’s face, you know you’re in for a nightmare! That smiling, kind face and that 77 ST rating brilliantly hides away what a truly OP player he actually is to use!

Right now, the basic thought might come to mind: if Mandzukic with his 88 Heading isn’t considered OP, then why is Ibarbo with his 93 Pace? The answer is simple: it’s because of his 85 Dribbling. True, there are quicker strikers in the game, in the form of Aubameyang with his 95 Pace or Obafemi Martins with his comparable 93 Pace. But what those players lack is the dribbling stat: Aubameyang has 78 and Martins has 75 Dribbling. Dribbling with pace is so effective because of the fact that unless you can receive a lobbed through ball or a chipped pass properly and bring it under control, there is no point in having all that pace, as the opponent’s defenders will rob you off it quite easily!

Granted, all of Ibarbo’s shooting stats are pretty low in the mid-70s or early-80s, but this guy isn’t used for long distance shooting or fancy finesse shots: it’s just pace and pace. And he has 82 Jumping and 79 Strength to go with his 6’2” figure too.

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#4 Mame Diouf

Mame Diouf

There was a general saying that went around with Mame Diouf: The Ultimate Team is saved because Mame Diouf is in a league and from a country which is very infrequently used. “For the sake of Ultimate Team, stay out of the BPL”.

Unfortunately, for the gamers, Stoke City had different ideas, and they bought this OP beast from Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga. If you’d paid attention to the last slide, I mentioned that pace isn’t much helpful without dribbling, and that might seem to be the case for Diouf too. Add to that his very poor shooting for a 79 rated non-rare gold striker, and he might not be the card you’d want to try at first glance. And you couldn’t be more wrong: there’s a reason that this card is so feared by gamers worldwide.

He has the ultimate deadly combination that FIFA 13’s Emenike had: Pace and Power (more on Emenike on the last slide). Diouf is a 6’0” striker with 93 Jumping and 90 Sprint Speed: it can’t get any more OP than this when it comes to headers of the ball. And like Benteke, he too shares the Power Header trait. In short, when Stoke bought Diouf, Ultimate Team was doomed

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#5 David Luiz

David Luiz

The Lord Giveth and the Lord taketh away: never has this saying been truer when it comes to Ultimate Team. We got Mame Diouf, but we had to lose David Luiz for it!

Looking at the card, it might not be the most impressionable: 79 Defending, 80 Heading and H/M workrate for an 82 rated CB aren’t something to be much boastful about. But what the card doesn’t reveal is to how good the player is to use.

Almost all of his stats, barring the Finishing and Balance, are in the mid-70s,which is pretty impressive on a CB. Many gamers who’ve used David Luiz have been led to believe that this card is somewhat glitchy (as was Benteke’s original 79 rated ST card, which was later upgraded to 81). There’s a running joke around the FIFA community that Luiz has 75 acceleration and 78 sprint speed, yet in-game he has 99 pace! This is because, somehow, no matter how much of a head-start your quick strikers have over David Luiz, he ALWAYS manages to catch up to them. Ibarbo, Aubameyang, Eto’o, Agbonlahor... no one seems to be safe from his pace, and that is quite astounding!

Gamers breathed a sigh of relief when he transferred to a lesser league (Ligue 1), which means not so many David Luiz cards to face in FIFA 15.

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#6 Fredy Guarn

Fredy Guarin

Given his nation and club, you won’t face many of this card on Ultimate Team, and that, in itself, is a true blessing in disguise. This card is the best all-rounder normal card in FUT 14.

The lowest stat on his card is his 76 Defending, which is quite astounding, considering the fact that he’s a 81 rated CM (even the well-rounded 87 rated CF Bale has 74 Defending and 74 Heading on his card). Nearest rivals to him are Paul Pogba and Felipe Melo, but both of them have a couple of 75 ratings on their cards.

It is because of his all rounded nature and the fact that he is 6’0”, you can use him in almost any position in-game (although it isn’t advised because of his H/M workrate). This card doesn’t really deserve any explanation as to WHY it is OP, apart from the simple fact that it is very good in everything it does

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#7 Samir Handanovi, Federico Marchetti

Samir Handavovic and Federico Marchetti

Rarely do you get two players in the same league who are so alike and plays so similar. Presenting the Italian beastly GKs, Samir Handanovic and Federico Marchetti. The former stands at 6’3” while the latter is at 6’2”, which are more or less, the ideal height for a goalkeeper in this game. And on their day, these goalkeepers are almost unbeatable! Brilliant diving and reflexes and good positioning makes them very good overall goalkeepers to use.

Comparable in their stats are Hugo Lloris and Rene Adler, both of whom are rated 84 again. While Lloris has 86 Diving, 89 Reflexes, 80 Handling and 81 Positioning, Adler has 86 Diving and Reflexes, 81 Handling and 83 Positioning. Looking at these ratings, one has to wonder the amount of research and creativity EA developers put into their GK ratings

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#8 Petr ech

Petr Cech

Capping off our list of OP Goalkeepers (pun intended) is the beast from Czech Republic, Petr Cech. Admittedly, no stat on his card immediately stand out as the one distinguishable feature that marks him away from the rest, but it is exactly that fact that makes him so unbeatable! He is good at everything, simply put. And he has two of the most important special traits for a goalkeeper: GK Punch and GK Long Throw.

The previous GKs on our list either had one or none of these characteristics. People who’ve used him has admitted that he does behave a little glitchy (like Benteke or David Luiz) in the sense that he stops EVERYTHING on his day. He isn’t almost unbeatable; he becomes unbeatable. And to cap all of that off, he stands at 6’5” tall! So, good luck trying to get a ball past him.

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#9 Samuel Eto\'o

Samuel Eto’o

Keep in mind what we discussed a few slides ago about pacy strikers. Here, we have the ultimate version of it: Pace+Dribbling+Shooting+relatively good Heading, and we call him by the name of Samuel Eto’o. It’s kind of ironic how the players who’ll score the most goals past your GK always seem to be smiling on their cards: Smiling Assassin, that’s their name! What Benteke lacks in pace, Eto’o has; what Ibarbo lacks in shooting, Eto’o has; what Aubameyang lacks in dribbling, Eto’o has. Quite easily, he’s possibly the best quick overall striker in the game. His height (at 5’10”) might be a bit off-putting for some players who primarily like to cross and head the ball, but what Eto’o has that his predecessors lacked is the ability to Beat Offside Trap (amongst his traits) and 85 Positioning. So, if by any chance your keeper spills a shot on target, be absolutely sure that Eto’o will be there to tap it in!

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#10 Kevin De Bruyne

Kevin De Bruyne

People sometimes seem a bit reluctant to use the non-shiny, non-rare cards on the account that it might ruin the look of their team, but in reality, sometimes these non-rare, easily obtainable, cheap cards play much better than the rare, costly cards (case in point: Mame Diouf’s non-rare card, discussed in the previous slides).

These young footballer from Belgium, never given the chance to prove himself at Chelsea, but now shining at Wolfsburg is truly one of a kind. He has a decent pace, decent passing, decent dribbling AND decent shooting. He also has H/M workrates, which are perfect for a CAM. He has amazing longshots, with Long-Shot Taker even appearing as one of the traits on his card. His card is much like Fredy Guarin’s card, except for the fact that the former excels as a CM, while this card is absolutely godly as a CAM.

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#11 Emmanuel Emenike

Emmanuel Emenike

It would have been unfair had a list of OP players done and Emenike not been included in that list. Granted, we only could play with him on the FUT: World Cup mode (as he played for Turkish club Fenerbahçe, which wasn’t included in FUT 14), but that doesn’t mean that the gamers forgot how OP he used to be. Yes, this card of Emenike is NOT OP; not even close to it. This is just a introduction to the FUT 13 version of Emenike, which will be the last player on our list:

FUT 13 Emenike

Yes, he is somewhat the GOD among all the OP Players: Spartak Moskva’s Emmanuel Emenike. On first glance, he seems almost similar to Eto’o or Agbonlahor, but he doesn’t quite seem to have the pace or the shot or the dribbling to go with it. Upon close inspection of his stats, however, it is revealed that he has 88 Shot Power, 84 Long Shots and 85 Finishing, which topples over anything the rest had. But what truly made him the most OP player in recent FIFA memory is his Strength: he had 94 Strength! So, here you have a player with 93 Acceleration, 88 Sprint Speed and 94 Strength: Combine them together, and you have an army tank running on an engine of a fighter jet plane. He used to bulldoze everyone at his path, and he did it quite easily.

With EA releasing Turkish Super Lig in FIFA 15, gamers can only hope that Emenike’s card will be more resembling to his FIFA 14 WC card, and not the FIFA 13 card that gave them nightmares.

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