FIFA 17: 10 Ratings They Got Wildly Wrong (Based On Last Season)
So much for that famous realism...
If there is one thing that Leicester City’s inexorable rise to Premier League immortality has proved, it is that the EA Sports Player Ratings system is genuinely based on real-life performance. That, now, is absolutely definitive.
Case in point; Jamie Vardy. Last season’s Football Writers’ Player of the Year is the stone-cold proof that a player can boost their improved overall rating simply by improving their output and impact on the field. Vardy started the 2015/16 campaign as a 71-rated silver, illustrating his status as a mediocre top-flight forward, but by February’s mid-season upgrade was elevated to a 75-rated gold striker after scoring 18 goals by that point and becoming a fixture in the England team.
He’s predicted to be rated in the low-to-mid 80s category in this year's game.
By the same token, a player who is at the opposite end of the performance spectrum should suffer the ignominy of a downgraded rating as a reflection of their poor form over a sustained period. After all, EA are always striving to portray an increased sense of realism in their lucrative football franchise via gameplay and graphics.
But, as is the case every year, EA sometimes get it horribly wrong meaning player is provided with an inaccurate rating that doesn’t quite echo their performance from the previous season.
So who has undeservedly remained on the upper-rung of the ratings ladder and which players should have been afforded the ‘Vardy Treatment’ this year?
10. Memphis Depay
FIFA 17 Rating - 80
It is a minor miracle that Depay’s rating hasn’t dipped below the 80 in this years game after a less-than memorable first season with Manchester United.
The Holland international was unveiled as United’s marquee summer signing in July 2015, some two months after his transfer was formally completed, with ex-Old Trafford boss Louis Van Gaal conceding that he was ‘forced’ to move early to sign Depay in order to fend off interest from Paris Saint Germain and Premier League rivals Liverpool.
It has turned out to be a lucky escape for Liverpool and a horrible misjudgement on Van Gaal’s part. Displaying early promise in the iconic no. 7 shirt, Depay has proven to be unmitigated flop and was unceremoniously usurped from his position by a teenage Anthony Martial early on in the season; the first of many a nadir to afflict his short United career, which is in danger of spiralling into obscurity.
Not exactly indicative of a player considered to be on the level of Dele Alli and a single rating higher than Sadio Mane.