One of the most reckless ratings in FIFA 15 is Arturo Vidal's, with the Juventus midfielder being DOWNGRADED from the score of 86 he had in last year's game, which is one of the most bizarre, astonishing decisions we've seen yet in EA's unveiling of the points scores this week. His pitiful strength stats from '14 at least have gone up, with the midfielder now commanding a more realistic physicality rating of 83, while his pace has also risen from 77 last year to 79. Both of these numbers stack up, but one thing that doesn't is EA's decision to drop him by a point when he surely should have gone the opposite way. Vidal was a beast for Juve last season, scoring 11 goals from 32 appearances and putting in a series of dominating performances from central midfield, living up to his nickname of Il Guerriero ("The Warrior"). His determination and iron will were further underlined by the fact he put in a series of commanding performances during the World Cup for Chile, despite suffering a knee injury in the months preceding the finals. And that perhaps is the reasoning behind EA's decision to degrade his score. The 27-year-old had an operation to repair his meniscus before the World Cup and hasn't played 90 minutes of football since then, while he wasn't at 100% at the finals in Brazil. But if that's the only rationale behind his demotion, that's disappointing because Vidal remains one of the best midfielders in world football.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
