Alonso's teammate Iker Casillas has also (understandably) suffered a downgrade but perhaps not as steep as one might have expected. The goalkeeper has been on the fringes at Real over the last couple of seasons and played an astonishing TWO league games last season, used mostly in cup competition. However, as mentioned in the intro, EA's ratings factor cup performances into their scoring system which is probably the only reason why Casillas's ranking hasn't completely nosedived. Rated 86 in last year's game, the shot-stopper has sloped down to a still-reasonable 84 in successor FIFA 15. It would have been easy for EA to completely savage Casillas's rating, but he did excel when called upon, particularly in the Champions League, where he was a crucial member of the squad that helped secure La Decima. He also helped his side win the Copa del Rey and as a result of this his points score isn't as low as it could have been.
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.
