Friday, 22 February 2013

(Series:1 Ep.5) Ultimate Team Player Of The Week

The "Should you buy him?" part of this weekly feature is now being excluded due to it being totally pointless. Any comparisons or recommendations I want to make will be done so at the end of the article. 





Gökhan Inler



















Club: Napoli
League: Serie A
Nation: Switzerland
Position: CM
Height: 5'11"
Foot: Right
Week Foot: * * * *
Skill Moves: * * * 
Attacking Workrate: Medium
Defensive Workrate: Medium

Average Cost: 400-600


Card Type: Normal Gold


Base Stats:
Pace: 68
Shooting: 75
Passing: 81
Dribbling: 76
Defensive: 78
Heading: 72

Why is he so good?

Inler is a really underrated player in FUT. He may not be the fastest or the best dribbler but he is one of the best all round centre-midfielders I've used. 

As I said, he won't win any awards for his pace, however he is surprisingly quick. He can keep up with most players trying to get past him and successfully push them off the ball, and he even managed to break forward once or twice for me and score. That said, he won't be outrunning defenders any time soon. Indeed, if he gets the ball in the opponents final third it is best to get a shot off as soon as possible as he can't keep ahead for very long.

That's not an issue though, because Inler's shooting - or more specifically: his longshots - are amazing. In fact, only Wesley Sneijder, In-form Frank Lampard, Kroos or Ronaldo have notably better longshots than this guy. That might seem like quite a broad statement, and no-doubt there are a few players with outstanding longshots too that I have missed out, however for the sake of keeping things general, let's stick to that.

Shooting from distance with him is a pleasure; he will either hit the target or knock one in at such a high power it's a wonder the keeper even bothered trying to save it. His weak foot is also excellent, which is always nice. 

His finishing in the box is almost always as reliable too. Sure, if a difficult shot comes at him then chances are he might miss the target, but if it's a 1-on-1 with the keeper, or he has a clean shot to take, he will score it.

Another that makes Inler such a versatile player is his passing. In a way, you would always expect - or at least want - your CM to be able to pick out players efficiently, and Inler doesn't disappoint. His long passing is very accurate as is his short passing and when using him in one of my squads he was always at the heart of the attacks, often linking up with players to create good opportunities for either a break or just a good shot on goal.

Dribbling can often decide whether or not a player is really worth your time, as it shows how useable when in possession the they are. In fact, I've given up on using a fair amount of players because they just could not dribble to save their lives. What's more, agility plays a big part in how easy to control the player is, which is very important - well, to me at least. Luckily, Inler is actually very good in this area. He isn't very good at skilling his way round players, but his ball control is actually excellent as is his agility. In fact, despite the fact his stats in this zone aren't the highest, he is really great at moving around in tight spaces and in many instances I was able to turn away from players and get off one of his deadly longshots. 

Defensively Inler is the best CM I've used. He is better than Kroos, than Vidal, Pirlo or Lampard. His ability to get the ball back and make tackles is outstanding and I actually missed him in one of my CM spots when I replaced him with Pirlo. Like I said before; he is not the quickest but he does have enough pace to keep up with and tackle players as well as intercept passes. Despite frequently using the likes of Pirlo and IF Lampard as my CM's, I easily noticed that little extra pace Inler brings to the table was missing.

He is basically like a brick in defence that is borderline impossible to move. His medium attack and defending work rate ensures he is never too far forward to get back in time, and never too far back to not get forward. In fact, he always seems to be just where you need him. When a quick counter attack is coming your way, he is there to break it up, and when you are countering yourself he is there to pick out the right passes.

His heading is pretty good too, although while he won't be scoring many, if any, headers in the box. He is very good at knocking a pass towards a teammate with his noggin though, so no worries there.

He is an awesome player and for his price he is an absolute steal. Use him for whatever you want, but just make sure you give him a try, he is totally worth the 600 or so coins he costs.