POTW National Teams 21 Nov '24: Mimo's Analysis
In this post, I will be analyzing this week's latest POTW packs POTW National Teams 21 Nov '24:
The figures used in this post are available at:
https://mimo-site.streamlit.app/Player_Analysis
POTW National Teams 21 Nov '24:
1. Haaland - 97 CF
- All featured version of Haaland have lower OA than base, so this is not as bad as it sounds. At 90 OA with all the bonus + form arrow the OA will be ~96-97 which is already a lot so this is not really that big of a nerf. For most stats 90 are more than enough, leaving room for arrow buff.
- This is among the best versions of Haaland on the ball. Still on the clunkier side of forwards but should be quite a bit better than a few other versions.
- Not having rising shot is a nerf. Long-range curler is a good skill but with Haaland's 66 curl I'm not sure that's a big buff.
Overall, this is just another decent but standard version of Haaland. I am a little surprised that he comes with no booster. Fox in the box is not the most popular playstyle right now though.
2. Jude Bellingham - 97 AMF
Creative playmaker Bellingham -- not for me.
Normally the profile for creative playmaker is having weak physical contact but being great on the ball with very strong passing for chance creation. The CP playstyle means the player will drop back into space so strong passing work well with this.
This Bellingham is not that strong at passing though. While the added skills are very decent, 85 low pass is on the lower side for creative playmakers. The playstyle also doesn't really make use of Bellingham's strong physical contact. While not clunky, he's not the smoothest either.
Overall I think this is a case of playstyle and stat mismatch. He won't be bad since he got a lot of nice skills, but I expect him to be in the same range as other featured Bellingham card.
3. Isak - 94 CF
Technique booster is really nice. This makes him among the smoothest goal poacher which is definitely a good thing.
The two things I dislike are his average speed and low balance/OA. However, with this profile I think he will be a very good CF. The profile reminds me a bit of Osimhen who was a popular CF for quite some time. I think Isak will feel better than 94/95 as a CF though he might not be as OP as AFC Son or his older version with 90 OA.
4. Rudiger - 95 CB
Nice buff to speed, but at the cost of physical contact/tackling/aggression. For me this means he's just like other POTW versions of his -- can't really replace the NC but is still solid for people without any decent CB.
5. Ronaldo - 94 CF
Just want to point out that this is DLF Ronaldo.
79 passing is the highest among his many versions. I don't expect this card to be good at all but well it's something new for a Ronaldo card.
Remaining Cards:
Ayoze Perez 92 CF/94 SS/RWF - One of the most unique cards of this pack. Essentially a creative playmaker AMF playing at CF as a goal poacher. I think CF looks more fun than RWF.
Mcginn 93 CMF - Just another supersub B2B.
Palma 92 LWF - Nothing noteworthy
Digne 92 LB - more or less for cross spamming. Top-tier crossing but that's all he can do.
Dumfries 92 RB - Very physically strong. Would be interesting as a fun player.
Perez 90 GK - He's a 90 GK. Stats don't look bad but he's average.
MSN Pack
Given the interests in this pack, I also looked into it so might as well share a bit about what I think.
1. Neymar - 99 LWF
Hard to deny that this is a strong winger. However, there are two very big weaknesses here.
- Chop Turn
- 88 Speed is on the slower side for Prolific winger. 77 OA is also pretty low for prolific winger who should be a little bit like
Normally I'm not a this-card-should-do-this-build guy but I have to admit that for this card the default allocation probably is an overkill for dribbling stats. Still you can't really increase his OA/Speed by much though even with a custom build.
2. Suarez - 99 CF
Pretty much an upgraded Lewandowski. While he isn't as slow as his other versions, 84 is still on the slower side of goal poachers just like Lewan. His skills are very good though.
I though his heading/jumping would be higher with him having bullet header but I guess Konami is just keeping him from being OP.
While not perfect, this should be among the stronger CFs in the game right now. (Though personally I still like Shevchenko or AFC Son's profile more. They are just way easier to use. I would not say he is end-game. )
3. Messi - 101 RWF
Blitz curler in itself is a very strong skill, and it would be hard for me not to say that this card is also very strong.
Some people comment about Messi having weak physical contact. 70 isn't that bad, it's just lower than Bully Messi which has crazy high physical.
If there's a key thing to be concerned though, it's that this card only has 85 speed. I found more success in prolific winger with higher speed where I can just run straight down -- this card is not like that. Still all his other stats look good though especially the shooting stats.
Overall Thought
POTW is a clear skip for me. The only reason to pull is if you don't have Bellingham and Haaland, but even so they are both not exactly hard cards to get. They will come around later. Rudiger and Isak are decent consolation prizes but I don't think these are their strongest versions.
The MSN pack is interesting. I would say none of them is end-game though Messi could be close(Blitz but too slow), Saurez is very strong(low heading stat + not that fast), and Neymar is strong. With that said, I would say only go for it if you are a Barcelona fan.
If you look at this, none of the three are particularly fast. I think Konami design them for you to replicate 2015 Barca's passing style -- tiki-taka possession. These cards are definitely not for you to play spam long through ball counter.
To spin an epic pack is to spend ~13k coins. This amount of coins are enough to get you every F2P-friendly packs for the next year + spin almost every POTW. No matter how good the players are it's hard to justify spending that much coins. If you are F2P you probably have <3k coins anyway. Spinning an epic pack is a bad idea chance-wise. Therefore, only if you are a huge Barcelona fan.