After obtaining 24 goal contributions (12 goals and 14 assists) in 34 appearances at the age of 19, Sancho was bound to get a Team Of The Season card through helping his club, Borussia Dortmund, to finishing 2nd in the league and only 2 points behind Bayern Munich who finished 1st.
I was really excited when this Team of The Season version of Sancho came out, as I had recently used his Future Stars item, which I thought was amazing! However, this new version of Sancho was even better! Personally, I love abusing pace on every Fifa and to make the game most enjoyable I love to skill, Sancho fits my preferences perfectly as he has the 5 star skills and a high face stat of 98 pace!
This card being English and, in the Bundesliga, means that many squad possibilities could come along, as you can link Sancho to a Premier league English player or a Bundesliga player, the card is very versatile for the rest of the team!
^Sancho’s current prices on Playstation and Xbox^ (Source: Futbin.com)
I feel as though around a 1,550,000 to 1,700,000 would be a fair price for this card. I think this as there is very high demand for the the prospect of Sancho, he has 5 star skills, good face stats and good links for squads!
Height – Preferably when choosing a player for my team to play on the wing, I like to have a small player so that they can make agile turns quickly and effectively against the opposition’s defender, and Sancho has that perfect balance of not being too small so that he is easily being pushed off the ball and not too tall so he cant make agile and quick movements; being at 5 foot 11.
Work Rates – Sancho has medium/medium work rates which isn’t the best. Preferably for a winger, forward or an attacking midfielder you would look for high/medium or high/low work rates to help keep the player in the correct positions at the right time. This showed when I was using Sancho in an attacking midfielder position as sometimes he was drawn to come back to help defend even though I had set him in custom tactics to “Stay Forward”, he also didn’t want to attack at some points even on the counter attack, forcing me to slow down play for Sancho to make an automatic run or for me to personally trigger the run; which in some instances resulted in me not being able to get a goal within the game.
Preferred Foot – Sancho is right footed and therefore he is more adapted to shoot with his right foot, if you like to shoot far post more often, then keep Sancho on the right, if you prefer to shoot near post, move Sancho to the left. When playing with Sancho I preferred using him on the right-hand side of the pitch as I felt he was more adapted/effective at scoring back post goals than near post goals.
Weak Foot – Sancho only has 3 star weakfoot, which isn’t the best as when using him, Sancho struggled to score, let alone hit the target with his left foot. However, being such an agile and small player it allows Sancho to be able to move the ball quickly from his left foot to his right foot to take a more effective shot at goal; meaning that the poor weakfoot stat isn’t really that significant, until your opponent starts to read that you are only bringing the ball onto the right hand side of Sancho’s body
Skill Moves – Sancho has 5 star skill moves and this is his key selling point! I thoroughly enjoyed using skills with this Team of The Season version of Sancho as it was very receptive and did every skill that I wanted it to and kept the ball tight and close to his body, minimising the chance of losing the ball. The 5 star skills allows Sancho to become more unpredictable and allows more variety in your game style and therefore throws off opponents
Pace – Sancho has a face card stat of 98 pace, which feels lower than what it feels like in game! The 98 acceleration on the card allows Sancho to get away from defenders very quickly and then he uses his 95 sprint speed to keep that distance covered consistently, creating many more opportunities than if he had lower acceleration and sprint speed
Shooting – Sancho always managed to find himself in the right position at the right time and that is reflected by his 99 attacking position stat, this was very effective in scoring well worked and scrappy goals. His finishing on his right foot was sublime every time, however on his weak foot (left) it wasn’t the best because of the 3 star weak foot. The shot power was reflected well in game as the majority of keepers couldn’t/didn’t catch any of Sancho’s shots. I didn’t manage to take many long shots however when I did, they lacked power and were quite inaccurate. The volleys 96 stat wasn’t reflected as well as I thought it would be as they often lacked accuracy, especially from close range, however this may be affected by the poor 72 composure stat. I didn’t take any penalties with Sancho however I would suspect that they would be good, however would be affected again by the poor composure stat. I preferred finessing and performing low driven shots with Sancho as these personally gave me more consistency with goal scoring.
Passing – Sancho’s crossing and passing and vision was clearly evident as I can not recall him missing a pass, all his crosses were into very good areas and were placed exactly where I aimed them, with good power/speed. I feel like Sancho’s free kick accuracy is higher than 75 in game, as every free kick he took (4) he hit on target, however they didn’t trouble the keeper
Dribbling – Sancho’s dribbling was sublime, and you can see that exactly in the video clips! The 99 balance and agility felt very good in game and played a very positive part in his influence on the game, along with his high ball control and dribbling stat which made it feel easy to get past some of the best defenders in the game, such as Team of The Year Varane and Team of the Year Ramos! The 80 reactions didn’t play a negative effect on Sancho’s gameplay however it was sometimes evident when there was a deflection, it took a longer period to react. However, his composure stat of 72 really lets his card down as in key areas and positions of the game, Sancho manages to miss what seems easy chances that you and I would score, this could play a big factor in whether you purchase this cad, as it really can affect how a game ends.
Physical – Sancho in game felt a lot stronger than only having 80 strength as he managed to push off full backs when battling for the ball. The 99 stamina was very useful as in the dying moments of the game, Sancho still had enough fitness to run and perform his skills and good dribbling stats effectively against defender. In game I would say the 79 jumping stat is a bit less than 79 and would be around 70, as Sancho lacked effort to try and jump to win headers, this made it fairly useless to play back post crosses. The aggression stat is not really noticeable and does not affect his play style.
Overall – I would recommend buying this card if you have the coins lying around to buy him or if he fits perfectly into your current team. However, if you have him untradeable I would 100% consider changing your whole team around to fit him in. His key stats are his agility and skills and dribbling however his composure lets him down a lot of the time!
