Take a look at Fiorentina’s FIFA 20 ratings

We’re a bit late with this one but we’ve finally tracked down the ratings for Fiorentina’s squad on the latest edition of EA’s flagship soccer game, FIFA 20. There are definitely a few eyebrow-raisers in here, so let’s dive right into it and chuckle. We’re taking all the ratings from Sofifa.com, which has a very easy interface for stuff like this.

The Viola, as a team, are rated at 76 overall. The defense is 77, the midfield is 74, and the attack is 76. The default formation is, as you’d expect, a 3-5-2, featuring the usual XI of Drągowski, Milenković, Pezzella, Cáceres, Lirola, Pulgar, Badelj, Castrovilli, Dalbert, Chiesa, and Ribery. The international and domestic prestige of the team is 6 out of 10. Pulgar handles all the dead ball duties and Pezzella is the captain. The starting transfer budget is €23 million.

The tactical defaults are pretty basic. The team defends pretty narrow (4/10) and plays with an average block (5/10). Rather than pressing like crazy, the aim is to pressure on a heavy touch, which seems smart. In attack, the offensive style is balanced (helpful), although the team doesn’t play with much width (4/10). The team tries to get players into the box (8/10), which leaves them open to counterattacks, although they only put 3 players in the area on corners and free kicks.

Goalkeepers

Bartłomiej Drągowski—73: This is pretty low for a player who holds Serie A’s record for most saves in a match, set last year while on loan with Empoli. He’s the 29th-best goalie in the league. Napoli third-stringer Orestis Karnezis, last year’s horrific Robin Olsen, Viola washouts Marco Sportiello and Luigi Sepe, Lazio’s Silvio Proto (who?), and Brescia’s Serie B journeyman Enrico Alfonso are all rated higher. This is just disrespectful.

Pietro Terracianno—71: Probably about right for a guy who’s a career journeyman. He’s proven to be a solid backup who’s not exactly flawless but is capable of holding down the fort for short stretches.

Michele Cerofolini—60: Ouch. That’s pretty low for a guy who’s an Italy youth international, although the potential rating of 75 feels a little bit kinder.

Alban Lafont—79: We still think that the Frenchman is a crazy-talented player who’s already a decent custodian and could easily become world-class once he irons out a few wrinkles. But saying that he’s that much better than Bart right now is a big dang stretch.

Central defenders

Nikola Milenković—76: This is probably about right for the Mountain, who’s got all the physical tools you could ask for but still hasn’t quite figured out how to put them together for a full season, hence the 83 potential. It feels like EA nerfed him a little bit, though, as his jumping is just 68 and his movement skills (66 acceleration, 62 sprint speed, 44 agility) feel pretty low considering that Nihola routinely keeps up with very quick wingers. His heading accuracy of 70 is probably going to come up too, considering that he’s scored twice from headers this year already.

Germán Pezzella—79: Kinda weird for a regular starter for Argentina to have just a single star for his international rating, but whatever. The overall rating also feels a bit harsh, especially his very low movement ratings, but this seems about right. On the other hand, saying that he’s worse than Matteo Musacchio, Federico Fazio, and Chris Smalling—again, Pezze’s a starter for Argentina ahead of the former two—feels a bit off.

Martín Cáceres—78: Another one with a weirdly low international rating, considering that he’s approaching a century of caps with Uruguay and has featured in a bunch of major tournaments, but his rating as a player is about spot on. I’d probably quibble that his 80 interception should be lower and his 78 tackling should be higher, and that his long passing should be higher (we’ll go further into that in another article), but he’s more or less where he should be here.

Luca Ranieri—62: Hm. He’s been excellent for the Italy U21s and hasn’t been disastrous in his appearances with the Fiorentina senior side, so this doesn’t feel right to me. On the plus side, his potential sits at a rock-solid 79, so at least EA believes he’s going to be pretty good.

Federico Ceccherini—71: The rating feels about right, but the way the game got there makes me wonder if the designers have ever seen Cecche play. Having seen him get dominated by rugged strikers like Duván Zapata and Felipe Santander last year, I don’t think that 86 strength is very accurate. Conversely, his skill on the ball is completely underrated—45 long passing, 42 dribbling, and 58 short passing, for example—so I guess we’ll call it a wash.

Jacob Rasmussen—68: He’s got 79 potential, which is pretty positive. I honestly don’t have anything to add, having only seen him briefly in a friendly against Pistoiese, so let’s just want and see.

Pierluigi Pinto—60: Wouldn’t have thought that he was nearly as good as Ranieri, but it’s whatever.

Fullbacks

Pol Lirola—74: We won’t argue the overall rating or even most of the physical attributes, even though we think they could all be a touch higher. He even fits in pretty well in the ecosystem of FIFA 20’s Serie A rightbacks. In a rather entertaining twist, he’s rated just above Vincent Laurini, who finally got some love from the game. But yeah, no arguments here.

Dalbert—76: Having watched him not stop sprinting for the entire dang season, a bump to his 79 stamina would make some sense, but he’s otherwise right about where we’d put him. The real head-scratcher is that he’s better in-game than Cristiano Biraghi, which is pretty weird too.

Lorenzo Venuti—69: He’s got good pace and stamina but nothing else, in particular. His potential is 74, so his defensive attributes have some room to catch up. Given that he looks like a perfectly adequate backup, he maybe deserves a bit more love, but hmph.

Aleksa Terzić—60: Again, this feels a bit lower than I’d have thought, given his work in the preseason, but a potential of 76 shows a bit more faith. He looks a lot faster than they made him, his free kick accuracy is a laughably low 43, and his crossing is just 53. Sadly, EA probably isn’t going to update his ratings any time soon.

Cristiano Biraghi—75: Let’s just list some shortcomings here. 78 crossing. 50 free kick accuracy. 68 curve. 71 ball control. 74 stamina. 65 long shots. Seriously? He’s been Fiorentina’s second-best attacker for the past two years. That’s just wild.

Kevin Diks—69: He hasn’t played in nearly 2 years now, so this feels kind of generous, especially with the 76 potential. On the other hand, he was at one point perhaps the brightest teenage rightback prospect in Europe, so it could be he’s still coasting on that. Here’s hoping he proves FIFA 20 correct at Aarhus this season.

Defensive midfielders

Milan Badelj—79: Another one whose overall grade seems about correct, although we’d maybe change some of the ratings. For example, his shooting from distance is probably too high, and his tackling may be a smidge optimistic as well. On the other hand, his off-ball attributes (interceptions, defensive awareness, and positioning) are all a bit low. He is considerably worse than Lucas Biglia, which feels odd, but this one’s pretty whatever altogether.

Erick Pulgar—78: His tackling and aggression need increases, given his ability to dominate the center of the pitch even against more-heralded opposition (he bossed the Juventus engine room and dominated AC Milan) with his physicality. His penalty rating also needs a bump, given that he’s sent the goalkeeper the wrong direction every single time. You could probably nerf his 75 vision a bit, but he may be a little bit lower than he deserves.

Sebastian Cristoforo—75: Next.

Andrés Schetino—64: Not sure I’d have said he was a better overall player than Ranieri or Terzić given his struggles in settling in since he made the move to Florence back in 2016. His potential is still 71, which is wild, too, but we sure hope that someone sees that sort of ability in him.

Central midfielders

Gaetano Castrovilli—65: Hoo boy. He’s going to be one of the first players to get an update. For example, the second-best dribbler in Serie A has a dribbling rating of 65. I don’t think there’s a single aspect of his in-game makeup that isn’t too low. He should be Naruto-running into at least a mid-70s grade very soon. I mean, this is just nuts.

Marco Benassi—77: As with all things Benassi, I have no dang idea. His passing and defensive numbers feel a bit higher than he’s shown over the past couple of years, but his finishing is just 66, which doesn’t fit a player who led the club in league goals last year. He showed some signs of improvement against Udinese, actually looking like a real central midfielder rather than the weird wingback/striker hybrid role he’s spent his time in Florence playing, so hopefully this rating is more predictive than reflective.

Bryan Dabo—74: The forgotten man is probably rated about correctly, all things considered, although his 78 strength is definitely an understatement. We still love you, Bryan.

Szymon Żurkowski—72: Maybe a little bit below where he ought to be, considering that he was one of the finest players in the Ekstraklasa over the past couple of seasons, but his potential of 81 takes some of the sting off. His pace and strength are good, although his long shooting rating of 64 probably doesn’t reflect his true ability, which he’s displayed with the Poland U21s. If he can settle in and earn a regular role, he should get a few skill bumps here, but he’s going to be a perfect career mode guy.

Jordan Veretout—78: A bit low, but it’s whatever for Viola fans. In the interest of accuracy, though, his 78 stamina is definitely too low, his 76 dribbling and 78 ball control could probably come up, his 72 aggression is definitely low, and given his penchant for red cards, you could easily say that his 80 composure is rather generous as well. If you decide to bring him back in the game from his loan to AS Roma, he’ll form an all-grit midfield with Pulgar and Badelj.

Attacking midfielders

Kevin-Prince Boateng—79: His in-game positions are listed as a CF or a CM, so let’s split the difference and call him an attacking midfielder. Anyways, he’s a dang tank in this game and should be a blast to use, since you’ll be able to shoot from pretty much anywhere and hit the back of the net. Just keep an eye out for his 57 stamina, which means he’s best as a bench option or playing just the first half. But yeah, he’s fantastic.

Tòfol Montiel—63: Nope. 68 on both ball control and dribbling, 60 vision, 60 long shots, 52 crossing, 52 free kick accuracy, 68 agility... I could go on, but I won’t. Potential at 77 feels might stingy too. C’mon, EA. Respect la Perla.

Riccardo Saponara—77: We love the Cheese so we aren’t going to even go into the ratings here. The punchline here is the players who pop up as Ricky’s closest comparisons: Nelson Semedo, Manuel Lazzari, Junior Firpo, Achraf Hakimi, Capa, and Seamus Coleman are all fullbacks who can play as wingers; James Maddison, Alex Iwobi, and Otávio are all speedy wide attackers; and Federico Luis Contedo seems to exist only in FIFA 20. What the heck are yall doing with your algorithms?

Wingers

Federico Chiesa—79: I’m just going to list some players that FIFA 20 thinks are better than Fede: Suso, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Ante Rebić, Diego Perotti, and Simone Verdi. What the hell is that all about? That’s just dumb as hell. Get your act together, EA.

Franck Ribery—82: This one is a lot closer to accurate. He may honestly have a bit more pace on the digital pitch than the real one, but it’s tough to argue with this rating too much. No, our argument is on how the programmers made the Frenchman look. Just, ugh. Just look at this.

Riccardo Sottil—64: 73 sprint speed, 73 acceleration, 73 agility, 68 dribbling, 68 ball control? Yeah, ask Nicola Murru about that, given that Sottil beat him like a rug up and down the wing when Fiorentina beat Sampdoria. At least they gave him a potential of 80, but I really think that he’s going to get a bump fairly soon here, given that he was one of the best players at Primavera for two years, impressed as a teenager at Pescara last year, stars for the Azzurini, and has dazzled in his few appearances off the bench. Get on it.

Rachid Ghezzal—74: While the good folks at Fosse Posse and Leicester City fans may disagree, this feels pretty close where he should be. After all, he was fantastic at Lyon and fine at Monaco, so it’s not like he’s some fraud. So yeah, we won’t fight this one.

Valentin Eysseric—75: With all due respect, is he really that much better than Riccardo Sottil? He’s had trouble getting comfortable this year, failing to impress with the Primavera and in the friendly against Pistoiese, and is expected to be shuffled elsewhere in the winter. His lack of pace in the real world is perhaps not accurately reflected here, but the game did get his skill on the ball about right.

Cyril Théréau—72: Okay, no. Just no.

Rafik Zekhnini—69: EA got his scorching pace right but missed that he’s shown some real development at AZ since last year. I’m not sure how you program intelligent positioning into the game, but that’s one improvement that he deserves.

Mattia Trovato—62: I’m a big fan of Trovato, who’s finally coming back around from some shredded knee ligaments. His pace probably deserves a mild increase, but it’s hard to argue a whole lot with his overall setup, especially with a potential of 77. Again, though, he’s nearly as good as Sottil, which I don’t think is really the case right now.

Strikers

Dušan Vlahović—62: Another promising youngster severely underrated, in case you were looking for a theme here. Given the Very Large Teen’s talent for finding space in behind and working the channels, his 60 acceleration and 62 sprint speed are way too low, for example, but pretty much everything could come up here. We’re not advocating to put him in the 90s; we just think that he deserves the numbers that’ll make him look like he belongs in Serie A since he’s looked fine in the league thus far. At least his potential is 79, but even that feels miserly.

Pedro—74: We haven’t seen enough of him in Florence yet to really hold a strong opinion, but his excellent finishing, ball control, and two-footedness paint him as a fantastic inside-the-box striker. It’s also hard not to like that 84 potential, so we’re definitely expecting big things from him.

Bobby Duncan—61: If he keeps tearing up the Primavera and the youth internationals, expect to see this rating jump up a bit, but it’s probably okay for now. Again, though, keep an eye out for him to improve.

Giovanni Simeone—77: Last year, I’d have said this rating was way too high, given that Cholito seemed like he couldn’t figure out how to touch the ball without having something go wrong. He’s looked just sharp enough with Cagliari this year, though, that this feels a bit more defensible, so let’s just wait and see how the rest of the season goes for him.

Notable absences

GK Simone Ghidotti: The 19-year-old may have surpassed Brancolini in the pecking order, having earned a spot with the Italy U20s. On the other hand, there aren’t any Serie C teams available in FIFA, so it’s tough to figure out where he’d go.

LB David Hancko: A full international for Slovakia and a pretty dang good player already, he’s listed as owned by Sparta Prague even though he’s on loan with an option to buy and a counter-option for the Viola.

LW Nicky Beloko: Given that he’s at Gent in the Jupiler League, he should be added later on, even if he hasn’t even made the matchday squad yet.

ST Gabriele Gori: He was in the game last year but has vanished after a tough season and move to Serie C.

ST Martin Graiciar: Another one who’s on loan at Sparta Prague with a buy and counter-buy option, but that’s probably just too dang complicated to write into the code.