Numerous FIFA 23 ratings are now known and fans are discussing the best, strongest, and fastest footballers. At the same time, one player stands out, who has to take a hard hit in terms of speed.
Which player is it? The new stats of Belgian national player Axel Witsel are currently being discussed on the FIFA subreddit.
Bundesliga fans will still remember him: The 33-year-old played for Borussia Dortmund from 2018 to 2022 but moved to Spain to join Atlético Madrid this summer.
In FIFA, Witsel was quite popular – especially due to intense special cards or as the first midfielder in starter teams.
However, with the FIFA 23 release, Witsel’s new card is unlikely to become one of the favorites. The midfielder has received a significant downgrade in speed.
Witsel’s FIFA 23 card compared to FIFA 22
This is what Witsel’s card looks like in FIFA 23: Overall, Axel Witsel has received weaker stats than last year. In the ranking of the “1000 best players” (via EA) in FIFA, he dropped from 465th to 625th place.
All stats on the card have been slightly reduced – but the speed value is particularly noticeable.
A total of 27 points have been lost in terms of speed. Thus, he drops from 61, which is not a particularly high value, to a low 34. He has thus lost almost half of his total speed.
A step that some FIFA players find too harsh.
This is what players say: The discussion about Witsel’s card has already begun on the FIFA subreddit. Hardly anyone can understand why Witsel received such an extreme pace downgrade.
In the past, it has happened that players over 30 received a reduction in speed in FIFA, and a lot of pace is more often found with young talents. But a drop of 27 points is quite a lot.
- “I mean, he was never fast, but this speed is just absurd,” says user “Arshavingoat” (via reddit).
- “I really don’t understand the logic behind some of these pace changes. They make the game so unbalanced. Plus, it’s not realistic at all. Older players don’t have the stamina to run the whole game, but if they do, they’re not that slow,” says user Xenboca (via reddit).
- “That’s literally walking speed” (via reddit).
- “Did he lose a leg?” comments another (via reddit).
Some comment that Witsel is indeed not a particularly fast player – but the harsh break compared to the previous year seems surprising. Here, one could only argue that the speed value may have been too high in previous years and has now been corrected.
In fact, however, Witsel is not the slowest player in the recently released “Top 1000” ratings. Behind him are:
- Jose Fonte from LOSC Lille (31 pace)
- Dante from OGC Nice (32 pace)
- Guillermo Maripan from AS Monaco (32 pace)
- Jorge Molina from FC Granada (33 pace)
However, in comparison to last year, these four do not show such an extreme drop.
In this regard, one could only mention Charles Aranguiz from Bayer Leverkusen – whose pace downgrade of 19 points to 46 is also remarkable.
Overall, there are some players who have been “slowed down” this year, although not as extreme. Another example of this are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – both are significantly slower than in FIFA 22.
