FIFA 22: Jorginho's TOTY card highlights fundamental flaw in current gameplay

FIFA 22 is currently in one of its biggest promos of the calendar, with Team of the Year dominating the game.

Celebrating the best performers from the past year, the event brings with it massive boosts for players that make the Ultimate XI, creating truly monstrous cards.

This gets gamers hankering for packs, but also highlights one of the flaws with the current FIFA gameplay.

A Worthy Winner

There was much debate about whether Jorginho should have made the Ultimate XI, but his playstyle was relied upon for Champions League winners Chelsea and EURO 2020 champs Italy.

A tempo setter as opposed to a superstar playmaker, a game reader rather than a combative CDM, he doesn't necessarily catch the eye when he's on the field.

However, just because his work often goes under the radar doesn't mean he isn't one of the best at what he does.

As such he was awarded a 97 OVR card, making him the best-rated midfielder in FIFA 22 Ultimate Team.

Unrealistic Upgrade

Until Team of the Year, the only Jorginho card in the game was his gold base, with a rating of 85 OVR, so of course, that would see a humungous upgrade across all his stats to reach a 97 OVR rating.

To get that rating he saw increases of +12 to his passing and dribbling stats, +13 to defending and +14 to his physicality.

An insane +23 was given to his shooting stats, but that wasn't the main thing that caught the eye.

+33 was added to his pace!

His gold card possesses 55 Acceleration and 50 Sprint Speed, with the TOTY version having 91 Acceleration and 85 Sprint Speed.

We understand why it was done, but still think that is pretty ridiculous.

Pace Still Prevails

The reason for the unrealistic pace upgrade is to make the card relevant, with many gamers seeing cards with lower pace as unusable, and therein lies the problem.

We have spoken a few times before about the reliance on pace being an issue with gameplay in FIFA 22, even though at the start it looked like EA had addressed that issue.

At the moment we are playing a game where a card can't just rely on having great passing stats to be good, they also have to be quick.

In fact, being quick is the priority.

So to make a special card like Jorginho's TOTY relevant, EA has to take away from the realism of the game by making unrealistic upgrades, as technical abilities don't matter as much.

In turn that takes away from the legitimacy of the card by being less true to life.

No Issue with Speedsters

Let us be clear, we have no problem with there being lightning quick players in the game.

Team of the Year featured Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi, both of whom have a maximum 99 PAC, both of them deserving of such.

Part of their identity as players is that they are pacey, which has already been reflected in their gold card stats.

It seems there needs to be a change in gameplay so that players that don't have top physical stats can still excel in their specialist areas.

That could be done by seeing a larger chasm between passing stats for the elite and other players, which would see making passes much more difficult in-game.

Whatever happens, we need to see all the different attributes made relevant within the gameplay, because at the moment it appears that only one is.