FIFA 20 FUT: Juan Cuadrado Player SBC Review

Today, we got a Jamie Vardy-like player SBC in terms of something being under-costed in the form of RB Juan Cuadrado. He won’t be as useful (or probably as good) as Jamie Vardy, but it’s hard to find a reason not to do the SBC.

Requirements

• Need at least one Serie A player
• Need one IF player
• Minimum squad rating of 83 overall
• Minimum team chemistry of 65

The price to do this SBC from scratch is roughly 30K right now, according to FUTBin. However, most people who play FIFA on a near-daily basis probably have an in-form card that is untradeable and unused they could use here to knock the cost down further.

Juan Cuadrado is a medium defensive work rate and high attacking work rate RB with a dominant right foot. He is 5-foot-10 with five-star skills and a three-star weak foot. Yes, you now have a RB who has five-star skills to use. He’s also a Serie A RB, which is a position that is very sparse right now in terms of quality options.

In comparison to his standard gold card, which is at right midfielder, he has +2 pace, +2 shooting, +2 passing, +2 dribbling, +5 defense and +5 physical. Nailing down on the important tweaks in comparison to the gold card, he’s a +2 in short passing, +1 in long passing, +2 agility, +1 balance, +1 reactions, +1 ball control, +2 dribbling, +1 in composure, +4 in interceptions, +4 in marking, +5 in standing tackle, +5 in stamina, +4 in strength, +5 in aggression and +2 in positioning.

So, yeah, this card is weird. I don’t know how many people will really trust it as a RB, but you don’t necessarily have to use it there. I personally am using him as a RWB as I actually play a lot of 5-4-1 and 5-3-2. In this setup, he acts as more like a well rounded in-form Adama Traore. Now, the big difference in that comparison is not really the pace but rather the strength. Traore has 87 strength and Cuadrado has 62 strength. A major reason people won’t trust him at RB is that strength rating.

However, there are some ways to mitigate that to some extent. First off, you don’t have to really play him on defense at all if you don’t want to. In your custom tactics, you can move him into more of a midfield role, where you can just use him in his more “normal” form. There are also chemistry styles like Sentinel to boost his strength to a more manageable area. The other option is use him in this way, but just bring him in as a super sub and let him fly around the field in the last 20-30 minutes of a game.

Personally, I will stick with him mostly as a RWB. I like novel and quirky players, and a five-star skills RB/RWB with excellent pace gives me another way to play the game. You might not beat the meta with him in your lineup, but FIFA is in such an iffy state in online games, that it’s almost better to think of different ways to play right now. If you get too caught up in just playing into the same group of players, you’re going to have a bad time more often than you want to because there are just some general gameplay frustrations that are hard to overcome when you’re playing all the time.

At least this way, you can change up your style from time to time, give your opponents a different look, and if you trust the rest of your defense enough, give Cuadrado the tactic to push forward on offense and create some more wide opportunities. He’s not a bad shooter from outside the box. You can also use those five-star skills to beat plenty of defenders, and at worst you’re going to make your opponent worry about two or maybe three players on one side of the pitch (depending on your formation) who can create offensive chances.