New Year's Gift 1 Jan '25: Mimo's Analysis
In this post I just want to go over the 3 choices of New Year's Gift quickly - between Nunez, Zaïre-Emery, and Endrick.
One important thing to note is that I don't really have experience with any of these special epic skills, so we will need some feedback from the epic-spinning people.
1. Nunez - 96 CF
Skill: Bullet Header (Speedy header)
Boost: Aerial +2 (+Finishing, Header, Jumping Physical Contact)
The good part about his profile is that he is a goal poacher with good speed/acceleration, so this alone was in the useable range. Overall skills look good. Good header but not that physical as I'd have hope.
His biggest weakness is how he is not really two-footed and that he is on the clunkier side of a CF. Physicality and smoothness is always a tradeoff though.
I think his profile looks like a more balanced Norway Haaland to me. Maybe less physical and aerially dominant but also more well-balanced.
2. Warren Zaïre-Emery - 96 CMF
Skill: Phenomenal Pass (Can pass better under pressure)
Boost: Passing +2 (Low Pass, Lofted Pass, Curl, Kicking Power)
The good part about his profile is that he is a B2B with good speed.
However, I think his passing is an overkill. I would recommend not doing auto-allocate and redistribute his stat points somewhere else, maybe to aerial or defense.
The part I dislike is that his defense and physical contact isn't that high so custom training would help. Also low kicking power and no through passing.
For a B2B, I think he is a very solid CMF and phenomenal passing seems to be a very good skill. I was expecting better physicality and defensiveness in a B2B though.
3. Endrick - 96 CF
Skill: Phenomenal Finishing
Boost: Shooting +2(Ball control, Finishing, Kicking power, Physical Contact)
Excellent kicking power, but that's the only thing noteworthy about his profile.
I am also not a fan of DLF, especially one that cannot pass like him. Can't see a reason to use him over free Santos Neymar really.
Overall Thought
Obviously the most reasonable thing is to sign who you like, but for overthinkers like myself I think Nunez > Zaïre-Emery >> Endrick, with Nunez and Zaïre-Emery being pretty close.
Endrick seems the weakest of the bunch, but both Nunez and Zaïre-Emery look to be in the same range, so whoever you get will depend on which your team needs more between CF or CMF. Neither is end-game cards though they are pretty strong for a free card.
Personally I am going with Nunez, as I need CF and I like this profile. If cross-spamming ever becomes a thing again he will be perfect.
For Warren Zaïre-Emery, I think he looks quite good too after redistribution of stat points from passing to other things like defense/physical and I feel like him and Nunez would be close in terms of level -- that is a strong card for F2P although not perfect. If you know you play with B2B he is a very reasonable signing, though personally I expect more defensiveness and physicality from a B2B than what is presented here. Both him and Nunez have pretty varied form IRL so that is not a factor.
Let's wait for the reviews from people to come in, but personally I am going with Nunez since I like the player.