Bayern Munich player ratings in the top one hundred players of FIFA 20 + analysis!

FIFA 20 is rapidly approaching its release date and millions of football video game fans will be highly excited to try out the new title. Since the game will be out on shelves from September the 24th, Electronic Arts, the company which produces FIFA, recently dropped their list of the top 100 players in the game. This list contains eight Bayern Munich players. We will compare the ratings and stats of their player cards with their previous figures and the stats of other established players in this years game.

---

David Alaba — 85 rated (Fergus Tong)

Ranked as the 88th best in FIFA 20, Alaba’s 2020 card remains nearly identical to his previous one. Staying on an 85 rating, his stats have slightly improved, with small increases in pace, passing and physical. Coupled with a small decrease in defending. Alaba’s card holds up well against his fellow left-backs. Only Jordi Alba beats him in terms of overall rating, at 87. In terms of game play, Alaba will once again be a staple for players with Bundesliga sides, his well rounded and just overall solid card should be fantastic. After a good season in 18-19, some might have even argued that the Austrian should have gotten an upgrade. However, I think EA got it just right on this one.

---

Niklas Süle — 85 rated (Joshua Tobolt)

Coming in at #89 overall is our defensive Marshall, Niklas Süle. Given his significant first-team role last year, it’s good to see an improvement for Süle in FIFA 20. The most significant improvement’s he sees is a +3 in Defense from 83 to 86, a +3 in passing from 52 to 55 and a massive +5 in pace from 67 to 72 (His FIFA 19 card was grossly undercut in speed, however...because man can Süle FLY).

Personally, I think Süle is yet another Bayern player (see a recurring theme here) that is underrated in the eyes of FIFA. He has been a physical feature in Bayern’s defense that has made more clutch plays than most defenders i’ve seen.

To further showcase how poor Sule has been rated, these are the cards of Hummels and Godin. 2 CB’s who are widely accepted to weaker than Sule in today’s game — yet posses better ratings and stats.

---

Phillipe Coutinho — 86 rated (Fergus Tong)

Ranked as the 69th best in the game, Coutinho has experienced a significant -2 loss in overall rating, from 88 to 86. For his stats, he’s received downgrades in pace (-2), shooting (-1), passing (-2) and dribbling (-1). Frankly, these downgrades were deserved given the torrid time he had at FC Barcelona during 17-18 and 18-19. Yet, although his stats may have decreased, he still has a very attractive card with great passing, dribbling and skill moves. In addition, many solid teams will include Coutinho in the cam position (as opposed to his natural left-wing position) due to how well his attributes suits playing in ‘the hole’ in FIFA.

To give you a feel for how FIFA rates other similar players to Coutinho, above are the cards of Marco Reus and James Rodriguez. Coutinho’s new card is much better than James, who received a whopping downgrade in the speed department. However, Reus (rightly so) has vastly superior stats to the new Brazillian signing, possessing higher pace, shot, and physical stats.

---

Thomas Muller — 86 rated (Fergus Tong)

Rated as the 68th best in ‘20, Muller has an overall rating of 86 — which is the same rating he’s had in four of the last five FIFA games. Mr. Reliable both on the pitch and in FIFA it seems. His pace and passing have taken small downgrades, while his defending has gone up. Unfortunately, Muller’s card yet again looks to be worthless in higher level matches, given how poor his stats are compared to his rating.

This will be no surprise to players of FIFA players, as they will all know that mental attributes (the stats Muller thrives on) are reflected not nearly as well as pace and shooting stats, for example. A few years back, officials at EA even said they had to bump Müller’s card rating up, because “he wasn’t good at anything,” which truly highlights how Muller’s skills don’t translate onto the virtual pitch.

---

Joshua Kimmich — 86 rated (Josh Tobolt)

Rated as the top overall right-back and ranked #56 overall in FIFA 20, Kimmich see’s his overall remain the same while a few of his stats are tweaked. Compared to his FIFA 19 card, his pace is -1 to 72 while his passing and dribbling improve +2 to 86 and 84, respectively. However, the most significant improvement is his physicality which jumped +4 from 74 to 78.

In this instance, it is good for FIFA to realize the elite talent that Joshua Kimmich is. Out of the top 100 players in FIFA 20, there are only two right-backs, the other being Carvajal coming in at #89 with an 85 overall rating.

---

Thiago Alcantara — 87 rated (Fergus Tong)

Only the 48th overall rated player in the game, Thiago sees his new rating remain the same, s his winter upgrade card implemented in last January. Shockingly, none of his stats have improved! However, some have even decreased. He’s experienced a -4 downgrade in pace, a -1 downgrade in shooting and a -1 downgrade in defending. The latter is the hardest to understand given how the maestro’s game has considerably gotten more rounded in recent years and the fact that his defensive contributions are actually elite.

I believe that Thiago’s card has been severely underrated and poorly judged. If anything, Thiago had possibly his best season in a Bayern shirt and was potentially the best midfielder in the world, so to see him not getting the respect he deserves is astounding! For perspective, Luca Modric is rated at 90 and Paul Pogba is rated as an 88. Thiago had vastly superior seasons to these players, which makes the final rating all the more puzzling.

---

Manuel Neuer - 88 rated (Josh Tobolt)

The 5th overall goalkeeper and 27th overall player rated in FIFA 20, Manuel Neuer sees a -2 decrease in his overall rating from 90 to 88. Among his most decreased stats, his diving goes from 91 to 87, a decrease of -4, followed by a -3 in positioning from 88 to 85. Truthfully, while Neuer’s Injuries the past 2 years have limited the shot stoppers ability, I feel as if FIFA relied on the media’s view of Neuer over the past season rather than watch him play where they would see a finally back to form Neuer who seems to be returning to his pre Injury form. Truthfully, a rather questionable set of decreases in his rating.

---

Robert Lewandowski - 89 rated (Josh Tobolt)

The 15th ranked player overall and the highest ranked Bayern Munich player in FIFA 20, Robert Lewandowski see’s a decrease in his rating when compared to his FIFA 19 card which garnered a 90 overall. The biggest decrease seen in his rating was shooting which went 89 to 87, a rather significant decrease. His pace also went down from 78 to 77 and his passing from 75 to 74. The remainder of this stats remain the same. The question at hand, though, is why Lewandowski saw his base ratings go down even though he scored a 40 goals across all competitions, down only one goal from the previous season where he tallied 41. Truthfully, if anything, Lewy deserved to maintain his 90 overall rating if not get a slight improvement so to see his overall get -1 and his shooting get -2 is beyond befuddling, yet again.

---

In conclusion, it seems that many of Bayern Munich’s top stars have been unfairly ranked at below their actual abilities. We at BFW speculate that this may be a consequence of Bayern’s recent partnership with Konami. The game producers of the other popular football video game, PES. FIFA’s biggest rivals. Another possibility is that the diminished reputation and poor CL results of the Bundesliga clubs in recent years have played a role in these ratings.