FIFA 23 Takes Crazy Speed ​​From One Player: “Did He Lost A Leg”?

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 accept a severe cut in speed.

Which player is it about? The new values ​​​​of the Belgian national player Axel Witsel are currently being discussed in the FIFA subreddit.

Bundesliga fans in particular will still know him: The 33-year-old played for Borussia Dortmund from 2018 to 2022, but said goodbye to Atlético Madrid in Spain this summer.

In FIFA, Witsel was quite popular – especially through heavy special cards or as the first midfielder in starter teams.

But for the FIFA 23 release, Witsel’s new card shouldn’t necessarily be one of the favorites. Because the midfielder has received a heavy downgrade in terms of speed.

Axel Witsel’s map compared to FIFA 21

This is what Witsel’s card looks like now: Overall, Axel Witsel received weaker values ​​than last year. In the ranking of the “1000 best players” (via EA) in FIFA he fell from 465th to 625th place.

All of the stats on the map have been nerfed a bit, but the Speed ​​stat is what really catches the eye.

Witsel lost a total of 27 points in terms of speed. It drops from 61, which isn’t a particularly high number, to a low 34. He has thus lost almost half of his complete speed.

A move that some FIFA players find too violent.

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What players say: The discussion about Witsel’s card has already started on the FIFA subreddit. Hardly anyone there can understand why Witsel got such an extreme pace downgrade.

It has happened in the past that players over 30 in FIFA got a speed reduction and a lot of speed is more likely to be found in young talents. But a fall of 27 points is a hell of a lot.

• “I mean, he’s never been fast, but this pace is just absurd,” said user Arshavingoat (via reddit).
• “I really don’t understand the logic behind some of these tempo changes. They make the game so unbalanced. Also, it’s not realistic at all. Older players don’t have the stamina to run the whole game, but when they do, they’re not as slow,” according to user Xenboca (via reddit).
• “That’s literally walking speed” (via reddit).
• “Did he lose a leg?” commented another (via reddit).

Some comment that Witsel is indeed not a particularly fast player – but the hard break from the year before comes as a surprise. The only argument that could be made here is that the speed value may have been too high in recent years and has now been corrected.

In fact, Witsel is not the slowest player in the recently published “Top 1000” ratings. Behind him are:

• Jose Fonte of LOSC Lille (31 pace)
• Dante by OGC Nice (32 Tempo)
• AS Monaco’s Guillermo Maripan (32 pace)
• Jorge Molina of Granada FC (33 pace)

With these four, however, the comparison to last year is not so extreme.

In this regard, one could only cite Charles Aranguiz from Bayer Leverkusen – whose pace downgrade of 19 points to 46 is also remarkable.

Overall, there are a few players who have been “slowed down” this year, albeit not quite as extreme. Another example of this is Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – both are quite a bit slower than in FIFA 22.