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Stoke City FIFA 21 Preview: Defenders

By Matt Bernstein

STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND - JULY 27: Ryan Shawcross of Stoke gestures during the Pre-Season Friendly match between Stoke City and Leicester City at the Bet365 Stadium on July 27, 2019 in Stoke on Trent, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND - JULY 27: Ryan Shawcross of Stoke gestures during the Pre-Season Friendly match between Stoke City and Leicester City at the Bet365 Stadium on July 27, 2019 in Stoke on Trent, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) /
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Stoke City FIFA 21 Preview: Defenders

This will be the first in a series of posts on FIFA 21. In this post we’ll look at all of Stoke’s defenders, how they were rated in FIFA 20, and what predictions for FIFA 21. EA already leaked their top 1000 players in the upcoming edition, and to no surprise, Stoke did not make an appearance. In fact, only 8 players in the Championship were in FIFA’s top 1000 and 6/8 are on Watford.

The data listed below is in overall/potential format. As in, Liam Lindsay is a 69 overall and has potential to be a 76 overall.

PlayerFIFA20FIFA 21 Prediction
James Chester74/7472/72
Morgan Fox68/7069/72
Ryan Shawcross72/7270/70
Tommy Smith71/7173/73
Danny Batth70/7170/70
Bruno Martins Indi70/7171/72
Tom Edwards67/7968/75
Josh Tymon67/7869/79
Nathan Collins63/8368/81
Harry Souttar65/7869/80
Liam Lindsay69/7669/73
Kevin Wimmer72/7272/72
Moritz Bauer72/7272/72

Biggest drops – We should expect to see some downgrades for Ryan Shawcross and James Chester. Shawcross has dealt with injuries and has not show top form in a while and is 32, all point to a FIFA downgrade. In FIFA 20 James Chester was our best defender. In this prediction, Tommy Smith takes the lead in overall for our defenders with Chester taking a slide down to 72 overall. Also, if we are going to be realistic, we should expect to see a drop in potential from Tom Edwards and Liam Lindsay – both players did little last season to keep their high potential ratings.

Biggest gains – Souttar and Collins. We can only hope that both these young defenders get a nice overall bump to go along with their positive form. The gap between these two and the more veteran group of defenders has gotten noticeably closer so the improvement should be reflected. Josh Tymon should hope to keep his high potential and also gain a few overall points. Even though he’s primarily been used in midfield under Michael O’Neill, he’s listed as a left back in FIFA so he’s included in the defenders group. Here’s also hoping Tymon gets LB/LWB/LM added to his positions.

Overall FIFA Outlook – In game, Stoke have a pretty solid Championship-level defense. The only real knock on them is that they don’t have a clear star at the back. In fact, for my predictions, every defender on the squad is rated 68-73. The positives for Stoke going forward is that they have a great group of young defenders with high potential which makes them a fun squad for career modes.