Attributes are responsible for determining a player’s quality, and knowing them well can give you the opportunity to choose your team more efficiently. In this new series presented by Silvio Teixeira – also the author of tête-à-tête – you’ll have the opportunity to go deeper on each one of the game’s attributes according to the new FIFA 16 rules. Welcome to “Learning about FIFA 16 attributes”.
FIFA 16 Attributes: Dribbling
The ball control attribute, which we’ve already approached here, is strongly connected to the attribute we’re talking about today: Dribbling. It’s the attribute that determines how well the player can walk or run whilst in control of the ball. Having high dribbling means you’ll be able to keep the ball closer while dribbling/walking/running, making it harder for the opponent to win it off of you. It has no connection with the ball receiving factor whatsoever, that only has to do with ball control, but as soon as you have the ball ahead of you that’s when dribbling counts, allowing you to get past the opponent using dribbles. If you enjoy dribbling, your players must have good numbers on this attribute. However, here’s an important detail: good dribbling doesn’t necessarily mean the player will have many stars of skill moves. You can find players with 4 or even 5 stars of skill that have low dribbling. Botaka has 5 stars of skill moves and only 74 of dribbling. Albacete’s player Cifuentes has 4 stars and miserable 60 of dribbling. Skill moves stars simply qualify the player to perform certain special moves with the ball, whether it’s for dribbling or not, so although these two have similar objectives (dribbles), they aren’t directly connected. It’s also true that when we do choose players with 4 or 5 stars of skill moves, it’s because we actually want to dribble, with or without special moves, so it isn’t enough to choose a player just for his skill moves stars, if you wish to have a skill squad you’ll also have to check dribbling, ball control and balance (which will be discussed in the future).
Starting in FIFA 16 we have a new option for dribbling called the “no touch dribbling”, which allows you to quickly change directions with body dribbles or fake shots. It can be done by any player regardless of attributes, however the execution quality, whether or not the no touch dribbling will be effective depends basically on two factors: the player’s dribbling attribute value and amount of stars of skill moves.
Importance by position
- Great Importance | CM, CAM, LM, LW, RM, RW
Medium Importance | ST
Low Importance | CB, LB, RB, CDM
Although dribbling is of great importance for six positions, there’s no doubt CAM is the one that needs it the most, given that the positions LM/LW/RM/RW have players on the sides of the pitch, where they’ll find less opponents and sometimes an open field ahead for them to run. The CMs, since they’re a little more behind, will find themselves free of marking sometimes to receive the ball and pass, but a CAM’s life is tough. Some people see dribbling as an attribute of great importance for strikers, in this case some variation might happen for people that dribble to the extreme, however there’s a very short number of ST’s with high dribbling in the game, only ten with 85 or more.
Players with high Dribbling
- Gold | Messi 95, Robben 92, Neymar 92
Silver | Luis Muriel 84, Nicolas Lopez 84, Suso 84
Bronze | Allan Saint-Maximin 76, Alfonso Tamay 75, Robbie Brady 75
Due to the similarities and strong connection between dribbling and ball control, here we have the same problem when choosing the players with high stats: the price. They are expensive players, so eventually you’ll need to settle down with some of the great ones, but still not the best, in order to have a team with high dribbling power without having to be an Ultimate Team millionaire.
At this attribute the BPL has 25 considerably top players (85 or more of dribbling), the BBVA comes in second with 19 and then the Bundesliga featuring 17 top players. There are no centre backs or full backs in this group. Just as it happens to be with ball control, the most adequate formation for a squad of high dribbling is one with the biggest number of midfielders possible, which makes it easier for gathering players with good dribbling and once again, due to the fact that it’s not easy to find STs with expressive stats here.
Making good use of Dribbling
– Dribbles are most likely to succeed if performed while not running, control rather than constant sprinting for a good dribbler.
– On the other hand the markers are winning the ball much more easily, so don’t hold yourself back if you see there’s enough space for a nice sprint, it’s always better than direct contact.
– A common action for people when they’re marking is letting the computer do it for them, so be sure to do the no touch dribbling and fake shots because the computer is more easily fooled by this type of dribbling.
– Use as an advantage the fact that in this FIFA the referee will whistle at most kinds of physical contact, you can abuse dribbling near the opponent’s area, even when not going in direction of the goal, the free kicks will often result in yellow cards for your opponent.
– Go for the Dribbling/Ball Control/Balance trio, they auto-complete each other and help you have the best results on dribbling.
Squads with high Dribbling
A squad with the best players of the world on this attribute ends up like this (the defenders are only there to complete the team)
But if you want to surprise your opponent and build team full of non-rare golds, we picked the best ones on this attribute and here’s what it looks like (again, the defenders are figurative)
Draxler, Wilshare, Rafinha, Nolito, Vietto, Orellana
Curiosities
– Centre backs are usually the ones who have the worst dribblings, even the English Michael Dawson (77 Ovr) does, however, Dost, the Dutch striker who plays in the Bundesliga, has only 44 of dribbling. Think again before you choose him.
– The club with the most players with high dribbling is Barcelona, they have 6 players with 85 or more of dribbling.
I hope everything about this attribute has been cleared up, but in case you have any doubts left concerning this or ball control, feel free to comment. But if it’s about other attributes, well, just sit back and relax because their time will come!