[Physical: Speed 99, Acceleration 99, Explosiveness 96, Strength 73, Jumping 90, Hang Time 75, Stamina 72, Balance 80, Agility 78, Injury Resistance 99] [Technical: Shooting 88, Dribbling 89, Ball Control 81, Short Passing 82, Long Passing 52, Crossing 67, Long Shot 70, Heading 58, Shot Power 75, Set Pieces 60] [Other: Mentality 80, Football IQ 75, Positioning 75, Vision 65, Anticipation 62, Creativity 72, Aggression 75, Off-the-Ball Movement 63, Tackling 40, Interceptions 25, Sliding Tackle 20, Goalkeeping 10] [Overall Rating: 84]
After looking over his stats, Li Yufei let out a long breath.
His numbers were looking better and better!
Once his Dribbling had reached 89 and he could no longer use Intermediate Soft Rice Points to raise it, Li Yufei had poured all three ability points from his last completed mission into Shooting.
His Shooting had now reached 88, just one point shy of the cap at 89.
As for Explosiveness, it had risen from 95 to 96.
Perhaps because going from 95 to 96 was a threshold, the accompanying increase to his Jumping had been a massive three points, bringing it to the impressive mark of 90.
That meant Li Yufei now had five attributes above 90.
His improvements in Strength, Stamina, Crossing, Long Passing, Heading, Vision, Anticipation, Off-the-Ball Movement, and the like
were all the result of his own development from playing competitive matches over this period.
His overall rating had also risen from 83 to 84.
But Li Yufei knew full well that this 84 was not the same thing as the overall rating given to players in FIFA.
FIFA only calculated a player's rating based on the stats relevant to his position.
For example, Messi and Ronaldo were forwards, so FIFA would only consider their attributes as Forward Players.
That meant stats such as Shooting, Dribbling, Ball Control, and Speed.
Defensive attributes like Tackling and Interceptions weren't included in FIFA's calculations.
That was how Messi's eventual rating of 94 and Ronaldo's rating of 92 were calculated.
Of course, in FIFA 10, Messi's rating was currently only 90, putting him in first place, while Ronaldo was second with 89.
Li Yufei's database hadn't been updated yet, so his rating was still only 75.
But if he converted the system's scoring rules to FIFA's and worked out the result,
then under the system's rules, if he threw out all his defensive attributes and considered him purely as a forward, Li Yufei would probably rate around 87, or at least 86.
In other words, adding two or three points to his overall system rating would give Li Yufei's true rating as a striker.
Whether it was 86 or 87, in this era, that was indisputably the rating of a world-class striker.
There weren't many players with higher ratings than Li Yufei, either.
Messi, Ronaldo, Kaka, Ibrahimović, Rooney, Iniesta, Xavi, Buffon, Casillas, and a few others—at most, there were only around ten of them.
If he counted only Forward Players, Li Yufei could probably break into the top five!
That was how strong Li Yufei was now.
Whenever he thought about how he'd reached the level of a world-class striker in such a short time,
a surge of pride welled up inside him.
He'd underestimated himself. Li Yufei had originally thought it would take at least a whole season before he truly took off.
Now it seemed that half a season might be enough.
Even if he still had obvious weaknesses by then, as long as his strengths were strong enough, he could dominate matches!
After all, being a forward was all about having a few outstanding strengths.
It was defenders who needed to be well-rounded!
As a forward, sometimes all you needed was one signature skill to make a living.
Robben, the Flying Dutchman, was a classic example.
Why had Robben become a Ballon d'Or contender at his peak?
Because he was incredibly fast, and his cut-in-and-shoot routine worked time and time again.
Those two strengths alone had made Robben the world's second-best right winger, behind Messi.
Thinking it over, Li Yufei suddenly realized that he'd been too hard on himself.
With his peerless acceleration and speed, he was already a near-world-class striker.
All he needed was to bring his Shooting, Ball Control, and Dribbling up to an above-average level among Forward Players in the Top Five Leagues, and he'd be a bona fide world-class striker!
Even if a player like that was useless at everything else, with terrible passing and almost no ability to set up teammates,
it still wouldn't stop people from calling him a world-class striker.
After all, maxed-out speed and acceleration, plus decent ball control, dribbling, and shooting, were more than enough to guarantee a player's scoring efficiency!
Once a striker's scoring efficiency was assured, and he could also produce enough goals, he was naturally a world-class player.
That was more or less where Li Yufei stood now.
He hadn't developed many of his attacking weapons yet, but his unbeatable speed and superb finishing had already helped him score seven goals in three league matches!
Sure, aside from Liverpool, the other two opponents had been minnows... no, you could even say that Liverpool were minnows these days.
In other words, the teams Li Yufei had faced in his first three league matches had all been pushovers!
Those seven goals in three matches had come from beating up on weak teams.
But being good at beating weaker teams was a point in a player's favor.
After all, over the course of a season, a strong team faced minnows far more often than not.
If its striker couldn't reliably score against them, wouldn't the team drop a lot of points it should never have lost?
So even scoring against weak teams had a high bar. It wasn't something just any player could do.
By scoring seven goals against weaker teams in three straight matches, Li Yufei had already surpassed 99 percent of the forwards in the world.
The match against Bolton Wanderers went without a hitch.
Perhaps spurred on by Li Yufei's interview, Fabregas was unusually lively that day.
Clearly, he wanted to prove that, at least in the current Arsenal side, he was still the undisputed boss on the pitch!
In the 24th minute.
Fabregas took a corner and assisted Koscielny, who headed the ball into the net from inside the box. Arsenal led 1–0.
In the 38th minute.
Fabregas drove forward and played a perfectly weighted through ball, setting Li Yufei up to run onto it and score. Arsenal led 2–0.
Just before halftime, Varane made a fatal mistake. He failed to clear the ball far enough, and South Korea's Lee Chung-yong took possession before playing a through ball to the Swede Elmander, who scored.
2–1. Bolton Wanderers pulled one back just before the end of the first half.
Seeing Varane's dejected expression, Li Yufei went over and patted him on the head to comfort him.
"It's fine. Defenders need to keep playing to gain experience. One or two mistakes don't mean anything."
"We'll win this match easily. Don't let it get to you."
At Li Yufei's words, Varane nodded, but his expression still made it clear how miserable he felt.
Li Yufei knew he'd have to get over it on his own, so he said no more.
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