FIFA 23 Lengthy players, including the best Lengthy players and how to get Lengthy AcceleRATE style

How does AcceleRATE work in FIFA 23?

AcceleRATE is on new movement system introduced in FIFA 23 on next-gen platforms. This last part is very important. If you are playing FIFA 23 on PS4 or Xbox One, you don’t have to worry about AcceleRATE at all as your players will not be affected.

However, for gamers on PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X|S consoles, AcceleRATE affects how your players accelerate. There are three types of acceleration:

• Controlled – Think of this as a standard where players accelerate smoothly and in a controlled manner.
• Explosive – These are smaller, more agile players that cover short distances faster, but slow down after an initial burst of acceleration. Think of someone like Luis Diaz, who can use his explosive acceleration to smash past a defender.
• tedious – Bigger and stronger players are slower at close range but can catch up at long range. Think of someone like Virgil van Dijk, who might seem slow at first but can rein in fast attackers over longer distances.

Annoyingly, EA doesn’t list the AcceleRATE type for every player on their card, but you can see it on the pause screen during matches and find it on all the usual FUT card database sites like Futbin and Futwiz.

You can do the math yourself, too, since AcceleRATE is automatically assigned based on a combination of size, agility, and strength.

Explosive players must have:

• Agility >= 65
• [Agility minus Strength] >= 15
• Acceleration >= 74
• Height <= 180cm (~5'11”)

Long players must have:

• Strength >= 65
• [Strength minus Agility] >= 14
• Acceleration >= 55
• Height >= 174cm (~5’9″)

There are a few more things worth noting about AcceleRATE styles:

• Overall acceleration and speed are still important – It should go without saying, but people seem a little confused about it. If your player has high Accelerate and Sprint Speed ​​attributes and the player they are trying to overtake has low attributes, it doesn’t matter what AcceleRATE style the slower player has as the faster player wins the race.
• Players can change the AcceleRATE style – Applying certain chemistry styles to a player will change their stat distribution in a way that affects the calculation above. For example, this can be used to change a controlled player to a long one, which is proving popular in the FUT community.
• Promo cards can have different AcceleRATE styles – Promo cards that alter player stats in one area more than others – rule breakers, for example, or Featured Team of the Week cards – can also affect the calculation, causing a player to flip from one AcceleRATE style to another could.

Is long OP in FIFA 23?

So why is everyone obsessed with Longy? The answer is probably a bit more nuanced than people are realizing, so let’s try to unpack it before we start talking about DA BEST LONG BOIS and all that good stuff.

First things first, if you have two players with the exact same pace stats – acceleration and sprint speed – and they race side by side, they’ll reach their top speeds at the same time. AcceleRATE doesn’t just make players faster overall. What it does is the acceleration curve during the time they are accelerating. So while these two players are accelerating at an identical pace, which can be over 20 to 30 yards or so, an explosive player would run in front of the longy player, but the longy player would catch up near the end of the acceleration curve as the explosive player drifted. They would then continue at the same sprint speed. Obviously all things are equal.

The reason people value Longy over the other types is because faster movement in that second acceleration phase seems more useful in many FIFA 23 situations. Here are a few quick examples:

• Central defenders chase attackers – When responding to a through ball, the centre-back seems to benefit more from long acceleration as the pursuit lasts quite a while and allows him to peak at the right moment in his acceleration curve.
• Attackers run away from defenders – A forward or winger running towards the end of a through ball can benefit from the long acceleration as they peak their acceleration curve at just the point where defenders are hoping to catch theirs and close the gap between them.

In other words, Longy suits players who react to another player walking past them – it feels like it gives them an advantage at just the right moment. And it suits players trying to stay ahead of a pursuer because it gives them extra momentum that they can use to increase their lead.

The obvious question whenever something is considered OP in FIFA is whether EA Sports could change it. In this case it seems unlikely. The design intent behind this was to differentiate players based on their real world acceleration profiles, and based on that the system works as intended. It also doesn’t feel as OP as, say, Finesse shots did in the early days of the last game. It can make a difference, but it’s situational and to some extent overrated without proper understanding. As the game cycle progresses and the base speed stats of the new cards increase, this should also become less of an issue, at least in theory!

FIFA 23 best long defenders

It certainly doesn’t hurt to have longy on key players, so let’s take a look at the top players by position. When a player requires a Chemistry Style to reach Longy, we’ve noted that by listing it in the table below. Here’s a rundown of the top long defenders that will be Rare Gold players unless otherwise noted.

Throw some of those LONG BOIS into your defenses and you should be able to catch most meta attackers if they sneak a few yards from you. Unless they are elongated men too.

FIFA 23 Best Long Midfielders

There are also a number of longy types in midfield here that could be the lynchpin of your offensive or defensive mid-of-the-park designs. (Can something be the linchpin of a design? Answering that is beyond the scope of this guide.) (Not really.)

Keep in mind that longy isn’t the best acceleration style for every midfielder. Think about their role within the team before committing, or give it a try and see how it suits your playstyle. If your player spends more time going forward and controlling the game than chasing runners, it may make more sense to give him a chemistry style that boosts other stats — like shooting, passing, and dribbling — rather than focusing on his focus on acceleration.

FIFA 23 best long attackers

Longtime players up front had some good early cycle PR thanks to the Alexander Sorloth Team of the Week card that many people packed or got in their Weekend League red rewards. Sorloth’s combination of strength, height, very high sprint speed, and sustained acceleration means he’s one step ahead of defense, stays in front, and blocks attackers before unleashing very accurate shots. Using Architect to longy players like Ronaldo and Benzema also got them into the meta.

So there we have it! Whether longy dominance will continue is unclear, but now get the long bois!

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