EA Sports has officially confirmed the top ratings for FC 27, and one decision has already sparked debate before the game has even launched.
Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s captain and one of the most decorated defenders of his generation, has been downgraded by two points, dropping from a 90 overall in FC 26 to an 88 overall in FC 27.
The change affects several of his key attributes: his pace fell from 73 to 70, his dribbling dropped from 72 to 70, his defense went from 90 to 89, and his physical rating slipped from 87 to 85.
His passing and shooting stayed the same, at 72 and 60.
It’s described as a rare decline for a player who has spent years as one of the highest-rated defenders in the game, and it puts him in the same 88 overall bracket as players like William Saliba, Declan Rice, Jan Oblak, and Joshua Kimmich.
-2 Downgrade in FC 27
— EAFC 26 News (@FIFA22_INFO) August 17, 2026
Is this deserved or not????? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/I64lPJpo2M
The downgrade didn’t go unnoticed. As soon as the ratings were revealed, fan communities on platforms like FUTWIZ reacted with visible shock, many expressing disbelief that a defender considered a mainstay at 90 overall had dropped two points in a single year.
The reaction quickly turned into a wider debate, with fans arguing over whether his physical and defensive attributes still justified a higher rating, regardless of what the numbers said.
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Looking specifically at his last two Premier League seasons side by side tells a more mixed story.
In 2024-25, the year Liverpool won the title, he made 37 league appearances with 17 tackles, 33 interceptions, 23 defensive blocks, and 171 clearances.
In 2025-26, across 38 league matches, his tackles dropped to 12, his interceptions nearly halved to 16, and defensive blocks slipped slightly to 21, while his clearances more than doubled to 366.
So while his defensive workload clearly didn’t shrink, the shape of it changed: fewer proactive actions like tackles and interceptions, and a much heavier reliance on clearing danger reactively.
That kind of shift, doing less intercepting and tackling while doing far more clearing, lines up closely with the pace and dribbling cuts EA made to his card, and gives some statistical backing to the downgrade, even with his clearance numbers still being extremely high.
In the end, the numbers can be read either way.
His career achievements, trophy history, and continued heavy involvement defensively make a strong case that he’s still elite.
But the decline in tackles and interceptions over the past season, paired with the natural drop in pace and physicality that comes with age, gives EA a reasonable basis for the downgrade too.
A two-point drop for a 35-year-old center-back isn’t unusual by EA’s own historical pattern of adjusting aging defenders, even ones as accomplished as Van Dijk.
