Midfielders and wingers not tracking back

[k1ngofny]

I don't play competitively online so my perspective on this is going to completely differ, but this is a big problem this year. Once you get past certain points defending in your own third, the wingers first and then the midfielders will simply stop tracking back and just stand there and watch. It's like they've been told to stay forward and be ready to counter. On a different note, this does make counter attacking extremely powerful and easy. This is simply not realistic to just have your defensive line being the only ones defending when you've got opposition midfielders and/or fullbacks making untracked runs into your box and overloading your defensive line. It doesn't even matter if you put your wingers on come back on defense.

I'm not asking the AI to do all defending for me, I always switch to make manual tackles, but for the team simply to just leave huge gaps in between the defensive and midfield lines once the opponent has progressed the ball high enough on the pitch is silly. I wish there was a slider called "vertical compactness" that lets you set how big the gaps are between your 3 defensive lines because right now its just too easy to score. That's also how real life professional teams defend.

I understand that online head to head nobody likes to play against park the bus teams that defend extremely deep, but the penalty for that should be that their counter-attacking ability should be severely limited and that they are vulnerable to being immediately counter-pressed after winning the ball.

[Qb]

Yeah, you sum up one of our biggest gameplay gripes quite well.

[Honome]

Unfortunately Fifa is not a football game anymore, it's more like a casino or a gambling game where all that matter for EA is the Ultimate Team mode, they don't give a **** about having a realistic gameplay anymore as long as the FUT players are happy and buying their gambling packs.

For me the last playable Fifa was the 18 version, after that all the versions have a horrible gameplay on defense and it makes the game completely unplayable.

[Dazza1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Honome

Unfortunately Fifa is not a football game anymore, it's more like a casino or a gambling game where all that matter for EA is the Ultimate Team mode, they don't give a **** about having a realistic gameplay anymore as long as the FUT players are happy and buying their gambling packs. For me the last playable Fifa was the 18 version, after that all the versions have a horrible gameplay on defense and it makes the game completely unplayable.

This I way I have up on this years Fifa, in fact I think I might be done with Fifa in general moving forward. It just doesn’t seem like I am the target audience anymore. I’m not and UT player, I like to play Career as manager but the game play has definitely been aimed toward UT players which just leaves me feeling miserable with the game. I’ve bought every Fifa since the very first one. So it’s sad that I’m feeling this way. But that’s just the way it is.


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[ImmortalMindz]

It sucks. I think most agree, including even online players. Yet, it's not as if this change has ruined the game or resulted in super high score lines. My current CM is actually pretty low scoring.

The main thing to learn and get used to is that wingers and midfielders WILL track back... just only so far and it's often delayed. There are certain formations that are better for getting your teammates to get back and defend deep, and certain tactics and instructions that work better. Use teammate press to close down winger and manually bring back your own winger/midfielder, and usually you're fine.

My #1 tip is to use 3atb formations this year. Wingers/wingbacks on come back instructions will play as fullbacks in defense, so you can be quite solid as long as you learn to deal with counter attacks. Plus they're some of the most fun formations to use. Aaaand you'll stop yelling at your wingers to get back lol.