Midfielders don't defend

It’s weird bc sometimes when I’m playing an opponent HIS midfield will defend. It’s weird but mine will stand there and watch someone go right past his feet.

I've been exploring this double teammate press and I think I understand now how the devs want the user to play defence.

Basically it is a key feature and not an optional way of defending as one could may think initially.

If you hold R1 once a teammate will track the player who has the ball. If you press it twice 2 teammates will track the players who DON'T have the ball, effectively cutting the most dangerous passing lines for the AI. However you have to time it well since doing it too soon or too often will drain your players stamina.

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I think this should have been more emphasized in the tutorials, as it is the only way that the midfielders can perform in defence.

Still, I think a little bit more of  AI defence awareness is necessary. I applaud the intention of the devs to make the defence an exercise of focus for the player.

But midfielders just standing there if you fail to manage them is just too false and frustrating. Just a little bit of harassment from behind if the line has been broken would be enough.

Of course, I totally agree with that. But I guess that at this point it becomes a matter of taste, not that the system itself is completely broken as I thought initially.

Let's hope that maybe AI gets tweaked a little so that the player still need to add some input but the midfielders don't remain that stupidillly idle if nothing is done.

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There are many more AI gameplay issues like the team not moving forward at kick-off when it is needed (not even with ultra-attacking setting) or the AI goalkeeper distribution (this is indeed laughable in 2024)... But I'll let all that for another thread.

I’m wondering if guys aren’t running constant pressure the way their AI is defending me, but I don’t end up seeing the stamina drain effect. It’s not the 71 depth thing bc I’ve ran that and I don’t get the same kind of response I’m running into. 6 weeks in and the game is still god awful and built to favor undisciplined, yet twitchy players. I’ve got to cope with my favorite game now being unfun, unbalanced, and miserable. I’m finally at a point where I know I won’t buy this next year unless they really overhaul the game on the field. I’ll bear with FIFA’s first game good or bad before I do this right here again. I’m just stunned at how the gameplay on the field has gotten WORSE when you’re dropping the same game every year. I can only imagine how bad it’ll be next year.

Why is there always one guy who wants to sugar coat salt even when their face is cringing? Does the game look nice?  Of course.  Does the game play nice? Absolutely not.  It does what it wants when it wants to make the game APPEAR realistic but literally does the opposite in its attempt to seem realistic. The culture of the game has been programmed to be toxic from not giving cards to players obviously flailing into others trying to hurt them, to kicking the ball in the goal after you already scored.  It's despicable behavior.  I could live with the option but it is literally programmed in to the game.  How many crossbars and posts do you hit on average per game? I bet it is a number not even comparable to a reality.

I just mean that the system is not fully broken if you play defence the way I explained (Double R1 must be used). The rest is for another topic.

My face is not cringing, and actually I'm enjoying more the game once I've learnt this mechanic (I'm talking playing against AI, and I use manual controlls in world class difficulty).

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That said, I don't buy FIFA since Fifa 13. I have played the rest sporadically with friends and this EAFC24 I got it as a gift. For me eFootball now has much better gameplay it you ask me 😄... If only they had all the game modes EAFC24 has...