AI Defending in FC25

Your post was an interesting read, mainly because I only conduct offline Manager Career mode matches, and have been experiencing the exact opposite of what you described. User AI controlled defenders, even those rated at 85 or above, are often oblivious to the action occurring in front of them, react to CPU attacker runs long after they are wide open for one on one opportunities, or track back at half of their sprinting speed. The only way to play defense in offline modes is to constantly switch to the nearest defender, and even doing so, generally results in a 'lost step' or poor starting angle after the change; an even worse circumstance leaving two on one attack vectors. Simultaneously, as you were writing this post, I was submitting another entry, in which I was describing the broken contain and teammate contain actions by user AI controlled players, even in the defensive third of the CPU. Wishfully in the future, a semblance of continuity between both offline and online gameplay can occur, especially for AI controlled user defenders, and defensive central mid-fielders. Appreciate the insight into your gameplay experiences.

Hopefully at some point the user AI controlled player gameplay issues will be addressed, both on defense and offense. During the EA FC 24 game cycle more than fifteen Title Updates were required (last three updates did not focus on gameplay) to mitigate and compile many of issues, and still, resulted in lower than expected outcomes. In Title Update 3 last week, new defensive tactics were introduced to make the game even easier to score for users, however, need further testing to determine any new CPU attacking sequences, or user AI defensive adjustments. For now, on Ultimate difficulty, using Operation Sports Version 3 slider adjustments to combat unacceptable user AI controlled gameplay issues. Extensive testing was conducting, since last week, regarding the Marking slider. If configured above between 52 and 55, players for both the user and CPU began failing to contain most attacks. This is in contrast to the slider marking values above 70, used by a number of players, since game release. Will probably be months (February or March), before updates 'hone in' gameplay discrepencies, and abysmal user AI controlled player behavior.

Last fifa i bought and enjoyed was fifa10 even that wasn't exactly great, after that i played fifa 11 and didnt like it so promised myself not to buy anymore fifa games so i borrowed the previous releases from my friends after each new release since i only cared about career mode and manager mode. stopped playing FUT after its intro in fifa 10.

when they changed to EAFC 24 i thought they might make the game better since a new branding they would take the opportunity to sort out the problems that everyone brought up from previous title, so i thought i'd buy it since its been 10years since i bought a fifa game, but that was my mistake in thinking a greedy company such as EA cared about the consumer lol 

the amount of changes made in each new release is literally worth a £10 update and not a £60/£70 new game 

i pay karma gets this company one day.

I had reported a similar problem via a different thread. https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Imbalanced-and-mediocre-defence-in-FUT/m-p/14294944/highlight/false#M18150

Didn’t know you already reported it.

The AI defending really gets in the way of real players. I don’t think EA factored in the fact the using the AI defence in multiplayer mode makes the games simply unplayable. Too many seal outs at a time and the AI defence is simply too perfect. Players are actually not defending anymore. Leaving defence to AI kinda feels like EA underestimated Defense as part of football. Defence is art, and the least EA should do is honour it.

I agree with your solution: dumb down the AI defence by about 70%. 
Also limit the reduced version of the AI defence to only certain high OVR player and in certain contexts. AI should be an assistant, not get in the way of the players. 

I must admit, this terrible AI defence kinda made me actually check out other soccer games, for the 1st time in years. I bet others are too.

Talking about defense... This afternoon i was playing  a cup game in seasons when at some point i found myself with 1 defender against 3 attackers of the opposing team. All other defenders and midfielders were camping around the middle line of the field. 

In an attempt to get some more players in defense,  i moved my defender in the direction of the opponent  and  seleted another player to run towards my goal. Instead of guarding the attacker, the defender i just let go also started running towards rhe middle of the field, leaving my goal keeper against 3 attackers! What kind of stupid AI is this?!

Your post perfectly describes my FC25 player career experience. Instead of feeling like the star player that leads the team, I’m the star player that carries the team. I’m in my third season with a third club now and every club I have played with, I have had to run back every match to help on defense because my team is incompetent at defending, as the attacking A.I. players is right in front of them, they just let them slide through, there is no defense. 85 overall players and above even let defenders move around and shoot freely. Luckily the goalkeepers aren’t terrible but I have to run back to get the ball myself and help out most of the time, the issue with that is I am the striker on our team. Moving past the terrible defending user A.I. there’s the attack A.I. as well. Throughout the clubs I’ve played with, I have played with different formations on each team. No matter what team I’ve played with if our players are playing against a decent team and the ball is with us on our side of the field, the first line of defenders will just pass it between themselves and never move the ball up. If they do they pass it to the midfield and midfield passes it right back. The only way we can get the ball moving from our line is through me, I have to call for a lob then that will sometimes get the offense moving or on the other hand most of the time I have to be in the midfield or stealing the ball imitating what my defenders should be doing. This is honestly my biggest issue, the so called “A.I.” which is just too smart of a word to call this trashpile EA produced.