Authentic Gameplay Feedback – I want smarter football, not harder football

Hi EA SPORTS FC team,

I wanted to share some feedback as an offline player who really enjoys playing FC as a football simulation.

I’m not looking for a game that is easier or harder. I don’t want the CPU to become more aggressive, faster or stronger just to make the game more challenging.

I simply want the football on the pitch to feel more believable.

I’ve been playing FC for a long time and there are a few things that keep coming up for me.

1. TEAM SHAPE AND POSITIONING

This is probably my biggest issue at the moment.

I want teams to feel compact, but also properly staggered.

In real football, the defensive midfielders aren’t constantly standing almost level with the attacking midfielders, while the wingers are already as high as the striker.

Ideally, you would see something like:

Defence → midfield/DMs → attacking midfielders/wingers → striker

with small but noticeable distances between the lines.

The defensive line doesn’t have to drop deeper just to make the team compact. I would much rather see the AI understand the space between the lines and position players accordingly.

Compact shouldn’t mean everyone standing on the same vertical line.

This is something that makes a huge difference to me because you notice it throughout the entire match.

1. MORE MOVEMENT AND PASSING OPTIONS IN ATTACK

Another thing I notice a lot is how static the attack can feel.

Sometimes I have the ball and there are simply not enough useful options around me. Teammates either stand still or make a very predictable run straight forward.

I’d love to see more situations where players actually react to what’s happening:

• a winger moving into space instead of running straight ahead
• a midfielder coming towards the ball when needed
• a striker making a delayed run
• overlaps and underlaps
• diagonal and curved runs
• players moving away from areas that are already crowded

I don’t want everyone constantly making runs behind the defence.

I just want teammates to give me more believable options.

The new attacking movement shown for FC 27 looks very promising in this regard, and I really hope it works consistently in actual matches.

1. CPU DEFENDING – SMARTER, NOT STRONGER

This is another big one for me.

Sometimes CPU defending feels a bit “magnetic”. You can have a normal physical challenge and suddenly the ball seems to belong to the CPU, or an AI defender makes an interception that feels almost automatic.

I’d much rather see the CPU defend through good positioning and decision-making.

Give me more genuine 50/50 situations.

Let the CPU sometimes mistime a challenge.

Let loose balls actually be loose.

And please don’t compensate for defensive weaknesses simply by making the CPU more aggressive, faster or stronger.

Smarter AI is much more enjoyable than stronger AI.

1. SECOND BALLS AND AERIAL DUELS

This is connected to the previous point.

Real football has so many unpredictable second-ball situations.

After a header, tackle, blocked shot or goalkeeper save, I want to see the ball genuinely become available to either team.

Sometimes the CPU should win it. Sometimes I should win it. Sometimes nobody should have it immediately.

I don’t want the game to feel like the same team is automatically going to win the second or even third ball.

Those little messy situations are actually part of what makes football feel real.

1. GOALKEEPERS

I’d really like to see more variety from goalkeepers.

Especially in 1v1 situations, I’d like the goalkeeper to make more intelligent decisions about when to come out and how far to come out to reduce the angle.

And when making a save, the outcome shouldn’t always be the same animation.

Sometimes the keeper should:

• hold the ball
• parry it to the side
• push it forward
• make a difficult second save
• get a hand to it but still concede

One thing that really bothers me is when a goalkeeper makes a save and almost throws the ball into his own goal because of the animation.

More variation would make goalkeepers feel much more alive.

1. SHOOTING

I actually like having more control over where I shoot.

If I aim for the far corner, I want the ball to go towards the far corner.

But that doesn’t mean every shot should be perfect.

I’d love to see more natural variation:

• slightly wide
• slightly too high
• post
• crossbar
• good save
• rebound
• perfect finish

The input should control the intention, but not guarantee the outcome.

That’s what I think would make shooting feel much more realistic.

1. PENALTIES

Penalties are another area where I think the game could feel much more natural.

One thing I really miss is being able to simply side-foot a penalty along the ground.

If I use very little power and aim low towards the corner, I would expect the ball to stay very close to the ground.

At the moment, even when I try to do this, the ball seems to get off the ground.

I’d also like to see more realistic variation from goalkeepers.

A slowly hit penalty placed very close to the post shouldn’t automatically become an easy save just because the goalkeeper guessed the correct side.

Sometimes it should be a great save. Sometimes it should go in. Sometimes it should hit the post. Sometimes the keeper should get a hand to it and the ball should rebound back into play.

More variation would make penalties much more exciting.

1. SIDE SELECTION BEFORE THE MATCH

This is a small thing, but honestly one of the things that bothers me more than it probably should.

I’d love to have a proper coin toss / side selection before the match.

In real football, the teams don’t simply have a fixed attacking direction for the first half.

Why not have:

Coin toss → winner chooses the side → kick-off

Or simply give us an option to choose which goal we want to attack first.

I play with clubs where the home atmosphere is a big part of the experience. Being able to choose to attack towards the home supporters in the first half would make a surprisingly big difference.

It’s a tiny feature, but it would add a lot of immersion.

1. MORE AUTHENTIC CUP PRESENTATION IN KICK-OFF

I’d also really like to see more competition-specific presentation in Kick-Off.

For example, why not allow a DFB-Pokal round match in Kick-Off with the proper DFB-Pokal presentation and overlay?

It doesn’t even have to be a full tournament mode.

Something as simple as:

DFB-Pokal → Round Match / Final

would already be great.

The same could eventually be done for the Europa League and Conference League.

For offline players, these little details make a big difference.

1. WHAT I MEAN BY “AUTHENTIC GAMEPLAY”

I think all of these points come down to the same thing.

I don’t want the CPU to be harder just for the sake of being harder.

I don’t want perfect AI.

I don’t want every pass, shot or tackle to work perfectly.

I want believable mistakes, believable decisions and believable situations.

Sometimes I want to score a beautiful goal.

Sometimes I want to hit the post.

Sometimes the goalkeeper should make an incredible save.

Sometimes he should make a mistake.

Sometimes I should lose a 50/50.

Sometimes I should win one I didn’t expect to win.

Sometimes my winger should make the perfect run without me asking him to.

And sometimes he should make the wrong decision.

That’s football.

For me, the best version of FC isn’t the one that feels the most difficult. It’s the one where I occasionally forget that I’m playing a video game.

I really hope FC 27 can move further in that direction.

Thanks for reading and for continuing to improve the game.