Please Don't Kill AI Defending in Clubs

As a Clubs player who mainly plays as a defender, I have serious concerns about these defensive changes.

My club doesn't have many human defenders, so we rely on AI defenders to help organize the back line. After reading the Defending section of the Gameplay Deep Dive, I honestly feel these changes could be a disaster for Clubs teams that don't have a full defensive lineup.

I think defending in Clubs was much better before the new Formation system was introduced. Since then, AI defending has become worse with every new title.

In EA FC 26, AI defenders already refuse to chase attackers outside of their assigned defensive zone, even when an attacker runs right past them at close range. They simply watch the attacker go by without applying any pressure.

AI defenders also rarely attempt tackles, even when an attacker takes a heavy touch and the ball is clearly there to be won. Yet now you're saying AI defending will be reduced even further. Why?

I've tried using Teammate Contain, but AI teammates already stay too far away from the ball carrier to apply any meaningful pressure. Now the Deep Dive says they will mark attackers from an even greater distance. Are you really going to make them stand even farther away?

The biggest problem of all is the AI defensive line.

AI defenders often break the defensive line by standing at different depths instead of staying in a straight, organized line. This leaves attackers comfortably onside with huge amounts of space, making it far too easy to create scoring chances. This has been one of the biggest issues in Clubs for several years, yet it still hasn't been properly addressed.

Please improve the AI's defensive awareness, positioning, and decision-making before reducing their defensive abilities. Right now, the problem isn't that AI defenders are too strong. The problem is that they don't defend intelligently.

Also, please understand that most Clubs players don't want to play using the Any role. We choose Clubs because each player wants to control only their own Virtual Pro, while AI fills the remaining positions. Weakening AI defenders even more doesn't make defending more skill-based—it simply makes the experience more frustrating for teams that don't have a full squad of human defenders.