I've been dealing with the same issue for a while now. To be honest, I didn't experience anything like this when the game first came out, but over time, the AI difficulty has become extremely inconsistent. And it's not just Squad Battles. I've experienced the same thing in Single Player Draft and other offline modes. For example, I couldn't beat a team rated below 70 on World Class difficulty in Draft. In Squad Battles, I can score 9 or 10 goals against a team on World Class, then struggle to even create a single chance against another team with a similar rating and chemistry on the exact same difficulty. Sometimes, the AI's behavior changes completely during the same match.
Professional difficulty can feel ridiculously easy in one match, then suddenly the AI starts pressing like crazy, intercepting every pass and defending perfectly in the next. Even on Semi-Pro, I've seen 65-rated players keeping up with my 90-rated players as if there's no difference in pace. And don't even get me started on corners. Sometimes it genuinely feels like the AI has decided it needs to score. The opposition attacks so aggressively during corners that you can barely touch the ball until they finally score. Even when you manage to clear it, the ball somehow ends up back with them. They win every challenge, every loose ball, and there's almost nothing you can do to escape the pressure. Meanwhile, your own players suddenly feel sluggish, stop making runs, and struggle to complete even simple passes. At times, it honestly feels like the game has already decided what's going to happen.
The problem isn't losing matches or wanting the game to be easy. Not everyone plays competitively. Some of us just want to enjoy the game, practice passing, improve our defending, learn how to attack, and gradually get better by playing on lower difficulty settings. But when the difficulty feels completely different from match to match, or even during the same match, it takes all the enjoyment out of the game. From what I've seen, plenty of other players are experiencing similar issues, yet EA hasn't provided a clear explanation. If this is a bug, it needs to be fixed. If the game is actually designed to work this way, then EA should explain how the AI difficulty system works so we can choose the appropriate level for ourselves. Nobody is asking to win every match easily. We just want a consistent, fair experience at the difficulty level we've selected. With so many players complaining about the same issue, I really think it's time EA took this seriously.
