Here’s what I observed after playing a day:
Passing & Through Balls — Still as bad as before. There’s practically no difference between the pass and through buttons; pressing one can randomly trigger the other (e.g., pressing pass sometimes results in a through ball). Passes still don’t follow my input direction but instead go to whoever the AI thinks is the “most logical” option. Through balls are just as trash — sometimes teammates won’t even move to receive them, just stand there doing nothing. When a defender is pressuring, passes are always delayed: I press the button but the player won’t act, and the ball gets stolen as if the system had already decided I’d lose possession. Another terrible thing is during aerial duels — if I press pass, it doesn’t even attempt a header; it just switches players and gifts the ball to the opponent. Tapping on the pitch to pass (point-and-pass) is still broken. For example, when I want to send a long ball into open space for a counter, the ball always flies near the goal line instead of where I tapped.
Kickoff Rush Balancing — Yes, it’s nerfed, but this just makes the game worse. Now players stand still at kickoff, making quick attacks impossible. It looks stupid.
Crossing & Headers — High crosses are ridiculous. If I press through, it just passes straight to the goalkeeper.
Shooting & Finishing — Same old problems: random delays. Sometimes the player just freezes for 1–2 seconds before shooting, or they make unnecessary movements (like taking extra steps) before finally shooting.
Defending — Slightly more “normal,” but the major issues remain, and they’re serious. AI teammates still just stand around watching, even when they’re right next to the ball. Often they fail to clear properly: sometimes after I win the ball, it bounces straight back to the opponent over and over within the same play, almost like the game forces me to concede that possession. Other times my player wins the ball but can’t actually pass/clear it — they’ll miss the ball entirely or kick it straight at the opponent. And when the ball hits the opponent, it doesn’t bounce away; instead, they immediately control it.
Fouls & Referees — I haven’t seen too many fouls, but it feels slightly more fair than before. Still, some obvious fouls aren’t called. Please also add handballs to referee decisions. I haven’t seen any this season yet, but in the past there were tons that went uncalled just because the setting didn’t exist. That makes the game very unfair.
Goalkeepers — So far, I haven’t seen the same positioning issues or random rushing out of the goal, and shots they can’t save still go in. One small improvement is that they now actually pick up slow-rolling, uncontrolled balls inside the box.
Skill Moves — Still garbage. Same delay problem as passing. It’s like the system knows I’m about to lose the ball — my player just refuses to perform the move and lets the opponent take it.
Ball Physics — Sometimes the ball moves very unnaturally, and player control over it feels weaker than ever. During passes or dribbles, the ball will randomly roll too far away. Like many have mentioned, the first touch is way too heavy — sometimes the ball even bounces off like they don’t know how to play football. And sometimes the animation doesn’t match the result at all: for example, the player looks like they lightly tapped the ball, but somehow it rockets forward unnaturally fast and far.
Right-side Buttons — This is such a weird design. The buttons on the right are actually bigger than they look. When I try to pass to a spot near the edge of my screen, if I tap the space between the button and the edge of the phone, instead of registering as a pitch tap, it registers as me pressing the button. What kind of design is this?
Connection Issues — After the update, the connection has been terrible. It used to be stable green, but now I constantly get orange (100+ ms).
After all this, I honestly feel like I’m wasting my time writing this. You guys at EA never really read or take feedback anyway (if you did, the game wouldn’t still be in the same broken state as before). At the end of the day, this update feels like nothing but a name change — no real improvement, just heavier downloads that make the game lag more. Overall, it’s the same trash gameplay with even more pay-to-win elements (the new badges clearly show you just want us to spend more money on useless players to “upgrade” our squads). And that whole “the club is yours” slogan is just marketing fluff — as if DIY players can fix everything — when in reality, nobody’s listening to what we’re actually saying.
Community Manager
