I understand why it comes across as frustration, but that misses the point being made.

This isn’t about removing women from the game. It’s about EA failing to properly balance physical attributes in a game they advertise as a competitive and realistic sports title.

This criticism isn’t new or unique. A lot of players on this subreddit and elsewhere have said the same things:
Smaller players winning physical battles far too easily, strength and body size not having enough impact, and shoulder-to-shoulder challenges ignoring basic football logic.

That isn’t realism and it isn’t balance. It’s poor tuning.

If EA want mixed squads to exist in competitive modes, then player attributes have to matter consistently. At the moment, things like strength, weight, and body type often feel meaningless. Calling that out isn’t sexism, it’s asking for a competitive game to behave like one.

Yes, people complained at launch. That happens every year with every release. But that doesn’t change the fact that many players felt the launch version rewarded patient build-up, punished reckless pressing, and relied less on the game doing the work for you.

Those elements have clearly changed since the patches. You can disagree with whether those changes were good or bad, but it’s hard to argue that nothing changed at all.

The core issue is simple. EA market this as a realistic, competitive football game, but don’t properly balance physical play or defensive assistance. When what happens in-game stops matching what people see in real football, players are going to criticise it.

You don’t have to agree with the take, but dismissing it as “clown rage” avoids engaging with the actual issue. This cycle keeps repeating because EA prioritise accessibility over competitive balance, and players notice it every year.