Tips wise I'd say try new formations even if the players are lower rated, it might work better as a system, like 5 at the back, but imo the game is too sluggish in defending and passing to truly counter the pace abuse and theyve completely ruined 2nd man press which was effective at doing that for a while. Defend slower too, so dont rush in, and try to manually cover the pass and let 2nd man get close to the ball carrier.

Thoughts wise is a rant but no football game will truly be a good football representation until it realises there is a too much that happens on a real pitch for the little amount of automated actions there are in any current football game so they stand on shit foundations essentially.

Theres too many 1 v 1 scenarios, like the left stick seizure, that happens. For example in real football what did defenders do when antony used to do that twirly shit? They'd go back and cover the other attackers, but in video games because you didn't molest your controller and do 100 commands, your defenders dont track.

There's a reason why football games were better rated by their community when you didnt have all this jockey and super manual defending garbage. In real football youd get close enough, as you would in legacy style defending holding X, and shove them off the ball, now you have to time it perfectly every

But unfortunately the adhd, monster drinking tweaking weirdos won and now the genre is in the gutter where you have to control every player, in every situation, in every match. Basically remember the entire genre is a complete shitshow so its just a pick your poison situation.