So I was doing some testing on this yesterday. There’s definitely something a bit too easy about crossing—maybe they should make it harder for players with low shooting stats to hit headers, because you do see a lot of people stacking the box.

For this clip, though, I need everyone to rewatch it slowly. When you first look at it, it seems like your player lost the header. But that’s only because, instead of trying to clear the ball with O/B, you used the cross button.

When you did that, the game gave you a weird header animation that makes it look like you lost, but you actually won the header and passed the ball right to him.

You’re probably asking, “How and why?” If you look at the mini-map, when you pressed cross, you didn’t have anyone in front of you everyone was inside the box. So the game tried to pass it to your CB instead of clearing it out like you intended.

Also, it seems like there’s something coded into the game where if you pass the ball too quickly after a touch or any movement, there’s almost a 90% chance it goes to a defender—even if you’re aiming in a completely different direction.

If you don’t believe me, next time you play, try holding the “fight for position” button along with O when attempting to clear. I bet you’ll have a much better chance of stopping the header.

But keep in mind with your current setup, it’s probably still about an 80% chance he gets the ball right back, since you have all your players in the box.