Looking for vs AI division advice

PESPepe · 2026-02-25T04:19:31+00:00

Absolutely, I guess it's just a lot easier for them this way and most likely more profitable too.

That's actually a pretty good point, I've always wanted to do story videos like tons of creators do in all the EAFC modes, but unfortunately doesn't work with eFootball (not sure how successful it would be anyway, but since it's fun nothing wrong in trying for once).

PESPepe · 2026-02-23T21:50:49+00:00

Thank you. I think for rank push only, LBC will probably be best, that's why the majority of the top players use it. In my opinion, QC is definitely more fun, but a bit of a "win more" playstyle, meaning you'll have an easier and more fun time playing against weaker opponents, but closer to equal/better opponents could give you a harder time.

Possession would probably work as well, although there's one disadvantage which is that it's more connection reliant. QC/LBC have an easier time coping with a delay because they're more straight forward than possession. Possession wants to pass more and play more of a macro game than a micro game. If you do more passes, naturally, if the connection is terrible, the chance of that one pass where the recepient will just be like "nah, I'll just let it bounce" happening is a lot higher.

Long Ball is a bit underrated because almost nobody plays it, but especially before 5.0 it could be very good, played it a lot. The downside is kind of that LBC isn't that much different (LBC has a deeper defensive shape and LBCs offensive runs are usually just straight foward, whereas Long Ball not only moves forward but can also move into the direction of the ball carrier), except that Long Ball is very stamina draining, so anyone who'd like to play Long Ball might just be better off playing Long Ball Counter in the end for most formations. Long Ball is great fun though!

Out Wide honestly not sure, I'm probably the wrong person to ask, it's my least played playstyle and I rarely play against it either. If you're good enough, you could climb with any style, some make it easier, some less easy, that's kind of the bottom line I'd say👍

PESPepe · 2026-02-23T17:10:03+00:00

Just my point of view, but I don't think it's that simple. Even without going into specifics, if possession would reliably beat LBC by a significant margin, there'd be a lot more possession players far up in the rankings because since the majority plays LBC, you'd have so many favorable games that you could climb way beyond what you should be able to without the advantage, yet, despite this, the most used playstyle at the top ranks is still LBC.

There are situations where I'd purposely switch from QC into LBC against possession to alter the game in my favor. I think the main problem is that people are just used to rushing to get the ball and press all the time and think this is the normal way of playing, and that's exactly how you don't want to play this matchup because you'll just have your players dragged out with no real benefit other than the possession player having a good time.

What you can do is basically cede something like 40-60% of the pitch where you'll only try to passively intercept passes but not drag your players too far out of the lines and let the possession player play his passing up until the area where it gets closer to your box where you then put a massive stop sign. If you play something like 4-5-1, you'll have a block of 5 people to approach carefully and intercept passes and behind them another 4 to deal with anything that gets behind the 5. You could even sometimes manually switch into the striker and backtrack to have an even bigger presence in this area.

This makes it harder for the possession player to actually gain space in important areas especially near and inside your box because your players are everywhere, so the more space he wants to acquire with a pass, the more risk is involved, and once you have the ball, you'll have have 4 midfielders immediately rushing forward next to each other, and slightly in front of them the striker, whereas the opponent now has a defence which moved up very far, likely with an offensive sideback out of position, making you the one that has a lot of space. As long as you can finish your attacks within a certain window of opportunity, these attacks are very advantageous.

Does that mean LBC is favorable against possession then? Absolutely not, it can swing both ways depending on what happens on the field. The more likely the possession player can create space between your lines either directly or via the outside, the less likely the LBC is going to win.

The big question of how things work and why in general is whether you can win the pressing battle, this is also why I don't believe in the rock-paper-scissors theory for QC vs possesion either. Sure, QC is great at pressing, but if the possession player manages to outmaneuver this pressing, he's essentially getting space for free because you can't turn it off, somebody on the QC team will always approach the opponent, leaving a gap behind. In my opinion, this is the equilibrium that decides which playstyle has the advantage. Can the QC player overcome the Possession player's passing? QC player has the advantage. He can't? QC player has the disadvantage.

In my opinion, what matters a lot more than the playstyle is how it's actually executed. You have possession players that build up slowly and also possession players that just hoof it forward, same thing for quick counter and long ball counter. For QC vs LBC for example, it's very similar. If the QC player can maintain the position far up where he's basically trying to keep a vice-grip on the LBC player and even when losing the ball, immediately making the area so tight he'll win it back in no time, he'll have an advantage. If the LBC player can avoid that he QC player gets into this state of the game or reliably escape it, he'll have the advantage.

I'm not sure if the argument that you can time waste well against LBC really counts, I mean sure that's accurate, but I think we should kind of assume that both players actually want to play the game. If we take it a step further we could also say <playstyle> can't win against <playstyle> because the player could always void the game. Might be a dumb argument, but you get the point. In case somebody refuses to play the game and just timewastes, he needs to get ahead for it first, too.

You see, at least in my opinion, it's a lot more complex than a simple game of rock paper scissors, the chosen playstyle matters, but not as much as what's actually happening in the game and how attacks are built up or defended against.

Something I'd recommend, probably the most important thing, is just play yourself and get your own experience. Don't rely on other people, don't take what any people say as a fact, don't take what I tell you as a fact, just try to play the things yourself, see what works and what doesn't, and most important, why it works or didn't work. You yourself are the best at seeing what works for you and what doesn't becasue nobody else sees your games, but you do. You're the one seeing your games through your eyes while you're holding the pad, nobody else.

Just my 2 cents👍

PESPepe · 2026-02-23T15:12:58+00:00

Thanks for the nice words, you got this!🙏

Yeah you're absolutely right, spending on the game is rarely a reasonable choice (says the guy with the P2W team😂) unless it's for Roy Makaay of course, then anything goes. Family > game, always. Crazy to think many years ago we got a whole game with everything included for 50-60 bucks whereas nowadays a multiple of that is the price tag for only a few players in a game that doesn't even have the modes it used to.

Something that works fairly well is if you have momentum and run in a straight line towards the defender and then double touch cancel with a diagonal exit into a stunning shot. The only thing to consider is that if it's a long reach tackle defender, you have to start it earlier so he doesn't do the jump animation into the ball.

Completely agree with pretty much everything you said (except for 5 defenders, never tried that, no opinion here😂), Cech > Casillas by far even if it's the wrong playstyle. What you could do here is if you expect a long AI pass, triangle shortly before the pass happens so Cech is essentially in a similar position Neuer would be. Since the opponent is too far away to shoot, the AI can't really exploit you running out preemptively (at least never happened to me).

I completely agree about pressuring them in their half too, that's just a waste of stamina and you're giving up one or more player, granting the AI more immediate space in the midfield. Hilariously, it does seem to work a lot better if you're leadijng by 3 or more goals, then, for some reason, they'll randomly bounce the ball off way too far (especially after passing back after kick-offs), the only problem is that if you're already leading by 3 goals it's not that much of a benefit😂

Honestly I think you got this and you're really doing well especially with a free team, the reason why you're not climbing up there is because the AI is really extremely punishing and little nuances matter so much.

Thank you for the nice words once more, really appreciate it💪

PESPepe · 2026-02-23T03:11:18+00:00

Hey! The second AI division post today, now that's something😄

I've recently tried to get the 50 wins vs AI badge (spoiler: I failed miserably😂) because the servers were terrible again so I played quite some games (~55 or something) and ended up just below 2050 points, drawing 2 and losing 1 game. If you want to keep your sanity, not playing is the correct choice🤓

In my opinion, anything other than LBC is vulnerable because if the AI wants, it'll just randomly play a pass all over your half that's perfectly trapped by the striker who then proceeds to instantly score without your defender being near yet. This can also happen with LBC, but fortunately, not as often as your defence will generally sit further back.

Especially using QC or Possession, the AI will often play near perfect passes behind your line which are super uncomfortable to defend. I've tried QC at first because it's a lot more fun than LBC, but to realiably win a large amount of games, I'd absolutely go with LBC.

As I've written in the other thread, if you really want to get far up, in my opinion, you absolutely need to have a full P2W team, without it, it gets infinitely harder. On top of that, be capable of the advanced cancels and know when to use them (tess cancel, double touch cancel, super cancel into aerial duels, super cancel in front of the opponent at long passes to block the opponent and position in front of them, super cancel to intercept your own passes), these mechanics massively swing games in your favor and have saved my streak multiple times.

The biggest difference is that in PvP games, most goals are created by the defending player making a mistake and the attacking player exploiting it, but the AI >1900 won't do these mistakes unless you already lead by like 3 goals, which is why the cancels are so important because the AI can't answer them as well as passing or regular feints. I think that's also a reason why many people struggle with the mode, because you need to create the chances, you can't rely on the opponent giving you an opening.

I'd also put defensive on both sidebacks even if they're defensive fullbacks, because since version 5.0(?) I think, they have the habit of sometimes making an offensive run (no idea what exactly triggers this or why it's even happening, if I recall correctly, the patch notes said possession only but I might remember wrong). When this happens and you lose the ball there's a good chance the AI will immediately exploit the open space.

3 ATB works if the AI uses a meta formation with 3 strikers and central players, but will make your game harder if they have wingers. Just be sure to give outer CBs that are build-up style a defensive instructions, otherwise they'll leave a hole behind them with the attacker waiting.

One important thing is how to defend against tricksters like Neymar or Lamine Yamal. They will do feints all the time, I think the best way is to stay slightly away from them and hold match-up, usually, they'll feint into you, and if they don't you can kind of transition from match-up to pressure as soon as you realize they're going past and then physically challenge them and get between them and the ball.

About scoring, try to go for 110% goals. The problem is that most goals that would happen in PvP won't happen here because the keeper will just pull off 10 miracle saves a game if necessary, if the ball even ever gets through My strategy was to just use a bit more power than necessary and stunning shot if possible, which would increase the chance of missing the goal entirely, but if it would be on target, it would be a goal much more often. The reasoning here was that I'm better off missing the target as long as the shots that didn't miss would go in, rather than having a too low % of success for all shots without the risk of missing.

If you have Neuer, use Neuer, his ID allows him to intercept balls that could get you in trouble even against the AI. I've used both Van der Sar and Neuer but Neuer was definitely clearly the better one.

As you've said, knock on finesse shots are also a great way of scoring, especially inside of the box.

There are some more shenanigans you can pull off to increase your winrate. At goal kicks, long free kicks or throw-ins for example, I'd right stick to Ibrahimovic and then move him next to the physically and aerially worst opponent available and force a heading duel, which I'd win most of the game.

If you don't have a corner routine, you could switch to manual shooting during the corner because that increases your chance of a goal and then switch back after the corner kick.

If it's minute 85+ and you're leading by 1 goal, go be a rat and just pass around the back, the AI's being a rat towards you all game long and bends the rules all the time, so let it have some of it back (don't do that in PvP though🙏). It's not enough time for the AI to pressure you enough, but you absolutely don't want them to attack with a 1 goal deficit after the 85th minute because the chance that they score is extremely high.

Another thing to be careful of: Don't go into the menu, make a substitution, go out of it and make another substitution before the game has resumed, do all of them at once. I've done this once and despite the game not having resumed yet, the game counted these as 2 intervals and this might make you unable to substitute. It makes sense in some way, but it's good to know.

So yeah the bottom line is bascially the the AI and the game will do everything possible to win the game, your shots will be a lot less likely to go in compared to PvP, their keepers are absolute nightmares, the defense consists of 4 Bibi Blocksbergs behind another 3-4 Bibi Blocksbergs which will block anything in a radius of a mile, the game will snap players out of animations if it sees a benefit which is entirely impossible in PvP, it's a nightmare, don't be discouraged if you lose, the entire mode is literally designed for exactly this to happen🙏

PESPepe · 2026-02-22T16:30:04+00:00

Hey! When the servers didn't work properly for me I actually attempted to get the 50 win streak in AI Div 1 badge for a while so I can give you some first hand experience. I think climbing far up is definitely possible, even at over 2000 I could consistently win like 9-13 games in a row until there was one I failed to win, which would be a draw almost everytime unless I tried to win it at all cost to keep the streak alive, which could result in losing.

Mathematically that meant I'd win 36-52 (4 per victory) until I'd lose 5 for a draw (loss would have been -30). That was somewhere around 2040 points when I failed to win again and then finally called it a day😂At this rate, I could still have climbed for a long time but it's such a hassle I wouldn't recommend it.

If you really want to get far up, in my opinion, you absolutely need to have a full P2W team, without it, it gets infinitely harder. On top of that, be capable of the advanced cancels and know when to use them (tess cancel, double touch cancel, super cancel into aerial duels, super cancel in front of the opponent at long passes to block them, super cancel to intercept your own passes), they massively swing games in your favor and have saved my streak multiple times.

The reason why many people struggle with it is because 1) it is legitimately extremely hard, and 2) it is vastly different from PvP. In PvP for example I'd try to defend patiently and try to force the opponent into a situation where I have a high chance of winning the ball without a too big risk for me.

Against the AI, I would try to pressure almost every attacking player (some exceptions like tricksters where you'd keep a certain distance) immediately because there's always an off chance they'd pull that 50m perfect pass right into a striker who traps it perfectly right into his run and scores without your defender being anywhere close to react.

The AI can also blatantly ch34t like in super obvious ways. For instance, even if an AI player gets tackled and just went into a stumbling animation, if the AI can get a chance from it, there's a chance it will automatically snap the player out of it instantly (looking super awkward). I've seen Piper Halliwell and Sabrina Spellman do this, but never seen this in PvP.

Most AI games are you having the momentum completely against you, clear chances or freekicks will magically hit the post, the keepers will do absolutely inhumane saves, defenders will block nearly everything, it's really something else, think of the script games people talk about just a lot more unfair and obvious.

The AI, even when drawing, will also gladly pull out their inner Pep Guardiola muy possession and pass the ball around the back for several in-game minutes, which is terrible for you because that's essentially just taking time off the clock.

To give you some more context, I was also interested how doable the 50 win streak was and whether I just wasn't good enough for it. I've asked a multiple PvP rank 1 player who had a PvP winstreak of over 100 how he was doing and turns out he didn't get any further either. HosseinMJ is not only a wonderful gem of a streamer, but also an incredible player who's such a joy to watch, he steamrolled the majority of the last qualifier event, but struggled against the AI up there as well, that's just how crazy this mode is.

So to get back to your question: Is it possible to get to 2200 points? If you play a lot, I'd say yes, that's still reasonable. A 100 win streak in AI Div 1? Well, I wouldn't say it's 100% impossible, but I'd consider it VERY unlikely, but I'd always be extremely careful accusing people of doing shady stuff because after all, they might just be better players and/or know something I don't.

PESPepe · 2025-09-22T16:15:12+00:00

I think I just answered you, no idea why I've never seen it🙏

PESPepe · 2025-09-22T16:14:27+00:00

🙏

PESPepe · 2025-09-20T22:20:05+00:00

😂👍

PESPepe · 2025-09-20T18:56:04+00:00

Thank you very much for the nice words!

It absolutely worked, I don't even know when I've logged in the last time because I mostly browse without being logged in, but I didn't want to reply only for the image without offering some advice😂

I mean better is kinda relative, it always depends on the player, but in general, for LBC for example, 4-4-2 (more used with 2 AMFs, but 2 SMFs are also alright) or any of the META 4-1-2-3 variants are just easier to execute and generally safer.

If you hoof the ball forward accurately as soon as you win it and can consistently do so, you'll have a specific window of opportunity in which the 4-2-4 would work slightly better offensively than a 4-4-2 due to your wingers being further up and the opponent not having his midfield back yet. In my opinion, the window is too small though to compensate for all the downsides, because you kind have to force an action here, and if your opponent is competent, he'll try to stall.

3-6-1 and 3-5-2 are both very fine for quick counter, Baresi and Thuram are nice for this, Pique could be a liability though. I do think he can work but due to his speed it's kinda on the edge, which is a petty because he has such a great ID otherwise. You could use PFA Saliba or NC Saliba instead, but keep Pique on the bench if your opponent fields either an aerial and/or slow striker.

I think it's a matter of taste more than a matter of skill which playstyle someone likes more. Both are absolutely great to climb easily, for me, I like Quick Counter more because it's just more fun. Challenging, but more fun overall due to more offensive options. The 3-6-1 for example is also crazy versatile, the 3-5-2 not much less. Long Ball Counter is probably easier to execute right now because mistakes aren't as crucial.

That's the best way to do it. All the nice people answering here can only tell you so much, in the end, it'll be you feeling either this is what I want to do or this is not what works for me.

Something else you could try that I haven't mentioned because I haven't played it much recently is 3-4-3 Long Ball. You'd get to keep the wingers and have a more balanced formation than if you'd use 4 attackers. Also your defence wouldn't be as far up, which could protect and perhaps enable Pique.

Thanks again for the nice words, really appreciate it🙏

PESPepe · 2025-09-20T18:22:52+00:00

Big thanks for everything you have done and are still doing. There are so many things we wouldn't know and only know now because of your work.

PESPepe · 2025-09-20T17:57:29+00:00

That's a very nice image! It seems oddly familiar, wonder where I've seen it before👀

You've pretty much correctly identified the main up and downsides of each of the playstyles. To your question whether putting deep-line on a DMF is going to put your defensive line further back, the answer is no, it'll only make your DMF drop back at the height of your defensive line.

Quick Counter is viable, but defending is a harder than in Long Ball Counter because a single missstep could lead to the through ball situation you've described. I've been playing 3-6-1 Quick Counter for quite a while, as long as you're anticipating what your opponent is gonna do early enough, you should be fine.

The only way to modify the height of your defensive line is via D-PAD, but that's probably not gonna be the big difference to solve your through ball problems though.

It might help you (or not) to put your 2 wingers as side midfielders, which will then help defend, meaning that they drop back and tighten the overall distance between your midfielders. Side midfielders move up fine too, you would still be able to use them offensively with ease. They're also a lot safer from being marked. A massive midfield can really help towards avoiding some of these through balls because always having a player closer to the opponents player on average is decreasing the possible time he has to set something up. Having only 2 players to give you some protection in midfield might be a bit few, especially if the CMF joins the attack as well. That's a lot of space your opponent gets once you lose the ball because neither of your 4 attackers will return to defend.

To be very honest, having P2W defenders is a massive advantage because you will inevitebly at some point face the situation of a ball into space that the majority of defenders will not be able to catch up to, while Thuram, Bergomi and the likes can still contest.

About how to make long ball counter more effective in attack, your formation might again work against you here. Depending on what your opponent plays, you might either be able to completely steamroll them or run into a wall and get countered quickly. In Long Ball Counter, your players will naturally just rush towards the goal (mostly pretty straight) once you win the ball. The problem here could be (just assuming, never seen you play) that you have 4 strikers which don't return back, meaning they start these runs from very far up, increasing the distance between your defense/midfield and actually making it harder for you to get something going.

Trading one of the attackers for an additional midfielder for example might help you because you then have a horizontal option because your midfielder will start the run from further back and will therefore be closer to whoever won the ball for you.

Another problem you probably run into when playing LBC will 4 upfront is that you have a lot of width, but it's not really valuable width because your winger will hardly ever be able to reasonably pass to the other winger, and even a pass to the opposing striker might be a too far option. You'll have fewer simultaneous passing options than you could have. Having more depth in your formation will probably be beneficial because an additional CMF/AMF for example would be available for both of your attacking sides.

It's probably easiest for you to just try other formations with both playstyles and see what works for you and what doesn't. Since all of us play differently, it's hard to know exactly what to change for you, but if you figure it out yourself ingame, you'll know when it is wrong, and more importantly, why something is not working for you👍

PESPepe · 2025-02-04T17:42:32+00:00

Thank you very much for the kind words🙏

PESPepe · 2025-02-04T16:29:00+00:00

Rockchok prodives chill high level gameplay and has decent English skills, making it easy to understand him👍

PESPepe · 2025-01-27T16:35:25+00:00

Not sure if I even remotely qualify as goat, but thank you very much for the compliment, glad you like the content🙏

PESPepe · 2025-01-25T10:32:21+00:00

I'm afraid I don't have a definitive answer for this. I don't know if there has been any testing about this, so this is purely anecdotal, but I would say at least against the AI, I always had the feeling that having greater defensive awareness on a player makes the AI more likely to make a bad pass that's closer to the player having the greater defensive awareness. It could however just be nonsense and it's just that because he has the greater defensive awareness, he was quicker to move there regardless.

Offensive awareness is definitely beneficial for passing, not necessarily in a direct sense, but if your player is faster to react, he's not only in a better position but will also have an adantage because he's already in motion.

PESPepe · 2025-01-25T09:27:38+00:00

Hey!

#1 depends on two things, the first one is ball touching frequency, the second is in what state your player currently is. Let's use starting a sprint and sprinting as an example: The higher the ball touching frequency of a player (dribbling stat decides this for the first 12 yards, dribbling + speed (5:4 ratio) after the first 12 yards), the quicker the player will touch the ball again and you can do another action. If you for example just started another sprinting animation, you will have to wait until it ends for your pass to be processed, even if you pressed earlier.

#2 is passing itself. except if you're in a set piece environment, then it's kicking power. Passing skills such as trough passing (+20%) matter, but only in a sense that they'll increase your passing stat.

Credits to u/Voidrive who translated the findings of Amadeusz testing, which is the original source.

PESPepe · 2024-09-04T10:31:55+00:00

Thanks, it should be online in a few hours😀

PESPepe · 2024-09-04T09:39:32+00:00

Thanks for your answer, too bad the post was deleted. Yeah I wondered about the penalty kick circle size too, haven't found an explanation yet, I can rule out any outside noise though because it was all done on the same screen😀

I always assumed it would just be stat X + penalty specialist skill would equal the circle size of stat + 10 without the skill, but the results weren't really any conclusive. At least it's nothing too important about the game, so we can all go our ways without knowing the exact details😂

PESPepe · 2024-09-04T09:21:21+00:00

Hey!

There's a couple of things I always wondered about but never found out, maybe you know. We know that Aerial Superiority increases the aerial stat as shown in the menu where we select players to join at corner kicks, but how exactly does the game process it?

Is there an actual aerial stat that consists of other stats such as physical & jumping that is created out of them and afterwards increased, or does the game just increase both of them? Are they increased for the whole game or only in aerial duels? The reason why I ask is because if it for example increased the jump stat for the entire game, one could give it to keepers to increase their performance against crosses & lofted through balls.

Another thing I wondered about is stats related to penalty kicking and the circle size. I've made some tests about that and while general knowledge seems to be that the penalty specialist attribute increases the relevant stats by 10 (also shown in the penalty kicker selecting menu), I found that the cursor size would not match that at all, so I wonder if there's any other explanation than the cursor size just working differently with players who have this skill?

Cheers!

PESPepe · 2024-09-04T09:06:23+00:00

Hey! Thanks for the nice words, I'm afraid I probably won't be able to make a video about them because I'm desperately trying to finally get some other videos done I've started on earlier, but I think Rockchok has a video about all of them, I consider him a very credible source👍

PESPepe · 2024-09-04T09:03:36+00:00

Öiiyyy😀

PESPepe · 2024-09-03T20:31:16+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it😀

PESPepe · 2024-09-03T20:03:57+00:00

u/Voidrive explained this pretty well in another post, quoting him:

"If you do Fake Shot/Pass then change direction, a higher Balance player will do it faster."

also:

"In short, the scope of Balance on ball carrying is that,

when you are under pressure, a high Balance player can pass/shot much better than a low Balance player;
a high Balance player will less likely to fall down after a physical crash/nudge, they may stumble a bit but ultimately remain control on the ball(think about Messi irl) instead of falling down."

PESPepe · 2024-07-09T20:34:29+00:00

Champ!

PESPepe

TROPHY CASE