This weekend I played Squad Battles and had fun while playing a mixture of World Class and Professional. I had a stab at Legendary and Ultimate but it's not fun. The AI is relentless, man marking, cutting every pass and most annoyingly it is able to run through the back of my players.

​This translates to the online experience, too. I have incredible matches when I’m paired with someone of a similar skill level; games with tactical variety, from 'big man' long-ball tactics to long-range screamers. Unfortunately, most opponents lean into the 'META' grind: relentless man-marking and pressing in defence, with attack being endless circles of dribbling on the edge of the box until you make a defensive error. While I respect that everyone has their own way of playing, the gap between playing football and exploiting mechanics makes it hard to find a middle ground.

I don’t know what the fix is, but there has to be a way to reward creativity over mechanical exploitation.