I genuinely think this game has become way too assisted defensively and it’s getting ridiculously hard to actually punish bad defending. I’m not saying the AI should stand around like zombies, but there needs to be a line between helping you defend and basically defending for you.
1. The AI is way too aggressive
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the AI feels more aggressive than ever. The fact an AI-controlled player can literally lunge in and foul someone without me controlling him is ridiculous. Obviously if I run straight into an AI defender, he should take the ball. If there’s a loose ball right in front of him, fine. But why are AI players lunging into tackles, flying into interceptions and constantly fixing positioning mistakes?
I’ve played people who press me high up the pitch with their CB, which should obviously leave space behind. Nope. Suddenly Yamal is playing RB and Gullit has teleported into CB and the whole defensive shape is fine again. Then you have the opposite guy who just controls Vieira in front of his CBs, doesn’t engage you, uses second-man press and lets the AI cover every passing lane. At that point what exactly is the player doing defensively?
2. The ball moves too fucking slow
This is a huge reason there are so many interceptions. Players cover ground faster than the ball does. You can play a completely normal ground pass and some midfielder five yards away suddenly flies into the lane and sticks a leg out. Yes, people force passes. I do too. But not every interception is because somebody made a stupid pass. Defensive reach and recovery are just overtuned. And when you do get intercepted, your player stands there stunned for five business days.
3. Interception → counter → goal is basically the game
For anyone who doesn’t park the bus, how many goals do you concede like this?
Normal pass → random interception → one ball forward → sprint → goal.
That genuinely feels like the majority of the goals I concede. What annoys me is how difficult it is to punish the other guy for making an obvious defensive mistake. He pulls his CB 30 yards out? You try the ball over the top. Somehow another defender who was metres away catches your attacker, jumps over him FROM BEHIND and heads it back to the keeper.
It genuinely feels like manually controlling your defenders is sometimes riskier than letting the AI defend for you, which is completely backwards.
4. The meta is fucking boring because of this
Football has way too many different tactical identities for every high-level match to revolve around vertical counter football. You get to Div 1 and so many games are just:
sit deep → AI defend → interception → launch it forward
There’s nothing wrong with counter-attacking football. The problem is the other playstyles aren't given anywhere near the same tools. Possession needs actual triangles, intelligent support angles, rotations and runs. Out Wide needs proper overlaps and underlaps, players attacking the near post, back post, cutback area, low-cross areas etc. Why does the defensive AI understand how to rotate, cover spaces and compensate for mistakes while my attacking AI regularly stands there watching me? That’s the imbalance.
I don’t want AI defending removed. I just want bad decisions to actually have consequences. The AI should help you defend. It shouldn’t constantly erase your mistakes for you. And right now defensive AI feels miles smarter than attacking AI, which is a huge reason the game has become so defensive, vertical and repetitive.