other crucial tips

OTHER CRUCIAL TIPS How to deal with annoying players

We all know that playing FIFA can be a frustrating game, especially online when you’re playing

someone else in the world. Many pads have been smashed, many TV’s broken and many discs,

broken! A huge part of winning games consistently on FIFA is the ability to stay calm under

pressure and, probably more importantly, when your opponent is trying to wind you up. There

are various ways in which people try to do this, and, if we’re being honest we see why. If they

manage to get under your skin you’re more likely to dive in to tackles, try to win the ball back

when you don’t need to, move your players out of position. These are just a few of the things

of about a hundred, what you can do when you lose your cool. Read below for information and

tips on how to stay cool when the other person is trying to wind you up.

WATCHING REPLAYS!!

Definitely the most common form of winding-up that there is, on FIFA. You know the ones

we’re talking about. Watching EVERY cut scene, watching every replay of EVERY incident, when

all you want to do is get on with the game. The truth behind this is, if they’re the type of person

who make you watch replays, then they’re the type of person who is going to get very annoyed

with you doing the same back to them.

If you concede early on and they watch all the replays, don’t watch. Look at your phone for a

minute, check Twitter/Facebook or just focus on what you’re going to do to get back into the

game. (If they decide to click through then you’re the team kicking off so don’t worry about

missing the restart). Then, when you hopefully get back in the game, make them watch all the

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replays. As we said, they are likely to be the type of person who will get frustrated if you make

them watch your goals or yellow cards etc. It’s a bit of a poor thing to do, but, if they’re going to

waste our time, we’re happy to waste theirs. Particularly if it means they’re going to start diving

into tackles and not playing their usual game. The key is to stay calm and not let watching the

replay annoy you.

Pausing the game at key moments

This method isn‘t as frequently used as the above, but is still very annoying. Some people will,

when they receive the ball in a dangerous area, (they might be in on goal near your GK, or 1 v 1

with the last defender) pause the game. They do this to try and catch you off guard when they

restart the game and to try and annoy you. The good thing about this is that they are limited to

the amount of times they can do this, per game.

So, what do you do to combat getting annoyed by this? Obviously, if you concede because of

this then it’s going to be annoying as it’s kind of cheating. What you need to do to stop them

gaining an advantage: you have two choices. You either resume the game straight away OR

wait for the timer to run down. We tend to resume the game straight away. You then need to

continue what you were going to do, by this we mean before they paused. If you were going to

run to the left and jockey, continue to hold those buttons. If you were attempting to win a

header in the box, continue to press the shoot button and hold the direction to attack the ball.

Simple, but still annoying.

Abusing the strong game mechanics

This might confuse you but it’s a really simple explanation. People who aren’t seen as ‘FIFA

purists’ get a lot of stick in the community, which we feel is a tad harsh at times. If you don’t

use the overpowered game mechanics to your advantage, you’d be daft. What’s annoying and


extremely frustrating, however, is the players who ONLY use that method to try and score

goals: On FIFA 13 it was pace and the OP near post finish; On FIFA 14 it was the sprinters on the

wing and the cross for the headers (as well as the lobbed through ball); on FIFA 15 is was the

pacey dribbling and, of course, lobbed through balls.

The only way to deal with this annoying you is, learn to defend against these methods. Not

only will this help you in the future versions of the game, it will make you a stronger, more

rounded player. Because we were forced into defending crosses into the box over 10 times a

game on FIFA 14, we now hardly concede any headers at all because we had to adapt and

evolve our methods. We break down each area of the game in vast detail in our defending tips

pages so be sure to check them out.

Breaking the rhythm of the game

This is one of the most annoying things our opponent can do. Mainly because it upsets any

rhythm you get going. It’s not so much the waiting time, it’s the fact that it breaks up our style

of play. The way they break the game down is to take the maximum time (or as close to as

possible), for every break in play. Goal-kicks, GK with ball in hands, throw-ins, free-kicks, you

get the idea. This can turn, what should be a 15 minute game, into a 25 minute game, which is

obviously, very annoying.

What can you do to stop this? Well, try to keep the ball in play and in your possession as much

as possible is the first step. Also, as we mentioned in the replays section, if they are the type of

person who is going to be doing this, they are going to be the type of person that will get very

annoyed with someone else doing it to them. So, change your kickers, take your time over

throw-ins. They will soon start diving in and you can force your way into the game and make

them make mistakes.


Time wasting as soon as they go in front

This one is self-explanatory. No matter when they score a goal, their mindset changes and all

they want to do, is time waste. They use the above method in conjunction with this, which can

be very frustrating. They pass the ball around their defence and generally don’t even try to go

forwards and score. You need to make sure that you don’t lose your cool. Just play your

normal game and, if they are just keeping the ball, try to force them forwards towards more of

your players. If you try to condense the pitch into your half, you’ll soon be winning the ball.

Psychological factors

Each area we are about to discuss can help to enhance performance. As we’ve mentioned over

and over again, improving each area of the game (even if it’s only a really small part), will only

be beneficial to your success. This area of sports has seen a growing interest in recent years as

sports teams and individuals look to squeeze out every little bit of performance to improve in

their given sport. Look at 100m sprinters, for example. The difference between finishing 1st or

6th in their races can be as little as a 0.2 seconds. They have to try everything to take vital

hundredths of seconds off their time as that could be the difference between winning a medal

at a major tournament or not. You might think we’re daft for comparing FIFA to this but

believe us, it works!

Concentration

Concentration is a key factor in FIFA. Even more so with the fast paced nature of FUT and Pro

Clubs game modes. You must eliminate any factors that are going to be a distraction when

playing the game. You’ll find what works for you. We have this set-up: we make sure the lights

are turned off; phone is on silent; door of the room we’re playing in is closed and we’re fairly


close to the screen. We also listen to music/radio/podcasts as we don’t particularly like the

repetitiveness of the commentary and find it annoying.

Taking a break from the game is vital. Playing 3 or 4 hours straight (possibly more) is only going

to mean your concentration levels dip and your results and performance will suffer because of

this. Many moons ago, when the majority of the FIFA Expert team were studying at school we

all received this type of information below.

This is just a really simple way to show how the average person’s attention declines over a

period of time. This is the same with FIFA.

We recommend that you take regular breaks, even if it’s just to go make a drink every couple of

games or go on your phone for a couple of minutes. Whatever it is that lets you relax and takes

your mind off FIFA for 5 -10 minutes, do it. You’ll be less stressed, anxious and you’ll see better

results for having had a small break.

Be patient

Having a great deal of patience when playing FIFA is essential. We will have all come up against

the type of player who likes to watch EVERY SINGLE replay and CUT SCENE. Don’t let this annoy


you. If you allow yourself to become stressed and anxious then this will hinder your

performance, this is a FACT. If you do come up against someone who is watching the replays,

stay calm, don’t let it frustrate you and if you do score then you know what to do, watch every

replay of your own. If they are doing this to you, they are the type of player who is likely to

become very annoyed by this so beat them at their own game.

If you lose your patience then this will lead to decreased focus and attention (which we talked a

bit about earlier). Read below for more detail in these areas.

Attention and focus

As we saw in the graph above, having a high level of attention and focus is vital to your success

on FIFA. There is always so much going on on-screen and the pace is often very frantic so the

more focused and attentive you are, the better your results are likely to be. There are two

main types of focus you need to be aware of, these are: external focus and internal focus.

External focus is looking at the whole picture, relating this to FIFA, this is the whole pitch and

everything that is happening on-screen. We talk about the use of radar and its importance in

depth in the guide. Internal focus regards the person’s feelings and emotions. This is where

staying calm and trusting in your ability helps hugely. This links in nicely with confidence.

Confidence

This is all about trusting your ability and playing to your strengths. A lot of people will focus on

what the opposite team is like and how good their players are. This shouldn’t be your initial

thought as negative thoughts aren’t conducive to playing well on FIFA. You must play to your

strengths and trust in this to help you win the game. If you’re good at dribbling the ball, then

dribble the ball. If your strength is playing possession football, then pass, pass, pass.


Goal-setting

Setting performance goals is a really underused tool and can really help to focus and help you

play to your strengths. Sometimes, these goals won’t be achieved but it helps to focus your

play. The goals we set for each game are as follows: achieve, at the very minimum, 52%

possession; keep the opposition from under 8 shots per game and under 2 goals per game (we

trust our ability to score more than 2 in each game); achieve a pass accuracy of 80% minimum.

These goals force us to try and pass and keep more possession. It is easy to slip into bad habits

and try to force the play, sometimes this is what is needed but we try to keep the ball on the

floor and play a nice brand of football.

Positive and negative thinking

The key here, is to not be too critical of yourself and performance. By all means, analyse your

game play and watch goals back to see where you are making mistakes but don’t pin all the

blame on yourself. More often than not, you might have conceded a good goal or the opponent

just needs to be praised for the good piece of play. What strongly suggest that you don’t blame

‘scripting’ or ‘EA AIDS’ (which is a term we hate). Yes, it sometimes feels like there are certain

bobbles of the ball or you’ll concede rebound goals. It’s a computer game, there will be flaws in

it and it isn’t real life. Having said that, bobbles occur in real-life, decisions are sometimes

wrong by officials and sometimes goals are scored that shouldn’t. Look at the number of high

profile GK errors we see in real-life football (rant over!!).

Going back to your positive thinking, if you are too critical this is only going to lead to poor

performance. In turn, this will lead to making rash decisions when playing the game. Whether

it’s diving into tackles, rushing out with your GK or rushing your build-up play and shots. We’ve

all seen the players who do this, don’t be one of them. Talking more about negative thinking,

having a negative or losing mentality before a game starts is only putting you at an immediate

disadvantage. A brilliant example of this is on FUT. The opposition team will flash up for


around 5-8 seconds (dependent on connection). You should be using this to analyse where

there might be weaknesses in their team, not saying to yourself: “Oh, he’s got Aguero and

Sturridge up front.” Or whoever it may be.

To summarise

All these psychological factors will help to improve your game by a small percentage. People

may think we’re going into too much depth for ‘just playing a computer game’. We’ve played

thousands upon thousands of games and seen, in person, how the psychological side of the

game can give you a real edge. Remember the following points and you’ll definitely improve:

Think positive before the game begins;

Make sure the environment you’re playing in is right for you;

Set goals to achieve during the game (stats);

Stay calm and be patient;

Be confident in you playing style and ability;

Allow yourself small breaks every 2 games (3 maximum).

Thinking in advance

Thinking in advance is definitely something that will help you improve your performance. If

you’ve read other areas of our guides you’ll realise how in depth we’ve taken things this year.

This part of the game is a simple, but effective tool to use to help you get better at the game.

By thinking and planning your moves you’ll automatically be gaining an advantage over your

opponent. This will involve using the on screen radar as well as ensuring that you have used

our best camera settings information. If you have followed these camera settings it will give you

a great view of the pitch so you can plot your next passes or your next defensive movements


well in advance. A great example of forward thinking can easily be explained using switch of

wings. There are a few things you need to consider when switching the play to the opposite

side of the pitch:

Positioning of their defenders (on the radar and on screen);

The player you’re playing the pass with (obviously better to do this with players who

have high passing stats);

Body position and space of the player you’re going to play the pass with;

Power of the pass;

Pressure on the ball.

All this information simply can’t be gathered and processed by the human mind without

forward thinking and planning. The same applies to several other scenarios in the game:

Defending a counter attack;

Building up a patient attack;

Planning what to do on set pieces;

Keeping possession of the ball.

The list is endless really, we’ve just pointed out the main ones to highlight the importance of

thinking in advance.

Using the radar and onscreen info

This part of the game is, for us, one of the most crucial parts of becoming an Expert on FIFA 16.

The radar is very underused having conducted some research and some people even described

it as a ‘nuisance’. Crazy when you think about how much information it can give you. We guess

that people just aren’t aware of what on screen information can tell you about your own

team/players as well as the opposition. It can be hard to concentrate on more than just one


thing when there is so much going on, on the pitch. If you are one of these people, you have to

break this habit ASAP. Try to just glance at the radar and player names (at the bottom of the

screen) whilst you’re playing. The more you do it, the more you’ll get used to it and it will

become part of how you play the game (then you can thank us via email or on the website!).

Read on to find out just how useful this information is.

Assessing your team shape

You’ll need to have a basic knowledge of how a formation looks and moves in attack and

defence to understand what you’re looking for here. The vast majority of players will have this

knowledge already. However, if you aren’t confident in this area, our tactical guide will provide

you with EVERYTHING you need to know. It covers: formations; work rates; player positioning;

strengths and weaknesses of formations and tactical knowledge.

Are there gaps in your formation?

When you’re defending, by looking at the radar, you can see if your team shape is correct and

sturdy. Each dot represents a player and if you constantly check the shape of these dots and

constantly question if the shape looks like the formation you chose before the game, this will

only help you to defend more effectively and, ultimately, make you harder to score against.

Assessing their team shape

This is often the downfall of many players. They will chase the ball across the pitch with the

same man which will leave huge gaps (which you should be looking to exploit). This is where

the radar comes in handy. Each dot represents a player and, by constantly keeping an eye on

this information, you can see what their formation is looking like. Many players, particularly in

the lower divisions of seasons, will press with the same player and won’t be adept at changing


their players. If this is the case, this has two main advantages: you can easily tire out the

opposition players, which then makes them less of a threat when they attack; you can exploit

areas of the field where you spot a weakness or see that the formation has fallen apart.

Looking for gaps to launch counter attacks is an extremely effective tool and using the radar to

do this is crucial, you can make your counter attacks even more effective using another one of

our tips, which you can read below.

Stamina of opposition

As we briefly mentioned above, players tend to press and chase the ball in a desperate quest to

retrieve possession ASAP. This is one of the major downfalls of their play and if we look at the

stamina bar of the opposition and see they are sprinting and chasing with the same player, this

is just what we want to happen. If this is happening, keep the ball and make them chase it. This

isn’t boring play, it’s sensible play and will only help you towards the latter stages of the game.

Because they will have sprinted around the pitch chasing the ball, their players stamina will be

minimal. You will find that you have more space to play your football AND it will be easier to

defend against that overused counter attack style of play which many teams use.

This isn’t the only advantage of looking at the stamina bar. So, you should be looking at the bar

when you have possession but also look at their player names while they are passing the ball.

This will also give you a heads up on the type of energy their players have left. Do this at the

very start of the game and during the game at various points. If you aren’t comfortable with

this, to start with, get used to looking at their defenders when they pass the ball at the back

and work your way forward. If you find that this is compromising how well you can defend then

don’t use it, obviously. As we’ve said over and over, get used to looking at the radar and on

screen information and it will become easier and easier to gather all this useful information.


Look at opposition names

This might seem like a strange idea but you can decipher lots of information by looking at the

opposition names area (we mentioned this briefly already, talking about looking at their

stamina levels). The best piece of information you can get from this is, learning how the

opposition is defending. You can then begin to start exploiting this to your advantage. Before

we explain how to do this, it is important that you have a knowledge of the opposition players

before the game starts and/or, you can easily recognize the players on screen. This is how it’s

done.

1. Watch if the players’ names are constantly change when you’re passing the ball, if they

change to the man nearest the player who you have the ball with then you know that

they are most likely using L1/LB to change player automatically each time. This isn’t a

bad thing as it isn’t the most effective way to defend. You won’t have too much

pressure and will be able to take a fair bit of time to pick your passes.

2. If, when you have the ball at the back, you see that their striker or attacking midfielders

are just staying on screen, you know that they are just pressing with the forward players

and they aren’t very clever when changing players. This enables you to tire the

opposition players out quickly which we talked about above.

3. When you have the ball at the back, you see a defender name or a CDM name on their

screen.

4. The have the player name on screen of the player in behind the closest player to the

ball. For example, if you are attacking down your right (their left). They control the LB

but the LM is closest to the ball.


The opposition power bar

This is something that we know will be overlooked by the vast majority of players. You can gain

so much information from this power bar so we definitely thought it would be a ‘must include’

for these guides.

When the opposition have free-kicks you can keep an eye on the power bar to see what they’re

going to do. It will be displayed just over the players name. If the power button goes all the

way to 4 bars, you know they’re hitting a long ball and you’re going to be contesting a header.

If you see the power bar flicker slightly and only power up to 1 bar, you know there’s an

opportunity to intercept the ball (as we discuss in detail over the next few pages).

From corners, you can also get loads of information about the type of corner they’re taking.

Anything under 1.5 bars of power is going to be a near post corner (or a short pass if there is a

man running towards, or already called in). 2 bars of power will see a ball towards the center of

the goal and anything more than this will be a far post delivery. You can prepare for the ball in

and be ready to defend the ball. One more thing we should mention is what to expect when

you see a full bar of power come up. If this happens, then it is DEFINITELY going to be a low ball

that is delivered. If you were to power up a corner fully, with the crossing/lobbed pass button,

you’d hit the ball over to the opposite side of the pitch. This is usually a tactic that is used to hit

a ground pass, to the edge of the box, so if you see a full bar of power, be ready to hit your

change player button (to get onto the nearest defender) and be ready to try and block the

impending shot, or pass.

Move your men when defending set-pieces

This is something that you can do both around your own area, when defending crosses or

corners. Also, it is extremely useful when the opposition is taking goal kicks or free kicks

anywhere on the pitch. On a game mode such as Pro Clubs, when there may be 3 or more

human controlled players making runs off the ball it is vitally important that you get used to


using to radar in conjunction with flicking your right stick to change players. Please read on to

see more detailed examples of how to do this.

We should also mention that, the vast majority of players will try to play the short pass and try

to guarantee keeping the ball. Even if they don’t, by having your settings switched to air balls, if

they do go longer, then you have the time to adjust to this so you SHOULD DEFINITELY be trying

to cut off the shorter options of the opposition at every possible chance. If you do intercept

from a goal kick it will ALWAYS result in a great chance to score. If you pinch when they are

taking free-kicks, the majority of the time IT WILL lead to a great chance to counter attack.

When you give a foul away or you may have been caught offside, you have two choices. The

first is to do as we suggested with the goal kicks and close down the near man. Of course, the

opposition will have more than one short option to pass to so you aren’t going to intercept the

ball every time. SEE THE DIAGRAM BELOW TO FURTHER UNDERSTAND THE NEXT PART.


Covering the short ball

We covered this earlier but just to recap, you need to be quick to cover the pass on the angle

but also be mindful to keep an eye on the opposition power bar. If you see the power bar go

up to ¾ or more then you know they are looking to either play a longer pass on the ground or a

lofted ball (see the white lines on the diagram to indicate the opposition). This is the time to

switch players OR let the air balls auto switch do the job for you.

The blue dotted movements show the options you’ll have to cover the short ball and the player.

The black line indicates the two players you will need to switch between with your right stick.

You’ll notice that once you switch to the opposite player, then the player now controlled by the

AI will start to jog back to the position you moved them from. Therefore, you should move the

man furthest from the player you’re wanting to cover (player 2 in this particular scenario, on

the diagram) so you don’t have as much work to do with the right stick switching.

The majority of players will look to play to their right or left rather than a man who is front of

them so cutting this off is your priority. The more advanced players in the higher divisions will

be wise to this so in this case you need to make a dummy run. SEE THE DIAGRAM BELOW.


The diagram shows you initially making the move with the darker blue line towards the player

but you then switch with the right stick to cover the other option (the lighter blue line). You’ll

start to get used to switching between these really quickly, the more that you do it. When you

become more able with this you’ll then be able to cover three options (more info on this on the

defending goal kicks area).

Covering the long ball

To cover the long ball obviously will mean that you lose the opportunity to cut off that short

ball. This is entirely down to you but if you start to cover the short ball and the opposition

player is going long every time then we would definitely recommend covering the long ball by

following the instructions and diagram below.

So, as you can see above, the diagram shows where we have moved our player to. This is just a

generic place to move the player. 10/15 yards deeper than your highest defenders OR halfway

between the GK and the defensive line. We prefer the first option. This will give you the


opportunity to attack the ball and mean your defender can attack the ball forwards (giving a

higher % chance of success), rather than back peddling and stretching to win the header off

balance. If they play the ball too long, then you’re in with a free ball for your GK or the

defender you moved back. Don’t worry about them using the wings as if they are pumping the

ball long, in the air, the auto switch settings will still allow you to compete for the header.

On Pro Clubs, this is something you have to do EVERY time, presuming that you are taking

control of the rest of the team (doing any). You will have to be playing with at the very least, 1

other player so they can close the short balls off. Using the diagram below to explain, you will

notice that on pro clubs you will get the human controlled players trying something very similar

to the diagram we have produced.

Because the AI players will want to mark the opposition player runs, they can exploit this flaw in

the game by taking 2 or more players and moving them into advanced space with, as you can

see on the first diagram, leaves a huge area of space down the middle of the goal. They will

then make the runs you can see on the diagram and launch the ball down the middle where

there players will be easily onside. Using the diagram above, this is how you can stop this from

happening. As you can see, you have to be quick, use the right stick to change player and cover

that run and place a player in the gap that they’re looking to exploit. If they do this with 2


players, place your defender right in the center of the pitch (dark blue player), if they just have

1, then position yourself, slightly to the side (light blue players), as the diagram shows. This will

stop being exploited by this and, once you’re more comfortable with the technique, if they’re

using one player you can flick the right stick to move the defender back up into line with the

other defenders and try to force an offside. ONLY USE THIS ONCE YOU’RE USED TO THE SET-UP.

To read a more detailed piece on defending opposition goal kicks, see earlier in the guide.

other crucial tips

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