Gameplay Tip: Ultimate Defensive Guide to FIFA 10 Online

forrestyang

The secret to dominating on the defensive side of FIFA 10 has little to do with well timed tackles/jockeying and pressing techniques. The secret to playing great defense in FIFA 10 lies in your ability to anticipate how your opponent will try to attack your defense and adjusting your custom tactic to the one which will be able to shut down the mode of attack you’re expecting. (It’s almost like a game of American Football, if you expect your opponent to call a run play then you need to call a play to stop the run)

There are three defensive sliders for FIFA 10: pressure, aggression, and team width.


Pressure
The pressure slider determines how far up the pitch your players will begin to mark their men. I’m assuming that anyone reading this already knows how adjusting the pressure slider will effect the defense, and there really isn’t anything special about it so I won’t go into unnecessary detail. But generally speaking unless I’m losing and need to win the ball back quickly I always have pressure set to below 20. Having pressure set to a high setting makes you vulnerable to long balls over the top.

Aggression
The aggression slider determines how closely the CPU players will mark their opponents.
High Aggression
High aggression makes you vulnerable to one-twos and through-balls but is good for closing down players who are threatening with long shots (i.e Lampard, Schweinsteiger).
Gameplay tip: If you notice your opponent is taking a bunch of long shots or anticipate that your opponent will take a long shot quickly switch to a high aggression custom tactic (65-72) to close his shooters down

Low Aggression
Low aggression is generally the safer option of the two because it allows you to easily stop the cheap one-two passes and through balls that almost everyone online depends on. But it does leave you vulnerable to long shots.
Gameplay tip: If you notice your opponent starting to spam you with one-two passes and through-balls or anticipate that he will try to do this quickly switch to a low aggression custom tactic (0-22) to stop him from getting in behind your defense.

Another tip on aggression: Although low aggression is generally safer than high aggression it is dangerous to use a low aggression tactic once your players get behind the ball because you leave your opponent the opportunity to make a pass to a player in the box and quickly turn and shoot. Once your players are behind the ball switch to a medium-high aggression (50-100) tactic to stop this from happening.

Team Width
In my opinion team width my be the most important slider in your defensive tactic. It can make or break your defense. Team width not only effects how much your teammates will shift to the ball but you must also realize that this in turn effect how closely the players off the ball will be marked by your defenders.
High Team Width
High team width makes your players keep shape on defense and ensures that every player, including those off not on the ball are mark tightly. This type of strategy is good for stopping attacks down the wings, horizontal longs balls to players across the pitch, and crosses into the box, since each defender will pay close attention to his man even if his man doesn’t have the ball. But this tactic also leave you vulnerable to attacks down the middle, and the cheap one-two passes the almost everyone uses online. It also leaves you more isolated with attackers so you need to be careful with how you defend since no one will be near by to help if your man gets beat
Gameplay tip: If you notice your opponent starting to build his attacks down the wings more often or anticipate an attack down the wing for a cross quickly switch to a tactic with high team width (77-100) to clamp down anything along the touchlines.


Low Team Width
Low team width makes your players shift more towards the ball side and focus more attention on the ball opposed to their man. Low team width coupled with high aggression helps put an end to all the ping-pong garbage that almost all the top players online depend on and forces your opponent to start playing some real football by working the ball out toward the touchlines. Low team width leaves your vulnerable to crosses because the players making runs into the box won’t be marked as tightly. The key to switching team width properly is being able to read your opponents offensive custom tactic by watching how his players are moving, I will show how to do this in another thread later today. (this particular switching of team width tactic properly is the key to dominating defense in FIFA 10, if you don’t learn how to do this you’ll always struggle on defense).
Gameplay tip: If you notice your opponent starting to build his attack down the middle with ping-pong passing and one-twos or anticipate that type of attack coming quickly switch to a tactic with low team width (0-10) to clog up the middle of the field.

With all the information given on this thread you now have the edge you need to dominate in defense in FIFA 10. Go set up a few different defensive tactic combinations. Once you learn how to read your opponents attack and switch your custom tactics quickly you’ll soon see the clean sheets pile up.

In my next thread which I'll post Later today I'll talk about how to read your opponents offensive tactics based on how his players move (it's actually fairly simple). Once you know what tactic your opponent is using offensively you can easily shut him down by using the proper defensive tactic to counteract it..