Fifa 14 - Online Strategy, Team, Formation, Tactics Thread

after about 2 weeks of real play online, i've realized that it's almost unplayable.

the way long balls, through balls, and cross-heads work on the game in 14 is just retarded. the typical player i play against just pushes long through passes or long ball reactions (from their own 18 often, but almost always from their own half) and prays they get lucky.

while stopping them is typically easy, 10-15% will get through leaving them 1 on 1 with the keeper...sometimes 2 on 1. no matter how perfect your defense is, or how far you play back waiting on them (or even offside traps), a lucky-random through will penetrate your defensive lines.

if by some chance you do stop the through balls up the gut, they will send them on the wings to send aimless crosses again and again. again, you typically will stop these crosses, but there are some that you cannot stop. corners are deadly also. you can't switch to the proper defender, and about half the time even if you do, the Fifa movement restriction on players won't allow you to move him into position (Fifa will complete the movement they feel is necessary...this also fricks you when they play long ball b/c Fifa will control your defender a good portion of the time which allows the offensive player to "catch up" and steal the ball).

i'm playing mainly 4-1-4-1 with a variety of teams (bayern, real, barca, germany, netherlands, BvB, Milan, etc).

i have experimented with a 3-2-3-1-1 with juve (the formation with the CBs bunced) that worked. but juve is so fricking slow that it's tough to do much with them. i played counter-offside trap here, too.