FC 24 Defending Tips – How to Defend in EA Sports FC

FC 24 Defending

Defending is essential in EA Sports FC 24, especially when playing online matches. In this tutorial, we’ll go through defense essentials and strategies in order to provide you with a guide to improving your defense skills in the FC 24 football game.


Master the Controls

First off, you need to know the controls and buttons used in EA Sports FC 24 in order to be a good defender. Here is the list of basic and essential defence buttons and controls that you need to get familiar with when playing FC 24:

DEFENDING

Action PlayStation Xbox / PC
Change Player L1 LB
Change Player (Manual) R + Direction R + Direction
Icon Switching R R
Stand Tackle / Push or Pull (when chasing) B
Hard Tackle R1 + ◯ RB + B
Sliding Tackle X
Hard Slide Tackle R1 + ▢ RB + X
Hard Tackle (Volt Football only) X
Clearance B
Technical Clearance R1 + ◯ R1 + B
Shoulder Challenge / Sealout B
Contain (Technical & Legacy Defending only) X Press and Hold A Press and Hold
Physical Tackle (Advanced Defending only) X Press and Hold A Press and Hold
Teammate Contain R1 Press and Hold RB Press and Hold
Partial Team Press R1 + R1 Press and Hold RB + RB Press and Hold
Sprint Jockey L2 + R2 Hold Down LT + RT Hold Down
Quick Get Up (after slide tackle) X
Engage Shielding Opponent L2 + L Towards Shielding Dribbler LT + L Towards Shielding Dribbler
Rush Goalkeeper Out △ Press and Hold Y Press and Hold
Goalkeeper Cross Intercept △ + △ Press and Hold Y + Y Press and Hold

The Best Squad

When assembling your squad, try to select the best available defenders in your club for your starting 11. The overall rating of your defenders says everything about them. Don’t forget that DEF (defending attribute), tackling, PAC (pace), HEA (heading), and PHY (physicality) are the key traits for a defensive player. As for your defensive line, select four or five of your finest defenders with the highest rating; for your CB spots, select defenders with higher heading and tackling ratings. If you’re looking for an LB or RB, look for someone who can tackle well and has a lot of speed. Additionally, the pace attribute is one of the most important attributes for a defender.

Remember that your midfielders can also help your defenders. So, picking midfielders with high DEF attributes will also strengthen your defence. Having one or two CDMs in your starting eleven, or at least on the bench, would be a good idea.

Check out the complete list of FC 24 defenders sorted by their Ratings here: www.fifplay.com/fc-24/players/?position=defender


Your Best Formation

The number of defenders in your team matters, but what matters more is how you manage your defence when your opponent is attacking. To avoid conceding goals, you had better engage all of your players in defending and winning the ball back. Depending on your tactics and strategies, you should plan your defence once the ball is with your opponent. Your chosen formation will play an important role in such a situation.

For example, 4-1-3-2, 4-3-1-2, or 5-3-2 are suggested as defensive formations, as these ones are more dynamic to switch between defence and attack modes. But again, you need to find your own best formation.

Check out the complete list of all formations in EA FC 24. Pay close attention to the written descriptions of each formation and its counter-formations. Check out which ones are best for your squad and players, especially if you’re playing Ultimate Team matches.


Turning Weaknesses Into Strengths

Once you build up your squad, you need to see how it works and where your weaknesses are. Go and play offline and online matches. As for online games, it is recommended to play unranked or friendly matches for that purpose.

Pay attention to your flaws and the ways in which you concede goals. Whether it’s a direct shot or a header from a cross, the goal is to identify and close the gaps in your defence. Determine what causes you to receive goals: is it a simple error or a problem with your defending abilities?  Write them down and make a checklist of them so you can go through them and fix them one by one. That is a key point for improving your defensive skills.


Winning Man-to-Man Battles

Try to master every single man-to-man battle you will face. Block your opponent’s dribbling with short tackles, and do slide tackles only when you’re sure that you’re going to touch the ball and not your opponent’s legs.

It’s crucial to be patient. You do not need to be stressed or puzzled if your opponent’s attackers are rushing to your goal with more players than your defenders. The only thing that would help at that point is your capacity to handle the circumstance. Give your opponent a hard time, perplex them, and limit their options. Remember that time is of the essence, and you must buy time in order to thwart their attacks. Focus on man-to-man battles and short tackles to ball players, as well as blocking off ball players. 

Do your best to enlist the help of your teammates. You may need to just control other players and go to a guy who is off the ball but in a better scoring position. Sometimes, you actually don’t need to do anything. Remember, the CPU AI is controlling your defenders all the time, and sometimes it’s doing a better job than you would! So if you leave them to do the defending by themselves, you might end up with a better outcome.


Winning One-on-One Situations

If you happen to have a striker running on the ball towards your goal with only your goalkeeper, you should be able to manage the situation to prevent a goal. The best way to deal with such a situation is to make your opponent confused. As the attacker runs out of time (since most likely your defenders are running back to him), it would be a good solution to make him not come up with a decision. How? Maybe you can bring your goalie forward, but this method doesn’t always work because the striker can score an easy goal with a simple, cheap shot. So, the point is to make the striker unsure of what he is going to do.

I personally bring my goalie halfway out to make the attacker confused. Most of the time, it works. I rush the keeper out of his line but not too far from the goal post, so my opponent assumes I’m going to bring him all the way down to his legs, so he chooses between a long shot or a cheap shot, neither of which is usually successful because the goalie isn’t far from the goal and has control.

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