FIFA 14 Defending Tips

FIFA 14 Defending Guide

It definitely matters how many goals you are able to score in a FIFA 14 match, but it is also necessary to know how to not receive a goal. A lack of defensive skills can ruin a winning game.

Here in this FIFA 14 defending guide, I’m going to share with you my defending strategies and tactics that I have learned from playing online and offline matches against pro FIFA players.


Know your weak points

First off, do not refuse to pay attention to your weak points. The way you usually receive a goal. Either it is a header from a cross or a direct far shot. Put them down after playing online and offline matches and make a list of them. That is the key point to improving your defensive skills.


Best team, best formation

Choose the team that is right for you. Having the best FIFA 14 team (Perhaps FC Barcelona) doesn’t mean you guarantee your defense. I personally choose FC Bayern Munich because it’s my favorite club and I’m quite comfortable with its defenders. Then, go for the best formation; I would say 5-3-2, but it’s up to you. I would rather defend with five defenders because one of my weak points is receiving goals from crosses. But you can go for four players.


Best defenders

Choose the best defenders for your starting line-up. The ones with high sprint are good to put on the wings (RB / LB). The ones with the jumping rank over 85 are better to be placed in the centre (CB). It also depends on your weak points as well.


Prevent the crosses

It is easier in FIFA 14 to score a goal from an airborne cross from sides of the field – Especially when your opponent has tall and strong attackers. To neutralise a goal-scoring opportunity from an aerial cross, it is necessarily to block any crossing attempt before it happens. To do that, you need to tackle the attacker and grab the ball from him. How? Well, you need to run and chase the attacker hardly. Use contain button, do short tackle and sliding tackle (if necessarily). If it’s late and the ball is already flying over your penalty box, try to switch the player quickly to the one who is the closest player to the receiver/striker. Then push the shoot/short tackle button consistently so you make sure your defender won’t give any freedom to your opponent and he will hit the ball before your opponent does. Don’t bring the goalie off the line, it’s not a good idea.

Make sure you have placed tall and strong defenders in centre back (CB) with high jumping rank (85+). For example, when I play as FC Bayern, I put Philipp Lahm at left wing (LB) to man-mark the striker who does a cross, Lahm is fast and he does strong tackles, but in centre I choose Dante and Alaba who are tall and are able to jump way higher than Lahm.


Win the one-on-one situations

If you happened to have an attacker running on the ball towards your goal with only your keeper, you should be able to manage the situation to prevent a goal. The best way to do this is to make your opponent confused. As the attacker runs out of time (since most probably 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 make an easy goal by a simple cheap shot. So the point is to make the striker unsure for what he’s going to do. I usually bring my goalie halfway out to make striker confused. Most of the times it works. I bring him off the line but not very far from the goal post, so my opponent thinks that I’m gonna bring him all the way to his striker so he makes a choice by either having a strong shot or cheap shot – which usually neither of them is successful as my goalie isn’t far from the goal.


Solution for the free kicks behind your penalty box

Send a tall player to help your keeper to cover the his far post. Keep the defender standing a little bit behind the line so you give enough space to your goalie to dive (Exactly like in real life). This situation will send the other attacking team players behind your defensive wall automatically since you’re breaking your own offside trap, but this makes the situation more confusing for your opponent, he might try to re-organise the situation by changing his free kick taker but you can always keep repeating this – be sure you’re quick enough.


What to do when ball is stuck in my box

The only solution is to send the ball far away. When your opponent is having the ball control in your crowded penalty area and you cannot take the control back, you better just send the ball once you touched it either far away or just out of the pitch by shooting the ball. Even giving a corner kick to your opponent could help this situation. In a situation like this, don’t switch between players a lot, don’t send the goalie off the line. Your other defenders try to put strikers in a offside trap automatically, switching between them might break the trap.


How to defend corner kicks

Defending a corner kick is quite tricky in FIFA 14. Scoring goals from corner kicks is more common and even easier than before in this game. Send the players standing near the corner arc to man-mark the strikers in your penalty box instead quickly while your opponent is taking a long corner kick.

How did you find these defending FIFA 14 Tips? Write your comments using the form given below.

Comments (13)

13 thoughts on “FIFA 14 Defending Tips

  1. How do I cheat on fifa 14 I have a friend I use to beat him but now every time we play how he always winning scoring all his headers and long shot

    1. stop the cross early from getting to the attackers in your box.don’t let him to execute the cross.slide tackle or mark him quick

  2. Thx for the great tutorial.

    I just bought FIFA 14 Worldcup (Xbox 360) and it has no instructions at all.

    I have some questions if you could help me with, thx 🙂

    How do I make my keeper pick up the ball with his hands?
    What passes should be used more? The short pass?
    When should I use the through pass?
    How do you lob pass over a defender? What buttons?
    I don’t understand the type of shots like finess shot.
    How do you curve the ball when shooting?
    Is there a button to make my player use his head only when passing or shooting

    1. Your keeper automatically picks up the ball with his hand, as for passing it depends on the situation your in if you see one of you players making a run, that’s when you use the trough ball that’s kinda of a long pass on the ground if there too many defenders around him you should then do a lobbed trough ball(lob pass) if your striker is very quick of the mark then this is almost guaranteed to work.dont put to much power in to it to do the lobbed trough ball you hold L1+plus triangle the longer you hold it the farther it goes finesse shot is basically a curve shot its very usefull for curving the ball around the GK instead of powering it,again it depends on the situation its better used on 1 on 1 situations: to do the curve shot(finesse) you hold R1 plus circle.it can also be used to score amazing longshots if you do it right your player will only do a headed pass when or if the ball is at head height he will attempt a volley pass if the ball is near his waist.hope I answered all of your questions 😀

  3. One thing i find really annoying is corner kicks. Is there a way i can customise which players i want in the box when the opposing team has a corner? It’s really annoying when the opposing team is having a corner and marcelo is covering mandzukic. Is there a way to do something to prevent that?

    1. Yes, you can make players man mark certain players in and out of the box by selecting team management in the menu’s and then man marking this is a simple way to make your defence solid and not letting the opponent have a size advantage on you

  4. I just want to say this tricks are good, they are working for me, thank you very much, I enjoy the game much better.

  5. I play a lot with my friend on kickoff and I always beat him, recently he has been beating me with lots of goals…I don’t know how to check and make sure he’s not cheating…

  6. Thanks for the tips. I appreciate the overall strategies, but as a new player, haven’t figured out the tactics to execute them. For example, what button sequence will allow me to switch control to move the keeper off the line?

    1. same button which you are using for through passing.
      Contain is: hold sprint + short pass. also for defending – your player will go onto ball

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