FC 27 tactics: how to adapt to every opponent

The diamond puts three midfielders, a CAM and two strikers in the middle. No width, no wingers. That tells you two things: the danger only comes through the centre, and your full-backs have no one to mark. Three tips:

• Defend inside with your full-backs. In transitions, switch to a full-back and use him to press the CAM, the strikers or the midfielders. With nobody to mark, you can go in hard manually. Keep an eye on their full-back getting forward, but in this meta it rarely happens.
• Protect the space in behind. If the CAM and the two strikers keep hurting you on the counter, pause, go into tactics and drop your depth (line height) to 35. It helps against L1 + Triangle, but it doesn't defend it for you: you still have to switch manually and cover the run.
• Drop with your midfielders, not your centre-backs. Pull one midfielder back manually and hold R1 for the second man press so the other comes with him. Otherwise you're outnumbered in the middle.

The mistake to avoid is pulling your centre-back out to press the CAM or a striker. Halfway through the step you realise it's mistimed, and one X or R1 + X pass puts him one-on-one with the keeper. The only reason to control a centre-back against the diamond is to cover an L1 + Triangle.

The opposite problem: the whole team is inside the box and every lane into the striker is blocked. Gravesen's answer to a defence that refuses to come out is the power shot, but the shot itself is the last step. Everything before it is about making room for it.

• Wide first, then back inside. Take the ball to the winger and push him towards the byline. Their back line follows him into the box, and the space you want opens up in front of it. Now turn back and recycle to your midfielders. From there, either a pass into the striker or a midfielder shaping to shoot with time on the ball.
• Watch the cursor, not the players. What matters is who your opponent is controlling and whether he can reach you. If he stays on the midfielder and never switches, shoot. If he switches to a centre-back who comes out without keeping his distance, shoot. If he jumps to his CAM but the CAM is too far away, shoot. The read is the same every time: is anyone actually closing me down?
• Punish bad switching. When his selection is bouncing around the back line, that half-second is your window, for the pass into the striker or for the shot. If a defender finally steps out to block, play one more pass. If nobody comes, hit it.

The power shot is the reward for the work before it. Spamming it with no window is just giving the ball back.

You lose the ball and two seconds later the L1 + Triangle has put him through on goal. Two things to work on: how deep your defence sits, and when you take control of a defender.

• Drop your depth to 35 if the same counter keeps landing. It's the same tweak as against the diamond, with the same caveat: a deeper line buys you time, it doesn't track the runner for you.
• Switch before the pass, not after. The moment you can see the L1 + Triangle is on, take the centre-back or full-back and drop with the run. The point is to go backwards with that defender, not to launch him at the striker. Meanwhile, bring your midfielders back manually so your back line isn't facing the counter alone.
• Then pick your moment. Once the run is covered, look at where the ball actually goes. If it's played wide, switch to the full-back and win it there. If he never plays the through ball, take the full-back and press aggressively.

A deeper line plus an early switch gives you more than one way to defend the same counter, and that's what stops the one-on-one.

The Basic plan video “Beating the CDM defender and getting out of your box in FC 27” covers the opponent who defends everything with the same midfielder and never switches, and how to get your team out of the box when you're pinned back down the wing. The defensive principles behind all of this are in “How to defend in FC 27”.