How to attack in FC 27: the five attacking principles

The first job is to spot where the advantage is before you pass. Most players only watch the ball carrier. You need a second habit: look at the radar to see who is making a run and who is free. Once you get your head up, you start seeing overloads, the places where the ball does the most damage.

The idea isn't to pass to the nearest player, but to the one with the best chance of scoring. Think about which opponent you're drawing in and where the real danger is. The clearest example is a triggered run:

• You trigger a run with your left winger down the wing.
• Your opponent switches to his right-back to deal with it.
• Your striker attacks the space that opens up. He is the free man, and the ball goes to him, not to the runner.

The run creates the space. The free man uses it.

Seeing the space is half the job. The other half is the angle you attack it from, and it's where a lot of players throw away good situations. If you stay directly behind the ball, or square to your opponent, the lane you can see is usually blocked by the time you play it. Move a couple of steps off that line and the same pass or shot is suddenly on.

In the opponent's half, think in diagonals. A diagonal angle opens more lanes than a straight one, and it does it for every kind of pass and finish. Two cases where it decides everything:

• The trivela. It only works when your body is already open towards the outside of the foot. Set the angle first; the shot is the easy part.
• The through ball. Played dead straight it loses both accuracy and power. Played from a slight diagonal it arrives with the right weight, and the runner meets the ball instead of chasing it.

Pressure is information. Every time an opponent commits to you, he has left a space somewhere else, and the player who was standing in that space is now the one you want. The skill is not giving the ball away the moment you see it. Hold it a beat longer, let the defender actually arrive, and release when he can no longer get back.

The textbook version is a midfielder carrying the ball between the lines. The centre-back has a decision to make: come out and stop him, or hold his position. The instant he steps forward, the striker behind him has his run and the pass is there. Carry, wait for the step, play it. Pass before he's committed and the same ball is a turnover.

The space between the lines is the most important area in the game, and casual players ignore it. When you dribble into it, the decision belongs to your opponent, not you:

• If the centre-back doesn't step up, keep dribbling. Carry it until you can shoot, or until you spot a free man and play him in with X or Triangle for a one-on-one.
• If he steps up, that's your cue to pass.

Don't rely only on passing to break lines. Dribbling manipulates the defence too. React to what he does; he decides.

Not every attack has an ending. When you arrive around the box and nothing is on, the right move is often to turn, play backwards and start the move again from midfield. Pro players do this constantly, which is why their possession looks so calm.

The trap is believing that reaching the final third obliges you to do something: a shot, a cross, a forced pass. Occasionally it does. More often the honest read is that the chance isn't there yet, and the attempt you force is the one that costs you a counter. Recycle the ball, change sides if you need to, and rebuild. Going backwards isn't failure. It's one more go at a better chance.

These five principles tell you what to look for. Choosing the pass that solves the problem in front of you, instead of defaulting to the same one every time, is the next step: “Breaking lines in FC 27”, in the Basic plan. For the shape of the whole attack from your own box, see “How to get better at FC 27: build up in 3 phases”.