How to get better at FC 27: build up in 3 phases

• Phase 1: the ball is in your back line. The simplest phase and the most important one, because you can't afford to lose the ball here even once.
• Phase 2: the ball reaches the midfield line. The most dynamic phase, where you have the most to do, because it decides how you arrive in phase 3.
• Phase 3: the final third. The fun part, where you arrive with the players you want in the situations you want, instead of one or two isolated strikers against four defenders.

The method assumes a back four, which is what PMB has been playing lately.

In phase 1 you pass between your defenders, and every pass is X or R1 + X. Never L1 + X. The reason is simple: an L1 pass sends the passer running forward, and you don't want your full-backs or centre-backs leaving their positions.

The aim is to not lose the ball once all game in this phase. One of the mistakes Daniel saw most often when coaching was players giving the ball away two, three, four times a game while playing out from the back. If you never lose it here and do the rest right, you'll most likely win the game.

There's a second reason to keep your back four in shape. You can lose the ball in phase 2, and you will: never losing it is a fantasy. When that happens, you want four defenders still in position, not scattered after triggering runs.

Once the ball reaches the midfield line, every pass is L1 + X, or L1 + R1 + X for a longer one. Midfielder to midfielder, midfielder to CAM, winger to CAM: always with L1. Each pass sends the passer running forward, so by the time the ball reaches your striker or CAM, you have midfielders and wingers arriving from deep.

That's the key to the whole method. Without L1, the ball still gets to your striker, but he's alone against four defenders, and that's really hard. With L1 on every pass, two, three or four players arrive at speed and the opponent simply can't cover everyone. In the clips, a midfielder who would never have reached the final third gets there thanks to that run and scores an easy goal.

One rule inside phase 2: if you trigger a midfielder's run, don't play into his zone. Build through another player. The run drags a defender; the space it opens is used somewhere else.

Phase 3 is the consequence of doing the first two right. You get there with your CAM, your striker and a midfielder or winger running, and the defence has to choose who to pick up. From there you can play a Player Lock, take a man on or thread the pass, but only because you arrived with support. A dribble that beats a defender works because someone else is making a run behind him.

• Phase 1 keeps your shape, so a lost ball in phase 2 isn't a goal against.
• Phase 2 turns every pass into a run, so you don't arrive alone.
• Phase 3 gives you options instead of forcing one striker to beat four defenders.

Daniel repeats the idea on purpose, because in his one-to-one sessions a concept needs saying several times to stick. The aim every game: never lose the ball in phase 1, every pass with L1 in phase 2, and when you trigger a run, build through another zone.

This is the starting point of the PMB framework. What happens between receiving and deciding, first touch, tempo, carrying and shielding, is in “First touch and dribbling in FC 27”, in the Basic plan. What to do when you reach the edge of the box and get stuck, moving the ball with no purpose or forcing passes that aren't on, is in the free video “How to create chances in FC 27”. And the five principles behind every attacking decision are in “How to attack in FC 27”.