As I usually do in FIFA, I recommend starting off by doing the skill games to learn the game if you need to, or to get used to any changes outside a match scenario. There are only two trophies for skill games, and you can get them both in the basic skill games by getting an 'A' in them all, but if you want or need to, play the rest of the skill games. You may as well do the easy trophies you can unlock in the menu (note that you must be connected to the servers to get them). Buy and gift an item, share an activity and watch a video for a few trophies. Press RB/R1 while passing, meanwhile, and you’ll deliver a quicker ‘bullet pass’, zipping the ball along the turf. Squeeze LT/L1 and you can maneuver your player around the ball without touching it, shielding possession or selling the opposition a dummy.
You should have a “maestro” just like Andrea Pirlo has been for years in the Italian national team or in AC Milan and Juventus, and you should have him covered with one faster player and one more physical, so you can properly build up a good offensive maneuver and defend as the God of football teaches us all. In the past, your youth players would only grow once per month – on 1st May. This meant that if they quit the academy before 1st May, you’d lose an entire year’s worth of growth. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case, as youth players now grow month-to-month just like first team players. Keep checking back, because I’ll be looking at this in much more depth in a future part of my FIFA 16 scouting guide. When it comes to picking a scout, there are two different criteria on which they are rated: experience and judgment. These can have a huge impact on the quality and quantity of youth players your scout discovers.
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To carry the sports metaphor further, all eyes fall on the betting favorite after such a startling blow, especially when a fickle crowd turns and cheers the underdog. After PES 2015 arrived, players of both games wondered if the big goals routinely scored in FIFA 15 were truly earned. FIFA 16 responds with a longtime pro's self-confidence, never too proud to shape up the softer parts of its game, and committed to winning on fundamentals, not reputation. It all starts with a strong upgrade to the intelligence of all computer-controlled players, teammate and opponent alike. And to offset the lightning-quick likes of Ronaldo and Messi, a new swing-step animation prevents them getting easily turned.
This feeds through to the crossing system: previously, wingers needed only sprint to the byline and launch a box-bound hit-and-hoper, but with more nimble blockers able to goad wingers using dummy tackles and immediately regain their feet after a slide, they’re now more of a contest. It’s remarkable how transformative a few small changes can be-like tightening a string on a piano and changing the whole tune. The only time I play a regular cross is if I spot an unmarked team-mate in space who I wouldn’t be able to find with a low or ground cross. If that’s the case I press the long pass button once, selecting the right amount of power to clear the defenders between the target player and the ball, but that’s always after I’ve got in behind a full-back and into the box with a winger first.
So important, it’s the first entry in the list. Sprinting reduces pass accuracy, and makes your players easier to tackle. Until there’s a specific opportunity to inject a burst of pace, it’s much, much easier to maintain possession if you walk with the ball. Once you get into a rhythm, you can frustrate an opponent who favours a high-intensity pressure game (so: approximately 97.2% of all Ultimate Team adversaries) with a simple pass-and-move approach, largely because walking players aren’t tracked as aggressively by the AI assistance that can transform defending teams into swarms of homing missiles.
If you have enough space on the wings then when you knock it past them and get to top speed you’ll leave them behind unless they’re really fast themselves like Alba, Walker or Roberto Carlos. Most other left and right backs will not be able to combat this though and that’s what makes it so effective. Next time you turn on your consoles you want to give this a try.
