I personally think FIFA 14 is a definite step up from previous versions, due to its improvements in realism. For first touches, I usually let go off the sprint button, which I find diminishes the chance of a bad first touch. Once you know when to press the sprint button (if there is space that you can attack etc.) and when you need to pass it (if your player is under pressure), I find you don’t even notice first touches anymore or even any of the other aspects which seemed unusual, when you first purchased the game.
While for dribbling, I find that by turning on analogue sprint (in controller settings) it gives you more control when you have the ball and greater freedom when sprinting/ dribbling, with regards to the speed of the dribble. Moreover, I’ve been using skills much more in FIFA 14, in comparison with previous versions of FIFA, where I would only use step over’s/ feints/ fake shots. As they seem more effective in this edition.
For opponents who use long through balls for every attack, I’m more selective on when to pressure their players; to make sure I do not leave any gaps in my defence, as if you pressure excessively, long through ball players will usually pick you off after a while. I also use manual player switching to manually control my defence to cover any space left behind my defence, when I think opponents are going to use long through balls etc. Hence, this means that they cannot exploit any space between the goalkeeper and the defence. However, there are rare occasions where the defenders seem to not react to through balls, which you can’t do much about.
This is a similar problem with the occasional cross, where it doesn’t allow you to select a defender when the opponent crosses the ball (mainly from corners) but on the whole if you’re quick enough you can deal with crosses comfortably by getting your defender in front of the attacker or just by repetitively pressing the clear button.
Anyway, hope some of these tips can be of use, to anyone having trouble with FIFA 14.
