Defending in FIFA 20 is a lot harder with a larger focus on manual controls, here’s how to get used to that.
Fifa 20 Best Defending Tips
One of the most notable changes players will notice when they pick up FIFA 20 for the first time is just how difficult it is to defend.
EA Sports has made manual defending much more important, as you can no longer rely on the AI to do all the hard work. As legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson once said: “attack wins you games, defence wins you championships.” Here’s how to make sure your team is solid at the back.
Don’t rely on your AI
In FIFA 19, defending was a breeze. You could hold down X/A (contain) or R1/RB (second man press) to have one of your players press the opponent on the ball while the rest of your defenders would maintain a good shape. Now, mindlessly charging with your defenders is not effective; you have to be in control, patient and smart with your defending. In fact, you hardly want to contain or use the second man press at all so you will need to learn how to jockey (L2/LT) effectively instead. More on that later.
Get your tactics and instructions right
In order to gain any advantage you can, it’s crucial you get your tactics right. While you should of course experiment and look to see what suits your style of play, there are a few specific player instructions which will shore up your defence.
Having two CDMs is really useful for screening your backline and you can make your midfielders more effective in doing so by asking them to cut passing lanes. Quick passing moves in FIFA 20 is more difficult, so interceptions will be especially important; though if you’re really struggling you can also instruct your CDMs to drop between your defenders. It’s also recommended that you instruct your wing-backs to stay back when you’re attacking as changes to pace has made counter-attacking lethal in FIFA 20.
How to jockey effectively
Being able to jockey is what will separate good and great players in FIFA 20. Holding down L2/LT will cause your defender to hold his ground, allowing him to either sniff out a pass or simply stop a striker from advancing forward.
If you hold down R2/RT at the same time, your player will fast jockey. This makes your defender move around very quickly and change direction on a dime while still holding back the forward. Holding down both triggers allows you to cover a lot of ground which is very good when looking for interceptions in midfield. But if you want to tackle, you should sprint or fast jockey toward the attacker and then let go of sprint when within tackling range for a more accurate challenge.
Practice your player switching
The absolute key to defending well is selecting the right player and being able to switch quickly. Rather than rely on the automatic switch, try to use the right-stick to manual select the player you want to control; especially when blocking strikers from sprinting in behind.
Though you should also use L1/LB to switch occasionally, especially if you’re looking to close down a player quickly. To help you do this, there is a new setting in player controls called ‘ball relative right stick switching’ which will focus your auto-switching to players closer to the ball.
Make the most of hard tackles
In FIFA 20, you can determine the power of your tackle by holding down the standing tackle button (O/B) or slide tackle button (Square/X).
A full power hard tackle will send your player lunging forward which can be fantastic for closing big gaps, but if you miss then your defender will be completely out of position, making it a risky technique. Instead, two bars of power appears to be the sweet spot where your tackle will still be strong enough to prevent any rebounds but retain some accuracy and positioning.
Fifa 20 Controls For Defending
| ACTION | PLAYSTATION | XBOX / PC |
| Change Player | L1 | LB |
| Switch Player (Manual) | R + direction | RS + direction |
| Tackle/Push or Pull (when chasing) | ◯ | B |
| Sliding Tackle | ▢ | X |
| Clearance | ◯ | B |
| Tackle/Push or Pull/Jockey | L2 (Hold Down) | LT (Hold Down) |
| Contain | X (Press and Hold) | A (Press and Hold) |
| Teammate Contain | R1 (Press and Hold) | RB (Press and Hold) |
| Running Jockey | L2 + R2 (Hold Down) | LT + RT (Hold Down) |
| Pull and Hold (when chasing) | ◯ (Press and Hold) | B (Press and Hold) |
| Quick Get Up (after slide tackle) | ▢ | X |
| Engage Shielding Opponent | L2 + L Towards Dribbler | LT + LS Towards Dribbler |
Your Best Starting XI
Pick up your best defenders from your club for your Starting Line-up. The OVR rating of your defenders says everything about them. Don’t forget that defending (DEF), tackling, pace (PAC) and heading (HEA), physical (PHY) are the key traits for a defender. Choose four or five of your best defenders with the highest rating for your defending line, as for your CB positions, it would be better to choose defenders with better heading and tackling ratings. As for LB/RB, go for defenders with better pace and tackling.
Keep it in mind that your midfielders also could help your defenders. So, choosing midfielders with high DEF stat will improve your defensive skills. Having a few Defensive Midfielders (CDM) in your starting eleven could be a good idea. If you don’t want to have them in your Starting 11, it won’t be bad to keep them on your bench to use them when needed.
Your Best Formation
It really matters how many defenders you have in your defensive line, but what matters more is how you are going to manage your defence when your opponent is attacking your goal. You need to engage not only your defenders but all of your players to prevent receiving goals. Even your strikers should be helping your team on defending when when necessary. This means you need to go for a formation that makes YOU comfortable to block your opponent’s attacks.
4-1-3-2, 4-3-1-2 or 5-3-2 are suggested as defensive formations as these ones are more dynamic to switch between defense and attack mode. But again, you need to find YOUR best formation.
Visit the complete list of formations in FIFA 20, pay attention to the descriptions written for each formation and their counter formations. See which ones suits your team and players -specially when playing FUT.
Turn Your Weakness into a Strength
Once you built up your squad, you need to see how it works and where is your weakness. Go and play offline and online matches – As for online games, it is recommended to play unranked/friendly matches for that purpose.
Pay attentions to your weak points, take note of the ways you concede goals. Whether it is through a header from a cross, or a direct shot, the point is to recognise the holes in your defence for fixing them. Find out what causes you to receive goals, is it a simple mistake or it’s about you defending skills? Write them down and make a checklist of it so you can go through them and fix them one by one. That is a key point for improving your defensive skills.
Win Man-to-man Battles
Try to master every single man-to-man battles you would face. Block your opponent’s dribbling with short tackles, do slide tackles only when you are sure that you’re going to touch the ball not your opponent’s legs.
Being patient is important. Even when your opponent’s attackers running to your goal with more players than your defenders, you do not need to be stressed and confused. The only thing at that moment would help, is your ability to manage the situation. Give your opponent a hard time, make them confused and narrow down their choices. Remember the time is crucial and you need to buy time to ruin their attacks. Focus on man to man battles and do short tackles to the players who have the ball and block off the ball players as well.
Do jockey to get your teammates involved to the situation. Sometimes, you need to just contain other players and go yourself to a player who is off the ball but is in a better situation to score. Sometimes, you actually don’t need to do anything, remember the CPU is controlling your defenders all the time and sometimes it’s doing a better job than you would do! So if you leave them to do the defending by themselves, you might finish up with a better result!
Win the One-on-one Situations
If you happened to have a striker running on the ball towards your goal with only your goalkeeper, you should be able to manage the situation to prevent a goal. The best way to deal with such a situation is to make your opponent confused. As the attacker runs out of time (since most probably your defenders are running back to him), it would be a good solution to make him not come up with a decision. How? Maybe you can bring your goalie forward, but this method doesn’t always work, because the striker can make an easy goal by a simple cheap shot.
So, the point is to make the striker unsure for what he is going to do. I usually bring my goalie halfway out to make striker confused. Most of the times it works. I bring the keeper off the line, but not very far from the goal post, so my opponent thinks that I’m gonna bring him all the way to go to his legs, so he makes a choice by either having a strong shot or a cheap shot – which usually neither of them is successful as my goalie isn’t far from the goal.
