Hi folks,

I'm a long time FIFA player so I think i understood the basic concepts of FIFA. But Tactical Defending is just a mystery to me. I think its useful against an opponent that likes to pass a lot but since most of the people i play against are very good at dribbling its terrible! The only way to get the ball is to press B, which is rarely succesfull since the defender just takes a very slow step towards the ball, or to basicelly walk your player direclty ON the ball while holding LT. But this seems to be impossible against an opponent who changes direction and uses skill moves all the time.you just never get close enough. In FIFA 11 you could apply pressure by holding down A but i just cant find a way to pressure somebody who is dribbling the ball for a long time in FIFA 12. By pressing A i just contain the opponent but the defender wont apply any actual pressure. So how the hell can I actually take the ball away from the opponent instead of just waiting for him to do a bad pass. Any suggestions would be very welcome since I really want to get a hang of it.

Use B only when you are certain you can make the tackle. Position yourself to take away shooting and passing opportunities. Defense is about positioning and patience.

@iMort: Yes i know that but what if the opponent just doesnt pass and dribbles towards your goal with one player.this was very effective in FIFA 11 but you could use A to make it a little harder. But it seems there is nothing you can do against that in FIFA 12 since if its 1 on 1 the defender just has nothing to effectively take away the ball.

if ur having problems adjusting u can still switch to legacy defending which is the old system

unless ur only playing online that is

@soli: Yes but then you are not allowed to play ranked matches.and also i kind of want to learn it. I mean they put it in for a reason. I just dont understand how they intended tactical defending to be used...

yeah ive been having problems with it too, sometimes its just impossible to prevent goals i guess we need more match practice :P

@chan05 said:

@iMort: Yes i know that but what if the opponent just doesnt pass and dribbles towards your goal with one player.this was very effective in FIFA 11 but you could use A to make it a little harder. But it seems there is nothing you can do against that in FIFA 12 since if its 1 on 1 the defender just has nothing to effectively take away the ball.

Your best chance really is to keep yourself between him and the goal. Defenders are very good at blocking shots. Have you tried holding RB to have another defender pressure as well?

@iMort: Yes i tried that but as far as i know the second defender also just tries to contain the opponent player instead of actually trying to take away the ball. Which is weird since in FIFA 11 when you called a second defender by pressing B the defender actaully treid to take away the ball...

Good tip for you is to let the cpu AI defend the player in possession of the ball and while your controlling player nearby cut off any possible close passes and gradually creep in on him. The advantage of letting the cpu defend against the guy on the ball is that they will stay with them and quite often make the tackle so you dont have to worry about your timing. Another way is when your holding A and containing the player with the ball hold rb to bring in a second defender that will apply pressure to the player with the ball.

Its all about patience and letting the attacker lose their patience before you and making a mistake

@kist: thanks for the tips. ill try this out

I stay in front of them and wait for them to run into me. If not, if they're on a straight run I just run into them. Try that out, it works for me.

If you really want to, when they get in your half you can also hit select, this takes you to play as the goalkeeper and sets your defenders to all be AI and they are pretty damn effective at tackling, just make sure you don't move your goalie out like a madman.

It took me a while to figure it out and lost looooooads in pre season, but when defending you should remember to jockey the attacker first and when you have them in a good place make your tackle and you should be a lot more successful.

I know your pain, got my ass handed to me twice today 0-3, and 0-2. Its extremely frustrating, but i know that once i learn, it will be awesome.