With Team of the Season Promo Event underway, the best attackers are out and they are more dangerous than ever. So now is the time to learn how to stop them. With these 3 powerful defensive tips, you will defend like a pro and stop even the best opponents!

Anticipate Defensive Decisions When Opponent Touches The Ball

Let’s start with the defensive decisions you make based on your opponent’s touches on the ball. When your opponent is dribbling, every touch on the ball indicates what your opponent might do in the next step. So there are a few things you need to do before making an aggressive defensive move.

First, watch your opponent’s movements, try to analyze what he is doing, and at the same time, put yourself in a suitable position. If you want to be in an excellent position, stand in front of your opponent and then look for the best opportunity to make a tackle. You can do this by using Jockey and Sprint Jockey mechanics to stay in front of your opponent and then press L2 button.

By just holding L2 button, you can put your player into a defensive stance, slowing him down. But this will make his defensive presence stronger to recover the ball, which we call a Jockey.

Combined with R2 button, you can increase your speed while maintaining this Jockey stance, so that you can cover a wider space in a shorter time, which we call Sprint Jockey.

In this position, the pass is coming towards the attacker. Since he has a teammate on the left, he can actually pass the ball there, or he can try to pass it to me multiple times at a moment with his currently selected player. This is also where I have to see what he does next, and this will be visible the next time he touches the ball.

Either way, I have to put my selected player in an excellent position. So after seeing him touch the ball, I jockey towards his running lane. His behavior indicates that he will sprint forward, so I will not hesitate to make an aggressive tackle to him and recover the ball.

Determining the opponent’s true intentions will allow you to make appropriate challenges. So, whenever you see your opponent sticking to an idea, don’t hesitate to respond to it with your own defensive moves.

Another important decision is not to get stuck on one player. When defending, the opponent cannot play with you for a while, and you can easily lose the advantage with one of her defenders. This is where you have to use Player Switching mechanic, using L1 or the right analog stick, and switch to the player who can defend your opponent’s next move. Therefore, it is crucial to spend some FC 24 Coins to upgrade your players.

Advanced Defending

After learning how to watch your opponent touch the ball, you can use special methods to stop your opponent and steal the ball back.

FC 24 introduces a new defending option that you can enable in the settings, called Advanced Defending. Now you can use X button in defense to make more intense physical challenges against attackers.

Note that it is very important not to hold down X button all the time. You only need to use it at the right time to make the best challenge.

You have to be slightly ahead of your opponent and need a chance to put yourself between the ball and the attacker walking towards the running lane, and then pressing X button can do this. Your positioning is very important. Before executing this mechanic, make sure you are close enough to your opponent and have a direct physical challenge opportunity.

In this example, I see that the opponent is moving up the side, and the important thing here is to use Sprint button to get close to him. When we get close to him, hold down the X button and try to make a physical impact on him. He will continue dribbling after recovering, but after the second touch, I hold down the X button again, which completely makes the attacker disappear.

Slide Tackle

Last but by no means least is Slide Tackle. It is severely underrated, in my opinion. If you know how to use Slide Tackle, you can grab the ball in extreme situations before you get to the tricky parts.

I must warn you that using Slide Tackle casually is not the right way to go. Sliding from behind or not catching the ball at the best angle will mostly make you fail and you will end up receiving an unnecessary card.

The way I use Slide Tackle is simple. I will keep an eye out for opportunities that are created when the opponent over-commits to running. There is a specific rule, once you realize that the opponent is over-committing to an opportunity, always set your feet first and position yourself. You can then quickly change your approach and perform a light tackle.

Slide Tackle is a more aggressive move, and therefore, you need to be accurate in the direction of the ball. But this play style may have a slight impact because it allows you to animate at a faster speed.

In this example, I tried to catch the opponent from behind. However, if I Slide Tackle too early, I won’t be able to succeed and my opponent will either get rid of me or I will commit a foul. So after seeing that he didn’t change direction, we need to run to the same level. I point to the ball and press the square button, which not only allows me to intercept my opponent, but also recover the ball and start my attack.

In short, analyzing the opponent and defending against specific meta mechanisms are crucial to completely defeating the opponent. So, are you ready to become a shield wall with these methods? Good luck!