Let me guess, you are struggling in your attacking build up, find it hard to get chances against settled defenses and complain about it. And then you see professional players like Tex, who makes it look so easy to score goals with his build up.

Have you ever wondered why you are not able to do the same thing well? Then, probably, you are doing very easy mistakes in the attack that you need to avoid.

In this guide, we are going to show you what we’re doing wrong in your offense and how to fix them so that you can get one step closer to the elite level.

Sprinting Too Much

Sprinting is one of the essential mechanics and seems really nice. It makes you go faster and allows you to reach the opposition goal in a shorter time.

However, there’s a big downside to that, especially in tighter spaces. Like in the center of the Midfield, sprinting can most likely hurt you. Because whenever you’re holding on to a sprinting button while dribbling, this will push the ball further away from your player after you contact the ball. That means there will be a longer time between two ball contacts and this will make you have a burst of control over the ball.

In the meantime, you are not alone in the pitch, especially in the Midfield, which is crowded. There will be opposition players selected or not. You have to respect their presence because the opposition can easily switch to them and then get the ball away from you if you sprint too much.

Here, my opponent thinks he can go down the wing. As soon as he receives the ball, and he starts to sprint forward. However, I have an equally fast Defender, who can reach him and make my way exactly in his running lane. But he won’t stop.

As I reach out to him, he tries to change the direction while still running just because he has a bad control over the ball. I retrieve the ball easily and stop him from being dangerous. In these kinds of scenarios, you can run as long as you have a free space in front of you. However, if you see one Defender approaching you towards your running lane, you should be able to stop yourself.

Ball Roll is a great tool to achieve this, and it is executed very easily by every player. Simply, let go of your sprinting button and push your right analog stick towards either one of the sides and you will see how it works.

As an example here, I know if I sprint more and push the ball one more step ahead, I see that the opponent will reach out to it. So, I quickly stop myself with the ball roll, deny the Defender, pass the ball inside, and score the goal. 

Observing The Defender

We see it’s about having it Defender in front of you or not, which brings us to the next point.

Like I previously mentioned, you’re not playing this game alone and the opposition player is going to react defensively while you’re attacking. If you don’t take a look at what he’s doing in his defense, you can easily lose the ball. So, you need to control their surroundings.

There are a couple of questions to be answered while you have the ball. Who is selected in the opposition defense? What does he do? Is he trying to pressure you or is he trying to get himself between your player and a potential pass receiver?

If you try to momentarily think about these questions, take a look at the selected Defender and analyze his behavior. Then, you can decide for your next move accordingly. What I see the most about cases is that the players carelessly pass around without observing. Because you can press the passing button. It doesn’t mean you have to. 

If you’re not under any pressure, ask yourself why. Because most probably your opponent has already selected the Defender and he tries to cover the obvious passing lane. In this case, you don’t need the pass the ball. You can still dribble further. However, if you pass, you will lose the ball.

Under pressure, you can pass the ball to a direction you are facing. But right afterwards, if the next passing lane is covered, don’t pass and hold on to the ball. 

If you see another passing opportunity, then but within a short time, the opponent reacts to it as well. Don’t pass the ball to there. You’re still walking freely. No pressure towards your player. No need to pass the ball.

As I go on a counterattack, I need to watch the Defender’s intention. Since I see that he’s trying to control my Striker’s running lane, I don’t pass the ball to him and get the ball towards the lower side to my wing back, pushing the ball a bit forward. But again, the Defender reacts to it. So, I dodge him with a ball roll, take the ball back, and pass it towards the free Midfielder, who has a direct passing lane to the Striker.

However, I see that my opponent switches back to his Defender. So, it will be hard for me to do something with the Striker. But passing it the first time to his teammate allows me to score an easy goal. 

Unnecessary Skill Moves 

The next topic is a special one for me since I use skill moves a lot during my build up.

However, that doesn’t mean skill moves can be used randomly. They need to be used to dodge the pressuring Defenders or create better passing and shooting opportunities. 

That means every single one of them has to have a purpose and the meaning. If you execute them randomly, they will slow you down. And most importantly, they will make you vulnerable, especially in the Midfield. Don’t force yourself to use a skill move unless there is a meaning to it.

Here’s one example to it. The player with the blue shirts gets the ball in the Midfield and gets back around dodging the Defender in the first attempt. Then, it gets two simple passing options, but decides to go for an unnecessary one versus one with the Midfielder and executes a step over while the Defender comes at him.

There was no need. Not only breaking your build up but using the ball like this can also create a danger in the back. Use the skill modes in your Arsenal to counter the defensive moves of the opponent. That way, they will actually get a meaning and you can get the most out of them.

As I’m attacking down the wing, I want to beat the Defender. What is the most obvious play that I can do here? Pas the ball towards the player, who makes a run inside? Does the opponent see that? Yes. So, I need a skill move that will fake the first move towards there and get the ball immediately towards the other side so that I could beat the Defender. 

I found my purpose. So, what is that skill move? Elastico. I executed full the Defender and now have a better angle to pass, which ends up with a simple goal. 

Indecisiveness 

Let’s say you paid attention to what we had in the previous points: worked hard and got yourself close to the opposition's goal. 

Unfortunately, the next big mistake is there you don’t embrace the goal scoring opportunity. Instead, you play another safe pass or dribble away from the goal in fear of making a mistake. If you’re doing that, you are your own worst enemy. 

Do not be afraid of taking the responsibility once see the opportunity in front of you. If you don’t encourage yourself and are afraid of the failure, you will never know if the move is going to work out and maybe skip a really good goal scoring opportunity. Because you think going away from it is much safer.

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples. Here, as the buildup evolves, the player finds himself in a very good chance to create an opportunity. He can turn towards the goal and will be undefended if he does that. 

However, he can’t decide for it or maybe fears that it won’t work out and execute a skill to move away from the goal. In a position where he would have a crucial goal scoring opportunity, he denies himself of that because of the indecisiveness.

Don’t do it. Try to find the most little gap in the defense and don’t be afraid to push yourself. For example, it is very easy here to pass the ball back just because it’s safer. But then noticing that the opponent hasn’t switched back to his Defender yet to confront the receiver and telling yourself alright he hasn’t switched yet. 

That is why I will explore the gap right next to him with an accelerating skill move, such as a step over and see if I can manage to find an angle to shoot. That is how you need to think. Even if it’s a short time, observe, see the defensive gap, make up your mind, and executed it. Nobody will bite you, I promise.

Poor Finishing Setups

Last but not least, for finishing setups, the most common reason for this is that the players rush towards the end with panic.

Even if you remain patient while building up and take your time towards the Box, sometimes you can’t stay calm and lose yourself to the urgency of scoring a goal as soon as possible and deny yourself from having a good shot on the goal.

This mostly happens when you don’t control the ball clearly towards the purpose. If you don’t give the ball a direction beforehand, you might not create the optimal setup. One other common reason for the poor setups is that the players face away from the goal before they shoot with pressure coming from the Defenders. And these will reduce the accuracy of the shots incredibly.

In these cases, you need to stay calm and follow these steps. While the ball is traveling, take a look at the Defenders, who might block the shot. Analyze their positioning and, from the previous experience in the same match, understand their potential behavior. Take a clean touch on the ball to control it at the right angle. The most optimal touch on the ball is towards the direction, which leads away from the Defender and also creates a shooting angle towards the goal. Right afterwards, aim cleanly with your left analog stick towards the corner and power it up when the ball is kinda away from your feet.

Sometimes, you need to dodge multiple Defenders. Here, even if I dodge one of them and took the ball cleanly, another one approached me from the other side. And just because I wanted to shoot in front of the goal, I made a mistake and went for the wrong corner, which was covered by him and the shot got blocked.

In another situation, as the ball is traveling, I follow the rules again. I see that the Defenders are a bit closer towards the near Corner. Since the ball is coming from that side, I check my other side to see if there is anyone that could crash me from that side and see that it’s free. 

So, only using the left analog stick, I cleanly take the ball away from the defender and create a shooting angle towards the far post. Before the Defender was able to react to it, I powered up the shot and scored the goal. 

Trust me, if you get rid of these problems, you are miles ahead of other players, you will be a much better Attacker and you will get instant results. If you have enough FUT 23 Coins, I also recommend you to purchase some powerful players to join your team, so that you will be more invincible.