FIFA 16: damage the lobbed
AI defence now tracks potential through balls much more, which I think will damage the lobbed through balls to Aubameyang/Sturridge/InsertPaceHere which has been the modus operandi of winning in FUT for quite some time. This places an even greater emphasis on manually defending with one or two CDMs (always go with two) and letting your CBs and fullbacks organise themselves 90% of the time.
Crossing doesn't seem to be OP in the way in which it was for FIFA 14, but fut16coin feel it has the potential to be OP for those who can time a good cross consistently. I think this is a happy medium between 15 and 14 that will reward those who learn how to master crossing.
We will all be using 'passing with purpose' this year, a lot. I've realised that it makes up for many of those infuriatingly weak balls to obvious teammates. However, you have to use a mixture of regular passes and powerful ones, as whilst decent players seem to receive these passes with little hassle, opponent AI is very quick to intercept anything too speculative. This, I'm hoping, is something that if employed effectively will be the key to winning this year, instead of pace - imagine that!
No touch dribbling... No use dribbling. Sorry EA, it's a great idea but I just won't be using this in any offline modes, the jury is obviously still out on whether it will be useful online, though.
Shooting feels different, I would say it feels more 'authentic' but I honestly can't tell whether that's because it is or because it's some sort of confirmation bias as I knew they said they were tweaking it this year.
Overall, this iteration's gameplay should hopefully swing gameplay strategies back towards those of the football purists and away from the arcade-style obsession with pace that has dominated the game for FIFA 16 Ultimate Team coins. If the updates to passing and defender AI can do this, this will be a really good year to be a FIFA player.
TL;DR - Imagine if 13 year old youtube comments read 'omg look at his passing' instead of 'pace', this new dawn may soon be upon us.
