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this is why your defending completely breaks on FC 26. we are in may and players are still unable to defend. and i will be honest, defending in this game is harder than ever because you will concede goals. that's normal. but most of you are conceding way more than you should and it comes down to one thing. you don't understand defensive positioning. positioning does not mean never touching your CBs and just running back with your midfielders. if you do that you are literally removing players from your defensive structure. your midfielders are a part of your defense. you can't just drag them out and expect your backline to survive. i have seen players taking their midfielder and running behind their own defensive line. that's completely wrong. positioning is about reading the situation. most commonly you will face a 4-4-1-1. on a counter they have left mid, right mid, camp, striker. you have 4 defenders. so what do you do in that situation? first rule. do not step out blindly with your CBs. you only step when the opponent is isolated. and don't randomly pull your fullbacks either. that's how you break shape. what most of you do instead is panic and spam in circle. that's your first big mistake. you are pressing circle at the wrong time in order to get a tackle. and we will come back to tackling in a second. your priorities while defending are simple. first, mark the dangerous through ball. second, keep your shape. third, apply pressure. not the other way around. also, stop overtracking runs. trust your structure. now let's talk about the second biggest issue. second man pressing. most of you are holding R1 without even realizing it. and every time you do that, you are pulling players out of position and creating gaps for your opponent. second man press is a tool. not something you spam. you use it in short 2-3 second bursts when you want to apply pressure while you control the passing lane. you don't use it randomly and just keep holding it for the sake of holding it. next mistake, sprinting everywhere. i see so many players just holding R2 and running around. that's not defending. when you are closing space, you use L2 plus that's sprint jockey. it allows you to adjust distance quickly without losing control. but here is the problem. most of you overhold the sprinting button and lose control completely. your goal is to make sure you are not diving in. your goal is to control the space. when you get close, slow it down. just L2 stay composed. and if you are watching this and thinking i understand this but i can't apply it consistently, that's exactly what we fix inside the fc26 insider's club. we don't just talk about what to do. we break down your gameplay, fix your habits and build your defending step by step so it actually becomes automatic. if you are serious about improving, the link is in the description. player switching. this is where most of you struggle. you don't only use right stick. you don't only use L1. you use both. but most of your switches should be right stick because it allows you to select players further away and control danger earlier. and this is the biggest difference between good and bad defenders. bad defenders react. good defenders anticipate. if you can read what your opponent is about to do, you are already ahead. most players are doing the same thing. they trigger runs, play into the striker and look for a through ball. your job as a defender is to memorize this attacking pet run. don't fall for it. either step early with your center back to pressure the striker before he turns or switch wide and track the run. that decision comes from anticipation. and finally tackling. most of you are tackling without thinking. we don't just press circle randomly. and this is where most of you go wrong. you are tackling without understanding why you are tackling. a tackle is not something you throw out hoping it works. a tackle is the final step after you have already done everything right. if your positioning is wrong, your tackle will always be late. if your distance while tackling is way too much, your tackle will always miss. so instead of thinking when do i press circle, start thinking have i earned the tackle. look at the opponent. if he's having a ball contact or not. whenever the ball is further away from his feet, that is the best time to press tackle. most of you are in a rush to win the ball back. that's your mistake. you think defending means i need to win the ball right now. no. defending is i need to stop him from creating a chance and i have to force him out wide. there is a big difference. sometimes the best defending is just standing there blocking options. marshalling with your defenders. if you delay your opponent long enough, two things happen. your team recovers shape. your opponent makes a mistake. and that's when you win the ball easily. so stop rushing. be comfortable. so let me simplify everything for you into one system. every time you defend, think in this order. where is the danger? who do i need to control? do i delay or do i step? am i in the position to tackle? if you follow this, your defending will instantly improve. another thing, most of you don't lose because your defending is bad. you lose because your mentality breaks after conceding. you concede one goal and suddenly you panic, you rush, you over commit, you forget everything. defending is heavily mental. if you stay calm, you will defend better. if you panic, you will collapse. simple as that. i know i know what you're thinking. king sunny i have seen you spam team pressure. well yes guys. team pressing is an important part of this game but so many players get it wrong. i'll make it simple for you. i play a very high depth but still you have to use team pressing. whenever it's a four versus four situation like 4v4, we want to use a team pressing okay. in this area when the opponent is in this area here okay. we want to use a team pressing. now i will draw a pink box. let me draw a pink box for you. this in this pink box we will use team pressing whenever the opponent is in this area. but you also have to manually turn it off. when do you turn off team pressing? you turn off team pressing once the opponent goes back in this blue area okay. this blue box here. that is when you are going to turn off team pressing. because team pressing you have to turn it off manually. and when you are team pressing, you have to control players. as you can see i am controlling my center back because the opponent is making this darting run. and i am using second man pressure to bring this cm back guys. this is how you defend. we are still respecting the rules of positioning. if we just rely on team pressure, we will not be able to defend the ball back consistently guys. as you can see this is the 4v4 situation i was talking about. and our opponent defends really well. what is the good thing he does over here? and this is something you guys have to add in your game as well. he notices that i am isolated and i am trying to run through. so what does he do? he does a full commit. over here he uses the seal out mechanic which is x plus x. he presses and holds the x button to perform a seal out. so whenever you feel like the opponent is isolated, that is the best moment to step. so many players are super passive to a point where they don't step. if you don't step out on this game, you are going to struggle defensively. and don't worry we will do a team pressing endgame tutorial as well guys.