While EA Sports FC 26’s AI-controlled players aren’t awful by default, if you’re looking to get the upper hand against your opponent in Ultimate Team’s Rivals or Champions game modes, you’ll most likely want to implement some custom tactics and player instructions. These essentially give you a greater level of control over your player’s behaviors on the pitch, as well as how your team will typically play when both on and off the ball. In this guide, I’ll run you through how to set custom tactics and player instructions in EA FC 26.
How to Set Custom Tactics in EA FC 26
Determine How Your Team Builds Up and Defends
As mentioned above, setting custom tactics isn’t just about choosing the formation. It’s also about how your team plans to build up when they’ve got the ball, and how they will attempt to defend when they’re without it.
To access custom tactics in Ultimate Team, go to your Squad page and press L3 to access the ‘Team Management’ menu on the left side of the screen and then go to ‘Tactics.’
This is also the same menu where you can change your Ultimate Team’s Squad name. In other game modes, you need to access the ‘Tactics’ screen to reach the Custom Tactics and Players Instructions screens from the mode’s main menu.
From here, you’ll then be given the ability to adjust your team’s formation, build-up style, and defensive style. The build-up style should be based on how you typically like to play. If you enjoy short passing, then select short passing. If you like to try and catch your opponent off guard, then the counterattack option is the one you’ll want.
Defensive approach determines things like how deep your defensive players will drop, and which runs they track. A balanced approach is typically the default, but if you feel your team has the work rate, strength, and stamina for it, opting for the ‘Press After Possession Loss’ approach means your players will relentlessly chase down the ball until they’ve regained possession. This does mean that they’re likely to be pulled out of position, though, so be prepared for the ball over the top.
Ultimately, the formation, build-up style, and defensive approach you choose will depend on your players and your preferred playing style.
How to Change Player Instructions in EA FC 26
Get Granular With Your Players
If giving general team instructions isn’t enough, player instructions let you really dig into how each player is going to operate in your team. This, combined with setting custom tactics, is the best way to really get your team ticking. To do this, when you’re in the ‘Tactics’ menu, press RB on Xbox or R1 on PlayStation to tab over to the Player Instructions screen.
From here, select the player that you want to assign instructions to. You can now change their role and focus both with and without the ball (use the right stick to toggle between the two). You can see how your instructions adjust how your team’s set up to play below your lineup, with ticks showing what benefits the setup brings, and yellow exclamation points outlining weaknesses. The diagram to the right of them also shows the strengths and weaknesses of the overall approach in a more visual form.
Using player instructions is a great way to play to a player’s strengths. For example, if you have a fast striker, you might want to use the ‘Get in Behind’ to exploit slower defenses and create more chances.