EA FC 26 Basic Gameplay Changes For Different Positions: Making Your Character Controls Feel Even Better!
Posted: Aug 16, 2025 Views: 140
As you know, FC 26 still consists of multiple modes, such as Ultimate Team, Career Mode, and more. These modes can generally be roughly categorized into Competitive and Authentic styles based on their primary style.
Regardless of which style, playing a match inevitably requires you to control your players on the field, adapting them to their positions and roles. Your skill with these controls often determines your chances of victory.
Beyond that, ensuring the game runs smoothly once you start a match and allows you to perform the desired actions well is also crucial - both are essential.
To help you better interact with the game, EA FC 26 has optimized the basic gameplay across the entire game, categorized by different on-pitch roles. We'll explain these changes below.
Dribbling And Movement
When your player moves on the field, their specific movements will differ depending on whether they're dribbling with the ball or not, but in any case, you want them to appear as quick and agile as possible.
To this end, FIFA 26 first adjusted relative speeds, addressing issues with players' actions are slow and heavy while ensuring the fastest players deliver performance commensurate with their stats.
As for dribbling, FIFA 26 introduces new Dynamic Dribbling. By improving your players' ball control, you'll experience faster in-game responsiveness and more consistent dribbling. Specific adjustments include:
- Dribble Touch Intervals
- Player Height
- Foot Preference
- Dribbling Animation
- Jog Dribble
- Effort Dribble Touches
It's important to note that mechanic optimizations are only one aspect of the game, a player's speed caps are still determined by their base stats. Therefore, if you want truly speedy players, the most direct way is to redeem them for FIFA 26 coins.
Goalkeeper Changes
Because goalkeepers are more consistent than other positions, FUT 26's improvements focus on positioning, blocking positions, and appearance during blocking. Specific improvements include:
- Deflection Control
- Goalkeeper Senses
- Technical Improvements
Another notable goalkeeper update is the introduction of Reinforcement-Learning Goalkeeper Positioning system. This system leverages machine learning to make more reliable decisions for AI-controlled goalkeepers.
Overall, these updates will ensure your goalkeeper's performance is more consistent and reliable, reducing the likelihood of conceding goals and providing a more realistic football experience.
Defending
EA FC 26's improvements to defensive roles focus on addressing issues with tackling, intercepting, and blocking. As you play in-game, you'll be able to recover the ball faster and more accurately, through well-timed tackles or anticipated passes.
- Tackle Outcomes
- Shot Blocks
- Interceptions
- Tackled Opponents
- Tackle Spam
- Tackle vs. Block
- Tackles From Behind
- Tackle Personality
Passing And Shooting
In soccer, the ideal way to score is often through a series of smooth passes followed by a precise, powerful shot from a key player. However, in virtual FC games, slow passes or shots can sometimes lead to missed goals.
Based on player feedback, FC 26 has prioritized passing by making adjustments to the following core mechanics to ensure that passing is as responsive as possible, especially on first attempts.
- Passing Angles
- Faster Animations
- Passes Behind
- Quick Passes
- Pass Receiver
- Crosses
- Ground Passes
- Goalkeeper Throws
As for shooting, the game've enhanced the fairness and success rate of shooting actions by enhancing responsiveness, ensuring that when you ask your player to shoot, the shot is quick and predictable.
Attacking And Defensive Positioning
FUT 26 will ensure all players are able to make more runs at any time through more fluid attacking and more solid and logical defensive positioning, providing more support during your progression. For example:
Attacking Positioning
- Player Support: Provides better support options for the ball carrier.
- Attacking Runs: Changes have been made to the attacking run logic.
- Balanced Build Up: A more balanced approach is adopted, providing run options and close support options.
- Offside Runs: Improves attackers' ability to stay offside and their speed in returning after being offside.
Defending Positioning
- Player Marking: Defenders will mark opponents as they approach and enter the penalty area.
- Defensive Line Height: The defensive line will no longer automatically push upwards when attempting to prevent a player from moving offside.
Physicality Upgrade
In addition to technical ability, physicality is also an important factor in evaluating players and influencing match outcomes. Better physicality allows for more effective ball protection and control.
EA Sports FC 26 introduces a new update focused on improving the consistency of the shield button, allowing you to protect the ball by bumping the opposing defender with your shoulder, whether you're receiving, controlling, or dribbling.
Specific shielding improvements include:
- Shield Trapping
- Shield Dribbling
- Shield Entries
Shield Entries adds multiple ways to perform a onetime shield action while moving, allowing your players to quickly get in front of opponents and then burst through, or initiate a shield action when the opponent is out of position. Detailed adjustments include:
- Dribbling Shoulder Challenges: New shielding moves that allow your players to better protect the ball while dribbling.
- Physics: Improved physics for both shield holders and shield recipients.
- New Animations: Added new animations for various actions.
- Enforcer PlayStyle: Added new animations for players with the relevant PlayStyle.
First Touches
To prevent unsatisfactory first touches caused by players being slow or dropping into opponents' feet, FIFA 26 introduces changes to the following mechanics:
- First Touch Responsiveness: Significantly improves the responsiveness of first touch controls.
- Ball Control: Improves a player's ability to control the ball after a pass or interception to maintain possession.
- First Touch Precision: Increases ball control at the expense of a player's movement speed.
- Flick Ups: Improves the flick action in all directions when receiving an aerial ball, making it more consistent and predictable.
- Loose and Contested Balls Player Urgency: Increases the urgency players feel when attempting to reach a loose ball or contested ball.
That's all for you today. While these changes may not be obvious in the game, they will elevate your overall experience by several levels! So stay tuned for the official release of FC 26!
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