If you are passionate about playing FIFA 11 and want to win more matches, you should improve your defending skills. That’s because even if you are good at attacking game like ‘pass through’, ‘spike’, ‘free kick’ etc., you don’t want to lose 5:4, but win 2:0 or 1:0.

So please pay more attention to defensive playing style than attacking, but you must be good enough to score goals in the first place because this article is about defending and not attacking.

Defensive Play Style You Must Master:

1. Stand your ground and let the opponent make a mistake. Because if you get in his way and don’t give him room to run, he may miss a pass or panic and shoot early. This does not mean that you should stand still and do nothing, but rather that you should anticipate your opponent’s move and make your move to go in the line of his run.

2. When the attacker is close to you, press B (Note: the keys mentioned here are not keyboard settings, but xbox controller keys, so use the appropriate keys you set for your keyboard) to attack, here the timing is important. You have to be at the right distance to make the entrance. If you’re new and not sure about the timing and everything, tap B like 2-3 times when your opponent is close to you.

3. Follow the attacker by pressing A+RT and press LT at the right time as in the case of the previous step. You have to practice and find the right moment for these tackles. But don’t use too much sprint (RT) + A, or you may lose too much energy too fast. So use it appropriately and effectively.

4. You can block your opponents’ moves by pressing LT and RT constantly, which will help you avoid crossing and passing. This is jockey. This can also be used when you know your opponent is going to use “ball deep”. All you have to do is give control to the defending player near your opponent who has started running forward and press LT to catch up with that attacker.

5. You can ask your other defender or nearby player to join you on defense by pressing B and holding it. You have to get it right before your opponent gets close to you, otherwise the player near you won’t have enough time to block the attacker. Use this sparingly, because you are creating some open space by calling other players near you and if you do it wrong you may pay the price as your opponent can use that open space to pass or move towards your objective.

6. Last but not least, the slide rig. It can save your team in desperate times but again, you have to use it at the right time. Press X to do a sliding tackle. Do not attack the player or slide on him while doing so. Try to aim the ball and anticipate and then make a sliding tackle. As they say, the sliding tackle can be spectacular if you do it at the right time, or else you may be looking at the ref giving you a yellow or red card.

That is all for now. Enjoy defending and playing fair.

To update:

You can try using different keys to see how the game responds. One I found to defend in FIFA 11 works well for me but requires some practice to master.