Personal Setting

What is mentality?
It influences how a player performs on the pitch, if he is attacking he will look to take part in more actions that help the ball move forward and to look for goal scoring chances. If he is defensive, he will take less risks, his actions will be guided by him trying to keep possession and to look for less risky passes.

Mentality also affects positions of players. The only players there is no positional effect on are the DCs.

What is closing down?
The higher the closing down, the closer to the opposing goal your player does the job of reducing space on the AI.


What is tempo
The higher your tempo the quicker they will move the ball around

Do I have to use slow tempo for a short passing game
Tempo just sets the tone of how you want to play you can play a short passing game on low or high tempo

What does creative freedom do and how do I use it?
Creative freedom gives license to a player to do his own thing. Players will ignore some of the individual instructions you give them and do what they feel is right. Its good to have this instruction for AMCs and any attacking player who needs to find space. Comes in handy on congested pitches.

What is the defensive line and how do I use it
A defensive line is a defined line that players are given to designate how deep they will defend. Each player has his own defensive line, one for DCs, one for DMCs, one for Fullbacks. A defensive line is not a straight line through the centre of a pitch for all.

If you want to play defensive football, you would set a deep defensive line,which implies that your players are sitting deeper to defend. You can match that with defensive mentality. An attacking formation typically does play with a normal to attacking defensive line, showing that the players will defend much higher up the pitch.