High pressing is a footballing setup used extensively by big teams around the world. By choosing a formation that complements your custom tactics and performing actions that allow you to win back the ball quickly and effectively, you will be transforming both your defense and attack simultaneously. This is because winning back the ball high up the pitch can allow you to launch deadly counterattacks on the opposition keeper. Without further ado, lets take a look at how I believe you can find success in this playstyle.
If you want more FIFA 23, check out our other guides, including these:
- FIFA 23: The Complete Shooting Guide – KeenGamer
- FIFA 23 Beginner’s Guide: How to Defend – KeenGamer
- FIFA 23: How to Pass Better – KeenGamer
- 11 Best Lengthy Players in FIFA 23 – KeenGamer
Formation
First up in this FIFA 23 Pressing Guide is the formation. In general. the formation you use is less important to how well you press compared to the tactics and the manual actions. Regardless, the system that works for me is the 4-2-3-1. This has also been very effectively used by Hansi Flick’s Bayern Munich during their unstoppable 2019-2020 UCL run.
This formation allows you to apply pressure throughout the midfield. The two CDMs will help the defenders to win back the ball as quickly as possible in the defensive half, while the 3 CAMs further up will look to press the opposition backline as a unit to gain control of the ball and pass it on to the lone CF upfront.
The 4231 is the way to go!
Tactics
Next up in this FIFA 23 Pressing Guide are the Defensive Tactics where things get really interesting. You have one of three relevant options. The most obvious one for our system is constant pressure. This, as the name suggests, will cause your players to press relentlessly in pursuit of the ball as soon as it gets lost. Quite often, the opponent’s player will get isolated and is forced to make a clearance or play a long ball, from where your tall center-backs can win the headers against the forwards. I only recommend this when you are losing the game in the dying embers though, as it depletes stamina extremely quickly and can leave large gaping holes in defense for the opponent to exploit.
For the reasons discussed above, I recommend you to use either the Pressure on heavy touch or Press after possession loss. They are pretty self-explanatory, the major plus point is that they wont waste as much of your stamina as the constant pressure approach and should get the job done on most occasions.
You’ll want a high defensive line to congest the space available to the opposition to build up their attacks. Therefore, set the depth to at least 70. But ensure you have defenders with high sprint speed as they will have to cover ground quickly if an opposition pass gets through them. I usually set the width to around 50 to get balanced results. For attacking tactics you can experiment with a lot of different options but I have found that a Fast Build Up Play along with Direct Passing allows me to constantly bombard the opposition with attacking plays and not give them a moment’s rest.
Don’t lose your head over deciding tactics!
In-game Actions
We have talked about how you can manage the press tactics wise in this FIFA 23 Pressing Guide, now let’s consider what you can do on the field. I am not just talking about standing or sliding tackles either. These are of course essential to master if you want to press effectively but there are more advanced things you can do.
Second Man Press
Firstly, you need to learn the second man press. By pressing and holding down R1 on the PlayStation or RB on the Xbox, you can instruct your CPU controlled teammates to get in the face of the opposition ball-carrier and apply pressure on him. In the meantime, you can position your manually controlled player to cut out passing lanes. It’s important you practice this though, because if you mistime the second man press it can leave you a man short in defense.
Partial Team Press
Now for something slightly more advanced, we have the partial team press. You can activate this by pressing R1/RB twice. What this effectively does is that it instructs two of your CPU-controlled teammates to press the potential pass-receiving options and make life difficult for them by suffocating them. FIFA 23 will select the suitable players for this press based on several factors such as relative positioning to the ball and distance. but the idea is to make the pitch smaller for the opposition ball-carrier to make good passing decisions. The disadvantage is that it can deplete your squad’s stamina quite quickly as they will chase the passing options to shut them down and also leave your team vulnerable to counter attacks as they will quite often push upwards.
Manual Switching
One trick you will want to master and that can greatly help you with pressing is the manual player switching. While L1 is great for quickly switching to the closest teammate to the ball, you can do much better with the right analog switching. Using the right analog stick, you can decide which player you want to switch to with far more accuracy and carry out your defensive traps more effectively. In case an opposition player manages run in behind your defense, it also allows you to react quicker and catch up to them.
Conclusion
That’s about it for this FIFA 23 Pressing Guide. Now that you have a good idea about how you can combine off field tactics with the actions you can take on the pitch itself, you will be able to apply these ideas in your competitive games to provide a constant threat to your opponent. Be sure to practice in offline games against the CPU before playing in Ultimate Team and other competitions. And remember, pressing is not the only style of play you can adopt in your gameplay, be sure to explore others like possession and counterattacking as well.
