If you expect that these general tips help you to win all your FIFA 12 games than don’t read any further. However, it requiers important basics to make you a good and solid competitor in FIFA 12. It’s possilble that not all tips match your playing style or that your opponent requires a different approach. It’s on you to decide which of these FIFA 12 general tips could be useful for you.

Focus on passing

FIFA 12 is slower and more strategic than all earlier FIFA games. The unrealistic high pressure, fast build up, lobbed through balls and only press sprint doesn’t work anymore. Be conservative with through balls and sprinting and focus on passing. Learn to keep possession on midfield in FIFA12. This means to keep possession and stay relaxed, even when they give pressure. Have the courage to pass a ball to a player with a defender behind him. Depending on how the defender reacts you can ‘one-time’ it back, play it up front or turn away from the defender and use the space. Important is to be patience and wait for the right moment. If you have the skill to keep possession on midfield (we’re not talking about ‘sissy’ backpassing on your own half’) your opponent will lose his patience, becomes too eager and wants to win the ball as soon as possible. This creates a lot of space and opportunities.

Switch players with right stick

A very useful way to have a solid formation without too much space in FIFA 12 is to switch players with the right stick instead of the “switch-button” when you don’t have possession. Use the right stick in the direction of the player you want to control. This allows you to select a defender in the center to give cover. But also to intercept a pass because you select a player early (other than the nearest to the ball) and anticipate. Important: make sure you have autoswitch in controllersettings on high balls only.

Useage of Tactical Dribbling

The new Tactical Dribbling (LB/L1) in FIFA12 could be very useful. It gives you just that extra time and strength when your opponent is eager and uses a lot of pressure. This extra time gives you the opportunity to wait for a upcoming attacker and give a decisive pass or to turn away from the defender. Just practice with it and soon you’ll know the power of this Tactical Dribbling.

Formations are much more important than custom tactics

A lot of people think that custom tactics are the key to win a match. ”If you have the ultimate custom tactics you’re unbeatable!”. Well, that’s rubbish. The same players are always busy with editting their custom tactics because they lost and they think it’s the custom tactics’ fault. Ofcourse that’s crap and you don’t need to invest a lot of time in custom tactics to become a winner in FIFA 12. Just master the game, use standard settings and experiment with a formation to find your favourite one. Try different formations like 4-1-2-1-2, 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. When searching for your favorite formation then think about your playing style and the available players in your team. Simply test the different formations and find out which formation suits your playing style best and feels also solid in defense.

Be conservative with the sprint button

Don’t use the sprint button too much. You see many people constantly pressing the sprint button everywhere on the pitch. Use the sprint button only when you have enough room. Without sprint you are much more agile, you’re using less risk and you can pass more accurate. Remember that in FIFA 12 you could get injured when your player is tired. So be careful with using sprint and take advantage of it in the 90th minute when your player can still sprint towards goal and score a late goal.

Master a few skill moves

FIFA 12 have a lot of skill moves but you don’t need to master them all. Just learn (at first) a few easy but effective tricks to get past a defender and be more dangerous in your opponents 18yards box. Examples of effective and easy skills are the roulette (rotate right stick clockwise from down to right or vice versa) and the fake shot.

Vary your gameplay

Don’t be too predictable. For example, there are people who alway wait till you press and then use a high trough ball on their fast forwards. Or people who only running towards the corner and try to cross the ball. Very easy to defend ofcourse. Be less predictable and vary with your build-up passing. Use the flanks, center, one-timers, long balls, etc.

Don’t use press all the time

Do not run forward with your player when defending in FIFA 12. Your opponent will wait untill you react and that’s very dangerous. Your opponent has to make a decision, not you so contain and wait untill the right moment. The same applies to overusing the second press button. When you do this your team will press but they will eventually run out of position. Try to read your opponent’s game, stay organized and close the possible gaps.