Darren Cross writes on http://fifa.easports.com/ about how to reach a higher level. This article handles the defending part!

How many times have you been on the verge of taking a well-earned win, either against the ai, a mate or online, only to throw it all away in the last minute due to either poor defending or a bad mistake?

That kind of thing used to happen to me all the time. I’d be a goal up in a game I deserved to win, only to make a mess of a simple clearance or play a stupid ball across my defence and be punished by an opponent who couldn’t believe his luck. To make it worse I’d be so annoyed with myself that I’d usually go on to take a thrashing in extra-time. Sound familiar to anyone else?

But after taking some great advice from the guys behind the game, like FIFA 09 and 10 Producer David Rutter, Creative Director Gary Paterson and Pro player Chris Bullard, combined with playing a lot more games to get as much experience as possible, I’ve massively improved the defensive side of my game. So much so that I now win far more games than I lose, and I don’t have to score as many goals as before to get the victory.

There are at least eight things I’m doing now that I either wasn’t before, or that I’m just doing better. Some are simple, and some take a little more effort, but all of them are effective. Have a read of the first four, fire up FIFA 09 and see if they work for you, then come back here next week for part two. 

If you can nail these now, you’ll already have a big advantage over those that haven’t when you pick up 10 for the first time on October 2.

1 LEAVE THE PASS BUTTON ALONE!
Without a doubt, the single biggest thing that’s made a difference for me is the way I defend in my own box, especially against crosses and long passes. As a player who likes to play attractive football, I’d always defend balls into my box with the pass button and look to head it down to a team-mate, in the hope of starting my own counter. But I soon lost count of the amount of times I headed the ball to an opposition player and gifted the other team a goal. 

Then I moved my thumb away from the pass button. 

My thumb naturally hovers over the pass button because this is the one I use the most, so it took a surprising amount of effort at first to consciously move it over to the shoot button when defending balls into the box, and what a difference it made! Instead of attempting to find a team-mate with a risky header in the most dangerous area of all, I now simply head or clear it as far away from my box as possible which, if it doesn’t go to one of my players, at least gives me a few valuable seconds to get some shape back. It might not be pretty but it’s very, very effective.

2 ALWAYS FACE THE PLAY!
I don’t know why, but hardly anyone uses the jockey function in FIFA 09. It’s bizarre, because it’s actually one of your most potent weapons when you’re defending. Jockeying simply means keeping your body positioned toward the attacker, so you’re always facing the play. This prevents you from having to turn your back while sprinting and trying to guess which way the attacker is going to go. It also gives you the best chance of making a standing tackle, so not only do you win the ball back, but you also immediately have possession. 

Jockeying is really easy to do, which makes it even more strange that it’s so rarely used! Just hold down the left trigger or L2 and your defender will remain facing the ball until you release the button. If the attacker is running at speed, then hold down the right trigger or R2 as well and your defender will perform a running jockey. Now all you need to do is wait for the right moment to go for the standing tackle. 

3 LOOK AROUND!
Just won a goal kick? Then take a second to chill out and have a look around. So many players fail to do this and start tapping the pass button as soon as they know they’ve won a goal kick, only to knock the ball straight to the opposition’s striker who gratefully accepts the gift and taps the ball home.

This is so easy to avoid, yet so many impatient players still do it. I know this because that used to be me, and because I see it ALL THE TIME online.

The next time that ball goes out for a goal kick, resist the urge to play a quick pass then have a look at the radar to see where your players and, more importantly, the opposition are. If you want to play a short pass then choose the player in the best position. Want to go long quickly? No problem, but aim the kick out wide instead of straight down the middle – most of the time you’ll have a player out there in plenty of space.

4 IF IN DOUBT, KICK IT OUT!
So many principles of real-life football apply just as much as when you have the virtual ball at your feet in FIFA as the real one in a game. 

As I said earlier, I’ll try to play as much Samba soccer as possible, but only in the right areas now. Across your own box and, to an extent, even in your own half are definitely not the right areas. I found that out the hard way. ‘If in doubt, kick it doubt’ is a classic football cliché that you’ll hear from any coach at any level, but there’s a very good reason for that… it’s true. 

So when you find yourself facing your own goal and you’re not sure whether to pass it to a team-mate or just clear it, don’t be afraid to send the ball high and up field or, if space is really tight, hit the infamous Row Z. That’s exactly what a professional footballer would do in that situation. 

You might get a bit of stick from your opponent for playing ugly, but you’ll be the one laughing at the end of the game when you’ve kept a clean sheet and taken the win.

One more tip if you do have enough time to play the ball long ¬- use the left bumper or L1 and charge up the clearance with the long pass button. Using the shoot button to clear can sometimes result in your player lumping the ball straight out, which is fine in your own box or when you have no other option in your own half, but should be avoided if you do have a second or two to get the ball out of your feet and play it up field. Remember, the further you can get the ball away from your goal, the more time you’ll have to regroup.

5 DROP DEEPER!
At the end of last week’s column we looked at how a large number of real-life football principles also apply when playing FIFA, and that is especially true when it comes to defending against pace.

Speed is one of the hardest attributes to defend against in a real game of football. If someone is faster than you and has the space to open up then they’re going to get past you unless you rugby tackle them, so it’s at least realistic that the fastest players are also the hardest to stop in FIFA 09. I’ve honestly lost count of the amount of times I’ve been done by a high ball over the top of my back four for an ultra-fast player like Ronaldo or Torres to run on to and finish. It used to happen to me all the time.

As difficult as defending against pace can be, it is not impossible and there are a number of tactics real coaches use to reduce the impact of faster players. The most risky of those tactics is to play the offside trap, and that is an option to you in FIFA 09 (and 10, of course). Double tap up on your control pad just before the ball carrier plays his pass to the striker and your defence will surge forward with their arms in the air before you can say George Graham, but it’s not a tactic I recommend. You could time your trap perfectly for 89 minutes, then mess it all up with seconds to go and be punished. It is just too risky.

A much safer bet, favoured by managers who have particularly slow defenders, is to have one player drop a little deeper than the rest of the back line. This will take you seconds to set up, but could save you from conceding countless goals. All you have to do is open up Custom Tactics, then edit a defender’s base position so that he sits further behind the rest of the defence. How far back you move the defender depends on your style of play and ability, so the next bit is a bit trial and error. If you find that moving the defender back only slightly doesn’t make much difference, then go back into Custom Tactics and shift him a bit closer to your own goal. The target is to have him sitting deep enough to intercept balls over the top, but not so far away that he gives the striker time to pick the ball up in acres of space – you don’t want a striker running with the ball at your last man!

Once you get the position of your deepest defender just right, your next job is to use your other defender to give the striker as little space as possible. That’s exactly what a real manager would do, which brings me on to the next tip… 

6 USE SECONDARY PRESS!
Pressing is a common tactic used by FIFA players. In fact, it’s probably overused. I’ve seen tons of games where the opposing team defends by pressing all over the pitch, which is fine against weaker opposition but will bring you nothing but trouble against the top players, who’ll simply pass the ball around your constantly knackered players and play in the huge spaces you’re creating for them by running out of position.

Secondary Press is far less common yet can be so much more effective when used properly, especially if you use it in conjunction with the defensive tactics we’re looking at here. Initiating a Secondary Press (hold the shoot button while the other team has the ball) will get one of your AI-controlled team-mates to press the ball while leaving you in control of a separate defender, ideally the deepest one. This allows you to put pressure on the ball carrier with one player and take up a solid defensive position with the player you’re controlling so that, should the striker get past the AI defender, the player you’re in control of will be ready to mop up.

7 MANUALLY SELECT DEFENDERS!
Another tactic that should make an instantly noticeable difference to your defending is to manually select your defenders, instead of having the AI auto switch them for you. 

Some players like having the cursor automatically change to the nearest defender and it can be useful, particularly when you’re defending high balls. But, once you get used to it, you should find manual select much more effective, in attack as well as defence.

Once you’ve changed your cursor settings to manual, just press LB or L1 to select the defender you want to control. I find it most effective to combine this tactic with Secondary Press and have one AI player – either a striker, midfielder or defender, depending on the area of the pitch I’m in – press the ball while I move a nearby player into the position where I think the play is heading.

8 THINK LIKE A STRIKER!
My final tip is a simple one; ask yourself what you would do if you had the ball in the position your opponent is occupying. Nine times out of ten you’ll be able to second-guess the play and do something about it. If it doesn’t work for you because the other team have done something unpredictable or special, then it’s time to hold your hands up, take your medicine and go straight back in for another game. At least you’ll have learned another move to look out for in future!