Since the last patch for (supposedly) fixing kick-off goals, the AI defense is so overpowered.
Nobody is manually defending because is not rewarding and also super difficult.
Every person that I've played against since this new patch is either selecting their ST's or CDM's and running backwards to try to position themselves into the defense, they NEVER, NEVER select one of the defenders to actually defend by themselves. They are letting the AI defenders do all the work for them. And even worse, everybody plays with 2 CDM's. The box just looks like a 9 man fortress. It's like playing EAFC25 all over again. Plain boring and disgusting.
Due to all the above, the current gameplay is to park the bus all game and play counter-attack, everybody does this, and is the most effective way to play, I do understand why most players do this, because there is no other way to pass that 6-8 AI defensive line.
The AI defense needs to be nerfed to the ground, and MANUAL defending needs to be improved and REWARDING, otherwise the game will die pretty quickly as it did last year due to the same thing.