I will be annoying about it (because I care) and say that AI defending should be nerfed out of the game
But you can't control 11...
Yes I know which is why AI should be ONLY limited to positioning and THAT'S IT, idc if that Timmy can't tackle nor knows how the defensive play works.
As for kickoffs it won't be fixed really but I have an idea that might fix it if it didn't get fixed in the next patch, Make attacking slow during kick off for the first few seconds then the gameplay goes to normal after a while (like how respawn works in other games).
Nerf LS Dribbling
I hate to say it as LS in this game is one of the best in the last few years but LS being this OP results in Fidget Spinning, the only solution is to limit how many times you can turn during dribbling and "turning in circles" way to much should cause an automatic imbalance and ball loss, idc how does it happen but make it happen, that's the only realistic solution.
Manual Defending will never be perfect until AI defending is out of the equation, the two cannot co-exist.