jovial bear
The biggest issue with FC26 is not balance, meta, or individual exploits. It is that the game no longer rewards football IQ, manual skill, or adaptive decision-making, and patches have actively removed the best parts of the launch version.
At release, FC26 finally showed signs of working. Manual defending had logic. Interceptions activated when reading passing lanes. Body-to-body challenges felt earned. Shooting animations made sense. Left stick dribbling felt sharp. Even when gameplay was bad, it was still playable and mentally manageable.
Over time, patches have stripped this away.
Manual defending is now fundamentally broken. Correct positioning and anticipation are no longer rewarded. Interception magnetism that existed early in the cycle is mostly gone. Cursor defending feels unreliable, pushing players to rely on defensive AI instead of skill. Defensive AI now saves players constantly, especially in meta formations that block space automatically.
Attacking AI is equally flawed. Most players make straight-line runs with no adaptation to the ball carrier’s movement. Angled runs, spacing, and reactive movement only exist consistently on a handful of cards, making certain players feel playable while others feel useless, regardless of ratings. This forces repetitive counterattacks, through balls to wide areas, and cutbacks as the only reliable way to score.
As a result, most goals feel valueless. They are not the product of creativity, timing, or reading the game. They come from exploiting transition speed, AI positioning, and assisted mechanics. The game rewards repetition, not intelligence.
Playstyles and roles were meant to matter less this year, but they now dominate gameplay again. Players without key playstyles feel frustrating to use, and roles actively limit attacking freedom. To get basic attacking movement, player lock is often required, which kills natural flow and creativity.