FIFA 22 Ultimate Team instructions: Best goalkeeper, defender, midfield & forward tips
Player instructions are an underrated aspect of FIFA 22 Ultimate Team, and all players should be mindful of them. So here’s our best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and forward tips to use in Career Mode and Ultimate Team.
Despite the fact that Ultimate Team and Career Mode are played against humans and A.I respectively, you can still use the same instructions for both to get the most out of your players.
Player instructions are crucial for building a team and are massively beneficial for your gameplay and playstyle long-term.
We’ve put together this useful FIFA 22 Ultimate and Career Mode guide to help you get the most out of your players.
Table of Contents
- What are player instructions in FIFA 22?
- Best FIFA 22 instructions for Ultmate Team & Career Mode
- Best FIFA 22 defender instructions
- Best FIFA 22 midfielder instructions
- Best FIFA 22 forward instructions
What are player instructions in FIFA 22?
When you go to ‘edit game plans,’ you’ll have various options to consider, and one is instructions. These tell each of your players what their role is during a game: how aggressive they should be, the type of runs they should make, which area of the pitch to cover, etc.
If you forget about them or choose not to tinker with them in any way, then all 11 players will stick to their default settings imparted on them by EA.
Best FIFA 22 instructions for Ultimate Team & Career Mode
Before we dive into a deep analysis of each position and their specific command, there are tons of formations in FIFA 22, so we’re not going to suggest instructions for everyone.
However, our chosen formation is the 4-1-2-1-2 (2), also known as the 4-1-2-1-2 Narrow. It gives you so many options in the future through the middle of the park, the partnership of two great strikers, and can be deadly if you set your team up correctly.
Best FIFA 22 defender instructions
This section will cover instructions for our goalkeeper and backline consisting of full-backs and two center-backs.
Here are the best instructions for your defensive players in FIFA 22.
Goalkeeper
- Saving on Crosses: Balanced
- Saving Outside Box: Balanced
Goalkeepers are a strange breed in FIFA 22 as they’re as good as they’ve ever been but are prone to some absolute howlers. With this in mind, we’ve opted for our GK to be Balanced across the board.
Heading is likewise a mixed bag, so we feel comfortable leaving the decisions up to our keeper in terms of coming for crosses. For 1-on-1s, keepers are unbelievably resilient and will save a ton of shots, so don’t give the opponent a chance to chip you as your keepers are good, but not Superman.
Full-backs
- Attacking Runs: Stay Back While Attacking
- Interceptions: Normal Interceptions
- Run Type: Overlap
- Defensive Position: Stick To Position
You need to be careful with your full-backs as they are going to be run at a lot by pacey, tricky wingers. Even though pace isn’t as big a factor in FIFA 22 compared to previous years, one feint or one mistake and the other team is in.
So, regardless of how quick your full-backs are, they need to Stay Back Whilst Attacking in Ultimate Team, whereas they can be a bit more balanced in Career mode against A.I.
Normal Interceptions is wise as being too aggressive will probably leave you exposed more often than not, but a high enough Interceptions stat can be effective if set to normal. We don’t want our FBs going on forward runs, but if you want a cheeky one-two, then put them to Overlap, so they at least stay on the wing.
Finally, set each full-back to Stick To Their Position as we don’t want them getting drawn away from one of the most critical areas on a football pitch.
Centre-backs
- Attacking Support: Stay Back While Attacking
- Interceptions: Normal Interceptions
- Defensive Position: Stick To Position
The CB position is one of the easiest on the field to manage. It’s actually physically controlling them where it gets tricky!
In any event, set them to Stay Back While Attacking for obvious reasons, have Normal Interceptions to prevent erratic A.I challenges and make sure they Stick To Their Position.
Best FIFA 22 midfielder instructions
Let’s go over your CDM, the two CMs, and the CAM to ensure you have a fully functioning midfield.
Central Defensive Midfielder
- Defensive Behaviour: Cut Passing Lines
- Attacking Support: Stay Back While Attacking
- Interceptions: Normal Interceptions
- Defensive Position: Cover Center
- Positioning Freedom: Stick To Position
Firstly, Cut Passing Lanes is a great way to prevent through balls to forwards, set them to Stay Back While Attacking to hold down the gap between midfield and defense, and have them perform Normal Interceptions.
This will apply to all of our midfielders, but make sure your CDM will Cover Center, as the beauty of this formation is locking down the middle of the whole pitch. Finally, the CDM needs to stay in their area as a strong blockade – so enable Stick To Position.
Central Midfielders
- Attacking Support: Balanced Attack
- Support On Crosses: Balanced Crossing Runs
- Interceptions: Normal Interceptions
- Positioning Freedom: Stick To Position
- Defensive Position: Cover Center
Your two CMs are enormous in this formation, so keeping them relatively neutral is imperative. So Balanced Attack ensures they don’t stray too far one way or the other, Balanced Crossing Runs is primarily the same principle, and Normal Interceptions keeps their emotions in check.
To reiterate, we don’t want these midfielders venturing and leave big holes, so Stick To Position and Cover Center will pretty much guarantee they’ll be present unless you manually drag them away.
Central Attacking Midfielder
- Defensive Behaviour: Basic Defensive Support
- Support On Crosses: Balanced Crossing Runs
- Positioning Freedom: Stick To Position
- Interceptions: Aggressive Interceptions
The CAM needs to provide Basic Defensive Support and maintain Balanced Crossing Runs and not do much else.
They need to Stick To Position as we want them in the hole, ready to feed that killer pass to one of your strikers, and as they’re so high up, we can even let them off the leash a bit and attempt some Aggressive Interceptions.
Best FIFA 22 forward instructions
Up top, we love having two strikers as there’s so much flexibility with how you can attack. For our custom instructions, we’re going to go on the basis that we have two players with a good pace and can finish a chance.
Strikers
- Support Runs: Stay Central
- Attacking Runs: Get In Behind
- Interceptions: Aggressive Interceptions
- Defensive Support: Stay Forward
With these instructions, you can make your forwards a real handful, and we want them to apply to both. For pure domination, ensure they Stay Central. We want all our main chances falling to strikers in the proper position.
Get In Behind will have the opposition’s defenders running back and forth trying to stop you making that lethal burst through on goal, or sly run down the side that can lead to a speculative shot or easy cut-back.
Keep them feisty with Aggressive Interceptions and have it so that they Stay Forward. Maintain some solid defense, and you always have an out ball to start a quick attack and get out.
Remember, if your formation isn’t the same as ours, you should be able to take our instructions and adapt them to suit the system you’re running.
As well as instructions, use our FIFA 22 custom tactics guide to pair the right team shape with your new instructions.
Also, be sure to check out our other FIFA 22 guides on the best goalkeepers, full-backs, defenders, midfielders, wingers, and strikers.
Image Credits: EA