14 DAY TRIAL // The usual matchup that I experience every day with one of my colleagues involves Liverpool, my favorite football club, facing off against Everton, their Merseyside rivals and a team that can produce a very solid line-up of its own.
We tend to position our teams differently, with me switching between a classic 4-4-2 and a diamond formation based on it and my friend choosing an attacking or a 4-3-3 false 9, and we also have very different approaches to every match.
I tend to be relatively focused on solid passing, always trying to play my way out of trouble and with forwards that want to secure the best possible position before unleashing an actual shot on goal.
My opponent is less interested in subtlety and that means he often gets the ball out of defense as fast as possible and tries speculative strikes from long range, using a variety of angles and of players to try and score.
We developed the styles during our long rivalry that played out in FIFA 14, but the launch of the new title in the series has presented us with a range of new challenges to deal with, the biggest of which is the relative inefficiency of shots on goal.
Keepers, placement and finesse
Our first ever match played in FIFA 15 ended in a bore draw as neither could manage to deliver a short- or long-range shot to beat the newly improved keepers, who at times seem to have superhuman jumping and stretching abilities.
Since then, we have both refined our styles and focused each on the moves we liked best before the game launched, trying to once more make them work as we expected them to.
I found that players that are fast and have at least medium shooting skills can have an impact as long as they get the ball near the edge of the penalty area, switch direction or perform a quick dribble and then shoot low and hard.
The best way to score is more dependent than ever on the involved players and the shape of the opposition defensive system, and often even shots that seem destined for the net get saved.
Long-range shot fans now need to use the player with the best accuracy on their team and to try and catch the other goalkeeper out of position, either after he just delivered a ball from the edge of the area or when he is getting ready to defend a lob or a cross rather than a strike on goal.