Matchday, camera and match management

Before kick-off

Open Squad and tactics before starting the fixture. The first eleven are the starting side and the following places provide the matchday bench. Replace injured and suspended footballers, include a goalkeeper and check that the players suit their positions and preferred sides. A ban may apply to one competition while the same player remains eligible for another.

A starting place has a position when defending and a position when attacking. These positions, the team's attitude and the individual instructions work together. Check both shapes before playing. See Squad and tactics for formations, instructions, marking and set-piece duties.

Fitness, confidence, recent performances and today's form matter alongside ability. A tired star or a strong player on an unfamiliar side can be less effective than a fit, naturally suited replacement. Check the opponent and the weather rather than assuming that the same eleven and approach will fit every match.

Before a friendly, choose the home and away sides and their controls. The optional kit selection lets you compare available first, second and third strips. With automatic selection, the game aims to keep the sides distinguishable. See Quick games for friendlies, competitions and penalty shoot-outs.

Playing, watching or calculating

The available matchday actions depend on your role and whether your footballer has been selected. Playing enters the stadium with the current team and individual control assignments. Watching follows the live football without requiring you to move a player. A manager can still direct an authorised team from the touchline.

The career's calculation choices let you progress without playing every action yourself. Quick simulation shows the match's progress and events, while Result only moves directly to the result. These are real results in the career or tournament, with their normal competition and player consequences. They do not promote a substitute into the starting eleven. If your individual footballer has an opportunity to play, a confirmation may ask whether you want to miss that opportunity.

The choice for a fixture does not change your career role. A pure footballer does not gain the manager's authority by watching, and a manager does not need to control the whole team to make a substitution. See Career roles for those responsibilities.

Starting, waiting on the bench or missing out

Read any numbers beside the status colours together with the colour. The indicator tells you the selection outcome. It is not a separate rating or a command to move yourself into the side.

While you are off the pitch, Page Up and Page Down adjust the permitted fast-forward level. Your fast-forward setting determines how that waiting period is presented. Normal playable progression returns when your footballer enters. Space can skip a waiting or presentation stage when the game permits it.

A pure player cannot order the computer coach to bring him on. There is also no button that forces a team-mate to pass. Offer a useful passing route and play your position. A player-manager has the manager's substitution authority even while personally on the bench, already substituted or dismissed.

The team's attitude

An attitude changes the team's willingness to push forward and take risks. It works with the formation and individual instructions. Moving toward attack opens more possibilities ahead of the ball but also leaves more space to protect.

The computer manager can change its approach during a match. The score, time, danger, available players and relative strength all matter. React to the football in front of you rather than expecting the opponent to keep its opening attitude for ninety minutes.

Reading the match display

The score and match clock identify the current state of the game. Player information identifies possession and controlled footballers. Goal announcements name the scorer and the recognised assist, while cards, injuries, offside and substitution requests appear as those events occur. The other-scores display can show events elsewhere on the matchday when enabled.

Player names and shirt numbers can be limited to the ball carrier, relevant selected players or everyone. In a manager or spectator view, hover over a footballer to identify him, or click to keep a selection. Click the pitch to clear it. Your individual player's number can remain visible independently. A minimap helps locate players outside the camera view.

The Camera screen controls these overlays for the current view. A choice of Default follows the corresponding general option. This means that a saved camera preset can deliberately show different labels from another view.

Hold Tab during normal live play to inspect the match report. Release it to return to the pitch. The detailed final report appears when the match finishes.

Match panels and the live timeline

The match panels give you mouse controls for following and managing the game. Their visibility is configurable in Advanced options and from the pause menu:

The team controls open formation changes or quick tactics for a team you are allowed to manage. The playback controls let you review the match already played. Drag the timeline to inspect a moment, use rewind or forward to move through it, and use play/pause to examine the action. Repeated rewind or forward presses increase review speed through 2×, 4× and 8×. LIVE returns to the latest point.

The local match pauses while you review earlier action. Reaching the latest point returns to live play. Reviewing an earlier goal does not undo it or create a new result. Event markers help you find goals, cards, substitutions, injuries and shoot-out outcomes. Match periods remain distinguishable so a first-half event is not confused with an extra-time event.

Opening a management action while looking back returns you to the current match and pauses there. Changes are made to the current team, never to a past moment. The timeline is a tool for this match session, separate from a replay file. Turning panels off clears their recorded history. For a moment you want to keep after leaving the match, save a replay.

Changing tactics during the match

Open your team's tactics control in the match panel. The game pauses while you adjust the proposed changes. The pages cover Possession, Movement, Defending and Marking, together with the defensive line. You can change the way the side uses the ball, supports attacks, closes opponents and holds its shape.

Apply accepts the changes. Cancel abandons the changes made in that visit. Reset returns the team instructions to their automatic choices, so use it only when that is what you want. Return to live playback or resume the match when you are ready.

A tactical change does not replace a player. Use the formation or substitution control when you need to change the people on the pitch. The tactics chapter explains each instruction and how team choices interact with individual players.

Requesting and making substitutions

1. Press F1 for the home team or F5 for the away team. With an assigned Xbox controller, press View, also called Back or Select. The match panel's formation control provides a mouse route.
2. Look for the pending substitution indicator. The request waits for a legal stoppage. Press the same request command again to cancel it before the screen opens.
3. At the stoppage, select the outgoing player and his eligible replacement in the line-up screen. Check the replacement's position and side, then confirm the line-up and return to the match.

You can use up to three substitutions in a normal match. A sent-off player cannot be replaced to restore eleven players. The footballers who finish the match take part in a subsequent penalty shoot-out, with no extra substitution window during the kicks.

Requests belong to a human manager. An individually controlled career footballer cannot demand a change from the computer coach. A player-manager can request changes for the team he manages even when his own footballer is off the pitch. The device must still be assigned to that participant or side. Inside an open menu, View/Back is a back command rather than a second substitution request.

Watch fitness, injuries and cards rather than waiting only for a low rating. A tiring midfielder may need relief, an injured player may no longer be effective and a booked defender may be at risk. The computer manager also considers condition, role suitability and the state of the match when using its bench.

Pausing and ending a match

Press P, Esc or Xbox Menu / Start to open the pause menu. Choose with the mouse, cursor keys, left stick or directional pad. Confirm with Enter, Space or A. The menu offers resuming, camera controls and match-panel visibility, followed by the available ending choices.

For a scheduled fixture after kick-off, End match and count [score] accepts the displayed score as the result. The fixture is then completed with its normal consequences. End match without a result abandons the attempt and leaves the fixture to be played. The game asks you to confirm either ending choice. Before kick-off there is no score to accept.

A standalone match offers its own end-match action. Practice offers End practice. Use the choice that describes what you intend. Returning to the pause menu or changing the camera does not itself finish a match.

Camera views and presets

Press Backspace during the match, or choose Camera from the pause menu. The match pauses while you adjust the view, and the preview updates immediately. Use the mouse wheel or the screen's scrollbar to reach the lower settings. Keyboard arrows and controller directions navigate, with Enter/Space/A to confirm.

The built-in views are End-to-end, Diagonal and Sideline. Insert moves to the next preset and Delete to the previous one. Cycling loads the whole preset, including its camera-follow and overlay choices.

Use Add to turn the current view into a named personal preset. Use Save to keep changes to a personal preset and Remove to delete that preset. The three built-in presets remain available. Reset returns the working view to the selected preset. If you want to preserve an adjusted built-in view, add a personal preset.

Set as default marks a preferred starting preset. The same command becomes Use last view when that preset is already the default, allowing you to clear the preference. Your active career remembers its current camera when you save the game, so loading that career restores its own view. A new career or an older save without camera information starts from your most recent view. The marked default supplies the starting point when there is no saved or previous view available.

For quick angle adjustments during play, hold Home or numeric * for a steeper angle, and End or numeric / for a flatter one. Numeric decimal resets the angle. These adjustments form part of the current view. See the shortcut table for the full camera and match keys.

Weather, wind and pitch conditions

Conditions affect the match for both sides. Wind is particularly noticeable on high passes and long shots. Rain and difficult ground alter ball travel and movement, and winter fixtures can have very different surfaces. Let the first few passes and turns inform how you play. A short, controlled approach may suit a difficult day better than repeated long balls.

Real weather (METAR) allows the game to obtain a current observation near the ground before a suitable match. It requires an internet connection. If a usable observation cannot be obtained, the match still starts with the game's own weather. Turning the option off also uses the game's weather. It does not remove weather from football.

Weather effects in Advanced video options controls how rain, snow and similar effects are drawn. Turning visual effects off does not make a wet or windy match dry and calm. Pitch wear controls the visible wear presentation.

Rules, discipline and deciding a draw

An offside decision follows the attacking move. A player beyond the relevant defensive line when the ball is played may be flagged when he becomes involved. The defending side then receives a free kick. Do not treat being ahead of a defender as an automatic whistle before the ball reaches the move.

Challenges are judged by timing and contact. A mistimed tackle can concede a free kick or a penalty and may earn a yellow card, a second yellow and dismissal, or a straight red. A red card reduces the side's playing strength for the remainder of the match.

In a career, cards and suspensions are tracked by competition. Inspect the player's information to see where a suspension applies and how many matches remain. Injuries also carry into the career and can remove a player from later selection.

A league match can finish level. A knockout fixture follows its competition rules, including any extra time and shoot-out. In a friendly's setup, Extra time adds the extra period, Golden goal ends it when a goal is scored and Penalty if level provides a shoot-out if the sides remain tied. Turn these off if you want an ordinary friendly that can end in a draw.

Take penalties using the set-piece controls. Watch the shoot-out score separately from the match score. The shoot-out determines the winner without turning every successful kick into a goal in the footballer's ordinary match statistics.

Practice and the club's internal friendly

Practise controls → Try the controls is a convenient place to learn movement, charge and release timing, loft, aftertouch and the camera. During practice, F2 sets up an attacking free kick, F3 a corner and F4 a central free-kick situation near the goal. This lets you rehearse delivery without waiting for those incidents in a competition.

The career's internal practice match puts the club's selected side against other eligible players from its own reserves and academy. Use it to examine combinations and tactical ideas. It does not count as a competitive fixture and does not add ordinary match goals, appearances, cards or injuries to the career.

Practice has no normal substitution window. A pending substitution command cannot be used as a route out of it. Open the pause menu and choose End practice when finished. See Training and youth for development and the internal practice setup.

How player ratings are earned

A match rating assesses the player's contribution in context. Goals and assists matter, as do passes, interceptions, tackles, shooting, involvement and positional discipline. Cards, own goals, time on the pitch and the team's performance also affect the assessment. Goalkeepers are judged on goalkeeping actions and goals conceded in addition to what they do with the ball.

Tactical evaluation reflects how closely the footballer follows the responsibilities of the assigned position. An individual player who chases every ball can therefore have a busy match without a strong tactical score. Choose when to leave the position and recover when the move ends.

The final rating uses a 1–10 scale. A brief substitute appearance should be read together with the minutes played, and a single brilliant action does not describe the whole performance. The highest-rated performance receives the man-of-the-match award.

In a career, repeated performances contribute to the player's longer-term standing. They help shape selection, interest from other clubs, value and national-team prospects. One disappointing game does not replace the footballer's entire career record.

The post-match report

The report separates the sides and lists the footballers who took part. Read each row as that player's contribution. The current report includes the player's role, minutes and goalkeeper saves in addition to the familiar shooting, passing and tackling columns.

The report also identifies attendance and the man of the match. The career then records the result, competition progress, player appearances and statistics, disciplinary consequences and injuries. Club income and the wider football world continue from that result. See Ratings and abbreviations for player attributes and season statistics.