Set pieces

Chooses Zonal or Man-to-man for the aerial contest.

Selects one or more routines; configured routines rotate with equal probability.

Predicts one named routine or makes no call.

Ranks up to ten players for match penalties and shootouts.

Names a permanent taker or leaves the coach’s automatic formula in control.

Defenders protect areas instead of following fixed opponents, and one of the strongest aerial defenders attacks the delivered ball.

• There is no fixed opponent assignment.
• One of your five strongest defensive aerial candidates is drawn by threat, using Aerial and Tackling.
• This spreads the workload and reacts to the delivery, but can produce an uneven individual matchup.

Each aerial threat is assigned the defender with the corresponding defensive aerial rank.

• Your best aerial marker follows their best target, your second follows their second, and so on.
• The assigned marker stays with his opponent 85% of the time.
• In the remaining 15%, movement and traffic separate the pair; another ranked defender provides cover, with the stronger cover players more likely to reach the ball.
• This reduces extreme mismatches, but a broken assignment can still leave a less favourable defender in the contest.

The assistant’s unpredictable standard mix.

• Used automatically by an unconfigured team.
• At a free kick won in open play, the coach strikes directly at goal 30% of the time and crosses otherwise.
• It can never be read by the defence.
• Keeping it in a longer list helps prevent the configured routines becoming predictable.

Turns a central free kick into a direct strike from the long shooter.

• The shooter can beat the wall with Ball Control against 1.5× the keeper’s Organisation.
• A beaten wall cannot block the attempt and the keeper loses the Organisation bonus for that shot.
• Corners and flank free kicks fall back to the ordinary delivery mix.
• When repeated or correctly called, the goalkeeper gains +10 positioning.

Starts a midfield exchange before the delivery.

• Your two best PA + BC + OP midfielders are compared with their two best defensive screens.
• Win the exchange and the passer delivers with +5 Passing, targeting the two strongest aerial threats instead of the full pool.
• Lose the exchange and the set piece ends without a delivery.
• When repeated or called, their screen gains +20; a correct call also gives the box defender +20.

No first-use read. Repetition can still make a configured routine predictable later.

If the opponent uses the long-shot routine, the goalkeeper receives +10 positioning from the first strike.

If the opponent plays short, the screen receives +20 in the exchange and the box defender +20 from the first routine.

Ranks the higher of 1.2× Scoring and 0.8× Passing.

Manager order overrides the formula for every eligible name.

• The list may contain up to ten players.
• A partial list is automatically completed for a shootout.
• A late substitute with fewer than 15 minutes on the pitch shoots cold, up to −12% conversion; the same warm-up principle applies to a substitute goalkeeper.

Ranks Passing + 0.3× Ball Control + 0.3× Scoring, with the Dead-Ball Expert bonus, and keeps the best 3 outfield candidates before checking their preferred foot.

• The actual delivery uses 85% Passing and 15% Ball Control.
• An in-swinging cross curves towards the goal. Viewed in your team’s attacking direction, the automatic preference is right-footed from the left side and left-footed from the right.
• Within the shortlist, the first player with the matching preferred foot or both feet (L+R) is selected. If none fits, the top-ranked candidate takes it.
• This selection uses the preferred foot shown in the player profile. The Two-Footed ability alone does not make a player count as having both feet (L+R) here.
• The foot preference affects who takes the set piece; it adds no separate bonus to delivery quality.
• The taker is removed from the attacking aerial pool because he cannot meet his own cross.

The chosen player delivers every corner and cross while on the pitch.

• Your choice takes priority over the automatic foot preference: for example, a right-footed taker still takes a corner from the right. If he is absent, automatic selection resumes.
• Can be a deliberate trade if consistency matters more than foot or aerial presence.

Ranks the lower of Scoring and Passing, then adds the Dead-Ball Expert bonus.

The chosen player strikes every direct free kick.

• A pure passer or pure finisher is limited by the weaker of the two skills.
• The strike adds up to 15, capped at 50% of the base, before meeting wall and goalkeeper.