FC 27's AI Defending Overhaul Has Fans Split Down the Middle
Published 2026-09-03 · DB.Coins Blog
The change everyone's talking about
Since EA published the FC 27 Gameplay Deep Dive and closed beta access opened up, one topic has dominated FC Forums threads and the wider FUT community chatter more than ratings or SBCs combined: the overhaul to AI defending.
In FC 26 and earlier, a CPU-controlled defender would automatically step in and attempt a tackle once an attacker got close enough — even if you were focused on a different player. In FC 27, that auto-tackle behaviour has been stripped right back. Defenders now hold their position and support the play, and it's on you to manually switch, jockey, and time the tackle yourself. EA has been open about the goal: widen the skill gap so better decision-making and mechanical execution actually separate good players from bad ones, instead of the AI papering over mistakes.
Why the community is divided
Reactions from beta testers and forum posts sit on two clear sides.
The "finally" camp argues this is exactly what FUT has needed for years:
- Defending finally feels intentional rather than "hold a button and let the CPU win the ball."
- Skilled dribblers can actually be punished for bad reads instead of getting auto-jockeyed out of danger.
- It rewards players who put in the hours to learn jockeying and tackle timing, rather than newer accounts steamrolling with a strong squad alone.
The "this will get walked back" camp is worried EA has overcorrected:
- Casual and older players who play a few games a week say they're getting cut open constantly and can't keep up with the new manual demands.
- There's a recurring worry that this widens the gap between grinders and everyone else even further, at a time when the game already asks players to juggle Chemistry, PlayStyles, and Evolutions.
- Some point to history here — EA has walked back defending changes mid-cycle before once casual complaints pile up post-launch, so a fair few threads are already betting this gets toned down within a few Title Updates of release.
Neither side is wrong, exactly — it genuinely depends on how much time you can put into the game, which is part of why this debate isn't cooling off.
What it means for your squad and your coins
If the harder manual defending sticks past launch, expect a few knock-on effects on the market:
| Area | Likely Impact |
| Pacey wingers/strikers | Demand rises — beating defenders 1v1 becomes more valuable when AI won't bail defenders out |
| Slow, high-rated CBs | Value may soften if positioning and jockeying matter more than raw stats |
| Early meta cards | Expect volatility for the first few weeks as the community figures out who actually defends well in-engine |
Our take: don't panic-build your squad around week-one meta calls. Early closed beta impressions rarely match the launch build exactly, and EA has patched defending balance mid-cycle in past titles. Wait for a week or two of live data post-launch (25 September) before committing serious coins to specialised defensive cards.
The bottom line
Whether you land in the "best defending has ever felt" camp or the "this needs a patch" camp, one thing's clear — FC 27 wants you to actually defend, not delegate. If you're planning your Ultimate Team budget around launch, keep some coins in reserve until the early-access dust settles and the real meta shows itself. DB.Coins offers safe trading that increases your coin balance, with instant delivery — Get FC Coins.