FIFA 21 Mastery: The Two Key Ingredients to Pressing Like Tekkz
Tekkz is by far the best FIFA player in the world – he has the trophies to prove it. He’s consistently dominated the FIFA scene for the past two years due to his incredible use of skill moves and his high pressing style.
Some may describe the way Tekkz’ presses as risky or overly aggressive, but his style of pressing has been proven to be effective considering the accolades Tekkz has racked up over the last few years.
We spoke to Tekkz to bring you some tips on how to effectively utilize an aggressive press, so you can win the ball back with ease, and prevent your opponent from dominating the midfield;
Winning the ball back
A common mistake a lot of FIFA players make is they drop back and sit deep in their own half hoping to wait for interceptions, instead of actively trying to force their opponents into making costly mistakes.
Sitting deep in your own half has two main disadvantages – firstly, it prevents you from being able to launch quick counter-attacks due to how deep your players are positioned, and secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it gives your opponents lots of time on the ball, and lots of space to work with, which can be dangerous considering they’d be able to carefully plan their attacks.
Because of these two disadvantages, Tekkz advocates the use of a high press, instead of sitting deep in your own half.
A high press forces your opponent to speed up their gameplay, which can result in them making costly mistakes since they won’t have much time to plan out their build-up play with your players positioned so high up the pitch.
If you’re a player who currently relies on drop back or park the bus-type tactics, you could take your skills to the next level if you experimented with a high pressing style of play.
Cutting Passing Lanes
One of the most fascinating things about the way Tekkz’ plays is how he’s able to cut passing lanes and force his opponents into recycling the ball with their goalkeeper or flat out force them into losing the ball.
He cuts passing lanes by setting traps with his players through the use of manual player switching.
Unlike regular player switching, manual player switching allows you to select specific players you’d like to take control of across all areas of the pitch – and Tekkz uses this to his advantage by manually selecting certain players and using them to cut passing lanes high up the pitch.
If you’re able to successfully cut off your opponent’s passing lanes, you will leave them with three options;
- Pass the ball back to the goalkeeper
- Kick the ball into the sidelines
- Lose the ball entirely, to give you a clear chance on goal
By simply pressing high and cutting passing lanes, you’ll find yourself getting a lot of opportunities to score by capitalizing on your opponents’ mistakes.
And outside of just scoring, cutting your opponent’s passing lanes prevents them from being able to consistently launch attacks – allowing you to avoid conceding lots of goals.
If you want to get a more in-depth look at Tekkz’s aggressive style of play, you can check out his FIFA 21 course here. It’ll help you raise your game by teaching you how to effectively cut off passing lanes, structure build up play, destroy your opponents with skill moves, and much more.
