FIFA 11 is about as equally paced as FIFA 10, so passing is still a crucial skill to be able to do well. You must learn to posses the ball through passing before looking for that killer through ball that puts a striker in on goal and other useful techniques such as playing a ball to the winger and learning when to cross.
Possessing the Ball
Holding a good percentage of possession is very important. If you do not possess the ball, your opponent does, and obviously, he can score if he has the ball. Good possession of the ball is hard to teach, you must look for those short passes around the midfield. Don't be afraid to play the ball back! Even though you're loosing ground towards the goal, playing the ball backwards to an open player gives him many more options forward than you would have had. He can then play a ball to the more central midfielder who was not an option when you had the ball, and he might have some really good passing options due to the space you opened up with this quick rotation of the ball.
Inside or Outside?
There are always pockets of space on the pitch where the defending team is nonexistent. You must look at the current team stance of your opponent, are they spread out wide and long leaving many viable passing lanes? Or are they cluttered more in the center of the field, leaving options for you to play the ball outside? You need to learn to analyze how your opponent's team is positioned, and take advantage of this. A good example would be that from a goal kick, the defending team tends to push into the center of the field, leaving your wingers or outside midfielders wide open. If you are to win the header, play the ball to any open player, who can then distribute it to your winger or outside midfielder. Another example is playing against a team who is very spread out, which is usually due to his formation featuring many midfielders and defenders. By noticing this, you already have the advantage that there will be more passing lanes than normal, and the through ball will be extremely effective.
Regular Passes
By pressing the default passing button of your gaming console, you play a simple sidefooted pass to a teammate. These passes will go right to your target's feet, so if they have a lot of room in front of them to run on to, you might want to consider the through ball, which will be explained later. Although the default assisted controls will aid your passing direction and power, you do have a considerable amount of control over the power of your pass, so analyze the distance between you and your passing target and hold down the passing button accordingly so it gets to him without being intercepted. However, if you want full control over the direction and power of your shots, I highly recommend looking into changing your passing settings to manual. See more on the Manual vs. Assisted debate here.
Lofted Pass
The lofted pass is useful when your passing target is wide open, but there is a player of the opposing team in the way of this. By simply lofting the ball over your opponent's head and to your target, you can evade this problem. Another useful time to utilize the lofted pass is by passing up to a big, tall striker. Most of the time, he will out-jostle and out-jump the defenders to head the ball to another player or even chest it down to his feet. This is useful because when done well, it is so sudden that the midfielders don't have enough time to get back, and you can attack just their back line.
Crossing
Crossing is an incredibly useful tool in FIFA 11 due to the effectiveness of headers and importance of strength. Done most by wingers and outside midfielders, the cross is when a player plays a lofted pass from the wide flanks of the pitch to open strikers in the box who are ready to put it into the net. There are three types of crosses in FIFA 11.
- The Traditional Lofted Cross by holding down the lofted pass button on your console, your player will play in a cross that tends to go high enough that heading the ball is the best option for your strikers.
- The Low Cross by tapping the lofted pass button down twice in quick succession, your player will play in a lower cross to the ground that is usually put away by not only headers, but also volleys. The ideal time to use this is when your striker us approaching the near post and there is not a defender in front of him, or when the player who is going to cross the ball is very close to the end line.
- The Ground Cross a ground cross is executed by tapping the lofted pass down three times in quick succession. This will result in a ground level, hard cross across the face of goal. This is useful for when the defensive line is rushing back to the goal to defend the cross but haven't quite made it there yet. If your striker is in line with the defence, but is faster and will beat them to the ball, then go for it. When done well, the cross will nestle right in front of your striker nicely for him to bang into the back of the net.
*Holding down LB on Xbox or L1 on Playstation while crossing with any of these three crossing variants produces an early cross intended for when you are not very close to the endline but still think your strikers are in a good enough position to cross to.
Through Ball
The through ball is an incredibly dangerous weapon to use against your opponent. The through ball is a pass which doesn't go directly to your passing target, but rather in front of him for him to run on to. Obviously, don't try this if your target doesn't have space in front of him, or if his marker or defenders around him are faster than him. The best uses for the through ball are for when playing wingers to give them a head start on their dribble down the line, or playing through holes in the defensive line so your striker can simply run past the defenders to be in on goal. The through ball can also be utilized to quickly speed up your attack in the midfield also, your center-midfielders will have space in front of them too!
Chipped Through Ball
Chipped Through balls have the same concept as the regular through ball, but that the pass is, well, chipped! This is useful for when your passing target has a lot of space in front of him and is faster than the defenders around him, but they are blocking passing lanes through which you can play a grounded through ball.
Manual Passing
Passing in FIFA 11 is set to assisted controls by default. By this, I mean that whenever you attempt to pass the ball, the computer greatly alters the amount of power your pass will have and the direction it will go, almost regardless of what you did with your controller. If you set your passing controls to Manual, you will have full control over the power and direction of your shots. It takes some getting used to, but it is very much worth it in the end, once you get good at it.