Like everything passing has basic rules as well. First of all, you need to be very patient while you are passing just because you can press the pass button doesn’t mean you have to use it all the time. Carelessly, passing around will end up with you losing the ball so also taking a look at what the defenders are is going to help you decide what to do next. It is also important to mention that this year the passing ability heavily relies on the passing stats of the player. That means you can’t take every pass with every player. You might need to take one or two extra touches on the ball to be able to dodge the opponent’s interception and get the most optimal passing opportunity. You need to pay more attention to these rules this year compared to the previous titles since the defenders are much more capable of intercepting passes. In addition, normal ground passes are often too slow and easily intercepted this year when trying to pass through tight gaps. There is a clear workaround for this in which you increase the power of the pass which brings us to our first passing technique.
Driven Passes
Driven passes are the strongest in the current meta. They seem to be much more reliable since you give some power to the pass which reduces the traveling time of the ball from one player to the other, and that also reduces the time that the defender has to be able to react towards the passing lane. Even though driven passes are really strong, there is only one thing that you have to watch out for. The path between the passer and the receiver has to be clear. So, if any defender stays on that line the pass is going to be intercepted anyways. The input is very simple – you just have to hold on to the R1 + RB button while passing to be able to send a driven pass. That way you power up the pass and increase the chance that it will go through. There is a clear speed difference between a normal pass and a driven one. Even though the driven paths are used for overall pitch there are a couple of scenarios where they become lethal. In a situation where you continue to look to break up in position defense that is heavily fortified, you need to find the smallest gap. These gaps will appear for a really short period of time and even if you see them normal passes would not be enough to get the ball to the desired player. However, since the driven passes are much faster than the normal ones, it is more likely that you have a successful pass.
So, in this very clear example, when you are only one player in the box who could potentially be a threat to the opposition. It’s being covered by a lot of defenders and there is a defender between your current dribbler and that player inside the box. With a quick skill move, you can create the optimal passing opportunity towards your striker. However, if you send a normal short pass, the defender could potentially cut off that pass by moving a selected defender into the passing lane or he can switch to the other center back to be able to confront the receiver. With a powerful driven pass, you make sure that your striker receives the ball as soon as possible so that the currently selected defender can’t get a touch on the pole and just because the opponent tried to intercept it with that specific defender. He was not able to switch the center back in time. So, your striker found the opportunity to turn around and scored the goal. Another deadly scenario would be to use it from the side, especially if you’re planning to go all the way down to the goal line. Once you get the ball from a side angle a simple strong driven pass could end up directly in front of the goal and the receiver has to make the final touch into the goal. The method of going to the goal line and passing the ball in has been used a lot by FIFA 22 boost providers with different passing styles but this year it is best used with the driven passes.
Remember, you have to watch the defenders’ movement and pass accordingly. Some of the defenders are aware of the danger that the driven passes create and they gamble to block the passing lane. In these types of situations don’t blindly, go for the driven pass, instead of observing and go for the shot.
Driven Loop Balls
Driven loop through ball is safe to say much stronger compared to the last few years. It is basically a combination of a lob through ball which can be performed by pressing L1 and triangle buttons at the same time, and the driven through ball which can be performed by pressing R1 and triangle at the same time. Combining those two means combining the inputs as well so a driven knob through the ball can be performed by pressing the triangle button while holding onto the L1 + R1 buttons together at the same time. Time compared to the lobbed true balls the driven locked ones have lesser height but therefore, much more speed. That means that mechanic becomes lethal if it’s sent to a running player who has relatively good space in front of him to receive the ball. Let me go in detail with a very good example. So for instance, we pass the ball towards the wing-back with L1, so that our initial passer throws himself forward for a run after he sends the ball. Until he moves into a perfect receiving position, we need to hold on to the ball and carry it a bit forward with the wing-back. As the running player reaches his maximum acceleration to get on the same level as the last defender, we see that he has some space in front of him, so we could send the ball into that space. We have the following options here:
- Either we go for a driven through ball from the ground, which could be interrupted by the selected midfielder or afterward by center back.
- We can go for a loop through the wall which will chip the ball over the players with a great height, or with a combination of both which is driven lobe through ball.
Lobbed Pass
Low balls have been very useful since you started FIFA 22 especially before getting out from your own half by now. You should have seen a lot of players who switch sides from one wing back to the other one before advancing to the opposition territory. The reason for that is the structure of the difference. Once you have the ball in either one of the wings, you will immediately see that the opposition team shifts toward. That side of the pitch as a whole and sometimes it gets really hard to build up from there. Therefore, switching sides from one wing back to the other one by only using the square button can quickly get to the opposition half since that side will be much more empty.
Controversy
There are some people who say that an awesome new passing style exists which has a combination of tapping the triangle button twice while holding on to the L1 button. They say this pass is incredibly strong and stable and is much better than the normal one through the bowl. Does it even exist though? This controversial question has split the community into two, so we want to put it into it. When you tap the triangle button twice you give two very short inputs to your controller. If you press the triangle twice without using the L1 the second input allows you to lift the ball just a bit from the ground but doesn’t have any impact on the power of the pass. If you try it while holding on to the L1 button the second input will also lose its impact on the adjustment of the pass as well.
Conclusion
Passing is one of the foundations of the FIFA game in any mode, no matter if it’s an Ultimate Team or just an offline game with friends. Either way, good passing skills will help you overcome any defense and get the desired win. I hope you found this guide useful. Thank you for your interest!
