Tap a teammate to pass
Tap any teammate to pass to him — the ball is played ahead of him, so look for the man already running. Swipe anywhere on the pitch to send him running that way, and he keeps going until you swipe again, pass, shoot, or lose it. He will sidestep the nearest man but he will not turn for you — run him at the touchline and the ball goes out. The longer he carries it, the likelier he is to be tackled.
You can ask for the next one while the ball is still travelling: tap a second man, or SHOOT, and it happens the instant your player takes the ball. If it is intercepted first, the instruction goes with it.
Your keeper counts as a team-mate — play it back to him to start again. He cannot pick it up from you, though, so he is fair game down there.
SHOOT aims itself. What decides it is where you shoot from — distance, angle, and whether a defender is on you. From the edge of the box with someone breathing on you, expect to miss.
You don't chase the ball yourself; your team does. What you choose is the shape.
LOW BLOCK — everyone drops in. Hard to play through, but you
win it deep with a long way to go.
BALANCED — holds a normal line.
PRESS — squeezes up and hunts the ball. Wins it high and
close to their goal, and leaves room in behind if they beat it.
A keeper who catches it has it in his hands, and for that moment nothing can be done about it — both sides drop off while he picks between a short one and a ball down the line.
Judged the moment the ball leaves your player's foot, not when it arrives: if the man you picked was beyond the second-last defender then, it comes back. Your forwards hold the line on their own, so you rarely have to think about it — but a ball played to someone already through is a free kick the other way.
Two halves. Each one runs two minutes of real time and reads as forty-five on the clock, and it keeps running while the ball is out of play. Every restart is yours to take if the ball is yours — tap the man you want it played to. Throw-ins, corners and goal kicks are taken for you. Both keepers play themselves.