You could be forgiven for missing it during FIFA 19’s grandstanding reveal at the EA Play event at E3 in Los Angeles last weekend but the most important change to this year’s game isn’t the return of the Champions League licence after a decade-long absence, or the addition of an authentically realised Neymar Jr to the box art. No, rather it’s a gameplay tweak that was overshadowed by the shiny silverware on stage but which promises to change the FIFA experience at a fundamental level: tactics.
Tactics have long been the FIFA franchise’s Achilles heel. While EA has spent Guardiola-like levels of money on strengthening pretty much every other area of the game, tactics have barely evolved from...