It's very intuitive and not that hard at all after you get used to it. What makes it look hard is years of getting bad habits playing in assisted, where you get used to not aiming things at all. From my experience, you put someone who rarely ever played FIFA with manual controls and he'll be a lot more accurate than an assisted veteran.
I don't do it because of the challenge, I'm not a very competitive gamer, and in games like GTA I always go for assisted aim instead of free aim, etc. I play manual because it's the only way the games are enjoyable. It mimics football a lot better, with a slower paced game because ping-pong passing doesn't work, you have to position the player realistically to get the passes or shots right. You also learn to appreciate good goals a lot better, long shots really need to be weighed to get in, and some cracking goals will persist on your memory for years, unlike assisted where they happen on a regular basis. Games are also more varied and original, with new plays that the control of the direction and weight of the passes allow, such as playing shot passes (with X) into space, etc.
That said, it's dying, which will probably mark the end of my participation in these games. I'm not enjoying it FIFA 16 as in past games. I can barely find opponents in seasons any more (or I can, after searching for 1 hour or 2, usually when doing something else), there's no manual filter in UT, and the old lobbies, where you could always find manual opponents for friendlies, are gone. It's ridiculous. Not only that, I feel as if the manual game is getting more assisted with each iteration.
