100%, its the complete bollocks and the more I learn the less inclined I am to play, its programmed badly, even with assisted passing EA should have the cop on to know, passing the ball to feet of a CB is suicide right there. Aim it back and the CB should turn and run to the pass not the pass should auto correct to the player. It's a huge flaw in the build.
It's bad AI, in fact its not AI at all for that matter. The reason AI defending is so overpowered is because the AI read your button inputs, so they have them stopped before a manual defender would ever see whats happening on screen and before the attacker see's whats happening because of monitor latency etc...
That free ball thing is bad coding, the AI decides someone else is better suited to getting the ball. If it decides thats the player you are controlling it will make him run and not let you change him to the guy beside the ball. For me that's worse than the passing thing.
That's an issue with the game, the good players aren't better at playing virtual football, they are better at knowing, if I do x here the game will feck me over but if I do y here the game will feck the other guy over.
