FIFA 23 WORK RATES
FIFA 23 Work Rates are responsible to determine how often your player will defend and attack.
Work Rates for FUT 23
When you build a FUT squad, you must choose your players based on their chemistry, positions, attributes, and prices. If you are not a casual player, you also look to their height, best foot, weak foot, skill moves, and work rates. Unlike many people thinks, Work Rates affect the way how your players and your team play.
Player Work Rates affect where players
A high attacking work rate implies that the player will be in all your attack moves. With medium, he will select the attack actions he will join. A player with a low attacking work rate will remain in his position while the team attacks. With the defense, it is the same but in the opposite direction.
The best way to understand how work rates work is by looking at the post-game heat map for each player on your team. They clearly show where your players were for the majority of the game.
Attacking Work Rate (AWR)
- High
Players will push deep into the attacking third, into the box, into the corners of the wings, etc… - Medium
Players will play from the midfield to outside the penalty area. - Low
Players will not play much further than from outside the defensive penalty area up to the defensive midfield.
Defensive Work Rate (DWR)
- High
Players will drop deep into the defensive third, into the box, into the corners of the wings, etc… - Medium
Players will play from the midfield to outside the defensive penalty area. - Low
Players will not drop much further than outside the attacking penalty area up to the attacking midfield.
You can check the work rate of a specific player in a FUT database or directly in-game.
How to Find the Player’s Work Rate in FUT
- From the main Ultimate Team screen, press R1/RB twice to select the [Club] tab;
- Select [Squad];
- Select one of your players and press R3;
- The Player Bio will show you the attacking and the defensive player work rate.
Suggestions
When choosing the right work rate for a player, you have to consider several factors, like formation, custom tactics, instructions, attributes, playing style, and the rest of the squad.
Just as a guideline, we will leave here the work rates we believe are more appropriate for each position but don’t forget you have to analyze your case to see if it fits you or not. Also, there is no problem if you can’t find good players with these exact work rates. When we suggest that high/low is the best work rate for a striker, it is also OK to use high/medium or medium/low. In this case, for example, you should avoid work rates like low/high, medium/high, or low/medium.
CB | Low/High
These are the players you will need in their natural positions all the time. If you want them to support the midfield, at least do it with fast players.
RB/LB | Medium/High
The main role of fullbacks is to give security to the backline, but most are high/medium, meaning they are out of position too often.
CDM/CM | Medium/High
Once again, these players should focus on the defense without losing the chance to help the most advanced teammates. This work rate should be adjusted according to the number of CDM/CMs in your team.
CAM | High/Medium
Attacking Midfielders have a crucial role in the attacking. However, they should also be the first players to defend.
Wingers | High/Low
As far as possible, it would be best to leave your wingers focused on the attack. It doesn’t mean they cannot help the backline, but other players are more suitable to do it.
ST | High/Low
This is the man responsible for scoring goals. That’s why he should be in the opposite box as long as possible, leaving defensive duties for the other players.
Frequently Asked Questions
FIFA 23 Work Rates affect where players position themselves on the pitch in the context of their original starting point.
Yes. Please pay close attention to the work rates of your players because these are both the foundation for their range of movement based on their starting position and the foundation for your team’s overall shape in attack and defense.
Let’s imagine you use a classic 433 formation, and the three CMs have all high attacking work rates. When losing the ball, your defense will be too exposed since no one will go back to help them. Let’s assume you play with a lonely striker, and he has a high defensive work rate. It may look great since he will support the rest of the team when you don’t have possession. However, as soon as you recover the ball, most likely, he will be out of position, and you will lose your only reference in the attack.
Let’s imagine you use a classic 433 formation, and the three CMs have all high attacking work rates. When losing the ball, your defense will be too exposed since no one will go back to help them. Let’s assume you play with a lonely striker, and he has a high defensive work rate. It may look great since he will support the rest of the team when you don’t have possession. However, as soon as you recover the ball, most likely, he will be out of position, and you will lose your only reference in the attack.
Work Rates are vital, but when selecting a player for your team, you should look first at his attributes and position. Only then, when you already have a shortlist, consider work rates, making it an influential eliminatory factor.
There are not best work rates for each position or even each player. If you want to select the best work rates possible for each situation, you have to look at the following factors:
- Formation;
- Custom Tactics;
- Player’s Instructions;
- Player’s Attributes;
- Playing Style;
- The Rest of the Squad.
High/high work rates may look the best, but this is not true. You will need players with a very high stamina stat. Otherwise, they will be tired fast and become useless. Since they always will be running up and down, they will be out of position too often, affecting the organization of your team. On the other hand, you should also avoid low/low work rates if you want players to cover as much field as possible.
Work rates should be chosen according to your formation and team.
For example, you shouldn’t use a striker with a high defensive work rate if he plays alone in the front. However, you can do it using a formation with two strikers. In the same way, using players with a high defensive work rate is almost useless if they don’t feature decent defensive attributes. It’s also easy to understand that a counter-attacking style will require wingers and forwards with low defensive work rates because you will need them in their natural positions as fast as possible. Finally, you should also know that playing with two center-backs with low defending work rates is unacceptable, but it’s okay to have just one.
For example, you shouldn’t use a striker with a high defensive work rate if he plays alone in the front. However, you can do it using a formation with two strikers. In the same way, using players with a high defensive work rate is almost useless if they don’t feature decent defensive attributes. It’s also easy to understand that a counter-attacking style will require wingers and forwards with low defensive work rates because you will need them in their natural positions as fast as possible. Finally, you should also know that playing with two center-backs with low defending work rates is unacceptable, but it’s okay to have just one.
You cannot modify FIFA 23 Work Rates in Ultimate Team game mode. You have to choose the players according to their work rates since you won’t be able to change them later.
A player’s work rate decisively affects the number of fitness points he will lose. It defines the predisposition a player has concerning the field zones he will occupy. That is how he will behave when you’re not controlling him. The work rate determines if he will run or not while you are not controlling him, and for that reason, players with the highest work rates, defenders or attackers, are the ones most likely to get tired faster.
Custom Tactics encourage the team to behave in specific ways and play with certain intents within the context of work rates and instructions. But, critically, they can also be directly contradictory to work rates and instructions, which can significantly hinder the resulting performance and fluidity of the team in-game.
Player instructions allow for creativity in attack and defence, and have the capacity to somewhat influence the impact of work rates. Rather than go through each set of instructions for each position, we will summarize how they interact with work rates through examples.
– A H/H Striker, by nature, will push deep into the box in the attack and drop deep into the defensive midfield, sometimes to the defensive penalty box, when the team doesn’t have possession. Setting this Striker to ‘press the back line’ will cause him to delay dropping deep in defense and stay higher up the pitch, especially when the backline players have the ball. This instruction, however, does not prevent him from ever dropping deep in defense. If you want a Striker who will truly pin the opponent’s backline higher up the pitch throughout the match, your best option is H/L.
– A H/M Center Mid, by nature, will push deep in the attack while not defending much beyond the defensive midfield, occasionally dropping into the area just outside the defensive penalty box. Setting this Center Mid to ‘stay back while attacking’ will cause him to delay forward runs during an attack and stay in the midfield, but it won’t stop him from pushing up into the attack. Setting him to ‘stay on the edge of the box for crosses’ will keep him outside the penalty box more often than not, but again, his high attacking work rate will cause him to make runs for crosses at times. If you want a Center Mid who truly stays in the midfield during the attack and on the edge of the box when the ball is on the wings, M/H or L/H are your better options.
– A M/M Center Back, by nature, will push to the midfield during the attack and drop to the edge of the defensive penalty box when the team doesn’t have the ball. Leaving him on ‘stay back while attacking’ will cause him to not push as far into the midfield as often, but he will still tend to drift forward in the attack. If you want a Center Back that stays deep at all times during the attack, L/H or L/M are the best options.
Now, how can we be creative with our instructions? It’s a matter of comparing a player’s work rates with the functions you want him to perform in-game. For instance:
– A M/H CM. Setting the Center Mid to ‘stay back while attacking’ will largely keep him in the midfield during the attack. However, he will still push forward into the attacking midfield, depending on available/open space and his particular attributes/stats and custom tactics. Setting him to ‘stay back’ and set him to ‘free roam’ will encourage him to remain in the midfield and swap positions with nearby players, especially when he pushes forward. If this same Center Mid’s complementing CB is set to ‘join the attack,’ we could have scenarios where they swap positions during the attack; this could either be a positive or a negative, depending on the CB’s attributes. For example, the CB switching to the CM spot could help to win the ball back higher up the pitch due to his better overall defensive stats, while the CM dropping into the CB role could potentially play a much better unexpected lobbed pass forward from the backline to an open player on the wing than the CB, due to his better overall passing stats.
One critical final point to remember is that instructions are positional. This means that if players swap positions at any end, they will follow the instructions set for that role until they swap back to their original spot, which is critical to know if you use the free form in any of your custom tactics.
– A H/H Striker, by nature, will push deep into the box in the attack and drop deep into the defensive midfield, sometimes to the defensive penalty box, when the team doesn’t have possession. Setting this Striker to ‘press the back line’ will cause him to delay dropping deep in defense and stay higher up the pitch, especially when the backline players have the ball. This instruction, however, does not prevent him from ever dropping deep in defense. If you want a Striker who will truly pin the opponent’s backline higher up the pitch throughout the match, your best option is H/L.
– A H/M Center Mid, by nature, will push deep in the attack while not defending much beyond the defensive midfield, occasionally dropping into the area just outside the defensive penalty box. Setting this Center Mid to ‘stay back while attacking’ will cause him to delay forward runs during an attack and stay in the midfield, but it won’t stop him from pushing up into the attack. Setting him to ‘stay on the edge of the box for crosses’ will keep him outside the penalty box more often than not, but again, his high attacking work rate will cause him to make runs for crosses at times. If you want a Center Mid who truly stays in the midfield during the attack and on the edge of the box when the ball is on the wings, M/H or L/H are your better options.
– A M/M Center Back, by nature, will push to the midfield during the attack and drop to the edge of the defensive penalty box when the team doesn’t have the ball. Leaving him on ‘stay back while attacking’ will cause him to not push as far into the midfield as often, but he will still tend to drift forward in the attack. If you want a Center Back that stays deep at all times during the attack, L/H or L/M are the best options.
Now, how can we be creative with our instructions? It’s a matter of comparing a player’s work rates with the functions you want him to perform in-game. For instance:
– A M/H CM. Setting the Center Mid to ‘stay back while attacking’ will largely keep him in the midfield during the attack. However, he will still push forward into the attacking midfield, depending on available/open space and his particular attributes/stats and custom tactics. Setting him to ‘stay back’ and set him to ‘free roam’ will encourage him to remain in the midfield and swap positions with nearby players, especially when he pushes forward. If this same Center Mid’s complementing CB is set to ‘join the attack,’ we could have scenarios where they swap positions during the attack; this could either be a positive or a negative, depending on the CB’s attributes. For example, the CB switching to the CM spot could help to win the ball back higher up the pitch due to his better overall defensive stats, while the CM dropping into the CB role could potentially play a much better unexpected lobbed pass forward from the backline to an open player on the wing than the CB, due to his better overall passing stats.
One critical final point to remember is that instructions are positional. This means that if players swap positions at any end, they will follow the instructions set for that role until they swap back to their original spot, which is critical to know if you use the free form in any of your custom tactics.
No. Attacking work rates don’t impact defensive work rates and vice versa – it’s not a synthesis; in other words, when you have possession, players will position based on their attacking work rates, and when you don’t have control, they will position based on their defensive work rates.
They will determine a team’s overall shape in attack and defense. Think of it like dots connected by triangles that shift depending on the possession of the ball. This is critical because you may select a particular formation, but that formation’s shape will morph in attack and defense depending on the work rates of each position.