It’s time to talk about the new Dribbling Techniques. FC 24 brings in three new major techniques, which could be very impactful and meter, especially at the beginning.

Defending is quite hard on FC 24 and using those techniques as the Attacker makes the life of the Defenders even harder. At the end of this guide, we will also give you a pro tip on how you can combine these new dribbling techniques. 

Controlled Sprint

The first technique that we want to have a closer look at is the Controlled Sprint.

As the name already gives away, it’s a way to sprint with a ball. But in contrast to the normal sprint, your player keeps a closer control over the ball. That’s a revolution because dribbling was always a balance of pace and ball control. The faster you are, the less control you have. Because you have fewer ball contacts.

This was the trade-off. Now, EA FC 24 comes around the corner and turns this upside down with this new dribbling technique. 

When you hold the R1 or RB button, your player accelerates but keeps tight control over the ball. The better the dribbling attributes and pace, the faster your player will be and also reacts differently, more direct to your input with the left stick. So, if you have enough FUT 24 Coins, please upgrade your players' dribbling attributes as much as possible so that you can better use this technique.

You don’t need to press the R2 or RT button to be that fast. This is only with the R1/RB button.

Tip 1: go on the practice pitch and try the Controlled Sprint with a couple of different players to get a feel for it. 

This dribbling is completely new and the way you can turn and change direction is very different from other dribbling techniques. Since you get fast very easily, it’s crucial that you develop an idea of what you can get away with.

Now, it’s time to make use of it in a real match. We already identified different situations when this dribbling is very useful. One is in the Midfield and you have some space. By using Controlled Sprint, you pick up pace and put immediate pressure on the defensive line without losing too much ball control.

Tip 2: make sure you have enough space in front of you to get started with a Controlled Sprint.

Then, it’s important to observe the movement of the opponent’s Defenders. You want to weave around the Defenders and bait them a bit, so go a bit on one side, for example, to the left to provoke some reaction from the Defender since he has to cover the left side.

Now, just slightly change the direction to the other side and bang. All of a sudden, you’re weaving around the Defender and not only that, but through the whole defensive line, just like Prime Messi. Welcome to the magic of Controlled Sprint. 

But that’s only one aspect of it. We use Controlled Sprint to accelerate, but we can also use it to regain control from a full on sprint and slow down just a bit. So, you’re sprinting on the wing and you want to cut inside.

Now, you can use Controlled Sprint and slightly change the direction. 

Since you do everything with as much pace, you put a lot of pressure on the Defender to not do a single misstep. But you can still go left or right. This is a nightmare for every Defender. 

Once again, the Baiting Technique described earlier to switch from side to side in your dribbling works wonders.

Tip 3: be on the lookout for the technical playstyle and especially the playstyle +. 

Players with this playstyle are even faster and can turn sharper in the Controlled Sprint. They can do things that other players can’t. You thought that Controlled Sprint was already overpowered. Just see what you can do with players, like Messi and Musiala. 

Let me have one final remark. This looks super strong. I know some of you will also point out the bad defending of the opponents and that’s fair. But let’s see how you will do against Controlled Sprint when you see it for the first time. The thing is, this is completely new and so we all have to learn how to defend this properly. This makes it as strong right at the start of the season. 

Effort Dribble Touch

Now, we come to the second very impactful Dribbling Technique, which is new the Effort Dribble Touch.

To put it simply, this is a new way to flick the ball and change direction. The input is fairly simple. When you want to do an Effort Dribble Touch, you press the R1 or RB button and flick the right stick in the direction you want to flick the ball. You can do it in every direction, also out of a sprint. But obviously, this will influence how easy it is for your player to retrieve the ball right after.

For example, you will see that an Effort Dribble Touch with a huge direction change out of a sprint will end up in a heavier touch and harder for the player to get to the ball.

There is one key information about the Effort Dribble Touch. This feature is designed to be the fastest way that your player gets a contact to the ball. So, in theory, it’s the best way to get a contact to the ball before the opponent, for example, to get the ball away before he can tackle it.

But I think it’s quite hard to hit the perfect timing and require some practice and fast reactions.

Tip 4: you can use the Effort Dribble Touch to get a quick contact to the ball and suddenly change direction.

This can be a very interesting inside the box where One Direction change can be enough to get you in a scoring position. From our experience, it’s best to go for rather small direction changes than big ones because the subtle direction changes are less likely to end up in a heavy touch so you can get to the ball faster.

But you have to understand: it’s always a gamble when it comes to direction changes. Is it surprising enough? Do you get a proper and clean execution? I think it will require some practice to get a really good feeling for the right spots to try it, without having the feeling too often that you just thrown away a promising chance. 

But practice makes perfect and I think you can benefit from experience and confident execution of this move to pull it off successfully.

It’s time for the pro tip that we mentioned at the beginning of the guide. The Effort Dribble Touch can be combined with a Controlled Sprint. Burst into the box with Controlled Sprint. Do a slight direction change with Controlled Sprint to bait the opponent and then bang. Use the Effort Dribble Touch to quickly change direction once again.

There are a lot of different and deadly ways you can use this to the advantage.

Controlled First Touch

You can also use the Effort Dribble Touch to control the ball. Then, it’s called a Controlled First Touch.

The input is the same as the Effort Dribble Touch. But now we are talking about situations when your player is about to receive the ball.

Based on speed and the direction where the ball is coming from and in which direction you flick the right stick, your player will control the ball in that direction with a certain animation, which can be really cool and effective. This works best when your opponent is really pushing for the ball, so he tries to get very close in the moment when you’re about to receive the ball. Because this opens up the possibility of punishing him for his eagerness to get to the ball.

Tip 5: some of the best situations for the Controlled First Touch come up when you play a pass to your Winger or Striker with the opponent’s Defender right in your back. When you see that they have the Defender selected and move out, this can be a good spot for the Controlled First Touch.

Identify from which side they are coming and flick you stick into the open space and you burst into the open space and leave the opponent in the dust.

Quite similar to the Effort Dribble Touch, the Controlled First Touch comes down to experience but also a little bit of luck that you get a proper animation. All the opponent behaves as anticipated. If not, this move can fail miserably as well.

This is a typical example for a move that you can pull off one or two times per game, but then it will lose its effectiveness since the opponent will adapt and defend more patiently.