Achieving victory in FIFA 23 heavily relies on utilizing custom tactics, effective formations, and specific player instructions. Here’s a guide to the best formations and tactics in FIFA 23 for securing major victories in competitive modes like FUT Champions and Division Rivals.

After choosing your squad, selecting an appropriate strategy becomes crucial, particularly in Ultimate Team’s competitive modes such as Division Rivals and FUT Champions. Navigating through the plethora of formations, player instructions, and tactics to find the best meta can be challenging.

The same challenges are presented in EA FC 24, too, and that’s why we also have a best formations guide for the new game, too.

There are some classic systems that tend to work wonders in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team and are consistently strong, and others are more niche. With this in mind, we’ve laid out our best FIFA 23 custom tactics, meta formations, and player instructions.

Don’t forget that while custom tactics and strategies are helpful, without the correct players, they’re guaranteed to fall short. Be sure to visit our goalkeepers, center-backs, full-backs, midfielders, wingers, and strikers FUT guides to ensure your team is filled with top-tier players.

Contents

• Best FIFA 23 formations for FUT Champions
  • 4-1-2-1-2 (narrow) custom tactics
  • 4-2-3-1 custom tactics
  • 4-4-2 custom tactics
  • 4-3-2-1 custom tactics
  • 4-2-2-2 custom tactics
• FIFA 23 tactics: Attacking settings
• FIFA 23 tactics: Defending settings

Best FIFA 23 formations & custom tactics for FUT Champions

The best formation in FIFA 22 was comfortably 4-1-2-1-2 (narrow), and it’s effective again in FIFA 23. Packing out the midfield gives you plenty of options when trying to build an attack and play through the lines, while also making it hard for your opponent to find space in the middle of the park.

It’s also possible to add some width if you don’t mind committing bodies forward. Picking two center midfielders with pace can simulate the effect of having wingers, or you can set the full-backs to bomb forward and deliver crosses.

You can’t go wrong with 4-1-2-1-2 (narrow) thanks to the flexibility it offers at both ends of the pitch. That being said, there other setups that we expect to be just as effective.

FIFA 23 meta formations

Here are some other meta formations that we recommended giving spin in FIFA 23:

• 4-1-2-1-2 (narrow)
• 4-2-3-1
• 4-4-2
• 4-3-2-1
• 4-2-2-2

Best FIFA 23 custom tactics for 4-1-2-1-2 (narrow)

Player instructions

• Left-back: Stay back while attacking
• Right-back: Stay back while attacking
• CDM: Cover center, Stay back while attacking
• CMs: Get into the box for crosses, Get forward
• CAM: Stay forward
• ST: Stay forward, Get in behind

Defensive tactics

• Defensive Style: Balanced
• Width: 40
• Depth: 50

Offensive tactics

• Build Up Play: Balanced
• Chance Creation: Forward Runs
• Width: 40
• Players In Box: 70
• Corners and Free Kicks: 2 bars

Best FIFA 23 custom tactics for 4-2-3-1

Player instructions

• Left-back: Stay back while attacking
• Right-back: Stay back while attacking
• CDMs: Cover center on both, Stay back while attacking on one, Balanced on the other
• CAM: Stay forward, Get into the box for crosses
• ST: Stay forward, Get in behind

Defensive tactics

• Defensive Style: Balanced
• Width: 35
• Depth: 55

Offensive tactics

• Build Up Play: Direct Passing
• Chance Creation: Forward Runs
• Width: 40
• Players In Box: 70
• Corners and Free Kicks: 2 bars

Best FIFA 23 custom tactics for 4-4-2

Player instructions

• Left-back: Stay back while attacking
• Right-back: Stay back while attacking
• LM & RM: Cut inside, Get in behind
• CMs: Cover center, One on Stay Back while attacking, One on balanced
• ST: Stay forward, Get in behind

Defensive tactics

• Defensive Style: Balanced
• Width: 40
• Depth: 50

Offensive tactics

• Build Up Play: Balanced
• Chance Creation: Balanced
• Width: 50
• Players In Box: 50
• Corners and Free Kicks: 2 bars

Best FIFA 23 custom tactics for 4-3-2-1

Player instructions

• Left-back: Stay back while attacking
• Right-back: Stay back while attacking
• CM: Cover center, Stay back while attacking
• LCM & RCM: Cover center, Balanced
• LF & RF: Stay Central, Get in behind
• ST: Stay forward, Get in behind

Defensive tactics

• Defensive Style: Balanced
• Width: 40
• Depth: 50

Offensive tactics

• Build Up Play: Long ball
• Chance Creation: Direct passing
• Width: 35
• Players In Box: 50
• Corners and Free Kicks: 2 bars

Best FIFA 23 custom tactics for 4-2-2-2

Player instructions

• Left-back: Stay back while attacking
• Right-back: Stay back while attacking
• CDMs: Cover center, Stay back while attacking
• CAMs: Stay forward, Get into the box for cross
• ST: Stay forward, Get in behind

Defensive tactics

• Defensive Style: Balanced
• Depth: 50

Offensive tactics

• Build Up Play: Fast build up
• Chance Creation: Forward Runs
• Width: 40
• Players In Box: 50
• Corners and Free Kicks: 2 bars

FIFA 23 tactics: Attacking settings

When it comes to attacking, there are two different areas that players need to consider: Build Up Play and Chance Creation. These affect everything from the positions that attackers take up, to the types of runs they make.

Finding the right settings that suit both your formation and your style of play is essential if you want to challenge the higher ranks of FUT Champs.

There are four to choose from in each, so make sure you select the one that applies most to how you like to go about attacking:

Build up play

• Balanced: Stick to your formation, players will make support runs when needed.
• Slow Build Up: Players will come short for quick easy passes. Perfect for keeping possession.
• Long Ball: Players will run behind the defensive line, ready for passes over the top. Works best with pacey strikers.
• Fast Build Up: Attackers are constantly making runs, but leave you open to counterattack as they are pulled out of position.

Chance Creation

• Balanced: Players make runs but only when they think the time is right, otherwise they stay in formation.
• Possession: Emphasizes patient passing and waiting for gaps to appear. Strikers don’t make too many runs but will make options for short passes.
• Direct Passing: Strikers love to make runs in behind and beat the last man, ideal for quick players and well-time through balls.
• Forward Runs: Players will push up the pitch and make plenty of runs, offering lots of options but could leave you exposed to counterattacks.

FIFA 23 tactics: Defending settings

Defending in FIFA 23 also comes with plenty of options, with players being able to choose their defensive style and how deep they want to sit.

You can check those out below:

• Width/Depth slider: This lets players decide how up the pitch they want their defensive line to be. A high line is great for attacking but leaves you open to balls in behind, whereas a deep line is ideal for when you’re defending a lead.
• Balanced: The backline stays in formation and presses in the middle of the pitch.
• Pressure on Heavy Touch: Defenders stay in shape and press whenever there is a stray pass or poor touch.
• Press After Possession Loss: Players press frantically after they lose the ball for a few seconds to try and win it back. This uses a lot of stamina.
• Constant Pressure: The team presses all over the pitch to try and win the ball in dangerous positions. Again, this tactic uses a lot of stamina.

Those are some of the best FIFA 23 formations, custom tactics, and player instructions to test out in Ultimate Team. We’ll be updating this page regularly as the meta begins to take shape and players find the best strategies to use in Ultimate Team.

Remember, if you’re a fan of Career Mode, don’t forget to check out our best young players list that outlines all of the wonderkids you can add to your squad who have a huge amount of potential. Not only that, if you’re struggling to choose a club to manage in Career mode, we’ve got some recommendations right here.

For more on FIFA 23, check out some of our other guides below:

FIFA 23 Ones to Watch | FIFA 23 custom tactics | FIFA 23 Bundesliga rating predictions | FIFA 23 La Liga rating predictions | FIFA 23 Premier League predictions | 13 songs perfect for FIFA 23 soundtrack | FIFA 23 leaked ICONS | FIFA 23 leaked FUT Heroes | When does FIFA 23 early access start? | FIFA 23 crossplay explained | How to pre-order FIFA 23 | FIFA 23 Division Rivals | FIFA 23 Web App