Drilling or Floating crosses?

Which is better? I'm guessing it depends on aerial ability but I'm not sure..

If you're players are good in the air, float them in.

If they're not so good, fire them in to cause from nerves to jangle so hopefully you'll get lucky from a deflection a poachers effort.

I drill mine and get a lot of goals from players sliding in at the far beans-on-toast.

I used to have a 451/433(two wingers and one target man) and used float crosses so the other winger would often just tap-in at the far post.

Depends on your formation and what players you have i guess.

cheers for the replies, I play a 451 formation with a decent in the air lone striker so floating would be best then I assume?

It doesn't just depend on the aerial ability of your front man, it depends on players who arrive late in the box from midfield too. I find they benefit from floated crosses more than drilled in general.

If you're playing AMR/AML's, consider the aerial ability of your wingers - if you have a tall winger who is half-decent in the air, like Ronaldo, I find they score more headers than you'd expect playing a floated cross. If they're both small wingers, drilled crosses will often result in tap ins from the opposite winger if the cross is overcooked for the strikers.

I personally only use drilled when playing a 4-5-1 with a pacy small striker up top running the channels, combined with two quick wingers, as a drilled cross is much more likely to result in a tap in six yards out than a floated cross.

The general rule is drilled for short players, floated for tall, but experiment with it - don't just stick with the norm

Default every time... Forcing your wingers and full backs to cross in a certain way in my opinion tends not to do the same damage as letting them make the decision themselves. My lone striker Nino of Tenerife currently has 23 in 26 so far this season and I'm sure 6 or 7 of those have came from his head... I get a lot of goals from the winger or midfielder bursting towards the far post and tapping in.

It leaves you not restricted by how your players cross and while I have a very short team I do get goals from crosses

Pay attention to the weather too. Floating crosses in a hurricane isn't advisable.

I leave it on mixed/default.

No need for me to pick one. I should maybe go for drilled as I have 2 small strikers and 2 small wingers, but I do still sometimes get goals from floated crosses. And there is no point drilling a cross if noone is there.

Default every time... Forcing your wingers and full backs to cross in a certain way in my opinion tends not to do the same damage as letting them make the decision themselves. My lone striker Nino of Tenerife currently has 23 in 26 so far this season and I'm sure 6 or 7 of those have came from his head... I get a lot of goals from the winger or midfielder bursting towards the far post and tapping in.

It leaves you not restricted by how your players cross and while I have a very short team I do get goals from crosses

Default every time... Forcing your wingers and full backs to cross in a certain way in my opinion tends not to do the same damage as letting them make the decision themselves. My lone striker Nino of Tenerife currently has 23 in 26 so far this season and I'm sure 6 or 7 of those have came from his head... I get a lot of goals from the winger or midfielder bursting towards the far post and tapping in.

It leaves you not restricted by how your players cross and while I have a very short team I do get goals from crosses

Well that depends on the DECISIONS attribute of the crossers. Mine average around 5, so I really need to tell them what to do.

Is float crosses effectively a team instruction similar to the player instruction aim for the far post?

I'm playing with two inside forwards and can see an advantage of aiming for the far post but not necessary with floaty crosses.

I think the TI tool-tip gives a clue

Float Crosses will instruct players to play high, floated crosses into the penalty area with the intention of the ball to hand in the air and allow a forward for position himself sufficiently to take advantage

That tells me that players will look to get the ball high to exploit the advantages of having a taller man in the area.

As a description it does need work because using 'play high, floated crosses' when explaining a floated cross is a poor show, it should probably also suggest that the TI is used when you have forwards with a good height/jumping reach advantage or excellent off the ball ability so that they can create space in the penalty area.

I actually prefer Low Crosses in a counter attacking tactic for a pacey team, that hits the opposition on the break.

Horses for courses.

Personally I shy away from setting cross type instructions as part of my starting tactic, as a match progresses I might pick out a strength in our attacking play or weakness in the opponents defence that I can take advantage of with a set instruction.

Horses for courses.

Personally I shy away from setting cross type instructions as part of my starting tactic, as a match progresses I might pick out a strength in our attacking play or weakness in the opponents defence that I can take advantage of with a set instruction.

I shy away from a lot of the instructions. Everyone seems to pick 'shorter passing' and whatnot, but I like leaving it on mixed. That long cross-field ball between the fullback and centreback is lethal when it is hit well and the winger flies through. Sure, it happens with shorter passing on anyway but not quite so much. It's a ridiculously powerful weapon to the arsenal of any team with a particularly creative deep lying midfielder.

As for crossing, I always figured 'float' = high balls for tall strikers like Andy Carroll but drilled crosses were for those who might shade off the back of the centreback and was for those who had excellent movement. Both are easy to counter though, floated crosses can be batted away by defenders with ease, if they're up to scratch and drilled crosses often get skewed into the near-side netting. I think there's a benefit to having it on mixed, but maybe one or the other depending on the weather.

On that note, I would love it if it was possible to identify wind direction. Even in a hurricane, if you have the wind behind the ball you're going to want to have a lot of long shots and whippy crosses that will give their keeper an absolute nightmare and obviously, it's pointless doing the high ball if the wind is against you.