You know the different exploits you have been succumbing to i.e. the Ronaldo sprint, long ball, and other ones you have mentioned...Are you not able to use the exploits yourself to win the games or do you choose not to play like that?
Part of it is that I'm not willing/interested in playing a certain way, but part of it too is that I'm not good enough or experienced enough in certain areas.
On one hand, I will
never dribble straight from kickoff to attempt to exploit the poor positioning and AI. Passing the ball backward is so ingrained as a habit that doing otherwise never even crosses my mind, and I have zero intention of doing otherwise.
Likewise with spamming long shots to exploit the poor keeper positioning, or doing a quick 1-2 at kickoff and sending a 40-yard lofted through ball for a striker to volley on goal. I have zero interest playing with Real Madrid just so I can sprint down the sidelines with Ronaldo or Bale every chance I get, even if that might be the best strategy for wins online.
On the other hand, playing online is a new experience for me, as I've never played more than a handful of online games of FIFA prior to this year. Seriously, I think I've played less than half a dozen since switching from PES in 07/08.
So in those years, I've learned to play against the AI, and in doing so I'm ill-prepared in some ways to transitioning to online play. One prime example that gets me into trouble all the time is that it's traditionally been extremely easy to build from the back against the CPU and dominate possession with a short to mid passing game.
As a result I've struggled at times using a more direct approach. This means that not only do I get caught out building from the back, but I'm also inexperienced playing long balls from the back, which is a popular tactic online considering the space afforded forwards, especially in quick transition situations, and the ease of taking on defenders.
So some of my frustrations are the growing pains of learning to play online - the CPU AI is not especially intelligent and doesn't exploit the game's weaknesses, and present a rather different type of challenge and even game of football.
Regardless, I take little satisfaction from the goals scored that I know come as a result of the game's flaws, even if it results in a win, so playing in such a fashion will never interest me.That online play provides positive reinforcement for skills that are so often not associated with realistic football is the reason I've always avoided online play in the past. And if the single player experience weren't so poor this year, I'm sure I probably wouldn't have ventured online to begin with, though I've (mostly) enjoyed the online manual matches I've had, when I've been able to get a match.
TL;DR: On one hand the purist in me doesn't want to play that way; on the other hand, I just need to get good.