EA Sports FC 27 Set Pieces Explained: New Corners, Avoidance and Triggered Runs
EA Sports FC 27 overhauled how corner kicks work: a manual pre-delivery window, a new Avoidance mechanic for beating crowded boxes, and two player-triggered attacking runs. Here's exactly what changed, straight from EA's own Gameplay Deep Dive pitch notes.
EA Sports FC 27 didn't just tweak sliders this year — it rebuilt how the ball behaves at corners, and how attackers move to get on the end of them. According to EA's own Gameplay Deep Dive pitch notes, the goal was to take control away from the AI and hand it back to the player during exactly these situations.
Here's what actually changed at corner kicks, how the new Avoidance mechanic works, and what the two new manually-triggered runs do for your attack.
1. Why EA Rebuilt Set Pieces
In previous entries, EA says contesting players moved automatically toward the "best" position to meet a cross or corner, which took a lot of the decision-making out of the attacking player's hands and made short corners the safer, more common choice. FC 27 removes that auto-positioning. Per the official pitch notes, players must now time their own run and make first contact themselves — which means a well-defended or mistimed delivery can be cleared by nobody at all.
The intent, in EA's words, is to reward preparation and timing over just pointing a stick at the box and hoping.
2. The New Two-Step Corner System
The headline change is what amounts to a two-step corner. Once you pick a delivery area and start the kick, the camera shifts toward the penalty box and gives you a short window to actively control your attackers before the ball arrives. During that window you can:
- Move your targeted attacker into space
- Switch to a different player to meet the ball instead
- Make a late run toward the near or far post
- Shield off a marker to hold your position
This window only applies to outswinging, inswinging, and driven deliveries aimed into the box — short corners skip it entirely and drop you straight back into your normal match camera, since there's no delivery to react to.
3. Avoidance: The New Trick for Beating a Crowd
The other new tool at corners is Avoidance. Holding R1 on PlayStation or RB on Xbox during the pre-delivery window lets your controlled attacker (or defender) slip through a crowd of players without getting physically blocked or boxed out.
EA's pitch notes specifically pair Avoidance with Shielding: hold Avoidance to create separation from a marker, then switch to shielding the ball or the space you've won to stop your opponent from recovering position before the delivery arrives. It's a small addition, but in a mode where six or seven players can be stacked in a six-yard box, it's the difference between getting a clean header off and getting shoved out of the picture.
4. Headers and Crossing Got Harder — on Purpose
None of this matters if you can't finish the delivery, and EA has deliberately made that part less automatic too. Crosses and corners now land more often in open space rather than snapping onto a specific attacker's head, and the aim and power you put into the delivery has a much bigger effect on where the ball actually ends up — including missing everyone completely if it's misjudged.
The payoff is that clean headers, when you do win them, are more accurate than they were in FC 26, and EA says finishing animations off crosses and corners should show more variety: attackers stretching, diving, or adjusting their body shape to connecting with the ball, rather than one or two generic header animations repeating all match. EA also rebalanced the Precision Header PlayStyle so the gap between having the base PlayStyle and the upgraded PlayStyle+ version is smaller than before.
5. Triggered Curved Runs and Pass & Follow Runs
Set pieces aren't the only place EA added manual, player-led movement. Two new attacking inputs let you actively direct a teammate's run during open play instead of leaving it to the AI:
- Triggered Curved Run (L1+R1 on PlayStation, LB+RB on Xbox) — sends a teammate on a bending run around a defender's blind side rather than a straight line.
- Pass & Follow Run (L1+R1+X on PlayStation, LB+RB+A on Xbox) — plays the ball and immediately sends the passer themselves on a follow-up run into space.
Both take noticeably longer to complete than a standard sprint run, which is a deliberate trade-off: you're committing a player to a specific, telegraphed movement rather than getting an instant AI-assisted burst. EA also changed how long manually triggered runs last in general — a run now stops after covering a limited distance and has to be triggered again, rather than carrying on indefinitely, while the AI's own creative off-ball runs now account for the offside line and defensive shape before making them.
6. Dribbling After Contact
EA's deep dive also touches on dribbling in traffic, where top dribblers can now keep the ball under control after bumping into a defender instead of automatically losing possession — EA's footage for this internally labels the mechanic "Stumble Dribble." It's listed as available only on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2, so it won't appear on PS4 or Xbox One versions of FC 27.
7. Where These Mechanics Matter Most
None of this is cosmetic — it changes how you should actually approach a match. A few practical takeaways:
- Stop spamming short corners out of habit. With the new pre-delivery window, a well-timed near-post run is now a genuine weapon again.
- Practice pairing Avoidance with Shielding before you take a match online — it's not labeled clearly in the UI prompts and is easy to miss entirely.
- Use Triggered Curved Runs sparingly in the final third rather than constantly, since the longer completion time means a mistimed one leaves a teammate out of position.
- If you play competitively, expect manual defending to matter more: EA has specifically pulled back AI auto-tackling and interception reach in Competitive modes, which rewards players who jockey and time tackles themselves.
If you want the full picture of how AI defending, crossing assistance, and build-up spacing changed this year — beyond just set pieces — EA Sports FC 27's wider gameplay overhaul is broken down separately, including the reduced AI contain assistance mentioned above. Set piece tactics also tie into how FC IQ handles player roles and team-wide tactical focuses, since your defensive setup at a corner depends on the roles you've assigned.
These same mechanics carry over into the small-sided matches found in The Grounds' Clubs and Kickabout activities, where set pieces and quick restarts come up constantly in 3v3 and 5v5 formats. And if you're grinding Ultimate Team specifically, these timing-based set piece changes show up a lot in Division Rivals and Weekend League Champions matches, where a single clean corner can decide a tight game.
Quick Tips Recap
- Outswinging, inswinging and driven corners now give you a short manual window to position runners before the ball arrives — short corners skip this entirely.
- Hold R1/RB for Avoidance to move through a crowd at a set piece, and pair it with Shielding to hold the space you win.
- Crosses and corners land in space more than on a specific head now, so aim and power matter more than ever.
- Triggered Curved Run (L1+R1 / LB+RB) and Pass & Follow Run (L1+R1+X / LB+RB+A) are new manual attacking runs — both take longer to finish than a normal sprint.
- Off-Balance/"Stumble" dribbling after contact is current-gen and PC/Switch 2 only — it isn't in the PS4 or Xbox One versions.