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EA Sports FC 27 controls & keybinds

The complete FC 27 control scheme on the default Classic controller layout: movement, simple and advanced attacking, defending, goalkeeper, every set piece, tactics and Be a Pro, plus the FC 27 additions (Avoidance on R1/RB, triggered curved runs, Pass and Follow). Keyboard defaults are listed for players without a pad.

Every FC 27 input, drawn as the buttons it is

Each input plays itself. Click any row to take the playhead there.

Move player

1 input
Sprint

Hold direction
hold + press
Controlled sprint Keeps the ball closer than a full sprint, which is what makes it the one to hold in a crowded box.

1 input
Shield / jockey

Hold direction
hold + press
Sprint jockey

Hold
hold + press
Strafe dribble Faces the defender while moving sideways; the base every skill move is launched from.

2 at once
Stop ball

2 at once
Stop and face goal

2 at once
First touch / knock-on

Flick twice and hold
hold + press
Controlled first touch

Flick
2 at once
Jostle for a ball in the air

1 input
Skill moves The full move list is on the skill moves page.

1 input

Protect ball

Hold
1 input
Driven ground pass

2 at once
Lofted ground pass

2 at once
Lofted through pass

2 at once
Lobbed through pass

2 at once
High lob / cross

2 at once
Driven lob pass / driven cross

3 at once
Ground cross

2 at once
Driven ground cross

4 at once
Trigger run

1 input
Call for support

1 input
Double teammate support

2 at once
Dummy a pass

Hold
hold + press
Flair pass

2 at once
Flair shot / outside of the foot

2 at once
Flair lob / cross

2 at once
Flair through pass

2 at once
Let the ball run

Hold L3 away from the ball
hold + press
Disguised first touch

Hold L3 towards the ball
hold + press
Flick up for a volley

1 input
Pass and go

2 at once
Pass and follow Also works after a through pass or a cross.

Hold direction
hold + press
Directional run

Tap Flick
2 at once
Player lock

2 at once
Switch player while locked

Flick
1 input
Precision pass

2 at once
Precision swerve ground pass

3 at once
Precision lob pass

2 at once
Cancel foul advantage

2 at once
Hard super cancel Four shoulders at once — worth knowing which fingers you will use before you need it.

4 at once

Pad

Buttons

Wording

The rest of this game, drawn

Three more references and one bench, each counted from what the page actually holds.

181 inputs groups11pad165keys16 FC 27 controls You are here 102 moves running18finishing52unlockable25 FC 27 celebrations Every stick gesture drawn on the stick instead of written as an arrow. 109 moves 3★124★345★31 FC 27 skill moves By star rating, each with the stick path it asks your thumb to draw. 5 updates versionv1.1.0season2deadline3 Dec FC 27 updates & seasons Every title update and what it changed, the season clock and the weekly resets in your own time zone. 3 motions flick✓rotate✓hold✓ The FC controller bench Perform the input and see whether your thumb drew a flick, a rotation or a hold.

Settings that change how the bindings feel

Recommended starting settings

The whole Gameplay menu, group by group, in the order FC 27 lists it. Read from a PlayStation 5 copy of the game on 20 September 2026, which is why the option lists and the preset behaviour here differ from the guides that recycled last year's menu. Where the Competitive preset takes a setting away from you, it says so.

Presets

Preset Competitive

Online competitive matches turn this on whatever you choose in the menu, so treat it as the real default. EA names eight settings as affected by it; five of them actually grey out and three stay yours to pick. Both lists are marked below.

Shooting

Auto Shots Off OnOff

Preset locks this Greyed out under Competitive, so it is off in every match that counts. Practising with it on teaches a timing you will not have online.

Assisted Headers Off OnOff

Preset locks this Also greyed out. Headers are aimed by the left stick alone once you are online, which is why near-post runs beat far-post ones in FC 27.

Shot Assistance Assisted AssistedPrecision

Assisted turns the shot towards goal for you. Precision hands you the angle and gives a harder, flatter ball in return. Stay on Assisted until you stop dragging shots wide from inside the box, then switch once and do not switch back mid-season.

Passing

Auto Flair Pass Off OnOff

Preset locks this Greyed out under Competitive. Flair passes are a deliberate input in FC 27, never something the game plays for you.

Through Pass Assistance Semi AssistedSemiManual

Named by the preset EA lists this as affected by the Competitive preset, but it stays selectable — unlike Auto Shots and the rest, you still choose. Semi keeps the power partly assisted while the direction follows your stick, which is the setting that rewards the new strict through-ball behaviour.

Lobbed Through Pass Semi AssistedSemiManual

Named by the preset Named by the preset, still selectable. On Semi the flight depends on where you aim and how long you hold the button, so the chip over a high line becomes a skill instead of a dice roll.

Ground Pass Assistance Assisted AssistedSemiManual

The one to leave alone. Assisted routes the ball into the receiver's path and around the defender in between; a manual ground pass costs you more possession than it ever wins.

Cross Assistance Assisted AssistedSemiManual

Assisted aims the cross into the runner's path when you point into the box. Worth dropping to Semi only if you cross from deep and want the flat, early ball.

Lob Pass Assistance Assisted AssistedSemiManual

Direction and power both aimed at a teammate. Leave it: the lob is an escape pass, and an escape pass you have to aim is not an escape.

Pass Receiver Lock Late Power UpAnimation StartLate

Decides how long you can keep changing your mind. Power Up locks the receiver the moment you release the button, Animation Start locks it as the leg swings, Late locks it as the ball is struck. Late is the one that lets you redirect a pass after seeing the defender commit — the most useful setting in the menu that almost nobody touches.

Precision Pass Sensitivity Normal LowNormalHigh

How fast the precision aim tracks your right stick. High matches the stick angle exactly, which is more responsive and harder to hold steady. Change this only after Pass Receiver Lock, not before. Controller

Defending

Auto Clearances Off OnOff

Preset locks this Greyed out under Competitive. Every clearance online is yours, which is the whole reason the next setting matters.

Clearance Assistance Directional ClassicDirectional

Directional sends the ball where you point instead of wherever the animation fancies. With Auto Clearances locked off, this is the setting that decides whether a goalmouth scramble ends in row Z or at an opponent's feet.

Jockey Manual AssistedManual

Preset locks this Greyed out and set to Manual. The defender no longer faces the ball for you, so jockeying is a two-stick job in every online match — practise it in the arena before the first one.

Defending Tactical Defending Tactical DefendingAdvanced Defending

Named by the preset Named by the preset but still yours. Tactical picks the tackle for you from the defender's position. Advanced splits it: circle for a stand tackle, cross for a shoulder challenge or seal-out. Advanced is better once you can read the moment; Tactical costs you fewer cards while you learn.

Professional Fouls On OnOff

Only affects the deliberate foul on R1 + Cross. Leaving it on costs nothing and gives you a way to stop a counter at the halfway line; turning it off does not stop you conceding fouls, it just removes the button.

Pass Block Assistance On OnOff

Helps the defender put a leg in the passing lane. There is no competitive argument for switching it off.

Switching

Right Stick Switching Classic

Flick the right stick towards the player you want. The three settings under it change what 'towards' means, so set this one first and then read the next two as a pair. Controller

Right Stick Switching Reference Player Relative Player RelativeBall Relative

Player Relative measures the flick from the defender you are holding; Ball Relative measures it from the ball. Player Relative is the one that matches what your thumb thinks it is doing. Controller

Right Stick Switching Sensitivity Mobility 4 1 – 10

How far the stick has to travel before a switch registers. Low numbers switch on a nudge, which is a problem when you are also using the right stick to jockey. Controller

Next Player Switching Goal Side ClassicGoal SideClosest to Ball

Three options, not two. Classic gives you the game's own pick, Goal Side favours the defender between the ball and your goal, Closest to Ball favours the nearest body. Goal Side is the quiet fix for players who keep getting handed a striker while a runner goes through behind them.

Reaction Time Calibration On OnOff

New in FC 27 and the least understood setting in the game. The switch indicator moves while you are deciding, so the player you saw is not always the player you get. With this on, the game switches to the one that was indicated when you started the press rather than when the press landed. It does not speed up input handling and it does nothing to right-stick switching.

Reaction Time Calibration Sensitivity 6 1 – 10

Widens or narrows that window. Worth moving only after you have played with the calibration on long enough to feel it miss.

Player Lock On OnOff

L3 + R3 locks you to one player; a flick of the right stick releases. Off is one fewer accident in Ultimate Team, on is how you run an off-ball third-man run in Pro Clubs. Decide by the mode you actually play. Controller

Dribbling

Simplified Skill Moves CognitiveMobility Off OnOff

Off is the full gesture-and-modifier set; on collapses the hard moves onto simpler inputs. EA tags this one as both a cognitive and a mobility option, which is the honest framing — it is not a cheat, it is a shorter path to the same move. Controller

Goalkeeper

Save Assistance Assisted AssistedManual

Only applies when you are controlling the keeper. Assisted saves anything close to the body automatically and still dives towards everything else, so manual costs you the easy ones for nothing.

Camera Pan Speed Default DefaultSlowFast

Hold L1 and the right stick pans the Pro camera at this speed. It reads as a keeper setting because it lives here, but it is a Be a Pro and Clubs setting: it decides how fast you can look for the run you are about to make.

Controller Preferences

Right Stick Remap Mobility Off OnOff

Moves right-stick actions elsewhere on the pad. Tagged as a mobility option by EA, and genuinely useful if flicking and holding at once is the part that hurts. Controller

L1/R1 and L2/R2 Remap Mobility Off OnOff

Swaps the bumper and trigger pairs. Worth knowing about if you use rear paddles, because it changes what the paddle is copying. Controller

Analog Sprint Off OnOff

On, the trigger becomes a dial: the further you hold R2 the faster the player runs. That is more control and more to think about. Off gives you a sprint that is always the same speed, which is what you want while you are still learning when not to sprint. Controller

Trigger Effect Off OnOff

The DualSense adaptive-trigger resistance. It adds a few milliseconds of travel to every sprint and tires the finger over a long session; off is the competitive answer and the comfortable one. Controller

User Vibration AuditoryCognitive Classic ClassicEnhanced

Not the on/off switch it used to be. Enhanced fires different parts of the pad for different events; Classic rumbles the whole thing on the big ones. EA tags it as an auditory and cognitive aid, which is the real case for leaving it on: with the sound low, the pad tells you about contact you would otherwise only hear. Controller

Reach check · your keyboard, this game

Can your board actually play EA Sports FC 27?

Every default bind, re-scored against the keyboard you own. Distance is measured from the left hand resting on WASD, because that is where it stays while you play.

A 60% board has every key EA Sports FC 27 asks for. 2 of its 16 default binds still need the left hand to leave WASD, so the board is not what holds you back here — the layout is. How that compares with every other game.

W / A / S / D Move player
E Sprint
A Short pass / header
W Through ball
D Shoot / volley
S Lob / cross
Arrow keys Skill moves
Q Player run (trigger)
C Pace control / shield
A Tackle / contain
S Slide tackle
D / Q Press / switch player
E (hold) Jockey
Y Goalkeeper rush
Escape Pause / menu
1 – 4 Tactics (D-pad)

On the keys: your hand is already there
Comfortable: a finger moves, the hand does not
Stretch: the hand lifts, movement wobbles
Off movement: you let go of A and D to press it
Not on this board: the key does not physically exist

Reach uses the same key geometry as BindIQ, which can rebuild the whole layout for you once you know what is out of reach. Mouse buttons always count as reachable — your right hand is already there.

How that compares

0 keys missing 60%2 far65%all theretenkeylessall there 60% keyboard check 25 of the 70 games we score lose a key on a 60%. This is not one of them.

Quick answers

What is new in the FC 27 controls?

Three inputs: Avoidance (hold R1/RB to make an attacker evasive in a crowded box), triggered curved runs (tap L1 + R1 / LB + RB) and Pass and Follow (L1 + R1 + Cross / LB + RB + A). Manual runs now stop after a set distance, through passes follow the stick strictly, dinked passes are fully manual and AI defenders no longer tackle for you.

How do you do a finesse shot in FC 27?

Hold R1 on PlayStation or RB on Xbox while pressing Circle/B, and aim across the goalkeeper. Add L1/LB for a power shot, or press Circle/B twice after powering up for a low driven finish.

How do you defend without the AI in FC 27?

Switch manually with L1/LB or a right-stick flick, jockey with L2/LT (faster than in FC 26), and commit with Circle/B for a stand tackle, which now reaches further. Teammate Contain on R1/RB only presses effectively after a manual switch.

How do you trigger a run in FC 27?

Tap L1/LB for a straight run, tap L1 + R1 / LB + RB for a curved run into space, or hold L1 + R1 and press Cross/A to pass and follow. Runs end after a limited distance, so re-trigger when the runner slows.

Do skill moves change in FC 27?

The right-stick language is the same, the star system is the same and the moves listed on the skill moves page carry over with their inputs. EA's gameplay deep dive lists no removed moves; check the skill moves page for the new-move markers after launch.

Where to go from here

Next steps for EA Sports FC 27

FC 27 skill moves by star ratingEvery move with stick diagrams, 1 to 5 stars and juggling.FC 27 celebrationsRunning moves, finishing moves and the Pro unlockables, every stick gesture drawn.FC 27 launch hub & countdownPC at 23:00 UTC on 24 September, consoles at midnight local time on 25 September, editions.Controller checkSkill moves need a stick that returns to centre; test it in two minutes.EA Sports FC 26 controlsLast year's layout if you are still on FC 26.Mouse DPI analyzerMeasure the DPI your mouse really delivers before you change anything in game.