I played a mate of mine who has just got a PS5 at EF online and it reminded me how frustrating playing people who use any assisted passing is, while I'm using manual. His last console is a PS2 and only plays PES about once a year now when he visits me from abroad. We played it religiously in PS2 days, so it is like riding a bike for him though.
So we play our first game online (it was a very smooth experience)and he scores in the opening 10 minutes to take the lead. Passes were as accurate as can be, with very little effort. This was his first ever time playing EF. I did eventually knuckle down and won 2-1, but his passing accuracy percentage was stupidly high for someone who has never played this version before and plays any PES so infrequently. It's like playing some on an FPS and they have auto-aim on.
Yeah, I could put pass assist on, but where is the reward in that. When I made my decent passing moves I knew it was down to my skill and that's what games should be about. Playing online is such a frustrating experience when you can't just play against other manual passing players. Luckily the AI idls the best it's been, so the offline experience is better... Although stupidly limited.