If we're just talking difficulty and not about general gameplay (which I have so many issues with - I really dislike the AI in both games, and it looks to be the same in both games
again this year)...
Then, no, I don't find it too easy. Over in the Career Mode thread,
this post is typical of my experience.
But I'm in the minority here, and I wouldn't claim otherwise.
Let me tell you, as briefly as I can, about my experience - because it speaks volumes as to why I play FIFA more than PES, despite the numerous and by-no-means-insignificant issues I have with it.
(Oh, by the way, I generally play on Ultimate.)
Yesterday, I reached the end of my third season with Newcastle. For three seasons, Mike Ashley has assigned a transfer budget, and then told me to finish the season with 90% of it intact as the
#1 priority. He insists that the club makes £200m a year.
That translates as - spend that money if you want, Chris, but you better sell players to fill it back up again, and for every player you sell, only 50% of it goes back into the kitty. So if you want to buy a superstar (and for Newcastle that's an 80 OVR player), you're gonna have to sell three "standard" players to make up for it.
I defied him for three seasons in a row, ending each season with around 50% of the transfer budget remaining, and losing players season after season. Excluding the youth players, I'm now down to just 16 senior players. A few of them are 80 OVR, the rest are just below, and I've bought them based on key attributes (so I bought Guðmundsson for his pinpoint crosses, and Benteke to head them in).
The price I paid for defying the chairman? In the second and third seasons, I was told this... "If you won't keep to your spending limits, then you have to get us into the Europa League."
Season #1 I finished about 10th (with a "manager score" of about 70), season #2 I finished 8th (with a score of 66), and season #3, with the strongest squad of them all... 7th (with a score of 55).
My last three games were against Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United. If I'd won just one of them, we'd have made it into a Europa League spot, above Everton.
I lost 3-0 to Liverpool, because I was too gung-ho. I lost 1-0 to Chelsea from a Hazard wonder-dribble (that broke my heart). Against Man United, we kept it to 0-0 until the 44th minute. A deep cross to Lukaku bounced around in the box and was eventually drilled in low, and it finished 4-2 to United.
I've not been fired - but I'm going to resign, because the new objectives are the worst yet. I would argue that I'm being forced out of the club by unrealistic expectations. (Rafa - I know your pain.)
This whole thing (all of the above) is why I play FIFA, and why I'll continue to be a part of the problem and buy FIFA 20 (although I've promised myself I'll only buy it second-hand, so EA don't get my money).
None of the above excuses the gameplay issues I have - I hate the way the AI plays, with the horrible toe-poke pass animations where the ball whizzes off at 100mph, and the fact that they first-time-pass the most ridiculous balls (with no need to look up at the man they're passing to). They're psychic and I hate it.
But it's still challenging for me as Newcastle.
Now, if I was playing as Man City... I bet I'd have been bored months ago.