The defending situation as a whole, I absolutely hate. The 1-on-1 gameplay they've introduced has destroyed all defensive realism.
I was watching Burnley yesterday and they guarded the edges of the box so well, aggressively double-pressing to prevent crosses being drilled in (with a wall of support behind them), all switched on, looking at each attacking danger and working as a whole. Their box was alive with defensive movement.
I put FIFA on, and you get a line of defenders prettily positioned in a perfect line, standing still. You can't double-press (the secondary press button has effectively been disabled because of the complaints from babies playing FUT about "auto-defending"), and once the defenders are in their perfect formation, they just stand still and watch the ball, waiting for you to take over.
Now... The actual individual defensive mechanics, I really like. I watched Villa v Leicester in the league cup semi-final second-leg the other day, and was struck by - when Grealish had the ball in the final third, and a defender ran out to him - just how well FIFA mimics this interaction. The defender doesn't just run straight to him and win the ball, PES-style. There is a cat-and-mouse battle where the defender stays close, hands behind his back, pressing but not tackling, waiting for the right moment to leap forward.
FIFA *NAILS* that. Can't deny it, and I feel the same as
@Emroth - it's so satisfying to win the ball when it requires the right approach and timing.
But everything else about defending is utter shit, IMO. Your non-controlled defenders may as well be table-football (foosball) defenders, i.e. skewered on a huge metal pole.