Matt
What do you mean by defenders 'backing off'? You mean they don't pressurise you to win the ball from you? Or they sit very deep at the back? What do you mean by 'backing off'?
Both actually. While they sit, they do not pressure head on until the player with the ball gets closer to the box. So if the midfield is behind the player with the ball, the next line of defense is the defenders...yet they just stay back and camp.
I've also seen several times in which players just stop what they're doing after someone with the ball passes by them, it's an odd animation - like a give up play.
Lastly, and this is nit-picking, anyone else notice the CPU tends to dribble out of bounds a lot?