EA FC 27 Best Dead Ball players

Dead Ball is one of the many PlayStyles in FC 27. If you're in need of a player who is great at taking free kicks and corners, this is one you'll want to look out for, especially for anyone who plays midfield and up.

To give you an idea of who you should be keeping an eye out for, we'll run through the best Dead Ball players, explain what the PlayStyle does, and how to get free kicks.

On this page:

• Top 10 Dead Ball players
• What is Dead Ball?
• How to get Free Kicks

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Top 10 Dead Ball players in FC 27

The Dead Ball PlayStyle can be found on many players across the game, covering various positions. The majority of the time, you're likely going to want free kicks - especially those in the opposition's side of the field - to be taken by a midfielder or Striker.

We're organising the below table in terms of a player's Passing stat due to how it governs free kicks and corners, but for a few extra, more directly attacking-focused, options, there's a list after that focuses purely on Dead Ball players who have a high Shooting stat.

Here are the top 10 best Dead Ball players in FC 27:

Name Team
Position Age Passing
Shooting
Overall Dead Ball + or Normal Value / Wage Alejandro Grimaldo (M) Atlético de Madrid / LM 31 87 / 77 / 85 Dead Ball + £11 million / £92.3K Selma Bacha (W) OL Lyonnes / LB 25 85 / 73 / 86 Dead Ball + £1.4 million / £11.5K Julián Alvarez (M) Atlético de Madrid / ST 26 86 / 86 / 82 Dead Ball + £75 million / £240.4K James Ward-Prowse (M) West Ham / CM 31 80 / 74 / 74 Dead Ball + £2.2 million / £32.5K Bruno Fernandes (M) Manchester United / CAM 32 92 / 85 / 89 Dead Ball £28 million / £351.8K Trent Alexander-Arnold (M) Real Madrid / RB 27 89 / 72 / 84 Dead Ball £52 million / £320.6K Kevin De Bruyne (M) SSC Napoli / CAM 35 89 / 82 / 85 Dead Ball £6.2 million / £213.7K Lionel Messi (M) Inter Miami CF / CAM 39 89 / 87 / 89 Dead Ball £900K / £19.5K Rúben Neves (M) Al Hilal / CDM 29 87 / 75 / 85 Dead Ball £27 million / £471K James Maddison (M) Spurs / CM 29 86 / 81 / 82 Dead Ball £25 million / £199.3K

Dead Ball does have a higher tier variant, but it's only available on four different players as you can see in the table above. This means the best Dead Ball players, at least in terms of the core PlayStyle, are Alejandro Grimaldo, Selma Bacha, Julián Alvarez, and James Ward-Prowse. Whilst their ratings aren't the highest, being the only four players with Dead Ball+ makes them individually quite unique and worth keeping in mind as you hunt for players with this PlayStyle.

Whilst high Passing Dead Ball players won't necessarily always be the definitive factor in who takes your free kicks, since this stat governs the sub-stats for Crossing - both short and long - as well as Free Kick Accuracy, it felt worth sorting them as such. This should give you a solid idea of who the best shot takers with the Dead Ball PlayStyle are.

To focus on more attacking-efficient players though, below is a list that covers the best Dead Ball players when organised by the Shooting stat instead of Passing.

Top five Dead Ball players based on Shooting stat in FC 27

• Claudia Pina (W) - POS: LW / SHO: 89 / PAS: 84 / OVR: 89
• Lionel Messi (M) - POS: CAM / SHO: 87 / PAS: 89 / OVR: 89
• Matheus Cunha (M) - POS: LM / SHO: 86 / PAS: 79 / OVR: 84
• Bruno Fernandes (M) - POS: CAM / SHO: 85 / PAS: 92 / OVR: 89
• Klara Bühl (W) - POS: LM / SHO: 85 / PAS: 85 / OVR: 88

What is Dead Ball?

Dead Ball is one of the many PlayStyles in EA Sports FC 27. This particular one is focused on players who are great at taking free kicks and corner kicks, enhancing their ability to do so by improving the max speed, curve, and accuracy of set pieces.

You can check to see if a player has this in-game by viewing their full profile, and looking towards the lower right where all of their PlayStyles will show up in a row.

There are two variants of Dead Ball. One of which is a more effective version denoted with a '+', whilst the other has a similar effect, just not as strong. The gold + version is actually something you're unlikely to see in general since it's only available on four players at the time of writing.

How to get Free Kicks

Getting free kicks in FC 27 isn't something you can consistently do, at least not easily, as it largely depends on what the opposition does. For example, the most common ones you are likely to see are tackle or offside-related. So if you - or the enemy team - comes in with more of a rough tackle, there's a chance the referee will stop the game to issue a free kick.

As for offside passes, you might be able to form what's known as an 'Offside Trap'. The idea is to trick an opponent into passing at the wrong time to cause a pass to be offside, but it's not necessarily something to rely on unless you've had some practice. You could also turn on Handballs in the settings, so that anytime the ball catches the hand of a player, a free kick will be called. You can then use certain tricks to try and catch a player off guard, but this is similarly awkward.

Whilst not the same, you are likely to see more corner kicks and throw-ins over time compared to free kicks. These occur when the ball goes out of play, and whichever team was last to touch the ball concedes a corner or throw-in to the opposition. Dead Ball as a PlayStyle can come in handy here, particularly for corner kicks.

Whenever you get to take a free kick though, you'll be able to aim where to kick the ball, be it towards the goal, to another player or elsewhere. There are various functions with this too, such as being able to choose which player takes the free kick, calling for another player to take the kick with you etc.

Best of luck netting some Dead Ball players and scoring those free kicks!