So you’ve built a roster you like, you’ve powered up your powerups, completed all the crucial challenges, and now you’re looking to try yourself in H2H games.

That’s great but H2H games will have you facing players a lot of Madden pros so you’ll need to bring your A-game. If you don’t, you might quickly be overwhelmed and frustrated to the point of rage quitting.

If you do work on your gameplay and strategy skills, you’ll set yourself up for a great experience and lots of competitive fun.

Read on and learn how to win more games in Madden 22 ultimate team!

1. Team Building Tips

We’ll start with some tips on team building that will help you get ready to face other powerful squads in MUT. Most Madden 22 players will have pretty stacked teams so you definitely want to do everything you can to field the best possible team come game time.

Don’t Miss Out on Free Coins

Madden 22 Ultimate Team Auction

To build a strong team, you’ll need coins – there’s no getting around this. However, this doesn’t mean that you’ll have to invest real-life money in Madden 22, you just need to play things smart.

We already have a detailed article on the best ways to get coins in Madden 22 so check that one out.

In short, play all the challenges and keep working the Auctions market – look for underpriced players and flip them to make a profit. Also, don’t forget to buy Get a player packs as they’re cheap and will often provide you with useful assets. Not to mention they’ll help you achieve daily goals.

Get the Right Strategy Items

Madden 22 Ultimate Team Abilities

Strategy items play an important role in Madden 22 and it looks like they’re here to replace individual Chemistries.

They come in three tiers:

  • Common
  • Uncommon
  • Rare

Strategy items work a lot like Chemistries used to: they give all the players in a certain position an attribute boost. Of course, rare items give you the best boosts.

Of all the offensive strategy items, you’ll want to get the Deep Route Specialist for your wide receivers and Let it Rip for your QBs. They’ll give you significant boosts for the most important attributes like SPD and CTH for receivers and DAC, MAC, and possibly THP for your QB. You can also go for the On The Move for your running back to get more speed and better moves.

On defense, you’ll want to take a look at the In The Zone strategy item for your defensive backs (cornerbacks and safeties). If you’re lucky, you’ll get the rare item that boosts the most important attributes such as Zone Coverage, Play Recognition, Awareness, Man Coverage, and Speed – this could really be a game-changer for your defense.

Also, don’t forget that Strategy items can be upgraded with Training points to get an even better boost.

Sell the Players You Don’t Need

Always keep track of your binder and keep making moves. You should actively be quickselling players for training or putting them to work in Sets. A solid card that sits in your binder is an asset going to waste if you don’t make something out of it.

For example, a 74 OVR player will bring you 21 Training that you can use to power up players or strategy items. Check out our Madden 22 training values guide to see exactly how many Training points each card is worth.

2. Strategy Tips

Now, let’s get into some things you need to sort out before the kickoff. These are simple strategic moves that will make a huge difference during the game.

Choose the Right Playbooks

Madden 22 Ultimate Team Saints Playbook

To win more games in Madden 22 Ultimate Team, you need to run the right plays for your team and opponent.

There’s no magic solution to choosing the best playbooks. You have to play the game, execute a bunch of different plays and figure out which ones you’re comfortable with. It’s also good to choose a playbook that plays to your team’s strengths. If you have a QB with high THP and some star receivers, a pass-heavy playbook like the Chiefs’ or Saints’ playbooks will likely be a great choice.

To find the best defensive playbooks, you should be looking for versatility. Look for a good mix of formations and defensive sets to defend against all kinds of plays. The Patriots’, Steelers’, and Vikings’ playbooks are all good places to start.

Set Your Coaching Adjustments

A lot of people ignore this part but it can be an absolute game-changer.

Before the kickoff, go to your coaching adjustments and play around with the settings a little bit to see your options.

One adjustment you should definitely consider in online H2H is adjusting your zone drops. If your opponents’ wide receivers keep beating you with the same routes and you notice a pattern, you can manually adjust your coverage. Play around with the drop depth and you’ll see instant results.

Use Coaching Adjustments to win more games

Depending on the situation, you can use other adjustments as well. For example, if you want to force turnovers and play harder on defense, you can set your Tackling to Aggressive. You can also instruct your defenders to play the ball instead of playing the receiver in order to try and intercept passes more often.

It goes without saying that these adjustments have their downsides. Playing the ball is risky and will leave quicker receivers more open. Aggressive tackling will increase your chances of causing a fumble but also increase the chance of your defender getting faked out.

Don’t Forget the Coin Toss Settings

This might sound like a small thing but it can make a big difference in online play.

Go to Settings in your Ultimate Team main menu and navigate down to Coin Toss Settings. Set your 1st choice to Kick and your 2nd choice to Against the wind. This will ensure that you have the wind in your back during the second half when all plays matter much more.

MUT game options - coin toss

3. Gameplay Tips

Finally, we’ve arrived at some specific in-game tips. As mentioned, a lot of Madden 22 players are pros so winning more games in MUT won’t be as easy as playing against the CPU. They’ll be able to read plays and play mind games much more efficiently.

Learn to Read the Defense

In online H2H, this is an absolute must. It will save you lots of frustration and have a huge impact on your defensive play.

Reading the defense Madden 22

Before the snap, when the teams are set, take a look at the safeties, cornerbacks, and linebackers. Their positions will tell you what coverage you’re up against. Typically, you’ll be facing one of the following coverages:

  • Cover 1: Single safety in the middle of the field, cornerbacks close to the line of scrimmage. 
  • Cover 2 Zone: Two safeties, cornerbacks around 7-8 yards off the line of scrimmage
  • Cover 2 Man: Two safeties, cornerbacks pressed at the line of scrimmage
  • Cover 3: One safety in the middle of the field, cornerbacks around 7-8 yards off the line of scrimmage
  • Cover 4: Two safeties and two cornerbacks playing deep
  • Cover 6: Two deep safeties, one cornerback deep, the other closer to the line

These are the general weaknesses for each defense:

  • Cover 1: Crossing routes where receivers run across the field
  • Cover 2 Zone: Flood, Smash, Verticals
  • Cover 2 Man: Drag routes, Texas
  • Cover 3: Verticals, Curl flats, Dig routes
  • Cover 4: Stick, Drive, Dig routes
  • Cover 6: Shallow cross, Smash, Flood

It may take some time to learn these things but, trust me, it’ll be worth it. Reading the defense is one of the most important adjustments you need to make and it will definitely help you win more games in MUT.

Practice recognizing coverages and find the right plays to beat each one!

There’s actually a great in-game tutorial that goes over all these coverages and shows you some plays and concepts that can beat them.

User Catch All Passes

User catch passes to win more games

Don’t let the CPU handle your wide receivers – this will result in way too many incomplete passes and that’s something you can’t afford in online H2H.

Instead, switch to a receiver by tapping Circle/B and catch the pass manually. Use X/A to securely catch passes and avoid unnecessary incompletions. In crowded situations, you can use Triangle/Y to leap for the ball and make the highlight play (and avoid a possible interception).

When your receiver is in the open field and has space to run, hit Square/X to catch and run.

Executing the right catch at the right time can make a huge difference in MUT online matches. The least you want to do is use Secure Catch when your receiver has a defender nearby so that he hangs on to the ball and doesn’t drop it as soon as he gets hit. This will do wonders for your pass completion.

Master Clock Management

Madden 22 Ultimate Team clock management

Lastly, you want to become a Tom Brady of sorts when it comes to clock management.

Madden 22 Ultimate Team matches are short and there are only so many possessions in a single game. On offense, you’ll likely have possession 3-4 times per game. That’s 3-4 shots to make plays and put some points on the board.

Your job is to make each possession count, and you’ll do this by taking your time and making sure that your opponent doesn’t have time to respond.

Here are some scenarios to keep in mind.

First, if you’re losing and your opponent is in possession in the red zone with <2 minutes on the clock – start calling timeouts. They’ll have a maximum of 4 plays here before the ball is in your hands, even if the drive ends with them scoring. This means you need to prevent them from burning the clock and ensure that you have time to score once you get the football.

Second, if the roles are reversed and you’re leading in the fourth quarter – burn the clock. Run the ball and don’t snap until the counter gets under 5 seconds.

Third, if you have the ball and you don’t have too much time to score – pass the ball and try to hit the corners. Catch the ball with your receiver and get out of bounds to stop the clock. Pass incompletions will also stop the clock. So, combine getting out of bounds, pass incompletions, and timeouts (if you have them) to stop the clock in late-game situations.

Once you learn how to do this effectively and you become familiar with the best 2-minute offense plays, you’ll be able to work the clock like a pro. If you’re playing against a weaker player and you have a star quarterback, it will take you less than two minutes to reach the end zone from inside your 20.

Conclusion

H2H is incredibly competitive and learning how to win more games in Madden 22 Ultimate Team will take time.

It takes a holistic approach that starts from building your roster and ends with executing the right plays on both offense and defense.

Reading the defense and user catching all passes are the two in-game adjustments you need to look into. They’ve completely transformed my game and I’m sure the same will happen to you if you put in the time.