Does First Touch matter?

[Obaaa]

As per the subject, is there any evidence to suggest this attribute actually does anything? 

I don't see players miscontrolling the ball. Lower league guys with less than 10 first touch bringing the ball down with ease over their shoulder from long goal kicks. 

Would be interested in examples where you can clearly see a difference between bad and good first touch as it seems completely aesthetic. 

[Bothan Spy]

I did an experiment last night where I set all liverpool players finishing to 1 before I played them in the euro cup. I still lost 7-1. Does any of it matter? We are now told the green position familiarity dot shouldn't be taken any notice of! 

[Kingstontom88]

I always interpreted first touch to be not just how well the player can control a pass/loose ball.etc but how well it enables him to move on to his next action - so a pass, a shot, dribble, cross.etc The higher the rating, the quicker and more efficiently he can perform the next action - so someone with a high rating may be able to receive the ball outside the box, take one touch that sets himself up to shoot. Whereas someone with a lower rating may not be able to perform the shot so quickly - maybe he controls it well enough but doesn't cushion the ball into a position whereby he can get a shot away, and needs to take another touch; this can allow the oppo defence to get into position to block it. 

So a higher rating allows the players to keep the ball moving, a lower rating will slow things down? I'm happy to proven wrong on this but this is how I've always interpreted it.

[Pasonen]

7 minutes ago, Obaaa said:

As per the subject, is there any evidence to suggest this attribute actually does anything? 

I don't see players miscontrolling the ball. Lower league guys with less than 10 first touch bringing the ball down with ease over their shoulder from long goal kicks. 

Would be interested in examples where you can clearly see a difference between bad and good first touch as it seems completely aesthetic. 

I think i see this only how often dc loses ball if played  high defline. If first touch is low dc will often lose the ball. I see it in situations high first touch players doing one touch passes.

[HUNT3R]

1 minute ago, Kingstontom88 said:

I always interpreted first touch to be not just how well the player can control a pass/loose ball.etc but how well it enables him to move on to his next action - so a pass, a shot, dribble, cross.etc The higher the rating, the quicker and more efficiently he can perform the next action - so someone with a high rating may be able to receive the ball outside the box, take one touch that sets himself up to shoot. Whereas someone with a lower rating may not be able to perform the shot so quickly - maybe he controls it well enough but doesn't cushion the ball into a position whereby he can get a shot away, and needs to take another touch; this can allow the oppo defence to get into position to block it. 

So a higher rating allows the players to keep the ball moving, a lower rating will slow things down? I'm happy to proven wrong on this but this is how I've always interpreted it.

From the manual :

 

Quote

 

First Touch

How good a player’s first touch is when receiving the ball. A higher rating will ensure that the player can control the ball quicker and put it in a useful position to then act upon. Players with lower ratings here will struggle to control the ball as adeptly and may be prone to losing the ball if closed down quickly.

 

More to the OP : I do think we lack the animations to see proper mis-control, but the manual does indicate it takes less time for a player to control the ball and perform the next action, so those longer delays between controlling the ball and a pass/dribble/shot would be (imo) the best way to see the lack of a first touch.

[Obaaa]

Maybe it is an animation problem then. But even in 2D without being able to see the animations you don't see miscontrolled passes that concede possession. I would argue that this makes up a large part of the turnover of possession in real life so disappointing to see that only intercepted passes or slide tackles contribute on the game to 'live ball' turnovers i.e those not caused by the ball going out of play.