Tips and ways to play defensively?

Hey hey, first time poster Yada Yada, I am a B4 Bergamo main (insert Furry jokes here) and I've got about 20 hours in and I have a pretty good grasp on how to play offensively but I'm still lacking on defensive, I can super counter semi consistently but I'm still lacking, I've had plenty of back to back FUA perception dodges but there are things such as dodging z Bursts behind me and the aerial blast to knock people away (not sure if it's character specific) that I wanna know to help get better, anything helps!