Poor performance from DMs

I only use a few different tactics but I have found that in every one my defensive midfielder underperforms. They have to score to get an eight, make 60 passes and 8 tackles to get a seven, and anything less, they get a 6. My tactics for the position are no different to those on previous games. In terms of personnel, I have Seyfo Soley at DM for Stafford in League 2, so really he should be excelling. Previously, I have had Flamini, Gilberto and Jean Il Makoun and they were all far from spectacular (don't get me started on closing down!) Does anyone else feel constantly underwhelmed by the performance of a particular position

Does it matter if they get a 6 or whatever, as long as they do their job? DMs are pretty unspectacular. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Had this problem pre patch, but in 8.0.2 closing down is fine and they get good scores. Are you patched up? Also playing a DM in a CM role can affect their rating.

Really... Makoun, Veloso, Mascherano and Benzerga have been some of my best players!

........Johnson..Cisse

Troisi..Makoun..Van der Vaart..Elano

Riise..Boularouz....Vidal...Ignashevich

............Pele...

How did that team win the Premiership, that's right, averaging 7.32 Jean Makoun... and Man U falling over in the last minute.

This is a problem many have found (including myself). It is more of an issue with rating of performance than with the performance itself.

The rating system seems not to be able to distinguish what is expected of a DMC rather than some other role and I have no idea how the rating is calculated anyway. My DMC often has highest pass completion of my team, but gets lowest rating. There are plenty of other things a DMC needs to do, but accurate passing is a key component for me since my DMC almost always plays more passes (whether they be completed or not) than any other player in my team.

I'm just wondering where anyone with poor ratings is playing their DM. To begin with I played a 4-4-2, which meant I played my DM in a CM position, but doing a DM job, he got very average ratings. Now I play a 4-2-3-1 and the 2 DM's play between the central midfield position and the defence, this has improved their ratings drastically and they very rarely get below 7. Certainly not a good enough reason for the ratings being low, might be a bit of an explanation though.

In a 4-4-2 diamond, the DMC should be a very important role. They do tend to have a reasonable performance but the rating is generally poor. That said, I still don't think they close down enough

With my normal tactic for Utd, my DM plays in CM with a barrow, and he usually gets a good rating - 7/8, but when I play my away/bib team/chelsea bug formation, then he only gets 6s usually. I think it is to do with the ratings system though, and I dont pay much attention. Miguel Veloso has the highest pass completion in the Prem so Im not complaining. Theyll probably sort it for 09, but it may result in another problem somewhere else, so Im not bothered

ive had the same problem

my DM can have a great game, 65 passes complete, 5 interceptions and 2 tackles and he might get a 7 if he is very lucky

and in the same game my striker who has had a mare the entire game, booked, 2 shots on target in 7 will get an 8 if he scores a tap in or a deflection

the ratings arent just superficial, they affect morale and transfers prices - theyre integral

originally posted by atonement:-

the ratings arent just superficial, they affect morale and transfers prices - theyre integral

Quoted for emphasis .

How do you interact with a player when the very numbers that determine his response to that interaction are flawed? It's major issue as far as I am concerned but not one that I could think of a solution for. It won't affect you if things are going well but if you need to generate a positive reaction based on an interaction tool (media re form, team talks) to get your team going then this seemingly flawed system makes it that much harder to do.

BUT this point does seem to shed some light on this issue

originally posted by Nomis07:-

I'm just wondering where anyone with poor ratings is playing their DM. To begin with I played a 4-4-2, which meant I played my DM in a CM position, but doing a DM job, he got very average ratings. Now I play a 4-2-3-1 and the 2 DM's play between the central midfield position and the defence, this has improved their ratings drastically and they very rarely get below 7. Certainly not a good enough reason for the ratings being low, might be a bit of an explanation though.

Admittedly it's a leap based on one gamer's experience but this does suggest progressive weighting e.g. a player placed in the MC position makes 5 key tackles gets a lower ratings boost than a player placed in the DM C position who makes 5 key tackles. Also add to it that the ratings are probably stored on a wider scale than 1 to 10 which means spotting the exact contribution of specific stats to overall rating for a specific position is that much harder. Thus it's pretty difficult for someone playing the game to pinpoint to what extent each stat affects the match rating.

As with so many other things that are posted on here all it would take is a single post from someone from SI to state one way or the other if that is how the ratings system works. Past experience suggests this is pretty unlikely though as ambiguity seems to be what they consider part of the gaming experience.

But I can imagine the difficulty involved in determining if an M C is set up as a DM despite being in the M C nominal position and tracking and altering match ratings as a match progresses based on these settings, as opposed to a simple check of position in formation (assuming there is different weightings as Nomis07's post suggests).

I've had this problem also. My DMs will have completed something like 50/53 passes and still get a 6. The problem is that the game requires them to have a "key" pass/tackle/header which will get them a 7/8. The problem is that Makalele-style DMs never do this but are still effective though FM does not consider this.

The reason why this is a main problem is because the fans get angry if your new DM signing is getting consistent 6s ans a few 7s so you can only really sign playmaker DMs (which is why Veloso has no problems... look at his offensive stats!).

To clarify, in my comment on DMs I am talking about a player playing in the DM position, irrespsctive of his own positional attributes, also I don't mean a DM player who is actually playing in the MC position, again irrespective of his instructions.

My DM is the heart of the team.

4-1-2-1-2

He normally gets 7-8, but now I have a new DM whos not settling in atm and not performing too well gets 6-7. He will get better soon I believe.

Anyways my DM always gets alot of passes and tackles so rarely gets a 6.