FM09 Out of position England Challenge

Digging through for a post from years ago, I instead stumbled upon an old challenge I ran, and thought that this time of year, with interest in the game waning, it'd be a good time to resurrect it.

So, here it is, mostly preserved in it's original form, but updates:

So, winning the World Cup with England would be difficult, right?

The goal of this challenge is to do just this... But just to make things a little trickier, we're also not allowed to play ANY player in a position they have so much as an orange dot and no "comfort level" in. Everyone must be totally, fundamentally out of position.

And just to really spice it up, we should really consider dots in the sweeper positions and dots in the corresponding defence position in front of it to be one and the same. No playing a back line with high defending, all in sweeper to get around the challenge.

Equally, a left winger will be considered "in position" on either wing, and an AML/R will be in position at ML/MR. Your wingers (if you have them) need to be fullbacks, centerbacks, center mids or strikers, not "on the wrong wing" players.

Rules: Any database size you like. At least English Premiership loaded. Any extra players you wish to load. Fog of War off, using real players.

Player naming allowed, tactical discussions allowed, playing a striker up front strictly prohibited.

Database? As long as it's one of the SI ones it doesn't really matter, but as always i'll be using the Valentines Day patch one.

Good luck!

edit: Goalkeepers in goal IS allowed. This was the downfall of the last challenge, where it is possible to get people playing well out of position, a totally useless goalkeeper loses the games regardless.

Choosing the Team

Of course, the first challenge is who to play where. To keep things simple, I'm starting off with a nice easy 4-4-2 with a defensive minded CM and an attacking minded CM.

I'll leave the keeper for now. After all, that's the hardest spot to fill, and in all honesty David James is plenty "out of position" there himself anyway.

Defence. Here I'll be looking for players that either have outstanding defensive attributes or are fast and strong and tall. To make things tougher on myself i won't be using fullbacks in central defence, it seems like cheating. However I may use players who have yellow/orange dots in fullback positions like Owen Hargreaves, as he's clearly a DM, and at 8 for jumping has his own drawback at CB. Owen goes in as one option, along with Carrick, David Dunn and Crouch. Steven Gerrard, however, stands out as England's best Centerback. As a side note, Frank Lampard is available for the position, but is preferred up front.

Fullbacks. Here we want pace and crossing, with tackling being a plus. The obvious move is to use wingers as fullbacks and fullbacks as wingers. Now fullbacks as wingers I can work with, but a winger having to defend? No thanks. So my first choices have to go down as Rooney, who can only really play here (as well as covering at centerback) and Jenas, who can play on the wing but isn't particularly settled there. Andy Johnson finds his way back into the squad as a backup, and Fabrice Muamba gets his first callup as the 4th choice. Mark Noble comes in as a utility man at the back, moving us on to midfield.

Now on the wings, I'm going to go for Wes Brown and Luke Young, offering Anton Ferdinand and Steve Sidwell as backups. This is a place England suffer due to the "no left siders on the right to be out of position" rule, as Ashley Cole or Wayne Bridge would be perfect, only they have *some* ability as a left winger and are therefore exempt even from the right wing.

Center midfield is easier. Defoe makes a reasonable attacking midfielder, but loses that spot to Ashley Cole, while the defensive mid spot is contested between John Terry and Rio, who's "awkward defensive mid" status shouldn't hold him back from playing as a center mid (it's a bit different to a sweeper cheat!). This would be the team's strongest position, if not for Lampard and Beckham up front, with Bentley and Bullard as backups.

Having to pick a couple of the useless keepers, I went with James, foster and kirkland. By far our weakest area other than those wings!

The lineup for the first game (with Hargreaves out of the squad injured) therefore was:

GK: James

DR: Jenas

DL: Rooney

CB: Gerrard

CB: Carrick

MR: Brown

ML: Young

MCa: A Cole

MCd: Ferdinand

ST: Beckham

ST: Lampard

Which gives us this amazing image:

Very interesting, might give this a go!

Nice idea mate Might take part in this once I finish/get bored of my present game

I like the idea, will try this if I manage to get the England job in my current game.

Rooney ended up injured too, with Andy Johnson taking his spot.

So, the first game was a friendly against the Czechs.

The weekend before, Carrick also picked up an injury. He was promptly replaced by Mark Noble. Interestingly I realised crouch DOES have a yellow spot at centerback, so was out. He stays in the squad as a utility man for now though.

The game started better than expected, the players all seemed off put by their odd positions, but equally their talent was shining through. Wes Brown alone managed two decent chances in the first 10 minutes. The Czechs soon started stamping a little control on the game though, and by half time it was starting to look like they may be marginal favourites. 3 minutes into the second half they scored from the edge of the box, and England were left in tatters.

A minutes from the end though, the inevitable happened. Beckham scored. After Ferdinand won a corner from a long shot, David headed in from a whole yard to equalise.

So, promising signs, and worrying signs.

Interestingly, Frank Lampard was the worst performer with a 6.1 despite having all the striker attributes.

Sorry for the delay...

But the second game saw Terry, Dunn and Bullard injured, weakening the squad but not the team. Rooney was still out too. Andorra away. Even out of position this should be easy...

A 23rd minute Lampard goal put England in front, but the massacre failed to appear. Instead, a 78th minute equaliser rocked England.

England 1:1 Andorra

A few days later the next game was even more disastrous, with Croatia away putting England to the sword from the first minute, scoring a 22nd minute goal. They followed it up in the 66th minute.

Ashleuy Cole managed a 90th minute consilation, but it really isn't enough.

Andorra scored?

since when did that become physically possible, even playing players out of position?

Sounds hard to me but might give it a go if I get the England job.