There are only a few good players.

I was reading the upgrade/downgrade thread and it struck me how many people actually forget to take into account the diversity of the various players on the pitch. Most great footballers can be godalike if paired with good teammates and played to their strengths, however only few could actually join any club and perform well regardless of teammates and club.

As I am danish I will take a two known names and state the obvious.

Rommedahl is a counterplayer, he depends on a team defending deep and since he rarely dribbels, not his force, he relies heavily on throughballs down the flanks and he is almost always exceptional for the danish national side, I would actually call him worldclass when plays the usual danish 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 defensive counter. In a team the relies on ball possession and slow attack building he is below standard in almost every aspect. Rommedahl is also an excellent finisher for the national team, when he does get the chances he has the space to finish propperly.

Jon Dahl Tomasson, absolute clinical finisher for the danish national team while rubbish if not played correctly. His passing is excellent, so is his vision but he does not do well when marked, he is an AMC/FC who needs to play deep and avoid the defenders attention, when Milan bought him as a definate striker they suffered the consequences and got a player who definately was no striker, the result were poor performances all around.

My point is that many teams buy players they really shouldnt, mainly because most players have a certain mentality which makes them bad towards certain tactical approaches. Tomasson while playing for the national team has a finishing rating of "18" .... in Milan he had "12". Its hardly fair to move around stats based on a single season´s performances without taking the environment and tactical approach into consideration.

Another example in regard to the above could be the danish team FC Midtjylland, they have a targetman who scored nothing in the first part of the season, then they got two new wingers ... all of a sudden he was banging them in. Most players depend on their teammates to be good .... even Ronaldo, just ask the portuguese fans in regard to his performances for the national side.

What you said is true, but the attributes of the player should reflect their strengths and weaknesses. So for example, in your Rommedahl case, he should have very high physical attributes, good finishing and poor technical ability (dribbling, passing, first touch). I think you will find that that's how players are represented in FM.

Rommedahl is useless! He's quick but he cant cross to save his life!

Rommedahl is useless! He's quick but he cant cross to save his life!

ahh yes but as the OP pointed out his strength lies in his pace and his ability to finish a clear cut opportunity. I agree that watching him play for Charlton and watching him play for Denmark was like watching two different players.

On FM however he is one of the easiest ways to waste a transfer budget!

Yup, Rommedahl is one of the most feared players when the national danish team plays, but for a club to have any benefit of his skills they would have to play a deep defensive counter every single game, the only team I know who does that is the danish national side, even at home we like to sit deep and wait for mistakes ... thats where Rommedahl shines.

Kind of weird really that managers dont take that into account when buying players. But even in a defensive counter in FM I have never gotten him to play well ... he is missing something.

Maybe it's the fact that playing defensive counter strategy is useless in FM and you just end up getting battered?

Maybe it's the fact that playing defensive counter strategy is useless in FM and you just end up getting battered?

not against Chelsea.

I've only lost once to them in the last 6 games, and then it was a penalty, and 5 wins.

But trying the same tactic against Arsenal well I dont want to say how many they scored in the first half, but it was more than 8 and the final score went into the record books!

Yup, Rommedahl is one of the most feared players when the national danish team plays, but for a club to have any benefit of his skills they would have to play a deep defensive counter every single game, the only team I know who does that is the danish national side, even at home we like to sit deep and wait for mistakes ... thats where Rommedahl shines.

I disagree. Depends on the opponent really. When against weaker sides or at home, we will often try to dictate the game. However our results against weaker sides have often been poor because of Morten Olsen always picking Rommedahl (or other sprinters like Løvenkrands, Borring etc.) who doesn't work against such sides. When playing with Kahlenberg, Jørgensen and D. Jensen we do better and have more possesion.

Kind of weird really that managers dont take that into account when buying players. But even in a defensive counter in FM I have never gotten him to play well ... he is missing something.

Agreed, managers should be way more aware of their tactical preferences when buying players. And they should stop buying countless players for the same position. It is so annoying seeing AC Milan being 5 forwards, when only playing one up front. Within a couple of seasons there's a number of cheap good strikers in their 2nd team.

One of my favourite fail buys of all time has to be Tottenham buying Helder Postiga only to try and play him in a direct football, target man style. He failed (obviously) and the brits were shocked!!! Sometimes I wonder if teams just buy players because they have a reputation of being talented, instead of looking at what they are actually good at.