Please SI - how important are roles?

Early days, but testing the game I seem to have discovered that roles are very, very important. To expand, my ML (a defensively minded player) was set to default "winger", he had a 6.5 rating in a competitive cup game against lower level opposition. It seemed obvious, when I realised, that "defensive winger" was more appropriate so I switched his role. Within 5 games mins he had a 7.5 rating!!!!

This is all stating the tactically obvious really it seems now, but pre wizard days, to me, the slider tweaking necessary would not have made this point so obvious - so I ask SI, providing they dont conflict within the overall team formation, are "roles" real tactic maker & breakers?

And if you wonder why I ask, my experience of using FM09 (and before) positional pre-sets was not good - the roles seem, well, just "awesome"!.

I'm pretty sure roles are just different slider settings... (?) Therefore, I don't get your point

Forget the FM09 positional presets, the tactics wizard is completely different. It's not just a static preset like before, but it's a dynamic system that adapts the role and the rest of the team to basically 'make sense', if you get what I mean. Changing a role to focus on a players strengths is obviously going to make him play better, but also, it can affect the rest of your team. For example, if you were getting overrun in midfield, having a defensive winger help out will improve your overall team play and lead on to your winger to getting a higher rating.

They do seem to be important inasmuch as one has to think through what roles are assigned to which players because otherwise the team simply won't work. You have to be careful what roles you assign because, while they may suit that player, the overall balance of the team could be affected.

Forget the FM09 positional presets, the tactics wizard is completely different. It's not just a static preset like before, but it's a dynamic system that adapts the role and the rest of the team to basically 'make sense', if you get what I mean. Changing a role to focus on a players strengths is obviously going to make him play better, but also, it can affect the rest of your team. For example, if you were getting overrun in midfield, having a defensive winger help out will improve your overall team play and lead on to your winger to getting a higher rating.

Good educational answer!, and much as I thought, i guess. 1.0 point rating improvement in 5 game mins though...wow!