Old Strikers playing Center Back

In two of my recent games against Aston Villa and Portsmouth, Heskey and Kanu were subbed in as central defenders. Looking at their profiles, the AI had played each of them at center back a few times... I know you can retrain players to new positions, but this still seemed odd to me. Anyone else seen anything like this?

dion dublin iirc??? in real life

Yeah I've seen this quite a lot.

I'm not entirely sure what the AI is playing at a lot of the time but I guess it's because those players have jumping and strength and the AI is too stupid to think outside the box ie it wants to put on a defender regardless of the fact that they don't actually have one on the bench.

Heskey is competent as DC.

what about this back line

DR-Ji sung park

DC-Carrick

DC-fletcher

DL-Evra

Ahh those were the days lol

This is realistic, Gary Doherty at Spurs used to play in both spots as well. Many big strikers fill in at DC

In my game in 2014, Peter Crouch is an acomplished centre back. He's rubbish though!

Chris Sutton <3 He played everywhere apart from in goals for us (celtic), and he was brilliant everywhere !

Sorry but no way is Heskey a defender. Play a striker in defence and you risk penalties being given away. The AI is clearly not aware enough to recognise valid reasons for playing someone in a given position. In FM09 Alan smith ended up playing as a DC almost always even though in rl he began as a striker and it was only Man Utd that put him into central midfield thereby ending his career as he was never a midfielder, much less a defender (as in FM).

Isn't Lee Bradbury still playing centre back for Bournemouth ? Maybe I'm a few years out

Isn't Lee Bradbury still playing centre back for Bournemouth ? Maybe I'm a few years out

Aiye hes left back to be fair he was a crap striker lol.

In my game in 2014, Peter Crouch is an acomplished centre back. He's rubbish though!

i've seen this in my game in 2013 but he's quite good in mine...

Or maybe other way round, Samba in Blackburn played a few games as ST...

I can see the logic of a big striker playing as centre back or vice versa if a team has a few players missing, not that I would do it myself unless I absolutely had to.

Sorry but no way is Heskey a defender. Play a striker in defence and you risk penalties being given away. The AI is clearly not aware enough to recognise valid reasons for playing someone in a given position. In FM09 Alan smith ended up playing as a DC almost always even though in rl he began as a striker and it was only Man Utd that put him into central midfield thereby ending his career as he was never a midfielder, much less a defender (as in FM).

He's not much of a striker IRL.

Surely it depends on the player? A centre-back has many similar qualities to a big target man, so it's not surprising to see it happen occasionally. If I ever lose a centre-back late in a game with no subs left, the first player I look to move back there is a striker.

the AI is too stupid to think outside the box ie it wants to put on a defender regardless of the fact that they don't actually have one on the bench.

I think this is exactly the AI thinking outside of the box; I don't have a defender, but do I have a player with attributes that might work in an emergency?

Alan smith...put him into central midfield thereby ending his career as he was never a midfielder.

You've obviously not seen much of Newcastle this season, he's grown into an extremely competent defensive midfielder.

You've obviously not seen much of Newcastle this season, he's grown into an extremely competent defensive midfielder.

For the Championship!

i hope smith breaks his leg again the **** should never of left leeds

lee bullen used to play as a striker, and finished his career at cb/rb. He played in every position for Sheff wed during his time here (including goal!)

Not as weird as in one of my games... Was looking for Edin Džeko so I went to Wolfsburg and poked around their squad, scrolling to the bottom where the strikers are. Not there. Looked at the transfers. Not there. Did a search and discovered he was at Wolfsburg. Confused, I looked around and saw he had been retrained to a central midfielder! Bizarre really.

Any striker who plays/can play in cendral defence is a cra* striker.....

bradbury,doherty, langmead, samba... the list goes on.

If heskey and kanu are playing in defence on football manager, you have to wonder what the makers of FM are playing at!

Any striker who plays/can play in cendral defence is a cra* striker.....

bradbury,doherty, langmead, samba... the list goes on.

If heskey and kanu are playing in defence on football manager, you have to wonder what the makers of FM are playing at!

Dion Dublin.

I remember some time ago, I did a holiday to 2015, and saw that Chelsea retrained Terry as a Goalkeeper!

Was good though, checking in the history, and appearently in some quarter finals, Cech got injured, and Doni (Yes Chelsea signed him) was red Carded, so Terry was used. :D

lee bullen used to play as a striker, and finished his career at cb/rb. He played in every position for Sheff wed during his time here (including goal!)

Oh, and on topic, I think it's good to see this. As others have mentioned, players who are coming to the end of their career often shift position, including many ST who shift to CB. Well implemented .

Steve Livingstone was another, although I think it was more an emergency thing.

IIRC it is because the game uses player reputation and attributes when choosing a team. As these players have decent defensive attributes they are played as their reputation is better than the reserve defenders

i hope smith breaks his leg again the **** should never of left leeds

Now that isn't something I'd wish on any player regardless of how much I dislike them.

And I can think of a fair few I dislike.

Grow up.

get ****ed.^