Centre Midfielder Role Partnership

I play a 4-4-2 and would ideally have an Advanced Playmaker (Support) and a Ball Winning Midfielder (Support) to capitalise on both attacking and defending aspects of the central players. Due to reaching the Premiership and having to improve my squad this is no longer really an option as both my central midfielders have more attacking attributes.

What role partnerships are good for central midfielders as I would quite like to experiment?

I don't know about 4-4-2, but with a 4-5-1 formation, I use a defensive midfielder (defend) behind a deep lying playmaker (support) and a central midfielder (attack), and it's quite effective. As the players I have (midfielders) have good stats for both defensive and attacking duties, I even have the 2 central midfielders swapping positions, to make it all a bit more unpredictable for the opposition.

I have also used this trio: Defensive midfielder (defend), box-to-box midfielder (support) and advanced playmaker (attack) ... and it really is difficult to be certain which of the 2 setups works best.

For a 4-4-2, I would perhaps try with a duo of deep lying playmaker (support) and box-to-box (support), but give the box-to-box a run from deep often setting. A duo of ball-winning and box-to-box should also work fine, or simply central mid (defense) and central mid (attack).

I play the following 2 formations using a partnership of

1) MC - Advance Playmaker (Attacking Role)

2) MC - Ball Winning Midfielder (Defensive Role)

............SC...........

AML.....AMC.....AMR

........MC...MC........

...........................

DL.....DC...DC.....DR

or

........SC...SC.........

AML................AMR

........MC...MC........

...........................

DL.....DC...DC.....DR

Try setting Team Instructions to Attacking, Fluid, Quick Tempo, Push Up defensive line, Wide width, Mixed Focus Passing. I set More Agressive tackling, Press More and Zonal Marking, the rest I put as default. I also play Counter-Attack and Plays Offside.

Now, if you choose to experiment with the above, do remember that the team will need awhile to get the 'Familiarity' Bar in the selected tactics to become full.

I haven't used 4-4-2 formation since FM10. If you want to experiment, try the 4-2-3-1 formation with 2 DMC. Set one as anchorman and the other as deep-lying playmaker. I use it to counter Barca's 4-5-1 and it works every single time that Messi doesn't pull out his magic ********.

If you don't have a naturally defensive CM anymore, you can use one as a DLP and one as an AP.

Think of Man Utd, who have often had Carrick or Scholes as their most defensive midfield player (neither of whom are ball winners) and then Anderson or nowadays Cleverly a little further forward.

Though you really should say how the rest of your attack is set up if you want better tactical advice. CMs don't play in isolation, and it's hard to suggest a good partnership if you haven't said what style of football you play.