Emulating Reality: Creating Xabi Alonso (DMC/MC Playmaker)

[Tubey84]

Emulating Reality: Creating Xabi Alonso (DMC/CM)

At Liverpool, Xabi Alonso was recognised by football afficionados as the one man who made them tick.

Playing behind the attacking talismans of Gerrard and Torres, Alonso used his pinpoint passing ability to unleash attacks for his side; finding space at will to work his magic whilst providing intelligent movement for both defensive and offensive duties.

Unfortunately, Rafa Benitez didn't seem to understand how vital he was, and he's now working his magic at Real Madrid.

In Football Manager 2010, the Deep Lying Playmaker varies with what formation you are using. For this tutorial, assume we're using a 4-2-3-1. As with all these tutorials, these are guidelines only and not the sole correct answer to recreating this position.

The Aim

When looking at this role, we wish to achieve an rounded player who acts as the start of your teams attacks, supporting the players ahead of play. Often referred to as footballs "Quarterback", he acts in much the same manner as he receives the ball deep and sprays a pass to wherever he feels is most effective. However, he will have to be configured carefully so that he can find space to work, whilst also contribute when defending against opposition attacks too.

Key Stats

The perfect player will have at least 15 in each of the attributes below. Most, if not all of these attributes are highlighted within the tactical creator - this will simply explain why. The ones that aren't are my personal additions and will be in bold:

Technical

First Touch - Useful in allowing the playmaker to instantly control the ball and look to give the pass quicker.

Passing - An obvious must have. The higher the better, as the playmaker must be pinpoint accurate with his passing game or your team will lose possession regularly.

Tackling - As a deep player, it is important that your playmaker can also throw a tackle when need be to help maintain your defensive structure.

Technique - Technical ability on the ball allows the player to make full use of his passing and creative abilities.

Mental

Composure - So the playmaker can keep a clear head and judge effectively the best way of moving forward.

Creativity - This dictates how imaginative in his passing the playmaker will be. Spotting the unexpected run is a massive asset for a good playmaker.

Decisions - The ability to quickly decide what to do so that the play keeps moving - especially useful for a counter-attacking setup.

Off The Ball - A playmaker needs to find space or his ability to work will be stifled. This stat helps to ensure they work hard to lose their marker.

Positioning - As above, they'll now look for space and move intelligently into the areas of the pitch required for a pass from a teammate.

Team Work - How well they link with the rest of the team is of utmost importance, as the player will quickly develop a high understanding of how his teammates play.

Physical

Balance - Being able to maintain a strong posture on the ball will allow the player to unload a pass in an optimum way.

Strength - In physical leagues like the English Premiership, strength in midfield is preferred for nearly every player so they aren't bullied out of the game.

Sliders

**This is NOT the be all end all set up for Deep Lying Playmakers! I've ticked every box to show you a general set up. The defensive line, man marking, whether to hold up the ball and whether to use a target man, whether to tick him as playmaker etc. should be tinkered according to your tactical needs.**

The Result

You should get a player who holds his position in the deeper/middle of the park, who will receive the ball and intelligently look towards what to do with it.

In the below picture, Jack Rodwell - playing the MC Deep Lying Playmaker role - receives a pass. As you can see from the options, he will have multiple options available to him depending on how good he is at envisaging a pass. In this case, we get a goal from number 10 Dzeko due to a lovely first time lofted pass.

Hopefully, the arrows here will show you how important the decision making and creativity of a playmaker is. A poorer playmaker may have chosen the black arrow; keeping possession but not seeing the killer pass. A really bad playmaker would try an impossible ball, perhaps knocking the ball out of play or losing possession in a dangerous area of the pitch. Be very careful in selecting the right playmaker for your team, or your whole side will suffer.

To Sum It Up

When they're good, they're deadly. Playmakers have a massive role in the modern footballing game. Teams often spend tens of millions of pounds on a playmaker in the hope he will take the side to the next level.

When they're bad, you'll be spending the majority of your FM10 experience watching the opposition take the ball from him and hitting you where it hurts.

Have fun creating your own deep magician!

Tubey

....

Further Reading - Emulating Reality: Creating Kaka (AMC)

[Noel Gallagher]

Yet again.... great stuff my friend!

[bjoggi33]

Do you tick the primary playmaker in the Team Instructions ?

[Tubey84]

Do you tick the primary playmaker in the Team Instructions ?

Personally, yes. But there's some formations that use more than one playmaker so I can't demand it in this tutorial, or anything else in it for that matter.

Furthermore, some formations use a Trequartista in the AMC formation, which generally becomes the teams main playmaker higher up the pitch. In that instance, the Deep Lying Playmaker may not be your primary playmaker.

[Loversleaper]

Tubey84: I wanted to say what a good idea you have come up with & wanted to show my support -. If I were to contribute to this thread in any way it would be that I hope that you can create an entire/complete thread on Emulating Reality: Creating Icons (or what ever name you choose-). I like the idea of seperate threads but hoped you would (when you feel you have time) to bring it all together into one very good/interresting thread. Good job -...

[bjoggi33]

Tubey84: I wanted to say what a good idea you have come up with & wanted to show my support -. If I were to contribute to this thread in any way it would be that I hope that you can create a entire/complete thread on Emulating Realty: Creating Icons (or what ever name you choose-). I like the idea of seperate threads but hoped you would (when you feel you have time) to bring it all together into one very good/interresting thread. Good job -...

I like the idea. Would be great too have it all in one thread so you wouldn't have too look for them!

[Tubey84]

Tubey84: I wanted to say what a good idea you have come up with & wanted to show my support -. If I were to contribute to this thread in any way it would be that I hope that you can create an entire/complete thread on Emulating Reality: Creating Icons (or what ever name you choose-). I like the idea of seperate threads but hoped you would (when you feel you have time) to bring it all together into one very good/interresting thread. Good job -...

Fair enough I'm writing two more at the moment, so I'll compile them all into one thread when done. No idea why I didn't think of that oO

[Loversleaper]

Fair enough I'm writing two more at the moment, so I'll compile them all into one thread when done. No idea why I didn't think of that oO

You can easily reserve some posts so that you can always keep them at the start of the thread. You can reserve 20 posts or more if you wish -. I think it would just make the whole thing more 'user-friendly' and this is a very good contribution to the Community. I think you can make a bigger impact this way -...

P.S. I wasn't pushing you to do it right away, but it could become a good idea later when you felt that you have completed your ideologies...

[bjoggi33]

Sneek peak of the players included there ???