Midfielders underperforming

[WinterAce]

Hi,

I am playing at Arsenal and am building a 4-2-3-1 (2 central midfielders, 3 attacking midfielders with 2 wide players) formation as I have many quality AMs. All-in-all, my team is performing very well and we are unbeaten in the season, 27 games through. The problem is, my midfielders are underperforming.

My captain, Fabregas, is the best player in the team, but his average rating is only 6.92 - the lowest rating in the whole team! I think its all because of my formation that he is underperforming. He is playing as an Advanced Playmaker with a Support duty. The result - 2 goals and 1 assist! Only thing good about him in this season is that his pass completion ratio is 84%, among the top 5 in my team.

My other midfielders are Alex Song, Aaron Ramsey, Nicolas Nkoulou, who have been doing okay. ~7.1 with a Central Midfielder - Automatic/Defend duty. I've even tried playing Alex and Nicolas in their natural DM role, but to no affect...

The AMs are:

AML: Inside Forward - Attack, AMR: Inside Forward - Support, AMC: Attacking Midfielder - Support or sometimes Treraquista

Is it because of the 3 AMs in front of them that they is not able to do their stuff to their best, or is it some other reason?

[SS19]

Hi,

I am playing at Arsenal and am building a 4-2-3-1 (2 central midfielders, 3 attacking midfielders with 2 wide players) formation as I have many quality AMs. All-in-all, my team is performing very well and we are unbeaten in the season, 27 games through. The problem is, my midfielders are underperforming.

My captain, Fabregas, is the best player in the team, but his average rating is only 6.92 - the lowest rating in the whole team! I think its all because of my formation that he is underperforming. He is playing as an Advanced Playmaker with a Support duty. The result - 2 goals and 1 assist! Only thing good about him in this season is that his pass completion ratio is 84%, among the top 5 in my team.

My other midfielders are Alex Song, Aaron Ramsey, Nicolas Nkoulou, who have been doing okay. ~7.1 with a Central Midfielder - Automatic/Defend duty. I've even tried playing Alex and Nicolas in their natural DM role, but to no affect...

The AMs are:

AML: Inside Forward - Attack, AMR: Inside Forward - Support, AMC: Attacking Midfielder - Support or sometimes Treraquista

Is it because of the 3 AMs in front of them that they is not able to do their stuff to their best, or is it some other reason?

When playing advanced playmaker in MCR/L spot, it goes to more advanced position, so basicly your midfield turns 1-2 midfield instead of 2-1. Fabregas is awesome player, who can really do magick with the ball, so setting him as deep lying playmaker on support would be good, and also set him as primary playmaker. Mixed passing and high creative freedom should choose the best passing option. He will play short simple pass when necessary, but he is also able to cut the defence with a through ball. Altough I would rather play him in AMC spot as advanced playmaker. I don't know Song's stats very well, but I would suggest ball winning midfielder or central midfielder with automatic/support.

[SFraser]

A quick answer would be that the AM Support role keeps Fabregas positionally conservative but also reduces the risk he takes with his passes. I would try knocking his passing style up a few notches, even up to Direct and see if that helps any.

Alternatively try using AM Attack but knock his RFD down to Mixed or Rare.

[WinterAce]

Thank you for your your replies. I will try your suggestions and hope that he does better along with the other MCs.

[SCIAG]

Try increasing the RFD of Fabregas so that he makes those trademark runs from deep and picks up more goals.

Song averaging 7.1 isn't bad at all, especially if you are keeping possession. As long as he wins a few tackles for you every match, and wins headers in midfield, he's doing fine. As above though, I'd suggest making him a ball winner to really bring out the best in him. Have N'Koulou as his back up and Ramsey covering Cesc's position.

Are you having any problems with the attacking trio, or is it only the central three?

[WinterAce]

I just increased his RFD, will use it in my next match. I have also set Song's role with N'koulou as his backup.

My problems were only with Fabregas. In the next match after setting him as a Deep Lying PM, he scored a goal, just what was required... I hope his performances continue in the same way.