Narrow Wide Players

[Mike_Cardinal]

It's important to note that this is NOT a post about Inside Forwards, such as Ronaldo, Messi in previous seasons and Hulk this year. I'm talking about slightly deeper, more creative players, who defend the flanks and track back, but when their side has the ball, look to drift inside and play in the hole, or an attacking midfield position in FM. My real question is how to best set these players up. I want to, with my 4-2-3-1 formation, to a great extent replicate something along the lines of Spain and Borussia Dortmund's ways of playing, with a lot of similarities, also, with Villarreal's formation, though with one of their strikers brought back into a midfield position to help me defend against 3 man midfields. They might still have mixed Runs From Deep - in fact - I think that they should to offer a simultaneous goalscoring threat and supportive, playmaking presence, but they are not primarily goalscorers.

Spain were, admittedly, criticised by some for being too narrow, but Dortmund have shown that, if your full backs have great attacking ability (they've essentially played wingers there), then you can still offer a threat in that area with three attacking midfielders whirling around in front of a double pivot midfield pairing. Spain experimented with Villa on the wing, offering a direct, attacking threat, and also utilised Jesus Navas' ability to stretch the play and give them width, but they started and ended the tournament with Iniesta and another player who came inside to attacking midfield positions out wide - David Silva and Pedro. They didn't play exclusively in the middle, but importantly, that was their main attacking position.

My question is how to best set up this role on FM - should it be from an AM postion (albeit quite a wide one, perhaps, if there is an AMC between these two) or should it be from a ML/AML/MR/AMR position? Would, for example, a wide man with Cut Inside/Roam From Position/An overall Narrow team instruction be enough to have him playing almost exclusively in an AM role, or would it be necessary to play them at AM but use OIs, specific man marking or a wider team instruction to cover the opposition's full back defensively. Any opinions on this role in general and on what the best solution is to creating it would be lovely. Thanks.

[mojojojo101]

Have you tried setting your two wide players (in the AMR/L slots) as Advanced Playmakers on Support. If you give them slightly reduced mentallity and cut-inside they should look to come in and get involved, I've done this with 1 winger (Cazorla) but never with both wingers set up this way.

[heathxxx]

When setting something along these lines up, I usually opt for a 4-2-3-1 shape, but with three AMC's. The AMC® and AMC(L) positions set to Attacking Midfielder "Support" or Advanced Playmaker "Support" usually work quite well for me.

Both should still pull out wide, but also move into channels enough to offer overlapping possibilities for your full-backs. On "support", they should also drop deep enough to help out in midfield, as well as putting pressure on opposing full-backs if you have Closing Down "Press More" selected in your team instructions.

Additionally, it's useful if you have players who are at least "accomplished" in both wide and central attacking midfield positions. So for example, your AMC® should also be at least "accomplished" as an AMR. What this will allow, is some flexibility to the width of your team. Useful in games where you need to employ more width and can pull the AMC® and AMC(L) out onto the wings, whilst still also offering the options of Advanced Playmaker or Inside Forward roles. Alternatively, as you've observed with the use of Navas particularly for Spain, you can use an orthodox winger for added dimension.

Mainly, it's about keeping the core of your midfield in shape, whilst offering a variety of options in the attacking midfield areas.