Dealing with under performers?

[Animasta]

Okay, so I'm in my second season of Everton... and Ross Barkley, who has the highest CA of all of my players save for Leighton Baines, is playing fairly poorly; a guy I brought in to be my 2nd string striker plays better in the AMC role that Ross plays, and I've tried a multitude of roles for him as well (Trequarista, Advanced Playmaker, Shadow Striker) and nothing's really taken, he only got 6.8 the first season, 6.71 this season halfway through. Would you sell him? I want to try and get him going because he's English and is local, but I can't keep giving him chances only for him to under perform.

[Jimbokav1971]

I get why you want to keep him.

The issue is though that unless you can work out why he is under-performing, and fix it, then you might as well sell him.

I know that he is good in real life. Is he as good in the game? (I honestly don't know). What is his personality? How is he responding to training? Is he happy? Are you giving him roles that suit his ability as a FM player, or those you think he has in real life? Do you have someone operating in a similar space that he wants to get into when you play him at AMC? Maybe the forward is in a role that isn't really compatible with the the AMC role, or maybe it is, but it's his ppm's that are taking him into poor areas?

I don't know and all of the above is just stuff that I thought might have an impact off the top of my head.

The bottom line is though that you need to try and find a solution or yes, you should sell him.

[Edit]

have you tried having a word with him about his poor performances?

[Animasta]

I did have a word with him, and he proceeded to get 2 assists the next game... against west brom, the bottom team of the table. He's gotten 4 assists and 1 goal in 27 games. His personality is fairly professional, he's fairly happy as well.

my tactics are a counter 4-4-1-1, he plays a Trequarista atm, with an advanced forward in front and a BBM and CM(D) behind. I honestly cannot tell why he's doing as badly as he is:

He does seem to play way better for England (7.1 in 17 games), though I have no idea if it's because of a different formation or different role, but here's the other guy I have:

Clearly not as good stats wise, but he's way better at it, he's gotten 5 assists in half the games.

[Jimbokav1971]

Ok. Something more basic then....

I know match stats are not very reliable, but can you see where he is playing poorly in terms of his match stats? Is he missing shots, passes going astray? Something else?

Contrastingly, where is his replacement doing well. What is the difference in terms of stats?

[Edit]

The one thing I can see straight away is that Sefarivic is "natural" at playing up front. Barkley isn't. I know it's only something small but...

[Animasta]

His passing, the last 3 times he's played 90, are 43/30, 65/50, and 53/40. I don't think it's his shots, as he roughly gets 75% of them on target at least. 3 key passes against R. Madrid, he played fairly well there (well, for a 0-0 draw), but usually only one key pass per game. The only really bad stat I can see is that he only wins like 25% of his headers. He's made 65 mistakes compared to 39 of Seferovic.

They're actually fairly similar in terms of raw game stats. Seferovic just assists more and is more capable of being a game changer I suppose? (the max rating that Barkley's gotten has been 7.4, vs. Seferovic's 8.4, where he assisted twice against Arsenal) Though it actually doesn't say whether he played as a striker or AMC in the stat page per game, which is fairly annoying. Honestly it does seem like there's more interplay between Seferovic and my striker when they both play together vs. Barkley and either Seferovic or Batshuayi.

Although Barkley did get injured for a while, but after he got injured is when he put up his best game, so I dunno if that has any effect.

[dribbler]

maybe it's the various partnerships between Barkley, your striker and your other midfielders?...(I've never got 4-4-1-1 working well so I can't help much about that)

[Cougar2010]

I struggle to see how your tactics are working to any degree.

You have your two most advanced players on attack orders (AMC/Treq and ST/AF) so they are moving away from the ball when you get possession leaving no real outlet ball during transition. Behind them you have a BTB MC/support and a defending MC behind leaving a large gap between midfield and attack.

You haven't said what your ML/MR are but you need someone to link the play when you move forward. I would have thought playing Barkley as a supporting advanced PM would work better with an attacking MC and a defending BWM behind him. With one winger on support and the other attack with an advanced forward it would give better balance.

There are also other ways of dealing with it but you need to fix the main issues which are:

A) No forward player holding station to receive possession and

B) No playmaker to control the flow of your attack.

[Animasta]

I had been playing him as an AP but it was with an attack mindset, I'll try the support one (and I don't know why I forgot to).

[Pangaea]

Perhaps a bit different given where you play him, but I have a playmaker that sits deeper (in MC), and he barely gets any end product. But that's not really his role either. His role is to dictate play, roam about and be a passing option, not necessarily to assist goals. It's probably more a case of assisting the assist. He only has 3 goals and 1 assist this season, and I'm at the end of January.

Could be different in your case of course, depends what you want. However, I'm trying to not focus so much on average ratings. If the player more or less does what you want, then that is fine enough. I'm using a DMC and he only gets 7.0+ when four planets line up in a specific order, but I'm still pleased with him, mostly, as he's supposed to be a safety.