Player roles - set all to green or not?

[stannie203]

Hi,

Just a question on the player roles screen in FMT... once I've settled on a formation - say 4-4-2 for argument's sake (where I have suitable players for that system) - what do people do with the player roles?

Do you set all players to play in roles where they are full green in that position? And then alter the Team Instructions to suit those player roles? Or would you set a player's role to something he is 50% suited to in order to fit your team instructions?

Also, I feel like I'm guessing a bit when choosing a style and team shape - i'm playing with Leeds so often go with Control as I feel I should boss most games and with fluid. But like I say, feels a bit hit and miss!

Thanks!

[Stripeyfox2011]

I was wondering about this too....

[rich10]

I'd head over to the Tactics forum for help & guidance on setting up your team to be honest, it's a gold mine.

It's a difficult question to answer, because I know I dictate the formation based on the players I have available, however I don't think I would enforce a tactical role/duty on a player who wasn't at least 75% comfortable with it. But then maybe this is down to my ignorance on how ALL of the roles function. You've made me question everything I think I know about FM, because I don't think I know how I get the team to work in a way I want them to...I think I just tinker until it resembles something close to my ideas, and then buy in better players who can play a role/duty I would consider 'normal' for the position in green, in relation to how I want that position to interact with the rest of the team both in an attacking sense & a defensive one.

Thanks.

[tyro]

16 hours ago, stannie203 said:

Hi,

Just a question on the player roles screen in FMT... once I've settled on a formation - say 4-4-2 for argument's sake (where I have suitable players for that system) - what do people do with the player roles?

Do you set all players to play in roles where they are full green in that position? And then alter the Team Instructions to suit those player roles? Or would you set a player's role to something he is 50% suited to in order to fit your team instructions?

Also, I feel like I'm guessing a bit when choosing a style and team shape - i'm playing with Leeds so often go with Control as I feel I should boss most games and with fluid. But like I say, feels a bit hit and miss!

Thanks!

In short. No. 

You would need to set up your roles to fit your system. Sometimes you're lucky and the perfect roles for the system are also those of the players. Usually that doesn't happen. 

To expand on that:

So many players that play midfield will have Ball Winning Midfielder or Advanced Playmaker as their "best" role or "most green." If you set your midfield (2 MCs) up with those two roles, however, you might have problems defensively. Might. Maybe you have decent cover elsewhere? 

Another example; so many players are either best as Poacher or Target Man. If you play a single striker, the poacher will more likely than not be isolated. If you play a target man, you need to keep in mind that they are ball magnet. Every one will look for that ... wait for it ... Target. If that's how you want to play, or if you have sufficient support for the poacher, great. But if you just choose the role because it is the most green, then you might struggle.

The system needs to make sense. You need to envision how each player will move and pass the ball. Who will be more aggressive, who will stay back, who will have appetite to score goals.

You might have this formation: 4-1-4-1

Then you select the roles based on the best one for the players. So, the most common probably (because it is easiest to get those attributes):

                       Poacher

W                AP               BWM             W

                           BWM

DFB          DCD            DCD                 DFB

                             GK

Maybe above will work, but more likely not. Defenders are very limited. The Ball Winners will run around like bulls and not fulfill their defensive duties.

The Poacher will be isolated and the wingers will try to cross to probably a small player in the middle?

 

[stannie203]

Great explanation, thank you.

I started up a game with Ajax and got beat 2-0 by a Romanian side who had 60% possession against me when I had all my player roles at "best", so figured something was wrong with how I was going at things.

I understand the tip from some of watching the whole game, but I'm playing FM Touch for a reason - I haven't got the time! I guess it's all about understanding how the different roles affect / help / detract from the other players around you.

What use do you get from the analysis of tactic screen (where squares are red/green)? So before the match above, all squares were green apart from 2 in defensive midfield as i was playing 4-2-3-1 wide. All players were set to their 'best role', so assumed that's why the squares were mainly green - the 2 central midfielders were set to ball winning and deep lying playmaker, but the squares below them were red. I took this to mean that I didn't have anyone positioned in those squares and that's what the help description also hinted at, but was it really telling me that I didn't have a player with a role that would backtrack into that square (or conversely a centre back willing to step through to close the gap between defence and midfield?)

Also, do you guys change the roles much depending on who you're playing and the formation they play, or do you just get a tactic working for your side and stick to that? So many permutations! 

 

[knap]

When you go to tactics there is an AM recommendation for formation and roles. There are also set to tactics. Some duties are automatic but you can change these to support. I often use these as a start to making a tactic

On basis of time limitation I would get a tactic working and stick with it. You can try just changing mentality for difficult or easy games.

[stannie203]

Whereabouts is that AM recommendation for formation and roles?

One thing I can't see from last year is the variations under Quick Pick - you used to be able to pick a rotated side for cup games for instance - all I can see is a quick pick button and that picks the best each time.

[knap]

At bottom of this screen

[Chulito]

Hi there,

There's a very good guide made for FM 2015 by Llama3, I always use it to set up my team tactics. Though it's 3 years old now the core basics are still very useful. You can download it from here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/ab40bznid7chl9i/Pairs_&_Combinations_FM2015.pdf

The most important thing is: BALANCE. To have defend-support-attack duties in every part of the pitch (in case of a three midfielders system you should have one of every duty not just defending or supporting players, not to have four defending players back, etc.). Take a look at it, it will hel A LOT.