Two APs on the wings?

[Enos]

I've been running a 4-2-2-2 in an LLM save with a really good stretch.  I'll play narrow or wide with a low/high line of engagement depending on the opponent's style.  I tinker a good bit for each match basaed on opponent.  Mainly based on mentality (player and team) and passing style.  My DLP and AP are always set to direct passing as they have great vision, first touch, teamwork, anticipation, etc.  My P and DLF-S have pretty good first touch to receive the passes.

------------------SK-S

WB-S---CB-D---CB-D---WB-A

---------DLP-D---CM-S

AP-S-----------------------IW-S

----------P----DLF-S

I'm in League 2 right now and my IW was just poached by a Championship team after getting promoted twice.  The season is about to begin and I've been unable to find a satisfactory replacement.  I do have a young player who is listed as a CM, but who I've played in the AMR slot as an AP with good success.  He has been understudy to my current starter.  He doesn't have the technical abilities to be a winger (low crossing, work rate, and speed) but he's been great at AP on the right.  Is it too much to have a an AP on each wing?  I already have a DLP as well?  will I create confusion in the team?  I don't have a pre season to test things out as my IW was just sold by my board 4 days prior to our first League 2 match.

[permanentquandary]

I think what you're really looking for is two widemen who come inside but could go on the outside too and each do slightly different things and perhaps not have hardcoded instructions and the problem you have is the preset roles for AMR/L have hardcoded defaults.

So you can solve this using the MR and ML slots using the roles there. In particular the Wide Midfielder roles are extremely versatile because they can be totally customised especially on support duty.

The tactical advantage to this should be to improve defensive strength and gain more ball possession and penetration from deeper positions but your transitions will likely be slower too. But maybe that is ok if your opponent is not organised defensively so much as if you had kept the widemen in the higher slots.

Edited January 12, 2020 by permanentquandary

[Enos]

On 11/01/2020 at 19:55, permanentquandary said:

I think what you're really looking for is two widemen who come inside but could go on the outside too and each do slightly different things and perhaps not have hardcoded instructions and the problem you have is the preset roles for AMR/L have hardcoded defaults.

So you can solve this using the MR and ML slots using the roles there. In particular the Wide Midfielder roles are extremely versatile because they can be totally customised especially on support duty.

The tactical advantage to this should be to improve defensive strength and gain more ball possession and penetration from deeper positions but your transitions will likely be slower too. But maybe that is ok if your opponent is not organised defensively so much as if you had kept the widemen in the higher slots.

Good ideas.  I'll give the wide midfielders a shot.