Does a player's preferred side have any match impact?

[ryandormer]

I have plenty of players in my team who have a 'preferred side,' such as 'prefers to be on the right in a two man pairing.'

Does this actually make a difference in a match? For example, if I put a player on the left, when he prefers to be on the right, is he going to perform worse?

Or is it really just a way of signalling, largely to the AI, where a player should be playing to match the real-life player?

[HUNT3R]

It's there to help AI team selection. The side preference is usually in line with their footedness. There are no direct impacts, so nothing changes in terms of attributes or CA.

As an example though, a "right only" footed player will often 'prefer' the right hand side of defence and playing him at DCL for instance could have indirect consequences. 

[ryandormer]

Just now, HUNT3R said:

It's there to help AI team selection. The side preference is usually in line with their footedness. There are no direct impacts, so nothing changes in terms of attributes or CA.

As an example though, a "right only" footed player will often 'prefer' the right hand side of defence and playing him at DCL for instance could have indirect consequences. 

Thanks for the response. I assumed that was the case. I started to think about it because I found that I had a couple of right footed central midfielders who preferred to play on the left. I don't think I've seen a 'right foot only' defender want to play on the left, though, so that makes sense!

[HUNT3R]

1 minute ago, ryandormer said:

I started to think about it because I found that I had a couple of right footed central midfielders who preferred to play on the left

Real players or newgens? Researchers can set it for real players, based on real life team selections.

[ryandormer]

Real players. Not sure I've seen it on newgens. And to be fair, there are plenty of right footed midfielders who tend to play on the left, which makes sense. I assumed it was just to mimic real life selections, but I wasn't certain.

[Experienced Defender]

2 hours ago, ryandormer said:

there are plenty of right footed midfielders who tend to play on the left

Yeah, and the one that first comes to my mind is Pogba. 

[ryandormer]

12 minutes ago, Experienced Defender said:

Yeah, and the one that first comes to my mind is Pogba. 

On my game, it was Ryan Gravenberch and Houssem Aouar.

I bought Gravenberch to play as an inside forward/inverted winger on the left. With Aouar, I think OCD kicked in, as I wanted an attacking central midfielder playing on the right, and the fact that he prefers to play on the left put me off signing him.

[Cloud9]

On 14/12/2020 at 02:53, HUNT3R said:

It's there to help AI team selection. The side preference is usually in line with their footedness. There are no direct impacts, so nothing changes in terms of attributes or CA.

As an example though, a "right only" footed player will often 'prefer' the right hand side of defence and playing him at DCL for instance could have indirect consequences. 

Is this still the case?

I've got a letf footed center back who "prefers to play on the right." Are there consequences under the hood for their performance in more recent versions of the game?

[Johnny Ace]

4 hours ago, Cloud9 said:

Is this still the case?

I've got a letf footed center back who "prefers to play on the right." Are there consequences under the hood for their performance in more recent versions of the game?

I don't think there is, it's just a preference