My Wingers Are So Selfish - Please Help!

[phd_angel]

My wingers are selfish bastards. Though they have high crossing, they refuse to cross or pass the ball, and keep dribbling into the area, and attempt silly diagonal shoots that end up in side netting. This is worse with wingers, but many other players are selfish too. BTW, this has been going for several FM versions...

How can I make my wingers pass and cross the ball more often? Thanks for any suggestions.

Edited May 28, 2021 by phd_angel

[FrazT]

This is a known problem, but I saw somewhere that if you take the attack duty off the wingers and wingbacks, they tend to cross less often and with better quality.  I cant vouch for its effectiveness, however.

[XaW]

Also, high teamwork attribute makes them more likely to pass to a better placed team mate.

[HUNT3R]

9 hours ago, phd_angel said:

My wingers are selfish bastards. Though they have high crossing, they refuse to cross or pass the ball, and keep dribbling into the area, and attempt silly diagonal shoots that end up in side netting. This is worse with wingers, but many other players are selfish too. BTW, this has been going for several FM versions...

How can I make my wingers pass and cross the ball more often? Thanks for any suggestions.

You kind of answered your own question. They're dribbling too much. The first move would be to reduce that via TI.

[Outsider23]

You could also spam the "Teamwork" match preparation before matches. I find that it helps my players make fewer dumb and selfish decisions.

[CARRERA]

There are a few things to consider. 

You can try to offset that specific behavior you don’t want by either editing team or player instructions. (For example dribble less)

you can encourage the player to carry out specific actions more often by editing team or player instructions. (For example cross more often) 

you can change the teams tempo, whereas a higher tempo allows your players less time to make a decision, which can lead to bad decisions more often. And a lower tempo will allow your players more time to make a decision, which can lead to better decisions more often. However taking yourself too much time for making a decision will also allow the opposition team to recover and set up their defense.

you can change the mentality, whereas a higher mentality will focus more often to move the ball forward and make decisions accordingly. A lower mentality will primarily focus on maintaining possession and move the ball forward in rather risk free moments. However, changing mentality will most likely need to make other changes aswell to remain your overall tactic efficient.

You should also check if there are enough players in support for your winger to either cut back or execute a cross inside the box. If a  player is too isolated or limited with options, he might be desperately trying something on his own.

follow this path: check for enough support and options -> offset / encourage certain behaviors -> change tempo -> change mentality

Edited May 30, 2021 by CARRERA

[BuryBlade]

Get the player to learn the PPM, looks for pass instead of shooting.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

I have better luck with them going wide if they're back in the M/RL positions rather than the AMLR positions.

Otherwise, it's wing-backs that act like the old fashioned chalk on your boots wingers, as I find the role cuts in too early in the final third. Just me though.

[Mitja]

Play them as IFs or IWs.

Dribble less, WBIB + underlap will help a little too.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Mitja