AdvancedStrayMaker

You're right, I meant Art Vidal. Got my V names muddled up.

I love the CM(A) role. With the right stats and spaces to attack in your system they can score 20+ goals while contributing defensively with plenty of tackles and interceptions. For me the absolute key stat is aggression, they have to have the desire to fight their way in to goal scoring positions in the usually congested centre areas of the pitch then get back and get stuck in when the opposition have the ball. I have a new gen with good stats otherwise ( ant, wor, det, otb, acc, fir, agi, fin, cmp, tec, dec ) but with an aggression of 6 and he misfires badly in the role compared to less talented players with higher aggression. Makes sense I guess when you think of the great goal scoring centre mids in the last 15 years - Nainggolan, Veratti, Lampard, Gerrard - one thing they certainly don't lack is aggression.

Could I join please?

You've got 2 roam from position roles at CM and it may be that this harms your shape in transitions if you want to keep men behind the ball and be tough to break down.

Quick background: Last played FM seriously in the 13/14 incarnation. Really like the new version, crucially seems a lot harder with more depth than I remember. I'm just starting to play around with a formation I want to use for season 2 and need to know if something I'm thinking about is important or irrelevant before continuing. It's a 3 central defender formation and I'm wondering if the strength of each foot is important in the positioning of the centre backs. I have 2 strong centre backs both of whom are left footed and a third promising youngster, right footed, who I see as a backup and development project with managed game time for this season. I'm currently scouting for a 3rd starting centre back and another rotation/backup and most of my preferred options are also left footed. Let's assume 3 starting CBs, all left footed. 2 have a weak right foot, 1 a reasonable right peg. Were I to go this route should the reasonable be the DCR? I may want to place him elsewhere based on attributes if it's not a serious consideration. Is three left footed CBs just plain bad regardless of strength of weaker foot and side preference? In that case I'll recruit a right footer. This is a question I imagine being very important in real life tactics but maybe less so in the simulation. What are your experiences with this in-game and your advice? Secondly I want to build from the back and all my left sided players ( LCB, LWB, LMC ) seem to be more adept at controlling the ball and moving it forward (first touch, decisions, passing etc.) than their right sided counterparts. Therefore I'm considering exploit the left flank and am wondering how strongly this skews the play? Is it deep play, attacking play or all over the pitch? My right sided players are as good as the left, they just have different strengths. To be honest this one I could probably have experimented with in the friendlies whereas for the 1st I want to get on with my recruitment and prototype tactic building before pre-season starts. Just included it because it is of a kind with my first question. Anyway looks like a nice community, thanks for your help.