'Roam from position' - how exactly does this work on FM 2010?

[howard moon]

Simple, and possibly stupid question really.

I've been playing FM for years now, and the Tactics creator has been a huge help to me as I try and get my players to play as I want them to. But I still don't understand what the 'roam from position' option actually does.

I know it is supposed to allow your players to have the freedom to roam from their position, but even though I've watched games closely, checked the 'analysis' at the end of the game to see where passes were made etc, I can see no noticeable difference between when it is selected and when it is not.

I play as Man United, and both wide players (Valencia as a winger, and Modric as an inside forward) and strikers (Rooney as deep lying forward and Berbatov as trequarista) and even the box to box midfielder has this option ticked. Yet they don't noticeably roam from position, certainly not when they don't have the ball.

I play a slow tempo, narrow 4-2-3-1 formation, with short passing on the control setting, either fluid or very fluid.

Am I missing something, or doing something wrong, or does this option just not work very well?

[howard moon]

Anyone? I'd hoped for some discussion about this tactical feature...

[dking]

I guess people are still trying to figure it out.

[wwfan]

It's the old 'free role'.

[heathxxx]

Beat me to it wwfan

Basically, more roaming, or "free role" means that a player is allowed the freedom to move around the pitch more, rather than be particularly shackled to their formation position. Usually, such a role is helped by the player having good overall attributes, but particularly in mental and technical abilities.

A clever player mentally and gifted technically, can spot when to make the runs into space, when to shift from his "normal" position, to provide more service to his team.

[howard moon]

Thanks Heathxxx, that last point was very helpful.

What I can't understand though is how this feature in the match engine?

From watching the games, and studying the analysis feature, paying particular attention to the passing (I'm still playing FM2010 so don't have the heat maps), there seems to be very little difference between a player who has roam from position ticked, to one that doesn't.

I would have understood such a free role to allow the player to move into whatever position he sees fit during an attacking move. So that may mean an AM picking up the ball on the right wing. See the chalkboard on Nani here http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/10/21/champions-league-chalkboards-matchday-three/ for an example.

I don't really see this on the match engine. Positions are still very static, even with this feature ticked.

Do individual and team settings (creative freedom, a more fluid system) help to make it work better?

[Sheva Elite]

I do notice it's affect. I usually put it on good AMCs to help them find space. They tend to be more out of position, but not in a particularly good one. With roaming on, they'll be out of position but somewhere silly like offside, or right next to someone else. With it off, they just stay marked by everyone.

I find that it doesnt actually make much difference. I think PPM, of coming deep to get the ball is better for having them make space. Either that or getting lucky.

I've noticed that the game has the default settings of Playmakers as no roaming so maybe it is meant to be bad for playmakers. Possibly cos the rest of your team might have trouble finding them if they have gone walk about. Probs best for wingers and strikers.