Using Playmakers in Lower Leagues

[flere-imsaho]

I'm looking for a sanity check here more than anything.

So far in FM11 I've managed two teams who are really towards the bottom end of the spectrum - Chimney Corner in Northern Ireland, and Nardo FK in Norway. I've had success and failure with both, but based on trial and error I've found myself avoiding any use whatsoever (in the Tactical Creator) of the "Playmaker" role (such as setting a player to "Deep-Lying Playmaker", "Advanced Playmaker", etc....).

I know this is anecdotal, not statistical, evidence, but my experience has been that whenever I set this role in a tactic my team really struggles, and I'll try it out for a full season, not just a game here and there. Digging under the Tactical Creator, I'm not sure where in the advanced settings the problem lies, but my suspicion is that it's the act of denoting the player as a "Playmaker" that's the problem.

In short, once someone's designated as the team's Playmaker, the Tactical Creator adjusts settings so that play gets routed through that player. OK if you have Lionel Messi, or course, or if you're playing a team in a high enough league to get someone with good playmaking attributes, but I'm thinking that at these even lower levels the fact that you can't attract a player of sufficient calibre to really do the role justice means your tactic/team falls apart at a more accelerated rate than otherwise.

Does my thinking on this seem logical, or am I missing something here? I'll note that even as I've advanced my teams' standing, they've typically been of lower aggregate skill than their league opponents.

[jamez91]

I sometimes play up to 3 playmakers in my team - Huddersfield Town FC in league one.

I do fine.

[Shizzle]

I don't know if this applies to FM 2011, but I always used a PM up to FM 2010 even with playing ''Low-Tier'' clubs.

The only time I've ever encountered problems was back in FM 08-09 when the PM had low strength, first touch and had a low setting for Creative Freedom.

My players would always pass the ball to him, as he's supposed to ''make play'', just to see him getting muscled off the ball or waiting for the ball to come to him like a brainless chicken.

Usually a defender would dispose him by that time and start a Counter Attack.

Check his behavior and all stats associated with him, keep in mind that you only want to use a PM in the classic sense of the game, when he's actually heads and shoulder above most of your players and the oppositions.

Try setting the PM option in the Team Settings to ''none'' and play him as an AMC.

You might want to tweak him a bit by reducing instructions that he cannot handle, like taking occasional long-shots if he has a poor rating for those.

[DeadPanda]

I think it seems only usual that the play gets diverted if you will to the playmaker as he is the one that creates the, er, play. Just like attacks get diverted to the target man. I do agree that it is often difficult to attract a player of sufficient calibre to play the role well enough in such low divisions due to the nature of what the player has to do and may be suited better to, as Shizzle says, in an AMC rle with some tweaked instructions to suit you.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Check your Team Instructions in tactics to see if you have a named 'Primary Playmaker', if you don't have a stand-out player for this role, (for the level you playing at), then it might be better to leave this option empty, it's a different animal to a positional playmaker role.

I think your evidence is more than anecdotal as you have seen that your players, or at least some of them, do not perform as well in your team with those instructions. Certain roles suit certain players, and at the very least you have identified some roles that don't suit yours.

Go with what works best and build from there. Maybe as you get better players, or the players you have improve, you might feel like experimenting with the odd playmaker role again.

(for the sake of your sanity, the increased creative freedom that playmaker roles have is one possible reason your players don't perform as well, but there are many others and without knowing your players and tactics I am only guessing)

[heathxxx]

Picking a specific "playmaker" by ticking the box is something I tend to only reserve for the most talented kinds of players, usually at the highest levels of the game. That said, whenever you place specific team focus on a particular player, be it ticking a playmaker or target man, there's always the chance he can be contained by opponents, thus hobbling a strong element of your team's play.

I tend to prefer using the player roles to assign playmakers in the team, rather than assigning specific ones. Simply on the basis that having more outlets and options is much less restrictive than specific focus on one - at any level.

[flere-imsaho]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I do have similar qualms about the Target Man, as well, but those are, of course, easier to find at the lower levels. I'm going to try using the instructions from the assigned role, but unticking the playmaker box and see if that helps things. Thanks again!