New player roles for FM18

[kpsia518]

Football Manager 2018: New player roles explained

by Martin Laurence at Friday, Oct 13 2017 12:35

 

 

The launch of Football Manager 2018 is less than a month away and as ever there are some new features to look forward to.  

 

Amongst them are four new player roles to consider when refining your tactics, and here we analyse just what each will offer, along with some examples of players that would suit each function. 

 

The first new entry is the ‘Segundo Volante’, which is a central midfield role that combines some of the traits of those existing in the game. Operating from a deep starting position, they are best partnered with a anchor man but have a different responsibility to a deep-lying playmaker. 

 

 

It’s more of an all round job in the middle of the park, more similar to that of a box-to-box midfielder, but more likely to run with the ball to push the team forward whilst still providing defensive support when out of possession. 

 

It’s a role that Tiemoue Bakayoko excelled in last season alongside Fabinho in a two man midfield and one that the Frenchman will be expected to replicate alongside compatriot Kante. The latter has the greater responsibility when the opposition has the ball, but the former helps alleviate pressure by carrying it forwards himself, requiring plenty of stamina to get back into position when play changes hands. 

 

 

Sticking on the topic of N’Golo Kante’s responsibilities at Chelsea, the reigning PFA Player of the Year is well suited to the new role of the ‘Carrilero’, or “Shuttler”. It’s a support role in midfield, not merely restricted to defensive work but involving plenty of running and covering of vacated spaces. 

 

They move laterally across midfield lines to link defence and attack rather than playing from box-to-box but must use the ball well to retain possession and recognise danger when wide players move into more advanced positions. 

 

The final midfield role is that of a ‘Mezzala’, which is the more attacking of the three. While not dissimilar to a box-to-box midfielder, there is less onus on defensive responsibility and more on finding the spaces that an inside forward would look to operate within. It’s a function that Corentin Tolisso was handed last season at Lyon and one that ultimately earned the Frenchman a big money move to Bayern in the summer. 

 

 

The fourth addition is that of an ‘Inverted Winger’, which is an adaptation of the inside forward but with a greater expectation to offer a support role to the midfield than an all out attacking mindset akin to that of Arjen Robben, for example. In a similar manner to the Dutchman, the role is best suited to a player who is naturally left footed playing from the right or vice-versa. 

 

The inverted winger will cut diagonally across the defence to play the ball through the middle while overloading defenders and defensive midfielders ahead of the penalty area. A prime example would be Giacomo Bonaventura at AC Milan, with plenty of creative responsibility but less freedom operate solely in the final third.

[Jean0987654321]

The mezzala role seems to be the role of Fabregas at Conte's Cheslea and the Segunda volante role was his too under Mou with a two man midfield of Matic-Fabregas that won them the league

[Jean0987654321]

Whoops. Double post pls delete

[Bobby_Zamora]

I feel bad -- segundo volante and no mention of any Brazilians. Shame on them.

[wladcas]

im curious about segundo volantes average position without the ball,any ideas ?

[Jyuan83]

My thoughts so far after doing a bit ofmy research.

segundo volante: the complete defensive midfielder. Your yaya toure in his prime for man city, naby keita of rb leipzig, emmanuel petit and patrick vieira of arsenal golden years. 

Carrilero: your bbm for lateral coverage. Angel di maria used to be part of benfica’s impressive 4-1-2-1-2 in their midfield diamond of their title dominating season and covered the flanks well from his base in central midfield.

mezzala: basically your attacking player who attacks like an inside forward and defends like an unenthusiastic central midfielder. The raumdeuter from deeper midfield positions. Moving like an attacking wide player from deeper positions allows him to sneak in goals. Lorenzo pellegrini of last season’s sassuolo plundered 8 goals and 7 assists as their mezzala. 

Inverted winger: honestly in current football terms, inverted wingers are seen and viewed on the same breath as inside forwards because they do not see it as a role but more of as a deaired movement pattern; cutting inside. Perhaps wilfried zaha and arjen robben? Cutting in from deep to gain them momentum to either shoot or cross more often than when further upfield.

[bowieinspace]

13 hours ago, Jyuan83 said:

Inverted winger: honestly in current football terms, inverted wingers are seen and viewed on the same breath as inside forwards because they do not see it as a role but more of as a deaired movement pattern; cutting inside. Perhaps wilfried zaha and arjen robben? Cutting in from deep to gain them momentum to either shoot or cross more often than when further upfield.

The inside forward tends to run inside with the ball, so I would hope this role is more of a cut inside and look for the pass or an in swinging cross. Given Robben's dribbling abilities you might want him to play as an inside forward to actually carry the ball inside on the dribble, as opposed to someone like Robert Snodgrass who is more of a hard working link man (yes I just put Snodgrass and Robben together for a comparison, don't judge me). I like the sound of the inverted winger because previously I had to use PI's on a wide midfielder to make that role work, but this should make it easier in that strata. If I wanted more a support player in the AML/AMR positions who don't dribble the ball, but cut inside in to look for a pass/cross there really wasn't a great option (unless they were an out and out playmaker). 

[RadioRes]

I got excited about the new player positions as well. Decided to make a short video (<7 mins) to explain the positions with real life football examples. Hopefully this will help out a few folks!

 

 

[enigmatic]

The Inverted Winger is logical since a lot of players were trying to make their MR/ML play like inside forwards, so making it a formally selectable role accessible to novices and the AI is a no-brainer. Relatively easy for the AI to be programmed to figure out when to use it too.

If the Carillero does the lateral movement properly it's a fantastic addition for narrow formations that like their CMs to spread out a little and/or have to deal with opponents who double up on the flanks in some games.

I'd like to think the Mezzala might have interesting lateral movement based on my (limited) knowledge of Italian football, but the role description suggests otherwise... it sounds like something which could have been called a B2B(A) for less confusion which probably plays like a vanilla CM(A) with "moves into channels" turned on. Which raises the question of why it needs a funky foreign name....

Similarly is Segundo Volante massively different from a Regista or DM Roaming Playmaker? Fewer risky passes perhaps? It doesn't help that the description compares it with dissimilar roles and makes an unnecessary recommendation to pair it with an anchor man (presumably it'll work just as well paired with the vanilla DM or DLP, or even a CM(s) or two in an attacking side that wouldn't normally use a DM) which is more about explaining how to play a specific Brazilian way than practical advice on what it does. Is there any reason why you'd select this role and not one of the existing ones, possibly slightly customising if you have a natural dribbler or if you wanted risky passes turned off? Is there any reason for the AI to use it other than it being a default preference for Brazilian managers? 

 

I guess if there's been a lot of work with midfield positional sense and lateral movement, I trust this is going to be a lot better in general in FM18 than FM17, which had got to be a good thing.

[westy8chimp]

16 hours ago, enigmatic said:

I'd like to think the Mezzala might have interesting lateral movement based on my (limited) knowledge of Italian football, but the role description suggests otherwise... it sounds like something which could have been called a B2B(A) for less confusion which probably plays like a vanilla CM(A) with "moves into channels" turned on. Which raises the question of why it needs a funky foreign name....

I think it differs slightly in that this role will operate in the half space between wing and centre. Technically 'move into channels' could be the inside channel or the outside channel. I see this role as perfect for a midfield 3 - choose one or both outer CM as Mezz'ala and they should operate centrally but dribble or run into the half space... from which they have the wide option to overlapping fullbacks or through ball to the centre. I can't find the site, but scientifically a right footed player in the left sided 'half space' has the best chance of a successful pass due to the various angles and eyelines they have compared to a winger or central player.  

I'll be using this instead of inside forwards for sure. I prefer my players to move into space rather than occupy it. I see it working really well either with wingers or attacking full backs.

16 hours ago, enigmatic said:

Similarly is Segundo Volante massively different from a Regista or DM Roaming Playmaker?

I don't see it similar to those roles. It isn't a role that will attract the ball like a playmaker. It isn't a role to create risky passing or dictate play... it is simply a DM who has more emphasis on turning the defence to attack transition around quickly ... and then like a BBM will have under the hood coding to make late runs into the box. Ideally partnered with an Anchor Man so that one stays back as a defensive shield. Think the Petit & Vieira partnership. The only difference being in FM (other than 'swap position' [which is terrible]) you can't operate partnership of roles, you have to select the individual.

I can't see myself using this role without a double pivot, unless I'm desperate late on.

I hope the ME is more balanced though, imagine slotting this role (if it works as it should) into FM17 with the slow possession build ups & strikerlesss systems, giving the Segundo Volante plenty of time to make those runs and overload the AMC area even more.

[enigmatic]

Like I said, I like the theory behind what a Mezzala is (a "half-winger") but the description doesn't mention that and suggests he's a CM who defends centrally and not particularly deeply, roams around a bit and attacks the inside channel (like an IF). Like a CM(A) would when played in a wide slot in a midfield three anyway. So either the description or the implementation misses the point 

I thought the Segundo Volante was a playmaker (in the FM "attracts ball" sense rather than the Kaka sense) by default in the Brazilian system because the defence and anchorman usually pass the ball short to him to bring out of defence as the creative players tend to be much further forward and they don't play long balls. Otherwise you might as well call him a box to box midfielder....

Totally agree that there's a danger when programming lots of subtle variations of midfield roles that some of them are far too effective (which gets picked up by experienced players and forum users but not by the average player or AI)

 

Though if FM17's reaction to the FM16 crossing issues is anything to go by, strikerless systems and overloads of the centre won't be that overpowered in FM18 anyway and it'll be all about wide players, shuttlers and underlaps

[westy8chimp]

If they overpower the wings again AND the AI are suddenly using more central roles and underlapping, could be a catastrophe. Loads of space out wide with boosted crossing and goal % from direct play  

[Jyuan83]

I remember before reading about a reply from maybe one of the mods or perhaps cleon stating that the AI was capable of using PIs in roles, so i believe the four unique roles were created with the aim of presenting us with a unique playing experience in terms of new tactics and attacking patterns. Take the regista for example. It is no different from the dlp in the sense that it is the italian representation of it. From the ME perspective, the regista plays out as a very aggressive dlp that pushes forward from deep often. I believe that when roles like the mezzala and inverted winger were created, it was done so to make them distinct from current interpretations of it. BBM with move into channels might make for a mezzala but perhaps there might be some under the hood tweaks for the role that make it different from a tweaked BBM. I honestly hope the inverted winger turns out to be unique from the IF, perhaps in overall attacking play? More offensive in driving diagonally to shoot, getting into the box often from more central areas as a byproduct of cutting in diagonally? Honestly i do not know and i hope to be surprised when the ME and the roles become clearer on demo date.