Central Midfielder, Automatic

[Schukk]

Hey guys,

Some of those really successful tactics published here use three central midfielders. Tactics with two offensive CML and CMR and a center with the assigned role "central Midfielder, Automatic" seem to work especially well.

Since I use those tactics, I find it more and more difficult to judge which kind of player would be best for this role. The game seems to value attacking skills more than defensive skills, according to my squad depth. But then again, this was never really relyable. Furthermore, squad depth even thinks that Mkhitaryan would be a better "Central Midfielder, Defend" than Sven Bender, even though his Marking, Tackling, Heading and Positioning are below 10.

So, did you make some experience with this role? Which kind of players work best for you? And which attributes do you value most on this position? Especially if every other Midfield player is even more attack-focused

Or to make it more obvious: Which real life players would be best for this role?

Strangely, if you try the new quick player search with this particular role you find... nothing. There seems to be no player at all who is a natural at this role

 

[vjcsmoke]

Pogba is probably the best offensive midfielder in the game. Although he is very expensive to pry away from Juventus and most often won't be interested in joining you.

I've found Tielemans is a wonderkid with world class potential talent at the CM position. He will set you back almost 20m pounds to acquire, but is well worth it if you have the budget or can pay in installment payments. Kovacic is another very good offensive midfielder but he'll probably cost more than Tielemans since he starts out more developed.

What I like to do is pair one offensive midfielder with an all-rounder or a defensively minded midfielder so I have the best of both worlds. For example, Tielemans + Lucas or Gil Romero makes for 2 very good midfielders. Now if you run 3 midfielders, You can go with say Tielmans CM, Lucas Romero CM, and Lucas Silva as the DM.

PS I think this thread should probably be in the player discussion forum. But I love talking about players so here's my reply.

 

[Schukk]

hey vjcsmoke,

I don't think this thread should be in the player discussion forum. I probably just didn't make myself clear enough

I wasn't talking about the position central midfielder, I was talking about the role, which is called the same. and here especially in combination with a duty set to Automatic.

It's probably the automatic duty that is difficult to understand for me. I can pretty much say what a central midfielder defend, support or attack would require. But I find it hard to say which duty would be more important?

I'm currently playing with three central midfielders:

Advanced Playmaker attack, Central Midfielder Automatic, Advanced Playmaker attack

If you, for example, think of the mentioned Tielemans and Kovacic (maybe the two best APs of the game) as the two Advanced Playmakers, which kind of player would require the third? Is Central Midfielder Automatic in this case a defensive player, like an anchor man or a BWM? Or would it be more like a Deep lying playmaker?

Maybe the best conclusion would be a player who is really good in both the attacking and defensive parts of the game. But I haven't found a player with 17 or higher in Passing, Tackling, Vision and Strength yet, so I suppose you have to decide....

 

[vjcsmoke]

I see your confusion now. The meaning of the word automatic is defined as the following by the tactic editor:

With an automatic duty, _____, will switch automatically between defend, support, and attack duties according to your match strategy.

So with the automatic duty, what your central midfielder is doing is dynamically switching between the roles depending on what match plan you use for that match. If you are using CMs in this manner, it would be good to have all-rounders.

Although as I said, I feel it is still best to have one more offensively talented midfielder paired with another all-rounder or a more defensively minded midfielder. Or if you run 3 midfielders, 1 offensive midfielder + 1 all-rounder + 1 defensive midfielder work great.

Even if you're using automatic setting, your offensive play-maker midfielder tends to produce a big chunk of your scoring chances through him simply because of talent level.

 

[Schukk]

I always thought that in this constellation, the central midfielder would be a defensive player who backups the two AP. What confuses me is that the game seems to think otherwise. It keeps telling me to play creative players with high attacking skills and defensive attributes below 10 there. And I have defensive CMs like Sven Bender or Sebastian Kehl to choose from...

 

[Schukk]

If you look at the stars on this screenshots, you'll see what I mean...

View attachment 727590View attachment 727591

 

[germainelol]

On automatic it would be best to get someone who is essentially an all rounder as they said above. I guess it could be a Box-to-Box midfielder without the ultra high stamina stats, so someone like Vidal or Pogba would be perfect examples. On automatic I would say someone who has good decisions is good too as they need to decide when to defend and attack.

Easiest way to work out how they behave and what stats they need is to simply watch the game for yourself though of course

 

[cobrauk]

So with the automatic duty, what your central midfielder is doing is dynamically switching between the roles depending on what match plan you use for that match

Sorry for old bump but I'm still confused on this role myself. So say I'm playing Structed and Control "match plan" and I never change either of the 2, does that mean my Cm-Au will never change his role? Or does he just always change when he wants, like a B2B does?

 

[Fusershift]

Sorry for old bump but I'm still confused on this role myself. So say I'm playing Structed and Control "match plan" and I never change either of the 2, does that mean my Cm-Au will never change his role? Or does he just always change when he wants, like a B2B does?

He will be a defend duty on contain and defensive, support on standard and control and attack on attacking and overload.

Team shape does not affect this.

 

[cobrauk]

He will be a defend duty on contain and defensive, support on standard and control and attack on attacking and overload.

Team shape does not affect this.

right - so if following that, why do people, who post their tactics, use the CM-Au in it but never say to change the mentality. Why not just keep them as CM-S. I know it's general question and I should ask the tactic guy, but maybe someone knows too

 

[detached]

^ Because either a) they have no idea what they are doing or b) they consider it self-explainable, they change mentality situational at their formations depending on how the scoreline goes.