Defensive Midfielder

[maxchaplin55]

Basically I have this save with Newcastle, it's a counter attacking style of play. Similar to that of Real Madrids when they have Bayern a hiding. It's a 4-2-3-1 asymmetric - LDM CM RM RCAM LAM ST.

In the defensive midfield slot I've been using Tiote/Lucas Romero/Anita as ball winning midfielders, and as I suspected, they leave the back 4 vulnerable by closing everyone down. They play behind a Box to Box (Sissokho).

I am trying to decide what role to change the DM to. I think half back is out the question, because they tend to sit back too much when attacking. Plus neither of my DMs have aerial ability. This is similar to the reason I don't just go to Anchor Man- altho it holds the position it would leave my DMs vulnerable in the air. They all have high work rate and tackling abilities.

So maybe leave it at BWM and sort something out around them? I haven't touched Defensive Midfielder much, could anyone shed some light on that? And I doubt Regista would be so effective. Maybe it would? Maybe it wouldn't close down as much as a BWM but enough to win the ball and start a counter? Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Igneos79]

simply give your DM a support duty, and your CM a defend duty. DM will serve to connect the theam, while CM will brake up attacks. Or, sign a tall anchor man/halfback if you so wish.

 

[maxchaplin55]

simply give your DM a support duty, and your CM a defend duty. DM will serve to connect the theam, while CM will brake up attacks. Or, sign a tall anchor man/halfback if you so wish.

Thankyou for the reply. I don't want my CM on defend though, doing so would limit my attacking options. I feel he needs to be a box to box player to help out a bit with the defence but turn defence into attack quickly, hence the counter attacking style.

 

[Ghents]

You could make the CM either automatic or support and the DM imply an S role.

That, or just push the DM to the CM strata and make him CM-D. The CM-D drops pretty deep and offers cover.

 

[Zadix]

You really should reconsider your decision to not use a half back. I've recently based my formations around a back four with complete wing backs and a half back in front of them. This gives the team great balance as the halfback stays back when backs go forward in attack and covers behind them when they close people down on the wings. In a 4-2-3-1 you should have enough players closing down people further up the field. You need your DM to protect the backline and the half back does just that. It doesn't matter that your DMs have no ability in the air.

 

[maxchaplin55]

You could make the CM either automatic or support and the DM imply an S role.

That, or just push the DM to the CM strata and make him CM-D. The CM-D drops pretty deep and offers cover.

I dismissed this suggestion, and decided i'd just play on and just figure out the solution myself. After lots of tweaking, turned out this was how my midfield looked anyway haha! So fair play to you. CM-D does drop pretty deep, does alot of defensive work, but will push forward with rest of team so my LAM doesn't become TOO isolated, but still goes through a few too many quiet spells.

 

[maxchaplin55]

You really should reconsider your decision to not use a half back. I've recently based my formations around a back four with complete wing backs and a half back in front of them. This gives the team great balance as the halfback stays back when backs go forward in attack and covers behind them when they close people down on the wings. In a 4-2-3-1 you should have enough players closing down people further up the field. You need your DM to protect the backline and the half back does just that. It doesn't matter that your DMs have no ability in the air.

I don't know if it's an OCD thing, but I've just insisted on only having a half back if 1) i only have 1 DM 2) if that one DM is sitting dead in the middle of dm.

I have had successful tactics with half backs, but as I said, it's been sitting dead in the middle DM role. I will definitely give it a go though.