I'm currently working on a safe with Manchester United trying to recreate Fergusons tactic, but i am having some problems determining what roles the players are actually playing.
Due to the last few games i've come up with the conclusion that he has switched over to a more fluid philosophy like back in 2008 and therefore i am playing fluid with control as default strategy.
Besides this i have chosen shorter passes, more creative freedom, more pressing, drill crosses and more roaming.
Currently i have come up with this starting XI:
-----------------VDS---------
Rafael-Ferdinand-Vidic-Evra
--------Fletcher-Carrick------
Valencia-----------------Nani
---------Dimitar-Rooney-----
The Goalkeeper is VDS and he plays a regular goalkeeper role and so does the back-up keepers (Kuszczak & Lindegaard) which i do not believe requires much explanation, i have gone in advanced to set him distribute to defenders though, so we can start attacks from the defence and thereby also gaining more possession.
The right fullback changes a lot, both in player and role which is explained by Ferguson building his starting line-up from defence. This means that if he faces a weaker team he might have the wingers cut more inside and then have the backs do overlapping runs, but versus the stronger teams they will normally stay back. I have set the default as Full Back - Support, mostly played by Rafael.
Same goes for the left back, all though i will always play Patrice Evra here unless playing the cup, where Fabio or O'Shea might get some time on the pitch as left-back. But the role here remains the same as the right back changing according to the opposition and the winger played. If i play giggs i will probably not have him doing as much runs forward as Nani for instance and thereby Evra will have to do some more offensive runs to create width.
Last, i've forgotten to tell how i will mostly employ my wingers as Wingbacks in the scenarios where Park plays the wing as he will be playing as a defensive winger and thus being able to track back if Evra or Rafael is caught high up the pitch, i've even considered making them swap positions but not chosen to implement it yet.
My Center Backs are played as regular central defenders with Ferdinand as cover duty and Vidic as the stopper. I am aware of Ferdinand being an awesome technician and he does play some sort of pique-ball-playing role in real life, but in FM he is underrated at this point, meaning he looses a lot of possession playing in that role as he will try through balls and long range passes from the deep, not succeeding very often. Vidic is one big ***-kicker and is natural for a stopper role all though he can play as defend duty or maybe even cover as well due to his ability to read the game well.
Moving on to the midfield i've had a lot of consideration on one of these as well, mainly about the role of Fletcher. I've heard him mentioned as a lot of different roles, the reason for this is that he is such an endurant player and he can just run around the pitch for a whole match without any breaks. Problem is that his skills are mostly defensive, but he has the energy to attempt offensive runs, this has meant i've decided to play him as a ball-winning midfielder with a support role. I've previously tried him as a box-to-box midfielder but due to his lack of attacking skills i believe my new choice is better. My back-ups for this is Park and Anderson and they occupy this role as good as any other possible role at this position.
Moving on to the other midfielder i was quite sure that Scholes and recently Carrick are playing as Deep-Lying playmakers with a defend duty, defend duty because they always stay back in a deep position, nearly never entering the box, like Scholes did back in the day and as we have seen cleverly do a lot in the last few games, so i will stick with these 2 players playing in the deep dictating our play. I do not have a preferred choice for this, so i am rotating carrick and scholes and in back-up i play Anderson.
Continuing up the pitch i've now come to the role of the wingers which is primarely decided by the players playing there, if i play Valencia and Giggs i will probably play them as Wingers, but if i play Nani he can act as a Winger on the right or an Inside Forward on either wing. Park is played as a Defensive Winger, which also can be played by Valencia if facing an opponent playing attacking wing-backs which needs to be stopped. Recently i've also used the role of advanced playmaker for Giggs as he cannot do all the runs from deep like he did in his youngers days, but he can still cross and pass like a genious which we definately got to see last season.
At last i've come to the role i believe i've had a really hard time defining due to the way it's been played in real life dosn't really fit into FM.
First, in real life Ferguson have been playing Dimitar and Hernandez up front, Hernandez is fine up there fm-wise but Dimitar just isn't in my eyes due to his lack in pace, which Rooney has plenty off- Therefore i've swapped em around playing Dimitar in the deep-lying striker role and rooney as advanced forward. If i play Hernandez i might change the deep-lying to complete striker and hernandez to poacher, but this i've also considered doing with Dimitar but i just don't think it will work due to him having only 12 i pace. But i just don't see Dimitar as a deep-lying striker though he fits in the role in FM, he was topscorer last year and has 10 in work-rate meaning he is more a goal-scoring type, not pressing much, almost a trequartista, but as he does play up front that is not it.
So guys could you please help me determining the roles of the ones i'm in doubt with and say if you disagree at some, explaining why.
Yours Sincerely, Kim Kristensen
Btw. sorry for my bad english, i speak danish natively.
Due to the last few games i've come up with the conclusion that he has switched over to a more fluid philosophy like back in 2008 and therefore i am playing fluid with control as default strategy.
Besides this i have chosen shorter passes, more creative freedom, more pressing, drill crosses and more roaming.
Currently i have come up with this starting XI:
-----------------VDS---------
Rafael-Ferdinand-Vidic-Evra
--------Fletcher-Carrick------
Valencia-----------------Nani
---------Dimitar-Rooney-----
The Goalkeeper is VDS and he plays a regular goalkeeper role and so does the back-up keepers (Kuszczak & Lindegaard) which i do not believe requires much explanation, i have gone in advanced to set him distribute to defenders though, so we can start attacks from the defence and thereby also gaining more possession.
The right fullback changes a lot, both in player and role which is explained by Ferguson building his starting line-up from defence. This means that if he faces a weaker team he might have the wingers cut more inside and then have the backs do overlapping runs, but versus the stronger teams they will normally stay back. I have set the default as Full Back - Support, mostly played by Rafael.
Same goes for the left back, all though i will always play Patrice Evra here unless playing the cup, where Fabio or O'Shea might get some time on the pitch as left-back. But the role here remains the same as the right back changing according to the opposition and the winger played. If i play giggs i will probably not have him doing as much runs forward as Nani for instance and thereby Evra will have to do some more offensive runs to create width.
Last, i've forgotten to tell how i will mostly employ my wingers as Wingbacks in the scenarios where Park plays the wing as he will be playing as a defensive winger and thus being able to track back if Evra or Rafael is caught high up the pitch, i've even considered making them swap positions but not chosen to implement it yet.
My Center Backs are played as regular central defenders with Ferdinand as cover duty and Vidic as the stopper. I am aware of Ferdinand being an awesome technician and he does play some sort of pique-ball-playing role in real life, but in FM he is underrated at this point, meaning he looses a lot of possession playing in that role as he will try through balls and long range passes from the deep, not succeeding very often. Vidic is one big ***-kicker and is natural for a stopper role all though he can play as defend duty or maybe even cover as well due to his ability to read the game well.
Moving on to the midfield i've had a lot of consideration on one of these as well, mainly about the role of Fletcher. I've heard him mentioned as a lot of different roles, the reason for this is that he is such an endurant player and he can just run around the pitch for a whole match without any breaks. Problem is that his skills are mostly defensive, but he has the energy to attempt offensive runs, this has meant i've decided to play him as a ball-winning midfielder with a support role. I've previously tried him as a box-to-box midfielder but due to his lack of attacking skills i believe my new choice is better. My back-ups for this is Park and Anderson and they occupy this role as good as any other possible role at this position.
Moving on to the other midfielder i was quite sure that Scholes and recently Carrick are playing as Deep-Lying playmakers with a defend duty, defend duty because they always stay back in a deep position, nearly never entering the box, like Scholes did back in the day and as we have seen cleverly do a lot in the last few games, so i will stick with these 2 players playing in the deep dictating our play. I do not have a preferred choice for this, so i am rotating carrick and scholes and in back-up i play Anderson.
Continuing up the pitch i've now come to the role of the wingers which is primarely decided by the players playing there, if i play Valencia and Giggs i will probably play them as Wingers, but if i play Nani he can act as a Winger on the right or an Inside Forward on either wing. Park is played as a Defensive Winger, which also can be played by Valencia if facing an opponent playing attacking wing-backs which needs to be stopped. Recently i've also used the role of advanced playmaker for Giggs as he cannot do all the runs from deep like he did in his youngers days, but he can still cross and pass like a genious which we definately got to see last season.
At last i've come to the role i believe i've had a really hard time defining due to the way it's been played in real life dosn't really fit into FM.
First, in real life Ferguson have been playing Dimitar and Hernandez up front, Hernandez is fine up there fm-wise but Dimitar just isn't in my eyes due to his lack in pace, which Rooney has plenty off- Therefore i've swapped em around playing Dimitar in the deep-lying striker role and rooney as advanced forward. If i play Hernandez i might change the deep-lying to complete striker and hernandez to poacher, but this i've also considered doing with Dimitar but i just don't think it will work due to him having only 12 i pace. But i just don't see Dimitar as a deep-lying striker though he fits in the role in FM, he was topscorer last year and has 10 in work-rate meaning he is more a goal-scoring type, not pressing much, almost a trequartista, but as he does play up front that is not it.
So guys could you please help me determining the roles of the ones i'm in doubt with and say if you disagree at some, explaining why.
Yours Sincerely, Kim Kristensen
Btw. sorry for my bad english, i speak danish natively.
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