Player Roles in a Diamond

[hurrrrr]

Hey all - I've been playing through several saves on FM15 with my custom made Diamond tactic and long story short, it has worked pretty brilliantly. Just finished my second season with Villarreal, I kept the most clean sheets in the league, my front 3 scored 96 (!) goals and I won the Spanish Cup and Euro Cup in the process, finishing second to a rampant Barcelona in the league (my big challenge next season).

Despite my tactic working brilliantly on the whole, I have one pet peeve, the substandard performances of my two CMs. Here is the tactic itself and my team instructions [Attacking/Flexible]:

View attachment 237683View attachment 237682

Obiang and Romero had the lowest and third lowest Avg. Ratings in my team last season (6.98 and 7.03), contributing just 2 goals all season between them, despite playing 39/49 games respectively.

While I am not expecting fireworks from what is essentially my engine-room, neither player appears to my excelling in my team. Given that I had a similar problem in my save at Arsenal, the roles that I am asking them to play are clearly faulty. What player roles would suit my formation better/where am I going so wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

 

[WJ]

Why are the roles you're asking them to play faulty? Are they doing what you want them to?

 

[hurrrrr]

Defensively they are both performing well and they appear to keep things ticking over in the centre of the park however I was hoping they would contribute more offensively.

In theory I had the RP(S) loitering outside the box and spreading the ball/taking long shots when appropriate. My 'controller' as it were.

On the other hand I envisaged my B2B using his energy to burst into the box/exploit any space outwide, hopefully overloading the opponent and contributing a decent tally of goals/season.

However neither contributes much offensively and their very average match ratings when compared to the rest of my team would imply to me that they are not doing particularly well in their defined roles?

 

[WJ]

If they're doing what they should be, don't worry about the avg ratings. By the looks of it, you're going to have 3 or 4 players all around the edge of the box with 2 or 1 in the box. Everyone is on top of each other.

The B2B will try to make late runs into the box, but I can't see your tactic being patient enough to afford him the time to do that. I'm also wondering if your RPM and AP are doing almost the same job?

 

[hurrrrr]

Ah ok, that makes sense.

Is there a way of creating more space for those players without changing my formation/ Do you think other player roles might suit those two better?

My RP and AP are certainly not playing the same role positionally - my AP is almost a third striker while I want my RP to play a more restrained role - both playing the ball into my AP/spreading the ball out wide to my WBs. Perhaps a DLP(S)/CM(S) might suit him better?

 

[WJ]

If you're happy with your RPM and AP, why do you want to change the RPM? An RPM isn't a restrained role though. The description says that! Watching your first attack will show you.

There isn't really a way to create more space. You have 3 players right in front of them.

 

[maxchaplin55]

I may be wrong, you'll be able to tell me as you watch how your attacks form- but my initial thought is that you already have 3 attacking players in and around the box, and your wing backs bombing forward, so the central midfielders would use their intelligence to see that they'll have more of an impact staying fairly central as the space elsewhere is being occupied. Maybe try tinkering with the Player Instructions of the three attacking players, or having roles which dictate more freedom to roam, as this could leave space for the runners to exploit. Just a thought, like I said, you'll know how your attacks form. Hope this offers some thought!