Sorry Draigh, but that's wrong. Lampard is doing it this year yet again, even though playing less. Charlie Adams got lots of goals for Blackpool last year. Xavi and Iniesta got lots of goals and assists for Barca, Ramires is getting goals, so it's got nothing to do with lack of space in the middle.
It's not unreasonable to expect 15+ assists via CM's in FM12, and I don't mean via corners and free kicks. The truth is, that only winger and forwards are getting assista and goals.No matter what fancy footage you use and apparent assesments of the modern game, it's wrong. Fabregas and Nasri got 10+ goals and around 15-20 assists reguarly for Arsenal and all in the same team. There's a problem with the game. It needs fixing.
Xavi: 2010-2011: 5 goals in 50 apps. The season before that he did slightly better with 7 in 53, but only once in his career (2008-2009) did he score 10 goals in a whole season, in all competitions.
Iniesta: his total goal tally for the senior Barça side: 37 goals in 382 games. His record: twice he managed 9 goals a season, in all competitions.
Samir Nasri: the only time he scored more than 10 goals in all competitions was last season, 2010-2011. There he scored 15. His previous record was a whopping 7 goals in his first season at the Emirates. Not to mention that very often he was used out wide by Wenger.
I can't immediately find anything about Charlie Adams, so of those you mentioned Fabregas is the only one who scored more than 10 goals per season more than once in his career. He did it twice (13 and 19 goals). He did assist quite a bit, ranging from 5 to 22 assists per season, but getting him to score that much on FM isn't all that hard either.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that central midfielders these days cannot score or assist anymore, in real life or in FM, it's just that I believe players have unrealistic expectations. Of course Lampard and Gerrard score, and of Course Iniesta and Fabregas get assists. But don't expect every single central midfielder in every single side to tear through the league like there's no tomorrow. Even if FM doesn't get it completely right, it's definately not as far away as you or other people suggest.
Oh, I just found the assist stats for this season. Xavi's current count: 8, Iniesta: 5, Samir Nasri: 9, Fabregas: 6. So Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas share 19 assists this season, while Barcelona have scored 85 so far. Well, up till January 10th, stats weren't updated until then. That's less than a quarter of the assists recorded by the three best and most creative players of the best team in the world.