Where has all the creative and golascoring midfield play gone???
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That's pretty much how modern football works... In an age where almost everyone deploys at least one, often two holders and pressing is used by all but the most reactive sides, there's very little space for creative midfielders or attacking midfielders. It's no wonder the classic no. 10 has pretty much disappeared, while everywhere around the world central players are shoved out wide or wingers brought inside, all because of the same reason: space is situated on the flanks, so that's where they pick up the ball.
The central midfielder, meanwhile, has developed into a role that is tasked mostly with ball retention and sweeping up ahead of the back four, while playmakers are used as regista's more often than trequartista's, think Pirlo, Xavi or the current Modric. All those are gifted players, wonderfully talented and extremely creative, but they'll rarely score or assist directly - but that's not their job. And this is where FM is again very true to reality: those players, the Carricks of midfield, are very much underrated by fans and pundits alike, as they provide little flair, few flashes of brilliance and - at first sight - not much technical quality, but what they do is provide balance to the side, allow the team to build up attacks and let others, who have more space and are closer to goal, put the ball in the box for a clean finish. Or did you expect a player that plays around the halfway line to constantly put quality balls in the box? Welcome to the 90s then.
[video=youtube;ufD2FmJi-aA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufD2FmJi-aA[/video]
united762000
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There are plenty of midfielders that score and create goals. Think Lampard, Scholes, Gerrard, Fabregas etc. Also the midfielders fail to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. How many times do we watch games where a midfield player bosses the game. It just doesn't seem to happen in this FM. It has actually been acknowledged by the creators as a bit of a problem in this years FM
Lampard scores goals by arriving late into the box, kind of like a second-line poacher. Scholes hardly "grabs the game by the scruff of the neck", he's lost his edge, passes woefully these days and a goal against bottom-half material does not prove otherwise. Gerrard is at his best as a kind of second striker, and a lot of his efforts are from range (which is quite efficient even in FM). Fabregas, lastly, plays more as a false ten than a true midfielder nowadays. That said though, I have never had trouble having any of them score on FM, except for Lampard as I've never managed Chelski so far. In my current Spurs game both Modric and Van der Vaart get plenty of assists and a nice bag of goals by playing in the AMC position.
As to the midfielders not being effective, I have no trouble getting Carrick, Huddlestone or Modric to dictate the game from the MC position, often achieving the most attempted and completed passes in a match. Of course this is while playing as a deep-lying midfielder. Advanced playmakers cannot do this for the very simple reason that they rely on service from deep to get the ball in their feet, ergo they can only make an impression of your team is in control of the match.
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.
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.
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Well, I'd certainly expect midifielder to contribute more to attack when i put him in a specifically attack minded position. As it is i can have any of these players placed deep as a DLP and they will constantly rip oponent defense apart with pinpoit 30-meter passes, but move them upfront and they just become a tree that bounces the ball back to nearest player in the same shirt.
While its true that classic playmaker is rarely used these days due to tactical evolution, it was always simply very rare breed of a player.
While its true that classic playmaker is rarely used these days due to tactical evolution, it was always simply very rare breed of a player.
united762000
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Scholes has played two games since returning after 6 months out in that time he has scored one and against city had a 97% passes completed rate. Prior to his retirement Scholes had been one of the greatest midefield talents this country has ever seen. Scoring and creating goals season after season and controlling games. Zinedine Zidane was quoted as saying his biggest regret is not playing in the same team as him and described him as the complete modern day midfield player. Xavi, Inniesta etc have all described him as the best player in europe and I would say they know what they are talking about. Scholes will prove to be a masterstroke by Ferguson this year and will score/assist plenty of goals by the end of the season. Lampard is a midfielder simple as that. Gerrard plays better in midfield rather in this stupid support role Cappello plays him in. His top performances have all come when he has dominated the game in the middle of the park. A modern day Bryan Robson type. But the fact is that SI the makers of the game have admitted that there is a problem with the midfield on this years version of FM and there are plenty of people on here that have all said the same thing. Spurs might be ok having the likes of VDV Modric etc but for some of the smaller teams it just doesn't happen no matter what you do. Although I have seen plenty of posts about Modric not playing to potential.
united762000
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Plus lets face it the Spanish league is hardly anything spectacular. Its like Scottish football its either Real or Barca. You could play the Eastbourne Disabled and blind 11 in that league and they would still score a lot of goals against teams (excluding Real and Barca) that are pretty average
Exactly. As a deep-lying midfielder. Although coming on as a substitute against a 10-man city playing on the break or a bottom-table team not pressing at all may have helped him there. Did you even see him play? His first touch was downright bad, many of his passes were overhit, underhit or simply wayward, if Bolton had any semblance of a press he would have spilled possession a ton of times. I agree that he is one of the best players ever, absolutely, but he's far away from his prime right now. I'm just going to link a few relevant articles on Zonalmarking now, as Michael *** explains everything much more clearly and in depth than I ever could.
How the 2000s changed tactics #1: The fall and rise of the passing midfielder | Zonal Marking
How the 2000s changed tactics #2: Classic Number 10s struggle | Zonal Marking
What does a central midfielder do in 2010? | Zonal Marking
Introducing…the central winger? | Zonal Marking
Anyways, getting back to FM, I just checked in my Spurs game and in the first half of the season Xavi already has 20 assists, Modric has over 20 assists and 6 goals, Van der Vaart has 14 goals and 18 assists, though he's my set-piece taker as well. Honestly? I still don't see a problem.
united762000
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Well you must be blessed with an amazing ammount of luck then. Many people on here have said they have the same problem and indeed the creators have said that they are aware of the problem. Before I found this out I was trying to find a midfielder like Paul Scholes that would create plenty of goals and score plenty of goals from midfield. And as I said before if the likes of Ferguson, Zidane, Xavi, Inniestasay he is a great player then that is good enough for me.
helloiamanewlow
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If you lower your Amc's mentality it will cause him to link with the Mc's more (and also have more control).
If you increase his mentality he'll link with the striker more.
Cutting his creative freedom can help, a player with the right personality will follow your instructions most (or at least more) of the time if you do.
If you increase his mentality he'll link with the striker more.
Cutting his creative freedom can help, a player with the right personality will follow your instructions most (or at least more) of the time if you do.
united762000
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interesting articles, with some good views in. however, possesion doesn't always mean a victory. just ask any arsenal fan that. as a huge man united fan this team is not a very good united team. if the current team playing this 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation was to play the '99 treble winning side that played 4-4-2 it would struggle big time. if keane came up against carrick he would dominate him. i think in the modern game the truth is there just aren't many quality midfield players anymore.
imperador234
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Buy Tom Cairney or Steven Defour
So, Draigh, what you're telling all of us, is that it is unreasonable to expect 10-15 assists a season from a world class midfielder and possibly 10+ goals, whilst that an average rating of 6.95 for the likes of Pastore, Vidal, Willian, Oscar, Modric, Van Der Vaart, Badelj, Ozil is fine? Oh, and that it's normal to shove them on the wing and immediately see their rating go up?
The game is far to reliant on wingers and strikers, though, there are also problems with the wingers on this game, hence the need to turn all of them into inside forwards. I fear in your obsession for stats, you have missed the fact that the rest of us in here think it's reasonable for better AMC and MC ratings with more than 2-3 assists per season and 2-3 goals. I can think of many low prem players who will achieve that.
Come on FM, sort it out.
The game is far to reliant on wingers and strikers, though, there are also problems with the wingers on this game, hence the need to turn all of them into inside forwards. I fear in your obsession for stats, you have missed the fact that the rest of us in here think it's reasonable for better AMC and MC ratings with more than 2-3 assists per season and 2-3 goals. I can think of many low prem players who will achieve that.
Come on FM, sort it out.
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Well usually for me I use an combination of an Box-to-box support and an Advanced Playmaker attack and it usually works and if you want to have a more defensive depth play with an anchorman behind them
Yeah, out of all things i tried Anchor+B2B+AMC combo seems to get the most out of AMC.
Theres a lot of people on this thread moaning about AMC but i dont get it? I am in my 4th season, and i bought my AMC (marco verrati (sp)) in my first year and brought him through gradually and he is awsome. I play a 4411 with him playing off a complete forward. He plays advanced playmaker, support and both last season and this season he has a combined goals and assists higher than number of games played. (50 odd last year.) When he doesnt play I have an old Argentinian called Belluschi (sp) who has a similar ratio of goal + assists to games.
maxsidious
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Set one of them as a B2B and put him as MC ===just MC not MCR, MCL.
I have Ross Barkley in my tottenham save and he scores 1 every 2-3 matches
I have Ross Barkley in my tottenham save and he scores 1 every 2-3 matches
AMC is not so much of a problem, well at least not goals and assist wise (it's pretty realistic) but it's the lack of goals and assists from CM position that most people aren't happy with. That aside though, the thing that's annoying me the most is the ratings for AM and CM players. I've looked at stats for them during the game, ready to sub them off because they're ratings not very good and yet they're passing around 88%+ accuracy with key passes, a couple of shots and still their rating sucks. The DM ratings aren't great either and I've watched Fernando play awesome in some of the games.
I wonder whether the new patch will change that. Speaking of new patches, when will the next one be? Does anyone know?
I wonder whether the new patch will change that. Speaking of new patches, when will the next one be? Does anyone know?