Wilshere, The Poor Man's Pirlo

[Captain Cabinets]

Hi chaps, first time posting so be gentle.

I'm a big fan of all of the threads on here, and even though it's not always easy to put the theory into "game terms" I find the tactics chat pretty darn interesting.

Some background: Love the game but basically don't understand it. Generally, each year I struggle until I find a "game breaking" tactic and run with it.

This has left me feeling hollow and dead inside - after all, why buy a game and basically get someone else to play it for you?

So I tried coming up with something that's sort of my own. With the help of Cleon's possession thread and the good work at strikerless.com I hit upon something that really works:

F9

IF(S) AP(S)

BBM RPM

DM(D)

WB(S) CD(D) CD(D) FB(A)

GK

Control/Very Fluid

Lower Tempo

Fairly Wide

Use Offside Trap

Close Down More

Tighter Marking

Play Out of Defence

Shorter Passing

Look for the Overlap

Work Ball into Box

Whipped Crosses

Roam for Position

It plays nice, controlled football with a mean defence and a few goals thrown in.

So, down to the issue. I've just taken over of a faltering gunners side, winless in the league in November. My first act was to bring back the free transferred "saviour of English football" Jack "I was only holding it for a friend" Wilshere.

Now, I have had an unrequited love affair with Andrea Pirlo since his early Ancelotti-Milan days. The man is the footballing equivalent of Byron, Shelley and Keats, an aesthetic romantic (greatly appreciated in his latter years.)

This is what I want big Jack Wilshere to become. I know he might not be up to it, but I like him, he's technical, smart and aggressive, and hopefully in the dm spot he and his glass legs won't get battered around too much.

So I'm here asking not for a tactic or a set of instructions, but for some ideas and hopefully a bit of discussion. I'm not averse to changing shape/roles etc and am by no means an expert at this side of the game. I've toyed with a deep 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1 and 4-1-2-3 but can't get the Reg running the game.

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

[donnybrook]

In FM15 I used a narrow 4-1-2-2-1 with Arsenal. Giroud played as a Poacher up front, Sanchez was an Attacking Midfielder who would cut inside from the left, and Ozil was an Enganche. Wilshire was a very good backup for Ozil as an Enganche because of his Teamwork and technical skills.

If you want Wilshire to do well in a playmaker role, he needs the ball often, and he needs support from his other midfielders. Right now you have two playmakers in your tactic, so when will Wilshire get the ball? Change the DM-D to DLP-D or Regista, and change one of the playmaker roles.

[bunnybbb]

I also ask in another thread, 7.25mn and 87k weekly wage is a good deal for wilshere or not.

Just promoted, total wage budget is about 740k.

I play similar tactic, but using ap and bbm in mc and bwm in dm. His attacking mind seems better suit in AP role.

His mental and techical is first class, but i am not sure why he only rated 4 stars. It is sigificant transfer since my other top players only paid 30k at most.

[soriwaatm]

why not use him as an RPM? I currently playing Schalke and have Wilshere as rotation to Goretzka. decent.

[SpartyOn]

Wilshere has the "Gets Forward Whenever Possible" PPM, which is something to keep in mind when choosing his role. If you ask him to stay deep and distribute like Pirlo, you'll want to watch and see if he's staying in the right positions to do that, or if he's charging forward too much. Personally I think he's better suited to the BBM or RPM spot in your tactic.

[Captain Cabinets]

Thanks for the responses, some interesting thoughts here. As it stands, I can't make the regista function well in the tactic. He gets around the same amount of passes as the fullbacks, and strangely seems to absolutely kill our goalscoring threat.

My game year is 2019 and Wilshere has barely played in the last 4 years so his physical stats are completely shot - everything is around 10-11 or below so I think that rules him out of BBM and RPM. I'm thinking about the Enganche role for him, as a back up for Ozil.

Any ideas on striker+wide attacking mid roles to get the best out of the Enganche?

[ponchos]

On my game Wilshere has gone to QPR and doesn't look very good (currently in mid 4th season). If you're looking or a good DLP, a good alternative might be Andija Balic who I have seen someone on these forums describe as "the Croatian Pirlo". He's 17/18 at the start of the game, and can play Either MC or AMC. He cost me £6m plus add ons after first season (after promotion with Wolves), and was on around £30k pw wages, so shouldn't break the bank either. Rarely injured and as he's young he can be moulded to how you want him to be. I've just turned down a bid from Real Madrid for him (they were being cheapskates).

[lix119]

in my arsenal save,i trained wilshere to DL,which because of he is a left footed player and good at his att attribute.

[iAlwaysWin]

am actually a huge jack wilshere fan, not a gunners fan thou, and even thou wilshere is actually a really good player on FM, with some of the best techincals combined with mentals on the game for a central midfielder, but you just cant get past that hes really unfit, injury prone and rarely lasts a full game without having to miss the next one, even with nurturing and plenty rests between games its just a matter of time before he gets that long term injury again just to ruin all the attribute increases he had gained with your hard work.