Half-Space Defenders: A request for a new player role, plus Attacking Centre-Backs and...

[Mike AJ]

Hey, my first post. Hope to avoid the rotten tomatoes bombardment  Not native in English :/
So, for those who haven't watched Man Utd vs Chelsea, here's a great article : http://www.squawka.com/news/jose-mourinhos-2-2-4-2-explained/934911#ZDD0ihViiFW7XdEA.97

Attempting to replicate Jose's plan is actually not that difficult if we use Darmian and Herrera  as inverted wing backs, who are asked to man-mark tightly. BUT IWB requires dribbling and stuff , whereas a HALF-SPACE DEFENDER (HSD) will be much more limited to mainly its defensive duties. 
And with the popularity of 3-4-2-1 and the tendencies of exploiting the half-spaces, this new player role will get more and more popular in real life football, so why not to add it to FM18...or okay okay, FM19?      

So we'll have these HSD's occupying defensive midfield strata or higher wing back strata, or maybe the developers will make a new spot especially for these guys right in between those stratas. Thanks to Jose, the using of half-space defender may become a new tactical trend.

p.s. also would love to see attack minded central defender roles: a ball-playing defender with libero mentality (so we don't have to utilize the libero strata), getting forward from time to time -- imagine Pique, Ramos, Vertonghen or sometimes even Smalling runing forward with the ball. Or like Eric Dier who morphs from a BPD to an Anchor man in Pochettinos hybrid 4-2-3-1/3-4-2-1 system.   This kind of ACBs( attacking centre backs opposite to DCBs) will surely bring more intelligence to the build-up play.

Hybrid roles and hybrid tactics are the future, as Nagelsmann says: like we have DEFENSIVE Forwards.... why should not we have attacking center-backs? 

p.p.s. Also there too many advanced playmakers scattered around.... so I propose a cosmetic change. The AP that plays on the wing...why dont we rename it to a False Winger?  The AP that plays in deeper midfield -- Free 8 or False 8.   And the DLP that plays higher could be a FALSE 6.......... but I'm asking to much here I guess. I just dont like when we give the same name to different things, even if the difference are not that eye-piercing. (this last word was an adjective)

thanks for attention, i always have crazy ideas, because i luv dis game

p.p.p.p.s if anybody's from brooklyn or at least new york, hit me up, let's be friends, my current friends like football but they are no geeks  they hardly could differ a Poacher from a False 9 (what a shame, ey?) 

 

[enigmatic]

I think your basic ideas are good ones, but I'd rather see more flexibility in the existing roles than more weirdly-named new roles!

We definitely need the option of defenders roaming into midfield in a world of David Luiz and John Stones even if they're not liberos (in theory, a back three should be able to play with two players set to roam, provided they take it in turn). 

You can actually modify the standard wingback role to sit narrow like an IWB, press intensively and not do too much dribbling or attacking. And it's very effective...

[westy8chimp]

19 hours ago, Mike AJ said:

Hybrid roles and hybrid tactics are the future, as Nagelsmann says: like we have DEFENSIVE Forwards.... why should not we have attacking center-backs

Nice reference, one of my favourite up coming managers... expect big things from Nagelsmann  

Agree with increase of (and changes to) roles in FM18 ... tactical flexibility should be high on the priority list.

[right_winger]

I second your first two ideas but, as others said, they can be implemented by allowing more role customization. Let's have BPD with Attack duty and one more variation of IWB and it's sorted.

I disagree with the idea of renaming Playmaker roles, they should stay as they are now. One reason for it is that if someone less proficient starts to experiment with their own tactics they wouldn't be able to easily spot the overuse of playmakers ie. if they had FW, F6 and F8 in their setup, not to mention if they added EG and TQ to the mix - nightmare. Another thing is the role names are like in real football and the basic aim of this game is to replicate it as much as possible, not re-invent it.

After all, there are only 4 PM roles with self explanatory names: DPM, RPM, AP, WP so let's keep it simple. If I had to look for the info and eventually find out that my "false winger" will actually be a playmaker I would think I wasted my time. Now I can see straight away where my PMs are and know which players will draw a lot of passes.

[Fosse]

I think the addition of an IWB-D would be the most suitable change 

[enigmatic]

You can sort of create an IWB-D by asking an FB(D) to sit narrow and cut inside (and dribble and play risky passes if you want those bits)

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.