I haven't read through the entire thread yet, but how have you guys liked CM/a so far if you've tried it? I'm in my first season of FM23 and went with Real Madrid for an easy save to start off. I've been using a midfield triangle of BWM(s) at DM, DLP(s) and CM/a. Valverde won player of the year (in Dec/Jan so six months into the save) even though he played second string to Milinkovic-Savic in that role haha. Both have been lighting it up with both goals and assists when I have Benzema as DLF(a) up front, but understandably the production was considerably lower with an AF upfront when Benz got injured and I played Rodrygo there. It's still good, but not "striker level good".