Football Manager guide on player role combinations you should avoid and alternatives to try out in your tactics.
Football Manager guide on player role combinations you should avoid and alternatives to try out in your tactics.
The main reason for two roles to work badly together is usually related to spacing. While it can be handy to have two players attacking the same area of the pitch to create an overload, overdoing this can become easy to defend, as the opposition only needs one player to mark a zone with two attackers. However, this can be easily avoided by tweaking your roles slightly.
Simply, a wing-back and a winger on the same side of the pitch will be looking to attack the same areas of the pitch. Both will be trying to attack the full-back, get to the byline and put crosses into the box, and giving this responsibility to two players will overcrowd that area. Annoyingly, they won’t do this in a positive way to overload the opposition, but rather it will look like your wing back is following your winger.
This depends on who the star player is. If you have a wing back with high crossing and creativity attributes, it would make more sense for the wide player ahead of them to drift inside and get out of the way. This allows the wing back the space to attack, and the inverted winger moving into the channel is far more effective at overloading the opposition full back. This is because the full-back must make the decision to follow the inverted winger, or stay wide and prevent the wing back from reaching their crossing position. Either way, someone will be open to receive the ball in space. This is a far more effective way to create an overload on the wing, as the opposition full-back will naturally man-mark the inverted winger and leave gaps for the wing back to attack.
Alternatively, if you have a high-performing winger or want to keep the wide player out wide and stretch the midfield, it's best to play your full back as a full-back, or an inverted wing-back. This causes them to take up a narrower and deeper position - depending on which role you choose - and to support play from there. Personally, my preference is to use an inverted wing back, so as to create a more solid structure in midfield and prevent easy counter attacks for the opposition.
A libero will expect to collect the ball in defence before moving forward into midfield, whereas a half back will drop into defence before recycling possession. Both will look to work with the back between your defensive line and your midfield line, which can very quickly become crowded.
I wouldn’t recommend using a DM with any formation that involves three at the back, simply for the reason that it crowds the defensive midfield and leaves your wings exposed. If you really want to make use of a half back, think of them almost like a false 9 as a DM (a false 6, if you want to split hairs). They’ll drop from your midfield line into defence, and they won’t always be the most adventurous passers. For that reason, I’d recommend a ball-playing defender for one of your DCs, as they’ll be more likely to make the risky passes to unlock the opposition midfield. I find this combination works well, as your half back offers defensive security and a simple passing option for your defence.
An advanced forward will look to hang on the shoulder of the last defender, making darting runs into space to latch onto a through ball. The inside forward will do much the same, but from the wing. This causes a problem as you have two attackers dedicated to remaining high with the opposition’s defensive line and waiting for a chance to pounce. This can be easily countered by an offside trap, or one quick centre back for the opposition who can match your strikers for pace: freeing up his defensive partner to move forward and snuff out attacks from midfield.
The idea here is to create space. If your deep-lying forward comes deep to receive the ball, your inside forward will have more space to attack in the middle channel. If the defence lets him go unmarked, he’ll have time on the ball to turn and pick a pass. In both scenarios, this is far more difficult for the opposition to mark than two players making the same run.
Avoid - Wing Back and Winger
Simply, a wing-back and a winger on the same side of the pitch will be looking to attack the same areas of the pitch. Both will be trying to attack the full-back, get to the byline and put crosses into the box, and giving this responsibility to two players will overcrowd that area. Annoyingly, they won’t do this in a positive way to overload the opposition, but rather it will look like your wing back is following your winger.
Instead - Inverted Winger and Wing Back
This depends on who the star player is. If you have a wing back with high crossing and creativity attributes, it would make more sense for the wide player ahead of them to drift inside and get out of the way. This allows the wing back the space to attack, and the inverted winger moving into the channel is far more effective at overloading the opposition full back. This is because the full-back must make the decision to follow the inverted winger, or stay wide and prevent the wing back from reaching their crossing position. Either way, someone will be open to receive the ball in space. This is a far more effective way to create an overload on the wing, as the opposition full-back will naturally man-mark the inverted winger and leave gaps for the wing back to attack.
Alternatively, if you have a high-performing winger or want to keep the wide player out wide and stretch the midfield, it's best to play your full back as a full-back, or an inverted wing-back. This causes them to take up a narrower and deeper position - depending on which role you choose - and to support play from there. Personally, my preference is to use an inverted wing back, so as to create a more solid structure in midfield and prevent easy counter attacks for the opposition.
Avoid - Half Back and Libero
A libero will expect to collect the ball in defence before moving forward into midfield, whereas a half back will drop into defence before recycling possession. Both will look to work with the back between your defensive line and your midfield line, which can very quickly become crowded.
Instead - Ball-playing defender and Half Back
I wouldn’t recommend using a DM with any formation that involves three at the back, simply for the reason that it crowds the defensive midfield and leaves your wings exposed. If you really want to make use of a half back, think of them almost like a false 9 as a DM (a false 6, if you want to split hairs). They’ll drop from your midfield line into defence, and they won’t always be the most adventurous passers. For that reason, I’d recommend a ball-playing defender for one of your DCs, as they’ll be more likely to make the risky passes to unlock the opposition midfield. I find this combination works well, as your half back offers defensive security and a simple passing option for your defence.
Avoid – Advanced Forward and Inside Forward
An advanced forward will look to hang on the shoulder of the last defender, making darting runs into space to latch onto a through ball. The inside forward will do much the same, but from the wing. This causes a problem as you have two attackers dedicated to remaining high with the opposition’s defensive line and waiting for a chance to pounce. This can be easily countered by an offside trap, or one quick centre back for the opposition who can match your strikers for pace: freeing up his defensive partner to move forward and snuff out attacks from midfield.
Instead – Deep-lying Forward and Inside Forward
The idea here is to create space. If your deep-lying forward comes deep to receive the ball, your inside forward will have more space to attack in the middle channel. If the defence lets him go unmarked, he’ll have time on the ball to turn and pick a pass. In both scenarios, this is far more difficult for the opposition to mark than two players making the same run.
Avoid - Deep lying Playmaker and Advanced Playmaker
I’ve fallen into this trap before, but you really want to avoid having more than one playmaker on the pitch at any time. All of the playmaker roles (DLP, AP, F9, Wide Playmaker, Regista, Libero) have one thing in common: they all want to see a lot of the ball. These roles want to
be the ones making things happen, and giving that kind of control to multiple players makes your tactic disjointed and slow.
Instead - Use the “blank” roles
Central Midfielder, Attacking Midfielder, Wide Midfielder, Defensive Midfielder. I call these the Blank Roles because they have very few or no player instructions, meaning you can shape them however you like. So if you have a DLP who you’re expecting to be the star of the show, but another player further forward who would suit an advanced playmaker, consider using either central midfielder or attacking midfielder with tailored instructions to get the movement and passing you’re looking for, but without the same need to dictate play.
Hopefully, this guide will have cleared up some of the most common conflicting player roles for you, and you’ll be able to use this guidance to improve your tactic. With better space management, you’ll find a far more effective tactic and won’t struggle with multiple players trying to do too similar a role.
