{"id":6482,"date":"2017-01-19T10:30:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=6482"},"modified":"2017-02-09T11:25:41","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T11:25:41","slug":"fm17-inside-lab-experiment-positional-suitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2017\/01\/fm17-inside-lab-experiment-positional-suitability\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM17 | Inside the Lab | An Experiment on Positional Suitability"},"content":{"rendered":"
It is something which has been bugging me for the last few editions of Football Manager, a player\u2019s positional suitability. Are stats enough to get a good performance from them, or does their knowledge of the position count for something. I mean Messi could do a job anywhere on the pitch right? What if your goal keeper was played up front for a bit? Well the latter has actually been tested in real life; see David James\u2019 debut as a striker for Man City v Middlesbrough, 2005.<\/p>\n
We have all been in the position, 1-0 up in a tight game, all three subs been used until a late red card to a defender changes the game. What if you put your striker there to cover? He has the stats, but can he cope. Will the game punish you or is it just OCD to have every player playing in their rightful place?<\/p>\n
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Just to outline, although this is an experiment it will be difficult to find a definitive answer without a lot of testing. My main aim for this is to ease my own mind when playing someone OOP.<\/p>\n
The Premise<\/b>: to discover if playing a player consistently out of position will hamper his performance, or if we look at the stats they will be able to do a good job.<\/p>\n
Which player to choose though? Immediately I thought Diego Costa but surprisingly his 4 for tackling would not make for a fair comparison. I looked at the position and role they would play and decided on a \u201climited central defender\u201d. This should give the fairest comparison as the role does not demand too many attributes. Only Heading, Marking, Tackling, Determination, Positioning, Jumping reach and Strength are highlighted. Clearly other attributes will influence how a player will perform, but when comparing apples and oranges, it is important to look at as few parameters as possible. They are both round fruit after all.<\/p>\n
Having searched using the above attributes, it was surprisingly a while before a good candidate arrived. Roberto Firmino at Liverpool ticked a lot of boxes and I wanted a team with as few cup commitments as possible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Firmino\u2019s important attributes are as follows Heading (10), Marking (8), Tackling (10), Determination (12), Positioning (11), Jumping reach (10) and Strength (12)<\/b>. Admittedly this makes him a poor defensive option when compared to his teammates, but he is at least the most all round competent defender. His suitability for the role is very poor.<\/p>\n
How to compare his performance was the next issue? Sure I could compare him to other Liverpool defenders but this wouldn\u2019t give a fair result, as for example, Loverns attributes are far greater. Using the same search parameters I found a good comparison in Jordan Tilson from Exeter City.<\/p>\n
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With his desired attributes as follows: Heading (11), Marking (9), Tackling (11), Determination (12), Positioning (11), Jumping reach (10) and Strength (12)<\/b>. His suitability for the role is very good, not perfect, but he can be a central defender by trade. On the technical attributes he is slightly better, but we can make exceptions for this later in the conclusions. Just to note that both Firmino and Tilson are \u2018Very Strong\u2019 when using the right foot, and \u2018reasonable\u2019 using the left.<\/p>\n
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Method<\/b>: I will be starting a season controlling Liverpool and once the fixture calendar is arranged this is where we will split. \u2018Liverpool Firmino\u2019 will continue as normal just with Roberto at the back, where as \u2018Liverpool Tilson\u2019 will sign Jordan and he will get his chance in the team. We will play both seasons with the same tactics, against the same teams (AI dependant) and where possible with the same line up.<\/p>\n