The Death of the 10 in Football Manager?

“Football today is tactical and very physical, with no place for a No.10” James Rodríguez, 2017

Ok, the blog title is clearly hyperbole. After all, I saw my No.10 Advanced Playmaker top our team’s goalscoring charts with 7 goals in the Apertura (Opening) with C.F. Pachuca in Mexico’s Liga MX. But that No.10 was Alan Bautista, not the guy who I originally set out to be my chosen playmaker: Rodolfo Pizarro.

The curious case of Rodolfo Pizarro is the purpose of this short blog post. Comparing Pizarro to Bautistia, FM tells me that Pizarro has superior Dribbling, First Touch, Flair, Technique and Vision, so why did it go so wrong for him and so right for Bautista? Pizarro amassed a total of 248 minutes played, throughout the seventeen game Apertura campaign. A three month hip injury in the opening game of the season could explain the situation and end the blog post right here, right now.  But there is more under the surface about this failure.

Tactical Effectiveness.  The buzzword(s) of the community this last week. We’ve all got an opinion on it, and most of us have had a week or so to experience its ability to cause mental trauma.

Heading back to my mental trauma…I am of the view that Rodolfo Pizarro’s struggles were not solely due to his injury, but rather his effectiveness was limited due to different In Possession and Out of Possession positions.  From an In Possession 4231 as Advanced Playmaker, I instruct the number 10 to drop to CM as a Central Midfielder in a 4141 Out of Possession.

It should come as no surprise that this requires a different skillset to be a success. Pizarro’s role competency at CM was irrelevant when you see he had a serious lack of Mental and Physical attributes to be a success within the cauldron of central midfield.  It is perhaps the biggest thing I learned during Advanced Access: Pizarro at No.10 can do all the In Possession stuff well, but not the Out of Possession stuff.  He therefore cannot perform at the level of Bautista, and it showed in the match engine.

Previously, the disparity between IP and OOP would have held little importance on match performances.  But FM27, and specifically Tactical Effectiveness, changes that; and I like it.  It mirrors the real life trend of No.10s struggling in modern systems too, so I once again ask…could this mean the death of the 10 in Football Manager?  We will have to see…

Tony | FM Grasshopper | grassngear.com/fmgrasshopper