An Analysis of the Ball Winning Midfielder

Football Manager has developed many new player roles in the past couple additions.  However, one of my favorite roles is one of the most basic roles for a midfielder….the ball-winning midfielder.  It’s just a simplistic role.  Break up the attack in the midfield and get the ball to a more creative player.  More specifically, I like to play my ball-winning midfielder in a defensive midfielder role right in front of the two center backs and behind two creative midfield players to start the counter attack.

Mid-season Report at Derby County

After several abortive saves, including one at Club Brugge where I was sacked for lack of team harmony, I settled on a save at Derby County.  Derby has been good to me in previous saves so I’m hoping for the same this time around.

I turned off the first transfer window so I did not bring in any new transfers to club.  I did bring in one player on loan, Tobias Sana, to shore up some wing depth.  We entered the season picked to finish 9th by the media.  There is some talent on the squad, namely Will Hughes, but there isn’t the depth in talent to push for automatic promotion.  I’m hoping for a playoff berth and maybe getting into the Premier League that way.  

I’ve used a variety of formations to go after the opposition: 4-1-4-1, 4-4-1-1, 4-3-3 DM, and basic 4-4-2.  All have been met with average results.

This has left the table looking like this:

We just can’t string good results together and are in 11th place.  We can string poor results together but back-to-back wins have been few and far between.  The results have left us with a table looking like this.

We are solidly a mid-table side like the media “experts” predicted.  We are not that far off the playoff spots that if we can start to string some wins together, we will start to move up the table and into the playoffs.  We had a decent run in the Capital One Cup which was ended by Manchester United in the third round.

Player Stats

Lee Grant has been my go-to keeper all season.  Kelle Roos is just a place holder back-up until I can find a younger and more trainable keeper that I can trust playing cup games until he is ready to take over for Grant in the future.

Craig Forsyth is our left-back so he has gotten the call to start in every game this season.  It’s average to above average for the league but with a lack of other options in the roster.  It’s his job.  Zak Whitbread and Richard Keogh (captain) have been the main center-back pairing with Ryan Shotton coming in on a rotation basis.  Kieron Freeman has gotten the start when he has been healthy.

The midfield does a wonderful job of stringing together lots of passes but doesn’t do a lot with them in terms of attacking chances.  Our wingers, Jordon Ibe and Paul Coutts, have been some of best goalscorers.  Craig Bryson has been our top assist man with four assists from the central midfield.  Will Hughes has played the shadow striker role when we go with a 4-4-1-1 formation.  Jeff Hendrick has locked down the ball winning midfield role.  He wins the ball back and does an excellent job of recycling possession.  The Republic of Ireland is lucky to have a player like him on the national team.

The forwards have been a whole lot of meh.  Johnny Russell has bailed out some points for us coming off the bench but has failed to perform in a starting role while Best and Martin have games of brilliance followed by games of meh.  This area of team will have to looked at in the summer.  I don’t expect us to break the bank in January chasing strikers.

So, I’m hoping for a hot streak of form to push us into the playoffs.  But this team, outside of Hughes and Hendrick in the central midfield, are just a whole lot of average.  Hopefully, some better players will come available to improve the team in the summer.  I’ve just to get through the meh and the formation juggling this season.