Return to PPMs

There was a debate on the tactics chat room today about what exactly PPMs do. I've never read anything official explaining exactly what they are, but I thought I'd share my personal opinions and welcome any debate if anyone can put me straight.

Most PPMs are neither absolutely positive or negative - most are situational, and describe actions a player might make to overrule your personal instructions to them. So here goes:

1. Moves into channels - will look for space in wide areas if a striker - harder to mark but will make runs even if you set to rarely
2. Plays with back to goal - don't put through balls ahead of him, also don't tell him to make loads of runs because he would prefer to receive the ball with his back to goal. Even if you put his mentality to the max he will struggle to play on the last shoulder of the defense.
3. Shoots with power - you will see the shots fly in faster than normal - so higher percentage of shots on target will probably beat the keeper but ratio of shots on goal maybe lower
4. Places shots - opposite of above - higher accuracy, lower percentage of on target shots beating the keeper - but probably marginal if at all
5. Shoots from distance - will take plenty of long shots regardless of his long shot instructions
6. Runs with ball (left, right, centre) - will run with the ball a lot regardless of your run with ball setting
7. Likes to beat man repeatedly - over indulges in dribbling - good at beating players but likes to take it past them again rather whipping in an end product
8. Tries killer balls often - will play plenty of through balls whether you instruct him to or not
9. Tries long range passes - will play long passes even if you set passing to really short
10. Hugs line - will play wide even if you set your formation to narrow - this could be problem in defensive formations where you don't want gaps on the inside of your formation
11. Cuts inside - most players cut inside to shoot rather than cross - normally the sign of a winger who players on the side of his weaker foot - Joe Cole, Ashley Young etc...
12. Knocks ball past opponent - backs their pace to beat players - obviously works much better against a high defensive line
13. Likes to try to beat the offside trap - will play on last shoulder - regardless of mentality - just check the level of offsides they get and adjust accordingly
14. Gets forward whenever possible - will ignore forward runs instruction and make plenty of them
15. Curls ball - a skill that most players can't do - good for free kicks and ranged shooting - pretty positive
16. Dwells on ball - not good for two touch fast passing teams - maybe helps with decision making - but I would say negative overall - seen Moutinho give away so many chances by being caught in possession
17. Avoids using weaker foot - don't play these guys on the wrong side - ie if you play 3xMC don't play a left footed player on the right with this PPM
18. Moves ball to other foot - makes it easier for a tight maker to win the ball
19. Switches play - good unless you are focusing passing down the that wing
20. Arrives late in opposition area - pretty good to me - hard to mark
21. Plays one-twos - good for MCs and slow build ups or pass and go with good off the ball attributes
22. Dictates tempo - when two conflicting styles come into contact the game is more likely to be played in your style with one of these guys pulling the strings
23. Doesn't dive into tackles - great - especially for DCs, for other players - put them on hard tackling with little fear of yellow cards
24. Dives into tackles - don't set their tackling to hard
25. Plays no through balls - don't set through balls to high - they just won't play them
26. Plays short simple passes - great for a DMC - don't tell the player to play long and through balls - they won't like doing it
27. Tries tricks - good for flair players - will create chances if it comes off - but will surrender possession if it doesn't cheaply
28. Looks for pass rather than shot - pretty self explanatory - unlikely to shoot unless there are no other options
29. Likes ball played to feet - if you use this person as a target man - set targetman supply to the correct option and you will benefit
30. Winds up opponents - liable to get opponents yellow or red carded - watch out for reactions in the commentary
31. Gets crowd going - don't know if this works in FML, but I would guess if there is a home advantage coefficient, I guess it might effect it positively - but total conjecture

There are 48 PPMs I think - so this is a good spread, but as I said these are just my opinions. Key thing to remember is PPMs give players character rather than absolute advantages.

PPM Guide part 2

The last PPM article featured an introduction to PPMs and a shortlist of a few traditional back to goal target men (you can find it here).

Today I am going to look for the kind of player you want in an attacking formation, the kind of player England could do with - an MC who has the "likes to run with the ball through the middle". Being a good dribbler (I used 14+ as a filter for this analysis) and prefering to do it through the middle of the pitch commits defenders. As soon as you begin to commit defenders you midfielders will find it very easy to complete key passes. Key passes create goal chances.

The best players in the world at doing this are Diego, Matais Ferndandez, Daniel Carvalho, Lulinha, Anderson and Sergio Aguero. But you knew that, right? If you are looking for a cheaper option, I'd recommend the following (in no particular order):

(filter= dribbling >13, PPM="run with ball through centre" and position=MC)

1. Willian - ok not much of a hidden gem, but the Brazil U20 and Shaktar player has a great future ahead of him. High technique, creative, quick and an excellent dribbler - my kind of MC.

2. Oguz Sabankay - when will Galatasaray give him his chance? Turkey U20 player who has great technical skills - similar to Willian.

3. Anton Putsilo (really spelt Putsila) - another young player - this time Belarussian - plenty of room for improvement - with good base stats

4. Igor Burzanovic (pictured right), Red Star and Montenegro star. Also likes to try killer balls and knocks balls past opponents. A real handful.

5. Elton - plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. Probably the worst character of any player you are likely to see, but highly technical and very quick.

If you don't like your MCs playing dribbling all the time you could go for the quarterback (surely Beckham's future position for England?) role. Toulalan, Arsenal's Denilson and a young Brazilian called Ananias from Bahia all have the wicked combination of PMMs - attempts killer balls often and attempts long range passes. Don't bother instructing these guys to keep it short and simple. You just might find they prefer make 'hollywood' passes over their striker's shoulder all the time. It should result in high key passes - but their completion rates, and your attempts to play a control-possession may go out the window.