Joor

Is positioning only a defensive stat? or is it also how he moves in free space and how often a player get called offside ?
I hope its only a defensive stat on how well he position himself when the opponent have the ball.. but maybe im wrong.
I been looking at Gilardino vs Ronaldo in my 3 last games and I cant see a big differece betwwen those two..even tho Ronaldo got 4 and Gilardino 17 in positioning ? they both got 19 off the ball btw ..hmm

Hawshiels

This is interesting for me because I was just looking at this the other day. I played around with this number (using FMM) to see what the effect was. What appeared to happen when I had a score of 20 for positioning (for a DMC) was that they stuck closely to the opposition player and usually goal side. A score of 17-18 had them stand close to the opposition defender but sometimes being caught at the side of them and so they could just sprint past. Anything less than 15 had them lost around half of the time.

Equally however, the creativity of a player seems to work at the other end. In other words, the creative freedom appears to allow a player to find space away from the opposition defenders and midfielders.

So, to truly work out the effectiveness of positioning, you have to compare the positioning of your player to the creativity of the opposition player (remembering that the creativity rating of a player can be limited by the "creative freedom" slider).

It's all very complicated (as is the whole game these days), but if you take the time to look at certain attributes you can pair them up to see what attributes of the opposition will allow them to outperform the attributes of your own players. The other example of this is tackling and dribbling. The effect of tackling seems to have been reduced alot while the effect of dribbling has not been reduced by as much and so the reason why it is harder to get the ball off the opposition in this version - in my opinion.

Joor

Hmm is marking not supposed to be how closely they stand to the opposition player ?.
And creativity - Im sure it was a players vision when on the ball..to see open space, create plays, where to pass the ball etc?
I will edit my forwards now and give them 1 and 20 in positioning and see how well they play when we have the ball(to find out if this effect offsides). Also give them 20 and 1 off the ball to compared the outcome(how easy they are to mark out of the game)

Joor

Ok this is wierd, I just played a match where Inzaghi had 20 off the ball, 20 anticipation, 20 decisions and 20 positioning but he was ruled offside 8 times!

adonis

Only 8 times, he seems to be improving. Usually its 12/15 times irl.

I would go for positioning being for defensive players being in the right place at the right time.

towerofpower

Not only striker attributes underlines offsides. It also depends on timing of the pass, et cetera. So, whoever makes the pass can be doing it too late etc when he sees striker is making a run for it...so wouldn't put it all on striker attributes. Could also be passer's decisions, creativity and passing...maybe even teamwork.

HHUK

From the manual:

Anticipation: How well a player can predict and react to an event. If a player has a high attribute here he can read the game well and react to situations quicker than others. This attribute works well with "Off the Ball"

Off the Ball: A player's movement without the ball. Similar to Anticipation, this is how well a player, particularly attacking ones can assess a situation and then move off the ball, making themselves available to recieve a pass.

Positioning: Positioning is the ability of a player to read a situation and place himself in the best possible position to deal with the unfolding events. Anticipatin will help him in the first stage but in terms of his actual positioning, it come down to this attribute. A higher rating will ensure the player takes up a better position.

All three work hand in hand. I see them as:

Anticipation is the player's intelligence to react to how others play, a player with high Anticipation and Decisions stats will know what to do to get maximum ball time. Whether it be intercepting or covering.

Off the Ball is how well a player makes runs. Useful for pacey stripers, wingbacks, wingers..

Positioning is useful for defenders so they know where to stand and how to stand. Attackers however also need this, what's the point in being good at off the ball if you're going to be out of place and have to hit it with your wrong foot?

Example:
- Winger runs down the line.

- Attacker sees where to run and runs past 2 defenders, thanks to his anticipation only 1 defender can react quick enough and the other is left behind.

- Winger crosses.

- Attacker shakes off his defender thanks to his off the ball stats.

- Attacker gets in a nice position in the box and hits home.

Ofcourse, other factors come into this like how good the defenders are, the quality of the cross, the creativity of the winger, which foot the striker uses and his heading/finishing/composure.

HHUK

I said stripers, I meant strikers.

Joor

Looks like Positioning is very important for attacking players..then I dont understand why ronaldo got 4 and Kaka 6 ?.

HHUK

I'm guessing it's to reflect how free their roles are in real life. Kaka sorta floats around the pitch and a low positional rating might help him emulate real life. Also, being two-footed makes up for it.

I'm guessing positioning doesn't matter that much for attacking midfielders and wingers. Mainly targetman type strikers.

Fast strikers probably don't need high positioning either if they're looking to get behind the defence, they would only need a high Off the Ball stat.