(UPDATE: SUMMER 2025) Hello again, Soccermanagerites! Welcome back to yet another episode of The Soccermanager Experience: the place to be for insights on becoming the best Manager you can be within your various gameworlds, as well as within the various single player games that the creators (Invincibles Studio) have to offer!
In today’s episode, we start our look at each player role found within Soccermanager, and up first will be the role of the ‘Fullback’. Just to ensure that we’re all on the same page, the ‘Fullback’ role can be played by any player that you place within the outside defensive position of any back 4 formation. The “culturalistic” name of this outside position is also called a Fullback, but we’re focusing on the role and NOT the position… Got it (lol 😅)? Great, let’s continue!
If you’re new to these blogs, welcome! Feel free to leave a comment afterwards if you’ve found it helpful in any way. For all my regulars and Day 1’s, great to see y’all back here again👊👊👊. You ready to outsmart all of your peers??? Alrighty, let’s get into today’s episode.
The ‘Fullback’ is a role where a player’s first thought is about defending their goal before thinking about what they can do on the attacking end. ‘Fullbacks’ are generally strong, defensively intelligent, decent (if not spectacular) on the ball, and positionally excellent.
ATTACKING PHASE
When your team is on the attack, the player in the ‘Fullback’ role will be asked to support his wide player infront of him by being a passing option if needed. A ‘Fullback’ rarely looks to overlap his wide player, but he can still provide the width when your team is in the attacking third even though he’ll never look to make runs towards the byline since he will always have one eye on retreating back into his defensive position when possession is inevitably lossed.
There are instances where you have a player who is very good on the ball playing as a ‘Fullback’ that becomes an additional threat when your team is in possession (like a Koundé or Reece James, for example), but players like of this elk are generally the exception, and majority of the ones that operate as your ‘Fullback’ will keep things safe on the ball due to natural limitations.
DEFENSIVE PHASE
This is where ‘Fullbacks’ come alive as they are players who are pretty much solid defenders. Their Positioning make them an asset when dealing with crosses heading towards the back post in addition to their tendency to embrace the physical challenge of dealing with skillful, pacey ‘Wingers’, or intelligent off the ball ‘Wide Forwards’.
POSITIONAL TRAITS
In order to play as a ‘Fullback’ within Soccermanager, the arrow must be kept untouched and the player must be able to play as a D(C) (with Kimmich being the only exception. UPDATE: He is not 😶. ALL ‘Fullbacks’ have to be able to play as a D(C). There are no exceptions… Additionally, the new ‘Fullback’ role has an arrow pointed upwards as it’s representstive icon). This is a great indicator that your player has the defensive prowess required for this role . However, the preferred position of a ‘Fullback’ is a D(L), or D(R) .
KEY ATTRIBUTES (From SM25 and beyond)
In terms of the attributes that we went over in the first 6 episodes of this season, the key ones to consider when determining whether a player will make a good ‘Fullback’ are the following:
Marking
Tackling
Positioning
Passing
Aerial Ability
Strength
Aggression
Concentration
BEST PLAYERS OF ROLE IN SOCCERMANAGER WORLDS
(UPDATE) Alrighty! So, rather than sharing the top 5 players within SMW who have the capability to play within the ‘Fullback role’, I’ll be gifting you Soccermanagerites with a top 15 list as of the Summer of 2025… Some of these players may have had a positional change, but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost their Football IQ overnight. In other words, they can still play as your ‘Fullback’ even if there’s the yellow marker next to their name (and this goes for every other player role within these updates).
David Alaba 🇦🇹
Jules Koundé 🇪🇸
Josko Gvardiol 🇭🇷
Reece James 🏴
Jurrien Timber 🇳🇱
Ben White 🏴
Lucas Hernández 🇫🇷
Manuel Akanji 🇨🇭
Benjamin Pavard 🇫🇷
Noussair Mazraoui 🇲🇦
Giovanni Di Lorenzo
Marc Cucurella 🇪🇸
Kyle Walker 🏴
Luke Shaw 🏴
Matteo Darmian 🇮🇹
The Soccermanager Experience 