(UPDATE: SUMMER 25) In today’s episode, we take a look at the role that tends to go under the radar within SMW: the ‘General Midfielder’. This role is lesser known because you never actually hear paundits, managers, coaches or players within real life ever stating that a player upon the pitch is currently playing as a ‘General Midfielder’. ‘G.M’s’ are quite similar to ‘General Defenders’ in that they are particularly played by any player who is comfortable being utilized in varying roles within the middle of the park. Players who are considered ‘General Midfielders’ are often extremley versatile due to their experience, footballing brain, and physical prowess. There are not a lot of real life players who play this role but they are very valuable to have within your set up because they allow you to always have that one player who can do any sort of job for the team (UPDATE: So, what I was trying to explain in this last sentence is the fact that not many players are actually given the role of ‘General Midfielder’ within the SM series {SM20, SM23, SM25, etc}, but there are countless number of players who, if granted the role as your ‘G.M’, will perform well according to what is required of them).
ATTACKING PHASE
‘General Midfielders’ don’t have any stand out attribute on the ball so they normally like to keep things simple. But the best thing about them is that you can give them many different roles to play and they will normally give you a 6-8 out of 10 no matter where they’re playing within your set up or who their coming up against.
DEFENSIVE PHASE
As I mentioned above, these players do not have any traits that stand out but they tend to be exceptionally fit, so they will always give 100% when your team is in the defensive phase.
( UPDATE: Don’t think I gave the ‘General Midfielder’ role enough credit within my explanation of both phases… They will be an important member of your starting XI for the versatility that they’ll provide albeit most of what they offer are things that generally go under the radar).
POSITIONAL TRAITS
Any lack of technical ability is definitely made up by their brilliant fooballing brain since ‘G.M’s’ can play in a host of different positions ranging from M(RLC), AM(RLC), to even DM(RLC) which means that they can potentially play in the ‘Wingback’ role. With that being said, their primary position will always still be as a M(C)
KEY ATTRIBUTES (From SM25 and beyond)
This is quite a tricky list to compel due to ‘G.M’s’ not necessarily having any stand out attributes. However, there are still a few traits necessary to spot a player who can comfortably perform within this role:
Positioning
Passing
Work Rate
Stamina
Concentration
BEST PLAYERS OF ROLE IN SOCCERMANAGER WORLDS
Here is a list of the best ‘General Midfielders’ within Soccermanager Worlds. Basically, these are the 5 best players who aren’t exceptional at anything within open play but are above average in many different areas (UPDATE: Here is the updated version of this list where we will identify 15 of the best players within SMW who you can simply be given the role of being a Swiss army knife on the pitch both in and out of possession. I really did a terrible job at selling this role… 🤦) :
Federico Valverde 🇺🇾
Raphaël Guerreiro 🇵🇹
Marcos Llorente 🇪🇸
Eduardo Camavinva 🇫🇷
Marcel Sabitzer 🇦🇹
John McGinn 🏴
Konrad Laimer 🇦🇹
Montero Otávio 🇵🇹
Samuel Lino 🇧🇷
Pascal Gross 🇩🇪
João Mário 🇵🇹
Weston Mckennie 🇺🇸
Benjamin Henrichs 🇩🇪
Jonas Hofmann 🇩🇪
Warren Zaïre-Emery 🇫🇷
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Marcus Tavernier 🏴
Pablo Fornals 🇪🇸
Carlos Soler 🇪🇸
Please bare in mind that the above list is filled with players who you’ll see with a different role within SM25 or 26 but who all can easily operate in multiple positions as well as having both the engine and football IQ to adapt to many different scenarios which make them very competent as your ‘General Midfielder’.
I’ll catch you in the next one, Soccermanagerite!
The Soccermanager Experience 