SEASON 4: PLAYER ROLES ; EPISODE 18: PLAYER ROLE (ADVANCED PLAYMAKER Type 1)

(UPDATE: SUMMER 2025) Hey there, lad! I see you’ve been with us for a while now. Great, that means I’ve been doing something right 🙂. Now, do me a solid and leave a comment below stating your favorite episode so far this season. You can also check out my Facebook page (The Soccer Manager Experience) while you’re at it. I’ll leave a link to it at the end of today’s episode.

So, The ‘Advanced Playmaker’… The position that leaves a lot of people scratching their head wondering how on earth to get the best out of this type of player. They’re a real unique bunch, and it’s my pleasure to explain the reason for this.

There are 2 different types of A.P’s: The ‘Floating A.P‘ and the ‘Classical ‘No. 10‘. In this blog, we’ll be explaining the ‘Floating Advanced Playmaker’, and we’ll leave the other type for the upcoming episode.

The ‘Floating Advanced Playmaker’ is a type of player who loves to have a lot freedom within the attacking third of the pitch. He loves roaming around to find space, collect the ball, and impact the game with his technical ability. These players rarely want to be on the ball all the time however, as they prefer to make off the ball movements to open up space for themselves and for their teammates. When they do get on the ball they prefer to play neat, intricate passes around the 18 yard box region even if they have the ability to play more risky and challenging passes. ‘F.A.P’s’ are also incredible technical dribblers who enjoy getting past opposition players in tight spaces particularly around the centre of the pitch.

ATTACKING PHASE

If you’ve ever heard the term “between the lines”, ‘Floating A.P’s’ epitomize this concept. When your team is in possession, ‘Floating A.P’s’ constantly aim to find space between the opposition’s midfield and defence where it is very difficult for them to be marked. They don’t always stay in between the lines however since they want the freedom to go where ever on the pitch. When they do get on the ball, they’ll usually look to play a forward pass or create one-two situations with teammates near by. Whenever they get into wider positions, they prefer to look for a pass or a cross rather than taking on their defender, so bare that in mind when choosing which ‘F.A.P’ to purchase for your team.

DEFENSIVE PHASE

Thanks to modern day football, most ‘Floating Advanced Playmakers’ have a bit of an engine on them so they tend to be very active in defensive situations. They are an asset to teams that press all over, but they generally lack any defensive prowess which means they will tend to make mistakes if being asked to defend in deeper positions on the field.

POSITIONAL TRAITS

Because of their love for roaming, ‘Floating A.P’s’ can play in a wide variety of positions around the attacking midfield areas with some of the best ones being able to play in a midfield 3 (4-3-3A or 3-5-2, for example), but if you choose to play them there, I suggest that you point their arrow to ‘attaking’ (UPDATE S.M.W’s new update means that now all you’ll have to do is choose the ‘Advanced Playmaker’ role  for this 3 man midfield example) . By choosing to do this option, you’re effectively giving this player the freedom to get into more attack-minded postions where they can be more dangerous. But of course, this means that they won’t be on the ball as much during build up play, but that shouldn’t be a problem since ‘Floating A.P’s’ prefer it to be this way.

Generally speaking, ‘Floating Advanced Playmakers’ can play anywhere within the AM(RLC) and F(RL) positions with a few of them being comfortable playing as a M(C).

KEY ATTRIBUTES (From SM25 and beyond)

Here are the key attributes that every ‘Floating A.P’ possesses. These attributes can be found on SM25 + in order to be utilized within Soccermanager Worlds.

Positioning
Movement
Dribbling
Crossing 
Control
Passing
Creativity
Work Rate
Composure 
Flair

BEST PLAYERS OF ROLE IN SOCCERMANAGER WORLDS

As we advance higher up the pitch, the more I’m starting to realize that the quality of players within each role is quite ridiculous. I thought the ‘Playmaking’ role and ‘Box to Box’ roles were  headaches. Both don’t even compare to this role!!!

(UPDATE) The top 15 ‘F.A.P’s within SM Worlds, in my opinion, are:

Kevin De Bruyne 🇧🇪
Júnior Neymar 🇧🇷
Antoine Griezmann 🇫🇷
Bruno Fernandes 🇵🇹
Florian Wirtz 🇩🇪
Belloli Raphinha 🇧🇷
Cole Palmer 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Jamal Musiala 🇩🇪
Phil Foden 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Bernardo Silva 🇵🇹
Thomas Müller 🇩🇪
Alarcón Isco 🇪🇸
Julian Brandt 🇩🇪
Eberechi Eze 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Dani Olmo 🇪🇸 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dominik Szoboszlai 🇭🇺
Matheus Cunha 🇧🇷
Xavi Simmons 🇳🇱
Deserié Doué 🇫🇷
Dejan Kulusevski 🇸🇪

Now then, that was a look at the first type of ‘Advanced Playamaker’ within Soccermanager… Make sure to check out the second type to fully understand how it differs MASSIVLEY from the ‘Floating AP’.

Speak to you soon!✌️

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