A: there are rosters requirements that apply at any time. you have to have : Soccer: 2 GK, 6 DF, 6 MF, 4 FD and that for major and minor. On your team I can only see 2FDs. this would forbid you to do any cuts on your team. Change some positions to have enough on each position and you'll be able to cut, but don't cut too much, you might be disappointed in waivers....

A: In modern soccer, you do not see this position any more. He use to play on DF and will scatter the DF from right to left, and will be the link between the DF and MF. but you rarely see him go up the field. am going to try to schematize it for you. But keep in mind that this is the style of play from the 80's mid90's, and now days, it's much different. The Sweeper is also know as the Libero. Libero comes from latin and means free man. So opposed to the defenders he had no forward to guard, he was the free man behind the defenders. In defense he had the task to close the gaps and serve as the very last line of defense and when possessing the ball he was the one to open up the game but mostly in the own half. Only seldom sweepers were seen advancing to the opponents half and they sure did not play everywhere where the ball was.

A: The most important thing is the percentage. if a player does a 10/100 it means he allowed 90 shots to pass by to the goal keeper who averages 75% stops (you just got almost 70goals) and we can that the DF isn't doing his job. If a player is doing 8/10 he will probably reach a point where he'll do 80/100,(2 goals < 70goals).

If a player doesn't attempt a lot of blocks, here are some main reasons:

• Offense was one sided far from the defender in question
• The defender wasn't marking an important FD
• The defender wasn't placed high enough on the roster order.

Explanation: When you play man to man, the first defender is matched with the strongest FD from the other team. He will probably have to attempt the most blocks, and vice versa. I hope this helps.

A: The sides are set in the player option menu. In zone, you won't have matchups, just the sides you chose, but in man to man roster order is very important.

A: you can divide the field into four section on the width:

Right-------Middle-----middle------left    (DF)

Right-----------Middle-------------Left     (MF)

               OR

Right-------Middle-------Middle----Left     (MF)

A: Your are allowed to have 3 subs a game, so you set the men you want to be subbed, and then you put the situation i.e fatigue, injuries. For the fatigue, you have 1-2-3-4 etc. the one means the players will be subbed when he's at 90%, 2 at 80% 3 at 70% and so one. I usually pick my 3 best players, and have them subbed when there at 70% fatigue. Also, this would give you a better idea on what you want to do:

1. Am I willing to risk keeping a yellow carded player on the field? If not, you have to create groups that will subs players that are carded.
2. Do I have enough good players? If not I might need to rest some of them in order to let them play in the next game. So you would create a group (or more) to rest players.
3. What are your tactics? if you have a situation that says, if I am winning play 5-3-2 when you were playing 4-3-3 before, it would be clever to make a sub FD -> DF instead of FD->FD.
4. Do I have a general plan? Rest 2 players, and keep one sub for DF->FD or FD->DF for situations? (Example).

A: Injuries don't happen everyday in soccer, so I would guess one sub for cards and injuries is enough. if you are playing very aggressive, you would better reserve 2 subs for that. On my side, I play the least aggressive possible to avoid having to think about cards. you can only sub 3 times. so on every sub possibility the computers checks all the conditions. if a condition is there, it starts subbing the number of times that you requested from top to bottom.

Here is an advise:

1. reserve one sub window for your most important players (cards and injuries). One sub max.
2. If you are playing 4-4-2 and have 5 FDs you don't need to rest FDs you can build a nice rotation. Rest at least one player on the position that the ratio using/having is the highest.
3. reserve one last spot for changing formation FD - DF is you are winning and DF - FD it you are losing.

A: It's not bad, it's just your strategy. That means that your players there are asked to do more thing. When you go to coaching option, you choose who dribbles shoot, pass and move up the field etc... Am sure if you go and check it up, a few of your players playing on the left side have many of those options checked

written by Karim Cheaib