Football Manager 2022: 10 New Features To Be Excited About

9. Wide Centre-Backs

Football Manger 2022
SEGA

While returning hometown club Sheffield Untied to the promised land of the Premier League must surely go down as the greatest moment of Chris Wilder's career, one other brilliant part of the Yorkshireman's legacy is the popularisation of wide, bombarding centre-backs.

As part of his regular setup, Wilder's Blades would operate with a three-man central-defensive unit that allowed for the left and right of this trio to push forward and overlap or underlap the team's wingbacks. It sounded suicidal on paper, yet this was a stroke of genius by Wilder as Sheff Utd achieved promotion to the Premier League and then handily achieved safety in their first season back in the big time in the 2019/2020 season.

For those wanting to replicate Wilder's tactics in Football Manager 2022, there will now be an option to set your defenders as wide centre-backs. Ideally to be implemented when playing a back three (or five), this instruction will cause the player in question to aggressively join your attack and help give you a man advantage when your team drives forward.

Of course, the natural negative of this approach is that you'll be left a man short at the back should your attack go belly up and you lose possession.

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