Special Ability - Useless or useful?

[influenze]

My shadow striker, i would not want to miss him and looking for another striker for the aml position

[SimplySimon]

To add my view: I tend to think that SA improves a player in a certain area, but quality is ultimately more important if a player is much better

Example - last season my free kick specialist, who at the time was only Q20-ish, scored a hatful of free-kicks and when he didn't play my striker (Q22-ish) was set to take them because he had the best shooting ability and maybe scored one. This season my freekick guy is up to Q25 and mostly a sub, so my Q30 midfielder takes them and he's actually scored a few

So the way I approach this in my squad is I have 14 6* players now, a few have SA. I also have 8 5* players, all of them have a SA


Also, a note on playmaker role. I don't think it means Silva/Mata type player, I think that is a Shadow Striker. I think it's more like the Carrick role at Man Utd, which is why so many DMC have the ability

I had low possession success in some games, so replaced a developing Q30 MC youngster with my playmaker MC (Q26) and noticed the pass success rate increase - this is a very small test over just a few games though

[Tornado88]

To add my view: I tend to think that SA improves a player in a certain area, but quality is ultimately more important if a player is much better

Example - last season my free kick specialist, who at the time was only Q20-ish, scored a hatful of free-kicks and when he didn't play my striker (Q22-ish) was set to take them because he had the best shooting ability and maybe scored one. This season my freekick guy is up to Q25 and mostly a sub, so my Q30 midfielder takes them and he's actually scored a few

So the way I approach this in my squad is I have 14 6* players now, a few have SA. I also have 8 5* players, all of them have a SA


Also, a note on playmaker role. I don't think it means Silva/Mata type player, I think that is a Shadow Striker. I think it's more like the Carrick role at Man Utd, which is why so many DMC have the ability

I had low possession success in some games, so replaced a developing Q30 MC youngster with my playmaker MC (Q26) and noticed the pass success rate increase - this is a very small test over just a few games though

I've never had a player with the free kick taker ability, the last few seasons it was my average quality AML, he scored a lot of free kicks. His quality was average overall with extremely low defence quality but extremely high attack. This season it's my high quality striker and he's converted more free kicks than penalties XD

[July Fourth]

Shadow Strikers for me are USELESS

I get more success from having a DC with the corner taker SA.

[PanteraXIII]

Sorry but I think is just your oppinion. For example all my Midfield Playmaker have never got a lot of yellow cards. Some players make you to have this oppinion, but is a bad one.

[Mr Mercury]

It's hard to be certain. My defenders with SAs often get higher ratings and more MoM than the normal players, but I haven't been keeping clean sheets so does it matter? Also midfielders and strikers seem to be getting a high rate of success with free-kicks, corners and one-on-one shots, but sometimes get goals from normal play or fail to score entirely.
I feel better having a few SA players on the field, it might convince the NGE that I deserve to win more often than not, but maybe I'm just dreaming.

[dv8r]

Updated this... Could do with some more input to be honest. Could even be stickied?

[Sxrenity]

The main SA i have found amazingly useful are the Free Kick and Corner Specialist SA's, you can see how effective they are for me in my showcase.

Defensive ones such as Wall and Aerial seem to have worked for me to, as i very rarely conceeded from free kicks or corners.

[reddeviljohn]

obviously free kick but this season defensive wall and aerial defender have really helped.

[July Fourth]

This should be in the guide of guides