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