Pick a Position for How You Think, Not Where It's Fun
The best position for you isn't always the most enjoyable one — it's the one that matches your actual instincts, whether you naturally weigh risk before reward or reward before risk. Below is what each role really demands, what it gives you when it works, and — since the two questions are linked — how to choose perks that fit what you actually do rather than copying a build off a forum.
The Positions
Striker (ST)
Strengths: direct impact on the scoreline. A good striker wins games alone, and it's the most visible position when things go right. Weaknesses: high pressure, low margin for error — a striker in a drought gets criticised fast, even when poor service is the real problem.
Winger
Strengths: space to work with, direct goal and assist involvement, freedom to take defenders on 1v1 without a fullback's defensive load. Weaknesses: easy to become anonymous if your fullback doesn't overlap or your CM doesn't find you.
CAM
Strengths: the most creative control on the pitch — good CAMs dictate attacking rhythm and rack up assists. Weaknesses: exposed defensively when the ball is lost in a bad area, and heavily dependent on strikers finishing what you create.
Central Midfield (CM)
Strengths: involved in almost everything, box to box, rarely has a truly quiet game. Weaknesses: easy to overextend — a CM caught too high when possession turns leaves a hole straight through the middle.
CDM
Strengths: controls tempo, screens the back line, and — as the TOTW formula reflects — has real attacking value when played progressively rather than purely defensively. Weaknesses: thankless when done well — a CDM having a great game often looks like nothing happened, because nothing happened for the opposition.
Fullback
Strengths: in the current meta, overlapping fullbacks create the width that wins matches — underrated for both goal involvement and defensive value. Weaknesses: gets caught out of position constantly; a fullback who doesn't recover is one of the most common ways teams concede in transition.
Centre-Back (CB)
Strengths: the position that decides whether your team concedes — a strong partnership is the foundation everything is built on. Weaknesses: one mistake is often a goal; a single lapse is instantly and directly punished.
Goalkeeper (GK)
Strengths: the last word on almost every defensive situation — a keeper on form single-handedly keeps a team in a match they're being outplayed in. Weaknesses: total isolation; there's no hiding a bad game and no teammate to share the blame.
Perks: Stop Copying Builds You Found Online
A handful of perk combinations circulate in the IPL that nearly every third player runs. They're popular because they're solid, safe choices that work reasonably well for most players in most situations. The problem is that "solid and safe" isn't the same as "optimal for what you specifically do." Generic builds are designed for generic players — and if you've been in the IPL any length of time, your tendencies aren't generic.
Start with your playstyle, not your position. What are your most common actions in a match? A striker who scores mostly from inside the six-yard box off crosses needs different perks from a through-ball poacher. A defensive midfielder who rarely enters the attacking third has different needs from one who presses aggressively and picks up second balls around the box. Build for what actually happens in your games.
The current meta. With counter-attacks and quick transitions rewarded, perks that improve decision speed and first-touch quality in tight spaces tend to outperform ones that raise peak physical attributes — when the game moves fast, consistency beats ceiling. For defenders, perks that help with aerial duels and tracking runners in the box have been quietly very effective, even if they don't show up as dramatically in the stats.
Test one change at a time. Change a single perk across a run of games, track whether your performance improves in the specific situations you're targeting, and only keep the change if the evidence supports it. Overhaul everything at once and you won't know what made the difference.
Learn Your Game by Playing Out of Position
Play a few matches somewhere you'd never normally pick. You'll learn more about your own decision-making from a week at CB than from another ten games at striker — and it makes you a better teammate in your real position, because you understand what you're asking the players around you to do. Check your player profile stats afterward and compare how the underlying numbers shift by role.