Teema: Secondary positional attributes.

The Guide states:

"Defense: This attribute is used by all the players (except the goalkeeper) to stop the opponents from scoring by not letting them create scoring chances. It is used mainly by defenders but it is also useful for midfielders and forwards. Midfielders use it more often than forwards.

Midfield: This attribute is used by all the players except the goalkeeper. Strong midfield is often the difference between winning and losing. It is used mainly by midfielders but it is also useful for defenders and forwards.

Offense: [...] is used mainly by forwards but it is also used to a certain extent by midfielders and defenders. This attribute is more important for midfielders than it is for defenders.

[...]

It is also important to note that every player on the pitch moves around and if he finds himself out of his usual position, he uses the attributes needed for the position in which he finds himself at that moment."

This pretty clearly suggests that outfield players benefit from the development of the attributes pertaining to the other two outfield positions. It further suggests that wide Ds and wide Ms likely benefit the most, as the greater amount of space to the sides of the pitch afford them more opportunities to get forward and hence out of the D or M zones.

However, in scouting national team players, I have not come across a single player whose secondary positional attributes were developed. Not one.

The two most likely explanations for this are:

A) The information in the Guide is incorrect.

B) The PPM community has just sort of decided/discovered that aside from developing players' primary attributes, developing general secondary attributes (Sho/Pas/Tec/Spe/Hea) is point-for-point more valuable than developing secondary positional attributes (two of Def/Mid/Off) and the latter just aren't that important. Like, sure, your central M WOULD be better if his Def were magically higher, but why practice Def when you could practice Pas instead? And furthermore, the CM's poor Def shouldn't matter so much anyway if he has good Ds behind him, right?

So which is it: A or B?

And if it's NOT the case that good Def or Off makes a CM suitable as a CDM or CAM, respectively, what does?