Strike partnership - the other way around

[Andy 23]

More often when I read about people's strike pairings it's a fast striker playing on the shoulder chasing through balls to go one-on-one and a creator - a target man or AMC - playing deeper to thread the ball forward.

I come at this the other way around. If the fast striker starts from a deeper position he can run at defenders facing them with the ball at his feet (a defender's worst nightmare) so he can either dribble past them or draw a foul. Without the ball, if he can time his run he can chase onto a through ball while the defender has to turn around.

A target man is less useful in a deep position. If he's big and slow he's no threat facing the goal 40 yards out. If he's got his back to goal in this position, he'll struggle to turn and play a forward pass. Therefore I like him as far forward as possible to receive the ball with his back to goal where he can hold it up and lay it off to somebody who can do something with it in the final third.

I play a 4-1-3-2 formation (1 DM, 3 MCs, more discussion here: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/274907-Anyone-here-playing-4132?p=7355088#post7355088) so my attacks mainly come through the middle. With the target man in the most advanced position facing away from goal, he has his strike partner, three midfielders and possibly full backs to lay it off to. And that's his work done, other than getting on the end of crosses and corners coming in. I don't really see him as a goal-scorer, he allows others to do that.

Attributes and PPMs are very important for this (when aren't they). The target man needs:

off the ball and anticipation to be in the right position to receive the pass;

strength, first touch, technique and balance to control the ball and hold it up;

passing, decisions and creativity to make a good lay-off;

work rate, concentration and bravery might not be bad either to persevere with his job;

PPMs - plays with back to goal, looks for pass rather than attempting to score, plays short simple passes (?), gets forward whenever possible (?), runs with ball rarely (?)

The deep-lying forward needs:

off the ball, decisions to make his runs from deep;

pace, acceleration, dribbling and balance to run with the ball;

finishing and composure to score when he's through;

PPM - runs with ball through centre;

NOT likes to break offside trap. I want him to do so but not on the shoulder as this PPM will make him do. Also not tries long shots, looks for pass rather than attempting to score etc., I want him running and scoring the goal, not setting up others or taking pot shots.

I'm sure others have tried this approach and there may be threads about it I can't find. I expect the target man could do a similar job in a 4-5-1. I'd like to hear how others have found this working, what PPMs they find beneficial (they're still new to me on FM!), and what player roles/instructions they use, in particular how to get the two forwards in the right starting position (ie. target man central with back to goal awaiting pass, partner in a deep position ready to break forward). Do you use a target man setting in the team instructions? Is this a new concept to you, or one you've thought of and rejected?

[jimbobBRFC]

I take a similar approach, I play my more pacy striker as a deep lying playmaker so he can, as you mentioned pick up the ball and run at the defenders. I then pair them with a bigger more physical player and play them as a poacher. Works wonders in my Blackburn save with Rochina/Hoilet as the pacy player and Wilfried/Yakubu as my poacher. Shipped 3 past Liverpool which I believe was a pretty good result. One problem I do find is that my DLF congests the middle for my AM, i tent to play the AM as a trequarista so they float out wide sometimes which does seem to free up some space. I play 4-1-2-1-2.

When Im playing awya against a big club I tent to use 4-5-1 with pacy AML/AMR and use a target man then, play ball to feet as I dont like using long ball prefer to keep it on the floor. That works well in hitting teams on the counter.

[Andy 23]

How does the poacher work? Does he hold the ball up or is he just sniffing around the box for chances for himself?

One other idea I forgot to mention in my opening post. I wondered about playing the deep-lying forward as an inside forward in the AM position. Only reason I haven't tried it is I'm using natural strikers so they would need to be retrained to play AM.

[Stefanius]

I use Aguero as an Inside forward in the AMC position behind Tevez or Dzeko as DLF. Score incredible amounts of goals. Won Villareal 8-0 away in the Champions League group, which was the first game testing this tactic (had trained it up in match prep first though). Have been averaging 3-5 goals per game since then. The DLF is scoring a little bit more then the IF but not by much.

[jimbobBRFC]

The Poacher generally just sniffs around the box. A perfect example of this was in the win against Liverpool, sorry I dont have any screenies didnt think they would be useful. Rochina had dropped deep to pick up the ball (DeepLyingForward), he received the ball about 30yrds out. As he started to move forward Eriksen who was playing AM at the time came across and pulled one of the Liverpool CB's slightly out of position Rochina who I think has a PPM of shoots from distance (if he doesnt he certainly enjoys firing shots at goal) hits one. A pretty weak effort which Reina saves but doesnt hold, Wilfried who has good Balance, Anticipation etc pounces striaght on the ball and it's an easy tap in. I think that illustrates the poacher well, you will never see him scoring 25-30yrd screamers, mostly tap ins like that. Playing against very good teams, United,City ive found playing my 4-1-2-1-2 it does get congested with the DLF and AM, and the Poacher can end up a little bit secluded up front on his own, which is as i mentioned in my earlier post why i switch it round a bit.

Ye that may work, There is no Inside Forward option when playing AM though is there, I thought that was just AMR/AML. In theory that could work if they were retrained but chances are a naturl striker wont have the skills for the AM position if that makes any sense

[jimbobBRFC]

I use Aguero as an Inside forward in the AMC position behind Tevez or Dzeko as DLF. Score incredible amounts of goals. Won Villareal 8-0 away in the Champions League group, which was the first game testing this tactic (had trained it up in match prep first though). Have been averaging 3-5 goals per game since then. The DLF is scoring a little bit more then the IF but not by much.

Judging by the post Im wrong there is an inside forward option when playing AMC, how the hell does that work? I thought inside forward was the cut inside shooting wide man?

[Andy 23]

Stefanius: How do the DLF and the AMC Inside Forward combine? Does the deep-lying forward come as deep as the AM when your team has possession? Do they set each other up?

jimbobBRFC: I guess an Inside Forward in the AMC position is more like 'stay inside' rather than 'cut inside'! If you think about it, Inside Forward makes AMs run towards goal, so he can do this starting from a central position or from a wide position.

I don't really need my striker to have the skills of an AM (creativity etc.) because he's in my team to score goals, only I'm getting him to do so by starting in a deep position.

Your comment about the poacher getting rebounds should be good for me; a key component of my tactic is the ball gets laid back for my midfielder to have a long shot, so my target man should be nearest to any rebounds.

[jimbobBRFC]

Yeah, a good poacher will always be getting to or at least competing for the rebounds. Whoever im playing as the poacher seems to be in the right place at the right time, I like having a good mix of players that can play in a few different positions/roles. Rochina for example is a Striker really, but he has had a few game winning performances in AM. Its good to be able to mix things up and really helps in handling a injury crisis, or when a formation just isn't working.

If your planning on retraining a Striker to an AM though they will still need a healthy amount of AM type stats or else it will be a weak link in your line up. If your looking for someone Rochina from Blackburn, couldnt recommend him enough

[Stefanius]

The DLF is a little but further up the field then the IF but not by much. The IF stays more central while the DFL moves around the picth. The IF does move around though. (Maybe because the Team Setting is set on more roaming.) They are setting up each other like crazy and even setting up the midfielders. I have never made a tactic where the box to box midfielder is scoring as much. That usually happens when the DLF moves left pulling the DC with him, IF has the ball little to the right (he is in the AMCR possision) and sets up the B2B on the run into the gap. Other types of goals I score often are: I trained all of the attacking players to play one-two's which they use in alot of their goals, simply play their way through the defence, or the AP plays a through ball for one of the 3 targets upfront. (DFL, IF, B2B)

However, players matter alot in this. When its Tevez and Aguero upfront Tevez scores about 2-3 goals for every goal Aguero scores, and Aguero usually gets alot of assist. When its Dzeko and Aguero then Dzeko usually gets the assists and Aguero is the one scoring. Balotelli simply does not fit into this system. To stupid a player. I would love to add Pastore as a rotation to Aguero. Think he's perfect for the role, but PSG had to ruin that for me IRL, at least for the first season or two.

[jimbobBRFC]

I may try this Big man Little man up front (Dzeko,Tevez) with a Inside Forward in behind with my Blackburn team, just mix it up and try something different. What role does your second striker have? From what i've made out it,s Tevez-DLF, Aguero-IF, Dzeko-??

What formation do you play as well Stefanius, just out of interest

[Stefanius]

I'm usually playing a 4-2-3-1 (2mc's and 3amc's). I'm rotating Dzeko and Tevez, depending on form, fitness and opposition. My setup is:

Gk: Sweeper Keeper defend: Hart

DR: Fullback support: Richards or Zapaleta

DCR: Ball playing defender stopper: Kompany or Lescott

DCL: Ball playing defender cover: Thiago Silva or Kolo Toure

DL: Fullback support: Clichy or Kolarov

MCR: Ballwinning midfielder defend: De Jong or Yaya Toure.

MCL: Box to Box midfielder support: Hamsik or Yaya Toure or James Milner (sometimes change this to deep laying playmaker and put Gareth Barry in there if the opposition calls for it.)

AMCR: Inside forward attack: Aguero (use Nasri, Hamsik or sometimes Tevez as a sub when Aguero is tired. In need of a better sub for this role.)

AMC: Advanced playmaker support: Silva, Ganso or Nasri.

ACML: Attacking midfielder support: Nasri, Hamsik Silva and on rare occasions Ganso.

ST: Deep lying forward attack: Tevez or Dzeko (on rare occasions Balotelli untill I can get rid of that punk.)

Team Instructions:

Very Fluid

Standard

Defult passing

More expressive creative freedom

Press more

Default tackling, marking and crossing

and more roaming.

I didn't tweek a thing, first time ever that I don't do that. That was the mission I set myself when creating this tactic. Wanted to get the team to play how I wanted without tweeks so the shouts would still be of use. Was a lot of work but finally managed it with this setup.

I use shouts to start with though instead of tweeks. Retain possession, Play out of defence, Work ball into Box and Hassle opponents.

Increadably responsive tactic with alot of goals and most of the possession aswell. Have played 14 games with it so far, won 12, 2 draws. Scored 45, conseeded 5. Biggest wins Man U 0-3 City (prem), Villareal 0-8 City (champ), City 8-0 Stoke (prem). Would propably have scored more but was playing defencifly in the last 6 games. Was trying for Parked the Tank achievement but blew it against Arsenal at home when De Jong conseeded the dumbest penalty I've ever seen.

Sorry for the lenght of the reply, startet talking about my tactic and lost it. Am loving this tactic, as you might have noticed.

[jimbobBRFC]

Ahh i see so its a narrow 4-2-3-1, I have never been able to get that formation to work but I may give yours a try, im only playing as Blackburn so techinally my players are not as strong as yours but may still work. WIll try it in a cup game and let you know what results I get. Yeah I gathered that you do quite like it. Im amazed at my tactic tbh, ive never been an extreamly good tactic maker but the one I've made this time is working really well

GK - Robinson

RB - Wing Back Carvajal/Gunter

CB - Ball playing defender Samba/Gallas

CB - Stopper Dann/Manoel

LB - Wing Back Olsson/Planas

DM - Deep Lying Playmaker Defend N'zonzi/Emre Can

CM - Ball winning Midfielder Support Andre Jali/Jack Collison

CM - Adavanced playmaker Attack Eriksen

AMC - Trequarista Attack Formica/Hoilet/Eriksen

ST - Deep Lying Forward Support Rochina/Fierro/Wilfried

ST - Poacher Fierro/Wilfried/Yakubu

Team Instructions:

Standard

Standard

Short Passing

Standard creative freedom

Press more

Default tackling marking and crossing

All i've tweaked is set DM to man mark and my front 3 too more roaming and swap posititons so they are constantly interchanging. As i mentiong earlier in the post i beat Liverpool 3-0 and am currently 3rd in prem 5games in, not bad for Blackburn I don't think. Got first European cup game coming up against Palmero, should be a tough game. Im quality going forward just a bit leaky at the back some time but i've made a lot of new signings there so that could be the problem.

Seen as you went on about your tactic for a bit I thought I might just do the same ;p

[sweep17]

I'm using a 4-1-2-1-2 and trying to achieve the same thing using and advanced forward attack, complete forward suport and attacking mid attack. The idea being that the complete forward support drops back and wide on the left hand side allowing the attacking mid to run through the space that he leaves. The advanced forward can either run the challeges or be put through to score himself.

In theory this should give the defence a problem if they defend deep or use a high line. If they use a high line my pacey advanced forward will get in behind, them if they drop deep they give space to deeper complete forward and are vulnerable to late runs from the Attacking mid.

[Andy 23]

sweep17: Is that the same? I'm keeping my target man furthest forward with my quick striker running from deep. You have your target man (complete forward) dropping back and a quick striker starting in an advanced position, and an AM coming from deep.

[sweep17]

I think the concept is similar, the target man complete forward drops to the side more than deep as I have no winger on that side, the attacking mid advances into the space he leaves. By saying the same I mean its the same as in using a player running from deep to score goals rather than a traditional creator/poacher system (perhaps a different way of achieving the same result would be a better expaination?). As I said I use a 4-1-2-1-2 formation so the structure is different.

I like the idea though and I think it works well as players running from deep positions are harder for defendrs to pick up.

[Andy 23]

What does your Complete Forward do in this system? Is he an outlet for forward passes and a creator for your quick striker and AM, or is he just there really to drag defenders away to make space for your AM?

Have you tried your quick striker starting from deep? I find a pacy deep-lying forward really trouble defenders like this because he is able to receive the ball in space then start his dribble facing goal, or break through without the ball and avoid getting picked up before he's through on goal.

What does your AM do? I have my MC moving into the AMC space to take long shots, but I suspect your AMC may be making runs with/without the ball as I just described my deep-lying forward in the previous paragraph.

[sweep17]

Yeah my AMC operates similarly to your deep lying forward he also has good pace and dribbling ability if the opposition give him space he'll be nightmare for them.

I want the complete forward to be somewhat creative but also with good off the ball ability so for instance an ageing winger or striker with good technical or mental ability but with perhaps declining physical abilities could be ideal. The idea is that he can find space better this way and can provide assists to the other forwards or contribute to the build up play.

I have used deep lying forwards like you suggest but only in 4-4-2's it works well the deep player scoring plenty of goals. I find the 4-4-2 is vulnerable to the 5 man midfield formations the AI likes to use so I don't use it as much now.

[Andy 23]

I'm back on FM12 now and persevering with this system. I'm not yet seeing my forwards strictly sticking to the starting positions I want them in. Moving the deep-lying forward to AMC inside forward would probably work but then I'd need to retrain strikers to be accomplished AMCs. Is there a PPM to pull a forward back? Maybe Arrives late in opposition area or Comes deep to get ball, but neither of those sound quite like what I want to happen. I just want him starting deep, from where he can dribble at defenders with the ball or make a forward run ready to receive a through ball.

Sweep17: Yes I prefer to have more than 2 in central midfield. Better to dominate the midfield and stop the opposition passing to the flanks in the first place, thus negating my weakness on the wings.

[Cleon]

I'm back on FM12 now and persevering with this system. I'm not yet seeing my forwards strictly sticking to the starting positions I want them in. Moving the deep-lying forward to AMC inside forward would probably work but then I'd need to retrain strikers to be accomplished AMCs. Is there a PPM to pull a forward back? Maybe Arrives late in opposition area or Comes deep to get ball, but neither of those sound quite like what I want to happen. I just want him starting deep, from where he can dribble at defenders with the ball or make a forward run ready to receive a through ball.

Sweep17: Yes I prefer to have more than 2 in central midfield. Better to dominate the midfield and stop the opposition passing to the flanks in the first place, thus negating my weakness on the wings.

Have you tried a deeplying forward on support?

[Andy 23]

Yes that is what I use: Deep-lying forward support. Run from deep: often. Run with ball: sometimes. Wide play: cut inside. Hold up ball: no. Some players follow this better than others, but the one thing I really want is the player to stay in the hole until he has chance to attack. I don't want him up level with the target man. That's the point of my system: the ball goes up to the target man with his back to goal, and he can then lay it back to a midfielder or deep-lying forward.

[silten]

Yes that is what I use: Deep-lying forward support. Run from deep: often. Run with ball: sometimes. Wide play: cut inside. Hold up ball: no. Some players follow this better than others, but the one thing I really want is the player to stay in the hole until he has chance to attack. I don't want him up level with the target man. That's the point of my system: the ball goes up to the target man with his back to goal, and he can then lay it back to a midfielder or deep-lying forward.

It'll be the Run from deep: often instruction that's pushing the player forward. Every time you get possession he's looking to get forward.

[Andy 23]

Hmm.

Runs from Deep: This slider controls how often your players make forward runs without the ball. ‘Often’ will see the player push into attacking positions and attempt to get by their marker – for wide players and full-backs this will increase the likelihood of overlapping runs. ‘Rarely’ will order the players to stand their ground and attempt to play their way through or around an opponent rather than going past them.

Perhaps I should change it to mixed. I don't want him running forwards every time I'm in possession, just when there's a through ball opportunity arising.

However, that doesn't quite solve the problem of him being in an advanced position when I'm not in possession. Is there anything else for it besides moving him to AMC?

[Cleon]

Yes that is what I use: Deep-lying forward support. Run from deep: often. Run with ball: sometimes. Wide play: cut inside. Hold up ball: no. Some players follow this better than others, but the one thing I really want is the player to stay in the hole until he has chance to attack. I don't want him up level with the target man. That's the point of my system: the ball goes up to the target man with his back to goal, and he can then lay it back to a midfielder or deep-lying forward.

I posted this elsewhere but thought it might be relevant here, if not then my bad. But it might give you an idea of my approach.

Why does the W-M work?

To get a better picture and understand exactly why the W-M is working, we need to look at the individual and his settings. I’m going to work backwards here and talk about the attack of the tactic first. Seeing as that’s how the tactic was created by me to begin with. I worked from the front backwards; this allowed me to focus on attacking movement to begin with. After all you’re not sure how you need the defence to play until the attack is sorted out do you? This is how I create 99% of my tactics from the front first. As I wanted the attack to be fast and free flowing then it made sense to start there first.

Introducing the Attack;

The above screenshots will help you get a little insight into Ganso’s personality and understand him as a player a bit more than by just looking at his attributes.

Everybody knows Ganso is (will be) world-class and he’s no different on the game. But there is a drawback with players like this on FM and it is how the hell do you get the best out of someone who can play many roles? Well there isn’t a definite answer and for many people these are the type of players they struggle to fit into their own teams. It can be hard to pick a set position or tactical settings that bring the best out of him at times because he is so well rounded. I could have retrained him to play in any position from the midfield up. But as I was managing Santos I lacked a real quality striker. So I retrained him the first season to play as a striker. I know he makes a good player across the attacking positions but I felt for how I wanted the team to play; he could be the quality forward that all teams look for.

[Cleon]

Everybody knows Ganso is (will be) world-class and he’s no different on the game. But there is a drawback with players like this on FM and it is how the hell do you get the best out of someone who can play many roles? Well there isn’t a definite answer and for many people these are the type of players they struggle to fit into their own teams. It can be hard to pick a set position or tactical settings that bring the best out of him at times because he is so well rounded. I could have retrained him to play in any position from the midfield up. But as I was managing Santos I lacked a real quality striker. So I retrained him the first season to play as a striker. I know he makes a good player across the attacking positions but I felt for how I wanted the team to play; he could be the quality forward that all teams look for.

It also meant I saved a fortune in trying to bring someone else in. Especially on the tight budget I’ve had the last 4 seasons. None the less, I’m starting to see my investment payoff now and Ganso is creating quite a few goals as well as scoring frequent. Which is expected really but what role does he actually play in the W-M I hear you ask. Let’s take a look shall we?

Those are his tactical instructions. Now if you’ve been following the thread you’ll have seen some screenshots, pkm’s and match highlights and seen how heavily involved in play Ganso is. The next bit will try and explain firstly why I’ve set him up to play the way I have. As well as to highlight his actual role in the formation.

Many of you would presume that playing him as a Trequartista would be the easy option and you’d be correct. But the W-M is more about team play than individual brilliance. I have no doubts that he’s be perfect for the Trequartista role but I want him to be less gung-ho and selfish in his approach. If not then the attacking part of the tactic will fail badly against teams who are defensive. I need Ganso to be reserved in his approach and yet be able to unlock a defence with his passing and creativity should we need it.

Goal Scoring Movement

Movement is key for any player to gain that extra half of yard or to lose his marker. Here are a few screenshots of how Ganso’s movement works allowing him to score.

On that screenshot he is just jockeying just outside the area. This is one of the reasons I gave him the Deep Lying Forward role to ensure he wasn’t always advanced. It can pay to have players more cautious and reserved; there is no need to always be attacking. I could have achieved this with the Treq role as well but by altering the mentality individually. Something I didn’t really want to do.

That screenshot is of him making the run into the box as late as possible and losing his marker by checking back and going round the back of him. He then slots the ball home.

[Cleon]

The next screenshot is from the same game but the build up to his second goal. Again he is not that attacking in his movement but he is been clever and reading the game well.

By the time we look at the next screenshot Ganso is screaming (well I imagine with the hand gestures) for the ball and timely advancing forward ready for the pass.

Then in the last screenshot you can see his timely run into the box and he just has to tap the ball into the net. Just look at the space he has because he made the run from deep and wasn’t too deep to begin with. As did the Right sided forward but we’ll touch upon him later. By running from deep late, the player is actually unmark able for most parts as the defence has to go back to follow Neymar. So technically Neymar creates the space and Ganso exploits it.

Bringing Others into Play

Now we’ve seen what a threat he can by the type of goals he scored, I thought it be best we look at how he performs with build up play. I can and will show more varied goals that he has scored but I want to talk about what he offers the team in more detail first, other than just his goal tally.

Ganso doesn’t get as many assists as you think he would judge by his stats. But that’s only half the picture so doesn’t show the full story. Sometimes he is the start of a 10 pass move, or 5 pass move. So he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

In the above screenshot that is him playing with his back to goal. Neymar passes the ball to him and immediately he is looking to turn and run into the channels (this is why forwards should have move into channels set).

As you can see he has acres and acres of space to run into and exploit. If you take a look at the goal above what Neymar provided for Ganso, this is almost the reversible happening as Ganso is turning provider this time as Neymar as cut inside.

[Cleon]

He just puts the ball across the box and Neymar lets it run across him and then fires it into the right corner.

You see this happening time and time again. Ganso offers so much upfront, he is more than just goals and assists he is almost the engine room for all attacks. I know in the examples I’ve show above it seems to favour the left side, but it doesn’t as you’ll see a little later on when we look at the right sided striker.

Hopefully this will give you a little insight into how Ganso performs. It will get more detailed about his role and look at things in even greater detail. But I want to discuss the rest of the squad first to give you a better outline of how things work.

[Cleon]

I play how you describe in the OP but I do it with a front 3 and each one provides a different attacking option and none of them play the same way.

[Andy 23]

Thanks for the reply. Regarding this:

On that screenshot he is just jockeying just outside the area. This is one of the reasons I gave him the Deep Lying Forward role to ensure he wasn’t always advanced. It can pay to have players more cautious and reserved; there is no need to always be attacking. I could have achieved this with the Treq role as well but by altering the mentality individually. Something I didn’t really want to do.

My thought is I do want him to be advanced as far as possible. Not to have a goal-scoring chance himself but to lay the ball off to an forward-running midfielder/deep-lying forward. If he is deep then the support attackers we have further to carry the ball to get near enough to goal to shoot. This is different to your system where you have a FR and FL in advanced positions for your centre forward to play a forward pass to.

[Cleon]

Thanks for the reply. Regarding this:

My thought is I do want him to be advanced as far as possible. Not to have a goal-scoring chance himself but to lay the ball off to an forward-running midfielder/deep-lying forward. If he is deep then the support attackers we have further to carry the ball to get near enough to goal to shoot. This is different to your system where you have a FR and FL in advanced positions for your centre forward to play a forward pass to.

Do you not find though at times he's very isolated if he's to advanced? Ganso is always my furthest player forward but no too advanced to take himself out of the game. What kind of season passing, shots, assist stats do your strikers get? I'd be very interesting in seeing how we differ if you get the time please:)

[Andy 23]

It's not really applicable to say because he's not strictly playing the way I'm describing! I need to get the player roles, PPM, team instructions etc. set up to achieve what I'm describing. I'm mainly talking theoretically about a tactic I'm trying to build, not about what I'm actually seeing in my games.

I'm happy for the target man to be isolated if I have one with the attributes to control and hold the ball up until the supporting attackers arrive.

[Cleon]

It's not really applicable to say because he's not strictly playing the way I'm describing! I need to get the player roles, PPM, team instructions etc. set up to achieve what I'm describing. I'm mainly talking theoretically about a tactic I'm trying to build, not about what I'm actually seeing in my games.

I'm happy for the target man to be isolated if I have one with the attributes to control and hold the ball up until the supporting attackers arrive.

If hes isolated though he won't have a chance of getting the balls he requires to be effective. Or on the occassions he does, the midfield and support play will be to far behind to catch up with play. Keep an eye on the heat maps on the analysis page to find out if the players are positioned like you want

[Andy 23]

One important thing to point out is I have my defenders on very short passing. I do NOT want my defenders clearing the ball to the target man for the very reason you mention (and therefore Target Man is not ticked in the Team Instructions.) Rather, I want my defenders to give the ball to my midfielders. The midfielders then play the ball to the target man's feet, and he then bounces it back to them or his strike partner. The midfielders should be somewhere around the halfway line when they do this, so if the target man can hold it up for a couple of seconds the midfielders should have advanced to 30 yards out from goal from where they can fashion a shooting opportunity.

Looking at heat maps is an excellent suggestion, I will do that.