Playing with a big striker

[Fisher310]

Hi guys. I'm fancying starting a save with Gladbach. The thing is I've tried tactics with a few teams that have a big striker and so far I've had no success at all. All the tactics that have been uploaded on here seem to either involve a quick, poacher like striker, or a creative striker who plays deeper. I was wondering if anyone else has had any success with the traditional target man type striker (heading, strength, jumping), and if so how have they gone about this?

Cheers

[Bebetu]

U can use a big striker as long as hes fast,otherwise hes playing against your team .

[dribbler]

I find either DLF (support) + target man (attack) or else target man (support) + poacher work fine. I've struggled to play a single striker system unless he's a very fast poacher although other people will help you if that's what you're trying to do. In some sort of 4-5-1 most likely the key is to make sure other players are getting into the box...get your inside forwards on roaming sort of thing

Read SFraser Meet the System

[Falahk]

you mean fast like this guy, Bebetu?:

to be honest I think ppl overrate the importance of pace when it comes to strikers, as long as your striker have something going for him that gives him an edge on defenders and you use a formation/tactic that takes advatage of this edge, then your striker will score a pretty decent amount of goals (assuming that he is good enough for the level you play at)

[dribbler]

"to be honest I think ppl overrate the importance of pace"...yeah there's a thousand ways you can do it...just telling you what worked for me that's all

[Bebetu]

you mean fast like this guy, Bebetu?:

to be honest I think ppl overrate the importance of pace when it comes to strikers, as long as your striker have something going for him that gives him an edge on defenders and you use a formation/tactic that takes advatage of this edge, then your striker will score a pretty decent amount of goals (assuming that he is good enough for the level you play at)

Pace is most imporant atribute of strikers in fact its most important attribute in ME especially for strikers,i would like to be otherwise but is not.I have no doubt that big striker can be usefull in some tactics ,but if we speak what striker is more effective those are poachers/fast strikers and thats main reason why all doawnloadable tactics are based on them.

[Coentrao]

If a striker has high anticipation and off the ball he can make up for the lack of acceleration and pace up to an extent, also if you play a somewhat offensive strategy, you'll generally always be on the final third so pace doesn't make that much difference there.

Having said that, it's a lot easier to just get a mediocre striker with a lot of acceleration and pace to perform.. personally i only can get a big man working on 451 with a support role where he won't be scoring a lot and just making space for the wingers that will run behind him.

I can imagine that Crouch or Cardozo could work as poachers because of the mental attributes they have, though maybe would tick the run with ball to only sometimes.

[Bebetu]

Bad things about big striker is that they cannot be at the end of crosses to put a chalange or to redirect balls,no matter if striker is world class or not and this is another big minus for them.

[Fisher310]

Thanks for the replies. The system I was thinking of was one where I would have a big striker who was my target man paired with a quick striker who would play off his flick ons. On a previous FM this was one of the best systems I ever created, I played a 4-4-2 diamond where my quick striker moved into channels and played off flick ons and my AMC played off nod downs. This system also involved alot of crosses which were aimed at my target man and my AMC and/or my other striker would be in the box as well to react to pieces.

This is the kind of system I would like to play, maybe not the same formation but one where my big striker would feed off of crosses.

[Cleon]

Bad things about big striker is that they cannot be at the end of crosses to put a chalange or to redirect balls,no matter if striker is world class or not and this is another big minus for them.

Really? What makes you think that, because you can't?

[video=youtube;RF0C_okKZI8]

This is the strikers stats;

I think he's scored roughly 12 headed goals from crosses out of his 28 goals scored so far.

[Falahk]

Cleon, out of intrest, how many of those goals was from fullback crosses?

[Cleon]

Cleon, out of intrest, how many of those goals was from fullback crosses?

Out of the 28? Or out of the 12? Out of the 12 headers probably half from him and half from my winger.

[Fisher310]

And also how many of those goals came from crosses? not just headers from crosses

[Cleon]

And also how many of those goals came from crosses? not just headers from crosses

About 20 at a guess. Nearly all his goals are from a cross to either his head or across the face of goal for him to tap in. That's the beauty of using a AML as inside forward, AMR as a winger and a striker as a DLF support.

[Fisher310]

What duty do you have your inside forward and your winger on Cleon? And I guess your playing with a 4-5-1?

[Cleon]

What duty do you have your inside forward and your winger on Cleon? And I guess your playing with a 4-5-1?

Nope I play 3-2-2-2-1, 3-1-2-3-1.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/289528-The-SI-Sports-Centre-All-You-Need-To-Know-About-FM

All the tactics, settings etc can be found in here

[Bebetu]

Really? What makes you think that, because you can't?

[video=youtube;RF0C_okKZI8]

This is the strikers stats;

I think he's scored roughly 12 headed goals from crosses out of his 28 goals scored so far.

I was playing as Stoke few times and i got best from Crouch while playing a 433 with fulbacks on attack role.In this way i had some spectacular headers too but still im not satisfied enough how target man works in this game and i think it should work better and pace is just to overpower keeping big strikers in shadow.

[Cleon]

I was playing as Stoke few times and i got best from Crouch while playing a 433 with fulbacks on attack role.In this way i had some spectacular headers too but still im not satisfied enough how target man works in this game and i think it should work better and pace is just to overpower in this game keeping big strikers in shadow.

Not if you have players who can actually be accurate with their crosses.

[jascko]

Out of the 28? Or out of the 12? Out of the 12 headers probably half from him and half from my winger.

I would like to know how many of these crosses was from “byline”? Because this is what I think is the problem when it comes to crosses. Most of the goals from crosses that I have scored has come from crosses from "deep"; no matter if they are from the fullbacks or wingers. But the crosses frem “byline” that ends in goals are a lot more difficult. Most of the time fullbacks blocks the crosses from “byline”. That is why I allways change my wingers instructions frem “cross byline” to “mix”.

[Cleon]

I would like to know how many of these crosses was from “byline”? Because this is what I think is the problem when it comes to crosses. Most of the goals from crosses that I have scored has come from crosses from "deep"; no matter if they are from the fullbacks or wingers. But the crosses frem “byline” that ends in goals are a lot more difficult. Most of the time fullbacks blocks the crosses from “byline”. That is why I allways change my wingers instructions frem “cross byline” to “mix”.

Majority are from byline as the wingers goes to byline and whips it across the face of goal for either a tap in or a header. The problem is people don't have players who can do pin point accurate goals from the byline. Or they don't have strikers who make late enough runs into the box. It's hard to achieve unless you spend quite a bit of time setting the whole system up. You have to make sure the striker moves around, the wide players can beat their man and do accurate crosses and you need other players to help create space.

[Karnage94]

I very rarely use a big striker just out of personal preference but I will chip in with a view.

I have noticed that you can still get players onto the end of crosses if you have the right set up and players for it. I have 2 main strikers in my squad, neither have a heading or jumping rating over 7, so that automatically rules out expecting them to latch onto headers. My wingers aren't blessed with any real heading ability either so I can rule out floating crosses. I do have a couple of players who are very adept at swinging a ball into the box, so I do still let them cross. Depending on which winger I use depends on which player I use on the opposite flank. If I play a winger on the left then I will play an Inside Forward/Advanced Playmaker on the right. This means that I'm not forcing any one type of attacking style upon my team. I try to mix things up going forward and it shows with the goals I score with assists from my wide players. Some are from drilled crosses, some from angled through balls, some are from cut backs. If you want to fully exploit a strength of a player then you are going to want to support that with the right players and tactics.

In the case of having a big man up front you are going to want to have him right up against the centre backs, get a lot of play down the flanks and crosses from both full backs and wingers. Sometimes its the basic, simple route one play that most of us have been brought up watching that can be the most devastating and effective football.

[HTC]

You can try to play him in a 4-1-2-2-1, keeping the defence busy and create spaces, with the two wingers cutting inside and be the ones to run with ball or passing him to feet, and the two full backs feeding him often with deep crosses...

[heathxxx]

Perhaps one of the issues for some people is that the "big beast" striker is no longer as over-powered in FM as they used to be?

I play a single striker Target Man in my own system, but what makes his role work, is the players and roles around him. I'm similar to Cleon in that I often use a winger and an inside forward, or two inside forwards, but full-backs who provide good crossing options. The movement of players around and behind the target man is also important. My target man scores goals, but also creates goals and play from receiving the ball and laying it off.

Interestingly though, Peter Crouch is doing exceptionally well for England, when I've checked his progress on my own save, even though I've not managed him.

[phidelta42]

Only thing that is obviously letting him down is his aggression but he scores very few headers and doesn't get much in the way of assists from flick ons either. Last season he scored 14 and picked up 24 assists from 30 in the league but without going back through highlights I'd guess that at least 80% of those assists were delicate through balls to his strike partner. There are sometimes goals that come from him winning the ball aerially but usually there will be 2 or maybe 3 others that are involved before the goalscoring touch.

My setup is Mockler on complete/support with his partner as poacher. I don't use him as a corner banger and he tends to take his share of freekicks too so I can't be too disappointed with his return. As things stand probably half his goals are powerful shots from the edge of the area and the rest one on ones.

I'd like to try and get more from him, but overall my most regular tactic (direct 442 with advanced wingers) is very effective and his partner scores over a goal a game.

[rushnrv]

I use a 4-4-2 with a DMC and a CM (pretty defensive). I've got one tall striker who's setup as my target man with target man supply set to his head. The other striker is quick setup as a poacher. I've had a lot of success with it.

[Fisher310]

I use a 4-4-2 with a DMC and a CM (pretty defensive). I've got one tall striker who's setup as my target man with target man supply set to his head. The other striker is quick setup as a poacher. I've had a lot of success with it.

What team settings do you use? Philosophy, pressing, marking etc?