A Target Man??? Oh my.....

[Bpz73]

Guys, i would like your help on this. I'm not a newbie tactical wise, but i never played a target man and never wanted to do so: that's just not my stile. But now, i have to do it!

I started a new save: Venezia in Italian Serie C2/A. They have this Denis Godeas: 36 years old, 1 year of contract, a wage that is over than 10% of total squad wages (must use him...) and very poor stats except Target Man/Attacking in which he is amazingly good for the division. But he can't do anything else. He is also a natural captain.

Now, i want to build a squad for the future but, for the first year, i have to stick on Godeas. Venezia is flat 442 oriented having some decent wingers (but i will bring in better ones) good FBs and both Playmakers and BallWinning midfielders already in the rooster (best couple in a flat 442 in my opinion).

I'm ok with the flat 442, that's my favorite tactic, but i usually play a Defensive Forward with a Poacher or Attacking Forward. My idea of the Target Man is still old fashioned: long ball and target man distributing headers to attackers and attacking midfielders. Prehistoric, i know. So, how to implement him in modern football tactics? No, that's wrong. How to build a 442 that exploits a TM\Att? Yeah, this is the question.

Should i couple him with a Defensive Forward on Attack or Support? And which roles to give to the midfielders? Style of play?

I have my own ideas but would like to listen to some feedback. I'm being very generic because i want the answers to be independent from what i already thought (if i said how i want to play, people would only reply on that).

Finally, sorry if my English is not perfect: i'm Italian, so i'm already doing wonders...hehehe (why we are such a lazy lot when it comes to learn foreign languages? I don't know....).

[millwallrules]

The target man attack can be a final point of play and doesn't have to be related to long ball. He can be a target for aiming for in the box after short build up play. You will need to get balls in the box for this to be effective but these balls can again be after intricate build up play.

Think of Godeas as the player you want to fashion chances for, and then maybe use a deep lying forward or defensive forward to be an option in build up.

[Bpz73]

Thank you for the reply. My idea was to build strong wings to hurl lots of crosses in the box. Godeas is amazing with the head but quite poor when it comes to play the ball. Decent finishing, though. In the middle i would try a BallWinning on Defend and a Playmaker on Support (I have to experiment a little here: i will start with Deep but if i see i lack depth i will switch to Advanced Playmaker). Second striker will be a Deep Lying Forward on Support, more oriented to act as a ball carrier rather than attack (ideal would be a Trequartista but i have nobody suited for the role and nobody affordable on the market. Moreover i will totally change style of play in my second season and i prefer to start developing some player for the DLF role rather than buy a Treq for a single season). Any insight?

[shaunwwfc]

Target Man (attack) is actually one of my favourite roles. I would play attacking full backs and attacking wingers combined the "exploit the flanks" shout, make target aim "To Head" and perhaps also play an Attacking midfielder in behind him. Then combine this with two sitting DM's. 4-2-3-1 if you like or perhaps even 4-4-1-1. I had great success with Sunderland and with Steven Fletcher is this system playing Sessegnon in behind as the AM and Johnson and McClean on the flanks whipping in crosses. Just make sure cross aim is set to "Target Man" of course.

[abhid30007]

if he is too good in air, and have decent anticipation but have less speed....put your crosses to float...so that he can reach them....and obviously he will win the header you know

you would also like to use shouts like look for overlap and pump ball into box....for bombarding crosses

[Bpz73]

Thank you, guys. Shauny1990: your suggestion sounds pretty effective but i would like to stick to a flat 442 layout. I don't have any AM in the squad and 442 is what i will play for this save: i don't plan to replace the TM once he will retire next season and already brought in some young guys to slowly grow into good players. By the way, does it make any difference to play a Playmaker or a TM without checking the boxes in the squad tactical page?

[Domus Clamantium]

A good choice will be 4-4-1-1 because ideally the target man will be extremely central. In the AMC spot a good choice will be an inside forward or advanced playmaker (both attack) with a plays one two's PPM. They will play off of him and run into the box and shoot when he returns it to them (he should play the ball behind him), or he will turn his marker himself and shoot. And of course the rest of the team will find it easy to punt it up to him.

[Bpz73]

Domus, i manage a 4th Division side: no useful PPMs, i fear. The only player in my squad that actually has a PPM is one of my central defenders that pushes up when he should cover instead, so more a nuisance than an advantage. Also, i'm not in condition to choose what i want from the transfer market so buying the right player is out of question mainly because i have not more than 60K Euros available (already a good budget for LLM though). What i can do is getting for free any AMC\ST that has decent enough stats and try to switch from 442 to 4-4-1-1 if i struggle to create chances.

The first half of the season will be hell because i choose to be an unknown manager (always like to play as myself) and i have all new players in the team except maybe two or three (in the last season my team was just promoted from the 5th division so i found a squad made of newly bought players to which i added some other new faces to complete the picture).

No problem. I'm a veteran of the flat 442: in my other save i brought HinterReggio (a club founded in 2006 and doomed to relegation) from the C2 to the Serie B in three years. I got bored because my transfer budget never increased in three years (how am i supposed to make a team for the Serie B with the same money i had available when playing two divisions below???). And, above all, i'm a Juventus fan and is too hard for me to get passionate for a team that has almost the same name as our most hated enemy: Inter. As silly as it may sound, that's probably the main reason why i started a new save......

I just played the 2 matches in my qualifying group of the Italian Cup for minor clubs using the flat 442 with TM\A and DLF\S. Both against teams of more or less my same level. First match, away, i won 1-0 destroying the opposition and throwing away dozens of chances. Final shots on goal count was 22-7 for us, with 4 CCC, and 4-1 for them. They were using a flat 442 too.

Second match, at home, i face a 4-2-3-1 playing for a meager draw to qualify for the next round. Is Wednesday and we have the first League Fixture on Saturday, home, against one of the best teams in the division. I decided to line up a squad of youngsters and reserves for the cup, judging that pushing for a goal in the first 15 minutes could lead to a quiet and sleepy match. That was not the case! I lost 4-3 at the end of an incredible game in which both sides defended the result only to have to chase it again after few minutes. I was lucky and got qualified anyway because of the goal difference: great!

Some indications emerged though: for some reason, my usual setting Wleft\S-FBleft\A and Wright\A-FBright\S didn't work well. Specially when asking them to overlap. I did not that in the first match but against a 4-2-3-1 playing almost only through the middle i thought it would do wonders. In the end, it exposed my back more than it created chances. But can be only because of the poor quality of my reserves (the only first team player i played was the Goalkeeper...).

Well, i did not want to transform this thread on a report on my progress. I just wanted to explain which way i'm trying to play so people can give me more aimed feedback and suggestions. Thanks to all the posters for your help.