Goalless striker

[pq]

Although I've earlier started a thread reminding of this, I now got a very different setup why I've chosen to bring this up again, seeking for advice and guidens. 

Currently rocking the tacitc below, which is actually doing just fine. 6 games into the season, 2nd. in the league with the best goaldifference (recently smashed Man City 5-1 at home).

While all seems fine, and I maybe shoulnd't complain, i can't stand that my striker is struggling to score, nor bringing enough to the game regarding: passes, key-passes, chance creations, assist etc. 

I'm really happy with how I'm preforming, but it stills bugger me that the striker is not participating alot, and getting average ratings nearly every single game (the same was the case in pre-season). 

I've tried different role to try to make his involvement greater, but from my understand the DLF just seems logical in this kind of setup, and how I'm setting up to play. 

Advice and guidnes will be appreciated!

Thanks in advance 

[Experienced Defender]

I think your main problem here is not the striker himself and his role, but other roles and duties around him, as well as some of the team instructions. The first thing I would try is changing the AML's role to APM on support and the Mezzala's duty to attack. There are a couple of other things as well, but this is what I believe should bring an immediate improvement to your attacking phase of play. At least it helped some other people having similar issues like you.

[pq]

40 minutes ago, Experienced Defender said:

I think your main problem here is not the striker himself and his role, but other roles and duties around him, as well as some of the team instructions. The first thing I would try is changing the AML's role to APM on support and the Mezzala's duty to attack. There are a couple of other things as well, but this is what I believe should bring an immediate improvement to your attacking phase of play. At least it helped some other people having similar issues like you.

Thank you for your answer!
That seems interesting... Getting one less goalscorer instead of a playmaker to support chancecreation - or can you elaborate? And what do you think of the DLF role itself in this setup?
And what team instructions do you think is creating challenges? 

[bar333]

I've had similar issues and something that might help is think about who exactly is providing support for him. With two attack duties out wide and no AP in midfield I think a DLF-A will be isolated. I'd either swap the MEZ-S to something like an AP-S so he stays more central and can link up with the striker, or I'd drop him to a DLF-S (I think 3 attack duties in a 3 man attack is very one dimensional anyway), or I would drop one of the IF's to a support duty\AP-S.

This will help but at the end of the day it's also difficult to have this discussion without talking about the issues with the ME whereby roles like DLF don't really work as intended. I wouldn't expect fireworks but things should improve.

[s0ni42]

I have a similar setup except I use F9 for striker role. Both come deep, but F9 has more freedom to aggressively create and attach goal with dribble, shot, pass. My key striker has 10 goals, 10 assists in league play at halfway point.

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, pq said:

That seems interesting... Getting one less goalscorer instead of a playmaker to support chancecreation - or can you elaborate?

Didn't quite understand what needs to be elaborated? 

 

1 hour ago, pq said:

And what do you think of the DLF role itself in this setup?

If I played the lone striker on attack duty in your 433 system, DLFa would also be my choice. Or trequartista, but only if I have a really top-class player that can perform that role in the right way.

 

1 hour ago, pq said:

And what team instructions do you think is creating challenges? 

I suppose you meant what would I change in your team instructions, right? Well, in possession I would not insist on pass into space as part of my basic tactic, but rather as an instruction I can use occasionally during a match (when I feel that it makes sense based on what I see on the pitch at the moment). Instead of (slightly) shorter passing, I'd go with slightly lower tempo and normal (standard) passing. The in-transition instructions are basically okay (although I wouldn't use counter-press always, but rather selectively). Out of possession, I would definitely avoid Get Stuck In and Defend narrower in a system like yours (standard def width would be quite okay IMO).

As for roles/duties other than those I already commented, I wouldn't play with both fullbacks as CWBs because it tends to make your flanks defensively vulnerable, even if both these players are world-class. And IMO even worse than having both wide defenders as CWBs is having both central defenders as BPDs (one is more than enough, though I personally prefer using none 

[bar333]

@Experienced Defender Out of interest, in what situations do you use counter-pressing? Because I have to say that is one TI I'm not really sure on when and how to use. And since it isn't a "core" TI (doesn't affect pressing intensity and thus tactical familiarity, I checked) it certainly seems to be designed as something to be switched on and off at will.

[Experienced Defender]

12 minutes ago, bar333 said:

@Experienced Defender Out of interest, in what situations do you use counter-pressing? Because I have to say that is one TI I'm not really sure on when and how to use. And since it isn't a "core" TI (doesn't affect pressing intensity and thus tactical familiarity, I checked) it certainly seems to be designed as something to be switched on and off at will.

I personally tend to use the CP against "weaker" opposition, whereas against the "tougher" I prefer regroup. But at the end of the day, it's basically a matter of one's personal preference. And probably my choice has to do with my generally cautious approach to the game (even when I play "offensively" ). To me, more important when it comes to pressing are the relevant instructions in the out-of-possession section than those in transition (if you aren't sure what to do, just leave them both unselected).