Exact striker tactics please

[jprice79144]

3rd season with arsenal. Got a brilliant player in every position except DM, with veloso coming in the summer. I have the common problem where my whole team plays well except for my strikers (6s most games). So I dont get past the quarters of the CL and still yet to win the league. I have vela LCF and benzema RCF. Vela was brill last season, adebayor would only score if i told him there was no pressure on him, so i got bored of babysitting and sold for 30mil.

Anyway im getting tired of suggestions and I've got the patch, my tactics seem to work as like i said, my whole team plays well except my strikers. Would anyone please tell me EXACTLY what to do with the strikers, as im starting to fall out of love with this game.

Ive finished 2nd with 75 pts, 3rd with 79 pts, this season im in 2nd with 70 points and 7 games to go. So my team is improving and working well. Its just my strikers are scoring less than one goal every two games, and only then because when they score they tend to grab 2 goals.

My strikers arent getting many shots at all, so they arent getting service, but I have mata/rodrigues LM, fabregas CM, walcott RM, VERY technically able. Fabregas scores a good few so ive put his passing to more direct and rare long shots so he passes rather than shoots, but as yet no luck. I thought id cracked it when benzema scored 3 away to man u but the joy was short-lived.

[jprice79144]

Well ive set both strikers to mixed for everything and left their mentality at the lowest attacking slot with the rest of the team, they both scored to make it a 1-2 at st james park. i stopped benzema being a target man and vela having a free role. chelsea drew so i may actually win the league for once as i am first by a point.

[wazzaflow10]

If you check out the TT&F guide, you don't have to read the whole thing but there is a help section for getting your striker settings and under performing world class players and you can use the excel spreadsheet that list all the types of mentalities and what the sliders should be placed on (which has to be downloaded). Other than that you might need to build up better chemistry between your attacking 5/6, however many you throw forward.

[Murchadh]

3rd season with arsenal. Got a brilliant player in every position except DM, with veloso coming in the summer. I have the common problem where my whole team plays well except for my strikers (6s most games). So I dont get past the quarters of the CL and still yet to win the league. I have vela LCF and benzema RCF. Vela was brill last season, adebayor would only score if i told him there was no pressure on him, so i got bored of babysitting and sold for 30mil.

Anyway im getting tired of suggestions and I've got the patch, my tactics seem to work as like i said, my whole team plays well except my strikers. Would anyone please tell me EXACTLY what to do with the strikers, as im starting to fall out of love with this game.

Ive finished 2nd with 75 pts, 3rd with 79 pts, this season im in 2nd with 70 points and 7 games to go. So my team is improving and working well. Its just my strikers are scoring less than one goal every two games, and only then because when they score they tend to grab 2 goals.

My strikers arent getting many shots at all, so they arent getting service, but I have mata/rodrigues LM, fabregas CM, walcott RM, VERY technically able. Fabregas scores a good few so ive put his passing to more direct and rare long shots so he passes rather than shoots, but as yet no luck. I thought id cracked it when benzema scored 3 away to man u but the joy was short-lived.

I play as Arsenal as well and here are some suggestions.

First of all, what formation do you employ? Since you do not say it is difficult figuring out where things are not working. When saying LCF and RCF...do you mean AML and AMR ... FL and FR...or as part of a three man strikeforce in the center?

In a 442 I found that using Adebayor works wonders as a "targetman" (without the option ticked) with low mentality and MAX closing down, i.e. the same as an MCd. The ME is highly geared towards strikers with the ability to jump...neither Vela nor Benzema are any good in that department. Since you do not have Ade anymore I'd suggest looking for someone else. My other striker (I use Vela or Walcott) I have on high mentality and NO closing down. The idea is that the targetman becomes a feeder for the goal scorer who parks himself next to his marker on the offside line and tries to latch on to clean through balls by attempting to outstrip the marker. Playing counter attack sometimes is necessary for this to work but I often get clean attempts without having to resort to counter attack. Either way, Ade does score his fair share in my game as well, USUALLY in important matches.

Alternatively you could try the following...use a central striker (a pacey one) as "targetman" WITH the option ticked and choose "run onto ball" or "to feet". Then have advanced wingers bombing in crosses from wide.

My strikers arent getting many shots at all, so they arent getting service

The first part is relatively common in 442 IRL, because the attacking burden is shared with the midfield...Lampard, Gerrard, Ronaldo case in point.

Moreover, when playing 442 in the EPL in game as Arsenal it is the norm for opponents to "park the bus", meaning that I usually end up with 60-65% possession but little penetration in the last third, i.e. supply to strikers is mostly absent due to the defense geared towards cutting off THAT supply. For that reason I have turned to a 3-4-3 employing a single DC as this has many advantages against those pesky "parkers".

Share your formation and I'll look at it more.

[Murchadh]

I'll add a note about Fabregas. I am sure it works for some people but some of the rigid instructions in the TT&F are extremely counter productive from a logical standpoint (at least with Arsenal that is).

For example: The idea that everyone except those on attacking roles should be man marking tightly is causing me problems. I totally get it for a DC tightly marking an opponent striker, but for someone like Fabregas this is clearly not the right option because this DOES (I have tested this) lead to him constantly being marked out of the game. Ironic isn't it....you tell Fabregas to tightly man mark an opponent to bolster your defense (or so I read it) and all it does is end up negating him SPACE for attack. It is not enough being a creative visionary when you are not in positions to provide those visionary passes. I set Fabregas on zonal, no tight marking, free role (in 442) and hold up ball (in 343). This way he places far less emphasis on defensive duties and more on putting himself into spaces from which to launch those crucial through balls.

Ever since I have been using this Fabregas gets mixed ratings bordering on extremes...sometimes below 5...sometimes above 8...even in the same game. This is because (as I understand it) he tends to not connect with many through balls and his passing suffers as a result, but when he does he creates clear opportunities (his job) that hikes his rating immensely. Let me make this clearer, with Fabre I have found that his high passing and creative skill does NOT make him succeed with MORE through balls, in fact my other MC (Denilson or Ramsey or whoever) constantly gets more key passes...BUT...and this is the big but...Fabregas creates BETTER through balls more of the time when compared to the others.

In some games I set Fabregas to MAX closing down (this is highly dependent on exactly who is in the opposing midfield) and this has had amazing results. What happens is that he gets opportunities to cleanly tackle an opponent whilst their team are advancing (creating space for us) and when he does tackle AND gather the ball he gets brilliant opportunities to deliver those "magic balls" in space....this is rarely possible when slow building against an 11 man defense.