Best Role for lone striker?

D

Davebarbaren

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
201
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Hi! I am playing as Southend in League 2 and I am currently trying to build my team and was thinking of going 4-5-1 with two defensive midfielders (anchor man and regista) and one Box to box-midfielder in front of them. I have a very pacy guy (Karl Sheppard) as my lone striker and I was wondering is it best to play him as an Advanced forward or will he get to isolated?

Or should I play him as a false 9 to get him more involved but where the pace attribute doesnt get highlighted when checking suitability for role ingame?

/regards
 
if he is speedy, Advanced forward, you just want him to sit on the shoulder of the defenders and wait for a ball to come his way, if you have big strong guy, use wingers and use the striker as a targetman on attack. False 9 is only really decent if you use inside forwards.
 
My wideguys are played as wingers so he is very lonely up there but hes got 19 pace which is crazy at this level. Poor heading and decent finishing/composure.
 
Davebarbaren said:
My wideguys are played as wingers so he is very lonely up there but hes got 19 pace which is crazy at this level. Poor heading and decent finishing/composure.
Click to expand...

deffo go with AF, you really want him to receive the ball and just run.
 
Its hard to supply a lone AF from my experience. IF and an AP (amc) should be able to get the balls up there. An AP in cm position with 2 IF should also work. Wingers dont seem wise to me, since they most often run wide and give crosses. This means you dont utilize his pace, unless you let them cross from deep. Usually that doesnt really work for me and crosses from deep hardly arrive.
 
I am three games in now and he has scored three goals so my offensive is working pretty well but my defence is absolutely horrible. I have leaked in nine(!) goals in three games (three each game) and I've only gotten one point from these games. My defenders and DM's are good for this level, goalie 4,5 stars aswell. Is the control-style something you should avoid at this level and what is the best option? Just standard? I have one winger who can play as an inside forward but the other one is only good as a more defensive winger with great workrate. stamina etc. Should I try get my hands on a targetman and go 4-4-2 and just have my wingers put in float-crosses and my pacy-guy run in channels?

Edit: My players arent used to the tactic yet, maybe my luck will change when they are?
 
Last edited:
WHat role is most suitable for your DM and what role do you play him at currently? It will definitely help to get them used to the tactic. The style you use should be based on your quality of your team in comparison to the opponent and if you are playing home or away. I think a counter style would suit more. Float-crosses dont work for a pacey striker, he will lose headers constantly. IF give the throughpasses you need if set on support duty.
 
I am using drill crosses. My two DMs are regista and anchor man. Can change My regista to deep lying or advanced playmaker if thats better.
 
i use an AF with an attacking winger on the right side and an IF support on the left, with an AP-S just behind and a DLP-D and a BBM i the midfield. Won the PL with swans, southampton, arsenal, and liverpool with that tactic.
 
Did you use control and work ball into box etc? Thats how I want to play and I got rly good passers for this lvl in my team but are a league 2 team capable of doing this succesfully? I mean its not like I've got messi or even his cousin..
 
Davebarbaren said:
Did you use control and work ball into box etc? Thats how I want to play and I got rly good passers for this lvl in my team but are a league 2 team capable of doing this succesfully? I mean its not like I've got messi or even his cousin..
Click to expand...

here is my attacking tactic.

I've never played below the English championship so I cant help ya on that last question.

View attachment 428560View attachment 428559
 
I will try to add some of those instructions but I dont know if "push higher up" and "use offsidetrap" is a good idea with my slow defenders. Both my central defenders are kinda slow (10 pace). Maybe just offsidetrap can work though?
 
If your CBs have good positioning and jumping reach, pushing higher up is okay and it is what most lower league English teams in FM do. Most strikers in League Two are only good with one feet, have somewhere around 10-12 pace/acc and have poor touch, so it should not be much of a problem as long as you provide some midfield pressure. The problem I think lies with you using two DMs, they are only useful if you're dropping deep, otherwise you're simply giving the other team the time to make that defense splitting pass. From my personal experience, the AI teams in League two that insist on playing possession football usually perform below their standards.

A good tactic to use with Karl Sheppard is a simple 4-4-1-1, with the AF supported by an AP, the midfield and back four should be kept simple. Fluidity should be balanced, while using direct passing in a standard/attacking mentality. Your attack will mostly arise from your AP making a through ball for the striker/wingers, but the AP itself doesn't have to be good, I used a fairly functional Karl Hawley here and he was magic.
 
Thanks for the answer! Before I read this I won my next game away against top of the league Wycombe. I used counter with direct passing and high tempo, I ordered my defence to drop deep though because they had pacy strikers. I changed my regista to advanced playmaker on attack duty next to my Box to box midfielder and kept my anchor man just behind them. I changed my left winger to innerforward on support duty and kept my right winger as defensive winger on support. I also changed my left back to complete offensinve wingback but kept my right back as limited right back. Both my CD's are still limited defenders. I won the game 2-1 and their only chance was from a corner which they scored. My advanced playmaker got Man of the match with 8.30 rating and scored a goal. :) Hope this can continue I will try press higher as you said though and maybe attacking/standard for my upcoming game at home.
 
Last edited:
I've played four more games (3wins 1loss) I used press higher and offside trap and it seems to work really well at home but struggles with pacy strikers away, atleast so far. Next game is Oxford away and I have now brought in Gozie Ugwu on loan so I was thinking of changing to 4-4-2 and dropping deep, going for counterattacks with a direct, hightempo game.

I will pass ball into spaces and drill crosses now that I have two pacy strikers it should be very good, atleast in my mind. I was thinking of keeping Karl Sheppard as offensive forward and using Gozie Ugwu as complete forward on support duty since Gozie is both quick and strong.
 
poweriess said:
Ive noticed this on a few tactics now, on Sturridge he has a white rectangle next to his role whereas none else does, what is this? and how do you set it?
Click to expand...

Its means hes added that player to the player instructions list..

in this screen on the left hand side.. you can add instructions for when a player is in a certain position, helps set up sub roles pre game etc.

View attachment 565922
 
mwhitehorn07 said:
here is my attacking tactic.

I've never played below the English championship so I cant help ya on that last question.

View attachment 480852View attachment 480854
Click to expand...

This is a great way to set up alone forward with attack duty, I've do the similar thing repeatedly, it works great, but you need a number 10 behind him (AM-s, AP-S/A,Treq or Eganche). Best use AF or CF roles as they tend to be more involved in build up. You might also get away by playing AP-A on right or left flank if you don't want to use AMC. But I've never done that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top