Target man

[leboeuf]

Apologies if this should be in tactics section, but anyway...

does playing a lone target man ever work? my team has slow forwards, but have pretty good attributes as target men. ive made a tactic around what i had, and a few loaners. No money to buy.

playing a 4231 direct. Att wingers floating crosses from byline. An AMC on attack.

tactic is suprisingly playing nice enough football. My amc and wingers are chipping in with goals. My target man (on full att, no closing down, and low creative freedom) is doing a decent job in supplying passes, laying off etc. But is rarely in the middle when wingers are whipping crosses in.

anything i can do, or does a target man always need a partner?

cheers

 

[WJ]

Target men can work as lone strikers. You've not provided much info, so hard to tell you anything else.

 

[leboeuf]

cheers WJ
what other info would you need?

 

[ImAddicted]

Target men CAN work as lone forwards but it depends on the forward itself, and where the **** is the target man if he is not in the box??!

 

[WJ]

cheers WJ
what other info would you need?

What ImAddicted asked is the most important. Where is the target man? That's a major piece of info. Why is he not in the box? Are the wingers ahead of him? Does he have PPMs? Did he pull wide? Drop Deep? ??

A screenshot of your tactic and TIs would be good as well.

 

[leboeuf]

What ImAddicted asked is the most important. Where is the target man? That's a major piece of info. Why is he not in the box? Are the wingers ahead of him? Does he have PPMs? Did he pull wide? Drop Deep? ??

A screenshot of your tactic and TIs would be good as well.

thanks for your replies guys.
the target man seems deeper than id like when we attack. Doesnt really go wide. His wide play is set to normal. When the crosses come in he's often behind them. My two main strikers have pace of 12, and acceleration of 9 & 10. No PPM's for either.
The good thing is that my AMC is getting forward at least and scoring a few.
would changing the wingers to support help?

yeah, i know its FM11, but the question is still relevant...plus there's nobody to ask on the FM11 discussion now

hope the screenies help
cheers
View attachment 243915View attachment 243914

 

[WJ]

Your strikers are slow, so yeah, either move the wide men deeper or a support duty on one at least will help. It'll give the Target Man more time to get into the box.

Edit: Looking at your instructions, Attacking mentality and VERY direct play is contributing to the issue.

 

[leboeuf]

Your strikers are slow, so yeah, either move the wide men deeper or a support duty on one at least will help. It'll give the Target Man more time to get into the box.

Edit: Looking at your instructions, Attacking mentality and VERY direct play is contributing to the issue.

i'll try the wide men on support.
do you recommend i change the mentality or passing style?

 

[WJ]

i'll try the wide men on support.
do you recommend i change the mentality or passing style?

You decide. It's about how you want to play. At the moment, you're getting the ball forward VERY quickly to the wings and they're out-sprinting the target man. Don't just make wholesale changes. Make a change and see how it affects your play.

 

[leboeuf]

You decide. It's about how you want to play. At the moment, you're getting the ball forward VERY quickly to the wings and they're out-sprinting the target man. Don't just make wholesale changes. Make a change and see how it affects your play.

i wont make wholesale changes no. TBH, i really enjoy fm, to chill out (well, fm11 the best), but im rubbish at making tactics. Which is why i was surprised it was playing quite nicely so far. It was only the target man issue, that i needed a bit of help with, or suggested tweaks.
i love direct football. i dont like faffing about with hundreds of passes in midfield. get it up to the forwards or out to wingers to ping in crosses.
i'll try wingers on support, and maybe lower the tempo (im guessing the "VERY quickly" was a hint?)
cheers again. appreciate your time and help

 

[WJ]

Tempo will encourage players to hold the ball a bit longer, so they'll have more time to make a decision and you'll a slightly slower build-up play. That could help a little too.

The directness of passing is different to tempo. The VERY quickly, meant just that. You have an Attacking mentality, so players will attempt risky runs and passes. You have a quick tempo, which will encourage quick play as players won't hold onto the ball for very long. Above all, Attack mentality has direct passing as default (and it should be for FM11 still as well?) and you've increased that by asking the team to be more direct. The end result of all of this, is that the ball will be played forward very quickly.

 

[leboeuf]

Tempo will encourage players to hold the ball a bit longer, so they'll have more time to make a decision and you'll a slightly slower build-up play. That could help a little too.

The directness of passing is different to tempo. The VERY quickly, meant just that. You have an Attacking mentality, so players will attempt risky runs and passes. You have a quick tempo, which will encourage quick play as players won't hold onto the ball for very long. Above all, Attack mentality has direct passing as default (and it should be for FM11 still as well?) and you've increased that by asking the team to be more direct. The end result of all of this, is that the ball will be played forward very quickly.

i dropped the tempo a couple of notches, and made passing default. I won the next game 1-0. Target man wasnt involved that much, but neither was anybody really. Bit of a scrappy game. Its not gonna happen overnight, and the team are not yet fully competent with the tactic. I'll play some more games, and see what happens

cheers for the advice. top man!