Help Building a Tactic for a Lone Striker

[Manjus]

I’ve attempted to build a tactic to focus on my striker scoring lots of goals (I see the 1k challenges and think it’s so cool), but it’s just not working out. Sometimes he’ll score every game for x amount of games, or nab 3 or 4 in a great game, then go 2-3 without anyone in my whole team doing anything...

any help with my tactic would be great... 

(sorry for pictures being in the wrong order)

[Ian]

Looks like a decent system, there’s probably a lot of ways to get that formation to work and I guess it’s just a question of testing different roles and settings until you get what you think is the best tactic. 

I had a system that I’ve used in the past that isn’t a million miles away from yours and your defensive instructions match what I’m currently using on my new system. 

I personally prefer the FB’s moved up to the WB position as I find that doesn’t hinder you defensively but offers a lot more offensively. I prefer them as wing backs when I’ve got three midfielders from the CM to DM position but you could even try them as IWB’s and maybe push one of your midfielders up to the AM position as I’ve done successfully in the past. There’s plenty of little things you could test. In terms of instructions I’ve never moved away from short passing and normal tempo on any of my goalscoring set ups since about March time but that’s just because I haven’t bothered to test the other settings. My mainstay for final third instructions was WBIB and Through Ball but I’ve since tested things more and taking the Through Ball off was much much better on two of my systems so I’m just going WBIB at the moment. I’ve never used any other striker role other than poacher on recent 1k sets ups as I’ve had success going that way but I have no doubt others will work also. 

Other non tactical things you could try is hiring three fitness coaches as it’ll only take a minute or two at the start of the save to set up and will if combined with top facilities result in nearly all of you squad having nearly maxed out physical attributes in a few years which will help tremendously. 

Also you can use player interaction to improve your strikers morale when it drops as low morale really hinders his finishing ability. I’ve found the current form one has worked on all of the strikers I’ve used but there are two types of praise, one public and one private. Anyway one will improve the players morale and the other will drop it but thing is once you find which one is the correct one for your player then you’re sorted as it rarely changes, well hasn’t for me anyway. Your coach will recommend one type but don’t be surprised if that is the wrong one as has been the case for me plenty of times. It’s boring I know but these little things help and it doesn’t take much effort to keep an eye on his morale and if it drops to below good then having a way to increase it in seconds is always a good tool to have.

Anyway that’s some tips from me from the perspective of how I play, others will have different views as there are plenty of ways to play and be successful.

[Manjus]

45 minutes ago, Ian said:

Looks like a decent system, there’s probably a lot of ways to get that formation to work and I guess it’s just a question of testing different roles and settings until you get what you think is the best tactic. 

I had a system that I’ve used in the past that isn’t a million miles away from yours and your defensive instructions match what I’m currently using on my new system. 

I personally prefer the FB’s moved up to the WB position as I find that doesn’t hinder you defensively but offers a lot more offensively. I prefer them as wing backs when I’ve got three midfielders from the CM to DM position but you could even try them as IWB’s and maybe push one of your midfielders up to the AM position as I’ve done successfully in the past. There’s plenty of little things you could test. In terms of instructions I’ve never moved away from short passing and normal tempo on any of my goalscoring set ups since about March time but that’s just because I haven’t bothered to test the other settings. My mainstay for final third instructions was WBIB and Through Ball but I’ve since tested things more and taking the Through Ball off was much much better on two of my systems so I’m just going WBIB at the moment. I’ve never used any other striker role other than poacher on recent 1k sets ups as I’ve had success going that way but I have no doubt others will work also. 

Other non tactical things you could try is hiring three fitness coaches as it’ll only take a minute or two at the start of the save to set up and will if combined with top facilities result in nearly all of you squad having nearly maxed out physical attributes in a few years which will help tremendously. 

Also you can use player interaction to improve your strikers morale when it drops as low morale really hinders his finishing ability. I’ve found the current form one has worked on all of the strikers I’ve used but there are two types of praise, one public and one private. Anyway one will improve the players morale and the other will drop it but thing is once you find which one is the correct one for your player then you’re sorted as it rarely changes, well hasn’t for me anyway. Your coach will recommend one type but don’t be surprised if that is the wrong one as has been the case for me plenty of times. It’s boring I know but these little things help and it doesn’t take much effort to keep an eye on his morale and if it drops to below good then having a way to increase it in seconds is always a good tool to have.

Anyway that’s some tips from me from the perspective of how I play, others will have different views as there are plenty of ways to play and be successful.

@Ian - Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed reply.

First off it's good to know that I'm potentially not too far off the mark from having a good tactic for my lone striker. Currently my defensive form is best in the league by far but it was my understanding that having both wingers and wing-backs is overkill? I've never attempted to use inverted wing-backs as they didn't seem to fit into my previous tactics, but looking at them now, that could be a fair shout. I just worry when my 'fullbacks' aren't inline with my defenders, like i am going to start leaking goals or something...

You don't think early crossing is worthwhile? Seemed like a no brainer if supplying a striker, but then maybe that's why i'm not scoring loads of goals. ha.

When you say move the AP forward to the AM position, do you still mean to leave him as an AP, or change to the AM role?

With three fitness coaches do you not suffer elsewhere on the pitch? Also, player interaction is something i try to do a lot for low morale players, glad it's not just me.

Again, thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to try them all for a few games and see if anything improves.

Cheers,

Edited October 7, 2019 by Manjus
AP/AM clarificaion

[Ian]

11 minutes ago, Manjus said:

@Ian - Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed reply.

First off it's good to know that I'm potentially not too far off the mark from having a good tactic for my lone striker. Currently my defensive form is best in the league by far but it was my understanding that having both wingers and wing-backs is overkill? I've never attempted to use inverted wing-backs as they didn't seem to fit into my previous tactics, but looking at them now, that could be a fair shout. I just worry when my 'fullbacks' aren't inline with my defenders, like i am going to start leaking goals or something...

You don't think early crossing is worthwhile? Seemed like a no brainer if supplying a striker, but then maybe that's why i'm not scoring loads of goals. ha.

When you say move the AP forward to the AM position, do you still mean to leave him as an AP, or change to the AM role?

With three fitness coaches do you not suffer elsewhere on the pitch? Also, player interaction is something i try to do a lot for low morale players, glad it's not just me.

Again, thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to try them all for a few games and see if anything improves.

Cheers,

I had the same thoughts on IWB’s but it doesn’t seem to play out like that. I still keep right footer on right and left footer on left and find you still get the early crosses but more power in midfield. I use them on my current goalscoring tactic with two BBM’s in midfield and an AP at AM position but AM role may work just as well tbh as I just haven’t tested it. I like the player at AP to have a fairly high number for teamwork, passing, creativity and decisions. I do concede more goals than I did with my other system but score a lot more with the right players. I normally like one BPD and one CD in defence although I prefer both to have decent attributes of say 10 plus for technique, passing and dribbling if possible. 

Early cross could be great but I find you still get plenty with it not selected so I just leave it up to the players. Might try that at some point on the new game. 

Each individual coach doesn’t make a load of difference as each one just has a slight effect on the players depending their specialisation so trebling up on certain ones can be used to good effect. I normally make myself an attacking coach and then have one more attacking coach and the three fitness coaches as mentioned. The players will still develop their defensive attributes ok but hopefully the doubling and trebling up on the attacking and fitness coaches will improve the players in those areas more significantly. Since the winter update players fitness has taken a hit and doing this really improves the players stamina I find which can really mitigate against that but it’ll probably take a seasons or two to really kick in.

With your original tactic I personally prefer one DLP in the middle two BBM’s but have been meaning to try other roles and will do at some point.

[broodje kip]

@Ian 

I don't think that the AM is a great role especially when using someone like Zaniolo who loves long shots

About the WBs I found no difference between both position defendsively but pushing them forward does help offensively. I even once conceded 12 goals with 2 BPDs and 2 WBs

[Scratch]

I use a tactic that isn't too far off that one. I agree with almost everything that @Ian said, especially praising the player (I try to keep the whole team with high morale, but especially the striker) and the 3 fitness coaches (I also have 1 attacking and make myself motivational). 

I play with a striker with Aerial of 20 and Wingers and Wing Backs who are great at crossing. You would think that Early Crosses would make sense (or even Look For Overlap) and you'd probably expect that focusing passing Down Both Flanks would lead to more crosses coming in... And you might be tempted to play Direct and get it into the striker without mucking around. That all makes sense right?

But when I try those, I get less goals than when I turn them all off and have passing focus of Mixed and a Short passing style (and Run At Defence and Work Into Box). The vast majority of goals still come from crosses from the flanks, but if you *try* to play that way it doesn't seem to work (at least for me). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For Shape, I go: Defensive, Narrow, Normal, Expressive. If I'm playing against 4 4 2 or 4 1 4 1 or I'm just losing, I will often switch to Attacking, Normal, Normal, Expressive (and turn the first 3 Defence ones all the way up), but counter intuitively, my striker scores more goals with Defensive. I think it's because the midfielders etc stay back a bit further, whereas with Attacking they push forward and start taking goals off the striker. 

My Defence screen is the same as yours (except when I'm behind as explained above).

There's a bunch of other stuff that goes into it: It works a LOT better once you upgrade all your players to world class! 🙂 You have to watch the freshness of the player when they are young (make sure they don't have Slightly Tired, sub them when they hit 80 etc). You have to get them Aerial 20 asap. Young players are flakey at times anyway, they get more consistent as they get older. etc.

Oh forgot to mention my formation: WB CB CB WB | CM AP CM | LW RW | AF

I sometimes try more attacking formations, but generally come back to this one as being the best at getting goals for my striker. Others will get me more goals overall, but not as many for my striker.

I used have CM DLP AP in midfield, but found the DLP less effective this year. And they get lower ratings, which means they don't train up very well (I generally have youngsters all over). BBM has worked well before, but they get more goals than AP for me for some reason. CMs seem to be good general players this year.

I used to have at least one BPD down the back, but doesn't seem to be necessary for me right now. Maybe not having them means the WBs play the ball out, taking the ball to the flanks, which is why I get more crosses than you'd expect for the tactic? Maybe with a BPD it would go through the middle more? I don't know. I have seen quite a few goals where the WB passes to the Winger, or passes it in field to a midfield who then passes back out to the wing. But that might just be coincidence...

[Manjus]

2 hours ago, Ian said:

I had the same thoughts on IWB’s but it doesn’t seem to play out like that. I still keep right footer on right and left footer on left and find you still get the early crosses but more power in midfield. I use them on my current goalscoring tactic with two BBM’s in midfield and an AP at AM position but AM role may work just as well tbh as I just haven’t tested it. I like the player at AP to have a fairly high number for teamwork, passing, creativity and decisions. I do concede more goals than I did with my other system but score a lot more with the right players. I normally like one BPD and one CD in defence although I prefer both to have decent attributes of say 10 plus for technique, passing and dribbling if possible. 

Early cross could be great but I find you still get plenty with it not selected so I just leave it up to the players. Might try that at some point on the new game. 

Each individual coach doesn’t make a load of difference as each one just has a slight effect on the players depending their specialisation so trebling up on certain ones can be used to good effect. I normally make myself an attacking coach and then have one more attacking coach and the three fitness coaches as mentioned. The players will still develop their defensive attributes ok but hopefully the doubling and trebling up on the attacking and fitness coaches will improve the players in those areas more significantly. Since the winter update players fitness has taken a hit and doing this really improves the players stamina I find which can really mitigate against that but it’ll probably take a seasons or two to really kick in.

With your original tactic I personally prefer one DLP in the middle two BBM’s but have been meaning to try other roles and will do at some point.

@Ian Moving the AP up the pitch has increased the number of shots my Striker has had, but also the amount of shots that the AP had... It's hard to say whether the IWBs have had much of an effect, contributions on the pitch seem similar to FBs, but I'll persevere. As for BPD, for me, I don't really like the risk ^_^

Early crossing just seemed like it would help, but as Scratch said below... perhaps it doesn't help?

Again, Scratch has made the same point about the coaches, so maybe I'll stock up on the fitness guys!

I did try two BBMs behind the AP for 10 matches and they seem to be having a few cheeky shots. Passing has gone up alot, but overall possession seems to be down? Maybe thats just because of the players I have.

36 minutes ago, Scratch said:

I use a tactic that isn't too far off that one. I agree with almost everything that @Ian said, especially praising the player (I try to keep the whole team with high morale, but especially the striker) and the 3 fitness coaches (I also have 1 attacking and make myself motivational). 

I play with a striker with Aerial of 20 and Wingers and Wing Backs who are great at crossing. You would think that Early Crosses would make sense (or even Look For Overlap) and you'd probably expect that focusing passing Down Both Flanks would lead to more crosses coming in... And you might be tempted to play Direct and get it into the striker without mucking around. That all makes sense right?

But when I try those, I get less goals than when I turn them all off and have passing focus of Mixed and a Short passing style (and Run At Defence and Work Into Box). The vast majority of goals still come from crosses from the flanks, but if you *try* to play that way it doesn't seem to work (at least for me). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For Shape, I go: Defensive, Narrow, Normal, Expressive. If I'm playing against 4 4 2 or 4 1 4 1 or I'm just losing, I will often switch to Attacking, Normal, Normal, Expressive (and turn the first 3 Defence ones all the way up), but counter intuitively, my striker scores more goals with Defensive. I think it's because the midfielders etc stay back a bit further, whereas with Attacking they push forward and start taking goals off the striker. 

My Defence screen is the same as yours (except when I'm behind as explained above).

There's a bunch of other stuff that goes into it: It works a LOT better once you upgrade all your players to world class! 🙂 You have to watch the freshness of the player when they are young (make sure they don't have Slightly Tired, sub them when they hit 80 etc). You have to get them Aerial 20 asap. Young players are flakey at times anyway, they get more consistent as they get older. etc.

Oh forgot to mention my formation: WB CB CB WB | CM AP CM | LW RW | AF

I sometimes try more attacking formations, but generally come back to this one as being the best at getting goals for my striker. Others will get me more goals overall, but not as many for my striker.

I used have CM DLP AP in midfield, but found the DLP less effective this year. And they get lower ratings, which means they don't train up very well (I generally have youngsters all over). BBM has worked well before, but they get more goals than AP for me for some reason. CMs seem to be good general players this year.

I used to have at least one BPD down the back, but doesn't seem to be necessary for me right now. Maybe not having them means the WBs play the ball out, taking the ball to the flanks, which is why I get more crosses than you'd expect for the tactic? Maybe with a BPD it would go through the middle more? I don't know. I have seen quite a few goals where the WB passes to the Winger, or passes it in field to a midfield who then passes back out to the wing. But that might just be coincidence...

@Scratch 3 fitness seems to be the way to go, based on yourself and Ian, so I'll implement that.

Currently I'm messing around with Juventus/Ronaldo, so i'm thinking I'm okay stat wise for my striker. But yes, having early cross/etc had me assuming more delivery for the AF, but you've just highlighted the fact that this isn't always the case so perhaps I'll have a run without the focus. I ask you the same question as Ian... is having WB and Wingers not overkill? Aren't they doing the same job?

Playing defensive does make sense, as everyone should be shooting less except the striker.

Atleast my tactical formation is the same as yours... perhaps I will bring my AP back in line again and swap the DLP to a CM, because like you've mentioned, they get really low ratings (even my Anchorman in another game does better).

Like you, I'm not a fan of Ball Playing Defenders and will likely stick with CDs...

Cheers,

[Scratch]

45 minutes ago, Manjus said:

I ask you the same question as Ian... is having WB and Wingers not overkill? Aren't they doing the same job?

Doesn't seem to be. I guess if you play with an IF, the WB would push on up into the W area when the IF cuts in, but with the W in front of them they stay back a bit. I get a lot of goals like this (somehow stuffed up the recording, so different sizes):

Spoiler

So the WB starts the move, then either passes on to the W or passes inside, with it then coming back out to the W. In FMM18 and earlier, I used to get the WBs crossing themselves more often, but not so much this time, they normally pass it on and cross less themselves.

Actually, thinking about it now, maybe it's not that FMM19 is different, it might be they are crossing less now that I am using short passing and work into the box etc... 

Either way, it's working pretty well for me. 🙂

[Manjus]

16 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Doesn't seem to be. I guess if you play with an IF, the WB would push on up into the W area when the IF cuts in, but with the W in front of them they stay back a bit. I get a lot of goals like this (somehow stuffed up the recording, so different sizes):

  Hide contents

So the WB starts the move, then either passes on to the W or passes inside, with it then coming back out to the W. In FMM18 and earlier, I used to get the WBs crossing themselves more often, but not so much this time, they normally pass it on and cross less themselves.

Actually, thinking about it now, maybe it's not that FMM19 is different, it might be they are crossing less now that I am using short passing and work into the box etc... 

Either way, it's working pretty well for me. 🙂

I see what you mean, and after testing a few of your ideas myself I have seen that too (what you just posted). I changed my guys to the CM/AP/CM and wow... both CMs are getting 70+ passes a game, with 100+ not being uncommon. Most of my assists are coming from the AP as well, I would never have thought that such a small change would make this much of a difference  

I continue to try different variations on the final third commands so goal amount is varying and the Striker is currently hitting a goal a game on average.

[Scratch]

8 hours ago, Manjus said:

I see what you mean, and after testing a few of your ideas myself I have seen that too (what you just posted). I changed my guys to the CM/AP/CM and wow... both CMs are getting 70+ passes a game, with 100+ not being uncommon. Most of my assists are coming from the AP as well, I would never have thought that such a small change would make this much of a difference  

I continue to try different variations on the final third commands so goal amount is varying and the Striker is currently hitting a goal a game on average.

Let us know how you get on. 

For me I get almost no assists from my AP, they mostly come from the wingers, but I think that's down to my choice of players. My AP is getting good, but still not as good at his role as my wingers are. And with that Aerial of 20, it's not hard for the Wingers to plop the ball on my strikers head. I have had other saves with this tactic where the AP did get a lot more assists, but that was with a better AP.

My CMs don't get quite as many passes as yours do, but once again they aren't quite top class yet.

Just goes to show that a tactic works differently depending on the players on the field.

 

[Manjus]

10 hours ago, Scratch said:

Let us know how you get on. 

For me I get almost no assists from my AP, they mostly come from the wingers, but I think that's down to my choice of players. My AP is getting good, but still not as good at his role as my wingers are. And with that Aerial of 20, it's not hard for the Wingers to plop the ball on my strikers head. I have had other saves with this tactic where the AP did get a lot more assists, but that was with a better AP.

My CMs don't get quite as many passes as yours do, but once again they aren't quite top class yet.

Just goes to show that a tactic works differently depending on the players on the field.

 

@Scratch It’s not gone well for me... decided to put some of the ideas both you and @Ian gave me, whilst also tweaking if it wasn’t working, but, although I ended up 4th in the league, my goals were also the lowest. I think less than 20 in as many games, cups and Europe was marginally better... I think I had 50% draws of which most were 0-0? Perhaps I just need to keep tweaking the settings and trying different players, I was thinking of moving AP forward as well...

by the way, I was sacked before February ^_^ 

I’ll keep trying different combinations of what you guys have said previously and I’m sure it’ll work out eventually... or maybe the premier league isn’t the best place to try these things heh.

[FuddledFox]

2 hours ago, Manjus said:

@Scratch It’s not gone well for me... decided to put some of the ideas both you and @Ian gave me, whilst also tweaking if it wasn’t working, but, although I ended up 4th in the league, my goals were also the lowest. I think less than 20 in as many games, cups and Europe was marginally better... I think I had 50% draws of which most were 0-0? Perhaps I just need to keep tweaking the settings and trying different players, I was thinking of moving AP forward as well...

by the way, I was sacked before February ^_^ 

I’ll keep trying different combinations of what you guys have said previously and I’m sure it’ll work out eventually... or maybe the premier league isn’t the best place to try these things heh.

You have no movement in the midfield imo as the CM will just sit in the central areas but rarely look to get forward and stretch the opposition. 
Might be worth changing one or both CMs to BBMs and seeing if you break teams down more. Just make sure you have midfielders with some pace and stamina along with good technicals and teamwork for that role.

Mentality looks a bit off to me as well set as defensive but with then the short passing as I think you are going to end up playing more in your own half and not looking to get the ball forward. I would say you want Minimum a control mentality or maybe attacking if you have a top squad.

[Manjus]

13 minutes ago, Foxy said:

You have no movement in the midfield imo as the CM will just sit in the central areas but rarely look to get forward and stretch the opposition. 
Might be worth changing one or both CMs to BBMs and seeing if you break teams down more. Just make sure you have midfielders with some pace and stamina along with good technicals and teamwork for that role.

Mentality looks a bit off to me as well set as defensive but with then the short passing as I think you are going to end up playing more in your own half and not looking to get the ball forward. I would say you want Minimum a control mentality or maybe attacking if you have a top squad.

@Foxy when I’ve used BBMs before they seem to take a lot of shots? So I wonder if using attacking and BBMs is going to subtract from the goals that my striker scores... I agree that CMs have stunted the midfield a bit as they always get like 100+ passing. It seems my failings are mainly in the final third.

ill have some matches with BBMs instead of CMs though... it’s pretty fun to see the changes

[FuddledFox]

It might be that you find two BBM too many but it worth a try.

As for them scoring they will get a few but make sure you use players with higher passing, creativity and teamwork but lower shooting as they are less inclined to have a pop. The way I see it though is so long as your striker is getting the number of goals you need him to it doesn’t matter if the rest of the team get a few as well.

[Scratch]

@Manjus Yeah, it really comes down to trying some of these options and seeing which ones actually work for your players etc. And yeah, it's a lot of fun (and frustration!) to play around with stuff until it's working. You can see that @Ian @Foxy and myself have different approaches and they all work pretty well for us, but not necessarily for other people. 

The two CMs work great for me as they sit in the midfield and pass it on. I tend to get lots of those goals I GIF'd above: WB getting forward, passes into CM sitting in midfield, who passes it right back out to the winger who puts it on the striker's head. So I don't care if the CMs sit in midfield. That's their job. Sit there and pass it on. The AP and the two wingers will get forward enough for my needs. I do sometime push the AP up a level if I'm chasing the game, but not normally. I found passing focus of both flanks doesn't work for some reason, but run at defence and work into box do for some reason.

I will say that my tactic works great *for me* when the team is stronger, but at the very start of the save, I'm drawing games and losing the odd one too, even with Celtic. The striker is still scoring most of the goals though. I have used it in the EPL as well, but in this years game the striker gets off to a slower start than in Scotland. Once they level up a bit they start scoring more though.

But yeah, just keep trying stuff until you find something that works for you.

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

Mentality looks a bit off to me as well set as defensive but with then the short passing as I think you are going to end up playing more in your own half and not looking to get the ball forward.

@Foxy LOL, I suggested that. 😄 It's counter intuitive, but Defensive works really well for me. I don't get so many team goals as otherwise, but the striker gets more. Especially with short passing and work into the box. Basically, the midfield sit back a bit further and pass it in to the striker. With Attacking, they get forward more and decide "what the heck, I can take a shot from here". For some reason though, that doesn't work against 4 4 2 or 4 1 4 1, so I do switch to attacking sometimes.

[broodje kip]

After watching this thread I've realized that I've used way different setup than most of you guys 😂

I mostly use 2 BPDs, 2 BBMs, 1 CM, 1 AP, 1 W and a Poacher

BPDs and the CMs make some balance in the midfield during attack while BBMs could go abit forward without need to worry about any void left at the back. About them getting goals aren't my priority as I had my philosophy which "If you let people score for you, they'll let you score for them"

Wingers and AP does the assisting job mostly

The setup of defendsive are pretty much the same for me just deep line (I have only 2 CD so I don't want to be to far away from the GK) while the attack are work into the box and through ball, short passing and mixed focus. Mentallity mostly attacking, ballance, normal and balance sometimes slow and control when I'm not the favourite

 

[Scratch]

1 minute ago, Lord Danish said:

After watching this thread I've realized that I've used way different setup than most of you guys 😂

This thread highlights the greatness of both the game and of Vibe! So many different ways of making things work and a really good discussion on it. 😄

I used to have almost the same formation as you (with the BPDs, BBMs, etc) in FMM18, but switched things around this year. Lots of different ways to score goals.

[FuddledFox]

11 minutes ago, Scratch said:

This thread highlights the greatness of both the game and of Vibe! So many different ways of making things work and a really good discussion on it. 😄

That’s the truth, as I would never play defensive and I’m not sure except for a little experiment tactic that I have used any mentality below control on either 19 or 18 tbh. I would also never in a lone goalscorer tactic not have a DLP in my team, I would never use a BPD and I almost always use a player in DM as I don’t care about low AvR so long as the results are as I need them to be.

[Scratch]

I just checked the goals in my current season and out of 128 goals, 85 have been scored by the player in the lone striker position (I've included all players who play in that position as they don't play in any other position).

That's 66% of goals going to the striker.

Out of interest, what are the rest of you getting?

[Ian]

On my Kean current save where I’m ahead of posting and he’s rather old my team have scored 131 goals by early February and 59 have been scored from the striker position. So about 45% I think but bare in mind Kean is washed up and I’m still playing him in plenty of games where a lot of goals now go to other players. With checking this I’ve noticed my young back up striker who’s now 24 has scored 38 in 19 games which is a better gpg than Kean ever managed over a season.

I don’t think I can check the earlier seasons as I haven’t got screenshots of the back up strikers.

[Scratch]

4 minutes ago, Ian said:

On my Kean current save where I’m ahead of posting and he’s rather old my team have scored 131 goals by early February and 59 have been scored from the striker position. So about 45% I think but bare in mind Kean is washed up and I’m still playing him in plenty of games where a lot of goals now go to other players. With checking this I’ve noticed my young back up striker who’s now 24 has scored 38 in 19 games which is a better gpg than Kean ever managed over a season.

I don’t think I can check the earlier seasons as I haven’t got screenshots of the back up strikers.

Yeah, he's slowing down just a tad! I don't think we can compare that situation with what it would have been when he was in his prime. A pity as I really have no idea of what's normal or good and I'm really curious about it now!

[BatiGoal]

On 08/10/2019 at 17:04, Manjus said:

I'll keep trying different combinations of what you guys have said previously and I’m sure it’ll work out eventually... or maybe the premier league isn’t the best place to try these things heh.

I can't say for sure but it seems to me that this year's version, at least compared to the previous ones, is either more sensitive to tweaks in general or the match settings have become more influential. As an example, I'm using a 3-4-3 (flat midfield) with control mentality, short passing, fast tempo, expressive creative freedom, Defensive line and width balanced, closing down all over + SWkeeper, and no final third options. Works really well, as soon as I go attacking ment. it becomes inconsistent. A single tiny tweak with huge impact, like a house of cards 😂 I then lower the defensive line, turn the creative freedom down a notch to instill more discipline and heal the leakiness that creeps in.. but that's what a single tweak can do. Well, to this specific formation. But it's happened before so don't get disheartened when things aren't working (yet) cause you may feel you're far and not making any progress to finding a perfect formation but truth is you may be very close too. As I've told many many people before you, especially those who've never created a tactic of their own, one needs patience. LOTS of it. 😌

[Ashc123]

I also find it incredibly frustrating. I cannot seem to get a striker to score a decent amount of goals. I have started around 4-5 careers and going about 3/4 seasons into each of these. Being successful isn’t a problem as I seem to win games and trophies however, no matter what tactic or tweaks I am making my striker just DOESN'T score! Not a decent amount anyhow. On my recent career with Dortmund I only conceded 8 goals in a season.... but I only scored 65. This was with a very attacking set up. I haven’t tried 3 at the back yet, I notice the comment above mine. I have never had any real success with 3 at the back (I’ve played management games from championship manager 99 on the ps1!!) maybe I need to be more experimental rather than a flat back 4. 

[broodje kip]

Hey @Ashc123

3-atb seems to actually be very impressive for me this year eventhough you need to tweak some of the defendsive players role but the results are insane for example here is my Vibe Community A-Z challenge

Spoiler

As you can see won the league conceeding only 8 and scored 98 while Rashford got 49 goals for himself (Shame he couldn't head the ball in )

My guys looks like this

GK

BPD L BPD

WB WB

BBM CM BBM

AP

P

I actually forgot the instruction but you can PM me if needed 😉

[Schwantz34]

5 hours ago, Lord Danish said:

Hey @Ashc123

3-atb seems to actually be very impressive for me this year eventhough you need to tweak some of the defendsive players role but the results are insane for example here is my Vibe Community A-Z challenge

  Hide contents

As you can see won the league conceeding only 8 and scored 98 while Rashford got 49 goals for himself (Shame he couldn't head the ball in )

My guys looks like this

GK

BPD L BPD

WB WB

BBM CM BBM

AP

P

I actually forgot the instruction but you can PM me if needed 😉

That's very impressive!

[Ian]

We’ve covered a lot in here about different tactical approaches which is great but one thing I’d like to add is the importance of setting your corner taker. 

I’m not totally sure that this is the best way to go as just sorting your players based on their crossing ability might be the best way but I personally look at each players coaching report and select them based on that. 

This guy below has on his report that he “can deliver a good corner” so he’s an obvious choice as a potential corner taker.

There’s a couple more such as:

• “Expert at dead ball situations” which I think means they are good at corners, free kicks and penalties. 
• “Good at set pieces” which I think means they are good at corners and free kicks but not necessarily penalties. 

Anyway, I look for these throughout my squad when it comes to selecting my corner takers. Generally I’ll go for my lone striker as both penalty and free kick taker and look for the traits above when deciding my corner takers.

Just thought I’d mention this as I’ve had the odd discussion over PM where I’ve mentioned corner takers and a few have said that they never even select them and I’m absolutely sure it make a big difference. 

[MikeF]

Corner takers make a huge difference. The right corner taker will get an assist per game minimum with a striker good in the air. 
 

Obviously (and probably mentioned before) make sure your striker is on free kicks and pens no matter how poor they may be as that’ll help rack up goals. 
 

I found that an AP behind the striker scored too many goals for 1k challenge so usually favoured an AM in that position. Worth experimenting with. They’re a bit more rigid (not free role like AP?) so will stay in position more. I have AP for normal careers where it doesn’t matter who scores. 

[Scratch]

Yeah +1 to setting both corner takers using the coaches report and to setting your striker on pens and free kicks as mentioned above by @Ian and @MikeF

[Scratch]

On 09/10/2019 at 01:11, Scratch said:

I just checked the goals in my current season and out of 128 goals, 85 have been scored by the player in the lone striker position (I've included all players who play in that position as they don't play in any other position).

That's 66% of goals going to the striker.

Out of interest, what are the rest of you getting?

So I tracked 8 games in detail and have some further stats for my Defensive 4 3 2 1 tactic, which I described up yonder. I played that tactic all the way through every game - there were 3 games where I had to change tactic to my game chaser one, but I left those out of this as that immediately distorts the results. 

There were 5 Home games and 3 Away games. Mostly Scottish Premier League, though a few Champions League games in there too (not hard ones though). Here are some stats:

	Shots	On Target	Goals
Own Goal	N/A	N/A	1
WBs	1	1	0
CBs	6	2	2
CMs	6	1	2
AP	10	6	2
Wingers	14	4	2
Striker	59	32	21
TOTAL	96	46	30

So the striker got 61% of the shots, 69% of the shots on target and 70% of the goals. It's worth pointing out that 2 of those were from penalties and 3 were from corners.

Of the other 9 goals, 2 were from passes from a free kick (taken by the striker), 4 were scrambled goals from rebounds, and of course there was the own goal. That leaves 1 goal from the AP (assist from CM) and 1 goal from a CB (from a corner) as the only two goals where I could possibly be angry at the player for taking the striker's goal. 🙂

I'm sure with other tactics I'd probably score more than 30 goals in 8 games (I have a really good team in a weak league), but this tactic makes sure that the lion's share goes to the striker. I've played around with other things, but keep coming back to this as I can't get as many goals for the striker.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting and worth sharing. I'd be fascinated to see how that compares with the tactics others use (if anyone has any info).

[Ashc123]

5 hours ago, Scratch said:

So I tracked 8 games in detail and have some further stats for my Defensive 4 3 2 1 tactic, which I described up yonder. I played that tactic all the way through every game - there were 3 games where I had to change tactic to my game chaser one, but I left those out of this as that immediately distorts the results. 

There were 5 Home games and 3 Away games. Mostly Scottish Premier League, though a few Champions League games in there too (not hard ones though). Here are some stats:

	Shots	On Target	Goals
Own Goal	N/A	N/A	1
WBs	1	1	0
CBs	6	2	2
CMs	6	1	2
AP	10	6	2
Wingers	14	4	2
Striker	59	32	21
TOTAL	96	46	30

So the striker got 61% of the shots, 69% of the shots on target and 70% of the goals. It's worth pointing out that 2 of those were from penalties and 3 were from corners.

Of the other 9 goals, 2 were from passes from a free kick (taken by the striker), 4 were scrambled goals from rebounds, and of course there was the own goal. That leaves 1 goal from the AP (assist from CM) and 1 goal from a CB (from a corner) as the only two goals where I could possibly be angry at the player for taking the striker's goal. 🙂

I'm sure with other tactics I'd probably score more than 30 goals in 8 games (I have a really good team in a weak league), but this tactic makes sure that the lion's share goes to the striker. I've played around with other things, but keep coming back to this as I can't get as many goals for the striker.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting and worth sharing. I'd be fascinated to see how that compares with the tactics others use (if anyone has any info).

That’s a lot of goals to be playing defensive in my opinion. What’s your team looking like? Are they all world class or is it a fairly new career?