Cross Aim to "Target Man"

Hello!

I can't figure this one out.

As you know, you can tick "Use Target Man" in Team Instructions to a specific player.

When you do this, none of the wingers nor fullbacks get the "Cross Aim: Target Man" setting.

But when you choose "Target Man Role" on one of your Strikers, the "Cross Aim"-setting on the Wingers change to "Target Man" instead of "Mixed".

My point is; the "Cross Aim" setting, is it tied to the tick box "Use Target Man" or the player on the pitch who has the "Target Man" as role?

It would make more sense if the "Cross Aim" would change to "Target Man" after you've selected a player in "Use Target man".

Right now the game selects "Cross Aim: Mixed" on the Wingers, even tho you've selected a Target Man inside Team Instructions.

Please someone, shed som light on this subject!

Thanks!

They're two very different things.

Using a target man in the team settings tells your team to look to get the ball up the pitch to your target man. They will look to pick him out with direct balls. The idea being that you tick "hold up ball" on the target man, whack the ball upfield to him to either knock it on or down, or to hold the ball up while other players get into more advanced positions. Think Allardyce or the ROI with Niall Quinn in a 4-3-3 (if you are old enough to remember that). Another alternative is using the run onto ball with fast strikers vs a high defensive line - you'll see long balls over the defence for your target man to run onto. This is similar to a playmaker in the sense that your target man will be expected to be involved in the game a lot, albeit in a different role from a playmaker. He's your outlet, so to speak.

Asking your players to cross to the target man is just that; when they cross, they will try to aim for the target man. This is irrespective of whether you have ticked use target man. This means that you can try to aim for your best header from crosses, without having the team lump the ball up to him all the time. Conversely, you might not want to always cross to your target man, especially if you are asking him to run onto the ball.

Edit: btw, this is really the wrong forum, try here for more insight into tactics: http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/18-Tactics-amp-Training-Discussion

I think it has to do with how the game understand the "target man" concept. When assigning a Target Man role to a player, that role fits a player that is good at holding the ball and has strength. Usually those players are tall (Crouch). If you don't have a Target Man role, ticking the "use target man" box can work for a pacy striker, by feeding him through balls. Usually these players are short and very fast (Walcott).

So, only the Target Man role directly implies a player that will a good aim for the crosses. That's my theory.

I've just thought of another good example of a target man (use target man option; not cross to). If you remember El Hadji Diouf playing for Senegal in the World Cup: he was (in FM terms) set as a target man with run onto ball and hold up ball. Whenever Senegal got the ball, they kicked the ball upfield for him to chase (with him being offside 50% of the time). When he got to the ball he then either ran straight at goal or held up the ball while the rest of the team raced upfield to help out (counter attack).

So essentially, as I understand it, you can have two Target Men?

The first one with "Target Man/Support" role (When you do this to a player, the wingers get "Cross Aim: Target Man".

The second one you have as "Poacher/Attack" role, and in Team Instructions you select this short and pacey striker with "Run onto ball".

Now; the crosses will go to "Target Man/Support" and the through balls will go to the Poacer with "Run onto ball"

Is this correct? It should be since "Cross aim" only changes AFTER you have selected a "Target Man role" for a player on the pitch, not by ticking the "Use targetman"!

i use a poacher as my main target man, balls played to feet and it seems to work very well, he is always my top scorer for the season so it says to me it works.

No, you can only have one target man. You can choose your target man by adding him to the list in the tactics screen (select "Target Men" from the drop-down list and drag the desired player to the list).

But you can choose whether to:

- Try to get the ball up to the target man quickly (tick "use target man")

- Cross the ball to the target man (select cross to "target man")

And you can do both. But only for one player.

So, unlike Senegal, you can only have 1 target man; Senegal would cross the ball to Papa Diop (who is 1.95 m tall), but used El Hadji Diouf as the target man to run onto ball. Unfortunately, this is something you cannot do in FM. So while you can add as many players as you like to the target man list in the tactics screen, only one will be used - the highest ranked target man (i.e. nearest the top of the list) on the pitch.

However, the Senegal example does explain why using a target man doesn't automatically make everyone cross to him (as mentioned in the first post) - there's no point crossing to El Hadji Diouf all the time when Papa Diop is in your team

You said, "So while you can add as many players as you like to the target man list in the tactics screen, only one will be used - the highest ranked target man (i.e. nearest the top of the list) on the pitch."

That is not in FM 2011, thats from 2008 or 2009 and previous versions before this new interface.

My point is; when you select a "Primary Targetman", the "Cross Aim" on all players still is "Mixed". But when you select the ROLE "Target Man/Support" for a player, only then does it change to "Cross to: Targetman".

Let say I have a player on "Complete Forward/Attack", and i put him as "Primary Target Man" and "Supply to Head" under Team Instructions.

Will the wingers cross to his head? Or do i have to, manually overide the wingers "Cross Aim" to "Target Man" instead of "Mixed"? Because it only changes itself when i acctually choose the role "Target Man" for a player.

Anyone from SI maybe; Is the "Cross Aim: Target Man" connected to the "Primary Targetman" inside Team instructions or is it bound to the player with the role "Target man"? It should be the one who have to role on the pitch, because just when you give someone the role "Target man" the setting changes to "Cross Aim: Target Man"

Thanks!

*Edit* Ok, what if i put crosses to Float in Team Instructions and use a "Primary Target man" with supply to head?

The wingers will get "Cross Aim: Centre" with this setting. I can't get my head around this...

no will you have to manually adjust that, it will only default if you play a target man by player role.

Anyone from SI maybe; Is the "Cross Aim: Target Man" connected to the "Primary Targetman" inside Team instructions or is it bound to the player with the role "Target man"? It should be the one who have to role on the pitch, because just when you give someone the role "Target man" the setting changes to "Cross Aim: Target Man"

Thanks!

*Edit* Ok, what if i put crosses to Float in Team Instructions and use a "Primary Target man" with supply to head?

The wingers will get "Cross Aim: Centre" with this setting. I can't get my head around this...

"Cross aim: target man" aims at the player set as the primary target man. I don't really have time to explain the ins and outs, but the roles are a layer on top that change settings underneath rather than actually being settings themselves. However, the "primary target man" bit is a setting in itself.

Players don't "know" what their roles are, but they do "know" who the target man is.

As for your edit- I think this changes depending on the role of your wingers. I can't explain why it would ever be "centre" ahead of "target man" for the wingers though

What SCIAG says. The roles are just ways of making the same settings as previously, without having to set up players individually. But you can go to the old version (classic). Do that, if you're confused by the new interface. You can make your settings, and then convert the tactic to classic, if you want to see what's going on without continually having to switch between the two.