Is there a point in playing old-school #9 strikers?

I've been wondering...

Considering FM11's Match Engine seems to give an insane edge to players with great pace and acceleration, is there a point in going for a traditional Big Man striker?

Be it the UK 80s style, the Egil Olsen system or the lower-league "pump the ball in the box and something will happen", is it actually a profitable way of setting up your team, or is it going to flop, as your Target Man will be outpaced by totally average defenders?

Usually I don't ever buy strikers wil acceleration and pace below 15 (unless they have a deadly finishing+composure combo), and the few times I've had "aerial oriented" strikers they struggled to score consistently even though I tried to adjust my style of play. (I did use wingers, so crosses weren't a problem)

Moreso, doesn't pace become ever so important in lower leagues where technique is generally lower and it's a matter of whoever gets first to the ball?

What's your experience on the subject?

Works for me.

Here's is my "big guy":

In his first season, I played him as a modern stiker, didn't change my formation to fit him in. He was simply a deep-lying forward.

The results were disappointing. Only 6 league goals, but with a decent amount of assists.

Season two, I decided I wanted more from him. Switched to an old-school style like you mentioned. Now I play him as a Target Man (attack). Balls played direct to his head.

The results are much more encouraging - much more goals but only slightly less assists, average rating much greater:

I think the traditional Number 9, is slowly being eradicated from football becuase of the likes of Barcelona, R. Madrid, Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City etc. Even Peter Crouch isn't your traditional Number 9 becuase he has gifted fett aswell. SWaRFeGa the example you have shown isn't your tranditional Number 9 becuase of a few stats that you wouldn't assostiate with the number 9. He has acceleration and pace of 15, Crossing and Corners 15 and Flair 16. I think a traditional Number 9's Key stats would be just Heading, Jumping, Strenght, First Touch, Passing, Bravery and maybe Finishing around the 14 mark

I think the traditional Number 9, is slowly being eradicated from football becuase of the likes of Barcelona, R. Madrid, Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City etc. Even Peter Crouch isn't your traditional Number 9 becuase he has gifted fett aswell. SWaRFeGa the example you have shown isn't your tranditional Number 9 becuase of a few stats that you wouldn't assostiate with the number 9. He has acceleration and pace of 15, Crossing and Corners 15 and Flair 16. I think a traditional Number 9's Key stats would be just Heading, Jumping, Strenght, First Touch, Passing, Bravery and maybe Finishing around the 14 mark

I know his attributes are good, and he would be able to play any position or style - but the difference in performance when changed from a modern forward to a traditional forward can't be ignored.

I stop looking for the traditional forward becuase of the pace issue. I hate it if I have to play Heskey due to injuries. My team will break away and my winger will play a through ball and heskey hasn't got the pace or the finishing for that matter to do anything with it.

Yeah but that guy in SWaRFeGa's screenie is so good he barely counts

A guy that tall couldn't probably be so pacey and agile, so I think no matter how and where you play him, he'd still be able to score tons of goals.

I had in mind something like that...

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This is my lone striker and he does a great job:

(not the season in the screenie, in the current one he has 15 goals in 21 apps)

When I can I always buy this player.

Well, I haven't changed anything to accomodate aerial prowess in my tactic, but it works differently and excellently with so different strikers as Huntelaar and Welbeck so why shouldn't it work with someone with his strengths in the air?

The answer is that the crosses aren't going to his head and even if they did he doesn't bother trying to intercept it with his head. He is just standing there, watching the defenders head the ball away.

This is in contrast to FM10 where a wingback with good crossing + big, strong striker = lethal combo. Maybe too lethal, so they "fixed" it. So now very few goals are scored (in my experience) from headers on crosses. Maybe it is realistic I don't know. In any case, Jumping is almost purely a set-pieces attribute now.

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Why isn't this guy scoring more on crosses from out wide regardless of instructions? I think he did like one or two in 8 seasons...

crosses are a bit of a bug bare for me IF AND ONLY IF I have no choice to play Heskey because of his 18 heading, I play my winger with 18 crossing but 8 times out of 10 he doesn't pass the first man.

Huh I like to play Heskey on wing during injuries, it is so funny . For me pacey strikers are just much more efficient, as they can chase through ball which is more common then precise cross.

Huh I like to play Heskey on wing during injuries, it is so funny . For me pacey strikers are just much more efficient, as they can chase through ball which is more common then precise cross.

Actually, big and strong wingers with good heading attributes are much more efficient on crosses than similar strikers. Bébe scored 15+ goals a year for me and at least half of those were on headers/muscling off crosses in front of the box... while the strikers were just standing there watching as always.

So I can see how Heskey on the winger would work.

Only screenshot I have of Llorentes season for me playing as a striker in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 what ever you want to call it. Never had a slow player score so many, I think there is and always will be an edge given to faster players. Walcott, Bent and Agbonlahor can all score a goal a game on FM.

Llorente is 35 now but still quite good for me

Before I started managing Bilbao I hated target men (they always performed horribly for me) but I just had to learn how to use Llorente at Bilbao

I'd agree it seems much harder to get players like that to score, but I think it's more (I hate to do this!) to do with your tactics. If you play to their strengths (direct, fast passing with a lot of crosses/width) they'll be far more effective than the tactic seemingly a lot of FM players play, which is a shorter passing game looking for that chance to put a player through.

Of course I'm aware of that, but I guess nobody who's adopting a short passing, through-ball-based Barça-like football is actually playing the likes of Žigić as their first-choice striker...

So while the occasional backup/youngster target man has failed to impress me, albeit with plenty of tactical extanuating circumstances,, I was wondering whether it was actually possible building a successful team around a relatively passé concept like the "Tower Forward"...

Given the right tactic, aka a long-ball, cross-oriented one, can your average, and I stress AVERAGE, tall and not particularly gifted striker actually provide an adequate amount of goals?

Or picking a pacey (and equally untalented) striker is going to require much less tactical tampering and will therefore be a better choice?

Even with the best target man in the world, hed lose 95% of headers so playing a long ball up to him is worthless, so are crosses. I dont think the match engine handles it at all well. So I always have to have a pacy player and play a way I dont want to to be successful.

IRL I watch Helguson or Bothroyd win almost everything every week.

only striker i have had close to that who has been good is tomas necid. just signed him for the 2nd time on fm11 and hes doing the business but he is also reasonably good with his feet and a good poacher.

sorry but going to take this thread a bit off topic here but was wondering, if you could please tell me what this skin is and where i can get it from? thanks in advance

When I can I always buy this player.