Desperately Need help with Forward Partnerships

First and foremost i would like to start off by thanking wwfan and everyone else for the massive amount of effort they have put into their threads. I have learned a number of things from these and can see a direct impact in my teams performances after implementing a number of changes inspired from reading this forum.

I'm attempting to create a set of 442 tactics - preferably an attacking, standard and counter attack. I originally started off creating the attacking tactic but have learned that team gelling and your initial reputation hinder this so i decided to put that on the backburner and turned my attention to a standard tactic.

I decided to go with a flat back 4 with the 2 center backs on rare Fwd runs and the full backs on mixed. My midfield again is a flat 4 with everyone on mixed fwd runs except for my CM def who is rare and two up front. Mentality is setout roughly like the the nike defense in wwfan's thread and i have tried to setup my passing, tempo, width etc in the ways suggested in the thread - Short passing from the back leading to a more direct approach the further up the pitch the player is.

Im pretty happy with how we defend but i really feel it is my strikers that are impairing our attacking threat because no matter what settings i try i just cant get one striker to behave like a Forward d and drop back to link up with midfield leaving the other striker to hang off the last defender.

I have tried making a large mentality difference between both with one on high through balls and the other high forward runs. I have tried making the forward d with rare forward runs, low creative freedom, high creative freedom, set as playmaker or target man. I have pretty much tried every combination i can possibly think of and it just wont work.

Can someone put me out of my misery please and help me to get this working!?

I was thinking about it in work for half the day and came up with a few other variations which i couldnt wait to get home and try but of course none of them worked lol

Tactics have never been my strong point in this game but have given it a good go this year having read through the many great threads made but this is one nut i cant crack.

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

I am also having trouble getting two strikers playing well together. If one plays well the other one as a bad game.

Yeah, have the same problem, most of the time Fd is positioning forward exactly like the Fa, dropping back very rarely.

I guess whe should use an AMC or an MC with a farrow to make a link in the center of the field, but that's not the same.

wwfan pointed out something that worked very well for me, which I stupidly enough hadn't thought of. I use the mentality difference between the strikers as you point out. Carew dropping deep and Defoe or Agbinlahor playing on the shoulder. At first I used Carew as a target man hoping the faster guys would latch on to flick-ons and passes from Carew and the midfielders. It didn't happen as often as I would like, but wwfan suggested that I should use Carew as FCd (as I had done already), but set Defoe or Agbonlahor as target men having them run on to balls by Carew and TB's from the midfield. I have played one friendly (won 1-0 against Stoke but played very well) and two competitive UEFA Cup matches against Rosenborg (1-0 win and 3-2 loss). Now the results themselves aren't too remarkable, I have noticed that I generally play much, much better now and the team feels more solid so it just feels like we need a bit of time to start turning in some really good results.

My point is that my strike partners play much better now with these settings than in any of the previous saves where I struggled quite a lot. It will only be a matter of time before we start converting more of the chances we get. I don't know if this is of any help to you, but try and see what your strikers are good at and go from there.

Swede,

I like your/wwfan idea there. It does go against the natural grain of thinking. You don't often overlook a Carew, Adebayour, Crouch as a Target man, but what you said does make sense to me.

When I get home from work (only 7hrs 45min of bordem left) I think I am going to try something quite radical (although probably not). I will use my Chelsea side and line up like this:

---------------Cech---------------

Bosingwa---Terry---Carvallho---Cole

-----Ballack-----Essien-----Mikel---

--------Deco--------Lampard------

------------Drogba----------------

I will use Lampard as a Target man and play him with an attacking mentality

Drogba will be used as a FCd with forward runs rarley and TTB Often

Deco will be used as a playmaker with forward runs mixed, TTB Often

Hopefully I will get the effect of Lampard bursting into the box (as he does in real life) and scoring plentey of goals. With Deco 'pulling the strings' and Drogba providing the big physical distractioin. I have never played an AMC as a Target Man before and before today would have called people crazy for suggesting it, but I am feeling quietly confident that this might work.

If anybody wants to give it a go before I get home from work (either with Chelsea or another club), feel free and let me know how you get on.

Right I'm off to go and develop this tactic in my mind (beats working for a living). I'll check back later.

Cheers.

Interesting approach, will try it!

Thanks!

Swede, An interesting idea there mate and one i hadn't thought of myself. I gave it a shot but to be honest there is still no real partnership to see there. I notice when i dont have the ball the gap between the two forwards is there for all to see. This would be due i assume to the fact i have a difference in mentaility, i also set the fwd A to close down slightly higher up the pitch than my fwd D. The problem is when i gain back possesion the two forwards automatically go back up side by side. Would there be a possible hint of this being a match engine issue? To date i havent come across any people who have managed to make this work.

Millsy, I have tried using an attacking midfielder myself, mainly in a 4-4-1-1 formation but my Assman instantly points out that "our forwards are outnumbered by their defenders". I wonder is this a statement that can be ignored? Many a team use a lone striker and make it work, Chelsea being an immediate example to spring to mind.

Another slightly frustrating thing i have noticed during matches is sometimes one of my players finds himself on the ball in the box with no player around him to make a tackle. Instead of turning around a taking a shot at goal he passed the ball back to my midfield! Now surely, regardless of what mentality he is set to, he should at least have a pop at goal? Even the most defensive of players know how to shoot(whether they are any good at it is beside the point!!). I have adjusted my players individual long shot instructions to see if this solves the problem but i have still seen it happen.

One thing that i have found though is having wingers who are naturally footed to the wing they are on seems to help your team keep the ball better and create better movement and chances. Im managing liverpool at the moment and can see a big difference in our play when i change Riera for Babel on the left (Babel is naturally right footed). Babel tends to come inside alot of the time which congests the midfield and moves seem to break down. Im trying to perfect my standard tactic so my fullbacks are on mixed forward runs but i may experiment with putting my left full back on often forward runs when i play Babel to see if this offers more options.

Another one of the points i got from wwfan's thread was to set your defensive players to short passing which helps keep the ball and set your more attacking players with a more direct approach. I wasnt sure if he considered his wingers as attackers(As that is their primary role) but i have found the team builds up chances better if their passing is short also.

Anyway thats enough of my thoughts/observations for now, the bottom line is i still cant get my Fwd D to drop back! Please please help!

I have been having the same issue where I am portsmouth and I have had Crouch as Target man and Defoe as Attacking Striker.....I can get some fairly decent performances out of Crouch but Defoe and anyone else I use in the role are just deadweight....

I might just try making Defoe the target man and see how it goes.

No it's actually impossible for strikers to drop deep (properly), and this is very sad

And it's not the only thing missing...

A lot of BASIC elements of football are just simply not included in the game, and to me it seems it's all about f.cking math with the stupid sliders rather than common sense... really sad

I'm also really struggling to form a strike partnership despite haveing some very talented individuals to pick from. Even though the team is playing really well, the strikers rarely score. Most goals come from my two central midfielders (I play 4-4-2).

I've now tried give both strikers the exact same setting which has made things a little better, strangely enough, but it's still nowhere near what I expect.

If anyone has managed to make two strikers work, please do share!

I have Beckford, Snodgrass and Fred Sears working brilliantly together in a three man attack as my home formation. I put sears wide right, make him a very direct passing player that likes to cross, ditto for Snodgrass on the left, with Beckford as the holding striker. It's actually Beckford that gets most of the goals, but those two wide strikers are racking up the assits, 9 for Snodgrass in 10 games, 7 for Sears. Between the three of them, they have 21 goals, 19 assist in 10 games.

I have Beckford, Snodgrass and Fred Sears working brilliantly together in a three man attack as my home formation. I put sears wide right, make him a very direct passing player that likes to cross, ditto for Snodgrass on the left, with Beckford as the holding striker. It's actually Beckford that gets most of the goals, but those two wide strikers are racking up the assits, 9 for Snodgrass in 10 games, 7 for Sears. Between the three of them, they have 21 goals, 19 assist in 10 games.

Sweet mate well done. Do any of your strikers drop deep to collect the ball? What settings did you set them up with?

Swede,

I like your/wwfan idea there. It does go against the natural grain of thinking. You don't often overlook a Carew, Adebayour, Crouch as a Target man, but what you said does make sense to me.

When I get home from work (only 7hrs 45min of bordem left) I think I am going to try something quite radical (although probably not). I will use my Chelsea side and line up like this:

---------------Cech---------------

Bosingwa---Terry---Carvallho---Cole

-----Ballack-----Essien-----Mikel---

--------Deco--------Lampard------

------------Drogba----------------

I will use Lampard as a Target man and play him with an attacking mentality

Drogba will be used as a FCd with forward runs rarley and TTB Often

Deco will be used as a playmaker with forward runs mixed, TTB Often

Hopefully I will get the effect of Lampard bursting into the box (as he does in real life) and scoring plentey of goals. With Deco 'pulling the strings' and Drogba providing the big physical distractioin. I have never played an AMC as a Target Man before and before today would have called people crazy for suggesting it, but I am feeling quietly confident that this might work.

If anybody wants to give it a go before I get home from work (either with Chelsea or another club), feel free and let me know how you get on.

Right I'm off to go and develop this tactic in my mind (beats working for a living). I'll check back later.

Cheers.

This looks incredibly similar to the tactic i have created in the 4-3-2-1 Mike Bassett thread and i must say its working bloody well for me. Are you a narrow or wide midfield?

I tried and tried and tried again to create an effective 442 but failed each and every time, strikers always too ineffective. Howwver in the 4-3-2-1 the AMC roles FC's work really really well with FWR often. Personally i'd play Lampard deeper so he sees more of the ball and play some quick FC's in the AMC roles.

No idea how to link to my tactic thread, if someone could tell me i would appreciate it.

Sweet mate well done. Do any of your strikers drop deep to collect the ball? What settings did you set them up with?

They are both allowed a free role, which in my interpretation would have them dropping back to pick up the ball, making runs in various scenarios. Watching on the 3d engine, it does seem to play out that way. My team plays a highly modified 3-4-3 system, two of the 4 midfielders acting almost as wing-backs, and the wing backs seem to feed my winger/strikers at every opportunity. My defenders are set to short passing at a high tempo, so we keep the ball and distribute it at the earliest but simplest opportunity. I have taken Leeds within 3 points of the premier league in the second season, with no money at all (600k spent in two years), so it's definitely tactics that are winning out.

Here you go mav http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=69455&highlight=Mike+Bassett

I have been having problems with 442 as well, the back four and midfield four player very well..just the two muppets up front dont often score.

I cant seem to get the 2 up front to work in a 442 as i want them to, i give the mike basset a whirl!