Lone striker problems, yet another 4-2-3-1 thread.

Evening guys, so I've been playing with Braintree and made it all the way to the premier league having had pretty good success with a 4-2-3-1 with two CMs and more recently DMs, the problem is that my striker does not seem able to score goals. There'll be a quite a few pictures following to show most things.

Tactics:

The plan here is that the two wingers are to pump crosses into the box for the target man to get onto or for the fullbacks to overlap the wingers and do the same. Failing that it would be useful for the target man to hold up the ball and draw players away so that the treq can find space to score or set up goals himself. The goals have all been scored by the AMC or ST but they never seem to score enough for there ability, along with this the wingers fail to get enough assists compared to their crossing attributes.

As I can tell from where the assists are coming from that either the AMC or ST seem to be creating most chances and majority seem to be from passes.

One thing I've also seemed to have done was buy a lot of quality players that are awfully slow and that may explain the lack of passes/crosses run onto. Is there a way to account for the large amount of slower players?

Another thing is that all my defenders are quick so I play a higher defensive line but I'm not sure whether using the offside trap is effective in this situation or whether my players even have the right attributes to make it effective.

A further problem could be that a lot of my players seem to be selfish and the end result is a lot of wasted shots but from what I've observed this doesn't seem to have an impact.

Essentially I'm pretty stumped on how to create more chances and actually score, if any more information is needed just let me know, cheers.

Player Attributes:

Ok two things I have noted personally, feel free to disagree anyone;

A) How quick are your wingers?

If they're not by-line wingers, using their pace and acceleration to get past their man and get a cross in then they'll be useless with an Attack setting. Support will tell your winger to receive the ball, get their head up and look for the strikers/players in field. This is also a good setting to employ if your winger is struggling to get past a particularly defensive full back.

B) Are you sure setting your Target Man to attack is the correct one?

I have never been able to get a Target Man to play well using the Attack setting unless he is playing with someone next to him (not behind him). Try switching to Support duty and make him contribute more, dropping a little deeper, holding the ball up for your Trequartista to be brought in to play more. At this moment he looks a little isolated up top, because your TQ isn't going to win the ball back for him to hold up and fashion a chance for himself.

I have the quicker winger set to an attack duty while the slower one is on support, seems to be reversed in the picture for some reason. The only problem with the target man being put on support is his terrible passing and teamwork, I've tried it a few times to no avail. I also have another quality striker on the bench so two up top is an option but with the players available the current formation I believe is best.

4 promotions in 6 years and you're looking for advice? That's quite a record!

It seems extraordinarily gung-ho to have what must be a fairly mediocre team in the Premier League and use an Attacking Style.

Apart from moving MCs to DMs, is this the same tactic as you used all the way to the Premier League?

Like stemlfc, I wouldn't have thought a TM was a good idea as a lone striker, unless he is at least supported by a fellow front man, or an Inside Forward as an absolute minimum.

I can understand the mix of duties you have on the flanks, but am unconvinced that two DMs and a Treq gives your central area enough grunt. The Treq isn't going to defend, your Anchor is going nowhere, and the DLP is rarely going to venture forward. You have an empty MC strata as a result, and 90% of teams you face will have at least 2 players there.

Haha I scraped through playoffs in most of the promotions, thank god for most of the players having important matches as strengths... managed to win the FA cup in my first season in the premier league as well, just feel having a positive goal difference for once might be nice...

I only changed to attacking probably last season otherwise it's usually counter attacking, and I use to play with rigid but the changes haven't seemed to help much. I might change the anchor man to a plain defensive mid or possibly move one of them up to the midfield to create a better balance. What sort of striker is preferred as lone? Maybe a 4-4-2 is best suited.

The only successful lone strikers for me have been DLF (Support) and Treq (Attack). They are very different but do broadly similar things, mainly pulling the opposition centre backs out of position. This however is only effective if you capitalize on that by having players to exploit that created space.

I was struggling with this until I went to a narrow 4231 and a poacher and now he's banging them in.

I think understand what you are trying to do with the TM/A, use him as his description to open spaces for your T is that right? As you said most chances are created by either of them i suppose to the other? That seems alright.

In first notice seems weird that you seem to be conceding from the most conservative and defensive side of your field, at the same time it's not that weird with all the space there.

DLP/S playing in CM position already drops pretty deep, usually ending up in the position an anchor would be, so a DLP/S in DM position along side with an anchor seems to leave the whole midfield opened, your 4 in the front will have to either drop very deep to come get the game or i reckon you'll lose most balls on that area. I reckon you should switch your Anchor for a DM/S, also i'd change both your FB's to support to give width to the midfield giving pass options to your DM and T without bringing the ball all the way back.

For the TM/T combo, if you have the player for it, i've heard the CF/T combo works well, or if you have a good technical striker perhaps a DLF/S along with an AMC/A might do well.

I've had success on the latest patch with players who can dribble and let them create their own chances but finishing is such a huge problem in the latest ME. I posted a thread about it in GD as I simply cannot score despite having the quality and the chances.

I've had success on the latest patch with players who can dribble and let them create their own chances but finishing is such a huge problem in the latest ME. I posted a thread about it in GD as I simply cannot score despite having the quality and the chances.

I think understand what you are trying to do with the TM/A, use him as his description to open spaces for your T is that right? As you said most chances are created by either of them i suppose to the other? That seems alright.

In first notice seems weird that you seem to be conceding from the most conservative and defensive side of your field, at the same time it's not that weird with all the space there.

DLP/S playing in CM position already drops pretty deep, usually ending up in the position an anchor would be, so a DLP/S in DM position along side with an anchor seems to leave the whole midfield opened, your 4 in the front will have to either drop very deep to come get the game or i reckon you'll lose most balls on that area. I reckon you should switch your Anchor for a DM/S, also i'd change both your FB's to support to give width to the midfield giving pass options to your DM and T without bringing the ball all the way back.

For the TM/T combo, if you have the player for it, i've heard the CF/T combo works well, or if you have a good technical striker perhaps a DLF/S along with an AMC/A might do well.

Yeah you're write about the TM/T combo, I want to create space for the treq and they seem to do well feeding off of one another. Generally concensus seems to be a midfield problem so I'll change the anchor man to a defensive mid and see how the average position is looking. Also I just recently swapped the attacking and defensive fullbacks so the goals scored do make sense, I probably should have stated this. I might play around with the forward role as well as I do have a decent complete forward or deep lying forward.

Cheers for the advice guys I'll try out your suggestions and let you know how it goes.

A small point - maybe right, maybe wrong - you have a Full Back on Defend on the right side, with an Anchorman on the same side too. You then have what seems to be an inside forward, so you actually have no-one overlapping or using the space down the flank, not sure that suits a target man so well. Feel free to correct me if you find otherwise.

If you are using the TM-A to create space, then you do not have any players ready to exploit the space. As far as I understand, most of the time, the Trequartista will drift into space to receive the ball and then try to create chances for your other players however you have no one else attacking the box i.e an Inside Forward.

The other issue is with the DM's, both of them are set to Run From Deep - Rarely and this will cause a disconnect between them and the front 4.

Also, I find that having FB's on a defend duty are not effective in a back 4, especially with a lone forward. Ideally you would want the wide players to cut inside and attack the box with the FB's overlapping them and you have 4 players back to defend (DC,DC,DM,DM).

I agree with the post above. For me the key to this tactic is filling the gap between the DMs and AMs. This can be done with DMs who make Forward Runs and an AMC who doesn't. Wth this in mind the selection of player roles was straightforward for me - and the following set-up was really effective when I used it in FM12. The ST and AMC were really potent and I really enjoyed the attacking play this tactic creates. There is a lot of similarity with your player choices so I'd suggest giving it a try and I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it in FM13.

Formation: 4-2-3-1 Deep

Philosophy: Fluid

Strategy: Standard

Passing Style: Default

Creative Freedom: Default

Closing Down: Default

Tacling: Default

Marking: Zonal

Crossing: Default

Roaming: Default

GK - Goalkeeper (Defend) ......... I'm also thinking to try a Sweeper Keeper (Support) to mop up behind the two flat DCs

DR - Full Back (Automatic)

DCR - Central Defender (Defend)

DCL - Central Defender (Defend)

DL - Full Back (Automatic)

DMCR - Defensive Midfielder (Support)

DMCL - Defensive Midfielder (Support)

AMR - Winger (Support)

AMC - Trequartista (Attack)

AML - Winger (Support)

ST - Advanced Forward (Attack) ......... set as Target Man, Run Onto Ball