How to get the best out of Lukaku?

[alexnoname]

I'm really struggling with this dude...

I've tried different fomations...

3-5-2, act as DLF or TM and team up with a AF, I can't see him anywhere...and the rating is 6.5 or lower for both strikers.

4-1 DM-2-2 Wing-1, I've tried to put him as CF, role is TM or AF, can't see him. Also tried to put him as AMR as IF or WTM, this result a little better when the AML as IF perform well.

 

He is really a huge investment but now I am in very arkward position on how to get the best out of him, could anyone offer some tips? Many thanks in advance ; )

[Experienced Defender]

You'll need to post a screenshot of your tactic as a whole if you want any meaningful advice. The whole context is important, because players/roles/instructions do not work in isolation - everything is interrelated.

Even players like Messi and Ronaldo will struggle and underperform if played within a poorly constructed tactic. 

So please post your tactic first 

 

[Experienced Defender]

And preferably you could also post a player profile of Lukaku.

[alexnoname]

On 31/03/2020 at 02:13, Experienced Defender said:

You'll need to post a screenshot of your tactic as a whole if you want any meaningful advice. The whole context is important, because players/roles/instructions do not work in isolation - everything is interrelated.

Even players like Messi and Ronaldo will struggle and underperform if played within a poorly constructed tactic. 

So please post your tactic first 

 

Ur right, thank you for kind reminder : )

I've upload the screenshot of my tactic and attributes of Lukaku, could you pls. take a look? Thx~

 

Let me explain myself a bit, for this formation, I want CF to be the guy to press the defence so that both my wings can have the chance to attack, I've also tried to put Lukaku as WTM, hoping that he can be a guy that bully opponent's LB and receive high ball on the right side and attack there.

 

- Mentality, TBH I don't really have much thought, I don't know whether it can still affect the bar of close down or defence line as previous versions, I really don't know how to choose this now.

- I want to control the tempo of the match so I choose shorter passing, play out of defence and work ball into box, and lower tempo

- I also want to have a really quick and simple counter attack, so I use 2 BPD, and choose counter and counter-press

- out of possession choices, I want constant pressure on oponent's defence and GK, hoping they will be forced to take long ball

Edited April 1, 2020 by alexnoname

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, alexnoname said:

Okay, I immediately saw what's the key problem in your tactic - and at the same time the one that is obstructing Lukaku himself. You have all 3 forwards on attack duty, and the wide ones are even in the same role. And your overall setup is pretty much disconnected - the entire defense and midfield are fairly conservative, and then - bang! - the entire attacking trio looking not just to attack early and aggressively, but also the essentially same area(s) of space.

And then come your instructions to only add to the problem, because they contradict the roles and duties. And on top of that, some of your instructions are also contradictory among themselves. 

As I repeated so many times - key to a successful tactic is balance. Which in your tactic is terribly missing. 

And btw, you play Lukaku on a flank, not as the striker, which is confusing me even more. Okay, he may play out wide, but WTM would make a lot more sense as a role for him than the IF. 

1 hour ago, alexnoname said:

Let me explain myself a bit, for this formation, I want CF to be the guy to press the defence

But you don't use the CF role. Your striker is PF in this tactic. 

 

1 hour ago, alexnoname said:

I want to control the tempo of the match so I choose shorter passing, play out of defence and work ball into box, and lower tempo

That's all the more reason to seriously reconsider your setup of roles and duties (remember what I said above about the contradiction between your instructions and roles/duties). Besides, you also have an overkill in the sense of using more possession-oriented instructions than necessary (especially when coupled with the balanced team mentality). 

 

1 hour ago, alexnoname said:

I want to control the tempo of the match so I choose shorter passing, play out of defence and work ball into box, and lower tempo

- I also want to have a really quick and simple counter attack, so I use 2 BPD, and choose counter and counter-press

- out of possession choices, I want constant pressure on oponent's defence and GK, hoping they will be forced to take long ball

The problem is that you want to have a tactic that combines completely different things all at once. I fear it cannot work the way you envisioned.

[KrKAlex]

Lukaku on the wing hurts me tbh... 

As @Experienced Defender say, please balance your team formation and duties. For this, I can only recommend you to read the guide made by @llama3. I doubt you will struggle after reading it.

[alexnoname]

1 hour ago, Experienced Defender said:

Okay, I immediately saw what's the key problem in your tactic - and at the same time the one that is obstructing Lukaku himself. You have all 3 forwards on attack duty, and the wide ones are even in the same role. And your overall setup is pretty much disconnected - the entire defense and midfield are fairly conservative, and then - bang! - the entire attacking trio looking not just to attack early and aggressively, but also the essentially same area(s) of space.

And then come your instructions to only add to the problem, because they contradict the roles and duties. And on top of that, some of your instructions are also contradictory among themselves. 

As I repeated so many times - key to a successful tactic is balance. Which in your tactic is terribly missing. 

And btw, you play Lukaku on a flank, not as the striker, which is confusing me even more. Okay, he may play out wide, but WTM would make a lot more sense as a role for him than the IF. 

But you don't use the CF role. Your striker is PF in this tactic. 

 

That's all the more reason to seriously reconsider your setup of roles and duties (remember what I said above about the contradiction between your instructions and roles/duties). Besides, you also have an overkill in the sense of using more possession-oriented instructions than necessary (especially when coupled with the balanced team mentality). 

 

The problem is that you want to have a tactic that combines completely different things all at once. I fear it cannot work the way you envisioned.

Thank you so much, especially the balance part, just a few feedback,

1. my mistake, I wrote CF but I wanted to say Center Forward(whoever in that position), not Complete Forward. So I wanted to say that the idea was to let the Center Foward/Strike to combat/press the defence, so that both wingers can have chance to attack.

2. As I mentioned in the opening, I've tried 2 striker format that put Lukaku in either TMs or DLFs/a, teamed up with a AF, but it didn't well either. The reason I didn't put the screen shot of this tactic, is that I really don't have enough good wide middle fielders on flank, so I'm just not using it anymore.

 

I will try to adapt your advice and see how things go, thx : )

[alexnoname]

1 hour ago, KrKAlex said:

Lukaku on the wing hurts me tbh... 

As @Experienced Defender say, please balance your team formation and duties. For this, I can only recommend you to read the guide made by @llama3. I doubt you will struggle after reading it.

yea, I know... but as I said, I tried TMs or DLFs/a him with a AF, didn't go well, and I feel I don't have a good squad to support a 2 striker formation, so I didn't put the screen shot of it.

Thank you for the link, I will try my best to learn : )

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, alexnoname said:

As I mentioned in the opening, I've tried 2 striker format that put Lukaku in either TMs or DLFs/a, teamed up with a AF, but it didn't well either

A partnership of a TM (or DLF) and AF can work nicely, but only if the tactic as a whole makes sense. Otherwise, no role (or a combination of roles) is going to work. 

 

1 hour ago, alexnoname said:

The reason I didn't put the screen shot of this tactic, is that I really don't have enough good wide middle fielders on flank, so I'm just not using it anymore

You don't necessarily need a formation with wide midfielders for a 2-striker system. There are other formations such as narrow diamond and 4312 for example (or 5212). 

[alexnoname]

21 hours ago, Experienced Defender said:

A partnership of a TM (or DLF) and AF can work nicely, but only if the tactic as a whole makes sense. Otherwise, no role (or a combination of roles) is going to work. 

 

You don't necessarily need a formation with wide midfielders for a 2-striker system. There are other formations such as narrow diamond and 4312 for example (or 5212). 

I think 5212 might be suitable for my squad, I've created a tactic, hoping this one will be more balanced.

This time, I changed the instruction and role for GK, because he is poor on pass and area command, but has good handling, so throw long ball to the flank, maybe good for a counter.

changed the pass shorter to standard, because I have width on middle field and a TM in front, while remaining play out of defence because I have good BPD and middle field with reasonable skills.

Could you take another look and comment on it? Thx~

 

[Experienced Defender]

12 minutes ago, alexnoname said:

Okay, the setup of roles and duties makes more sense than the previous one. I would only suggest a couple of small tweaks:

- swap the strikers' sides (TM on the left and AF on the right), because that will give you better balance relative to the rest of your setup

- swap the duties of your CBs (the central CB on stopper duty, and the outer ones on defend), because it's more sensible defense-wise

When it comes to instructions, I am not sure you really need the lower tempo, especially under the fairly moderate balanced team mentality. I would rather use normal (default) tempo and shorter passing than the other way around. Wide attacking width is another instruction I think is not necessary. It can be used as an occasional tweak, rather than a regular part of your starting primary tactic.

The "throw it long" manner of distribution does not make much sense when you use the Play out of defence at the same time. 

I am particularly worried about your out-of-possession instructions, as they seem a bit too aggressive, especially given your less-than-optimal level of vertical compactness. So be careful on this particular score. 

[Meursault70]

First question: where are Sensi, Barella and Eriksen?

Edited April 3, 2020 by Meursault70

[alexnoname]

On 02/04/2020 at 23:18, Experienced Defender said:

Okay, the setup of roles and duties makes more sense than the previous one. I would only suggest a couple of small tweaks:

- swap the strikers' sides (TM on the left and AF on the right), because that will give you better balance relative to the rest of your setup

- swap the duties of your CBs (the central CB on stopper duty, and the outer ones on defend), because it's more sensible defense-wise

When it comes to instructions, I am not sure you really need the lower tempo, especially under the fairly moderate balanced team mentality. I would rather use normal (default) tempo and shorter passing than the other way around. Wide attacking width is another instruction I think is not necessary. It can be used as an occasional tweak, rather than a regular part of your starting primary tactic.

The "throw it long" manner of distribution does not make much sense when you use the Play out of defence at the same time. 

I am particularly worried about your out-of-possession instructions, as they seem a bit too aggressive, especially given your less-than-optimal level of vertical compactness. So be careful on this particular score. 

Thank you so much!