Struggling to score?!

[RedBones]

Yeah... Torres has just scored his first goal in 15 hours of football

[zapatero]

As already mentioned above, try this tactic: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=58765. Granted that strikers will still not score loads of goals. Scoring will be balanced. But your squad will score and it will play great football. At least that's what happened with my Man City team. The same seems to happen with many others who try it.

Give it a go. I believe this tactic should get a more flashy thread title because it seems that it's not getting the attention it deserves.

[rogier1985]

im gonna start all over when the patch comes out.

im seriously ****ed off at SI. scored only 24 goals in 23 games, unbelievable

[Woo Man]

I have come to a decision tonight, i will never ever give SI my money again. Rooney and Berba have average ratings of 5.3. When would that ever happen. I have even played basic 4-4-2! i am going to start a campaign that stops them releasing such UTTER *****!

And still no SI response on this thread!

[LostHorizon]

if you're playing 2 strikers, make sure u differentiate who is FCa and who is FCd. You need a strong FCd who can hold the ball up and dink it thru to ur FCa. Playing as empoli, I had Caca as FCd and Nicola Pozzi as FCa.

Caca 30(12) Rating: 6.73

Pozzi 40(19) Rating: 6.93

Note that most of the goals from second half of the season since I bought quite a few players at the start.

[marger]

I play Man Utd with 442 attacking, yes a powerful team, but can't get too much goal, win a lot of game by 1:0 or 2:1, but anyway I can win....

[wwfan]

As posted by SFraser in another very similar thread and far better than any answer I could give:

Scoring goals is a matter of finishing chances. If you create plenty of Clear Cut Chances but score few goals then you need better finishing for whoever gets those chances, or you need to construct your team so that the chances fall to your best finisher. The options here are buying a better striker, channeling play towards your best finisher, training your players in bias of finishing or the much more difficult option of constructing play in a manner which suits the ability of your team, i.e. best passer sitting deep pinging the ball to your best crosser who sends it in to your best header.

TT&F is a brilliant guide but it is useless if you do not adhere to their example of constructing play around your opponent on the basis of what your players are capable of. The Premier league should not be conquerable by a second rate inflexible manager. If you wish to bang in goals then you need to pay attention to detail, end of story.

The deep lying striker is a question of positioning and ability, like every other role in the game. Players with low teamwork, workrate and anticipation should not be expected to drop deep for the ball and if such a player is desired to play behind the frontman then he should be positioned in the AMC position. If you want chances in the back of the net you need finishers on the end of chances, if you want creative ability behind strikers you need to position them behind strikers. How you do this depends upon the player, your understanding of the match engine and the tactical setup of the opponent.

For example Tevez is not going to feed Berbatov against the ultra defense of the low Premier League clubs but Paul Scholes certainly will, whereas Anderson is far more likely to find space during intensive action than Scholes. Tevez is more likely to win the ball or cause panic than Berbatov but less likely to finish. Rooney will scare defences and see opportunities but wont unlock defences like Scholes nor finish them like Ronaldo. Do you want five half decent finishers in the box or do you want two great finishers? Who provides the buildup and cutting edge? If you want deep lying aggressive play then go high mentality with no FWR, if you want to lay it off on the edge of the box then you need low mentality, Often FWR, holdup ball and plenty of runners. Do you want the ball to feet or behind the defender? Thats through balls set to high or low.

Do you want a fighter coming deep to win and laying it off, then running forward, escaping his marker and putting it in the net? Set Tevez to low mentality with high closing down, no Free Role, FWR Often, TTB none, Shoot from distance mixed and cross ball from deep. Want Berbatov sitting high up the pitch, laying it off and finishing moves? Set him to high mentality, playmaker, FWR mixed, no through balls, cross from deep, free role and make sure he has lots of passing options.

The fundamental issue here is obviously a divide between the playerbase and developers in understanding what means what and where. The manual sucks and while the guides are effective (Brilliant TT&F) most players are still left looking for a golden formation solution to all their problems. Manchester United versus Barcelona in the European Cup Semi Final of 2008 showed that if you approach football like a contest between player ability and nothing more then you will be defeated by superior tactical planning, and a bit of luck. The Premier League is the hallmark of this mantra. It has become over the last five years the Italy of the 1980s with its own personal watermark of physical effort and ability. To tell the truth FM2009 is like all strategy games lacking in the capability of the AI to respond to player tactics, if you are armed with the knowledge and put in the effort you should defeat this pre-designed and uncreative system 9 times out of ten, and that is enough to win you most leagues.

[Skyjacker]

Although my strikers strugle to score and get poor rating but they are world class at hitting post or bar. Some might hit bar/post few times in the same attack.

But I agree with many that there seems to be problem with strikers and it is because of tweaking scoring ration. It seems everytime SI does a tweak they can not get it right...

[Los_Ches2000]

This really is pathetic SI, ive bought every version of this game and now its impossible, doesnt matter wat team or tactics, one game u win next 6 u lose!!

[Galactus]

This is troubling me, esp considering I am managing in the Blue Square South.

[Italia]

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=67355 -> should fix your goalscoring problems, give it a few weeks to gel and them to get used to it.

[rob magic]

I used to have the same problem. I started with Arsenal and was scraping 1-0 and 2-1 and a couple of 0-0 until I took an hour and looked at my tactics. I made my own tactic and fiddled with the player instructions and BANG, I started winning 5-0 and 4-1 and stuff. Now I am sitting top of the league and I am the one other teams are chasing it's great.

[rob magic]

If anyone can help with how to post screenshots I will gladly show you all.

[kennec]

game have gotten harder. also harder to keep ai teams from scoring.

if u mark hes forwards alot hes midfielders will score and opposite.

i have made goal on one longshot in 10 games and computer like 7 or 8 on me hehe

[Galactus]

I've given up, I'm just going to go on holiday till' the end of the season. i've thrown the title away now because of this stupidity.

Form and morale obviously takes too predominant a role in this game.

And the scoring bug of course.

Also Italia I don't want your tactics because I play my own games and I am not tactically incompetent previous games of FM have told me that.

[Fishbone]

Based on the original question, try changing to a defensive mentality or turn off counter attack as the two really don't work well together.

[MichiD]

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/statistics/groups/index.html

Obviously the number of games is too small to be a definitive answer, but it's a good start.

As we see, the approx. Relations are:

Shots On Target - Off Target 8 - 10 | 40% of Shots should be on Target with average players for the Competition

Goals scored - Shots on Target 1 - 4 | 25% of shots on target should be goals

Goals scored - Shots attempted 1 - 9 | 10% of shots overall should be goals

So with very good players this should go up by maybe 1/3

On Target - Off Target 11 - 10 / 55%

Scored - On Target 1 - 3 / 33%

Scored - Attempted 1 - 6 / 15%

I hope my math is right...

Unfortunately you don't seem to be able to check those stats for earlier seasons and I just finished mine, so if some of you could post the stats of their best strikers at the end of the season this would be quite helpful.

Have to view a player and then click "Stats" - please post.

Name:

Goals / Shots Attempted:

Shots On Target / Attempted:

[tingting]

This is becourse strikers are supposed to score goal ..and if they dont - they get a poor rating.

Yes I also think this is wrong.

Your reasoning is all wrong. No offense (and i know you said that this was wrong) but just because they dont score or assist their rating should go down. Then going by this, a goalkeeper's job is to prevent the goals, then when he concedes even one goal, then his rating should go way down. But yet if he manages to put up a good showing even if he concedes (in some cases as many as three goals) his rating can hover above 7.5.

And for all those who say its your tactics, then let me say that tactics will come into play only when we are not creating enough chances. When the striker is in a great position to score or has been released into a one on one position, then tactics dont come into play. Its the composure and the consistency that come into play. And please dont say that the striker should be given more/less creative freedom. If a Henry, Rooney or Drogba has been told not to deviate from their position (ie very less creative freedom) and they come into a one on one position with the keeper, they will not blindly shoot straight at the keeper. They will try to lob or go around or place or use any of the options

[tingting]

As posted by SFraser in another very similar thread and far better than any answer I could give:

wwfan then the whole striker position should be based on personality rather that attributes. All the three (Tevez, Rooney and Berbatov) are good finishers. When placed in a great position or in a one on one situation, they will be easily able to convert at least 7-8 times out of 10. If you go by what SFraser, then players such as Rooney and Tevez become one dimensional.

Do you want a fighter coming deep to win and laying it off, then running forward, escaping his marker and putting it in the net?

Tevez does not always make the same move. In some of the Argentina matches that i watched, he used to dribble past the defenders and score with a placed shot. He was a regular threat up front and did not alway rely on a single move and used to score all types of goals. The problem in real life is that Rooney and Tevez do not get many clear cut chances because they usually are not inside the penalty box or are playing as a striker. While Ronaldo gets a number of clear chances because Rooney/Tevez etc create chances for him.

The problem in the game is that strikers dont score when they are in a great position to do so. I am not saying that they should score with every chance. But there is no consistency no matter whom u play. I had to sell off Tevez at the end of my first season because he only managed to score 3 goals in 35 matches. Later at Real Madrid he had already scored 12 goals in 26 matches. These are world class striker with high finishing and composure stats. There is some problem in the game with strikers and hopefully SI will fix it sooner and we wont have to wait until February for the fix.

[wwfan]

wwfan then the whole striker position should be based on personality rather that attributes. All the three (Tevez, Rooney and Berbatov) are good finishers. When placed in a great position or in a one on one situation, they will be easily able to convert at least 7-8 times out of 10.

With a conversion ration that high they will be more than twice as good as any other striker in the world. One on one conversion ratios are about 30-35% for most strikers. People really need to do some real world research before complaining about areas in the game they perceive to be unrealistic.

[LostHorizon]

Honestly, I don't see what the problem is. I've played through two seasons with Juve, my main strikers Amauri and Pandev finished with just under a ratio of 0.5goal/app, which is pretty bloody good!

[JCD]

the strikers ratings must surely be a bug even some midfielders getting shocking ratings in mine, even when they have pass completion of like 90% or over and are winning key tackles and headers. With the strikers it seems one plays crap the other good no matter how well they are actually playing when they are not scoring

[deejay10]

My issue is that whenever i'm playing poorly in my 4-4-2 formation its always the same 3 players with poor below 6 ratings - my two FC's and my MCa. Surely there should be such variety in performaces that when my team is underperforming, maybe my strikers could be having good games, but say the wingers could be having a poor game. There is however no variety in the ratings, and I think thats to do with how the match ratings have been weighted. I think the match engine is an improvement on 08, but with tweaks needed to be made on goals outside the area, and chances on target inside the area, especially headers from crosses.

The poor ratings for forwards however makes it very difficult to analyse matches and find out why the team is actually underperforming. Also is players confidence weighted differently? It seems low morale/confidence seems to affect strikers more than anyone else ?

On FM 08 the problem was with defensive midfielders avg. ratings, now its strikers, I hope this bug is fixed in a patch soon. I think tweaks also need to be made with the ratio of goals scored from inside/outside the area and also the AI's ability to play high time wasting, tight marking, defensive football to stifle a teams scoring chances. If it was that easy in real life, you wouldn't see so many small teams get hammered away from home.

[SFraser]

Tevez is completely one dimensional due to the fact he is so aggressive, despite having the technical ability to produce some wonderful football. His first instinct whenever he gets the ball is to skin the defence and hammer it into the net. I dont care how many he skins or where he shoots from, his inability to calm down and pick a pass has cost him his place in the United team.

At the end of the day a players attributes are equal to his personality and players need roles in a team. Most if not all players are one dimensional in classical terms, irrespective of whether a crunching tackle is followed up by a 40 yard pass or a driving run or a simple lay off.

The managers role is to determine what the player is capable of doing, what the player wants to do, what the player is likely to do, and to fashion some form of a role within a team for that player. Tevez, Berbatov and Rooney may all be good finishers but this does not mean they are all equally as good at getting into goal scoring positions, attacking the ball, choosing to shoot or having any other role beyond finishing in a team.

You cannot stick a striker upfront and expect him to score, that kind of niaivity does not belong in FM and is the bane of many players. Having an actual finisher in a team is one of the least concerning issues in modern football, atleast in Britain today. Look at Chelsea or Liverpool or Arsenal and compare them to Manchester United. Look at the general tactical setup of the opposition. Look at their strength, pace and defensive outlook. The key to scoring goals is not sticking the ball in the back of the net, it is creating chances.

Lets take WWFans 30% conversion rate and do some sums. One chance a game means an average of 1 goal every three games, meaning at best 5 points from 12. That is midtable form. 3 chances a game mean an average of 1 goal every game, meaning at best 12 points from 12. That is title winning form.

You can have the best finisher in the world upfront but if you are not creating chances it means absolutely nothing. It is great to have such a player if you are creating chances and doing so every game but maybe you might want to think about using players to produce opportunities for the team, rather than vice versa. Maybe instead of sticking your awsome finishers in the box all game you get them involved in the build up and see how many loose balls they stick away on pure chance? Infact why not forget about scoring goals altogether and focus instead on creating chances? Surely eventually your 70% finisher is going to put something away during the game.

[fenom84]

9.3.0 please

[fenom84]

tons of shots that are on target

tons of CCC

but no goals

[Diegas]

tons of shots that are on target

tons of CCC

but no goals

Exactly the same

[SFraser]

tons of shots that are on target

tons of CCC

but no goals

You need a player with high ratings in composure, decisions, technique and finishing to ensure he makes the right choice of shot and is capable of executing that shot. He also needs good anticipation and off the ball to ensure he gets into the right positions to score. If any of these are lacking then you can expect the player to either be AWOL or to screw up infront of goal.

[Diegas]

You need a player with high ratings in composure, decisions, technique and finishing to ensure he makes the right choice of shot and is capable of executing that shot. He also needs good anticipation and off the ball to ensure he gets into the right positions to score. If any of these are lacking then you can expect the player to either be AWOL or to screw up infront of goal.

ST has at least 15 in all six stats you mentioned. I have wonderful AMC, so ST gets lots of through balls and that gives him at least 5 CCC a game, but its either into GK, crossbar or 'inches wide'.