Playing two poachers in a 442 - advice needed

[Blidly]

Basically my team is going well now in an adapted 442:

one defensive midfielder, one player maker in the middle with two wing attacker midfielder and a deep lying forward accompanied with a poacher.

However my DLF is getting on a bit (over 30) and he's still playing well but I want to plan for the future I have 4 or 5 prospects through my academy however they are all poachers,

I do have Jovetic but in my team he seems to play better as a left winger which means i can re-organise in the short term for injury and suspension but I feel like I need a long term answer

So what would you guys advise? Buy a new guy to play along with the poacher i.e. a new DLF? Shift Jovetic to Trequarstia ( plays well but plays better as a left winger) and buy a new winger,

or play two poachers?

Any help would be greatly recieved , Thanks !

[Lawrie]

2 poachers has never worked for me, may have just been bad luck though. I really like the combination of Poacher-Advanced Forward so look and see if any of your prospects could also play as an AF?

[!.m.!]

Two poachers never seem to work as you lose a lot of the link up play a DLF allows. A lot of the skills are transferable however, I would check your prospects for their ability to drop off behind the poacher. If you do go for two poachers though, you would have to utilise their speed and play a wide game hitting early crosses into space behind the back 4 hoping a poacger will get on the end of it. You may struggle going through the middle though.

[postal postie]

i found that playing a trequartista (luis suarez) and an advanced forward (abel hernandez) gave me good results.

[jayahr]

Cannot imagine that two poachers would work.

Remember that poachers dopn't take any part in your team's play apart from trying to convert chances. Your attacking movement should suffer too much when having nobody upfront who's also playing some football.

If you want to have to similar players up there, you should at least employ them as advanced forwards only. But in the end I'd prefer having a DLF or a trequartista alongside an advanced forward or a poacher to have a better balance.

[Suzie MUFC]

I've wondered about 2 poachers myself, what about if you had direct passing with loads of through balls from the midfield?

[Camb0dia]

In your case, the strikers should be able to developed into other roles (advanced forward, target man if they are taller, etc) have a look at the other stats.

[Blidly]

Cheers for all the responses

[hugo_rune]

I've wondered about 2 poachers myself, what about if you had direct passing with loads of through balls from the midfield?

I think that would mean you had one redundant poacher to be honest. Playing two, you might get away with it if you were playing the reserves of a relatively weak team, but in a competitive game, if you're playing 2 strikers one should always be a DLF or maybe a target man, where he will help you win the ball and play it on. That's been my theory anyway and it generally serves me pretty well. Mind you, it's been a long time since I played more than one striker so maybe I shouldn't comment

[PPPPPPPPPPPP10]

Agree with Hugo, having 2 poachers is pretty much redundant because their main job is either to run to the goal as fast as possible and get a shot off or run to the byline and try to cross the ball if he already have a team-mate there. With a 4-4-2 you'd need one player to hold the ball near the box to either wait until his strike partner and the wingers got into their position or as a passing option/an outlet to make plays between your more advancing striker and the midfields... Imo though most players could play either Poacher or DLF since those are the two less demanding role for a striker, as long as your player have enough on the ball skill to hold off a defender for a few second then play him as DLF to partner your poacher

[electric_boogaloo]

i play with an advanced forward and a poacher but have reached 2020/21 season and am finding it increasingly difficult to find quality strikers that aren't considered poachers.

i am now using poachers as advanced forwards assuming they have the attributes i want from an advanced forward with no ill effect.

[GillyBeavis]

I play with 2 poachers in a 442 wide diamond. They score for fun, but unfortunately I'm also seeming to concede for fun because the player i use behind the 2 strikers is set to a very attacking mentality so doesn't particularly help out defensively. Most of my games are 3-2 or 4-3 wins.

[scott MUFC]

playing with 2 poachers? if you can set a poacher to a differant role then it could work, i have ran wifried and sanogo together, i can alternate between them as a poacher and the other as a DLF. it is all about what they can bring to the table.

[andriejj]

That's interesting, because my experience is different. I have found my deep lying forward to be completely useless, despite great stats (average speed though; no names, it's a game 'from the bottom', now in Premier League, almost whole my team consists of regens), so I sent him on paid loan to Roma. With 2 quick poachers set to change positions, one of them being set as target man with run onto ball, drill crosses and generally quick game style, they are the foundation of my offensive tactic. One match, I had one of the poachers score 3 goals and 1 assist, the other recording 3 assists and 1 goal. It happens often - one of them giving assists to the other. I only made one change to the default poacher settings - changed through balls from 'rarely' to 'sometimes'.

If I struggle, I change to the tactic with 1 poacher and 2 DMs.

[rafa2006]

I play what looks like a 4-1-2-1-2 formation and use 2 poachers up front all the time with a trequartista in their back (not a real 4-1-2-1-2 as it seems after all, more of a 3-4-3 ) I win and score plenty. My duos are fast and of the highest quality, Cavani/Doumbia and Lewandowski/Damião, as trequartistas I use James Rodriguez/Lamela, then the midfield line has a CM (S) (Cabaye/Ramsey) and one Advanced Playmaker (S) (Wilshere/Eriksen), then comes one Anchor (D) (Capoue) or DM (S) (M'Villa) depending how strong offensively the opponent is, 2 CD's (D) or Limited Defenders (D) Hummels/Dedé or Subotic/Mertesacker, very ofensive backs Alaba/Willems on the left and Corchia/ Wallace on the right, on the goal Ter Stegen and Szczęsny. As my 2 poacher+trequartista combination may suggest, i should be outscored every match cause those 3 units don't contribute to the defensive phase, wrong, the other more defensive and support players seem to do the job vey well. Isn't this a question of balance in tactics, player roles and squad composition? I think so.

[THOG]

Two poachers are fine if you play an aggressive strategy that looks to counter with pace. Your build-up play will be more limited, but if you're playing simple football, that's to be expected.

If you play a slower, more methodical game, however, two poachers will mean you'll frequently just be a man down with two isolated forwards. In which case, I would just use Jovetic as a DLF to provide the link-up to your poacher. I'm not a fan of treqs + attacking forward unless they have high aggression as the resulting defensive compromise is unnecessary.

[Soccer]

I would suggest changing one of your poachers to a deep-lying forward or an advanced forward, to enable better link-up play between your deep-lying playmaker and the frontline.

[soccer.joel]

Poachers are limited roles with 2 up top and no-one to drop deep and create might struggle unless the midfields service is superb. If I play 2 up front I make sure I have a CF or a DLF as well as a P or AF

[soccer.joel]

I've had great success playing Jovetic as a complete forward attack

[deserter]

If Jovetic is doing so well on the left, I'd sell or loan some of your poacher prospects and buy a nice deep lying forward. Then you can experiment and alternate between the two systems.

I'd imagine that with two poachers it would be hugely helpful to have someone in the hole behind them. You would have to sacrifice a winger or move to back three though.

[wazza]

Two poachers never seem to work as you lose a lot of the link up play a DLF allows. A lot of the skills are transferable however, I would check your prospects for their ability to drop off behind the poacher. If you do go for two poachers though, you would have to utilise their speed and play a wide game hitting early crosses into space behind the back 4 hoping a poacger will get on the end of it. You may struggle going through the middle though.

Two poachers worked for me in a 433 with a target man in the centre

[tomtuck01]

Two poachers worked for me in a 433 with a target man in the centre

4-3-3 though, not 4-4-2.

[Althaz]

Two poachers = sometimes it will work, but only when your opponents make bad mistakes. Two poachers is never good in a 4-4-2.

[flere-imsaho]

I want to plan for the future I have 4 or 5 prospects through my academy however they are all poachers

I have the same thing except the game (i.e. my assman) says they're all treqs. Which they're not, to be clear. But right now many of their attributes are sufficiently undeveloped that the game is showing "treq" (for me) because of some attributes being more developed than others.

Anyway, my recommendation is to take a closer look at your prospects' attributes and see what roles they're likely to develop into. Tall kid with good jumping? May end up a target man. That kind of thing.

Hope that helps!