My striker suddenly decides he wants to play LW

[2calvin]

Does everybody's striker do this?

[Experienced Defender]

Which role is he playing? What is your overall tactic? Some screenshot of the tactic would be welcome to provide some context. What is obvious in this picture is that he is looking for space and trying to position himself according to the movement of the ball and other teammates. If you are playing a wingerless tactic, then his movement makes even more sense.

[Piperita]

Especially if he has a Support duty, it looks like a sensible movement: The right winger runs from deep+wide to the edge of the box. In response the striker looks to occupy the other edge to receive the ball, especially as the play is somewhat concentrated in this area; were he to rwceive the ball it would be a relatively safe ball and he'd have plenty of passing options for advancing midfielders or aforementioned right winger. 

[s1111]

Most of the striker roles have Move into Channels locked in for some reason, which is what he is doing

[lam]

I'd be more worried about the role of #21. Look at all that space for him to drive into.......

 

As the others have said. If he has move into channels as a PI or PPM then that is what he is doing. I think you'll see this more if you do not have other players driving into that space like a W(A) or WB(A).

But seriously..... think about getting #21 to use that space.... theres tons of it.

 

ps... as a side note.... how'd you post that little movie?

[2calvin]

@Experienced Defender The role is PF attack, the formation is 4231 wide. But it happens whichever role or formation I choose.

4 hours ago, s1111 said:

Most of the striker roles have Move into Channels locked in for some reason, which is what he is doing

I don't think it's 'move into channels' kicking in, tbh. Like, there's moving into channels then there's this???

 

16 minutes ago, lam said:

I'd be more worried about the role of #21. Look at all that space for him to drive into.......

ps... as a side note.... how'd you post that little movie?

21 is a Mez attack. I think that's a pretty good drive into space kinda role? Or not?

It's a gyazo gif. I'm terrible at explaining tech stuff. Just download gyazo (the gif program comes with it) then have a play around

[johnnyyakuza78]

I don't see this as being all that unusual, in fact I'd be quite happy about it that he's looking for some space in a crowded area. 

I also think your midfield is being pretty unadventerous here as well, that 21 is really annoying me by his lack of ambition. 

[robot_skeleton]

16 hours ago, s1111 said:

Most of the striker roles have Move into Channels locked in for some reason, which is what he is doing

If he made a forward run between the fullback and the central defender then it would have been the "moves into channel", or I must not know the TI very well. I think what we can see here is that he is roaming, quite simply. I think instructing him to hold position could help. In Cleon's last piece in the "Paysandu" series he has the same problem and writes about it briefly.

[pheelf]

I have seen my strikers exhibit this type of movement also and in my opinion, this is a bug. If he were moving into the channels then he would be moving into space in between the oppositions right back #16 and the right central defender #18. This is not that and looks especially out of place for a Pressing Forward given he has no default instruction to roam and is one of the strikers given the lowest creative freedom. It could be being influenced by PPMs and if the player has the PI of Stay Wider but then again I had a player without any of those traits doing the exact same thing. 

This along with other issues probably goes a long way to explaining why strikers aren't as prolific in this version of the game as they have been previously. That type of movement does nothing to help the cause in terms of the attack. It might help if that movement was attracting one of the defenders out of position but as you can see they don't move at all and just stay in shape.

I do however agree with the comments about the overly conservative nature of the tactic. When Foden (who I assume is the AMC) receives the ball there are only 2 players ahead of the ball, both of which might as well be on an island when you consider how difficult it would be for him to link up with them. The way you attack looks completely lop-sided to me and I'd be very interested to see the tactic you are using here.

All the best   

[Experienced Defender]

13 hours ago, 2calvin said:

the formation is 4231 wide

 

13 hours ago, 2calvin said:

21 is a Mez attack

You are using a mezzala on attack in a 4231? It can be very very risky. I hope you at least have an IWB on defend duty behind him (or any other FB role on defend duty).

[Tom8983]

Your striker started off being surrounded by 4 opposition players and totally isolated from his teammates. No wonder he went wandering? 

I can't remember right now which roles if any have 'hold position' as an option. Might be worth looking at if you really want him to stay in the middle though? Alternatively just give him better support so he doesn't have to go looking for space/the ball

[Experienced Defender]

42 minutes ago, Tom8983 said:

I can't remember right now which roles if any have 'hold position' as an option

I think PF on defend has the Hold position hard-coded, whereas TM support and PF support have it as an option. But even the hold position PI is not a guarantee that a player (striker) will not move wider in search of space, especially if the tactic as a whole is set up in such a way as to force him to do that. So rather than considering his striker in isolation, he should pay attention to his overall tactical setup.

[MShing]

Very Thierry Henry-esc. 😎 he used to play from the left all the time

[pheelf]

4 hours ago, MShing said:

Very Thierry Henry-esc. 😎 he used to play from the left all the time

True, although I don't think anybody would have described Henry as a Pressing Forward. @2calvin would you mind posting a screenshot of McBurnie's profile?

[2calvin]

11 hours ago, MShing said:

Very Thierry Henry-esc. 😎 he used to play from the left all the time

I know right, great if I had Thierry and not Oli McBurnie 😂

 

6 hours ago, pheelf said:

@2calvin would you mind posting a screenshot of McBurnie's profile?

I'm not at my pc right now. I'm only a season in anyway. He hasn't changed from the start.

[denen123]

#21? Is he tired or unaware? Must be annoying.

[MShing]

9 hours ago, pheelf said:

True, although I don't think anybody would have described Henry as a Pressing Forward.

I'm not describing Henry as a pressing forward. Just stating that the movement shown reminded me of Thierry Henry 

[bangkonggedek]

What I'm seeing here is that your striker was trying to make himself available for a possible diagonal pass from your #7, and then try to feed the ball to the #21 whom he expected to surge and exploit the huge space before him (which alas neither of them seemed to be aware of this possible play). McBurnie is a hardworking, selfless kind of forward with a decent enough awareness and concentration about him so it's should be not unusual for him. And it was noticeably harder to receive a clean pass from Foden if he chose to stick around centrally at that moment.

[pheelf]

On 08/06/2019 at 06:43, bangkonggedek said:

What I'm seeing here is that your striker was trying to make himself available for a possible diagonal pass from your #7, and then try to feed the ball to the #21 whom he expected to surge and exploit the huge space before him (which alas neither of them seemed to be aware of this possible play). McBurnie is a hardworking, selfless kind of forward with a decent enough awareness and concentration about him so it's should be not unusual for him. And it was noticeably harder to receive a clean pass from Foden if he chose to stick around centrally at that moment.

Something was fundamentally changed from FM18 to FM19 which means that no matter what role or duty you select for your strikers they will have this tendency to occasionally drift wide when off the ball. I've seen a player I was using in the Target Man (Support) role display this same movement pattern of running wide and positioning themselves outside the opposition fullback. He had no PPMs for that sort of movement nor did I select any TIs or PIs which would encourage that sort of movement (such as roaming for example).

If your TM is drifting wide then he isn't doing what you have instructed him to do and as a consequence is going to perform much worse than expected. I have seen my strikers out wide when play has progressed into the final third which renders them largely useless. If I select a TM(S) I expect him to stay close to the opposition central defenders as that is where his strength lies, beat them in the air and either hold up the ball while he waits for closer support or flicks it on for a runner. What I don't want to see is him running to the flank in an attempt to find space. He may well find space out there but how does that help him to perform his role within the team? 

[bangkonggedek]

On 13/06/2019 at 18:07, pheelf said:

Something was fundamentally changed from FM18 to FM19 which means that no matter what role or duty you select for your strikers they will have this tendency to occasionally drift wide when off the ball. I've seen a player I was using in the Target Man (Support) role display this same movement pattern of running wide and positioning themselves outside the opposition fullback. He had no PPMs for that sort of movement nor did I select any TIs or PIs which would encourage that sort of movement (such as roaming for example).

If your TM is drifting wide then he isn't doing what you have instructed him to do and as a consequence is going to perform much worse than expected. I have seen my strikers out wide when play has progressed into the final third which renders them largely useless. If I select a TM(S) I expect him to stay close to the opposition central defenders as that is where his strength lies, beat them in the air and either hold up the ball while he waits for closer support or flicks it on for a runner. What I don't want to see is him running to the flank in an attempt to find space. He may well find space out there but how does that help him to perform his role within the team? 

But the point there wasn't of him finding the space out wide for himself, but it was to create the space for his teammates to attack.

Read the Target Man role description in game again. The main thing about target men, in game and otherwise, has always been to disrupt the opponent's defense and create space for his teammates to attack. Especially when you're using midfielders who are expected to make occasional runs towards opposition's area. If you want the dinosaur-like, static kind of target men then just use the TM(S) with the Hold Position instruction active and make sure you're not using any underlapping/rampaging midfielders from the central areas or else, he'll struggle a lot in his movement and decision making. Don't think I'd have any problem to make it work most of the time that way.

Also not sure what you're talking about in regards to the changes from the FM18 to FM19.

[Johnny Ace]

McBurnie: Off the ball rating: 2

No, seriously, lets have a look at him 

[pheelf]

2 hours ago, bangkonggedek said:

But the point there wasn't of him finding the space out wide for himself, but it was to create the space for his teammates to attack.

The movement isn't creating space for his teammates to attack. As I mentioned earlier, his movement out wide doesn't impact the oppositions defensive shape.

Read the Target Man role description in game again. The main thing about target men, in game and otherwise, has always been to disrupt the opponent's defense and create space for his teammates to attack. Especially when you're using midfielders who are expected to make occasional runs towards opposition's area. If you want the dinosaur-like, static kind of target men then just use the TM(S) with the Hold Position instruction active and make sure you're not using any underlapping/rampaging midfielders from the central areas or else, he'll struggle a lot in his movement and decision making. Don't think I'd have any problem to make it work most of the time that way.

The Target Man (Support) role description:

"A Target Man can transform an average team into a good one using his sheer physicality to disrupt the opposition's defence and open up space for his strike partner and supporting midfielders. The Target Man uses his strength and aerial presence to bring teammates into play rather than relying on technical ability. With a Support duty, the Target Man will look to win flick-ons and play simple possession passes to his teammates to bring them into play"

There is nothing in that description to suggest that the player in the role should be running wide when the team has possession and yet I still observe the sort of movement shown in the OP even when the 'Hold Position' PI is selected. That is what leads me to conclude it is a bug especially since it happens with all the different striker roles. It doesn't happen constantly but it does happen. I guess this is the problem with using descriptions as they can be interpreted a multitude of different ways.

Also not sure what you're talking about in regards to the changes from the FM18 to FM19.

The changes I'm referring to are the addition of 'Move Into Channels' for all the striker roles with the exception of the Poacher, Pressing Forward (Support), Target Man and False 9 (which initially had the hardcoded instruction but was removed).