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I'm finding some unusual behaviour from my striker in a 4231 I've just created. I'm wondering if others experience the same thing as I've tried different players and settings for the striker with similar results.
What is happening is when my team are on the attack and get into the final third, instead of the striker busting a gut to get into the box he makes runs away from the goal or does not attempt to get on the end of any potential ball into the box. Regularly leaving no-one in the box.
Now I'm using Man City and the regular striker is Bianchi, a goal poacher. I've tried him on the most attacking Mentality with forward runs set to often and he still does not get into the positions anywhere near as often as I expect.
I don't know exactly which of the 4-2-3-1 formations you are using. I find that if you play with the wingers in the wide positions, that the striker and the attacking midfielder don't play in the position I want them to (attacking midfielder standing next to one of the central midfielders behind him and the striker swaying off to the right or the left and not in the center), which is a shame (same problem with the 4-4-1-1 tactic). I had to work around that by bringing the wingers in toward the Attacking Mid and give them s-arrows (with mixed forward runs). Another thing is that (pesonally) I wouldn't have the lone forward on forward runs, so he is not #1 offside too often and #2 helps in the build up of attack...
Loversleaper - Sounds like exactly what is going on with me. To elaborate I'm playing the following from midfield forward:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> FCAML AMC AMR MC MC</pre>
I'm not trying to get the FC involved in the buildup, the 2 MC's and AMC are given that duty. Basically the striker is there to finish things off, but it's difficult when he spends most of his time outside the box when the ball is out wide.
The formation in it's natural form is already very attacking as you have 4 players far up the pitch. You will notice when you play Full Match with the formation that those 4 players are rarely behind the ball when defending. So (after extensive testing) my conclusion was that for me to dominate the game in match stats that most players had to be on mixed forward runs excpet for: Center Backs(rarely), Full Backs(often) and Attacking Mid(often), this assured that the team kept the ball more in possession and created quality chances. You can take a look at how I designed my 4-2-3-1 tactic in my thread (Implementing Tactics), it is designed (only) to break down ultra-defensive/high time-wasting formations (using wwfan's break-through theory on how the AI combats user's formations). I haven't had much success in building more cautious formations due to the fact that I'm not defending with enough players...
I understand the downfalls of the formation and appreciate what you say, however the bottom line for me is that when the ball is wide with a winger, the striker should be in or around the box ready to put a cross away. He isn't.
General gameplans, be it a slow and short passing buildup or a quick and direct one should not have an influence on whether or not your only recognised striker actually gets into the positions to score when the ball is in one of the most dangerous areas of the pitch to the opposition.
I am suspecting now it is an issue with the formation and not necessarily with my setup of it, as in my last game at home to Liverpool I moved the AMR/L to AMC/R/L and it looked a whole lot better with Bianchi scoring and getting an 8 whereas he was averaging a 6 previous to that.
It's set to Normal mate, as are the rest of the team. I never give any of my players a high creative freedom as a rule, as I want them to adhere to the instructions I have given them.
It's set to Normal mate, as are the rest of the team. I never give any of my players a high creative freedom as a rule, as I want them to adhere to the instructions I have given them.
Yes, I can relate to what you say there, but there is a factor that I would like to point out (just my oppinion, mind you): You can use creative freedom in conjunction with your opponents over-all strength. The weaker your opponent the more creative freedom I would imploy, which I find is a very useful tool to help break down very tight/defensive units.
1 Man up front tactics 
Linear Mode
